Day 9

Day 9

By Jenny Proctor LukEli K-9

Hank made some great strides in the last few days. If you saw the video of Hank taking treats from kids, letting me scratch him under the chin, and playing tug with me then you know just what I'm talking about! (If not its attached below) He has also started to initiate play with me and today Hank let me pet the top of his head several times. That's pretty exciting for me since that's all I've wanted to do since I met Hank! Yay Hank!

He is learning with each new experience that he is safe and secure. Every once in awhile he even lets his curiosity beat out his fear and explores just a bit. Hank is well on his way to being able to live a happy doggie life as long as his confidence continues to build so that he can cope with new, scary stuff as it comes along.

One of those scary things for Hank is a leash. He goes the opposite direction the moment he sees a leash in my hand. The leash is definitely a trigger for fearful behavior in Hank. He can't think straight when he sees it. He is ok with the long line but just try to walk him with a 6 ft leash and you'll see a perfect example of opposition reflex. Hank plants his butt on the ground and then stares at it like he can pretend the whole world doesn't exist. Start to pull on that same leash and watch every muscle in Hanks body tense and tighten, all working in concert to oppose the force pulling him in one direction. You'll normally hear the term opposition reflex mentioned by dog trainers in conjunction with dogs pulling on leashes during walks. The tighter you keep the leash, the more the dog wants to pull (which is why harnesses usually create more problems than solutions when it comes to walking your dog. Think: sled dogs). Hank, being fearful, is pulling in a different direction than your average dog. He doesn't pull you along behind him but rather he is pulling away from you, as far away from as he can manage, in whichever direction he happens to be going. This is why, when desensitizing Hank to walking on a leash, I am very careful to never, ever pull him should he decide he doesn't want to move forward anymore. I use patience, luring and functional rewards (I'll talk more about these types of rewards in another blog post) to get him moving again. Luckily his case is not as extreme as some I have seen. It's heart-wrenching to watch a dog flipping around on the end of a leash like a wild creature desperate to escape what they assume must be a dire threat to their safety.

As with most everything I'm teaching Hank, I'm trying to convince him that walking next to me on a leash (or off, for that matter) is a great place to be where awesome treats are handed out and mostly good stuff happens. Dogs do what works. I want to make sure Hank knows that what works for him is being close to and trusting people. He comes closer to this goal every day!