The fearful Dog: Causes and Treatment

If someone were walking toward you with a knife you might become frightened. You may

choose to cope with this perceived threat in several ways: scream, freeze in place, run, or choose an offensive approach in the hopes you may live to see another day.

These reactions are governed by the brain's flight/fight responses and are self-preservation reactions that are either instinctual; have foundations based on earlier life experiences (post traumatic stress); based on the lack of early life experiences (poor socialization), or are inherited (genetically based).

Running from a burning building is instinctive. No one has to teach you. You would not necessarily have had to experience getting burned in a house fire in your past to know that running from one will save your life.

Fear of driving a car after you were side-swiped on a highway would be considered a post traumatic response especially if you react negatively each time a car passes you on the highway.

If you grew up in a small town and began having panic attacks after moving to a large city with crowds and lots of different kinds of people, you may be classified as poorly socialized. This means lack of (pleasant) exposure to many strangers as a child directly affected how you now feel about them as an adult.

If you have irrational fears — say, to objects such as dolphins or trees — your fear may be classified as phobic. Often fears of inanimate objects is considered phobic. More often than not, however, fear is directly linked to genetics. This is especially true if one of your parents had a nervous disorder or others in your family suffered from similarly from such conditions.

It’s been scientifically proven that fear can be inherited. For years the National Institutes of Health has been studying the bloodline of a group of Pointers that are so fearful, many are afraid of their own shadow.

Additionally, a recent scientific study conducted by Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine proved — beyond a doubt — that obsessive/compulsive behaviors are inherited. Such findings were revealed in a study of Doberman Pinschers that engaged in flank sucking behaviors (Dodman, Nicholas H., 2010).

The Physiology of Fear
Fear is a response to a real or perceived threat and is essential for the survival of all living things. The inability for an animal to experience fear means the animal is doomed to die because it takes unnecessary risks. A fearful dog has a better chance at survival than one willing to take such risks. On that end fearful is a healthy response. However, when an animal begins fearing things that aren't truly life-threatening the response can be unhealthy and a veterinarian behaviorist or qualified trainer should be contacted.

The Neurology of Fear
Triggered by the fight/flight processing system of the brain, such responses may include running away or hiding (flight) or taking a more proactive approach (fight). In the mammal brain, two areas govern this fight/flight system — the amygdala and the

hippocampus (Figure 1). The amygdala is a primitive area of the brain that triggers the response and the hippocampus is responsible for storing memories or traumatic events that  send messages to the amygdala to react.

These two areas of the brain work in unison with the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis (HPA), which is responsible for the release of epinephrine (adrenalin), which provides the necessary fuel an animal needs to flee or fight. It also helps to ensure the survival of the species.

Fear and It's Role in Aggression
Fear and aggression often go hand-in-hand and both are necessary for all living things to survive. In some dogs, however, the fight/flight response becomes overly stimulated by an experience that isn't truly life-threatening. This is particularly true of genetically based fear and some phobias.

Sadly  most phobias and obsessive behaviors are inadvertently triggered by owners during puppy hood and early adolescence when they exploited a particular a behavior because they thought it was cute. For example at 6 months old owners of a German Shepherd — a breed with genetically inherited high prey drive — thought it was hilarious when the dog chased and subsequently attacked blowing grocery bags in the street. At 2 years of age the dog began chasing and attacking all fast-moving objects including leaves, cars, cats, and ultimately a child in a stroller. The dog was euthanized.

Managing A Dog With Fear Issues:
One of the most important considerations for owners of a fearful dog is to understand that fear is never cured. Any trainer or vet who tells an owner they can cure their dog is either lying or they lack education in the treatment of fear and fear-aggression. With excellent training and behavior modification one may expect to see dramatic improvements in the dog's behavior, but should also expect to see relapses.

Some dogs respond so well to training that they may appear to be permanently cured. On close observation however, fear still remains — albeit at reduced and more manageable levels.

The second most important consideration is avoiding encounters that elicit the response. A dog can’t be fearful if it’s not feeling threatened. This is especially critical during the training process.

The third consideration is acknowledging and understanding that while the dog may achieve amazing results with training working with such behaviors will be a life-long commitment. Owners shouldn’t believe anyone who makes guarantees that such behaviors can be cured. If they do owners should politely say “thank you” and search for another professional —hopefully someone who has extensive experience in this highly specialized field.

