Case Study

We had the pleasure of meeting this timid German Shepherd girl, currently waiting for a new home. She came into rescue very wary of everything, displaying a huge startle response to the slightest noise.

Our first session was to build a relationship with her. We spent time sitting in the kennel corridor, allowing her freedom to approach or move away.

Over time she chose to come closer.

It is so important not to try to lure dogs to come closer. They need to be free to make their own choice in order to build confidence.

It is ok to gently throw treats out towards the dog, ideally to her side or just beyond her. This helps pair positive things with the strangers' presence but avoids coaxing her over.

Before long, she began to approach and to use her nose.

By the end of the first session, she happily received and sought out affection.

We ended the session on a positive note.  It is important that sessions like this are kept short.

Greenpeace Boarding Kennels are looking after her while she waits for her new home. Obviously, she is still under assessment while we build up her confidence.  
Greenpeace Kennels staff are highly experienced in handling timid and fearful dogs and workers are able to avoid using a lead while she is in training. She can be let out from her kennel, directly into the paddocks and back again, avoiding any negative associations. 
Anyone new meeting her is introduced in the same way, pairing with treats. 
All interactions with her avoid any pressure being placed on her and she has already started to bond with various staff due to their experienced handling.

Second session

She has never been lead walked or worn a collar or harness.  She takes time to get to know people but when she does, she loves affection.  This video clip is our second meeting with her.  

Prior to this video clip, we introduce the sight of the harness by placing it on the ground, surrounded by tiny treats.  Before long she was pushing her nose right into it.  Next, we lifted the harness and held it in our hands while continuously feeding treats. When the harness disappeared, the treats stopped. This was repeated a number of times before we introduced wearing the harness.

In this next short video clip, you can see we have progressed to actually placing the harness over her head.  We are taking things very slowly to ensure a positive association is made with every single step. 

She usually finds it hard to relax when out of her kennel.  She came into rescue with another dog and often looks for him, pacing and unable to settle.  Here she is after our session.

Why we train in this way.

In dog training, we use Conditioning to create positive emotional and physiological responses to known triggers or new potential triggers. 

Conditioned emotional responses (CERs) include changes in behaviour. In order for CER’s to take place, the brain must experience associative learning. 

The limbic system is known as the emotional control system and is the area responsible for associative learning.

The limbic system is composed of the amygdala, the hippocampus and the hypothalamus. 

Through human and animal studies we know that the amygdala is responsible for the emotional organisation and considered the central hub of fear processing and the hippocampus plays a large role in the contextual processing of memories.  

In other words, the Amygdala is involved in emotional memory and the hippocampus is involved in memory about emotions.

Flooding is a technique that we should not use. If we placed the harness straight onto her we would potentially scare her and she may become fearful of the harness.  Flooding is cruel, can cause behaviour problems and often leads to dogs shutting down because they cannot escape the scary stimulus.

Instead, we use desensitisation and counter conditioning to alter their reflexive emotional and physiological responses, either by repeatedly pairing relevant stimuli with something pleasant or through careful exposure that gradually desensitises them. 

Our goal is to achieve a conditioned emotional response (CER) to the harness. Every time the harness is present, it means treats are given. She does not have to "do" anything for the treats to appear - that would be operant conditioning - treats are present every time the harness is present.

Desensitisation and counter-conditioning are all about overriding fearful memories stored in the brain and preventing new ones from forming, using force-free techniques.