A study on my dogs behaviour.
Naturally, hugging or any sort of embrace is uncomfortable for Epic (and a lot of dogs). But I’ve found so many situations where it’s be useful to have a dog who at least tolerated an embrace that restricted movement.
We started with basic movement, me leaning forward then instantly raining treats down on her. We slowly upped the criteria to arms around her then light pressure. We only got so far. While she tolerated it, she was obviously still uncomfortable, so we changed tactics.
We shaped a chin target to the shoulder, which she loved doing, and then I added my arms around her neck, then further around her body with more and more pressure. Since she was the one initiating it, she liked it a lot more.
It’s now her go to ‘trick’ if she doesn’t know what I’m asking, or if she wants attention and I happen to be on her level (which has been a lot lately as we’re training on different levels). She’s even added a paw wrapped around me like a person might do.
We’ve had similar success with counter conditioning to scary objects or noise. We can only counter condition so far, then we’re stuck. But if we counter condition to lessen the fear, then shape a behaviour involving whatever it is that she doesn’t like, we seem to have more success.
Epic is afraid of a noisy metal bucket on the front deck of the boat. We spent a while where I’d move it (noise) and she’d receive treats, working towards the noise predicting something good. That worked up to a point and then seemed to be ineffective.
Epic is good at offering behaviours, so once she figured out that we were playing a shaping game, she was ready to pretty much throw herself at this scary metal bucket.
We use this approach for the majority of scary objects we find in our path. Counter condition to get to a good spot, then reward for any interaction with the scary object. Looking at it, moving towards it, touching it with nose or paw, performing a behaviour on it if possible, or going around it.
I have not done anything like this with another dog, so do not know if this could work with other dogs, I just know it works for us.
