We went to the park again today but we had it all to ourselves this time, so I don't have that much to report again.
We did pass a lady with two Miniature Pinschers on the other side of the road and Tia noticed them but didn't bark, which I always treat her for. That's already the start of what we'll be doing when we start the BAT steps, just minus the clicker and while she can't do it with all dogs by any means, it's good that she can do it with some as it means I get an opportunity to treat her for noticing and then ignoring a trigger. She can pass a lovely Golden Retriever who sits out in the front yard of a business in our street without barking now too.
I think a big difference between the dogs I mentioned above and dogs that she does bark at, is that these dogs don't have any interest in her. She's more likely to ignore a dog if it's ignoring her, which makes sense.
She's also seen them before and I think the more times she sees the same dog and nothing happens, that must go some way towards reassuring her, as well as getting a reward for not barking at them previously.
Anyway, that's it for today but I'm feeling positive about the way things are progressing again now that I've started to write it down and realised that there are actually quite a few improvements, even if it doesn't feel like it all the time!
Thursday, 23 May 2013
Wednesday, 22 May 2013
Not much to report....
We managed to avoid seeing any other dogs today so I have nothing to write about in the way of barking, but I do have a tangent to go off on.
I've decided to start doing clicker training with Tia, I think it's going to be necessary for the BAT steps I linked to in my last post and help with any other training we're doing.
I'm the first to admit I don't know much about training dogs, this whole experience is a minefield for me! I didn't attempt clicker training to start off with mainly because I don't think I'm coordinated enough and it looked far too complicated, but I do know a bit more now than I did then and I'm ready to give it a go.
I think I use a marker word already by telling her "good girl" when she performs the correct behaviour, and she gets a treat after so our current way of working isn't that far off, but I don't think I'm consistent enough and I also don't know if the timing is right so I need to watch some videos to learn when it's time to click. Unfortunately there's no way I could afford to pay for the help from a trainer so I'm going to have to teach myself with the help of the internet.
I need to get a clicker first, and then I'll be working on that with her before we start the BAT steps. I've got lots of things to read about and learn so I'll end this now, we're going to be very busy with this!
I've decided to start doing clicker training with Tia, I think it's going to be necessary for the BAT steps I linked to in my last post and help with any other training we're doing.
I'm the first to admit I don't know much about training dogs, this whole experience is a minefield for me! I didn't attempt clicker training to start off with mainly because I don't think I'm coordinated enough and it looked far too complicated, but I do know a bit more now than I did then and I'm ready to give it a go.
I think I use a marker word already by telling her "good girl" when she performs the correct behaviour, and she gets a treat after so our current way of working isn't that far off, but I don't think I'm consistent enough and I also don't know if the timing is right so I need to watch some videos to learn when it's time to click. Unfortunately there's no way I could afford to pay for the help from a trainer so I'm going to have to teach myself with the help of the internet.
I need to get a clicker first, and then I'll be working on that with her before we start the BAT steps. I've got lots of things to read about and learn so I'll end this now, we're going to be very busy with this!
Tuesday, 21 May 2013
To the Park!
Tia is currently being walked on a longline again, as her recall hasn't been particularly good lately. I have been avoiding places where we're likely to run into other dogs for the last week or so because I wasn't sure if she'd still be reactive on the longline but decided to take the plunge and go to the park today, obviously not at peak time but at a time when she'd likely see a few dogs but not get totally overwhelmed.
On the way to the park, we came across a small Labrador puppy, I didn't have time to cross the road so we just stepped into a space by a parked car and Tia had a little growl but no lunging or barking, so that wasn't too bad.
Once in the park, we saw a Lurcher who we see in there regularly, a Spaniel and a Dalmation and also a small puppy. The first three, she spotted from a distance and had absolutely no reaction at all, which is great. I already knew that she is less reactive in grassy areas than on pavements, but she really couldn't have cared less about the other dogs so I'm very happy with that outcome.
Unfortunately her meeting with the small puppy didn't go so well. The puppy ran towards us and I decided to unclip her lead because even though she didn't react at a distance, I thought it was likely that she would with another dog in her face. I think I must not have unclipped the lead fast enough, because she was tense when the puppy ran over and after a split second sniff and the start of playing, Tia stood over the puppy and growled. I couldn't have apologised enough to the owner (who didn't really mind, actually), I'd never have let her off lead if I thought for a minute that she might scare the puppy, but there is a first time for everything and that was the first time she's ever growled at a small dog while off lead. I really hope it was a one off and that there was something in the puppy's body language or behaviour that I missed, but I'll have to be more careful for a while. Not because I think she'll hurt another dog physically, but it only takes one bad experience to create a nervous dog (I saw the puppy playing with aforementioned Spaniel straight after so fortunately that wasn't the case in this instance) and I'd hate to be responsible for someone having to put up with what I have. I'll also add that we passed the same puppy several times after this incident once Tia was back on the longline, and she didn't react at all again.
