This was not a particularly good week. I’m sorry to say. Then, again, maybe it’s a focus thing. Just like in the I need three hands entry earlier this week, maybe all the things I reward fade in my memory, but all the things that go wrong, I remember.
In my training log, I use three symbols to note various kinds of interactions:
- A checkmark means things went well in the face of something scary or that typically causes Lilly to react.
- An X means she reacted badly (barking, lunging, snapping, etc).
- A tilda (~) means she nearly reacted but didn’t or that she shutdown in fear/shyness.
For example, Wednesday, while on our morning walk, we saw a neighbor’s young golden retriever anxious to see us through the fence as we passed. Lilly’s hackles went up. She barked, lunged, growled and bared her teeth. But she also seemed happy to see the pup. She even stuck her head through fence to sniff the pup. So, it was a mixed bag, which is complicated by Lilly throwing mixed signals. Her body says play, but her lips curl. Her tail is wagging and wiggly (not slow and high), but she growls.
In this encounter, she was on leash and the other dog was off (on her side of the fence). That may have complicated the situation. Usually, if Lilly is off leash too, I can tell if she’s truly reacting or just doing her version of “border collie bossy,” which for her is a play-like thing.
Either way, for that, I marked a ~.
In class last Sunday and during a play date with another neighbors 2 goldens, I marked a few X’s. One for growling at girls on scooters who were a good 100 feet away. One for barking and lunging at another dog in class who was wound up, getting ready for a recall. I saw that Lilly was feeling nervous, so I started to move her away from this dog, but Lilly reacted anyway. I also gave her an X for her initial reaction to the 2 goldens, which wasn’t ideal, but then she settled into a playful bossiness.
They hung around fine together. They all shared a water bowl. They sniffed each other politely. They played a little fetch, where Lilly chased the other dog, not the ball, which is normal for her.
Like I said, I tend to track our failures more than our successes, even though in training I reward those successes. It’s hard to keep it all in my mind, honestly. Sometimes I wish I had someone to follow me around to not only click/treat me for working so hard, but who also kept a log of Lilly’s good and bad reactions to things because I can’t remember everything afterwards. And, I can’t take time to write it down myself in the moment.
I should also share that Lilly is being a tad playful than the day I was so concerned, but she’s still not whole-hog playing. She’ll play for a bit, then give up, lose interest, which is weird for her. Typically, she would play until we made her stop and rest.
So, that’s our news at the end of 3 weeks. Thanks for tuning in.
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