Starting At The Beginning

I really think of Rio as being one of the best things since sliced bread, but there is this one behavior of hers that I must nip pronto! Whenever I have training sessions here in Tesuque, both Deuce and Rio are in their crates enjoying some classical music and a chewy bone. Once my clients have left or the class ended, they come out.

Rio is quick in getting out of her crate and in a flurry of arousal, she proceeds towards the front door wanting to be let out ASAP.

There is evidence of their madness as Rio and/or Deuce crashed and broke one of our side tables as they were exiting my office on one such occasion.

The problem is that Rio’s impulsivity in wanting to meet people or dogs alike was getting her in trouble. She used to dash to people barking and howling making I am sure guests uncomfortable. Heck! I would be too if I did not know the dog.

In the past I warned people that Rio would come dashing out and for them to give her just a few seconds of sniffing them without them fully interacting with her. This worked, as she was able to regain her composure and befriend the new person after a few seconds. But I was still not satisfied as to how she was meeting new people. Rio is a poster-child of what we call in the industry a dog that “warms-up slowly”. Even though I have worked with dogs like this, I had never had such a dog.

We can label the dog all we want: dog is ambivalent or as a friend of ours mentioned recently “overwhelmed” by the initial interaction with people. Yes, it is also accurate that most herding dogs – Rio is a Cattle dog/Beagle mix - “tend” to befriend their own folks while remaining “aloof” or weary of people they don’t know.

For the most part, a majority of herding dogs that I have met fit this profile but not all. Take for example Deuce. Okay, so those are a couple of explanations for her “warming up slowly” mannerism, but having an explanation for a behavior or labeling the dog with a description does little in helping her out when these interactions are taking place.

I have been working with Rio on this new protocol, which consists of separate training plans that will culminate in Rio saying “hi” to new guests sans such pronounced impulsivity.

So, we are starting right back to the beginning- where the problem arises: Rio dashing out of my office towards the front or back door as soon as she is let out of her crate.

After a few training sessions… the new Rio, only comes out when I invite her to do so. She remains lying down in her crate until I release her. She lies down in my tiny office as we both march calmly to either the back or front door. Once again, she lies down when I ask her to and we continue to walk not run :)) either to the garage/classroom or the front of the property where the classes meet.

We have done many, many little training sessions with Rio proving to me what a quick study she is. She is so keen that I call her my three-trial dog because she learns contingencies with the same speed she used to engage when greeting people.

All these training sessions have been mock-trials with no real people to greet her. Once she has had success with these trials, I will begin to add one at a time the stimuli that causes her to lose self-control: sounds of people’s voices, the smell of other dogs, the visual of a car, person or dog.

Rio will most likely always act/react as a hot-tempered Latin (I know not very PC of me but I guess I can say that since I am Latin and rumor has it…) but what I am hoping for as a result of gaining
reinforcement for calm behaviors versus "acting out” on her impulsive nature, is that in time she will be able to respond instead of react.

The best example I can use to illustrate arousal in dogs to my clients is the one of someone with road rage. Some people have it while some people don’t. But those that do can learn to act instead of reacting to their innate impulse. They can learn to sing a tune, take a breath etc. instead of flipping someone off or running someone off the road.

Changes like this take time and the reality is that either dog or road rage subject must find an alternative (and more desirable behavior) to be worth their while. In other words: reinforcing; otherwise they will continue to greet at top-speed and continue to flip-people off because that behavior is in some way reinforcing for them.

Life happens… even to trainers

Last Sunday we decided that we were going to take both Laika and Deuce for an “urban” walk in Santa Fe. I know it sounds funny to think of Santa Fe, NM as “urban” but since we live in the country about 10 min. away from Santa Fe, we think of walks within city limits as urban walks. These urban walks are some of the things that I miss the most from where we previously lived: Berkeley, CA. I used to take Laika (we did not have Deuce at that time) for 1 hr. walks almost daily. I had my routes depending on how I felt and what kind of training I needed to do with Laika.

