Calming Your Frightened Dog.
Here’s a quick blurb on how to calm your dog when she’s fearful. There are many effective ways that people have good luck with; this is a way I have found to be consistently reliable in my years of working with many many fearful rescue dogs.
First, learn to think like your dog. Remember in the blog about introductions, how I said if you tighten the lead it sends the wrong message and confirms her instinct that there is in fact danger ahead? Same theory here.
Let’s Say It’s The 4th Of July (imagine that).
The fireworks and big booms have begun. If she’s fearful, cowering, crying, resist the urge to scoop her up and hold her tight, talking to her in an annoying high-itched baby voice, acting like you’re protecting her. Hugging and cooing “there there” into her fur actually confirms to her that her fears are legitimate and she really does need your protection. Wrong. You don’t want to ignore her, certainly, but you do need to avoid sending the signal that there is indeed something to fear.
Work On One Sensory Perception At A Time.
First thing to do–stay indoors; this will remove the visual input. While you begin the process of calming her, you don’t want to over-expose her to the trigger, which is the fireworks. Let her experience just the audio element of it from inside the house. Exposing her to the optical element at the same time could put her into sensory overload and put her fears over the top. Addressing her fears in stages is much more effective.
Just Another Day.
The best thing you can do is act as if it’s just another day and the noise and chaos are nothing out of the ordinary. In fact, show her that you hardly even notice the noise, by not reacting to it. Maintain your normal, every-day energy. Don’t allow your energy to be heightened, and show no anxiety. She’ll pick up on that. But also don’t oversell a happy happy joy joy attitude, either. She’ll see right through that, too. Don’t ignore her, but don’t coddle her. Be somewhere down the middle and act normal. She’ll take her que from you.
If it’s laundry day, fold the clothes. If it’s suppertime, cook the meal. Include her and talk to her as you normally do, totally ignoring the noise. Give her pats on the head occasionally, but no more than any other day. I stress again–keep it normal. If she tries crawling up into your lap to hide, DON’T scold her. But don’t allow it. Just stand up, pat her on the head, say good girl, and move away as if everything’s just peachy normal. If she follows you, that’s okay. Just don’t coddle.
Doggie Does As Doggie Sees.
Once she sees you going about your business and being completely unaffected by the noise and chaos, that you’re not fearful, she’ll begin to realize that it’s nothing for her to fear, either. Depending on how deep-seated her fears go, this process may take awhile, and a bit of repetition until she’s comfortable.
Be Patient, Be Faithful–She’ll Get There.
And never NEVER scold her. She needs to trust, not be afraid. Whatever method you choose to teach her how to be calm in the chaos, the important thing is that she knows how to stay calm and keep her wits about her. God forbid she found herself running loose on the 4th of July. But, if she ever does, at least you know you’ve trained her well so she can find her way back home safe and sound.
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God Bless and Happy Pet Parenting!
With love and good wishes,
jeannie. ?
About jeannie: I’ve been pro-actively involved in pet rescue all of my life. I founded Milagro Senior Pet Refuge© (Phoenix) in 1998, and BareFootPets (TM) in 2008. Animal welfare has always been and will always be my heart’s work. If my only legacy is that I save a handful of precious souls that would not survive otherwise, I’m good with that.