The dog and fear in everyday life #2
As a dog owner, you have probably already seen situations that frightened your dog, and sometimes you have also been afraid for him.
Being afraid requires the intervention of subjective factors (“I have a bad feeling”, “something bad will happen to him again”) and real factors (“something unusual is happening”, “he is not as usual”).
Real or possible dangers
A dog's living environment is full of objects, individuals, and situations that can harm him, or at least worry him.
Each event in the past that resulted in a Strong emotion has been memorized, whether the emotion is negative like fear, or positive like pleasure.
Without knowing it, the dog memorized the circumstances, the places, the moments, the individuals present when he had experienced this negative emotion. Afterwards, each time the dog recognizes a situation, the memory of the emotion puts him on alert. Endangered items are stored first and foremost, which ensures their preservation.
Your dog may be afraid of a real danger such as a predator, a human who threatens him, or a dog bigger than him who attacks him.
He may also be afraid of something unusual or someone new and may not know how to react in this situation.
Each dog expresses fear in a personal way
To properly identify what scares your dog, it is interesting to identify and detect the signals he emits, associated with his emotion.
His barking is louder, he backs up, his ears are folded back, his tail is tucked under his belly, his rump is down.
When the dog is surprised, Fear invades him and his body produces automatic and involuntary responses : his eyes are wide, his pupils are dilated, his breathing quickens and he starts to tremble.
He may seem out of touch with reality and doesn't react when you talk to him.
Sometimes, during intense fear, the emotion is accompanied by the emission of urine or loose stools, and even the secretion of the anal glands.
If escape is impossible, in a closed situation, the dog can be threatening, or even aggressive without threat.
Not all dogs react the same way
Even before the real danger occurs, the dog is more attentive to what is around him. His breathing and heart rate are getting faster, his muscles are tense, ready to perform useful movements.
Like all emotions, fear is accompanied by changes in the body, all of which go in the same direction, with the aim of being able to survive by adapting to the environment.
The coping strategies of a frightened dog are multiple: escape the stimulus (flee), make the stimulus go away (fight), become more vigilant, wait for the situation to stop (to stop), tolerate/endure the situation.
