Dogs may become fearful or have a strong emotional reaction to loud noises such as thunderstorms, fireworks, or garbage trucks. Some dogs fear being alone, while others become reactive when confined.
Different dogs have different temperaments and will react differently to various stimuli. Shy dogs may escape or run away at the first sign of trouble, while more confident dogs may decide to stay and fight. A naturally confident dog will recover from new and fearful experiences much faster than a naturally shy dog.
Young dogs tend to be more open to new experiences, and bounce back more quickly. This is why we want to socialize our dogs to many positive new experiences when they are young, so that they will grow up to be a confident and balanced adult dog.
However, we can train any dog to better handle stress or fear, and become more confident. All it takes is time, patience, and a lot of repetition. One of the best ways to calm a fearful or reactive dog is through the desensitization process.
Dog Desensitization – A Good Way to Calm a Dog
The desensitization process works by initially exposing a dog to very low levels of the problem stimulus. Once the dog becomes accustomed to the low level stimulus, we very slowly increase its intensity. Over time, our dog will learn to tolerate and be calm at even higher levels of the reactive stimulus.
Patience is key because we do not want to raise the stimulus potency too quickly and cause our dogs to lose control. Frequent loss of control (from fear or over-excitement) will not only set back our desensitization work, but also make our dog mistrust us, and become even more reactive.
Dog desensitization exercises are commonly combined with counter-conditioning techniques.
In addition to getting our dog calm and comfortable with the problem stimulus (desensitization), we also help him re-associate a previously negative stimulus with something positive (counter-conditioning).
Counter conditioning is achieved by engaging our dog in focus/eye-contact training and other simple dog obedience commands (e.g. Sit) during the desensitization process. When our dog stays calm and follows our commands we reward him well with affection and his favorite treats. In this way our dog learns to re-associate the ‘bad’ stimulus with calmness, yummy treats, and affection from us.
Note – We only reward good behaviors, i.e. our dog following commands and staying calm. Do not give treats or affection to your dog when he loses control, or when he is showing fear symptoms. If you do this with the wrong energy or technique, it will only encourage his reactivity and fears. Instead, just remove him to a quiet area where he can calm down on his own.
Calm a Dog to Noise
For a dog that is fearful or over-excited of loud noises such as fireworks or thunderstorms, the trigger stimulus is the noise. Therefore, our noise desensitization session would go something like this –
- We get a recording of fireworks or a thunderstorm and then play it (in loop mode) on our stereo at a very low volume. Make sure that the initial volume is low enough that our dog is able to stay calm.
- We engage our dog in focus and obedience exercises while the recording is playing and reward him well for staying calm and following commands.
- If everything is well, we increase the volume of our recording slightly and repeat step 2.
- If our dog stops accepting treats, or is no longer able to focus then we have moved forward too quickly. At this point we want to lower our volume by a few notches. Once our dog is calm again, we can repeat step 2.
- It is important to keep desensitization sessions short, positive, and rewarding. In this way, our dog will start to associate fireworks and thunderstorms with positive experiences rather than something that is threatening and stressful.
Calm a Dog to People
Dogs may also become anxious or over-excited when people come into their space and pet or hug them. Dogs are not humans, and they do not have the same communication cues as we do. When meeting a new dog, especially a shy dog, it is best to first ignore the dog and let him approach us.
We can help our dog become less fearful of people by desensitizing him using distance, focus, and rewards –
- Ask a friend to sit under a tree in our backyard and read a book.
- Meanwhile, we have our dog on-leash and stand far enough away from our friend that our dog is calm and relaxed.
- We get our dog’s focus and do some simple obedience exercises. He gets rewarded for staying calm and working together with us.
- If all is well, we move one step toward our friend and repeat step 3.
- It is important that our friend totally ignores the dog, which means no talking and no eye-contact. Eye-contact can be seen as an invitation to interact, or as a threat, especially by a shy dog. Either way, it can trigger an excited or fearful response.
As always, we want to keep desensitization sessions short, fun, and rewarding. In this way, our dog will learn to re-associate people with calmness and positive experiences.
- After several sessions, we may get close enough to our friend that she can throw some high priority treats to our dog. However, it is still important not to initiate eye-contact.
- If our dog is calm and does not have a bite history, we can let him come over and sniff our friend (still no eye-contact).
- Once our dog is comfortable with the scent of our friend and is calm, then we can bring her back a few paces and repeat the desensitization exercise with brief periods of eye contact.
