What is Dog Reactivity Part 3- Anecdotal Evidence Illustrates Maizey's Reactivity

On Tuesday everything from a moose to a squirrel taught us a lot about reactivity.

Tuesday was "take your dogs to work day" for us and we were working far up one of the local canyons. In the afternoon we were on an upper deck of a cabin and in the meadow below us was a moose.

Absolutely amazing! Not 40 feet from us was this huge, wonderful 4legged friend. Well at least I wanted to be friends. Maizey hit 8/10 on the reactive maymay scale. She took about four to five minutes to calm down and even reached the point of just chilling on the chair. I was very proud of her.

"Moose are sooo boring! They don't bark back or anything! And all crazymomlady does is work-booooring!"

Fast forwarding into the day about an hour I saw a squirrel out of the window. Curious to see what she would do I showed her. There were about 5 barks that measured maybe a 4/10 on the reactive maymay scale. I cued "stop it" and she immediately switched from true reacting to pretend reacting. She gave me a beautiful whiplash turn, sit and watch. I in turn asked for a touch (nose touch to hand) and a tag (foot touch to hand) and released her with a "okay check it out."

As part of not rewarding her pretend reactivity when she offers me the watch I started asking for other very simple behaviors she can do easily when not stressed. This was suggested by a great trainer we had a session with not long ago. So when she pretend reacts barks and offers me a watch, I in turn thank her and ask for a sit, down, touch etc. then just let her go back to hanging out. If she continues the pattern we do a calming stop (more to come on that) and then again ask for alternate behaviors.

Here enters her brilliance, yesterday she back chained sit-down-sit-touch-tag all on cue from me and immediately went back to pretend reacting at the squirrel. Not sure where we are going with that one, but she is such a smart little girl! We are hopefully having another lesson next week and crazymomlady will get some more direction on how to keep up with brilliant princessface.

Every experience teaches us something. This 4legged lesson taught me Maizey really does not like moose but is learning to calm herself, with a little help from me. 4legged lesson #2: she still thinks I'm stupid enough to manipulate into rewarding pretend reactivity. It also taught me I still have a lot to learn!

Post Script:
In a comment from the previous post I was asked what Meeka's alarmed, or worried bark sounds like. I thought a picture could better describe it so this is Meeka reacting to the moose:

"Hmm. . . thats one big animal out there. Looks pretty harmless, guess I'll go and take a nap."

Translation: she doesn't react. Rottweiler people will tell you a sign a good Rottie is their "wait and see attitude." In other words, "I'll wait and see if this is something I need to react to, otherwise I'm not going to waste the energy." Meeka personifies that definition of a good Rottie.

"Don't Throw Me In the Deep End of the Lake!"

Maizey had her first real swim in the lake. Since I don't believe in the "throw the baby in the deep end of the pool" school of thought and since she has never got into deep water like that before, we let her take it slow. At first she wasn't so sure.

"Are you sure this is going to be fun crazymomlady?"

But since she really does love water and she'll do anything for food we gradually got into the deeper water.

 

"Mmmmm. . .Cheerios!"

Meeka however does not think dogs should go in water deeper than their ankles, no matter what you try to bribe them with.

"Uggg dirty lake water! This is soooo not worth a measly cheerio!"

So she spent her time being the sunbathing beauty on the beach and generally thinking Maizey and I were insane.

"I'm too beautiful to get wet!"

It was a beautiful evening and the lake was gorgeous, and not even too cold.

"Why go in that yucky water when there are so many good sniffs out here?"

Eventually after Maizey had waded around as deep as she could go and still touch the bottom I carried her out to the deeper water.

She seemed a little nervous, but being such a water lover soon got the hang of it and took off on her own. I was like proud momma watching her baby swim for the first time! Pathetic I know, but I can be such a sap!


Of course Maizey being Maizey as soon as the life jacket came off headed straight into the deepest sand she could find for a good roll in the dirt to dry off.

"Aaahhh dirt! Princessface looooves dirt!"

It was a wonderful day surrounded by beauty and being with mehusbandy and my girls.

"Thanks for taking us to the lake crazymomlady and crazymoneybagsdad!"

