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Fearful Dogs Logo

What are their options?

By |2011-10-18T13:04:56-04:00October 18th, 2011|Categories: Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , |

Scientists who have studied fear in animals have come up with four responses, one or more of which are common, in one form or another, to organisms ranging from bacteria to humans. 1. Withdrawal, avoidance, flee 2. Immobilization, freeze-up 3. Submission, appeasement 4. Aggression When working with our fearful dogs it's important to keep in mind that these responses do not necessarily indicate the 'level' ...

Who am I to think?

By |2010-09-27T17:59:32-04:00September 27th, 2010|Categories: Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , |

One of the striking things for me at the recent BlogPaws conference was not only the number of people willing to go out on limbs for animals (or swing from dangling fabric), but how young many of them were. When the pre-teen took the stage and shared her dream of helping animals I wanted to hug her mother. After passing the half century mark I ...

Behavioral Medications For Fearful Dogs

By |2009-12-12T21:40:33-05:00December 12th, 2009|Categories: Medications for fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |

Behavioral medications can help fearful dogs. So why the reluctance on the part of pet owners to use them? I will share what mine was. 1. Medications can have side effects that will affect the health of my dog. 2. Medications are a cop-out. 3. I didn't want to 'medicate' my dog. While there are shy or fearful dogs that can learn new ...

Practice Makes….More Likely!

By |2009-08-22T16:30:10-04:00August 22nd, 2009|Categories: Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

If you are living with a fearful dog who has inappropriate responses to the things it's afraid of, cowering, lunging, barking, growling, fleeing, etc., it is important to understand something about how animals (including humans) behave when stressed. When your dog is afraid, it is experiencing stress. When an animal is stressed and needs to respond it is more likely to perform whatever behavior it ...

Taking It Slow

By |2009-05-11T22:43:15-04:00May 11th, 2009|Categories: Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Early during my search for information about how to help my fearful dog Sunny, one rescuer of border collies told me that she 'didn't have the time that I had to work with her dogs'. Her point was that all the DS/CC I was doing might be nice but just making dogs deal with things worked for her, and was faster. I never ...

The Gift of the Growl

By |2009-03-13T16:48:10-04:00March 13th, 2009|Categories: Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , |

I make no pretenses about it, I am obsessed with my fearful dog Sunny. Not only do I think about him, I am always looking for ways to help him, and other scared dogs. Leafing through an old issue of Newsweek I read a quote attributed to Tibet's Karmapa Lama and of course, thought of scared dogs.  "For any living being, when you feel the ...

Attitudes About Training

By |2009-02-01T18:05:36-05:00February 1st, 2009|Categories: Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

I found a copy of one of William Koehler's training books in a local used bookstore. He was a trainer that worked in Hollywood, training dogs for films that I watched as a child. Had I known his training techniques then I probably would have cried before the dog got caught in a well or suffered some other fate that was geared to jerking the ...

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