Muzzling Up

While 99.9% of the time Luke is a very easy laid back dog, he is pretty fearful in new situations, especially with unknown people handling him. Because in a couple very terrifying situations in the past Luke has bit so he could get away I decided to teach him how to tolerate a muzzle and actually not just tolerate it but instead see a muzzle as a positive thing. All dogs should be exposed to muzzling because if there is an emergency and they need to be muzzled because of pain it won't be one more scary thing being thrown at them. But for a fearful dog a muzzle will keep others safe and in turn that keeps them safe as well. An added bonus to a muzzle is it makes people keep their distance which is exactly what I want them to do since the last thing I want strangers doing is grabbing at Luke. They may mean well but my job is to keep Luke feeling safe and comfortable so I make sure we keep to ourselves when out in public.

I want to stress that Luke is not a scary, aggressive, nasty dog. He is a dog who gets frightened in some very specific situations and my job as his current "person" is to make him and everyone else feel safe and protected in those situations.

Luke desperately needs his nails trimmed and he finds nail trims very frightening. In fact one of the times in the past when he bit was when a man was cutting his nails. I am also working with him to help nail trimming be less scary but we don't have time to fully work through that. His nails need to be trimmed now. So we will be going to the vet later in the week and I want to be at the point where he won't associate the muzzle with a scary trip to the vet or a blood draw or a nail trim. Instead it will be something that he is very used to that will just happen to come with us on our  trip.

For the past few weeks I've been working with him by just feeding him yummy treats from his muzzle. He sticks in his snout and chows down. This week we moved to the next step: actually strapping on the muzzle.

So when I strapped on that muzzle for the first time I used a super high value treat for Luke: hot dogs. As soon as it was buckled I started rapidly pushing bits of hot dog through the opening in the front of the cage muzzle and Luke gladly chowed down. After a short bit of this I took the muzzle off and then offered him a jackpot of a handful of hot dog bits.

Well he thought that was so amazing that he followed me around and sniffed the muzzle a bunch after our practice session hoping for more hot dog to appear. We've been doing this two to three times a day so by the time our vet appointment rolls around on Thursday he will be able to wear the muzzle without any fear or discomfort. Wish us luck!

If you are interested in learning more about muzzle training be sure to check out this blog post: Muzzle Training for Everyone! There are at least 4 other posts about muzzle training that follow this one and it will walk you through the steps of teaching a dog to enjoy muzzling with how to videos included to show the process.

When to Bend

Most of us have had the idea driven into our brains that we are the bosses in our relationship with our dogs. In this mindset the dog is the lesser creature and does all the adjusting to live in our world. I think though that there is a difference in being "the boss" and being a leader. And a good leader understands that compromise is not a sign of weakness.

Chima, Salinas and Frodo

Why am I rambling on about this? Yesterday I was down on the ground playing with the dogs and I realized how different my interactions were with each dog. Salinas got snuggles and even semi-confining hugs. I flopped on top of her, in a mini-pin that she could easily escape and she was in heaven. Salinas craves touch and so my interactions with her include tons of it. My elderly dog Tilly is like this as well.

Frodo though is about action. He wants to be chasing and darting around with pets in between as long as they aren't grabby. Tug and fetch and growling at each other is how we interact. I talk a lot at Frodo and he talks back. A lot.

Finally we have Chima who finds touch aversive. She's doesn't seem to find it scary but she just doesn't enjoy it and her skin will shudder a bit with each pet. So Chima and I found a way to interact that is comfortable to both of us. No hands are used - just heads. When I make a smoochy noise at her she will come and touch noses. We will headbutt each other, I'll rub my cheek on hers and she'll reciprocate. Often she'll get playful and she might invite me to some wrestling time with her.

Had I insisted on petting her as my way of interacting she wouldn't have snapped at me or completely avoided me. But our relationship would not be nearly as close as it is with me respecting her need for hands free interaction. It now has a depth and a playfulness I never thought possible when I first met this rather aloof, regal girl.

Had I been rigid about a goal of getting Chima to the point where she wanted tons of petting, I probably would have failed and both Chima and I would be frustrated with each other. I could have gotten her to the point where she would tolerate it but just tolerating one's life is a pretty sad way to live. Kind of like an introvert forced to work in a job where they are constantly working with people - it can be done but it takes its toll.

So consider making a few compromises in your interactions with your dog. If we expect them to be respectful of us, we really should reciprocate. And amazing things can happen in a relationship built on mutual respect.

Cranky Puppy? There's more to it

Plum is a bit grouchy when it comes to other dogs. And honestly, I can't really blame her. Her story is pretty familiar - a recipe including  a few dogs, a clueless human, and likely a dash of laziness thrown in.

Plum is pretty young. I'd say 8 or 9 weeks old. She's also very tiny. So when she snarled and lunged at a hyper dog as we were getting her walked after the transport, it was a big red flag to me. This was not typical behavior for a dog her age. I learned more of her story and now her behavior totally makes sense.

She was surrendered to the shelter by a person who had brought a very young puppy home to a house with 2 very active 1 1/2 year old male Rat Terriers. She then put this tiny, 3 pound pup down with the other dogs and Plum was left to fend for herself. Talk about overwhelming and frightening!

She quickly learned that growling worked to get them to back off a bit and before long she was growling and lunging when they got in her space.

What did her person do about this? She took Plum to the shelter because she was supposedly not a nice puppy.

