Comments on: Why Do Dogs Zoom-zoom-zoom Around the House?

By: kbehan

kbehan — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 16:00:37 +0000

I know the studies try to pin these things down to the day/hour/minute, see Pfaffenberger, but I think these so called out-of-the-blue episodes actually relate to the formatting of the emotional battery and while it may tie into some general parameters, I don’t believe it is that specific to a day, week or month of life. Some dogs do well with noises and then at three years of age they begin to panic, some at seven years old. A lot of this is really over-stimulation when young, it doesn’t seemingly register because the input can’t yet be linked to an output, but then the dog matures and now the overload it has internalized can be coupled to an unloading kind of behavior, especially since paradoxically the dog is more confident, and now it can relieve its overload through an overt expression of fear. It may fixate on some innocuous “negative” as trigger and it looks like it’s developed a fear of this thing when it’s really attracted to this thing as a means of doing a data dump. That’s my interpretation of the so-called phenomenon of critical periods.

By: christine randolph

christine randolph — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 04:46:14 +0000

this is for adam…
There is also a theory about multiple fear periods, i am not sure if Kevin is OK with this, but he can always delete it if it is not OK for him

i found it when my malamute suddenly was afraid of the agility tunnels when before she was not:

“Fear periods are when your young dog all of a sudden is afraid of people, objects or places he used to be comfortable with. Some dogs will manifest that fear into shyness and some into more active “go away” behaviors such as growling or lunging. The time frame I have listed here is approximate, but you’ll be able to recognize those times just by being cognizant of your own dog’s change of behavior.

•Between seven to nine weeks of age
•Anywhere from four to six months
•Again at around 12 months
•At approximately 14 to 18 months and with some dogs can even be as late as 2 years”
….
there are 2 theories, socialize the puppy even more than usual during these times, or keep them a bit more isolated until they have worked through a fear period. in other words, blah.

however, it seems that dog people have seen these fear periods in many puppies and have seen the fear disappear more or less on its own after a short while.

that being said, all the confidence building exercises Kevin is recommending and designing, seem very good to me regardless of your puppy being in a fear period or not.

that then, being said, my dog did not want to go through the tunnel last year either, even though she did it when she was very young, just following her older sister..then she got afraid later that year, during what I had thought I had diagnosed as a fear period ….so let us see what this summer brings….(she is 3 now)

By: AZDogerman

AZDogerman — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 01:40:34 +0000

Thanks for the info on the Zooms, I haven’t known how to deal with them before reading this post. I did think something wasn’t quite right with them because my dog has the same intensity and focus while zooming as she does when fence-fighting. Plus, she just looks outright crazy when she gets them and it’s disconcerting! About a year ago I thought that if I crated her after a bath they would subside but instead, when I tried this and let her out after she had visibly settled, she politely rang her bell to go outside and then zoomed outside. Today she was about to get them so I took hold of her and played tug outside, I don’t know if it was the zoom energy or the stalking/tie-out exercise we have been doing but, wow did she give me a lot!

By: kbehan

kbehan — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 21:10:33 +0000

Hi Adam, perhaps you’ve picked up from this site the notion of an emotional battery that dogs have, by which I mean they store up energy and then need an “excuse” to download it and this frequently has to do with a predator since one of the services of the battery is to equip an animal to deal spontaneously with dangerous situations. Frequently young dogs get overloaded with stimulation, the energy that can’t be processed goes into the battery, and then waits for an opportune trigger, and then when the energetic circumstances are ripe, the brain invents a predator. I think that’s what you’re running into here. You need to get your dog grounded into the bite toy and the pushing for food exercise. Keep us posted.

