Excessive alliteration aside – it’s true! Feeding and comforting a fearful dog does NOT make them more afraid – in fact, the opposite happens!
When we are working with fearful dogs, we are most often using desensitization and counterconditioning to change their feelings and improve their confidence.
In most of our training, we use food as a contingency – we deliver food for good behavior, and withhold food for bad behavior. This works very well for shaping behaviors in a vacuum – when the only thing our dog is motivated by is the food in our hand. Things start to get a little messier in real life, where other things impact our dog’s motivation.
Never hesitate to comfort your dog if they’re stressed and seeking reassurance.
- If I am terrified of clowns and every time I see one my friend gives me a hug and $20, I’m not likely to become more scared of clowns.
- If your dog is terrified of the Amazon driver and every time you get a package delivered he gets a treat and calm reassurance from you, he’s not going to be more afraid of deliveries.
Changing feelings and changing behaviors work the same way – but it can look a little different on the outside!
Both feelings and behaviors are changed based on contingencies and associations, and the phrase “practice makes permanent” applies to both. But when we are changing feelings, we look at our dog’s behavior to gain information on our progress. If we are on the right track, stress-related behaviors should be decreasing as our dog’s stress decreases.
- If my dog is afraid of the Amazon driver, I might change those feelings by following each delivery with a piece of cheese from the fridge.
- As my dog begins to understand that the arrival of the Amazon driver also summons cheese, I would expect him to stop barking sooner and sooner as he hurries to the fridge for his treat.
- As the routine develops further, his frenzy of barks shifts to one or two token barks before taking himself to the kitchen to await his prize. At this point, he’s likely calm enough around deliveries that we can start working on replacing the barking with a quiet “alert” behavior – like coming and checking in with you instead of barking!
We also use food after Big Feelings Events to help our dogs recover more quickly, which reduces the negative impact of these events.
Does this mean my dog will never bark for treats? Unfortunately, no. Although it’s uncommon, dogs can develop demand barking behaviors from a food-based behavior modification approach like this – especially for a select few very highly food motivated dogs. However, preventing and addressing demand behaviors is much, much easier than working on reducing fear without food, toys, comfort, or other desirable things.