Improvements in behavior depends largely on how long the dog has been suffering as well as the time an owner is willing to invest in the dog’s training. Other considerations are whether the owner is willing to follow the trainer’s or behaviorist’s instructions, the dog's history, and the dog's genetic makeup

Also, being aware of the dog’s issues and its limitations can go a long way in helping it to cope with fear. Such knowledge is quite handy should the owner see a relapse occur, at which point the owner can help maintain stability and get the dog back on track by revisiting the steps the trainer or behaviorist laid out for them.

How To Help A Dog Suffering From Fear
Contacting a vet or vet behaviorist and reporting the behavior to your vet should be the first step. The vet will run blood tests and evaluate the dog for underlying medical issues that may be causing the behavior. Many illnesses can cause fear or aggressive responses, so it's important to rule those out.

Myths Surrounding Fear
There are many misconceptions and myths these days concerning how one should handle a fearful dog. Some suggest the owner should refrain from coddling it. One popular television show often labels these dogs "dominant," because the fear is expressed through aggressive displays and are misinterpreted. Others  assume the animal was abused or mistreated in some way.

While abuse may cause fear-related issues owners mustn’t spend too much time trying to figure out what happened in the past. Knowing the dog’s past is helpful, but it won’t change the dog’s behavior.

The Influence of Human Emotions
Owner emotions often play a role in affecting a dog's fear levels. Often, owners become frustrated or embarrassed when the dog acts out in public. Some get angry and yell at the dog or resort to punishments such as yanking on collars or fitting the dog with a shock collar to control the behavior. Some alpha roll their dogs thinking that holding the dog on the ground will somehow affect calm behavior. Once the event is over these individuals become loving and doting pet parents again. This is especially true of dogs that fear people and aggress toward them outside of the home. The owner may yell at the dog or even punish it outdoors, but once inside becomes the loving, doting parent once again.

This emotional roller-coaster the dog takes with its owner often exacerbates the behavior and makes it more complex and difficult to treat. Additionally, the animal begins to mistrust its owner because it can never predict their human’s behavior.

Effective Treatment Strategies
The most effective way to handle a dog's fear is to remain relaxed and in control in all situations and avoid any circumstances that elicits a fear response. This easily can be accomplished by turning around and walking away from something scary, taking the dog outdoors when the presence of fearful stimuli is at its lowest, taking a position in front of your dog to protect it from a perceived threat (especially if it's a child), or soothing the dog with kind words.

Breathing plays an important role. The way one breathes speaks volumes about their emotional state to the dog. The dog relies on these states for valuable clues to decide what constitutes an actual treat. When owners leave the house frustrated or fearful their dogs will react accordingly or remain on high alert the entire time they’re outdoors.

Breathing from the belly can help dramatically. Yep! Let that muffin top hang out! Breathing from the belly is relaxed breathing. When stressed we breathe more through our chests, and sends stress signals to the dog. As an exercise, the next time you’re relaxed take note of your breathing. You’ll surely be breathing from your belly. When you’re stressed notice how you tend to breathe through your chest. One may not think anyone notices, but the dog does. As an added exercise take note of how your dog is breathing when it’s relaxed as opposed to when it’s stressed. When relaxed it’s belly breathing. When it’s stressed or excited it’s breathing from its chest.

Keep A Diary
Keeping a diary and history of fearful encounters is a terrific way to determine what elicits or influences the behavioral event. For example, what was happening at the time of the incident? What was the dog doing? Time of day? What did the dog eat that day? What was the human doing? Did something scary happen the night before, such as a thunderstorm?

A knowledgeable trainer may provide graphs sheets that can help the owner keep track of incidents and reveal trends. For my clients I provide separate graphs where they can chart all meals, play time, sleep, exercise and at what time of day these events occur. On a separate graph they chart behavioral occurrences and at what times of day such events occur. I then compare the two behavioral graphs. Often the comparison reveals associations between behavior, meals, exercise, sleep and more. In this way we can better predict when an episode is likely to occur as well as alter their timing in order to affect more positive behaviors.

All members of the family should participate in record keeping. Since most fearful episodes seem to appear “out-of-nowhere” having data on hand of what preceded or followed a particular episode can yield information that can form a chain of events an owner may not otherwise have noticed before. Record keeping helps the owner and trainer anticipate and predict when a reaction is more likely to occur. This is especially helpful to veterinarians and behaviorists who rely heavily upon scientific data to make diagnoses.

How Fear Impacts Learning
Evidence from laboratory studies using a variety of experimental techniques and animal species indicates that the amygdala (see Figure 1) plays a crucial role in conditioned fear and anxiety as well as attention and learning. This would explain why many fearful dogs seem to have great difficulty or concentrating on learning new tasks.

