You’re Not to Blame, and You’re Not Alone in Dealing with Behaviour Issues

Read Complimentary Blog: https://www.brighthound.ie/blog/dogbehaviouralissues/

This podscast  is a compassionate look at common dog behaviour problems, why they are not your fault, and how understanding the whole dog can help you find a kinder way forward. 

📧barbara.j.hardman@brighthorse.ie

🌐https://www.brighthorse.ie/

🌐https://www.brighthound.ie/

☎️+353 85 143 8688

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:18

This podcast is very much inspired by a client I saw last week. Though, to be fair, this is not just this particular person I come across this a lot, but during our conversation, it really made me sit there and think, more people need to hear this outside of the people that I see. Um, and basically throughout the session, and particularly at the start, as we worked through bits and pieces, but particularly at the start, you know, my client repeatedly said things like, I know we created this problem, I know we did it to ourselves, I know this is my fault, and I know I caused this. And even after I said repeatedly, you absolutely didn't, and I repeated that reassurance several times, I could tell that she still felt she was part of the problem. Now, in her case, she had a previous trainer out who used very adversive and unkind methods with her dog. And unfortunately, this is something that I see quite a lot because I tend to follow them around because we know that adversive and unkind and unethical methods are more likely to create more problems when we're working with our dogs. And unfortunately, the people who tend to use those don't use ethical science-based methods when it comes to dog training, and those people, in and of themselves, tend to be more adversive, not only to the dog, but also to the client and the dog owner, because they're not coming from the same level of compassion because they don't have that understanding in behavior and psychologies. There tends to be a tendency, too many tends, to tell owners in these cases that they're the ones to blame, that they let their dog get away with it, they're the root of all evil, and they cause the problem. And if they don't even things differently, then the dog wouldn't be behaving this way. And I'm here to tell you very clearly that that isn't true, and it doesn't stand up for anything that we know about behaviour and behavioural psychology. When we're faced with behavioral problems with our dogs, it's really, really hard, it's really overwhelming, it's really stressful and frustrating, and also it's very isolating. We already have a tendency to blame ourselves for causing the behavioral problem in the first place, but it's often a lot more complex than that. It isn't just one finger point at you. But I get it because if we have a reactive dog, if we have a dog with separation-related behaviors, if they're growling, if they're destructive, they're snapping, or we're struggling, we can often look outside and see that everybody else seems to be coping fine and start to think, why is it just me? Because you'll know someone who has a dog and it all just seems super easy for them. Or maybe you had a dog growing up, or you knew a dog when you were younger, and that's what made you want to get a dog in the first place, and now you find yourself wondering why your dog isn't like the memory of the one you had as a child or the one that you grew up with when you were younger. And that's when the blame starts to creep in, and we do it to ourselves anyway, because we sit there and think nobody else seems to have this issue, it really does feel like it's just me. So then naturally, people start to think that they must be doing something wrong, or that they did something wrong to create the problem. Enter in an adversive trainer who is not very empathetic and doesn't have an understanding of behavioral psychology or good psychology, who then tells you, you let the dog get away with this, and it confirms all your fears. The thing I would like people to really take away from this podcast, and something that I say to my clients all the time, this comes up so much. Research backs it up to you are in fact in the majority. You're not in the minority, it's not just you. There is a minority of people who sail through puppyhood, adolescence, and into dog adult life without any behavioural challenges whatsoever, but they are the minority. And I can tell you now that there are plenty of behaviorists and trainers who work really hard to train certain behaviors and work through all these behavioral things, and yet some of us and most of us still tend to have dogs that are potentially reactive or anxious or sensitive or struggle with separation-related behaviors and other issues because behavior is complex. So you are in the majority of people because the majority of people have behavioral issues at some point with their dog at some point in their life. They are very common, they affect dogs of all breeds, ages, sizes. And the research shows up that a very high percentage of dogs experience a behavioral issue or behavioral problem during their lifetime at some point. So, again, you're not alone and you're in the majority. And a lot of these problems also put a real strain on the relationship between you and your dog. Many clients describe to me that they feel like they're dealing with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. One minute the dog is lovely and affectionate and the best dog in the world, and the next minute something happens, they suddenly snap or bark or lunge or panic, or they react in a way that seems completely out of the blue. And in the same breath, people often start to reflect on their own capability as an owner. They wonder why they didn't stop it sooner, why can't they be in control of the behavior? Why can't they do it? Whether they start to wonder whether they've done something wrong when the dog was younger, or you know, somehow they did something to make the problem worse. And when we get Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde situation, where a dog is lovely and amenable one moment and then suddenly changes, there is often something else going on. The out of the blue tends to be a lot of things like pain, discomfort, fear, stress, anxiety, or a medical issue. There's some underlying cause that no amount of training in the world was ever going to fully resolve on its own. So again, you were never to blame. And I think that's why getting the right help really matters. And hopefully, when you bring in an expert, there's someone who can point you in the right direction rather than make you feel worse. And ultimately, that's how I work. I look at the root cause, use ethical science-based