c o v e r is more likely in the vet clinic. Third Problem. In sensitization, stimuli become more aversive over time. If the ani mal sensitizes, what you’ll notice is that she starts responding more rather than less, over time or with repeated exposure (see Fig. 3, bot‐ tom right on previous page).
Crucial Differences between Habituation and Sensitization Though they seem like two sides of the same coin, they’re not. Sensiti zation and habituation are different in a few ways: • Habituation is slow, sensitization is potentially fast. Generally animals learn quicker about potentially dangerous stimuli. • Habituation doesn’t generalize, sensitization does. Animals start reacting to other stimuli than the one that originally trig gered the response. • Habituation isn’t multimodal, sensitization tends to be. Ani mals start reacting to other sensory stimuli than the original one: they get sensitive to noise, touch, visual input, etc. The problem is that it’s hard to predict whether an animal will habit uate or sensitize to a given stimulus. Some animals may sensitize even to notsoaversive stimuli, others will not. Judging by studies on how fear develops in animals visiting the vet erinary clinic, the majority sensitize rather than habituate: dogs with previous negative experiences are more fearful than dogs with only pos itive previous experiences; older animals are more fearful than younger animals (Döring et al., 2009). I am assuming here that we can tell by the animal’s behavior how aversive a situation is. But sometimes we can’t. Sometimes animals may stop struggling and meekly accept handling because they’ve learned that resistance is futile. This is a potentially serious stress syndrome called learned helplessness. The fourth problem with attempting habit uation in the vet clinic is thus telling successful habituation from learned helplessness. Based on these thoughts, I’d advise against simply “getting it done” in the veterinary clinic. Habituation alone won’t work. Rather, I would suggest counterconditioning to reduce fear at the vet’s. But, despite these shortcomings – there is still a nugget of gold hid den in the process of habituation. It’s a version of habituation called sys tematic desensitization (SD), which I mentioned earlier.
Fig. 4: Systematic Desensitization
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BARKS from the Guild/January 2021
Judging by studies on how fear develops in animals visiting the veterinary clinic, the majority sensitize rather than habituate: dogs with previous negative experiences are more fearful than dogs with only positive previous experiences; older animals are more fearful than younger animals (Döring et al., 2009).
Systematic Desensitization Systematic desensitization (see Fig. 4, bottom left) is an essential part of your toolbox to reduce and eliminate fear.
Systematic Desensitization = Graduated Exposure and Relaxation Let’s go back to the habituation model and look at what happens if rather than introducing a very aversive stimulus head on (the red circle on the upper right in Fig. 4), we start out by introducing it at a very low intensity, where we basically don’t see the animal responding all that much to it (the green circle to the lower left in Fig. 4). Say you want to habituate the animal to a stimulus that you suspect is really aversive. Say, having nails clipped. In systematic desensitization, the animal is exposed to lowintensity levels of the stimulus. Gradually, over time, the exposure level is increased until finally the stimulus is in troduced at full exposure, including perhaps a level that would originally have been very aversive. At each exposure level, the animal should ini tially not be over threshold, and relax completely before moving to the next level (see Fig. 4). What might work is this: starting with lowintensity versions of the stimulus, allow the animal to become accustomed to it. For instance, simply handling feet, or paws, or talons (or even just holding your hand several feet away from the foot, paw or talon). Since you’re choosing an exposure that the animal isn’t reacting much to, you won’t see any fear response. After a while, the animal relaxes (e.g. in Fig. 4, the green dot would gradually turn neutral over time). Once the animal isn’t even reacting to this first step, move on. This relaxation is one of the key features of SD. At every step of the way, the stimulus turns neutral, so the animal stops responding to it. Note that if you’re only using SD, the stimulus becomes neutral, not nice (unlike when you’re using countercondi tioning, which is often done in combination with SD). Present the stimulus again, only a little bit closer, or louder, or more intense. For instance, look ing at the clipper from a distance, or listening to the sounds it makes – from a distance. Allow the animal to habituate – again, look for relaxation. Don’t move on until the animal is completely relaxed with this level of intensity. Then gradually increase the stimulus exposure. In the case of nail clipping, you might start with sim ply tapping the nails with the clipper. If the animal starts to show signs of tension, you might be ad vancing too quickly. The trick with systematic desen sitization is going really slowly, perhaps taking several days or weeks. Exposure should barely be in tense enough for the animal to notice the stimulus initially. It’s time to increase exposure once the ani mal is relaxed and no longer pays attention to the
