Once Fear or Reactivity is Recognized, Take Action Before the Behavior Progresses to a Bite Generally fearful dogs begin by trying to remain faraway from the items that scare them. But as they're confronted with scary situations repeatedly, they will learn that offense (barking, snapping, biting) is their best defense because it makes the scary people get away . To see the visual communication of fear/anxiety, see bite Prevention Week: Poster on visual communication of Fear and Aggression and Dogs Bite When Humans Greet Inappropriately. Treatment of Fear, Reactivity, or Aggression Focuses on Two General Approaches. One approach to handling fear and aggression towards people is to coach the dog to associate unfamiliar people with goodies during a systematic/graded manner. This process is desensitization and classical counterconditioning (DS/CC),and it involves exposing the dog to the fear-inducing “stimulus” at A level where she barely responds and keeping her during a happy state, rather than a fearful or reactive state, by pairing the experience with things the dog likes (such as food, play, toys). The goal is that, as we systematically increase the extent of the stimulus (how close the people are, how quickly they move, or how scary they look) while keeping Fido during a happy spirit , the dog will systematically come to associate the scary people with this positive spirit permanently. Now, tons of individuals do this method and have only partial success because they omit a couple of vital points. The first is that you simply must stay below the extent of scariness where Fido barks, lunges or has any major reaction. this is often mentioned as staying below threshold. that sometimes means the visitor must pretend Fido doesn’t exist. That is, stand sideways to the pet and appearance away as if the visitor is really ignoring Fido albeit he’s tossing treats. Ideally Fido just seems like he’s happy to urge food. The second key point is that the food or fun thing must be occurring the whole time the scary person is near. as an example , if the scary person is tossing small treats, the treats must come at a rapid enough rate that Fido doesn’t have plenty of your time in between treats to make a decision that he’s still scared. Usually meaning starting with treats coming rapidly initially then slowing the treat rate down. Treats even have to continue long enough in order that Fido decides that the person is safe. which will take just a moment or it's going to take several visits, counting on Fido. within the latter case, when the visitor is running out of treats, the dog should be faraway from the space or the visitor should leave. The visitor also must confirm she doesn’t move too close too quickly or move during a quick or threatening manner since these can make the dog react defensively (e.g. going above threshold). (For recommendations on the way to approach correctly so you aren’t accidentally threatening: ask the the way to Greet a Dog book and poster) M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website 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M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website M13Website The second method for modifying behavior is to coach dogs to perform appropriate replacement behaviors that are incompatible with the fearful behavior. this is often called operant counterconditioning. The replacement behaviors we train must be ones the dog enjoys in order that Fido is at an equivalent time learning a positive association with things . as an example , when a dog is fearful, we will train the dog to specialise in us and have interaction in fun behaviors like heeling and other focus games that we've taught through reward-based training. Why can we need to take care to avoid methods that use force or punishment to coach or maintain the replacement behaviors? Say we train the dog to specialise in us so he doesn’t bark or lunge and that we do so using choke chain or pinch collar corrections. The dog may learn to focus but will do so out of fear of getting a correction. As a result, the dog isn't likely to develop a positive association with the scary person/object/environment. The dog may outwardly look more controlled, at first, but side effects like greater reactivity and fear are likely to occur within the near future. The dog may hide that he’s scared or that he wants to react, prompting us to place him during a situation where scary people are even closer to him. Then, at some point, he won't be ready to contain himself and should escape during a reaction more severe than before. Treatment Must Also Address Impulsivity These general approaches are pretty straightforward and, with good technique, you'll get dogs through situations relatively easily. However, it seems there’s more to those situations than simply using the DS/CC techniques within the reactive situations. In fact, the primary thing that we frequently need to do is address the dog’s impulsivity (lack of impulse control) and his lack of ability to seem to the owners for guidance, especially when he’s scared or highly excited. How are this stuff important? Impulsivity is that the tendency for animals to perform behaviors without first thinking and evaluating things . Dogs with high impulsivity or low impulse control tend to rush towards items they need (food, people, dogs) and react in an extreme manner when excited (jump, whine, pace, bark, lunge). The more they practice acting impulsively, the more likely they're going to react impulsively when scared. These dogs even have an inability to seem to their owners for direction, especially when they’re scared or distracted.