#125 - Does Comforting My Pet Reinforce the Fear?

You’ve heard it before: “Don’t comfort a scared dog, you’ll just reinforce the fear.” But… is that true? In this episode of Enrichment for the Real World, Allie and Emily break down the science behind fear, behavior, and reinforcement and why that common advice just doesn’t hold up.

They’ll explore how fear functions differently than you may think, why your emotional state also matters, and how to tell if your pet actually wants your comfort. Plus, you’ll learn how to comfort your dog in a way that supports their wellbeing and builds resilience. Whether you're navigating thunderstorms, vet visits, or everyday stressors, this episode is packed with actionable advice for the pet parent who wants to help their pet.

TLDL (too long, didn’t listen): 

1️⃣ Fear is not a behavior and can’t be reinforced like one

Fear is a physiological and emotional response, not a behavior that can be increased with rewards. However, behaviors associated with fear can be reinforced, which is where people often get confused.

2️⃣ Your emotional state matters just as much as your pet’s

“Your stress travels down the leash” isn’t just a cute saying. If you’re anxious, your pet likely will be too. Comforting your dog starts with regulating your own nervous system first.

3️⃣ Learn when and how to comfort your pet

Some pets want snuggles, others want space. Comforting isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. Learn how to listen to your learner and become the safe space they need when they are ready for it.

For the full episode show notes, including additional resources, join us here.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Allie: And for those of you who just heard fear is not a behavior, and your mind was like, hole up. I wait, I can't hand. Let's talk about what a behavior is real quick and why fear is not a behavior.

Really when we're talking about a behavior right now, we're talking about overt behaviors, observable, measurable behaviors. You can, you can see it, or hear it, or smell it, I don't know what behaviors you want to smell, but that is an option. So we're talking about overt behaviors. Fear is not an overt behavior in and of itself, it can cause overt behaviors. We can see a tuck tail, we can see ears low and and back against the skull, we can see weight shifting onto the hind end, however, those are discreet behaviors that might indicate fear in emotion or covert behavior, if you wanna get fancy with it. But fear in and of itself is not a behavior.

Welcome to Enrichment for the Real World, the podcast devoted to improving the quality of life of pets and their people through enrichment. We are your hosts, Allie Bender...

[00:01:20] Emily: ...and I'm Emily Strong...

[00:01:21] Allie: ...and we are here to challenge and expand your view of what enrichment is, what enrichment can be and what enrichment can do for you and the animals in your lives. Let's get started.

Thank you for joining us for today's episode of Enrichment for the Real World, and I want to thank you for rating, reviewing, and subscribing wherever you listen to podcasts. In this episode, you're going to hear Emily and I talk about is fear of behavior, getting nerdy about behavior, how Oso thinks his dad is the fun one, but I'm the confidant and spoiler alert, how to comfort a scared dog and do it well.

All right, let's get into it. There are a whole lot of opinions on the internet and among dog trainers about whether or not you should comfort a scared dog. And in all fairness, it's a complicated question with a complicated answer because you know us, we can't give you just a straight up answer. That's not the way we roll. 'cause that's not the way behavior rolls, but at the heart of it.

Is really the question, does petting or comforting a scared dog reinforce the fear? So that is what we are talking about today.

[00:02:32] Emily: First of all reinforcement specifically refers to a consequence, and reinforcement as a consequence increases the likelihood that a behavior will happen again in response to the same or similar antecedents.

Reinforcement is an operant process and it only refers to consequences in those operant processes. So for example, if my, if Miley's out playing in the yard and I call her name, that's the antecedent I call her name, uh, the behavior is she runs to me, the consequence is sometimes snacks, but usually when we're just in the backyard, I now just use petting and praise. So I'll be like, oh my God, he's the best little girl. I just get all like baby talkie with her, and I rub her all over it, and she's all wakely and she's like, oh my God, it's amazing. Um, so that's an example of.

An operant process, antecedent, I called Miley. Behavior, Miley runs to me consequence baby talk in Lovens. And that increases the behavior that next time I call her name, she will come running to me.

So the reason that we're talking about that is because fear is not a behavior. So no, you can't reinforce fear because reinforcement can only happen to behaviors and fear isn't a behavior. but it gets more nuanced than that. 

