Sagan's Neuter and Fun & Focus Class

Well, Sagan had his neuter done yesterday.  No big deal.  The vet was nice enough to let us give him his pre-op shots in the back of our car since he is still freaked out by the vet a bit.  Funny.  We gave him the one shot and within about a minute, he was already somewhat out of it.  Within 5 minutes, he was laying on a towel on the floor. :-)  He was sleepy the rest of the day, and had no trouble keeping small amounts of food down.  Day 2 and he is a HOLY terror, and the incision site looks fine, so.

We went to our first fun and focus class with Andrea Dexter, and there is one other dog in class, Zhonda (sp.) who belongs to Shelly.  Zhonda is a cute Brittany spaniel, about a year old.   We practiced transitioning from crates to new environments and worked on our tugging skills.  While I didn't take pictures at the first class, you can see us practicing tugging here in Ballard Park:

Do I look as mean as the big truck?

I run for pleasure, but Sagan, I train for endurance, not sprinting!

He pulls pretty hard.

A nice small little park about a mile from our house.

So for the uninitiated, getting a dog to play tug is critical to getting them to be motivated to work with you and work close to you.  We learned a lot at class about activating Sagan's prey drive (door to the ferret room is closed people) ;-), and we learned a lot about transitioning him from the crate to novel environments and having him still focus on us.

He is also doing lovely on his obedience class tasks this week:  front, left and right finishes, drop from a distance, and 1step,2step,3step.  He always has a little tantrum upon entering class though, but usually short-lived.

Socialization is continuing.  While he is better about people, the on-leash dog issue needs lots of work still.  We took him to Bradley Lake a few days ago.  Fine with people and dogs from a distance of about 25-30 feet, and gradually got closer, about 10-15 feet toward the end of the visit.  Keyed up on hyper beefy dog at Petsmart after and had to move almost down the end of an aisle to quell the growling.  Worked him a bit in front of their doggie daycare window, which was better.  He was very pegged on one guy in Ballard park today, and very interested in dogs that passed by.

However, the good news of all of this is that I haven't seen him at anything greater than Defcon 3/10 for a long time.  He might growl and resist me pulling him away, but only for a second and then his attention is redirected to me.  I am super impressed with his trainability, so need to work that angle in those distracting environments more.

Also, at my annual OBGYN appointment (of all places), my nurse practitioner runs her dog with Cascade Comets (a flyball club).  Sent them an inquiry e-mail to see about their classes, which run in Fife in the Fall.

Me and the the little devil, er, um, I mean Sagan!

Sagan turns six months, and oh yeah, it's SUMMER!!!

Well Sagan turned the big 6.0 (months) this past Tuesday.  He is coming along nicely in many fronts, though the on-leash reactivity is still something to be worked.  He still can get snarfly at people, but isn't cowering, and isn't snapping anymore either.  Progress.  Unfortunately, for his birthday, Sagan picked up (we think) some bug from doggie daycare.  He had some runs like I have *never* seen in a dog.  So he is currently on clavamox and metranidazole and doing hunky dory now.

He started intermediate obedience (with his brother Doppler) on Wednesday.  Other than a temper tantrum about the 2 new dogs in class (about 30 seconds of the approach/retreat stuff, and I finally took his snout in my hand and told him to KNOCK IT OFF.  He did, and then he was a ROCK STAR the rest of the evening.  Really focused, able to be around dogs on leash, etc.

Next week, we get to take a pre-agility fun and focus class with Andrea Dexter.  I'm excited about this!!

This week are some fun little videos and pictures from a day in the life of Sagan:

Dinner from toys (obviously he has the Wobbler, but also about 4 Nina Ottoson toys and a few treat toys we haven't used since he was a puppy...also has a Manners Minder):



A little bit of ball obsession......  note the smoke coming from his ears:



And we fueled his ball obsession by visiting a tennis club near Ross' school.  They gave us a LOT of balls.

