Episode #30 The Anxious Puppy

Today we are talking about the puppy who feels anxious around sounds. Thunder, fireworks, sirens or even every day household sounds can cause a puppy to feel anxious or fearful. Using the example of a vacuum cleaner, learn how to properly introduce your new puppy to a new sound and help him create positive associations to things he might otherwise show signs of fear. Instead, help build feelings of confidence in your new puppy!

Transcript

speaker 0:   0:00
This is The Puppy Training Podcast Episode #30: The Anxious Puppy. This podcast is for those looking to train their own dog, whether as a family companion, a service, or a therapy dog, and I'm here to help you every step of the way. This is The Puppy Training Podcast, and I'm your host, Amy Jensen.  

speaker 0:   0:19
Hello, everyone. Happy Monday. I hope you had a great start to the week today. I want to give a shout out to April. She sent in the topic that I'm going to talk about today: the anxious puppy. Thank you for listening, April, and thank you for the topic idea. Today we're gonna talk about puppies who panic a little bit or act a little bit fearful or anxious with noises.  When we talk about sounds, there are many things in our society that could alarm or make a puppy nervous such as thunder, pots and pans banging together, vacuuming, garbage disposals, or an automatic garage door. We live in a very loud society, so even music or sirens if you live in a big city. There are lots of noises that are puppies come across and they hear and some may cause alarm.  

speaker 0:   1:05
Training wise, what we can do for this, is first, let's make sure that we're not rewarding our puppy or reinforcing the anxious behavior. We do this in ways like talking in baby tones to them, coddling them, petting them,  or picking them up. We don't want to do any of that. The reason why is puppies do what works for them or whatever they feel like they're getting rewarded for, they'll continue to do. If we reward this behavior of them feeling anxious and fearful, they're going to continue to exhibit fearful and anxious behavior. We want to get rid of that and change that around. First of all, realize what you are doing and how you're reacting, how you even look at your puppy or talk to your puppy. We want more of a tough kind of love feeling, more of a confidence building feeling rather than a coddling feeling. Once we have that under control, we want to try to manage the situation as best as possible so that our puppy's not put in a situation where they're practicing this fearful and anxious behavior. If you notice or know what the trigger is for your puppy to feel this way, we could help them out by giving them a place that they can go where they can feel safe and secure. Often times, this is going to be a darker room, possibly their crate that's covered by a sheet if they like their crate, we want to make sure that we're not forcing a puppy who doesn't like a crate into the crate if they're feeling this way because that will just make the situation worst. But hopefully you've create trained your puppy, and he knows that that's a safe spot for him, that he can go and relax and be calm. If your puppy is crate trained, feel free to use that crate, cover it with a sheet, like I said, to make it a little more dark. Taking away that light will just help provide a calming feeling overall for your puppy. Finding a secure space for them where they can retreat from the noises they're hearing and just learn to self soothe is important. And then again, you're not coddling them or babying them about this behavior. They're just able to go somewhere and relax themselves.  

speaker 0:   3:09
Other things that you can try are applying some body pressure. There are things out there like thunder shirt or anxiety wraps, even just putting a blanket over your dog, that weight of the the blanket or the wrap sometimes help self soothe. There's also other things, like essential oils out there. Lavender is very calming and relaxing. You might want to put that somewhere in your home where your puppy can smell it. That might help us.  