Before we judge her though, think about a recent trip to an off leash park with your dog, or a BBQ where dogs and people were invited. If a dog started growling, who got blamed for being the "bad dog" or the "aggressive dog" or the "alpha dog". The reality is that people really aren't careful when introducing dogs or letting them interact. THey just assume that the dogs will all be fine together and do their own thing. And even if the people are watching, very few humans really understand a dog's body language and what it is trying to tell you. What are their ears doing? Are they spending a lot of time hiding under low benches? Is there a long string of dogs playing "chase"? (psst: chase ceases to be a game when more than 2 dogs are involved - at least for the dog at the front of the line) Is anyone getting rolled? Are any single dogs getting "mobbed" by several other dogs in their space? If no one is paying attention or intervening, then growling and snarling or worse are the only options left to a frightened dog.

If the same situation was with a group of young children, no one is going to lie a 3 month old infant on the floor with some 4 year olds and say "you guys play nice!" and leave the room. That's what happened to Plum. Likewise, at the family BBQ if one kid is repeatedly getting shoved by a circle of kids, someone is going to step in and break things up. Well, just like kids don't always "just work things out" dogs don't always "just work things out" and it's our job as their guardians - of dogs or kids - to make sure no one is being bullied.

So I'll step down off my soapbox a bit and talk about how things can be turned around with Plum. There's really good news to this story! Plum is very young and because of that we have time to form some positive associations with other dogs so she can grow up thinking that other dogs aren't so bad. I don't think she'll ever be a dog who loves rolling around a playing with other dogs but she doesn't have to be afraid when they are around.

Yesterday and today I've been bringing a treat bag loaded with fish/venison jerky cut into tiny pieces. Plum LOVES this stuff, as do the other dogs. Then I put Chima and Sal in a "down" and set Plum down with them (remember, she is 3 pounds and they are 24 and 16 pounds). Then I start doling out the jerky. Plum skitters around the dogs, completely focused on the awesomeness that is jerky. Chima and Sal get little pieces too since hanging out with a puppy isn't their idea of a great time and I make sure that Plum isn't walking over the girls or climbing on them so they feel comfortable too. Then we're done and puppy gets separated and hangs out in the kitchen with Tilly who is fine with keeping her distance and at 13 years old, the last thing on her mind is wrestling.

There are just two simple parts to fixing Plum's problem - 1) manage her environment so that there's no chance she's going to have unpleasant experiences with the larger dogs and 2) when she is with the larger dogs, use high value treats to start building a positive association with time spent around dogs.  It is a simple, elegant solution that is not an easy solution. Because it requires lots of repetition and careful management.

Any training takes work but I can guarantee that a little extra work put in now with this 8 week old puppy is going to reap huge amounts of benefit for her future. Think of all the times in her life she will be around other dogs! With up front work she can have things turned around so almost  all those times will be positive experiences.

The Trinity of Dogdom

I talked about the importance of full disclosure to adopters in the Honesty post, and now I want to talk about the things that can't be disclosed because they can't be know until the dog is in the home with the adopter.  We can make good guesses as to how a dog will behave in a new setting with new people but it is still not a sure thing.

Klee (front) is a completely different dog when she is with other dogs. As an only dog she has much less confidence and is less willing to try new things.

So while I will rant on about shelters/rescuers lying or withholding information from adopters, I equally rant about adopters who have pre-set expectations of a dog and then blame the dog (or often the shelter/rescue) when the dog is different than they expected.

One of the many great ideas talked about at the Sue Sternberg lecture I attended is that a dog's behavior/personality can be divided into 3 parts - kind of a holy trinity of Dogdom. There is the dog themselves - an amalgam of genetics and experiences. That part is clear to all of us. But there are two other parts that make up the dog we see in front of us and that is the environment they exist in and the humans who exist in that environment with them.

When you change the environment and the people, the behaviors that you see in a dog will also change. An energetic, smart, driven dog can become a bossy, pushy, aggressive dog when put in a home with quiet, inactive people in a small apartment. A skittish shut down dog avoiding human attention in the shelter will likely be very different when relaxed in a home setting with regular human interaction.

I have had foster dogs at my home who really struggled and I had to work on lots of behavior issues with them and then they were adopted and became much easier dogs. That is because the environment was a better fit. And sadly I've also seen the opposite - an easy foster dog who was not so easy once moved to their adoptive home.

Please don't read this post as me saying there is a perfect home and person for every dog. That's not what I am saying. Just realize that you as the human and your lifestyle, schedule, activities, what you are feeding your dog, when you are feeding them..... ALL those things are part of who your dog is. If we truly want to be our dog's best friend we will stop blaming everything on the dog and start to look at ourselves and see if there are changes that we could be making that will help our dog be more successful.

My Mind Was Blown

Sue with one of her dogs

Over last weekend I attended a two day seminar featuring Sue Sternberg speaking on "Sociability vs. Aggression in Pet Dogs". The first day covered dog/human interactions and the 2nd day we talked about dog/dog interactions.

I know that it's been a good seminar when I walk away full of ideas I want to try. But I know it is a GREAT seminar when I walk away and my mind is blown. That was the case with this weekend. My mind was blown - she ripped apart some of my former concepts of things like dog play, puppy interactions, dog/human interaction, shelter dog behaviors... I walked into it feeling like I had a pretty good grasp on dog body language and communication and left understanding what a novice I was and reviewing in my mind every foster dog placement that I've been a part of. 

I had planned to write a series of posts on the dog to dog interaction side of things with tips for dog parks, etc. But now I'm still flummoxed as to where to begin. In fact, I feel like I need to go see the seminar again because this first time round I need to steep in the information for awhile and then the second time I can really focus more on details.

Anyhow for anyone working with shelter/rescue dogs watch for Sue Sternberg to be in your area lecturing. The dog/human portion of the seminar is so helpful with determining the adoptive placements of dogs as well as assessing which dogs to put in which foster homes. And then the dog/dog portion of the seminar is something I wish everyone who has a dog would attend, especially if they take their dogs to dog parks.

