Today we went to the veterinary school to meet with the people who will help us work through our, um, issues. Whisper started by making me out a liar—in a good way. We left the car, walked into the waiting room, where a strange (to us) cat and other dog waited, and he managed to ignore all the people and animals, looking around, and not get aggressive with anyone. The behavior tech lady took us back, and he was appropriate with her. Only one time towards the end of our conversation did I start to see him get that wild look in his eye. I called him back to me, and he settled down.
Good boy!
Then we met the vet behaviorist; at the end of the meeting
with her today, Whisper and I both were calmer. I love seeing people who know
what they are doing; she truly seemed to understand ways to help both Whisper
and me.
For my part, she gave me help with training to cause Whisper
to be calmer. We train fine; I use a clicker, he adores cheese, he starts ahead
of me frequently. “Want me to put my feet on the stool? Here I go!” “Want me to
‘pray’? Move over, Mom!” “Lie down and stay? Piece of cake, er cheese!”
What she saw that I should have seen is (big reveal!) the
dog plays me. Whether because of how
close I am to the problem or because I am just so concerned (read worried to
pieces) or because Whisper is so darn cute, I miss that trick of his where he,
for example, lies down, gets a click and treat, then figures that if he gets
up, Mom will again say “Lie down,” he’ll lie down—and here comes the treat. It
took a little while, but well under an hour, while truly ignoring his jumping
up from the floor and giving a quiet “Good boy” when he lay back down quietly,
he understood, and his behavior was roughly 974% better. She also noted, "He really does look to you a lot." Yes, my dog...
That quieter behavior let us have a detailed discussion of his history and
how we got to here. But, it was more of information gathering—I never felt any
criticism of me, Whisper’s heritage, our home or training, anything. She took
it all in and gave concrete steps for helping us.
Then came getting blood for evaluation. Calmly and quietly she brought us a muzzle “for
everyone’s protection,” but a muzzle that gave room for him to pant and get
treats. She very slowly worked her way closer to me, set the muzzle down on the
table, and withdrew back to where she was sitting, taking notes on a computer.
This happened over an hour into the session, and by that time Whisper acted
comfortable with her, watching her as she moved around the room, but, with me
treating and “yessing” him as he obeyed the “stay” command I gave him as she
moved, he never showed any concern, just curiosity. I placed the muzzle on,
giving treats through the openings, and he did not even seem to mind it. Then,
we all left the room.
In the hall she brought out her spoon with cheese on it
(thank God for cheese!), and after pointing out the restrooms (yes, I had been
downing Diet Dr. Pepper…..helps my nerves), she and Whisper trotted off to get
his blood work……
…….which when she came back, she said he did very well,
though he did tremble some and pee a little. Poor baby is so anxious. But he
looked at her like he found a new best friend. GOOD boy!
So, we got a prescription. As much as I don’t want to drug my dog, I have
seen the worst of his behavior—and truly believe that behavior comes from
anxiety and fear. If this medicine will let us begin to train the behavior to
help him deal with that anxiety in more acceptable ways so that we can all be more
comfortable in public, then I am not only willing to try it, but if it works, I
may buy stock in the company. An option
to giving him meds might be putting me on something, but I do have to work…
I am so grateful that the behaviorist complimented us on our
training; though I need to do a different type of training in some instances,
she was very supportive of continuing the training we have been doing—obedience
and tricks. She liked my Whisper—or acted like she did. And she made me feel
that there is hope to help him (and me) and that he is well worth helping. She
mentioned how beautiful he is, and how smart.
Though we are on the first step on helping him learn more
appropriate behavior, I left there with hope—and I am grateful for that. She gave me an abbreviated version of her
recommendations, and is emailing me more detailed notes and recommendations. Now,
of course, the work starts. And, Whisper loves me to work with him.
GOOD BOY!
I also melted a little plastic to pay for this…..and I don’t
care. J
I'm so glad you had a good start. I had to laugh at the "behavior chains" that Whisper was training you with LOL. Not the first smart little herdin' dog to catch on to that! Sometimes, even trainers miss little things such as that if they are too close to the dog - after all, we love our dogs and WANT to give reinforcement. Treatment is usually dependent upon owner commitment and follow through, and I sense you have more than enough of that:-)
ReplyDeleteCurious about this: "It took a little while, but well under an hour, while truly ignoring his jumping up from the floor and giving a quiet “Good boy” when he lay back down quietly, he understood, and his behavior was roughly 974% better."
ReplyDeleteSO: If he got up from the down after you clicked, you ignored him. And if he lay back down, you said "good boy". Did you take the clicker out of the equation? Why not work on duration of the down or clicking for a more relaxed down (clicking for not looking at you, clicking for shift of weight onto the side into a more cozy position, etc.).
Just curious! So glad you're sharing with us!
Lauren, what I was not doing correctly was ignoring the bad behavior--i would tend to tell him "down" again. I did take the clicker out of the equation for awhile. He associates so much the clicker with learning tricks and obedience commands and what we wanted was to really ignore the bad behavior, note the good behavior (a quiet "good boy") and let him understand we were not doing our formal obedience work. In the hands of a more skilled trainer than I am, probably what you suggest would work. But, this was successful for us today. The vet could see my errors right away.
ReplyDeleteIt also allowed us to have a conversation. A soft "good boy" interrupts conversation less than a command and clicker. And as we were trying to get him calm, throwing cheese at him does get him revved up.
The danger of sharing this journey, which I hope will prove helpful, is that I do not describe something accurately. I hope this explains better why and what we were doing. It certainly was effective with him!