Venetian Blinds

Well before I knew anything about positive training, animal behavior or fear based reactivity, we adopted Amazing Grace, our first fearful dog. Gracie would spend most of her daylight hours patrolling from window to window, on the lookout for intruders, and took her self-appointed job very seriously. Unfortunately, she was driving us insane with her constant alerting, and we couldn’t figure out how to get her to relax her vigilance in order to pursue quieter, less stressful activities, like stamp collecting or knitting.

All that changed when we started a massive, whole house renovation and moved in with my parents for a full year. Mom and Dad graciously allowed us to take over the downstairs of their house for Gracie’s home base. There were big, beautiful windows that overlooked a well manicured front lawn and the street beyond. With visual access to a busy neighborhood, Gracie could have continued her security detail, with great success.

What saved us? Venetian blinds. These particular windows had integrated blinds sandwiched between the panes of glass. We kept them tilted so that light filtered in, but they effectively obstructed her view to the outside. Gracie’s silence was deafening, and she became more relaxed and calmer.

If your shy dog is hyper vigilant, consider closing your blinds or drapes or making windows and doors inaccessible unless you are in the room to supervise. Inexpensive window film is also an excellent, attractive option for obscuring your dog’s view to the street or yard.  A white noise machine or radio tuned to classical music can mask noises from the neighborhood, which may decrease your dog’s desire to stand sentry at the nearest window.  If practice makes perfect, don’t allow your dog to continue to practice any behavior that doesn’t work for your family.

Identifying triggers, then eliminating or managing them (or better yet, desensitizing and counterconditioning so our dogs learn to happily anticipate them), is critically important in reducing our shy and fearful dog’s stress levels. In Gracie’s case, simply limiting visual access to the outdoors literally changed all our lives, for the better.