Fear and reactivity in adolescence, Interesting article

Just thought I would share this - saw it posted elsewhere recently and thought it was quite appropriate with some of the recent thread topics...just to reassure you guys its normal behaviour and to continue socialisation throughout :)

http://www.diamondsintheruff.com/fearimprint.html

FEAR & REACTIVITY IN ADOLESCENCE

Is your normally stable puppy suddenly freaking out at every little thing?

You've probably hit a normal adolescent fear imprint period.

OHMIGOSH IT'S A ... fire hydrant.
Hair standing on end and hysterical at every little neighborhood noise, high startle response, suspicion of strangers ...

This is the age of awareness. Your dog suddenly notices that some people aren't part of the pack, that there are strangers in the world. Puppyhood oblivion and acceptance of everyone as a potential friend is replaced with "are you safe?" and "do you belong here?" You may see them shy away from people in hats, wearing sun glasses, or some one carrying something. I often hear students exclaim,"He didn't recognize me!" Back-lit sillouettes are particularly alarming as the dog can't see your face. Someone entering a room unexpectedly may cause them to startle and bark.

During the "flight instinct" period your puppy will experience periodic fear periods between 6-14 months. Adolescent dogs may spook at the silliest things. You walk down the same street every day for months and one day, out of the blue, he becomes hysterical at the sight of a fire hydrant that has always been there. Your pup may become unable to enter his own backyard because there's a wheel barrow parked in the corner that wasn't there before. Environmental contrast. They are on high alert when they perceive things aren't "normal."

The degree of startle response depends on breed and early socialization.
Dogs whose genetic heritage has programmed them to be alert and focused outward will often have an more pronounced fear period. Protection breeds (Shepherds, Rotts, Dobes) and herding breeds (collies, cattledogs, etc) will need increased positive socialization during adolescence. It's almost like one day they can see better at a distance. Suddenly they are noticing the neighbor across the street as he gets out of his car. Their alarm starts with a suspicious "boof - boof" followed by "bowrrrooooooo-roooo-rooo" going up in pitch. If this behavior is allowed to be practiced, their confidence in "scaring away the mailman" (he was leaving anyway) or neighborhood kids will increase. You don't want them to become experts in scaring the neighborhood. Continue positive socialization and training!

Between 6 & 18 months your dog is in adolescence. Becoming an adult. Living in an adult body with a puppy brain. Your dog experiences emerging territoriality and responsibility for the pack combined with conflicting feelings of puppy insecurity. Sometimes it looks like Jekyl & Hyde. While some breeds are naturally more vocal than others, the problem is magnified in dogs with limited socialization. Anti-social dogs become more so. Frightened dogs DO bite if cornered. If they find out that lunging and barking will make the scary thing go away, they will add it to their arsenal of behaviors that work. Control the environment so they don't feel they have to defend themselves. Do not encourage "watch dog" behavior at this age, you are rewarding fear and suspicion not bravery and confidence.

The more timid or unsure the dog feels, the more noise he makes. Young adolescent dogs pushed beyond their safety threshold frequently lunge and bark with hackles (the ridge of hair down the dog's shoulders and spine) raised. The more hackles, the more fearful the dog actually feels. This behavior is designed to create distance between them and the scary thing. Small breeds often bark more than their larger cousins - what they lack in size, they make up for in attitude and volume! Confident dogs make very little noise. Socialization is the key.

The good news is they do grow out of it - with your support and guidance. It is important to continue to expose them to lots of new things. It may be easier to leave them home rather than take them on walks where a meltdown happens every block or so, but it's imperative to get them out in the world and continue their socialization.

*If your normally friendly dog suffers from a "sudden onset" of out of character behavior, there could be a medical reason. Thyroid imbalance or chronic pain, even allergies can cause dogs to behave out of their normal stable character. Do consult your veterinarian. If your dog is threatening to use his teeth, get professional help!

See also: Developmental stages and socialisation: http://www.diamondsintheruff.com/DevelopmentalStages.html

Sleet showed quite a few of these behaviours in a pronounced way. When other family members tried to correct her, it only made her worse. Fortunately, I was able to get them to stop doing it mostly and used classical conditioning and desensitization to make her into a much more confident adult.

Another thing to bear in mind for those with adolesencent males is that they have up to 7 times more testosterone in their system than a mature male...and this can make them smell quite threatening to other males and so they may be the subject of some disaproval for a while.

Yes mags went through the stage of suddenly being "spooky" with things at about 9 months old when out and about on our walks in the neighbourhood where we walked all the time...she did it quite bit with terracotta flower pots of all things??? and also wheelie bins on the side of the pavement ready for collection.

