Boba's a brave little pug. She'll wrestle with me like she's the alpha and bitch smack Great Danes in the face like they're her hoes. Boba's a pretty chill dog, but she does have a specific phobia: stairs. She has a full blown panic attack whenever we try to leave the apt. and she sees the stairs. Tears form in her eyes, her heart races, she whimpers and crouches down like she's about to be beaten (no comment on my disciplinary techniques). I usually carry her down (yes, I realize I'm reinforcing her anxiety) the four flights of stairs as she panics, and once we're outside on the sidewalk, she's perfectly happy. Boba used to fear going up the stairs as well, but for whatever reason got over that fairly quickly. So today I decided I would use some flooding to get her over her fear of going down the stairs. I'll spare the details, but this basically involved slowly pulling her down (more lifting, really) by her harness. After about 10 minutes of this she finally gave in and attempted to go down a few steps on her own. A few treats later, and voila! Boba has been cured of her stair phobia. She ran up and down the stairs tonight, leaving me in her dust. I'm glad my 3 years of grad school have come in handy-- I can cure my dog of her phobias, success!!!
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