By A.M. Kuska
Andrea Kuska is a dedicated dog mom of three chihuahuas. She has over a decade of experience as a dog groomer, chihuahua owner, and more recently as a dog trainer. She loves all things canine, particularly chihuahuas.
A resource for grooming, training and care of your chihuahua.
Absolutely fantastic read! It’s great to see such a creative approach to storytelling.
Fantastic way to engage and educate, I love this!! It’s shocking to me that some people think “flooding” a dog with what he’s terrified of will “cure” him of it. It would be like me forcing my terrified and mistreated dog to be in an environment filled with people and dogs and no escape. He would have lost his mind! I feel for the dogs stuck in these situations.
It used to be all the rage in dog training, I even recall reading about it in that Black Stallion series, teaching a horse to stop hating whips by posting them up all over their stable.
I love how you turned the perspective–imagine if somebody did this to YOU. It illustrates the effect of flooding on dogs perfectly. I wonder if you want to consider publishing this as a coloring book.
I’d love to do that! I’ve already got a couple of comics done and have been thinking about combining them into a cartoon style dog book. I’ll have to look into that idea. Coloring and learning at the same time!
I can’t imagine why anyone thinks flooding a dog like this would work? I mean how? Why? This is insane. What a horrible thing to do!
The end made me smile and, it works. Gentle introduction works and builds trust!
The idea is they will just get over it seeing as it never leaves. Poor dogs!
I absolutely LOVE this analogy! I learned many years ago as a teacher that breaking things down in terms they can easily relate to is the best way to learn. You knocked this one out of the park! Who in their right mind would say flooding is a good idea? Especially after reading this thought comic. You did such a great job, Andrea! I know this will help many people finally understand the reason why flooding is not a good idea. Bravo…or maybe that should be WOOF!!!
I love the idea of teaching people by putting them into the dog’s perspective. I do this when teaching introductions and explaining why people shouldn’t reach for an animal’s head to pet right away. And you are right, flooding rarely works- shaping is much better!
Such a fantastic post and helping your pet overcome her fears is tough but in the end life is so much easier for her, I love the way you did it all in cartoons
Andrea, this was brilliant! What a wonderful way to educate…I was sucked right by the (gulp) spiders…and just kept right on reading. Love using cartoons to convey such an important message. Sharing this with my FiveSibes readers! And already Pinned!
Thank you so much!