But until then, if you have an iphone, for just 99 cents you can download her Dog Park Assistant app which helps you understand your dog's play style and gives you tips while at the park for things to watch for in your dog's behavior and other dog's behavior towards your dog. Pretty great idea!

And then if you are interested in her seminars she has a lot of great videos like "Train to Adopt", "Dog/Dog Engagements Between Unfamiliar Dogs", "Understanding Sociability" and more. She's an engaging speaker so you will enjoy watching these. Find her videos at GreatDogProductions.com

Shaping Our Way to Calm

While I'm fairly familiar with using a clicker as a tool for training new behaviors, I've never really had someone explain the training process of "shaping" to me. I understood the idea that you were trying to start with a smaller piece of a behavior and slowly shape that skill into a more complex behavior but didn't really have a grasp of the mechanics.

What better people to learn from than the expert training team of Eva Bertilsson and Emilie Johnson-Vegh who together own the training center Carpe Momentum and teach agility seminars throughout Sweden and Norway. I took their shaping class called "You're in Great Shape" and then throughout the week saw shaping put to use in various labs that used the technique. 

To start with you need the basics of how clicker training works. First you set things up to make the behavior more likely (for example if you are training a dog to lay on a mat and be relaxed you need a quiet environment that isn't overly stimulating, and a time of day that they aren't more excited than usual). This is called the "antecedent." Next you mark the behavior you want. This would be the click and it communicates to the dog what behavior is being reinforced. And then finally comes the consequence, in this case a great consequence that the dog really enjoys. Most often people start out with tasty treats but a toy crazy dog might like a toy instead. The connection of the reinforcement to the less likely behavior will start to make that "less likely behavior" happen more often. If you want to learn more about shaping check out The Ten Laws of Shaping on the Clickertraining.com Website.

And here's the starting point in shaping that I didn't know about. You must start with a behavior that the dog is already doing currently. For example, if you want a dog to eventually lift their rear leg on cue you start might start clicking when they start to walk and lift that rear leg. They are already walking so capture the part of that you like. Then as a behavior becomes quite frequent you can increase your criteria for a click - say the leg needs to come up higher.

I'm a total beginner and so I'm starting with something pretty easy that I hopefully can eventually use as a part of helping my dog Frodo to learn some calming techniques. So my first shaping exercise was to teach him to go to a mat. Eventually we'll work on settling on a mat and then generalizing that to other places. I let him set the shaping pace and had no goals for the session other than to practice the skill and hopefully teach Frodo something in the process.

I started out clicking whenever his head turned in the direction of the mat. He knew I had a sack of treats there and proceeded to sit in front of me, stare and me and occasionally bark in frustration. Since I wanted the experience to be positive for him I stood up and walked around since it was more likely he'd glance at the mat if he was moving around. Sure enough I got a few glances and we were on our way.

Frodo is very impatient, a bit frenetic, and easily frustrated. So it was important to use tiny, tiny steps so his rate of reinforcement for behaviors was high. It was Frodo's first time with a shaping exercise as well so we were learning together. It was exciting for both of us when he figured out that he was in control - his behavior made treats get tossed. Sometimes if he seemed too frustrated I would lower the criteria for awhile so the reinforcement would come at a faster pace. That's where flexibility is so important with this skill - you don't just move forward in shaping, you move where the dog needs to move and sometimes that's stepping back to an easier behavior for awhile.

Here Frodo was first learning a down got him a reward. As you can see there is nothing calm about him but we have a long way to go before we reach calmness.

Once he was looking at the mat and occasionally touching it we increased the criteria and touching the mat was the behavior that earned the treats. Once he was regularly doing that it was two feet on the mat, quickly moving to standing with all four on the mat and then sitting on it. After awhile he laid down on the mat - the final behavior that I was moving towards - and I did a jackpot when he laid down, tossing the treats methodically and slowly off the mat so I wouldn't get him ramped up and also to reset him so he could strengthen the skill of going to the mat and lying down. After several reps of him going to the mat and being rewarded for an "on mat down" we ended the session, both of us happy and ready to do more. That's also a trick to shaping - end your session before any boredom sets in. This is probably the toughest step for the human since we are getting rewarded by our dogs success and we want to keep going.

From his body language you can see that he's still a bit stiff and poised to leap up at any moment, but he's calmer than he was when he first started giving a "down" on the mat. Good work Frodo!

Was our first experience perfect? Not at all! My rate of reinforcement was too slow initially and Frodo got frustrated so I should have broken things down more. It also didn't have the beautiful flow that I saw happening with the very experienced shapers who I saw demo-ing the skill over the weekend. But it was our first try and Frodo and I both learned a lot and enjoyed the experience so I'm going to call it a success.

Once we strengthen this skill of settling on a mat, we'll start adding a cue and also use some tricks I learned from another lecturer, Sarah Owings, about teaching a calm settle on a mat. But I'm trying to just be in the moment and work from where we are at rather than letting those future goals hang over my head and make me overwhelmed. Tiny steps are just as important for me as they are for my dogs. If I overwhelm myself I'll end up giving up and that doesn't help anyone. Better for everyone to take it slow, focus on the present, and have fun with it.

Mutt Mats

For those of you looking for a great mat, check out Mutt Mats. I love them! I bought a size medium at the Expo and it will be a good size for Chima but I can also use it folded in half for Frodo and Tilly who are smaller. Another nice extra is the rope that you can use to bring it along to training classes or mat sessions outside of home, just like your dogs own personal yoga mat. But you don't need a fancy mat to teach this skill. Other great options are bath mats that you can find on clearance all the time or even just use a towel or crate liner.