methods, I consider the medical side of things, like involving your vet where needed, so that we can support your dog and you properly. The client I mentioned at the start of this podcast, which inspired me to write it, and you can read the blog as well. Um, at the very start of the session, you know, as I say, she was very, very much blaming herself. And during the session, it became very clear to me that there was an underlying discomfort, which we later found out was a luxe in Patella. As I said to her, all of the training and management she'd already did not cause that problem. You know, the dog was reacting and behaving that way because there was an underlying medical condition, and in many ways, the things that she actually did and put in place probably actually helped prevent the behavior be from becoming more aggressive and escalating further. So the steps that she did were actually all the right things because she'd already done a lot to mitigate the situation, reduce the stress, the anxiety, she set her dog up for success as much as she could with the information that she had. And once you know, we could identify the likely root cause of the pain, combine that with appropriate behavioral modification as well as collaboration with the vet, then things started to move forward in a much more positive way. So I really want to say if you're looking for help with your dog, you're in the majority, looking for, you know, because again, that 76% of people at some point in their life will struggle with a behavioral problem with their dog. You're in the majority. It does not mean that you have failed. You mean you're actively trying to support them and yourself. You're not to blame, you're not alone, and you're actually again in the majority. There's a lot of common behavioural issues that I see in dogs, and I wanted to kind of spend a bit of time going through that in this podcast, um, just to kind of show you what's out there, and hopefully, some of this you'll identify with or you've seen it. Because not only are behavioural challenges, you know, common in dogs, they also show up in lots of different ways, and some of them get grouped together, you know, and some of them need to be handled differently. Some behavioural problems are like really obvious because they cause, I say, a disruption in the home, or they make walks more stressful, or they leave owners feeling like they just can't manage the day-to-day in the way that they wanted to or expect it, or they can't leave their dog alone because the house gets destroyed. Other behaviors may seem sort of like a little quirk at first, but they're acting, you know, or oh, that's just the way they are in part of their personality, and some may not seem like a behavioural problem at all until we start looking, you know, at it deeper and find out what's going on underneath. Like, for example, coprophagia, which is a very common behavioral problem, and this is when a dog eats their own feces or the feces of other dogs, and it's often just dismissed as ugly dogs are gross, or that's just something dogs do. And yes, it is disgusting to live with, but it's also a sign that there's something else going on. It's not it's not a normal behavior, you know, and it could be linked to something that be learning, you know, as a diet, stress, gastrointestinal issues, you know, management issues of their underlying factors. So while on the surface, the behavioral problem might not be what people usually think, and it could be something else that's worth investigating. Another really common one is separation anxiety, and I think it's a behavior that people are really familiar with. Um, however, the term doesn't really capture the full picture, and we often prefer to talk about separation-related behaviors because not every dog shows the same signs, and not every case is the same. So, for separation-related behaviors, they are one of the most commonly reported problems in dogs. Um, they're hugely distressing for both the dog and the owner. You know, dogs can bark, cry, howl, whine when they're left alone. Some dogs, on the other hand, might vocal not vocalize at all, they might urinate and defecate in the house. Again, going back to the copagia, I have seen both they urinate, defecate, and then eat their own feces. Some of them just might destroy household items, uh, chew doors, scratch basically at the exits. I have seen a dog chew right through a like literally a wooden door in the centre. It was incredibly impressive. Um, skirting boards tend to be another one as well, table legs and so on and so forth. And some other dogs may just show quiet signs of distress that you never discover unless you set up a camera, you know, and they they just cope in silence. So that's why we don't really call it separation anxiety anymore. We call it separation-related behaviors. The other side of these separation-related behaviors is they can also become like a legal issue with neighbors, particularly if a dog is crying or barking or howling while you're at work, owners can complain, counsels can get involved, the judicial system, and some of these things can like escalate to a formal noise complaint and actually go into the courts. So getting on top of the emotional distress of knowing that your dog is struggling, there's also a real practical pressure on the owner as well. And it's also one of these problems that can make people feel really trapped in their own home. Like, I often describe it as owners becoming prisoners in their own homes because they they don't feel like they can leave their dog, and then they might start going, stop going out, they cut their plans short, you know, avoid social events, they try and arrange whole days around their dog and how the dog can cope. Um, rather than kind of seeking help and trying to explore that because again, we go back to that blame, they feel like they created it, so they almost feel like they have to put up with it. You know, I have to do this because this is my fault. And sometimes people will describe it to me as, you know, my dog is very attached to me, you know, and they might not always realize that there is support available there to help reduce the separation-related behaviours and reduce that kind of attachment. And that's why we call it separation-related behaviors, by the way, because there's a wider picture than one just simple label of separation anxiety, because not all dogs show all those behaviours, and not all behaviours have the same level of difficulty in every home, like some of them people may be okay with, you know. Um, some people sort of dismiss chewing household items as ah, chewing is just what dogs do, dogs just chew. Um, a dog who barks in the garden when they're left alone