So we met with Teddi and Cathy on Sunday to work some BAT protocols with dogs Sagan knows: Kwest and Kleo. Things were 98% good.... I pushed a bit on nose-to-nose introduction and got a little snark.
The idea of BAT is that you give the dog the reward they need/want (to be removed from scary situation) when they give you any kind of calming signal (turn to you, lip lick, shake, etc.). The idea being that the dog learns to offer you a signal when they need to retreat from a situation. They learn to self-police the situation.
This worked well, though granted, we were with 2 dogs Sagan has seen for many months, though not granted access to.
Want to continue this work, but also was looking around online, and found some information from Nicole Wilde, who wrote wrote a great book about helping your fearful dog. One thing she tried was to let her dog encounter the dog off leash, and then leash for protocols.
This really clicked with me for a couple of reasons....Sagan exists in doggie daycare fine, and can figure out dogs just fine off leash. He *does* show signs of nervousness, but he doesn't NARC on dogs off-leash. So I am wondering if I could use a few really safe dogs off leash.... let Sagan meet and figure them out, and then work the on-leash protocols. I keep feeling that this would accomplish a few goals:
1) Trust Sagan's abililty to figure out other dogs on his own. I've seen him do it at daycare. He isn't a dog to wrestle and tustle with other dogs at daycare, but he does figure out a variety of dog approaches just fine.
2) Break the "meeting strange dog on leash equals stress" cycle. Yes, I need to him to deal with on-leash dog sitings OK, but want to break the emotional chain of stress.
3) Speed up the success of working on-leash protocols. We're trying to establish a pattern of "encountering dog on-leash doesn't mean scary and doesn't mean that you have to meet other dog." This goal would be more likely achieved if he doesn't HAVE to figure out the other dog first.
So I am planning on working BAT in 2 different ways: classically and by introducting off-leash and then working on leash protocols.
Wish us luck!
L
Friday, February 24, 2012
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Updates on the boy-Rally and Agility and Reactivity
Well, looks like life got hectic for awhile and I neglected the blog.
A few updates.... Sagan has done 2 rally obedience fun runs since I last posted...one at the end of November at Family Dog Center in Kent, and one at Argus Ranch in January. The first went really well. It was small, and his nervousness was easily managed.... minus a teeny bit of pulling the beginning of each run, he was really with me. Here are those 2 videos.
First run:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=2702605374395&set=t.1517340403&type=3
Second run:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=2702626054912&set=t.1517340403&type=3
The one at Argus Ranch was a bigger challenge. LOTS of dogs and people, LOTS of time waiting in lines with many dogs. Given that, he didn't flip his lid, even when dogs were sniffing him. Nice. I'm not totally sure if this was the effect I had observed before where more stimulation is better (not able to hyper focus on one thing...SEC), or it was shutdown over so long in line. The other challenge was that Sagan LOVES Scott and Nancy Burke, and Scott was filming. You can see this on both videos. :-) I was pleased with him though, insomuch as he was able to work for me, even given lots of stimulation he finds scary. Good work!
We have also been in agility foundation classes since I think September. We are started to string together obstacles, and Sagan is working more nicely for me off leash (I don't have to lead him around by leash or his collar, and he will come when called most of the time. He is still more snarky with other dogs off leash in class than I would like, but we're working on that. Here's a video from this past Wednesday of us stringing together 7 obstacles. A little sloppy, but he was cued into my body language on the tight wrap, and discriminated between the tunnel and the A-frame well. I have some cueing problems, but well.....
As far as the reactivity goes....it is better in many ways, and stalled in others. Given the situations described above, I would say he is doing better in familiar environments with familiar tasks in not having ridiculous reactions to other dogs. The main issue now is the off-leash dog that bombs up to him, or not being able to get far enough away from new dogs in situations that I can't control. I purchased and read Control Unleashed and Behavior Adjustment Training. My current plan is to try to do multiple set-ups with him using BAT. I made a list the other day of people with dogs who might be willing to help me, and plan to use that list over the next few months to get some repetition in. The first one of those meetings is this Sunday (tomorrow) with some friends from our agility class and their dogs.
A few updates.... Sagan has done 2 rally obedience fun runs since I last posted...one at the end of November at Family Dog Center in Kent, and one at Argus Ranch in January. The first went really well. It was small, and his nervousness was easily managed.... minus a teeny bit of pulling the beginning of each run, he was really with me. Here are those 2 videos.
First run:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=2702605374395&set=t.1517340403&type=3
Second run:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=2702626054912&set=t.1517340403&type=3
The one at Argus Ranch was a bigger challenge. LOTS of dogs and people, LOTS of time waiting in lines with many dogs. Given that, he didn't flip his lid, even when dogs were sniffing him. Nice. I'm not totally sure if this was the effect I had observed before where more stimulation is better (not able to hyper focus on one thing...SEC), or it was shutdown over so long in line. The other challenge was that Sagan LOVES Scott and Nancy Burke, and Scott was filming. You can see this on both videos. :-) I was pleased with him though, insomuch as he was able to work for me, even given lots of stimulation he finds scary. Good work!
We have also been in agility foundation classes since I think September. We are started to string together obstacles, and Sagan is working more nicely for me off leash (I don't have to lead him around by leash or his collar, and he will come when called most of the time. He is still more snarky with other dogs off leash in class than I would like, but we're working on that. Here's a video from this past Wednesday of us stringing together 7 obstacles. A little sloppy, but he was cued into my body language on the tight wrap, and discriminated between the tunnel and the A-frame well. I have some cueing problems, but well.....
As far as the reactivity goes....it is better in many ways, and stalled in others. Given the situations described above, I would say he is doing better in familiar environments with familiar tasks in not having ridiculous reactions to other dogs. The main issue now is the off-leash dog that bombs up to him, or not being able to get far enough away from new dogs in situations that I can't control. I purchased and read Control Unleashed and Behavior Adjustment Training. My current plan is to try to do multiple set-ups with him using BAT. I made a list the other day of people with dogs who might be willing to help me, and plan to use that list over the next few months to get some repetition in. The first one of those meetings is this Sunday (tomorrow) with some friends from our agility class and their dogs.
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