Weekly Training Update (Aug 21)

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Posted by Roxanne Hawn | Posted in Dog Training Update, Dogs on Drugs | Posted on 21-08-2009

After a rough week emotionally, I decided to take Lilly along to the Golden Fine Arts Festival last Saturday. She has been to this event, near her favorite city path, for several years running. And, honestly, I needed my girl that day. I needed to get out, and I needed my Lilly with me. Some days are like that. All in all, Lilly did well … despite MANY challenges.

First, the not-so-hot news: Lilly did snark at 2 dogs. BUT, both dogs pushed past our defenses and were intent on being face to face with Lilly. I used friends’ legs as a blockade. I circled around trash cans. I moved Lilly from side to side. I used my body as a barrier when necessary, and 99% of the time it worked fine. So, really, in these two snarking instances, her response was both measured and appropriate. If you insist in poking your face at her despite our best efforts to prevent it, then you will get snapped at.

I really try NOT to say anything to other dog owners, if I can help it. Typically, I only mention Lilly’s fear of dogs, if it seems the people and dogs miss all our body language cues that say BACK OFF. Most people are responsive and nice, when I say, “She’s afraid of other dogs.” One man, in particular, though, got snotty. (insert grumbling here)

I let this man and his dog get ahead of us since Lilly does much better with scary things in front of her than behind, and the more I watched this man’s young cattledog, the more I realized he was more like Lilly than he was different. This dog’s ears were pinned back. His eyes were dilated. He was panting and scanning the crowd. It made me sad.

Now, the good news: Lilly did great when a little girl and her dad asked if they could pet Lilly. I made sure there were no dogs coming. I made sure we had a big enough area in which to stand, and all of us bent down together while the little girl nicely petted Lilly down her back. Her dad was good and had her stand off to the side and not face Lilly head-on. I gave the girl some food to give Lilly, but she dropped it when Lilly tried to take it. It’s fine. I think it just made the girl a little nervous to have Lilly snuffle her hand.

Lilly also greeted several grown-ups who wanted to meet her. She POKED (hand targeted them). She was a little amped up, but her face seemed pretty relaxed and she worked well. Not slow. Not cautious.

She moved well in the crowd, staying close, watching me, etc. She gives a default SIT anytime I stop moving. She stops immediately when I ask her to WAIT so that people could cross in front of us.

Several people commented on how well-behaved she was. (There were many dogs in the crowd, who barked and lunged their way down the festival.)

Noises: She did get a bit freaked out by a band that was playing, by trash cans being drug across the pavement, and by slamming port-o-potty doors, but she did not completely flip out.

She waited to really melt down until we were saying goodbye to Grandma Ginny at her car and an ambulance went by with sirens blaring. Poor Lilly went completely flat, but once it passed by, she was fine.

You’d think with all the times she visited Tom at the firehouse would have paid off in this area, but those sirens are really something close up.

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A Walk With My 8-Year-Old Niece

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Posted by Roxanne Hawn | Posted in Dog Training Update, Musings | Posted on 20-08-2009

In my mental fog last week, I forgot to mention that Lilly went for a loose leash walk with my niece. We only went a few blocks from her home to her school and back, but it was very funny, and Lilly did a great job.

Backstory
First, I should explain that my niece (my sister’s only child) is dying for a dog. She adopted 2 kitties from a local rescue when she was like 3 years old. They typically do NOT adopt out to families with such young kids, but my niece answered all their cat care questions and explained how she understood the responsibilities, etc, and they OK’d the adoption. Mellow (the boy kitty) and Miss Kitty (the girl kitty) are excellent cats.

BUT, my niece still wants a dog. We cannot tell if she really needs one the way I do, or if she just wants what her friends have now that several of them got new puppies over the summer.

While driving I was her home from dance class (a few weeks before my sister was diagnosed with breast cancer), my niece decided to draft a contract, where she would promise to take extra special care of her cats for 4 months as proof she was responsible enough for a dog. She even built in consequences for non-compliance, including being docked 2 weeks worth of allowance and having the 4 months begin again, if she ever forgot to do something. She also offered to pay 40% of the dog adoption fee. Her initial thought was to pay 40% of all dog expenses, but then I showed her this online article on the true cost of dog ownership, and she went a different route. :o )

Bless her heart, we typed up her contract, and she presented it to my sister. It never got signed because her parents nixed the idea of a dog outright. I suspected this would be the case, but since my niece clearly sees me as an ally in the dog thing, I didn’t want to squash her hopes. Considering the challenges the family now faces, it’s probably a good thing they did not get a puppy.

BUT still, she cried and cried.

To both ease her heartbreak and to give her a more realistic picture of what living with a dog means, I’ve offered to bring Lilly over for visits and walks and such. If she wants to spend the night here, I’ll probably even have her scoop a little poop, help with feeding, etc.

The Walk
So, the Saturday before my sister’s surgery, the three of us went for a walk. I let my niece hold the leash, except once when we passed another dog. They walked on the sidewalk, and I walked in the gutter next to them. I had treats and praised Lilly, while my niece worked the leash. It was very sweet. Lilly did not pull or act wild or scared. She just walked nicely on a loose leash. For good measure, Lilly wore her Gentle Leader.

Lilly even did well when dogs behind wood privacy fences barked at her. I guess it’s easier when she cannot see them.

At each corner I asked Lilly to WAIT, then SIT. Once I’d looked both ways, I released her to move on (OK and LET’S GO).

Well, you guys know as well as I do that Lilly mirrors my body and sight line, but my niece honestly thought that when I looked both ways and Lilly moved her head back and forth too that Lilly was looking for cars before crossing. So, I had to explain that while Lilly is indeed very smart, she probably isn’t capable right now of knowing if it’s safe to cross or not.

