What is Stopping You?

 What’s Stopping You from Training With Your Dog?

Let’s have an honest heart-to-heart. You love your dog. You want them to feel safe, calm, and happy. But something’s getting in the way of taking that next step—committing to a training plan, reaching out for help, or simply believing that things can get better.

You’re not alone. Here are three of the most common reasons people hesitate—and why it’s okay to feel this way.

1. "What if I do all this work and my dog still scares people?"

You’re worried that despite your best efforts, your dog will always bark at strangers, lunge at other dogs, or cower at every unexpected sound. That fear is so valid. Especially if you’ve already put in hours of training and still feel stuck.

But here’s the truth: Progress isn’t always linear. Sometimes it’s slow. Sometimes it’s invisible for a while. And sometimes it’s not about the end goal of having a “perfect” dog—it’s about building trust, communication, and resilience together.

Fearful dogs aren’t trying to be difficult. They’re overwhelmed. And every moment you spend showing them the world is a little safer than they thought—it counts.

Want some community support from other dog owners who get it?

Join the Helping Fearful Dogs Feel Safe Facebook Group

When working with fearful dogs, one of the most powerful lessons we can teach them is this: you’re allowed to move away from what scares you. Rather than reacting with barking, lunging, or other stress signals, dogs can learn that they have choices and that choosing space is always okay.

Too often, dog owners unknowingly force fearful dogs into uncomfortable situations. Whether it’s a stranger reaching out to pet them or being led too close to a trigger, these moments can intensify fear. Instead, our goal should be to support the dog’s emotional safety by empowering them with options.

At Crazy 2 Calm Canine Coaches we use the Trauma Informed approach to dog training using the training triangle taking care of the needs of the dog owner, the dog, and the trainer by working together.

2. "It’s going to take too long."

We live in a quick-fix world. When a behavior issue crops up, we want it solved yesterday. So it’s frustrating to hear that real progress—especially with fear-based or complex behaviors, might take weeks or even months.

But here's the shift: training isn’t a chore, it’s a relationship. It's learning to understand each other. It’s tiny wins—like a soft gaze, a relaxed body, a tail wag—in situations that used to be overwhelming.

And yes, it takes time. But so do all the best things in life.

What to learn how to develop Confidence in your dog?

Check out the Confidence Canines Collection on Patreon

Some trainers will promise you a quick fix! Try this tool or punish your dog for acting that way. At Yooper Paws of Love we don't make promises on the amount of time it takes to train your dog. That's because your dog is just as unique as you! Every human and dog team progresses at their own rate. Our goal is to help you learn how to make simple changes in your dog's day-to-day that set them (and you) up for success. Then we can look at teaching the dog to do more of the behaviors you love, naturally reducing the behaviors you would like to go away. Everything we do is based on teamwork!

3. "It’s my fault."

Maybe someone told you that you “spoiled” your dog. Or that you “let them get away with too much.” Maybe you’re blaming yourself for not starting sooner, or for making mistakes along the way.

Let’s stop right there: Guilt is a heavy weight to carry, and it doesn’t belong in your training journey.

Dogs aren't keeping score. They’re learning in the now. And you’re showing up now. That’s what matters.

We all know and have felt the judgement or the disapproving eye of another human who doesn't like the way we are training our dog, walking our dog, or doing enrichment activities with our dog. Even when sometimes the feeling of being judged is only in our mind. But here is the thing, we can't control what other people think any more than we can control what they do. So let's forget a moment that people can be cruel and instead focus on the kindness of those trying to help us.

What's most important to your dog is that you spend TIME with them. They can easily forget about the simple mistakes we make on any given day. What they remember is how we made them feel! And let's face it, that's what we remember most about our dogs too. So let's just spend a bit more time "feeling" together as a team.

Take a Breath!

Fearful dogs are not broken. They're not “bad,” and they’re not too far gone. They're sensitive, overwhelmed, and trying their best to navigate a confusing world.

With the right support—gentle, ethical, and relationship-centered support—they can build confidence. And so can you.