Goals and Training Plans for My Dogs

I came home stuffed to the brim with new information and all sorts of training techniques that I want to try. In fact there is so much information dancing around in my head that I need to first slow myself down and make a plan before I start assaulting my poor dogs with a barrage of training that ends up overwhelming them.

I'm a fairly linear thinker so my tendency when I have a goal is to map out the steps needed to get there and then rigidly follow that path, always with my eye on the prize. This is not a good way to train, especially if you are working with fearful and anxious dogs.

Not that a plan isn't good to have, but so much rigidity is only going to slow things down and make a trainer push a dog perhaps faster than they are able to stay a happy, engaged learner. So for my dogs what I want to do is make a list for each dog. 

First will be a list of their strengths. I want to sit and ponder what each of my personal and foster dogs bring to the training table - not what tricks or behaviors that they already know but some of their natural talents.  For my pack of terriers, all four of them (foster and personal dogs) are pretty drivey which can really be a strength in a dog. They love to work! But it can also be a road block when a calm demeanor is needed. Frodo is pretty good at focusing and all four dogs are very intelligent and very motivated by food. Chima, Tilly and Salinas all have very good communication skills with other dogs and clear body language. 

Then I want to lay out some goals for each of my dogs of things we need to work on. For Chima my goals are continuing to desensitize and counter-condition her to touch from humans. Other goals for her are increasing her trust and connection to me and then working on making vet visits and nail trims less scary. Salinas needs to work on entering her crate and entering the house which can both be scary for her. You get the picture. 

The final step is to lay out a few different training ideas for each dog that will help us get closer to that goal. Since I'm not an expert clicker trainer and don't want to frustrate or overwhelm the dogs or myself, we are choosing some beginning training games - one for each dog - and starting simple. Frodo's overall goal is to help him be less anxious so we are starting out with some mat practice to work towards learning to settle. Chima is working on eye contact and Salinas and I are playing some crate games. Tilly and I are playing some games to help her with impulse control - a much needed skill for our resident senior citizen. No dog is too old to learn and the enrichment of clicker training games in my mind is even more important for seniors than other dogs. They need to keep their brains active and engaged. 

Chima showing some good eye contact and checking in with me.

Even if you have several different areas you want to work, unless you are an expert clicker trainer then start with just one thing and work on that until the dog feels super strong and confident with the skill before adding to the training plan. 

Frodo on his first step to letting go of some of his anxiety: working on "settle"

And don't focus on that end result of where you want your dog to be. Instead each day just observe where your dog is at and focus on that. Before you know it, you'll have reached that training goal but by focusing on the tiny steps and successes along the way I promise you that you'll reach your goals much quicker and everyone will enjoy the process more. 

Clicker Expo 2014: My Brain is Going to Explode!

My best friend and I just returned from a four day adventure in Southern California. We attended our first ever Clicker Expo in Long Beach,  California. For those of you who haven't heard of Clicker Expo, it's a 3 day seminar with about 60 classes to choose from and the top trainers and behaviorist in the field speaking about just about every training topic imaginable.

What a unique event! These are some of my biggest heroes and the classes are so amazing that many of the instructors are attending classes when they aren't teaching. During one session Dr. Susan Friedman was sitting next to me and borrowed my notes! What can I say? Some people are star struck by pop stars - I'm star struck by behavioral scientists.

The "Room with a View Point" talk where 7 of the speakers sit and discuss random training topics

And then of course it wouldn't be Karen Pryor Clicker Training without all the stuff for sale. There was a great store and I bought some fun new stuff to use while training the dogs - a nice mat for training a dog to go to their spot that ties up like a yoga mat for classes, a container that works for dispensing wet food treats - something I need for Tilly who has a very specific diet she is following due to health issues. And then my favorite - a targeting stick with a clicker built right in to free up a hand while doing targeting training.

Mutt Mat, Clik Stik and wet treat bottle

The Expo was held on the Queen Mary and we also stayed there. Interesting place. It was a little depressing because it could be a pretty excellent venue but it just seemed so mismanaged - bad food at the restaurants, broken soap and towel dispensers in the restrooms, the worst signage I've ever seen, and kind of a shabbiness like everything was in need of a good polish. I found the original art deco interior beautiful and was in awe of some of the fixtures in the huge salons, but overall I was kind of "meh" about the space. I didn't hate the ship but I would have gladly given up the novelty for some numbered floors and good signage.

Queen Mary

The sitting, dressing area of our room

Anyhow, right now my brain is just awash with new information and I learned so much that I'm a bit overwhelmed. Hopefully I'll have time over the next few days to read back through all my pages of notes and get some posts going about what I learned.

The main thing I took away though was that I need to slow way the heck down in my pace of training and I need to strengthen a behavior more before I move onto a new thing. Oh - and observe, observe, OBSERVE. By doing that the dog will tell you everything you need to know about what kind of work should be done in the session.

Oh, and all my dogs would like to extend their deepest thanks to the faculty of the 2014 Clicker Expo for how much they all stressed to increase the quality and quantity of the rewards I'm using. They'd tell them themselves but their too busy eating the roast chicken they earned.

Respect and Choice: the Magic Ingredients to Chima's Latest Milestone

So much of working with a fearful dog can be better understood when we try to see things through the dog's eyes. I'm not saying to anthropomorphize the dog, but come on - we are all in the animal kingdom together and there are some behavioral things that pretty much apply across the board.

If you bully a person, chances are they aren't going to want to hang around you and be your friend. They may do what you tell them to do, but they are doing that because they are afraid of you, not because they think you're great.

If you invade a person's personal space, take away their right to make choices about their own body and how they are touched and handled you haven't built up a relationship with that person - no you have broken that relationship.

And if you force a person to do things that are frightening to them, you aren't teaching them to not be afraid since you didn't give them any choice about facing something they fear. Likely nothing will be learned from the experience other than you are a person to be avoided at all costs.

