Shameless Self-Promotion

I’ve never done this before (this being promoting my classes; I’ve been teaching classes for reactive dogs for two years now), but I’ve had some emails lately from local folks wondering about when and where I teach. So, if you’re from the Minneapolis area, read on. If not, you should move. Our winters are awesome!

I teach for Paws Abilities Dog Training. While the main location is in the Rochester area, I teach in the Twin Cities, and I have some classes starting up here in a few weeks. The schedule is here. I teach two different classes: Growl (levels 1 and 2) and Agility Unleashed (levels 1 and 2). Both classes are taught with two instructors. This time around it will be me and the awesome and amazing Laura.

Here’s a quick run down on each class:

Growl Class
This class is limited to four students, which means we have one trainer for every two students. This class is designed primarily for dogs reactive to other dogs. If your dog is also reactive to people shoot me an email at reactivechampion(at)gmail(dot)com and we can chat about whether or not the class can be set up to meet your dog’s needs.

Level 1 teaches the basic skills you will need to help your dog survive the scary world. Many of these exercises are taken from the book Control Unleashed, but the curriculum does vary slightly based on the dogs that show up in class. No previous training experience is needed. We use barriers to help keep dogs under threshold, and generally speaking, dogs will not see each other until the last few weeks of class- if at all.

Level 2 builds on the skills learned in level 1, and includes more systematic exposure to the other dogs. By the end of the level 2 class, the dogs are usually working parallel to one another.

Agility Unleashed
This class is limited to six students, again with 2 instructors, for a 1 to 3 ratio. This class is meant for dogs who can look at other dogs without immediately going over threshold but who struggle with the increased motion or chaos often seen in agility (or obedience!) trials and classes. It’s also great for dogs who are easily stressed around other dogs and need to build up more confidence in a structured format.

Agility Unleashed is very well-suited for performance dogs, but it is not an agility class, and I am very upfront in saying that I have only a rudimentary understanding of the sport. This makes the class very interactive; I expect my students to speak up if I’m teaching them something that contradicts what their agility instructor has taught them. (Don’t worry- this doesn’t happen often!) I do have pet dogs take Agility Unleashed; sometimes Growl 2 graduates continue their work in this class.

Level 1 teaches many of the same basic skills introduced in Growl, but progresses through them quicker and includes additional exercises as well. We do some single-obstacle exercises in level 1, usually a jump, but we can modify all exercises for dogs who don’t know how to do a particular obstacle.

Level 2 builds on all the exercises learned in level 1 while increasing the number of dogs working at once, the amount of motion, and the difficulty of the tasks. Depending on the dogs present, we will do short sequences (usually 3 obstacles).


Both classes are a ton of fun for me to teach. I absolutely love seeing how much progress the dogs (and their people!) make. And, since one of the class rules is Have Fun, chances are good you’ll have a good time. Let me know if you have any questions, and I hope to see some of you there!

Book Review: Control Unleashed The Puppy Program, by Leslie McDevitt

No, I don't have a puppy, and no, I'm not planning to get one. But I was excited for this book anyway because the original Control Unleashed is one of my five favorite dog books. Well, it was, because The Puppy Program has totally taken its place. Let me tell you why.

While the original CU was targeted towards distractible and reactive dogs, CU Puppy is written as more of a prevention manual. It's meant to help you give your puppy a foundation of coping skills by teaching him confidence, relaxation, and trust in you to deal with things that might concern him. It does this by systematically teaching attention skills, self-control skills, and arousal regulation skills. In the process, it also creates rule structures that will help your dog make sense of an often chaotic world by letting him know what to expect, and what is expected of him.

Many of the key concepts and exercises from the original book are present in this one, although they've obviously been rewritten with puppies in mind. There are also some new concepts and training exercises. Perhaps my favorite chapter was the one on social pressure. Whenever you ask your dog to do something, Leslie says, you put pressure on him. This is true of all dogs, but some will be more sensitive to it than others. A wise trainer will not only recognize how social pressure is affecting her dog, but will also find ways to relieve the social pressure, and incorporate it into the reinforcement process.

I also really liked the chapters on the economy of energy and the bite threshold model. “Everything affects everything,” Leslie writes, and it's so true. I have experienced this time and time again- and it's why I've been so slow and methodical about reintroducing Maisy to trials. I've tried to write about some of these concepts here, but Leslie does it much better than I have. In fact, she does such a lovely job that everyone with a reactive dog should buy this book simply for the first 100 pages.

Finally, I really enjoy Leslie's repeated emphasis on treating your dog like an individual. You cannot get bogged down in who you think your dog should be, whether that's based on his breed type, your past experiences, or your own desires. When things happen, when your dog behaves in a way you don't expect (or don't like!), that should be seen as information. Your dog is telling you what he needs to be successful. Address those things, not by mindlessly following some pre-determined training method, but by really paying attention to who your dog is. Like Leslie says, “We can spend so much of our time wishing that our dogs were different, rather than appreciating who they are and just working with what we've got.”

There is so much more to this book- I didn't even tell you about the new exercises and games!- but suffice it to say that I really liked this book. In fact, I think everyone with a dog should read it. If you have a puppy, performance prospect or not, this book will give you the tools you need to raise a well-adjusted adult. And although this book is geared towards puppies, that doesn't mean it can't be applied to our adult dogs- especially nervous, worried or even reactive ones.

In fact, I much prefer the organization style in the puppy book; it covers one concept or exercise per chapter, and does a much better job of explaining how they each build on one another. To me, this makes the book far more user-friendly, especially for novice handlers.The only downside is that its natural focus on puppies means that it doesn't explain how and why each exercise is so good for treating reactivity. Still, the book is absolutely amazing, and I think pretty much anyone reading this blog would find it helpful.

So what are you waiting for? Go buy it already!

For the record, I was not paid or compensated in any way for this review. I even bought my own copy of the book!

CU Seminar: Final Thoughts

Mostly relaxed in her crate at the seminar.
Photo by Robin Tinay Sallie.

I really enjoyed going to the Control Unleashed seminar. Seeing the demos in person and getting feedback on my handling skills was amazing, but perhaps the most profound lesson came in two short, simple statements. The first is simply a reminder:

Practice doesn’t make perfect… it makes permanent.
Every time a dog (human, whatever) does or encounters something new, that novel experience creates new pathways in the brain. (I’ve heard this referred to as “dendritic branching,” though I'm probably grossly simplifying the concept.) Initially, that pathway is faint, like a deer track in the woods, but each time that the dog does that behavior, the pathway gets stronger.

I think of the well-practiced behavior as an interstate: easy to get on, fast to get you where you’re going, but difficult to turn around if you discover you’re going the wrong way. And just like the roads the ancient Romans built thousands of years ago, these behaviors can become permanent. While that may be desirable for some behaviors, it is less than ideal when it comes to reactive ones.

The take-away message is obvious: Don’t let your dog practice behaviors you don’t like. Find ways to manage the situation, manipulate the environment, or distract your dog so that you avoid reactive outbursts. I really believe this is part of the problem I’m experiencing with Maisy: she’s just practiced lunging at other dogs so much that it’s the most obvious path for her to take when she’s feeling uncertain. I just hope that action isn’t yet permanently part of her world.

Of course, it isn’t always easy to prevent behaviors you don’t like, which brings us to the second thing:

Don’t be afraid of a high rate of reinforcement.
This advice was actually kind of ironic. Not a week before, I’d been complaining about how hard I have to work to prevent Maisy from reacting. As long as I kept my attention on her, and kept feeding her treats, I told my trainer, she’s fine. But that’s exhausting, and inevitably, I need to shift my attention elsewhere, so my efforts fail. I said that I wanted to be able to use fewer treats.