is just ah, just dogs just bark, it's fine. Um, a dog who follows their owner around everywhere they go, oh, they just love me, they're very attached, rather than a dog that's struggling to cope with separation. So it becomes very complicated because what looks like separation anxiety is not always separation anxiety. That this is the other thing. I often meet clients who list separation anxiety as one of their concerns and one of the things that you know they want me to look at. But when I look more closely, the behavioural issues might be unmet needs, their ethological needs, like doggy needs effectively, uh, pain, skin problems I've seen as well, like dermatological issues, gastrointestinal discomforts of their tummy, or some other medical factor. Um, or sometimes it is just you know a simple case of training and adapting and habituating to be alone. And in a lot of cases, in a lot of those cases where the owner thinks there's separation anxiety, and I don't believe it's the case, we change a few things and it can make a huge difference. And within a week or two, they're they are like there's no separation anxiety. So we can often, as owners, go both sides of the spectrum, we can go, there definitely is separation anxiety and there isn't, or we can go, oh, they're just being dogs and there's nothing and they're actually separation-related behaviours that need support. I had a client a couple of months ago who again listed separation anxiety amongst their concerns. Um and when I looked at the full picture, the dog had a dermatological issue, which you know I'd be linked above or I talked to above, which which linked to um his nutrition and he actually had intolerance to beef. So once we cut out beef and dairy and we removed that from the diet, we changed nutrition, the skin issue basically resolved and disappeared, and so did the behaviours that the owner had associated with separation anxiety. So it doesn't mean that the separation anxiety that the owner, you know, uh you know, recognized was never real, or it doesn't mean that it is not real at all, that we're still we're still isolating, that there is an issue there and a behavioral problem. Um and it really is absolutely something that become can become very serious if we don't action it, but it does show why we need to look at the whole dog rather than just assuming that every case fits neatly into one of these boxes. And it's important to understand that separation, anxiety, or separation-related behaviors are really influenced by genetics, breed, predisposition, early learning, attachment routine, you know, attachment theory, which is a whole separate thing, changes in routine, previous experiences, unmet needs that's your doggy needs and ethology, their health, as I have talked about, pain and underlying medical issues, and also their environment and their setup, like and and how comfortable the dog feels left alone, like again, the environment and the management that's there. So it is really complex, but it's also very common. And the same is true for other behaviors that people contact me about, such as aggression, growling, barking, destructive behaviors, fearfulness, reactivity, resource guarding, toileting inside the house, um, you know, food-related behaviors, handling difficulties, obedience and training. Some of them could all be rooted just in fear, some of them could be linked to pain and health, and some could just be frustration, the behavior, stress and learning history, you know, lack of appropriate outlets, as say, those doggy needs that mean that the dog is not being able to cope in that situation. And that's why understanding the behavior matters so much rather than just labeling it. Like we need to figure out what's actually driving everything underneath, and that's why it's important to get the right expert to do that. There's two other things that I want to discuss here as well, common issues that I see. Um, and this is probably another heavy hitter along with the separation-related behaviors, and that's aggression towards people and aggression towards other dogs, and they tend to be the majority of my caseload because they're quite scary when they happen, and as I say, there's you know, legal and judicial and civil, you know, repercussions that you know, as part of the Dangerous Dog Act, that we need to be able to be responsible for in our society. We generally refer to them as aggressive behaviors, and I'll continue to refer to them that in this just for for the ease, but it's also something people describe as you know, dominance, stubbornness, bad manners, or the dog trying to be in charge. Sometimes people will describe it that way. None of those are actually an accurate representation of what's happening, um, and what we as behaviourists will actually you know refer to it as we we would call it distance increasing behaviors because the dog wants to increase distance away from whatever the trigger is, whether it's another dog or a person, and that is more accurate than aggressive because aggressive, you know, implies an emotional, you know, and uh aside to it that there is intent there, and the intent is actually not about being an aggressor, but actually to increase distance. But for the sake of this, I will probably refer to it as aggressive, just everybody understands. Um, but basically what it means, in other words, the dog is really trying to just create distance between themselves and another person or another dog. Um and for the purpose of this section, as they're just gonna talk about people and other dogs, although there is differences between, you know, stranger danger where dogs don't like other people, or dog on dog where dogs don't like other dogs, because ultimately, like not all dogs like other dogs, and not all dogs like every person, and that's okay. Um, but if a dog is showing aggression or aggressive behaviours towards a person or dogs, again, it can become a really serious concern. When it comes to people, I say I often refer to it as stranger danger because there's an element of fear involved barking, lunging, shying away, avoidance, growling, snapping, um, like barking. It generally tends to be a lot of avoidance behaviors or trying to hide, um, and they're all ways for the dog to try and communicate that they're worried or uncomfortable or trying to keep themselves ultimately safe in their minds. And these behaviors are rooted in things and linked to fear, anxiety, and stress. They can also be what we call associative learning, where the dog has learned to associate a person or type of person or another dog with or a particular situation with something scary, sometimes painful, uncomfortable, or unpleasant. And sometimes that learning is very obvious and you can