Most people’s default behaviours are things like yelling at their dog, jerking the lead or tightening it. These things will make your dog feel worse and react more. Many, many of us find it difficult to behave differently, even when we know our habits are making the situation worse.

>> The best thing I can suggest is to PLAN exactly what
> you will do when the dog reacts. Rehearse that plan in your head, then go
> through the motions when your dog isn’t reacting, then take it on the road
> (class).
>
> Treat it as if you are an animal learning a new behaviour: expect that it will
> be a really rough approximation to start, give yourself praise (Jump up and
> down, eat chocolate, whatever floats your boat!) for anything close to what you
> are trying to do. Do small steps and ignore your “stuff-ups”.

And yes, clicker (positive reinforcement) training does work on people. Check out TAG Teach and do a search for it on YouTube.

Seminar

The trainer was Steve Austin. (Name sound familiar? Maybe you’re thinking of the bionic man from the 80′s TV show!) Steve trains detector dogs and their handlers (among other things). These dogs are looking for things like drugs, plant material (for quarantine) and pest animals. Steve also does private training and has a state-of-the-art boarding facility over East.

There is a program running on Macquarie Island where they are trying to decimate introduced rabbits in order to prevent the extinction of Albatross and other rare species. They’re looking for rabbit detector dog handlers: http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/index.aspx?base=13013! Steve has been training up the dogs.

There were a few ‘take home’ bits for me from the seminar. Steve mentioned a couple of times that he wasn’t giving us anything totally new to us, and that these were his way of doing things, some of which some of us might not agree with. True on both counts, but I came away with some new ways of thinking of old concepts (which is why you go to seminars, right?) and some inspiration.

One thing Steve said was that if the dog isn’t dying to join you in a training session, if that training isn’t the bestest, funnest thing for the dog, you are doing something wrong. This is exactly the same as the old “you should be the most interesting thing to your dog” concept, but said a little differently. It made a lot more sense to me, and slid in beside the “motivation” jigsaw piece that has just dropped into place for me in the past couple of weeks. Somehow, the reality of training as creating a really fun game has solidified for me. Not sure why that hasn’t happened before now, but it sure is a big piece of the puzzle!

I also loved Steve’s description of how to break training a task into steps, and how and when to increase criteria, and how to use variable rewards (really good effort gets the good stuff, mediocre performance gets a piece of boring kibble). I’m hoping his book will arrive in the mail soon, along with the painfully slow-to-arrive Crate Games DVD.

The seminar was a full day followed by half day of practical problem solving with dogs. We had a few people with problems that are obviously big for them, but everyone else would die for dogs that well trained and motivated.

I took Amika along on the half day, but not so she could be part of the problem solving (I already know where I’m going, I didn’t want to throw her into that intense of a situation, and I wasn’t happy with the way Steve man-handled). It gave me an extra opportunity to train. I got her out, did crate in the car stuff, went for a walk and a sniff before it got busy. I was glad to have my home made dog vest to put on her, modeled below.

Amika shows off her vest

After the seminar was done and most people had left, I drove to the far end of the oval and got the soft crate out, along with the mat. The remaining people were mostly socialising down by the club house. I did basic stuff with going to mat, crate and GMAB with sniffing. Amika was understandably a little on edge because of all the activity in the distance and change of routine, but did really well.

A clicker aside

Which reminds me of something else that was posted on a forum. Apparently ‘African Giant Pouch Rats’ make good land mine detectors: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eAGtAYW6mA. There are a bunch of these up on youtube, but they are all clicker trained to find TNT, and are light enough that they don’t set off the mines.

So there you go, clicker training can save human lives (in case you didn’t already know)! I think the way they’re training the little guys is very cool.

Fun and games

Despite another full on week of work, and the depression that’s been taking hold due to ‘doing too much’, I did lots of playing this week. Instead of leaving the dog bag and the mat in the car, they now live on the back porch. This means they are always easy to get to.

