Where The Wild Things Are

Sarah: 22, human, fearful person, dog trainer. Bear: 4, german shepherd dog, fearful dog, trick and nosework aficionado. This is a journal for the two of us and our life together.

[shepherdsteps]

My folks bought him a present. He found the one present for him and got to work on it himself, leaving all the others untouched. He’s too smart for his own good.

[shepherdsteps]

Tbh I might just save all the old pictures from this tumblr onto a flash drive and delete— dogblr isn’t a stress relief for me anymore, especially now that I train dogs fulltime. I’m considering swapping completely to Instagram, but thinking rationally I know that insta will have gross people too, I just haven’t seen them yet because I’m new to it.

[shepherdsteps]

50 Followers, 75 Following, 12 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Sarah & Bear (@fernhound)

Hi, so, we made an Instagram! I’m kindof using that more than Tumblr lately, so if you want to catch up with us you can definitely follow us there. I’m not sure which I’ll be using more longterm, but I’m liking Insta a lot so far!

I do also have a facebook which mutual are free to add, but that’s a personal page so not all about the pup. The Instagram is Bear-focused with the occasional personal post- much more like this blog.

Let me know who you are on there so I can follow you back! 

[shepherdsteps]

Guessing Game

So... Next puppy’s breed has been decided. I’ve been rolling around different breeds for months, and we finally picked one.

I’m going to post some of the names I’ve picked out, and a few identifying things about the breed, and you guys can guess what it’ll be.

Here are the names so far:

Aileen Maeve Cieran / Sieran Sage Ginger Lark Caithe Kasmeer

And some things about the breed:

Smaller than Bear Often barky Comes in many colors Not a common breed in my area

Reblog or reply with your ideas, and I’ll reblog this when someone guesses right- or when I need to give more clues :)

[shepherdsteps]

The secret is that if we are on the right path we will always know better someday than we know now. If we are lucky enough to be a student in this life we will continue to learn and grow and we will never cease looking back on how little we knew back when. We never reach a place of all knowing; it doesn’t exits. The only promise we can make is to do better when we know better, and to keep seeking information as we go. Next time you’re lying awake mulling over the errors you made at your dog’s expense cut yourself a little slack. You feel like this because you learned something, and that is always a gift.

I Wish I’d Known... by The Cognitive Canine

I think this daily. I never do enough, or so it feels. This is really reassuring.

[shepherdsteps]

what do you mean by better options than positive reinforcement in that quote post? :/

I don’t mean “better options than positive reinforcement”– I am not advocating for the use of a prong collar or an ecollar or whatever else people are doing.

“Better options” means understanding that behavior modification is a long process, and understanding that distance and patience are your best friends. It means counterconditioning and desensitization. It means contacting a professional to help you create and execute a training plan. It means creating a bond of trust with your dog through consistent and kind training, and not breaking that. It means management.

It means understanding the effects of chronic stress on the body and brain, and then working at a level of difficulty your dog can handle. Even in the gaps between your rewards.

Tl;dr: I just mean “don’t overextend your dog and end up flooding them, then pretend your training is ethical because you gave them a tennis ball or a jackpot of cheese afterwards. Just b/c you’re reinforcing your dog doesn’t mean you’re being kind to them- there’s more to it than that.”

[twobigears]

Hope you don’t mind me butting in here, but I have an example that might make it more clear. A classic, common example in agility is a dog that is hesitant or afraid of the teeter. The human brings out a super tasty treat or toy that a dog goes nuts for, and lures the dog up and over the teeter. The dog does the teeter and gets the reward! Positive reinforcement!

What’s the problem?

The problem is as the original article says. The dog wanted the reward badly enough that they were willing to do something that made them uncomfortable or afraid in order to get that reward. This is where emotions come into play behind the behavior, and the reward does not actually help the dog be less afraid, it just temporarily masks their fear.

I’m afraid of wasps. You might pay me a million dollars (okay probably more like a billion dollars, let’s be real) to stick my hand in a wasp nest. I do the scary thing, I get a great reward. Problem is, that great reward does nothing to make me less afraid of wasps, and I’ll be just as likely to want to avoid them in the future. If not more avoidant because I remember the pain of sticking my hand in that nest.