speaker 0:   3:35
After we've talked about our body language and we're not rewarding this behavior in any way and then we're also providing them a safe retreat where they can go and get away from the sounds that they're hearing and self soothe, we also want to implement some sort of training plan to try to help our puppy in the future so that when he hears these noises, he's not always feeling this anxious, fearful feeling and I'm feeling like he needs to panic. There's a few things that we can do. You can do some desensitization with him. That means that we're going to introduce different noises and different sounds on a daily basis just in the background. I like to play these things, either a CD or YouTube. There's lots of posts about fireworks, or thunderstorms. You can look up a video on sirens or dogs barking and play these different sounds. I like to do that while I'm playing a fun game with my dog. My dogs are happiest when they're playing fetch or if we're playing hide and go seek in the house, and so I'll just turn on these noises in the background and we'll just start playing a game. I like to do this because it's creating that classical conditioning feeling where the puppy is hearing something that maybe is not as pleasant to him, but at the same time, we're creating a happy feeling inside of him by playing with him and engaging him in something that he loves to do. We're trying to take something that's a little scary to him and associate it with something that he really, really loves, so that that feeling of fear is going to go away and when he hears the sounds will actually start to be excited that we're gonna play a game or something. We're trying to create that association with him by taking that thing that's a little bit scary and making it into something that's not as bad and more fun. So go ahead and play a favorite game of your puppy's. If it's fetch, just play fetch while you play these noises in the background. I usually start them on a low volume, and then, as my puppy gets better and better about hearing them, I might amp the volume up a little bit just to really proof the sounds that they don't bother him and that I can be sure that they're not affecting him in an adverse way. Just start with a low volume, just very subtle noises in the background as you play these games and then watch your dog's body language, he'll tell you how he's feeling. You'll be able to tell. His body should be loose and noodlely, his ears relaxed, his tail neutral, and a nice happy wag would be great, if he has an open mouth, his tongue is relaxed, those are all signs that he's calm and feeling fine. If he were to start to tense up or his ears were to be pinned back, maybe he starts to tuck its tail, those would be signs that he's starting to feel the anxiousness, and we probably want to back off a little bit. As we're desensitizing him to these sounds, we want to keep it positive or at least neutral. We don't want him to be having these adverse effects. Pay attention to his body language as you play the noises over a speaker. But get him engaged in a fun game that he likes to play, and that will help take his mind off of what he's hearing.  

speaker 0:   6:28
We also could do some counter conditioning to his reaction by rewarding him with food for not reacting, or even before he reacts we could then reward him and redirect him. If the sound start to play and we can reward him before he does barks or the fearful behavior, he hears the sound and then we're we're rewarding immediately, and then we're redirecting them on to a game of fetch or tug or hide-and-go-seek or something like that, then that's really helping him to stop and to not even go down that pathway of fear and anxiousness. With those two methods the desensitization and the counter conditioning, it's very successful. This has a very high success rate of changing a puppy's feelings from fear and anxiousness to feelings of calm and happiness.  

speaker 0:   7:16
Let me give you an example of what this looks like. Let's say that we're going to introduce a brand new puppy to a vacuum. This would be something very typical that new puppy owners will have to deal with, and it also gives you a good explanation of how this desensitization and the counter conditioning work, and then you can go and apply this to any sort of sound that your puppy might be fearful toward. The common ones are thunderstorms, fireworks, gunshots, sirens. The household noises, hopefully, your puppies hearing just by living in your home with you and he's becoming accustomed to things like the garbage disposal, the garage door opening, pots and pans clanging around, those kinds of things. There's all sorts of noises and sounds that you can start introducing your puppy to, so be creative this week and find as many of those sounds around your home as you can. Kids' toys are wonderful, paper shredders, pencil sharpeners, blow dryers, there are so many that we can start turning on introducing our puppy too. Let's give you the example of what it looks like with the vacuum cleaner, and then you guys can apply that to any of those other noises that you're going to be introducing your puppy to.  