see where that's happened. Other times we may never know where the association started, it can be sometimes very difficult to unpick that. The reason we have to take these behaviours really seriously is not only because they're scary, absolutely, as I alluded to earlier, there's legal implications. If a dog bites a person or bites another dog, there can be really you know serious consequences from the state. Um, and people can also take individual legal action. So it's really important that these behaviors are managed carefully and ethically so they don't escalate. A lot of dogs do present early warning signs before they snap or bite. They may, you know, stare, freeze, move away, growl, bark, lunge, tension in their body. This thing's called calming signals and early indicators of stress, or just really try and avoid the situation. And how we respond to these early signs really matters. Sadly, again, going back to aversive trainers, a lot of adversive trainers will still tell owners that the dog is trying to be dominant and the behavior needs to be punished. This is 100%, 1000% the wrong approach and will will and most likely make the the situation even worse. So the reason and more dangerous, like importantly. So the reason I say that is if we punish a dog for growling, or if we punish a dog for barking or lunging, so we might like yank on the rope around their neck or their their collar, we might give them smacks, smack them on the nose, you know, we may be stopping that behavior from happening in that moment in time. But what's really important is the behavior is communication. Again, the dog is trying to communicate. I would like distance, and if we tell the dog that it can't speak anymore, and the dog is trying to tell us that they were uncomfortable and they need distance, and we remove that communication without changing how the dog feels about it. We end up with a dog who no longer growls and barks. You think great, but now it's going to go straight to a snap or a bite because we've removed the other rungs of the ladder that go up so. So there's a ladder of escalation the dog might avoid, you know, you know, may avoid you, may shy and move away. Maybe then if you grab the dog, the dog might growl or bark, you know, then they might lunge, then they might snap, and it's a it's an escalating ladder. If we start removing all of those lungs, the dog has to jump right up to the top. So if we end up punishing it or use adversive, means we are more likely to make the the behavior more dangerous. And there's also an issue of associative learning. So every dog, every time the dog sees a stranger or another dog, um, so if we're out walking them and when they're puppies, they want to get to somebody else, and they, you know, they're barking and they're jumping, and we pull on the lead and we punish them for that reaction. So what happens is they look at that stranger, they look at another dog, and then they associate something unpleasant happening, being pulled on the lead with that other dog. So instead of helping the dog feel safer, we're using punishment, even if it's accidental, and we're creating fear where it never you know lived before, and it'll actually make the reactions hap more likely, you know, in the future. So the research shows us that about 19% of dogs display some form of aggression to other animals, because as I say, for the purpose of this, I'm talking about dogs and people, um, but there are other animals that dogs will react to. We have, I say, sheep, other, you know, poor squirrels, birds, you know, there are other animals that dogs can react to. Um, dogs and I say humans at some point in their life, and these behaviours are, you know, fundamentally a lot of them are rooted in fear, stress, lack of appropriate socialization, that is a big factor. Previous experience, I talked about the associative learning, genetics and breed tendencies absolutely do have a factor. Um, and very often, a lot of the time, there's an underlying medical issue or there's pain because ultimately, if the dog is sore or uncomfortable, you know, or they're worried about something, um, and you know, they're worried about being touched and approached, you know, or jumped on by another dog, or touched by another person because they're uncomfortable or sore, they show distance increasing behavior to try and protect themselves because they're uncomfortable. And from the outside, we we turn that all as aggression, but from a dog's perspective, they may simply be just trying to create space and make themselves feel comfortable. It doesn't mean that we don't need to take the behavior seriously, it is serious and does need to be managed properly. But if we just label the dogs as aggressive or dominant, we totally and utterly miss the opportunity, you know, to be able to figure out what's happening with the behavior in the first place and manage it correctly. Another behavior that I see a lot, I won't dive into it here, but if if you want to go and check out my blog, maybe I'll do a podcast on it later, is barking and excessive barking because dogs aren't vocal communicators, um, which means they're you know, they're primary. I'm a vocal communicator, so are you. Like you're listening to this podcast, all of it is done through words and and vocalization, and humans are very vocal, and so are other animals, but dogs actually aren't the they're quite silent communicators. So, you know, I said the blog is there if you want to go and listen to it on the web or read it on the website, and some point maybe I will manage to get it into a podcast. So the last behavior I want to talk about, which is one that I get called out to a lot and is very common and kind of links into you know the two I've already touched on, but sometimes it's not related to them, is you know, destructive behaviour and and you know, chewing and also you know, Pika. Um, so I know destructive behaviour and chewing kind of come into the same in some ways, but you know, they tend to be like the dog destroying the house, house training issues. As I say, I have seen a dog chew entirely through a door, that was very impressive. Uh, I've never seen anything since. Um, and I'm talking about the centre of the door, by the way, like literally like in the middle, like just above the door handle, right through the centre. Like there was a clear a person, you could crawl through it, it was that big. Um, it was very impressive. And as I say, like a lot of these behaviours can overlap, that's why I've left this to last. So hopefully it'll make a little bit more sense um with other behavioural problems, and again, they tend to get dismissed as but dogs just chew things, that's just the way dogs are. And yes, dogs do chew things, chewing