# Help! My dog is afraid of tile flooring! Hachi, our breeder surrender female, is very scared of our linoleum flooringin the kitchen and bathroom. She will freeze up, tail down, then her claws become taut and she will slide and skid frantically across the slippery floors until she is off of them. Sometimes she will soil while trying to fle… ## Thread In Behavior · started by tsukitsune · 13 replies - **Category:** [Behavior](https://nihonken.org/community/c/behavior) - **Forum:** [Nihon Ken Forum](https://nihonken.org/community/) ## tsukitsune (moderator) · 2008-06-12T20:22:30.000Z Hachi, our breeder surrender female, is very scared of our linoleum flooringin the kitchen and bathroom. She will freeze up, tail down, then her claws become taut and she will slide and skid frantically across the slippery floors until she is off of them. Sometimes she will soil while trying to flee. Poor thing.. I know, like men, it is just unfamiliar to her and we want to gradually introduce her to it because in our new house, we have hardwood floors, which she is fine on our staircase now with HW floors, but our new house will have a lot of stone tile - which is what really attracted us to it instead of dogs on carpet all the time. . so we want her to be comfortable with the floor before we move this fall. She is also good on cement sidewalks and such. But I can use your help - how do we do it?? This fear is new to me! ## Michelle M · 2008-06-12T22:34:54.000Z All I can say is that the bigger deal you make of it, you'll reinforce the behavior. Ronan can be a little 'spooky' about new things. This is just my way of handling him and his personality, so your dog may be different, so think about it before trying this. Tasha is different - I could probably just get her focused on something else - like a handful of food and put her on lead and run her right over it, but she's not the same as Ronan who is very primitive in his reaction to things. He doesn't have Akita Courage. He has chicken-dog courage, lol! Curiosity is his strong-suit. Not courage. If you can get small pieces of linoleum (maybe from a Home Depot or Lowes or some other home supply store). Maybe scraps. The smaller the better... try a small piece on the floor in a room that is not threatening to her. Get a clicker and treats. And for the treat, make it super special like bits of steak or chicken or hot dogs or cheese. Put the treat a comfortable distance from the small piece of flooring. When she gets the treat click, and give her another treat for retrieving the first. When she's COMFORTABLE at this distance, try a slightly bigger piece. Repeat until you have a 10x10 piece. Then, move the large piece closer, an inch or two only, and continue the process until you eventually get her to retrieve the treat from the linoleum itself. This will take time. Maybe weeks? Depends on her and how great the experience is for her. Now, step it up. Move the piece of flooring closer to the room with the linoleum. Not too close or you'll blow the whole thing and have to start over. Every few days move it an inch closer. If she starts to balk, stop and move it away one inch or two. My method might take forever - it's just the way I train. I don't coddle or even acknowledge the fear - only the accomplishment. And if she balks or is fearful, don't freak her out by moving the piece with her too close - she's likely to spazz. Move her a short distance away. Maybe someone has a better, faster way. Good luck. Poor girl, sorry she's so fearful. That has to be awful for her. ## Romi (admin) · 2008-06-12T22:50:20.000Z http://www.cesarmillaninc.com/videoplayer/ Click on Season 1 Click on the video "Kane overcomes his fear of Shiny Floors" ## JessicaRabbit (admin) · 2008-06-12T23:07:03.000Z Give her lots of positive experiences on the floor. If there is a really high value treat or toy that she loves invite her on the floor and reward her with treats and praise every time she steps on the floor. Then wean her off the treats and just give her praise. Eventually she will start to equate the floors with wonderful positive things. ## brandon_w (admin) · 2008-06-13T10:00:56.000Z I know it seems to have worked for Cesar in that video, but I really don't agree with trying to drag Hachi all around your kitchen. ## tsukitsune (moderator) · 2008-06-13T10:57:17.000Z I don't think I could drag her all over the floor, she is dealing with so many changes, this is one I want to work in gradually and positively.. plus she'd really eliminate all over if I did that... ick. Thank you for that incredible piece of advice, Michelle M! Thats what we had been starting to do.. but she is not quite food driven, or is too fearful/preoccupied to care about the treat, so we persevere but I think its going to take her a little bit. We actually have an 8x8 piece that she will comfortably stand and sit on in the middle of the carpeted living room, but when she's in the kitchen, in a sea of this flooring, its a different story.. Baby steps!! ## scarlet · 2008-06-13T14:39:36.000Z Absolutely. She has taken such giant steps with every other situation I wouldn't distress over this one and allow Hachi to adjust in her own time. I mean, she'll have to go in the kitchen for feedings, right? Water, right? You think it might be the texture or maybe the sound, or could it be the shine? Does she have a favorite toy she would have retrieve from the floor if she wanted it? Can you gate her in the kitchen for short periods of time, with positive reinforcement such as staying in there with her for a while? ## Romi (admin) · 2008-06-13T17:52:26.000Z Are you sure she's afraid of the flooring and not the kitchen itself? If you have extra carpet try putting it on the flooring and see if she walks in, if she still doesn't - I don't think its the flooring, i think its the kitchen room itself. Sounds odd, but by what you wrote, it doesn't seem like she has a problem being on the floor. I think the point Cesar was trying to make is that with speed, dogs don't have that much time to react. They are more focused on running instead of thinking about what they're running on or whats around them. For example, Portia is a chicken when we walk on the public sidewalk with cars going by. She will walk on her nails and pull back or sit down and refuse to move. If i start running with her and continue to run on the sidewalk by the noisy street, she has no problem, and after 5 or 10 minutes of running, she will walk fine on it. ## tsukitsune (moderator) · 2008-06-13T17:59:06.000Z Romi, I had not thought about the kitchen itself being what she fears. I'm going to try the rug idea this weekend and see what conclusion I can come up with!! Super suggestion! And I can understand the concept behind Cesar and the dog pulling him running and all that - we have to do that with Kitsune if a group of people are up ahead or behind us, he will sit down and not move, but when we jog a bit, he seems to forget about them. I just think for Hachi, it might not be as effective as a gradual re-introduction to the floor or kitchen, whichever the fear is of, just because of the size of the kitchen and the kind of dog she is (total detached from social) . Thank you so much for the suggestions!! I'm so glad I became a part of this forum!! ## tsukitsune (moderator) · 2008-06-13T18:13:01.000Z You know what, Romi, you might really be on to something, for the first week, while she was in heat, we had put her pen on the tile floor in the kitchen while we weren't at home just in case and she would get so freaked by us coming home and her being in there (so we thought) that she would go nuts so we took the pen away and gave her more space by putting a gate at the kitchen so she could have the whole kitchen by week 2.. maybe we caused her fear of the kitchen by keeping her confined in there while we were away?? Crap! ## tsukitsune (moderator) · 2008-06-19T14:58:20.000Z Well I don't think its the kitchen after all, Hachi came onto the tile flooring, very slowly, after we moved the make-shift tile on the carpet to the kitchen, she did it, got the treat than scampered off. Then she did it again. I moved back a little further. And she came calmly again. :) ## Michelle M · 2008-06-19T16:37:45.000Z This is good news! Give her time and keep those treats coming! Maybe even a favorite toy or two. She'll get there yet! ## _dlroberts · 2008-06-19T17:00:04.000Z Great progress! Keep it up. :-) ## hondru (moderator) · 2008-06-19T21:20:46.000Z Sounds like she's making good progress. I'm sure she'll be fine with time. --- **Navigate:** [Forum home](https://nihonken.org/community/?format=md) · [Sitemap](https://nihonken.org/community/sitemap.xml)