tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63469138474567413932024-03-08T17:27:38.547-06:00The Vanya ProjectWelcome to the adventures of life with Vanya, a hyper-aroused little pit bull. He's a brilliant, athletic, funny, exuberant, loving, agile, energetic, goofy dog. And he's a study in the hyper-arousal and lack of impulse control that can be part of this wonderful breed.Nancy Langstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970067690038342512noreply@blogger.comBlogger63125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346913847456741393.post-30198288390608238892011-08-13T15:36:00.006-05:002011-08-13T21:02:24.032-05:00Teaching Vanya not to chase livestock or deer<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Vanya and livestock/wildlife chasing<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">On our small farm, we have chickens. On 3 sides, we’re surrounded by DNR wildlife areas where deer and hunters are abundant. On the 4<sup>th</sup> side, our neighbor owns a pasture that usually has 40 or 50 heifers (young female cows) grazing.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> Our older two dogs, a pitbull named Tiva and a husky mix named Juneau, never chased critters once they were adults. Soon after I adopted her, Juneau lost her desire to chase deer when she caught up to one and it kicked her in the forehead hard enough to nearly take her eye out. Tiva chases small rodents, but with deer, chickens, and cows, she was always content just to wallow in their poop. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">But when we adopted impulsive, hyper-aroused young Vanya, it was soon clear that he liked to chase livestock. So we kept the chickens in their yard and eventually put up fencing around all 20 acres. But a determined dog can always get through, especially when the surveyor leaves a gate loose. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I did a series of foundation exercises with Vanya, hoping to reduce his arousal around livestock. I started with our chickens and then moved to the neighbors’ heifers (from our side of the fence):<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Foundation work<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"></div><ol><li><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> I started by doing the relaxation protocol far enough from the chickens so</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-size: 13pt;">that Vanya could still stay relaxed.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">Then I moved on to LAT (Look at That) with the chickens staying still </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">(eating), starting far enough away so that Vanya could still stay relaxed around </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">them; slowly decreasing the distance.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">Then LAT with the chickens running around, starting far enough so that Vanya could stay relaxed near them. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">I did all this as well with the cows on the other side of the fence. </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">For our chickens, I then took Vanya inside the yard with them. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">I walked </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">back and forth perpendicular to the chickens, me armed with a clicker and cheese whiz (his favorite treat), the chickens staying reasonably still eating their food. Vanya was on a line attached to my waist. I made sure to stay far enough from the chickens so that Vanya could glance at the chickens then back at me for his cheese. We weren't getting closer to the chickens in this exercise.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;"> Then I walked </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">closer to the chickens, with lots of clicks and cheese for Vanya staying calm and loose leash. If he ignored the chickens, good things happened. If he focused on them (alert, excited) we went backwards--a sort of penalty yards game.</span></li>
</ol><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">He got a lot calmer with both the chickens and cows, and I thought: success! Wrong. A couple chickens made their way outside the yard, and he chased and caught them. He didn’t hurt them, only damaged their dignity by licking their bellies. He dropped them when my husband noticed and yelled. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">M</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">uch more dangerously, he squeezed through the cattle fence and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">got in with the cows. Initially, they chased him and he responded in a sensible way: he ran away. But then he started barking, and they turned and scattered, and that was when he started chasing them (I wasn’t around to witness this). My husband ran after him and caught him, but only after he grabbed a heifer’s nose and swung from it. At that point, we put up another line of fencing and tried a lot more “look at that” games from a distance to get him to calm down around the heifers. He calmed down just fine, as long as they were standing still and he was on the other side of the fence. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">But eventually he somehow got through the double fencing, chased the heifers again, and got kicked hard enough to get a lung contusion and nearly die.</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">At this point, I decided I had two choices: keep him on a line for the rest of his life since LAT and the relaxation protocol weren’t enough to discourage him from cattle chasing. Or else I could try an e-collar. When a trainer I respect suggested the e-collar to me, I was initially horrified, imagining that the shock was like the kick of an electric fence. But I decided that leashed confinement, not low-level stims, would be the greater aversive for this dog, and since I try to follow a “least invasive, minimally aversive” training philosophy, I figured it was time to learn more about an e-collar.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Theory and Practice</span></b><span style="font-size: 13pt;">: <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I started by reading Steven Lindsay's chapter on e-collars in <a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_63047738">Vol 3 of his </a><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Applied-Behavior-Training-Vol/dp/0813807387">Handbook of Applied Dog Behavior and Training</a></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> (</i>Chapter 9). Lindsay is a well respected primarily-positive trainer--I think he was an early promoter of the "Least Invasive, Minimally Aversive" philosophy. From Lindsay, I learned that modern e-collar training is very different from old style shock collars, and I learned that he believes it can be significantly less painful than a gentle leader.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Early shock collar training worked on a positive punishment principle. The trainer would wait for the dog to do something he wasn’t supposed to do, and then he’d shock the dog (+) to stop the behavior and reduce its chance of happening again (P). The problem with this approach is that you might need to use a very high level of shock to be punishing enough for a very rewarding behavior like cattle chasing. Other problems: the dog might not have a clue what the shock means, so he goes running off into the next county, trying to get away from pain. Or the dog associates the source of the shock with whatever happens to be nearby. The largest problem for me is that this approach typically involves working above threshold, well out of the dog’s ability to respond operantly (in other words, to learn that his or her own behavior can control the world around him, or at least that shock).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Modern e-collar training works in a very different way. Instead of tossing the dog in a situation where he zooms above threshold and then zapping him into submission, you introduce the e-collar into a very low-distraction environment. You put the dog on a long-line and then you find the dog’s “working level” by tapping on the collar at the very lowest levels of electric stimulation, until the dog responds to the tap, usually with a twitch of her ear or a slight head tilt. (Of course, you first test these levels on your own neck or wrist, so you can feel what they feel like. It’s much, much lower than the shock you get when you walk across a dry carpet. It feels to me about like a light pin-prick. It’s noticeable and a bit annoying, but not painful.)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The dog then learns that she can turn off the taps (the stim) by coming toward you. You guide her with a slight pressure on the line, and the instant she takes a step toward you, you stop the light taps and mark the desired behavior (I use a mouth click) and then reward that behavior with a treat when she arrives at your side. As far as quadrants go, you can interpret this in several ways:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">-R: you’re removing the stim (-) to increase the frequency (R) of coming toward you; or<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">-P: you’re removing the stim (-) to decrease the frequency (P) of blowing off your recall cue.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">You repeat this dozens and dozens of times in a very undistracting environment. To see this in action, here’s a good youtube video from the trainer Mike Loesche:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/MIKELOESCHE#p/u/2/7mXdPpKywzo"><span style="color: #1d44a2;">http://www.youtube.com/user/MIKELOESCHE#p/u/2/7mXdPpKywzo</span></a> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The dog in Mike’s video appears to be showing some very slight stress with the stims, but those low levels of stress are acceptable to me if they allow my dog off-leash options. Mike starts with a level 8 (out of 127 levels on his dogtra collar) in the video, and I personally have a hard time feeling that on my wrist or neck. When he increases distractions in the video, he increases his stim to level 14, which I can feel on my wrist as a pinprick. (For comparison, my hyper-impulsive pittie Vanya's working level varies from 10 to 16, depending on the distractions. These levels don’t elicit signs of pain, unlike the gentle leader or even a regular flat collar.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">This should sound a bit like training a dog on the gentle leader, except for an important difference: the e-collar is much less aversive <i>for my particular dog</i> than a gentle leader tightening around his muzzle, and much easier for me to control the level of aversiveness. You have 127 different levels of stim on a good e-collar, and you can start and end the stim precisely, unlike a gentle leader. (I dislike the GL, not because it uses P- or R-, but because with Vanya it has a bad tendency to send him spiraling over his threshold, unlike the collar). .<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Equipment</span></b><span style="font-size: 13pt;">: I use a dogtra 280 ncp with a half-mile range, vibration, and 127 levels of stim. It's about $200. Paying the money for a higher quality collar with at least 100 levels is essential if one is going to try e-collars. Dogtra is one of the reliable brands. I started with a cheaper brand (Sportdog) and it was a waste of money. It only had 8 levels, so I couldn’t find the lowest possible stim level that the dog can perceive without pain. Plus it only had ¼ mile range—not enough—and it wasn’t reliable enough. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Introducing the e-collar around livestock: teaching the recall again<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"></div><ol><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">First I found Vanya’s working level with no distractions</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">Then I trained a new recall cue (here), using the methods in Mike’s video above.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">Then I introduced very low levels of distractions for the recall, with Vanya on a long line and great treats as rewards for responding to the stim by coming toward me.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">Then I did this well outside the chicken yard with the chickens calmly eating. Then we moved slightly closer to the chickens, and then a little closer.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">Then I had the chickens running around, us well away.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">Then we moved closer to running chickens</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">Then we moved inside the chicken yard</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">Then we moved to bike riding through the running chickens</span></li>