[00:03:51] Allie: And for those of you who just heard fear is not a behavior, and your mind was like, hole up. I wait, I can't hand. Let's talk about what a behavior is real quick and why fear is not a behavior.

Really when we're talking about a behavior right now, we're talking about overt behaviors, observable, measurable behaviors. You can, you can see it, or hear it, or smell it, I don't know what behaviors you want to smell, but that is an option. So we're talking about overt behaviors. Fear is not an overt behavior in and of itself, it can cause overt behaviors. We can see a tuck tail, we can see ears low and and back against the skull, we can see weight shifting onto the hind end, however, those are discreet behaviors that might indicate fear in emotion or covert behavior, if you wanna get fancy with it. But fear in and of itself is not a behavior.

[00:04:54] Emily: Yeah, I don't, I mean this is like, I don't know that we need to get as nerdy as I want to get on this, but I am not even sure that I would call fear a covert behavior because fear is a physiological response and physiological responses. I guess we could. Argue whether or not they're behaviors, but I think that's way too nerdy for for this episode.

So I think we can distinguish or differentiate between physiological responses that aren't necessarily decisions that an animal or a learner is making versus behaviors, which are decisions that a learner is making. And we could also dive into that and argue that forever. But again, we just need to like have good enough to get going for this episode.

But. When we're talking about fear being a physiological response, what we mean by that is that, um, those physiological responses are typically increased or decreased through classical conditioning or respondent conditioning. I, I tend to call it respondent more than classical, and I don't know why, but it's the same.

They're interchangeable. It means the same thing. The, so classical conditioning, uh, or respondent conditioning contrasted against operant conditioning is, um, what's called, it's also called two term conditioning, where it's just a stimulus, stimulus pairing. It's not like with operant conditioning, it's antecedent behavior consequence, um. The stimulus, stimulus pairing is a more passive type of learning where something gets associated with something else for that learner.

So fear is, or physiological responses in general are generally, typically increased or decreased through classical conditioning, in other words, we can influence fear through the associations with the stimuli.

If we're anxious, we can increase their anxiety. Um, if we're comforting them while they're anxious, then the comforting can predict anxiety. We, our physiological state can influence their physiological state through that stimulus, stimulus pairing.

The reason I'm bringing this up is because a lot of times when people think that fear is being reinforced by being comforted, what's actually happening is the person themselves are anxious and then they are comforting, they're trying to comfort the anxious dog, but the dog. Isn't reading it as comfort, the dog is reading anxiety, and so the, that's making the dog more anxious. Your anxiety is making the dog more anxious.

So I think that's why people assume that comforting a dog reinforces the fear that usually what's actually happening is that the human themselves are anxious when they're comforting the dog. And so instead of the dog actually being comforted. The dog is pairing whatever's happening in the world with their human's anxiety, and so they're like, oh, this thing must be scary because, my human is clearly anxious, so I should be anxious too. And I, okay I'm not saying that's the actual thought process. We don't know what thought processes are happening, but we do see that when a human is anxious in a certain situation and then they try to comfort their dogs, we often see the dog's anxiety increase, not decrease.

And this used to happen all the time. When I was a vet tech, the dog would be. A little bit, let's say alert or cautious. And then the human who is clearly anxious would be like, it's okay. Fluffy, it's okay. And they would start petting them and kissing them. And then we would just watch the anxiety, the dog's anxiety ramp up and up and up and up.

It's not because of the comforting, it's because of the human's anxiety. So that is a classical conditioning process where that clinic, um it gets paired with humans' anxiety, which then increases dog's anxiety.

So that's the distinction between reinforcement and classical conditioning is that reinforcement is about behavior, and in this situation, really what's happening is a classical conditioning process of those two things being paired with each other.

[00:09:16] Allie: I always think about your vet clinic example, when I'm talking about this topic of can you reinforce fear? And and this is something that in the dog training world we hear a similar idiom that very frequently, that essentially means that same thing that we're talking about, and that is your stress travels down the leash. And so that's essentially what we're talking about of your anxiety can predict a, an uncomfortable situation and therefore. Increase your pet's anxiety.

