BehavioRx Case of the Month
for July 1998

A Case of Conditioned Fear

'Tis the season for many dogs to freak out with fear when sudden explosive noises, especially those that are accompanied by strong percussive or concussive effects, i.e., heavy vibrations, not only of the air, but also the floor and building. Many, if not most, of these problems take root because we people try to reassure our dogs when we see the first signs of anxiety and, innocently, say things like, "It's OK, it's all right, don't worry." Since our tone of voice actually sounds to the dog like we're saying that what the dog is feeling, thinking and doing is "All right," we're really reinforcing the fearfulness and its physical signs; trembling, hiding, etc. So begins a vicious cycle that may develop into a deep-seated phobia. The fearfulness may seem unreasonable, but to the dog, the threat of these explosion is probably very real. Here's a fairly typical case of a people-induced phobia.

A 4 year-old spayed, female German Shepherd came to the ranch with her spirited, friendly family of three girls, ages 14,16 and 18 years, Mom and Dad. The dog, Tawny, was in marvelous health according to her veterinarian, who had thoroughly examined her, including in-depth blood tests, just a week before our meeting.. She also looked in great health and high spirits when we met. In fact, after a few minutes of fact-finding, the girls couldn't wait to show me how Tawny would wear happily a pair of sun glasses, which she also wore during boating trips on the family run-about. However, things were about to change...

Suddenly a loud bang startled us all. A neighbor had dropped a long plank on his driveway next door. Tawny's reaction was instant; she ran for the family car, raced up the rear trunk lid onto the roof and jumped through the open sun roof, taking refuge in the foot well of the passenger's seat. I asked everyone to stay quiet while I went to see where she was. Tawny was trembling, curled up in a tight ball. I asked Dad if he's come over and open the door. He did, but Tawny remained there as if glued to the floor. Dad said he could lift her out with no panic, as he'd done it many times before. She unrolled in sections and was gently placed on the driveway after we closed the door.

How had this all begun? The girls were having a party when Tawny was only 4 months old. She was enjoying the fun when one of the guests, a young man, lit off a large firecracker in the empty fireplace. There was screaming and rushing about by the guests, and the oldest daughter ran into the living room, where Tawny was standing and trembling. The girl shouted angrily at
the guest and physically pushed him out of the house while other guests shouted mild, angry curses at him, too.

Everyone tried to cajole Tawny out of her state of shock, but she only trembled harder and started to salivate heavily. Since it was after 11:00 PM, the youngest daughter took her to her bedroom, went to bed, cuddled and sweet-talked the dog until she went to sleep.

This provided what I call the Interpretive Factor for Tawny's traumatic experience: The group and the daughters had unwittingly shown Tawny there was, indeed, plenty of reason to take explosions very seriously. From that point onward even a car door slamming caused trembling, pacing and anxiety. Of course, the family continued reinforcing her concerns.

With the fact-finding concluded, we consulted about the elements that had prolonged and heightened her fears, guiding them to come up with the answers themselves. The family was then highly motivated to take whatever actions were necessary to correct the problem.

As a preliminary step, we had all five people stand in a large circle and call Tawny back and forth alternately between them, praising happily, crouching and clapping when she responded. Their relationships were extremely well balanced, as the dog came eagerly, tail up and wagging. This was great... a nice, positive response to everyone.

Next was the first set-up. Everyone was told about the Jolly Routine (one quick, soft, single hand-clap immediately after a loud noise was made, followed by happy praise and everyone moving happily about) and I retired into the office to slam a door while the family sat down.

The first slam produced the expected strong startle by Tawny, the single hand-clap interrupted her thoughts for an instant, the happy praise and moving about reinforced the interruption, and Tawny looked around at the group as if surprised, then joined in the jollity by running to the middle of the group and wagging her tail expectantly. She was petted and praised with glee and we let it incubate for three minutes while the family sat down again until the dog lay down at Dad's feet. I again slammed the inner door. Remarkably, Tawny jumped up and looked at everyone, they all forgot about the hand-clap, but started praising her, whereupon she went to the youngest daughter for some pets and then relaxed. At the next door-slam a few minutes
later Tawny showed no startle at all, but did run over to Mom for some petting and praise. The first session was ended.

We discussed plans for set-ups at home during the week, after which the family left with high hopes for Tawny's future. During that week, not only were set-ups made, but the family applied the Jolly Routine successfully when unexpected noises in the neighborhood and house occurred. The program went so quickly and successfully that they were able to teach Tawny,
off-leash, her command-response exercises to Come, Sit, Stay, Drop (lie down), Heel and go to her bed and stay by week six. The dreaded Fourth of July came and went with no panic behavior.

This BehavioRx System program for Fearfulness and Phobias in part of the BehavioRx series.

Previous Cases

June 1998
May 1998
April 1998
March 1998
February 1998
January 1998
December 1997
November 1997
October 1997
September 1997
August 1997
July 1997
June 1997
May 1997
April 1997
March 1997
February 1997
January 1997
December 1996
November 1996
October 1996

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