is a really normal behavior for dog, but chewing a non-food item, so your slipper, your skirting boards, the door, is not something we should dismiss as normal. Dogs don't want to eat something that isn't edible. Edible food is carrots, pig's ear, you know, like the steak, your food, they're edible items, like they are they are food items. Um, so when dogs do chew furniture or they tear apart har household items, I've seen again dogs destroy an entire sofa and drag it from one side of the room to the other while they slowly tear it to pieces. Like again, destruction of furniture is something that I get called out for a lot because you know, number one, we buy nice things in our house and we we like to keep them and they're they cost money and we've got to replace them. Um, number two, also when a dog does ingest them, it can actually have serious medical you know implications for them. We have to get their you know stomach pumped or induce vomiting, or you know, in serious cases actually have surgery. Um, you know, so it is really, really important. And I've seen some, I say the door, the sofa, what else is saying? I've seen skirting boards been ripped off completely. I it's an incredible the amount of destruction that can can take place. And when dogs do do that, or they eat even like the ether teddy bears, I say skirting boards, they ingest things that are not food. This is a behavioural issue known as pika. Um so pika is where dogs eat or ingest, so they've you know, actually, you know, not you know, they're chewing it or eating it, you know, they're actually swallowing it, inedible items. So that's again non-food items. So you know, I think we'd all agree that your sofa is not something that you want to eat, it is an inedible item. I see a lot of dogs where as you say they have destroyed so much in the house, or I can you know see them eat it as say, and having to explain to owners that no, dogs naturally don't want to eat things that are inedible, you know, because we sort of assume oh, but dogs dogs chew things. So when your dog is repeatedly chewing and ingesting a non-food item, it's an indication that there's something else going on, either from a health perspective, like behavior, their ethology, or their well-being, their emotional state. There's something else going on, and it may be that their needs are just not being fully met, it may be linked to stress, frustration, boredom, anxiety, gastrointestinal is a big one, um, and that makes sense because you know there's something going on, they've got an intolerance, or they're not comfortable in their gut, and they're trying to figure out something that's help, helping, or there's nutritional issues, or there could be some other underlying medical problem. And usually the two of them go together. There's something gastro, and then something that's something else going on. In a lot of cases, I also see this alongside coprophaggy. I know I spoke about this at the start of the podcast, and this is where a dog eats their own feces or the feces of other dogs, and again, when we see something like they're eating inedible items, again, poop is part of that too, you know, um, they're eating the sofa and they're they're drinking their own urine and eating poop, then you know, again, really kind of links to some kind of gastrointestinal tract. And it's one of the reasons I take this really seriously when I see Pika and destructive behaviours, because you know, it can also be linked to resource guarding. So, you know, if your dog picks up something or is eating an item, and that could be maybe a uh, you know, that could probably make them sick, so like you're you know, they're chewing on their teddy bear and they ripped all the stuffing out, and you're going, I need to take this off them because you know they could be sick and it might cause a blockage or require veterinary intervention, you naturally want to try and take those items away. The problem is, is for that for for that dog, it's become really important for them. So we keep trying to take it away. And if we don't address why they're eating it, if we just go, Oh no, you can't eat that, we keep taking it away. What happens is we keep repeating that, and then the dog starts to learn to guard that item, they run away with it, they swallow it quicker, they might growl or snap and protect it and become more defensive. And then on top of the destructive behaviours, the fact that we've got potentially like something more serious happens when they eat it, you know, we also then can get resource guarding, and that can be really hard. And then we've got several behavioural problems that we unpick. And a lot of the time, you know, yes, it's say if it's big items like as I say, I mentioned the sofa and the door and all the rest of it. People get me out for destructive behaviours, but you know, it does often happen that we're we're straight into a resource guarding issue, and if we walk it backwards, then we usually find out that yes, we've had these chewing, yes, they've been eating this, and you can see the train that it happens. So, you know, please don't think, oh, my dog just chews things that's fine. It does need to be investigated because it can escalate, you know, much sooner. And I've had dogs who get very, very, very good at resource guarding, like to the point where it's actually terrifying. Um, like when they will grab an item and within five seconds have lit they will gobble it down, and then we're you know, running to the vet to have to try and get um, you know, there's their their stomach induced vomiting and and stomach pumped. Um, and it is not a nice thing to have to do for your dog or for you. And I would say that again, if we go back to the research, again, remember you're in the the majority, like these these behaviours start to add up over time. You know, studies have shown that over 30% of dogs who engage in some form of destructive behaviour, you know, at some point in their lifetime. And this is this is adult dogs outside of you know puppyhood. I'm not talking about kind of your teething and all the rest of it. Again, you know, that we're talking about kind of adult um dogs. So just because it's common doesn't mean we need to ignore it because uh I want you to be very careful about kind of thinking, but dogs just chew things and leave it at that, you know. Yes, if a dog is chewing something and it's an edible item and an item that they're gonna eat and it's a lovely, you know, it's a carrot stick or a rabbit ear or a pig's ear or something nice that they're actually gonna eat and chew, fantastic. If it is not a food item, we need to investigate why that's happening and look for a better way to support them. And if we don't, the problem may