Reactive 2 Resilient level 1
These groups are a never ending stream of little wonderfuls. They continue to surprise me with their ability to navigate complex conditions with confidence, agency and trust.
Do you even train tho??? Show me!
Recently there has been a lot of talk in the dog training community positing that people who pursue university and graduate level education are somehow detached from “actual” training dogs in the “real world.”
Nothing could be further from the truth.
It's a curious idea as while some fields of science are theoretical or research based many of us study clinical sciences which by definition includes the applied practice.
My focus is behavior and I’ve never considered myself a well accomplished dog trainer; I became too interested in behavior early on.
This isn’t perfect, there are several positional faults and the like but you get the idea.
This was a dog who couldn’t walk on a leash or be touched anywhere on his body when he came into my life. And now he astonishes me daily with his capabilities.
I’ve never needed to use a tool beyond my mind, food and toys to teach him and we also completed over 20 successful utility tracks together. #iamnot
I'm am so grateful to be supporting this truly remarkable team.
This is what is possible in under two months with a dog reactive dog.
It's important to mention that I have had the distinct privilege of supporting this team from the very early stages of being adopted from a shelter, through puppyhood, adolecents and now this; pure poetry for me.
This human is also one of the most capable, determined and consistent companion animal parents that I get to work with.
She does the work.
She asks questions.
She works through the stuggles and stays persistent with learning.
We are less than half way into our reactivity work together based primarily in the Control Unleashed approach and already the results are pouring out in so many areas we haven't EVER practiced in.
We haven't even started ANY controlled set-ups for counterconditioning or desensitization yet.
Some of the timing and handling isn't perfect; as I said, we haven't reached the point where we have learned or practiced in these conditions.
And yet, you can see how this team is still realizing magikal outcomes together!
One of the foundations of this work introduced and created by the brilliant Leslie McDevitt is two-way communications.
So often we only consider a model of cue'ing our dogs for a behavior and being concerned with their ability to produce the intended outcome, quickly, deliberatly and in any condition (topography).
Control Unleashed is, in part, about having a conversation with your dog.
Asking questions and getting clear information from them.
Giving them time to process and make choices.
Showing them how they can participate in, and in many ways, control the learning.
Supporting them when the communications they are providing indicate that they are beginning to struggle and being able to impact their emotional trends before they regress into a more intense reactivity display, overwhelm and/or panic.
Teaching our dogs to cue US to perform a behavior rath
