I know people who live not far from one of the flight paths going to and away from the airport. I remember us having a discussion one time about how annoying it would be to hear the loud planes so often. The response I would hear was always, “You get used to it.”
When I sit by a swimming pool, I may initially be able to hear all the conversations, the laughter, the kids screaming but within a few minutes I can tune it out and focus on reading a book or lay back and close my eyes.
The scientific term for what happened in those cases is habituation. Simply stated, habituation occurs when we get used to something and its presence no longer means anything to us.
Habituation can occur with our dogs as well.
Maybe your dog startled and barked the first time you turned on the electric can opener but over the next few times of hearing it, your dog began to just look in the direction of the noise and soon began ignoring it all together. That is habituation happening.
Or let’s say the first time your dog heard the dogs barking across the street, he ran to the window (or fence line, if outside) to bark back; but over time, with lots of repeated exposure, your dog began ignoring their barking. Again, that is habituation at work.
In some instances, however, rather than habituating to that environmental event, an animal’s response strengthens with repeated exposure.
Maybe, those dogs across the street have very deep, menacing barks that startle and scare your dog. Instead of habituating to their voices, your dog becomes hyper-sensitive to them. And, since he does not know when the dogs will be outside, your dog is unsettled spending time in your back yard. He may be startle easier to sounds or sights that appear out-of-the blue.
Another example is a dog who may find spending time at a busy park mildly unpleasant. With repeated exposure to varying amounts of unpredictable movement, loud noises, kids running around, that dog may begin having an elevated heart rate, becoming hypervigilant and unable to focus, vocalizing more, even lunging or growling at stimulus.
That dog also may begin avoiding the car or doing these behaviors during the car ride (since the car could take him to the scary place).
The scientific term for what has happened is sensitization.
I have a personal example of sensitization. When I was in the kitchen as my dad would cook, he used to take out a large, rounded spatula and hold it at just the right angle to cause the sun’s reflection to shine brilliantly in my eyes. The first few times this happened; I was annoyed and would tell him to stop. However, as he kept doing it, my annoyance grew. I could feel my heart rate increasing and my body stiffening when his hand moved to the utensil drawer. (This must have been reinforcing his behavior since the frequency of it grew too.) Eventually I just quietly left the room when he began cooking.
A few points of note with sensitization
– Since it causes our pets and us to have more intense reactions with each exposure, this lowers
our tolerance for coping. Stress stacking (also called trigger stacking) can lead to aggressive
behaviors and other fear-based/anxiety-based behaviors.
– Sensitization can lead to generalization.
We or our dog (or other pet) may begin showing these responses to stimuli that may be
similar to the original stimulus. If your dog has been sensitized to the sound of sudden,
loud trucks whizzing by; your dog could begin responding to other sudden noises outside.
In the real world where we are bombarded with different stimulus all the time, it can be hard to predict with any given animal whether it will habituate or sensitize to something. Genetics, early socialization and past learning experience can all influence the response. Often it is the over-the-top noises or environmental events that are more likely to cause sensitization with repeated exposure rather than habituation.
Systematic desensitization and counterconditioning are valuable tools behavior change tools
If you think your dog will have a higher tendency to respond to a stimulus with sensitization (or already has sensitized to it), you can be proactive in using systematic desensitization and counterconditioning to reduce or eliminate the negative, emotion-based response to an event.
Systematic desensitization is a behavior modification technique that involves exposing the animal gradually and systematically to a fear-eliciting trigger stimulus until the stimulus no longer triggers a negative emotional response. The systematic piece of this means the exposure begins with the weakest, non-scary version of the unpleasant thing. Exposure to increased strengths of the unpleasant thing only moves forward as the learner shows no negative emotional behavioral response.
Counterconditioning, also called stimulus substitution, is a behavioral therapy technique that strives to change unwanted behaviors or reactions to desired behaviors or reactions. Most commonly it is used with fear or anxiety-based behaviors. It involves pairing the unpleasant thing with neutral or positive things to change the negative emotional response to a positive emotional response.
Systematic desensitization and counterconditioning go hand-in-hand.
You could take your dog to a quiet area of the park and work on relaxation, or personal play. You may increase the intensity by moving closer to the activity area at a time of day when there is less going on and still practice relaxation and personal play. You will only increase the intensity of what your dog is exposed to as your dog can continue to relax and interact with you.
Here is an example of how I used systematic desensitization and counterconditioning to change how our family dog felt and behaved toward going outside, after a scary July 4 holiday.
What are some examples from your own life and your experiences with your pet, of habituation and sensitization?