Learning To Be Calm And Having Fun

Starting with the progress:

Ok, so I know that looks like very boring progress, but that is the princess-of-the-shrill-bark quietly sitting in her crate after starting to learn that barking at Belgian Malinois puppies just doesn't pay.

Why doesn't it pay? Barking get you covered up. Being quiet gets you uncovered. Simple equation, easy lesson. Unless your 10lb nervous system is in anxiety overdrive and the only thing you know to do is yell about it. But in the end she did lay down and rest peacefully. I was very proud of her.

After our difficult puppy class episode we had a chance in a much less stimulating environment to let Maizey hone her social skills a little more. We went with Dare and Layla to their on the road agility practice. Also there, were the two Malinois she had so disliked at the puppy class, and their mom.

This time I'm glad to say, I did not make all the same mistakes again and I did protect her better. If nothing else it was a good start to calm her little reactive self down.

But onto some fun stuff from our country getaway. Our favorite time was just lounging in the yard "tree dreaming" at the blue sky.

And of course hiking and jumping on every rock to be the perfect pose for crazymomlady and her camera is great fun.

"How 'bout this crazymomlady? Wanna take my picture?"

I just couldn't stop laughing at Maizey, every rock and boulder that she could get on she would plop into a sit and flash me her picture grin.

"I'm ready! Snap away and I'll sit here looking pretty!" 

Even when I didn't have the camera out she would run ahead of us, find a rock, hop up, turn around looking, and wait to see if I would cue her to 'wait' for her picture. It was adorable and a far cry from the last time we hiked here and her wait was about 2 seconds long. Now I think she's trying to compete with Dare, who has the best picture posing abilities of any of our 4 legged friends.

And in the end we all ended up tired, satisfied, and looking it.

Can you hear the snores?

What Is My Purpose Here Again?

Lately I have been really struggling with where I am going with Maizey's training. The Training Levels are a great program and we are still working our way through them. That's not really where the problem lies at all.


The problem lies more with me. Because when I got Maizey I had hopes of doing agility with her I started all my plans for training around that from day one. However after two patella surgeries agility doesn't seem to be in our future. 

"Having broken knees is bad-bad. I stick my tongue out at broken knees."

Of course that would never be a reason not to train her, but it seems that much of what we are getting to in training is passing "the basics" and seems more applicable to agility or obedience. I seem to have a hard time figuring out where those skills fit into our everyday "pet dog" life. 


She is doing great with a lot of important skills. Today on our country walk she gave me a lot of wonderfully enthusiastic recalls.

"At least I love to "comecome" crazymomlady"

Another issue with these more advanced skills is that I have never trained them and don't have a very clear idea of how to go about it. I've never been very good at just diving into things I don't know how to do so I think regardless of what we are going to do in the future it is really time for us to have a class or maybe a private session with a trainer.  


I also think the problem lies with me in that I tend to see the problem areas and end up only working on them, neglecting the more fun things. 


Generally I feel very unfocused. Generally that is never a good feeling for me. In no way do I feel she is a disappointment to me because of any of this, she is wonderful and perfectly happy the way she is.

"Ya crazymomlady, lets pay more fun games then I'll be even happier!"

But I see people who have performance dogs and they really have a structure and purpose to their training.  I also know people who have pet dogs and they are perfectly happy and loved. Certainly the problem is not in her but in my lack of direction for myself.

"Look out I'm gonna give you some direction!"

And then there's Meeka. For once instead of bringing me clarity she really clouds the issue for me. Because she has never been to class, doesn't have "training sessions", was trained mostly with methods I would never use now and look at her:

"It just doesn't get more perfect than me."

So the four legged lesson? I really have no idea. I have no more clarity now than when I started this blathering. Huff and sigh. Maybe someone else can straighten me out?

A small post script: I apologize for the crazy layout of this post, I have no idea why it is double spacing every paragraph break, but suspect it has something to do w/ my HTML script. If There are any HTML geniuses out there who can tell me how to fix it I welcome the input.:)

"No Crazymomlady, That's Wrong. . .You have to Explain It To Me This Way!"

