{"id":31928,"date":"2025-01-16T21:16:58","date_gmt":"2025-01-16T21:16:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/animal\/the-role-of-maintenance-training-in-counterconditioning-for-fearful-dogs\/"},"modified":"2025-01-16T21:16:58","modified_gmt":"2025-01-16T21:16:58","slug":"the-role-of-maintenance-training-in-counterconditioning-for-fearful-dogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=31928","title":{"rendered":"The Role of Maintenance Training in Counterconditioning for Fearful Dogs"},"content":{"rendered":"


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When you\u2019re done with training your fearful dog to love something, it\u2019s important to think about how to maintain your great results.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"Two<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Photo: Esin Deniz\/Shutterstock<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

By Zazie Todd, PhD<\/a><\/p>\n

This page contains affiliate links which means I may earn a commission on qualifying purchases at no cost to you.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Last July, the weather finally turned hot. It would have been an exceptional heatwave if it weren\u2019t for the heatdome that we sweated through a few years before. It was really hot. So we set the air con unit up in the kitchen and in the morning, I went and turned it on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I noticed Pepper, my Shih Tzu, was near my feet. This was a surprise because I didn\u2019t think the aircon unit would be of much interest to him. He was looking at me expectantly and I felt like I was being slow on the uptake. What had just happened that had been of special interest to Pepper?<\/p>\n

I had turned the aircon unit on and\u2014I was definitely slow on the uptake. It had beeped. Three little soft beeps to say it was about to come on.<\/p>\n

Beeps mean treats and Pepper couldn\u2019t be disappointed. Even though it was by now a little late, I went and got him a treat.<\/p>\n

Beeps mean treats<\/h2>\n

Beeps mean treats because in the past, we\u2019ve had to get Pepper used to the noises of the coffee machine so that they didn\u2019t alarm him. (You can read about this in my new book, Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful, or Reactive Dog<\/a><\/i>).<\/p>\n

And beeps especially mean treats because last year we got an air fryer which goes BEEP every time you touch a button or it does something, BEEP BEEP, and Pepper found this terrifying. I mean, I find it unpleasant such that I wonder who designed a machine to make such loud BEEPS without an option to turn it off.<\/p>\n

We briefly debated taking the air fryer apart to see if we could disable the beeping mechanism, but instead we got some amazing treats and did some counterconditioning. It helped a lot, but we only did a few training sessions. Then we got bored of the air fryer, so we didn\u2019t finish the training.<\/p>\n

That means that for now<\/i> we still can\u2019t use the air fryer without being prepared to do counterconditioning at the same time, otherwise poor Pepper might become a quivering wreck.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t blame him. Those unpleasant BEEPS are unnecessarily loud and annoying.<\/p>\n

I said for now<\/i>, because I\u2019m sure that if we were consistent in training him, we could get him used to these beeps. That would mean having nice snacks ready, such as pieces of cooked chicken in the fridge, so that whenever the machine went BEEP we could run and get a piece to give him. (There\u2019s more on how to do counterconditioning here<\/a>).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

With time and training, Pepper would learn to like the beeps just as he did the noises of the coffee machine. In fact the sound of the coffee beans being ground is now a kind of recall cue, because when he hears it, he comes running from wherever he is in the house to get his treat.<\/p>\n

But there is something important to know about counterconditioning: it works brilliantly, and it works best of all when, even though it\u2019s finished, you continue to do some maintenance training.<\/p>\n

Maintenance training in counterconditioning<\/h2>\n

Maintenance training keeps everything tuned up. It just means that from time to time, even though your dog is now used to the thing they previously considered scary, you will still ensure that sometimes it is followed by an amazing snackie just to remind them that it\u2019s a thing to love now.<\/p>\n

The reason for this is that fear memories are never completely erased. Metaphorically speaking, it\u2019s like you\u2019ve piled a whole load of good memories on top of them when you do counter conditioning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And now that the training has been successful, you still want to pile the occasional good memory up there.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I gave Pepper a treat for the beep from the aircon unit. I was slow to realize because I had barely registered the beeps, but he has clearly generalized from his previous training and learned that all beeps are likely to be followed by treats. So he liked hearing the beep, and I wasn\u2019t going to disappoint him.<\/p>\n

A bit of maintenance training from time to time helps to protect the training you\u2019ve already done.<\/p>\n

And in the process, it certainly made Pepper happy. An unexpected beep led to a great snack.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve never done any training around the specific beep that the air con unit makes. Pepper\u2019s response to it is a nice little sign of how well counter conditioning works.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was a reminder that dogs pay attention to things that we might ignore.<\/p>\n

And it was also an opportunity to ensure that the counterconditioning keeps on working. Next time, I hope I won\u2019t be so slow on the uptake.<\/p>\n

As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you\u2019re done with training your fearful dog to love something, it\u2019s important to think about how to maintain your great results.\u00a0 Photo: Esin Deniz\/Shutterstock By Zazie Todd, PhD This page contains affiliate links which means I may earn a commission on qualifying purchases at no cost to you.\u00a0 Last July, the weather finally turned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11766],"tags":[21467,5805,21468,1649,1644,324],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-31928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animal","tag-counterconditioning","tag-dogs","tag-fearful","tag-maintenance","tag-role","tag-training"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Role of Maintenance Training in Counterconditioning for Fearful Dogs - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=31928\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Role of Maintenance Training in Counterconditioning for Fearful Dogs - 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