So... what’s stopping you?

Let’s make space for hope. Let’s take the first step—together.

Visit the "Fearful & Fizzy Dog Training" tab on our website to get started on the path to helping your dog.

Games Help Distracted & Fearful Dogs

Games Help Distracted Dogs

These 3 dogs (Azul, Roz, & Maverick) are all Service Dogs which means they need to be able to focus on the job no matter what is happening around them. Many dogs are easily distracted in the presence of other dogs. Games such in this picture can help dogs learn to focus around distractions. This is a calming game to help the dogs relax after a play session. Their job is to stay on their station and listen for their name to be called to release them. It may sound simple, but it's not easy for dogs that were just racing around.

Games can be set up differently depending on your overall goal. You can set up something with lots of movement if you want to get your dog responding to cues more rapidly or your can set up something with very little movement if you want your dog to calm down. For dogs that struggle with rebounding after something really exciting or fearful, you can design games that start fast and slowly switch tracks to calmer, slower activities.

Often people get stuck on thinking a dog will rest when they get tired, then give dogs more exercise when bad behaviors start to happen. Sometimes a puppy chewing on your shoes needs a walk or play time, but sometimes that puppy chewing on your shoes really needs a nap but does know yet how to settle. Just like children, dog's do not come pre-installed with an off switch. Thankfully games can be used to help teach a dog calming behaviors that they can do without destroying the house. You wouldn't go on a roller coaster or something really exciting that gets your adrenaline up, then simply lay down for a nap. It's not really fair to expect our dogs to do that on their own either.

As in the picture above, the dogs became really aroused or excited by playing with each other. They played roughly 20 minutes in the Go-Go-Go mindset. When they'd had enough, they came to me for human interaction. All 3 dogs followed me around the Training Center while I gathered the stations. This took them from a running state of adrenaline rush down to a slower but still moving state of mind. Once the stations were set up, they all chose their own station. I started with simply asking them all to come to me for a treat, then get on a station for a treat, having them all move back forth. Then we slowly transitioned to everyone holding their position until their name was called to come get a treat and return to their station. All of this was taught with previous games starting with 1 dog at a time.

This brings me to another point in why we need to use games for training, No matter what game you set up, there is always a way to make it slightly harder, slightly more entertaining, slightly more reinforcing for the dog. Games always start simple and build up! Watch this cone game with Azul to see how we start with a simple Go Around.

In this Movement Puzzle the frisbees represent a start and stop place where reinforcement will be delivered. The cones start out really close together so Azul can learn the basics of going around. Then the cones start to move out further apart to work on the concept of working at greater distances. Azul struggles when I change things to quickly, so I have to change my game set up to make it easier. This meant I had to get another cone to fill the empty space so he didn't take a short cut. Azul already knows the cue to go around but he's never played this game before so he's moving slowly. At the end Azul tells me he is done with this game by going in between my legs. This tells me he wants to play his favorite game of moving together as a team with Azul standing between my legs. We are a bit out of camera range for this game, but I think you can tell what we are doing.

Games Help Fearful Dogs

When Lana first came into the Yooper Paws Training Center she was extremely scared, timid and barky! Like many owners, Lana's person didn't quite know what she was getting into when she agreed to give Lana a home. While Lana's person knew a great deal about training Aussies, she needed help figuring out how to deal with the fearfulness. We spent 6 sessions building up Lana's confidence around other people and dogs, teaching Lana how to process the threats in the environment better and how to communicate her needs to her person. Lana's person learned to read Lana's micro movements to better predict when Lana would feel the need to lash out in a barking frenzy. Helping Lana feel safe, calm, and happy in the environment was our goal.

Lana and her person now join in on the Wednesday morning walks almost every week. She used to bark at the sight of one dog, and now she walks with 3-5 other dogs successfully. On our Distracted & Fearful Dog Walks, we stop to play games throughout the walk. We use games that help dogs learn to walk passed other dogs on the trail, learn about being the leader of the walk and following other dogs, explore the environment, and focus on their person when requested. Lana and her person display awesome teamwork on these walks as they support each other along the trail.

