Home > Dog behaviour > Anxiety > Fear of specific things

A dog may have a fear of certain sounds such as sirens or thunder. It is important that you do not reward this fear by picking up a small dog and cuddling it or by running after a bolting dog and joining it in its hiding place. The small dog will learn that showing fear is rewarded by a hug and the large dog will assume that the noise terrified you too. When a dog is frightened by a sudden noise, you should pretend to be filled with happy excitement. Smile, hop up and down, say “Wow. Wasn’t that a good one?” and go on and on until you get a happy response from the dog. This will happen if you put enough happiness in your tone of voice. It might help if you imagine you are watching fireworks with children.

To reduce the reaction to the sound itself, make a recording in which the sound occurs time and time again with a small break between each sound. For thunder, a roll of drums, repeated several times, is a good substitute, or you could crinkle a thin aluminium pie plate. After recording the sound play it back once to the dog at normal volume to make sure it startles the dog. Play this recording at very low intensity before a pleasurable activity. Draw the dog's attention to it and immediately follow the sound with "Now we can go for a walk" or "give you your dinner". With time, slowly increase the volume of the sound. If the dog shows fear you have increased the sound too quickly. Reduce the sound, then increase it slowly until it is at least as loud as the original sound and the dog shows pleasure on hearing it.

2) Fear of nail clipping.

Dogs that have been accidentally hurt by nail clipping have good reason to fear the process. With this and other specific fears you should break the fear down into its components. The dog is afraid when it sees the clippers in your hand, when you pick up a paw while holding the clippers in the other hand, when the clippers touch the paw, when the clippers are opened and shut against one claw and finally against all claws.

You take these fears and work to eliminate all fear of the first before you go on to the second and so on. The method is the same for each stage. Tell the dog what you are going to do "let's play the clipper game" and then, in the first stage, open your hand to show the clippers, immediately praising the dog as you give it a treat with the other hand. Repeat many times. For the second stage, you show the clippers but pick up a paw before giving the treat. When the dog is ready, go to the third stage and so on.

Up to this point, you have only pretended to clip the claws. If the dog is relaxed, take the thinnest possible slice from one claw, then stop and praise. Sometime later, do the same for another claw until all have been done. You can slowly increase the number of claws done in one session but stop before the dog shows fear.

It took one month, using this method, to change a dog hysterically afraid of nail clipping into one who came and put a paw in my lap when I suggested we played the game.

3) Fear of particular types of people.

Again, break the fear into its component; the height, weight, clothing, voice and actions of the type of people feared. For example, a dog who feared all children because some children had thrown stones at it and poked it with sticks, also feared short adults and women with high voices. By leaving balls and sticks round the house, the dog lost its fear of these objects so playing children no longer frightened it. It was also taught to play games such as hide and seek with its owner so these games could later be played with children.

At this stage, two children were told to move very slowly and have deep voices (to pretend they were Martians). They took turns hiding in the house with a treat held away from them on the far edge of a paper plate. An adult stood by to grab the dog if necessary. The child called the dog in a deep voice. As this was a game that the dog enjoyed he accepted the children. It was later repeated equally successfully outdoors with the children behind trees. This allowed the dog to discover that only certain children were to be feared and others could be as much his friend as adults.

If items of clothing are feared, such as baseball caps, the owner should leave these around the house until the dog ignores them. At that point the owner should put on the cap before feeding or walking the dog. Finally, the owner should leave the dog at home or in the front yard and when at a distance, put on the cap and walk home. From a distance the dog will see the cap but may not recognise the owner. If it starts to make a fuss it is going to feel very silly when it realises its mistake. This should not be done until the dog is used to the owner wearing the cap in the house.

4) Fear of being crated

If the dog has been put in the crate with kind words and perhaps a treat and has not been left so long that it becomes thirsty, hungry or needs to relieve itself, the fear is probably due to another cause, not the crate itself.

Using the crate as punishment for bad behaviour will associate it in the dog’s mind with the fear it felt when it was shouted at and dragged to the crate.

Another reason dogs can become abnormally upset when crated is if they are so closely bonded to their owner that they suffer separation anxiety. This has to be treated separately.

To remove the fear of crates will take time. All crating by force has to stop and if the dog has to be confined while you are out of the house, place the dog in a small room such as a bathroom with the crate without its door. Try to change the appearance of the crate with new bedding and perhaps a cover. Do not provide other bedding in the room so the only comfortable place to lie is in the crate. When home, with a very cheerful voice get the dog to follow you to the crate and toss treats inside. Praise when these are taken. Although you are not longer using the crate to restrain the dog, if he has lost his fear of it, you can use it on rare occasions such as when travelling.