</ol><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">My goal, through all of this, was to stay far enough under threshold so Vanya got thousands of reps, all at low stim. I built a foundation of conditioned responses, in other words. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Then we moved on to practicing the recall this outside the heifer pasture with the heifers far away, standing still. Then closer, with the heifers running around.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Teaching Vanya to ignore livestock and deer:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">So now I had a very good recall, even with cows and chickens (and deer) nearby. But I also wanted Vanya to leave critters alone even when I wasn’t there to recall him. All of the above work had taught him a great deal of calmness in the presence of these critters, but I also decided to work with what’s called “the crittering protocol” (Lou Castle came up with this). This uses exposure to increasing levels of distraction to teach a dog to leave a particular critter alone, even if there’s no person nearby to give a recall or leave it cue. Here’s Castle’s full protocol: <a href="http://www.loucastle.com/critter.htm">http://www.loucastle.com/critter.htm</a><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I didn’t follow his exact protocol, but I did follow the general outline:</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"></div><ol><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">Always stay under threshold, where the dog can see the critter but not go above threshold</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">Start, for example, with a cow 100 yards away, standing still. Have your dog on a leash. Imagine you’re on a football field. The cow is standing at one 0 yard line. You’re standing on the other 0 yard line. You walk back and forth with your dog (leashed) at your zero yard line. If your dog calmly observes the cow, lovely. After a couple of calm strolls back and forth on your 0 yard line, you walk diagonally to your 10 yard line (so you are 10 yards closer to that cow). (Lou has the cow walking back and forth on her 10 yard line, but I didn’t introduce that until much later.)</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">The moment your dog gets close enough to begin to react slightly to that cow (ie, for Vanya, his tail goes up a little, and he begins to stare, which always precedes his chase), you begin tapping on the e-collar at the dog’s very low working level while walking backwards</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">directly away from the critter. As soon as the dog stops staring at the critter and looks back toward you, you stop tapping and stop walking backward. You use that distance as the new line, and you begin your strolling on that line (so, say, you got to your 30 yard line before the dog stared at the critter. You begin to tap and also walk backwards, and you got 5 yards before the dog relaxed and looked away from the cow. You’re now at the 25 yard line, and you walk back and forth on that a few times before going up to the 35 yard line.)</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">Continue until the dog figures out that getting too interested in the cow means he goes backwards away from the cow (and gets an annoying tap on his collar), while staying calm means he gets to go closer. Continue until you and the dog are calmly standing next to the calm cow.</span></li>
</ol><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Then repeat from the beginning, 100 yards away, this time with the cow trotting back and forth on her own 0 yard line (a critter in motion is much more distracting than a calm critter). This protocol works by keeping the distraction levels very low, so there’s no need for high level shocks (no P+, in other words). When the dog stares, you begin stimming, and you remove that stim (-) in order to decrease the behavior (P) of staring. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">With deer, I couldn’t find any willing deer to stand calmly on a line while I went through this protocol. So a few times Vanya did break and chase when a deer came bounding by right in front of us, and I did give him a higher level of stim to get him to recall. (When I do that, I always check those levels of stim on my own wrist. They aren’t pleasant, but they aren’t awful.) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">This is really quite similar to the penalty yards approach for teaching a dog to walk on a loose leash and to greet politely. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Some questions people have asked me:</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Q1: Does Vanya think the stim comes from me or some place else?</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">A1: I have no idea, and because the stims are so low, I don't think it matters. If the stims were big, nasty shocks, then I wouldn't want him to think they came from me, but rather from the object he's chasing. But since I use a low-stim protocol, it doesn't matter.</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Q2: Is Vanya stressed by the e-collar?</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">A2: Not by the collar itself. He's happy to see it come out. Actually, he wears it each and every time he goes outside. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">Q3: Well, so is he stressed by the stims?</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">A3: Sure, probably. But he's much less stressed by the stims than he is by being on a leash, being confined, or being in his gentle leader. When he gets a stim, he notices it, of course. But it doesn't make him look subdued the way a long line pull does, and it certainly doesn't make him yelp and shriek the way a gentle leader tightening does. Vanya is a very vocal, expressive dog. He sings, warbles, shrieks, screams, yelps, snorts, yodels. When he gets a stim, he runs to me for his treat. He might cock his head slightly or perhaps twitch an ear. But mostly he just comes for his treat. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">More importantly, I firmly believe (and abundant research supports this idea) that stress is a good thing for animals (including people) when the animals learn a behavior that can end the stressor. Learned helplessness and other fallouts from stressors result not from the momentary aversive, but from the inability to make that aversive stop. When a dog, or a person, learns that a given behavior will end the stressor--and the world doesn't end!--resilience increases. (An interesting study along these lines is Seery et al's recent paper showing that happiness is highest in those people who have faced intermediate levels of adversity. Too little adversity in your youth, and the first little bump in your road throws you into depression. Too much adversity in your youth, and you learn to give up, not to be resilient. See </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: helvetica, arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">Seery, M. D., Holman, E. A., & Silver, R. C. (2010). Whatever does not kill us: Cumulative lifetime adversity, vulnerability, and resilience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99, 1025-1041.)</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">Q4: Did I stop using the ecollar once I trained him?</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">A4: No. Where I live and work, there are tons of things I can't control: deer, bear, hunters, loose dogs. I want off leash control, so I put the collar on him when I let him outside into our fenced fields, and when I walk with him off our land (off leash, yes, but only in places where I'm fairly certain no off-leash dogs will show up).</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">Q5: Did I use these protocols to deal with Vanya's dog-reactivity?</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">A5: No. Vanya's dog reactivity has complex roots, and because he can quickly zoom over threshold near another dog, I don't use the e-collar around other dogs. With deer, if I have to give him P+ because he's chasing a deer, I don't much mind if he comes away with a fear of deer or a superstitious hatred of deer. But I don't want to ever get him in an over-threshold situation with another dog and end up superstitiously associating that other dog with something aversive. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">When he's playing with another dog, I do sometimes use LOW levels of stim to make sure he recalls to me for his time-outs. But this is under very controlled circumstances. </span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">Q6: What else do I use the e-collar for?</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">A6: I don't teach obedience with it. I just want Vanya to recall whenever he feels it, so I keep it simple. I do use it for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcutaneous_electrical_nerve_stimulation">TENS work on my back</a> to relax stiff muscles (seriously--at Vanya's working levels, the e-collar is great for my tight back muscles). </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">Q7: Would I recommend it to another person?</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">A7: Each person needs to figure out for her own dog what is least invasive and minimally aversive. I do recommend reading Steven Lindsay's chapter to people who are having trouble with their dogs and livestock chasing. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">Q8: Can things go wrong with the ecollar?</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">A8: Yes. Since it's a powerful tool, the temptation is always to increase distractions too quickly and go over threshold. Bad, bad idea. I don't let other people use the ecollar on Vanya, because I'm afraid they'll zap him. High levels of shock can have bad fallout, just as high levels of any aversive can. But that doesn't mean low levels have fallout. The main danger is being impatient and setting your dog up to fail. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">Q9: Do you consider using the e-collar to be an admission of failure?</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">A9: Nope, not at all. But the couple times that I have put Vanya in a position where he went over threshold (ie, a running deer) and I needed to zap him: yes, those were failures. Just as putting your dog in a position where he ever goes over threshold is undesirable. But life happens. Most dogs are resilient, and we can teach dogs to be more resilient by exposing them to small stresses and showing them that they can respond successfully. (When I say "over threshold", I don't mean a little stress, a little shrieking and yodeling and carrying on. Vanya can learn perfectly well when he's tossing a hissy fit. I mean that state when a dog is so over-aroused and overwhelmed that learning can't take place. Imagine your limbic leap when a rattlesnake rattles next to your foot. Your conscious brain isn't processing; you are simply reacting.)</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">Q10: Hasn't Vanya been made miserable by this horrible tool?</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">A10: No. He loves it, because to him, it means he gets to run. And running off leash is his joy. So I don't feel any guilt whatsoever for choosing to use it. I think it works on very similar principles to other training protocols common in the positive training community--work under threshold and develop the foundations that create a conditioned response to a stimulus. So then, when high level distractions show up, your dog has a conditioned response. You don't need a t-bone steak to distract your dog if you've done your clicker foundation training correctly, and you don't need a painful shock to train your dog if you've done your e-collar foundation training correctly.</span></span></div>Nancy Langstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970067690038342512noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346913847456741393.post-44284065155751844792011-07-23T10:40:00.005-05:002011-07-23T10:40:47.169-05:00Vanya plays! Twice!<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I had finally given up on Vanya being able to be calm enough to meet a new dog</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">politely (after getting kicked out of yet another class-- this one solely for</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">reactive pitties--because of his yodeling. Ok, his shrieking.)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But the kids at the cabin next to us in the woods brought along a little female</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">dog, a cross between a border collies and a papillon (I'm guessing, but those</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ears sure are huge). Vanya fell in love with her. He broke his leash, which is</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">how he met her, and much to my surprise, after a few initial attempts to</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">french-kiss without first being introduced, he was quite polite. They just</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">played for a good hour, and he was deferential, polite when she told him to back</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">off, and utterly beside himself with joy. She was lots faster than he is, and</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">she ran rings around him (and he's a very fast, skinny little pittie).</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is the first new dog he has played with since he came to live with us (he</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">did play with our resident dogs, before they got too old). He's always been such</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">a reactive screamer, and even with multiple classes and private lessons, we</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">could never get him calm enough for a calm greeting. He was anything but calm</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">this time, but after he got loose and met her, he quickly became polite enough</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">for her to agree to play with him.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
I've tried play sessions a number of times with other dogs (6 times, I think)<br />
but I've always put a basket muzzle on him first, and I've only had male dogs to<br />
do this with. The basket muzzle seems to make him much more frantic, so the play<br />
sessions haven't worked out, and I've ended them quickly because he angers or<br />
frightens the other dog. I've known that the muzzle makes his reactivity worse,<br />
but I've been too worried he would bite to try without it, so I had pretty much<br />
given up on any actual play for Vanya (we have been doing BAT when we can find a<br />
partner, but not with the goal of actual greetings, just with the goal of calmer<br />
behavior while on leash).<br />
<br />
This time, I did put the muzzle on for a moment after he first got loose and I<br />
caught him, but he got frantic and very rude with the muzzle on. The female dog<br />
told him off, so I called him back, put him in a down-stay to cool off and calm<br />
down. We weren't going to do anything more. But after a moment, the female dog<br />
(Georgia is her name) decided she wanted to play with him again and ran up<br />
soliciting with play bows. Vanya was being very responsive to recalls around<br />
her, so on the urging of the kids, I went against my better judgement and let<br />
him play without his muzzle on. An incredible improvement--and Vanya turns out<br />