A big plus for me during these walks was to have the opportunity to relax by looking at how people kept their gardens (as it seems everyone in Berkeley does). During our walks, I would also enjoy taking in the smell of flowers in spring… ah… I surely miss the fragrance of Jasmine! Here in the high desert there are not fragrant flowers on our walks. As we headed down a semi-busy street in downtown Santa Fe – John ahead with Laika and me behind with Deuce. As I was trying to manage his compulsive border collie (and highly obnoxious) behavior of spotting cars ready to chase them, a car with a huge brown dog - half way out the window sped by with the dog constantly barking.

I tried to warn John that Laika might begin to pull hard on the leash in a combination of frustration and wanting to get to the dog- this is called "barrier frustration." Barrier frustration in dogs is quite ubiquitous. In a nutshell, barrier frustration occurs when the dog that is being held back by any kind of barrier - in our case the leash - becomes frustrated because they cannot access something that they want: dog, person, cat, etc. An animal can get very thwarted over time and it begins to associate the stimulus that initially he/she wanted to access with a source of (the feeling) frustration and thus can respond by lunging, barking or any other display of frustration such as whining.

Laika’s outbursts are for the most part not a source of concern. This is after six years of on-going training, know-how and lots of treats and patience. In essence, a dog that has barrier frustration will ALWAYS have the predisposition to react with an explosive display while in the presence of the stimulus that elicits frustration; since this is just how this particular dog responds to feeling frustrated… think of someone who is under stress and frustrated responds with “road-rage” while others continue to follow the tune on their radio.

This past Sunday was the perfect example of Laika not being able to keep her “stuff” together: the close view of the massive dog halfway out the window barking at her was too much! She began to pull and puff! Off she went in hot pursuit of the car and dog! Needless to say, both John and I were startled and consumed with worry that Laika might either: 1. get run over by the car with the dog or by another car, and the possibility of the dog jumping out of the car followed by a dog fight, or 2. Laika jumping on the car intending to get to the dog and scratch the heck out of the car. John began to run after her as I walked - still holding on to my dog and trying to ignore the pain in my left foot (bad case of plantar fasciitis). The car, Laika and finally John made the corner… out of my sight but not out of my mind. I approached the corner with Deuce in tow to find John and Laika reunited.

So indeed, life happens also to (good) trainers! Collars get loose and we are encountered by circumstances that are beyond our control and potentially very dangerous to our dogs. Is there a moral to the story? I will say yes, since in my view there is always a silver lining.

Now here is an interesting fact for you: Dogs are one of the easiest species to train. Perhaps because of domestication and how much we know (in relation to other species) about them in laboratory settings. Having said this, a dog that will respond to a given cue (request) 90 % of the time (under the same circumstances and levels of distraction) is considered well trained. What I am trying to get at is that in training and behavior modification, as in life there is no 100 %. Of course it does not mean that we need to be satisfied with a behavior having a rate of 90 % when with practice in a myriad of situations (this is called generalization or proofing a behavior in trainer’s talk) a behavior’s reliability will go up.

I wanted to write this week about this particular incident because sometimes I feel people have unrealistic expectations about what their dogs can do albeit a little training and effort on their part. If trainers got paid for every time we heard from a potential client: "I want my dog to come to me when called ALL the time" we would be really rich!

Having a dog follow with our requests is really not magic as in: give your dog this pill and call me tomorrow if things have not improved. Training takes a LOT of effort and consistency- something we humans are not good at  - at all!

There is yet so much more that I can say about dogs chasing cars and their motivations for doing so, but instead I am planning on teaching a class to give clients of dogs who chase cars ( which by the way, it is normal dog behavior- pre-installed and all) some tools so that they can better understand circumstances where their dog might take off in hot pursuit after a moving car (or bike or…). The class that I am designing will also teach the dog alternative behaviors to chasing moving objects.