Heat and Progress
Lacey is in her first heat. She is nine months old. She’s handling it fairly well, though, and she’s doing a great job keeping herself clean. I visited the family last night to work with Lacey for a bit, and I was very impressed by how much progress she has made since the last visit. The family is doing a great job practicing the instructions I give them, and in turn, Lacey is doing a fantastic job following them. She still vocalizes, but nowhere near as often as she did prior to my previous visit. And despite the physical discomfort of her heat, Lacey has been doing the job she’s being trained to do: interrupt, calm, and comfort Jake during a melt-down. Tanya sent me a video of this the other day; the video quality is not great, but it was very clear that Lacey was handling the situation like a pro.
Lacey’s training will continue, but while she is in heat, the duration of the sessions is reduced to 20-minute increments. Just like human women do, female dogs get cranky and feel uncomfortable during their cycles, too. Right now, Lacey can handle about 20 minutes of focused work, so that’s what we’re working with.
In other news, Glimmer is coming along beautifully with her lessons. Yesterday, I spent a couple of hours working her on her long-line and loose-leash recall, sit-stay, and down-stay, as well as doing some shaping and conditioning work with her to help her overcome her anxieties. I recently discovered that when we’re on a walk and scents become unfamiliar to her, she becomes very anxious to the point where she will whine and shake and try to turn around and go home. So, finding her threshold – and helping her move past it – is important.
It turned out that Glimmer has a few thresholds, so we spent several minutes at each one to give her time to explore the area and familiarize herself. When her anxiety started to ease, we repeated the exercise. We did this several times – moving further forward each time – for almost 45 minutes. When we were almost half a kilometer ahead of her threshold point, I ended the exercise and we began a slow, calm walk towards home. She did pull a bit a few times, but quickly came back into the heel position when gently corrected. I made a point of stopping several times along the way to give her permission to smell the surroundings. This helps familiarize her, which in turn eases her anxiety. Glimmer loves children, and on our way home, I noticed that the children at a nearby day care were outside playing. To reward Glimmer for working so hard, we stopped there so she could greet them. The children love to see and visit with her, and they made their joy clear with high-pitched shrieks that made my ears ring. Glimmer sat very calmly beside the fence and invited them to pet her. She even gave a few of the children kisses on their hands. One of the attendants commented on how calm she was despite the shrieking; I was unable to respond, because I was overwhelmed with pride and joy.
Just as Lacey is meant to be with Jake, Glimmer proved yet again that she is meant to work with children. So, her training for the CGN test – and ultimately, her Therapy Dog vest and badge – will continue. The sooner she achieves those things, the sooner I can start taking her to visit with children in need. Women’s shelters, the Children’s Hospital, the day care centers with special-needs children…
Remembering the Ropes
Last night, I received a call from Tanya asking if I could come and do some training with Lacey. When I arrived, Lacey greeted me with a tremendous amount of excitement that included a great deal of very loud barking. But, unlike the previous visit, last night, Lacey remembered very quickly that she does not receive any kind of affection from me unless she calms down and sits nicely – and that’s exactly what she did.
The session was truly remarkable. Tanya and Matt have been working with their autistic son, teaching him how to be a strong leader with Lacey. To prove this out, they allowed Lacey to become excited and start barking. Then, they asked their son to take control of the situation. Jake calmly and assertively said, “Lacey, SHH! No barking!” and Lacey immediately stopped, went into a sit position, and waited calmly and quietly for him to tell her what to do next. I was floored – I was ecstatic, too, but her immediate obedience really surprised me. It surprised me, because only a few weeks ago, Jake was unable to deal with her and she was not obeying him at all.
The training session focused on teaching Tanya and Matt what triggers Lacey’s barking and how to resolve it. Lacey is very sensitive to changes in vocal volume and tone. Verbal corrections are given with a louder, “hard” tone; during the session, I observed that this same tone and volume is also used when giving vocal praise. Lacey reacts vocally because she interprets it as a correction and she doesn’t understand what she did wrong. So, we spent quite a bit of time working on learning to be aware of volume and tone, and offering vocal praise in a softer, gentler voice to signal Lacey that she was being rewarded. Lacey’s response was immediate: She became calm and submissive, and she did not make any sound at all. She just held her position and maintained eye contact, waiting for guidance.
We also worked on follow-through. Lacey receives corrections when necessary, but she reverts to the bad behavior almost immediately because there is no follow-through. Following through and getting the dog to surrender to the correction is critical, especially with dominant dogs. They have to understand that we mean business and if they don’t, their bad behavior will continue. Lacey provided several opportunities for me to teach Tanya and Matt how to follow through on a correction. The first few times, Lacey was very vocal about it, but she submitted to the exercise anyway because she knows I will not tolerate disrespect. But she quickly figured out that once I’d made my point, the matter was closed and we could continue with what we were doing. Dogs live in the moment; unlike humans, when one dog corrects another dog, the offense that earned the correction is forgotten and life goes on. In a human-to-dog scenario, the offense is forgotten by simply walking away when the dog submits to the correction. Lacey learned this very quickly, and as the session continued, her vocalization began to decrease.
Lacey does need work, but so do Tanya and Matt. Jake already knows what to do – and his success is proven; if they closely watch how he addresses Lacey’s bad behavior, and if they mimic his actions exactly, Matt and Tanya can learn from Jake how to gain Lacey’s respect.
Lacey has made tremendous progress in her training because Tanya and Matt have continued to work with her and teach her. She still needs work, but all in all, she is doing phenomenally well. She is doing a great job as a Support dog for Jake – which is the main reason Matt and Tanya adopted her; with time, patience, and consistency, she’s going to graduate from “great” to “awesome”.
Happy Dawgs Obedience Training 