After the seminar, though, I don’t think that should be my goal. After all, a high rate of reinforcement can prevent a reaction. A high rate of reinforcement gives the dog something to do, and it gives them something to focus on. It keeps them on a path you like, and off the troublesome ones- not to mention the fact that it can prevent those pesky brain interstates.

Instead, the goal should be twofold. First, I need to get better at reading Maisy’s body language, and shifting my expectations based on what I see because there are legitimately times where Maisy can make good decisions. She can think through a situation and choose to do something I like, and I have no problem reinforcing those moments. But at other times, she’s too stressed to think, let alone make a good choice. Even if I think she should be able to handle it, I need to honor what she’s actually telling me. I shouldn’t delay a treat that could prevent a reaction just because I think she should be able to handle the situation.

I also need to help her build new roads. I’ve begun doing this in two ways. I’m helping her learn to relax through the relaxation protocol, and I’m helping her learn new communication strategies through the either-brilliant-or-idiotic “poke” cue. Both of these things will hopefully build new paths that are easily accessible, and maybe someday even more accessible than the current ones.


It’s funny how hearing the same old thing in new words can make all the difference. Neither of these ideas are ground-shakingly new- I’ve heard them both before- but the way Alexa phrased them really helped me understand them better. Or maybe I was just ready to hear them now. Either way, I have to believe that in the end, we’ll be a better team as a result of our time with Alexa.

CU Seminar: Give Me A Break!

This dog takes a break while Alexa explains
how to play the Give Me A Break game.
Photos by Robin Sallie.

The last exercise that Alexa showed us at the CU seminar was a fun game called Give Me A Break! GMAB is a game designed for the easily distracted dog. The goal is to build attention, and to teach the dog that paying attention to the handler is more fun than going off and sniffing, looking at other things, or whatever else the dog might find attractive. It also builds in regular breaks for the dog. This is important because it gives the dog permission to blow off some stress, and forces the over-zealous handler to take a step back.

GMAB is easy to play. Before you start, count out sets of ten treats. Each set of ten will be one round of GMAB. To start, you probably want to play three or four rounds. Once you’ve got your treats ready, you and your dog go into a small, enclosed area with a chair in the corner, but without any other distractions (at the seminar we went in a small box made up of ring gates). You let your dog off leash, and then rapid-fire click and treat for any attention or behavior your dog offers. Eye contact is nice for early stages (later on, heeling is a great activity for GMAB). The goal would be to get rid of all ten treats in ten to fifteen seconds.

Once you’ve given all of those treats, you tell your dog to take a break, and go sit down. Some dogs will take the opportunity to sniff the floor or to explore the perimeter of the box. That’s fine. You don’t do anything or say anything, you simply wait. The moment the dog comes back to you, give him a treat, and jump up and play another high-reinforcement round. Once the treats are gone, you’ll dismiss your dog to take a break again.

Within only a few rounds, most dogs will refuse to take their break, and will instead want to stay working with you. This is good! It means that the dog is making the choice to hang out with you instead of investigating the environment, which is exactly what we want.

At the seminar, Alexa played this game with a cute dog that has a history of running off and disengaging with his handler while on the agility course. She played the game inside, and the dog did great, barely taking any breaks. The dog’s handler, though, felt that it would be more difficult for the dog outside. Luckily, the seminar location had a small fenced area adjacent to the building, and so we all went outside.

The dog was a bit more distracted initially- there were birds and squirrels out there, after all! Even so, it didn’t take long before the dog didn’t want to quit playing with Alexa. This is pretty typical, actually. GMAB is a powerful game.


Truthfully, I haven’t played this game much with Maisy- she hasn’t really needed it. I’ve really been blessed by her willingness to work and learn, and her eagerness to engage with me. In fact, I’ve struggled with the “break” part of GMAB more than anything else. Still, it was cool to see GMAB in action. What about you guys? Have you tried it? Did you get awesome results, like Alexa did? I’d love to hear about other people’s successes.

CU Seminar: Off-Switch Games

Alexa and Reese demonstrated off-switch games. Moments before this picture was taken, Reese was wildly tugging on that toy. Now he offers a default behavior- calm eye contact- to get the game started again. Photo by Robin Sallie.

When people talk about the Control Unleashed program, it’s often in the context of helping a dog calm down, relax, and control his impulses. These are important skills, and ones that are often missing with reactive dogs. What I love about CU is that it can help any dog, with almost any issue. A dog doesn’t need to be reactive in order to benefit from the games. It’s great for fearful dogs, anxious dogs, or even just inattentive and out-of-control dogs.

While any dog will benefit from CU, there is no denying that it was created and written with performance dogs in mind. This means that it’s incredibly important to teach our dogs how to engage in highly arousing activities while maintaining self-control. They need to be able to think on the agility course so they don’t resort to the zoomies. They need to be able to pay attention to their handler during the subtleties of a competition heeling pattern. And they need to be able to walk through a busy, crowded trial site without incident.

They need off-switch games.

These games not only help teach the dog how to think through their excitement, but also help the handler learn how to gauge their dog’s arousal level, and then adjust it in order to find the optimal level needed for a good performance. After all, being too relaxed can be just as bad as being too amped up when it comes to competition. Off-switch games help both the dog and handler learn how to attain this delicate balance.

Alexa demonstrated a very simple off-switch game with her dog Reese. She offered him a toy and then tugged with him for about 15 seconds. Then, she asked him to let go of the toy, and she simply waited until Reese offered a default behavior. (A default behavior is one that dog offers without be cued. Typical default behaviors include sits, downs, and eye contact. Maisy’s main default behavior is a down.) Once he offered the default behavior, she started up the game again.

Easy, right? Well, from experience, I can say yes and no. The concept is simple, but it can be a bit frustrating in the beginning. The play part isn’t a problem for most teams, although if you are tugging, it does require that you be able to get the toy back reliably. You also need to be able to read your dog and ask for the toy before he gets too amped up. For most dogs, playing for 10-15 seconds is doable, but for the super-excitable among us, that may need to be reduced to 5 seconds. Maisy doesn’t tug, so we play with a ball. That’s pretty easy since she’s really reliable about returning and releasing the ball.

Here’s the frustrating part: waiting for the default behavior. This will be easier if your dog already understands that a default behavior will be rewarded. If your dog doesn’t have one, you’ll want to teach that first, separately from the off-switch game. I taught Maisy’s default down by simply praising her every time I saw her lying calmly. After a few days of that, I’d get some treats and stand with her in the kitchen, verbally praising her and giving her a treat for offered (not cued) downs.

Anyway, so you’ll play tug, and then stop and wait. And you may need to wait awhile, especially the first time, because your dog won’t necessarily understand what you want. Even now, when Maisy is super excited, it can take upwards of 30 seconds to get a (very reluctant) default down. It may help to put out the dog’s mat as a subtle environmental cue. Once your dog has offered his default behavior, play!

After your dog understands that the game starts when he does the default behavior, it’s time to make the game more difficult. Now, in addition to the default behavior, you want to look for some signs of relaxation before starting up the game. For Maisy, I look for eye contact (instead of doing the herding dog stare at her ball), rolling on to one hip, putting her chin down and softer breathing (as opposed to heavy panting).

Once you’ve got both a default behavior and some relaxation, it’s time to start increasing the time on how long the dog remains relaxed before you re-start the game. My goal is for Maisy to immediately lie down, and then relax for about 10 seconds before I restart the game. Sometimes I’ll ask for a bit more relaxation, sometimes a bit less. It depends on how amped up she is, and if her arousal level is really high, or kind of low. If it’s too low, it’s a sign she’s going to disengage from the game entirely, in which case I’ll throw her ball immediately in order to help her get excited about playing with me again.