And my example of this is I caused osos vehicle reactivity a hundred percent. I caused it. So tiny backstory. I knew Oso for a few years before I adopted him. I knew his behavior very, very well, and so I can definitively say that I was the cause of this. He did not show any reactivity to any vehicle of any type prior to the incident that started all of this for him, which fun fact, he still has it, but like, it's usually when he is like, I'm gonna get it. And it's like, just don't. Just, I, and literally like, instead of doing the actual dog trainer thing, I'm just like, stop. He is like, well, okay, because he doesn't have actual feelings anymore about it. It's just, you know, sometimes behaviors, uh, aren't related to the emotions anymore.

We're gonna talk about that in a moment, actually. But any who. The situation that I caused Osos vehicle anxiety was he and I were out for a walk. This was when we were living in a townhouse, and so I had to walk him around the neighborhood in order to let him relieve himself. All of that. We were walking on the sidewalk and this pickup truck with a trailer attached to it.

Goes by us and I was like, okay. Not a big deal. But then it turns around and goes by us again really slowly and like. That's a creepy human behavior. So I of course get nervous. I feel my heart rate increasing, you know, palms starting to sweat. All of those physiological changes that are associated with fear and Oso starts yelling at this truck and trailer 'cause in, in.

To put words to what I think the process was, which again, we don't know for sure, but he was like, mom's scared, oh, I'ma get it. And and then we had vehicle reactivity to loud and or large vehicles since then and had nothing prior. So your stress travels down the leash and, uh, and that can be true even if there's not a leash attached.

[00:12:04] Emily: Yeah, that's a great example of how that works of it looking like you reinforced the fear, but really it was your anxiety that increased his anxiety. So yeah, great example. And you, you did reference how we can reinforce behaviors that are associated with fear. So let's stick into that a little more.

A lot of times, um, when we are working on, um, or focusing on counter conditioning, which is any process or procedure that changes the response to a situation or a stimulus of any kind. Um, sometimes that can, the counter conditioning process can actually reinforce the behavior, and the reason for that is that even though we're talking about operant conditioning and classical conditioning as two distinct and separate types of learning, because they are two distinct and separate types of learning.

They often are happening at the same time. So just because they're two different types of learning doesn't mean they happen separately a lot of times. I would say probably always, although I hesitate to use that word, but the overwhelming majority of time, if not always, operant learning and respondent learning are happening at the same time.

And so another. Reason that it can look like we're reinforcing fear is because in the counter conditioning process, we actually can increase the behavior that is related to fear. And so people will be like, look, see, you're reinforcing the fear. But that's not actually what's happening. So I'm gonna tell you a story of a dog named Arrow, who was at the Sanctuary where Allie and I met.

So in the sanctuary where we worked, we often had no choice but to do counter conditioning procedures when the dogs were way, way too aroused because we just didn't have the space to move dogs where they were much less stressed. We couldn't do that. There was not the space, there was not the environment to work with them in low stress situations. So we had no choice but to do counter conditioning when the dog was in an extreme heightened state of stress. And so, what we often saw in those situations is that in the process of counter conditioning, we would unintentionally reinforce the behavior.

And Arrow was a perfect example of this. So he was really, really barrier reactive when he was in his run and any human walked into the octagon where he lived, he would immediately react, and his reactions looked really, really scary. He would have big snarling mouth, a lot of tension throughout his body, a high stiffed tail, ears high and forward, he would jump at the gate, and often he would grab the gate with his teeth. He looked like a, a big, scary dude. And so, when we started the counter conditioning process, the caregivers in that area were just doing counter conditioning by walking in, chucking chicken, walking back out again.

And then when Allie started working in that area, they were like, we've been doing this counter conditioning for a very long time, and he's still reactive. But what Allie saw and what she got video of was, loosey goosey body, loosey goosey tail, but still doing like the barking and the snarling and the showing the teeth, but he has like playful ears and wiggly body. So, what we see there and this an example of where the counter conditioning worked in that the fear did go away. He was no longer afraid of the caregivers coming in, but the behavior persisted.

They had in fact reinforced the behavior that had been associated with the fear, but the body language told us that he wasn't actually fearful anymore. He was actually, happy to see them. He was loosey goosey, wiggly happy. He's like, yes, if I snarl and bark and act tough, I get chicken. So, the solution to that was quite simple was just teach him another behavior to get chicken instead. They taught him to go to his place. Um, his Cara bed was his station and they put a doorbell in and they would ring the doorbell.

