The Accidental Agility Dog - Chapter Three

OK one more post and then I will get to the fun training stuff – at least fun for me and Amber. It might be like watching paint dry for readers….

From the start my approach with Amber was that she was allowed to avoid and/or retreat from anything that scared her. I know the logic initially sounds weird but in hindsight it worked. Knowing she had the means to get herself out of an uncomfortable spot gave her the courage to stick around to appease her curiosity. It was not that she didn’t like people - she just didn’t trust them. Conventional wisdom would have suggested that I give lots of people treats and let people feed her.  The theory being that this would make them less scary. There were a few problems with that. First she was too nervous to eat from people – if she won’t approach then it is hard to get the treat. Secondly I am not sure how well that actually changes the dog perspective – I suspect their new outlook is that sometimes the scary people dispense food. If they offer food then they might be safe enough to approach.

This also gets back to my discussions about reactivity – threshold is very important. If the dog is over threshold then they are overwhelmed by the scary thing and anything that we do is relatively useless. Yes they might be responding to a correction or be eating a treat but their ability to connect either of those events to the trigger (what they are reacting to) is limited. Similarly if they are way under threshold then the “threat” is gone and they don’t learn from the experience. I have some tools that work well with reactivity but in Amber’s case I pretty much allowed her to control her own threshold. Too close and she was free to move away. However what I did not allow her to do was to bolt in a blind panic – if she tried I stopped her. Once she collected herself for even a second we moved away from the fearful thing. We can retreat but we have to do so gracefully….

I also avoided setting her up to have to “deal with” her fearful things. We just went out into the world for travel or training or whatever and if something was spooky then we dealt with it. In a lot of training venues I think people can go crazy with the proofing and I have an issue with it a lot of times. If a dog is reactive (whether it be prey drive,fearfulness etc) how does it help them to teach them that the stimulus that makes them reactive is going to be there each and every time they perform the task? All too often I think proofing goes to a place where the dog feels like he is being setup to fail.

Anyway, getting back to Amber. She has made amazing progress in her ability to cope with the world. She will always be a little environmental “twitchy” I think. She is not crazy about strangers although she can handle them under the right circumstances and on her terms. Like a cat, her first instinct when encountering something suspicious is to retreat to a safe distance and assess the threat level. She also travels like a trooper, going in and out of strange houses, yards and motel rooms willingly. She even spent two weeks hanging out in the van while we were at the FBI Academy. Why was this impressive? Because the van was parked alongside  firing ranges – lots and lots of firing ranges. I don’t think there was a caliber of firearm that did not get shot while we were there. She even did some narcotics detection in the yard while that was going on. Pretty impressive for a girl who freaked out when some kids set off firecrackers last new year’s eve near our yard in MS; if she could have got out of the yard I don’ t think I would have seen her again….

The brave little munchkin alerting on narcotics in a big scary warehouse...

Things that continue to amaze me....

Another Amber installment tomorrow, I promise. However I just had to share this clip of Steel tracking. I have watched a lot of dogs track - but it is one of those things that continues to amaze and impress me.  I remember doing Steel's TDX track and watching him thinking "wow! look at him go!" Calix's first live finds was two kids that had run away from home in the middle of the night. No one was more surprised than me when we came up over the crest of the hill and there were two eight years olds trudging down the side of the road at 3AM. I understand the whole evolutionary basis for tracking and obviously predator species evolved to be able to determine the direction of travel of their prey. However it is not exactly WHAT they do that amazes me - it is trying to figure HOW they do it.....

In this clip Steel is approaching a track from the right. The track goes away from the camera, crosses the sidewalk and goes halfway down to the water and then turns right. He is going to come in from the right, hitting the track perpendicularly and then, within inches, determine the direction of travel. And you can see from his behavior , it is cursory check and then he makes his decision without a doubt.

The Accidental Agility Dog - Chapter Two

In working with people and their dogs “reactivity” is a common problem and one that many people seek help with. My rough working definition of the cause of reactivity is a broad one and encompasses anything that causes an excessive reaction on the part of the dog. I don’t dwell overly much on whether the reaction is “reasonable” or not because it doesn’t change anything; the reactivity is still there and diverts attention from focusing on performance. Likely due to her lack of socialization Amber was reactive to a lot of things. However unlike most of the reactive dogs I work with, her fear response was to panic and run away. If that was not possible she would  turn in tight circles , looking for a “rabbit hole” to drop down in. It would be a challenge to list all of the things that made her fearful, uncomfortable or alarmed when I started working with her. However she also possessed a high degree of natural curiosity for many things.

