Interesting blog read

Jogged the dogs today, lots of great autowatches from Gustav and some excellent BAT work from far away with Dottie. No barking, no lunging. I really feel like a good month or two of this type of work will bring us back to our high point. Dottie has begun all walks with some very intense scanning and even a little pulling. She seems to be on high alert and I've needed to start walks with lots of back and forth, treats, slow walking, etc. to get us all in the right frame of mind to survive a neighborhood walk.

I've been following Patricia McConnell's blog, www.theotherendoftheleash.com, and there's a very interesting saga regarding a puppy she rehomed. Well, two actually, but Hope most recently. Very thought provoking. I recommend it.

Jogging weather!

It's gotten really mild here, with highs in the upper 60s, so it means we can jog again without the dogs being completely useless due to overheating. We drove to a suburban area a few miles up the road for a change of scenery. It was lovely and we had a great time. We passed lots of dogs in houses and behind fences going crazy and my dogs didn't bark at all. They were handsomely rewarded for this choice. We jogged for about an hour and it's great to ditch the treadmill and have both the dogs and myself exercised at once.

Ever since I've been back from my trip I've noticed Gustav in particular has really regressed. He's bark/lunged at people nearly every day. I'm glad we have the fall routine, complete with jogging and our reactive rover class, to get us back on track. I also am setting up my weekly CAT sessions with my sister-in-law. I'd really like Gustav to like her. He loves her son and her boyfriend, so I know it's possible.

I'm working on two other things with Gustav: one, looking at me before we cross the street. I say "stop" and the dogs stop, then I just stand there until Gustav finally looks up at me out of boredom. Then I say "yes" and "okay" and we cross the street. Two, I picked up a booklet called the "Really Reliable Recall." It has you spend two weeks calling your dog in the house three times a day and spending literally one minute giving out great treats and praising. It's nice not to worry about criteria right now and Gustav has gotten quite speedy on his in-house recall. The booklet then has you test the recall in a set-up to see how it's going. I'll give that a try in a few weeks and see if a recall trained with no raising of criteria is of any use in difficult situations. I'm curious and it takes very little effort on my part, so why not?

The dogs are really tired now. It's a wonderful sight.

Two good days.

Both today and yesterday I was able to take the dogs on separate walks. What a pleasure! Gustav made it 20 minutes without crying while Dottie and I were gone, with a good bone of course. He also gave it up without any problems. Since he growled at me once a few weeks ago while reaching into his crate to take away an amazing meaty bone, I've been doing a little resource guarding stuff here and there, not too much. I'm not sure if that's helped or if the bone is less meaty or if it's because I wait until he brings his bone out of his crate himself before I take it away.

Gustav barked at one person, a friend of mine I saw on my walk. I told him Gustav is "mean" (sometimes you have to be simple and inaccurate to get people to listen) and he stopped walking towards us and that was fine, but while we talked he inexplicably took a few more steps forward before I could say anything and Gustav did a woof and lunge. Nothing terrible, but it sure worked because my friend stopped coming towards us. Other than that we saw tons of dogs and people and he did great. I was really proud. Same with Dottie.

Bad day :(

Had a not so great walk yesterday. Both the dogs were high-strung from the beginning, stiff and with hackles up right out the door. I have no idea why-maybe a dog had just walked there? Anyway, Dottie barked at a neighbor and so did Gustav. Then later Gustav bark/lunged at a woman 15 feet away on the sidewalk. Disappointing.

What a summer!

Well, I just got back from my vacation in Berlin, which was amazing. Justin reported that the dogs had a few bad days, including Dottie charging a dog a few times while off leash. Sounds like extra caution is needed while she's off leash, because it sounds like she was pretty mean and intimidating, but was still able to be recalled and didn't cause any damage. However, that's exactly the type of behavior I hate from other dog owners and sets everyone's training back. I was sad to hear about it. She also had a few meltdowns at other dogs.

I took them out for a long rebonding walk yesterday and it was just lovely. They did great and using distance as a reinforcer for Dottie is still amazing me with it's effectiveness. I can literally see her decide when to look at me instead of barking and freaking out. She looks at a dog, purses her lips and raises her tail, then turns around to look at me. I say "yes!" and we literally sprint away from the dog and Dottie is just as happy as can be. Gustav is a bit slower on this because he is insecure about turning his back on something that worries him and I have to give him several extra seconds. During this time, I figure Dottie is learning duration. Otherwise, if Dottie is about to lose it, I just have to sort of drag Gustav away. Interesting to do BAT with two dogs at once, but I just sort of choose which dog to focus on each time we see a trigger and try to keep a lid on things in general.

I signed Gustav up for Reactive Rover this fall, so I'm really excited about that. He made a lot of progress when we did it last year, just in general responsiveness. I think the most useful thing about the class is having a completely controlled environment in which to build trust and basic focus.

Well, I didn't get as much training done this summer as I'd hoped, but I got a little overscheduled in general and fell short of many of my goals. Lesson from this summer: relax and don't expect so much from myself and my time. Now it's back to school and routine, my favorite things, and I think the dogs will benefit as well.

Boring walk report

Took a long walk today. The dogs were very hot. Dottie barked at one dog, but not at two others (although I increased distance quite a bit based on her earlier performance). I brought a toy as a different reinforcer, which worked beautifully. I think Dottie was pleasantly surprised that looking at a dog and then looking at me could produce a toy she loves and a little mini tug session.

All in all, it was incredibly pleasant and almost one hundred percent what I want out of my dogs: long, uneventful walks around the neighborhood without having to make crazy routes to avoid people/dogs. I don't mind crossing the street, but taking wild detours is a bummer.

Now they are panting and laying down. I love them.

Back home

Wow, I've been gone a while. I was super busy getting ready for my band's tour, and I just got back yesterday. One thing that's fun about tour is meeting other people's pets. We stayed with some friends in North Carolina who have a great little heeler mutt named Lil' Man. He was obviously a great dog, but super super mouthy. It reminded me that no one's dog is perfect and that we love them all the same, an obvious message that sometimes gets lost nevertheless when we are trying to work with our dogs towards some goal.

Justin, who took care of the dogs while I was gone, said it went great with no barking fits or problems except one incident in which they got mobbed by two off-leash pit bulls. Dottie barked at them from behind Justin's legs and Gustav just beat up the other dogs. So typical of their crisis responses. Gustav really can take care of himself, and he knows it. My job is to convince him he doesn't have to. This message is a little harder to convey when it's not true, like when people let their dogs run amok. Gustav is extremely intimidating when he decides it's time to take care of business and I've never seen him lose a contest of this variety. He snarls and growls and pins the other dog within seconds.

Well, I'm back in the saddle for a few weeks, after which I'm on vacation again (!). I'm going to take the dogs out on a long long walk right now. Nice.