We also introduced Lana to nosework! This one thing of learning how to use her nose to find an object of interest or a specific scent has helped Lana tremendously. Lana went from barking and asking to leave the Training Center to now wanting to run into the training center for some fun. I try to always have some good things for Lana to sniff, lick, and chew when she arrives so that she can have some safe exploration time. Then we set up for our nosework session. Check out this video that shows a simple set up where Lana is trying to find the scent in a box.

Lana sure makes finding the scent look easy! Many times she goes right to the box with the scent without even questioning the other box. Since Lana is still working on confidence building we provide lots of searches where she can easily be successful. The video above is just a short clip of the session, if you want to watch the full video it is over 20 minutes long and available on the Yooper Paws YouTube Channel.

Continue to Post 3 in the Games Serie to learn about Obstacle Courses

Understanding Fear in Adolescents

Understanding "Fear" Stages in Adolescents

Parts of this post were taken from the Confident Canines Coaches Class.

I'm pretty sure every dog owner on the planet wants the very best for their dog, wanting them to be successful and happy in life. (I'm sure there are exceptions to that, but those are not MY PEOPLE and we are not going to worry about them here!) I'm confident that no one reading my blog wants a dog who is scared, fearful or traumatized!

Yet, I'm also pretty confident that most dog owners have never thought about protecting a dog's confidence unless you've had a personal experience with a fearful dog that you've been trying to help. If you follow Absolute Dogs then you might be more familiar with the idea of protecting your dog's optimism. Confidence & Optimism go hand in hand to develop Resiliency! So for this post, those words are pretty much interchangeable so I'm going to stick with the term "confidence" in this section.

It's particularly important to protect our dog's confidence especially through adolescence and young adult stages, however these tips can also apply to older dogs of any age. Even my boy Cam, who dealt with fear and anxiety his whole life needed help with protecting his confidence at 9 yrs old. My overly confident young adult, Azul & my overly confident adolescent, Roz need help protecting their confidence as well.

Fear stages

As our sweet cuddly puppies transition into adulthood, they go through various "fear" stages. Many on the dog training community challenge the name "fear" stages because so much more is happening at that time then an increased risk of experiencing fear. Adolescents often struggle with fear, impulsiveness, dis-regulation, and increased emotional outbursts. (Does this sound kinda like a human adolescent?) Needless to say, the term "fear" stage is well known in the dog training community and fear is the part that is most likely to be recognized by dog owners that are not dog training experts. Therefore I'm going to continue calling these times of increased brain changing activity as fear stages.

Some experts say that most dogs go through 3 fear stages and a few dogs go through 4 fear stages. I'd like to challenge that and say that all dogs go through 4 fear stages and possibly 5, however the older they are the less the stage impacts their behaviors making it more challenging for owners to recognize the stage as a fear stage. We do have a ton more information on fear stages and the science we know about them in our Positively Puppy Paws Classroom & our Crazy Canine Adolescents Classroom if you want more info.

During a fear stage (no matter how old or whether it is the dog's 1st-4th fear stage) the dog's brain is going through a period of change or rewiring of connections from Point A to Point B in the brain. These are naturally occurring changes that all animals go through as they transition from the baby stage of wanting to stay close to mom/family for safety to the more independent role of being able to manage on their own as a fully functioning adult. Even humans go through this type of change as they develop, it just takes a lot more time for humans then it does our dogs.

When a dog is in a fear stage we see a few things that develop a common pattern which help us as dog owners recognize the stage as a time of fearfulness. 

Fearfulness: This is the most noticeable as our dogs often are suddenly afraid of something that is in the environment that they never seemed to notice before.

Impulsiveness: Think of this as the "leap before you look" struggle. Our dogs see something and want to get to it so quickly that they may not notice certain hazards between them and what caught their eye.

