If a dog is reactive, fearful, or anxious, often the dog is struggling--and so is their person. We share tips to help you to help your fearful dog, from the first chapter of Zazie's book Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful, or Reactive Dog. Bark! is out now in paperback and available wherever books are sold.
Get Bark!: https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/p/books.html
We talked about:
- How important it is to recognize the signs of stress in dogs
- Your priority is to help your dog feel safe
- Pick a food your dog really loves that you can use to teach them to like the thing they are scared of
- The kinds of food that are best
- How to be prepared and make sure you have those tasty treats to hand
- How to bridge and fridge
- The importance of finding activities that both you and your dog love
- Kristi and Zazie each share a story of a time something unexpected happened and they had treats to hand
- And finally we talked about the books we're reading.
The books we mention in this episode:
- The Beaverton podcast (okay, it's a podcast!)
- The Home Cookbook, 125th anniversary edition
- Otter by Jackie Morris
Also mentioned is a study on how people spot signs of stress in dogs interacting with children. You can read about it here: https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/2017/05/people-mistakenly-think-anxious-dogs.html
About the co-hosts:
Kristi Benson is an honours graduate of, and now on staff with, the prestigious Academy for Dog Trainers and has her PCBC-A from the Pet Professional Accreditation Board. She lives in beautiful northern British Columbia, where she helps dog guardians through online classes. She is also a northern anthropologist.
Kristi Benson's website Facebook
Zazie Todd, PhD, is the award-winning author of Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful, or Reactive Dog, Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy and Purr: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy. She is the creator of the popular blog, Companion Animal Psychology, and has a column at Psychology Today. She lives in Maple Ridge, BC, with her husband, a dog and a cat.
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