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Writer's pictureShel Graves

Helping Fearful Dogs Part One: Operant Conditioning or Why You Might Teach Your Dog Tricks

To me, training is all about developing a solid way of communicating with animals, paying attention to what they are saying with their behavior, and developing rapport. 


I absolutely love it when fearful dogs know some tricks and I’m going to talk about why I love trick-training for fearful pups (if that dog is someone who enjoys this!).


At Shel Graves Animal Consulting, I often talk about the two kinds of teaching and learning I use when training dogs. 

A dog looks into the camera with a person behind him.  The dog has a skeptical expression.
Getting to know Lego

Trick training is all about operant conditioning. Reward an animal for doing something: a behavior. Reinforce the behavior you want to see more of. In this case, you are asking (or looking) for a specific behavior and rewarding that. This kind of training can be teaching a dog to sit, spin, touch, look, shake, high five, lie down, retrieve etc. 


You can have a lot of fun with this kind of training, but will it help your fearful dog? Yes!


One of the dogs I visit, Lego, is nervous with new people. He doesn’t automatically approach for pets. He backs away. He tenses up when you reach for him. He’s not pro-social with new people which means he does not immediately approach them with a relaxed, loose, wiggly body or jump up for attention. Once he gets to know you though, he’s a real snuggle-bug.


The first few times I met Lego, we went on walks with his person and just hung out a bit (we were actually starting our relationship with the other kind of teaching and learning I like to use which I cover in Helping Fearful Dogs Part Two).


Lego is an active dog, however, who likes to do things for rewards. He’s a very fortunate rescue dog who was adopted from Homeward Pet Adoption Center in Woodinville, Washington. Lego's person works at Homeward, spent a lot of time helping Lego learn to trust at Homeward, and likes to train dogs. Yay! Lego’s person not only gave Lego the time and space to build trust, but they also taught him some tricks.


The most adorable of these is Lego’s “Hurray!” where he jumps up for a high-five. So cute!


A dog puts his paw up to a person's hand.
Lego's high-five

Now, when you are meeting a fearful dog for the first time or two, I do not advise asking them to do stuff. The first order of business is just to get comfortable with each other. No asking for performances or to “sit.” The dog’s work–and it is work–is just getting to know you, be able to relax, and start to associate you with good stuff (nothing scary and usually tasty treats).


However, if you’ve practiced something a lot, sometimes doing that thing can be an icebreaker. Doing “tricks” can be like this for dogs. They can do something they know works with a person and it can be relaxing. Learning a new trick can be hard (mentally-tiring), but if they’ve really practiced a cue it can become a soothing behavior: “I sit, I get treats. I know how this works!”.


At the rescue I worked at, one of my favorite puppies developed a habit of barking and lunging in a nervous-looking way at other dogs. When we introduced her to an older, pretty chill dog she was going to live with, she barked a lot which made the older dog unsure. The intro was going poorly and souring the pup’s chances at adoption.


Fortunately, though, this puppy had practiced some tricks with me in the dog park. So, we played some “jump” and “tunnel” to get her more at ease and tried the introduction again.


It worked!


She was able to greet the new dog more calmly. The adult dog decided she was tolerable. And the puppy was adopted. Woo hoo! Success!


Similarly, when I first met Lego, his person asked him to do some of his tricks, not to perform for me, but as a way to let Lego focus on some fun games instead of worrying about me, the new person, and what I was going to do. The tricks helped put Lego at ease.


Lego also began to associate the presence of me, the new person, with something fun–a training session and treats. This is the other kind of training, I’ll talk about in Fearful Dogs Part Two which you get as a side-effect.


After a couple of meetings, I started giving Lego cues too and letting him play some games with me. I really like games like “touch,” “high-five,” and “shake” –starting with a simple “touch,” nose-to-palm game, for fearful dogs because it helps them learn that the appearance and presence of people’s hands = good stuff. This is especially important for fearful dogs who may have previously learned the opposite (hands = bad stuff). 


We often think immediately of the worst-case scenario here: that someone hit the dog. However, for a fearful dog, things like collar grabs, restraint, holding scary objects like nail clippers, or touching painful infected ears etc. could also = bad stuff. It may not have been a big dramatic event. Anything that scares that individual can teach them to be wary.

A dog with a smile on his face puts his paw on a person's knee.
It's super rewarding making friends with a fearful dog!

That’s important to remember because anyone, even a super kind person with good intentions can be, accidentally, scary. One of my goals is always to be NOT SCARY.


Only after Lego learned that his games also worked with me and looked pretty relaxed, lying down near me –and had decided that I was not very scary AND a source of good stuff – did I let him know that I was a good source of belly rubs and ear massages.


With a fearful dog, I recommend going in first with innocuous chest pets and shoulder rubs along with consent tests –pet for three seconds, stop for three seconds and watch what the dog does—well before touching those adorable heads and ears. I love this consent test video by Eileen and Dogs. It’s so cute and considerate.


Building trust with a fearful dog is a fun process, but a patient one. If you have a dog who likes to do things with you for rewards then you can ease the process of introductions to new people greatly by teaching them a few tricks. 


This is one of the reasons I love a “ball dog”. A dog who is easily motivated to fetch is also a dog who can be more easily introduced to new people – once they learn the new person is a potential “throw partner” they can be fast friends. 


For a dog who is not easily motivated or too scared, the other kind of training is the place to start…that’s part two.


Need help with a fearful dog? Book a consult.



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