What does this have to do with dogs? Well if we can wrap our head around the idea that these living, breathing creatures with distinct personalities, likes and dislikes, have a right to be treated with respect, then the "training" work we do with our dogs will undergo some pretty dramatic changes. Instead of creating more distrust between dog and human, bonds can be built and I promise you, there will be forward motion in the progress you make when you work together. Don't be a "training bully". Respect the dog and to let go of the need to control everything. Let your dog set the pace.

I say this because I had a pretty amazing moment with Chima on Saturday night. If you remember, when Chima first arrived with us back in May of this year, she did not want to be touched at all (see "Stupendously Wonderful Baby Steps.) Touch was very uncomfortable and she didn't even like me to look at her when I was teaching her cues for "sit" and "come".  We spent a lot of time on the opposite side of the room.

I decided early on that some of the "touch" stuff was just Chima and I had to be okay with that. If she never wanted to snuggle and hang out on the same side of the room as me, that was okay. She was a great dog and that didn't change the fact. We did some touch work with paintbrushes, targeting games, and just basic desensitization and counter conditioning work, but I didn't push things. I accepted her as she was. I loved her for being the dog she was - full of character, a complete goof, a tank with a super-sized motor and one of the most uncoordinated terriers I've met.

Well check out this series of photos. On Saturday Chima jumped up on the couch next to me while I was doing email on my phone. She was between me and the arm of the couch so kind of pinned in and cornered but for the first time that didn't seem to concern her. She sat there rigidly for a bit and then she nudged at my arm, wanting to play our "touch" targeting game that she loves. I was in shock and awe but decided not to play the game, wanting to see if she could relax enough to just kick back and enjoy the moment - relax and nap like the other three dogs on the other end and the back of the couch.

"Whatcha doin'?" 

"Come on - where's your hand? Let's play the targeting game!"

"Well, this is kind of boring."

"Might as well take a power nap until you're ready for a game."

Check out that final photo...  She did it! She figured out I was busy right then and so laid her head down ON MY LAP. Yes folks, she chose to lay there, relaxed, with most of her body touching me. I almost cried because I really didn't think she would ever be comfortable doing this. But I let her make the choice and after 5 months of watching other dogs with me, learning my behavior patterns, and practicing short non-threatening touch linked with big rewards she decided to try out the lap dog thing. It only lasted about 2 to 3 minutes, but it happened, and the fact that it happened at all, let alone for 2-3 whole minutes is huge!

So next time you set an agenda of what you think your dog's personality should be like and what behaviors they should be able to do and when they should be able to do those behaviors, step back and chill out. Let your dog be your partner in the process and let them tell YOU what the timeline will be and how far they are ready to go. When you let go of those expectations and rigid goals, you free both you and your dog up for some amazing experiences and a much happier existence together.

New Tricks for Old Dogs

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to attend my second class with Lori Stevens, a senior Tellington Touch Practioner, CPDT-KA certified trainer, and a bunch of other certifications that there is no way I'll remember. What I do remember though is she is fabulous and if you ever get a chance, take a class from her.

This seminar was specific to senior dogs and both about the power of touch and body wraps to bring back awareness to tired achy limbs, but also the importance of conditioning for our aging furry family members.

Since our house dog Tilly is about 11 years old, we've started to work on the conditioning exercises and once she's stronger with these initial exercises we'll start work on building up her stabilizing muscles, since she is starting to have some issues with balance. Tilly thinks these exercises are AWESOME!!! That's because they involve both getting one on one time with me AND lots of treats.

Beyond the learning though, it was a great time to socialize and network with other rescuers, shelter workers, and dog trainers from the region. Two other New Rattitude foster parents attended the seminar with me and we had a happy surprise when a former New Rattitude foster dog showed up with his mom for the class. I also met a great trainer in the Gig Harbor area, a supervisor for a local shelter, and met and chatted with the owner of the training center that sponsored the class, Grisha Stewart, who also created the BAT Protocol method of working with fearful dogs, one of the tools in my training tool chest when working with fear reactive dogs.

Anyhow, a great time was had by all. Here are some photos of the New Rattitude dogs at the event:

Lori working on demo-dog D'Light, a New Rattitude Alumnus

D'Light with his mom, showing us how much he loves touch. D was a dog who was highly fearful and afraid of touch. T Touch was a big part of moving D through that fear.

D aka Fang-Monkey, blissing out during a T Touch session with his mom

Boushey, a New Rattitude alumnus, and his mom Aim

Skip, one of our New Rattitude foster parent's dogs

New Rattitude NW Team Tries TTouch

Four of New Rattitude's Northwest foster parents attended a Lori Stevens taught Tellington Touch seminar yesterday at the Northwest School of Animal Massage. We had a great time and learned so much! I am still letting it all sink in and will definitely be practicing both the touches as well as the body wrapping techniques for now. It was an intro class and I can tell that I have barely touched the tip of the iceberg as far as all the information there is about how this style of training/bodywork can help the foster dogs in our care. I think the thing that struck home most with me was some of the leash walking tips about how to better communicate with our dogs while walking with leashes. Langley will probably want to give Lori a big ol' slurpy kiss of thanks for that nugget of knowledge.

New Rattitude foster parents attending the seminar were Candace all the way from Amity, Oregon, Julee from Seattle, Blair from Everett and me from Federal Way. More importantly, NR alum D'Light not only attended but he starred in some of the bodywork segmants of the seminar. Also attending were current New Rattitude foster dogs Gramercy and Cody. Cody had some amazing breakthroughs during the groundwork segment that had all of us in tears. This boy has come so far! Read more about his journey at Merry Paws Training and Fostering.  Gramercy has his own amazing story, as does D'Light and you can read about them over at A Day in the Life of a New Rattitude Foster Dog.