I would like to say I had a carefully planned out training approach to her rehabilitation. One based on learning theory and dog behavior etc etc. However I pretty much did what seemed right at the moment. One training concept that has always stuck into my mind over many years was a training concept regarding dogs who were uncomfortable on agility obstacles. Often the way to reduce their discomfort was to first teach them how to get off of the obstacle.

This piece of logic has stuck in my head for a long time and I always keep that in mind when working with dogs. It helped me years ago with one of my dogs who was uncomfortable swimming as a young dog. Water was no problem but no way were his paws leaving solid land. Letting him run and play with the big dogs didn't help. Neither did coaxing or throwing coveted toys into the water. Since he was supposed to grow up and be a SAR dog he really needed to know how to swim! I finally determined that with THIS dog I was going to have to teach him to swim. I stood in the water just at the point where his paws would leave the ground and coaxed him to me with food. As soon as he got to me I fed him and while he was eating I gently turned him in a tight circle around my legs (causing his paws to briefly leave the ground) and I pushed him back towards land. I repeated this, gradually moving out into deeper water. In just one session he was comfortable swimming out to me; confident that he had the means to return to land. Once he knew how to save himself he could learn to swim without worrying. As an adult he loved to swim more than any of my other dogs and it always made me so happy to watch him, knowing that he would have missed out on something he loved.

Boy on a mission. Now that he can swim!

Without really thinking about it I applied this basic approach to Amber. The thing that we often fail to realize with behaviors is that there is rarely a lot of thought involved and a lot of emotion. This is true with aggression, fearfulness reactivity; whatever. This is not just true for dogs but that starts to get outside my area of knowledge. These emotions have a physiological, visceral element to them that often does not respond well to reason. Knowing that your fear is not rational does not usually help you get over it! Forcing a dog to "get over it" without giving them coping tools is also relatively ineffective; especially long term. What also helped Amber was that she is my “accessory dog”. She was not a dog I raised from a puppy or paid a lot of money for – I had little invested in her and no big plans for her so that effected how I handled her fearfulness. I even gave her a name that I was relatively ambivalent about; as I was not expecting to keep her. To be honest, this approach probably improved my likelihood of being successful. She could be brave. Or not.

To Be Continued (again)....

Amber's Story - The Accidental Agility Dog

Almost three years ago I was visiting my current employer here in MS for a trainer’s course. During the course there was a litter of Belgian Malinois puppies, I think they were about 4 months old. There was a little female that caught my eye and right before the end of the class Randy offered her to me. I then spent several days paralyzed with indecision (people who have gone shopping with me for boots or cars or paint know this state well). However since I had three dogs at the time I decided to forgo adding another dog to my group. Upon returning home I lost Dugan unexpectedly to a brain tumor and I then acquired Jill as his potential replacement. 

Amber and her Siblings...

Fast forward about two years and I returned to MS to work here. The little female malinois was still here. Older but essentially a kennel dog and had hardly been off the kennel property. Although she and her siblings were the offspring of two extremely high drive detection dogs, they themselves appeared to have practically no drive. Amber was the only one even remotely interested in a ball and was a half hearted interest at best. During her evaluation she was much more interested in visiting – but only with the three people she knew and trusted and only in her secure home environment.

So I decide to get her some socialization and find a pet home for her. Last December as I was heading out to a training clinic I threw her in the van with my dogs and took her along for the ride. I’ll never forget that first night when I stopped at a hotel and she was terrified of a fire hydrant. Then she was afraid of the flags blowing in the breeze. Having never left the property she was basically afraid of everything and everyone. The next night we arrived at my friend Dawn’s house in Roanoke which in turn brought on a whole new set of novelties. Turning on the TV caused her to bolt for the kitchen. Her natural curiosity overcame her alarm though. First the pointy little head and ears peered around the doorway like a hand puppet and then she very slowly tiptoed back out into the living room. That may have been partly because of another initially new but much less alarming novelty that she had discovered though....

Dawn's Living Room Couch!!

To Be Continued…..

Sweetest dog ever....

