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Social Support – Attachment and Trust – impacts Resilience | Part 6 of 7
Social support involves being present and available without the need to force or control. – Bobbie Bhambree, CDBC, CPDT-KA
In part 5 of this series, I talked about ???? attachment and the impact on predictability.
As you might imagine, social support is also related to attachment. Securely attached dogs will seek support from you and they will bounce-back more quickly.
When a dog can count on you, and trust that you have their best in mind… it’s easier to recover from fear or stress. You can support them by being there, not forcing the interaction, not trying to control their behavior. Just. Be. With. Them. ????
???? For my old girl Joy who is terrified of thunderstorms, social support is when I invite her into my lap and simply hold her while she trembles. She runs to me when she’s scared. Not the other way.
????Social support can also come from another dog. Savvy trainers often use a confident dog to model appropriate behavior to a young or new dog because dogs watch dogs!
????In this clip I share a couple examples of social support when Bliss, my adolescent Aussie got spooked recently.
Add your stories! How have you used social support to help your dog recover from stress?
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2 Replies
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I really like this concept. My beagle Acorn has a few older dogs he really looks up to. He is usually pretty fearful of water but when his friend Tink is around he will trot happily after her into water imitating her and seemingly learning from her and trying to have her think he’s cool:))))
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OMD – yes, the “cool” factor. It works with adolescent humans… why not with dogs! So funny. Great story.
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