to know all sorts of proper dog-etiquette. Vanya was also being very good about<br />
recalling to me for cooling off sessions (literal, because it was hot, and also<br />
behavioral, to keep him from getting too intense). So all that recall practice<br />
pays off.<br />
<br />
This gives me hope that we can adopt another dog when Tiva eventually dies<br />
(although at nearly 16, she's showing few signs of slowing down--she's the<br />
indomitable pittie).</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This morning on the way to our play date, I asked for a sit before I released him to play. </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Much to my surprise, the kids had another tiny male dog in their cabin with them (a dog named Bently from nearby who had just wandered in and spent the night with them), and they let him out with Georgia. Vanya handled the male dog just fine and played with the two of them reasonably well, until all 3 were exhausted. When I put him on his leash to walk home, he threw a hissy fit. When I dropped the leash and had him heel, he did perfectly. He often does have a much easier time with obedience off leash than on leash.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Much of Vanya's reactivity is due to my behavior--namely, I never let him off leash to romp unmuzzled with new dogs. But that's because he's a pit bull and the shelter warned me that he was reactive with many dogs. And several highly regarded private trainers evaluated him and said he probably couldn't be trusted with new dogs. The trainer in my reactive pittie class disagreed and thought he would be fine unmuzzled with a female, non-reactive, high energy dog if they had plenty of space to run. Looks like she was right.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One odd fall-out from today's play session: Vanya has decided to interpret his recall command as a down/stay command. Yesterday, whenever I recalled him, I would then down/stay him for a calming time out. Today, he figured if he just dropped in place whenever I recalled him during the play session, that was good enough. I tried not to laugh, but when he dropped, he was perfectly fine with the little dogs crawling all over him, bopping at his ears and face. His tail was wagging (his low, fast, happy social wag, not his high, slow, alert wag) a mile a minute the whole time.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>Nancy Langstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970067690038342512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346913847456741393.post-6776633586280247432010-12-17T16:40:00.002-06:002010-12-17T16:41:43.213-06:00Ski-joring!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/dacDNFZ4J2Q?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>Wonderful snow for ski-joring today. Vanya was a little reluctant at first--and nervous about being at the Ice Age Trail area, where he has encountered new dogs in the past. But he soon settled into running, and we had a lovely time. He got to meet a strange man, who seemed a tiny bit off to me (open pants zipper, blood on his jacket, a bit of a leer--hey, maybe the guy was just enthusiastic about skiing), so I wasn't upset when Vanya jumped up and landed a solid one to the crotch.<br />
<br />
Then off we went, and Vanya fairly flew back to the car (I think he thought there was a dog there). <br />
<br />
What fun! How I love to ski-jor. It's really exciting when I hook both Tiva and Vanya up! The video above is from last winter, when Vanya was just learning how to pull.Nancy Langstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970067690038342512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346913847456741393.post-55867079461858054902010-11-23T20:47:00.001-06:002010-11-23T20:49:37.791-06:00BAT for dogs who just want to get closer...Vanya, like many reactive dogs, often wants to get closer to the other dog. The problem is: when he greets, he often tips over into reactivity. He hasn't had much chance to greet new dogs since we adopted him 3 years ago, in part because we live in a remote place, in part because my fears of his reactivity, and in part because I haven't found good play partners. He plays far too roughly, except with his familiar dogs. <br />
<br />
I didn't try BAT for a long time because it seemed as if it couldn't possibly work, since proximity rather than distance is Vanya's functional reward, and nearly all our practice dog partners are also reactive, so we need to keep distance. <br />
<br />
But then I realized that I have 2 slightly different goals: 1) find an appropriate play partner for Vanya; and 2) help him learn to be calmer near dogs when he can't go up and interact with them. BAT, mixed with other techniques, is useful for helping him with 2), because it teaches him a learned response to the sight of other dogs: look at them, then relax and look away and wonderful things will happen. <br />
<br />
Our functional reward for a calm behavior can be a variety of things. Often it's a playful run sideways for a sniff in the grass, a tossed treat, or a peanut-butter smear on a bone. (We zigzag, in other words, diagonally closer to the other dog, but we always have to stay outside that other dog's threshold distance as well). We also use a variety of other techniques:<br />
<br />
From Sophia Yin and Sarah Kalnajs: we work on focus and obedience while in the presence of other dogs, starting first at a great distance, where Vanya can still offer his targeting, sits, jumps, heels, weaves, and other nifty tricks. <br />
<br />
From Control Unleashed: we do a zillion LAT around other dogs--I say "Look at that" and point toward the trigger. He glances, I click the glance, he whips his head back to me for his cheese. We get a little closer.<br />
<br />
Mat work: we practice the relaxation protocol around other dogs, far away. And we do LAT on the mat as well, and simple obedience exercises. <br />
<br />
Parallel leashed walks: we've been working on parallel leashed walks with Cynthia and her two dogs. Some weeks it goes quite well, and we can walk with only the width of the street between us. Today Vanya needed more distance from Gustaf.<br />
<br />
Pass-bys: with Jake, the large calm intact very mellow yellow lab who lives in an outdoor kennel by the bike trail. We walk back and forth, passing Jake, who stands and wags his tail and play bows a lot. Vanya sometimes whines a bit at Jake, but not much more. We'll approach Jake and say hi as long as Vanya is calm. Sometimes they sniff noses through the kennel fence, then Vanya turns to me for his cheese. Mostly, these days, Vanya just wants to walk by Jake.<br />
<br />
Cynthia and I skipped last week, but I did practice pass-bys with Jake twice. This week, it was very cold and windy, and Vanya whined much of the time. His functional reward was hopping back in the warm car. An unleashed terrier appeared outside a house a few doors away, and Vanya didn't shriek or lunge, but he didn't want to follow me when I retreated. At times, he play bowed and bounced to get closer to Gustaf, which is a lovely sign, even though he's not allowed closer. As always, he was delighted when Cynthia put her dog away and came up to pet him.<br />
<br />
Now that winter has begun, we need a warmer place to practice!Nancy Langstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970067690038342512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346913847456741393.post-13296722803397607492010-10-29T13:57:00.000-05:002010-10-29T13:57:15.318-05:00Vanya! The Movie!<object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/2LQF5hLi1qM?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/2LQF5hLi1qM?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object>Nancy Langstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970067690038342512noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346913847456741393.post-33270452597969103792010-10-19T21:58:00.000-05:002010-10-19T21:58:41.187-05:00More BATVanya did well with his weekly BAT practice with Cynthia and Dottie. He was a bit overexcited when we arrived (because I nearly smashed headlong into a truck, trying to get there on time.) So he vocalized a bit more than I might like, but that's fine. <br />
<br />
If I tried to keep him completely calm and below threshold, I'd never take him off the farm. He's a vocal dog: our swiss-mountain yodeling pit bull. He whines and shrieks and yips with joy when he sees his friends, and now when he sees Dottie, he play bows and whines and wags his tail very hard. Too bad that she's not the right dog for him to meet--he needs to meet a bombproof dog who can ignore his goofiness. But, by now, thanks to BAT and peanut butter and repetition, I think he's fallen in love with Dottie. I feel awfully cruel keeping him at a distance from her. But it's good for him to learn that he can't run up and say hi to every dog (or any dog, alas).<br />
<br />
I wish I knew someone up here with a calm, playful, lab who likes to wrestle and roughhouse. <br />
<br />
At least Tiva will play with him a little each day. They're actually playing very nicely (if briefly) together most days. He bows and bounces and whirls around, and she bows and wrestles in her ancient, slightly stiff, 15 year old ladylike way. He's usually very careful not to push her too hard or to whack her when he whirls his hips around. <br />
<br />
I laughed when I read the description of the old bull terrier in INCREDIBLE JOURNEY. Sounds just like Tiva. <br />
<br />
Last night, my uncle (who is terrified of most dogs) mentioned that Vanya had calmed down remarkably since last time he'd seen him.Nancy Langstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970067690038342512noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346913847456741393.post-51459160620563917092010-10-05T21:25:00.001-05:002010-10-05T21:26:49.347-05:00BAT with Dottie and CynthiaWe had our weekly practice with Cynthia, and this time she brought Dottie. Vanya did very well. He did lose it once and start shrieking and pulling when Dottie barked and he was too far from the car. But once we got back to the car, his safe space, he calmed down, had a little time in his crate, and then was ready to play the game again. A few times he whined and bounced, very eager to go say HI to Dottie. Even when he lost it, he didn't seem aggressive at all toward her--just very frustrated that he couldn't go run over and check her out. <br />
<br />
He does seem to be getting the game: look at the other dog, look at me, then run off for a click and treat. Then do it over again, a bunch of times.<br />
<br />
We also did mat work together--Cynthia and Dottie on their mat, and Vanya and me on our mat, about 30 paces away on the other side of the street. Vanya was able to do his relaxation protocol exercises, with me going back and forth in the usual fashion.<br />
<br />
He was also able to stay calm while Dottie was playing tug and romping a bit, from about 40 ft away. As soon as she or Cynthia vocalized, he got more excited, however. And we did a bit of leash-walking together, with Cynthia and Dottie ahead of us, on the other side of the road, and Vanya was fine with that. At moments, I thought--this must be what it's like having a regular old dog and taking him for a walk. (Well, that lasted only for moments).<br />
<br />
His reverse-directions are improving a lot, and he was able to leave the situation several times when getting too whiny, without freaking out and lunging. <br />
<br />
Progress! Plus probably too much peanut butter--I need to watch the quantities so he doesn't get pancreatis.<br />
<br />
On a less positive note, he has figured out how to dig under our very long fence. Right now, he's just getting into the woodlot or DNR land, but I need to dog-proof the fence better, so he doesn't get out when a dog and hunter are in the wildlife lands. While I was at work, he found a possum in the woodpile where the guys were chopping wood, and I gather he got extremely excited (and successful at the hunting-down possums part). By the time I got home, he was exhausted, as exhausted as I've ever seen him, seemingly from excitement, not from actual exercise.Nancy Langstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970067690038342512noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346913847456741393.post-31700930499381061992010-10-02T20:58:00.002-05:002010-10-02T21:00:05.892-05:00Inspiring post by Sarah OwingsOn the functional rewards yahoo group (where people discuss BAT), Sarah Owings wrote this post:<br />
<br />
"Today was my last session with Fitz, the bull terrier, (which I'm really sad<br />
about because I love this dog:( ). After two months of solid foundational work,<br />
for today's session I decided to try for some vast-distance parallel walking a<br />
la Turid Rugaas with a little P- thrown in for any barking and lunging. Irith<br />
was kind enough to come help with her dog Franklin.<br />
<br />
Fitzy has no fear or any real aggression issues it turns out. He is just Mr.<br />
PUMPED, is an adrenaline addict, and clearly wants to get to the other dog!!! At<br />
one point when Franklin was politely sniffing and ignoring him, Fitz started<br />
barking and it was like "HEY! HEY! HEY! Look at me! Look at me!" Fitz's greeting<br />
and play style are just too over the top for on leash ... and besides I don't<br />
encourage on leash greetings very often anyway--and definitely no play. The<br />
metaphor I came up with today about "proper leash etiquette" was this:<br />
<br />
On leash it's like going to a fancy dinner party. You don't get to throw food<br />
and have pillow fights.<br />
<br />
Off leash--if the dogs are compatible, listening to each other's cut of signals<br />
and equally willing--then you can have more of a party time... And at some point<br />
we may try and hook Fitzy up with a more compatible play partner. (He needs a<br />
fellow line backer-body slamming-tackling type and Franklin is more of a chase<br />
me--intellectual-chess-player type).<br />
<br />
Fitz's owners have been working a lot with the on-off switch game, auto orient,<br />
relax on a mat and doggie zen. In other words LOTS and LOTS of foundation stuff<br />
before attempting even going near a dog.<br />
<br />
He wasn't perfect today, but all that hard work has clearly paid off. Even when<br />
he barked, it was short lived and he "turned off" quickly, and 90% of the time<br />
defaulted to an auto-check in.<br />
<br />