In later stages we can repeat the desensitization process for –
- A person who is moving slowly.
- A person wearing unusually clothing, big hats, or carrying an umbrella.
- A person on a skateboard or bicycle.
- A person who is talking softly.
- A person who is talking in a high-pitched tone.
- A threatening person who is talking loudly.
The more things we desensitize our dog to, the more confident he will become and the more prepared he will be to handle new experiences.
However, patience is extremely important. The key to the desensitization process is to help dogs re-associate previously stressful or highly emotional situations with something calm and positive. Going too fast can scare our dog and cause him to become even more reactive of people.
Calm a Dog to Confinement
Some dogs may get reactive when they are first confined in a crate. Confinement can be stressful because the dog loses his ability to escape if a threat should arise.
Before confining a dog in a crate for any length of time, it is best to first get the dog calm and desensitized to the crate.
- We start by showing the crate to our dog and letting him smell and examine it.
- Next we put some food near the entrance of the crate and let our dog step in to eat it.
- When he is comfortable with that, we throw some food deeper into the crate.
- We continue until our dog is cheerfully going into the crate on his own. At this point, make sure to leave the crate door open so our dog can move into and out of the crate freely.
- Once our dog is calmly moving into and out of the crate, we can close the door briefly. Wait one second, and then open the door again.
Finally, we slowly lengthen the time that our dog spends in the crate.
Desensitization vs. Flooding
In addition to desensitization, there is another technique called flooding that can also be used to deal with dog anxieties and fears.
With desensitization we expose a dog slowly to low amounts of the fear stimulus. We get the dog comfortable with the low level stimulus, then gradually train him to accept greater levels.
Flooding, on the other hand, exposes a dog to large amounts of the fear stimulus right away. The dog is then forced to experience the fear stimulus until he calms down.
Like us, a dog’s body can only keep pumping adrenalin for a fixed amount of time, i.e. there is a time limit to a dog’s fear response or panic attack. Theoretically, both human and dog will calm down after some time, realize that there is nothing to fear, and start to associate that new feeling of ease with the previously fearful stimulus.
Flooding may be faster than the desensitization process, but it is risky, more traumatic, and may cause the dog to just shut down and stop responding.
Flooding is a psychotherapeutic method for overcoming phobias. This is a faster, yet less efficient and more traumatic, method of ridding fears when compared with systematic desensitization.
~~[Wikipedia]
For this reason, most animal behaviorists recommend using desensitization and counter conditioning methods to treat dog anxieties and fears. Desensitization may take more patience and more time, but it is safer, the results are long-lasting, and it helps to build a strong bond between us and our dog that is based on trust and respect.
The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it.
~~[Arnold H. Glasgow]
Hi there! My Labrador is nearly 7 and is getting more and more anxious when we are out walking. This is happening in places we have visited many many times and is usually sound related (children playing, footballers…) It’s particularly bad when we stop for a cuppa, this may be at a cafe or just on a bench His tail drops and he starts to shake violently. Occasionally he will run off which is very frightening. I am worried that this will get worse and worse until there will be no where we can walk without this display of fear! I don’t know whether to keep visiting these place when it’s quiet (this involves forcing him to go) or to avoid them for a while then gradually reintroduce. I would welcome your advice. Many thanks. Rachel and Henry dog.
Did his anxious behavior start suddenly or has he always been anxious and it has gradually gotten worse?
To help my dog with anxiety, I first try to identify the source of his anxiety, as accurately as possible. Sudden changes in behavior can sometimes also be the result of physical pain or some physical impairment (hearing, vision, etc.). I rule those out first.
Once I am sure that the anxiety is environment based, then I try to identify exactly what triggers the anxious behavior. Is it noise, smell, moving objects, large objects, or something else. If it is noise, I try to identify exactly what sorts of noise triggers the behavior. Is it high pitched children screaming, sound of traffic, lots of voices, dogs barking, etc.
After I identify the anxiety triggers I *very slowly* desensitize my dog to those triggers. For example, if it is a certain sound, then I start by making a recording of that sound. Then I play it at very low volume while at home, in a safe, structured, and controlled environment. I want to start with a very weak version of the stimulus (very soft volume) so that my dog it able to tolerate it while staying calm and in control. Then, I can reward my dog for staying calm in the presence of the scary stimulus (very weak version). I talk more about noise desensitization in the article above.
