Why we don't use 'flooding' in our behaviour work.

A couple of weeks ago, a few friends sent me a video that was doing the rounds on Tiktok. It showed a dog overcoming dog to dog reactivity using a technique known as 'flooding'. I won't name the trainer here as they're entitled to use whatever methods they wish. But, I was asked whether I use this technique and if not why not. So I thought it would make a good blog topic.

In the video, a dog was in an enclosed field with several other dogs and some humans. The field had no escape routes. They were locked in. The dog showed clear fear towards the other dogs and began making their boundaries clear. These boundaries were ignored by both the other dogs and the humans. I do know know if this was a condensed video and perhaps the humans intervened at times off camera, but during this video they did not. Even when the cornered and fearful dog was visibly snarling and snapping at other dogs who were getting increasingly closer to the dog.

Flooding is a controversial technique that is based on the assumption that if a dog is forced to 'face their fear' head on for long enough they will become desensitised to their trigger and therefore overcome their fear. Essentially, what that means is that the dog will eventually 'give up' due to exhaustion or because they realise none of their communication is being considered anyway so they feel 'what's the point?'. So they will stop displaying their fear response.

Note that down: They will stop displaying their fear response.

There are a few reasons why I don't feel this technique is responsible, appropriate or fair on the dog.

Flooding can be very traumatic for the dog. Being forced to experience something they are frightened of with no escape route and no opportunities to seek comfort can cause significant distress and even long lasting psychological harm. Just because we have seen one dog that this technique worked for, does not mean that there are not dozens of others who are left more fearful. I have worked with dogs who have been subjected to flooding only to end up much more fearful at the end of it.

I'm sure most of you reading this will be familiar with the ladder of canine communication. This begins with very low level stress signs such as lip licking, head turning and yawning and ends at the top with bite. All of the steps in between were shown in this video by this dog (whale eye, ears back, moving away, tail tuck, shake off, stiffening up, rigid body, hard stare, growl, snap, lunge) and they were all ignored. Fortunately this dog did not then reach 'bite'. I wonder if there was intervention off camera before this happened?

Either way, I would feel deeply concerned about this dog's fear response in the future.

If they have been taught that all of these in between steps will be ignored, what are they left with next time something (or someone) frightens them? Potentially bite. And then what? Well, it was a big dog who could do some serious damage! I can imagine the headline 'Friendly family dog suddenly bites with no warning'. Only, there were warnings. All those weeks, months or years ago. This dog set their boundaries and they learned that both dogs and humans will ignore those boundaries. And that's why I asked you to note down 'they will stop displaying their fear response'. Because they haven't necessarily stopped feeling fearful (it's important to note here that they might have, for some dogs this does genuinely remove the fear) but would you want to take the risk? I wouldn't. Especially not when there are much kinder and ethical ways to teach a dog.

I haven't even mentioned here what this sort of technique can do to the relationship between you and your dog. Are you trustworthy? Have you demonstrated that you will respect your dog's boundaries and keep them safe when they feel afraid? Something to think about.

When we have a pocket full of counter-conditioning, positive reinforcement and desensitisation, there really is no good reason to use flooding.

Written by Nicola Cook (VSPDT, CSAT)