Tracking (whine, whine, whine…)

I did good today, despite the odds. And the whining. Amika had a quiet week following reactive dog class, partly due to weather partly due to my schedule. This morning, I actually got us to tracking. Not only that, I got out early enough to stop by our little park to play a game of fetch with Amika. That meant she got some exercise in prior to getting there.

She whined a bit in the car just as we were making the last turn to get there, but that isn’t the thing that was bothersome. It was the people at tracking that were annoying. I didn’t get a happy greeting (despite giving one), just a lot of indignation from people who have expectations of other people and who, obvously, are feeling let down. To top it all, I got left with the gal who complains the most. I like her a lot, but she has a real focus on all negative things, and can’t seem to stop talking about it. Which is why she gets shunted off on ‘other people’ all the time and feels hard done by.

I stayed cheerful despite this, though. I managed to get my training partner off to laying a track for me while I did one for her. Once I was done and waiting, I got Amika out on her walking harness just for some sniffing around and treats for orienting to me, which went well. She had a pee and a drink before going back in the car so my partner could work her dog on the track I”d laid, while I hid down the end of it.

Amika’s start on her track was less complicated than usual because the rest of our group (ha, ha – not really in that group at all are we?) were down the road, and my partner went off to be at the end of the track. This meant there were no other people around, and no other dogs in evidence (hers were in the back of a closed car). I was able to work on walking nicely, this time with lead on collar (since I’d changed her to her tracking harness). I did not let myself get pulled anywhere, I did the stop and sometimes back up routine. Amika was less stressed about finding the start than she has been. So getting to the start went a lot smoother because of the work I’ve done on no pulling.

What I did on the track that was a little different was that I didn’t run to keep up, and kept the tracking lead gathered and short. Our track was three legs with two left turns, and two articles (plus start article). Not running meant hanging on and sinking my weight down to avoid being pulled off my feet. I was successful at this, but my arms and wrists were fatigued at the end! Amika worked fairly steady without too much zig-zagging. This was partly due to short lead length but also just her commitment to the track.

Amika nosed and briefly picked up the start article with a little encouragemetn from me. I had to hold her back at the first article on the second leg, but praised her when she did grab it briefly and let her go on (zzzip goes the lead – thank goodness for the holey gloves, which are far better than no gloves at all). She still surges when re-aquiring the track, so I just use extra braking force. (The alternative is to let the lead fly through my fingers and possibly cut them open, and then Amika tends to zigzag and surge more.) The second article was great: I saw it coming but did nothing (that I know about at least) and Amika paused on her own and flicked it. I gave enthusiastic verbal praise without making her pause any more than she chose to.

It was a beautifully flagged short track (just what I wanted) and Amika did great. Her reward was finding the tracklayer at the end, getting a drink and having a run around (despite being tired!) Before getting back to the car, I put the lead back on her to prevent the chance of running to the other car and jumping at the dogs within. This meant we fell back from our track layer, who was picking up flags on the way back. This also meant I got a break from the whining and complaining. This caused Amika to start on her VSA thing again. She has always done this at tracking – she feels the need to keep up with all the humans, preferrably in front of them.

Rather than hurrying myself to catch up, I worked on nice walking again. I hooked her collar directly to my belt and waited for the reoritenting. I didn’t get much. After a while of this, I started to feel myself getting frustrated. I did something off the cuff: instead of waiting until I really did loose it, I did a pretend ‘loosing it’, which meant I hauled Amika off her front feet and shook her by the collar a bit, and made human angry noises and bent over with my face near hers. What I succeeded in doing is getting Amika to give me some calming signals. She liked her lips and kind of glanced at me (rather than looking franticly ahead for the departed person). This made me say good and start walking with her – and she walked nicely with me for some way!

I repeated the ‘getting in her face’ thing a couple more times when she started to pull and get over anxious about catching up. As soon as I saw that flick of a toungue and a glance (“jeez woman, just calm down OK?”) I’d say “good” and we’d move off, with Amika walking nicely / not pulling.

What I was doing here is to take a dog who’s anxiety is spiraling up (through barrier frustration and virtual separation anxiety) and throw a reactive human at her. I wasn’t really angry, but my behaviour diverted her from continuing to get stressed and I think forced her to calm herself. That is, because my acting out needed calming, she’d give me those signals to calm me down, at the same time calming herself.

I was also able to get in a few lip licks when she glance at me and at one stage, her eyes stayed on me for a whole second while I licked my lips, and her face went “???” But other matters were more pressing, so she got back to being focussed on following our track layer and going back to the car. But that little bit of calming seemed to allow her to think of me and walk nicely.

Now I need to figure out how I can get this calming response going without resorting to pretending to beat up my dog (snarling, tugging collar, bending down into her face, whaping her muzzle with my hands). All my actions were at play intensity. That is, nothing I was doing was causing pain or physical damage. It was just in your face body language that she couldn’t ignore. If I acted like this at home, I’d be instigating a roughouse game.

I guess I’ll just have to sleep on it, as I can’t think of anything now. I’m aware that I’m adding stress to anxiety, and acting mean which will likely have fallout. Food and toys don’t elicit calming from her. Toys rev her up, food she seems to take almost on automatic pilot when this fucussed and anxious. All I can think of is more walking nicely practice, and Leslie’s VSA game.

I’m surprised I go to tracking as much as I do. It is stressful for my dog and me, and dealing with the people I work with has become very unrewarding. Even following someone else with the other people was annoying, with all the comments about what the handler was doing wrong. No one thinks positive, it seems. Whine!