But apart from the one bad meeting, her total disinterest and lack of worry about the other dogs is a huge step in the right direction and overall I'm feeling quite proud of her today.
The other thing I'll briefly mention today, are the steps we are or will be taking to overcome the reactivity.
I started using a "watch me" command in the beginning to take her attention away from the other dog and keep her focus on me but she outsmarted me and now recognises "watch me" as "there's going to be another dog in a minute" and immediately starts to look around for the other dog upon me giving the command so that's become rather useless now.
I'm replacing this with keeping a squeaker in my pocket and treating her for looking at me after I squeak the squeaker, but this time I'm not using it around other dogs until it's a fully ingrained behaviour. I think I started using "watch me" around the trigger before it was a solid enough command and also failed to use it enough when there was no reason to, so that's why it went the way it did. I also don't plan to use the squeaker as frequently as I did the "watch me", I hope for it to be more of a management/last resort kind of thing.
For better ways of dealing with reactivity than simply trying to distract Tia, I have kindly been recommended this website, by somebody who has had great results with their own reactive dog using these methods - BAT Steps for Reactivity. I'm currently working on making sure I fully understand this information before attempting anything in the real world and I will update on how this is going when I've begun some of the work.
Thankyou for reading!
On the way to the park, we came across a small Labrador puppy, I didn't have time to cross the road so we just stepped into a space by a parked car and Tia had a little growl but no lunging or barking, so that wasn't too bad.
Once in the park, we saw a Lurcher who we see in there regularly, a Spaniel and a Dalmation and also a small puppy. The first three, she spotted from a distance and had absolutely no reaction at all, which is great. I already knew that she is less reactive in grassy areas than on pavements, but she really couldn't have cared less about the other dogs so I'm very happy with that outcome.
Unfortunately her meeting with the small puppy didn't go so well. The puppy ran towards us and I decided to unclip her lead because even though she didn't react at a distance, I thought it was likely that she would with another dog in her face. I think I must not have unclipped the lead fast enough, because she was tense when the puppy ran over and after a split second sniff and the start of playing, Tia stood over the puppy and growled. I couldn't have apologised enough to the owner (who didn't really mind, actually), I'd never have let her off lead if I thought for a minute that she might scare the puppy, but there is a first time for everything and that was the first time she's ever growled at a small dog while off lead. I really hope it was a one off and that there was something in the puppy's body language or behaviour that I missed, but I'll have to be more careful for a while. Not because I think she'll hurt another dog physically, but it only takes one bad experience to create a nervous dog (I saw the puppy playing with aforementioned Spaniel straight after so fortunately that wasn't the case in this instance) and I'd hate to be responsible for someone having to put up with what I have. I'll also add that we passed the same puppy several times after this incident once Tia was back on the longline, and she didn't react at all again.
But apart from the one bad meeting, her total disinterest and lack of worry about the other dogs is a huge step in the right direction and overall I'm feeling quite proud of her today.
The other thing I'll briefly mention today, are the steps we are or will be taking to overcome the reactivity.
I started using a "watch me" command in the beginning to take her attention away from the other dog and keep her focus on me but she outsmarted me and now recognises "watch me" as "there's going to be another dog in a minute" and immediately starts to look around for the other dog upon me giving the command so that's become rather useless now.
I'm replacing this with keeping a squeaker in my pocket and treating her for looking at me after I squeak the squeaker, but this time I'm not using it around other dogs until it's a fully ingrained behaviour. I think I started using "watch me" around the trigger before it was a solid enough command and also failed to use it enough when there was no reason to, so that's why it went the way it did. I also don't plan to use the squeaker as frequently as I did the "watch me", I hope for it to be more of a management/last resort kind of thing.
For better ways of dealing with reactivity than simply trying to distract Tia, I have kindly been recommended this website, by somebody who has had great results with their own reactive dog using these methods - BAT Steps for Reactivity. I'm currently working on making sure I fully understand this information before attempting anything in the real world and I will update on how this is going when I've begun some of the work.
Thankyou for reading!
Monday, 20 May 2013
The Beginning.
After a suggestion from somebody on a dog forum I am a member of, I've decided to start a blog to keep track of Tia's progress with her on lead reactivity towards other dogs.
So, I suppose I'll start from the beginning. Tia is my first dog, she's a Staffordshire Bull Terrier and she's 18 months old. She loves most things, mainly food, playing and cuddles. Something she doesn't love quite so much, is other dogs.
