Its okay to push your dog through stress instead of keeping your dog in that state
We meet a lot of stressed and fearful dogs at our training facility, they come in that way, dogs afraid of everything including the slightest sound, we work with dogs that panic when a leaf moves, they hear the a/c going on, a truck passes on the street, they hit the floor out of fear or they flee out of fear. What do most owners do (which is what the heart tells them to do) is they reinforce it and try to reward the dog out of it or coddle the dog, I am all for rewarding dogs and coddling in fact we reward the heck out of dogs at our training center as we clicker train all the dogs on the property during the obedience and the counter conditiioning stages of the training during rehab. When a dog is in a state of fear thought, food is out of the question, physical touch and petting can get you bit since they are nervous and we work with really nervous dogs that come to us with fear based behavior.
Part of the first steps of confidence building is actually showing the dog they can do something, it can be as simple as climbing onto a stool or a dog bed, or over a stool, anything that the dog may be a little/lot nervous about and working them through it with leash pressure, sure if you cn use a food lure, do it, but with most of the fearful dogs we work with, food is out of the question they are not interested .
So you do lots of reps, til they are doing it pretty well, and then you name it and then BAMM they do it and you can see a difference in the dog, you have proven to the dog they actually have control of the situation and they can do things they may have been nervous about. The shrapnel effect of that is moving onto the next thing they are nervous about, that goes much smoother and much smoother. For folks familar with CBT Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, borrow some of that info and philosophy and use if for the dog. We see dogs have incredible breakthroughsl all the time.
What a lot folks do is at the first sign of any objection or stress they stop, the problem with that is you won't move forward...how about building a better relationship with the dog, time and patience. meanwhile the whole time the dog stays in a state of stress. so the sooner you can work the dog through it the better, we call this the messy middle (sometimes it is from the start as thats how dogs come into us) over and over again we see dogs with huge fear issues soar, unleash their spirit...its wondeful to watch.
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Solid K9 Training, founded by award-winning, internationally-acclaimed dog trainer Jeff Gellman, is one of the nations most effective and respected dog training services providing no-nonsense, "Real World" training methods throughout New England. Serving dog owners from Hartford, CT to Boston, MA in our multifaceted, secure and 24/7 staffed Solid K9 Training Center in Providence, RI, as well as all throughout the nation with Jeff's wildly successful Jeff Gellman Seminars events. We will train any dog, regardless of breed, shape, size or history. We work to fix all dog behavior issues including excessive barking, growling, snapping, nipping, dog aggression (fighting), human aggression (biting), child aggression, pulling on leash, leash aggression, leash reactivity, skateboard reactivity, resource guarding, jumping on people, fear issues, anxiety issues, separation anxiety, chewing and destroying household items, running away, not listening, door bolting, stealing food, getting into the trash, cat aggression, chasing game, and killing animals/game. We also have a renowned reputation specializing in obedience training, which includes heeling and walking properly on a leash, sit/stay, down/stay, place, recall training (come to owner), and crate training. Our Training services include Board and Train behavioral modification, 1 on 1 Training, Obedience Classes, Puppy Training programs, Boarding / Board & Play, Daycare, and many free dog training resources including Dog training advice videos, dog training webinars, and Dog Training Q and A videos on Youtube Lives. Our behavior modification training is cutting edge, using techniques like modern low level E-collar (remote collar) training and food and clicker training.
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