Hi {{first_name}} ,
This video sat in a folder on my computer for almost five years before I showed it to anyone.
It is me and Goofy, working through a phobia he had when he was young. He was terrified of balloons. Tail between his legs, panting, salivating, would not go near his food if there was a balloon anywhere in the room.
I documented the whole thing. Then I filed it away and forgot about it.
When I finally found it and watched it back, I remembered why I filmed it in the first place. The process works. And most people are doing it wrong in a way that permanently sets the fear in instead of resolving it.
In This Issue
The counter-conditioning method I use for any fear, any stimulus
The single mistake that locks phobias in permanently
Goofy's five-session transformation, session by session
Why solving one fear gives a dog tools for the next one
Reading time: 4 minutes
How It Works
Before I get into Goofy, a quick client example.
I have a client with a poodle named Dolly. She was afraid of the fireplace. Not fire itself. The sound it makes when the wood snaps and crackles. Every time it popped, Dolly would spook and shut down.
Same principle applies. Same fix.
Counter-conditioning works like this. You take the thing that scares the dog and introduce it at a distance where the dog notices it but is not overwhelmed by it. Then you introduce food. The dog's brain starts connecting the scary thing with something it likes. Over enough repetitions, that file rewrites.
The food only appears when the stimulus is present. Not separately. Not as a reward for coming close to it. Just the food and the scary thing, together, in the same space.
The Mistake That Locks Fear In
Here is where most people go wrong. And it matters because doing this one thing correctly is the difference between solving the problem and making it permanent.
The owner brings out the food. The scary thing is there. The dog will not eat. The owner waits, then gives up, removes the scary thing, and feeds the dog somewhere safe.
What did the dog just learn?
Balloons appear. I panic. I cannot eat because I am too afraid. The balloons go away. Then I get fed.
The dog just practiced the belief that balloons are dangerous and that panicking brings relief. You reinforced the phobia. It is now stronger than when you started.
The food only appears when the stimulus is present. You let the dog get hungry enough that hunger starts competing with fear. You stay with it even when it looks like it is not working.
Five Sessions with Goofy
Session one: Goofy would not go near the food at all. Panting. Salivating. Completely shut down.
Session two: I hand-fed him. He took food from my hand but backed away every time he looked up and saw the balloons.
Session three: food in the bowl, no hand-feeding. He either went to get it or he did not eat.
At one point the wind moved the balloons and spooked him again. I said nothing. I did nothing. I let him see that the balloons were on the wall and nothing was going to happen.
By session five he was touching them. By session six he was chasing them around the bedroom and popping them.
The same balloons that had him shut down on the floor in session one. He was playing with them.
What Actually Transferred
Here is the part I want you to hold onto.
After Goofy worked through the balloon phobia, other things that used to bother him started bothering him less. Not because I worked on those things directly. Because he had learned how to move through fear. He discovered on his own that scary things could not hurt him if he stayed present long enough to find out.
Solving one phobia gives a dog a tool they carry into the next one. And the one after that.
Be steadfast. Five to seven sessions. Not even 10 minutes each. It may feel cruel for the first three. On the other side of it, there is a different dog.
Before You Go, Last Call…
Today is the last day the for the early bird pricing on the Corrections Masterclass. Tomorrow it goes back to normal.
What I want to say is this.
I build this course for a specific person. The person who has been working with dogs long enough to know corrections matter, but hasn’t had anyone sit down and walk through exactly how they work. The timing, the intensity.
What to do before you correct. And what to do when a correction makes things worse. And that’s what most courses skip entirely.
47 video. 9 modules. 4.5 hours of material I have spent over 20 years putting together in my own head and have never laid out this completely anywhere else.
If that is you, today is your day.
$147 through tonight for an incredible course. $197 tomorrow.
