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Dog Behavior Article
Treating Phobic Dogs: Case Study Example
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#1: Phaedra, a year old poodle with generalized anxiety disorder.
One of my early and most severe phobic dog cases I have ever consulted on involved a female white year-old poodle named Phaedra, who exhibited a generalized anxiety disorder. I was called into the case in the summer of 1989.
As behaviorist William Campbell writes in his book, Better Behavior In Dogs & Cats, if a puppy is weaned away from its mother and siblings late, say 12-20 weeks of age and the puppy has had no contact with people other than the breeder, then the puppy may be more socialized with other dogs and phobic of people.
Well, this was the case with Phaedra, who was kept in relative isolation from people for the first YEAR of her life by her breeder who initially contemplated breeding her. Phaedra was kept in a confined cubicle with very little sunlight and no socialization with people and subjected to frequent heavy-handed corporal punishment and was de-barked for "nuisance" barking, since the breeder was not zoned for commercial breeding.
Luckily, Phaedra was never able to conceive and was taken in by a loving family who had purchased two of Phaedra's littermates when they were puppies. Because of Phaedra's isolation from humans, and her sensory deprivation for a year in addition to exposure to abusive discipline, her new family very quickly had their hands full with a very petrified creature.
Whenever any family member, especially the husband, would approach Phaedra, she would turn and run in terror, urinating and defecating along the way. If the owners tried to comfort or restrain her, she would struggle and bite. Just making mere eye contact with Phaedra would trigger a panic response.
When I first visited the home, Phaedra wouldn't even come into the same room the family and I and the other two dogs were in. We therefore had to implement a long duration behavior modification program, centering on systematic desensitization and removal of all verbal and non-verbal dominance or threatening gestures on behalf of all family members. Among other things, family members, especially the husband, would not look Phaedra directly in the eyes and initially, would not try to reach or pet her.
They would initially ignore her, and only reward her when she was still, not anxious and frequently when they already were giving attention to the other two dogs. Since Phaedra had been adequat ely socialized with dogs, she behaved normally with her siblings. Frequently, she would show curiosity and jealousy when her sisters were getting attention and food treats and play. Therefore, we used this behavioral predisposition on her part to get her closer and closer with the family members, first at a distance, utilizing appetitive stimuli to compete and reciprocally inhibit her aversive or avoidance stimuli conditioning stemming from her asocialization with people.
In two weeks, Phaedra stopped running scared throughout the house urinating and defecating. She began to get closer and closer to the owners.
At the close of our involvement with the family, Phaedra was allowing herself to be petted and was sitting and coming for treats.
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