Hello – I’m new to the forum, but have been doing some lurking over the past few months. I’m dealing with a behavior in my 2 year-old German Shepherd that I find puzzling. I apologize for the length, but thought the more detail the better.

First, some background on my dog: I received her when she was 8 weeks old and purchased her from the same breeder from whom I have gotten all four of my previous GSDs. This particular dog has had some issues with confidence most of her life. However, through training, socialization and establishing firm, but fair, rules, she has come a very long way. She has continuing obedience training and is very responsive on and off leash, under just about every conceivable circumstance I have encountered. She is polite around people, although protective in what I term appropriate ways. She will bark to announce a visitor, but immediately stops at my command. Once she sees I accept a stranger she relaxes and lies at my feet or returns to her open crate (depending upon the situation).

We have a small farm and she spends most of her day working in our animal facilitated therapy program with children and adolescents. She receives a leash – what I term a structured training – walk every morning and then an off leash woods run with me in the late afternoon. She is good with other dogs and good with most of the other animals, including our house cats. She is generally calm and well behaved indoors, but has very strong drive and high energy.

The issue: she is terrified of the television. She does not react to the sound; she reacts to the images and is particularly afraid when fast moving images flash onto the screen. She drops her ears and tail and slinks quickly from the room. At this point I’m simply allowing her to leave the room at will and she is comfortable staying in the doorway where she can watch me, but not see the TV. Last spring during a very strong storm a huge portion of our maple tree crashed through the roof of our kitchen and came to rest about 4 feet from our dog’s crate. She barked once and then sniffed the tree without showing any true anxiety. She has acted to protect me in two situations: when a stranger came to the door very late one evening and then attempted to come into the house. The other occasion was when, during a power outage, I encountered someone I thought was attempting to break into our neighbor’s home. The dog growled and then stood partly in front of me keeping the “intruder” away. Once I realized the “intruder” was just our neighbor’s brother and told the dog to relax, she accepted him politely.

I wonder if anyone can provide me with some insight as to how to handle the dog’s extreme fear of the television. Is there something I should/could be doing to “treat” this fear, or is ignoring it the right approach? Thank-you for any ideas.

Wow, what a great dog and an excellent environment you have set up for her!! You certainly seem to have set up all the conditions for a healthy, happy, well-adjusted dog, that's for sure.

You've come to the right place. Lots of German Shep owners and trainers, including one (Kelly) who has a Shep (Drift) currently employed as a therapy dog, and lots of others who treat fears and whatnot (Connie Sutherland et al). They'll likely be along...

I like your approach right now - just say nothing and go about your business and allow her to seek a spot in which she's comfortable and calm. Since it appears to be only a visual thing, my guess is that folks will either have you shape her getting closer to the TV but looking away (at you) and extinguishing the anxiety gradually, or just shape increasing proximity to the tv for longer time periods. Funny how healthy, normal animals can develop aversions to odd things.

I she afraid of any other lights or movement?

There are lots of threads here on desensitization and varying methods that people use. I am currently doing it with my dog and other dogs so I know if can be frustrating dealing with a fearful dog!

It sounds like you are doing all the right things by letting her find her own safe spot and not flooding her.


P.S. We are always fans of pictures

Our rescue was terrified of both the sound and images of the TV when he first got here (he had probably never seen a tv before) and it took him a few weeks to get used to it. There will still be times he will get scared during an intense scene on the screen and he will retreat back to his crate, but overall he's gotten used to it. I know your case is a bit different but hopefully this will be encouraging none the less.

Whatcha watching?

Seriously though, are there particular shows she's more adversive too? A nice calm music channel as opposed to loud flashy sounds and visuals that can come out of say "Southpark" or the "The Dog Whisperer"?

As well, what's you're reaction to TV? Are you really involved and animated at times?

 Quote: cj barrett

Whatcha watching?

Seriously though, are there particular shows she's more adversive too? A nice calm music channel as opposed to loud flashy sounds and visuals that can come out of say "Southpark" or the "The Dog Whisperer"?

As well, what's you're reaction to TV? Are you really involved and animated at times?

Ha. One intense episode of Dog Whisperer had my whole household barking up a storm. Talk about counterproductive! Calm-submissive behavior? Not.

