Tired Boys….by Lisa Harmon April 18, 2009

it was a busy day, ma

Kenai all tuckered out, 16 mo old

Yesterday was a marathon 2-hour training session with the boys. That means you get a marathon post. Anyone trying to re-condition their dog’s nervousness about something, or their dog’s wild child behavior will certainly have a good idea of how to go about it.

The first 2o minutes was devoted to Kenai: it involved a short walk outside, a warm up of the “name game”, where he looks when his name is called. With all those critter smells, it’s a tough thing for a boy to do. Mean ol’ me wouldn’t let him mark on my bushes, either.

Then Kenai was re-introduced to a stroller inside. He’s recently gotten all freaky Scooby pup with moving objects, like strollers, walkers, etc. First step was just letting it sit there, clicking and rewarding for smelling it, looking at it, walking by it, and taking treats sitting on it.

Then it was a stand stay while the stroller, about 3 feet away, was moved a tiny bit, then a sit stay. The trick is finding his limit and stopping to click and reward right before it. At first he could hold for a 1″ away movement, and a scant 1/4″ towards him movement.

When he held, he got his click and treat, then a fun little rumpus time where he could play and bow and trot around the dining room. The rumpus ended when we came back to the kitchen and did another sit stay. By the end of 7-8 repetitions we could bring the stroller within 12″ or so.

***

Mom was AWOL with a sick tum, so after about 2o minutes of Kenai time, BB was brought out of Mom’s room, and Kenai went in the living room pen. It was finally FUNNY BOY TIME! First thing we did was take him out to potty, since Mom had neglected to do that. Lisa was surprised that I didn’t even bother to put on his collar.

Beebs is totally reliable about coming when called. All he wants is attention, so even a threat of attention brings him gallopolling your way. BTW, BB doesn’t gallop, he gallopolls, legs going every which way, ears flapping like a dodo bird trying to take off…he’s so funny!

He’s such a wild and crazy guy, he can startle you running up so close to you. He runs at you then around you, bumps you, then runs that’a'way. It’s like an overgrown Jack Russell jumping up and all around you for attention.

He bumps but he doesn’t ram or really jump since he’s only bearing weight on one back leg. Lisa hesitated at first, stopping and even backing up. I explained he really won’t knock you down, he doesn’t even bump hard enough to knock wobbly balance challenged me down.

Just keep walking at him, and he moves to the side. I usually send him to the door or tell him to go find his brother and he happy gallopolls off. When he starts heading back at me, I remind him to go to the door or whatever.

While Kenai was demolishing the furniture, (he couldn’t see me), leaping on and off that poor battered and sliding around the room couch…

BB was learning a new game: “go wild!” Mom’s typical reaction to Beeb’s crazy excited is to get mad, and then get madder since he’s not on the bed relaxed like she wants. Eventually she yells, and before long, Kenai is upset and jumpy. So “go wild” game is the first step in the remedy to all that angst.

Beebers gets to go wild, running, spinning, hyping up to match our high pitched voices, then a sudden “down”–at first he gets a click/treat the moment his baby bottoms hits the bed. He gets a release and “go wild” again.

Once he reliably does the instant down (he knows that from his lightening round practices) he gets a click and has to wait one second before his treat and release comes. Then 2 seconds, then 5 seconds…. the duration of stay is increased and the duration of silly is decreased.

If he didn’t down, we turned our backs and ignored him. He got so annoyed with that once he barked at her. Stinky. If he got too in her face or bumpy (for dogs that jump too), the treat was used to lure the nose away to the side. You could even toss the treat or toy on the floor, then click and reward the moving away from you.

I personally would give a finger-bite for a jump or bump, then lure away, but that’s just me. Sometimes a dog is so excitable and not thinking that the combination of correcting the unacceptable in a primitive doggie way and luring into the good behavior works better, at least for me.

I can get a 3 1/2 min down stay out of Beebs during practices, but I’ve never used them to interrupt THEN RELEASE the true wild child somebody’s-here stuff. I’ve been trying to just build the stay, using a bone or something to keep him down past that 3-4 min.

Giving him the wild child time over there keeps him off the person over here, keeps me in charge of when he’s wild child, and gives him an off switch he’ll use since he gets to turn on again…Lisa’s perty durn clever!

***

Next it was back to Kenai, now entirely devoted to being my shadow. His relative calmness before was shot, since BB was just over there in the living room.

