OkcPets Magazine January 2022

38 OKC Pets • January/February 2022 Canine Reactions Can Be Changed or Managed By Travis Brorsen, Animal Planet’s Pet Expert and Trainer F ive ways to prevent my dog from reacting to doorbells, vacuums, and storms, oh, my! Does your dog bark like crazy when the doorbell rings? When it’s time to clean and turn the vacuum on, does your pup greet it like an alien from another planet? How about thunderstorms? Does your dog run, hide, or shake in fear? All of these are problems that dog own- ers deal with on a daily basis. Is there a way to teach our dogs that these events aren’t all bad? I’m going to give you five tips to help you either reverse these behaviors or at the very least manage them. 1. Stop reinforcing it. 2. Desensitize. 3. Exercise. 4. Train a different behavior. 5. Give CBD. STOP REINFORCING IT One of the biggest mistakes we make as pet parents is encouraging the behavior when we think we are stopping it.  Worse, we think it’s funny until we decide it’s not, which is just another form of unintentional encouragement. How do we encourage it? Give it atten- tion. What gets attention gets repeated. If your pup is barking at the doorbell and you yell at him, grab a can of coins, even answer the door while the bad behavior is happening, you are encouraging that behavior. I will say it again, what gets attention gets repeated. So if your dog is barking at the vacuum, stop laughing be- cause that is just encouraging him to do it. An Ounce o This dog is fearful of the vacuum. You can desensitize himwith little effort.