Not a fan

Skye my Border Collie is eight years old and I have had him since he was eight months old. He has a lovely temperament and I use him as a PAT dog as he loves people so much.
However, my husband put a ceiling fan up in our bedroom last summer and he immediately became scared of it. Just recently he has become even more terrified of it and he now spends most of his time looking up at ceilings wherever we go. He refuses to go into the conservatory of the Nursing Home where we visit because they have a ceiling fan. Another Home where we visit has high ceilings with chandeliers and he has started constantly looking up at them.
It is becoming an obsession with him and I am finding it very distressing that he is turning into this nervous wreck. Sam, our old Border Collie, died last September and I do feel that Skye has lost a lot of his self confidence since he has been on his own.
Any suggestions for Skye would be so appreciated. I have tried the "come see" command from Carol Price's book, Understanding the Border Collie but to no avail!
Jill Hooker, by email

Dear Jill

Thanks for your posting. It must be really distressing for you to watch and try to manage Skye’s behaviour. I think you have hit on a key point about him losing confidence since Sam past away. The other factor is of course the fan, which in our heads, is a trivial object but to a dog’s perspective a scary contraption.  The fan may make a noise which only he can hear, is he noise phobic at all? It also moves air around and is unfamiliar to him. This type of phobia of course is hard to tackle with traditional training methods as the dog can not keep calm enough to take on commands or work out the fan is not going to cause him harm, he can’t think but reacts on a fear response level. A method of training which might help is Tellington TTouch Training. There are many practitioners around the country now and it’s perfect for these types of issues. Have a look at the national website www.ttouchtteam.co.uk for more information on the work and to find a practitioner near you. Don’t lose heart, there is help out there.

Toni Shelbourne

Tellington TTouch Companion Animal Practitioner 3
Senior Wolf Handler / Editor of Wolf Print

 

Carol Price, trainer and behaviourist, says...
The kind of problem you describe in Skye can be very common in Border Collies. As highly sensitive, reactive dogs they can be prone to both fearful and more obsessional patterns of behaviour; thus what you can so often end up with is an obsessive phobia like his.
These kinds of phobias can begin at any age, though the older the dog when introduced to something completely new, strange, or previously unknown to him, the more adverse the reaction can sometimes be. Many dogs can also lose general confidence in themselves, or the security of their environment, as they get older, just like people can.
The ‘go see’ or ‘come see’ command—see below—was of no use to you in Skye’s situation, because its effectiveness lies in you having done much prior training in the past, consistently conditioning your dog to associate the words with a positive forthcoming experience. In this case, your dog had already been able to form the impression that ceiling fans are scary, before you could suggest to him that they are positive.
Further, by using ‘go see’ to a dog who has already formed a negative experience with what you are inviting him to encounter, you undermine his trust in the command and run the risk of completely destroying his faith in it for the future.
Fear in dogs can be a massively complex subject, as in each case there will be a different combination of genetic and environmental factors working together. In Skye’s case, however, I am just wondering how much your own reaction to his fear may have worsened the problem?
This is so easy for owners to do, without realising it. The first mistake is to make a lot of fuss when a dog shows fear, or try to soothe/reassure him. This starts the process of reinforcing the behaviour. The next mistake—usually straight after the first!—is to then get exasperated with the dog’s behaviour and keep cajoling him or pressurising him to face what he is afraid of. This can blow the whole issue up into an even bigger deal in the dog’s mind, and prompt even more extreme levels of reaction.
Like fire, once fear takes hold, it can then so rapidly spread; moving on to any object or scenario that even vaguely reminds a dog of an initial big scare. Hence Skye’s constant staring at ceilings, or his reaction to chandeliers.
Your best way forward with him is to first learn to be an awful lot calmer yourself, which in itself is the start of all good leadership. Whenever Skye shows fear, do not react at all. In fact, completely ignore him until he first shows the signs of any more confident behaviour again. Also for the time being, stop taking him to Nursing Homes or other places where he is merely able to keep repeating and reinforcing his fearful behaviour.
You need to get him calmer, and start lowering his existing over-anxious/over-reactive mental state, before then starting a behaviour modification programme to gradually reduce his fear of fans; beginning with small goals and working up.
Such a programme, alas, may be beyond your ability to manage alone and thus I’d recommend you getting some highly skilled professional help, in terms of a behaviourist or trainer who has great experience in rehabilitating fearful dogs.
Someone of the right calibre will know exactly how far to push an individual dog, and when, in terms of getting him over his fears and also be very much in tune with what strategy will work best on which dog and when. People like this aren’t always easy to find, but why not begin by asking your vet or local training clubs if there is someone local they think is suitable or very good? I would start your search as soon as possible, before Skye’s problem gets even worse.
Finally, I find it a bit revealing that you say Skye has lost a lot of confidence since your old collie died. If a dog is getting more confidence from another dog, as opposed to his owner, then maybe there are aspects of your relationship with him that need more strengthening and improving, in order that his confidence, in future, comes from you.
In this respect, and to further help, I am sending on to you a copy of my special Dogs & People Guidelines , which advise you how to establish the best possible relationship with your dog.

The ‘go-see’ command
The ‘go-see’ command is a vital training exercise for any dog from puppyhood onwards. The purpose of it is to teach your dog that anything he is about to encounter, or anything you ask him to approach, will be either positive or ‘safe’.
Teach it as follows.
• First, every time you put your dog’s meal bowl down, ask him to sit. Then tell him, in an encouraging way, to ‘go see’ his food and eat it.
• Next, start doing the same with treats and his favourite toys. Each time place them a way ahead of him, ask him to sit, then invite him encouragingly to ‘go-see’ them.
• When this is going well, then start asking your puppy or dog to ‘go-see’ other dogs or people he already knows and really likes. And always praise him well for showing confidence.
• Also use the same command with any new visitor to the home
Only once your dog has built up all these positive associations with the ‘go-see’ command, and is responding really well to it, try using it whenever you introduce him to someone or something new, ideally well before he has had a chance to react more negatively. The timing is critical.
It is also critical that anything you introduce your dog to with ‘go see’ is essentially benign. NEVER use this command if you are unsure about the people or dogs you are asking your dog to meet, as one bad experience connected to this command will destroy both the power of the exercise and his faith in you.