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Retraining A Fear From A Trama

borzoimom
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borzoimom

borzoimom

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I thought I would post this. One time that I was running the vac in my house, a had a situation. I lived at the time in a A frame house, which has a " great room"- ie one big open space in the main of the house. As I went around the corner, I felt a tug on the vac. Dismissed it as the cord caught a piece of furniture kept going. Then another HUGE tug, looked only to see Zubin roped in the cord like a roped calf. With a hare like foot, obviously he stepped on the cord, got caught between toes, panicked and started spinning out of fright. In panic I did a stupid thing and went to him and not the plug in, and as I tried to grab him, he opened his mouth, and bit the cord- at the exact same time the cord pulled from the wall.. ( thank God- Or I would been electrocuted - lesson number one all..)

Zubin got an electrical burn on his mouth. I called the vet right away, but his breathing slowed down etc so after conversations with the vet except for the burn on his mouth where he bit the cord in half, he was fine.

Now- I run the vac daily in the great room. The next day I just got the vac out, not even plugged in, when my normally confident boy PANICKED and charged out of the room into the screen porch and darn near went through the screen which would have dropped him 12 feet to the ground. I tried leaving the vac out- just let him watch it .. to make a long story short- although he was eyeballing it, he was still obviously worried. I was having a problem here trying all I knew to fix this, but this was so tramatic to him, I was at a loss what to do. I knew if I put him in another room, it would like the fear of the vac into concrete so what on earth to do.

A friend suggested something that I thought at first was so crazy it just might work. The person said that their dog was afraid of balloons, and what they did was make friends " with the balloons" by petting it, saying good balloon, offering treats to the balloon etc. It was so crazy and I was desperate I tried it with the vac.. IT TOTALLY WORKED!!!! Dogs have no concept that something is alive or not- and it totally worked.. Here is the video. Zubin is the bigger white with black. ( pardon my appearance but I had been cutting grass all day.. and I was using cheese-its..)

http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=62sca35

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Erny

Erny

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Borzoimom .... your poor dog!!! But so glad that you have found this method making inroads to recovery from the trauma (thank heavens it wasn't worse for either of you! :laugh:).

Patting the item of concern is not to me bizarre (although it might seem that way to those who haven't heard it before). All you are doing is :

  • Demonstrating that this "thing" is not an item of concern - that YOU are not worried about it.
  • Promoting natural curiosity. (IE ... What is that which Mum is so interested in?)
  • Making the item (rather than the dog) the focal point and subject of calm, unstressed curiosity - rather than setting up tensions which your dog can pick up from.
  • Not pushing your dog to "go see that item". I mean after all, if you won't pat it and show it nice, fond, relaxed attention, why should your dog?

It is one of the tactics that I commonly demonstrate/explain/encourage to the people I work with who have had dogs suffer similar traumas. I do it also for dogs who are scared of other dogs. IOW, I go pat the other dog. Glad this is working for you.

What age was your dog when the incident occurred? If it was outside of his critical period (ie 8-16 weeks) and assuming that inside that period your dog had socialised to the vacuum without harm or trauma, then him being able to draw on those earlier (permanent) memories would certainly be assisting his recovery.

Well done. :p

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borzoimom

borzoimom

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Borzoimom .... your poor dog!!! But so glad that you have found this method making inroads to recovery from the trauma (thank heavens it wasn't worse for either of you! :rofl:).

Patting the item of concern is not to me bizarre (although it might seem that way to those who haven't heard it before). All you are doing is :

  • Demonstrating that this "thing" is not an item of concern - that YOU are not worried about it.
  • Promoting natural curiosity. (IE ... What is that which Mum is so interested in?)
  • Making the item (rather than the dog) the focal point and subject of calm, unstressed curiosity - rather than setting up tensions which your dog can pick up from.
  • Not pushing your dog to "go see that item". I mean after all, if you won't pat it and show it nice, fond, relaxed attention, why should your dog?

It is one of the tactics that I commonly demonstrate/explain/encourage to the people I work with who have had dogs suffer similar traumas. I do it also for dogs who are scared of other dogs. IOW, I go pat the other dog. Glad this is working for you.

What age was your dog when the incident occurred? If it was outside of his critical period (ie 8-16 weeks) and assuming that inside that period your dog had socialised to the vacuum without harm or trauma, then him being able to draw on those earlier (permanent) memories would certainly be assisting his recovery.

Well done. :D

My points exactly and beautifully stated! Zubin was about 12 months old. He had obviously been exposed with no trama prior to that with the vac. I do believe that is why it shocked him ( no pun intended) as up until then, he figured " that thing" would not hurt him or the cord. And yes- you are right- I think he was able to recall previous memories of no fear or concern with the vac. Group treats is also common place in our home. And yes- I have done the same thing with when a dog is worried ( or scared) of another dog.

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borzoimom

borzoimom

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That's amazing. I'll have to try it with Tilba who's afraid of umbrellas. I don't know where it came from. We had a long dry spell & when it started raining & the umbrella came out she ran off scared.

It should work with an umbrella. What I do with puppies is that we have a umbrella 'tent' snack festival. Although I must admit, my dogs look at umbrellas of " are we having treats now???" :rofl: ( or was it " OH GOODIE- here comes the treat..")

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Tatelina

Tatelina

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HAHAHAHAHAHA!! That is such a funny video!!

Thanks for posting it and sharing your story!

I have never considered or heard of that technique..but obviously it works!! Fabulous!! That seems so much easier and quicker than desensitising a dog! :rofl:

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Erny

Erny

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That seems so much easier and quicker than desensitising a dog! :D

Tatelina - it is but one of the strategies that assists with desensitising a dog to its fear. It doesn't always work, or it doesn't always work immediately. But it certainly is something that I always recommend both in desensitisation practice and also in habituation (ie where the item is novel and fear hasn't been learnt).

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borzoimom

borzoimom

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That seems so much easier and quicker than desensitising a dog! :D

Tatelina - it is but one of the strategies that assists with desensitising a dog to its fear. It doesn't always work, or it doesn't always work immediately. But it certainly is something that I always recommend both in desensitisation practice and also in habituation (ie where the item is novel and fear hasn't been learnt).

Excellent way to put it too. This took several attempts but really not many considering his out-right fright. Nothing ever hurt him before, nor has he ever been put in a situation he felt " trapped". As far as he knew that thing laying on the floor jumped up and wrapped around his feet, and the vac was attached to it.

Also the other dog is Zubins sister. She was not in the room, did not see what happened and not afraid of the vac or the cord. Having another dog the dog trusts as well, that is not afraid of the object also helps- but keep your attention on the object- not the dogs. She is just basically standing there also interested in what was going on. ( calm standing posture.) You will notice I rarely patted her- keeping my atttention on the vac and the cord.

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The Spotted Devil

The Spotted Devil

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I've used a related trick with a pair of cats from the same home in a boarding cattery....one was absolutely petrified and the other was pretty scared but a little more receptive. I completely ignored the petrified one and focussed on the other cat.....very gently talking to her and petting her around the head (very non threatening for cats). Within a few minutes the cat I was paying attention to started to lap up the cuddles and, within a few more minutes, the previously petrified cat decided it couldn't be too bad if her little friend wasn't scared.....and stuck her head in my arm for a snuggle of her own :D

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