The Car
The only time Lilly seemed scared of my niece was when I left her in the car in her crate while I ran inside the house with my sis for a second. I guess my niece went to talk to Lilly through the open hatchback, and Lilly growled at her.

It’s understandable really since Lilly is NOT used to that scenario. Strange place. Kid. Etc.

So, next time we go over, I’ll have to have counter-condition that setup so that my niece can approach the car, climb in, talk to Lilly, etc, without it freaking her out.

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Farewell, Katie

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Posted by Roxanne Hawn | Posted in Dog Training Update, Dog Video Gallery, Musings | Posted on 19-08-2009

Today is a rough day in Lilly Town. First of all, my sister meets with her oncologist to get the full diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment plan now that she’s 10 days out from her mastectomy. She has been up for hours already, steeped in anxiety, so if you can send her a prayer for inner peace, I know she would appreciate it. Secondly, today is Katie’s last day in Lilly’s life. We. Are. Crushed.

We knew that this was the likely outcome … when we decided earlier this year not to adopt Katie into our family after many weeks of experimenting with the idea. (To catch up on that full saga, look at posts from late February and early March.)

We’ve known for a couple of weeks that this day was coming. We got the call last night that someone from Colorado Borzoi Rescue is picking Katie up today, and if all goes well, she’ll be with her new family on the other side of the state by the weekend.

We’ve been told they are retired and that have another borzoi and many grandchildren. We’ve heard they take at least a couple of good walks every day, so we’re confident that Katie will have a happy and loving home. We’re particularly pleased she’ll have a dog housemate because she clearly enjoys the company of canine pals.

When Katie got back from the kennel over the weekend (her current family had been on vacation), we knew we would only have a few more days to love on her and expose Lilly to Katie’s amazing dog-dog wisdom, so she has been at our house a lot these last couple of days — racing around the pastures, being silly (like in yesterday’s video), and sleeping on our sofas with Lilly and Ginko.

Lilly and I are headed to class this morning as a much-needed distraction, but we plan to bring Katie down this afternoon for one last visit. There will be many tears, I’m sure. Still, we will be forever grateful for the lessons Katie taught Lilly (and Ginko for that matter … he was a big bully when they first met, but they became friends too).

I’m still so amused with the time that Katie laid on the sofa, and Lilly brought her toy after toy from the basket. I wish I’d caught that on video. It was the sweetest thing.

Anyway, since I’ve deliberately kept my workload light this month so that I have the time and energy to handle family matters, I spent the better part of Monday making this Katie Tribute Video. It’s 5 minutes, which I know is long, but I could NOT help myself. You’ll see a couple of photos in particular used a few times, simply because they are my favorite ones.

If you want to understand how we knew Katie and Lilly had something special, check out these early videos from spring 2008 when they first met.

So, we say a SAD farewell to an amazing dog. Many, many blessings, Katie Girl. We will always love you, and we will miss having you just two doors down the road.

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Trust & Silliness

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Posted by Roxanne Hawn | Posted in Dog Training Update, Dog Video Gallery | Posted on 18-08-2009

Shot this video clip this morning. It demonstrates things Lilly has learned from Ginko and from Katie. It takes a tremendous amount of trust for Lilly to A) go belly up in front of another dog and B ) actually play a little in front of another dog.

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Weekly Training Update (Aug 14)

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Posted by Roxanne Hawn | Posted in Dog Training Update, Dogs on Drugs | Posted on 14-08-2009

Since I’m on a streak of avoiding real life as much as possible healthy and completely normal coping these days, Lilly and I went to class on Wednesday … even though it was scorching hot. We hadn’t been to class in 6 weeks. It was a new park location we did not know. She did NOT do particularly well.

In fact, she reprised the role of She Who Snarks a Lot.

It began when she barked at goodness knows what when we first arrived. There were some bicyclists going by, pulling kid trailers, but she has seen those before. So, who knows? We walked it off.

Then, she snarked at a longtime classmate (a malamute) for no real reason other than he came to lay in the shade about 15 feet from us. Normally, that’s plenty of space for her, and he was totally minding his own business.

Soon after, she snarked at another well-known classmate (a big doodle) upon his arrival. Now, this one I get because when he was a pup this particular dog drove Lilly NUTS. Even though he is much calmer now, Lilly still harbors a grudge.

Later, Lilly snarked at our malamute friend again because he crossed behind us and a tree while Lilly was “shopping” in Miss Gigi’s training bag. That wasn’t fear. It was resource guarding both the bag and Gigi, who was bending down. We walked it off.

And, she showed her fangs to big doodle boy during a heeling-passing exercise. SO, we often kept our distance. Everyone is cooling off under the pavilion, so we used a nearby tree for our shade.

Still, look how close she is during this loose-leash exercise. Typically, we bring up the rear of the group so that all the other dogs are in front of Lilly, where she can see them and we can avoid any surprises. That’s the big doodle boy right there.

Lilly was SUPER S-L-O-W again at first, so clearly I need to resume her transition training so that it doesn’t take her so long to “warm up” to being at class.

By about 2/3 of the way into the hour-long class, she was actually wagging and moving at a normal speed. She seemed pretty good, even moments after a snark.

Once we had to use a young, new classmate (a boxer) as a blocker, when a small, barking dog came out of its yard and near the neighborhood path. Usually, this youngster makes Lilly a little nervous, but she was happy to have him between her and the noisy little dog.

***
The New Car

Lilly is adjusting well to the new car and crate system. I took this shot at a stop light on our way to class. She doesn’t always face forward, but this time, she was. As you can see, the new soft-sided crate is mesh on all sides except the bottom, so us girls can see each other. She looks a little sheepish here, but I promise, she loves to ride in the car.