We're still working on "bring it here"....this is an improvement from where he has been. :-)



And lastly, a couple of cute pictures from his playdate this past Thursday:

Shhhhh, I'm hiding with my ball in the grass!!!!

Nothing but joy...let me run!

Looking handsome!

Playing with the Camera and Leanna as a Border Collie

Well, it has been a busy few weeks.  Lots of progress made in the people socialization front, some progress made in the leash reactivity stuff.  Sagan's report card:

People:  B+

Dogs off-leash:  A

Dogs on-leash: C-

Trainability: A

Cuteness: A+

Doggie daycare at Positive Approach was a winner.  Not only did they give us a nice report card and invite him back, but we also watched on the webcams.  Sagan was EXHAUSTED, but had a nice time, it seems like.

Puppy class on Wednesday was another story.  Immediately reactive, not super appropriate off leash, and lunging aggressively at dogs several times.  It seemed to ramp up quickly and besides that, the room is small, so really no where to get away.  Need to decide for myself when I choose flight rather than fight with him in obedience class.  Also deciding if I should take a break between puppy and intermediate obedience to work on the dog/leash related stuff.  I know I can continue working on it in intermediate, but not sure I can keep him under threshold.  I want to keep him in class, because I think it is good structured practice being around other dogs, and it is a great way to practice distractions with his obedience.  Would still like to do rally obedience with him, at least.

Worked him at Petsmart and at Bradley Lake in Puyallup today.  Did *awesome* at Bradley Lake.  I'm beginning to learn that Sagan gets to threshold faster with fewer stimuli.  At Bradley Lake, where it is busy, his attention is so divided that he doesn't have time to amp up on thing.  It keeps me more on my toes (constant vigilance, constant vigilance), but seems easier to get multiple repetitions.  Will work on busy environments and then ramp down.

Other good developments include a big improvement in loose leash walking.  Oh yeah, and Sagan finally lost all of his baby teeth.  We were able to find SIX of them!!!!

SEE!!!  Adult teefers!

Throw.the.ball.

Ball squish -playing with camera and shutter speed.

Hey baby, you come here often?

Darn framing.

Gag in 3...2....1

Really nice one, my fav of the evening!

Does this dog need the Heimlich maneuver?

Also realized something on my run today.  Sagan and I are VERY similar.  I am a border collie.  Here are the similarities.

Intelligence?  Very smart

Ability to herd fast moving objects?  Yes, I teach.

Reactivity when "leashed":  Very high.  If I don't trust my trainer, I take matters into my own hands...and it is never pretty.  If I really don't trust my trainer, I bite.  Hard.  (Thinking of a job I left almost 7 years ago).

Reactivity when unleashed:  low and very quick to figure things out on my own

Friendliness with people: only close friends I trust

Friendliness with strangers:  general unease

Obsess much?  YES

What a difference a week makes

So we thought my last entry was a low point, then came last Wednesday.  I started keeping track of Sagan's  socialization, and got a comment that I needed to do more "thoughtful setup" with him.  Stuff like this just sends me over the edge right now.  So I was in a crappy mood, and then we headed to puppy class.  Great combo.  Sagan was reactive right off the bat, and showed aggression toward most of the dogs in class.  Fabulous.  Needed to be spritzed several times right off the bat.  Tracy (our puppy class instructor), felt that his behavior showed aggression rather than fear.  Awesome.  Also felt that our "Look at That" game may have backfired on us a bit to where Sagan felt that aggressive display/lunging=cool game.  It did make me wonder.  We used the squirt bottle for a day or two after that when he was really going off to break his attention to things.