When your dog is reliably at this level, it’s time to increase the difficulty by lengthening the amount of time you spend playing before asking for the default behavior. Again, you’ll need to adjust that time to match your dog’s arousal level, but I think it’s reasonable to work towards the goal of a solid minute or so of intense play before asking the dog to relax again.

Anyway, that’s a little bit about how Alexa introduced off switch games, and how I play them with Maisy. Trust me, Maisy and I are far from perfect at this- there are days where we can play intensely for several minutes, and then she’ll automatically offer that default behavior, and then there are days where just seeing the ball causes her to lose her mind. I strive for more of the former than the latter. Writing this has reminded me that I’d like to see more relaxation after she offers the default behavior, too.

I’d love to hear about how you all play off-switch games. I’m sure there’s more than one way to do this, both in the game itself, as well as in the way it’s played. Do you do something similar- rev the dog up, and then calm him down? How is it different from what I’ve outlined here? Do you do something entirely different in order to install an off-switch? I’d love to know… mostly because I’d love to have another game to play with Maisy!

CU Seminar: Look at That

Maisy looks at Reese. Photo by Robin Sallie.

Okay, so you all know that I love the Look at That game (henceforth “LAT”). It is my favorite CU exercise, and it is the one that I use most of the time. Even though Maisy and I are pretty proficient at LAT, I was still excited about seeing how Alexa explained the exercise, as well as how she played it.

As a reminder, LAT is a game where we reward the dog for looking at an object, especially something they find worrisome. Although this seems counter-intuitive to people at times, it really does make sense. After all, if you were walking down a dark alley, and someone was following you, you’d probably want to look and see who it was, right? And if the person you were walking with told you that you couldn’t look, you’d probably feel even more anxious, or at least you’d probably tune out your companion’s chatter in order to listen for the footsteps behind you…

So LAT is a great game that allows our dogs to take in information about something that’s scaring them. When you cue your dog to look (or when you respond to your dog’s look), it also acknowledges to your dog that you saw the scary thing, too. Both actions help reduce anxiety. That said, Alexa was clear that Look at That is just that- looking. It’s not scanning the environment, looking for something to be worried about, and it’s not staring at the scary thing. Both behaviors only lend itself to increased anxiety.

Alexa also said that LAT should be a very controlled exercise, and said that we should control what our dogs look at. We do that by deciding when to give the cue, and when not to. I found this bit a little confusing, as it is not how I do it. Certainly, I want Maisy to look when I tell her to so I can point out triggers she hasn’t noticed yet, but I also really like it as communication- I want her to be able to tell me when she’s feeling worried about something that I haven’t seen.

In fact, that is exactly how I played the game with Maisy during the seminar, and Alexa didn’t direct me to do it differently, so I must admit that I’m a bit confused on her views of the game. It might just be that I was confusing the way that Alexa teaches the exercise with how it is done long term. Most of the other participants hadn’t played LAT before, so she didn’t really talk about how to do it once the dog becomes more advanced.

Right, so, let’s talk about how she teaches LAT. Alexa taught it in three stages, and the first two involved using a neutral object. When I posted about it before, I said that I just started by clicking when my dog looked at something, which is actually skipping ahead to Alexa’s third step. I also wrote about the potential downsides of the way I did it, so needless to say, I like the foundation steps Alexa taught.

Alexa had us do all three steps while our dogs were on their mats in order to help them understand that LAT is a visual targeting exercise, and that they should move only their head to look instead of their entire bodies.

In the first step, we did a simple open bar/closed bar with an approaching person. Alexa walked toward each of our dogs, and as she came closer, we allowed our dogs to look at her, and then began to feed a stream of treats. When she retreated, we stopped feeding. This step was to create a good association with someone coming nearer, as well as to help the dog understand that it’s okay to notice what’s going on around them.

In the second step, Alexa walked over to our dogs while holding a neutral object between her back. Then she moved the object out from behind her back, and when our dogs looked, we clicked. We did that a few times, and then began using a cue as Alexa brought the object out. All of the dogs picked up on this pretty quickly.

Alexa used a water bottle at the seminar, but you could use any neutral object. She cautioned against using anything scary, obviously, but also against a toy or other fun object which might excite the dog. We want a truly neutral object, one that causes the dog to look and say “big deal.” Done properly, this helps the dog learn that the cue “look at that!” means that there is something boring and non-threatening to look at. Without this step, the dog may learn that the cue means something scary is around, and might trigger the dog to begin scanning the environment instead.

Once all of the dogs were looking at the neutral object on cue, we added another dog to the mix- Alexa’s demo dog, a lovely, calm border collie named Reese. This allowed her to adjust the difficulty level for the beginner dogs (for whom Reese simply sat outside the ring, or walked sedately) as well as for more advanced dogs like Maisy, which was really cool. Maisy really struggles with watching recalls, and as time has gone on, she’s begun to anticipate the dog’s movement by reacting to the sound of the handler calling their dog. Alexa took Reese out of the equation entirely at first, and worked on just letting us desensitize to the sound of her calling, and then added Reese back in as Maisy calmed down. I was surprised how quickly she settled in to the exercise.

For my part, I learned that I need to adjust my criteria a bit quicker. Since Maisy knows that the behavior is look at the object, then look back to get the treat, I tend to wait for her to look back before clicking. But sometimes, she begins to stare, which increases the likelihood that she’s going to rush toward the object. I can (and should!) prevent that rushing by clicking for just the look when she’s a bit more tense in order to interrupt the staring.

At the same time, I need to tighten up my criteria by being a bit more insistent that Maisy remains lying down the entire time. Maisy has a tendency to raise her butt up into a bow sometimes. Alexa said that she thinks Maisy is doing this in an effort to get ready to rush off, while still technically complying by not standing, and that it’s a sign that Maisy is feeling nervous or uncertain about what’s going on. She’s completely right, but since I think of that position as a play bow, I hadn’t read it as a sign of stress.


These were great things for me to learn, and I’m really glad that Maisy and I got a chance to play LAT with Alexa. As I had hoped, it helped bring the game to the next level for us, and by getting some concrete feedback on how and when to adjust my criteria, it should help me help Maisy even more!

CU Seminar: Leave it

Picture is unrelated. But cute, no?
I did take it in Omaha, so it's kind of on-topic.
And if we pretend that I told her to leave the ball, it's fully relevant.

Leave it is another foundation exercise we worked on, and it’s one that I think is incredibly valuable. Maisy has a pretty good leave it, but even so, I enjoyed working on leave its with Alexa. She reminded me of places I can strengthen the cue for Maisy, and brought a few interesting twists to a familiar game.

Leave it is pretty self-explanatory: the dog leaves “it” (whatever that might be) alone unless you allow him to have it. Alexa was clear that leave it is not about proofing a stay. She doesn’t expect the dog to hold a particular position while performing a leave it. In fact, she views leave it as a movement exercise; the dog actively chooses to move away from the distraction. I like this view, because my reactive dog is always rushing towards whatever is bugging her. I’d love it if she came away from it instead!

She started teach leave it exactly the way I do: hold a treat in your hand, and let your dog investigate. As soon as your dog moves away from your hand (which can take awhile for the dog who is new to this game), click and treat. Repeat this process with the treat in an open hand (which you will close into a fist if the dog tries to eat the treat), on the floor under your foot, on the floor in the open, and then gradually dropping the treat from higher and higher distances.

