Reactive dog class 4

Amika has had a better week this time around. She has had a good hard romp at the park the last couple of days (with no bull ant bites!). I have also decided to try going back to feeding her twice daily, which meant a nice meaty bone late this morning.

Class tonight had a rocky start. Amika wanted to bark and lunge almost as soon as she got onto the oval. She’d already had some practice barking from the car on the way in (another dog was being walked 100m down the road) which may have been a factor. I had a little success calming her down and then another dog approached and she was just going straight to bonkers again. I put her back in the car at this stage, number one so she could regroup and number two so that I could chat to our instructor to change the setup a bit.

Either the break or the change in tactics did the trick. When I got her out again, I still had some barking / lungeing but she was still ‘operant’ for most of it. This is how I worked:

• Amika moves away and barks = I walk away from the dog she is trying to approach until she re-engages with me.
• Amika stays focussed = I move towards other dog in curves / zigzag while giving treats.

The aim was to bring her in close enough to be on the oval and do parallel walking. We did get bits of it here and there, but it was all pretty intense. It was interesting to note that while I walked with her on my left between me and the other dog, she was better than the other direction. I think this might be due to her turning her head in my direction (looking for treats) and seeing the dog more when I”m between them. This would cause her to cut across my path staring at the other dog and then reacting. This happened a few times and the last one I was able to keep her or get her back in position walking on my left without her going on to react.

Class finished up with the dogs down, well spaced apart. Amika and I were further out than others, but still kind of in the class. The other dogs were doing “roll over” and stuff, and Amika responded beautifully to her “tummy scratch” cue many times. She’d wiggle around in the grass and get patted for seconds at a time before needing to right herself to check out the action.

While the instructor walked her calm dog around the class we played lots of LAT. Lots and lots of LAT. Because he walks slowly, she was able to tolerate him moving around from this position (in a down with her back to class). Sometimes her look was cursory (yay!) others she looked a little longer, but still snapped back for the treat each time. Occasionally she stood and turned but went back into the down when asked. Her treat taking was a little hard at times, but not as rough as when she is really excited. So she was relatively comfortable. It was nice to end on this “good note”.

Here are two observations that I’ve made about dog proximity stuff. One is that she seems to calm herself in a down, as long as there is enough distance and not too much movement. The other is that she does better with increasing proximity if she is moving towards, rather than having the other dog moving. I was remembering this at the beginning of class when I was trying to get her brain back but the other dog kept coming closer. It was really obvious when I worked with the accredited trainer and her little dog back in January. Trying to keep Amika on her mat was tricky, but the trainer was able to get her a lot closer to the dog by circling her in on lead while the dog sat still.

In all of these training scenarios though, I find the people are pushing the dogs. Each trainer I have worked with has worked Amika outside her comfort zone and then asked for more. It is hard for me not to push as well, but also distressing to see Amika stressed. Of all these situations, the reactive dog class is the least stressful, but I still know she’s on the edge of reacting the entire time. If I can steal some time from  somewhere, I’d like to work outside the dog park as well. In any case, I think she did well tonight at class, and that she is learning a little bit, despite the stress. So I’m still very much looking forward to next week.