We started the session with a full street width plus about 50' distance. Calm<br />
behavior meant Fitz got to move towards the other dog. Lunging meant a U-turn,<br />
walk away from the dog and mom gets boring for a minute until Fitz calms himself<br />
down. (Which he did within 5 seconds every time).<br />
<br />
Very quickly, the lunging and barking reduced dramatically. And then as we<br />
walked the two dogs up and down on opposite sides of the street, Fitz started<br />
making very conscious good choices. Looking away, checking with mom, sniffing,<br />
etc.<br />
<br />
Things were going so well, we tried a new idea. With Fitz calmly sitting, we had<br />
Franklin approach on an arc and with low intensity. Fitz could do this! Any good<br />
signaling on Fitz's part like head turns brought Franklin a little closer. Any<br />
tension or intensity and Franklin left.<br />
<br />
Fitz threw many lovely signals at this point: head turns, sitting, even laying<br />
down!! Irith brought Franklin to about 20' with this approach and the two dogs<br />
even sent each other what looked like some "I'm interested but not too<br />
interested" signals.<br />
<br />
Then we reversed it and let Fitz follow after Franklin. Any intensity on his<br />
part and it was an immediate U-turn and boring mommy again. Calm, he got to move<br />
forward.<br />
<br />
Long story short, the dogs were soon able to have a polite sniff--disengage and<br />
were even then able to sit side by side for a minute and ignore each other while<br />
both dogs got treats.<br />
<br />
During a couple of the initial advance--retreats Fitz tried a couple times to<br />
initiate play by jumping up on Franklin and once got a tiny bit<br />
mouthy/snarky--which may have been play as well--but he got a U-turn for that...<br />
Because we want to teach him that on-leash does not mean play time. But we also<br />
saw some nice sniffing-arcing and soft body postures between the two dogs as<br />
well.<br />
<br />
In the end both dogs were laying down about 10' from each other calmly and then<br />
parallel walked about 10-15" from each other back to the car.<br />
<br />
My clients were super happy to know that their dog is not aggressive and that it<br />
is possible for him to be civilized around other dogs. When they first hired me<br />
a couple months ago, his explosive outbursts at almost any distance just made<br />
them too scared to try him with another dog until now.<br />
<br />
I was delighted because I was not expecting this much success in one day. Whoo<br />
hoo.<br />
<br />
Sorry this is long. I just wanted to share. It wasn't BAT but a good combination<br />
of foundation work, self control, and Premack. I find Fitzy a really interesting<br />
case because I had to bend the formula for reactivity quite a bit. And he taught<br />
me a lot. But it worked!<br />
<br />
:)<br />
<br />
--Sarah<br />
<br />
_________________<br />
Sarah Owings<br />
KPA Certified Training Partner<br />
sowings@bridgesdogtraining.com<br />
(818) 415-0436<br />
<br />
Bridges Dog Training, Los Angeles<br />
<a href="www.bridgesdogtraining.com">www.bridgesdogtraining.com</a><br />
<br />
<br />
For the foundation behaviors, see:<br />
<br />
Leslie McDevitt's On-off Switch Game<br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIbVixSZ9Mw">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIbVixSZ9Mw</a><br />
<br />
<br />
And Doggie Zen a la Canis Clicker Training<br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmFCuB7pL2I">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmFCuB7pL2I</a><br />
<br />
<br />
--SarahNancy Langstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970067690038342512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346913847456741393.post-18151269405735495682010-10-02T19:36:00.001-05:002010-10-02T19:39:02.359-05:00Weekly BAT practice Cynthia and I have been meeting with our dogs for weekly BAT practice each Tuesday. I think it's incredibly helpful--much to my surprise, because <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px;">distance doesn't seem to be his functional reward. Getting closer and greeting </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px;">is what he wants, but not what he can have with Cynthia's dogs (who are also reactive). Yet </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px;">BAT seems to be reducing his meltdowns and his threshold distance to other dogs. Now, after several practice </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px;">sessions, if I do miscalculate and let him go over threshold a little bit, he's much more likely to tip over into his "oh boy, I see someone, please please please let's go say hi" stress whining (which is the same reaction he gives to </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px;">new people, if I take too long to set him up to go say hi), rather than his "I'm freaking out, so let's scream and lunge." He had one momentary meltdown on Tuesday when an unleashed dog ran by, but that was really because of me, not him (I </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px;">don't think he even saw the dog; I think he was reacting to my haste to get back to the crate, and to our training partner as well).</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px;"> <br />
So that's progress.<br />
<br />
Perhaps it's the motion that rewards him, perhaps it's the bones that I toss on his bed for him when we retreat after a successful advance, perhaps it's just the weekly practice. And perhaps distance really is rewarding. Whatever it is,<br />
I'm happy with his progress (and pleased with my ability to stay calmer and read his signals better, so I can keep him under threshold more consistently).</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px;">Hunters are walking by our fences on the farm, something with their dogs. Frank mentioned that Vanya was running along the fence barking at them. Not good! So yesterday I asked Remy, one of our farm volunteers, to pretend to be a hunter with a dog, so I could offer Vanya lavish rewards for staying calm. Remy put on some blaze orange, carried a pretend-gun over his shoulder, and walked Miss PLushy on a leash up and down the fence line. Vanya was thoroughly fooled and got very excited--lots of peeing and marking and woo-wooing. I didn't do BAT; instead I played LAT with cheese as the reward. He got the idea quickly, although a couple times he did run up to the fence (but his recall worked and he came bounding back for his cheese).</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px;">Good dog! He's got the zoomies today, because I've been mostly sick in bed with the flu, and that's very boring for a dog. For a little while, he curled up in bed with me, snoring with his muzzle on my face and his paws flung over my shoulder. Then he decided a roaring attack on the slippers would be entertaining. He has a little fungus/staph infection under his arms, poor thing, so 2 baths in two days with the malaseb. It looks better already. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px;">I loathe being sick. Especially when I have 6 talks to write for the Van Evera lectures at Northland College, taxes to do, classes to prepare for next week, blah blah blah. </span>Nancy Langstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970067690038342512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346913847456741393.post-64838410736756629322010-09-27T21:39:00.001-05:002010-09-27T21:57:28.595-05:00Happy dogVanya is a wonderful dog. I usually post about his rough days, so people get the impression that he's always a handful. But 99.9% of the time, he's the world's most perfect dog. On the farm, he bounds around, greeting people with endless joy, and working hard at his various jobs:<br />
1. sniffing the apple orchard for voles<br />
2. patrolling the prairie restoration for bunnies<br />
3. sleeping under the oak tree<br />
4. checking every person on the farm to see if they've had their daily allotment of kisses<br />
5. greeting all strangers at the gate with wags and kisses, and then escorting them down the gravel drive.<br />
<br />
When I come home from an endless day of boring faculty meetings and he hears me at the gate, my heart leaps when he wiggles into the car to kiss me and thunk me with his wagging tail. Then he hops out of the car and races me down the driveway, running along the fence line as fast as lightening. When Frank lets him into my office and he comes zooming around the corner, he sees me and his face lights up--he wags his tail so hard, he sometimes falls over. How can a girl help but be moved? If a guy loved me with such devotion, I'd be creeped out. But with Vanya, he makes me happy.<br />
<br />
So: for those of you readers who think I'm some sort of a saint for putting up with this dog: he's worth every moment! He brings joy to our lives. He may scream at the sight of new dogs, but here are all the things that he's good at:<br />
1. he's great at leaping<br />
2. and bounding<br />
3. he never shows any separation anxiety.<br />
4. every person on earth seems to be his friend<br />
5. if you need him to go away so you can get some work done, he's not offended. He just goes off and snoozes.<br />
6. he's brilliant at being engaged with the world<br />
<br />
<br />
Perhaps it's the most challenging dogs who are best at worming their way into our hearts. Or maybe it's just Vanya. He's a nut, but he's the best nut aroundNancy Langstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970067690038342512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346913847456741393.post-68596851658983336602010-09-21T20:01:00.001-05:002010-09-23T19:37:02.039-05:00BAT practice<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Vanya was practicing BAT today with Cynthia and her dog Dottie (their blog is <a href="http://operationgustav.blogspot.com/">http://operationgustav.blogspot.com/</a> . Vanya was remarkably calm, not even whining (!), and able to get fairly close, glance at Dottie and back at me, then run merrily back to his bed for his peanut-butter smeared bone. </span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">He didn't even get <i>too</i> excited when Dottie started playing tug with her owner Cynthia. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">When he noticed them playing, he did get excited, whining and wagging his tail and bouncing around in his version of play bows--so we doubled the distance and he calmed back down. </span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">All was going remarkably well until behind us suddenly appeared a lady with 3 HUGE dogs, who began leaping and lunging and roaring on their leashes at Vanya. Oy! So much for staying under threshold. At first he started yelping, rather than lunging or barking, and I bundled him into the car where he threw a bit of a fit, trying to scramble over his crate for a better view. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Luckily the woman got her dogs into her car, although it seemed to take her ages and ages.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">He calmed down fairly well, but not completely of course, and we ended the session after a few more games that I hoped would help him settle down some more (sniffing the grass, greeting our plushy fake dog, trotting along the trails). </span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Unfortunately, he strained his front foot when he was trying to climb over his crate for a better view. Now he's limping, so he'll have a few days on leashed walks only--no chasing gophers in the grass, poor pup.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">I think having weekly practice sessions with Cynthia and her dogs will help him a lot--especially if we find a place where I don't have to worry about so many dog walkers. </span></div></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span>Nancy Langstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970067690038342512noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346913847456741393.post-79984873019339560162010-09-02T16:42:00.000-05:002010-09-02T16:42:29.746-05:00Vanya updateEven though Vanya hasn't had any updates recently, he's doing just fine. I was off in NW Ontario for a month doing my field research, and Ontario has a pit bull ban, so Vanya didn't get to come along. Instead, he spent August hanging out on the Little Sugar River Farm with Frank and a bunch of WWOOFers (Worldwide Willing Organic Volunteers--people who come and work on the farm half time for a few weeks, in exchange for room and board). Vanya adored having all the attention. Plus the guests at the guesthouse give him tons of love. So he was a happy boy--no commands, no expectations, just a lot of college kids to jump on and kiss, and a lot of gophers to hunt in the gardens. Now, of course, he acts like he never heard of impulse control games, or anything else for that matter. He got into certain bad habits I thought he had long ago lost: the zoomies, mainly, where he runs around in circles, trying to get a person to play in the same over-excited way he tries to get other dogs to play.<br />
<br />
He's so happy, I can't help but wonder: why exactly do I keep trying to do all this dog-socialization with him? We live so far from other dogs, when we're down on the farm, that it's always quite the drive to go find decoy dogs. In his normal life, he could go for a decade and never lay eyes on another dogs (this is how Tiva deals with her dog-reactivity. She just ignores it. We all ignore it. Back before she came to the farm, she lived a life of lunging and barking at dogs when she was being walked, leashed, on the city streets, and her former owners used a prongs to get her to be quiet. It worked, but she looked miserable. She perked right up when she came to the farm and stopped seeing other dogs on the street. Problem solved, more or less.)<br />
<br />
Two main reasons to calm Vanya down:<br />
1. So we can go camping and hiking in public together, without me worrying about him.<br />
2. Potentially, so we can get another dog when Tiva dies. Or alternatively, so we can find dog playmates for Vanya, so he doesn't get completely starved of new dog interactions.<br />
<br />
