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.

To Measure A Life

For several years I struggled with the decision to add a dog to our household.  For years it was completely off the table as I did not have the ability to train and compete at the level that I found “worthy”.  For some time it was my primary goal in agility to simply enjoy and value my time spent at a local trial.  I must admit may runs I was present only to give Arcade his favorite thing – competition agility.  It is so easy to end a run with a huge smile on my face when our sole purpose that day was Arcade’s enjoyment.

What purpose would it serve to add a dog to our household if I wasn’t competitive in agility?  From there I started to re-frame my concept of competitive in the sport.  Not sure how I accomplished this, but it feels like I’m once again a new competitor who only wants to do well against the course.  Not have the fastest “insert obstacle” or time.  No regard for the most efficient handling, only handling that I could count on to get the job done.  Proficiency became my goal for Arcade, and basic understanding for Elsa 🙂 As a handler I was enjoying the sport again.

Rewind to 2009, searching for my first registered border collie.  I had a dream of international competition and my dream dog would get me there.  Arcade has been a dream, and he’s given me the realization that agility is fun but a versatile companion is what suits me best.  When I approached Arcade’s breeder to be put on a list, I didn’t spend months researching lines that could win an agility competition.  I asked what was being bred close to Arcade’s pedigree and jumped.

As I watched a gorgeous sunset flying to Las Vegas, I started to think of the comparison between Arcade and new puppy.  In the past, I was set to measure Arcade’s life before it had unfolded for me.  How his success would define our relationship.  How our success together would define my life.  Seven years later I now understand how to balance being competitive with enjoyment of my dog.

Cosmos was placed into my arms that night, the dog that I had fought with my own conceptions for so long, that I he may have never made it to me.  By far the biggest leap of faith I’ve had to make, he made it known so quickly that the universe would send what was needed. A life not to measure, but to enjoy the entirety of living.

Lake Minnewanka Lakeside: Trail Report

Distance: 13km return

Elevation: 427m

Time: 3h 40m

I ventured out with Arcade for fresh air and a good stroll.  We headed to Lake Minnewanka for a few reasons.  First is that it’s recommended as a premier shoulder season hike in my favourite guide book and the conditions didn’t disappoint.  Dry feet at the end of the day makes me super happy 🙂 Second is that this trail is a good season starter with very gradual elevation gains and losses while your water obsessed dog stares at the lake.

Final reason is that the trail is closed to dogs after July 10th due to bear activity.  I’d rather give bears their space too, while they feed on buffalo berries.

Trailhead: Lake Minnewanka parking lot

AllTrails Link

 

On Start Lines

I often give my co-workers dog training advice at the office.  One of the most perplexing questions is often “if I train with treats my dog knows when I have the cookie and always listens.  No cookie, no listening.”  This issue is often a combination of poor reinforcement mechanics (using food as lure for a recall) and a dismal rate of reinforcement.  Agility trainers know that random reinforcement on a regular basis builds a great recall, regardless of having treats on us at all times.

The piece that is relevant to us agility trainers is that rate of reinforcement for the start line.  I often found myself making a training goal to add more value into the stay, and with good intentions I’d be dolling out rewards for good behaviour before a sequence.  What this lead to for my dogs was an upward trend of good start lines followed by a downward trend of movement and full breaks.  What I was missing was the random piece of reinforcement rate.  The ideal scenario is being able to reward that behaviour just enough that it doesn’t lose value.

On to my “new and improved” formula

Earlier this week I mentioned that Arcade’s training goes on in the dark and cold of winter.  We leash walk with boots for conditioning at the beginning of the walk and finish off leash (no boots can stand his movement unfortunately) with a friz or hol-e-roller.

This park training is what I recently learned from Kathy Keat’s video series as “volume training”.  The other type of training, “intensity”, will come into play with equipment and an agility atmosphere.  I highly recommend watching the series: The Agility Coach

Part 1: The Reminder

I set up this phase in the training to be really straight forward for the dog.  Cue static position, leave the dog, verbal release, accelerate forward and throw the reward.  Both my dogs’ favourite reinforcement is chasing a toy, so after repeating this exercise a few times I’m going to see movement on the static position before the release cue.  I make a note of how many times I was able to repeat the sequence before the dog wasn’t successful.

Try it with your dog this weekend and let me know what number you got up to.

Up next: Part 2: Random Strategy

 

 

The Darkest Winter Hour

If the reduced sunlight isn’t getting you down, for sure the cold is.  Elsa is very done with winter already.  She’s still on rest & recovery from her foot injury so it’s also a good time to be bored with nothing to do.

Arcade, however, has come really embrace it.  A dog that only does things at 100 mph is happy with all this ice and snow?  What about agility training?

There really is no change for Arcade during this time of year except the amount of minutes spent outside at one time.

The winter gives us time to revamp our agility housekeeping.  Bad habits built through the competition season can be broken. The cold dark night gives us all the time (and motivation) to get it done.

On my list for the cold, dark off-season:

1. Start Lines
2. Threadles
3. Pass-by Challenges

Always on my list regardless of season:

1. Conditioning
2. Stopped contact behaviour

Keep checking back on the blog while it’s still cold and dark for my progression on my winter checklist.