My follow-up Friday has to do with A Good Dog Trainer.
Last night at our Thursday night drop-in obedience class we were joined by “J” and her rescued bully, Diesel.
Diesel seems like a very nice dog, but he tends to be excited around other dogs. J is devoted to him and determined to help him. She has him on a gentle leader and from what I could tell he listens very well and appears to respond to J’s commands. The bigger issue (as I see it) is his excitement around other dogs.
When Diesel gets close to another dog he whines, and you can see him amping himself up. J was using a water bottle and a verbal command when he whined.
While we were walking around the room and Diesel began amping himself up, Sara suggested having him ‘sit’ and ‘down’, ‘sit’ and ‘down.’ This command is known to many of you as puppy push-ups. What this does is distracts Diesel from whatever he is fixated on and instead helps him focus on something else; allowing his brain time to settle down.
When class was over I followed J out and gave her my card. I explained that I wrote a blog and I had access to some really great people, some of who rescued bullies, I suggested someone who fostered/rescued bullies might have some different suggestions for her. I asked her to check out my blog or send me an e-mail and I would put her in touch with someone.
Today when I picked the dogs up from daycare at The Mellow Mutt I had a chance to speak with Sara. I wanted to let her know what I told J. I told Sara that her suggestion of distracting Diesel with the puppy push-ups was similar to something that Kirsten (Peaceful Dog) does with her reactive dog Lamar. Using the clicker Kirsten has taught Lamar the “whisper” command. Where Lamar moves his lips but no words come out. “Whisper” is Lamar’s favorite trick and when Kirsten sees Lamar gearing up to become reactive, she says “Lamar, whisper” and diffuses the situation.
I said to Sara, “I know you’re not a fan of the clicker.”
Sara said, “I don’t use it, but I think for Diesel it might be the way to go.”
That’s what I mean when I say find a good trainer, someone who is wise enough to understand that not all dogs respond to the same methods. Who listens and answers your questions, who cares about your dogs as much as you do; who doesn’t care about the money as much as she cares about the dogs. When you find a trainer like that; you’ve struck gold.
I think I’ve struck gold with Sara.
You are so right Jodi, recognizing that every dog is different and what works for one may not work for the next is really key in being a successful trainer.
You are so right Misty, unfortunately some trainers are just in it for the money.
I think you struck gold also. 🙂
🙂 I can’t say I disagree with you.
Awww another Diesel! 🙂 And we swear by clicker training … it is so useful and applicable in so many situations, including dog-dog reactivity. Hope he continues to progress!
I will need some tips on how to work the dog-dog reactivity with the clicker. Can you give me some?
Very interesting info! : )
Glad you got something out of it. Although I’m sure Miss Stella Rae Bear is perfect. 🙂
Hey Jodi, thanks for the shout-out!
Diesel’s behavior sounds so much like that of my current crew of pitties. I am gathering–and there’s probably a lot more too it than this–that its a combination of pitties’s high prey drive and generally high arousal that makes them hard to get through to when they get excited about something.
i do think that the clicker helps in working with reactivity. The key is to work on some simple, fun trick with a dog in a non-arousing environment, using a clicker and reward to reinforce it. With that reward history, the dog will be more likely to pay attention to you when you ask for the same trick in a stimulating situation. You click, of course, only after the dog has performed the behavior–so by the time Diesel was doing push-ups, he would already have “snapped out if it” a bit–enough to perform an operant behavior. But the clicker makes him snap out of it even further, because it’s such a distinct sound with such a clear, positive reward history.
In Diesel’s case, I would discourage the use of the spray bottle. That sort of punishment will I expect just make him suppress his excitement, and it could easily be channeled into aggression. It may be that he is way too excited in these situations to do a push-up–he may need to practice that a lot in calm situations, with gradually increasing levels of stimulation, before that becomes a possibility! Lamar doesn’t have the presence of mind to do a “whisper” when he’s really upset, only if I’ve calmed him down with some classical conditioning first.
Also, working with fear reactivity is different from working with aroused reactivity like these pitties seem to be prone to. I posted about the difference between operant and classical conditioning here http://peacefuldog.blogspot.com/2011/09/operant-vs-classical.html
and about the unique sort of reactivity that Fozzie and Diesel seem to share here.
http://peacefuldog.blogspot.com/2011/07/fozzies-second-reactive-dog-class.html
Sorry for the wordy response; I’ll pipe down now 🙂