continue, escalate to resource guarding, and we want to stop it from developing to resource guardian or a serious medical issue where the dog has to have surgery. So this is a very high-level sort of view of common behavioural issues. Um, you know, to be honest with you, each topic could be, you know, its own in its own right. And I I do have separate blogs and podcasts on separation anxiety and aggressive and fear-based behaviour, and I have nutrition ones that are available as well, you know. But there's one other thing that's popped into my head as well, um, and that is fears and phobias. Um, and I know I've already talked at length about like aggression and fear and anxiety and stuff, but this one in particular I get called out about as well is fear of certain sounds, you know. I think, you know, noises or sights or what we call stimuli, so like your fireworks, your thunderstorms, loud noises, sometimes it can be cars or inanimate objects. Um, you know, and a lot of it falls down into kind of like sound sensitivity, although I have seen it where you know it has been like just simple movements as well, particular types of cars, and so on and so forth. And I think a lot of people are familiar with dogs being afraid of fireworks, again, thunderstorms, loud noises, but fear and phobias also that are linked can also be linked to the separation related behaviours that we talked before, and also aggressive behaviors, but they kind of sit in this wider picture of like fear, stress, anxiety, you know, uh hyper-reactivity, and and they say there's a larger avoidance. Um, so some dogs might go and hide, they could tremble, they could pant, you know, breathing heavily, they might pace, bark, howl, try and escape, um, just become a little shut down or like clinging like that velcro dog, or refuse to go outside. Um, and they can be big and small reactions, like, and you know, every dog is different in this situation when it comes to fear and phobias because you know, phobias, you know, we sort of term phobias as unlike your kind of your general worries or your mild fears, a phobia feels a lot more intense and very presents very differently. Um, you know, so specific phobias like thunderstorms um or like fireworks, you know, can really escalate without support and behavioural modification. And this is not something that can be resolved simply by just waiting for the dog to get used to it or get over it. Um I've recently worked with, I say recently, in the last couple of years, um, it's it's an Irish recently, with with a client whose dog was terrified of a crow banger. Now, a crowbanger is basically used to scare crows off farmers' fields when they've laid but the seeds have been put down and it makes a big bang noise. It actually sounds like a cannon going off. They're awful. I really hate them. It's quite seasonal, um, but for some dogs can be obviously more affected by others. Now, in this case, the dog had become so frightened that wouldn't leave the house, would cower, you know, howl, cry, hid underneath, and last for days and weeks at a time. Um, and it was really overwhelming for the owner, it was really upsetting for the owner, like, and it wasn't we want something that we wanted to tackle. Now, this was a very slow and careful planned behaviour modification with support from the vet because this dog did have arthritis, and we do know that there's a link between xenophobia and some musculoskeletal issues, like arthritis, so that we could medicate that, but also do a tailored plan that started well before the crowbangers began their you know annual routine, so that when they started, we'd already put in place a lot of scaffolding to help him, but it didn't happen overnight, it did take preparation and management, multiple sessions, and setting him up for success before the season started again. So fears and phobias are a much longer, more complicated, you know, piece of the puzzle. So that's why you know it initially not had it on this list because it is quite complicated. Um, but it is really, really important to you know get an expert clinical behaviorist or like you know, an proper canine behaviors to investigate fears and phobias because they often are a lot more complex. So now I kind of want to talk about the why, because again, this is a question I get asked a lot, pretty much every every single case. Why is this behavior happening? And I totally get why people ask that, and there's usually two reasons why the owners want to know why. Um, and they're not always the same reason that I want to know why from a behavioural assessment perspective. But the first reason is that people want to know what caused the problem, right? And we talk about the blame aspect at the very chart of this. So they want to make sure that it never happens again, and they want to know the why because they're worried that again they were part of the problem, and they want to make sure that they don't repeat it. So I say it goes back to what I said at the start, you know, people often feel like they're to blame, you know, they feel like they've done something wrong, if they'd missed something, then it wouldn't have happened. You know, they want to know why caused the behavior or if they made it worse. And I can tell you from my own horse, cats, dogs, if we've ever had an issue, whether it's medical or something's gone wrong, I absolutely blame myself too. So, and you know, it is really normal. And I also want to know why. Why did this happen? What did I miss? What could I have done differently? And how do I make sure that I don't make that same mistake again? And honestly, even if you had all the information in the world, you'd probably just make all sorts of different mistakes. So try not to get too hung up on all of that because you can have all the knowledge in the world, and I have quite a lot of both knowledge and expertise. Um, and I can still make mistakes with my own animals. You know, we all do it, and then we what we do is we beat ourselves up and we wish we knew more, we wish we know it sooner and wish we'd done something differently, but that does not mean the problem is your fault. The second reason people want to know why is because that's also how our human brains work. We like answers, we like explanations, we like to understand why something has happened. And if any of you were like me in maths class in primary or secondary school, I always want to know why certain rules applied in algebra. Like I constantly annoyed my maths teacher going, like, why do we do that this way? Why does that work? Why, why, why? Um, and I never really accepted the answer of you know, well, that's just the way it's done. You know, I I hated that. I had to know the the ins and the outs. So as humans, we