But some dogs are happier having human companionship, right? Vanya may be one of those: a dog who wants to be the only dog in a household. Or we may just decide we don't want to worry about the continual household management that goes with Vanya + another dog.Nancy Langstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970067690038342512noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346913847456741393.post-44164653343916598002010-07-12T09:59:00.002-05:002010-07-12T10:00:57.502-05:00Such a good dog...Vanya has been a real champ lately. Last night, our kayaking group came over for a bonfire after a sunset paddle around the point, and Vanya reacted to them with his usual unbridled enthusiasm (minus the jumping up, mostly). When he realized that two guys were already down at the fire pit, he ran off down to greet them and he did launch himself into the first guy's lap for a cuddle. "Strangers? Who's a stranger?" Vanya asks. "I'm licking his chin, so how can he be a stranger?"<br />
<br />
A few times throughout the evening, he hopped up onto the table for a treat (no, Vanya, you're not a lapdog. You're not even a table-top dog.) But mostly he lay on his bed chewing on his kong, with occasional jaunts around the fire to greet everyone all over again.<br />
<br />
Otherwise, he's been entertaining himself by barking at the waves down at the water, chasing chipmunks, snoozing in the sun, scrambling over rock falls, and tracking down his treats. I had to go down to the Twin Cities for my friend's funeral, and he handled the 12 hours alone in the cabin calmly.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ekS7w99xb2I/TDsuICZUxPI/AAAAAAAABsc/zW0MCjmauvg/s1600/vanya+on+rock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ekS7w99xb2I/TDsuICZUxPI/AAAAAAAABsc/zW0MCjmauvg/s320/vanya+on+rock.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<br />
Good dog, Vanya! We haven't seen any other dogs for a while, which contributes to his calmness, of course. He misses the farm, the gophers, and playing with Tiva--but Tiva's getting a bit to old to play in the summer heat anyway.Nancy Langstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970067690038342512noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346913847456741393.post-16783537275857384642010-07-09T12:13:00.002-05:002010-07-11T11:09:14.947-05:00Winter play<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ekS7w99xb2I/TDnsITUdGpI/AAAAAAAABoE/eeKiQBuEPNk/s1600/tivaplay4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ekS7w99xb2I/TDnsITUdGpI/AAAAAAAABoE/eeKiQBuEPNk/s400/tivaplay4.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ekS7w99xb2I/TDnsUfde3GI/AAAAAAAABoM/D3hKVu-tLwY/s1600/tivaplay3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="237" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ekS7w99xb2I/TDnsUfde3GI/AAAAAAAABoM/D3hKVu-tLwY/s400/tivaplay3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ekS7w99xb2I/TDdYkJrpc2I/AAAAAAAABn4/rJlEXDZzwvw/s1600/vanyativaplay4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="387" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ekS7w99xb2I/TDdYkJrpc2I/AAAAAAAABn4/rJlEXDZzwvw/s400/vanyativaplay4.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ekS7w99xb2I/TDdYWa4EZ3I/AAAAAAAABns/5OdHRvA63Kg/s1600/vanyativaplay3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="286" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ekS7w99xb2I/TDdYWa4EZ3I/AAAAAAAABns/5OdHRvA63Kg/s400/vanyativaplay3.jpg" width="400" /></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ekS7w99xb2I/TDdYWa4EZ3I/AAAAAAAABns/5OdHRvA63Kg/s1600/vanyativaplay3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br />
</a></div>Nancy Langstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970067690038342512noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346913847456741393.post-30261701701834222312010-06-29T21:31:00.000-05:002010-06-29T21:31:30.515-05:00Very sadVanya is fine! But a good friend of mine died suddenly of cancer--well, of the surgery and its fallout. Three weeks ago he was fine. Over Memorial weekend, a minor problem peeing led to the discovery of renal carcinoma. And now he's dead, after surgeons at Mayo tried to save his life.<br />
<br />
It blows me away that half of us get cancer--a rate that is nearly double the rate 40 years ago, when Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring. And yet we're not protesting in the streets. Superfund sites abound, and my friend lived near one, and handled industrial solvents that are linked to kidney cancer. How have we come to accept this as normal?<br />
<br />
Vanya is subdued, probably because I'm so sad. He's a sensitive dog. He's had a busy week, down on the farm chasing bunnies, hunting in the prairie, bounding into pickup trucks (filled with dogs, but he ignored them for the chance to lick strangers). This evening, after a 6.5 hour drive, he had his weekly calming session with Lana and her reactive pittie Amber. Amber seems so very calm compared to Vanya. Eventually, we had both dogs in their crates, 10 feet or so from each other, and they both calmed down pretty well. Vanya ate vast quantities of cheese in the calming down process. I think this all is helping. Who knows.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ekS7w99xb2I/TCqsZoMrzrI/AAAAAAAABms/kZYClEMKOGo/s1600/sunset.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ekS7w99xb2I/TCqsZoMrzrI/AAAAAAAABms/kZYClEMKOGo/s320/sunset.jpg" /></a></div>The sun is setting, in spectacular fashion, over Lake Superior, and my friend will never see it again. I feel so very sorry for his wife and children and grandchildren. All of us on Roman's Point will mourn his death.Nancy Langstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970067690038342512noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346913847456741393.post-81268753022399384842010-06-22T14:16:00.001-05:002010-06-22T14:19:31.335-05:00Over threshold, but trying hard....<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Last night was Vanya's first practice with Lana's young pittie, Amber. Vanya was very, very excited (but calmer than he might have been....). He really, really wanted to go meet Amber, and when he wasn't allowed to, he shrieked. A couple times, he even did his "trout-on-a-fishing-line" imitation, thrashing around at the end of his leash. I put on his gentle leader in hopes of getting a bit more control, but then I felt like I was jerking him around a bit too much. We tried various things--distance, using the car as a visual barrier--to help him calm down, and he did stop shrieking and pulling, but he kept up a low whine for most of the time. Ah well. He was able to do parallel leash walks with Amber (who remained a good ways away--perhaps 40 feet?), and he did calm down enough to do his obedience exercises about 40 feet away from her. We spent about an hour and a half working with the two dogs--first Amber with the plush dog, while Vanya waited in his crate, and then the two of them at opposite sites of a field, and then eventually a bit closer together. Not perfect (ahem), but progress. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I did try some of Nancy Williams "response prevention", approaching the trigger until Vanya went a little over threshold, then walking backwards with him until he calmed down, treating him, then approaching again. Well, that's the theory, anyway. Here is how the approach was described to me:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"Patient dog approaches trigger. At the point of reaction, the dog is turned away from the trigger towards the handler (hence the equipment) with the handler backing up until the dog stops reacting. Then the dog is fed. For the dogs whose focus is on visiting, the dog is simply allowed to reapproach, although a combination of treats and reapproach can work too."</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #313131; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><div align="left"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This didn't quite work as planned, in part because Vanya doesn't just go a little over threshold, and then he doesn't calm completely down. I wasn't sure if his eventual calming was just a bit of flooding, or simple exhaustion, or real calming. Onwards and upwards. </span></span></div></div><div align="left"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span></div></div><div align="left"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">BAT with distance as the reward seems backwards for Vanya because he so badly wants proximity to the other dog. For now, we'll work on a curving parallel walk, getting closer to the other dog as the reward for a bit of calming, moving away from the dog (and possibly moving behind a visual barrier) as the response to shrieking. </span></span></div></div></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This sounds similar to the classic </span><a href="http://www.pbrc.net/training_cats.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">cat-desensitization exercise</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> recommended on PBRC </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">"</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">What you need:</span></span></span></b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"></span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"></span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #313131; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><ul style="list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-left: 10px;"><ul style="list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-left: 10px;"><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">One cat-aggressive pit bull</span></span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">One very mellow cat</span></span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Lots of treats</span></span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">A Gentle Leader head collar</span></span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">A good strong, leather leash</span></span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">A lot of patience!</span></span></span></li>
</ul></ul><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">I always do this in my living room with no other distractions. I'll put my kitty in a far corner. (My kitty will hold a down stay, but you can give your kitty a bowl of wet food to keep them in place if you want. This will also counter-condition the cat to aggressive dogs!) I'll then bring the dog down the hallway towards the kitty. You must stay calm! When they start to freak out, I'll just walk backwards down the hall without saying a word and without any leash corrections. I'm always facing the cat. I don't turn around at all.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><br />
</span></span> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><br />
</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><br />
</span></span> <br />
<div align="left"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">When you walk backwards with a dog on a head collar, their face turns toward you. There's your opportunity to reward them. I don't give commands and I don't ever reprimand. This is desensitizing, not obedience! If you do this every day, a couple times a day, you'll be amazed at the results! (Just be careful the cat doesn't get too fat from eating all that wet food!)<br />
<br />
When you get to the point where the dog is getting used to the pattern (if I aggress, we go the other way), what you will be looking for is unsolicited looks. You want the dog to turn and look at you before the leash gets tight. That's when you know you're making progress! The whole point to this is so the dog gets the pattern. When they see a cat, you want them to look at you to get the treat, not look at the cat.<br />
<br />
Get closer only when the dog isn't reacting as intensely. Also, don't do this for more than a few minutes at a time at first. This is intense stuff for dogs! This also does not cover outside cats! If they see a running kitty outside, they're gonna go after it! Staying calm and having patience is key.<br />
<br />
And finally, is this a surefire way to get your dog to love cats? No way. But, can you get your dog to the point of being in the same room with that particular cat and not freak out? Yes, if you're diligent about it."</span></span> </span></div><div align="left"><span style="color: black; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div align="left"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></div></span>Nancy Langstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970067690038342512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346913847456741393.post-20718978076036922632010-06-19T19:04:00.005-05:002010-06-20T08:23:29.756-05:00Good boy, Vanya!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px;">Today, on our early morning walk (when I expect NOT to see unleashed dogs), we had 3 unleashed dogs and a cat come running up to us (in 2 separate incidents). And Vanya handled himself very well indeed--only one brief shrieking episode, and several reasonably polite, very short meet-and-greets (muzzled).<br />
Good boy, Vanya!<br />
<br />
Most of the shrieking being done on the walk was by me, imitating a fish-wife when I tried to get my neighbor David to come outside and collect his two ENORMOUS malamute mixes who were circling me and Vanya, barking at us at the top of their lungs. Vanya was remarkably collected, I must say (pulling on the leash, but not barking or shrieking back at them). Once the neighbor came and got his huge dogs, I slipped the muzzle on Vanya and we did a very brief, 2 second, meet-and-greet with each Malamute, which went well until David let the big dogs go and they started circling and barking once more. Well, life isn't perfect.<br />
<br />
David then collected his dogs once again and as they went back to their house, Vanya was able to follow them politely (at perhaps 40 ft distance), loose leash, offering me glances when requested. If a dog isn't looking at him, he's now often able to be quite calm about it.<br />
<br />
A hundred yards later, another neighbor let his little poodle Buddy out to play with Vanya. Buddy actually LIKES Vanya, at least when Vanya is leashed and muzzled. We practiced many two second meet-and-greets, and Buddy did his best to get Vanya to interact--play-bowing and dancing around. Vanya made an effort to act like a regular old dog (hard to do when that annoying Treat Lady keeps saying ENOUGH! and turning away with you every two seconds. Jeez, lady.) Then the curious cat then came bounding right up to us (well, 2 ft away), to see what was happening. Vanya just whined and at that point, I decided enough was enough and we headed home. He didn't shriek or scream when we left, although he sure wasn't ready to leave and go back to the boring life at home.<br />
