Reactive dog class 11

Last night was a “just keep going” exercise. I dredged up some pre-used enthusiasm and loaded us up. I noticed as I was getting ready that Amika was flicking her head- uh oh. This is what happens with her allergies. I get the sneezes and itchy eyes / nose, she gets itchy skin all over, starting with ears. So I shoved a Telfast in her on the way out the door, but knew right then she wouldn’t be in top form. It seems to take the edge off of her ability to concentrate, just like my hay fever does.  (Well, histamine is a neurotransmitter.)

Working with Amika

We got there, I set up crate and mat. She was excited well before we got there this time. To start out, I took her over to the greyhound run for some exercise. This is a laneway that runs the length of the property, filled with nice sand. It goes for over 100m. Rather than getting someone else in to call her back and forth, I just gave the “run!” cue repeatedly, between calling her back my way with a “c’mon!” So I mostly jogged in one direction, and turned to pretend to run the other way as she came past.  I probably covered about 30m and then doubled back to the gate we entered by, but Amika covered a lot more ground by running back and forth past me.

So this wore her out pleasantly, but hyped her up a bit. We headed back to the car through the car park. It was good to see that while focused on getting back to the car for a drink, she wasn’t too fussed about the dogs on the oval. Once recovered from fatigue, though, they became much more of a focus.

I did lots of in and out of car crate to mat, LAT dogs, GMAB / go sniff and reinforced lying in her crate with opening away from other dogs. I wasn’t very happy with her emotional state overall: she was edgy, wanted to go interact and not ‘happy’ to work. More like she was working with me under duress. Part of this would have been my mood- I wasn’t able to be particularly fun and upbeat.

She did offer lots of good eye contact, and only had one partial reactive episode when someone popped out from between cars way too close, and walking towards us. I dragged her back to the car for a break when that happened (no point trying to -make- her stay in soft crate, that’s counter to what I’m trying to do!) I brought a frozen kong for her to work on during breaks (gave her several) but she seemed to feel pressured to eat it NOW, and get it done so she could get on with stuff. The fact that it was a slow process just seemed to cause frustration, which I saw a lot of during the evening. Patience isn’t her strong point, and she seemed to have less than usual.

Though we were able to work in a fair bit closer to the action in short bursts, I am feeling frustrated that we seem to be stuck at this ‘level’. We aren’t able to be close enough to interact with the class, and it doesn’t feel like we are making progress as far as decreasing distance. Distance seems to be dependent on her frame of mind, rather than anything we are doing, but that could be in my head.

Moods

I was thinking about the ‘frame of mind’ thing last night after class. I find that many animals are complicated people, and Amika seems to be one of the more complex ones I know. She is a pushy bitch, wanting her own way NOW. She is easily aroused, and seems to want to get into an aroused state (adrenaline junkie). She is sensitive to my frame of mind over a longer time frame, and is currently suffering from stress due to my moodiness (I’ve taken on too much work= depression / anxiety). I also think I’m seeing a pattern of her stress leading to allergy flare-up, with resulting dullness of mind. To top this, I have been doing less stuff with her and her brain hasn’t had enough consistent exercise and there isn’t much of a routine in our days.

I’m floundering a bit, but am aware that my state of mind has a big influence over my dog (and of course, me!) I’ll be on the mend over the next few weeks. It will be interesting to note how Amika responds to changes in my state of mind, and see if the allergies disappear again.

Class progress

The actual class had several people and dogs in it last night (good to see!) and they are all starting mat work, with some able to so so in fairly close proximity in the pens. I’m really happy to see CU working well for them. I’m still hanging out for more “Night Three” stuff. But since I do feel that we are stuck and not making progress to getting closer, we wouldn’t be ready to join in anyway!

Behaviour Adjustment Training

I may try to tee up some BAT sessions. Assuming that I can make moving away rewarding for Amika, this may be a way of explaining to her what behaviours “work” in proximity to dogs. Right now, her pattern is to want to close the distance, get frustrated and fly right out of her mind. Apparently this gets rewarded by the “rush” of adrenaline.

One hitch that I have with Amika is that I have trouble getting her to move with me at the best of times. I keep working on it, but it is always an uphill battle to get Amika to stay interested in / connected with me. This brings me to: how am I going to be able to read (and reward) good body language if she is pulling ahead to check out that other dog? I can try to heel towards to other dog, and then turn and play before she looses focus on me, but then I’m not rewarding a new instance of behaviour. BAT (from what I understand) works best if your animal moves with you, you stop, they give a calming signal, you reward with distance / play. Maybe I just need to set up BAT with a big mirror?! Then I reward when I see the other dog do something good.