Tip of the Month: Just Hanging Out With Your Doggo...
I meet many dogs - shall we call the ones I am writing about… 'city dogs'. Dogs that really haven't been exposed to many common life places, people, changes, or things (especially changes with all of those!). When a dog that hasn’t seen or experienced things outside of their own regular day-to-day predictable life, new exposures can be traumatic for them. More often than not, there just isn’t warning or awareness to allow dogs to observe long enough to make good decisions rather than just reacting instantly to the new stimulus. This reaction can easily become a lifelong pattern of how dogs cope with unknowns. ‘Processing’ rarely happens, being replaced with anxiety, trauma, and oftentimes aggression (best offense is a good defense, right?).
Places like forests, open-space pastures, creeks, narrow trails; different people, as in people of different ethnic backgrounds having different skin colors, clothing (especially uniforms and hats!),speaking different languages, that have different diets (different smells),and then there are all those 'scary dog-eating things' like big rocks, fallen trees, tall grass, tarps, loud children, vehicles, bicycles, or even different types of footing like gravel, mud, puddles, fallen autumn branches, and dry crunchy leaves that can take many dogs by surprise! Oh, it’s a big colorful scary world out there, for dogs too! What is 'common' for one dog's experience can be totally uncommon and even downright terrifying for others!
Do your dog a giant favor and help them experience as many varieties of environments, noises, people, places, and things that you can think of! Use your imagination and have fun educating your canine buddy. Get creative to look for different experiences to help your dog grow emotionally and mentally. A stressed, fearful dog can't think, and often, dogs will associate their scared emotions with their exposure to things they don't understand. If they are pressured (or worse, reprimanded) at a time when they are reactive to a stimulus, they can also associate that fear with the person closest to them, which makes your dog's life all the more complicated.
Take advantage of every opportunity that presents itself for your dogs to become calmer, smarter, braver, and evermore grateful for your reliable leadership. When your leadership is calm and consistent, they can just be happy followers without having to react. Simply, a calm dog can think – a calm dog can process. A calm, thinking dog makes better decisions. Take the time it takes to help your dog relax and have the ability to connect the dots when exposing them to new life experiences. Both you and your dog will enjoy life so much more extensively without fear or stress when your dog can develop self-confidence and a higher level of emotional fitness, quietly and gradually.
It's a simple process really, just hang out with your dog in different places! Just hang out with your dog in all kinds of different scenarios where new environments and objects can be observed, smelled, seen, heard, and…calmly accepted. (With Halloween just around the corner, opportunities will be everywhere!) Give your dog the time and the safe space they need, without expectations. Please note that when your dog is scared or anxious, this is not the time to pet them and love on them! Stay calm yourself, maintain a relaxed stance (crossing a leg and yawning will help) so that your dog can sense how unthreatening and acceptable the stimulus is. If you are nervous for or with your dog, your dog will follow your lead and it will definitely take much longer (if ever) for them to figure out what is totally okay and what could be a dog-eating threat!
Sitting at a distance on the grass or a park bench is a great place to start. Start from a distance and as your dog processes (note their licking, yawning, and relaxed body language when things become more acceptable),just shorten the space between you and the stimulus you are exposing them to until it’s all no big deal for them at all. Your dog’s behavior will tell you if you have shortened the distance too much at once, and if so, just retreat a little. Have your dog on leash and let them just watch and observe. You could choose playgrounds, swimming parks, beaches, parking lots, coffee shops, dog-friendly shops, construction sites, outside the fence of a farmyard, farmer’s market, water parks, malls, even dog parks (especially if other dogs are your dog’s fear). You can gradually expose them to all kinds of scary ‘life stuff’ like loud children playing, bicycles, skateboards, cows, goats, pigs, sheep, llamas, donkeys, horses, chipmunks, obstacles, loud equipment, cars, etc. etc. The more exposure, the more confident and brave your dog will become! Bottom line… the calmer and smarter your dog is, the more enjoyable your outings will be, and the more often you’ll want to spend time with your best buddy doggo! Enjoy the process!
For more dog health and training tips, visit Ask The Trainer. Ask me about dog-owner training today as well!
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