Maisy can do all of those steps as long as I give her a verbal cue. However, Alexa encouraged people to teach their dogs that all treats are off limits unless they are handed to the dog, or unless the dog has been given explicit permission to take the treat. This means that when you’re training the exercise, you don’t need to give a cue to leave it (although I think it’s nice to teach one anyway). It also means you should always use a consistent cue to tell your dog he can have the treat now. Ultimately, you want your dog to learn that a treat on the floor is an environmental cue for the dog to move away from the treat and turn back to the handler.

I really like teaching it like this, because Maisy is like a vacuum: if there’s a treat on the floor (or if she thinks something is a treat, like a bit of lint), she’ll dive on it. This is clearly not good in the performance ring. It’s worse in obedience, where you can’t talk to the dog, but even in rally, where you can, there’s no guarantee that I’ll see the treat before Maisy. Add to that the fact that Maisy has food allergies and you can see why I love this approach so much!

Although Maisy will sit and ignore a handful of treats that is raining down on her head, it’s much harder for her to ignore a treat that I drop while she and I are both walking. The movement really seems to make a difference with her, which makes sense. For a long time, I only trained leave it while she was sitting, so the whole picture changes when she’s moving. We did start working on this earlier this summer while on walks, but even so, it’s a struggle for us, and she utterly failed when we got to the point of walking over more than four or five treats scattered on the ground.

Maisy and I will definitely work on leave it some more, because it is a great exercise. In addition to the benefits it will provide for competition, it can keep dogs safe, especially if you’re prone to dropping human medicine, like I am. It also helps teach our dogs impulse control. I especially like leave it when it’s done with environmental cues, not verbal ones, because I like the additional layer of self-control, which gives our dogs another opportunity to think and make good decisions. Most importantly for our reactive dogs, leave it is also great for creating a rule structure in which the dog learns that it’s always best to control his impulses and turn to his handler when he wants something or is distracted by something.

Tell me about leave it and your dog: do you have it on verbal cue, as an environmental cue, or both? How far can your dog go before he can’t resist anymore? What do you need to do to take your dog’s leave it to the next level?

CU Seminar: Whiplash Turns

Sorry, I don't have a picture of this from the seminar.
Instead, look at this pretty picture of Maisy
at this little park near our hotel in Omaha!
Also, hey, another use for whiplash turns: taking pictures!

Another one of the foundation exercises we practiced at the CU seminar was the whiplash turn, which is a great game to play with any dog, reactive or not. Simply put, the end goal is to get your dog turning his head towards you so fast when you call his name that you think he’s going to get whiplash.

There are endless applications for a whiplash turn. It is the foundation for a brilliant recall. It allows you to get your dog’s attention when he’s distracted. It can even serve to interrupt the beginnings of a reactive response, assuming your dog hasn’t gone over threshold.

Whiplash turns are easy to teach, and the way Alexa taught it is also fun for the dog! All you do is toss a treat to one side, letting the dog chase after it and eat it. (Side note: It’s wise to give the dog a verbal cue signifying that the treat is his- something like “get it!” works great. Giving permission will help him later on when we teach when we teach leave it.) Just as he finishes eating, call his name. The timing here is important, because you can essentially stack the deck in your favor- your dog was likely to look back at you at that moment, anyway. When he does, click and toss the reward treat in the other direction.

Tossing the treat isn’t required to play the game, but it is recommended in the early stages because it helps set up the exercise again. Also, if your dog is anything like Maisy, you’ll get a dog that quickly learns where the treat is likely to show up next, and as a result, dashes off to that location, ping-ponging back and forth like crazy. That’s actually okay because you’ll end up conditioning a speedy and enthusiastic response to your cue.

Once our dogs were doing great whiplash turns with relatively low distractions, we upped the difficulty. Alexa came around holding tempting, tasty treats in a closed fist. All of the dogs naturally ran over to her to sniff her fist. Again, we tried to stack the deck in our favor by allowing our dogs a moment or two to sniff, long enough for them to realize that Alexa wasn’t just going to give up the goods, but not so long that they’d already turned back to us. The goal was to call our dog’s name right at that sweet spot so that we could get a response.

Even so, the responses were generally not as impressive as just a moment before since the exercise suddenly got much more difficult. If we had timed our cue right, the dogs generally looked, even if it wasn’t with the speed and enthusiasm we hoped for. But if they didn’t, it wasn’t a big deal. We simply lowered our criteria and accepted a smaller response. Then we built it back up in subsequent trials.

Anyway, when the dogs finally responded, we clicked and told our dogs to go take the treat from Alexa. Most of the dogs weren’t expecting this, but they sure welcomed it! Giving the treat like this was a demonstration of the Premack Principle: if you turn away from that yummy treat when I ask you to, you’ll get to eat it anyway! This allows our dogs to learn that we won’t always end their fun. They don’t need to choose between us and the fascinating environment, instead, they can get access to it even faster by responding to us.

Maisy and I plan on playing this game some more. While she has a pretty decent whiplash turn, it could be more consistent. There are times where it’s brilliant. For example, at the hotel, Maisy began running down the hallway. She was off-leash (I was tired and not thinking clearly), but I didn’t want her too far from me, so I called her name… and she turned on a dime to come tearing back to me. Talk about brilliant! Then there are the times where she barely responds, like when there are chickens around. Certainly this has to do with the level of distraction present, and like anything else, I need to proof out her whiplash turns, especially if I want them to be useful for reactivity work.

But what about you guys? Have you trained this behavior? If so, how good of a response do you get? What influences this? I’d love to hear if you’ve got any good stories!

CU Seminar: Reorienting

This dog does a great job of reorienting to Alexa.
Photo by Robin Sallie.

One of the first exercises we worked on at the Control Unleashed seminar was reorienting. Although Leslie talks about reorienting in the book, I’ve never really thought about it as a CU exercise, mostly because it is deceptively simple. Simply put, reorienting means that any time your dog passes through a boundary- a door way, coming out of his crate, walking into the obedience ring- he should turn to sit in front of you, all while making eye contact.

There are lots of benefits to teaching a dog to reorient. It creates a routine for the dog, which pretty much all dogs like. For reactive dogs, though, it creates a sense of predictability, and helps them know both what to expect, and what is expected of them. This relieves some of their anxiety.

Reorienting also teaches the dog impulse control; instead of rushing off to check out the exciting new environment, the dog learns to contain himself and check in with you first. This, in turn, leads to increased team work and attention to the handler- skills we definitely want in our performance dogs!

Finally, reorienting helps mitigate some of the sudden environmental changes that happen when you move from one location to another, largely because the dog becomes patterned to look at you automatically instead of scanning the environment for a potential trigger.

Ironically, after Alexa discussed the value of reorienting at the seminar on Saturday, I experienced first hand how valuable reorienting can be. Maisy and I were walking out of our hotel room, and as we headed into the hallway, an older man was walking towards us. Because Maisy has not learned to automatically reorient to me, she shot to the end of her leash and barked and growled. She was truly over threshold; nothing I said or did was able to get her attention. Although I’m quite sure she would have been nervous about the man no matter what, I believe that if she’d been conditioned to automatically turn to me, there is a decent chance I could have prevented that reaction. Needless to say, I’m going to teach Maisy to reorient!

So, how do you teach reorienting? Alexa had us start with the dogs exiting their crates. In turn, we each opened the crate door and fed a constant stream of treats as long as the dog remained inside the crate. If he tried to exit without a release cue, we calmly shut the crate door and then tried again. Pretty soon, we had a group of dogs that really enjoyed being in their crates! This step helped create some impulse control in the dogs.

