I don’t just mean safety in terms of Health & Safety or Risk Assessment, but also a feeling of safety.

Feeling safe reduces risk, because animals who don’t feel safe are in survival mode, their nervous system is in fight or flight. The fight/flight response works under the level of consciousness, it’s not intentional, it is a response to a real or perceived threat. It is not bad behaviour, naughty or being stupid, it is a genuine response that is at best frightening or frustrating and at worst dangerous, for them and for us.

Animals who are fearful will first attempt to escape the situation – this might look like over reaction, pulling or running away or at a low level, looking in the other direction.

If that is not possible – often because they are confined or “under control” of a human, they will fight – this might look like pushing into your space, biting or barking.

If this also fails they may then freeze – that’s giving up and accepting their fate. This can look like emotional disconnection, learned helplessness, robotic obedience or refusal to do anything at all.

Cultivating a feeling of safety is the foundation of successful training, learning cannot take place or will not stick if the animals’ priority is survival.

If we feel unsafe around an animal, we should always pay attention to that because if we don’t feel safe, they probably don’t feel safe either and that spells danger. It doesn’t have to be real danger – perceived danger will elicit the same response and that can result in real danger for us.

Animals can feel threatened by their environment, by people, by other animals, by being alone or by not having their basic needs met.

That’s why my priority when I am helping people with their animals is actual safety and perceived safety for both the people and the animals. We cannot help our animals feel safe if we don’t also feel safe, and it’s up to us to commit to a process if we want to witness a change in behaviour.

I never ask anyone to feel the fear and do it anyway, but to be aware of the fear – because sometimes it’s small and often mistaken for something else – and change something so the fear response is no longer required.