While reassurance is a good thing in most cases, when it comes to an anxious dog, reassurance can be detrimental. As humans we may see the coddling that we give our dogs when they are afraid as a way to show them that they have nothing to worry about, but how does the dog perceive this? Can this coddling eliminate the fears they have?
Building Confidence in Your Anxious Dog Part 2: Control
Just as we tend to do when we are afraid that situation is going to come about that is terrifying, a dog will often try to control their surroundings. This can show up as aggression of any kind, whether it be towards other dogs or towards people.
If you can convince your dogs that they can trust you to be in control of situations while at the same time changing their perspective of the world, you can help build him/her up into the calm, confident dog it wants to be.
Building Confidence in your Anxious Dog Part 1: Avoidance
It may seem like a small thing when your dog runs away from or refuses to get close to something it is afraid of. However, overtime this can lead to fears that cause emotional and mental anxiety.
As owners, it is up to us help keep our dogs balanced by working to show them how to properly associate the things they are afraid of as something they don’t need to be afraid of. If we coddle our dogs, we reward their fears, but if we take time to modify the way they view their world, we can begin to see small victories in how our dogs handle everyday occurrences.
Giving “NO” meaning and Value
Many times we may think that our dogs understand “no” when in reality we have never given the word value or meaning. No is a very valuable key to training, but only if it has consistent value.
Housebreaking
Housebreaking a puppy – or a dog! – is really pretty easy. Just like with all dog training, the key is consistency! The more consistent you are, the faster your puppy will learn to go outside to take care of all of its business. Not only will lack of consistency make housebreaking take longer, it could create bad habits for the puppy like using the bathroom in its bed or crate.