By starting small, my dog doesn’t go into panic mode and is able to listen and learn. It also allows me to keep sessions positive, and help my dog re-associate the scary stimulus with being calm and positive rewards. The more successful and positive experiences my dog has, the more confidence he builds, and then I can *very slowly* increase the strength of the scary stimulus as his tolerance increases. Similarly, my dog loses confidence and becomes more fearful the more negative experiences he has. Therefore, I only expose him to things slowly, when I am very sure that he is ready for it.
Hope this helps. Big hugs to Henry!
Hi, I have a puppy that was flown to me from VA to FL. She was very fearful. When I asked the breeder she blamed it on the flight having two aggressive dogs crated beside her in the plane. I think it’s just either her mom was timid and passed it to the pup or she wasn’t exposed to anyone or anything until I got her at 3 months old. She’s a King shepherd. I’m overcoming 1-shepherd (owner protective) 2-Malamute (does not care about people in general) 3-Great Pyranees (owner protective).
I have a 5yo Shepherd also. He has never shown any fears. He greets people fine and the puppy backs off. I have been asking people to pet her on our daily morning walks, I hold her and lead her forward or hold her. They are the same people every day and she’s getting over her shyness little by little- I’m desensitizing her and they give her a treat or sometimes I do with praise. No one else around here understands this concept (desensitizing). They think the puppy should approach people on her own. That would never happen in her lifetime if I allowed her to decide.
I wonder if you consider this: The pup shows shyness, people don’t work it out by praise/treats and a little force, so they allow the pup to approach on her own and it takes years to overcome. I believe this is a form of dominance on the pup’s part. The pup figures if I behave this way, everyone will leave me alone. She wins. I’m the dominant one not her so I ask her to behave how I expect her to. She is complying. Do you see it as a form of dominance? She is very dominant with my 5yo male. She’s also very very smart.
I am somewhat afraid of heights. Therefore, I do not go up tall buildings and look down. Some people like that stuff, but I don’t, so I don’t do it. If someone were to try and force me up, and then force me to look down, I would probably be resisting most of the way. This is not dominance, it is fear. I am not trying to boss around the other person. On the contrary, instinct is just kicking in and telling me to run, because I am not ready yet.
There are two main approaches for dealing with fears or phobias – desensitization/counter-conditioning and flooding.
With desensitization, we always start with a very weak version of the problem stimulus and then *very slowly* work our way up. For example, when desensitizing my dog to people, I use distance to weaken the “people” stimulus. I have my dog on-lead and we stand far enough away, that my dog is still able to remain calm and listen to me. Then I get my dog’s attention, we do some simple commands and focus exercises, and I reward him very very well for it. If he is relaxed and very comfortable with this, I move one step closer and we repeat the exercise. I go at a pace that my dog is comfortable with, and I keep sessions short and positive. In this way, my dog will be successful, and each success will help him build confidence.
With flooding, we force a dog to experience high levels of the stressful stimulus until he shuts down or relaxes (“snaps out of it”).
Because of the high risk and intense stress involved with flooding, I only use desensitization techniques with my dogs.
Yes, I believe that sometimes dogs *do* show dominant behavior. However, most of my dog’s bad behavior stems from mis-communication or fear rather than from dominance.
http://shibashake.com/dog/dominance-bad-dog-behavior
Dogs and winning.
Hey, I’m interested in talking to you in private, could you please send me an email and I will tell you? Is related to your articles, a proposal… I hope you can see my email. Ask me for it here if you can’t.
Thank you very much.
Ana
If you need to send me a private message, you can do so here-
http://shibashake.hubpages.com/_srec/#email
I love this site, great work 🙂 It was one of the main sources of information I churned over for weeks before deciding to get a sibe of my own. I picked him up at 12 weeks old, he’s a bit over 5 months now and it’s been great, he learnt to sit basically right from the first walk, housebroken after the first couple of nights, he’s silent except when he’s talking to you, it’s great. I was really hesitant at first about how much of a handful they can be, but so far it’s turned out to not be the case at all.
I take him walking down on the esplanade a lot, which frequently has lots of other people and dogs. He does pull a little, but it’s not a “sore arm by the end of the walk” kind of pull, he’s just curious and loves chasing bugs on the pathway.
The only issue I’m having with him so far is that he’s easily overexcited/scared of other dogs and people. If they’re just walking past us, he’s fine with it, but if they’re running/on a bike etc, he tends to freak out a bit, and pull on his lead sideways trying to get off the path. If he gets too freaked out, he tends to just try running in circles on his lead and just generally freaks himself out even more.