Next, we stood next to the crate so that we were facing the same direction as our dogs, and called them out. As they did, we watched for the tiniest movement in our direction. Even an ear flick or a slight head turn earned the dog a click and treat. Each time, we waited for a little bit more of a turn in our direction. It really didn’t take long for the dogs to rush out, make the u-turn towards us, and plop down, watching us expectantly. (The sit, while not necessary, is nice. It is an added demonstration of self-control, and it also means that if your dog is feeling especially wild, you have a better chance of catching him if he's loose.)

Astute readers will notice that we didn’t give any cues, verbal or otherwise. We didn’t ask them to “wait” before getting out of the crate, and we didn’t call their name or otherwise ask them to pay attention to us. This was a deliberate choice, because we want the dog to learn to reorient to us based on environmental cues. The cue to seek out the handler is the transition from one location to another, not anything we said or did. This gives the dog the ability to think and make the right choice, which creates both confidence and self-control. It also means that you don’t need to be constantly nagging your dog with commands, something that I find mighty appealing.

Once the dogs were easily reorienting while coming out of their crates, we worked on reorienting while walking into a box made out of ring gates. Again, the process was similar. We would approach the opening to the ring, and stop and wait. Some dogs automatically reoriented, while others would take a few moments before they turned back towards their handlers, impatient about the lack of movement. At the first sign of turning towards us, we clicked! We repeated the process again as we moved through the gate into the interior of the ring. After only a few repetitions, the dogs were offering up the reorienting behavior on their own.

This is something that would be easy to practice at home. Practice it when your dog comes out of his crate, as you let him into the back yard, or as you go through the gate to your fenced in yard. All of these are pretty low-distraction environments, so it should be easy for your dog to learn. Once he gets good at the game, you can make it more challenging by putting a toy or bowl of treats on the other side of the boundary.

Reorienting a simple behavior, but it’s a powerful one, too. Like I said, I’ll definitely be working on this one with Maisy. But I want to hear from you guys. Have you taught your dogs to reorient? Has it ever helped you and your dog? I’d love to hear your examples!

CU Seminar: Crate Time

Photo by Robin Sallie.

In my last entry, I laid out a plan for teaching Maisy how to get my attention. In the comments, Laura (rightly so) questioned the wisdom of this. Do I really want to teach Maisy to be pushy? Wouldn’t it be better to teach her impulse control? I know this sounds contradictory, but the answer to both questions is yes.

See, the truth is, Maisy already has a “demand behavior.” She’s barking, growling and lunging at other dogs in an effort to get my attention. And let’s face it: it works. No matter how hard I try, I can’t completely ignore it. It’s also embarrassing, and if she’s going to persist in being obnoxiously pushy, she might as well do it in a quieter, more socially acceptable way.

Beyond that, though, I really believe that she needs a way to alert me to her needs. We already have one way in the Look at That game, which Maisy only initiates when she’s feeling anxious about something, but she needs something she can do when I’m not looking at her. While teaching her a demand behavior may backfire (and knowing this dog, it’s quite possible!), I think there is enough potential value that it’s worth the risk.

Still, I don’t exactly want a pushy dog, either. And I certainly don’t want her to be dependent on me for all her needs. My ultimate goal is to help her become confident enough to relax in the face of stress without any intervention on my behalf. Which leads me to the second (and probably more important) thing I got out of the CU seminar: creating a plan to help Maisy learn how to relax.

I already knew this was important- after all, part of the problems we’ve had at trials is waiting for our turn. I really wanted Maisy to have a safe space where she could relax, but I didn’t know how to create this for her. While a crate seemed like the ideal choice, Maisy often became reluctant to go near it after a few hours at a trial site. I experimented with using her mat as a safe space instead, but this was problematic, too. Without the solid barriers that a crate can offer, the visual stimulation became too much for her, and she often seemed more stressed by the end of the day than when she’d been in the crate.

I knew that I needed to build enough value for her crate that she’d happily hang out in there, so we began playing Crate Games. As a result, Maisy is comfortable in her crate at home, but we’ve still struggled with being calm in her crate in other places. Luckily, the seminar provided exactly the opportunity we needed: 10 hours in a new, yet relatively low-stress, environment so we could practice.

At first, Maisy seemed uncomfortable. She shifted positions a lot, peeked out the top, and just generally had difficulty relaxing. I tossed a treat in her crate every 20-30 seconds or so, and dropped in a handful of treats every time she lay down. Soon, she was lying there quietly, rolled on to one hip with her chin on the ground, and I was able to gradually lengthen the time up to two minutes between treats.

The seminar provided the jumpstart we needed, because by the end of the weekend, I had a crate junkie. More importantly, it helped me turn my goal of “help Maisy be more comfortable in her crate” into a fully formed plan. Here’s what it looks like:

First and foremost, do the Relaxation Protocol from start to finish. Although Maisy and I have played with it from time to time, we’ve never completed all fifteen days, mostly because it’s mind-numbingly boring. Still, Alexa encouraged all of us seminar attendees to do it with our dogs. I’m modifying it slightly; we’ll do it lying instead of sitting, and in her crate instead of on a mat.

Next, we need to continue to build duration. I’ve created a schedule which starts with Maisy lying quietly in her crate for a duration of five minutes, receiving a treat every 30 seconds, and ending 42 steps later with a duration of an hour, with treats every five minutes. I’ll repeat each step with her until she is relaxed before moving on to the next step. Once we’ve completed the entire process, we’ll take it on the road, first at training class, then to a local obedience club, and finally, as the ultimate test, we’ll go to run-throughs or trials that allow unentered dogs on site.

Finally, I’ll incorporate impulse control and off-switch games with her crate. I’ll talk more about how to do this in the future- Alexa spent a fair amount of time on both, and I think it’s important enough information to dedicate an entire post to the subject- but suffice it to say, the entire program ought to teach Maisy how to relax in her crate even when she’s aroused or distracted.

Since all of these things are incredibly important, but not terribly exciting to do, I’ve decided that I’m going to retire Maisy from competition until we've done this. Returning to trialing is dependent upon both completing the entire relaxation protocol, and the real world test of laying quietly in her crate in a new environment for an entire hour, with treats no more often than once every five minutes.

I know that this is going to be boring, and you all can expect a whiny post from me in a week or two about how this is the dumbest idea I’ve ever had. When that happens, remind me that the result is going to be awesome, okay? Because I really think that this is one of the biggest things missing in Maisy’s foundation. Boring or not, I really believe this is the change we’ve needed, and I’m excited to see it.

CU Seminar: Developing Better Communication

With my attention elsewhere, the probability that Maisy will have a reactive outburst increases substantially... but why?
(Photo by Robin Sallie.)

I love going to trials, but I find them exhausting. Maisy needs constant management in order to stay calm. If I keep my full attention on her, I can see and respond to her stress points so that she does not lunge, growl, bark, or otherwise act poorly. However, if I shift my attention elsewhere for even a moment- to check the rule book, for example- she tends to lose it.

After our last two trials, I realized something needed to change. Not only was I finding the experience to be more frustrating than fun, but I also felt like a hypocrite. After all, I had been writing about whether or not reactive dogs should be allowed to trial, and if so, what skills they need or behaviors they ought to exhibit, and here I was with a dog who lost her mind both in and out of the ring.

But I love going to trials, and Maisy appears happy in the videos. Stressed or not, I don’t think she needs to stop going. She may not care about going one way or the other- I fully recognize she’d be just as happy going hiking at the state park- but at this point, I don’t think that it’s wrong to take her to trials. Even so, I knew that we needed to get some of this reactive behavior under control so that we can both enjoy trialing more. The problem was, I had no idea how to do that.

