Housework and Hotdogs

By Gillian Ridgeway

Bicycles, electric can openers, vacuum cleaners and even balloons. What do these items have in common? They put fear into the hearts of some of our best canine friends.

Most of us have experienced dogs that alarm bark at items we all take for granted in our daily lives. Some of us wonder what happened in the dogs past, while some of us simply want to put a halt to the seemingly unfounded fear. You may have tried to coax your anxious dog, to help them feel better when they encounter something that upsets them. You may have tried the bold approach, telling your dog that there is nothing to be afraid of and to pull up his socks and get on with it. Whatever the case, dogs that harbor fear need our understanding and guidance.

The first step is to find exactly what your dog is afraid of. If it is a more general fear, or if your dog is fearful by nature, then you should consider the option of bringing in a behaviorist to guide you but if it is fear that can be pin-pointed, you should have some success by adopting the guidelines of systematic desensitization. This method is methodical in practice and needs to be done in baby steps in order to be successful. What we are dealing with is an emotional response to the fear, not always based on rational thinking. It is with this in mind that we have to take on the task of changing our dog’s mind about what it is afraid of, rather than to simply try to stop the manifestation of fear itself.

To do this, you will need to look at each step of the action, rather than the bigger picture. We can use the fear of the vacuum cleaner as an example. In some homes, as soon as the vacuum cleaner is turned on, the canine resident starts to act up. He often barks at it in an aggressive tone, circles round it and sometimes even goes in for the big vacuum seek and destroy! It is at this time that the person doing the vacuuming may start to get annoyed, yelling for Sparky to be quiet and go and lie down. It will often escalate to the point of removing Sparky from the room while the chores get done.

It is best to do the desensitization training at a time when the vacuuming doesn’t actually need to get done. Set the vacuum up in a well-used room, without turning it on. Leave it there for a few days and ignore it, but do keep your eyes open. Leave a small bowl of treats in a handy spot, or make sure you keep some in your pockets. When you dog approaches the vacuum out of curiosity, give him a treat. There is no need to have a party or to lavish praise on him, all we are doing is working on changing his mind about his enemy, the vacuum.

Once he is approaching it without any fear or apprehension, you are ready for the next step. Make sure you don’t move through the steps too quickly. The next step is to have your dog in another room and have someone turn the vacuum on for 1-2 seconds. At the same time, feed your dog. If you don’t have help, you can turn on the vacuum and toss a treat. It is important that you have some distance while doing the initial work. Continue to do this exercise until you are fairly sure your dog is comfortable with the noise. If he is really afraid of the noise, and reacts to it even from a distant room, you can record the sound, and then play it back at a very low volume first.

Over the next few days, leave the vacuum in the room and randomly turn it on and off, slowly increasing the time it is on, and increasing the time between turning it on and giving your dog a treat. Once this is going well, you are ready to move the vacuum, in a back and forth motion. Again, it is important initially to just move the vacuum a tiny bit at a time.

By doing these steps, your dog will start to love to hear the vacuum cleaner! He will be filled with joy at the sound. Why? As soon as he hears it, something good will happen for him. It is by pairing the vacuuming with the food that the emotional response of the dog will change. It will change how he feels about the vacuum and that is the key. It is not enough to just tell him off for reacting to his fears.

You will find that it may take a few weeks to get this process underway. During this time you will need to keep your floors clean. It is important to remove your dog well out of hearing range when you do your housework. This way your training can continue to progress forward.

You can use systematic desensitization to help decrease your dog’s reaction to anything that is evident. It is also a very good system to help dogs that have body sensitivity. We sometimes see this in the herding breeds, such as Shelties and Border Collies. They tend to do well with an invisible bubble around them, and don’t always like anyone approaching their space, but this can be a problem in public, especially when children are involved. By approaching the dog in a systematic way, and taking baby steps for body handling, many of these dogs learn to love being approached. They have come to associate great things happening to them when other dogs, and even sticky handed children come closer than they originally liked.

Once your dog feels more comfortable being approached, you can up the criteria a tiny bit by starting to approach him more quickly. Instead of slowly patting the dog, try bringing your hand to his head in a rapid motion, and treating him for it. This will certainly prepare him for children, and even some adults, who insist that all dogs love them. While there are a lot of dogs who will not give a thank you for this kind of approach, it is still important to put teach them to not react in a negative fashion, in the off chance that it might happen when your back is turned.

Most dogs who have been given a chance, and the time, to understand that most of their fears are unfounded, learn to relax and enjoy life a little bit more. It is well worth the effort.

Gillian Ridgeway, AHT, has worked with dogs for over 33 years. She is director of Who’s Walking Who in Toronto and Ajax. A consultant for Dogs, Dogs, Dogs!, Gillian also writes for Dogs in Canada. She has appeared on Dogs in Canada TV, Global television, Q107 radio and in Toronto Life, and is co-author of the book, “Citizen Canine.” She travels with the Iams SuperDogs Performance team and teaches learning theory at University of Toronto. Gillian can be contacted at 416-465-3626; www.whoswalkingwho.net