We did the stroller again, and since he was only really uncomfortable when it’s picked up, we set it on my lap. I spun the wheels, turned it this way and that (slowly), and even hugged it. Any nose touch, coming near me was click/rewarded.

He began to play bow, so anytime he touched it he got to play with Lisa. When I set it down, the silly boy would “dig” in front of it, rather that touch it. He went to town on that laminate floor too, trying to dig his way to Mongolia.

I found if I put my hand in his “arm pit”, he would stop digging. That is NOT a habit I want him to take up. A lab could make a hole to hide chair in, but a Dane could make one big enough to hide an SUV. Bigger paws make bigger holes…I don’t want to drop my riding mower into a Kenai-made sink hole one sunny day.

The touch was enough to stop the behavior without completely interrupting his attention from the stroller.  After a couple minutes of that, he plopped down on my foot and relaxed. “Whew, mom, that’s tiring…”

So Lisa moved the stroller around while he down/stayed on his own. (Technique called capturing). This is more what I wanted–I wouldn’t be happy if he jumped up from a down stay to push some poor mother’s kid around in their stroller!

I can just see him doing that…the kid might enjoy the ride, but I doubt the Mom would be as delighted. Can a dog be charged with kidnapping?

Kenai also got some work on targeting my hand, getting a click/treat when he nose nudges it. Brown’s not a nose nudge boy. A body sensitive boy, this toffee tank of mine. He did it a few times then lost interest. Not his style. I’ll keep working on it, not setting my heart on success. He targets places like bed, couch, mat etc. 

The hand-nose target is a super useful thing. The dog can touch your hand when they notice something they don’t like, and you can reward them for noticing and change their emotions that way. The dog can touch your hand when they want something, asking permission to go play, or whatever.

Hand targeting can be incorporated into just about anything, including medical or sound alerts for service dogs. The idea of targeting then can be morphed into touching other things, and eventually (hope, hope) picking up dropped objects, retrieving pots or canned veggies, turning the lights on and off…targeting is a big time service dog trick.

True to form, Kenai’s skipping out on this prized SD trait like he does all the others! That’s my boy, consistently contrary.

The last thing we worked on directly was his seperation anxiety. I never did anything about it because I wanted him to want to be anywhere I am. But of late it has indeed become anxiety, not a desire to be where I am and work.

While Lisa’s working with him, I come and go, a sort of indirect way of getting him used to not seeing me. For a more intensive approach, I went outside, where he wanted to go anyway, and he had to stay inside.

In order to come outside with me, he had to do a sit for Lisa. He wouldn’t. So she came outside too. Attempt number 2 went the same way. On the third try, he did his sit for her, and had the door opened. Oh the boy love–head rubbing, leaning!

Then he was allowed to sniff about, getting a reward for the name games. We did that three times, and he had it all figured out, doing his sit whenever asked. I’m sorta kicking around how I can make being with me more dependant on working, without being too draconian. He does get to be my buddy too.

***

Anyway, the boys was pooped after all that! Neither of them moved more than neccessary: eating, going out for potty, and one too-tired-to-be-onery Sasquatch time with Mom was it for the rest of the day. I could just about hear the air leaking out of their tires.

My spare was a little flat too. The fatigue is pretty bad, the muscles are in a fibro fit, and so are the joints thanks to my now active again Lyme disease. Ooo today is tough. But it was worth it–I’m glad to see some hope of getting him back to being comfortable in public.

This morning’s practice for Kenai was holding down stays around the moving stroller, wanting a bit more calmness from him about it now that he’s not so disturbed by it. He still got a release for a bit of bum rubbing and play, but I’m encouraging placidness during the down as much as I can.

It’s interesting how little I rewarded him before–I was glad for the non-chalant way he used to respond to things like strollers but I didn’t give him a happy enough reward for it. Seems I was too sedate and dull, and still have that tendency.

That’s not uncommonly found in people transitioning from the traditional correction training style to the positive encouragement training. The philosophies are wholly opposite in their approaches. And their goals too: one wants obedience because the dog’s supposed to and the other wants obedience because the dog enjoys it.

I’ve spent most of my life teaching dogs to be quiet and calm, so suddenly encouraging play time for a calm response feels slightly incongruous. It certainly works, it just feels odd at first. This here ol’ dog is learning some new tricks, too.