He goes to his place and he gets chicken. So they were able to first get rid of the fear, through that counter conditioning process. And then we were able to change the behavior associated with the fear by teaching an alternative behavior. So, I think that's another reason that people think that you can reinforce fear, because you can reinforce behaviors associated with fear, but the fear itself, like it has, it's, you can get rid of the fear and still have the behavior, and then it's a simple matter of changing the behavior. 

[00:16:59] Allie: For those of you in the sheltering world hearing this, the even better thing is that Arrow went home with a friend of mine, and he continued doorbell to place behavior even in his home. It was so well solidified during his time at the sanctuary that he even did that at home once he, he figured out his new safe space and all of that good sort of stuff.

So, and I think. It happened for the remainder of his life. I, I'll have to check with her, but I, I think that's true. I think he, he had that pairing forever. I mean, to be fair, she reinforced the heck out of that pairing. It was very useful to her. 

[00:17:37] Emily: Something that I think that was like a really powerful lesson for all of us. And one thing that I, I really benefited from working in that sanctuary is seeing how yes, in an ideal world, we're not letting dogs get to that point, and we're working with them far under threshold to teach skills instead.

But we had so many animals there where we couldn't do that. We just didn't have the space or the environment to actually get them, into a low stress environment and operate from there. And what we learned is that it is totally possible to do the counter conditioning, to address and change the negative emotions, whatever they are, and we can actually teach a different behavior later.

Um, and so that was something that I really, I valued learning there because it was really important for me to see that you don't have to have a perfect environment where you can just start in low stress and gradually like build the animal's resilience. You can do it backwards. You can counter condition to get rid of the emotion first and then teach another behavior.

Obviously that's not ideal because the animal is being flooded the entire time that that is happening, but it is possible when you don't have any other choice to do that. But also the, the problem with that is that it does perpetuate that myth that you can reinforce fear when that's not actually what's happening.

You're reinforcing the behaviors that are associated with fear, but the fear actually goes away. That was a, a big learning point for me so we can actually comfort a dog, without reinforcing fear, without increasing fear or anxiety. So here's how to do that. 

[00:19:14] Allie: Okay, so we've talked a ton about whether or not you can actually reinforce fear. The answer is no, but it's more complicated because behaviors are alongside, and Pavlov is always on your shoulder, which is a Bob Bailey quote that I think about at least once a week. And so no, but is kind of the answer to that. So before we talk about how do you comfort a scared dog, let's talk about identifying if your dog wants you to comfort 'em. Let's start right there. Because I think that's a really important part of this discussion, is beyond can you do it? Is should you do it.

And honestly, that's a conversation that I think should be had about many, many behaviors that we see here teach with our animals. And also, uh, that is a discussion that is way beyond the scope of this episode today. So, let's talk about if your dog wants you to comfort them at all. Let's start there. And one of the things that I think is so beautiful about having a really solid relationship with your dog is when that is true, not all the time, but when that is true, it can become pretty obvious.

I'll use Oso as an example. I am his confidant. I am the stereotypical nurturing motherly person in his life. Dad is the fun person. I am, I am the nurturing, comforting person. And there was a, there was a situation, this was maybe a, a couple months prior to his dental that he had a few years ago where he and Alex, my partner, were playing tug normal evening behavior. I've talked about how tug is a really important part of his enrichment plan for forever, and something happened, we still, to this day, don't know what, but something hurt.

We're assuming that it was something in his teeth because a few months later he got his dental, he got extractions. We're assuming that it had something to do with that, but again, we will never know for sure. Something hurt, he yelped dropped the toy, and then came and sat as close to me as possible and oh my gosh, Alex felt so bad and Oso was like, no dad, no Mom is gonna take care of it, you are hurt me. And, and it was there were so many emotions happening in that moment from everybody involved.

And so, because Oso plastered himself to me, he got as close as he possibly could in that moment. I'm petting him, I'm telling him he's okay. I was like, oh, buddy. I don't know what happened, but I'm sorry, also, dad is not a terrible person, he was playing with you in the way that he always plays with you.

And Alex is very good about making sure that play, especially in Osos old age, that play is, is not painful as much as we can ensure that is true. So in that moment, absolutely Oso wanted me to comfort him. It was very clear. Now, there are other situations where Oso is afraid, where he does not plaster himself next to me, but may want me to let him out of my office if I open the door, will you just be on the other side wanting to come back in?