Unfortunately, the first two times she ever went outside on the ground after her vaccinations, as opposed to being carried, she was approached by two different rude, boisterous dogs who towered over her and utterly terrified her. This was not a good start. However after meeting lots of other friendly and under control dogs, her confidence gradually began to grow. She was (and still is) happy to play off lead with most other dogs and even made friends with a couple of larger dogs. This wasn't easy though. Even throughout the time while her confidence was growing, she was jumped on and lunged at by several out of control dogs, each time setting her back a little in her progress.
We were nearly at a point where she was comfortable around pretty much any dog, large or small, familiar or a stranger, and then she was chased by a Husky. I don't believe the dog wanted to hurt her, but as most people know (although apparently not the owner of this dog) Huskies and other similar breeds have a high prey drive and also do not respond as well to recall training as other breeds, so are usually kept on lead.
Her experience with the Husky set her back a lot, she was clearly nervous around any large dog after this, but not reactive yet, and for a while I had to keep her on lead or a longline at all times because she'd run away if a dog that was larger than her approached her. Unfortunately we'd also recently moved house and I didn't know anybody in the new area with a larger dog for her to build her confidence back up with.
Not long after the Husky Incident, she was jumped on by a Labrador when she was on the longline. What I think happened was, she objected to the Labrador jumping on her by growling, the Labrador objected to her objection and then a fight broke out. It wasn't a serious fight and neither dog suffered any physical damage but I have been dealing with the psychological damage every day since then.
She now barks at most other dogs she sees while she's on lead, no matter what size they are, although she is better with smaller ones. Off lead, she's still fine and happy to play as long as the dog isn't too big but on the lead, she just wants them to go away and the only way she can express this is to lunge and bark and growl. Not a good look for a Staffy, which let's face it, do not have the best reputation among the general public, who can't tell that she's doing it because she's scared and not because she wants to eat Fido on the other side of the road.
So, after that rather lengthy explanation, I'm intending to use this blog to record our progress and the work we're doing, but also to make note of things that could be important towards fixing the problem, like where we were when she reacted e.g. field, pavement, woods, what type of dog it was, the distance at which she didn't react and other things like that. Thankyou for reading!
So, I suppose I'll start from the beginning. Tia is my first dog, she's a Staffordshire Bull Terrier and she's 18 months old. She loves most things, mainly food, playing and cuddles. Something she doesn't love quite so much, is other dogs.
Unfortunately, the first two times she ever went outside on the ground after her vaccinations, as opposed to being carried, she was approached by two different rude, boisterous dogs who towered over her and utterly terrified her. This was not a good start. However after meeting lots of other friendly and under control dogs, her confidence gradually began to grow. She was (and still is) happy to play off lead with most other dogs and even made friends with a couple of larger dogs. This wasn't easy though. Even throughout the time while her confidence was growing, she was jumped on and lunged at by several out of control dogs, each time setting her back a little in her progress.
We were nearly at a point where she was comfortable around pretty much any dog, large or small, familiar or a stranger, and then she was chased by a Husky. I don't believe the dog wanted to hurt her, but as most people know (although apparently not the owner of this dog) Huskies and other similar breeds have a high prey drive and also do not respond as well to recall training as other breeds, so are usually kept on lead.
Her experience with the Husky set her back a lot, she was clearly nervous around any large dog after this, but not reactive yet, and for a while I had to keep her on lead or a longline at all times because she'd run away if a dog that was larger than her approached her. Unfortunately we'd also recently moved house and I didn't know anybody in the new area with a larger dog for her to build her confidence back up with.
Not long after the Husky Incident, she was jumped on by a Labrador when she was on the longline. What I think happened was, she objected to the Labrador jumping on her by growling, the Labrador objected to her objection and then a fight broke out. It wasn't a serious fight and neither dog suffered any physical damage but I have been dealing with the psychological damage every day since then.
She now barks at most other dogs she sees while she's on lead, no matter what size they are, although she is better with smaller ones. Off lead, she's still fine and happy to play as long as the dog isn't too big but on the lead, she just wants them to go away and the only way she can express this is to lunge and bark and growl. Not a good look for a Staffy, which let's face it, do not have the best reputation among the general public, who can't tell that she's doing it because she's scared and not because she wants to eat Fido on the other side of the road.
So, after that rather lengthy explanation, I'm intending to use this blog to record our progress and the work we're doing, but also to make note of things that could be important towards fixing the problem, like where we were when she reacted e.g. field, pavement, woods, what type of dog it was, the distance at which she didn't react and other things like that. Thankyou for reading!
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