Exposure to stress for extended periods of time may cause permanent physiological changes to the hypothalamic, pituitary adrenal axis (HPA.) This is the area of the brain responsible for the release of the stress hormone corticotropin (CORT), adrenalin/epinephrine.

Fear, Behavioral Issues and Generalizations
Fearful dogs pose quite a challenge to owners who often report additional problem behaviors such house soiling, barking, destructive chewing, separation anxiety and more. More challenging is the dog that learns a new task such as fetching, but suddenly becomes fearful of the ball. Such difficulties place tremendous stress on owners who often feel they and their pets are trapped in a never ending spiral of fear. They're right.
Fearful dogs often generalize and fears have a way of building on each other over time. An example is a dog who's afraid of moving cars. This dog at first may have feared moving cars but then begin fearing parked cars, then any large object shaped like a car, such as a dumpster or shed. If another element is introduced to the environment during a fearful episode that too will become part of the fear chain until the dog may refuse to leave the home.

Early Learning
Many amygdaloid projection areas are critically involved in fear and anxiety. In fact, manual electrical stimulation of the amygdala elicits a pattern of behaviors that mimic natural or conditioned fear.

Lesions of the amygdala or removal of the amygdala block innate or conditioned fear, as well as various measures of attention. The amygdala also is responsible for releasing corticotropin (fear hormone), which is especially important in fear or anxiety and may act within the amygdala to orchestrate parts of the fear reaction. (1)

When an animal is exposed to or flooded by traumatic events during puppyhood such as painful visits to the vet or being frightened by a bearded man such dogs will likely elicit the fight or flight response when confronted by the same stimulus as an adult.

Traumatic early life experiences can have lasting effects on areas of the brain, particularly the hypothalamic pituitary axis (HPA) involved in memory and emotion and which is responsible for the release of epinephrine (adrenalin). The hippocampus, which is involved in learning and memory storage is particularly sensitive to stress.

Repeated Exposure to Frightful Stimuli
When an animal is exposed to repeated traumatic events high levels of glucocorticoids (fear hormone) are released. The result is damage to the neurons in areas of the hippocampus, which can result in deficits in new learning. (2)

This phenomena has been reported in post war veterans, police officers and others suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and those who experienced sustained levels of extreme stress or loud sounds. The most extreme effects of damage to neurons in this area of the brain is reported by those individuals who had to kill another human in order to preserve their own life. (3)

Deficits in learning also have been observed in dogs exposed to shock collars and harsh methods of training. Such animals display what can only be described as the canine equivalent of attention deficit disorder (ADD), learned helplessness (dog shuts down), and general difficulties learning new tasks, problem-solving, or unwillingness to experiment with new behaviors. (4)

Can Medications Or Other Tools Help?
Yes. Depending on the dog's diagnosis, several medications can help. Some drugs veterinarian behaviorists turn to are selective seratonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) such as Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft.

There’s a possibility a trainer may recommend a course of psychotropic intervention to help reduce the frequency of fearful episodes during the training process. This decision should be made by the owner and their vet. Medications often provide relief and help build confidence during the training process.

Melatonin (available over the counter) is a dietary supplement being used by more owners and trainers because it’s similarities to seratonin. Tryptophan or 5HTP has been deemed equally as effective by some who have used it. These supplements are freely available and are natural alternatives to prescription drugs. Consult with a vet before giving your dog any over the counter supplement.

There are several training tools on the market that can yield beneficial results as well. One item is the body wrap which is similar to a wide ace bandage and it’s wrapped around the dog in a specific a way to induce relaxation. Consult a positive-based dog trainer about the body wrap and the proper way to use it. Never try wrapping the dog yourself.

Another item is a stress shirt or Thunder Shirt. These vest-like shirts are anti-static and fit the dog snugly and reproduce the same calming effects as a wrap.

A calming cap made of flexible woven mesh that fits over the dog’s head acts as a screen that covers the eyes is another tool. This comfortable and non-constraining training aid allows the dog to see, but helps screen out the scary stuff such as fast-moving objects. This aid is particularly helpful for dogs who exhibit stress related to visual stimuli.

Psychoaccoustics (music specifically designed to calm the central nervous system) is gaining more popularity since it was first introduced to hospital nurseries over a decade ago. The most popular product on the market today for dogs is “Through a Dog’s Ear” CD collection created by Joshua Leeds and Lisa Spector (see resources).

