Fear, Anxiety and Stress

Barriers to care

Fear, anxiety and stress can be problematic in our dogs. We decided to introduce chin targeting to this gorgeous girl to help ensure future handling, grooming and even veterinary care does not cause fear, anxiety or stress.  These can all be barriers to care.

Fear will not go away on its own or improve as a dog matures. If anything, it will get worse and perhaps even spread to other triggers.

This gorgeous girl arrived in rescue very nervous and found new things overwhelming. Through patience, time, and fear-free methods, her confidence is growing. She has already grown used to wearing a harness – something she had never done before and is much more relaxed around people.  However, we know that future handling, particularly in a Veterinary setting, could become problematic so we decided to introduce fear-free co-operative care.

Efforts to protect a dog’s emotional wellbeing begin away from potentially stress-inducing situations, setting the dog up for success and allowing co-operative participation rather than the need to resort to force!

As she is prone to react to sudden noises we decided not to use a clicker. Instead, we use a quiet verbal marker – Yes. The goal of our session is to create a feels good feeling.

Chin targeting is a trained behaviour in which the dog remains in place during an examination, handling, or procedures. We aim to build long-duration targeting of a specific body part (chin) onto a target area (bed) so care can take place. These behaviours may also be called passive cooperative care behaviours.

We begin training using a raised platform with a specific bed.  This allows her to engage in a non-threatening way, without having to come too close to a person.  The bed can then be used in various situations. It is essential to ensure the right height is used to avoid causing discomfort from overstretching or having to lower her head.

The video below shows her learning to approach.  The moment her chin touches the bed, it is marked with a verbal Yes and a treat is delivered.  Occasionally treats are gently thrown away from the bed to get her moving and give the opportunity of choice. Each time, you will see she chooses to engage in the game again.

We gave her a break and scattered tiny treats around the room for her to find.  During the break, she kept returning to me to see if the game was still on offer.

The next step was to introduce the bed onto my lap which required her to come much closer.  Because she already had the feels really good factor about the bed, she quickly began to engage again.

You can actually see her pause to think!  Each time, she chooses to place her chin down and we are already building duration!