We played an off-switch game in the back yard instead of at training for a change. In a much less distracting environment, Amika really got into tug toy interspersed with go-to-mat. Another seminar take-home was to stop playing before the dog has had enough, and I’ve been keeping games short and motivational.

One day when dinner time rolled around, I was trying to think how to get Amika’s dinner into her without just throwing a bowl under her nose. I thought about hiding food around the yard. Then I thought of tracking the food. It was a race against the clock- and the chicken! I laid a track with food drops (spoon full of dinner) and left the mostly empty container at the end. This is decidedly NOT how to train a dog to track, but since she already knows the concept, it worked great.

Chook on patrol

She waited inside the back door (in confusion!) and then I came and got her, put on her tracking harness and line and took her to the first bit of food at the start and gave the cue “on track”. She followed my scent and almost missed the first few drops (using nose, not eyes!) but really got into the swing by the end. Again, this was a very short track, so motivational. I’m thinking I’ll do this again (with her dinner in the yard) but with food in articles, so she can get me to open them for her. This might do wonders fro her article indication if I quickly move to trading an empty article for food.

Another game is one I heard about ‘out there’ in cyberland. There is a toy you can buy that is like a cat toy on a fishing pole, but bigger and tougher. I went to the horse store and bought a cheap lunge whip, and tied a rag on the end. Amika LOVES this game of chase. During the week, I used it to reward heeling, and have worked on giving food or continue playing as rewards for her dropping it when asked.

So it has been an interesting week in dogland. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep this fun stuff happening and get a more engaged got as a result!

The main reason I didn’t get the degree of calm attention was a state of mind thing. As ever, we seem to be doing synchronised physiology. We have hayfever. Of course, in dogs this means itchy skin, but just like us they get fuzzy headed. As I’ve mentioned before, I think the antihistamines make her a bit dopey too (but at least she isn’t itchy).

Class part 1

I had trouble getting out the door (what did I say about fuzzy headed?) so we weren’t early. At least those extra two trips back into the house meant we had water and the big blanked to go over the crate in the car. I got her out with the usual choral whining, but she sat and stayed sitting while I clipped her up. She even turned back to me in a reasonable time once out (had to sniff grass first). Pretty good for a fuzz brain.

I’ve found that the best thing to do when we arrive is to take her on a sniffing expidition. She’s so excited just to be there and the sniffing helps her settle into that environment. I don’t let her tow me, and she was really good at moving with me tonight on the way out there. I didn’t need to do the ‘stop and wait for dog to notice owner’ routine. So she IS aware of me at some level. She also turns back to me when I call a fair amount of the time (this is a work in progress).

Having sniffed our way away from the area the other dogs were going to use, and seeing that some of the jitters were gone, I started asking for stuff. Earlier in the day, I showed Amika a new game in the back yard. We’d heel a short distance, then I’d say “turn!” in the same high voice I use for “run!” and use my body language to show her which way I was going to go. She thought that was a pretty good game. I tried it out (now on lead) and she ‘got it’ and came with me. So that one will work nicely for moving away from triggers once there is some more groundwork. I left it at that for tonight, as I had lots of other things to think of and work on.

While working up the back, I tried some BAT work (behavioural adjustment training) just a couple of times. Yes, I can see how this would work now. Basically, I walked Amika towards the dogs in the class, stopping before she would react. After seeing a lip lick or -something- calm, we turned and moved away as per the “turn!” but I didn’t use the cue or make it too exciting. Then we were back to doing other stuff for a bit at that slightly bigger distance.

Now, just sitting here writing this I’ve had a ‘duh!’ moment. The biggest excitement this evening was when our trainer came over to talk to us. “Oh boy, it’s my friend!!!!” says the dog. Ya know, using BAT with approaching the trainer as reward may be a really good thing. In this first instance, I -sort of- rewarded calmer behaviour, but there was a big distance and a conversation that needed having. So I allowed some pulling between asking for reinstatement of brain (stop, ask for eye contact, get it grudgingly after some seconds, go forward). To do BAT with this, I think I’d need to use a barrier so there isn’t so much ground to cover.

