BELLA AND THE GARBAGE TRUCK
This time we have a guest blog by one Ramona, who is one of our interns at Dogs in the Park. Thanks Ramona for your great description of helping Bella overcome her concerns about garbage trucks.
Bella, our fourth Pembroke Welsh Corgi, came to live with us in June of 2017. She was just shy of 8 weeks of age and having never had a puppy before, we went to Dogs in the Park for puppy class the second day we had her. Part of our “socialization” homework was to introduce Bella to as many different people and situations as possible. Dogs In The Park refers to this more appropriately as Systematic Environmental Exposure. She never had any issues with kids on skateboards or bikes or people wearing various costumes or uniforms. We were even able to expose her to a person on crutches with a big cast at an early age, thanks to our son’s friend who had broken a foot.
On garbage day, we took Bella outside with leash on, good treats in hand, and parked her on the sidewalk outside of our house. As the garbage truck approached, she didn’t appear very comfortable with the noise that it was making. We live near a townhouse complex and the garbage truck picks up at least 15 bins before it gets to our house. Bella stopped taking treats and tried to get back into our house. After that, garbage day was not a fun day at our house. Bella would hear the truck long before we could hear it and off she went to her “office” (our downstairs bathroom that doesn’t have any windows). The noise bothered her so much that she eventually would start shaking. The highest value treats or play with her favourite toy in the backyard didn’t work.
This is Bella’s garbage truck! When exposing puppies to new things, we may sometimes goof and inadvertently get too close before the puppy is ready for that.
I chatted with Sue from Dogs in the Park and we came up with a game plan. We were going to try some desensitization! I have just completed the Applied Behaviour Analysis course with other first year interns. Desensitization is using any form of counterconditioning that reduces an inappropriate negative response to an event. Counterconditioning is the use of Pavlovian conditioning to undo the adverse effects of earlier conditioning. The sound of the garbage truck caused a fear response in Bella and I wanted to reduce or eliminate that fear! I should also mention that we live on a cul-de-sac, so the truck passes our house not once, but twice as it enters and then leaves the court.
The first step Sue suggested, was to remove Bella from the stimulus, ie. the garbage truck noise, for a number of weeks. We did this by leaving the house on Monday mornings, usually to drive children, or Bella, to appointments. On the days where we were unable to leave, I put Bella’s crate in the basement, put her in the crate, and played fairly loud music on a portable speaker to drown out any garbage truck noise. We did this for about 2 months and then remained on the main level of the house when we knew the garbage truck was coming. I continued to have music playing in the house and the first week after our intervention, none of us even noticed when the truck was in front of our house! We didn’t hear it and Bella made no attempt to retreat to her office. When we realized that the garbage truck was on our street, my former daycare child was eating some fish crackers and was also sharing them with Bella. We were pairing a good thing (fish crackers) with the noise of the truck.
Pairing food at just the right time can help a dog to learn that something they are concerned about is not as scary as they originally thought. The key to success is making the food appear just after the scary thing has been presented.
Fast forward to following Mondays when we were home. Again, we didn’t realize that the truck was on our street since Bella didn’t do her usual stare at the front door and make her quick exit to the bathroom. I quickly grabbed some good treats and fed her while the garbage truck went past. She did bark at the noise but continued to take treats. Not taking treats or taking food with a sharklike grab could mean that a dog is stressed.
A large part of behaviour change is monitoring results. Our intervention seems to be going well, with a more positive response to the garbage truck noise. Having said that, I will continue to monitor Bella’s behaviour each week, as well as having music playing and great treats on hand when we are at home. Hopefully spring has now sprung and the warmer weather will soon be upon us. This means the opening of windows and being outside a lot more. I will have to see if our game plan continues to work or if I will have to take a step back when open windows let in more noise.
It’s good to know that owners don’t have to let their dog deal with events that induce fear. I am very thankful to have Dogs in the Park to help support me and the welfare of my dog!