[00:22:40] Emily: He's not exactly subtle.

[00:22:41] Allie: Okay.

[00:22:42] Emily: He's like, I can't be here while you talk about me like this. This is an embarrassing story.

[00:22:47] Allie: God hilarious. There are other times that he doesn't want me to comfort him, and I think.

My brain malfunctions. Standby.

[00:22:54] Emily: Do you wanna talk about what it looks like when he doesn't want your comfort?

[00:22:58] Allie: what I'm trying to do.

[00:22:59] Emily: Cool. Okay.

[00:23:00] Allie: So, for example, I've talked before that he has some sound sensitivities and sound is not the entire story, but it's just easiest to talk about it that way. For thunderstorms and windy days, particularly windy days. And that has gotten worse as he's gotten older, which is a very common thing. So in those situations, when i'm listening to him. Because I assumed he was gonna leave, and then when I closed the door again, he'd be like, uh, excuse you. I need to be able to come in and out of the office regardless of where I am in the house In those situations where he's uncomfortable because of weather that is happening, he goes and he hangs out in his safe space.

Now my proximity is important to him. He will hang out in whatever safe space I am closest to, so if I am in my office, he's going to hang out in one of the safe spaces in my office. If I am in our bedroom, he's going to hang out in our bedroom. If I am sitting on the couch, he's going to hang out either on in the living room, if Alex is in his office, then he'll be like, all right, dad's in a safer spot here, so I'll, I'll choose dad instead. Um, so proximity is important. If I'm not home, then proximity to Alex is important. If I am home, he prefers me. Again, I'm the nurturing person. Dad is the fun person in those situations. He does not interact with me at all. He goes straight to his spot. He doesn't look at me, he doesn't interact with me. It is pretty darn clear that it looks different than that moment where he was plastering himself against me being like, mom, dad, hurt me. Even though that's ridiculous.

In those moments, I leave him alone and he's completely content. And then when the weather stops weathering, he comes out and he asks for pets and all of that good sort of stuff. If I were to try to interact with him while he's in his safe space, which I don't do because his safe space is his safe space and, and that's not a space for me, but if I were to try to, he would again ignore what I am doing and not interact with me at all. So he is not a subtle creature, which is lovely. But part of the reason he's not a subtle creature to me is because we have years of observing his behavior, trying different things based on what his behavior is doing, and then. Observing the consequences to that, observing what he does, how does he interact with us, or what are the results of that? I know from experience that if it, he's in his safe space and I try to interact with him, he's going to ignore me. I tried it a long time ago. I'm not gonna try it again. It's not worth it because he now knows how to get my attention and, and and to ask for help from me if he needs my help.

[00:25:49] Emily: Yeah, so I think everybody who listens to our podcast will be shocked to hear that, the summary of that is listen to your learner, and if they approach you, and look at you, and solicit comfort, then comfort them, and if they're not looking at you and they're moving or leaning away from you, then, that means don't, so yeah.

Shocking, shocking new development here at Pet Harmony. We want people to listen to their learners. Who knew? But once you have assessed that your dog actually is asking for comfort let's make sure we do it well so that our stress doesn't travel down the leash, and we're actually comforting them, not just increasing their anxiety.

First of all, you can't be anxious yourself. You gotta be cool like Fonzi. So do what you need to do to complete your stress response cycle. If you need to do some fi biofeedback stuff to help you biofeedback, we can think of it as fake it till you make it. Take some deep and even breaths to. To slow your respiration and your pulse and lower your blood pressure, smile do what you can to reduce your own anxiety in that situation.

If it's a situation where you can leave, like obviously a vet clinic when like the vet is doing exam is not a place to do a flight queue and book it out of the office, right? That's not a situation where you would use a flight queue, but. If it's a situation where you can leave and neither of you can handle the situation, you probably should leave because your attempts to comfort your dog will probably backfire if you are also anxious in that moment. So first, take care of your own. You know, the saying, put on your oxygen mask before trying to put it on somebody else. Complete your own stress response cycle before trying to help your dog complete theirs.

Second, let them seek you out instead of trying to restrain or hug them when that's super not what they want.