naturally try and understand a problem by asking why, and it is a really important question. But here's my big butt when it comes to behavior, why did this happen is almost the most isn't nearly it's not always the most useful question on its own. It's usually not the one thing I'm going in and asking. I, you know, when I'm doing an assessment. There are parts of why that's important, like if a dog is in pain, you know, or fearful or anxious or overstimulated or frustrated or their needs aren't being met, we do absolutely need to investigate. But the question I'm often more interested in is what factors are maintaining the behavior now, not the why, because it's not as useful as you think it is, but what is maintaining the behavior is more useful. So think about it from this perspective. If we if we have a dog with arthritis, and as a result, the dog is snapping and and biting um and doesn't want to be touched, you know. If we sit there and say, like, well, you know, we can go, okay, well, why is he snapping and biting? You know, oh, he has arthritis. But then if we go, why again? Why does he have arthritis? You know, well, there's a genetic disposition, you know, it's the type of breed he is. We did a lot of exercise when he was younger, now he's getting older. Why is not helpful there? But if I approach it from the dog is snapping and biting, what factors are maintaining the behaviour now? It doesn't want to be touched and handled. He's got arthritis. Okay, what's maintaining the pain for the arthritis? Okay, we need to medicate, we need to put rugs down. It gives you a better framework for being able to support the dog. It's a slightly different question, and it really does give us a better treatment plan. If we only ask why a behavior started, we may end up with an answer that doesn't help us support the dog in front of us. You know, we might say, as I say, it's genetics, it's because of early socialization, it's because of a bad experience when they're younger. Okay, we have the why now, even if that was correct. But those things may all be relevant to the dog, but they're not on their own, they don't necessarily tell us what to do next. So if we ask what's maintaining the behavior, then we start look at the current picture. What's keeping the behavior going? What's the dog learning? What are they avoiding? What are they gaining? What emotions are involved? Is there pain? Is there stress? You know, is there fear? Like, are there needs being met? Is the environment making this worse and maintaining it that way? Are we accidentally reinforcing it and maintaining it that way? And and critically again, is there a medical issue that hasn't been addressed that's maintaining it? And that gives us more useful information. And also notice how none of those questions are like, is it me? Am I the problem? You know, we're not again going, you know, did you cause this? It's like, no, something is maintaining it. And many behavioural issues stem from lots of different factors. Like, as I say, I know I talked about genetics, environment, pain, you know, all the other bits and pieces. But if we focus too narrowly on one why, we might, you know, miss the picture. So, like, if we say a dog's behavior is just genetics, that doesn't give us a useful plan. You know, I sometimes see this with like brachiocephalic dogs, like bulldogs, so that's um, you know, or pugs, you know, they have that shorter muzzle, and so we call it brachiocephalic breeds. And you know, if we have issues where they're struggling to breathe or communicate with the dogs because they're missing a lot of key muscles in their mouth that they would normally communicate with another dog, or they can't run as fast or they get out of breath, then we kind of shrug and go, oh, it's just their genetics, or it's just their confirmation. Um, but these dogs could still have have do still have real dental issues, breathing issues, skin issues, pain and discomfort that affects their behaviour. If we just stop at its genetics, then we miss all the ways that we could actually support them um through you know good dental hygiene, being able to, you know, give them more support, you know, moving, teaching them things. And I get that people really want a way to be able to say this happened because of that, but in reality, there's sometimes several things happening at once. It's one of the reasons it's so important to look at the whole. Picture of the dog. Dogs are intelligent, beautiful animals, and they do need appropriate mental and physical stimulation without enough activity and enrichment and outlets for normal behavior, they can get bored, they get frustrated, they become destructive, you know, barking, all the problems I've discussed. But if the whole answer is they're acting out because they're not getting exercised enough, then we increase the walks without looking any deeper, we can actually make the problem work. Worse. So again, if we have an arthritic dog, a dog with hip dysplasia looks like him tella, and then we think that the problem of the destruction is just that they're not being stimulated enough, we start exercising more, it's not going to solve the problem because we could actually exacerbate it because they've got something physical going on. So, yes, while they need that mental stimulation, might actually be more appropriate to do it in a quieter, simpler way. So it's really important to make sure that we actually figure out what's maintaining the behavior and not just make assumptions based on that one why. So that why behavior needs to really be viewed from a holistic perspective. We do not just want to know why something started, we want to understand what's maintaining it, what the dog is experiencing now, and what changes will genuinely help. So the other question I get a lot as well is how do I support my dog? And if you've gotten this far, you're looking for support, you know. So, with all due respect, the chances are if you're here, it's because there's a behavioral issue and you need support. And you know, please do contact me, reach out, you know, or have a look through some of the other materials I have available. There's blogs and you know, there's podcasts as well, and you can see if I'm the right person for me for you. And if I'm not the right person for you, please do find someone you know who has the appropriate credentials and ethos that fits with the way that you want to support your dog. But I often say to people, when you're choosing a behaviorist trainer, you are allowed to ask questions like absolutely what methods are you using? Ask what how those methods work, you know, ask why they work, ask you know, more than once if you need to. A good behaviorist or trainer will always be happy