<br />
I should add that on weekends, I rarely walk Vanya around here because there are too many people and dogs (I'll drive instead to a quiet forest service dirt road nearby). I miscalculated and figured that, early on a cloudy, windy, drizzly Saturday, we could walk a half mile on the dirt road without encountering too much excitement. Wrong! But he handled it all like a champ.<br />
<br />
Perhaps what's helping are: prozac, l-theanine, window film, and lots of clicker practice sessions working on two things: clicker-training his turning politely away from distractions </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dutv8EEfoE" style="color: #9136ad; text-decoration: none;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dutv8EEfoE</a><br />
<br />
and rewarding calmer responses on a mat near stuffed dogs:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQDGp7llRs8" style="color: #9136ad; text-decoration: none;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQDGp7llRs8</a><br />
<br />
(this clip followed his shrieking by about 20 seconds:<br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RPx4RIiQcc" style="color: #9136ad; text-decoration: none;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RPx4RIiQcc</a> )</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px;">And here he is, being forlorn when I "play" with the stuffed dog--but then he can calm down again.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeX0c8L_uIQ">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeX0c8L_uIQ</a></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">A few minutes later, he was quite calm with the stuffed dog 15 ft away. </span></span></span>Nancy Langstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970067690038342512noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346913847456741393.post-21268208475996156152010-06-15T13:51:00.001-05:002010-06-15T19:31:32.477-05:00Recalls when trained with and without R-Over on the yahoo list clickersolutions, a lively discussion about poisoned cues is underway. The only research supporting the hypothesis that R- will indeed poison a cue is a single-subject experiment that hasn't yet been published.<br />
<br />
So I will do a little anecdotal study (we can hardly call this an experiment) to explore how Vanya responds to a new recall cue trained entirely without R-, versus a new recall cue trained with 20% trials backed up with R-<br />
<br />
The R- will be pressure from a long line when he doesn't immediately respond. (For those who get confusing about operant conditioning terminology, when you remove something (negative: pressure on the line) to reinforce, or increase the frequency, of a desired behavior (running toward me), that's negative reinforcement.<br />
<br />
Here's what we'll do: train two new cues (let's call them A and B). One I'll train with R-; one without. Start from the very beginning with each cue. Train each with increasing levels of distractions. I'll set up the training protocol on Vanya's blog, in case anyone is curious.<br />
<br />
Then have a neutral handler (known as The Friend) come in for the experiments themselves. My friend won't know whether A or B was trained with R-. She will give the cues, under increasing levels of distractions, and she will record how promptly, how enthusiastically, and how reliably under distractions, Vanya responded to A versus B.<br />
<br />
Then I'll train the same cues for another set of time, to see if the responses change with greater levels of proofing.<br />
<br />
Nope, this isn't scientific, but it will help me learn what works better for my particular dog. I'll report on the results here, for those who might be curious.<br />
<br />
Training plan, more details about methods, and logs for the new recall cues are posted here: <a href="http://sites.google.com/site/thevanyaproject/training-logs/recall-cues-a-and-b">http://sites.google.com/site/thevanyaproject/training-logs/recall-cues-a-and-b</a>Nancy Langstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970067690038342512noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346913847456741393.post-50495016269804415402010-06-13T11:16:00.001-05:002010-06-13T21:50:35.044-05:00SundayThe weekend is over, without incident! Yippie! Two GSDs bouncing around next door, and Vanya didn't shriek once. Amazing.<br />
<br />
Poor shepherds. One was a barker, and the owners use a no-bark (shock) collar on him. Saturday morning, they left the two dogs in the tent while they went kayaking. I heard: whine, whine, YELP, silence. Whine, whine, YELP, silence.Nancy Langstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970067690038342512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346913847456741393.post-78600457916629181612010-06-12T08:03:00.000-05:002010-06-12T08:03:43.710-05:00Nope, they're two males. Two huge, shaggy male German Shepherd Dogs, with no leashes (because they have their shock collars, so who needs leashes?), that bark a lot. But the owners seem like nice kids, and they agreed not to let the dogs run over to my fence and bark at Vanya. Here's to hoping for a rainy, foggy weekend!Nancy Langstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970067690038342512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346913847456741393.post-22620729567784875352010-06-10T19:25:00.000-05:002010-06-11T09:36:47.145-05:00Off leash dogs againThe woods are suddenly swarming with off-leash dogs. On the path to Lost Creek, the spaniel Jake and his distracted, elderly owner Ralph came bounding up. I put Vanya's muzzle on, and let them have a brief greeting (not quite brief enough). Jake got to choose whether he wanted to come up and greet, or just stay away from Vanya, and he chose to come up, several times. Vanya was at first pretty wiggly, and then stiff and a little worried (he sat while Jake sniffed his rear), but he did relatively well, until Jake moved off, then he shrieked like a little madman. Jake came pouncing back to nip at Vanya (not fair! Vanya's muzzled!), but when I asked Ralph the owner to keep Jake from biting my muzzled dog, he did comply. (Later, another neighbor mentioned that Jake is also a rescue with issues, and does a bit of fear-biting with people, so this zipping around and nipping a retreating dog wasn't unusual.)<br />
<br />
Lord knows if these greetings are helping Vanya or not. Since I can't control what unleashed dogs do, at least I can control my own reaction--Vanya's muzzle keeps me nice and calm and upbeat. I talk in a happy voice, give Vanya a ton of cheezwhiz, and don't have to worry about my Vanya hurting someone (nor do I have to worry about him redirecting onto my hand when I pull him away by his harness. He's never done this, but he has snapped at the leash before I got the muzzle). If we <i>have</i> to have unleashed dogs around here, I sure wish we could get a female or two. Update: my next to neighbors just emailed me that their relatives are coming up to the next cabin this weekend, with their two dogs. Eek! Let's hope they're females. Let's hope the relatives believe in leashes! Let's hope it keeps raining all weekend so it's not an issue!)<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
After the encounter with Jake in the woods, Vanya was very nervous on the trail--stopping a lot to sniff and look backwards. I tossed treats for him, tried to jolly him along, and finally realized that he might be worrying about this spaniel surprising him from behind. So we reversed directions in the woods, heading back in the direction taken by the spaniel. First I got Vanya set up in his canicross gear, so he could pull to his heart's content and get a ton of praise for pulling. This worked well--he cheered right up as he chugged along, even though we didn't see Jake the spaniel again.<br />
<br />
In the evening, as we were walking back to the cabin from the little dirt road, I worried briefly about having used up the last treat in my pocket. But since I was just one cabin from my own cabin, I figured we'd be fine. Nope. Just then, David and his two ENORMOUS, very male, very loud elkhounds came trundling down the road, right in front of my place. Luckily, Dave had his dogs on leashes--a rare event.<br />
<br />
Oy! Vanya went nuts, trying to pull toward them. So much for calmness. Rather than drag him off in the opposite direction and start him shrieking, I put on his muzzle, gave him his canicross pull command (hike!) and praised him like mad for pulling to his heart's content. Worked like a charm, until of course we got to our driveway and it was time to veer off-course, away from the man + two huge male dogs. Vanya screamed like the demons were coming--quite impressive. I finally just picked him up by the front of his harness and carried him down, just like a sled dog. He sounded just like a sled dog, to be honest.<br />
<br />
Once we regrouped behind the car, I remember the tin of nuts in the car, so I grabbed them and took Vanya back up to the road, armed with nifty treats. Vanya was still warbling a bit, but he was able to play LAT with the retreating Dave and Two Dogs, and stay under threshold, more or less. Calm? Nah. But a zillion times calmer than a moment before. I didn't let him greet Dave and the Dogs, because I was worried that the dogs would attack him, and then he'd really be freaked out for the rest of his life.<br />
<br />
We're still working on the emergency U-turn at close distances. It would be awfully useful in such situations. If the new dog is 100s of yards away when we first see it, Vanya can glance at the dog and do a U-turn without needing to be dragged off and screaming. But that's what I've done for 2.5 years--U-turned and left the scene when another dog showed up at a great distance--and it hasn't helped reduce his excitement at all. I'm hoping that a series of calm, extremely brief, meet-and-greets with other dogs will allow him to progress a little more.Nancy Langstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970067690038342512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346913847456741393.post-88105885994281354832010-06-09T17:35:00.000-05:002010-06-09T17:35:27.423-05:00Day 9 Update<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px;">An update on the update for Vanya: it's only day 9 for his prozac, but something seems to be making a huge difference. (He also went back on L-theanine the same day, this time in the Anxitane formulation, so that might be part of<br />
it. Plus I got the window film up, which is also playing a role in reducing triggers).<br />
<br />
His OCD scanning and shrieking episodes are declining, and today he was able to have a very good meet-and-greet (muzzled and leashed) with the yippie mini-poodle, Buddy. When Buddy told him off (Buddy had found a bit of goose<br />
poop, so Vanya came over to investigate), Vanya didn't snarf back. He did shriek when (unleashed) Buddy first came bounding up to us, but he calmed right down when I muzzled him and let him greet Buddy. Each time Buddy bounded away for a time-out, Vanya whined but didn't lunge or shriek. And when Micky, the world's bravest (or dumbest) cat came up to investigate, Vanya was very interested, but not barking or lunging, and able to take treats and watch me even as the cat came to within 5 feet (ok, dumbest cat).<br />
<br />
For your average dog, all this may be no big deal, but for Vanya, it's huge.<br />
<br />
Then, when we dropped in to visit his favorite neighbor, he was able to greet her and quickly settle on the couch with a kong--amazing for Vanya, who usually vibrates with excitement the whole time he's in her house. When numerous vans drove by us, he was able to sit and take treats instead of shrieking at them.<br />
<br />
So it may be a day too soon for the Prozac to be at steady-state in his bloodstream (according to the one good study I could find), but whatever this is, I'll take it! </span>Nancy Langstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970067690038342512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346913847456741393.post-69926778450512545552010-06-09T17:29:00.000-05:002010-06-09T17:32:06.848-05:00Thinking About Pit Bulls<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0px;">Last fall, on a clicker-training forum, we got into a lively, at times impassioned, discussion about pit bulls. Some forum members characterized them as "weapon dogs" whose vicious aggression is essentially determined by their genes--dogs trapped in their genetic histories. Some forum members seemed to believe that the dog aggression that was part of their history would inevitably bleed over into aggression against humans. Many forum members, however, defended pit bulls, with some advocates arguing that their dogs are no different than other dogs. Other pit bull lovers argued that their dogs are indeed fundamentally different than other dogs, and their dog aggression could never be bred out of them without destroying what was essential to their other good qualities: intensity, determination, human- friendliness, toughness, comic good humor. Finally, a group of pit bull lovers argued (or at least we hoped) that it might be possible, with selective breeding, to maintain what's wonderful about pits while also decreasing their dog aggression. Dogs don't stay fixed throughout their evolutionary history. But selective breeding has a troubled history--often, in getting what you wished for, you also get surprising and undesirable traits as well.<br />
