Azza had an interesting learning moment yesterday. I was walking the dogs as usual and while we were nearing the hovel on our return, we encountered a guy that I’ve met at social events a couple of times. He had a question for me about some dishes his sister had insisted that he bring to KSA with him when he moved.
Normally when I’m walking the dogs I don’t let anyone approach me nor do I approach anyone unless the dogs already know them. Azza is far too unpredictable in her response and often displays fear behaviors that understandably get some people a bit worked up, which in turn gets her even more worked up. It’s a vicious cycle that I have found best to avoid altogether.
However, I’ve discovered an interesting thing: when I tell people to ignore Azza completely and to not make eye contact with her or even look in her direction, she doesn’t get nearly as fearful. So I agreed to walk over and take a look at the dishes but I first gave the guy these instructions.
Fortunately, he’s a smart guy and did exactly as I asked. He and I had a conversation about the dishes (whether they were worth anything, what he should do with them since he didn’t have room to keep them, etc.). The terriers ignored him as he clearly had nothing of interest for them (i.e., no food). Azza slipped behind me when I got close to the guy and hackled up but she didn’t growl or drop to the ground. I ignored her, he ignored her, the terriers ignored everybody, and suddenly I realized that Azza was moving forward towards the guy to sniff him.
This is fabulous because this is the default behavior I’ve been working on when she sees something scary, the “what is it?” command which requires her to give the scary thing a nose touch/sniff to earn a treat. Without missing a beat, I reminded the guy to ignore her and we continued talking about the dishes. Azza gave him a quick sniff then casually returned to my side.
This was quite a breakthrough for her. It’s the second time that she has successfully been around a stranger during our walks and not completely lost her shit, and the first time that she approached a stranger on her own with no negative reaction. It helps that both times I’ve encountered people that followed my instructions to ignore her no matter what she does. Azza certainly isn’t ready for random interactions yet.
You probably have a dog who thinks everyone he sees is his friend. The terriers are generally that way, although living here has dampened their response a lot since so many people we pass on our walks are scared of them and freak out if the terriers drift towards them to see if they can be greeted. Azza is simply a different beast. Her first response to anything new is fear, fear, fear: hackle, growl, and run away if possible and if it’s not, get as scary as possible (for example, her eyes become enormously dilated and she pulls her ears down and out from her head, parallel to the ground like helicopter rotors). This new behavior of cautious approach (on her terms) is a tiny baby step but it represents a huge shift in her emotional state.
1 comment:
Velvet is the opposite of Azza. She seems to consider anyone new she sees as her potential new bestest friend in the whole wide world. She starts into a whole-body wag that could power a small city if you could hook her up to a generator. We'll pull up to a traffic light with a beggar on the corner, and she'll start into a wagging routine that rocks the car. It can almost be as annoying as a fear response, but at least it doesn't freak everyone out.
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