When we see our friends or family members feeling fearful, our initial response is to comfort them in order to make the fear go away — however, this tactic doesn’t work for dogs. This is because your pup relates your behavior to whatever it is doing — this is how positive reinforcement training works. In other words, if you want your dog to do something, you reward them or show them affection — but if you were to show them affection while they were feeling fearful, they would learn to continue being fearful and associate it with being a good habit.
The biggest tip to deal with a fearful dog? Leadership! Here’s why.
Affection is a reward.
As mentioned before, affection is a reward — so when you show your dog affection when they are scared, it will not stop them from being scared. You can’t verbally explain to a dog why it shouldn’t be scared, but you can show it through leadership.
Dogs learn by imitating, so if you remain calm or assertive when your dog is fearful, they will eventually learn to mimic that behavior in similar scenarios. Remember, you’re the leader of the pack, so your dog will always be looking to you for guidance.
Dogs have four instincts: fight, flight, avoidance, and surrender.
When a dog is scared or fearful, they will exhibit either avoidance or flight (whether that be actively ignoring whatever is scaring them or running away). While we don’t want to teach our dogs to fight, we want to teach them that fourth instinct: to surrender.
Once again, that calm, assertive energy that comes from being a leader shows your dog that it is okay to surrender. Show them through your energy and actions to surrender and that everything is okay — remember, dogs can’t understand many words.
The worst thing to do when your pup is feeling fearful is to be fearful, too. When you become fearful, your dog could mimic that fear, making the fear worse, or could become extremely aggressive toward the scary thing (whether that’s an object, person, or otherwise).
As a recap, the best thing to do when your dog is fearful is to be that calm, assertive leader. You can’t tell your dog that everything will be okay verbally, but you can show them through your energy and actions! Hope this helps!
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