<a name='more'></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Aggression is extraordinarily complex in evolutionary terms, and it doesn't make much sense to speak of it as one trait. Conspecific aggression (fighting) is different than predation, and in turn both are different than aggression against humans, which in turn is different than prey-aggression (which really shouldn't even be called aggression); they don't appear to be part of one continuum.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Aggressive traits tend to be polygenic (controlled by more than one gene, just like hip dysplasia), and many the genes that affect various kinds of aggression are also likely to affect many other characteristics (when one gene controls several traits, it is called pleiotropy). Epigenetic influences in turn affect gene expression, and hormones affect it all. What this ends up meaning is that it wouldn't be difficult to breed for very low human aggression and high fight aggression in the same individual, and this historically is supposedly what happened with game-bred pits in the late 19th century. It probably wouldn't be impossible to breed for low human aggression, high gameness, and low fight aggression as well. But because these traits are polygenic and each of those genes are pleiotropic, it's also quite easy to start messing with dogs in deleterious ways (see-- golden retrievers: hip dysplasia; pointers: nervousness; etc)</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Play behavior in many young predator species is an interesting combination of prey behavior ( practice for hunting) and ritualized fighting (conspecific aggression). Because of their breeding, many pitties seem to slip more quickly from play into aggressive or prey behavior than some other dog breeds, but for all dogs, play behavior has close links to both hunting and conspecific aggression. All dogs have the potential to get overaroused when playing and slide into fight behavior or prey behavior. Certain breeds, of course, are more likely to do this.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Many pit bull breeders argue that "gameness" in pits is not just about fighting--it's terrier tenacity, and it can be turned to fighting conspecifics, or it can be turned to farm work, or it can be turned to agility purposes. Today, on the fighting websites, I think it is indeed used as a euphemism for "fighting". But gameness is a real quality, and my impression is that it's closely linked in pre-1950s pits with the legendary pit gentleness toward children and strangers.This is just an impression (although many pit breeders argue that it's true, I don't know of any data that have been gathered to support the hypothesis. It could be tested, however)</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">AGGRESSION: what is 'normal'??</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Group-living species such as canids evolve ritualistic displays of aggression that substitute for actual fights that might result in fatal injuries--and in most non-Molosser breeds, most of the time, conspecific aggression is a noisy threat display that rarely leads to severe wounds. Yet pits can be the exception. Their conspecific aggression is not all about ritualized displays; rips and tears and blood are ofteninvolved.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Alexandra Semyonova (<a href="http://www.nonlineardogs.com/socialorganisation.html">2002</a>) has argued that 'normal' dogs don't exhibit wounding aggression toward conspecifics, so if pits do this, by definition they aren't normal. There are several problems with this logic. First, it's circular. Semyonova start by arguing that only dogs who don't fight to kill are normal, and therefore normal dogs don't fight to kill. Bad logic, bad science. You can't exclude a breed that now makes up almost a quarter of domestic dogs in many areas in order to define what "normal" dogs do. This doesn't make any more sense than arguing that normal dogs don't have hip dysplasia, so if labs and goldens do, they aren't normal dogs.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Aside from the circular reasoning, the deeper evolutionary point is this: conspecific aggression that leads to fatal wounds is part of the evolutionary heritage of all dogs, just as prey aggression is. Genes, however, are very labile things, and it's possible to select against certain traits and bring about changes in just a few generations, even in wild species (see the silver fox studies). But genes are also very complicated things, and selecting against certain traits we like or don't like can often lead to sobering and unintended consequences (see English springer show gaits and aggression).</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"></div>Semyonova (2002) argues that 'normal' dogs have evolved to display only ritualized threats, and that pits are 'abnormal' dogs because their threats sometimes turn into actual wounding fights (and therefore, she continues, all pitbulls and related breeds, including boxers, amstaffs, etc, must be eliminated, with all individuals containing any pit bull blood immediately euthanized). But ritualized threat displays can only be an effective strategy, in evolutionary terms, if a certain percentage of threat displays are backed up by actual, costly, violence. In the species that have been studied, such ritualistic displays continue to persist in a population only when they are "backed up" by a certain frequency of actual, violent, damaging aggression. To understand this, think about painted cattle-guards versus actual metal cattle-guards as a useful metaphor. In ranch country, ranchers know they can have a certain percentage of "fake" cattle guards that are just painted onto the road--ritualistic displays of cattle-guardedness. But a certain percentage of cattle guards need to be actual grates that hurt cows' feet when they test them, or else the painted cattle guards lose their effectiveness. Ritualistic displays--roaring, snarling, mock-fights--similarly lose their communicative power (over generations) when they never result in actual bloodshed.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">This doesn't mean that all dogs will fight to kill; what it does mean is that violent aggression is not abnormal in dogs. It may be rare (thankfully), but it's normal. We can't single out a large group of dogs that do it and say they're abnormal for doing it, so that we can persist in our fond hope that dog's aren't really canids with big teeth and the potential for violence. We may not like that violent behavior in pits, but the only reason it could be selected for by breeders is because the genetic potential exists for it in the larger dog gene-pool. You can't breed a dog who can fly, but you can breed a dog who can fight, because fighting played an important role in their evolutionary histories.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Conspecific aggression that leads to fatalities is actually surprisingly common in many species, including wild canids (and it's also observed in feral dogs and village dogs.) In fact, it's quite common in the evolutionary history of many group-living organisms. We would like to hope that such aggression is rarely fatal, but it's actually quite often fatal.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Wild wolves do sometimes kill other wolves. Recent and very interesting research supports the (depressing) hypothesis that the altruistic behavior in social mammals seems able to evolve only when there's a high level of fatal conspecific aggression. This may seem contradictory, but when you think about it, it makes (depressing) sense. In small groups, wild canids and people will act for the benefit of the others in the group even when they don't share genetic material. This was long a theoretical puzzle for evolutionary biologists, but evidence (both theoretical modelling studies and empirical evidence) supports the argument that altruism evolves when high levels of fatal conspecific aggression exists between groups. Kind behavior, in other words, toward the same species seems to evolve because of (not in spite of) nasty violence toward the same species.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Pit bull histories</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Dr Edmund Russell at the University of Virginia is working on a fascinating book that, in part, explores the co-evolution of pit bulls in England and people. His research suggests how very labile (in evolutionary terms) this breed has been.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">The evolution of the pit bull-type dog included farm dogs (probably mastiff-type dogs) selected to bait bulls, which was important order to tenderize the meat for market (not just to protect the farmer from angry bulls). Farmers selected dogs with high prey drive, rather than high fight drive. Dogs that retained the instinct to prey on animals larger than themselves were the ones who were chosen to bait bulls. So pit bulls who fight other dogs in a particularly deadly way are likely to be showing prey behavior, rather than conspecific fight behavior.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">People started placing bets on bull-baiting for all the reasons that people like to bet on such things. Queen Elizabeth was particularly fond of the spectacle.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Around 1800, bull baiting became so popular that bettors needed to standardize one way to settle bets. Two rules had been dominant: the dog who attacks for the longest period, and the dog who runs the most number of times at a bull, would win. Certain smaller, faster baiting dogs, however, were good a grabbing the bull's nose and hanging on. Gamblers called this trait "tenacity" and created a new standard rule for placing bets by throwing them into the ring, where the winner would be determined by the dog that "pinned" with a bite to the nose. Breeders quickly began selecting for the trait of grabbing only the bull's nose and lips, not the other parts of its body. Breeders would set a litter of pups near a bull, would watch to see which pups ran at the bulls head, and keep only those pups--very strong selection for tenacious dogs that gripped and held the nose, but didn't shake or rip or grab the flanks. The longer the dog immobilized the bull, the better. Dogs who ripped and tore weren't good; dogs who held on were favored.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Dog-fighting overtook bull-baiting in the early 19th century (partly because of urbanization--bull baiting was closely connected to an agrarian England and outlawed in 1835). New rules developed for betting, and these rules favored the dogs who disabled, rather than immobilized, their opponent. Grabbing and holding on (ie, tenacity) was no longer favored; instead, "ferocity", or repeating biting and tearing was. Breeders crossed the bulldogs with terriers to get this tearing, shaking, behavior (what a terrier does with a rat--that prey-shake, which wolves don't do with their larger prey). </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">What happened when pits came to America? Prof. Russell doesn't examine this in his work, but here are some preliminary thoughts, which are not yet backed up with good sources:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">When the Irish immigration to the US intensified, many Irish families brought their pits with them, and fighting dogs were so valuable to an Irish family that the dogs lived inside with the family (something that was very rare indeed in Europe for a larger breed), and strong selection for gentleness with children might have begun at that point.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">In the early 20th century, pit bulls were one of the most popular breeds in America--renowned for their prowess in dog-fighting, of course, but almost famous for their courage, sweetness with children, and stable temperament. The list of famous pit bull-type dogs can go on and on: President Teddy Roosevelt's pit bull, Helen Keller's dog, the pup in Little Rascals, Nipper the Victrola Dog, the dog on the military poster, the mascots for football teams.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">One trainer wondered if all these famously stable pet pits suggested that lines of pit bulls being bred for calm pets had already diverged from fighting lines early in the 20th century. My sense is that this isn't the case: game-bred pits seemed to have been popular as pets, and it seems that they may not have often fought other dogs in normal conditions, only in actual fighting pits. It may have been too risky to an important family investment to have a good fighting dog that would pick fights with stranger dogs on the street. The old story about game pits was that they wouldn't start a fight, but they also wouldn't end one. Is this true? Who knows.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">In the 1980s, pit bulls became popular with inner-city black adolescents, and their reputation spiraled downwards among the white middle class. Some of this was probably connected with racism and media bias: white people became freaked out over pits because they associated pits with a certain kind of African-American culture. The media's job was to sell papers and magazines, and scary pit stories sold. But it wasn't all racism. The pits themselves seem to have changed, as backyard and inner-city breeders began breeding for large heads, for much larger sizes (instead of the 40 to 45 pounds of the Irish pits, we now see 95 lb dogs). Some people began intentionally trying to breed pits for human aggression, and some human aggression probably slipped in as an unintended consequence of breeding for large heads and large body size, which meant crossing pits with guarding breeds.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Pit bulls and Human Aggression</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Many websites argue old pit yardmen and fighters used to cull out any dog that showed any degree of human aggression, making pits especially human-friendly. Is this true? None of these studies are published or peer-reviewed, so it's hard to know. But it would be possible to find out, using archival data from the 18th and 19th centuries, and both archival sources and interviews from the 20th C.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Anti-pit bull advocates cite the CDC figures from the 1990s that appeared to show pits and rotties were overrepresented in the breeds responsible for fatal attacks, but those data were never peer-reviewed, and the CDC is the first to argue that they do not actually tell us anything about which breeds were indeed responsible for attacks. There are NO peer-reviewed published statistics on rates of human aggression by dogs of any particular breed or mix.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Similarly, pro-pit bull advocates like to cite Karen Delise's statistics showing that only about 20% of fatal attacks on people were by pits or pit-mixes, which is likely lower than the percentage of pits in the general pet population (suggesting that pits are LESS likely than other breeds to attack people). Again, as someone who has pit bulls I might like to believe that argument, but Delise has not published her work in a peer-reviewed journal, and I believe that until she does, we can't draw any conclusions from it.