We are home from our 'training trip marathon' and now trying to assimilate everything we learned. I'm not sure who learned more-Maizey or me! But one thing is for sure when you give Maizey good information she is a hard worker who can and will figure out what you're asking her for. Now I just need to get good enough at giving her the right information at the right time.

It is absolutely amazing to me how in training its the littlest things that can make the biggest difference in getting the behavior you are asking for. For instance one of the new behaviors we worked on was L2 Stand. I have never taught this before so my friend was a great help in explaining it to me. During our second session I got two really good stands out of Maizey, but then on the next two she would stand and immediately sit down. Since 'stand' is a duration behavior that leads to L2 'stand-stay' the sit is something I certainly don't want to reinforce. Well I tried a few more times, but kept getting the immediate sit following the stand. So I asked my friend about it and she reminded me of one to the fundamentals of clicker training:

Treat while in position, and where you treat is key to reinforcing the behavior you want. Turns out the way I was positioning my cue was leading her head up to grab the treat which of course when her head goes up her hind end goes down producing the instant sit. Another example of this is when we walked up the canyon to take some photos of the pups. Of course I would position her to sit and and wait but of course in a new environment with lots of distractions it was hard for her so she kept breaking the wait very early. The solution? Again treat in the position you want. If I wanted her in a sit-wait I had to be fast to get back to her to c/t and reinforce the sit-wait while she was still sitting and waiting.

So for me it worked like this:

Put her in position, cue: "sit, wait!"C/T

 "Hmmm that treat was good!"

 Then walk straight backwards several steps.

Our furthest distance was about 10' back.

Then walk back to her and while she is still in position waiting C/T and have a party!

Eventually with enough practice and the help of a good friend with a nice camera you can get a really pretty "sit-wait" photo-op!

 Maizey loved all of this training because of course she get really good training treats! We used everthing from 'chicken liver cheerios' to turkey hot dogs and of course we always use her breakfast and dinner kibble for the easy behaviors she already knows. I think we need to switch up her treats and one I have been wanting to try is the Zukes salmon flavored treats. I thought they would work easier for us since Meeka can't have the chicken or the turkey and it gets hard to keep the "Meeka treats" and "Maizey treats" separate. Salmon is something they could both have! Plus I've read you can use these to "marinate" with cheerios and get "salmon cheerios!"LOL

Fun In The Mountains, Fun In The Country, Fun on the Farm

We had so much fun on our trip I decided to make a whole post of the fun stuff before we get into the intense mind boggling(for me) training we did.

We did some formal training, but mostly we did fun things, with training mixed in. I might need some new training equipment for pets to use with all of the new experiences and pets she saw! This Billy Goat was just one of the exciting animals she saw out at the farm.

Of course we had to take her to the lake for some swimming. She was a little timid since there wasn't too much beach and the water was very deep, but she got wet enough to need a good roll in the dirt to dry off! I wrapped her in her blanket to try to dry her off and keep some of the mud off me, but of course the dirt roll left me needing a lot of new pets grooming supplies!

 

"Uggg crazymomlady this water doesn't taste too good!"

"Look out, I'm wet and about to get muddy!"

"Ohhh ya. . .that dirt feels sooo good!"

In between the walks in the country, the hikes in the mountains, the swimming in the lake, and of course the mud rolling, we did take time to just relax and kick back. Of course all of the dogs have their own beds and tons of blankets but Lucy and Penny, the two biggest of the girls, really seemed to enjoy Maizey's crate the best. Maybe I'll suggest to my friend she invest in some new blankets and beds for her pets just to keep them happy until I bring Maizey's stuff back!LOL

The best dog bed in the house is always the couch!

"Ahhh. . . .Maizey's crate is so nice and cozy"

Everything said and done it was a wonderful trip. Many four legged lessons were learned and even more two legged lessons! I want to thank our two legged friends for letting us come and stay and Maizey wants to thank Penny, Lucy, Zoe, Raven, Twist, Dare and of course her favorite buddy Layla for all the good times they had.

And Meeka wants to lodge an official complaint that she didn't get to share in the fun this time!

"Next time I get to go, okay crazymomlady?"