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FEAR OF STATIONARY OBJECTS
Many of the dogs that are adopted from animal, shelters, and humane societies will possibly have some sort of a fear of people, stationary objects, or moving objects. This is often attributed to the animal's past, or something that has had a negative impact some way in the dog's life.
You will find that many these dogs are cooler colored dogs such as Green Dogs or Blue Dogs. Again, charactreristics of the cooler colored dogs are animals that will be cautious, and might have a fear of people, stationary objects, or moving objects.
If your dog is afraid of things, one of the first things you need to ask yourself is, “how long has this been happening?” The longer the dog has had a chance to exhibit this fear or unsure ness of this thing, the more difficult it normally is to correct. If this is a dog that has just been adopted or rescued, remember that you do not know the dog’s history. There is a very good possibility that if the animal has some sort of fear towards things, it often has come from some negative experience in the past.
The first thing you are going to want to do is identify the thing or things your dog is afraid of. Try to recognize and see if you can single out a specific thing. Your dog might be afraid of moving objects like cars, skateboards, and motorcycles. On the other hand, you dog might be afraid of stationary objects or things. There are a few questions that you are going to want to ask yourself with regard to this fear. Is there a certain place or area the animal might show his or her fear? Does it happen only in your home? Does it happen in your home and front yard? Does it happen anywhere? Does it happen anywhere but not in your home? These are just a few questions that need to be answered before trying to deal with this behavior.
If you have not read about my color scheme in training, and how it works, click here>>
If you have a GREEN DOG that has some fear, allowing this fear of objects the opportunity to escalate and grow is one of the biggest mistakes an owner can make. Once a GREEN DOG is allowed to manifest this fear over and over, he can very easily move into becoming a BLUE DOG. Once he becomes BLUE, he can begin to show signs of fear aggression towards that specific thing he or she is afraid of. Remember that we want the GREEN DOG to move toward the center of the spectrum toward a YELLOW and not BLUE. As always, when you are training a BLUE DOG, you will see that your job is going to be a little more challenging as you read on.
The same thing applies to the ORANGE DOG. If the ORANGE DOG has some sort of unsure ness about a specific thing, it is essential you catch this early and not allow it to escalate. Like the GREEN DOG, once an ORANGE DOG is allowed to manifest this unsure ness over and over, he can very easily move farther away from the center of the spectrum, and in this case, closer to a RED DOG. Once your ORANGE DOG becomes RED, he can then begin to show signs of aggression towards that specific object or thing. Remember that we want the ORANGE DOG to move toward the center of the spectrum toward a YELLOW and not RED. If you are already working with a RED DOG, your job is going to be a little more difficult as you read on.
You might notice that there is no YELLOW DOG here. The reason is that a mellow YELLOW DOG is that “middle of the road” laid back dog, that nothing seems to phase. You should not have a problem with a YELLOW DOG being afraid of objects or things.
I am always inclined to first begin with REDIRECTION. Again, when we redirect the animal, we are simply redirecting the animal’s focus onto something else other than the object or thing the animal is fixating on. What we are going to want to do is teach the dog that this object or thing is something positive. The degree of fear of the object or thing will play a major role into how long this will take to train.
What we are going to want to do is associate the treat the stationary object the animal is afraid of. Our goal is to associate the positive “treat” and the negative “object”. The way this is accomplished is to put a Bil-Jac treat in the hand of a person that will be helping you, as well as a few scattered on the ground a few feet from the object. If you feel that you need something that is a little more of a higher value treat, you may use a small piece of steak, chicken, or cheese.
Simply have your helper stand next to the object and walk to the dog and reward the dog. You can see that over the course of time we are redirecting the dog's attention from the object to the helper with the treat. The next step is to have the person lift the object and put it down, and walk to the dog and reward the dog. You can see how this all progresses.
TRAINING TOOLS
If you are training a dog that shows a lot of fear of the stationary object, it is a good idea to have something that will give you as much control as possible. As far as leashes go, I would highly recommend some very strong leather leash that is comfortable on your hands, and also strong for a pulling dog that might want to pull in the opposite direction.
I would also recommend one any kind of collar that will give your optimum control for RED or ORANGE DOGS such as my alternative training collar, a chain collar, a head harness, or a pinch collar for very unique pulling situations.
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