Fear Periods
I want to address fear periods first, because Ziva is slowly coming out of a doozy of a fear period. Our once bold pup is gradually returning to her previous confident self, but has been afraid of a whole lot of things in recent weeks.
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| Ziva bunkered down behind my desk at work |
How can you tell the difference between a "fear period" and the pup being afraid of a particular "thing"?
It's best to try to avoid your pup being scared of things. If they are frightened of something new, they will likely startle and recover quickly. If they do not recover quickly, put some distance between yourself and whatever is challenging them and use reward based training to gradually accustom the pup to the scary new thing that is over-facing them. You don't need to get your pup comfortable to the scary thing that very day. You have time to work on it gradually and without pressuring the pup too much.
If your pup shows a strong fear reaction to something they have seen many times before and were unconcerned about, that is how you know they are in the throes of a "fear period".
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| Koll & Ziva napping |
In Ziva's case, noises such as loud/fast car sounds, leaf blowers, lawnmowers etc, all suddenly started to scare the heck out of her. She had been fine with them before. She also became frightened of some of my co-workers that she had been interacting happily and confidently with for several months.
How did we handle Z's sudden fear of the world? We stopped taking her to new places where she might be overwhelmed. We continued to take her to places she had been before that were not terribly noisy and where she would not be pressured to interact with people or things she couldn't cope with. As she continues to gradually show us signs that she is getting bolder and more confident again, we'll expand her horizons more and more.
We also made some use of Adaptil/Thunderease (calming pheromone) spray and L-Theanine (100 mg per 20 lbs) to help with Z's anxious behaviors. There is an L-Theanine supplement called Anxitane that is specifically for dogs, but we just purchase the NOW brand supplement sold for human use.
It's been tough to be patient and allow her to regain her equilibrium in her own time, but it will be worth the wait once she makes a full recovery and is our bright and bold Ziva again.
Loud Puppies
Some of thhe pups seem to have found their voices recently!
Ziva is good about sleeping quietly in her kennel at night and riding quietly in it in the car. She is sleeping quietly at my feet right now. When is she noisy?
She is noisy when she plays with the other dogs. They are noisy too. We really don't mind this and don't work on stopping it. We do call them in off the patio if they are playing and it is early or late or loud enough that we think the neighbors will be displeased. Sometimes, noisy, playing dogs cause us to have to pause the TV until they are either done or provided with alternative entertainment (bully stick or stuffed Toppl). If the noise is really bugging me, I'll sometimes encourage them in a quieter game like tug of war. It is hard to bark when you are tugging on a toy.
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| Ridley & Ziva - double trouble at office |
Be warned, it will get worse before it gets better. Dogs have something called an “extinction burst” where they try a behavior harder, longer, louder, etc., before they stop trying it. So, if his current level of barking is suddenly not working, he will get louder or longer before he stops.
Here is a blog entry on demand barking and I liked the concept of the "bark board" as a means of tracking times the dogs barking is at it's worst so you can be proactive about heading it off before it starts, while also changing the picture for the barking pup while the behavior is taking place (i.e. getting up to move across the room to note when the behavior takes place changes the dynamic).
https://orlandodogtraining.org/woofthe-barky-dog-series-attention-or-demand-barking
