Fear of bridge

(If you read the article below, skip to 19 secs in the video.)

About a month ago, we decided to explore a little bit further on our bike trail. Someone we chatted on the trail told me that there was a better area for the dogs on the other side of the bridge shown in the picture. As we passed under this bridge, a large vehicle caused some loud noises and they startled both of us. Jazzy ran back to where we came from and she kept her distance. I didn’t want her to leave our special trail feeling negatively, we stayed there for a while. She got some treats and played ball for a bit and we left the trail on a positive note.

Next day she put on a hard break as she spotted the bridge. She heard cars going by and the noises must have brought back the negative memory from the previous day. I took a mental note and we stayed away from the bridge. If I really wanted to go on the other side of the bridge, I could have picked her up or forced her to go. But what’s the point in doing that? That’s not only going to damage her trust in me, but it would also ruin our special time on the trail. Another option was to simply avoid the bridge for good. But of course, I have to at least try to make it better for her.

Next few days, we worked on installing a new behavior — “Push”. She knows “Touch/Target” really well. In Search and Rescue training, this is how I taught her to find a missing person, then to come back to alert me. But for this particular training, I wanted her to touch, and then push the target away from her. When the behavior was fluent, we return to the bridge, with a bag of tasty food.

We started at 80-90 meters from the bridge. Last time, she put on a break 50-60 meters away from the bridge. It’s crucial to work stressed dogs under the threshold. I put the “Push” target on the ground; I stood and waited – no verbal cue, only the visual cues. After a moment of hesitation, she pushed, pushed and pushed the target for my click and the pieces of food. Every inch she pushed, the target went down the mild slope, and she was another inch closer to the scary bridge. Occasionally I saw subtle stress signs –some of you might notice them in the video below. I was careful not to put her in a conflict. The whole “Push” exercise could get poisoned. I always stopped after 5-6 pushes when she was still going at a full speed. In addition to the food reward, she was also rewarded with the freedom to run on the trail back to where we came from.

We worked on this at least 4 times a week, for three weeks. It was slow but I enjoyed watching the tiny progress.  There were times I had the urge to just go under the bridge. But I knew that those days of hard work would have been ruined if I pushed her at the wrong time.

Week 3: Final stage

I prepared four portions of high value food reward – chicken, eggs, cheese and bits of bacon. This time I wanted the reward to be a surprise. I set the target on the other side of the bridge and I placed a portion of the jackpot reward right behind it. First run was slightly stressful, but the reward was bigger than her fear at this point. She became more confident as we run the second and the third run. On the last run, she could not wait to go under the bridge.

I did not have to do all of this. I could have just avoided the bridge all together. But I made a promise to her that I’d do my best to make her life as stress-free as possible. The worst thing for me is seeing my dogs being scared. With a little bit of patience and conditioning, you can make their lives so much better. I have used the same concept on other fears; fear of vacuum cleaner, people, children, bath, nail trim, vet, car ride, other dogs etc. If your dog is scared of something and it is affecting the quality of life, try getting him used to it by paring up with something your dog absolutely loves. Never force your dog to deal with fear. That would not only ruin the relationship you have with your dog, but the fear could get worse in the end. I would rather spend 3 weeks (or more) training, than losing my dog’s trust and creating a more fearful dog.

 This picture was taken on the other side of the bridge.