English Mastiff won't get in my truck

[JanetBeller]

I have a four, almost five year old English Mastiff, and the people who gave him to me two and a half years ago literally dragged him up my dog ramp and shoved him into my truck. (I have a full size truck with lift. Hence the dog ramp.) Since then, he won't get back in. He is not enticed by food or toys. He is fearful of loud noises outside of my house. Ex. fireworks, even the wind. It took me two weeks to get him to come inside my house. (I even slept outside with him!) And about two months to get him to walk on leash. He is frightened by most people, altho he likes a couple of my neighbors. I had a mobile vet come out, and he did well with her.  I am moving at the end of Sept, and need him to get into my truck. Any help would be great!

[Adrienne]

Hi Janet Beller,

It sounds like you have a very sensitive fellow, but he's very lucky to have such a patient and dedicated dog owner like you, who was even willing to sleep outside with him! It's good that you are preparing in advance for your moving trip as this gives you time to try to work on this issue. 

With dogs like this, it's all about taking baby steps and creating positive associations with the things they are uncomfortable with or fear. It is also very important that we keep an eye on the dog's comfort levels making sure your dog isn't overwhelmed during the process. If we do see signs of him being uncomfortable at any time, we need to take a slower approach and go back a few steps to where he was comfortable. 

Here are some reads to get you started on understanding the process. 

Desensitization, which is how we take small baby steps:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/desensitization/

Counterconditioning, which is how we create positive associations:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/?s=counterconditioning

And here is a guide on making sure your dog isn't overwhelmed during the process. In behavior terms, we say that we keep a dog "under threshold." This applies to a variety of emotions such as fear, excitement, stress, reactivity, aggression. We always want to make sure we don't push our dogs into situations that evokes intense emotions.

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/threshold-levels/

Now, these cases often require an individualized approach. We need to find out what exactly they fear and work on that. So a big question is, is your dog uncomfortable mostly in using the ramp? Or is he scared of going inside the truck? Or is it maybe both? Maybe he was never on a truck before since this fear started once you got him on his first trip with you. So yes, it can certainly be that the people who gave them to you were very rough, but it could also be he was never in a moving vehicle before so this may too be a factor. And who knows maybe he was also a bit nauseated (many dogs suffer from motion sickness the first time in vehicles- which is often confused for anxiety) and this acted as an aggravating factor, so if nausea may be an issue, contact your vet for meds to help with that.

So to cover all basis, we may work on first getting him used to re-using the ramp in the home and then once we have that pat down, trying it with the truck  and then working on creating positive associations with being in the truck, then going on a very short ride (maybe have somebody drive as you feed high value treats, praise), making great things happen when on the truck and then making things boring again once off. 

Here is a guide on getting a dog used to a ramp (use lots of caution, as there are some models of ramps that are wobbly, have a helper assist him going up and down to play it safe)

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/video-archive/train-your-dog-to-use-a-ramp/

If the ramp is a problem, depending on how high your truck is some dogs may do better just jumping from the passengers' back entrance, with the seats moved forward away from the floor.  You can see a guide for training jumps on a truck here, starting from training a dog to jump on a couch. It helps too having a dog who jumps up enthusiastically to show how easy it is, so if you  know somebody with a dog who loves car rides and your dog gets along with, these dogs can make great "influencers."

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/fear-getting-car/

If your dog's fear is more widespread than thought, meaning that he's struggling with more than just a fear of getting in the truck but more generalized fears such as fear of novelties, fear or confined spaces or a generalized anxiety of the unknown, know that you will have to work on many fronts and things may be more challenging. These dogs often need a multifaceted approach, focusing on increasing their confidence levels,  reducing their fears, using calming aids etc. Here are some reads for this:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/exercises-build-confidence-insecure-dogs/

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/helping-fearful-rescue-dog/

And of course, it's always helpful to rule out orthopedic problems considering that some times a dog's reluctance to jump up or use a ramp may be due to orthopedic problems. 

I hope this helps! As the saying goes " slow and steady wins the race!"

Let me know if you have any questions and keep me posted on how things go,

Best,

Adrienne

Einstein learning to use the ramp. The chairs are meant to prevent him from jumping off the sides.

[JanetBeller]

OK! I have checked out your responses, and found that I'm already pretty much doing things the right way. I have told friends we are on "Henry Time," doing things slow, for the last two years. I do have Henry on meds now, and he is responding well to them. He did great over the 4th of July weekend, and we had a LOT of fireworks in the neighborhood. We will be working more with our ramp in the coming weeks. I appreciate the help!

[Adrienne]

Great to hear!

Thanks so much for posting the update!

Best,

Adrienne