Enjoy these photos and video from the seminar.

D'Light has regular TTouch sessions with Lori so he is an old pro and helped with demonstrations

 

He found all of us staring, photographing people a bit unnerving though. Can't blame him!

 

Here's Blair and Candace practicing touches with Lori

 

Gramercy was pretty relaxed after he got to be a test subject for some ear touches

 

Then it was outside for some groundwork. Here's D'Light and Julee

 

 

Gramercy was pretty interested in what his foster mom was doing out there with his foster brother

 

Cody made some wonderful breakthroughs during the groundwork portion and his face/body language relaxed for the first time in his 5 months of foster care! We were all pretty excited for him.



 

 

 

 

So lots of great learning and fun was had by all and we left excited to learn more!

 



Kathy Sdao Seminar Notes: Control

This is my final post on things I learned at the seminar - not that there isn't a ton more that I learned but I wanted to wrap up the series of posts with a topic that I think is basically at the foundation of behavior issues with dogs and also one of the key ways that people screw things up when they want to "train" a dog. God knows I've screwed things up due to control issues with my dogs.

"Control is a primary reinforcer" - This was a quote Kathy Sdao talked about during the seminar that really stood out to me (I believe Dr. Susan Friedman is being quoted.) I never thought I'd think of something more motivating than food for a terrier, but if you think about it, feeling free to choose for oneself seems like it just might one up a meal.


My dog Tilly's shelter photo (Tilly is far left). She was one of 5 breeding bitches dumped by a commercial breeder. Two were euthanized and three rescued.
 

Tilly after a couple years learning that she got to make choices for herself: she still struggles with fear and anxiety, but for the most part she has learned that people aren't all bad and life has a lot of great things to offer

Some people would say "you can't hand over all control to the dog and let them be the boss." But this isn't saying to just let a dog do whatever he/she feels like. We all need boundaries. Instead, we should set up training situations where things are weighted so the dog will make the choice we would like them to make. It takes a little effort on our part but they then control themselves and get rewarded for a choice they made on their own. How much more reinforcing and empowering is being rewarded for something you chose to do on your own than something you were coerced into doing? Think about how YOU feel when choosing to do something versus being forced to do something and this should make a lot of sense to you. How do you feel about people who make sure you always know that they are in charge, they are the boss, they control you, they "dominate" you? Is your main concern with those people trying to enjoy their company or is it a fearful worry about not making them angry with you? Constant stress about not messing up?

Before Huck came into rescue, he lived in a home where the children were allowed to manhandle him. He learned that biting was the only thing humans paid attention to when he wanted to escape a fearful situation. In turn he was then hit for biting.

Many of the dogs we see in rescue have lived for awhile at a bare subsistence level. Forget being reinforced - they are just concerned with those most basic things on the hierarchy of needs: food, water, shelter. So imagine the gift it would be to them to discover those things are always available and they now can actually control their own bodies, choose to lie down, play, run... 

Reuben and Hoagie were puppymill dogs who were so physically controlled by their crowded conditions that their muscles couldn't develop properly and Hoagie's leg broke spontaneously in foster care when he was running in the grass.

When I think of many of the dogs that come through my home and have been labeled as having behavioral issues, so many of those issues grew out of that dog living a life where they had absolutely no control or choices in their life. This led to fear, frustration, anxiety which are the basis for many dogs that are labelled as aggressive, hyper, submissive urinators, resource guarders, etc. One of the greatest things that foster parents can do for their newly rescued fosters who have fear issues is to do nothing for awhile. Step back, let go of the reins and let that dog choose to come to you. Let them make the choice to come out of the crate instead of pulling them out. Set up enticements in a crate to help them choose to go into the crate when you need there to be some crate time. Put your hands in your pockets and don't get grabby because touch and connection needs to be on their terms. Once they realize you aren't going to force things, their trust in you will grow and you aren't going to make any headway in training them until they trust you to have their best interests at heart.

Catty lived the first 5 years of her life as a puppymill breeding bitch. She is an anxious girl who learned to use her teeth and her growls to try to gain a sense of control over her life when she felt afraid. Happily she landed in a home that was willing to work with her issues and to educate themselves on how to help her.

So set up your dog for success and help make their life a series of good choices that will allow them and their humans to live in harmony.

Over on one of my fellow New Rattitude foster parents' blog they did a wonderful post yesterday about a fearful foster dog who is brand new in their home and some of the early work they are doing with her. "Moon's First 24 Hours in Foster Care" is an excellent example of stepping back and letting a dog gain a sense of control in their lives and illustrates with photos and video how quickly you can see changes in a dog's demeanor when you let them start making choices for themselves.

Kathy Sdao Seminar Notes: Gettin' off my butt and clicking

The seminar definitely helped me see something in myself, and I'm guessing that I'm not the only one out there, but I really hate change. I feed the dogs a certain way in a certain place. Potty breaks happen a certain way. Training occurs in set "training sessions". And when it comes to trying something different I'm full of excuses as to why I can't do that. They are all lame excuses of course and mostly amount to "that would be a pain and probably wouldn't make that big a difference." 

One of the things that I've read about over and over again, that I talk to customers and adopters about, and that Langley's behavioral vet told me to do is that having dogs eat their meals in puzzles and through training is a great way to give them some mental exercise and not waste an opportunity for behavioral training. So at this seminar I heard for the umpteenth time that I needed to get out of my "food in the dog bowl" rut and try something different. Here's how I have eased into the change:

An AMAZING thing that Kathy suggests is starting out by taking 50 kibbles out of your dog's food bowl and then making a goal of keeping your clicker with you and clicking and awarding behaviors you want more of throughout the day. Try to catch your dog doing great 50 times.