By: Adam

Adam — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:27:33 +0000

Hi Kevin…great insight here. I have an 8 month old hound mix named Roger who does the zoom-zoom thing, typically at the dog park. I’ve always thought of it as a normal release of energy, as he is crated for a few hours most days. In the last couple of months, however, Roger seems to have developed a general fear and anxiety when walking him around our busy urban neighborhood. Carts, bicycles, buses and , most recently, people in dark clothing send him frantically scrabbling away, pulling on his leash with his tail between his legs and looking over his shoulder-seemingly terrified. He has been in this environment since he was 3 months old, and never had such an extreme reaction so often as he has in the past two months; in fact, we used to remark on his mellow disposition. He was socialized early and often with other dogs and people, has been in the city noise a long time, and hasn’t had any traumatic encounters with the above stimuli. Any idea why he has developed these fears now? Hope you can help…thanks.

By: shanty

shanty — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 19:21:49 +0000

Thanks again Kevin, that makes sense. We just had a great game of pushing and tug of war this morning. His intensity towards me is amping up and up and to be honest I think playing with him this way is helping me better deal with stress as well.

Its a new place for both of us and I get the same rush and calm from playing with him as he does, so thanks on both our accounts for this wonderful way to build our confidence and bonding.

By: kbehan

kbehan — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 12:08:24 +0000

Yes, but remember that the dog perceives the world indirectly, first the world affects its emotional battery, the dog has a feeling, and then it hears, sees, tastes and body senses. The good news is that because of this battery, one doesn’t have to act right then and there to ground the energy, you can pick another time and place to serve as the off/load and gratification zone. As the dog’s capacity gets stronger, it will be able to hold onto this feeling-of-place when in times of conflict. In fact, just your touch and a soothing word in a moment of conflict will then be able to trigger its memory of how much gratification it experienced with you. So you don’t have to stir things up for the other dogs if things are going calmly, even though you’re dog may merely be suppressing nerve energy, you can wait for an opportune time. Eventually by virtue of the emotional battery the emotional checkbook will get balanced. Keep On Pushing!

By: shanty

shanty — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 07:02:47 +0000

Really enjoying your additions to the sight Kevin. Not to take up too much of your time, but I was thinking a lot about your reference to over stimulation and wanted to share my thoughts.

Since I used a noise distraction/verbal praise technique to break undesired behaviours (barking at other dogs, jumping on the children when they played, chewing items) I suppose the constant interruption without a way of grounding could have ultimately created his unresolved issues with other dogs?

Based on your insights I’m going to assume that even though he behaves around rowdy kids, or on leash dogs, for example, I should still direct his attention to me with pushing to resolve any possible pent up emotions and not assume his ‘behaving’ means he’s not experiencing stimulation. Do you think that would address the issue more at its core?

By: kbehan

kbehan — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:38:13 +0000

I feel a dog should not sleep on the owner’s bed so that’s good you don’t allow it. I will explain why in an upcoming article.

By: shanty

shanty — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 22:39:13 +0000

Thanks for your response Kevin. After a week of once or twice daily tug-play and several days of hand feeding and regular pushing exercises my dog’s confidence seems to be improving immensely.

Initially, after the boarding experience, he wouldn’t take the food out of my hand – now he runs at me and jumps, planting his feet on my stomach while I push him back. Huge progress.

As for the tug – the first time we tried it after reading Lee’s blog and for some reason forgot to keep it up. But we started up again and he now runs for it and jumps to get it – I really have to watch out as he’s no longer so ‘dainty’ with his grasp (the first time I tried it he’d always let go as soon as I gave any resistance).

I’m not throwing him into the social scene just yet, but these exercises, including the ‘eyes’ exercise which we have been doing for a few months, are keeping him satisfied so I don’t feel he needs the dogs to ground himself as he used to AND he is happy after a few minutes of play as Lee mentions so I don’t need to worry so much about needing the other dogs to release his energy.

I understand what you’ve said about the chasing, and we’ve stopped since I understood about the prey/predator image. I don’t think he’s had any terrible experiences but since he’s such a ‘polite’ dog otherwise I think the excitment and stimulation of the dog park was missing in our everyday lives so he didn’t have a proper mangement technique. Thanks for your input.

PS – he doesn’t sleep on the bed, and rarely in our room. Is that good or bad?