Why I Chose to Bark at the Car
Soneca, on fear, pain, and what really happens in a dog’s mind in the seconds before a decision.
Hi! My name is Soneca, which means “nap” in Portuguese. I’m originally from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, born in 2014 to a street dog from the tough outskirts of RJ, living in constant stress. It was a hard situation, and I could feel her stress already in her womb. I spent thirty days with her and my siblings — so little time. Then I was adopted by Maria.
I was already a restless dog by then. Honestly, I get stressed easily and react to noises fast, often showing fearful or reactive behavior. I’m almost always scanning my environment for danger — cars, big dogs, strangers. Since I was five, I’ve also had chronic hip pain, which makes me a bit grumpy. But I’m happy too: beach trips, forest walks, three or four meals a day, treat-hunt walks, and enrichment in and out of the house that keeps me active and engaged.
— Soneca
Recently we moved to a new home, and suddenly everything changed. It seems fine, but cars look scarier, louder, bigger. My instinct tells me to be afraid of large, scary things that might kill you. Now, on walks, my heartbeat rises and I bark at them — which works, because they go away.
A mountain in Austria, after breakfastWe’re going for a walk after breakfast and I’m feeling good inside, positive. I’m wearing a long leash so I can smell around as far as I want. Suddenly I hear something. I know that sound — it’s a car! Memories of that sound come pouring back. I remember that cars are scary, and my heartbeat starts rising as my body enters a fight-or-flight survival response.
The car is coming so close that I must choose what to do.
I choose to lunge and bark, expecting it will make the scary car go away.
The result: the car “attacks” me back, and I feel extreme pain. I spend a day at the vet clinic getting stitches in my paw.
Now, after this experience, my mood is mostly down, and when I see a car from afar, I whine and shiver. I freeze and refuse to walk at all.
My mom is helping me overcome this through positive reinforcement and behavior modification. Every time I hear a car, I get a very special, tasty treat, so I begin to feel safer around cars and gradually reduce my fear response. Now, I know not to attack — but rather to avoid.
This really happened to us, in April 2024.
How do animals make decisions?
While studying how emotions influence decision-making, Maria wanted to understand how I see the world using Mendl and Paul’s model (2020). Animals mainly base their choices on four things:
Mood (core affect)
A dog’s underlying emotional state — does their baseline mood lean positive or negative?
Internal state
Are they hungry, scared, excited, or anxious right now?
Memory & evolutionary memory
Past experience helps them predict outcomes, while instinct shapes decisions too.
Sensory information
What they hear, see, or smell in the moment.
Mendl & Paul, 2020
Using these four inputs, a dog arrives at action options — run, avoid, ignore, attack, approach — shaped by action values, the positive or negative outcomes each option might bring. Mendl and Paul call these affective options.
Dogs compare their current emotional state with past experience to decide what’s safe or risky, and select the option with the most positive affective value. If the choice leads to a good result, they’re more likely to repeat it. If it leads to something bad — pain, fear — they’ll avoid it next time. Over time, this shapes their general outlook: whether they become more confident, or more cautious.
Behavior rarely comes out of nowhere
Emotions shape behavior
A dog’s general mood — optimistic or pessimistic — influences how they perceive the world, make decisions, and respond to everyday situations.
Balance is key
Too many positive or negative experiences can create problems. Even too much optimism can lead to risky decisions — dogs need freedom, choice, and room to build confidence.
Stress affects brain function
Stress, especially early in life, can affect the brain areas responsible for attention, emotional regulation, and memory (Spaulding, 2025), and may contribute to fear, reactivity, aggression, and separation anxiety.
Dogs have highs and lows
Just like people, dogs have good and bad days — and pain can heavily influence behavior, since it shares many of the same brain areas as emotion (Spaulding, 2025). Pain is an often-overlooked contributor to aggression and fear.
A dog’s current situation includes more than the here and now — it includes their internal state, memories, the affective coding of past rewards and punishments, and incoming sensory information. Recognizing these connections helps us understand why behaviors like aggression, reactivity, separation anxiety, and fear rarely happen out of nowhere. Every behavior reflects a combination of emotion, experience, physical health, genetics, and environment.
Understand the decision, not just the behavior
When we understand how dogs make decisions, we’re in a much better position to help them succeed rather than simply reacting to what we see. Through my behavior modification program, I work remotely with dog guardians across Europe and Argentina, helping dogs with aggression, reactivity, fear, separation anxiety, and other behavior concerns through personalized, evidence-based plans.
Learn about the program