3 FEARFUL CANINE CLIENTS – AND A SICK SUNNY

FEARFUL CANINE CLIENTS IN ONE WEEK!!!

So – Last week I had three canine clients with significant fear-related behaviors all in one week – definitely not the norm for my practice! I get fearful dogs, sure, but not usually this fearful and not usually three in one week! The dogs were Rose, a Border Collie; Orvie, a Rat Terrier/Chihuahua/Dachshund, and Harvey, a Chihuahua/Italian Greyhound.

I make it a point to be seated when clients enter the room with their dogs. This helps the dog become comfortable with me much more quickly. I normally very soon invite the client to remove their dog’s leash so they can approach me if they want (agency!) The dog will often approach me very early on to investigate. It’s important to know that when they do this, they are checking me out, not inviting me to pet them. A lot of people misinterpret that “checking you out” behavior and try to pet the dog – and may get bitten as a result. Usually, by the end of a two-hour session the dog has decided I’m okay and is inviting interaction. Not one of these three dogs became comfortable enough to interact with me. Best we could do was a little Treat and Retreat.

Note: If I do have to get up and move around the room for some reason, I ask the client to put the leash back on the dog and move far enough away that the dog doesn’t feel threatened by my movements.

Here are last week's dogs:

Rose, the 4.5-year-old Border Collie

Rose’s humans report that she was very shy/reserved when they adopted her from a rescue group in August of 2023. She had apparently been used for breeding for the first three years of her life – obviously not by a responsible breeder (she is now spayed). She became more comfortable with George and Jade over time but is still quite wary of company. There was extra company visiting over the 2024 holidays. Rose started coming out of hiding more but began acting aggressive – and is now nipping at shins, snarling, growling and lunging when daughter and son-in-law drop off baby granddaughter for the day. Rose also has occasional seizures, which may be stress/anxiety-related. (She is on medication for the seizures.)

It is not unusual for a dog who starts out fearful and shut down to become aggressive when they get more comfortable in their environment and are bold enough to start making editorial comments.

Rose was clearly very worried when she entered the training center – her tail was down and her head was lowered. Ten minutes into the session she came up and sniffed me to investigate but never became comfortable with me. It even worried her when her Jade stood up (after a little struggle with the chair), and she stayed closest to George throughout the session.

Orvie, the Rat Terrier/Chihuahua/Dachshund Mix

Orvie is an adorable 1.5-year-old wiry black-and-tan Terrier mix. (Of course, ever since my wonderful Josie I have been a sucker for black-and-tan Terrier mixes…). Ruth brought him to see me (accompanied by her friend Julie who also walks Orvie 2-3 times a week) due to his fear-related aggression toward other dogs and sometimes humans. She adopted him as a puppy from a shelter in Alabama. Mom had been surrendered to the rescue while pregnant. This was probably a very stressful experience for her, and we know that when mom is stressed with puppies in utero, the pups are washed with excess cortisol, and studies have shown that this can resulted in those puppies having stress-related behaviors throughout their lives. So probably not the best start in life for poor little Orvie.

Orvie investigated me briefly but was not affiliative (did not invite interaction) and did not warm up to me at all during the two-hour session. He was quite friendly with Jackie, however, the friend who comes and walks him several times a week, and sat on her lap for much of the session.

Harvey, the Chihuahua/Italian Greyhound Mix

Harvey, now 7 years old, has lived with his current family since the age of 4 weeks – when he was given to them by a friend of a friend because her boyfriend was abusing him. I know. So much wrong with this picture… 4 weeks old – too young to leave Mom – and who abuses a 4-week-old puppy??  Viviane and Terry (mother and daughter) were most concerned about Harvey’s non-stop barking around animals or humans who don’t live in their home. He is also very sound sensitive.

Harvey was quite nervous in the training center – he trembled noticeably for the first 45 minutes of the session, and then off and on for the remainder of the 2 hours. He did approach me once, early in the session, just to investigate – he did not in any way invite interaction. He was happiest sitting on Terry’s lap, where he was able to start relaxing, and even closed his eyes. His humans were quite pleased, however, that he did not bark at me once during their session. MAybe because I am pretty good at not making dogs uncomfortable?

Protocols

As you can imagine, protocols were somewhat similar for all three of these cases.

We incorporated counter conditioning and desensitization (CC&D) – a mainstay in almost every case involving strong emotional responses to stimuli, to change the dog’s association to the stimulus, and hence his behavioral response. For Ovie we are doing CC&D with strangers and other dogs, with his crate, and with his leash and being reached for; for Rose, with visitors, sudden movements, and Ruthie, the grandbaby who stays with them several times a week and for Harvey, just people and dogs.

And again almost always – some operant protocols. These can be useful for managing behavior – keeping the dog busy doing something when a stimulus might be coming too close. These are usually simpler than CC&D and the dog’s human can see results more quickly – so the human is positively reinforced for her work with the dog. We know that behaviors that are reinforced are repeated and tend to increase; our clients are more likely to keep working with their dogs if they can get some early success with these protocols. And while operant behaviors involve the cortex – the “thinking” part of the brain, if you get your dog really happy about an operant behavior you can also move the emotional part of the brain (the amygdala) from “worried” to “happy” when you ask them to do something they love to do. Operant and Classical Conditioning are happening together all the time. I heard Bob Bailey say once, “Pavlov is always on your shoulder.” I like to say, “Pavlov is always on one shoulder – Skinner is always on the other.”

