Doggie Phobias

I recently had a new doggie client with a bad phobia of unknown objects, to the point where the dog wouldn’t approach the owner if she was holding something, even after the owner put the object down. I asked the owner if the dog was fed his meals out of a bowl. “Of course,” the owner replied. What a waste, I thought! This is the perfect opportunity to show the dog that objects can be opportunities!

Luckily this dog is very food motivated, so I told the owner to buy a hollow toy that can be stuffed with food. Fill the toy with high-value food the dog doesn’t usually get and put the toy near the bowl with his usual meal. The dog was wary of the new toy; he approached the bowl hesitantly, but ate his meal. After he finished eating, he smelled the food in the toy. He warily approached the toy… and discovered a pork chop! It was love at first sight. After that first great experience, we only fed him from that toy for a while. We got it up to the point where the dog got excited when the owner was holding the toy. And then we repeated the process.

This time, we chose a big mixing bowl. We filled his toy with his usual food and put shredded chicken in the bowl on the floor nearby. Same process – the dog ate his meal and then eyed the bowl suspiciously. Eventually he built up the courage to approach the bowl and eat the chicken, and the process went quicker this time. Then we began feeding his meals out of either his food toy or that particular bowl. When the dog got excited when the owner picked up the bowl, we moved on.

This time we chose a shoebox. Same process, only quicker.

Then we began feeding him out of a small garbage can tipped on its side. Then we stacked plastic containers with food hidden in between them and let him explore the tower, tear it apart, and get all the treats inside. We placed a closed umbrella on the floor and hid bits of pork chop in between the folds, and eventually opened the umbrella, placed it upside down on the floor, and put the food inside. By this time, the dog was no longer afraid of new objects on the floor and very quickly acclimated to the owner picking up objects!