So often, our focus is on what the dog is doing rather than what is going on internally. We’ve talked a lot about body language lately, and now I want to talk about some common “stress triggers”, or stimuli the dog will be exposed to that usually cause a startle or arousal response.
Our puppies get exposed to particular stimuli quite frequently in training, so planning ahead to have some meaningful exposures paired with rewards is a great strategy. Simply exposing the puppy to stimuli may not be an effective way of desensitizing the puppy; in fact, a puppy can just as easily make a negative association with stimuli if it is too overwhelming.
Your goal should be to ensure that the puppy has a positive outcome as often as possible. This is especially important with puppies who have demonstrated some sensitivity (to sounds, crowds, people, etc.). By building up lots of positive associations, you will help to minimize inevitable negative experiences. This is called a conditioned emotional response. You are conditioning the dog to have positive emotions in response to particular stimuli. With this type of conditioning, the delivery of the reward is not dependent on the dog’s behavior. Instead, it is dependent on the presence of a particular stimulus that you are seeking to make positive.
A common example is applause. The sound of applause can be quite jarring for a pup (or even an adult dog). I commonly see pups in a down/stay or otherwise resting. When the applause starts, the pup jumps up and looks around, startled. The puppy is not necessarily frightened, but he is clearly aware of the sudden sound and is trying to sort out how he feels about it. That is a great time to start doling out kibble. I like to give one kibble at a time rather than a handful; that way, I can spread 4 or 5 kibbles over the duration of the applause (instead of one lump reward).
If I had focused on the fact that the puppy got up from the down/stay and wanted him to lie back down before getting the reward, I would be missing a prime opportunity. He didn’t get up because he was distracted or forgot what he was doing. He got up because he was truly startled by the sound of applause. When I see a startle response like that (especially to sudden noise), I am more concerned with the dog’s emotional state rather than their behavior. Giving him a few kibbles, THEN asking him to lie back down will go a long way towards making him more comfortable with applause. As he gets older and more experienced with applause, I can start enforcing the down/stay. But it is especially important to be aware of initial introductions, and to give the puppy the support he needs in order to make future exposures more pleasant. Food is often the easiest way to achieve this. It is also a good check-in: if the dog won’t take food or takes it without really focusing on it, the exposure is probably too intense.
Some other exposures to think about pairing food with:
- Night time walks
- Traffic coming from behind
- Close or especially loud traffic
- Garbage trucks
- Screaming children
- Buses
- Automatic doors
- Shopping carts
- Any sudden loud bang or other sharp noise
- Restraint/nail trims