I’m still trying to get some good photos of the Mini, but here is one attempt from the other night. It’s all silver, no stripes. Well tinted windows. And, honestly, it’s really NOT that small. Or at least, it doesn’t feel terribly small to me.

***
A Visit to Grandma’s

We dropped by Tom’s mom’s house after class. He has been there a lot lately. A huge thunderstorm, hail storm, and tornado that did not touch down completely did loads of damage to her house a few weeks ago.

We’ve been going there a fair bit too, so Lilly is quite trustworthy off leash. Here, she ponders heading back to the old chicken and sheep sheds.

She likes to hang out on the patio while we have lunch with Grandma Ginny. It makes us laugh to have Lilly sitting at the patio table.

Here she poses with the new patio furniture. See … she could have a career in catalog photo work.

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Weekly Training Update (July 31)

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Posted by Roxanne Hawn | Posted in Dog Training Update, Dogs on Drugs | Posted on 31-07-2009

We haven’t had much time for formal training lately, but Lilly and I caught up with Tom at a motorcycle swap meet Sunday morning as a little outing. Lilly did really well.

She walked nicely and without any startling through the crowd. She took treats without much sharkiness. She hand targeted people who wanted to meet her and pet her. She did a few tricks. She sat or laid quietly at our side when Tom was talking to people or looking at merchandise.

Lilly is never effusive with her affections toward strangers, but she seemed fine when people petted her nicely on the back or shoulder (rather than the head).

Her body and face looked relaxed, and she seemed really happy to be out … after being home a lot lately because of other demands on my time.

And, at least three people, said things like, “That’s a great dog!” One woman said, “It’s obvious you’ve worked with her a lot.”

(proud mom smiling)

Medication Update
Lilly has been on the higher dose of alprazolam (aka xanax) for a while now, and she seems great on it. I’ll know more when I have more time to challenge her in controlled ways with sound.

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Weekly Training Update (July 10)

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Posted by Roxanne Hawn | Posted in Dog Training Update, Dogs on Drugs | Posted on 10-07-2009

With medical dramas — human and canine alike — coming at me from all directions these days, I feel woefully behind on our training updates from our new behavior modification plan to continue counter-conditioning Lilly’s fears and retraining a few scenarios where she ramps up her nerves. Here is a recap that I hope does some justice to our efforts so far.

Behavior Consult
We met with our behaviorist (Jennie) June 20 to reassess our progress, set goals, and develop an updated training and behavior modification plan for Lilly.

Medication Increases
Monday, June 29, I began giving Lilly .75 mg of alprazolam (aka xanax) in the morning. She is still at .50 mg at night, along with 75 mg of clomipramine twice a day. Starting next week, I’ll increase the evening dose of alprazolam to .75 mg as well. Our goal is to completely eliminate panic attacks, especially relating to sound and full-on shutdown (which lately manifests as s-l-o-w movement).

Honestly, Lilly wavers between seeming a little dopey on the new dose and seeming really, really happy. It’s actually kind of funny to see her be THIS happy.

Resource Guarding Me
I’ve only had a few opportunities to walk away when Lilly growls to keep Ginko away from me, but she shuts right up when I leave the room. Ginko has already figured out “the plan” and follows me, so we do some serious and loud smooching and cuddling while we ignore Stinky Pete in the other room. I suspect just a few more repetitions might seal the deal.

Whining in the Hall
Jennie agreed with Dog-Geek and others about removing Ginko from the situation when Lilly whines to him to get my attention. As you may recall, the few times we tried that plan in the past, I ended up with Lilly whining in the hall and Ginko barking in my office, with a shut door between them.

So, the only solution is to smooch on Ginko to keep him quiet while we ignore Lilly. Because we’ve been sitting outside working a fair bit lately, this issue hasn’t come up more than a couple times, but Ginko likes the extra attention. I’m not sure Lilly has made the connection yet. Since she is SO sensitive to a withdrawal of my attention, I suspect she’ll pick it up pretty quickly.

Retraining Arrivals
One of our new prevent-the-stress-before-it-happens strategies is to practice going places, getting out of the car, and going into Relaxation Protocol mode, where I ask Lilly to SIT-STAY and feed her for doing so. The purpose is to help reset her fear level and fully condition the experience of getting out of the car and being relaxed no matter where we are — a parking lot, the side of the road, class, etc.

So far, I’ve only had time to do this one day, but we made several stops, including:

  • A pull out in the canyon on the top of a hill
  • The grange parking lot
  • The way-back of the Petco parking lot (where everyone was moving away from us)
  • The Home Depot parking lot

I’d never given much attention to these transition times that Jennie has figured out cause Lilly trouble, but when I did a bunch back to back, I saw just how nervous Lilly gets. She whines. She wiggles. She barks a little, and … man, oh, man … does she turn into a treat SHARK. My poor thumb is still sore.

She got a little better the more stops we made that day, but it still took 3-5 minutes of nearly constant treats before she seemed even a tiny bit relaxed. I’ll be interesting to see if she does better next time.

Reset Work at Class
Lilly and I paired the arrival work with additional SIT-STAY “resets” when we went to class last week. Again, I realized more subtle signs that Lilly needed a reset break. It was much easier to see when I used a consistent format, such as:

  • Take 2-3 steps.
  • SIT-STAY.
  • Feed several treats.
  • Release her.
  • Take a few more steps, repeat.

I went for a combination of mellow mommy and aren’t-we-having-fun voice. Sort of like an on/off switch game, but much less exciting. After about 5 stops to eat, Lilly figured out we weren’t going to just march up to our classmates at the other side of the park. She did seem to relax more, once she figured out the pattern.

She did OK in class that day, though still pretty slow moving. She showed interest in saying HEY to a classmate. Unfortunately, it’s another red-bandana dog we hadn’t seen in ages, so I had to call Lilly off when she made him nervous. She did try to sass a young cocker spaniel, but otherwise, she seemed pretty relaxed.

