Accidently reinforcing bad behaviors

A lot of times I see people trying to calm a dog who is clearly stressing by petting and loving on a dog. This has even happened in my own house. Dog barks, you acknowledge the dog and let him in; dog jumps when you walk in the door, you pet him and say, "Oh! You've missed me"; or, a dog growls when scared and you reach down placing your hand on his head muttering that the dog is okay. So, let's break it down and look at what you're doing when you do those things.

By petting or trying to reassure Fido when he's doing something bad, you are feeding him the attention he wants. You're showing him, "Okay, nip at me so I pet you." Or, "Okay, jump all over the place when someone walks in the door".

So what do we do instead?  I always ask for a sit. Some dogs are not comfortable sitting, so go with your dogs most comfortable position. When I walk in the door, I ask "Sit" and until I receive a solid sit, I turn away and ignore. I even avoid eye contact as some dogs can be intimidated if you stare at them and even watching them is contact at the basest form. So, I turn away and face my door. I watch carefully up in the reflection of the glass. Once Fido sits and has calmed, then I acknowledge him. If he starts to get up and move again to jump around, I turn away again.

Now, say I'm having company over? I start off by filling a Kong with a mix of what I call half and half of love. It's Greyson's favorite Kong treat. It's half peanut butter and half ground pure pumpkin. Grey loves it. So, I give him a fully filled Kong right before the first guest walks in. Now here's the hard part. Everyone who walks in my house has already been given instructions. It's the no contact rule. If you can't ignore the dog until he calms, well I probably won't have you over again.
Reinforcing proper behavior isn't as easy as it sounds. A lot of times it may feel like a battle of wills, but between management and ignoring and moving away until you can reinforce the good behavior, you'll be setting your dog up for success and not trying to correct failing behavior.

The picture is Greyson waiting calmly while we have company over.

Aggression vs. Intimidation

A lot of times I hear people say "Well he won't listen so I have to be boss in his life". And that seems to be where life goes south for the dog and family relationship.

Dogs read our minute movements. When frustrated does your face change? You bet it does! The slightest furrow of your brows may happen or maybe you raise an eyebrow. Dogs are aware and read our slightest movements.

For example, Eddie Munster, named for his slight underbite came into the rescue and now has a huge note on his cage "Growler: Fearful & Scared". I approach his door to his room and he starts barking and lunging. I back up, clear my mind, take a deep cleansing breath and he allows me to reach in and pet him. The entire time I never face him. I give him my side to tell him "I come in peace". While he then barks for more petting he is no longer growling. He is reading my signals just as he would another dog.

I don't use my voice to tell him "It's Okay". Instead I show him that It's okay. Once I pet him, then I start slowly talking. I could be telling him about the weather but I keep my voice light and airy. I keep talking the entire time once he's allowing touch. A lot of times people say I'm baby talking the dog, and That's quite possible.

I move onto Hershey's area which is next door to Eddie. I repeat the same process even though Hershey is friendly to me but I'm still in view of Eddie and I want him to understand that I once again mean no harm.

The lesson I've learned from doing this is even if I'm not interacting with that specific dog, they still watch and see how I am interacting with everyone else. Dogs read our bodies.

The other night while working with Spudz through his door a former adopter let her puppy down to rinsed play. Small dogs are Spudz' trigger and at 4 months old, the puppy was small. I don't normally use aversions but I felt it unfair to stress Spudz out with a loose small dog running past his door so I body blocked his sight. Puppy come near I'd stand in front of Spudz working on his focus. Spudz and I do this for about 30 minutes and every time he meets eye contact and waits for his treat. He excels at this. The reason I can stand in front of Spudz and body block? Months and months of working up to that.

So, next time you want your dog to do something, clear your mind, take a deep breath and remember that they read us better than any human can read us.

Can't Save Them All

October is a hard month for me. It's the anniversary of putting down a dog who I was fighting to save. She was deemed "unable to-be rehabilitated " even though the vet gave her a 50/50 chance to survive. I wasn't willing to give up, but my opinion was ignored as I didn't have enough experience to mean anything to the courts.

Ever since then I've been on a mission to save the dogs no one thinks can be saved. I learned to assess behavior and read dogs signals. I've spent countless hours studying and sometimes it feels for naught.

I get a lot of phone calls and messages about dogs in need. I try to help as much as I can. I try to find rescues to help when I can or try to find qualified homes if possible. I network like a mad woman and drive my family crazy at times. In the end, I am just one woman trying to make a difference in a dog's life.