Fast-forward to the seminar this weekend. I went with my friend/trainer, Robin, which was awesome. Not only was she excellent road-trip company (thanks again for driving!), but she also sat next to Maisy and I at the seminar. We had the same issue that we have at trials: Maisy’s fine as long as I’m paying attention to her, but when I look away, she behaves reactively. The interesting thing was what Robin saw…

As way of explanation, you should know that Maisy has been trained to play the Look at That game. The way we use it is that when she sees something that stresses her out, she looks at it and then whips back to look at me for her treat. I notice this, reassure her that the scary thing isn’t a big deal, and then Maisy’s fine. But if I miss her cue, she growls (or lunges or barks).

When Maisy did just that this weekend, Robin said that she growled while still staring at me, not at the trigger. Which means that the problem wasn’t that she was being reactive, but instead, that she doesn’t know how to communicate with me when she can’t make eye contact! In fact, she was doing exactly what I’ve taught her to do- look at the trigger and look back. When that failed to get her the reassurance she needs, Maisy, being a smart dog, found another way to get my attention.

Suddenly, all the pieces began to fall into place. Although I already knew that Maisy’s reactive behavior was fake- that is, that she was only acting reactive, not feeling reactive- I had misunderstood the motive. I thought that I’d created this mutant behavior chain of pretend to react/receive treat, so I’d been ignoring the behavior I didn’t like.

Truth be told, while this probably was part of the problem, it wasn’t the complete picture. Yes, the reactivity was fake, and yes, she probably did figure out she’d get a treat. But she also figured something else out: she could get my attention by doing this. So, while I had had mild success with the “ignore the behavior you don’t want” approach, it still left a huge void. In the absence of clear instructions on what to do, Maisy kept falling back on the only behavior she knew.

So, what’s the solution? Well, I do think I was on the right track. Ignoring the behavior does send her the message that it doesn’t work. However, I also need to teach her an alternate way to get my attention… something that is quiet and polite, but also quite obvious. Something that doesn’t require me to be looking at her. Something easy…

Something like targeting. I’ll talk about this in more detail soon, but a lot of the Control Unleashed exercises involve targeting, a point which Alexa made several times throughout the seminar. Going to place is a targeting exercise. Reorienting to the handler is a targeting exercise. Even Look at That is a (visual) targeting exercise.

Interestingly, Maisy has recently begun to do some of this herself. There have been a few instances where I’ve set Maisy up in heel position, and then turned to talk to someone. If I didn’t return to the exercise quickly enough for her tastes, Maisy took it upon herself to poke my leg with her nose, a gesture I interpreted as, “Hey, we’ve got work to do here!” What I need to do now is to capture this offered behavior, and teach her that it's a better way to get my attention than to growl or lunge.

So, here’s my plan: I’m going to start by doing some simple targeting exercises. She already knows how to touch my palm with her nose on cue, but I’ll transfer this behavior to touching my leg. Once that’s solid, I’ll begin giving her the leg-touch cue after her fake-reactive-outbursts.

Do I run the risk of creating an even more annoying behavior chain? Yes, I suppose I do, which is why I’m planning on ignoring the outburst, waiting five seconds or so, and then cuing the leg-touch (and then jackpotting the heck out of that leg-touch). By doing this, I’m hoping to minimize the attention she gets for the reactive behavior, and maximizing the attention she gets for an alternate behavior. If I’m lucky, she’ll just decide that it’s easier to just cut to the chase and offer the leg-touch instead of the growling or lunging.

Incidentally, I thought about adding the leg-touch as another step to her Look at That behavior, but ultimately chose not to because it would muddy up the criteria for her “look” behavior. I really like the way LAT works for us right now, and I don’t want to change that. Also, it would probably be annoying for her to leg-touch me that much.

Will this work? I have no idea, but I’m cautiously optimistic. Even if it doesn’t, I’ve still gained new insight into why my dog acts the way she does. At any rate, you all will be among the first to know how it works out for us.

Getting Unstuck

At the Control Unleashed Seminar. Photo by Robin Sallie.

I’ve been feeling kind of dejected lately. I know that’s silly- Maisy has made a ton of progress over the last year, and I am very proud of her. Still, behavior modification is slow work, and sometimes it’s a bit disheartening to realize you’ve been working on your dog’s issues for over a year and still aren’t where you want to be.

This is nothing new, of course. In the time since I’ve started this blog, I’ve gone through similar funks twice, once back in December, and once in February, when I actually contemplated retiring Maisy from dog sports. I chose not to at the time, but after our last trial, I began to think about retirement again.

These thoughts were fueled by a conversation I had with someone who, upon hearing how hard I have to work at managing Maisy at trials, wondered why I bothered at all. The truth is, I really enjoy trials, enough that I’m willing to put in the hard work of behavior modification. And while Maisy doesn’t care about the ribbons or the social aspects of trials, she does enjoy being with me- enough, I think, that she, too, is willing to participate in the hard work.

Despite our mutual willingness to work on our issues, I’ve continued to question whether or not it’s fair to subject her to the stress of both the training and the trials. She’s come far enough in training that’s she’s a perfectly pleasant pet, able to enjoy walks and family outings, and shouldn't that be enough?

So, for the last few weeks, I’ve been pondering the ethical implications of trialing with a reactive dog. I had been leaning towards taking a temporary break from competition while we continue to work on our issues, but I felt stuck. I had no idea what needed to happen before we could go back to trials, and I knew that unless I could figure that out, our temporary break would turn into a permanent one… something I didn’t want.

At about the same time that I was wrestling with all this, I learned about a Control Unleashed seminar that was happening in Omaha, Nebraska. While that’s a bit of a drive, these seminars are pretty rare, so I jumped on the opportunity. What’s more, there was a working spot available, so this past weekend, I took Maisy to the seminar, which was taught by Leslie’s friend and one of the authorized seminar presenters, Alexa Karaoulis.

There was a lot of review- remember, Maisy and I have been attending CU-style classes for over a year now- but it really reminded me how important a good foundation is, and there are definitely a few areas where I can shore things up for Maisy. I also saw different ways to teach familiar things (Alexa teaches Look at That differently than I taught it to Maisy), and I grew a deeper appreciation for positive training in general.

More importantly, though, I learned more about my dog and about her reactivity. My feelings of dejection are gone now, replaced by hope and enthusiasm. I still don't have all the answers, but I have a better understanding of what Maisy needs from me in order to succeed. I have some ideas on how to move forward, and I have complete faith that in the long run, this will only deepen our relationship further. And when it comes down to it, that's all that really matters anyway.

I can't wait to get started. And I can't wait to share it with you all.

Trying not to take it all for granted...

Something amazing happened yesterday. Something so amazing that I ought to be shouting it from the rooftops, bragging about it to everyone I come across, something that I could never have imagined happening only six months ago. And yet, it barely registered in my consciousness.

Maisy and I went to PetSmart yesterday, something we do on a fairly regular basis. It's a good opportunity to work on our Control Unleashed skills if the store is busy, and if it's quiet, it's a chance to work on our obedience skills in a different environment. Yesterday, I went with the idea of working on heeling in mind. In fact, that idea was so firmly in my head that even upon seeing all the dogs and chaos, I didn't revert to working on CU stuff instead. As a result, I almost missed out on appreciating just how far my reactive dog has come.

So, we were in the store, and there were two women with adolescent yellow labs in the store. They were dragging their people around the store, jumping and leaping in some rather impressive displays of acrobatics, panting heavily, and just generally being adolescent labs. Adding to that, there was a large, darkly colored mix of some sort- the sort that typically guarantees a reaction out of Maisy- as well as a few small dogs, about Maisy's size. In other words: lots of distraction, lots of chaos, and prime breeding grounds for over-arousal and reactivity.

