At one time in our lives, we’ve all experienced fear, whether it’s through being in a truly dangerous situation such as a road traffic collision or as a child afraid of the dark and we can all remember how that felt. Fear is fundamental to the survival of all mammals and without the ability to feel fear, many would not survive to create the next generation. Fear keeps us safe.
We all know what fear looks like in humans, we recognise it instinctively as this information allows us to increase our own alertness and readiness to act. If we see that someone is afraid, in our primitive brains it means there is a higher chance of danger being present.
What about our dogs? How easily can we recognise when they are afraid? A study last year
found that that many owners are underestimating fearfulness and anxiety in their dogs. More concerning is that a large proportion reacted with amusement at the dog’s displays of fearfulness or defensiveness (Grigg et al., 2021). Another study found that, unsurprisingly, dog professionals were much more able to recognise fearful behaviour than dog guardians due to the time spent studying dog communication. (Wan et al., 2012)
Most people know that a dog with his tail between his legs, making his body as small as possible and/or hiding is scared. Some people are unaware this isn’t just a scared or worried dog, this is a terrified dog. This is a dog who truly fears for his life. The dog who barks and lunges may well be feeling the very same fear as that dog with his tail between his legs, but displaying the fear in a different way. Both dogs are truly afraid.
Photo by David Karp on Unsplash
Prior to a dog reaching this stage of fear, there are many other more subtle signs. These are easier to miss but are crucial to understanding that your dog is scared and it’s time to do something about it. Fears are much easier to overcome when they are mild and helping a dog overcome them early can prevent them developing into displays of barking and lunging or fears which affect the dog's quality of life.
Avoidant behaviour: this is often incorrectly viewed as being stubborn, for instance when a dog is out on a walk and refuses to walk in a certain direction or takes a circuitous route around a person, animal or object. This may also be accompanied by ‘displacement behaviours’ where a dog suddenly begins scratching, sniffing or other behaviours which appear out of context.
Panting, drooling and licking the lips or nose are all symptoms of fear, although as they are often associated with other things, such as eating or being hot, they are often dismissed. If your dog is not hot or been doing heavy physical exercise, has not just eaten and isn’t normally a drooler, there is a good chance that he is experiencing fear or stress.
Fear in dogs is not always taken seriously. We know there is nothing to be afraid of so they’ll just get over it once they realise it’s not scary, right? Sadly, no. Dogs cannot rationalise their fears the same way humans can. They don’t know that the vacuum cleaner isn’t dangerous or that the man walking towards them isn’t about to attack them. To the dog, it’s very real. We can’t expect our dogs to face their fear, and in attempting to do so we often make it worse.
It's time we all learnt to recognise early signs of fear and understood that, for our dogs, the fears are real whether it makes sense to us or not. If a small child is afraid of something we don't laugh at them or make them stand next to the scary thing until they "get used to it" so we should afford our dogs the same consideration.
Understanding that your dog is afraid and learning how to help them through it ethically and kindly will increase their quality of life immeasurably. Thinking of a dog who lives his life in fear conjures up images of dogs being abused and hit but many dogs live their lives in fear with loving owners who would never dream of frightening or hitting their dog. It is simply that they don’t realise. Every dog professional has, at the start of their journey, been in the position where they didn’t know the many different ways fear can show. Myself included. When we know better, we can do better and your dog deserves it!
References:
Grigg, E.K., Chou, J., Parker, E., Gatesy-Davis, A., Clarkson, S.T., Hart, L.A., 2021. Stress-Related Behaviors in Companion Dogs Exposed to Common Household Noises, and Owners’ Interpretations of Their Dogs’ Behaviors. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2021.760845
Wan, M., Bolger, N., Champagne, F.A., 2012. Human Perception of Fear in Dogs Varies According to Experience with Dogs. PLoS ONE 7, e51775. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0051775
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