Amika the Star

It turns out my ISP had eaten an e-mail, and that class was learning about using mats CU style tonight. Could Amika demo? Oh, wow, my reactive dog class is using CU!! So the other dogs went back in cars for a bit while I managed Amika back down the oval to the car, collected mat (I’d been wondering how we were going to get past the other dogs to collect it) and moved towards the people. Oh, she was thrilled. A bunch of people looking at HER! Fortunately, they weren’t all clustered together, so she wasn’t sure who to apply her charms to first. That seemed to difuse the tension a bit.

I had her mat, which she did manage to notice after I squeaked and waggled it and bounced around a bit. “Oh, yeah, mat, calming down right now might be good.” And there in front of several people, she got on the mat, I clicked and she laid down to eat treats. She stayed there to eat treats. She stayed there while waiting for more treats. I released her to sniff and picked up the mat. Then when she noticed me again, I put the mat down and on she got for more treats. Then she stayed there while I backed up a few steps and then geve her another treat etc. I was really amazed at how good she was at being on the mat in such an aroused state with an audience.

Part 2

The demo over, the other people headed for cars to retrieve their mat and dog, and I headed up the oval again. We’ve got a second instructor / helper (they’re all volunteers btw) who came to help with Amika and greetings. After the first one, where Amika has trouble keeping her feet on the ground, she becomes a lot less aroused and more polite. She can also shift her focus off the person to other things.

The second half of class for Amika was being on the mat, interspersed with tugging (off switch),  sniffing and going over to say ‘hi’. She was really good with that. She was even able to stay on the mat while our person walked away and then came back! We also did a fair amount of LAT for the other dogs. We weren’t able to get true relaxation on the mat with all of the prior arousal and continuing activity. She did “tummy scratch” which is to roll on her side, but could only ‘not look’ briefly. I’m thinking now that it would be really good for me to choose to move another 20m out and specifically work on passive attention / relaxation for several minutes as a ‘break’.

Long skinny oval.

When I thought it was time to quit, I realised we had a dog we’d have to squeeze past. First, I made sure we didn’t do a direct approach, but came in on a tangent. Second, we got onto the dirt road at the edge of the oval, other side of trees. This made it fairly clear where we were going. Amika was pulling, and I accepted that mostly, just keeping a very short lead. Periodically, I stopped to get eye contact. I also body blocked by walking into her, pushing her shoulder with my thigh (she was on my left as we passed the dog on our right). I didn’t bother with food, and despite getting some barks from the dog (whose owner was moving him further away) Amika did not have a big reaction. I think a big part of it is that she knew that we were not going TO the other dog, but heading back to the car.

Putting Amika in the pressured situation wasn’t my first choice, but I was extremely pleased how well she did. She didn’t go berserk, and took treats as soon as we were past and calmed down rapidly. I let her have a drink, put her in the crate with treats and praise and covered her up.

As I was going to say goodbye to the others, I did some crate training. Amika has been barking a lot when I leave her in the car. She’s always had a tendency to have a tantrum about being left. At the moment, she waits a bit, then barks for a while and eventually (I guess) gives up. This doesn’t do her any good, so I’d like to get her out of the habit.

I left her in the covered crate, closing the car door, and walked off a few paces. I then returned, opened the door and gave more treats. Repeated that several times, increasing duration between visits. There was no barking. Then I went and said goodbye, but remembered I had some books to return. Went back to car. She was barking, but I think hearing one of the other dogs barking may have started that. I went and got the books (no treats) and left again, briefly. Since she was quiet I repeated the exercise (treat and leave) several times, again with more duration.

After returning stuff to the library and more chatting, I went back to a quiet car and gave Amika more treats before heading home. Nice finish to the night. I am just so happy with how she is doing and how well the class went (they commented on the dogs being less reactive while learning to be on mats). If the two new students practice mats at home, hopefull they’ll be able to get into some relaxation and games too.

