calming frightened dog

[brok]

This is going to sound cheesy... but does anyone where watch the Dog Whisperer.

At of the behavior problems you are all talking about... are addressed in his show.

If your dog is scared of the wind, that shows he's an insecure dog. You cannot feed into that insecurity. Meaning: When he's being scare of the wind, you have to ignore him. Do not pick him up, pet him, talk to him, nothing. When you reinforce his insecurity, he keeps doing it. Yes, you will have some sleepness nights so he gets trained... but you are not sleeping as it is.

As for the aggressive dogs... you have to catch them the minute they start to get aggressive and make a "shush" noise. Ceasar will typically also poke some fingers into their neck (like another dog would) or give them a slight foot nudge on the hind quarters. You aren't being volient... just redirecting their focus.

Anyone with a dog should watch the show... it's really amazing how he rehabilitates dogs. Really teaches you how to be the pack leader of your dog(s).

I'm a huge Dog Whisperer fan And, I have tried his techniques with my dogs. Timing is very critical, so that they understand what behavior you want the to stop. Anyway, I would also recommed readomg his books. And definitely ignore the dog rather than try to pamper him by playing into his insecurity. Good Luck

[Pedal Wench]

My Mastiff was terrified during thunderstorms. The only cure was to stroke her belly and sing "The Circle Game." That's what I sang while the doctors took her away too. It always seemed to calm her when she, or I, was scared.

[bmccasland]

Seems to me, that taking dog for regular walks, even on windy days, and not playing into the insecurity (Dog Whisperer stuff) is a start. There's probably a chapter or two in one of his books.

But also having a secure quiet place is also a good thing.

Dogs do feed off your energy, so make sure you're calm and collected too. My Nala never experienced fireworks or thunderstorms until we moved here - and doesn't like either. Will try to scratch her way through the back door to get in, but once inside, she's fine. A loud *crack* will jerk her head up, and she may go look out the window, but she's calm. If she does start getting anxious, I tell her in a strong voice to "go lie down." A little bit later, I'll call her to me for love and attention, but it's on my terms, not her's.

[GLC1968]

We also are fans of Cesar Milan. He definitely advocates that you don't want to increase anxiety by being anxious yourself, trying to be 'soothing' etc...it just reinforces the bad reaction. BUT, just ignoring the dog won't help either if its a pre-existing fear often common to rescue dogs.

I do think you want to teach the dog to ignore the thing that is causing the fear. Playing during a windy time (inside where it's most noisy, in particular) is a good idea. It's helping the dog learn to associate something good with those sounds. We have a rescue that is terrified of many inanimate objects. Luckily, weather doesn't seem to affect her. She's afraid of the vacuum (even when it's not in use), the floor pump (again, even when not in use), a few plastic things in the kitchen (a chopper, a certain cutting board, etc.) We can't find rhyme or reason to her fears, but we are working on them all the time. For the vacuum, we've taken to leaving it in the room with us while we are doing something else with her like playing a game, training, feeding, etc. She's getting better with having it around now. She used to be terrified of our bikes, until we started using them to take her for fast runs around the block. She LOVED that, and now doesn't fear the bikes anymore.

Basically, try to replace bad associations with good ones. And when you do it, do it with calm assertiveness. It works, but you do have to be very consistent and on top of it.

Good luck!

[mimitabby]

my friend who is a dog trainer said:

One thing that might have happened is that the dog is being reinforced for
the wind behavior for the last 7 months. I can't tell from her description
what she has been doing when the behavior is happening. I'd like more
specific information.

She might try rescue remedy. The problem with using it is you have to
give it about 45 minutes BEFORE the event happens or it has no effect. Also
in my experience some dogs and people are not affected by it. I use it on
myself before obedience dog show performances (one reason of many why I
know longer do obedience, no fun) and sometimes it helped but it was less
effective the more I used it on myself. Another thing she might try is a
body wrap for the dog. She can google canine body wraps and find out more
info. I've known people how have used the wrap for thunder phobia dogs with
some success. Another thing to look at is using melatonin. It's been quite
effective with thunder phobic dogs especially in combination with the wrap.
What breed or combination of breeds is the dog? This could also play into
the wind problem. For instance Border Collies are sound insensitive many
times, it's inherited running in some blood lines and not others. If this
dog is upset by 15mph winds, which is not much, there's something going on.
Has she tried crating the dog before the winds kick up? Having the dog in a
secure room as far inside the house as possible to lessen the sound of it
blowing. Also white noise like the TV on.I need to know what she's tried.

Mari

[TsPoet]

my friend who is a dog trainer said:

One thing that might have happened is that the dog is being reinforced for
the wind behavior for the last 7 months. I can't tell from her description
what she has been doing when the behavior is happening. I'd like more
specific information.Mari

Wow, thanks for asking on my behalf.
Finn is a basenji-corgi cross. She's ~2 and was housed outside under a tree in a small (2x3 ft) wire mesh kennel for several months before I adopted her. She had the audacity to get pregnant and her former owner didn't want her running loose so it wouldn't happen again (I've figured out other ways to make sure she doesn't get pregnant again, but we won't go there ).
The only dog experience I have is with my extremely fear aggressive mutt (in my avatar), Being inexperienced when I adopted him I didn't realize how bad he was - even though several people (including a trainer I hired to help me and my vet) told me he needed to be put to sleep. I’ve come a long way with him and he no longer “needs” to be put to sleep, but he still can’t be trusted around anything or anyone that might make him nervous (which is pretty much anything or anyone). But I digress. But, I know not to tell her fear is 'OK'.
When she gets scared she either runs around in circles or she tries desperately to get as close to me as she can, but will only sit a minute or two before having to run around and cry. Then she returns and tries to crawl into me, then runs around and cries... all night long. I've been mostly 'ignoring' this behavior except for trying to get her to lie down and sleep when she lies down.
I don’t know the cause of her fear. We very rarely get thunder here. She is, however, very afraid of noises in general. When a crowd applauded, and Finn jumped from my feet to the top of my head (I was seated) and tried to recreate a scene from Alien. If someone drops something near her she jumps and runs. If I raise my voice to her she falls over on her back… Cars, bicycles, joggers, etc don’t bother her in the least as long as they don’t make noise. The wind fear could be things moving around. Tonight will be the real test if we have the predicted 45 mph winds.
Murphy, my other dog, made a cubby hole for himself in my closet, and she’s taken it over. I will setup a covered crate in my bedroom tonight and see how she does. She seems to prefer to be crated in a car.

[KnottedYet]

My resuce dog had some pretty hefty insecurities and some hefty destructive behaviours, and I was starting to despair.

One of my patients who raises assitance dogs suggested increasing the amount of protien in his diet, that it was a trick he often used for the assitance dogs (who must be even-keeled!).

I switched my dog's food to one with about 2x the protien and started adding yogurt and hardboiled eggs to his Kong, and occaisional turkey burgers. (oh, boy, did he like the turkey burgers!)

Within about a month or 6 weeks he was off his tranquilizers, which I'd put him on out of sheer desperation, and had no more destructive behaviours.

It was a miracle!

[Pedal Wench]

I had a Mastiff who was terrified of bad weather. Singing Joni Mitchell's "The Circle Game" and stroking her belly seemed to work.