The Misuse of Fear

So no shit, there I was….listening to another dog trainer say….  "It looks like this dog is afraid of women, small children, Fridays, white shoes, black shoelaces, dress shoes, brown leather belts, plaid pants, blue jolly balls, a fence, pine cones…” and the list goes on. Perhaps a slight exaggeration, but you know the people I’m talking about. You may have even been one of these people at some point in your life, which is why I want to spend a little bit of time on today’s blog article discussing fear.

I have noticed over the years that many trainers and owners will describe a dog as being fearful. They lump them all into this general category, but often these behavioral issues are being mislabeled and addressed incorrectly. The widespread assumption that fear is simply a conditioned response to cues associated with pain is no longer a viable position. (Panksepp, 1998). I have heard other trainers use the word fear when describing something that happened to the dog, such as "The dog is fearful because of_________" or "The dog is afraid of men because he was abused." Their mentality is that the common source of fear is related to the singular experience of pain, even if this is not the case.  Properly identifying the true issue is very important because we can also assume that if the dog’s behavior is being misdiagnosed then the treatment is likely incorrect as well.

So let’s talk about the fear that is invoked by non-painful stimuli, such as loud noises (think Brick Tamland of Anchorman), quick movements, or isolation which may also elicit fear and support avoidance behaviors? There may or may not have been any threat of pain or any association of a painful situation in regard to a plastic bag blowing in the wind or the trash can that was put out by the curb one morning prior to the dog’s walk, so it is important to recognize the difference.

When I worked at a boarding kennel several years ago, one of the owners (and self proclaimed "trainer") would announce during many of her evaluations and conversations about a dog coming in or one already boarding with us that it was "fearful of men because it was probably abused!" While some dogs do show fear toward male figures due to past painful experiences, I found that conclusion being frequently and erroneously repeated. What I discovered is that when the owner was not around, the dog actually was fine. The dog’s behavior had more to do with the slowness and calmness of my reactions versus my gender as a male. Upon further observations with this particular owner and other dogs, I felt that it was more of a battered woman’s association with male abuse than that of caring for dogs. Taking it even a step further, the kennel owner had cage cards produced stating that we were not allowed to enter a kennel due a particular dog’s “fear of men”. Then it became a dog’s fear of “men with mustaches and dark hair” or “blond hair and clean shaven”. My particular favorite were the cards on dogs fearful of certain “eye colors”….that’s right….eye color!

Luckily in my early years of learning in the dog world, I had enough common sense to know that finding a dog fearful because it barked or showed wariness to something inanimate was really more of a socialization issue (likely an upcoming blog topic). My point is that when you tell a client a dog is fearful, you then set the course for that dog’s life if their human does not understand what “fear” really is to a dog. You are then feeding into the subconscious fears of your client or that of the trainer’s own personal views. If not properly diagnosed, this can greatly affect your dog’s behavior.