Feel the Fear…
and do it anyway. This is the title of a popular, best-selling self-help book published in 1987 whose title reveals the entire premise of the 225-page book. It’s a pretty simple concept for us humans.
It’s been a bit over two months that Cinnamon has been home with me. She exhibits consistent fear of being in certain rooms in the house or certain parts of the yard and still freezes upon entering the house from outside. Apparently, she is procrastinating and despite my constant prodding, hasn’t read the book. I think it scares her.
Dogs released from laboratories are scared. I mean, it’s completely understandable. Everything is new and mysterious. All their senses are working overtime to understand the world and know what’s a threat to their survival and what’s not. And for these guys, there is no fight in the “fight or flight” response. That’s why they make such agreeable subjects to be handled in the lab. It’s “freeze or flee” for them. Luckily, Cinnamon takes the freeze approach rather than me having to worry about her fleeing, but she’s always protected with her double duty martingale collar and leash just in case.
We talk a lot about how acclimating and “training” these dogs is markedly different from taking in a puppy or a rescue who has already had exposure to the world. Teaching them to overcome fear entails a great deal more than behavioral training. We use reward and repetition to train behavior so that a dog learns fairly quickly that if they act a certain way, they get a treat and therefore it benefits them to do that thing. But how do you train the fear out of a dog?
Well certainly the staff at Kindness Ranch and Chelsey at Keeper and Kin are a big help and can provide education and suggestions. But even with these “fixes” I am finding it difficult to reassure Cinnamon that the living room isn’t going to come closing in on her, or that the dishwasher isn’t coming to get her. Or, that when she comes up to the door of the house, she’s entering the same place that she’s been safely residing in for two and a half months.
Even the highest reward treats don’t entice her when she’s scared. We just keep at it, limit the noise, never run the vacuum when she’s at home, put out dog pheromone-scented “air freshener” (doesn’t do a thing), place cold cut bits all over the floor, sit quietly and hope she will one day venture out herself, because once she’s sitting near me and I’m scratching her ears, she’s fine. It’s just getting there that’s the challenge.
So as much as I want to yell from the rafters at these babies, “Feel the fear and do it anyway!” they do not hear. They must figure it out on their own and as hard as it is for us to observe, I think they do figure most of it out in time. And for the fears that they don’t overcome, we just do our best to minimize exposure throughout their lives.