Forgetfulness: They knew certain cues, routines, and habits before that suddenly fly out the window and they act as if they have no idea what you're expecting from them in this moment. Fearfulness is the easiest for us to recognize and probably why we call these stages "fear stages!" Over the years, I've found some commonalities to the things that dogs find fearful at certain ages.

Watch for upcoming posts this month that on each of these definitions and how we can use the science to help protect our dog's confidence and optimism.

Understanding Adolescents Series

Post 1, Post 2, & Post 3

Helping Distracted & Fearful Dogs

March Weekend Workshop Replays!

As part of our March Madness: Focus Around Distractions Theme Yooper Paws of Love hosted 2 Workshops to help local and virtual clients by providing the tools to help dog owners better support their dogs. You can register for those workshops on this post. Once you register you will receive payment info and a link to view the Workshop you have registered for.

Helping the Distracted Dog!

This one hour workshop is designed to help dog owners learn skills to help their dog become successful in distracted environments. 

Cost $10 per person!

FREE for current Yooper Paws Clients!

Topics include: 

• Using distance away from the distraction successfully.
• How to start training with distractions that can be controlled.
• How to support your dog around unexpected distractions.
• Determining when to train around a distraction vs use your exit strategy.

This workshop is designed to give you the skills to start your training journey around distractions with the aid of a skilled Canine Coach. 

Dogs who are overly reactive are experiencing HUGE emotions! In this workshop you will learn about helping your dog feel safe, calm & happy using connection based methods. When we develop connection based training with our dogs, we move away from corrective based techniques that were taught decades ago to new science based methods that show a dog what we want them to do.  This is the first step in helping your dog learn to be successful around distractions.

If you are a current Yooper Paws Client or working with a Crazy2Calm Canine Coach, you can receive this workshop for free by placing the name of the group you are with in the registration form!

Helping Fearful Dogs Feel Safe!

Cost $20 per person!

Only $15 for current Yooper Paws Clients!

As dog owners, we often are surprised or caught off balance if/when our dogs start over reacting to changes in the environment. Perhaps it's a car pulling in the driveway, seeing people or other dogs, or hearing sounds such as gun shots but most dogs are fearful of something. When that fear is based on something easily controlled, such as Azul's fear of balloon animals, we can manage the situation quite easily by avoiding the triggering object. But when those fears are based on uncontrollable objects such as other people walking their dogs down the trail or thunder booming in the sky, we need to take a different approach to helping our dogs feel safe. The bottom line is fearful dogs are more prone to barking, lunging, and even biting others. The best way to improve their manners is to help them feel safe. Once they feel safe we can begin training to help them fit better in the family. If you want to learn how to help your fearful dog, this is a great starting place!

Yooper Paws Clients that are currently in a 6 session package or the Service Dog Mentor Program can receive this Workshop at a 25% discount making it only $15 for nearly 2 hours of info!

Also check out this FREE PDF Helping Your Dog Feel Safe!

Register for either of these Weekend Workshops here:

You will receive an email with the links to the Workshops you've selected withing 24 hrs of submitting this form.

PayPal 

Venmo

If you need assistance with paying this fee please contact us via email at yooperpaws@gmail.com.

Private Sessions

I've been fielding lots of questions about what I offer in Private or 1-on-1 Sessions. So I thought I'd write just a bit about what I do with a client. First a bit about me.

Private Sessions with a Trainer

Canine Coach Penny Beeman is a Certified Behavior Consultant that can work with you and your dog to tackle most behavior issues. Penny has extensive history dealing with over-reactive dogs and can help you understand the emotions behind your dog's behavior, learn about the reinforcement the dog is gaining from the behavior, and work on creating a starting plan to help desensitize your dog to the trigger that makes them over-react. 

Penny is also a Service Dog Handler and mentors other Service Dog Teams. The Training Center is set up to be handicapped accessible and provides a place where you can learn to navigate many of life's challenges with your Service Dog in Training. We will work to understand your disability and your needs to help you develop the skills you need to gain independence with the help of your Service Dog. Yooper Paws of Love does not "Certify" Service Dogs. Please refer to our SD Tips page for more assistance on Service Dog specific assistance.

