On Progress

His ears are humongous still. He sees people at any distance and quickly looks my way for a reward.

Puppy life is now set at a new baseline- sometimes we worry about things but most times we can handle it. Momo is able to experience life with Arcade and Elsa to a full regard, a fact that I’m very happy about and proud of.

When confronted with strange dogs on leash there is work to be done to get to to the same comfort baseline. Pattern feeding has been a huge help on top of the “look at that” protocol.

We had a big adventure to the Training Troop trial on the October 20th weekend. I had no expectations for how he would handle and new and busy environment. It’s been about a month since he’s seen a collection of leashed dogs. I was thoroughly surprised and proud of how far he’s come. We stayed a good distance from other dogs and did a good job of accepting people close by. Even had a play with another puppy (thanks Jan!) It was incredibly nice to talk with people in person and the support that’s been offered to help us on our journey.

Over the next few months, I am working to expose Momo to high arousal environments. Our plan is to have a familiar pattern set up so he can anticipate what is required from him in the environment. So far this sounds technical, but the set up is simple. Space to move away from arousing subjects and a station to focus our energy on performing a static behaviour.

I’m lucky that he is extremely biddable. I’m lucky to have him. Loves toys, loves me, and will accept the rest with time.

Stranger Protocol Pt 1

Momo’s first stage of modification was to learn that he did not need to put himself in an uncomfortable distance to people.  I learned to watch his body carefully and gauge distance according to what his body was communicating.  Hard stare, stiff posture, unable to take food, all meant I needed to increase distance.  Relaxed face, able to respond to verbal cues from me meant he was comfortable.

At any distance below threshold, we classically conditioned the presence of people.  I utilized a version of “Look at That” Control Unleashed by Leslie McDevitt.

Building up a history of reinforcement for people in proximity took about a week.  Since Momo is young and has had little time to rehearse a reaction, our pace was quick.

Once he was able to be within 20′ of people we introduced the Go See game.  We utilized a behaviour on cue that was easy for Momo to perform, a hand target.  Starting with people he was already comfortable with, I cue “go see” and have the person extend their hand.  Momo could choose to perform the behaviour and get a reward from me, or he could use his body to communicate no.  If he didn’t offer the hand touch, we simply moved further away and engaged in focus-on-me games until he looked more comfortable.  People could also reward Momo for this behaviour by tossing the treat away from their space.  This serves as a double reward 1) more space between person and dog and 2) food reinforcement.

Within a week armed with training appropriate for his situation, directed by Lindsay, I was able to repair our relationship.  His history with people making him uncomfortable was fading into the past.  Of course with any animal, this isn’t a straight-line trajectory to “fixed”.  I’ll write on my feelings towards “fixed” another day.

My intent for the blog series is to share our journey, not to offer advice or instruction on how to change behaviour.  If you have questions I’m happy to chat.  My best advice is to place your trust in a professional, and put your dog’s well-being first.

When Treats Go Bad

You try your best to feed really great things to your dogs for doing great things – but then the treats spoil because you forgot them at the bottom of your training bag and now everything smells.  Man, I hate that.

Pictured above, Momo’s alter ego.

I’m going to talk about another kind of bad treat, the kind that makes your dog’s behaviour unpleasant.  Momo was suspicious of new people so our first point of training action was to use food to make people great.  Greet people and get a treat.  Weeks go by and he’s using strangers – the dog trainers at our puppy school – as a food machine.  Great, it works!  Until Momo decided he still didn’t like people (very close with direct eye contact), but he did want the food.  A new behaviour was born – get the food, and then show that person how uncomfortable they made you.  The conflict was now set.  Get the food, make the person go away.

Why is my tiny puppy trying to bite people?  Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy 😦 Puppy why 😦

Big feelings + conflict.  Antecedent [people’s direct pressure], Behaviour [aggression], Consequence [people move away, conflict is resolved]

The solution – no more food from strangers.

In full transparency, this was not the only situation where Momo would act aggressively.  If he was over stimulated his arousal would hit maximum intensity and he could bite objects as a re-direction.  On a cold September evening he was over-faced at a dog park and re-directed to a person.  Thinking back I feel very blessed that my good friend Amie was there to help me through that moment.  I went into shock, put the puppy on the leash and left.  Cried in Safeway as I picked out some vegetables.

I had been speaking with Amie prior on who I should seek professional help from.  It was clear that Momo and I needed more information than what I was currently working with.  I reached out the next day and found a Calgary trainer that has years of experience and mentoring from a top obedience trainer.  The “sport” aspect of high arousal was a requirement for the both of us.

Over the next few weeks I learned how incredibly difficult it can be for people to not want to approach your puppy or feed them.  It feels like the only thing I’m missing in my training bag these days is a samurai sword to get well-intended folks to back away.  To their credit, it’s an unusual concept – this puppy doesn’t like you.  But he accepts your presence and for now, that works for me.

A bit of decompression after a busy day.

Up next: when treats work good – how to reinforce without conflict.  Stay tuned!

The Reactivity Label

If another person called your dog reactive how would you feel about it?  I want to challenge the current environment that exists around reactive dogs and their owners.  Why? I have a reactive dog and labeling his behaviour is helping our progress.

The current attitude that people have towards him is similar to when Elsa grew to be over 16 inches tall.  People would attempt to empathize with me, how sad, how unfortunate.  I didn’t feel that way – there was no sadness for me. Like Elsa’s situation I’ve been forced to adjust my path.  At first, a puppy that wasn’t interested in visiting with people.  Then a puppy that barked at people.  Hopefully soon a puppy that can accept people in his space without fear.

At first it did feel unfortunate for me that I needed to adjust my training path to accommodate a puppy that has a very large bubble around people and dogs.  I felt sad about labeling him reactive.  I thought about the label and what it meant to everyone on the outside.

Although Momo’s training time has been adjusted significantly to first help him find confidence in new situations, I believe it accomplishes the same foundation as puppy agility.  He learns to trust me and to be my partner.  He learns to experience the world that he’ll someday compete in.  For now instead of focusing on wrapping a jump he is first learning how to settle on a bed instead of obsessively focusing on other dog’s movement.

Momo has taught me a new level of listening to dog language and all about his consent to being around people.  Where I failed to listen, Momo became louder to get the desired result.  Now we get comfortable again doing normal things and feeling good about it.