The biggie for tonight- no lungeing (pulling, yes) and one or two wuffs, but no agitated barking. Yay.

The work I have been doing at the local park is paying off. Amika now knows she has to sit quietly in her crate before I’m going to open the door. She then knows she has the lead clipped on and that she’s expected to hop out, turn around and sit in front of me. This last bit doesn’t always happen, but she also knows that when she forgets, she has to go back in the crate and start over. Despite the excitement of being at the tracking place, I didn’t have to wait long for the initial sit, and only had to put her back in once (and only briefly).

The other thing I’ve been doing at the local park is to practice heeling work for a little bit before letting her off. She did a pretty shocking job this morning, but it was to be expected.  When she ‘disconnects’ to sniff, I stop suddenly or turn the other way. Once I got her to do a half decent job of heeling with attention for a few steps, I released her to sniff on lead for a bit. When she’s fresh and thinking, she can walk very nicely on lead with only the slightest pulling. After wandering up and down the road I called her back in to heel for a bit, got a sit, took off the lead and got a little more of a heel before setting her loose.

She ran, she romped, she sniffed at speed. She circled and kept an eye on me. I went back to the car to get some gear organised, and she stayed fairly close, checking in a few times. She got kibble dropped on the ground for this, but was enjoying running around so much that she barely sniffed it. I usually go for a run with her, so she was probably wondering why I wasn’t playing.

When I was done, and did walk up and down the road a bit, she sprinted around some more, but really was keeping pretty close. I had slipped a little something special in my pocket this morning, and wanted to jackpot a recall. I was surprised I had to encourage her to run off! An opportunity presented itself (dog headed in other direction) and I called her loudly. She turned pretty much instantly but without great enthusiasm. On arrival, she found a pile of pink smoked salmon! Yum!

Actual tracking was also fun. We loaded up and moved back down to the main road. The usual suspects (whom I train with) were not there, so I joined some other people. The usual people did eventually show up in dribs and drabs, but I stayed with this ‘new’ crew since I already had a tracklayer lined up. I was glad I did, as they’re more cheerful and out for fun than many of the others.

Amika’s first track was amazing. Awesome, really, when I think of where we’ve come from. She mostly didn’t tow me to the start. A couple of times I turned back towards the car and she did her “Oh, all right then, you annoying bitch!” thing and paid me some attention without incessant pulling.

Other dogs had run across the area where our start flag and article were, so I had some trouble getting her to focus. It was the frantic running back and forth thing. This was a perfect opportunity to try that idea the reactive dog class instructor had: I cried, high pitched and loudly. Amika bounced at me immediately. The eye contact / body orientation towards me was only for a split second, but it did work to get her back briefly. And I think it was so odd that she had an ear on me afterwards. Whatever, I was then able to get her to kind of notice the scent article (the ubiquitous sock) and let her start the track. She didn’t go on to follow the dogs back to their car, so it must have worked!

The speed of the track was much different to what is used to be. She didn’t sprint, circle and surge nearly as much as usual. Her pace was much more steady. Her head was fresh and she was able to concentrate and think. She indicated two of three articles completely on her own. Whe I say indicated, I noted her crossing through a scent pool (zigzag or circling across track) and then she located the item. She then picked it up only long enough to flick it away and keep going on the track. The second article, I had to hold her back on the line- she was stepping on it. When she figured out what I was on about, she did the flick thing and I let her go on. Continuing the track is her reward.

Her corners were really good on this track too. Because they were flagged, I could see how far off she goes, and watch how she indicates loss and re-aquisition. She was pretty spot-on the track most of the time.

Our track layer followed us up, so there was an article with treats in it at the end. And of course, the tracklayer arrived just after she found it (since she was right behind me). I was surprised that Amika was interested in the kibble on the end article and wasn’t desperate for a drink. She was, however, very easy to walk back with. Another dog was in evidence closer to the road, and she started to react a bit, but I was able to get through to her that we were not going to see the other dog, and she came pretty well.

