Stop Swatting the Bees!
There are lots of good reasons to leave bees alone. Number one, bees do so much good for the environment, and two, it hurts when they sting! But today that’s not my point.
My focus isn’t about whether or not to swat at them, but rather to look at what body movements are present when we react to bees, which typically is flailing arms, running away and or screaming. For those of you who are fearful of bees because of allergies or pain, this behavior is relatable, however, feel free to substitute something else you’d have the same reaction to such as snakes, rats, spiders, or some politicians.
Fear is the underlying motivation of screaming, running away or trying to swat the bees, and if the presence of bees did not elicit fear, there would be no fearful behavior response. I’m sure you’re wondering what this has to do with dog behavior, so I will digress.
Imagine a bizarre, parallel universe, where dogs owned humans. Now picture the dog who is holding the leash becoming very upset when his pet-human displays reactivity. In this scenario, the dog, having taken advice from the internet, a TV human-trainer, and friends who owned pet-humans, was told to to jerk the human’s collar and growl in response to the pet’s reactive behavior whenever it lunged, swatted, or vocalize in the presence of bees, or other seemingly benign stimuli in the environment, according to the dog’s sensibilities.
Yes this is a bizarre example, however, this is the tactic that many humans use on their own dogs when he “acts out”.
While humans certainly can identify another human’s response to scary things in the environment, or better put, we can understand that screaming, swatting or trying to escape a situation is a fearful behavior, however, most humans do not recognize when a dog is exhibiting a fearful response. Without recognizing that fearful emotions produce physical behavior, many uneducated humans, try to squash the physical behavior that they can see instead of working to reduce the high-arousal emotions. Let’s face it, it is much easier to try to stop something you can see vs something that another being feels. Moreover any fool can “swat” the dog, and stop him in his tracks, especially if the person causes the dog pain, but the raw fearful emotions have not been diminished which is why the next time the dog is exposed to something frightening, he is ready to react, sometimes with even a bigger display of behavior!
The next time you see a friend’s fearful response to something they find aversive, think about their behavior, and then think of what you would say to that person to help him feel better. Please think of your dog’s emotions next time his body language reflects his fear, and instead of causing him more pain, find ways to make him feel better because the last thing he needs to compound his fear is his person screaming, “Stop swatting the bees!”.
HAPPY TRAINING & ENRICHMENT
© Fran Berry CPDT-KA, UW-AAB all rights reserved 2022