At first I thought there is no fricking way I can do this. But I wanted to try with Langley. I had gotten lazy and really needed to work with him more. Believe it or not, after 2 days of 50 reinforcers, I was hooked! His rapidly improving behavior during potty breaks outside and also play time inside was reinforcing me to keep at it! Then we upped it to 100 reinforcers that need to be used since 50 wasn't enough. Now not all of this is just random "catching" good behavior. A lot of it is shaping stuff we are doing around his compulsion issues outside which takes lots of clicking, and we're also doing some little mini training sessions I'm starting to throw in during "after potty break" time inside. But the reality is that in my attempt to increase his good behavior, his increasing good behavior has motivated me to increase mine. Now, 100 reinforcers isn't enough so all his kibble is being used for reinforcers during the day and the wet food that I usually mix in is being fed to him frozen in a kong. Yep. I did it. A week later and Langley is no longer eating out of a bowl.

 

It all started with the 50 kibble challenge and now in less than a week Langley is more engaged with me, he is able to leave an item he's compulsive about and look at me for reinforcement, and he's less anxious. And on top of that it's given me more time to be practicing consistent cuing and to really pay attention to myself and bettering my communication skills with him.

 

So I pass this challenge on to you. Pull those 50 kibbles out of your dog's breakfast and start paying attention to all that is great in your dog's behavior. You'll be amazed at how fast things start to change and how your perception of your dog will change in the process.

Kathy Sdao Seminar Notes: Consistency on Every Level

I am so quick to get frustrated with the dogs for not understanding me, or taking too long to learn some new skill. Well one thing that I really had to examine in myself after the Sdao seminar was the reality that the problem was all me. I really should know this by now but it's human nature to want to pass the blame.

Consistency on every level of training is key to being successful. That means being consistent with the way we cue and how often we are reinforcing for the behaviors that we want the dog to be using.


Frodo, Langley and Neah, all ready for some training fun

Sloppy cues can slow things way down. After all, your dog doesn't naturally "speak" cues and if you are changing up how you give your cues or using several cues for the same behavior, you're probably being pretty confusing to your dog. Kathy Sdao suggested creating a dictionary of the cues that your dog has been taught. Describe each cue in great detail: are you standing straight when giving the cue or leaning over? If it's a hand cue how is your thumb in relation to your fingers? Is there any motion involved in giving the cue? What is the rest of your body doing?  If the cue is verbal, what tone of voice do you typically use when giving it? Does your voice fall or rise at the end of the word?

If you are doing  a bunch of different things like sticking your other hand in the treat bag, leaning over, stepping forward, sighing, etc. you really don't know which part the dog is taking as the cue.

Langley, practicing some impulse control exercises

The other consistency that is important is making sure the behavior you are looking for gets reinforced every time it happens initially. That means if you are working on getting your dog not to sit on the back of the couch and bark at everything, you need to make that couch inaccessible so that the only time they have access is when you are doing training work. Letting the dog spend their day barking on the couch when you are at work and then doing training when you are at home just teaches the dog that they are not supposed to bark out the window when the humans are home. The more consistent the behavior/reinforcement sequence, the faster the learning will happen.

Classical conditioning only works if the reward happens every time.  Once you have the behavior you want taught, you can then switch to operant conditioning and vary rate of reward and strengthen the skill so it is more difficult to extenguish the behavior. Initially though you really need to be catching the behavior almost every time to get a strong response. Set your dog (and yourself) up to succeed. It takes more effort up front, that's for sure. However, the payoff to that effort is pretty great and comes quickly.

Kathy Sdao Seminar Notes: Fear and my Fosters

"If you are concerned with the general well-being of an animal, avoid forcing him to confront severe conflict between habits (strong tendencies to make a response) and inhibition (strong tendencies not to make a response.)"   Learning & Motivation, Frank Logan pg 71

So imagine a situation where you have an undersocialized dog and you want them to be more comfortable with strangers. So you give the stranger a piece of their favorite treat and they offer it to the dog. This is forcing that dog to confront that "severe conflict" that the quote talks about. The strong tendency would be for them to eat the delicious treat. The inhibition is to approach new people.

A past foster dog getting to know our son

This goes back to sequencing a bit, but it was a "lightbulb" moment to me. The reward is actually greater if they make the choice to push through and do the thing that is uncomfortable to them and then get the reinforcer from you, who are safe and don't taint the enjoyment of the treat. If they have to take it from the stranger they are frightened of it's very unlikely that the goodness of the treat is going to attach to the person because fear trumps learning in these situations. So a better (and safer) option to trying to get a undersocialized dog take a treat from a stranger, is to teach "touch" to the dog so that instead you can get the dog to touch the stranger and then get rewarded for their bravery by coming to you for the reinforcement of the treat.

And this brings up a second thing that Kathy talked about in her "Some Things in Life Are Free" seminar. A starving dog does not see food as a reinforcer. For me as a rescuer this had a different meaning to what I think she was using the example. She was talking about how people will skip a dogs meal before training or even refuse a dog food when they don't "perform" correctly. Think about when you were in school - if you didn't eat before a class and were really hungry, it made it a lot more difficult to concentrate and learn. Now that's not saying a dog should be stuffed, but they shouldn't be hungry when you want them to learn - their focus is completely on the food then and it will be tougher for them to retain any learning.



Hobbs was pretty underweight when he first was rescued

But as a rescuer I translated this more literally. At times we as foster parents receive dogs that are literally starving. They have spent weeks, sometimes even months, having to focus entirely on getting the basic needs of food, water and shelter met. When they first get here we need to take a deep breath and not assume we are seeing who this dog is. They are still in starvation mode and until they understand that food, water, shelter and attention are the norm in their foster home, socialization and basic training need to wait a little bit. Give them a few days to take in the wonderland of being a house dog because until that happens you won't really be able to assess their true skill set.



