Fear of the outside world
The main issue dividing dog trainers, behaviourists and veterinarians.
When to (or rather when not to) take your puppy into the outside world.
Being a first-time puppy owner, you are told numerous different things. You cannot take your puppy outside until 12 weeks, until 16 weeks, until 20 weeks after their vaccinations. You must take your puppy out for socialisation from 8 weeks. You can only attend puppy classes at a veterinarian until your puppy is fully vaccinated. Obedience training starts at 8 weeks with many dog trainers. How do I know if it is safe to attend? What are we supposed to do?
For someone who didn't know any better, they would listen to a veterinarians' advice. Now I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that, or that veterinarians are wrong in any way. In fact, it may be beneficial in certain circumstances. It all depends on the dog, your lifestyle, and how you will raise that dog.
Nowadays, the arguments between veterinarians and dog trainers are rising, with many people researching and taking on the advice of the dog trainer, over the veterinarian.
For me, I wish I had taken a trainers advice on board. Timmy has become, and probably will be for the rest of his life, very sensitive to change in the outside world. Let me re-word that. He was poorly socialised in the world outside of the house. And this has created serious anxiety issues. Anyone who knows Timmy will be madly nodding their head right now.
I would highly recommend researching, and weighing the risks of your puppy getting a disease, against the fact your dog could have behavioural issues for the rest of its life.
Now this is a huge issue. Many dog owners believe training 'sit', 'down' and 'stay' are the most important stages at such a young age. They probably desensitise their puppies to the world without even thinking about it. You take your dog for car rides, you walk them to cafes to meet a girl-friend for a coffee, you stroll them past skateparks and busy roads. Typical dog walking, right?
Exposure to the outside world may be a huge deal for your puppy. You'll find some who stand alert with their undeveloped ears pricked, watching, observing, stopping to sniff and then relaxing. But others can jump at every noise, startle at a car engine revving, acting like everything is new to them. These puppies may eventually relax, if they're exposed to them everyday. In fact most puppies take everything in pretty calmly, and once they've discovered a new sound or object, they observe and then just move on. It doesn't phase them. For some, it affects them negatively. It all depends on the situation, how your dog chooses to respond and your reaction.
Desensitisation; a technique of exposing your dog to a stimulus, that normally elicits an undesirable response, to create a desirable response.
Desensitisation is a term you will come across when owning a dog. For me, it took until Timmy was three years old to hear the term, five years old until I understood it, and now I need to learn the steps on how to do it!
It will be used in any stage of a dogs life, the majority when they are a puppy. If you get your puppy from a responsible breeder, they will have introduced your puppy to sounds, touch, other animals, different textures underfoot, and so on. But from then on, like I said, owners will tend to desensitise their dog to the outside world without realising it.
Unfortunately for Timmy, we didn't do any desensitisation. I didn't take him for car rides, I didn't expose him to cars or skateparks or cafes. I didn't take him outside anywhere. He met a few strangers, and my old Beagle at my mums house, and that was his first few weeks with us. We didn't start showing him what a leash was until he was 12 weeks, I am highly ashamed to admit.
I remember it was a beautiful afternoon, Anatoly was at work and Timmy had just woken from a nap. I decided this was it, he has had his vaccinations (well, nearly all), and I wanted to take him outside. I kept seeing everyone walking their dogs down our street and I was desperate to, as well. I clipped his leash on, gave him nibbles of cheese as rewards, and walked out onto our driveway. Now, he had been out here before, we have a large expanse of lawn and garden, leading down to our cul-de-sac street. But he had never been further down the driveway than our carport. Or dealt with cars.
A car drove past.
And boy, did he fight.
He hit the brakes, started fighting the leash, trying to wriggle out of his collar and run back to the safety of the house a few metres away. Many owners would quickly retreat, open the front door and let their puppy inside. Pat them, reward them, tell them 'it's okay'. Sadly, I was one of these owners. And let me tell you why this was sad.
First of all, I let him go in the direction he wanted to. He pulled back, and I walked with him. He won that round, and he will remember that for the rest of his life. If he pulls, he gets his way.
Second of all, he was scared and ran for safety (well, in this case he was completely safe, but puppies don't know any better). And I let him. He's now been taught that if he's scared, he can run back to wherever he felt safe and I would let him. I would follow him. You're probably thinking 'but you had his back, you were doing what was right for him'. Wrong. Having your dogs back is simply showing leadership and showing him that a car wasn't a scary thing, that I had control of that situation.
Third of all, and understand this is the hardest to grasp, is that I rewarded him by patting him, getting to his level, and showering him with love 'because I felt bad for him'. Everyone does it, I still do it, even dog trainers make the mistake. I had just rewarded him for acting the way he did towards a car. I had just reinforced the fact that his behaviour is what I wanted, when it was the complete opposite of how I wanted him to behave. But this is a lesson for another time, another blog.
Now, because I made this tiny mistake, Timmy is scared of cars. It took him a few years to learn that the only way to the beach (his absolute favourite place) is to walk along a busy road. He does it, but very timidly. Every time a car passes (and this is a road with a steady stream of traffic) he has to stop, sit and watch it, before returning to walking. I used to drag him along with me, telling him that it was fine and he was being silly. I just ruined him even more.
One evening Anatoly and I took him to the beach. We learnt to walk him later in the afternoons when there was less traffic. And Timmy put the brakes on. He had developed the habit of 'pancaking' on the ground and refusing to move. This usually meant we picked him up to carry him down the road instead, and he felt safer being in our arms, but he was going to grow into a medium breed and we lost our patience. This one evening, Timmy pancaked on the way back from the beach. He saw that dreaded street and refused to move. So we dropped the leash and left him.
We laughed about the sight of this tiny fluffball curled on the floor then, and honestly we still laugh about it now. Anyone would. It's generally how the behaviour is reinforced, because we find it cute. But we both know we didn't show him any type of leadership or appropriate corrections.
We gave him a few minutes to catch up with us, and he still wasn't moving. Eventually we gave in and went back to peel him off the floor, into our arms, and carry him along the busy street.
Timmy sadly learnt that going for a walk meant he had to walk along streets with cars. And he despised every bit of it. He began running and hiding when we brought the leash out. We started to give up even bothering to walk him, which consequently meant a lot less socialisation (and a lot more boredom for him).
When we moved to Norseman, a tiny town in the Goldfields of Western Australia, we saw a huge improvement in his behaviour. Although he stressed if I took him near the highway that ran through the town, he began to enjoy walking again. I brought out the leash and he didn't hide. Eventually he was telling me that it was walkies time and running to the side gate in excitement when I brought his leash out. I understood then that how I was approaching the situation contributed greatly to ease Timmy's stress, and the fact that there are hardly any cars on the roads. He can now walk down a street offleash, maybe have a car or two pass him, and it doesn't phase him.
A huge step in the right direction for us. And a spark in my interest in understanding how dogs think and behave.
So, you're here to learn about dog training through my mistakes?
Welcome. You're in the right place.
Is your dog fearful of something? Perhaps an object, sound, or even a person or other dogs?
I totally understand your frustration. And I understand their anxiety.
Let me know in the discussions, in the comment section below, or even on my social media pages about your dog!
Let's get the discussion rolling.
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