How to help my dog cope with changes? (Fear of novelty)

Is your dog anxious in new place? Scared if you change something around the house? Struggle with any alterations to their routine? 

Fear of change and novelty are very common in sensitive, fearful, and skittish dogs. That's tough for them, because our human world is full of change- even when we try to keep everything the same. 

How can we help our shy or suspicious pups cope with new things more confidently?  That's the focus of the video below.  The short answer is: 1) Teach you dog skills they can use to cope with change, and then; 2) Carefully help them generalize those skills to new situations.

That last bit- the generalization part- is where most of us get stuck. Maybe your dog eat treats happily at home and can do some tricks on cue- but as soon as you step out the front door, all bets are off? That's a generalization issue (which might be be compounded by fear and motivation issues.)  I spend some time in this video talking about how we can help our dogs generalize behaviors to different contexts. 

If you try out some of the tips in this video, shoot me an email me at [email protected] to tell me how it went! 

I have a free virtual training, "How to Teach Your Fearful Dog Confidence (Hint: It's not time & patience!)" coming up next week! You can secure your spot here.