Dog - Fears of Places

Why is my dog frightened of certain places?

Lack of early exposure to the sights, sounds or perhaps smells of a particular location, or one or more traumatic experiences associated with that location can lead to the development of avoidance behaviours. It is therefore necessary to determine first that your dog does not have some other underlying problem such as a fear of certain noises that needs treating or is not temperamentally very anxious. In these cases, professional help should be sought, so that you can safeguard your dog’s well-being with a well-structured and individualised training programme.

Your dog may be frightened of travelling in the car because he becomes car sick or because the car ride is always followed by an unpleasant experience (such as going to the kennels or a veterinary visit). These are quite different problems requiring different treatment, so you should not hesitate to ask for additional professional assistance to determine exactly what is going on and how to best to manage the behaviour.

Aversion to places can be aggravated by an owner who tries to calm their dog down with affection or verbal intonations. The unusual owner behaviour will often act as an inadvertent reward for the fearful behaviour, by signalling that the dog was right to feel afraid.

How can I treat my dog’s fear of places?

In relatively straightforward cases, it is possible to desensitise your dog to the place by using what’s known as a 'stimulus gradient of exposure', and then carefully observing what he does. What this means is that you break down the fear inducing scenario into its component parts and start by exposing your dog to a 'dilute' version of the problem situation. For example, your dog may walk into the garage normally but begins to get agitated when approaching the car. You can work on increasing reward for entering the garage and gradually delay delivering the reward until your dog is at steadily decreasing distances from the car itself. Similarly your dog may be normal approaching the car and only gets distressed when forced to get in. In this situation you work to reward your dog for entering in through one passenger back door and walking across the seat and straight out through the other door, rather than expecting him to get in and stay in. The aim is to encourage your dog to remain relaxed or happy in less intense versions of the problem scenario and gradually increase his acceptance of the full blown situation. Before you start training though you need to consider what factors may be reinforcing the behaviour. Some owners inadvertently reward the fearful behaviour by reassuring their pets with vocal intonations or body contact, or intensify the fear by punishing or telling their pet off for being 'silly'. These inappropriate ways of interacting with your dog need to stop before you start on the process of behavioural treatment.

1. Begin with reinforcing good responses to obedience commands such as "sit" and "stay" for favoured rewards.
2. Then train and reward your dog in situations where the fear is very mild. With a fear of car rides, your dog might first be rewarded for not showing fear when it is 1½ metres from the car, then 1¼ metres and so on until your dog can approach the car without showing signs of fear. Eventually your dog should learn to take rewards when he enters the car, and at further sessions he should learn to relax in the car with the door closed, and then when the engine is turned on. In much the same way it could take a few more sessions until your dog learns to take rewards in a moving car.

For the dog that is fearful of the veterinary surgery you might begin by taking your dog to the surgery car park and doing some training exercises for food rewards there before progressing to the waiting room. It may take many visits to train your dog to enter the consulting room for rewards, be greeted by the staff or sit on the examination table.

Similarly a dog that is fearful of an indoor pen or particular room, may need to be taught to lie in the doorway for food and rewards. Then proceed a step or two into the room, or a little further into the indoor pen, to receive the reward at each subsequent training session.

When you are treating fears you must have sufficient control of your dog so that there is no chance of injury and try to ensure that your dog is not pushed to the point of being frightened; i.e. work at a pace which he can accept.

Tips for increasing success

A lead and head collar may help to maintain control and ensure that your dog will perform the desired behaviour in the presence of the stimulus. The lead and head collar:

• Prevent escape from the stimulus.
• Help to build the dog’s confidence - control the head and nose so as to get the desired behaviour (e.g. sit, heel).
• Allow the owner to redirect the head away from the stimulus and toward the owner.
• Reduce the risk of a bite or injury, should your dog unexpectedly panic.
• Provide a reward through release of tension for each proper response.

If you introduce the fear inducing scenario in gradually accumulating component parts you should be able to avoid the situation where your dog shows a full blown reaction, such as avoidance or resistance. If you find that your dog does become frightened during training try to get his attention and remove him from the problem situation without giving any direct interaction (e.g. don’t say "let’s go!", or "it’s OK"). Early signs of unease include: yawning, nose-licking, head turning away from the area, slowing down and increased blinking. Be sensitive to these signals, and do not progress to the next level of stimulus intensity until these signs have disappeared and your dog can relax again at the current level.

Greater success can be expected if you have more control over the intensity of stimulus exposure. This can be achieved through distance, or using places that resemble the problem location but which are different (such as using someone’s pick up van in place of your car). Control over the stimulus means that you can manage every level of exposure, waiting until your dog is completely calm and realises he will come to no harm before moving to the next level.

If these techniques do not seem to be working, then you will need specialist assistance to help your pet with its problem. In some cases medication may be necessary to aid the training process and protect your dog’s well-being, especially if some exposure is inevitable.