Dear Inquisitive Canine,
Q. I have a small dog that is easily triggered by young children, the noise of children playing nearby, and sometimes even places that children frequent (i.e., parks, trails, playgrounds).
She will respond by being hesitant and showing signs of anxiety when we arrive in those settings.
And when seeing or hearing children, especially a bunch of them making their natural happy noises, she starts barking and pulling on her leash and harness toward them, which startles and sometimes injures or trips me during a walk.
Most important, it startles and scares others around me, which I feel awful about. If a random playful child runs up to her in a public space, she will sometimes tuck her tail and run in the opposite direction squealing.
I’m being careful to only use positive reinforcement so as not to increase unwanted or aggressive behaviors.
I adopted her as a puppy right before the COVID-19 pandemic, so unfortunately, during her formative months and years, I didn’t have the ability to give her as many early socialization experiences — around kids of all ages — as I would have liked.
So, now my goal is to improve her experience of going outdoors/on walks and/or being near children with manageable levels of anxiety.
While I do my best to train my dog, I want to make sure people in my community, especially the young children, are safe, and can feel safe, around her.
How can I correct these behaviors? Any advice you have, or resources you can point me to, would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you.
— Nicole
A: Dear Nicole,
Thank you for being an inquisitive dog guardian! And, bravo to you for taking a compassionate approach to helping your dog overcome her fears.
It’s obvious you understand that she is experiencing an involuntary emotional reaction, as opposed to doing something wrong or being naughty.
I appreciate your level of awareness regarding your dog’s sensitivity around children. For some initial advice and resources, you may want to look through previous Dear Inquisitive Canine columns for tips on desensitizing dogs to various triggers.
The process is very similar when it comes to helping dogs become more comfortable around any of the triggers they might fear.
You’re on the right track when it comes to the importance of socialization that consists of positive and pleasant experiences and slowly exposing your little dog to the sights and sounds of children.
But, since she’s still responding with signs of fear and stress, you’ll want to make it even easier for her — and you.
First, create a list of all variables, as you’ll want to go through the training steps separately with each one: the number of children, the activity of the children, the distance of the children, the location of you and your dog (familiar versus unknown), and the activity of your dog (staying in one area versus walking).
Once you have an idea of the who, what, where of your training, you can start implementing training steps.
A simple step you could start with is just giving her a little piece of chicken (or steak), or other high value food, whenever she alerts to the trigger.
Keep enough distance between her and the trigger where she communicates that she knows the trigger is around but her tail isn’t tucked. (The goal is to keep her under her threshold level.)
You could follow this by moving into a quiet location your dog is comfortable and where children might be more mellow.
Repeat this type of exercise until your dog is displaying body language and vocal communication indicating that she is comfortable. Then move on to children making noises and playing, but being out of her eyesight, then to her being able to see them, from a distance, maybe when they are being stationary initially, then playing.
You want to build your dog’s confidence and change her perception of how she experiences her previous triggers.
Keep in mind that slow and steady wins the race here. Key points are observing your dog’s body language, keeping her under threshold, using high value treats to create a positive conditioned response, and managing the environment to help protect your dog from negative situations.