When I would take gizmo to the dog park down at our beach, he would freak out and bark like crazy every time he seen a surfboard. One day I got one of the surfers to help me desensitize him. First I just kept walking him on his leash back and forth past it, and every pass he got a little less fearful of it, I then had him sit, and had the guy pick up the board and carry it in circles around him, after that I picked him up so he would feel safe and had him smell it. I was giving him a small treat through each step go the process. Next after smelling it and while I was still holding him, I held his paw to the board to touch it and gave him a treat when he got to the point of not pulling his leg away, next I had the guy put the board on the ground and stood Gizmo right on top of it, I then led him off of it and repeated it over and over, once he sat on it and didn't try to run off of it with a stay command, I gave him a treat. Next I actually walked around it like I was doing but this time after walking him around it, I actually started trying to get him to walk onto the board himself. It probably took around 10 tries but eventually he reluctantly walked onto it and I gave him the sit command, which he did, then followed again with a treat. Once he realized it wasn't scary anymore he repeated the same thing over and over till I felt he no longer feared the surfboard. Now every time he sees a surfboard he drags me over to them, because he now associates them with treats which treats in his mind = something good to get treats out of me :-) you may want to try a process like this with a lead on and some treats. Start with the door open or closed, whichever is the least fearful to him followed by little treats, then do the opposite open or closed followed by a treat, then use his paw to touch the door, again followed by a treat every time his anxiety goes down with each process. Then start closing the door very gently, treat, a little less gently, treat, well you get the picture :-) he just needs to learn that his fear is irrational :-) I wouldn't end until you can close the door loudly without him reacting.
With Gizmo we did this several days in a row as it was one of my neighbors who wanted to help Gizmo get over his fear and it works amazing, you just have to be patient and work on it a little at a time. If he starts acting stressed, stop for the day and start all over the next day. I have now used this method with Gizmo on numerous items and it has worked every time :-) he even loves the vacuum now, which used to be his arch enemy that was out to kill him lol. Hopefully this helps :-) keeping fingers crossed and most important of all is to always do it with a leash on so he cannot run away from the training :-) |