[Dailydrool] Fear of noisy places

[Pamela McQuade]

Becky:
The responses you described for Watson sound very much like our Horton the
Very Fearful's responses to just about anyone but me. He is very scared of
people, perhaps because he was abused in an earlier life.

I read a lot of books on dealing with fearful dogs once I recognized the
problem with Horton. I'm pretty sure you can find them on the UK Amazon.
But many of the ones I got seem to no longer be available, so I can't
recommend many. Even if I did, they might not be available in the UK! But
I'm sure the issue is as problematic there as it is here, and you should be
able to get advice from behaviorists there. Choose books that are written
by people who will use gentle methods on a dog, since harsh ones will only
make Watson worse.

I tried many things with Horton. The one that worked best was having people
ignore him when they first saw him. Because he is really very cute,
everyone wants to bed over and pet him, when all he asks is to be left
alone. He hides behind me when he is scared. But if people do ignore him,
eventually he becomes friendly--on his own terms. He cannot be rushed, or
he heads back into hiding mode.

You probably need to introduce Watson to people and noisy situations very
slowly, using lots and lots of the tastiest treats. If possible, let him
see the place without the noise and get used to it before you add the
noise. Then, one he is used to the place, instead of going to the noisiest
part of the pub, find a quieter place, perhaps near the door.  Feed him
treats when he seems calm, but not when he is panting, shaking, or showing
other signs of nervousness. If he can only handle noise for a minute, take
him home after that time and return later. You have to introduce him bit by
bit.

That being said, he may never be a social butterfly. Working with Watson
may take a lot of time and energy, but even then he may never accept a lot
of people. If so, let him live within his comfort zone as much as possible.
As you noticed, he may have less stress when he's in the open air, able to
get away from the things that make him scared. This is typical of Horton.
Also be aware that things that are not scary in one place may bring out
fear in another. For example, if you get him used to noise in the pub, he
may still object to it in another place, since dogs often have to
experience things in many places before they realize that it's OK anywhere.

After a while, I took Horton to a behaviorist, but even that has not made
him a social butterfly. He loves me, a neighbor up the street who is also
named Pam, and another friend who has struggled with health issues and
therefore probably doesn't seem much of a threat. But other people are
still a challenge.

I'm hoping Watson recovers much better than Horton has--some people have
much less challenging dogs who have improved to a point where they are
usually happy. Maybe those folks just have more patience than I do.
Pam, food slave to the Dashing Bassets
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