A lot of the dogs are well adapted creatures who through no fault of their own come into my world. Some have some baggage and some have behavior issues that need to be dealt with. Rarely is a dog perfect, but even rarer is there a dog who doesn't see me for being peace and light in their world.

I go armed with treats, hot dogs and peanut butter. I know how to approach a dog who is terrified and most times they end up in my lap. When I get a sigh of relief I know my job is done well.

The day I got a frantic phone call from an owner telling me she had just surrendered her pit bull and the dog bit the animal control officer is never how I want to start my day. But, I deal as I can and take the punches as they come.

When a dog bites a human there is a list of things that have to happen. If the dog is a stray, it never ends well. If the dog is owned and got loose and it happened it's a better situation, but still not good. When the dog is an owner surrender and then bites a human you can normally put it in the first category. I'm the person who goes in and deems the dog viscous or not. I have to then remove the dog from the county and should it bite again, it's done per the county.

I went in, asked to assess the pit bull and was told no. I asked how the officer was bit, how bad it was and if there was a bite report made. The officer's boot was scraped while the dog was on a pole. Red flags start going off in my head, but have to stay calm and try to not start screaming at people. After all, these are my access to continue doing what I do.

After a lot of arguing it was agreed I could perform an assessment. My first surprise was the little girl was NOT a pit bull. Sadie was a bull terrier and She was terrified out of her mind. I gave her my back and just sat there. She wouldn't budge. We had a locked (all dogs deemed human aggressive have to have a padlocked kennel door) door between us and I took out the spoon and peanut butter. Nothing. As long as I held it, She refused to look anywhere near me and just shook staring at a wall. I tried hot dogs. I slid them under the door to her and nothing. I turn away and give her my back and she started nibbling. We did this for a while. Slowly I was shifting my weight to have my side to her nose. She was now eating carefully out of my hand. My fingers were within her reach and she never tried to hurt me. I ended up facing her and feeding her the final two hot dogs. She was still shaking but she was now leaning again the door to me and letting me stroke her head.

I left to go talk to a rescue to see I could pull her, put her in a single dog home with no children or animals. I had a place she could go and I could rehab her. I got the papers drawn up which would give me legal ownership of her and started the wheels moving.

It takes a lot of paperwork and juggling when it's a dog who has a bite history. By this time animal control called the rescue and tried to talk then out of it. I was ticked at this point. Her bite history was over a scuffed boot! There was no bite record on file at the hospital. I felt she was being targeted unfairly and I wasn't going to take it lying down.

Sadly, I had to wait to pull her until the next day. I was ready though and took help because I knew I was going to have to crate her to remove her. She was too scared by all the barking and being left on her own. I was NOT prepared for what greeted me though in her kennel.

In less than 18 hours she turned into a lunging, growling, biting mess. I couldn't shift my weight off from giving her my back without her lunging at the door at me. I removed her padlock from her door and she jumped and lunged at my hand. No dog had ever truly made me nervous and a little scared until now. To say the pressure was on was an understatement. I went outside to get some air and walk off the stress. I had my helper call the original owner and talk to her. She showed up and Sadie was a different dog. She was loving and licking. She let me pet her and unlock her door. We had hot dogs and she was enjoying herself. She moved back and Sadie lunged for me. It only takes once. And when it happens with an audience the situation goes from bad to really damn ugly.

Sadie without the security blanket of her original owner was dangerous. She had to go to a different home from this owner because they had a strict no pet rule. From that time she got passed around from home to home until She was relinquished to the pound. That week of her world shifting over and over was all it took. Sadie decided that She couldn't trust and She lashed out at me who was her last hope.

I know the situation could have been handlesd better. Things could have been done differently, but I was left with the final word.

So October sucks because I lost my Melanie. I wear her collar in memory of her. November really sucked because I couldn't save Sadie. I have her collar I bought her that morning. I'd like to think that there will only be two collars I wear in memory of dog's I couldn't save.

In the meantime I keep repeating the words "You can't save them all" to myself as I try to heal from this. I know in good conscience I can't unleash a dog on a family I can't trust. I take what I do seriously and if I feel I can't turn my back on a dog because they make me nervous that they will bite me or someone else then I have to step away.

To fail or not to fail...that is the question

I'm a firm believer of always setting your dog up for success. Sometimes, when we don't even realize it, we are setting up our furry pals to fail. It's the small things we are overlooking, and once you realize it, it's amazing the difference YOU can make in your companion's life.

