05/03/2026
â ď¸Why âFacing Their Fearsâ Doesnât Work the Way You Think In Dog Training â ď¸
I recently watched a dog training program (I rarely do as most of them encourage aversive methods and omit the importance of welfare and wellbeing as priority). A couple with an extremely fear reactive dog was on it. The dog was scared of most things outside, other people including. The couple admitted that their attempts to âfixâ the dogâs nervousness involved repeated exposure to known triggers on the basis of: âthe dog just needs to get use to itâ. Needless to say - the dogâs reactivity has only gotten worse đŁ
đ¤¨I see this (too) often: people have a dog that is fearful of âXâ, so they try to remedy the problem by overexposing the dog to âXâ in a belief that frequent exposure to stressors will teach them there is nothing you can do be scared of. âThey will get use to it if we do it enough timesâ is the human thought behind the process.
âĄď¸ But hereâs the thing. This approach, known as flooding, does NOT help dogs overcome their fears, worries, anxieties. In fact - it tends to make them worse.
đťFlooding involves overwhelming the dog with the very thing they fear, under the assumption that with enough exposure, the fear will fade. But for dogs (and frankly, for most living beings), stress doesnât evaporate like that - it compounds. Repeated exposure to a trigger, without a sense of safety or control, doesnât lead to healing. It leads to shutdown, avoidance, or escalation.
đ§Where does this idea of overexposure come from ??
đ¤ŻThe belief that âfacing your fearsâ helps overcome them is deeply rooted in human psychology, particularly in exposure therapy, a clinical technique used to treat phobias and anxiety disorders. The idea is to gradually and repeatedly expose a đĽđđ§đ¨đ¤đŁ to the source of their fear in a controlled, safe environment - a method known as systematic desensitization (Wolpe, 1958).
âď¸But the key word here is âgradual.â Not chucking the individual into deep end and leaving them hanging.âď¸
đ°Successful exposure therapy relies on the individual having a choice, understanding whatâs happening (which we cannot facilitate for dogs in the same way) and building positive associations through controlled progression. Dogs, unlike humans, donât understand the concept of therapy. They live in the moment. So when a dog is dragged toward a trigger, restrained from fleeing, or left to âjust deal with it,â they arenât learning to cope - theyâre learning that the world is unsafe and there is plenty of be afraid of.
â ď¸Overexposing a dog to stressors will erode trust, worsen reactivity, and prolong recovery. In many cases, it can create learned helplessness - a state where the dog simply shuts down, not because theyâre âover it,â but because theyâve given up. And in other cases - nervousness can escalate to fear based aggression.
âźď¸Itâs very easy to mistake seeing a dog that is shut down and believing they are no longer scared, when the reality is they are so scared - theyâve stopped showing any emotions and behaviours.
âĄď¸ Flooding does NOT work. Systematic desensitisation and counter conditioning absolutely do work, but đ
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¨ in the right set up for the individual.
â¤ď¸â𩹠Everyone does their best to try to help their dog, that why itâs SO important to understand what actually helps and what make things worse.
References
⢠Wolpe, J. (1958). Psychotherapy by Reciprocal Inhibition.
⢠Overall, K.L. (2013). Manual of Clinical Behavioural Medicine for Dogs and Cats.
⢠McMillan, F.D. (2017). Mental Health and Well-Being in Animals.
⢠Lindsay, S.R. (2000). Handbook of Applied Dog Behaviour and Training: Adaptation and Learning.