Track two for Amika was more typical. The change was due to barking and frustration in the car. She wore herself out and fried her brain slightly. Walking to the start was interesting. She knew there was a track out there somewhere, so was getting aroused and pulling into the veg at the side of the road to try to find it. I was able to get her to turn back to me, but had to do so repeatedly.

The people were chatting together, and pretty much ignored her approach, and she was looking for a scent so not pulling towards them. Given that these were dog people, and that she was not trying to mug them- I let her run right up to them when she did decide to take an interest (as we were passing the group). She bounced up, went “eee!” and briefly said hello, and then came back to look for that track, which we were almost upon at that point.

The start article was investigated without me having to interfere this time, and she was off. There was a lot more loosing the track, circling and taking off when the scent was re-aquired. I held the lead shorter than I had on the previous track so that she wouldn’t be spending so much time searching. She settled into it a bit better by the second leg, but was wandering to the side of the trackleyer’s path for large chunks of track. This meant that she bypassed articles. The last leg was fun, because the tracklayer had walked through some damp grassy stuff and I could see her footsteps. Amika did really well on this leg too, so it was fun to “see” what she was tracking (the vegetation portion, anyway).

The end article also had her toy with it, but I think she was just as pleased to hang out with the crowd of people who were praising her. She was too tired to bounce or sing, so was patted too. Oh, and yes, she did want that drink. Freed of her harness, and having had a sip or two, she took her toy and went and laid down several metres away, and just smilled at us for a bit. I’ve got no idea what that was about. Tired? She certainly was! But not as tired as some days we’ve tracked. She walked ever so nicely back to the cars- this time we were walking a little ahead of everyone, and she was willing to wait up.

I also got to follow up another handler and dog team on two of their tracks. They were fun to watch work. The Border Collie had really easy to read body language, and just did very well at the job So today was a far more enjoyable tracking day than the last one, with good tracks, good dogs and good company. Hope I end up with this mob again next weekend.

Tonight we had nice weather, and a class! Amika and I stayed on the outskirts again, and she did very well. We even worked a little closer in for bits of the class. I must confess that she was drugged, but this was an antihistamine for a bull ant bitten toe. I suspect there might have been a bit of dopey-ness with this, but I also think she is figuring this place out. Her attitude was different. Rather than being anxious, she was more just excited. She did react to a shepherd who moves at a fast trot when he came towards us, but the lunge / bark was more of an “Oi, you! What do you think you’re doing?!” than the previous “AIEEEE!!!” reaction. I’m really curious what she will be like next week.

Tonight was especially good considering the week she’s had. She had her first proper exercise at the park this afternoon, which would have helped but other than that I’ve either not been here or not had much time for the dog. I have good excuses (my Dad needed some TLC and hospital time) but all Amika knew was that I was missing for a night and a day, half a day and then didn’t even take her out the day after that when I was home. Can you say BORED?? I mean, there’s only so much back yard kong throwing my partner can do. I’ve gotta love her though, she puts up with us with minimal complaint and hasn’t eaten anything that’s not hers yet. And she’s gotten pretty good at cuddles too.

Class was getting underway when we arrived, and Amika was hyped just getting out of the car. Our trainer came to say ‘hi’ and got the full tilt Amika “eee!” greeting. We’ve been sending e-mail back and forth since last week and I like her approach to training dogs. One of the big stresses for me around experienced ‘dog people’ has been having to turn down advice or instructions and getting those disapproving looks and comments. I am a grade A wuss when it comes to even slight conflict with people. We’re now part of a class run by someone who works with the dogs as individuals / is flexible and is and open to new stuff. Phew, relief!!

I kind of expected Amika to be worse this week rather than better, but it is still frustrating to see. I gave her a break in the car after just a few minutes, as she was barking at the other dogs from the car park. After a couple minutes down time and a drink, she was a bit better.

