Robbie and I had a private lesson yesterday with Sumac Grant-Johnson. Her training facility, Wag-It in Lincolnville, is awesome! Sumac is a clicker and positive reinforcement trainer, like I am. That means that she does not train using collar pops (jerk on the leash) or other types of positive punishment. It has been difficult to find a trainer that will work with my dogs the same way that I do. Physical punishment like collar pops may work in the short term and they can seem to work faster. But that might not be the case – the dog might just be repressing the problem behavior. My preferred methods actually change the fundamental way a dog feels (in a good way) and that works better in the long term. It also works better for my peace of mind, since I am not adding to my dog's stress.
Robbie is reactive to things around him. He is also hyper-vigilant (constantly scanning his environment).
I had to choose what 3 things I wanted to work on. This was difficult, since Robbie’s 3 things tie together. I chose his barking, his running towards and barking at strangers and his issues with children. All three of these things relate to Robbie’s confidence. All three are also triggered by movement, which is a part of his breed heritage. Herding breeds work with movement and are attuned to it.
So, we played a few games with Robbie.
The first one was targeting my finger. He will target my finger as long as I stand still. We have to work on him targeting while I am moving. To do this, I am going to teach him to target a target stick instead, since he is so little and I can’t move and bend over at the same time! Targeting is a good way to get your dog’s attention.
The second game was Sumac’s version of the “Look at That” game, developed by Leslie McDevitt in her book Control Unleashed. Sumac calls her version “Catch a Glance” (CAG) and does not introduce a verbal cue like Leslie does. This game helps me to help Robbie acknowledge something in his environment and then refocus on me. We played this game for quite a while – when the heater came on, when it went off, when the trainer moved suddenly, etc.
Robbie and I also played frisbee for awhile. He loves to play fetch almost as much as he loves food, so this was a great way to get him to stop focusing on his fears and to get used to the building. While throwing the frisbee, I accidentally threw it too close to the agility tunnel. Robbie ran to the frisbee and then ran away, without the frisbee. Sumac spent some time showing me how to get Robbie used to being near the tunnel using food. After that, when the frisbee would land close to the tunnel, he would run to the frisbee, pause and then sniff the tunnel. Then he would pick up the frisbee and bring it back.
My job now is to take Robbie places and play the CAG game with him at a distance from the things that bother him. As he gets better at it, we will move closer. While we are training, I can not allow him to engage in his fearful behavior towards what he is afraid of. In order to do that without confrontation, I have to limit Robbie’s exposure to children (his biggest fear) while we work on this. And, I have to set up times when we specifically train.
This is going to take work, patience and commitment. But, if you could have seen the improvement that I saw in him when we left the building! Not only that, but I felt much more confident that I could help him with these issues. More motivated, too.
As we were driving away, we had to stop on the road to allow a truck to pull another truck out of the snow bank. The people around the truck had on firemen uniforms and hats. Robbie and I played CAG for a minute or two and then he just quietly watched their unsuccessful (and then successful) attempts to get that truck out. No hard eyes or stiff whiskers. His posture was soft and relaxed.
He was the same way when we went through the McDonald’s drive through so I could get a cocoa. There were even 2 dogs barking at each other from different cars. He would normally have chimed right in, but we played CAG and he just watched. He just watched as I handed the money over and just watched as I got my cocoa. He also just watched as we passed a crew of electric line workers.
Then he napped the rest of the way home. In his own seat. He was really pooped.
While I saw improvement yesterday, we still have a lot of work to do. My next goal for him is for him to be ready for a class in March.
I think that he and I will take a ride to Walmart Friday night (if the weather isn't bad) and sit in the parking lot, people watch and play CAG. That way, we can see all kinds of people, but do not have to interact with them just yet (i.e., they won't want to pet him if he is in my car).
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