Regine's Dog Training

10/04/2025

DESENSITIZATION: ARE YOU DOING IT RIGHT?

Some thirty years ago when I was in graduate school, I was interested in taking a course in animal learning which involved working in what I call a "rat lab." The lab was run by one of the university's psychology professors who did learning experiments on rats.

But I wasn't sure I could handle a rat, so I contacted the professor and explained my situation. He invited me to come to the lab and I went right down.

When I arrived at the lab, the professor offered m a seat at a long, narrow table adjoined to the wall. The professor excused himself and he soon returned with a baby white rat. He carefully handed me the rat, and I held it for a short time as we talked. It was kind of cute, certainly not scary or hard to hold.

After holding the baby rat for a little while, the professor excused himself again and returned with a somewhat larger rat. He handed me the rat and I held it for a while as we continued talking.

This process continued. Each time the professor returned with a slightly larger rat, and each time I held the rat, barely noticing the size difference.

Now, these rats were domestic, lab-bred and raised rats that were more or less friendly, depending on how much they were handled and their individual personalities. Most were agreeable, but since they were albinos with white eyes, they had poor vision, and occasionally one would bite a finger, only because human fingers were about the same size as the high value food reinforcement we gave them.

At the conclusion of this process, I not only felt differently about rats, but I understood the process of desensitization better. I completed the semester in that lab, and at the end of the semester, students were allowed to adopt one of the rats, if we wanted. I chose not to.

Although I learned to be less afraid of rats enough to handle them, I didn't exactly grow fond of them.

However, years later when I was volunteering in an animal shelter and a domestic pet rat was surrendered, I found myself eager to pick the rat up and interact with it. I still wasn't interested in adopting a rat, but I had no fear and had a positive emotional response to the furry little critter.

I feel the same today. Recently, I've had the opportunity to be close to and interact with domestic rats, and I still have no interest in owning one, but I still have no fear. Again, these were domestic rats. I would not have the same emotional response to a wild rat.

So, the effect of desensitization can be long lasting if done correctly.

If done incorrectly, desensitization can not only be ineffective; it can further sensitize, rather than desensitize a person or an animal. Had one of those rats bitten me, I might have aborted the process and decided not to enroll in the class. Further, being bitten would have justified my fear of rats and made me even more afraid of them.

When we do desensitization with our dogs to a feared object or situation, it's essential to avoid causing any fear or anxiety, and to allow the dog to make choices. You should NEVER force a dog to deal with his fears and never ask him to deal with his fear at full intensity.

We usually speak of counterconditioning when talking about desensitization. The two go hand in hand. Counterconditioning is creating a positive response to the feared object by pairing it with something pleasant, usually food. In my experience at the rat lab, counterconditioning was achieved by holding a small furry animal that was friendly and cute.

Done correctly, you should never see a reaction in your dog during desensitization. Only proceed at a pace that allows your dog to continue to feel comfortable. If you progress too quickly and see a reaction in your dog, you are further sensitizing, rather than de-sensitizing him to the object of his fear.

Done correctly, you can help your dog overcome his fear by creating a new, neutral or more positive emotional response to a feared object, but done incorrectly, you will get nowhere, and run the risk of making his fear worse.

© 2025 Cindy Ludwig, Canine Connection LLC
Willard, Missouri USA

09/05/2025

I still hear this. When I do, I briefly ponder whether the person saying it might be open to learning that the term, "alpha" is not a term that can be used to describe a dog's personality. Rather, it's a term that is used to describe the position held by certain wild animals in relation to other animals of the same species with whom they share a habitat.

Specifically, I'm referring to wolves, and more specifically, captive wolves. Non-captive wolves do not have 'alphas.' Non-captive wolves live in family groups, where the parent wolves are referred to as the 'breeding pair.'

Captive wolves, on the other hand, are typically unrelated wolves that work out a hierarchy in which a single female and a single male (referring to one of each) emerge as the 'alpha female' and the 'alpha male.' This status is subject to change at any time, based on pack composition and dynamics, and individual wolf health and behavior.

Dogs are not 'pack animals,' as many people still assume. They are foragers and scavengers. Dogs are opportunists. They do not have the cooperative living and organized hunting characteristics that define true pack animals, namely wolves.

Dogs and wolves are sentient, social beings. Wolves are wild, whether captive or not, and they reside in packs, whether captive or not. Dogs are domesticated canids who share a common ancestor with wolves. They have many of the same behaviors as wolves, such as barking and howling, although wolves howl more than they bark and dogs generally bark more than they howl. But the social structure of these two canids differs greatly.

The myth that dogs are "pack animals" originated with research by Rudolf Schenkel who studied wolves in a Swiss Zoo to better understand the sociology of wolves. Unfortunately, he wrongly concluded that non-captive wolf packs had the same social structure as captive wolf packs and that groups of domestic dogs were also "packs."

This has all been many times refuted, including by the renowned wolf ethologist, L. David Mech, who founded the International Wolf Center (IWC), where I used to volunteer. I attended classes there about canine behavior, and also completed a graduate level course in wolf ethology in which the practicum part of the course was spent at the IWC, observing and cataloging wolf behavior in ethograms.

When people say they have an "alpha," when discussing dogs and dog behavior, I think they usually mean they have a dog that is strong-willed or dominant over other animals.

As discussed many times before on this page, dominance, a closely related term to 'alpha' and 'pack animal,' is also a misunderstood concept. Dominance is a term that refers to the relationship between two animals and which one controls the resources.

Where people go off on the wrong path is attributing all sorts of unwanted dog behavior to 'dominance.' If you think about it, this is ridiculous in most cases, since humans control virtually everything about their dogs' lives - when they eat, where they sleep, when they go for a walk, which toys they get, when they go to the vet...

In the animal kingdom, we are familiar with the fight that occurs between two male ruminants, such as antelope, deer, bison, and other animals vie for dominance and access to females in the herd. But we humans do not compete with our dogs for any of our basic needs, such as food and reproductive rights.

That said, sometimes a behavior issue called conflict-related aggression occurs, which used to be called dominance aggression, but that is beyond the scope of this post.

The problem with using the terms, 'alpha' and variations of the word, 'dominance' incorrectly is that unsafe, counterproductive, and potentially very damaging, even deadly dog training is based on the underlying assumptions.

Effective, safe, and humane dog training is based on an understanding of dog behavior and learning. Unfortunately, since dog training is an unregulated industry and anyone can print business cards and call themselves a 'dog trainer,' dog owners must become savvy consumers!

In summary, it is inaccurate to refer to a dog as an 'alpha' or as 'dominant.' A dog may be dominant over one dog and not another. Dominance is a term that applies to a relationship between animals. It is not a personality characteristic.

© 2025 Cindy Ludwig, M.A., B.S., R.N.
Owner, Canine Connection LLC
Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT-KA, Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers)
Karen Pryor Academy graduate and Certified Training Partner (KPA-CTP)
Voted Best Springfield, Missouri Dog Trainer

09/03/2025

09/01/2025

Simple.

08/26/2025

It's National Dog Day. Celebrate with your best furry friend by letting him sleep in. Oh wait...he does that anyway!

02/15/2025

It's been snowy ( oh so snowy ) here. There are deep drifts, high piles of the stuff. Just as with young children, keep an eye on your dog so they don't get themselves into trouble like disappearing into a snow mound/ getting chilled or frost bitten/ sliding off a big pile into traffic. Some dogs enjoy winter, some dogs hate it but it is up to you to keep your dog safe.