And yet my amazing dog never once growled, barked, lunged or even initiated playing Look At That (which she normally does when feeling stressed). In fact, at one point, we accidentally came within ten feet of all of these dogs at the same time, and Maisy's only response was to solicit play.

She solicited play.

Her response to a huge handful of crazy, to what only six months ago would have provoked an over-the-top reactive episode, was to give a play bow.

That is so amazing I can barely believe it, and yet at the time, I was frustrated that she wasn't in heel position. Here's Maisy, being the most amazing dog in the world, and I'm worrying about something as stupid as heeling.

Sometimes, I'm just as amazed at my own foolishness as I am by Maisy's progress.

It's working!

About six weeks ago, I posted about my rather unorthodox training plan to reduce Maisy’s reactivity. In that entry, I said that Maisy had learned that a bark-n-lunge would be rewarded if she turned back to me immediately. As a result, my trainers and I theorized that I had created a rather undesirable little behavior chain.

Since the easiest way to get rid of undesirable behaviors is through extinction, we created a two-pronged plan. First, I ignored the bark-n-lunge. I didn’t call her back to me, I didn’t reward her for returning to me voluntarily, and I didn’t even look at her when she did the whole I’m pretending to be reactive routine. Second, I very heavily reinforced appropriate behaviors, both proactively as a counter-conditioning measure and as a reward when she chose them instead of a bark-n-lunge.

Now, as a reminder, I know this isn’t the typical method of dealing with a reactive dog, and it isn’t the course of action I would normally recommend, or even follow. I did this under the guidance of two highly qualified and experienced trainers. If you’re dealing with a dog who barks, growls and/or lunges at people, dogs or things, I highly recommend that you seek help from a good positive reinforcement trainer.

Okay, with the disclaimer out of the way, I am so pleased to report that the preliminary results are in…

At first, Maisy seemed quite confused. A behavior which had reliably paid off for her in the past was no longer producing the results she was hoping for. As the first week wore on, she became increasingly frustrated, and on the fourth and fifth days she demonstrated an extinction burst.

On both days, we were at a local pet store that has a large training ring that you can rent by the hour, working on jumps and heeling past distractions. On both days, Maisy saw a trigger and had a huge reaction- no, it was an overreaction. Something that would normally get several barks was treated to an extended round of barking and growling. It was actually quite embarrassing, as I knew I had to ignore it, but the trigger- in both cases a person carrying a large bag of dog food- looked at Maisy with some reservation. More than that, since I had to completely and utterly ignore Maisy’s behavior, I continued my heeling pattern (sans dog), which probably made me look quite crazy! At the time, I was fairly certain that I was seeing an extinction burst, but I wasn’t sure if it was going to get worse or not.

Thankfully, it has not. As the weeks have gone on, she has continued to try the behavior out occasionally. However, both the frequency and intensity of her reactions have dramatically gone down. For example, she’s been to two trials during that period. In both cases, despite being stressed, she held herself together and only had one minor outburst at each trial. They each consisted of a brief bark, a small lunge, and then a self-interruption. And, even more exciting, this week she got through our entire reactive dog class without a single bark, lunge, growl, huff or wuff. She was truly amazing!!

I don't think Maisy will every be a completely normal dog. I know that she will have days where she regresses and falls back on her old behavior patterns, especially when stressed. I also know that there will be days that I have to manage her more than others. And, of course, I know that my first priority will always be to help her feel safe and secure, a task which will require eternal vigilance on my part.

We still have a lot of work left to do. As the reactive behavior has reduced, she has shown more behaviors that look like poor impulse control. She is doing a lot of “friendly lunging”-she’s pulling and straining towards things while on leash, but with huge, sweeping tail wags, and more importantly, quietly. She now looks ill-mannered rather than aggressive. The interesting thing is that what she’s doing now is very similar to how she behaved as a puppy.

At this point, we have been working Control Unleashed exercises for about a year, and realistically, I expect that we have at least another six to twelve months of hard work ahead of us. For example, I’m hoping to increase the duration of calm periods so that I'm not constantly shoveling treats in her mouth. I also need to help her learn to demonstrate calm behavior with increasing amounts of stress. Of course, each time the environment gets busier, I need to decrease my duration criteria, so I think we’re entering a period in which the level of reinforcement ebbs and flows based on the environmental distractions going on. This will take a level of training sophistication that I intellectually understand, but will need to practice to get it right... which, of course, will lead to the inevitable setback.

Even so, I am so thrilled with the progress Maisy has made, and can’t wait to continue to learn and grow with her. I am determined to put in the time and effort to help Maisy feel and act better. She is a truly amazing dog, and she deserves it.

A Little More Orthodox

Last week, I wrote an entry detailing my new approach to working with Maisy’s reactivity. Unsurprisingly, people have reacted with confusion, mostly because this is a rather unorthodox plan, and not at all what is normally recommended. Heck, if someone came to me and asked me how they should work with their reactive dog, I wouldn’t be pulling up that entry! Instead, I’d pull up this one, because today, I’d like to talk about the more usual methods.

Be aware that this entry is just an overview. If you have a reactive dog and you’re just starting out, you really want to find a good positive reinforcement trainer. There is so much at play with reactivity that it’s just easier and safer to have a second set of eyes looking at what’s going on.

Still, there are four main things that basically every good trainer will help you do:
1. Determine the dog’s triggers and thresholds
2. Counter-condition the emotional response
3. Help your dog develop impulse control
4. Teach alternate behaviors

I’ve written about thresholds before, but it needs to be repeated: it is absolutely critical that you do your best to stay under threshold when you’re working with a reactive dog. A dog that is in the throes of a full-out, overly-emotional response is not going to be in a place where he can really work through his issues.

So, the first step in working with a reactive dog is to figure out what causes the dog’s reactive response, and the proximity to the trigger in which the dog reacts. For example, one of the first triggers I identified for Maisy was bicycles going by, but only if they were closer than about 25 feet. Over time, I’ve decreased that threshold to about 6-8 feet, which is far more manageable.

In order to reduce the threshold, you need to start doing counter-conditioning. This addresses the emotional component to your dog’s reactivity. Counter-conditioning is pretty easy, but it takes patience. It does not happen overnight- I’ve spent over a year doing this with Maisy. Here’s how you do it: take your dog close enough to the trigger so that he notices it, but not so close that he loses it. Then feed a constant stream of treats until the trigger leaves. What this does is teach your dog that Big Black Dogs (another of Maisy’s triggers) aren’t scary. Instead, they are a reliable predictor that good things (treats) are going to happen! Therefore, Big Black Dogs become a Really Good Thing, not something to lunge and growl at.

Another component to reactivity is a lack of impulse control. I think this is the part that I’ve actually spent the most time working on with Maisy. Helping her learn that she can control her behavior has really helped boost her confidence and help her relax, which reduces the fear that drives her reactivity.

There are a lot of things you can do to develop impulse control, and again, a good trainer can help you figure out which ones will be best for you and your dog. One of my favorite impulse control games is doggie zen, which teaches the dog that the get what they want, they need to exercise self-control and look to you instead. Another impulse control activity that I really like is the Relaxation Protocol. As the name implies, it is more about relaxation than controlling impulses, but it does help.

Finally, you need to add in some alternate behaviors, something the dog can do instead of lunging and barking. Alternate behaviors (also called incompatible behaviors or default behaviors) should be heavily rewarded when offered. Maisy has a few things she does instead of behaving reactively. The two she does most are lying down (especially with her chin on the ground), and looking at the trigger and then immediately looking at me. Alternate behaviors are helpful because they teach the dog a better behavior, and it helps remind the handler to reinforce good behavior.