My strategies to try solve this so far is to basically try and ignore him and just keep walking, however when he starts running in circles, it’s difficult avoiding stepping on him. In this case I’ll stop, and basically wait till he stops and sits down before we start again.
This isn’t really the main issue though, but more he gets overexcited if he gets to meet new people/dogs. Mainly with other dogs, he’ll try jumping up on them, and just doing puppy things in general. I get worried that the other dog will lash out (if puppy nips them or something), so I try and keep him away from them, which I feel doesn’t help with socialization. However when it comes to people, he just gets a bit overbearing, and will try jump up and give them a hug, which in fairness does turn people off a bit. He’s a beautiful pup and I’d like people to be able to pat him without fear of him jumping/mouthing at them, but I’m not sure how to go about correcting this. I live by myself so I don’t really have any nearby family members to train with.
He’s very calm and sweet around people he’s familiar with, but just gets the feeling everything else is out to kill him.
He’s kind of an odd looking sibe in terms of his markings, and also has pretty oversized ears (although he seems to be growing into them now), but he’s awesome 😀
I’ve got a collection of pics on my site if you want to see him 🙂
http://www.nqlasers.com/loki/
Thanks for sharing your puppy pictures. Loki is absolutely adorable. Love the pictures where he is standing in the water bowls! Looks like he really enjoys the water? The tongue one is also too precious. Big hugs to Loki!!
Haha that is precious, and so like a Sibe!
My youngest Husky, Lara, was also a bit fearful of bicycles and people on skateboards when she was young. If we see those during our walks, I would try to use distance to weaken the stimulus, and/or walk behind barriers. Then I engage her in doing focus commands with me. I try to get her to stay calm so she learns that the bicycles always just pass-by and nothing bad ever happens. Successful experiences help her to gain confidence, so now, she is less afraid of those strange people contraptions. 😀 Desensitization exercises can also help.
With socialization, I did puppy classes and small supervised play-groups with my first two dogs, and it was very helpful for them. We skipped with Lara because we thought she already has two great playmates at home, but as a result, she now gets over-excited with other dogs. When there are too many dogs, she gets a bit fearful and does not really join in. When there are very few dogs she gets over-excited and comes off too strong.
She calms down after a bit, but next puppy I am definitely going back to doing puppy class.
The thing that I like about a good puppy class (one that is focused on socialization) is that the instructor teaches everyone how to meet the puppy properly and not to reward jumping behavior with attention. We also had many short play sessions where we manage our puppy’s excitement level, and reward her with good behavior by giving her more play. We had a good experience, and it provided both Sephy and Shania with a good socialization base. Might be something worth considering.
Haha, Lara also has big ears. I love them. It makes her look like a perpetual puppy and she acts like one too.
Yeah, I love Sibes. Super awesome! 😀
in the last three Weeks my ten year old dog has started whining and crying for hours after my husband has left for work he is on nights I am with her she is hardly ever left alone she is inconsolable I am pulling my hair out as I am not well at the minute what can I do usually she is superbly behaved
Have there been other changes in behavior? Does she only cry when your husband is not around? Does she show the same behavior if your husband leaves during the day? Did anything unusual happen when the behavior started?
When was her last vet visit? How is her physical health?
Have a resuced mix Shiba Inu. h eis showing signs of aggression or fear over
large dogs. We have bonded in less than a month. He will sit, stay come,
down and not bark on command. Would like a second dog for him to bond with
but fill it is too early. This dog never had a chance to be a puppy.
That makes a lot of sense. After getting Shiba Sephy, I waited one year before getting a second dog. This gave me the time to bond with Sephy, gain his trust, and help him overcome some of his fear and over-excitement triggers.
My Shiba was also reactive toward other dogs when he was young. Dog-to-dog desensitization exercises helped with his reactivity issues-
http://shibashake.com/dog/dog-to-dog-aggression#desensitize
Hi
I love your blog and all your great articles, they have really helped with my puppy who is now 9 months. I was wondering if you could help me with one particular matter though, as I seem to be completely at a loss as to what to do. My dog is a husky and Czechoslovakian wolf dog mix, and his previous owners were violent towards him. So obviously he is very timid and afraid of people, but has shown an immense amount of improvement with the desensitisation work that we have been doing every day on our walks. He gets about 4-6 hours exercise everyday, and he seems quite content with that amount, no howling or bad behaviour inside. However when we come to a scary place he goes into flee mode, and starts pulling the leash like crazy, and we leave to a quieter place to calm him down, and try a less scary place instead. Now however he has started incorporating that yanking and pulling to his normal walking, so before he walked fine on a leash, but now he has started pulling and yanking the leash in different directions where he wants to go. I stop every time, but to me it seems it only gets worse, as if there is for example a man carrying something he will automatically flee, and therefore he now thinks its ok to also pull when he wants something else. So my question is what to do with this, as its starting to be impossible to walk him as he yanks so much and no amount of stopping is working. So my question is whether I should just concentrate on the desensitisation first, and then practice leash walking. Should I overlook the bad behaviour on the leash when he is overcoming his fears, or should we just stop it and concentrate on leash walking. I would be ever so grateful if you could help, as our local trainer only told me that my dog is disobedient, whereas I think he only needs proper guidance.
