What is SEC and Why Do You Need To Know About It?

SEC is an acronym for Sudden Environmental Contrast. In plain English it means that something changes in the environment and it happens so sudden that it raises concern or plain fear in an already distressed dog. SEC could take place in many forms but it does have the above signature as its underlining characteristic. I am defining “environment” as anything in the world that has an impact on a dog’s behavior, well-being, etc. So it could be a person, another dog, natural phenomena and the like.

I think that SEC is so stressful to dogs that are not comfortable in either that environment or have generalized fear or anxiety because it is an unpredictable phenomena. You see, dogs thrive (all animals frankly, but let’s just keep it to dogs) in being able to have control over their environment. It is a question of feeling safe and basic survival instinct.

Some examples of SEC that I have worked with are: a person coming out from a hallway to the room where the dog is, a person popping/exposing their head from a threshold such as a window, someone unexpectedly getting up from sitting, an object “suddenly” appearing in sight- which in some cases, the novel object might have been around, but the dog had not noticed it before.

The good news about SEC is that once we can identify it, we can teach the dog that there is no reason to be concerned. It is a case of typical classical conditioning that is: building positive associations.

This is how I normally like to begin working with SEC: When I encounter this in my cases, I quickly move to operant work which means that I am not only and exclusively concerned with building a good positive association, but I also want to teach the dog how to react when encountering any fearful trigger - in this case SEC.

I’ll explain further: I recently worked with a fearful dog that was very concerned to the point that he would bark, and even charge whenever a guest of the family. For example, I would come down the hall and into the living room. You can appreciate how complicated this situation might be!

So I taught the dog to lie down in the living room - yes this took quite a bit of positive association and reinforcement for the dog to lie on his bed whenever he heard someone coming down this hall.

In addition, the guests were coached to talk in a cheerful voice to the dog as they were coming down the hall. So by definition, someone walking down the hall was not a SEC anymore because the dog has been given a heads-up and now can expect the outcome. In addition he has learned an alternative behavior to lunging or barking and instead lies down and gets paid handsomely for doing so.

Another typical SEC situation is the picking up of small breed dogs. They are small and pretty much everything in their world is larger than they are. Add to this the fact that people, when picking them up, will loom over them; so for these reasons most small dogs hate being picked up. How they go about demonstrating their concern runs the gamut. Some dogs just dodge their little heads in an effort to avoid the interaction, others can escalate to a growl or other warnings or even a bite.

What I like to do in cases like this is to give the dog a heads-up about what I am going to do: loom over and lift them up. This procedure is so simple that I think that everyone should implement it.

You could simply choose a phrase that you will say just prior to looming over and picking the dog up. Such as: Pick up, etc. Wait a few seconds before you loom over and proceed to pick the dog up.

After very few trials the dog can relax because it knows what is going to happen next. What a great gift to help dogs when it is so easy to do so. In addition to doing this, I reinforce the dog once I am holding him. Finally, I put the dog down before the dog gets too overwhelmed and starts to wiggle or resist being held.

Choose Your Battles

I love the days when I take the dogs to Santa Fe for leashed walks. The three of us are still working the kinks of ongoing loose leash walking but I am encouraged because both Deuce and Rio are improving with every outing. This morning was remarkably cool and with a lingering fragrance of rain when we set-off  for our morning walk.

Rio has this little annoying thing that she does pretty much every time I release her from the car: She gets off the back of the car as if she was a bronco coming out the gate. She is so “exuberant” in her enthusiasm that I have to make sure I park in an area away from traffic so that as she leaps and rotates I can still maintain control over her and Deuce - who thank god has learned some better manners!

This morning Rioja surprised me. I was expecting her to get out of the car in her usual manner but instead, she remained collected. She expressed her joy by jumping enthusiastically out of the car yet her pulling at the leash was minimum.

This got me thinking about the importance of choosing our battles with our dog’s and the behaviors that we want to have them change.

Rioja exiting the car as I described above is not on my top 10 list of favorite behaviors but I realized that for the moment - until she matures a bit more - I was going to cut her a break and allow her to be exuberant… as long as she waits laying down inside the car for me to leash her and release her. This part she does great so why not cut her some slack for the time being on her exuberant exit?

Now, there are some other behaviors that I do not want Rioja to continue practicing so I am not cutting her much slack on these. Here is an example:

A vast majority of dogs love to sit by a window and see the world pass them by. For most dogs that live in residential areas their day might be peppered with people walking alone, people walking with their dogs (this option is one of the most exciting ones) and with the occasional sighting of a cat perhaps.

For my dogs it is just very few passers-by, mainly the neighbors who walk their dogs up on the ridge or the occasional handy-person who both my dogs think are here to see them and I haven’t had the heart to tell them this is not so.

Now, my take on dogs sitting by a window that faces the outdoors is that for the most part it is not a good idea. Owners tell me they like to have their dog looking out the window so that they have something to do when they are left alone. But the problem is, that most dogs get way stimulated (over–aroused) because they are constantly seeing people, dogs and the like that they cannot access and that in itself frustrates dogs (this is called barrier frustration). Rioja loves to lay by the see-all window. Sometimes she'll lie there and snooze. Sometimes she barks wanting out to say "hi" to the contractor of the week. Now, if I allow Rioja to bark without re-directing her at the sight of people, just like my client’s dogs I will most likely end with a dog that gets too aroused when seeing people. And that is a slippery slope.

Arousal is an autonomic response of the nervous system. As such is not something a dog can regulate on its own. The best analogy I can think of (different bodily processes but kind of the same result) is a small child who has consumed lots of sugar  - now try putting that kid to bed or to have him play quietly, not an easy task for either party!

Arousal, of course, is part of everyday living. However, when our dogs are permitted to engage in arousal inducing behaviors without some sort of an intervention to calm down, it is possible to end up with a dog that has difficulty responding appropriately when aroused. To be clear, arousal as stated cannot be regulated by the dog. The dog cannot feel more or less aroused at will. However, what our
dogs can learn is to respond appropriately when aroused. Similarly to a person who suffers from road-rage, most likely this person will always feel [some] rage when in a similar situation but that person can learn to engage in a less desirable behaviors such as singing along with the radio or breathing deeply versus flipping someone off when driving. Instead of letting Rioja bark past her there is someone on the property… Alert! Alert! is that I call her to the kitchen and I ask her to lay on her bed. I treat her occasionally, as she remains laying down.

If she peels away from the bed to go bark again at the window, I call her back and do the same thing again. This back-and-forth gives Rioja an opportunity to do her “job” of alerting me when someone is coming in through the gate but most importantly, it gives her an opportunity to calm down, take a sigh and just relax.

I have noticed that the more we practice this protocol and the more relaxed I become about asking her to come lay on her bed the easier it has been for Rioja to disengage from the post at the window and come lay down on her bed.