Fear Period At 9 Months?

[raineth]

Just a note - you can't reinforce an emotion only a behaviour. So you can't reward him for feeling scared but you may reward a behaviour that occurs in response to him feeling fearful. Food rewards are a valuable part of changing how an animal feels about its environment.

Feeling scared as you say is a behavior and rewarding that fearful behavior gives the message that being scared is ok.

Only reward dogs when they are relaxed confident and doing the right thing.

I am personally not a fan of constant food rewards.Praise and positive voice / body language speaks volumes to a dog.

Sorry Purdie but feeling scared is not a behaviour. Feeling scared is an emotion. Biting someone (triggered by feeling scared) is a behaviour. I use food rewards extensively with my clients' fearful dogs. If used correctly they are extremely powerful - much more so than praise.

of course it depends on how we define 'emotion', but if it is defined as an 'experience closely linked to the arousal of the nervous system' then I'm pretty sure that I / we can manipulate and reinforce emotions...e.g. when the dog is too close to the object that triggers the fear and cause this arousal we can use distance to manage the level of the arousal and therefore the dogs emotions...conversely if we would ignore the dog's fear and drag the dog behind us, his fear level will become likely so overwhelming that it will cause significant behavior issues that will be even harder to eliminate. ...we can also manipulate / reinforce emotions with drugs, by stimulations of senses, music, food...

According to scientific studies about 'emotions', 'the level of emotional tension is determined by the strength of a need and probability of its satisfaction', and these are parameters that definitely can be manipulated / reinforced.

ETA:...and of course,'feeling scared' is the emotion, not the resulting behavior; the resulting behaviour is ducking for cover, trying to hide, trying to move away from the object that triggers the fear...and that is where the reinforcement training starts: once you managed the emotional state of the dog by increasing the trigger zone to a distance big enough to lower his fear level that allows him to respond to you, you can start with rewarding wanted behaviour, e.g. every step closer to the object that triggers the fear...at the end the dogs learns that e.g. a parked car is no danger and the fear (=emotion) and the unwanted behaviour (ducking for cover, trying to hide...) disappears.

Willem if you are interested in emotion and conditioning then you might want to look up the work of Joseph Ledoux.

[Willem]

What people forget is that every instance of operant conditioning is also an instance of classical conditioning. That is why you can go ahead and feed your dog in the presence of something scary, because the classical conditioning will work to reduce the fear. If you use punishment to try to reduce an undesirable behaviour that is brought about by fear, the problem is you are also conditioning your dog to be more afraid.

However it is always better to have the dog below threshold when you are doing any conditioning.

not necessarily: ...to setup the environment to train a dog in an aroused state is tricky, however, if you can do the training while the dog is in an over-aroused state it can be very effective. E.g.: I train our dog with the flick pole: she is chasing the lure, gets over-aroused, however, it is very easy to control the environment (e.g. you can do it in your garden), timing, speed of the lure etc. etc. I started with 'TAKE-IT' and 'LEAVE-IT' commands and doing it now also with basic obedience commands (drop, recalls, stay...). If you train your dog only in a low aroused state, the dog won't hear you when he gets into an over-aroused state (triggered by a bird, rabbit, other dogs etc.)...the key is the controlled environment...

ETA:...and yes, this Joseph E. LeDoux seems to be an interesting guy...will do more reading..

Edited March 26, 2016 by Willem

[The Spotted Devil]

What people forget is that every instance of operant conditioning is also an instance of classical conditioning. That is why you can go ahead and feed your dog in the presence of something scary, because the classical conditioning will work to reduce the fear. If you use punishment to try to reduce an undesirable behaviour that is brought about by fear, the problem is you are also conditioning your dog to be more afraid.

However it is always better to have the dog below threshold when you are doing any conditioning.

not necessarily: ...to setup the environment to train a dog in an aroused state is tricky, however, if you can do the training while the dog is in an over-aroused state it can be very effective. E.g.: I train our dog with the flick pole: she is chasing the lure, gets over-aroused, however, it is very easy to control the environment (e.g. you can do it in your garden), timing, speed of the lure etc. etc. I started with 'TAKE-IT' and 'LEAVE-IT' commands and doing it now also with basic obedience commands (drop, recalls, stay...). If you train your dog only in a low aroused state, the dog won't hear you when he gets into an over-aroused state (triggered by a bird, rabbit, other dogs etc.)...the key is the controlled environment...

ETA:...and yes, this Joseph E. LeDoux seems to be an interesting guy...will do more reading..

The whole point of having an animal "below threshold" is about having them in an aroused but controlled state. Some arousal is good and necessary for learning. Over arousal is unhelpful.

[Papillon Kisses]

I would not consider this "normal" puppy behaviour. He is suddenly dysfunctional both in and out of his home environment. Fear periods can make a dog a bit jumpy and skittish, even around things they have encountered before, but a few treats and time to investigate at their own pace if relevant should see them through. Being so scared you are constantly looking for the danger and trying to hide is not fun, and nor could it be considered adaptive in any way. I would be suspicious there is something more serious going on and get a VB to see him. It sounds to me like something has happened that has really rattled him deeply. Such a dramatic behaviour change in a short period is cause for concern IMO.

Thank you for weighing in Corvus. :)

Loba, Corvus is an animal behaviourist with a PhD in dog behaviour, emotions and cognition. I would follow her recommendation.

[raineth]

I would not consider this "normal" puppy behaviour. He is suddenly dysfunctional both in and out of his home environment. Fear periods can make a dog a bit jumpy and skittish, even around things they have encountered before, but a few treats and time to investigate at their own pace if relevant should see them through. Being so scared you are constantly looking for the danger and trying to hide is not fun, and nor could it be considered adaptive in any way. I would be suspicious there is something more serious going on and get a VB to see him. It sounds to me like something has happened that has really rattled him deeply. Such a dramatic behaviour change in a short period is cause for concern IMO.

Thank you for weighing in Corvus. :)

Loba, Corvus is an animal behaviourist with a PhD in dog behaviour, emotions and cognition. I would follow her recommendation.

Yes, I absolutely agree!