My Husky Lara was afraid of people on skateboards and bicycles when she was young. During the desensitization period, I still leash walked her, but only in very quiet areas where there are very few people. In this way, we almost never come across skateboards and bicycles during our walks, so I can just focus on leash training during walks. Then during desensitization, I can slowly get her comfortable with skateboards and such in a controlled environment.
If I spot any skateboards or bicycles during walks, I try to stay very calm and just go in a different direction. As long as I catch things early enough (the skateboard is far enough away), then Lara is ok and we have a successful walk. In the beginning, I find that it is especially important to maximize successes, while at the same time minimizing instances where Lara goes into panic/flee mode.
If I don’t catch things fast enough, and Lara does go into panic mode out of fear, then I try to find a quiet corner as soon as possible, usually inside a driveway, and we go behind a car which helps to provide a good barrier.
With Lara, I first did leash training in the backyard, which is very safe and low stimulus. Then we always do door manners, and we do not leave until she is calm. Also, it was helpful for me at the start to do shorter but more frequent walks. This kept us both from getting too frustrated. It also kept us closer to the house, where Lara is more confident and relaxed.
Big hugs to your puppy. He sounds very adorable. I would love to see some pictures, so if you have any online, please post us a link. 😀
Thank you so much for your quick reply. I will start taking him on shorter walks and training him to walk on the leash! Today he refused to walk through our front door when we came back from our walk. I tried sweets, toys, and cheering whilst sitting down, but nothing helped, as people were coming in and out all the time, and he got spooked every time he saw a person approaching. Its strange as this has never before been a problem, he has happily gone in and out, but now he is point blank refusing! Its -18 here and I tried for 50 minutes but nothing helped, and in the end I had to call a friend to help me carry him inside. You wouldn’t have encountered this kind of problem with any dogs? I am afraid that I don’t have any pictures up online of him, he is a very beautiful dog, and would love to send some pictures! And thank you again for your help!
My Huskies do the same thing at the vet’s office. We have to carry them inside. With my Huskies, it is a fear reaction towards the vet and the poking and prodding that they have to go through in the vet’s office. They also pick up on the energy of the people and animals around them, so if there is a lot of surrounding stressful energy, they will very quickly become anxious themselves.
In the people desensitization section of the article above, I talk a bit more about how I desensitized my dog towards people.
Thank you again for answering! We are currently jogging inside, and this seems to help a lot! Keep up the great work, your blog has really helped us a lot!
Hi there! I have spent a lot of time on your site and read most of your articles but I have kind of a unique situation I was wondering if you could give some input on. About 8 months ago I moved into a shared house (I rent a room) with my landlord, and one other dog. This dog is a big sort of ‘doofus’ lab with no self control when it comes to food, attention, etc. From the day I got my male shiba I had never stopped socializing him, desensitizing him to other dogs, making him share his toys and treats etc. He was a happy camper when we moved in and he had a new ‘friend’ to play with, and was very respectful and eager to share (he would bring his toys down the my landlord’s dog, despite many of them getting destroyed). Over the course of our first three months living here this other dog became more and more persistent at toy stealing, treat stealing, bone stealing, etc. until one day (and I remember vividly!) I was treating them both, had them both sit, pulled out a biscuit for the larger dog first, gave it to him, pulled out a biscuit for my dog, had it snapped out of my hand by this other dog. I tried two more times, both losing the biscuit, before my Shiba just ‘snapped’ and went after him. This behavior had never happened before this moment. Since then, this behavior has grown into a full blown paranoia and need to protect EVERYTHING including my room, the fridge, anywhere my boy could potentially receive food from. This has resulted in my landlord demonizing my dog and me having to keep him severely restricted to my room, and a small fenced area of the backyard. Would you call this a reactive behavior? How would I begin to work on it when there is no guarantee the other dog won’t continue to behave the way he does? We really would like not to have to move but it has reached the point where I have to walk him around the house on a leash and do not know what will set him off.