Kathy Sdao Seminar Notes: The order is everything!

And by order I mean the sequence that behaviors, clicks and reinforcers happen.  This was one of the lessons in the "What Not to Err" seminar that really blew my mind and while I will try my best to relate why this is important, I will admit that some of the technical definitions and reasoning behind this flew out of my brain.

The concept that I did grasp though is that your reinforcer or positive event should always follow the behavior. That seems like a "well duh!" kind of thing. But in classical conditioning, what ever happens 2nd (can't remember the techy word for that) and the emotion/gut response to that 2nd thing happening, will start to infect the first thing - and that can be a good or a bad thing. 

Past fosters Salish and Apple await their "reinforcers"

So you think of old Pavlov. Rings a bell, feeds the dog. Rings a bell, feeds the dog. Pretty soon the bell stimulates a response of excitement and salivation before the food is even present. There is an expectation for that second thing. These responses - salivation and emotion - are things that happen automatically and Pavlov succeeded in attaching those automatic responses to something that had nothing to do with them normally - the bell.

Classical conditioning is happening all the time though, with positive and negative results. Okay, so here's an example of how I was totally screwing myself by messing up sequencing.  I've got a dog who's about to go to the vet and is not real social. In an effort to link the vet experience to good things, I start treating before we go into the vet. I give high value treats while at the vets. Then they examine the dog, stick him with a couple needles and off we go. So the order of things were 1) yummy good thing and then 2) scary vet and getting stuck by a needle. The emotions from that 2nd thing can attach themselves to those yummy treats and you can actually poison those treats from being quite so enticing, especially if the treats precede too many scary happenings.

Scared foster pup Zia at the vet wanting to get the heck out of there

A good example that Kathy gave is the person who always gives you a compliment just before they talk to you about something they think you are doing wrong. It doesn't take long before as soon as you hear them say something nice, your stomach drops because you know your about to get hit with criticism.

A better option for the vet scenario would be to follow the vet with something that your dog really enjoys: say a walk or a meal, a puzzle toy in the crate on the drive home, etc. Then the wonderful thing follows the not so wonderful and hopefully some of the joy from the follow up will attach to the vet's office if every time they go to the vet, something wonderful happens afterwards.

Think about all the ways you can manipulate timing to make not so fun things seem a little less daunting to your dog! How about always doing nail trims right before a walk? Bath time before dinner?

Kathy Sdao Seminar Notes: Labels and Perception

I learned so much at the seminar that I think typing out my favorite points from my notes will help engrave those lessons in my brain better and hopefully you guys will get some ideas as well.

I've got about 2 pages of scribbled highlight notes so I guess I'll just dig into some of my favorites. Today I'll talk about labels and perceptions. Kathy Sdao's points on the overuse of labels and the ephemeral nature of perception definitely got me thinking.

Something I really came to realize was how all of the frustrations we encounter in training are pretty much things we have created. This is a dog. They aren't used to our "grabby hands" as Kathy called them, and they certainly don't depend on a verbal language for their main form of communication like we do. And yet we expect them to do all the learning and work?! Why aren't we making more of an effort to train ourselves to hear what they are saying, and to be better at our communication with them? We get so bogged down in what we want that we forget that this should be a partnership. We want the dog to understand our words, to share our feelings, to behave how we believe a dog should behave.... And yet our words and feelings and even beliefs about a dogs behaviors aren't ever static. How can they keep up with our flightiness?

Perceptions shift and yet we think they are so concrete. The mind sees what it has experienced though and each human has a lifetime of experiences that will color exactly what they perceive in an animal, or person or situation. Add more experience and the perceptions shift.

Because of this it is so very important not to label a dog. As soon as you are alerted to something and tell yourself the dog is a certain way - an asshole, submissive, a bully, a bitch, broken, abused, hyper... - your brain will be careful to pick up all the examples of ways the dog's behavior supports your label. You will also not pick up things that don't support that label. It isn't an intentional thing.  Most of it happens subconsciously, but you have locked a dog into a box of a label and because of that you may miss so many of the things they have to tell you about themselves. Labels are a type of control that make us feel safe and all knowing, however we don't do our dogs any favors by using them and we can certainly get in the way of any behavior modification goals we have for our dogs.

Tilly during "rehab" - she would ride in her pouch at work with me and could peek out at the world when she felt brave enough.

I did this when I was first fostering my personal dog Tilly. She was a puppy mill breeding bitch and extremely undersocialized. I latched onto the "puppy mill survivor" label and researched trying to find some good articles on rehabbing mill dogs. There wasn't a lot of happy success stories out there and the more I read, the more hopeless is seemed. It wasn't until I let go of trying to lump Tilly into the label of "mill survivor" and started truly seeing her behaviors and watching how she experienced this new world of a "house" that we started to make some progress. And labelling her a "mill survivor" today would only tell a tiny part of who this 11 year old feisty little dog is. In her 4 and a half years with us she has grown into a completely different dog and it would be unfair for me to push her into that tiny constricting label of "puppymill survivor".

On a camping trip at Baker Lake, Mt. Baker National Forest

 

On a hike at Hat Point, Hells Canyon National Recreation Area

 

On a hike with me on the North Fork of the John Day River in Oregon

So maybe before you label your dog and list out all the things they do that annoy you, try to think of what your dog does that makes you happy. What makes them fun to be around? What makes you love them? Notice the good qualities and soon the things that need some changing might not seem like the mountainous, unsurmountable issues that they did before.