So we just talked about how to tell when your dog wants to be comforted, as opposed to when they don't. And the added layer of complication is that sometimes a dog will seek comfort and then be like, no, I think actually this is not working for me. I have seen over and over and over again, people being like, no, but you asked me to hug you, so I'm gonna hug you now.

And the dog's like, but I don't want it anymore. And the person's no, we're hugging now. So like, you have to continue listening to your learner, not just at the beginning, but throughout the process. So if you are comforting them, petting them, hugging them, whatever, and then they're like, okay, I'm good.

You can stop touching me now, stop touching them. That's pretty important. And then the third part of this is also reinforce bravery. So yes, comfort them when they're asking for comfort, but when they choose to move towards an object or investigate something, reinforce the heck out of that.

You should be a safe space for them. You should be the person that they go to to seek that comfort and safety. But you should also be their guide in learning how to navigate the world. So, when they do have moments of bravery, you can reinforce the heck out of that with whatever reinforcers you have available to you at the time.

If they're into food at the mo in that moment, you can give them food if they want, comfort and petting. So a lot of times it can look like just praise, I have a video of when Miley was going through, uh, I think she was going through a sensitivity period and she had, we were doing nose work in the front yard and a rabbit was hanging out outside our yard.

And she had big concerns about this rabbit, which I thought was hilarious because she sees and interacts with bundini every single day. But for some reason. She was really, really freaked out and she ran to our porch. She went from our yard where we were doing scent work to the porch, which I guess was safety 'cause it was closest to being inside the house.

And in this video. I just let her observe and sit, and then every time she checks in with me, I give her a little snack and then when she decides she can come down off of the porch, I give her a lot of verbal praise. Like, oh good girl, you're so brave. So we can include that video in the show notes as well, but it's not just about comforting them, it's also about helping them to get past their discomfort and be able to navigate and process that.

That's how we comfort our dogs in a way that actually facilitates resilience and independence and investigation and while still being that safe space for our dogs. I.

[00:30:15] Allie: Mine is having big feelings about being on the other side of the door now.

All right, so today we talked about how you can't reinforce fear, but you can reinforce behaviors that are maybe associated or caused by fear, but because fear is a physiological response, nah, it's okay, comfort your dog that said. Only comfort your dog when they are asking you to comfort them. If they're like, no, bro, I don't wanna be here with you, then don't do it. Let them go off and be by themselves and be in their safe space. If you are going to comfort them when they're asking to be comfort, i, you can't be anxious yourself, you gotta put your own oxygen mask on first. And that is hard because dogs can smell our stress hormones and they can read us way better than we think we can. So get some of that deep breathing exercises down. It also includes continuing to listen to your learner throughout. They may come and seek comfort from you and then be like, okay, I'm good. Let them go if they're good. And make sure you're also reinforcing bravery, even though you should be a safe space for them, you should also be their guide and learning how to navigate the world better and helping them to develop skills so that they can navigate the world better. I hope you enjoy today's episode and if there's someone in your life who also needs to hear this, be sure to text it to them right now. If you're a pet parent looking for more tips on enrichment, behavior modification, and finding harmony with your pet, you can find us on Facebook and Instagram at Pet Harmony training. If you're a behavior or training professional dedicated to enrichment for yourself, your clients, and their pets, check us out on TikTok and Instagram at Pet Harmony Pro.

As always, links to everything we discussed in this episode are in the show notes. Thank you to Ellen Yoakum for editing this episode and making us sound good. Our intro music is from Penguin Music on Pixa Bay. Please rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. That helps more pet lovers and professionals find us so they can bring enrichment into their world too.

Thank you for listening, and here's to harmony. 

Here's a little bonus enrichment tip to thank you for listening to this episode. We talked a lot about safe spaces in this episode, both you being a safe space and physical safe spaces, and so that illuminates that there can be a lot of nuances associated with safe spaces. One that I want you to think about for this little enrichment tip is temperature. We so frequently see people who are like, look at this nice, fluffy, cozy bed for my dog, and they're not using it as their safe space. If your dog is choosing to lie on the cold tile, maybe we need to think about a cooling pad instead of a nice comfy bed. Conversely, if your dog is like, I have to be plastered against a human every time I'm in a safe space, maybe we think about a heating pad. Maybe it has nothing to do with the human and everything to do with the human's heat. So consider temperature when you are testing safe spaces, physical safe spaces for your pet.