Navigating Fears and Phobias in Working Dogs

Controlled Aggression

In this episode, Jerry Bradshaw discusses:

• Timing the puppy training early and with directed purpose and handling the fear periods in dogs.
• Habituation, spontaneous recovery, sensitization, and learned irrelevance.
• When to reorient and when to address fears.
• Understanding your dog’s phobias to learn how to solve the problem.
• Common fears and phobias seen in police and sport dogs.

Key Takeaways:

• Too many people restrict social and experiential learning in puppies during the critical stages of development out of fear.
• As a decoy, as a handler, as anyone working with a young dog, you need to be attentive to what you’re doing and always be surveying your environment to avoid unintended consequences.
• Avoid creating a problem that doesn’t already exist. Take a systematic approach to expose your dog to everything they need to be exposed to.
• Generally, fear periods are short-lived. Take your dog into more familiar places, more natural spaces, where it’s not going to encounter a lot of things that are going to be super unusual or might provoke a fearful response.

"I have a phobia about creating phobias. I don't want to create a phobia in my dog, because the road is going to be super long to try and systematically desensitize to any type of stimuli that's been created as an avoidance response." — Jerry Bradshaw

Get Jerry's book Controlled Aggression on Amazon.com

Book Reference:

The Decoy Book by William Garrido - amazon.com/Decoy-Book-Collaborations-Some-Industry/dp/B08T6YGWSD

Handbook of Applied Dog Behavior and Training by Stephen R. Lindsay -

amazon.com/Handbook-Applied-Behavior-Training-Vol/dp/0813807549

Excel-erated Learning by Pamela J. Reid -

amazon.com/Excel-erated-Learning-Explaining-plain-English/dp/1888047070

Contact Jerry:

Website: controlledaggressionpodcast.com

Tarheel Canine Training: www.tarheelcanine.com

Youtube: tarheelcanine

Twitter: @tarheelcanine

Instagram: @tarheelk9

Facebook: TarheelCanineTraining

Protection Sports Website: psak9-as.org

Patreon: patreon.com/controlledaggression

Slideshare: Tarheel Canine

Calendly: calendly.com/tarheelcanine

Sponsors:

PSA & American Schutzhund: psak9-as.org

ALM K9 Equipment: almk9equipment.com

Tarheel Canine: tarheelcanine.com

Train Hard, train smart, be safe.

Show notes by Podcastologist Chelsea Taylor-Sturkie

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.