There’s a great program out there that combines all of these things: Control Unleashed. It is amazing! It has games for impulse control, for dealing with triggers, and for teaching alternate behaviors. It also helps build your relationship with your dog and creates focus in a distractible dog. All dogs can benefit from Control Unleashed, but anyone who owns a reactive dog absolutely must read this book and incorporate the techniques, and if possible, join a class based on the book.

So, given all of this, how did I arrive at my unorthodox training plan? Well, I’ve worked all of the steps above, and I’ve worked them hard, with regular classes, training plans, and many hours on my own. And it’s worked. My counter-conditioning has been very effective. Her “reactive behavior” isn’t really reactivity any more. Reactivity is primarily fueled by emotions and a lack of impulse control, but that’s not what’s going on with her anymore. Her body language is much more loose and relaxed. It’s not about impulse control either; when I give her a job to do (i.e., a chance to earn reinforcements), she very rarely displays reactive behavior.

It’s also important to note that I’m still following all of my advice. I’m still counter conditioning triggers, I’m still working on impulse control exercises, and I’m still rewarding alternate behaviors (in fact, I’m increasing the amount of treats she gets for alternate behaviors). The only thing that has changed is my response to her behaviors that look like reactivity (i.e., lunging and barking). Like I discussed in my last entry, she figured out that she can make me give her a treat by performing the behavior formerly known as reactivity. So, I’m not doing it anymore on the theory that she’ll quit doing the behavior if it doesn’t pay.

Instead, I’m completely ignoring the outburst. If I feel like she is truly over threshold, I will increase distance between her and the trigger, and then counter-condition by rewarding an appropriate behavior, but I’m not making a big deal about it like I used to. If she’s obviously relaxed- for example, if she has “helicopter tail” (my term for a big, loose tail wag that makes complete circles and engages her entire body), or if the bark is a “play bark” (identifiable by pitch), I am completely ignoring her for 15-30 seconds, and then asking her for something (usually asking her to get into heel position and do pivots, although I’m trying to randomize that as well so it doesn’t create another component to her behavior chain).

It’s definitely working, and I’m really excited to see some of the changes in her. It’s still exhausting at times- we were both worn out after class last night- but I’m seeing a huge difference in her. I can’t wait to share her progress with you.

The Year in Review, Part 2: Skills and Attitudes

Earning titles and ribbons is fun, of course, but Maisy and I learned a lot, too. This is the second of three entries reviewing how Maisy and I spent 2009, and in this entry, I’ll talk about the skills we’ve developed, and the way Maisy’s attitude has changed.

Obedience wise, Maisy and I worked on many, many things. I’m really proud of how far her heeling has come. Just over a year ago, loose leash walking was still pretty tricky for us. Now, Maisy has a decent heel position. She can heel on and off leash with a lot of attention (although that depends on the distraction level, of course). She has learned to find heel position with either a hand cue, a verbal cue, or my body position.

In addition to improved heeling in straight lines, she’s really improved her ability to stay in heel position while I move in odd directions. The halt-left pivot 90 degrees was the most terrifying thing to me when I signed up for our first trial, but now she can left pivot 360 degrees even with distractions! She can also do the halt-sidestep right-halt and remain in a pretty good heel position.

I’m thrilled with her ability to heel past the distraction of a food bowl with treats in it! Although she has a momentary lapse now and then, she usually doesn’t even look at it anymore! I’m especially proud that I was able to teach this without using the words “leave it” excessively.

Maisy’s heeling has probably improved more than mine, but this year, I have learned about walking at a brisk pace and improved my foot work. I’m better at walking in a straight line (which is harder than it sounds), too.

Maisy’s fronts, while still not where I want them, have improved a great deal. In fact, they are nearly perfect at home! Not only does she come in centered and straight, she’s getting much closer! One thing I had to improve while working on fronts was about treat delivery. Once I took the bait bag off my hip and became consistent about giving the treat in the center of my body, her fronts improved a lot.

I introduced a lot of new concepts to her as well. Although we have a lot of work to do to finish these behaviors, Maisy and I have started working on jumps, retrieving a dumbbell, using a pivot board, and backing up.

I also successfully desensitized Maisy to a Dremel for her nails (although I wouldn’t say that I’ve fully counter-conditioned her- she doesn’t love it, but it’s better than using a nail clipper), and really improved her eye contact and attention behaviors through doggie zen. I’m also really proud that I finally figured out how to legally use treats in the APDT rally ring!

On the reactivity front,I think that one of the biggest areas in which Maisy developed skills this year is her ability to relax. In January, we started our first Control Unleashed style class, which is a class specifically designed for reactive dogs. A big component to CU style classes is teaching the dog to relax and be calm in the face of triggers. One method to accomplish this is through mat work, which may be combined with massage and TTouch. Maisy really struggled with this. She seemed very uncomfortable, and wiggled all over the place in an effort to get away from me when I first started massaging her.

The instructor also encouraged me to reward calm and relaxed behaviors at home. This is harder than it sounds; when your dog is lying quietly and being good, you tend to take them for granted. This year, I really had to learn to look for and reward calm behaviors. It was a weird experience for both of us. Back in January, I wrote the following in my journal:

THIS IS SO HARD. I tried doing this [rewarding relaxed behavior] today- I gave her verbal praise for lying nicely in the living room and she just looked at me like “what the hell? I’m not DOING anything.” A couple of times she’s gotten up and run away.

These days, Maisy is very comfortable on her mat, and I see her relaxed around the house a lot more often, and while she doesn’t love massages, she does appreciate a few well-placed pets. Not only is she more willing to relax by stretching out in the house, she has become more snuggly with me. She often chooses to curl up next to me, which is incredibly endearing. I also think this is a sign of our improved relationship due to all of the work we’ve done together.



Maisy’s fear has also decreased. Over the last year, she has learned to go through agility tunnels (on her own terms, not on my cue), and sit in a canine-eating hula hoop. She is also generally more willing to interact with objects. Although she has no interest in stepping on an A-Frame or a teeter, she is quite willing to go sniff them for a treat. This is huge for her!

Another neat way her fear has decreased is her willingness to move things. Maisy has a lot of fear of movement, and until recently, she wouldn’t even nose aside a door to retrieve her beloved tennis ball. Now, though, she is not only nosing aside doors but actively pushing her way in to the room where I feed the cats, and escaping from her crate. For three years, we’ve never once latched her crate at home- we knew she wouldn’t try to open it. Recently, however, we’ve found her out and about when we get home. Most people would probably be upset by this, but honestly, I’m just thrilled that she’s become so brave! I also like that it offers her the choice of remaining safely inside her crate or leaving on her terms while we’re gone.

Her reactivity has fluctuated a lot this year, and it’s hard to know where we stand on that front. Still, I think it’s improving. It seems like her reactivity has become less emotional and more of a habit or learned behavior, which truly is a good thing, even if it is still frustrating. I’ve identified a lot of her triggers, and am becoming better at both preventing reactivity and interrupting and managing it, and Maisy’s become better at seeing a trigger and offering an alternative behavior (usually frantic eye contact) in the expectation of a treat. Good dog!

Overall, Maisy has become a very easy dog to live with. I probably wouldn’t even know that she’s reactive if it weren’t for the fact that I want to go to obedience trials. She’s genuinely mellowed out and become less anxious at home. She’s also pretty good in low-pressure environments. Although we still have the occasional issue while on walks or at a pet store, she’s usually good in those environments, too. People tend to look at Maisy with admiration, and once, a lady in a pet store looked at Maisy, and then looked at her dog and said, “Why can’t you be more like that dog?” Since I have thought that endless times, I was so thrilled that Maisy was finally the “other dog.”