This whole thought started for me with a conversation about using a mousetrap to deter counter surfing. I'm studying behavior right now and how a dog views the world. With having a noise reactive dog it's given me a new insight to his world.

There's several ways we can look at the aversion of the mousetrap. When the dog would jump up on the counter, the mousetrap (enclosed in a container) when moved would scare the dog and make him not want to jump up there again. What happens if the mousetrap doesn't go off? In my experience, the dogs I know may set off the trap, but do it anyway and just learn to avoid the aversion of the mousetrap. Or, in the case of my house, said dog would run from the sound, hide until he felt safe again and then refuse to step into the kitchen again.

Let's view why this would happen. Dogs view things with not just what they see and hear. Think about it this way, dogs associate us just not by sight but smell also. So, what happens if there is hamburger cooking or something with a distinctive smell when said mousetrap went off? The dog may associate the aversion wrongly. This can happen very easily and can be very bad as next thing you know; you have a domino effect of behavior scares.

I've found it simpler to set your dog up for success instead. I originally set Greyson up to fail by sitting dinner on the counter and clicking and rewarding when he ignored. When we moved into our new house Grey had a fear of our kitchen because that was the location where glass hit glass as we did dishes. Once we overcame that (with lots of patience and rewards) we reinforced 4 on the floor (as in 4 of his feet). He now sits and waits patiently for his turn to eat and treat. Now, had we done with the kitchen like we did with the rest of our house, it probably would have been simpler. In our house we remove temptation. Simple as that! We manage Greyson's interaction with items and normal household activities.

When Greyson was little it was summer time and of course that means flip flop season. In the matter of weeks, I went from 15 pairs of flip flops to none. Every chance he got, he shredded and devoured them. He wasn't picky either, we could be sitting in the room with him and he would grab one and start chewing. No amount of taking shoes from him worked. We traded out shoes for rawhides, toys, and chewies; and no luck. Inspiration hit and we had a shelf that was waist high. Greyson could "see" the shoes, but they were no longer in his domain ("the floor"). Voila! No more shoe eating. My floors no longer look like a crime scene of shredded mess.

From that day forward, the shelf was a key component in our life. We realized that by removing the temptation we received the resulting behavior we wanted (no shoes shredding). In all actuality, we didn't train Greyson this instance he trained us to remove items from his domain.

I call this management, rather than training. WE manage what he has a possibility to come into contact with. WE determine if we want a remote shredded by putting it up when not in use. WE determine if we want dirty laundry drug out, by putting IN the hamper and not in a pile on the floor. Since getting Greyson, our house is much more orderly due to us not wanting things destroyed.

Often times, I hear the words, "Well, I gave Fido and old shoes to chew on and he started eating my new Nikes!" Old socks are another I hear a lot about. Now, my question is simple...How is Fido supposed to tell the difference between new and old? When did humans expect dogs to learn such a thing? After I stop mentally giggling I turn to confused faces, to which I can only answer people by explaining that to a dog, there is no new or old, only theirs and theirs. Yes, that's not a typo. Once you give Fido his first shoe or sock, you have told him they are all his. You have begun his behavior.

Now imagine what happens if you remove those yummy feet-smelling treats. The unwanted behavior stops. Imagine that! How simple is that? I like to tell the human child in our house, "If you pick up YOUR stuff, the dog won't eat it." We provide lots of Greyson appropriate toys and chewies, but if YOU leave the temptation in his domain, then you are responsible for its loss.

Let's transpose the management theory over to the counter surfing problem. Remove the temptation. Don't leave food on the counters, tables or anywhere else. If you leave it there and you don't kennel or gate the dog, then YOU are responsible. I know people who don't allow the dog in the kitchen until they are done cooking, and after they put dinner on the table, they feed the dog and go have dinner. My father in law does this and it works great and he doesn't have a 100 pound boxer counter surfing. They are managing. A lot of people use gates and to me that is okay as well.

Now, let's move the management theory to walking on a leash. Dog pulls? Stop moving! Dog relaxes and leash goes slack? Start moving! Rinse and repeat! Sounds crazy, huh? Your dog will get it though and after a while, BOOM!, your dog is walking loose leash and all is well with the world. Well, sorta, ya know. Dogs are amazingly smart and once they pick up on how to get what they want, it's amazing what happens. By managing their ability to move forward during a walk, they will relax and they will work with you.

So, give it a try! Look through your house and see what you can do to manage Fido. You'll be amazed at what you come up with!

