Last night, Seva and I were out in the yard. The deck light cast our shadows long and dark, right up the side of the shed. Seva stopped cold and stared at those tall dark specters. When my shadow moved, she quaked.

Funny? Yes. It’s adorable to see her first take notice of something I’ve all but forgotten. The thing is if I respond wrongly, I could have a dog that is actually afraid of her own shadow. I got down on her level and talked happy. Lots of “good girl” and “isn’t this fun?” The words didn’t matter. What mattered is that I showed her everything was just fine and I wasn’t scared at all.

If I had cooed at her, “Ooooh, who’s a scared puppy? Poor thing.” It would have reinforced the notion that she should be nervous. She would have learned that to be scared is the correct response to her shadow.

So, thus reassured, she walked up to the shed and checked out our shadows. She was still a little nervous, but she had the confidence to explore for herself, and once she saw there was nothing to be afraid of, she went back to her business of snuffling around in the grass. Case closed.

Puppies and children are not born nervous. They hit an age where they suddenly take notice of things and realize that they are big, loud, and/or strange. What happens after that really depends on what we teach them.

Seva has only shown signs of fear a few times. The way we respond is key to whether or not she will grow up oddly afraid of her own shadow (for example) or not. In a pet, such a quirk is manageable. It might even be cute. But in a service dog, it could seriously interfere with her career.

The fear thing goes hand in hand with socializing her to as wide a variety of people as possible. (See Age of Socialization.) What imprints now will impact her personality for the rest of her life. Unlike a child who can learn that the vacuum cleaner will not try to eat him, Seva will never be able to rationalize away her fears.

Now, that's brave!