Observe and learn

Dogs learn by observing their environment. Providing calm experiences where the dog can notice things and discover her surroundings is a good learning opportunity.

If your dog is worried about something - people, moving things or maybe other dogs - letting them observe these things from a safe calm distance can help her understand that there is nothing to be concerned about.

Give her time to observe and process a few times before you attempt to move closer and observe again.

It is important that we do not push our dogs too far (or in this case, too near), as this could make matters worse, even result in a very harmful state called flooding. Instead, always make sure your dog is reasonably relaxed while observing and proceed at her pace.

In this picture Eva allows Talco to observe in his own time. There is no rush to move until he is ready. Wonderful.