Fear of Thunderstorms and Counter Conditioning
By LukEli K-9, Dog Training and Behavior Modification Professionals
As I sat down to today in our newly finished office space
(yay!) to begin working on training plans, returning emails, and other really
fun office things (not), Luke, my black lab mix, as usual accompanied me into
the room. He normally follows me and immediately gets comfortable beside me on the
floor as I work. He has a nice little nook beside the desk with a big
fluffy bed all to himself, which he thoroughly enjoys. The office is off limits
unless we are in there and the other three dogs don’t see what Luke finds so
fascinating about being in the office anyway.
Today, for some reason, Luke did not follow me in and begin
to get comfortable on his bed. Instead, he continually tried to offer me some
of his toys. It took me some time to figure out what the problem was. Why
wouldn’t he be still? Why on earth did he keep trying to get me to play with
him? He has had lots of practice and knows the desk means work. Mom doesn’t
play when she’s at the desk. It
hit me what he was doing as I looked up from my work out the window into the torrential
rainstorm raging outside.
Don’t tell Luke I let you in on his weakness, as he is “the
tough guy” of the group, but he does have a little anxiety when it comes to storms.
You may only think dogs get uncomfortable with thunderstorms because of the
noise thunder makes. While this is a very accurate statement, some dogs have
negative associations about the sound of rain hitting the roof, the way the
wind makes things move around uncontrollably, or maybe even the weird way the
ground feels when it gets wet. To dogs, all these sounds and changes are
associated with something they don’t like, the sound of thunder.
Some clients seeking our help with their dogs thunderstorm
anxiety jokingly make the statement that their dogs can “sense” a storm coming and
begin to hide or act fearful hours before a storm hits. Dogs senses, as I’m
sure you know, are more in tune so to speak than ours are; whether it’s the
barometric change of the air or the smell of an imminent storm, dogs do have
the ability to sense when a “storms a brewin’”, thus creating a negative
fearful feeling when just the thought of a thunderstorm is present. This reaction
to a stimuli that develops is known as a Conditioned Emotional Response.
Let me explain what a Conditioned Emotional Response, or CER
, is before I go into how to modify it. Around 1920 during the early days of
learning theory developmental studies, before there were rules protecting
children and adults from being used as test subjects, there was an experiment
done on CER’s using a white rat and a little boy named Albert.
Albert started out as a normal 11-month-old child, whom had
no fear of rats. During the course of the experiment, little Albert was shown a
white rat and a very loud noise was sounded. The noise would cause Albert to
startle and feel fear. After a few pairings of the appearance of the rat and
the loud noise, just the sight of the rat would cause Albert to feel anxiety
and fear. Soon even the sight of a dog, a rabbit, or a wool coat would cause
the same reactions to Albert. Nothing of the sort caused any negative reactions
before the experiment; Albert’s reactions are an example of a Conditioned
Emotional Response. Many fear responses in dogs or created in this manner and
are some of the toughest behaviors to extinct.
This study may also help you to understand why even storms
or just rain showers with no thunder associated with them will sometimes cause
your dog to become anxious or fearful. When Albert was shown the coat or the
dog the loud frightening noise was not present. However because the coat and
the rat where very similar (both white and fluffy), it elicited the same
emotional feelings. So in regards to your dogs feelings of fear when they hear rain
on the roof or feel changes in the air, usually followed by the sound of
thunder, all things that happen during a thunderstorm now bring out a fear
response.
So what can we do as pet parents to help our dog overcome
some of theses negative feelings associated with thunderstorms? The most
effective way to change CER’s is to help your dog create positive associations
with all the things that accompany thunderstorms as closely as you can
approximate; this is done through counter conditioning.
Counter conditioning is about taking something with a
negative, fearful association like thunderstorms, and changing the association
to that of a positive pleasant situation. To apply this idea of counter
conditioning to your dog and thunderstorms, wait until you know there is a
storm approaching, go outside (if it is safe to do so) and play fetch with your
dog and his favorite toy. Or give him a special toy he only is allowed to play
with when there is an approaching storm. You have just changed his negative
association of approaching storm means scary, loud noises, to approaching storm
means I get my favorite toy.
Another counter conditioning option you can try is to have
some favorite treats readily available during a storm. Each time you hear a thunder
boom give your dog a treat. This may sound silly, but this causes the same
reactions in a dog’s brain as using a clicker for training purposes does. You
have now made the big bad scary sound of thunder into an automatic treat
dispenser. Just be careful to step down to a variable reinforcement schedule
after your dog starts to make positive associations with thunder. (I promise we
will have a blog soon about reinforcement schedules.)
I know what your thinking, yes, this type of training does
take some time and effort on your part. Thunder jackets, soothing music etc.,
are all very simple easy solutions to dogs with thunderstorm anxieties, and in
some cases I do not doubt that they help dogs feel more comfortable. Counter conditioning,
however is the only scientific method of learning that can and will change your
dogs associations with a negative stimulus like thunder.
So, remember my dog Luke who kept bringing me a toy during
the storm today?
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| Luke on his bed in the office. |
* Remember every dog is different and greatly benefits from individualized training plans. Some dogs may require more intensive behavior modification approaches than others. Don't hesitate to enlist the help of a canine behavior modification professional to reach your goals.
thanks for the ideas...will try on Izzy next storm
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