Hissing. Spitting. Oh My.

What a scared hissing cat reminded me of today...
I'm about to get real.

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HISSING. SPITTING. Of the feline variety​

Sadly, it's a reality at the vet's office and I see it often. It's the feline equivalent of growling and snapping.

Look, I get it. I place no blame. Well, actually, I do place a little blame on the movie "Pet Sematary"  - I walked into the room when my mom was watching it after I was supposed to be in bed as a child, and I am forever scarred...
Anyways, I digress. 

The cat was terrified and was willing to let us know... But it makes me want to run for the hills. No joke. Often, I will tap out on that one with someone who prefers the hissing to the growling but today, it wasn't an option. So I dealt, mostly.

But when my adrenaline came down today and my palms stopped sweating, I realized something...

I had become the shutdown/reactive dog. I couldn't get my thoughts straight. I recognized that I had tunnel vision while in there. While I would normally feel the intense need to apologize for my flustered ways, I realize now that I need to verbalize my needs. I need to focus in on my learned behaviors. I need to put them into practice instead of avoiding but I need to break down the triggers. I need to recognize the whole situation for what it was. A trigger stack. A pile on of triggers that set my emotions into fight or flight.

The sounds, the anticipation, the recognition of what COULD be. They were ripping my skills and learned behaviors right out from under me and taking my own sense of control away.

I need to step back and assess how I can use those triggers as cues to perform very specific behaviors. I need to know when to ask for help. I need to focus on one step at a time. I need to verbalize my concerns to the owner for future visits and do the acting vet for the current visit. I need to show pro-activity and not reactivity. Instead of running away, can I get help and fully observe, without the guilt and shame of not being able to handle it? Can I mentally get out of the victim state and get into the science and the behavior of it? Because that's where my toolbox lies. I have spent years upon years studying behavior and applying behavior modification methods. If the cat is quiet, no problem. Quiet fear doesn't trigger me. Well, it does but not to threshold. The sounds are what sent me over the edge. 

So what sets off your dog? Trigger stacking. Your dog has triggers. You have triggers. Stack up enough of them and you or your dog would react in the SAME. EXACT. WAY. 

It is so vital to, in an effort to assist your dog, start recognizing and identifying the triggers. 
At the same time, recognize your own triggers. When your dog starts to react, it might bring on feelings of embarrassment, fear of what COULD happen, shame that your dog would act that way, a lack of understanding of what caused your dog to act out. And what does that do to your mindset and your stress level? How does your stress play into the whole thing? MASSIVELY.

It's time to focus in, guys. Tomorrow is not an option. Don't over-complicate it. Identify the big triggers and work backwards. 

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