In order to truly change emotions in a positive direction, you have the build the dog up gradually in small steps so they don’t feel afraid at each step (in training jargon, staying under threshold). Positive reinforcement while a dog is afraid is much less effective at long-term change than positive reinforcement while a dog is happy.

To continue with our teeter example, this might mean forgetting the whole teeter for a while. Using a plank with a pivot point just an inch off the ground so it barely moves, and shape the dog to enjoy that plank. Then gradually raise the pivot of that plank slowly enough that the dog enjoys it every step of the way. You will likely have to separate out the noise and movement elements, since dogs tend to be afraid of both, or just one, or learn on the teeter that movement predicts noise which leads to fear of movement. So you’ll have to make sure the plank is quiet when it moves, and also separately work on conditioning the dog to enjoy noise, again at low enough levels that the dog is not afraid and gradually building up to more and more noise.

I also speak from personal experience on this, re-training Solstice through her teeter fears. I didn’t realize all this when first training her teeter. I lured her through it, gave her a haphazard foundation and she did okay, until finally her fearful emotions were stronger than her desire to continue trying the teeter. I had to learn how to start back at zero and build up her confidence in small steps and keep her happy and under threshold with her fears. It was a huge learning curve, but a very valuable one.

[lifeandtimesofdog]

In relation to staying under threshold, I’ve seen someone start working noise phobia by starting at the level of holding up a sheet of paper and progressing to shaking it. It brought to light how we usually start at a point that’s already seriously pushing the dog’s limits. 

I think it’s worth noting that this dog had been trembling when standing alone beside the trainer/stranger initially. As the trainer, Bob, said, ‘this dog is struggling with life right now’.

It certainly made me realize how much more I could break things down, but it’s going to take me a while to learn how to break things down that much. And patience. I’ll have to develop more patience.

[shepherdsteps]

Wonderful comments. Thank you both. You were much clearer in expressing my issues about this than I was originally!

[shepherdsteps]

sdlfkslksfhsklf LITERALLY as I was typing that last post, Bear began screaming for no reason (or so I thought). Turns out he found the jack-o-lantern trick or treat buckets that I bought for my puppy class and they were Very Scary. So they needed to be screamed at. Because existing in the same room as a Very Scary Alien Head means we need to scream at it until it goes away or mom comes to help.

Case in point: sometimes we unintentionally put our dogs WAY past the threshold where they stop being able to learn, and the best thing to do in that moment is to remove the trigger (or the dog) and then work from a distance where the dog feels safe.

Ohhh, Bear.

[shepherdsteps]

what do you mean by better options than positive reinforcement in that quote post? :/

I don’t mean “better options than positive reinforcement”-- I am not advocating for the use of a prong collar or an ecollar or whatever else people are doing.

“Better options” means understanding that behavior modification is a long process, and understanding that distance and patience are your best friends. It means counterconditioning and desensitization. It means contacting a professional to help you create and execute a training plan. It means creating a bond of trust with your dog through consistent and kind training, and not breaking that. It means management.

It means understanding the effects of chronic stress on the body and brain, and then working at a level of difficulty your dog can handle. Even in the gaps between your rewards.

Tl;dr: I just mean “don’t overextend your dog and end up flooding them, then pretend your training is ethical because you gave them a tennis ball or a jackpot of cheese afterwards. Just b/c you’re reinforcing your dog doesn’t mean you’re being kind to them- there’s more to it than that.”

[shepherdsteps]

So I'm trying something new. I never quite know what to train when I get in the mood to train, so I'm writing it down on a whiteboard calendar and I'm posting it on various social media. These are my goals ATM: agility foundations, intermediate trick dog stuff, and basic general safety skills that I've neglected because all I ever do is behavior mod. I know you might be judging me here. We've been talking about ITD for... probably a year or something. If I was working with Bear regularly at all, we would have it already. But I'm not. I often struggle to get anything done besides his exercise. (This is why I want more ball / tug drive in my next dog- if I can't do anything else, at least I can throw a ball or wiggle a flirt pole.) So... it's a struggle. I'm trying to figure it out, for the benefit of both of us. Surrounding myself with inspiration irl has been helpful, but not quite enough. We'll see how it all goes.

