Help Needed With Oscar "Freaking Out"...

Ok, so I have some issues with Oscar that I need some advice on, not really sure if I'm helping or hindering him tbh.

Oscar is very sensitive, now this conjours up a dog which is very quiet and unassuming, however Oscar likes to let people know about his "uncertanties" by shouting. Loudly!

Basically he appears to be very reactive to certain things and anything he's unsure of, or finds frightening he barks at. This is fine, as long as people are dog savvy. Sadly many aren't, even those who own dogs! A lot of people take Oscar's noise as aggression and move on swiftly, which sadly doesn't help me as he's thus managing to reinforce his own behaviour.

So my question is what do I do? I initially hoped he'd grow out of it once the testosterone kicked in and he has become much better, but we still have days when he reverts back to "freaking out". It's very difficult to work out what he's going to react to as he doesn't appear to follow a pattern (eg he freaked at a female jogger in a flourescent jacket, then later we came across another and he paid no attention to him). It's also making it difficult to take him places as I can't guarantee he'll behave.

I initially thought it'd be good to try and socialise him and get him used to different things to stop him being frightened, however I am now wondering if it's making him worse by making him more frightened.

Do I continue to work on it, or just let it go for a while?

Any questions or more info wanted please ask, I'm a bit stumped if I'm honest.

Bo went through a period of being a bit scatty. She is highly strung and sensitive by nature though, so I think partly some scattiness is normal for the breed...I'm guessing HWV's aren't too dissimilar in temperament.

What I did with Bo was to persistently take her walking through busy areas. I got into the very bad habit at the beginning of being lazy and using the car for walks, etc. I ditched that and began doing a trip or two through our (very) busy village either before or after a walk to desensitize her to all the comings and goings, which worked. Now she is TOO confident and would love nothing more than to place her muddy paws all over everything.

I blame myself entirely, I was so busy with work and moving house when he was a pup I didn't really socialise him enough. That said, he only really started doing this from about 4-5 months old.

The trouble with Oscar is I get the impression that he's learning to make a lot of noise as when he does this people generally go away. The question is, do I continue and hope he just becomes desensitised, or leave it?

Perhaps I should train the "watch me" command? Trouble is once he's gone, he's gone as they say!

I wouldn't leave it as potentially he'll be spooky and reactive for life. He is still young and impressionable, so hardly a lost cause just yet.

Do you walk through busy areas often? when they start realizing that not everyone in hats/jackets/wheelchairs/with beards/walking sticks, etc., etc., is not out to get them (through exposure) they tend to just accept it. If on the other hand they only see one of those 'odd' things once in a blue moon, obviously it is worth making a fuss over.

I agree.... I'd start doing the 'puppy' socialisation all over again, no matter how old he is.

Problem is, it's so self-rewarding, isn't it! Max and Murphy bark at our gate when people walk past, and of course, they carry on walking, so M&M think their barking has got rid of them

If you can get hold of stuff like hi-vis jackets, hats, brollies etc and get a friend/family member to assist you in wearing them, or wear them yourself. We introduced M&M to brollies by putting a brolly up, and then laying it on the patio for them to look round. Similarly, we borrowed an empty buggy and let them get used to it.

They used to freak out at skateboards (and the clack-clack noise they often make), so I spent about a week hanging out with local kids skateboarding around, just treating them when they didn't bark/growl etc. Eventually, the kids could whizz past and they weren't bothered.

You have to train it so it becomes a reflex. I taught it intensively like you do when conditioning to a whistle or a clicker - so it becomes what they do. And always treat using high quality rewards.
I started in the house, then outside but until the behaviour was established never when the dog was likely to ignore it.
Another good strategy is to turn round and walk away. . Calmly, not saying anything. When the dog calms down, praise. You are giving the dog another way to cope - to follow you to safety.
But it does take months, not weeks.

You could try using a clicker to reward him when he doesn't do these behaviours. I am doing this with Dandy at the moment. I have to keep him on a long line when we are out as he barks at joggers, people wearing hi viz, people who are walking without dogs etc. etc. and he gets a click and treat when he doesn't react. It seems to be working very well. He gets rewarded for meeting new people too. I have the same problem as you, I find it difficult to find dog savvy people who can help by not being in his face and not running away! lol! Focus on what he is doing right, rather than what he is doing wrong, otherwise he may pick up tension from you whilst you are waiting for his next 'moment'.

Hi-vis stuff does seem to freak dogs out....

Funny story....

When Murphy was tiny and at puppy class, the instructor came in the room and conducted the class in a hi-vis coat. All the other puppies were terrified, except Murphy!

He bounced around the instructor, all excited, and waiting for a treat. No-one (except me) could understand why he wasn't terrified.

Eventually, I had to come clean....
My hubby was working 'on site' at the time, and used to come home from work in his hi-vis coat.... so of course, Murphy got all excited, assuming anyone in a HV coat was his daddy and went over for a treat!

I agree that you would be as well to start doing something about Oscar's behaviour now, as it could well escalate. However there seems to be a bit of confusion about the meanings of "desensitisation" "habituation" & "socialisation" in the learning theory context of dog training & behaviour.

Socialisation is the process by which an animal learns to recognise & interact with its own species, & for domestic pets, with humans. It learns how to communicate with them & the "language" of the other species.