A Couple Extra Challenges
Since we were already at Home Depot, I needed to buy those flowers, and it was HOT, I took Lilly shopping with me. I figured it would be OK since the garden stuff it outside the store. Apparently, though, the store has reversed its ban on dogs that caused me to rant a while back.

Lilly let a couple of teenaged garden workers pet her. She handled being next to a noisy shopping cart really well, and she seemed glad when I told a very small girl who was dying to pet Lilly that it probably wasn’t a good idea since Lilly was already working so hard at being brave.

Then, we went to lunch on the patio of our favorite Lebanese restaurant. We mountain girls LOVE this hummus. It’s unlike any we’ve ever found anywhere.

There, too, I had to protect Lilly from a child. His mom tried to distract him from a tantrum by telling him he should go “pet that puppy” without asking if it was OK first. So, I had to be a B!^(# and say, “Please don’t. She’s terrified of children.”

The thing that sealed the deal was when the mom saw the dad and boy get out of the car to meet her, I kid you not … she said, “Oh, s#!^” Apparently, she had hoped the boy would sleep through lunch or something.

Lilly did fine with people walking in and out. Our waiter even brought Lilly some water.

She seemed OK with a couple of dogs who were tied up outside a coffee shop 3 stores down. She did, however, hop in my lap and have an anxiety kissing fit twice when the other dogs got tangled up and cried out/barked. They are over by the white umbrellas.

An Unexpected Setback
Perhaps it’s because the weather hasn’t really felt like summer until the last week or so, but we’re having trouble getting Lilly inside again. And, I’d just told Jennie at our consult that I thought that particular issue was SO MUCH better.

I’m bummed and a little frustrated, but we’ll
see if we can work it out again. Since I’m being cautious with Ginko’s food intake (after last week’s scare), I cannot go with the usual ploy of peanut butter toys. So, my Get-Lilly-Inside training plan includes going out and playing a bunch of high energy fetch, then running toward and into the house. So far, she has followed me without throwing herself to the ground in the ultimate refusal, so I think it’s working.

Jennie and I have decided that for some reasonLilly has issues with summer and with nighttime. My best guess is that since Lilly was born in May, she likely hit the first early fear period right as the weather warmed up. Maybe something really scary (like her getting lost and being picked up by animal control) happened at night. Who knows, though? Poor sweetie.

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Scent Work Update

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Posted by Roxanne Hawn | Posted in Dog Training Update | Posted on 09-07-2009

Based on input from our trainer (Gigi) and our behaviorist (Jennie), we’re revamping our scent training work. Here’s how:

1. Retrain a specific scent alert behavior (laying down) so that we can try to avoid Lilly playing with the items instead of working.

2. Work just a bit more on choosing the scented item (using various scents) from the unscented ones.

3. Use napkins/paper towels, which are much less fun to play with (we hope).

4. Quickly move from find the scented item to matching scent I choose and alert to the right one from a few variously scented items.

Our goal is to get Lilly really thinking about the smells and figuring out the matching part.

She picked up on the sniff + down pretty quickly on Sunday. She did pretty well picking the scented item from a selection of 2-3. When she was wrong, I turn my back for about 20 seconds. After a few of those, she got frustrated and gave up, so clearly I need to keep the sessions shorter before that happens.

When we tried later in the week, she did well again — offering the DOWN, picking the right one, except when I turned my back to mark an incorrect choice, I could hear her shredding the napkin behind me. It was hard not to laugh.

I find that once she makes a wrong choice and has slobbered on the item that it’s harder to get her back on track. Typically, I make the next try easier, then quit before everything goes to pot.

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Emotional Roller Coaster

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Posted by Roxanne Hawn | Posted in Dog Training Update, Musings | Posted on 01-07-2009

We’re thinking about the fear-recovery cycle in a different way after our follow-up behavior consult. While Lilly’s fear responses are smaller than a year ago, we’ll be working in the coming weeks and months on resetting her fear cycle frequently so that her emotional roller coaster never leaves to station.

Imagine it looks like this, and even if Lilly is working and coping despite her fears, once she reaches the peak, neither of us can stop the physiological or emotional ride.

So, our goal is to use Relaxation Protocol tactics to keep Lilly on the far left of this curve.

Sit-Stay-Feed
Wait a second or two
Sit-Stay-Feed
Wait a second or two
etc.

Our initial counter-conditioning work will focus on pieces of fear-producing situations, including arriving at class (or anywhere new).

Jennie (our behaviorist) thinks that Lilly struggles with transition times. The beginning of class is an obvious example, but there are others — when we ask her to come inside (especially at night), when Tom comes home, even when the seasons change.

It’s going to take a while to solidify this reset process before it works in real situations. BUT, Lilly responded well last year to our foundation relaxation work, so I have high hopes.

We did our first reset training session on Sunday. More on that later, but suffice it to say that my thumb is still sore from her taking treats like a little shark, which means she was super nervous.


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Weekly Training Update (June 26)

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Posted by Roxanne Hawn | Posted in Dog Training Update, Dogs on Drugs | Posted on 26-06-2009

Last Saturday, we met with Jennie (our behaviorist) for a follow-up consult. We first saw her in summer 2008. I had hoped to check in earlier this year, but time and financial constraints made that impossible. So, we spent a year doing the behavior modification work that many people do in 2-3 months. We’re working on a new plan to take Lilly’s training to the next level — with an eye toward returning to agility training (and maybe possibly competing, even though we’d be the oldest novice team in history). I’ll be reporting on the various details in the coming days and weeks. But, here is the overview.

