Getting Unstuck!

Deuce and Rio play great together. As with any good dog that is a well match with its playmate, they not only enjoy each other but their play has never tipped-over to a fight. However, when there is a third dog in the mix, Deuce forgets all his great play manners and resorts to wanting to manage Rio’s movement by gently biting on her neck repeatedly. I can imagine how obnoxious this is for Rio! I normally ask him to watch himself with a time-out from play if he fails to stop. This weekend as I saw them playing with one of their favorite pals, Scout, Deuce was getting all stuck and play biting Rio on the neck.

It got me thinking of how to get him unstuck so that he uses a more ample repertoire in play. I

have also been thinking a lot lately about the importance of not having our dogs engage (literally use their bodies) in behavior(s) that we want to modify. Every single time he puts his mouth on Rio’s neck that behavior is getting more and more engrained in his brain and more resistant to change.

 

The Rx for modifying any behavior is then:

1. Manage the environment so that the dog cannot practice the behavior we want to end.
2. Teach the dog another more appropriate behavior to do instead.

An important caveat however, is that whatever behavior we teach must also satisfy the need the dog had in the first place when engaging in behavior # 1. In other words: If the dog wants social contact, find a way (behavior) that will allow for that while preventing him from rehearsing the behavior we want to eradicate. This is not only fair for the dog but also savvy.

If we do not acknowledge the needs of the dog, he will find another way by which to satisfy that need. Another salient example: Here is a dog that is fearful of strangers and thus will lunge and growl to keep the stranger at a distance. By teaching the dog to move away instead of aggressing at the stranger we have satisfied the dog’s need for safety (away from what scares him) AND he has stopped partaking in lunging and growling at the stranger.
With Deuce, I decided to try the following:

1. Ask him for a play bow in the middle of their playing - a behavior I trained independently as a cute trick. If he could switch his attention to the play bow he could not at the same time be biting Rio gently on the neck. It worked! What I also liked about this option was that a play bow is an intrinsical element of all good dog play.
2. I also incorporated a ball in the play session when Rio and Deuce met a potential board & train client’s dog. I did this to not have both dogs overwhelm the young pup, and so that Deuce doesn't revert to his Border collie mode (Border collies and other herding breeds take it upon themselves to “patrol” the movement of other dogs in an effort I think to either stop the movement or to collect the dogs as they do with stock).

This again proved to be an effective strategy. Deuce was able to interact with Ruby and Rio nicely, but because he was also focused on his ball which was either in his proximity or in his mouth, he did not once try and stop Rio from moving by grabbing onto her neck.

Now my job is to keep having Deuce practice a more ample repertoire when playing with other dogs and Rio thus making for happier playful pals.

 

Beep, Beep, Beep

Talk about Pavlov and associate conditioning! Bells and everything! Okay, first let me give you some background information about the state of affairs. After having injured my foot at the beginning of the month, now I have a heavy duty brace that by just one look at it I get queasy. I think to myself "how am I going to get this thing on and off?"

I just got it yesterday afternoon. I am suppose to wear it all the time (except when showering and sleeping) for 3 weeks. Okay no problem, I can do that if it means not having to have my tendon get worse where I need to face an operation.

So here I am tucked in bed, half asleep. All dogs happily sleeping on their beds-Louie (our foster) in his crate. When suddenly at 3 freaking am (why is it always 3 am when these things happen? Why do dogs get injured on Sundays when your “regular” vet is closed and you have to go to the ER vet? Why? Why?) the motion sensor in the house goes off! OMG!! It is soooo loud. Why is it going off? The alarm is not even activated? We just moved into our new home in Feb. There is still a lot about this home that I don’t yet know. Like where to “deactivate” this stupid alarm. John out of town… of course, just the same - when it is three in the morning something happens and dogs always get injured on Sundays.

Deuce, Laika and Louie are all freaked out… Do something mom, fix it! I am hoping out of bed, remembering not to put weight on my right foot. Trying to decide what to do next: put on the brace or take the dogs outside… I limp half-naked to get the dogs outside, I forget Louie duh! So, I go back into my bedroom and open the crate: Louie let’s go outside as I put my brace on so fast I cannot even believe it!! Ahh, that powerful adrenaline, you gotta to love it.

As I walked now around my home empowered with my super brace on, I pray to all my mighty powers (and I really have some SUPER might powers) to help me deactivate the never activated alarm. Laika has come in and is now following me around shaking with her tailed tucked. Deuce is M.I.A., I guess still outside with Louie. The alarm finally goes silent. I call Deuce and Louie and began (cheerfully as if this is what I looovee to do at 3 in the morning) dispensing calming treats in the shape of bones to all the dogs as if they were cheap flyers and my dogs being passer-byes on a busy street corner.

I think this will do it. These calming doggie aids are strong… I should have one too! I am kind of still raddled inside. But here you have it. The dogs want NOTHING to do with their beds, which is where they were laying when the alarm went off. Not even Deuce, my matter-of-fact, always cool and mellow Border Collie. He will not go into his favorite comfy-doughnut shape bed. Laika is not having it either. No happy voice is making her go back to her bed. And Louie? Where the heck is he? I (sort) of walk around the house looking for him… I call out just to find him laying in the bathroom that has the doggie-door and thus immediate access to outside. He is half way snuggled into a ball and is not budging. Perhaps the smartest of the lot, he is not going to risk going back to the scene of the crime.

Classical conditioning works by pairing: a stimulus (in my case and Pavlov’s) a noise. In his case, food after the bell in my case: most likely the dog beds. So here you have it: Dogs laying on their beds (Louie inside his crate) and all hell breaks loose… now they won’t go near their beds- as if electrified! I say most likely because Pavlov- who was working in a lab setting, could control very nicely the pairing: Bell rings, dogs get food and after whatever amount of pairings… viola the dogs are salivating (in anticipation of the food) once the stimulus of the bell is presented.

In “real” life, the pairings are not so clean. One of our biggest problems when wanting to modify behavior (counter-conditioning) is that we must be diligent in establishing this strong pairing. There are so many competing stimuli in the environment that who knows half the time which is the most salient stimulus for the animal.

What I do know is that neither one of the dogs is wanting to rest on their beds. Instead, Deuce and Laika are giving me this look and I know they want to crawl with me on mine. Ah…. I love my dogs but when it comes to sleeping… the bed is mine! Louie is still laying in the same place… “no freaking way I am going back to that crate…”

Once my dogs are on my bed and dosing off, I lay awake- on a sliver of bed that I get. I dare not too move too much afraid the motion sensor will go-off again. I am thinking: I sure hope I can “fix” the problem of the dogs having associated the beds with the scary alarm. Darn too because Louie was now going inside his crate on his own accord- even putting himself to sleep when he was tired in the evenings. Just before the alarm fiasco, I didn’t have to coax him to go in by throwing some tasty treats inside the crate. I was so happy that I could pass him on to the best suitor with his fabulous crate training skills. Take note, this is a dog that could not handle any sort of enclosure when he first came to our home…

As I lay in the bed I am also thinking that why on this am did the alarm had to go off when I had such a busy day… two trainings sessions: one with an aggressive dog that was trying to nail me shall I make the wrong way, the other a new client… oh no… And then I am thinking also about placing delicious slivers of chicken and hot dogs all over the beds… come find it… look what just fell out of the sky…. here on your bed, inside your crate…beep, beep, beep.