[shepherdsteps]

Finding something a dog will risk its own safety for and then using that reinforcer in what the dog might consider a high-stakes scenario is a double-cross; a blatant abuse of power.  A dog whose relationship to her tennis ball is akin to the relationship of the addict to her drug of choice will risk life and limb for that ball. She will allow herself to be placed uncomfortably close to things that scare her.  She will do things that make her very uneasy, or even things that cause her pain. Telling her you’ve got the ball gives you all the power in the world; she will now do anything. And we, as trainers, need to consider whether we think that’s right. […] There is no problem with asking your dog to perform a few behaviors she knows in an environment where she feels safe and then paying up with the ball. I’d even argue that teaching her a few new skills (skills that in no way put her at risk) in a safe place by using the ball is a great idea. But start to ask the dog to tolerate close proximities she’d never choose (I’ll give you the ball if you let this child pet you), to approach triggers she’d rather run from (go sniff that big man with the hat and here’s the ball), or to complete tasks that are scary for her (run this agility course with a judge calling out scores on a loud microphone, there’s a ball game in store) and you have crossed a line. You have successfully used positive reinforcement as coercion.

High Value vs High Stakes: The Ethics of Positive Reinforcement, by The Cognitive Canine

This is an intensely important topic for me. I absolutely was one of those +R trainers who used food to coerce my food-driven but fearful dog into triggers he couldn’t cope with. The thing that I would add is- trainers who utilize aversives more than I do have said this about +R trainers. Just because I disagree with their methodology doesn’t mean they’re wrong about this!

So, for the sake of dogs like Bear, consider whether or not you’ve done this. Perhaps you still do this. And then figure out something better to do instead- because there are better options.

If we want to train in the most ethical manner possible, we have to open ourselves up to criticism. Science keeps going. We keep learning. We have to change with it.

[shepherdsteps]

One of my client dogs decided this morning that she wanted to cuddle. She climbed all the way into my lap and kissed my face. This is a huge deal for her- not just because she's an adolescent border collie, but because she was asking for attention, not shying away from it. She is so brave. I remember how I felt when Bear did something like that for the first time.

Lots of things are different, but not how proud I am. My heart is full.

[bettascape]

I just want to let y'all know that it is okay to make mistakes, especially as a pet owner. So you messed up once or twice. It happens. The important thing is to learn from those experiences and through it, become a better, more knowledgeable pet owner.

[shepherdsteps]

He has his faults, to be sure… but then again, so do I.  He doesn’t hold mine against me, so I try my best to follow his example. We do the best we can together. And whatever your dog’s job might be – working dog or couch buddy, or anything in between – that’s all any of us can ask.

On Expectations and Dissappointments: Love The One You’re With, by Dr. Jen’s Dog Blog

The phrase “we do the best we can together” is tearing at my heartstrings. That’s how every day with Bear feels. We do the best we can. We keep trying to improve that best. We make that be enough.

[shepherdsteps]

The best toys are the ones in front of you right now. While hiking, Bear decided that he had to eviscerate a poop bag container. You can hear the crack of it breaking at the very end.

[shepherdsteps]

This is probably what heaven looks like: three happy dogs, a crisp fall day, and an empty trail in the woods. @wisconsinratpack can back me up.

[shepherdsteps]

Ok, I'm posting this super super late, but Bear and I got to go hang out with @wisconsinratpack like a week ago, and as always it was an absolute blessing. I'd have never expected Bear's best doggie friends to be rat terriers, but he adores them. He also adores his Auntie Sara!

[shepherdsteps]

But despite all this—despite the snarling, the messes, the apologies to friends and Grandmas alike—after the training starts, a bond usually forms. It’s not immediate. It is forged, bit by bit, by stuffing Kongs and training “sit” even in really hard places and tracking successes on a scrap piece of paper and watching carefully for a thump-thump-thumping tail and putting up baby gates and setting up careful introductions and all this stuff we do to train problem dogs.

Bonding with a Problem Dog by Kristi Benson