How Lilly Handled the Consult
Lilly did a great job at an unfamiliar location. When we first arrived, I sat on my tailgate and fed her chicken through the crate door for about 15 minutes as she settled in.

Lilly did bark when our host first called for us to come in, but once Lilly got out of the car, she was fine and approached the gate pretty well.

Lilly greeted our host nicely, including what we call STRETCH, where she stands on her hind legs and reaches up with her paws against you to take treats. With a different kind of dog, clearly, this is a behavior we would NOT reward, but for Lilly it can be a sign of confidence.

And, since people often hold their hands near their chest when they greet her, that’s a physical cue for her STRETCH behavior … where she gets treats up high. For people who are willing, it’s always a nice experience for Lilly to see that other people speak the same training language.

Lilly did seem a little nervous when she heard dogs barking as we came inside, but once in our secluded room, she was fine. She did show a few attention-seeking behaviors with me, even kissing and nibbling on me, but once she realized Jennie had treats too, she became her look-at-how-polite-I-am self, using her laser focus on Jennie’s pocket to will the treats out.

Jennie quietly fed Lilly treats for any calm, relaxed behavior, including a solid DOWN, a floppy head, blinky eyes, etc.

Eventually, Lilly gave up on us both and complete sacked out like a Puppy Horse (flat on her side) for the rest of the consult.

All told we spent just over 2 hours talking about how Lilly is doing and devising a plan for the coming months.

Medications
To address continuing sound sensitivity and other anxiety, we’ll experiment with increasing Lilly’s dose of alprazolam (aka zanax) from .5 mg twice a day to .75 mg or even 1.0 mg twice per day. We’ll keep her clomipramine at 75 mg twice a day.

New Attention-Seeking Behaviors
I’m going to try removing Ginko from the equation when Lilly tries to sucker him into the get-mom’s-attention game. As you may recall, the last time I tried that it resulted in Lilly still crying in the hall and Ginko barking in my office. BUT, we’re going to try again.

Resource Guarding
I’m going to work hard to remove myself from the scenario when Lilly guards me from Ginko (or other dogs). Ideally, we can get Tom to do the same thing, but he actually thinks it’s funny and/or cute when Lilly “protects” him. So, I can do what I can do, and if Lilly continues to play this “game” with Tom, then so be it.

Protecting Lilly from Other Dogs
We’re less worried now about Lilly’s interactions with other dogs (that we know), but Jennie suggests I carry (and use) that citronella (or stronger) spray to protect Lilly from off-leash dogs (strangers). I’ve gotten lax about carrying it. If Lilly shows polite interest in other dogs that we know, like she did with Lucky last week, we might let her interact with them … unless snarky behaviors crop up.

Transition Times
I tend to let Lilly to walk around and sniff around when we arrive at class, but Jennie thinks this allows Lilly to amp up in worry, which as we’ve seen in recent classes … can result in her shutdown behavior (laying down and refusing to move). To prevent this from happening, we’re going to re-train pieces of the arrival scenario in a bunch of new locations so that Lilly can practice getting out of the car and going into semi-work mode in potentially scary places.

I have a new understanding of how to use our prior Relaxation Protocol work in new ways to “reset” Lilly’s worry level again and again and again so that we don’t top the rollercoaster hill and end up going for an emotional and physiological ride. (I’ll try to create a graphic that shows this better next week.)

While it’s nice that Lilly functions better, despite her fears, I really need to focus in the coming months on preventing even mild fear manifestations from taking hold. So, again, we’ll be doing a LOT of classical conditioning.

Plateau or Not?
I’m not sure how I ended up thinking that we’d reached our pinnacle of progress, or at least a plateau. Maybe it’s because I all but gave up on our agility dream about six months ago.

But, Jennie has a fresh perspective. Her point? Look how much progress Lilly has made in the last year. Who is to say she won’t make an equal amount of improvement in the next year?

So, if the transition training goes well and Lilly starts doing better consistently at the pet dog class — no matter the location or what other dogs are there, then we’ll pick up some private agility lessons (then maybe some groups) and see what happens.

We might just have an agility career yet. How funny would that be?

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Weekly Training Update (June 19)

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Posted by Roxanne Hawn | Posted in Dog Training Update, Dogs on Drugs | Posted on 19-06-2009

I managed to crank out a LOT of work earlier this week, which means everything sat on others’ desks come Wednesday. I do have a few revisions and new things pending, but I’m waiting on input from clients and sources. Wednesday was the first real sort-of-summer-like day we’ve had in a while, so Lilly and I loaded up and went to class. Here’s how it went.

Lilly got to meet Lucky Sullivan, a rescued Brittany Spaniel, who is the new little brother to our red-bandana-wearing friend Pete (a springer). Pete and Lillly do great together because both know the other is NOT going to engage. They happily share space without any interaction at all.

Lucky barks a little when he gets excited by other dogs, but he cues into the dog energy around him. So, because Lilly was calm, so was he. So much so that Lilly snuck up behind him for a quick sniff. He handled it fine, so did she, but I still called her off after a few seconds. It’s so rare that Lilly shows interest in other dogs that it catches me by surprise.

Once Lucky got riled up by a new classmate (a young cocker) he was face to face with through the fence, Lilly thought barking and pulling sounded fun too, so I turned and walked her away until she settled down, which took just a few paces, then she was fine. It was more of wanting to be the FUN POLICE and control the situation than a fear response, I’d say.

That was her only quasi-outburst.

Otherwise, she was pretty calm, relaxed, and attentive. She was SLOW again, which is a stress thing. There was only ONE dog we know at this class — KB’s chocolate lab K. Otherwise, it was a large group of relatively young dogs.