Soda bottles and other "training techniques"

I spent Saturday with Jill at an obedience trial. There were two trials in one day – I had one class early and then one late in the day. So in the meantime I made myself comfortable with Jill and Amber (who went along for the ride) in their crates and relaxed with my nook reader. This nice lady approached me with a cute little golden and asked if I mind helping her. “Sure!” I said, looking for something to do. I quickly came to regret my answer. She proceeded to explain to me that her dog is bad about going to people.  I assume that she was referring to the judge and people in the ring. An overly friendly golden, who woulda thought?? She then handed me a soda bottle full of rocks and instructed me to smash it on the ground if he tried to approach me. I was still standing there in stunned silence, clutching the soda bottle in disbelief, while she attempted to convince him to go to me, encouraging him and telling him “okay”.  Basically setting him up to fail and teaching him that she can’t be trusted. He of course does not make any attempt to get to me. This was clearly not his first rodeo and I am sure he knows better than to approach anyone holding at soda bottle.

This dog, being an obviously resilient golden, went on to compete in the utility ring and did relatively well. I can’t remember if he qualified or not but overall he performed okay; if not a bit robotically.  All I could think about though was if this woman was willing to treat him in such a manner at a trial what is his training life like at home?  It is a shame that there is not a direct correlation between such training techniques and poor performance – while dogs have certainly been treated more cruelly and unfairly, it certainly says volumes about the type of relationship she has with her dog.

In my career as a police dog and SAR dog handler, my dogs have done some amazing things. Things that required them to think and problem solve. They had to perform completely independently of me. If they had not been successful I would never have known. Dugan alerted on a drowned person who was under 134’ feet of water. He found a person who had been missing for over 24 hours. Calix tracked two boys who had run away from home. He located a murder weapon that had been tossed from a moving vehicle into weeds on the side of a highway. Nothing drives me as nuts as seeing people, like this woman, treat dogs like mindless dumb animals.  I find in the competition obedience environment that I have to turn a blind eye to a lot of that.  People seem to have tunnel vision when it comes to the exercises and fail to see the big picture. Like the person I watched at a run through who had to block the gate to keep his dog from running out of the ring. I wonder if he ever considered the reason why his dog was wanting to bolt from the ring?

While Jill is not yet exactly perfect in her performances we were approached by several different people at the trial who commented on how much they loved her attitude. Many of the “pros” argue that enthusiasm and attitude will lose points. I can name several people (i.e. Denise Fenzi among others) who are obviously able to get attitude AND high scores. However even if it they were not – does that justify using other training methods for a sport? Isn’t that pretty much admitting that it is more about the ego than the relationship with the dog? I  did not mean to turn my blog into a rant against competitive obedience, it is proving a good outlet for Jill’s energy now that she is no longer doing SAR training. However I think next time I go to a trial I will take my headphones along with my e reader!

Jilly Bean btw managed to achieve a second and a third place in her respective obedience classes. And I didn’t even need a soda bottle full of rocks to train her!!

Here is a ribbon that I won for you.....

Keeping a dog from chewing a bandage: Patent Pending...

Like everything in life, there is always more to learn in dog training. At this point I don't feel like I am coming across brilliant new ideas on how to do things but rather constantly considering (but not always accepting) the way people do things and then determining if they fit my training goals and philosophy. You can learn something from almost everyone, even if it is seeing a perfect example of how I won't train or how I don't want my dog to look while he is working. Interestingly I find that it is quite common to come across people who have independently had the same "original idea" that I had. This is particularly so when I share a training philosophy with someone.

However I do have one original idea and have yet to see anyone else use it. A little background first though:

While I was away in Australia Jill, in her boredom developed a small little lick granuloma on her front paw. Whether she did something to the paw and then created the granuloma by licking it, or she was just bored and felt the need to lick her foot, I am not sure. However once it starts it is easy and tempting for the dog to keep licking it. Even a super good girl like her. This required a bandage to keep her from messing with it while it healed (which it is doing nicely).

Step One: the Vermont staple for all injuries. Bag Balm. My ex-father-in-law once practically cut his thumb off with an axe. His doctor was amazed at how well it had healed - to which he admitted to a liberal use of bag balm on the injury.I don't know exactly why but its magical....

Step Two: non stick pads to keep the bandage from sticking

Step Three: strips of vet wrap go over the pad. Then covered by adhesive tape strips.

Step Four: And finally the secret ingredient. Baking Soda and Peroxide Toothpaste.
DOGS HATE IT.
Dab some onto your fingers and wipe it over the top of the adhesive tape.

Don't ask how I discovered this but it works very well keeping dogs from messing with bandages and anything that allows them to avoid the "lampshade" is a good thing!