She would suddenly put her head down and move her back end round whilst staring at the offending object sort of circling it lol, and so I would say in a really stupid voice "what is it huh? what is it mags?" and we would make a game of it and sort of jog towards it (with her leading me, never me forcing/pulling her) and she would go up to it, sniff it and then suddenly look at me with her great big smile and waggy tail and then normally nudge the "thing" and walk on! It was quite sweet actually :)

She has never done it to people though or other animals but she did have MEGA amounts of good experiences with both (and still does) as I was very conscious that living where I live (quite built up area) and because my plans for her were to be able to go anywhere with me, she was going to have to be really good with everything.

Sleet went through a period of barking at people quite a lot. She was always fine with other dogs though. Despite the barking, she has never attempted to bite...even those who put their hand out to her when she barked at them...she just carried on barking even if their fingers touched her muzzle:P Of course, I told people not to put their hands out like that...she wasn't keen on it...still isn't but now knows she can just duck out of the way in a happy looking way to avoid it...no big issue anymore. Only the odd person puts her on her guard these days...usually a certain type of person and not very often. These same people usually give me bad vibes also meaning I bet Sleet is picking up that same thing. She can go to busy places/shows and all that and be absolutely great...a little too enthusiastic sometimes such as joining in when people clap and cheer or when I call to another person, she likes to join in too:P

The other day Wren clocked a coat hanging on a jump wing over the other end of the field at agility training and she instantly went on her guard not knowing what it was and was growling and showing all the bodily threat signals..not really a common thing for her but just goes to show even the more laid back types can have this happen too. To her, it was something out of the ordinary and evoked fear. Instead of correcting her, I just took her over to go check it out...which she is happy to do. Once we'd done that, she was fine. If my two see something they aren't sure about, they show a lot of this bounce back behaviour, going and checking it out despite being unsure about it when they first spotted it. This is due to the way they were trained when younger...no corrections. It has made them far more confident and able to deal with things and not too scared to offer behaviours in case they are corrected.

Yeah thats what mags is like - I had never really thought of it as the way I trained her so thats an interesting point. :)

I did notice that mags is much more confident than all of the family dogs, my sisters & mother in laws/aunts etc, when faced with something new/out of the ordinary but I just put it down to maggie being a more confident dog...I have always just kind of figured we were really lucky getting such a great temperament dog but perhaps I should give me and OH a bit of credit for it too! :)

Maggie rarely barks even when she is unsure and will happily go to investigate the mystery thing even though you can tell she isnt quite sure and then as soon as she has checked it out she isnt worried anymore and ignores it.

Whereas my sisters dog has been trained with a mix of some treat/reward-based for "sit" etc, but also quite a lot of corrections for bad behaviour (mainly verbal but also the odd bit of collar yanking thrown in! rolleyes* ). Now when she sees something new or unusual, she barks her head off, not just to alert, but she continues for ages. If it is a strange object she wont usually go and investigate the thing and she seems bothered by it for a long time and if its out on a walk, she would be bothered by it again if we walked past it on the way back. Or if it is a person she isnt sure about (i.e. someone walking funny, lone person out without a dog, someone with a hat or walking stick etc), she can suddenly lunge at them if they get too close when they are out walking! She doesnt do anything but bark, but she is a large dog, so pretty scary!

I have said to my sis that she shouldnt shout at her so much for everything, as the corrections clearly are not working, as she is always having to shout and all it does is serve to stop her for that moment and doesnt teach her anything! Sometimes shouting doesnt work, so she shouts louder and louder, its horrible. Why cant she see that the corrections clearly dont work if she has to keep doing it and keep escalating the threat each time? She tells me that its because her dog doesnt listen like maggie that she has to shout and be forceful as she is obviously a more strong-willed dog! In actual fact maggie is probably the more strong-willed but my mum tells me that my sis thinks we have it easy because maggie is a collie and so obviously just much more obedient by nature! gggggrrrrrrr

Sorry, I went off on one but my sis and her "training" style really stress me out! :embarrased:

Yes, I see people doing it all the time too and it is frustrating and I feel for the dogs. Still, it can be hard to get through to people. They often insist it works because they might successfully suppress the behaviour momentarily each time they use a correction...so they are positively reinforced for using it each time...despite the fact they have to keep repeating..it wires their brain up to depend upon it and it's like a vicious circle going on. This is why it's hard to stop using them even for those of us who learn better ways..because our brains have become wired up to depend on reacting in that fashion. For this reason, it's not really good for owner or dog. Humans are naturally a +punishment orientated species and it's all in our conditioning.

It's harder to train dogs who are trained using corrections also..because, like I said, it's more difficult to get them to offer behaviours that you can shape and develop...because they've been inhibited by the corrections that are used on them and as they usually don't really understand why they are being corrected, they don't usually know exactly what behaviours to specifically avoid...so they avoid way more than they need to.