A kong & the very scary thing...

We have a lot of dog stuff in our house and so far Soos has been unsure of a lot of it.  Clearly this sweet boy isn't aware of how much fun all the stuff can be.

 

Since Soos is very food motivated, I decided to put a little bit of canned food in the kong.  I made sure to rub it as close to the large opening as possible.  This way he would be able to easily self reward.

 

You can tell by his body language he's not sure of this things



Soos catches the scent of the food



Jackpot!!!  "That was tasty"

 

But then, he remember the really scary thing is right over there...



Notice the lifting of the paw - this is an appeasement gesture. Soos does this when he's unsure or nervous



His tail is also tucked



And this is why I describe Soos as curious but cautious...
Soos is choosing to move closer to the scary thing. I am not luring him with food, he is making this choice on his own.



Now granted I am on the scary thing but, I'm not calling him so again he is making the choice to come over

So what's the scary thing?

 

The stairs!

 

With a dog that is fearful of anything you do not want to push them to "get over" their fear of the scary thing.  Think about this for you: do you have something you are scared of? How would you like it if someone forced you to face that fear dead on. Would you be over your fear?  I doubt it.  In fact you might become even more fearful.

 

With Soos we are just ignoring the stairs for now.  We do see him on a pretty regular basis walk over and stare down at the stairs.  So again, a curious boy and I am rewarding him for being curious with a treat.  What I mean by that is that if he walks over anywhere close to the stairs or if he turns his head in the direction of the stairs  - I toss a treat his way.  Again I'm reinforcing the behavior I want - the behavior I'm wanting is his curiosity of the stairs.

 

If we need him to go up or down them we pick him up and carry him.  We are moving at Soos' pace.  He sees Catty and D'light using the stairs and as he relaxes and builds some confidence, I'm guessing he will master the stairs.

 

Here's a great link with descriptors, pictures and video of dog  calming-signals