speaker 0:   8:21
If I had a brand new puppy and he's never seen a vacuum before, the first thing I would do is show the puppy the vacuum. I'm not going to turn the vacuum on yet, I'm simply just gonna wheel it into the room. I might engage my puppy with some play or we might do some training, and the vacuum is just gonna be sitting there in the room. If my puppy goes over and decides to investigate the vacuum, that's awesome. I like that so I'm gonna reward that. If my puppy goes over and starts to sniff the vacuum or check it out, I'm going to feed him some little treats or some food rewards for doing so. I like that he's showing interest in a new item and that he's willing to investigate it. That's really healthy. After my puppy hasR seen the vacuum and I have rewarded him a few times for sniffing it, I'm going to start to wheel it around. I'm not gonna be too crazy with this, but I might just wheel it and change positions. In between these I'm just gonna be playing with my puppy. I'm throwing a toy, he's fetching it, I'm moving the vacuum. I'm tossing a toy, he's fetching it, I'm moving the vacuum. This way, he's getting used to the idea that this thing does move around. I'm slowly introducing into this novel item. If he'll come over and check it out in the new space, I'm gonna reward that. Any time he'll come over and see what it is or what it's all about, and he does that on his own, I like that and I'm going to reward that. The next step would be now that's moved around a little bit, I'm gonna turn it on, but I'm gonna let my puppy go where he wants to go. If he wants to retreat, if he hears that noise turn on and he wants to retreat to the corner, that's fine. Again, I'm not going to coddle him, I'm not gonna do any baby talk, I'm simply just going to turn the vacuum on, and then I'm going to shut the vacuum off, and my puppy can just do whatever he needs to do. If he needs to retreat to the corner where he feels safer, that's totally fine. I'm not gonna acknowledge it, but he's able to do that if he wants to. After I turn it off, if he'll come back over and investigate, that's great. I'm gonna give him another food reward. If your puppy's very brave and you had the vacuum on and he came right over to see what it is, awesome, reward that. Reward your puppy any time he comes over to check out that vacuum, whether it's on or it's off. Another thing that you can do while you're vacuum is on and your wanting your puppy to feel that positive association is to take some of those food rewards and sprinkle them on the floor. I'll scatter them on the floor, I'll turn the vacuum on and start vacuuming, my puppy's then sniffing, trying to find the food rewards. That act of sniffing relaxes a dog, so by having him sniff something off the floor and then be able to eat something super yummy, he's starting to create that positive association between the sound of the vacuum, the sniffing that's relaxing him, and the good food he's eating. That's what we want to create is a positive association between these new things for our puppies. I'm gonna keep it super short the first couple times.  When I turn that vacuum on, it might just be for a few seconds, and I'm going to shut it off, see if my puppy will maybe come over and investigate a little bit, we'll just keep playing some fetch in between, and then I'm going to get to the point where I can keep that vacuum on longer and longer and my puppy can retreat if he wants to retreat, he can come check us out if he wants. What I love to do with things like this - I do this with the lawn mower, the snow blowers, any kind of motorized thing - is if I have it running and I crouch down and my puppy will come over to me for a reward, he can get the reward and then you can go away, that's great because it's still running. He comes in closer for a treat, he moves away, and he learns this is fine. You'll see that he'll start to get closer and closer to you and not be as scared of it in the long run. Keep it short. Pay attention to his body language. If he's super stressed, you've turned it on and immediately the tail is tucked, the ears are back, I would go a little slower. Instead of doing it all in one session, maybe today you just pull the vacuum out. Maybe tomorrow we will it across the room a couple of times. Maybe the next day we turn it on and then it's right back off. You just want to take longer in between those the movements of those steps or the progression of those steps if your puppy's body language is telling you he's stressed. Just watch how he's feeling. If he's handling it okay, then you can move right along in this process. Turn the vacuum on, reward him again for any time he comes back to check in with you and get him used to coming in when it's on, coming in when it's off, and then he'll start to just acclimate to what this machine is and that it's no big deal when it's on.  

speaker 0:   12:39
That's what we're gonna do with all of these other sounds that were introducing our puppy to, is introduce them to the sound, pay attention to his body language, give him a place to retreat if he wants to retreat, but don't reward that, don't coddle him if he's feeling anxious. It's a tough love, but also we want to instill confidence in him, so we're rewarding every time he's confident enough to come over and check out that new noise or that new sound, giving him lots of praise and rewards for that behavior, that confidence behavior, because that's what we're trying to build. 

speaker 0:   13:09
That's what I have for you guys today. I encourage you to go and introduce your puppy to seven new sounds this week. Find seven new things your puppy has not heard before and use this process of slowly introducing them to the new sounds to make it a positive experience, and let me know how it goes. Send me an email to info@BaxterandBella.com, I'd love to hear your progress. Also, if you like this podcast, please leave us a review. It helps others find us, and our goal is to help as many puppies as possible. Thanks for listening, and I'll talk to you next week. Happy training. If you have a question about anything you heard on this podcast or any other puppy train question, visit my site BaxterandBella.com to contact me.