Owners and Dogs who might want a private session plan vs a class plan.

There are several reasons an owner might want private sessions. Perhaps either the owner or dog doesn't do well around other people or dogs. Perhaps the owner has something special they want to work on. Perhaps the dog has extreme emotional reactions to seeing other dogs. The reasons for an owner thinking private sessions are unlimited, so it would be impossible to list them all. But most generally, private sessions offer a safe place to work on the special needs of the owner and/or the dog.

• I commonly work with over reactive dogs that have demonstrated fear or fight responses to other dogs.
• I commonly work with Working Dogs that have special skills or needs for working as a Therapy Dog or Service Dog.
• I commonly work with dogs that have experienced some type of trauma in life and need just a bit of help recovering from that issue.

All dogs are unique individuals and therefore some excel and thrive in group classes while others don't. If a class of 4-8 other dog teams is too much for you or your dog consider scheduling an appointment for your Full Behavior Evaluation.

Private sessions start with a 90 Minute  Evaluation Consult that runs $125, then we can create a plan for future sessions. Individual private sessions start at $75 per session and generally last 1 hour.  

Click here to schedule a full Behavior Evaluation Session (90 mins)

What happens at the Behavior Evaluation Session

Mainly I talk with the owner(s) and ask them to do a variety of things with their dog depending on what they are asking me to help with. Some things I might witness as the dog arrives to the Training Center or as I arrive to the dog's home. Things like over excitement, barking, lunging and fear reactions tend to happen naturally in these moments. If these are concerns to the owner, I might ask them to start with having their dog in another room when I arrive or leaving them in the car while we chat a few minutes.

Once both owner and I are ready for the dog to meet, a greeting will take place based on that dog's needs. If the dog is over -excited and friendly, I might instruct the owner to just let them out so the dog can do what it naturally does. If the dog is fearful, I might ask the owner to bring the dog out on a leash and stop and chill awhile on the other side of the room while we get to know each other a bit more.

Since most owners that contact me will list leash manners as one of the things they want to work on and going for a walk is often settling for a dog, we might take a short walk. Some dogs prefer to meet in a backyard while they are playing so I might play with the dog. 

The bottom line is during this first Eval Session I'm going to be watching the dog and the owner as to how they interact with each and how the dog interacts with me, the newcomer. From there the owner and I will work together to create a plan for training. We may use one of the training templates I have already prepared or I may create an individualized plan for that family. Most generally it's a mix of both an individual training plan with the support of worksheets and shaping plans that have already been developed to help. Once the plan is figured out, we will decide how often to meet for the Private Training Sessions.

Click here to schedule your next Private Training Session (60 mins)

What happens during a Private Training Session

Generally we play...owner with their dog and me either with their dog or using Azul to demo what I want them to do. While we might play a bit of tug or fetch to help your dog calm down, we will mostly be playing games specially designed to teach the dog the concepts they need or repeat the behaviors the owner wants the dog to do.  Here is an example of the proximity game that I teach most dogs that I work with.

In this video we are teaching my 7 yr granddaughter how to play with Finnegan, a 5 month old puppy that can easily get over-excited. I always welcome the kids in the family to get involved in the dog training as long as the parent is there to supervise. This game is designed to teach the dog the early concept of recall without using any cues, but heavily reinforcing the concept of coming back to the person they are playing with. To dogs, life is a game and we can teach them things much quicker if we turn it into a game.

Most dog owners who contact me have a list of things they want to work on. So we generally start with the owner playing a game that previously taught so I can see how they are doing with that game. I might offer some helpful suggestions to make the game slightly better or make it slightly harder for the dog so we can bump training up to the next level. We then might do that same training around some real life situations such as when there is another dog on the other side of the street or working in the Training Center. 