Then, we met Chris at Manners Unleashed.  I really went to her on a lark.  Our petsitter and his friend know her and recommended her to me, and said they loved her.  I thought...well, I can always use more dog friends.  Went over Saturday in the dumping rain, and really loved what she had to say and how she said it.  Basically, the whole approach was:

1) modified "Look at That" (movement instead of sitting still, multiple different directions of approach and repeatedly giving him relief from the stressor).  Awesome.
2) Gentle leader.  We used one on Winnie, and combined with all of the other stuff we did, I get why Sagan needs one right now
3) Leash control.  Short leash, short leash, short leash.  To prevent the "pulling him away by the neck while he is lunging and barking" business.
4) Leadership turns.  Turning into him rather than pulling him with me when I turn. (only possible with short leash).
5) No treats once object is past ("bar is closed" as she puts it)
6) A dose of "put your big boy panties on" (less chatter while walking....  just continuing on if he is turning back to look at something).

So instead of one strategy that wasn't working, I had a bunch to put together, that will work in any environment...dogs, people, noises, etc.  She also talked to me about how to set up the environment so we weren't having...good experience, bad experience, so-so experience....but were consistently having good experiences under threshold.

Then we had another session today in Bradley Park in Puyallup so we could practice in a "real" environment and she could coach us on how to set Sagan up for success in the real world.  He was *super* this whole time.  Only having one small incident in an hour with a bit of lunging at a bulldog at the end.  Otherwise, we passed tons of dogs, skateboarders, geese, screaming children......  super success.

So I feel like I have a different dog.  I know some of it is my sense of confidence...so I wish I had gone to Chris earlier.  And rather than getting criticized for how I was doing one thing....I got a complete package of what I can do to control situations....without judgment and "if you don't do this.....your dog will be this" kind of stuff.

So tomorrow, we take him to Positive Approach dog training to see if he would be appropriate for doggie daycare.  We'd like to do one day a week of this to get him some socialization with appropriate dogs.  Then tomorrow night is puppy class.  Hopefully we can translate some of our work to class in a small space.  Hoping tomorrow night is a better class!  Also signing him up for intermediate obedience with Tracy, since I really love her as a trainer.

Soul Searching

So, I hit a low point while running yesterday, as it hit me:  I have a problem dog....it isn't going to change, and he isn't going to "snap out of it."  I stood in total exasperation Sunday when we were having a nice playdate with Kane...and a bicycler walked past.  Insane, out of control barking, off leash.  Could not get his attention....could not call him off.  The only positive is that he did not decide to solve the problem for himself.  This will not be my dog park dog.  This will not be my "leave him at a kennel on vacation" dog.  Doubtful this will be my agility dog (getting him calm in a room full of strange dogs and strange people seems years away).  So where am I and is this OK with me?

I am angry and bitter we got the seemingly one dog in the litter with problems, but we love him and are committed to him now.   I believe I can get to a point where I can run with Sagan. This is important to me.  I cannot keep a border collie holed up at home. When we are moving, it is better.  

I do not think I will ever be competing with this dog in agility or otherwise.  Possible that rally obedience might be calm enough for him to handle. I would love to at least be able to do agility classes with him, but I also think that is years away.  Must accept this.

I do think I can continue to make progress with him, but I've begun to accept this is not the bulletproof dog I expected/wanted/hoped him to be. I am an informed person.  I know what triggers are, what thresholds are, and I knew what this all meant years ago with Winnie.

Sagan is an extremely sensitive dog.  Whether we have "done this" to him or not is a mystery, but genetics has some say.  His fear is widespread and ingrained and affects all of his new exposures...noises, sights, dogs, people.I think I need to be realistic and hope for behavior management......  His fear, on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being minimal and 10 being debilitating, I would rank a 7.   50% of the time, he is debilitated by his fear. Unable to listen, respond, or cope.  He will be joining our dysfunctional pack at home. :-) We will continue to work with him and help him to be confident.  But after 3 months of this, I am convinced our impact will be minimal, and I have to accept this and stop blaming myself.  From Day one, hour zero, he has been fearful of new stimuli.

High point #1:  He loves Doppler and understands his pack order in our house of 3.  Winnie is Alpha, and Sagan is not challenging this.  Winnie > Doppler > Sagan

He can test the waters with Doppler and get corrected without bleeding.  Plus.

