From a young age I was heavily exposed to creepy crawly things, including wild snakes, even being brave enough to hold the poisonous ones! I also enjoyed exploring far away places with my parents, which involved a lot of travel by plane (No, this is not a reference to that awful movie). 🐍 ✈️
As an adult, I now get sweaty palms and heart palpitations when I fly, and a stick that mildly resembles a snake will make me jump. I still tolerate flying and also being around snakes (I actually have a lot of respect for snakes), but they definitely can cause me to experience a startled physiological fear response. Before you ask, no, I have never had a bad experience with either of the above.
Now let’s talk about dogs and early socialization to new people, places and things, keeping my story in mind. Behaviourists, trainers, and veterinarians are stressing how important this is for your puppy in order to prevent fears, phobias and aggression, and I whole-heartedly agree with this stance. However, on multiple occasions I have met families who have done all of the right things with their dog - attended puppy and obedience classes, along with taking their pups on outings where they complete a socialization checklist ensuring that the pup has only positive experiences... and the dog STILL develops fear, phobias, or even aggression issues. It is especially profound to the human when a puppy has had a history of showing no signs of stress around certain object or person, and exhibited playful behaviours, only to one day decide that they were no longer a fan, even with no history of traumatic experiences (see how this kind of ties into my nervousness around snakes and flying).
Sometimes nature and genetics just win. This is not to discourage the guardian of a fearful or difficult dog, but in some cases all of the right training and behaviour modification will only go so far. It is important for us as humans to understand this so that we can respect our animals and their complexities, realizing that we must be careful when changing behaviour not to create more problems.
Yes, still take your puppy to socialization classes, and please seek out help from a qualified trainer if your dog develops a behaviour issue, because this can make a huge difference in how your dog learns to assess a possible threat. Just don’t beat yourself up for trying everything in your power to change your dog’s behaviour and they are still not perfect. We aren’t perfect either. This message comes to you from a trainer who has been through it all with her dog, this dog still not even being close to perfect, but she loves him with her whole heart anyway. ❤️
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