Desensitisation
Desensitisation😀
Some sights and particularly sounds can become a trigger for a fearful or over-excited association. This is often the case with household electrical appliances. Household cleaning or taking your dog to the groomers – a noisy environment at times with clippers and dryers – can become an ordeal for everyone!
Some of us might find scenarios like a dog trying to play with or attack a vacuum cleaner amusing, but the truth is the first leads to frustration and the second is derived from stress at the outset. And of course it can cause mishaps or accidents. So aside from not being able to allow you to get on with things calmly, it’s only fair to desensitise your dog to these things. And it’s never too late in life to start!
The key to this is to take things slowly and gently, not to flood your dog so they are overwhelmed. As in this video, a dog that used to attack the vacuum cleaner can now even sleep with it being very close by. In fact asking him to move is now harder than previously asking him to keep away!
WALKING WITH A LOOSE LEAD
What does the idea of walking with a loose lead mean to us? Do we want our dog to walk to heel, their nose glued to our hip or calf? Or just to be beside us? Or are we okay with them being ahead of us, but only just a little? It means different things to different people.
But for most people it always means not pulling. Here’s the thing though – if the lead is always tight, both of us are pulling. We’re pulling back, our dog is pulling forward. So one of us needs to change, to show the other how it’s done. That’ll be the human!
And dogs are so much better at learning to do things, rather than “not” do them. So instead of thinking “Argh, stop pulling!”, let’s start thinking, “Let’s enjoy the lead being loose”. Changing our mindset will change the way we both walk, and this has to come first. Now, are you ready? 😊
Crossing a road safely
We can teach our dog an auto-response to a stimulus for a desired routine, in this case crossing the road! The stimulus is facing the kerbside, the auto-response a Sit and pause (Wait). I like its calm elegance and practicality. By introducing a pause, we are more likely to cross the road together safely without a lunge. Especially if there is a distraction present: it is much easier from this position to either cope with the distraction or to let it pass.
We train a Sit and a Wait with a Release cue, starting at home with no distractions. With enough repetition and reinforcement, your dog should begin to offer an auto-response by volunteering the behaviour naturally, eventually without you having to say anything. This is because your dog builds an association with the kerbside routine, and it develops into a habit. “This is what we always do because it works”.
This type of training is very rewarding but needs determination. It falls down when it isn’t reinforced every time. No cutting corners! Or kerbs!
A heart-warming story for you during these cold January days...Lottie joined the Dog Citizen pack a couple of months ago. She had a terrible start to her life but was rescued into a caring, loving home. She was however afraid of men, being very anxious when out on walks, and introducing a male visitor into her house was terrifying for her and untenable.
We needed to find the right strategies that would work for Lottie, and our bespoke training programme started with a man - me! We wanted to gradually ease her fear so her reaction even on seeing a man was a calmer one. And building up to allowing herself - only when she was ready - to accept male company, even indoors.
Well, here she is, voluntarily engaging with a male visitor without feeling afraid - in her house! Her diligent and loving human family are more calm and confident too, which will enable Lottie to flourish with her on-going training. Well done Lottie!
ERNIE & THE BALL
Meet Ernie. Ernie likes his ball. Really likes it! If you have the ball, you have his full attention. If he has the ball, you don't. It's a big distraction.
A prop like this is perfect to begin training a dog's response to you despite a distraction. In this example, I have been training Ernie to remain in place while I produce the ball and even throw it gently in between us. For Ernie, a huge invitation, but still he waits. I then ask him for a recall, to pass the ball on route to me. He does very well!
It's just a beginning, but a great example of how we start training small, gradually building in distractions.
We can use training to help change an emotional response, such as from a reactive to a calmer behaviour. In this example we began by training different techniques to eventually bring them together on a walk.
The training dog on the right in this clip can be reactive to seeing another dog even at a distance, straining on the lead and barking.
Here we were able to establish a safe distance for the control dog on the left, with the training dog still able to respond to his owner, take treats, keep a loose lead - essentially to start feeling good about things. All in the presence of what would normally be a reactive trigger for him. Later that session we were able to bring the dogs much closer together.
It takes a lot of practice and patience, but the important first step is to find an appropriate way for a particular dog to feel safer and calmer. Once we have something to work with, we can reinforce it. Chris at Dog Citizen can help you with this!
https://dogcitizen.co.uk/dog-training/
Dog Citizen Woody testing out the scurry for tomorrow’s Dog Show at the Countess of Warwick Country Show. Are you ready? 😀
We can use eye contact, long line and off lead exercises to teach our dog to CHECK IN with us. This involves our dog silently volunteering to look at us or in our direction at regular intervals, when off lead. A calm acknowledgement on our part (a nod or a word) reinforces the exchange. Checking in is good because it:
1. Helps you keep your dog under control because they are maintaining focus.
2. Offers your dog the security of knowing you are there.
3. Encourages them to "ask" you if they are not sure about something, such as an approaching distraction.
4. Makes it easier to move on as one unit.
It takes a while to bed in, but is very rewarding!
This young man is very friendly and often bounds over to meet stranger dogs, ignoring his owners. Being a large dog, despite his friendly intentions, this is not always well received by the other dog, or the owner! Not a desirable situation.
So, training started with working on improving his response to his owners, through loose lead walking and obedience training. Strengthening the bond between them. And by generally calming things down.
While that was on-going, we then introduced some distance control techniques, gradually removing over-excitement or frustration.
Next up, we encouraged his motivation to make the right choice: to check in with his owners or return to them when called. In this video he is doing just that, laser-focused on his owner despite being surrounded by other dogs.
Now that he is offering this behaviour, we can reinforce it. We are getting there because of the diligence and hard work being put in by his loving owners.
Very proud of him!
Here's a kind way to ask a dog to move - a nose to hand touch! 1) Hide a treat in one hand 2) Close to your dog at their eye level, wedge a treat between your longest fingers in your other hand, and present this hand palm out 90 degrees, 6 inches from your dog's nose 3) When they move their nose towards it, praise the contact and immediately reward with the treat you were hiding in the other hand 4) Practice 5) Try it a bit further away 6) Finally add a cue word like Touch. Bingo. Now you can reclaim your chair 😁