He loves almost all dogs he meets appropriately.  This precludes normal dog park visits, but at least tells me if I need to him to love a particular dog, it is possible.

Hopes:

• to run with Sagan without him barking and lunging at strangers and dogs (Think there is an 8/10 chance at this)
• to be to take him to the vet without muzzling (5/10...  will see after neuter appt.)
• to be able to walk him in most neutral environments (7/10)
• to take him to agility classes (2/10...not without a lot of calming on his part)
• to take him to continued obedience classes (7/10)

There is still a chance he will outgrow this, but I need to be realistic so that I can love and not resent my dog.  He is a sweet lovey guy, who wants to please, and loves most people.  Hoping things get better than where they are now.  Constant vigilance of environment is exhausting, demeaning, and confidence-shattering.  I hope I can give him what he needs.

A Study of Triggers

So I got a great book from Amazon this week called Help for Your Fearful Dog by Nicole Wilde.  In it, there was a suggestion to keep track of a dog's fearful reactions to pinpoint triggers more effectively.  In other words, what *specifically* is setting your dog off.  So I made some mental notes this week, and have come up with the following sets of triggers for Sagan:

• Men.  If Sagan is going to react to someone, 9 times out of 10, it is a man.  He is not afraid of all men, so I'll have to do some digging to figure out what it is specifically.  At Reber Ranch yesterday, he was passed VERY closely by 2 women, one with a noisy, squeaking cart...and had no reaction.  Man walks by=snarfle.
• Sudden Environmental Contrast (SEC).  I read about this in the book, and it really fits.  In the hallway at my school (very quiet, long, no movement, white, no sound dampening), Sagan always reacts (sometimes just stiffening, sometimes barking), when a student or adult comes out of a room into that hallway.  Also, after school on Wednesday, Sagan watched a group of track students noisily run by, but started to bark when one student (who had met Sagan before) came out of the pack to greet him.  He is able to walk through crowds of people with no problem, but when there are one or two, he can focus on that and tends to react more.  It is possible he is fearful in the crowd, but not barking, however, his body language does not seem to indicate this is the case.
• Adults more than children.  I'm not sure if this is a height thing or what, but I've rarely seen Sagan react to children....even one that came baseball sliding into him at Ross' school.  Yes, he snarfled at this kid, but no bark your head off reaction.
• Dogs (this is a big one right now).  Pretty much all dogs from all distances.

Counter-conditioning notes:  

We have been continuing the "look at that" game, while clicking and treating.  We've had some progress with that, but feel like I've come to a standstill with it.  I feel like Sagan is not generalizing what we are learning to different environments.    Because his threshold distance to what sets him off is so variable, I frequently have him over threshold before I can correct.

Given his ball obsession, I decided to ditch the hot dogs and treats and clicker, and start trying his jingle ball as a counter conditioning tool.  In other words, strangers=lovely jingle ball with which Sagan is obsessed.  We tried this twice...once while visiting the vet's office.  Sagan still barked upon entry and still barked at folks coming through the door, but he was quicker to forget about it and focus on play.  We also tried this at Reber Ranch...stood close to the checkout and entrance door with lots of people coming in and out.  Only 2 small snarfles in 2 separate instances, and his focus was still on the ball.  I have to be careful, though, that I am allowing him to see the strangers and not blocking him with the ball play.  He needs to learn strangers=ball.  

I was really encouraged by this, because I'm feeling like we aren't making much progress with the fear issue.  I'm still perplexed by where the fear came from.  For quite some time, I was convinced we had done something, but this fear is soooooo ingrained, I have to think some of it is genetic. I know that border collies in general can be sensitive to noises, and don't generalize well.  So I think we're on the far end of the spectrum.  I don't think the breeding or whelping was the culprit.... nor do I think we exposed him to something incorrectly....  And I'm also aware we're coming up on a second fear period, so I'm hoping to make some really good progress before that occurs.  Feel like I'm watching the sand run out of a timer.