If your dog needs to practice around other dogs, we will first get them used to focusing on their owner when Azul is around. We will do this using distance, whether that means we need to be a football field away or in different rooms in the Training Center. Once the dog is comfortable around Azul we will start asking other clients to join in a few sessions. This might be clients who are working on the same goals or clients that have safe, confident dogs that are eager to help. When more than one client is working on the same issues, we will typically transition from private, 1-on-1 sessions into mini-group sessions.

I offer private sessions for $75 per session or in a bundle of 6 sessions for $300. Bundles are generally meant to be used with a session every 2 weeks, but you do not have to use them within a certain time frame. Some clients are happy by the 4th session with the progress they've made and work on their own for a bit before finishing up the last 2 sessions. Or sometimes those final few sessions are transferred to a mini-group plan. Mini-groups are only available to clients who have recently completed a class or are currently in some type of training package.

What are some of our Specialties

Canine Coach and Behavior Consultant, Penny Beeman, specializes in helping owners understand the behaviors the dog is doing and the emotions, needs and reinforcement that is impacting that behavior. When we understand what is driving the behavior, what is need is being met by that behavior, and what is reinforcing the behavior we can then make a plan to modify that behavior to meet everyone's needs. 

Penny also specializes in setting up ACE (Animal Centered Education) Freework environments to watch the dog explore a safe space to help owners learn more about their dog. This can be used to help dogs who are over-excited learn to calm down. ACE Freework also allows us to see health related things that might be missed otherwise such as the dog struggles lowering their head to the floor or raising 1 paw as high as they can raise the other. Enrichment items to lick, sniff, chew, and shred can be made available in our Rest and Relax Room which can be a great start or end to your private session.

Canine Coach, Faith Weber, specializes in helping dogs learn to share space safely. The Training Facility is set up to support allowing dogs to greet safely for the first time using distance and management to provide safety. Faith is skilled in reading Canine Body Language for various breeds and can help you learn to read your dog better.

All of our Canine Coaches are trained to read canine body language and look for the finer details that might be missed in what your dog is trying to communicate to you.

We plan to offer some assistance with Cooperative Care in the near future to help your dog get used to routine care they might receive at the Vet's or Groomers. This can help your dog have Fear Free visits to these often traumatizing locations.

Please reach out the Yooper Paws of Love if you have any questions about the things we can address during a Private Session. Contact us at yooperpaws@gmail.com

Maybe I can help my fearful dog?

Most dogs experience fear a few times in their life, however some dogs are more fearful then others.  This post would be way too long if I tried to cover everything on this topic so I'm going to try to stick to things that can help with the dog that experiences occasional fears to a specific trigger.  If your dog is fearful of lots of triggers or anxious all the time, I can help more individually with a behavioral consult.

(Picture of Azul watching a duck swimming about 40 feet away.)

When our dogs are new to our home, it's important to give them time to adjust to their home, it's people, and routines.  After a few months, we then often set out in attempts to desensitize our dogs to distractions outside our house and immediate surrounding.  Maybe we are taking our dog to the park, a friend's house, or pet friendly events.  This is where we start to notice certain things that trigger a stronger emotional response from our dogs and often cause outbursts of behaviors that we deem inappropriate.  When that happens, we tend to want to help our dogs feel better about that trigger with some counterconditioning sessions.

Desensitization and Counterconditioning (DS/CC) are big words and popular buzz words in the dog training industry.  And the success of using DS/CC is dependent on good mechanics and understanding the process.  This is why I do not suggest you undertake this process alone if your dog is overly anxious. 

The first step in the process is finding a safe distance to work at.  The goal is to keep your dog feeling safe, calm, and happy as they notice the trigger.  That might mean you start at a football field away or even more!  If the trigger is sound related, you might be starting 5 miles away.  The key is that you are just close enough that your dog notices the trigger but can easily focus on you or continue the activity they were doing before they noticed the trigger.

The next step involves delivering a high value reinforcement to your dog as soon as they notice the trigger.  The Look At That Game can be used here.  For most dogs, food is going to be the easiest form of reinforcement for you to use; boiled chicken, freeze dried meat treats, something they love and don't get often.  If food is not a high value reinforcement for your dog, you can use toys, games, and enrichment activities that they love.