You know, I love my "Survivor". Thursday nights here.

I get so excited waiting those last few minutes and getting the snacks ready... my boys always head off to do their own thing. They want no part of it.

gotta throw this out there,

the dog isn't necessarily afraid of the tv.

something could've happened, startled, frightened the dog while it was looking at or in the vicinity of the tv.

we NEVER know what sets a dog off to be skittish around something. it only usually takes one time (you said in your original post that this dog has had some self confidence issues all her life) and the dog will remember the negative aspect of something frightening it and doesn't apply it to the right thing.

Think of it along these lines.
You go into a dark basement and you hear a noise that scares you.
even though it wasn't the basement "per-say" that scared you, but the noise...you're still apprehensive about going down there...especially if you don't know where the noise came from. All you know now is that basement ='s something bad.

So if she was in the vicinity of the tv or looking at it & something startled her...she doesn't put 2 and 2 together the way we do...all she's thinking is "i was looking at or close to that large flickering box and something negative happened"
And if it happened while a show that was on that was very flashy and showy she might just associate it with that kind of movement on the tv.

does she only react to those shows. or can she be by the tv if say "Oprah" was on?
sorry, it's the only show that came to mind that would be low key...lol

Thank-you, everyone for the quick replies. To answer your questions and to provide a little clarification:
The only time I’ve known her to react to other lights and/or movement is during fireworks. We live across the river from where they set off fireworks every weekend. From my house you can sometimes see the fireworks. The noise brings no response on part of the dog. The sight – if from inside, nothing, if she happens to be outside, she wants to get away. Other lights and movement seem not to bring any particular response
We have tried the desensitization route with no improvement. For several weeks I worked at bringing her closer to the set, giving her treats or putting her favorite toy near the set. This approach brought about some other negative behavior – mostly shaking and whining.
She does react stronger to advertisements when there are lots of changing light colors and flashing figures. She also tends to show greater reaction when a program includes lots of flashing lights or rapidly changing images.
I agree that something may have occurred that started this fear. This only started happening about a year ago and has remained steady over the last year. I am not aware of anything that occurred, but it is certainly possible. The dogs have their crates in the family room where the TV sits. When the dog was younger she was crated in that room. Again, if something happened, no adult was present at the time and the kids (our farm kids) did not report anything unusual.
I have dogs that are anxious around loud noises; dogs that are anxious around strangers, men, women, etc. I’ve even known dogs that fear cars or hoses. I’ve just never known a dog that has this level of fear toward the TV and that alone. She is doing some police agility work and the classes take place very near the gun range. She barely seems to notice the sound of gunshots. All the normal fears many dogs have seem not to affect her. Instead, she developed this odd fear. A part of me says “just let her be”, but since I travel a lot (I’m a writer/photographer) and my dogs have always come with me, I really want to resolve this fear. I cannot imagine her in a hotel room with me while the TV is on!

"We have tried the desensitization route with no improvement. For several weeks I worked at bringing her closer to the set, giving her treats or putting her favorite toy near the set. This approach brought about some other negative behavior – mostly shaking and whining. "

Hi, Irene,

Desensitizing relies on beginning outside the area of negative reaction. What you were doing is really more like flooding, kind of combined with counter-conditioning, and it's good (IMO) that you stopped.

Have you seen any of the several threads here on desensitizing? If you haven't, I recommend that you do read them. If you would read through one or two and then ask any questions that you like, I know that you will get help.

If you click on "Search" up on the upper right, next to "Active Topics," then use "all forums," plug in "desensitizing" as your term, and expand the date range from one week to a couple of years, you'll get several threads about exactly this kind of work.

For example, there was a thread on desensitizing a dog to a motorized wheelchair.

I'd feel pretty positive if I were you about the results you can get with this kind of specific fear, as long as you start far enough from the object to arouse no reactivity. (That is, you don't gradually move closer while there is negative reaction at the distance where you are now working.)

That all sounds so wordy. What I mean is, you are too close. You want to start focus work, upbeat marker work with high-level rewards, etc., outside the present area of reactivity.

ETA
I would also time my beginning work to coincide with innocuous TV stuff, as mentioned by others, or maybe turn it to a program guide or a listing of music or something that isn't going to flash or change scenes rapidly.