Some fears are abnormally intense compared to the real threat of the situation encountered by the dog. They follow a Event that traumatized the dog.
“Since being hospitalized, my dog no longer wants to go to the veterinary clinic. He shakes as soon as I turn around the corner, and he won't come in even though I just went there to buy his dewormer.”
Post-traumatic phobia explained by Claude Béata:
The trauma that leaves its mark
Specific elements — living beings, objects or particular situations — were remembered by the animal as being potentially dangerous, following a first encounter that it experienced as a negative experience. Because of this bad memory, he does everything to avoid them and therefore cannot learn that these elements are finally not harmful for him since he is no longer confronted with them directly.
Multiple causes
Post-traumatic phobias can appear at any age.
A traumatic event (or experienced as traumatic by the dog) is at the origin of the process: real abuse or just painful treatment; car accident or only motion sickness; gunshot very close or firecrackers at a distance...
Habituation or awareness
In his life, every dog is confronted with a large number of situations and encounters that are worrisome for him. The repetition of stimuli (encounters, contacts, etc.) can produce two types of evolution of its behavioral responses related to fear:
- Or his fear response gradually decreases in duration and amplitude and he ends up not reacting at all. This process is called habituation.
- Or on the contrary, his fear response gradually increases and has a tendency to settle. This phenomenon is called awareness-raising.
Habituation is more easily established if various factors are combined:
- The animal is young,
- The unknown stimulus is first encountered at low intensity,
- The dog can freely avoid contact with the stimulus,
- Contacts with the stimulus are repeated regularly.
Example: Most puppies are afraid of vacuum cleaner noise for the first few days after adoption. Exposed regularly, leaving them free to get away from it, they end up no longer reacting.
Sensitization is frequent if the new stimulus is presented immediately at a very high intensity. As soon as the dog is subsequently subjected to an equivalent situation (especially if this happens infrequently), he is very scared even though he is not threatened. He reacts violently to save his life when he is not in danger.
Vulnerability factors
Some dogs are more fragile and prone to phobias. Others have traumatic experiences and are able to calmly face a future situation that proves to be safe.
Many vulnerability factors are taken into account: genetics, the quality of the dog's attachment (to its mother for a puppy, to its owner for an adult dog), model behaviors of dogs and humans who live with it, and individual adaptive capacities.
The Jagger & Lewis collar accompanies you in case of phobia in your dog
- Our Jagger and Lewis collar detects behaviors that may be signs of phobia in your animal: its vocalizations (barking, whining), its gasps, the sudden change in its activity level, etc. The diagnosis can only be made by a veterinarian, but the data detected can help.
- You are notified by an alert as soon as a high level of stress is detected in your animal. This allows you to quickly know that your animal is in a particular emotional state, and to intervene effectively.
- If your veterinarian takes care of this condition, you can check the improvement of the symptoms over time.
