Week 4

Week 4

Jenny Proctor LukEli Dog Training

Here we are at week 4 with Hank the Shar Pei/Catahoula mix. He's 6 months old and continues to gain confidence as he is exposed to new stimuli, new environments, and occasionally pushed to his little doggie limits. It was a week full of firsts and even the last of one behavior I was glad to see end!

Hank says hay!

I had an exciting moment with Hank about a week ago.  It was very random and happened twice in the space of five minutes. He rolled over on his back so I could rub his belly! I think the first time may have just been an accident. I was near him when he rolled over and he decided the belly rub felt good after all. The second time he rolled over was no accident though. He intentionally walked over to me, flopped down and very politely presented his belly for a nice rub and scratch! It hasn't happened since and I'm not sure when it will happen again, but hey, it's a start! The next lucky person allowed to do so should feel very special indeed. A gesture of trust such as Hank showed me takes a LOT for him to display.

It's a shame Hank is so hesitant in some regards, because in other ways, he has great confidence. He is great with other dogs and has a blast playing with them all. He could care less about the vacuum cleaner or the sound of gun shots. Loud noises don't seem to bother him much for the most part. He is also very agile and is quite confident in his ability to jump and climb. Just today I was able to encourage him (it didn't take much) to climb on top of the hay bales in the barn with Gracie and me. He loved it! That same love of jumping and climbing leads him to jump on the couch, bed, and even the kitchen table. I know, I know, a dog trainer that allows dogs on the furniture? What the heck is that all about? It had to do with building Hank's confidence when he first came to stay with us. He was so shut down that any little venture out of his fearful shell was encouraged and that included allowing him to explore as he felt comfortable. Jumping up on the kitchen table was a sign to me that he felt completely at home. I have discouraged the jumping on the table as it is not something people are going to allow (including me) and it lead to counter surfing, which he is now learning is not acceptable either. Hank can easily learn that he is not allowed on any furniture in his new home if that is what his new family wants. For now, I don't mind him sleeping on the couch with his buddies now and then. I think Hank would do well to be involved in some dog sport in his new home, too. Agility comes to mind right away. He'd be great at it!

Hank is going to need to be able to be transported on a routine basis without it being a major, traumatic event. This is a huge milestone for him, as is leash walking, on his road to being adopted. I felt he had progressed far enough in the last week or so that it was a good time to begin counterconditioning The Big, Bad, Scary Car Ride. It took some patience, Gracie, and a bunch of dog food to eventually lure Hank into jumping into the car himself, but he did it! Gracie helped in two ways: Hank could see that she wasn't in distress in any way and when he saw her eating the dog food I had spread out over the seat he couldn't help himself and finally jumped in to grab a bite or two for himself (dog's can't seem to resist the urge to join other dogs in eating because they don't want to miss out on food. This can also help with finicky eaters). This process took about 30 minutes altogether, starting with luring him close to the open car door, moving on to placing one foot on the seat, then two, until eventually he jumped in. The second attempt the next day took approximately one minute. Yep, an investment of time and patience the first time a dog does something pays off hugely in the long run. Had I tried to force the issue and lift him into the car he would've resisted mightily and probably formed a negative association with the car. Now he has moved on to going for car rides and today he even got out of the car at a different location and explored a bit before loading up and heading back home. I have to start out introducing him to a new, but similar rural location. I don't know how he'll do when we go for a ride and explore a more urban setting as we must eventually do. That will be the stuff of a future post.

 I almost forgot! Hank made another kind of breakthrough this week. Crates and barking and extinction bursts, oh my! I was able to sleep a lot better this week. I think I'll save this topic and write about extinction of behaviors more next time. 

Until next time!

Week 3

Week 3

Jenny Proctor LukEli Dog Training

I know you've all been patiently waiting for an update on Hank. Luckily, you don't have to wait any more!

Hank has had quite an eventful week. He had a couple of visitors who spent time feeding him treats, hanging out with, and even walking him. He did great, I am happy to report! 

