Doggy Myth Busters 4 – Ignoring Fear

Today another blog in the Mythbusters Dog Behavior series, this time on the subject of ‘Ignoring fear’.

Ignoring fear, a good idea?

Every year, much to my annoyance, the newspapers are full of them: advice to ignore your dog when he is afraid of fireworks, because if you give your dog attention at such a time, you reinforce the fear and it gets worse.

To explain this, we must first look at the principles behind rewards and punishments. We will go into this in more detail in a later blog, but for now we will stick to the fact that only consciously performed behavior is performed more often when there is a reward in return. For example, a ‘sit’; when we give our puppy a treat for that, there is a good chance that he will sit nicely next time when we ask for it, after all doing so will provide him with reinforcement.

However, fear is an emotion, a negative emotion, and you can’t make a negative emotion worse with a reward. It’s that simple. Moreover, the behavior that arises from this emotion is mainly instinctive and reflexive in nature, and therefore not consciously performed.

An example

Let’s translate it to ourselves: imagine that you are scared of something. Do you first think about the contraction of your muscles and the scream you make, before you perform them? No, right? So if we can’t control it, will dogs? Doesn’t seem logical to me.

If we are then handed a hamburger after our startle reaction, will we then decide to startle more often from that moment on? No, right? At most, you like the person who gave you that burger, and you may even find the situation a little less scary because you’ve had a positive experience.

That’s exactly how it works with dogs. If your dog is afraid of something, and you gently stroke and support him, his fear will not get any worse. In fact, he may feel empowered in the situation and become less anxious.

Ignoring fear only teaches your dog that he should look to you for support in scary situations. And we shouldn’t want that! He may see you as his safe haven, his rock. There’s nothing wrong with that at all.

So:

• Do: Be there for your dog in stressful situations, offer him a safe haven and support him if he asks for it. But don’t force yourself on him!
• Don’t: ignore fear