There will be times when your dog is scared. The dog actually may be trembling. When the dog is scared or apprehensive, the dog’s body language speaks loudly. The tail may be back between its legs and the ears may be back. Your first inclination, when you see your dog - perhaps your puppy - so scared, is to go and comfort it. At the risk of sounding very heartless, don’t do it. You will not be doing your dog any favours.

When you go and comfort your dog in such a situation, inadvertently you are reinforcing the dog. The dog will interpret your behaviour as saying: ‘you’re right to be scared’. What this does is ensure that the dog will have a similar fear response the next time it encounters whatever caused this fright reaction. You have told the dog that it was absolutely right in being afraid. You reinforced it. Furthermore, you are teaching the dog that you will rescue it from any fears. The problem with this is that you are depriving the dog from the opportunity to learn to be bold and self confident - and you cannot always be there.

Ignore the fear reaction.

The dog will take its cues from you, the pack leader. If you ignore the fear response, then the dog has to cope with whatever it was that it found frightening. It is left on its own to cope. And, hopefully, the dog can see that the situation does not bother you. As the pack leader, you give the impression that you see the situation as neutral and non threatening. The dog learns to be bold and that is a real positive step in its development. Bold dogs learn to cope with situations - or perhaps, learning to cope with scary situations creates bold dogs. They learn to rely upon themselves to handle whatever it is that is troubling them. They learn to do it for themselves, without you rescuing them. And, yes, they will learn.

Unfortunately, some dog owners foster this dependency. They want to comfort and shield their dogs from all things stressful and fearful. Regrettably, in the long run, it is not a kindness to their dog. Such owners deprive their dog of reaching their full potential - and the dog will see things in a far more fearful way than is necessary. And that is far from being a kindness.

Catherine Forsythe
Director of Operations
FlyingHamster: http://flyinghamster.com/

Tags: dog training, self confidence, fear response, catherine forsythe