We pushed the envelope a bit when Cinnamon Ellison of Great Dane Friends of Ruff Love came to visit Hank this pastSunday. I introduced her to Hank without any other dogs present right off the bat and he wasn't even fazed. He was still wary of her but that didn't stop him from coming close enough to take a treat! He is definitely learning that it's ok to approach people because people bring good things like hot dogs. Hank loves hot dogs! He can be convinced to eventually overcome just about any scary situation if a tasty piece of hot dog is involved. Cinnamon did great at not pushing his threshold too far, too fast, and Hank quickly became fairly comfortable with her.

I wanted to show off Hank's growing comfort with leash walking so I clipped the 6 ft leash to his collar and started coaxing Hank to walk with me. He's not as ok with walking on the leash in the exercise yard as he is going for a walk around the property. After demonstrating Hank's ability to walk on a leash in the exercise yard, I decided that things were going so well that we'd try to take Hank for a walk to the barn. We started walking along and I quietly passed the leash and treats to Cinnamon as we walked. Hank never knew what hit him; suddenly he was walking along with a completely different person! The best part is, he actually did it. He kept right on going and needed very little in the way of reinforcement in order to continue walking with Cinnamon. He was a super star that day!

Here's the thing that most people don't understand and then subsequently get frustrated with: dogs don't automatically carry their comfort and familiarity with one activity through to every situation (i.e., Hank is more at ease walking around the property than in the yard because he is more used to walking around the property than in the yard). 

You think to yourself "My dog is perfectly fine going in to Petsmart and behaves himself. Why is it when I tried to walk him around with me at Lowe's he acted like a crazy fool? Sit means sit no matter where we are, right?". Your dog in this scenario has been to Petsmart many times with you and has learned that all the same rules apply there as they do at home (hopefully you've been consistent with the rules no matter the location). Plus, a place a dog is familiar with becomes routine, while a new place is full of new smells, sounds, and sights. It's completely full of distractions and for some dogs, new places can become over-stimulating. For fearful dogs like Hank, being in ANY new environment can quickly become overwhelming and cause them to become reactive to any new stimulus that is presented. New situations can push these types of dogs over their threshold, resulting in a variety of reactions from negatives associations to the stimulus to aggressive reactions as part of the innate fight or flight behavior dogs display.

Introducing dogs to new environments, sights, sounds, people, animals, and anything else you can think of is calledsocialization. The more they're exposed to new stuff, especially when young, the better able they are to handle new experiences. Most of you have probably heard of this. Hank is sorely lacking in this department. It's made much more difficult by his inability to cope well with new environments, though he is gaining more and more confidence all the time.

Teaching dogs that the same rules apply whether you're in the backyard, at the vet, walking down the street, or at a squirrel convention is called generalization. Generalization refers to ones ability to automatically apply knowledge to situations ‘in general’. Both people and dogs can have trouble generalizing. Have you ever been out on the town and run into a person you know very well but found yourself unable to recall their name or how you know them? This is a classical example of how people often fail to generalize. We see a person out of the usual context and our minds are unable to connect the dots. 

Our dogs’ ability to automatically apply knowledge to situations in general is far more limited than our own. They are contextual learners that rely on body language for most of their communication, and their command of the English language is very limited. We can see how the affects of  ‘generalization’ apply in dog training by observing a very simple exercise. During obedience class we begin teaching our dog to Sit while standing directly in front of them; if we then pivot to our dogs left shoulder and say Sit again, our dogs may look at us totally confused or scoot back in front of us, then Sit. Why? Because Sit has always meant Sit with my person directly in front of me. Now take your dog to a new location and ask him to Sit, once again you may get a look of total confusion or no look at all. Why? Because your dog may be unable to recall what Sit means in this new place. 

Dogs need to learn to generalize in a variety of situations with a variety of distractions. Teaching them to focus on you in all these different scenarios is a must. Generalizing walking on a leash with Hank is a large part of his training right now. He needs to learn that the same rules apply and that he's always safe when he's on the leash, no matter where he is or who's walking him. 

Another important thing dogs need to learn is to focus on their handler. I'll talk more about the importance of maintaining your dog's focus and how you can achieve amazing results with this technique in a future blog post.

Now I'll leave you with a bit of a teaser: How do you think Hank is doing with my attempts to get him in the car and go for a ride without freaking out? You'll find out next time!