Then over time, at a slow pace you can eventually shrink the distance between your team (you & your dog) and the trigger.  In order to be successful here, you need to move slowly and watch your dog's body language very closely.  You need to prevent them from reacting to the trigger which causes more fear and makes you backslide in progress.  This often happens when you try to move too close too fast!  And if this happens often, you really need to get help from an experienced trainer who can help you pick up on subtle things you might be missing.

If you want to learn more on using DS/CC to help your dog overcome a fear, check out this video from SD Handlers chatting about DS/CC Tips.

SD Handler Chats: DS/CC Tips

 

The Scary Bag Incident

This is a silly story from Azul's puppy days and it's a great example of working with the dog in front of you!  

Azul has always been an overly confident puppy loving everything life could throw at him.  We did a ton of socialization to new objects and environmental changes from a very young age.  The Scary Bag Incident took place when Azul was almost 5 months old.  And if you haven't guessed, this was one of my first indications that Azul was entering a fear stage.

Let me set the scene!  I had been out having some fun with another team with some playing at the park, walking on a trail, and general puppy socialization and enrichment activities.  The last stop of our session with these clients was a walk thru a pet friendly hardware store.  This was a store Azul had visited multiple times already at his young age and was very comfortable going here.  

So here we are walking thru the parking lot when I spot a plastic store bag blowing across the parking lot and my desire to keep mother earth clean while having some fun with my puppy kicks in.  I had just been talking about making training sessions fun so I'm thinking we are going to be giving a real life example of having fun in the moment!

Azul spots the bag and perks up with his traditional puppy interest.  I decide to set off in hunt mode running toward the tumbling bag blowing across the parking lot and Azul is in "Game On" mode!  As the bag draws near, I decide to step on it to increase Azul's chance of capturing the bag before it blows passed us.  And this is when the fun game became not so fun for Azul!

I don't know if he thought that bag was attacking my foot or what but the moment I made contact with the bag, Azul switched from play attack mode into the natural instinctive fear response of Flight Mode!  So here I stand with Azul on a short leash for shopping, running circles around me trying to get away but the leash only allowing short circles.  And I get dizzy very easily so circles are not my friend.

Eventually I'm able to process what is happening and step off and away from the bag which shows Azul that I'm not under attack from the scary bag.  And instead of setting an example of how to have fun with your dog in the environment, I set an example of how to always be on the look out for a fear stage when you are working with a dog that is under 2 yrs old.  

Now this parking lot adventure could have ruined our training session by setting us up to fail before we even made it in the door.  I had to make a choice as to whether to continue with the session going into the store knowing Azul has just been scared or to continue with the training session as if nothing happened.

Since Azul had previously loved socializing with the staff inside the store and I could be relatively certain a bag was not going to blow in front of us while we were inside the store, I chose to continue the session.  But I also watched Azul closely for any signs of stress while we were inside and made sure to use lots of high value treats to ensure the outing was positive.

Over the next few days, I noticed a few other minor fears that were out of the norm for Azul.  So we took about a week off from doing any training in new or challenging environments and only socialized with our great friends.  This gave Azul a chance to move thru the fear period without allowing for additional experiences to set off that fear reaction.

Once I knew he was passed the fear stage, I set up a few training sessions at home with a fan and a plastic bag or two.  This allowed me to adjust the speed of the wind blowing so Azul could watch the bag move more slowly at first.  Eventually we worked up to the rapidly blowing bag and again my stepping on it to recreate the scene in the parking lot.  Only this time it was not as fearful to Azul since his fear stage had passed.  I was still able to pair this with amazing treats just to ensure that we ended positively.

I wish I had captured the Scary Bag Incident on video as it was quite the sight and had my training team rolling in laughter at our escapades in the parking lot.  But since Azul's reaction took me totally off guard this was not possible.

Lesson:  When the unexpected happens, be prepared to change your plans to allow your dog time to grow and develop naturally at their speed, not ours!