to explain the rationale behind what they do. They will be able to explain why they use ethical methods, just like I have today, how those methods support your dog, why we shouldn't use adversive methods, and they should be able to explain a plan moving forward and give realistic time frames. If someone's not willing to answer your questions or makes you feel like you've done something wrong, you know, or you feel it in your gut, just walk away. You know, you do not have to hand your dog over to an approach that makes you feel uncomfortable. And if you do find someone who's like that and they've made you feel uncomfortable, you can say stop and walk away at any time. You do not need to continue with that training. We know from the research that using compassionate science-based methods not only improves behavior but also supports the relationship between your dog. Most people don't just want the behavior to stop, they want to understand their dog, feel safe again, enjoy being around their dog again, and build a nice relationship with them. One of the key techniques that I use is positive reinforcement, which is a component of learning theory, and positive reinforcement focuses on rewarding the behaviors that we want to see repeated rather than shutting down dogs by stopping behaviors that we don't want. So we teach them what we'd like them to do instead of making you know behaviors more, you know, less likely to happen, we encourage the behaviors that we do want. That doesn't mean we ignore serious behavior, by the way, you know, and letting dogs do whatever they want. It's a form of training that promotes positive, you know, outcomes and supports the behavior that we do want. The research is very consistent that dogs trained with positive reinforcement are more likely to develop behaviors that we want to see and are less likely to show fear and anxiety linked to training. Because I work clinically and clinical behaviorists, my assessments always you know go beyond just the training and the behavioral assessment. I do look at the whole dog, I look at their movements, if there's any musculoskeletal issues, I work with your vet, I provide gate analysis, you know, I look at how the dog sits, moves, stands, turns, and their body, and if there's anything there, as well as the nutrition, the gastrointestinal health, any signs that the dog's body might not be coping, particularly if it's anything like resource guarding, separation-related behaviors, the pika, the coprophagia, the skin issues, everything that I talked about today. And supporting behavior is not just about walking your dog more and doing more obedience training. Dogs need appropriate physical activity, but they also need mental stimulation and enrichment, as well as good resting places and outlets for natural behavior. So the right kind of enrichment can really help prevent and reduce a lot of behavioural problems, but that needs to be realistic for the person as well as being helpful for the dog because not everybody has the time, energy, or capacity to set up an elaborate puzzle feeder or interactive, you know, toys or anything like that, and that's okay. And it's my job to tailor things for the individual dog and the individual household, and there are lots of ways to keep dogs engaged and meeting their needs and supporting their well-being and without having to try and make life more complicated. And when I'm working with fear and anxiety or phobias, I always use ethical techniques such as systematic desensitization and counterconditioning, which are highly effective and you know evidence-informed approaches for helping your dog. So, systematic desensitization involves gradually exposing a dog to something that they find difficult in a controlled and careful way without flooding them or pushing them over a threshold. And we start at a level that the dog is comfortable and can cope with, and then we slowly increase the challenge. Counterconditioning, on the other hand, is when we pair the presence of a trigger with something positive, so something you know we want to counter the previous conditioning, um, and we're trying to change the dog's emotional response. And systematic desensitization and counterconditioning tend to go you know hand in hand, and we often use them, you know, together. And the goal is not to force the dog to get over it, the goal is to help them feel safer and to build more appropriate responses over time. As I said before, because I'm a clinical animal behaviorist, I do primarily work on veterinary referral, and you know, I have a good working relationship with vets because that's very important as part of my approach to protect the welfare and the interests of the dog. It's also important that a lot of behavioural issues are tied up in medical issues, and if we suspect pain or discomfort, you know, the worst thing we can do is to try and just train through it. It's not fair on the dog, and it's not likely to give us any kind of lasting results. And in those cases, I will support my clients with communicating directly to the vet because I can explain what I'm seeing and you know raise any concerns and be able to speak to the vets in a language that they understand. And you know, that takes a lot of the pressure and then you know the noise and the confusion away from the owner, especially when people are really stressed anyway about something that's going on. So for me, just to sign off, I I really do understand how challenging behavioral issues can be. I don't want you to face them alone, and I don't want you to feel like you're to blame for them. You know, this may be your very first behavioral problem that you've had. I hear this all the time from clients, they say I've had dogs my whole life and this has never happened before. But I would say that this is not my first time seeing it, and this is what I do. I really do specialize in compassionate science-based methods, you know, that look at the real root cause of the dog's behavior and support the whole dog, you know, trying to create things for lasting change. You know, the aim, my aim is not just to stop the behavior, but my aim is to understand what's happening, support you and your dog properly, reduce the stress for everyone, and then just help you build that relationship that you want with your dog. I hope you enjoyed the podcast day. Um, guys, if you have any questions, you know, you're more than welcome to WhatsApp me or email me and if there's a topic that you want me to cover, um, either on a blog or a podcast. I'm always open to hear what you would like. Um, so until next time, um have a lovely day. Enjoy the rest of your day, whichever what the start of your day, whichever way it's happening. All the best. Bye bye bye.