Cat & Dog - Systematic Desensitisation

What is systematic desensitisation?

Systematic desensitisation is a behavioural modification method used to reduce an animal’s emotional response to a given object or situation. It is the most effective means of treating fears and phobias when combined with counter-conditioning, which works to replace the animal’s fear with a positive emotional response (counter-conditioning is described in a handout). Desensitisation and counter-conditioning programmes are frequently recommended in various forms by veterinary behaviourists to help in the management of a wide range of behaviour problems and while the principles may seem straightforward, it is not uncommon for owners to need professional guidance to implement the programme in practice. If you are unsure about any element or are not seeing the progress you expect, you should not hesitate to ask for professional assistance.

How does systematic desensitisation work?

The situation that evokes the undesirable response, fear or phobia is usually capable of being broken down into separate components, which often stimulate separate senses. For example, consider your pet is terrified of fireworks. What stimulates this fear? It may be a combination of any of the following:

• The sound of the whistle or whoosh.
• The sound of the bang or pop.
• The smell of the bonfire.
• The sight of the firework in the sky.

The object of systematic desensitisation is to identify the separate elements of the problem which can then be presented to your pet independently so that each of the previously fear inducing stimuli can be gradually associated with a state of emotional neutrality or relaxation. Each element is initially presented at a very low level, in fact at a level so low that it is not perceived as threatening and does not induce any emotional reaction from your pet. With time, the stimulus intensity will be increased and components combined until eventually your pet will no longer react to the full stimulus, but instead will be calm and relaxed. It is not always possible to reduce the intensity of each component of the full stimulus to a level that does not evoke an emotional response. It may be necessary to desensitise to those components for which it is possible and then proceed to counter-conditioning for those components and for the ones that could not be diluted enough to carry out desensitisation.

How does this work in reality?

Sound stimuli are probably the easiest to dilute sufficiently to facilitate desensitisation by using CD recordings of the problematic sounds. For desensitisation to be effective it is very important that stimuli are introduced at a low level which does not induce an emotional reaction. This can be achieved by playing a CD at zero volume when your dog is naturally relaxing and then gradually increasing the volume until there are the very first signs of auditory recognition, such as small movement of the ear, but no signs of an emotional response, i.e. your dog remains still and relaxed and does not raise its head or show any attempt to move away. Once the ear starts to move the CD is kept at that volume until the movement ceases and then is increased slowly until the next movement is evoked. This process is repeated until a stage is reached where the sound is clearly audible to the people in the room but your dog does not show any significant reaction to it. Once this point has been reached it is important to begin the process of counter conditioning in order to associate the sound with a positive emotional state which will protect your dog from swinging back into a negative emotional reaction to the sound on the next unexpected exposure. Once your pet has a positive emotional response to the sounds of fireworks you can start to associate a similar reaction with the other component stimuli such as the sight of the fireworks or the smell of the bonfire.

Note:

It is important that, wherever possible, the full strength stimulus is avoided whilst desensitisation is in progress. For example, when working to change a dog’s perception of a particular sound such as fireworks it is important not to begin the process if you know that a firework display is likely in the near future. If an unexpected display takes place in the middle of the process, you may find that you have lost ground in the process of desensitisation and need to go back a few steps.

REPEATED SHORT TRAINING SESSIONS ARE BEST

Desensitisation sessions should never go on too long and a rule of thumb would be 5-10 minutes maximum in the early stages. It is important that the pet remains in a state of relaxation and neutral emotion throughout the sessions if desensitisation is to be effective and therefore they should be carried out at times when the environment is as calm and unstimulating as possible.

When starting a new session, always start with the stimulus intensity several levels lower than the point at which the previous session finished.

REVISION IS NECESSARY

Once the complete process of desensitisation and counter-conditioning has been achieved it is important that there is regular reinforcement of the learning. This is done by regular exposure to what were the original problem elements in association with positive emotional contexts.

OTHER TIPS

• The use of pheromones, which are chemicals naturally produced by animals may help. Dog Appeasing Pheromone is an artificially synthesised version of the dog pheromone that has a reassuring effect. Feliway, is an artificial version of the cat facial marking chemical. Both are available from your veterinary practice. A diffuser can be used to introduce the pheromone into the home environment and one device will last about 4 weeks and can help support a desensitisation programme.
• Since activity helps with relaxation it is often worth giving the animal plenty of active exercise before starting a formal desensitisation trial.
• Desensitisation alone may be insufficient to change behaviour in the long term and this procedure should be followed by a programme of counter-conditioning.