18/03/2025
Let me say this louder for the people stuck in behavior advice from the 90's 📢
YOU CANNOT REINFORCE FEAR.
Fear isn’t a behavior—it’s an automatic, emotional response, like a fire alarm going off inside the brain.
Offering comfort and safety when a dog is afraid doesn’t ‘reward’ the alarm—it helps relieve the panic.
The outdated belief that reassurance strengthens fear is simply false.
It's not my opinion.
This is simply neurobiology.
Many individuals—particularly those who claim authority as dog trainers or professionals but lack formal education in animal behavior—often advise ignoring a dog’s fearful behavior.
This advice stems from outdated, dominance-based models.
These models incorrectly attribute fear-driven behaviors to a lack of leadership, control, or “alpha” status. Because they misunderstand fear responses as challenges to authority or as behaviors to be suppressed.
Sadly, they fail to recognize fear as an emotional state requiring support and co-regulation.
Instead, they focus on extinguishing behaviors.
When we offer comfort to a dog experiencing fear, it’s common to see the dog seeking even more reassurance.
To an uneducated eye, this may look like the behavior is worsening.
However, what’s actually happening is that the dog is beginning to trust the human as a source of safety and regulation.
This is a positive indicator of relationship-building and emotional resilience, laying the groundwork for longer-term behavioral stability.
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