The class wanted to practice walking on the road (like, taking the dog for a walk) so Amika and I had the oval mostly all to ourselves for a bit. Just walking with her, she had trouble doing basic stuff. I let her do lots of sniffing, and when she did start getting her brain back we did lots of “look at that” and “give me a break” (LAT and GMAB from Control Unleashed). I judged it was about time for another break so headed back to the car – as the class was headed in from their street walk. So she reacted a bit before I got her into the car. Of course, she protested once there, but not in an over-the-top manner.

Once the class was settled back on the oval (and the dogs were doing really well), I got Amika out again. This time, I brought out her dinner in an icecream container with the spoon. I stopped at the fence by the car park, and she barked at the class a few times, but was mostly attentive. When they moved further out, I moved to the edge of the oval and sat down. Amika was really good playing LAT for a while, but when the other dogs started moving around more, she did jump to her feet and bark. Each time, she calmed herself enough to come back, lie or sit, and get more dinner. So I was pushing it a bit. Some of the time she did great, other times she reacted. What is really good is that she isn’t throwing herself at the end of the leash. Her barking is excited, but not of the intensity that I remember in past circumstances.

Despite wanting to join in the class, I called it quits while we were ahead. She’d done well in difficult circumstances (extra adrenaline, lower threshold, whatever). On the way back to the car, I got some extremely attentive heeling. It seems that she had gotten more comfortable with the class behind us, since sausage was that good again. Back in the car, I had to put the blanket over her crate so she couldn’t see other dogs loading up, but this time she made a token complaint and settled. Tired dog, full belly, good night.

As a nice bonus, I’ve borrowed a dog book for the week, and got an idea on how to get calming signals from Amika: try pretending to cry. I’m laughing just thinking about it, but will certainly try turning on the water works and see what Amika does. Thanks Shelah, you’re a star! (I’ve been hanging out for more dog reading too!) I’ll return “Fight!” and loan my copy of “Control Unleashed” next week. Which I’m looking forward to, again.

When we started on the last session (filing of the second foot) she was being a right pain and I was considering going back to sitting on her as I used to do.  (That is, the dog is man handled onto her side with me sitting on my bottom next to her back with legs over the top of her body. As long as I can stabilize hips and shoulders, she can’t get away.) After an attempt to get her on her side that failed (read: I tackled, she escaped) she became very hyped.

Dion thought that she was being playful. Yeah, she was wound up but she wasn’t having fun. She was darting backwards away from me, running out the door and then back, darting in and nipping at my hands and repeat. Lots of growly, grumbly stuff. (This is similar to what I get when I really tell her off when she is in the back yard, but in that circumstance there is no contact and more running= stressed zoomies.)

This is the time in an owner’s life where being a wuss would create a biting dog (dog nips, owner shows fear and backs off, dog goes “hey, that worked!”). But I’ve never been a wuss. I realised what was happening, too. I stopped escalating things and sat still. I asked for and after a couple of requests, got a sit. Then she bounced around again so repeat of getting dog to sit. From there I was able to calmly stroke her, stand up and initiate a petting session type sequence. Instead of the usual stroking with dog leaning against legs, I just placed my hands on her and did a little reiki and both of us stood there and calmed down. A year ago, I would have caught her, wrestled her to the ground and that would have been the end of the argument, but a symptom of what was wrong with the relationship (and the dog=effect, and the person=cause).

So after calming down, I sat down on the floor again and picked up the paw. I got some groans and nibbles but persisted until I didn’t (not long). Once she got the first bit of kibble for that we were fine – back to what we’d been doing on the previous paw. Interestingly, I was having a grouchy (shouty) day today. So that probably put her on edge to start with. Yet, I could spot the problem and not react in the habitual response that I have had. I didn’t get mad, I got calm and assertive (snort).

I’m just so proud of myself for coming this far! Now I just have to wait for Amika to catch on (and she is starting to). That’ll probably go quicker once I learn to abort my bad behaviour earlier and earlier. No more shouting at the dog would be fantastic, but with the car in the shop with a gaurded prognosis and very little work (and $) I cut myself some slack on being stressed. If that’s how good we’re doing on a stressful day, I’m thrilled.