Being around that many unknown dogs is enough of a challenge to spur the most lollygagging leash walking I’ve seen from Lilly in a LONG time. Throw in the fact that there were:

  • Tennis classes going on (pop-thwack, pop-thwack)
  • Kids on the playground (squeak-shriek)
  • Large groups of summer daycamp kids in boats on the lake, tromping by on their way to lunch, etc.
  • A bus dropping off people
  • Planes flying overhead

And, it’s no wonder she was moving a little slow. But, Lilly did not shut down. She did not fall into her HELL-NO down. She was just slow.

At least, that’s my assumption — that Lilly was responding to the quantity of stimuli, but Gigi was talking to us about variable value treats and how they can increase enthusiasm and speed in a dog’s work. AND, I admit. I’ve been lazy lately with everything else and have mostly used Lilly’s regular kibble as training food. Bad mommy!

SO, next time we make it to class, I’ll try to cook up some chicken, bring some cheese, and load up on some dried lamb lung (if you have a good / safe online source for buying that in bulk … let me know).

The goal, as always, is to see more of this smiling face, no matter what’s going on around her.

As you can see, we kept our distance as much as we could. On hot days, all of us grab what shade there is. Lilly is looking right at the other dogs and the kids on the playground and seems completely fine here … thanks to the distance.

Once when I trotted Lilly over to the pond for a quick dip, one of the new dogs (who it turns out has virtually no training) was hot on her trail. Since Gigi gave her little talk about what the red bananas mean to the new people with younger dogs, I didn’t really pitch a fit when this dog first came up. I just moved Lilly further down. When the dog still followed at close range, I kept walking. When it was clear the handler wasn’t going to intervene, Lilly and I looped around a park bench and headed the other way.

I did finally get her safely to the water, but she was too freaked out to wade or drink.

BUT, she did not turn around and SNARK at this dog. She just focused on me and did what I asked, which was keep moving. We’ll count that as progress.

As the other dogs practiced their recalls, Lilly and Lucky hung out in the shade. He is a very handsome,  sweet boy. His coat still feels puppy-like (he’s about 22 months old). That’s his mom with him.


This shows how close Lilly could be to him, without worry. See how we have them back to back? We only get this close to training teams we know well. Even though, we’d just met Lucky. I know his mom will manage him and understands Lilly’s needs.

QUICK NOTE:

We got word this week that Jennie (our behaviorist) is coming for a Saturday consult nearby with one of our dog-blog friends. So, we’re working on having our consult with her as well tomorrow. It’s a bit more expensive to have Jennie come to us, but it saves us a long, hot trip to Fort Collins sometime in the next month.

SO, for those of you who know Lilly and train with us, if there is anything about her behavior that you want to point out or have me share with Jennie, please let me know.

For example, Lucky’s mom said Lilly seemed “much better.” We haven’t seen her for probably 6 months (if not more). I think it’s easier to see changes when you’re not working on them every day.

Last night, we decided that Lilly and I would meet Jennie at the other family’s house too since we’re another 45 minutes south of there. Us going to her will save her time.

BUT, it’ll be interesting to see what Jennie sees in Lilly after pretty much a full year of this 2-drug, twice a day regiment, along with serious, serious behavior modification work.

Plus, it’s always fun to spend time with any of the members of Team Lilly (and our dog-blog friends).


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Weekly Training Update (June 12)

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Posted by Roxanne Hawn | Posted in Dog Training Update, Dogs on Drugs | Posted on 12-06-2009

We finally made it to class on Sunday. We hadn’t been since the middle of March, and it showed. Lilly was relatively shut down at times. Gigi (our trainer) thought Lilly did well, considering it’d been so long and that there were so many new dogs.

Sometimes, Lilly went flat and refused to budge. Sometimes, she got obsessed with sniffing. Sometimes, she walked around, but very slowly. So, I mostly let her be and didn’t ask much … other than to be calm (not fearful). For the most part, she just hung out and ate. Here are some photos to show our progress.

When she saw the large group of dogs (many of whom we do not know), this is about as close as she wanted to get. Can you see everyone else off in the distance?

It took us about 15 minutes to work our way toward the group, where Lilly worked on her DOWN-STAY, using a couple of large, long-time classmates as a blockade. We figured they would intercede if any of the younger dogs headed our way.

This is Lilly saying, “Pay no attention to the girl in the bandana.”

(If you’re catching up, some of the fearful/reactive dogs in our class wear red bandanas so that others remember not to let their dogs run up or get too close. This day, we were the only ones.)

At one point, the group made their way over to a hill so that we could practice out-of-view, restrained recalls. When I took this photo below, everyone was walking behind Lilly by about 10 feet. She’s handling it fine. I know I say this a lot, but in terms of reactivity, Lilly is usually OK if the other dogs don’t pay attention to her.

When it comes to straight fear, though, she will sometimes slow down / shut down if the dogs are moving or doing something that makes her worry, even if they are minding their own business.

Of all the exercises we did (or not), I was really happy with Lilly’s recall. She went first and was MORE than happy to move away from the other dogs and to find me on the other side of the hill. I think she actually moved pretty fast too. It was hard to tell because I could not see her until she crested the hill.


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Weekly Training Update (May 29)

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Posted by Roxanne Hawn | Posted in Dog Training Update, Dogs on Drugs | Posted on 29-05-2009

I find myself astounded that a work week with only four days can include what felt like TWO Mondays. It’s been that kind of week for a number of reasons (more on that next week). BUT, I have some training news and questions, so here it goes.

Scent Work & Clicker Training
I had a little time to resume our scent work (using a whiskey-soaked cotton ball in an empty yogurt cup, along with some no-whiskey decoy cups). And, here is my trouble. Sometimes, Lilly pokes all the cups before she picks the right one. I have been clicking for correct pick no matter when it comes in the sequence, but now I’m doubting myself.

Should I click ONLY for the right choice on the first try? (which I suspect will make her discouraged)

OR, can she learn if I click any right choice, even if she made 1-3 wrong ones first?

