Touchdown!

While Salinas can't get enough touch, Chima is quite the opposite and she avoids touch if at all possible. She doesn't go so far as to be growly or snappy if she is touched or someone reaches for her, but its very clear that it makes her uncomfortable for a human to have their hands near her.

I think a year ago her complete avoidance of touch would have seemed to me like an impossible thing to ever help her overcome, but thanks to my year with Langley, I've learned to see behaviors like this as a puzzle to figure out and not an insurmountable problem.

Because of how uncomfortable she was with touch, the first things we worked on didn't involve touch at all. My initial goal was to help her relax enough to approach me. Since she was interested in sniffing me she was rewarded anytime she sniffed me. At first she just sniffed my back as I sat on the step and I would slide my hand back with a treat in it for her, never even glancing back at her. Well she loved that. The way to this girls heart is through her nose and her stomach - she loves to sniff and she loves to eat.

Once she was seeking me out to nose at my back and get treats, I changed the game a bit. she had to sniff or touch my side to earn the treat. We did this with me standing and sitting, in the house, on the deck out on the lawn... And we kept at it until the fear was pretty much gone and all she cared about was getting that reward.

Then it was time to take another step forward. This was where touch was added. I would hold a piece of kibble tightly in my fingertips and gently touch the side of her leg with the back of my hand while she worked at the kibble. At first she would flinch a bit but for allowing 1 short touch without retreating I would let her have the piece of kibble. As we worked through this process I was moving my hand with the kibble closer to me and gradually increasing the pressure and the length of time the touch happened.

Well, I'm happy to report that earlier this week Chima and I made it to the point where she was standing on my lap and letting me stroke the length of her body and even the top of her head between her ears - all that for just a measly piece of kibble! We moved from having to coax her into the house using a 12' long lead that I had on her, to her nose bumping my legs for attention and standing in my lap for kibble all over the course of a week and a half.

We usually start with my hand with the kibble resting in the hand  that will  be petting her.  This way to reach the kibble her head  ends up resting in my hand

Sliding hand over so I can massage her ear a little; note that I'm leaning over her and  she's  doing great with that

Ear massage moved to stroking her the length of her body; with any dog a long, slow  stroke is much more relaxing and pleasant to them than a patting motion. Most dogs are just tolerating "patting"

I'm pretty proud of both of us! One of the things that I struggle with is impatience and looking too far forward at where I want to be rather than where I am. By just focusing on what the current behavior was that I reinforced, we moved forward much more quickly and my frustration didn't slow the progress. But honestly, even this progression was probably faster than it needed to be and we are backing up a bit because the goal is to get her to feel like the touch is her choice, not just because she is super motivated by the food. I didn't do enough desensitization and I didn't chunk up the process into small enough pieces. Buy, hey, I'm still learning and I've come light years from where I was in my training skills a year ago.

In this VIDEO you can see one of our short touch sessions. Here we've worked up to the beginnings of some of the way non dog savvy people might approach. In this sitting session she has to approach me face to face (which she isn't especially fond of) and you can see that I am leaning over her to stroke her fur and rub her neck. She's doing great! The fact that she chose to sit during this was pretty exciting to me as well because typically she likes to be on her feet so she can get out of there quickly if she needs to. She's gotten to the point where she's relaxed enough to be sitting during the exercises. At the end she startles a bit so I stopped but then sat there with the treat in my hand and after the video stopped she came back to try it again.

While it may sound like we put in a ton of training time, this was all done during short 1-3 minute sessions and usually when we went outside for their potty breaks. It was not a big structured training session. Instead I just made sure that I was super clear in my head of exactly what behavior earned the reward.

So now my challenge is going to be to back up, slow myself down again and let go of my agenda. The more I let her lead the process, the more that change in her response to touch will be locked in.