Letting go is never easy

I've been quiet for a little bit. I needed to sort out a few things. I'm not normally a very emotional person, but this has been a trying time on my emotions. I have become attached to Spudz and I had to make a very hard decision.

Spudz has wormed his way into my heart and has become a treasured piece of me. He has become so dear to me that I found myself calling myself Momma to him. And then after our training sessions I would put him back into his room at the shelter and I would drive home a mess. I started to want nothing more than to bring my baby boy home to live with his brother and sisters, but I knew that wasn't possible and it was slowly tearing me to pieces.

No matter what I did I can't get Spudz to like cats much less coexist with two female cats. And, I am the lucky guardian of two cats. I knew Greyson would be tough enough, but I can't fool myself into thinking I can ever make it work. Some dogs just can't get past their dislike of cats. My house would be as much stress as the kennel stress is getting to be.

So, when Becky, the president of Scott County Dog Rescue, started telling me about the family who was interested in Spudz I tried to put it off as "he's not ready". In my heart I was trying to still convince myself that I could make it work somehow, but I can no longer lie to myself.

Spudz has come as far as he is ever going to come in my hands while living in a shelter. Today sealed the deal for me in my decision. I took some friends to see the dogs and we let the dogs out to play and potty. Spudz was calm. To hear someone else who has no experience with dogs claim he was calm and a good dog, I knew I was holding him back.

The family is ideal, have teenage sons and have experience with reactive dogs. I was the one who was standing in their way. I had to agree that he is ready. He has the training, meds, and balance he needs to continue in a home. I know it will be a rough transition for not just Spudz but for me also. And, it won't be a quick process. There will lots of visits and meetings and Spudz will need to continue with a training schedule. Slowly we will transition him to their home and I know this isn't going to be easy for me.

I came home today and curled up with Greyson and just held him tight. Who knew training a dog can cause you to become so attached to a dog. I started this journey with Spudz because a vet said he wasn't a good candidate to be rehabbed and I refused to give up. I know our journey isn't over but I'm truly hoping that this family works out and can give him the home I know I'm unable to give him. Even if I was delusional enough to think I could for a while.

So, in closing, if Spudz gets a home, this will be my first huge training break through. And it was all done force - free and with love, and understanding of a dog who isn't acting out just to act out. Dogs are telling us things with their behavior and if we open our minds and hearts to understanding them, just about anything is possible.

That Step Backwards

Tonight I went to work with Spudz. I was super excited. We are working leash manners. And by working them I use a belt leash that is only 3 feet long so Spudz doesn't feel nervous. He still has me at his side. The belt hooks loosely around my waist and this is how I have walked Greyson ever since he dislocated both of my shoulders. It gives a great more ability to redirect as it gives me a hands-free method to walk with and I can dig treats out of my treat bag easier.

I always start off with exercises in the building first. Twenty taps to the palm, Twenty times looking at me when I say his name, and then we're ready! I decided to go through the play yard and let him potty first so he wasn't instantly looking for a spot to potty in as soon as we walked out the gate. We were doing great at first. He sat next to me took a treat and I started moving. His instant reaction, run to the end of the leash. I expected this though and just stopped and stood there. This is how I teach loose leash walking. It's about as exciting as watching paint dry and happens about as fast. I've seen dogs go as few as 10 feet the first time learning this but repeat, repeat, repeat. Come back to me, get a treat, we move.

With Greyson I lure walked. I kept treats in my hand at his nose and he walked while getting treats. He mostly dropped them but he was so excited by the prospect that there was MORE treats he didn't care about the ones he dropped. Unfortunately Greyson learned that if there weren't treats near his nose he didn't need to walk next to me. We reverted to the process I'm using with Spudz and Greyson is much more enjoyable to walk.

With Spudz, we got just beyond the area where the cars park when something caught his eye. Oh, no, it was a cat. Spudz instantly reacted. He was lunging, jumping, and barking at the end of the leash. At one point I was pretty sure I was about to be dragged behind him on the belt leash. Luckily the belt leash offers a lower center of gravity being around my waist and not the wrist and I ended up standing there while he was so over stimulated that there was no pulling him back to me. By pulling him back to me I refer to redirection. I often times to pull his attention back to me will hold a treat where he can see it and move it to my face. Spudz LOVES food and 9 times out of 10 he will follow that treat and sit. This time, no such luck. It was over for him.