My best guess at this point is to go back to just 1 cup, then 2 for a while … rather than 4, but I wanted to clear up my criteria first. Help?

More Possible Vaccine Reaction + Fear News
One evening this week, I found Lilly hiding in her crate. I plopped down on the floor nearby to see if she would come out on her own, but when I glanced her way, she was worming around inside, which is her super-submissive + fear behavior.

I didn’t bother her. I let her stay put, but later we made a big fuss about putting peanut butter in some toys, and she came out.

Our Kingdom for a Training Class
My work schedule and family obligations have kept me from our usual training class since mid-March. I finally had a minute to breathe and the outside location for last Sunday’s class (it changes weekly) was a good one for Lilly. We were all set to GO, when a monster thunderstorm rolled over the mountain. I called our trainer (Gigi), and she said it was rumbling there too (about an hour away from us), so we stayed home. So disappointing.

We’re waiting to see the locations for June, but we have high hopes. Plus, the Sunday class moves to the morning in the summer, so it doesn’t eat up the middle of the day (and it’s cooler).

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Weekly Training Update (May 22)

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Posted by Roxanne Hawn | Posted in Dog Training Update, Dogs on Drugs | Posted on 22-05-2009

I have one tremendous victory to report and two setbacks.

Our Visit to the Nursing Home
As you may recall, my mom scared the heck out of us about a month ago and nearly died twice in one night from an awful heart condition. Well, I’m happy to report that she’s finally home (as of Weds) and recovering well. After the ER, then the ICU, then the intermediate care unit, they moved her to the rehabilitation wing of a nursing home to build up her strength before going home.

We pretty much knew last week that she’d be going home this week, so I took my only/final opportunity to take Lilly to visit. During a family conference when my mom was first admitted, I asked permission to bring Lilly, even though she’s not a certified therapy dog, and the head honcho said it was fine. I guess a lot of family dogs come visit.

I had Lilly wear her Gentle Leader, since it can help in potentially scary situations, and she did great … WAY better than expected.

She walked down two long halls, past all kinds of people doing all kinds of things. She seemed perfectly happy to share my mom’s brunch and hang out in her private room.

She did bark at the woman who knocked roughly on the door then barged in to get my mom’s meal tray. I suspect the staff member is afraid of dogs because she backed up really fast when Lilly barked (just a couple times). To ease the woman’s worry, I asked Lilly (who was off leash at that point) to SIT-STAY, while I handed off the tray. Lilly happily complied.

Lilly also seemed cautious about my mom’s cane, so we tapped it around, had Lilly POKE it with her nose, and gave her lots of treats.

All three of us walked back down the two hallways, where Lilly POKED (hand targeted) a few people in wheelchairs who wanted to meet her. She even showed off a couple of tricks here and there. Everyone in the dining room was watching, and Lilly was fine with that.

So, we sat outside in the sun for a while. Lilly had a little trouble with the automatic, sliding doors (mostly because of the noise). She was on leash, of course, so I kept her close and fed her each time it opened. She had a harder time with people coming out because she heard the noise first then saw people. It was easier for her to see them walk up and trigger it from outside when they were going in.

Either way, we fed her treats each time she saw a person, noticed a noise or whatever, and she settled right in.

She decided my lap sounded good at one point, and I’m guessing it was anxiety based, but I allowed it because she was doing so well, otherwise.

When we walked my mom back to her room, there were about 10 people in wheelchairs lined up just inside the door. Lilly walked past all of them no problem. I had her climb up onto my legs so that my mom didn’t have to bend down as far to say goodbye. Lilly gave her gentle kisses on the cheek. (Due to blood thinners, my mom bruises like a peach.)

Lilly did seem worried about the beeping alarms and machines in some rooms, but she did not shut down or go into a panic because I fed her each time she heard a noise.

When we were leaving, we came upon a family walking along with their dad/grandpa who was using a walker. As we approached, I asked Lilly to SWITCH (change heel sides), and she quickly moved to my right and kept going as the family passed on our left.

Because of Lilly’s fears, I doubt we could ever get certified for actual hospital or nursing home visits, but it’s nice to know that she’s capable of an occasional visit to someone she knows and loves.


***
SETBACKS
***

One Park, Two Park, Three Park, Dog Snark
During one of our outings last weekend in town, Lilly and I stopped to chat with a woman reading on a park bench. She noticed us working along the busy trail and asked (as so many people do) if I was a “dog trainer.”

Lilly seemed happy to meet this new person, so I asked her to HOP UP onto the bench and sit next to this woman and be petted. I remained standing, half blocking the nearby path and giving Lilly food when people, dogs, or bikes whizzed past us.

Clearly, I need eyes in the back of my head, though, because a couple with a young-but-big golden retriever approached from behind. Lilly suddenly flew off the bench to snark at this pup. In one motion, one noise — dive + snark.

I had a good hold of her leash, so she did not get far, but it caught me by surprise. It’s been ages and ages since she’s reacted in a seemingly benign situation. Other than breed, which in the past has seemed like less than Lilly’s favorite, I cannot peg the thing that caused her to react.

She hopped back up on the bench and was fine in mere seconds.

Return of Oh, the Places She’ll Hide
I haven’t posted a photo of Lilly truly hiding since August of 2007, but sadly one night this week, she completely flipped out and spent most of the evening cowering in the master bathroom in the dark. It’s so sad to see her revert to this mode.

I’m trying really hard not to worry, but Lilly had a major behavioral shift and uptick in fear after her last vaccine reaction a few years ago. It bothers me that this snark and this hiding episode come so close to her vaccine issue last week.