Changes in diet may also yield positive results. High-performance diets (those high in dietary protein) have been linked to behavioral problems, according to research conducted at Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine (5). Check with your vet before making any nutritional changes. I’ve found that home-cooked "whole food" meals and a reduction in packaged kibble provides some relief.

Looking To The Future
Owners should be reasonable about their goals. They should have short-, mid- and long-range goals. Training a dog with fear issues can be a lengthy process and it's among the most challenging behaviors to treat. It doesn't necessarily have to be difficult for the owner, though. Training should be fun and filled with games and enjoyable activities so the dog and owner have fun while learning.

Once a dog has been diagnosed by a veterinary behaviorist, a trainer can and should design a customized training program to help the dog overcome its issues, make recommendations for changes in exercise, diet, and more.

Training may include counter conditioning, operant conditioning and desensitization to fearful stimuli. All training should be positively based. Training may also include classical conditioning designed to help the dog change its emotional state in relation to those things it fears. This is called a conditioned- emotional response, or CER. Under no circumstances should the dog be physically punished, coerced, corrected or flooded (bombarded with stimuli until it no longer reacts) during the training process.

Another helpful training tactic is applying the “nothing in life is free” program (NILIF). This means the dog will have to work for everything: food, toys, treats, praise and walks. NILIF helps to instill, in the dog’s mind, that the owner is a competent leader because the owner controls the good stuff and gives the dog much-needed direction. It also provides a very predictable life for the dog and can offer them a great deal of stability. Moreover, it gives the dog something else to do other than worry.

It's no surprise that overly intelligent dogs who have nothing to do often fall victim to their thoughts because their minds create something for them to do with the energy they have stored up. This is especially true of breeds in the herding and working groups.
A good trainer can help an owner become more aware of the dog's limitations, fears and body language while also teaching effective management strategies to reduce stress. These elements can dramatically improve the human-dog bond and the animal's state of mind.

A trainer also may help owners assign a member of the household with the most confidence and leadership skills to work with the dog first then gradually allow others to do the same according to rank, confidence level and age. Children should be last and always well-supervised.

The trainer also may have the dog revisit basic obedience skills such as sit, stay, down and reward quick responses with valuable rewards such as praise, a tasty morsel or games.

In conclusion, working with a fearful dog takes time, patience and dedication. One may see results immediately and others may not see real changes for several months. It’s much easier to work on the short-range goals first until those are solid, then begin working on mid- and long-range goals.

If the owner has consulted a veterinarian behaviorist who prescribed using psychotropic intervention it’s possible to see positive results in less time.

RESOURCES:  
• Psychoaccoustics available at Through A Dog's Ear, www.throughadogsear.com
• Calming Cap available at Premier Pet Products, www.premier.com

Sources: (1) Department of Diagnosis Radiology and Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine, Yale Psychiatric Instititute , and National Center for PTSD-VA Connecticut Healthcare System. (2) Ribicoff Research Facilities of the Connecticut Mental Health Center, Department of Psychiatry, Yale University, School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06508, USA.  (3) On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society, Lt. Col. Dave Grossman. (4) Applied Animal Behavior Science 85 (2004) 319-334, "Training dogs with help of the shock collar: Short and long term behavioural effects," Matthijs B.H. Schilder, Joanne A.M. van der Borg, Department of Clinical Sciences of Companion Animals, University of Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands, Department of Ethology and Socio-Ecology, University of Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands; (5) Effect of Dietary Protein Content and Tryptophan Supplementation on Dominance Aggression, Territorial Aggression, and Hyperactivity in Dogs, Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, August 15, 2000, Vol. 217, No. 4, Pages 504-508 doi: 10.2460/javma.2000.217.504 DeNapoli, Dodman Shuster, Rand, Gross.

Karen Fazio, "The Dog Super Nanny," is a professional dog trainer and owner of My Best Friend Dog Training LLC in Keyport, NJ. She is the co-host of the live South Jersey/Philadelphia's radio show, "Thursday in the Doghouse," on WNJC1360, contributing writer for The Star-Ledger's Inside Jersey Magazine and member of the

Association of Pet Dog Trainers; The Association of Animal Behavior Professionals and active Supporter/Friend of Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. She specializes in chronic behavioral issues such as fear, aggression, obsessive disorders, and behaviors related to medical issues.

For more information visit her site at thedogsupernanny.com, or email her at dogsupernanny@yahoo.com. To read more articles like this, as well as information and updates in pet training and pet industry, subscribe (free) to her monthly newsletter by clicking here.