What’s the first behavior we have to change when we work with a fearful dog?
The answer: our own.
It is up to us, as dog lovers, adopters, and advocates to help our fearful dogs feel safe. Once our dog feels safe and is able to learn, we have to thoughtfully create a plan to desensitize and counter-condition our dog to the stuff that scares them (this is where a *good* dog trainer comes in!). The final step is for us to teach our dog appropriate behaviors using lots of tasty treats, or whatever your dog finds most rewarding.
It’s all up to us.
Adoptable Velvet has been on a fearful dog journey and has been been so successful. Velvet’s foster has worked to desensitize her to new people, overhand pets, and putting on a harness using lots of stinky treats over the past several weeks. These may be seemingly simple behaviors, but for Velvet they are extraordinarily significant—and we want to celebrate Velvet and her foster’s hard work!
To help a fearful dog, we have to first learn how to be a good teacher—equipped with positivity, knowledge, patience, and a plan. To learn more about helping dogs with fear, or head over to Deb Jacobs’ website: fearfuldogs.com or she has a wonderful Facebook group to join here.
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To help a fearful dog, we have to first learn how to be a good teacher—equipped with positivity, knowledge, patience, and a plan.