The following training techniques were recommended specifically for Gracie. If your dog is experiencing problems, we strongly recommend that you pay a visit to a good trainer in your area. And, please, please do not scold or physically punish your dog. You are only making the situation worse.
The first step is to revisit obedience training. For example, Gracie needs to learn to say “please” for almost everything. She says “please” by sitting.
The key with training is to teach her to look for us for direction. At present, Gracie’s anxiety reaches crisis levels because she does not know what to do. It is “fight or flight.” Once she learns to look to us, her anxiety should ease.
The trainer mentioned we should encourage the “shake” calming signal by saying “good shake!” If Gracie feels better by having a good shake, she can use that as a tool to calm herself. Plus, think of all the loose hair we will not have to comb!
We should also use the Thundershirt and DAP mentioned in the previous post whenever she exhibits anxiety (during a thunderstorm, for example) or when we know she will be in a situation that typically causes stress. Then, the trainer advised that we introduce Gracie to the least-stressful events first and slowly build to more stressful things.
For example, we should take her to a small town that has some street traffic but not as much as a busy city street. Go to a pet store early in the morning or late in the day. Take short car rides, building up to longer rides. We had been doing this already but not recognizing the improvements we wanted. As she becomes more comfortable in these situations, her anxiety should lessen.
We hope to have a better chance to modify the stressed behavior. The trainer emphasized that Gracie needs to see us as the leaders. She needs to feel secure. In her present, high anxiety state, she does not feel confident. We need to instill that confidence in her, let her know that Rescue Mommy and Rescue Daddy will protect her from all the things that are scaring her. We will keep you posted on her progress.
Rescue Mommy and Daddy
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