With our new rules for tracking trials, the dog has to indicate the article it has found on the track clearly, so the judge can see and has no doubt. Prior to that, if the dog sniffed it, and the handler signaled the judge, it was counted. So of course, lots of handlers probably spotted the article first and just said the dog indicated it etc. Now we need some obvious change in behaviour like a retrieve or sit etc. So getting Amika to acknowledge articles is important.

There are three ways I have tackled the issue. One was shaping a behaviour, cued by the article, that gets rewarded. Two was preventing her from continuing on the track until she made some indication she knew the article was there. Three was just plain getting excited over articles.

I picked this up on the web someplace last year (wish I could remember where): To shape an article indication, pick what you want the dog to do ahead of time, and get some item to use as the article for training purposes. Start out in your regular training spot at home (kitchen in our case). Once the dog knows some training is going to happen, drop the article. Click before the dog investigates- you are capturing their interest. (I’m assuming the dog is going to notice! If not, no C/T just pick it up and waggle the thing around and drop it again.) Do a few repetitions where you click / treat the dog for going towards the item after you drop it, closer and closer. Then you start to wait for nose touch etc. You then go step by step into shaping the desired indication when the article is dropped. Last year, I wanted Amika to do a down with the article between her forepaws. Give the behaviour a cue that is given BEFORE your dog sees the article (like “where is it?”)

If you’re new to clicker training and shaping, there are lots of good resources. Here’s another blogger talking abut article indication on “Doggie Dog Blog”.

Once the dog starts looking around for the dropped article when you say the cue, start getting sneaky by dropping it at odd times and places when they don’t expect it. You might have to review the shaping in new places. Once that’s good, take it out tracking. Do this ‘game’ prior to a track, and then do a pretend track that is very short and all you do is the article game- with several articles close together (like a few metres). Stop using that cue word after the first couple of goes. You do not want a tracking dog that only looks for articles after you’ve asked! And it goes without saying that you use super rewards when you bring this into the tracking game.

Method two that I used with Amika was that I planted all 50 odd kg’s of me against her 27 or so kg’s as soon as she got to an article on a track. Putting the brakes on her is not easy, but I managed. AS SOON AS she showed any kind of indication, I let her get on with the track. That is the number one thing on her list when she’s tracking. It didn’t take too long for her to figure out that straining to get to the rest of the track wasn’t working for her, taking a token interest in the article was.

And number three is just getting excited. – Play tug with this sock after a track. Shake the sock to death after the track. Watch your owner get really excited and happy with you every time you so much as look at a sock on the track. – You get the picture. And this is all I’ve done this season and it is working. We need to review the shaping and pick something less difficult than the down, but we’ve got bigger fish to fry at the moment. When I can get her to the start with her head on, I’ll worry about bringing her article indication up to snuff.

There is heaps of tracking stuff on the web. If you’d like to see my club’s web site (or join the forum) you can visit them at TrackWest

This idea still wasn’t a plan, it was just an idea. I ran it past some people on the CU_Support forum and writing the e-mail helped clarify my thoughts a lot. The feedback was encouraging too. I then spent some time writing it out as a detailed, step by step plan. I put each step on the left side of the page, with space for notes on the right. I ended up with 34 steps and a better idea of how to implement training and the ability to track progress. It will also get modified as I go and see how Amika is doing.

The goal I was thinking of when I created the plan was getting Amika to the start of a track (at tracking training) in a controlled fashion. At the moment she gets so anxious knowing that there is a track out there -waiting- that she wears herself out and looses her ability to think clearly between the car and the start flag. She also tows me around and completely ignores me, which I don’t like.

