What can you do with a dog that is afraid of everything? Loud noises, objects, and people can be a real nightmare for our four-legged friends. A dog who is afraid of everything makes life difficult for his master but especially for himself. According to trainers, how can you help your dog overcome these fears about objects, people, or other animals?
How fear manifests itself in dogs
Understanding when the dog is scared is very intuitive, just watch it. When he feels in danger and uncomfortable, he has a retracted tail and an alert posture with tense muscles, usually lowers his head by bending it, and slowly averts his gaze and retracts the tail more.
The dog is afraid of an object, what to do
If your dog is afraid of an object, such as the watering can, you should never approach the object that scares him.
“Look, he’s not doing anything!” because all you will do is increase the dog’s negative emotion towards that object and increase his state of anxiety accordingly. Store the watering can nearby and let the dog approach it, to study it and understand if it is really dangerous or not.
The dog is afraid of noise, what to do
If the dog is afraid of a particular noise, for example cars, and you are walking on the sidewalk and a car passes by you, do not pay too much attention to the dog. Show yourself calm, take a relaxed posture, look at him out of the corner of your eye and when he begins to calm down, ask him for attention, if he looks at you say “Bravo” and offer him a reward.
The dog is afraid of another dog or a person, what to do
If the dog is afraid in the presence of another dog or a person, it may be due to poor socialization.
Do not pamper him or reward him with food, you risk reinforcing his behavior, communicating with him that he is right to be afraid. Instead, try to keep him calm, gain his trust, and then distract him from what scares him. The best method for this is food or play, thanks to which you can induce the animal to come closer and closer to what inspires fear.
Do not blame your dog when he is afraid, try to stay close to him and follow our suggestions, you will see that you will help him overcome all difficulties. If you don’t see improvement, get help from a dog trainer.
