What is SEC and Why Do You Need To Know About It?

SEC is an acronym for Sudden Environmental Contrast. In plain English it means that something changes in the environment and it happens so sudden that it raises concern or plain fear in an already distressed dog. SEC could take place in many forms but it does have the above signature as its underlining characteristic. I am defining “environment” as anything in the world that has an impact on a dog’s behavior, well-being, etc. So it could be a person, another dog, natural phenomena and the like.

I think that SEC is so stressful to dogs that are not comfortable in either that environment or have generalized fear or anxiety because it is an unpredictable phenomena. You see, dogs thrive (all animals frankly, but let’s just keep it to dogs) in being able to have control over their environment. It is a question of feeling safe and basic survival instinct.

Some examples of SEC that I have worked with are: a person coming out from a hallway to the room where the dog is, a person popping/exposing their head from a threshold such as a window, someone unexpectedly getting up from sitting, an object “suddenly” appearing in sight- which in some cases, the novel object might have been around, but the dog had not noticed it before.

The good news about SEC is that once we can identify it, we can teach the dog that there is no reason to be concerned. It is a case of typical classical conditioning that is: building positive associations.

This is how I normally like to begin working with SEC: When I encounter this in my cases, I quickly move to operant work which means that I am not only and exclusively concerned with building a good positive association, but I also want to teach the dog how to react when encountering any fearful trigger - in this case SEC.

I’ll explain further: I recently worked with a fearful dog that was very concerned to the point that he would bark, and even charge whenever a guest of the family. For example, I would come down the hall and into the living room. You can appreciate how complicated this situation might be!

So I taught the dog to lie down in the living room - yes this took quite a bit of positive association and reinforcement for the dog to lie on his bed whenever he heard someone coming down this hall.

In addition, the guests were coached to talk in a cheerful voice to the dog as they were coming down the hall. So by definition, someone walking down the hall was not a SEC anymore because the dog has been given a heads-up and now can expect the outcome. In addition he has learned an alternative behavior to lunging or barking and instead lies down and gets paid handsomely for doing so.

Another typical SEC situation is the picking up of small breed dogs. They are small and pretty much everything in their world is larger than they are. Add to this the fact that people, when picking them up, will loom over them; so for these reasons most small dogs hate being picked up. How they go about demonstrating their concern runs the gamut. Some dogs just dodge their little heads in an effort to avoid the interaction, others can escalate to a growl or other warnings or even a bite.

What I like to do in cases like this is to give the dog a heads-up about what I am going to do: loom over and lift them up. This procedure is so simple that I think that everyone should implement it.

You could simply choose a phrase that you will say just prior to looming over and picking the dog up. Such as: Pick up, etc. Wait a few seconds before you loom over and proceed to pick the dog up.

After very few trials the dog can relax because it knows what is going to happen next. What a great gift to help dogs when it is so easy to do so. In addition to doing this, I reinforce the dog once I am holding him. Finally, I put the dog down before the dog gets too overwhelmed and starts to wiggle or resist being held.

Three Games in a Row

I am exercising the dogs this morning and I notice that Rio is sort of inspecting the whippet (toy)instead of playing.  We had to change toys because the last one basically tore away from the whippet.  Now instead of playing by chasing the toy she is smelling and looking at it - perhaps making sure that it is safe?   I let her carry on and notice how relevant little details like this are to dogs. They take so many cues from their environment in order to guarantee their safety. Minutes later Rio has decided that this toy will do and she is back at it chasing the new toy as she has done so many times before with the “old” one.

My neighbors were astounded to hear that I can exhaust my two young active dogs in 20 min. sessions. “Yes,” I tell them, “I work with them everyday and 20 min. later I can go back to work and they begin their snoozing practice of the day.”

I love working with my dogs… it is one of the times where I feel most relaxed and just happy.  I enjoy seeing them run hard after a Frisbee. Rio, who is super athletic, can actually bend her rear-end in the air in order to better capture the Frisbee - that is when she wants to!

Most mornings we do a triage of activities.  Each requiring different skills and lots of stamina. This morning we began by working on recall (come when called) by way of using a tug toy which the dogs must go get on cue, bring to me (the recall part) to engage in another game of tug.  One dog is in a pen looking for treats while the other is working with me. I swap dogs after a few reps.

The advantage of having two dogs (or many more for that matter) is that you get to experience different learning styles and aptitudes. This keeps my training chops sharp!

Rio takes it upon herself to pull a “playing-by-myself” routine when I let her have the tug.  This is not acceptable since playing tug is about partnership.  A few trials of reinforcing via treats for actually bringing the toy instead of running away with it has curtailed her play-alone behavior.

After the tug/recall routine the dogs are resting on the snow and I go get the Frisbees.  They run excitedly and into position.  This is one of Deuce’s all time favorites (and the tug, the chasing after the orange ball, carrying the tennis ball in the mouth, herding sheep…).

He jumps and runs after each one with abandonment.  Rio again takes turns being super eager to go at it or instead distracts herself by sniffing the snow or peeing here and there.  A few training/play sessions back I began to reinforce her for every time she actually caught the Frisbee in her mouth.  Wow! Now she is going for it.  Before pairing the play with food/reinforcer I was lucky if this girl would give me two decent tries in a row, but now she has learned the contingency. These days I am almost assured that I can unglue her from sniffing the ground and to join the fun. 

Finally with the dogs tired and with their wet tongues out, I bring the famous orange ball out.  They take a rest and we begin the last of the exercises of the morning.

Deuce has also learned that he must bring the ball to me instead of taking it to his “starting” place.  I got really smart and realized that I needed to teach him that “here” means wherever I am.  It was so obvious what the problem was for the boy and such a simple solution.  Now I move around our training field and he comes to me to get me to kick the ball again.

Some of my rules of Triage are:

• Both parties must have fun.
• Nobody gets hurt.
• I write down the different combinations of behaviors that I want to work with. or modify in some way, as my memory is good but not 100%.
• Remain flexible.  In other words, take cues from the dogs as to what they enjoy doing and be ready to add to the "triage” structure as they come up with interesting combinations of either games or new behaviors within the same game we have been playing.

In this manner the training sessions are truly fun for the dogs and we make discoveries in unison. Not a bad way to start the day, eh?

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.