Lots of Dog Socialization, Manners Minder, and People Update

It has been a bit since I've updated...seems like eons!  Sagan is 28 lbs., has 8 adult teeth, and lost 2 more baby teeth since the last entry.  He seemed to have regressed a bit this week with the people thing.  I've determined the hallway at my school is scary for him....  totally quiet, then one person walks out a door.  He is not being super reactive, but taken to doing a "bark, bark...  oh, you're OK, model".  We did, however, have a great experience at the Fred Meyer parking lot playing "Look at that."  We parked in a far corner of the parking lot so he could see lots of people, but get passed by very few in close proximity.  He did not startle or snarfle or bark at anyone, including a very large man who limped.... VERY close by and taking forever to get out of eye range. YAY for Sagan.  I sat in the back of the CRV with him and clicked and treated for proper behavior.

Sagan got to meet Kane, belonging to Nancy and Scott, on Sunday.  We met up at a mostly fenced, unnamed park in Hobart.  After some initial barking, Look at that, and calm behavior, (about 4-5 minutes to do the intro), they were off chasing sticks together and generally having fun.  They did get into some play bowing and such once they had been together awhile.  Kane introduced Sagan to the water....Sagan wasn't so sure.  Great outing.

Kane and Sagan showing their SKEELS. :-)

Puppy class was a mixed bag this week.  Sagan really pegged on people before class started, BUT, REALLY played with the pups this week.  (Week 6 of 12 week class).  He wrestled with the Rhodesian Ridgeback pup, Athena, and investigated all of the other dogs.  He likes the calm Shih Tzu, Sugar.... :-)  Also a major plus....during puppy play, Sagan went up to EVERYONE in class and did a polite, non-jumping plea for attention...no hunkering away from hands or men or anything.  GREAT!

Thursday night, we met Cody and his dog Tipsey, and Tracy, and her dogs Kimber and Nugget for a playdate at the Edgemont track.  Sagan had met these dogs before (Cody is one of our housesitters).  He got to play run and chase while the other 3 played Chuck it.  Sagan FINALLY didn't always get the ball, like he does at home.  He loves these dogs...great experience for him.

Two majorly ball-obsessed dogs.  Notice immense focus on Chuck It. :-)

Clockwise...Sagan at Cody's feet, Nugget, Tipsey, and Kimber

On Friday night, we got our Manners Minder, which is basically like a dog training robot on steroids.  WOW, am I impressed with this thing.  It is sturdy, and the perfect level of scaffolding to teach a lot of things.  YES, I paid almost $90 for this thing, but it will be soooo helpful.  We have already taught him to target a stick, and to down stay for a full minute, with treats dispensed every 7 seconds.  Go Sagan.  I only wish there was a Manners Minder that dispensed people of different varieties in such a consistent manner to deal with his fear of people. :-)

Saturday, we went down to Argus Ranch.  We watched Nancy run with Kane in agility (and he did well, go Kane!).  Then, we got Sagan out to meet Rye, his brother.  Sagan was really overwhelmed with Argus Ranch.  I knew this would be the case (stacking stressors and all), but he was able to recover once I provided visual barriers.  He also was able to turn to me and "touch" twice while he was slightly agitated.  The best came with the crazy play with Rye in an off-leash, unmowed area.  Here is the cute shot of the day with the two of them sharing a frisbee.  Thanks to Monique for sharing the pup for a bit. :-)

Nice of them to share, no?  Two peas in a pod!!!!

Sagan is growing up!  When I posted the following picture on my Facebook, someone commented on his very adult eyes.  He is 4.5 months old!!!  And what fun it has been to train a smart dog.  He is also really fairly calm for a puppy of this age.  He has his spastic moments, but is also a very gentle, lovey guy.  We just need to keep working on his confidence.  This week, I'm feeling like the more things we teach him, the more things we can ask him to do in distracting environments (like touch, etc.)...to get him to focus on other things.  This week we worked on targeting with a plate, puppy burpees, bow ("do your Yoga"), and leave it.