Hello Mary,
What has worked well for my dogs is to have a consistent set of house rules and play rules. All my dogs have to follow the rules, and if they do not, I will enforce the rules in a consistent way for all of them. Otherwise, they will learn that it is sometimes ok not to follow the rules, or that since the other dog doesn’t do it, I don’t have to do it either.
If there are any conflicts, for example, over food or toys, then I resolve the issue in a fair and consistent manner. Here is more on what I do to help my dogs get along. There is also a part in there about stealing.
When I first got my Shiba, I organized small (usually one-on-one) playgroups with one of my neighbor’s dogs (Kai). Kai is a playful and wonderful dog, but sometimes, she will make mistakes as well. Since I am the one usually supervising their play session, I got permission from my neighbor to correct/train her dog if necessary. I do not use pain or physical dominance techniques, so the worst the dogs get is a timeout, and I try to do that as little as possible. Usually, temporarily stopping the play session, and having fun play breaks, is sufficient to control their excitement level and ensure that they “play nice”.
However, it was still important that all the dogs present follow the same play rules and house rules.
Hello,
I was hoping you could help me with my 8year old Husky Gwen; I had gotten her from a lady that had saved her from a very bad home with the rest of her siblings, but she found that she just couldn’t make any progress with her. The lady had told me that she was the alpha of her pack. I have had her for a little over a year and a half and have been trying to desensitize her towards other dogs with no luck. She gets daily 4-5+ mile walks with playing sessions in between, but on our walks if she incounters another dog she instantly starts pulling on her harness like crazy, snapping at the other dog, and whining. This kind of behavior starts as soon as she sees the dog from 10+ feet away and usually continues until we have passed the dog. I have been trying the “ignore and go around” training that you suggest but she just gets so incredibly worked up no matter how much gerth we give the other dog. In typical Siberian husky fashion, she ignores all treats(even high reward treats) when I try to reward her for being good. Any tips for where I should go from here? I’m certainly not giving up on her I love her death! But is there anything I could do to ease her agitation? Or is this just really what having an alpha is like? Thanks for any advice!
How is she in terms of following rules while at home? Does she walk well when there are no dogs around?
Some things that helped with my dogs –
1. Dog-to-dog desensitization exercises really helped with my Shiba Inu.
The problem with regular real-world encounters is that the “other dog” stimulus is usually too strong, because we have no control over the other dog and no control over the environment. With desensitization exercises, we practiced meeting other dogs in a structured, controlled environment, so that Sephy can be calm enough to learn. It also helped him to re-associate other dogs with calmness and positive events.
http://shibashake.com/dog/dog-to-dog-aggression#desensitize
2. Head-halti
I temporarily used a head-halti on one of my Sibes for more challenging (higher excitement) walks at the park. It allowed me to properly manage her, so that she did not start pulling like crazy when she got over-excited. I observed that the more she practiced her crazy behavior, the more likely she was to repeat it in the future. Therefore, I tried to maximize successful structured encounters, while at the same time minimizing encounters where she practiced over-excited behaviors. As with any piece of equipment tho, it has its pros and cons.
http://shibashake.com/dog/dog-leash-training-equipment#halti
3. Play sessions
My dogs burn a lot of energy while playing with each other and with other friendly dogs. I do highly supervised, small play groups with my Shiba to help him drain energy. After a supervised vigorous session, he is much better during walks.
Both my Huskies have pretty submissive temperaments. However, they have high prey drive and will pull hard when over-excited. I manage their pulling by managing their excitement level. More on dog dominance and bad behaviors.
Hope this helps. Big hugs to Gwen! I am glad that she has found such a good forever home. 😀
hi this the first time I read your column very helpful I have a mixed pit short and long very cute but he gets bore I guest cause he eats at everything in my how can I stop this my husband want to get rid of him but have falling in love with him I’m just a dog lover, what can I do to stop him from chewing on everything he’s only 13 month
What is the surrounding context when he chews up everything? Is he alone in the house? How long have you had him? When did this behavior start? What is his routine like? What activities does he do?
Dog behavior is very dependent on context. When I try to change my dog’s behavior, I first try to understand the source of the behavior, e.g. whether it is from stress, boredom, frustration, or something else. Once I understand that, then I can come up with better strategies for managing, redirecting, or retraining the behavior.