Navigating Fears and Phobias in Working Dogs

In this episode, Jerry Bradshaw discusses:

• Timing the puppy training early and with a 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

Email: JBradshaw@TarheelCanine.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: https://calendly.com/tarheelcanine

Tarheel Canine Seminars: https://streetreadyk9.com/

Tarheel Canine Student Portal: https://tcstudentportal.com/

Sponsors:

ALM K9 Equipment: almk9equipment.com

PSA & American Schutzhund: psak9-as.org

Tarheel Canine: tarheelcanine.com

The Drive Company: thedriveco.com

The Drive Company Instagram: instagram.com/thedrive.co

Dog Armour: dogarmour.com

Dog Armour Instagram: instagram.com/dogarmourpro

Rogue Arsenal: roguearsenal.com

Rogue Arsenal Instagram: instagram.com/rogue_arsenal_official

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.