Viewing Single Post From: Problem with bangs and Maggie!

Viewing Single Post From: Problem with bangs and Maggie!
piwoodhouse	Mar 13 2009, 09:00 PM
Total Gas Bag! Posts: 3,970 Group: Full Members Member #282 Joined: August 18, 2006	Just had a look at a couple of websites offering advice and one was quite interesting in that it isn't a question of overcoming her fear, you need to overcome your perception of her response to gunfire. If this was Widget going berserk at the end of a flexi, I'd instinctively grab him, hold him tight and talk soothingly to calm him down. Yet according to this website, I would be causing more damage, reinforcing his fear as if he was thinking "Blimey I was right to be scared judging by Mum's reaction". What would be better is for the human to respond to noise as if it's a fun, good thing. You hear noise and you party basically! Maggie comes to learn that noise makes everyone feel good. I can see what they are getting at in a way.Years ago I did one of those anti-phobia courses at London Zoo as I was petrified of spiders. When prompted to say exactly how they made me feel I could have gone on all day. Most of the people on that course spoke of rising hysteria, nausea, mad panic, inability to breathe in some cases! The course leader told us our responses were 100% rational.....................IF WE WERE TALKING ABOUT A MURDERER! More often than not, phobias are started and fed by reactions of people close to us. Clearly watching my mother climbing on a chair and screaming for my dad when a house spider scuttled across her carpet meant I learned they were things to fear. Why? No British spider can kill or even hurt me. It makes no rational sense at all. Had my mother cooed over it and let it run over her hands, there would have bene an entirely different outcome for me. Meant to ask: how old is Maggie now and is this a recent phenomenon? Does she panic at other sights or sounds? Edited by piwoodhouse, Mar 13 2009, 09:02 PM.


Problem with bangs and Maggie! · Training & Behaviour