"Habituation" is the process by which animals become accustomed to the environmental stimuli that they are likely to meet in everyday life & learn to ignore them because they are everyday occurrences that do not predict anything else happening, or are things that the animal cannot manipulate by its own behaviour. Examples would be buses, trains, cows in a field etc. The process of habituation occurs solely because these stimuli are not precursors of anything good or bad happening.

"Desensitisation" is the opposite of sensitisation. It is a process by which an animal learns that stimuli that used to provoke a fear response ~ i.e. the flight/fight/freeze response, are no longer frightening.

They are very different concepts in learning theory but very easy to get confused. So if you have a dog that is already fearful & reactive to certain things, it is no use going down the habituation or socialisation route, this is only likely to make matters worse. Imagine you are frightened of spiders but someone keeps shutting you in a room full of spiders!! It is likely to provoke a huge fear reaction, particularly if you don't know why they keep doing this to you. After a short time, even just the sight of that someone coming towards you is likely to invoke all the physiology involved in the flight/fight/freeze reaction ~
& all this happens without even a spider in sight"! Eventually you might just give up trying to avoid that person or the spiders, because you know that there is nothing you can do to stop the spiders appearing ~ but this doesn't mean that the fear has gone. This can be called "flooding" & the apparently non-responsive dog would be in a condition called learned helplessness ~ not a very nice position to be in . And in any case, would you, as an owner, want to be the person associated with all those horrible feelings of fear?

If you want to modify a dog's physiological & emotional response to fear-inducing stimuli, you need to use the technique of desensitisation. This is not easy to get right ~ it is not a case of just exposing a dog to the stimuli that cause the fear & saying "there, there, it's nothing to be frightened of". Any exposure must be done in a way that does not invoke a fearful response, either emotionally or physiologically. So the fearful stimuli must be at a distance at which the dog doesn't react fearfully. You can then use the clicker & treat method (positive reinforcement) to reward non-fearful behaviour. Then you gradually bring the dog closer to the particular stimuli, still clicking & treating for a non-fearful response. But you also have to be aware of many other things happening in the desensitisation process such as something else overshadows the stimulus that you are trying to desensitise the dog to, e.g. the treat itself, or a person or dog you haven't noticed, or the scent of a rabbit! You also have to be aware that desensitisation is context-specific, so whilst your dog may not react to a jogger in your local park, it could still react to a jogger somewhere else. You also have to be aware of your dog's emotional & physiological state during the process. There's no point in trying to desensitise a dog to something when it's already hyped up & aroused by, for example, an exciting game of rough & tumble with it's best friend, or the anticipation of a visitor, or that someone's in the kitchen preparing dinner! You have to pick & choose both the times & the contexts in which you carry out the desensitisation to ensure that your dog is capable of learning from the process.

There are many good books out there such as "Don't Shoot the Dog" by Karen Pryor" or "Excel-erated Learning" by Pamela Reid that explain these concepts much better than I can. I can highly recommend them as an investment for anyone training their dog or trying to modify behaviour.

I'll be honest, I do tend to avoid people especially on weekends as I've learnt through bitter experience that most of the general public are idiots! Especially when it comes to dogs!

I'm off these next two weeks so I'll make an effort to walk into town I think and perhaps sit outside some shops with him. I'm gonna get a reputation I think!

Yes it is very self rewarding, that's the main problem. Oscar makes a noise, people disappear! Problem solved from Oscar's point of view!

What makes it more difficult is that he's so unpredicable. These last few weeks he's been really good and I thought we were half way to cracking it, then yesterday I took him to a local tourist spot for a nice walk and he freaked out several times. I think like someone else has said, once he's reacted to something he becomes more reactive emotionally and then he's gone as it were. Yesterday right at the begininng of the walk Oscar freaked as some idiot came flying past us with his family and young Dalmatian shouting and waving his arms. Obviously they were only messing about, but as Oscar was down a cliff and the family were up above him he freaked. Understandably really cos it gave me a fright! After that I don't think he recovered and spent the rest of the walk "worrying" and as such reacting to every little thing.

Right, gotcha! So almost like it's an instinct? That shouldn't be too much of a problem, I might try that. Thanks.

How is your dog with people, if you don't mind me asking? Oscar has never been keen and I think he picks up very easily on people that are either afraid of him or don't like dogs in general.

The first time he freaked out at a person was a couple of weeks ago along a river bank where he'd had bad experiences with dogs. This person was jogging quite happily until she saw Oscar. Oscar has a habit of staring right at people and instead of ignoring him and jogging past him she stopped right infront of him, stared right back at him with her hands held up against her face. Of course Oscar freaked out, but I do wonder why? Did he sense she was frightened, or was it more because she was staring at him?

I'll definitely consider the clicker as I think Oscar would do well with this, me on the other hand.......

Ha ha, very good!

I'll make Hi-vis my new fashion accessory!

Some very interesting points there and they do make sense. I'll certainly keep it in mind re desensitisation. I'm thinking of taking Oscar to a local supermarket to get him used to different people etc. What you're basically saying is I should start at a distance where Oscar is comfortable and move closer gradually?

He always seems much better when Rossi is with him as he's super friendly and will go to anyone for a treat/stroke. Would this be a good or bad idea do you think?