Sometimes we don't have success when we train. This was our chance to have a peaceful (if short) walk through town while there wasn't a lot of people out. By me not checking our surroundings beforehand I am responsible for his not making progress tonight. Sometimes things like this happen. It's times like this when we have to pick ourselves up and move on. It was not Spudz fault there was a cat there. It was my fault for not realizing the cat was there and setting him up to fail. I should note that once we got near my car Spudz went to the back door and sat down. He has learned cars mean car rides, which means good things to come like ball parks and exercise running and being a normal dog.

Next time, I will know to check out the outside before I randomly put Spudz in a position that he's not comfortable in. We know he doesn't like cats, we need to avoid that. Slowly triggers for him become obvious. Small furry things that Meow should be avoided.

Tonight wasn't a complete loss. Spudz may not have gotten to walk but he taught me a huge lesson. As with all things it's a learning experience for everyone involved. We learn from each other and we move forward from that. Spudz taught me to be more observant and for that I thank him.

A Moment of Pride

We all have those moments where we just step back and smile. Sometimes with positive reinforcement training those moments are slow to start, but once they start it seems like they just start piling up and next thing you know you are smiling non-stop. Or, in my case, your dog is smiling non-stop also.

Greyson has always been very fearful of men. No one knows why or how it happened. He has a select circle of men that he loves and will shower with unconditional love. Yesterday, he took baby steps towards someone he didn't know, and though his tail was tucked and he was cautious, he walked up to a male he didn't know and sat to be petted. This for him is huge. He doesn't solicit attention from men. I almost cried tears of joy when I saw his body go relaxed and he rubbed his head on the guys leg to be petted even more. It was a very proud momma moment but it didn't stop there.

Greyson has also never read signals from another dog. I've always had to help him out and make sure I always set him up for success. There was a male pit bull terrier who was coming at us full bore and was straining to get to Greyson. Grey has met the other dog and has played with him before. The other dog was in an obvious state of panic because his handler was not the greatest of trainers and was freaking him out. He was coming right at us head on and to my amazement, Greyson stood up and turned his side to the dog. Old Greyson would have went at the dog head on and paws up to smack him in the face, but nope, he turned and lowered his head to show the other dog "It's okay, I come in peace." Unfortunately the other trainer grabbed the leash and yanked the other dog away from Greyson even though there was zero signs of aggression or either dog being uncomfortable. While it was obvious this made Greyson nervous he never went rigid and kept his side to the other dog. My boy is finally learning!!

Greyson can be very defensive and I am very blunt about it by explaining to people that he has the know how and the will to bite another dog. This went completely unheeded by the other trainer and she just kept yanking that poor other dog around by his leash. (Least she had removed the prong collar from him before she did it.) It was a very uncomfortable situation not just for me but for the dogs involved. Unfortunately there is no talking sense in to some people and I have to learn when to cut my losses.

Greyson though, even after a long exhausting day at the clinic getting his front legs looked at pulled through and got an ice cream at the end of the day. For him to have been poked and prodded all day and not be agitated is a huge accomplishment for him. He has learned in a short six months how to shake it off. He went from being a dog like Spudz who can't bounce back from a distraction or major upheaval to a dog who in a few minutes walks away, shakes it off and looks at me like "What's up Mom? We're cool!"

As Greyson progresses he becomes more comfortable with not just me but with himself. He's never been that proud little boy who prances and I'm starting to see that personality come out little by little. He's slowly becoming proud of himself. He no longer walks with his head down towards the ground. He is head up and right by my side. I think all the obedience work we have done with him and the time we've spent watching his triggers for panic attacks makes me him more confident that he knows he will be okay. He knows that we are here and we will help him in his journey and that in return makes him more confident in himself just even to be a normal dog.

On another note, I can not thank my family at Pit Bull Zen enough! These folks welcomed me when I felt very alone with Greyson. With them I have had the courage to know that I am capable of working with dogs who have problems and they are a sounding board for when I have questions. They are also an amazing resource for Force-Free/Positive Reinforcement training. Liz and Dawn have given me the basis of a wonderful foundation to work with dogs like Spudz and Greyson. They also helped me connect with Laurie Buchele of Buchele K-9 Services who is phenomenal!  And without all the members, I probably wouldn't have had those moments of pride with Greyson yesterday.

They've also given me the courage to apply to The Professional Pet Guild. I got my acceptance email and yes, I squee'd in glee. Least this time I was at home and not in the middle of a park packed with people.

So, when you are feeling like you are a lone person against the adversity of a problem dog or people look at you crazy because you refuse to put a prong collar on a dog, remember, there are always resources out there. Just go find them!