I have been a small part of a discussion online in the last day or two that deals with the subject of phobias, and the idea that those with phobias should ‘man up’ and move past whatever the problem is, or simply ignore it. This is often backed up by people saying ‘I hate this, but ignore it as much as I can.’
That’s the difficulty with phobias, true phobias. There is no way to ignore a phobia. Dislike of something, even fervent dislike of something, is not a phobia.
Phobia: ‘An extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to something.’ (Oxford English Dictionary.)
There is one very important word in that definition above that is what marks a phobia as something that cannot be ignored or be dealt with by ‘manning up’ - irrational.
I am a mostly rational person. I am in the midst of a fervent, life-long affair with science. This does not stop me from having a phobia. I know that the objects of my phobia cannot actually harm me in my rational mind. When I encounter one of them, however, my rational mind is nowhere within reach.
Phobias trigger that deepest, darkest section of our minds; they bite at the very heart of our deepest instincts. There is no way in which we can control this primitive part of our brains. The wiring is too deep for the most rational mind to have an effect on it.
If fear can do this to a species that is capable of advanced thinking and reasoning, how is it that so many do not understand what fear can do to dogs? When our dogs are put into situations where they feel the basic biologically driven need to defend themselves, why do people assume they are being ‘naughty, ‘bad’ or plain ‘mean’?
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If anyone was cruel enough to try to force me to march towards one of the triggers for my phobia, you can be sure I would do whatever necessary to get the hell away from the trigger, and the person doing the forcing. Whether that be struggle, threaten, scream, hit, kick or, yes, bite, I would do WHATEVER it took. Would you then punish me for trying to avoid the object of my absolute gut churning terror? That is what happens to some dogs that display reactive behaviours if their humans do not understand what is really going on.
The answer, as in so many things, lies in education. One of the best ways you can start to help your dog if they are showing these reactive behaviours is to educate yourself in what fear can do to your dog. Canine Principles have a certificate course on this subject, Canine Fear, which I have successfully completed, and which is an invaluable resource for all dog people who might come into contact with fearful dogs, either in their own homes or as canine professionals. It’s currently on sale for just £19 in the UK, which is an absolutely amazing price, and should not be missed in my opinion. The sale runs for the whole of September.
I have been slacking on dog articles of late. I can only apologise for my lack of output. I have been industrious, however, as a new book will be coming soon.
‘Conversations with Collies’ is a slight departure from ‘Fight or Fright’ as it is a comic memoir of events from my history with dogs, given the twist of including the canine side of the conversation, often less than flattering to the humans concerned! I am currently awaiting completion of illustrations to accompany the scripts of the situations, and hope to publish in the next few weeks. If you're interested in knowing when it will be available, I will update here or on the Facebook pages Blue Merle Minion and Jay Gurden.
Once this one is published, I am hoping to have more time to devote to the canine articles.
I have also been caught up working on some fiction projects as well, which have eaten into my time. Any news concerning those as time progresses will be found on the Jay Gurden FB page.
If I'm outside and a mouse runs over my foot I startle and recover saying something like "silly little mouse." But let a mouse loose inside my house and I become one of those people standing on the furniture shrieking. I think it has something to do with outside a mouse is in their environment and I'm the visitor. Inside they're in my environment where they don't belong. It doesn't really matter why, though, the fact is that I have a phobia about mice in the house. The mouse inside is no more threatening to my well-being than the mouse outside but the rational level of threat doesn't have anything to do with how I feel about it. A mouse in the house is terrifying it has me climbing on furniture and screaming for help. Fortunately, it's something I experience very seldom. I live with a variety of predators that protect me from having to experience a live mouse in the house (one that's been killed and left as a gift doesn't bother me). My fur family protects me from having too many experiences of the mouse in the house.
ReplyDeleteI've always figured our job for our dogs is to protect them the same way my fur family protects me.
I've heard similar stories while I've been involved in these discussions and writing this article - mice, spiders, frogs etc. Outside, many people are fine with them but inside is another matter. The common thread when people talk about it seems to be the threat to their environmental control, and the unpredictability of the living trigger being present in a place they should not be expected in. It's been an interesting subject to contemplate. To an extent I'm fortunate that my triggers (dolls in particular) cannot move themselves, but I avoid children a lot of the time as they may have them.
DeleteI definitely agree with your last point - as the more reasoned of the animals in our relationship, it's my job to figure out what Finn is scared of and deal with that in any way I can, whether by avoidance or very careful attempts at behaviour modification.