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">I do think that pitties are impulsive, easily-aroused, high-intensity dogs with an enormous love for people. Typically, they don't have an ounce of human aggression toward adults. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">But:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">-If a pit is abused, it can often be quite resilient. But increasingly, pit bulls seem to show fear aggression.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">-If a pit mix was badly bred by being crossed with guarding breeds, it can also show human aggression.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">-If a pit bull gets over-excited and too pushy with children, I think hyper-arousal can sometimes tip over into prey-drive, if the dog lacks training in impulse-control.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"> The risk of pit bulls inflicting fatal wounds on children is vanishingly small, and if we're going to bring human aggression into the argument, we need to recognize that pits were indeed long bred for low rates of human aggression, just as they were long bred for high rates of conspecific aggression. I personally certainly hope the two aren't connected, (so that we could breed for continued human-sociability while breeding against fighting) but I'm not sure there's any published evidence that shows us one way or the other.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Can you breed a game pit bull to be dog friendly? Is gameness in pits--a quality we love--inevitably tied to scary dog aggression? Can a breeder do this without messing up the breed?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Since 2005, the dog genome has been mapped. That's a very big deal. Molecular biologists now know quite a bit about different alleles (forms of genes) at a particular locus correlated with the development of various forms of aggression; about the SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms--ie, the chunks of genes that vary most between individuals, where the really interesting stuff is happening); correlated with various types of aggression about various SNPs correlated with idiopathic aggression in those much-studied golden retrievers; about the genetic changes in silver fox genomes that correlated with a strong reduction in impulsive aggression.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Gene tests that tell you if your dog is going to be aggressive aren't available yet, but there's no real reason that they couldn't be relatively soon. Good breeders are taking advantage of canine genomics to reduce the rates of certain diseases in specific breeds, so why not to reduce the rates of certain kinds of aggression? Genes do not directly control aggressive behavior--they affect the behavioral regulators known as neurotransmitters, that in turn may influence the probability of certain kinds of aggressive behavior. Every year, more is becoming known about the various SNPs that contribute to increased risk of various kinds of aggression in canines. The silver fox research group does it for their silver foxes. If breeders wanted these test, they could be on the market in not very many years, for a reasonable price (look at bovine genomics, for example: it's a huge field, because there's a demand for it).</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">If I were a canine geneticist, the first place I'd look would be at the MAOA-L locus, which has been correlated with a strong increase in impulsive aggression and increased reactivity in all the species examined (including foxes, I think). MAOA is an enzyme that regulates the breakdown of the neurotransmitter 5-HT or serotonin, and one little mutation in MAOA leads to all sorts of changes in serotonin, which in turn leads to an increase in reactivity and impulsive aggression. (Specifically, the genetic mutation leads to an increase in circulating serotonin in early development, which then creates a cascade of epigenetic effects that lead to lowered serotonin levels and all sorts of havoc later in life. This is partly why nasty fight breeders give their dogs tons of steroids early in life--it works with the genetic templates to create radical changes in behavior).</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">In foxes, it's possible to selectively breed for changes in MAOA and serotonin uptake, which then modulate aggressive behavior. I believe it's not hard to map these MAOA variations in a DNA sample.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Serotonin gene systems are actually more complicated than first suspected, involving an extra two genes, and changes in those help regulate territorial aggression versus intermale aggression. Tiny changes in these 2 genes (replacing one base pair) actually change the THRESHOLD of the aggressive response--ie, which foxes are hot tempered and which are not. Again, I believe it would be possible to sequence these genetic variations in a DNA sample, giving you some sense of the dog's later aggression threshold.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">What's really nifty is that this "hot-tempered" behavior does not actually correlate, genetically, with intensity of fighting--ie, gameness; they're controlled by different genetic mechanisms, which means that a good breeder might indeed be able to separate them out, especially with the help of good genetic tests.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">When you breed foxes for lack of aggression, you get changes in neurotransmitter 5-HT metabolic pathways, one of which involves the inhibition of fear-induce defensive aggression. (Which is why giving prozac to fear-aggressive pups may not always a great idea, since it can remove the inhibitory factors keeping it from being expressed. Prozac-treated rats are less likely to fight each other, but more likely to bite people in fear). This finding suggests a possible explanation for why traditionally game-bred pit bulls had a low threshold for fighting and low impulse control but were so friendly to people--lots of inhibition, genetically, of fear-aggression.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">But the fox studies also suggest that it's possible to breed for low aggression and high sociability with people.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">The review article that goes over all this is "Canid genomics: mapping genes for behavior in the silver fox," Tyrone C Spady and Elaine Ostrander, 2007, Genomics 17: 259-263.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">So if I were a breeder, I'd want those genomic studies of aggression, and I'd want to know what those SNPs of my potential breeding dogs looked like. The cow folks are already doing this; why not the dog breeders? And while some pit bull lovers don't want to see dog aggression bred out of pits, plenty of others disagree. In my opinion, the breed has been so badly abused by terrible backyard breeding in the past 2 decades that we're nowhere near some mythical past standard. Anyway, breeds are constantly changing. If we can use genetic tests to reduce terrible diseases in many dog breeds, why not use them to alter aggression thresholds, while keeping careful watch on possible fear-aggression changes.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div>Nancy Langstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970067690038342512noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346913847456741393.post-18111521668948105462010-06-08T12:02:00.000-05:002010-06-08T12:02:43.357-05:00Progress...Vanya has been sleeping a lot while on the prozac, and being a lot less bouncy, but I expect that he needs a bit of time to adjust to it. <div><br />
</div><div>Yesterday: a great walk, until the cat came running up, and then he went into prey-shrieking mode (which he doesn't do at deer, curiously enough). He was able to calm down quickly and practice the emergency turn-arounds with me. For those, our cue is: "this way!" called out in a happy voice, with lots of cheez-whiz for rewards. The idea is simple: let's blow this popsicle stand before Vanya tips over into a screaming frenzy. My goal is to work on his happy turns, even in the face of provocation, so I don't have to drag him off, which quickly leads to shrieks and howls. The cat certainly provided the provocation. Vanya was fine with her as long as she was lying down in her driveway, and he performed quite a few impressively calm LAT with her, and then practiced his calm "this ways" quite a few times. Then she got curious and came bounding up to us (oop!), which was more than Vanya could handle. </div><div><br />
</div><div>But he was quite calm with the deer at the end of the driveway--barking once, then telling me to hurry up with the LAT game. And he got two visits to the sea caves beneath the cabin for off-leash hunt time. </div>Nancy Langstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970067690038342512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346913847456741393.post-91446685128536863812010-06-06T20:29:00.000-05:002010-06-06T20:38:38.472-05:00Remedial socialization Attempt # 2Today we met up with Lana and her calm, huge dog-loving dog, Andre, in hopes that Vanya could follow Jean Donaldon's remedial socialization protocol for unsocialized Tarzans that she describes in her manual <i>Fight: A Practical Treatment for the Treatment of Dog-Dog Aggression (</i>pp 27-41<i>).</i> The idea is that Vanya could get some remedial socialization by playing, while muzzled, with Lana's dog Andre, a dog who loves playing with pitties (Andre is housemates with Amber, a pit bull with a play style very similar to Vanya's body slams). Then Vanya could better work on his CC/DS protocols, keeping a loose leash as he played LAT with Andre in the distance.<br />
<br />
Well, it didn't quite work out that way. At first, the two dogs were ok--not playing, but investigating--but Vanya, as always, came on too strong, and when Andre told him to buzz off a bit, Vanya failed to do so. They danced around for a while, and then Andre had enough of Vanya and nipped at him, and we ended the session because Andre was clearly feeling overwhelmed by Vanya.<br />
<br />
When I pulled Vanya away from Andre, at that point, he started shrieking and trying to pull out of his harness, and I had to drag him out of sight. He took quite a while to calm down, even though he was crated in the car. When we then walked over to the picnic area where Lana and Andre were waiting and tried LAT from a distance, he was still far too wound up to do it. So then he went back to the crate in the car for another cool down, and then he was able to stay calm (more or less) and do LAT with Andre in the distance. We could actually get quite close without Vanya reacting, just so we went back to the visual barrier of the car for brief cool-downs. Targeting a lid was also quite helpful.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
I also put Vanya in his crate, outside the car, and fed him peanut butter and played LAT while Lana and Andre walked around the parking lot. Vanya did much better at this than I expected, until Lana and Andre approached us directly, then he started vocalizing (not aggressive barking, but his shrieking "let me, let me, let me have what I want!")<br />
<br />
So: what did I learn from this?<br />
1. leash control: I had dropped Vanya's leash, so that he wouldn't start screaming at leash-restraint, but this was a mistake. It would be better for me to hold onto a leash and do my best keep it as loose as possible, while the other handler uses a long line, and allows her dog to leave Vanya if he gets annoying.<br />
<br />
So, in essence, I should be doing Donaldson's "On Leash Meet and Greets With Tarzan" (pp 50-53), rather than "Remedial Socialization" (pg 34), unless I can find a group of 3 to 4 solid, calm, large dogs who like rough play.<br />
<br />
2. Choice of dog: I had thought Andre fit Jean Donaldson's "bomb proof dog" definition (pg 29), but he's too young and inexperienced, and too vulnerable at his age to fallout from a bad experience. (He is huge, but only 10 months--which alas, I didn't realize until afterwards, because I would not have let him interact with Vanya if I had known). Plus, of course, he's male, and Vanya's likely to do a lot better with a female. So I'll need to find a calm, playful, bombproof, female lab. Any ideas?<br />
<br />
3. Muzzle: Vanya finds his basket muzzles too heavy on his nose. He's been conditioned with a ton of cheez whiz, so he doesn't fight them, but his ears go back and his expression gets spectacularly sad. More importantly, I think the basket muzzle may make him more reactive. I've also conditioned him to an ordinary, padded vet muzzle that is quite wide on him, so he can easily eat and drink with it. He seems completely oblivious to this muzzle--it doesn't appear to bother him at all. I tried Amber's basket muzzle, but it also seemed to put uncomfortable pressure on his nose. Interacting today with the vet muzzle on (for only a few minutes), he didn't seem to get at all heat-stressed in it, or reactive from it. (The temperature was 50 degrees and drizzling. Most importantly, I worried a bit that, because the vet muzzle was so wide and loose on him, he might be able to nip with it on. But he couldn't, and he couldn't get it off (he didn't try). So for short socialization sessions in cool weather, the padded muzzle will work.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">4. CER to being pulled: Whenever I pull Vanya away, he looses all composure and begins to scream his head off, so I should work again on a positive CER to the tight leash, and perhaps even to the exciting experience of being dragged away. This winter, when we were skijoring a lot and Vanya was getting tons of praise and rewards for keeping a very tight leash and pulling like mad, he did better.</div><div><br />
</div><br />
5. Next time: we'll start at a good distance, keep both Amber and Vanya well under threshold, use the cars as visual barriers, and do BAT and LAT. Then, if the dogs manage to stay calm, we might try some of the calming routine from Liz's class with Ginger.Nancy Langstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970067690038342512noreply@blogger.com0