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Weekly Training Update (May 15)

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Posted by Roxanne Hawn | Posted in Dog Training Update, Dogs on Drugs | Posted on 15-05-2009

Another odd week from top to bottom. We haven’t been doing much formal, training-session training, but Lilly did have some adventures, including a vaccine reaction from her veterinary exam on Monday. She’s fine, but she felt cruddy for bit. First, a little good news from our trip to town last Saturday.

Campaign Meeting
A friend of mine is running for city council, so I went to a pre-kickoff meeting. Lilly came with me, but she had to stay in the car because the community center where the meeting was held doesn’t allow dogs. However, after the meeting, she visited the patio area and poked people (hand targeted).

Another of our training classmates (Deborah Flick) blogged recently about her hand-targeting work with her fearful poodle. It’s a lovely piece about how fearful dogs need our help, not to be “fixed.” We’ve added her to our blogroll. I’m sure she love if you visited once in a while.

Lilly did struggle and seemed to have ear muffs on (not listening) because of some kids playing on skateboards and scooters over a nearby brick walkway, but she did not flip out. She just looked worried, so I went into classical conditioning mode and fed, fed, fed. I also hinted there might be squirrels in the trees, which always distracts her.

Walk in Town
After the meeting and a few errands, Lilly and I went for a walk on a favorite path. The weather was coolish, but the area was swamped with a kayaking event, the usual people + dog traffic, bikes, etc.

Lilly did remarkably well, considering the hubbub. She remains wary of people carrying kayaks (visual oddity) and of kayaks scraping on the ground (noise issue), but she will walk past them without balking.

Two off-leash spaniels of some sort (one young, one not) came up to Lilly separately. First the puppy, I’d guess maybe 6 months old, trotted right toward her. I didn’t have time to look for an owner in the crowd, so I took a deep breath, did my best to push on the leash (rather than pull), and let the encounter happen.

The pup showed clear deference, curved his body, looked away, dropped his head. They shared a polite face sniff after a fairly frontal approach. I let it go on for about 15 seconds, then said, “Leave it. Let’s go.” And they parted ways before Lilly snarled or felt intrusion.

But, just as I’m praising her for the greet, the other spaniel came trotting up. I’m happy to say this greeting also went well. Face sniffing, fairly relaxed body from Lilly. So, again, I let it go on for just a bit before asking Lilly to move on.

A guy walking the other way, with 3 dogs straining at their leashes toward us, must have noticed my concern because after I cleared Lilly from the two spaniels and saw his pack coming, he asked, “Is your dog friendly?”

My reply? “Not so much. That’s why we’re being careful.”

So, he wisely veered one way, while we did the same the other direction.

I’d like to say these greetings denote improvement, but there is a good chance that the noise and higher-than-usual traffic on the path put Lilly more on the road to Shutdown-ville, rather than Snarky-town.

Trip to the Veterinarian
The good news is that our new veterinarian handled Lilly beautifully. She greeted her (not me) first. She bent down, offered treats, spoke to her gently … as I gave what I hope was a quick recap of Lilly’s medical and behavioral history.

These shots show Lilly in the exam room before the doctor came in.

      

She did bark a couple times when she heard noises outside the door. She did bark a couple times, when staff came and went. She did fixate on the doors, but she was coping, which is all I ask.

We let Lilly be on the floor for a while before moving to the exam table. I tried getting her to hop on a chair and then the exam table (very doable for her), but she would only put her front feet on the chair and wiggle submissively. So, as much as she hates it, I picked her up.

She did try one slithering dive off the table, but I held her and fed her and talked to her, and she settled in.

As if velcroed to my chest, she did not move again during the exam or blood draw. They tried the neck first, but ended up using an arm instead. Both the doctor and the nurse spoke softly, moved slowly, and praised Lilly.

At the end, our new doctor opened the door to the back of the hospital, and her two very polite, well- trained German shepherds peeked in the door. Lilly watched them without concern. I fed her, asked her to LOOK, and she was great. They observed her without staring. They seem like good critters.

Another Trip to the Veterinarian
Unfortunately, just like a couple times in the past, Lilly had a vaccine reaction — swelling at the injection site and Lilly-style lethargy. She woke up Tuesday morning with what looked like bed-butt (the dog version of bed head), but when I rubbed her, I felt a pretty big lump. I called right away and got advice on using warm compresses. (Thank goodness for a solid DOWN-STAY.) … P.S. Look how shiny she is!

As the day wore on, though, I realized Lilly just wasn’t herself. She only once brought me a ball, and it was a half-assed attempt at that. She did NOT follow me OUTSIDE to hang clothes. She didn’t bother me once all day as I worked. Not normal for Lilly.

So, I called again. They asked me to bring her back. So, Lilly got to see her new veterinary practice twice. The doctor we picked doesn’t work on Tuesdays, so we saw a youngish, guy doctor, who also was super sweet, super gentle with Lilly. When it was time for the shot, I asked her to come toward me and the doc (on the floor). With him there, she refused … so without my asking, he stood up and went behind the counter to give her “space.” Love that kind of awareness.

He ended up giving her a steroid shot and having me dispense some benedryl at home.

Lilly felt much better the next day, but not good enough for class (plus I had too much work). So, we stayed home and smooched on her FIFTH BIRTHDAY (Weds).

On both visits, Lilly went into relative flee mode in the parking lot. The new practice is on a busy corner, so I’m guessing it’s more the traffic noise than the idea of the hospital itself.

I used her Gentle Leader for the second visit, and I think it helped. She also liked the setup of the second exam room, where the client bench and L-shaped counter/exam table made a little nook for her to back into. She sat stock-straight, but she liked being shielded on a couple sides.

Medical News
There is medical news, but it’s been a long week, in a series of long weeks that appears to have no end. So, I’ll write more later about some of findings from her exam, bloodwork, vaccines, etc.

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