In writing up the plan, I had to deal with the usual problematic distractions (namely the environment and people) and her lack of self control and escalating anxiety / excitement in the face of something she wants and gets excited about. These are our fundamental problems. So focusing on training for this one task at tracking directly addresses all of the biggest issues in our lives except other dogs. It indirectly addresses dogs because self control / anxiety / excitement is part of her problem with them.

The plan itself is based mostly on stuff in the book “Control Unleashed” by Leslie McDevitt. It centres around mat games and targeting, on / off switch games and more. It isn’t a simple plan, but rather an amalgamation of half a dozen individual training ‘games’ into a series of steps. The idea is to introduce Amika to some new games with a set rule structure. Once she knows the game, it gets more challenging as well as more rewarding and fun. Then we gradually bring in more and more distractions. The end goal is a dog working alongside former distractions in a focussed manner.

We’re up to step 10, which is where she can run to find her mat at the park, wait there for a reward, stay there while I do stuff for seconds on end and then come back, call her to heel off the mat for several steps at a time, handle her harness and lead (which is dragging) while she waits and then send her back to the mat (or the car) again. In the midst of this stuff, I’ll tell her to take sniff break and I’ll run off with her mat- which gets her back into playing straight away!

So we’re still just starting out with this plan of attack, but it is working well so far. I have a responsive, attentive dog at our quiet little training park. The game we’re playing has us working on recalls, targeting, getting excited and then calming down (off switch) and just generally being focused. And a big bonus for me is that I’m enthusiastic to try it all out and see what happens. I now have a plan I can follow and can apply all my creativity to solving problems along the way and modifying the plan as needed.

And if it doesn’t work out, I’ll seek advice from more experts.

(*From a Terry Pratchet Discworld book.)

I like that. But I also have another take on it. Another dog person at morning tea asked how I was getting on with Amika and was being pushy about attending a class. OK, I can understand where she is coming from, especially in the context of the above- BUT!

No one on the planet knows my dog and our situation as well as I do. I acknowledge that there are people out there that do know more than I do about the behaviour, and they likely have valuable advice and help for us. But how is that working for me? Well, I’ll tell you sister, I’m fed up to the eyeballs with all of the pushiness behind the advice. There are a lot of ways to skin the proverbial cat, but that does not mean you should start one way, then change your mind and start doing it another way part way through because you haven’t got to your end goal yet. (You’d end up with a really shoddily skinned cat- the shredded pelt wouldn’t be worth the effort.)

“Where are you at with training your dog?” is probably a better question for a professional trainer (or friend who wants to give advice) to ask me initially. Is re-training a reactive dog a quick process? NO**. Therefore, I can be in one of three places: haven’t tried it yet / in the process of using some training / finished with that. For number one, they can then advise if that method sounds effective, if and how it should be implemented. For two (trying it) they should NOW be asking “how’s that working for you?” If it is working, well then KEEP GOING!!! This is NOT the time to ‘change horses in the middle of the race’. If it isn’t working very well, NOW is the time for fresh ideas and advice. Same for the last phase- tried that. If it didn’t get you to your end goal, you should try something different.

“Where am I at?” I’m in the middle of implementing a training plan. “How’s that working for me?” It seems to be working well so far. This is not the time to change horses!

**Treating reactivity IS a quick fix if you are Cesar Millan. You just exhaust the dog (both physically and emotionally) using proximity to the thing it fears (claiming that the dog is aggressive). You include the use of enough physical force to completely cow the dog in your pressence. When the dog can’t take any more and stops responding to anything, you call it cured. Here’s a video of CM doing just that to a little pittie:

Thank goodness the local Perth “trainer” who used flooding (the technical name) didn’t go that far with Amika. But she still has a much worse emotional response to other dogs than before that fateful training session. So my advice on advice is to seek it when you need it, but don’t just do what you are told because you are talking to an “expert”. Do your own research (there are dozens of good dog books out there: www.dogwise.com ) and grill (sorry, ask questions of) multiple experts BEFORE you choose a method and try it (and possibly pay to make your dog worse). There IS good avice out there, but we need to seek it wisely.