With these three dogs we are doing:

1.     Find It/Search: I tell my clients this is the easiest thing they will ever teach their dogs. “Find it” means you just dropped a treat at your feet. (If they already use “Find it” to mean search for treats in the environment we use “Feet” instead.) And “Search” means you’ve tossed a treat “out there” somewhere. (Again – a different cue if they already use “Search” for something else.

2.     Pattern Games: This is Leslie McDevitt’s marvelous collection of pattern-based protocols. Patterns are helpful for fearful dogs because routine is reassuring to them – they know what to expect. My favorites are 1-2-3 and Two Cookie – but I give my clients a handout with all of them and tell them to focus on the ones that work best for them and their dog.

3.     Treat and Retreat: This one is good for dogs who are worried about people – the person can interact with the dog but the dog gets to stay in his comfort zone.

4.     Targeting: “Touch” (nose to hand) can be very useful for confidence building. Lots of dogs love it – it’s simple, and they get happy/excited about “I push the button (the hand) – I get a treat – Yay!!!” It’s a great way to move a dog past something they are worried about – they get focused on and happy about touching the target as you move past the monster garbage can or the senior with the walker.

I have all my clients practice these behaviors first in the safety and comfort of the dog’s home until his eyes light up when he hears the cue or engages in the behavior, then outside at home, and eventually out in the “real” world.

Management

Management is always a critically important piece of a successful behavior modification program. If the dog continues to practice the behavior he is either continuing to be reinforced for it (behaviors that are reinforced continue) and/or continuing to be sensitized by the stimulus, which makes it difficult if not impossible to change his association/opinion and his emotional response.

My Whole Dog Journal article on management (from long ago!): https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/behavior/upper-level-management/

Anti-anxiety medication is a form of management.

Harvey was already on Fluoxetine for anxiety and had been for some time (with a recent increase in dosage) – I suggested they ask their veterinarian about Sileo for thunderstorms. (Note: I don’t usually mention specific medications, but I feel comfortable suggesting Sileo because it is widely marketed specifically for sound sensitivity.)

Orvie had just started on Fluoxetine two weeks prior, so too soon to have a noticeable effect, but also was getting Trazadone prior to known anxiety-causing events – such as coming to Peaceable Paws.

Rose is on Keppra for her seizures, so George and Jade were going to ask their veterinarian if she could also take anti-anxiety medications. Fingers crossed – especially since her seizures appear to be triggered by stress/anxiety!

Other management measures we put into place for these three dogs include:

1.     Cover windows to prevent arousal barking at people and dogs walking past house

2.     Put sign on the front door asking people not to ring the doorbell

3.     Remove the dog from the room/yard before bringing out or starting appliances – vacuum cleaner, washing machine, lawn mower

4.     Use white/brown noise or calming music to muffle sounds: https://icalmpet.com/

5.     Put in another room before visitors arrive

6.   Put up Yellow Dog posters and educate community about the meaning of the color yellow:

None of these are going to be quick-and-easy cases, but all of the dogs’ humans appear very committed to helping their dogs have a good life. Fingers are crossed…

This Week at Peaceable Paws

FLYING MONKEY

I had reported a couple of weeks ago that Flying Monkey, our 10-year-old feral barn cat who had become reasonably social with me (as in – rubbing all over me, letting me pet him and vaccinate him) and normally showed up for breakfast every day, had for no obvious reason suddenly become very feral again. Days, even a full week would go by between Monkey sightings, and when I did see him it was just a brief glimpse before he would dash under the shed.

Well, it seems he’s back. This past week I’ve seen him every day, and the past three days he was back to being friendly, talking to me, rubbing on my hand and letting me pet him. I have no clue what was going on, but welcome back, Monkey!

SICK SUNNY

On a not-so-happy note, Sunny, our 20-pound Pomeranian, has been vomiting almost daily since the beginning of the month – mostly yellow bile, but sometimes his whole meal. We tried chicken-and-rice – didn’t help at all. We were at the vet a week ago – she took x-rays, saw lots of white specks in his stomach and intestines, and started him on low-fat Purina (sigh) and anti-nausea meds. Less vomiting for a couple of days, but now back to every day, sometimes twice a day. Our giant Pomeranian has lost several pounds in the process, and we’re headed back to the vet on Monday for more x-rays and ultra-sound. Sunny (short for Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows) is still his happy-go-lucky self in between vomiting episodes, but we are quite concerned. Please send good thoughts!

On the happier side – it’s supposed to reach 80 degrees today – YAY!!! Headed out now to weed flower beds and play with horses. Hope you are having a good weekend!!!

Warm Woofs,

Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA

www.peaceablepaws.com ; info@peaceablepaws.com ; 301-582-9420