One girl and her dogs (and other random trivia):: This week's musings.

Well the dogs have kept me sane this week. I was riddled with exams and hideous essays, so going out with them and doing non-Uni stuff was a real blessing. :)

I had a bit of revelation the other week with Dash. I took him somewhere pretty busy and he got quite stressed and shut down and consequently so did I (so I didn't really help him through it). We were able to go for a walk and chill out so that was fine but it did make me realise that there was work needed there. The main thing seems to be that he gets pretty worried getting in and out of the car in newish places and after that if presented with (even low level) scary stimuli, shuts down very quickly. Similarly he tends to get quite excited when he sees one of his favourite people (you know who you are! haha) and this excitement/anticipation, paired with getting in and out of the car and other stimuli/busy environments, sort of finishes him off, poor lad.

My fault of course. I should be been able to intercept this before now really. But anyway...

With a behaviour or behaviour chain like this which has several components; the aim is obviously to break it down; deal with each one separately and once you are confident with each component on it's own (have counter-conditioned etc)- you can start to introduce the combination of components (triggers) but at significantly lessened intensity.

In reality, in every day life it's hard to establish what "lessened intensity" is and how you can ensure this; but nevertheless I've been trying as much as possible to stick to this method.

As a result this week I've taken him out to several of his walks in the car. Short drive, familiar places. Park the car, "park" the dog, once he looks chilled, wait for reconnection and off we go. There are some cool places near me, with tennis courts near car parks so I've been practising sheepballs there at quieter times (with fewer cars etc) to set him up to succeed so that he can work properly without being anxious about what is happening elsewhere. He's been great! The aim is to eventually and as gradually as needed raise the criteria, so that he can get out of the car, be parked (that's our "safety= don't worry about what's going on elsewhere, the humans have got it covered, just chillax" cue), reconnect, depending on where we are go and play sheepballs and then just go and chill and be a dog.

I've learnt that his ability to park promptly (and relax and destress) and work for sheepballs, is a good indication of how chilled/confident he is.

Anyway, despite the exam yukkiness, we've been working hard. And here is the evidence:

Holding his "sheep".

I did try to do some filming but true to form I made a bit of a hash of it. I tried to balance my phone on the top of the goal post, it fell off and isn't quite "right" now- part of the back is having to be held on with duck tape. Granted, it's on it's last legs anyway but that's not the point!

We've also been playing the "yer in! yer out" game for the car; crate games style only sans-crate. He is now much improved and hops in happily. Progression to same game; car + crate combo is next on the list. :)

I bought a dog ramp for my car (massive boot lip, my other dog needs a run up to jump in), so we've had a play with that this week.

We discovered it's great for practising contacts on:

I was also really pleased with her ladyship this week. Loose lead walking training is going great and she's more chilled out on her walks for it! At one of the seminars I went to at LADs, one of the main things I got from it was "If the dog is pulling or straining on the lead, he is not in a position to be making good choices about incoming stimuli". So, so true.

I'm using a mixture of 300 peck and reconnection, methods wise. Our variable reinforcement schedule is probably at about 25-30 foot steps. I'm kind of cheating the 300 peck method though... if I raise it too much and go for longer and she pulls, I just stop moving wait for her to reconnect, click, reward and go for a lower criteria and build it up from that... Strict "resetting the counter" worked well in the initial stages but not really needed any more because she "gets" the game and much to my approval will now loose lead walk and start to just chill out too; soft eyes,sniffs if she wants too (not sticking by my leg, desperate for food). I've not been majorly specific criteria wise so long as her lead is loose and she is beside/level with me. A strict competitive obedience type "heel", if I did teach it, I'd teach it as a separate behaviour.

Also been BATing on our walks too.

We've also had some fun with more tracking (which I think I got a video of, will review once I can get my camera turned on= technology hates me!)

Finally, Mr funnytum (and her ladyship) are mostly on 100% raw. They love it and it seems to really suit Dash and avoid bouts of IBS. We have a new supplier so the hounds are very impressed: