"Waiting" Is Very Powerful

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Since we've changed Murphy's program I keep learning new things.  Probably the most surprising is just how powerful it can be to just "wait them out".  We no longer use collar corrections with Murphy and we never restrain him (restraining panics him and always causes a bad reaction).  He only gets what he wants when he is behaving appropriately, so his "correction" is that we will either just sit and wait or go backwards until he makes a better choice.  I'm amazed at how well this works, not just with him but also with Guinness.  We had them both at the dog park for training last week and it was so interesting to watch them.  We got out of the car and put them in a sit.  They could see and smell the fenced dog park and immediately got excited.  We didn't move one step until they were calm.  Murphy caught on pretty quickly, but Guinness went into one of his little "overly excited states" where he was shaking and crying because he wasn't getting what he wanted....to move forward.  Well that upset Murph who had already figured out that we were going nowhere until Guinness behaved himself.  Then when they were calm we would take a few steps.....as soon as they got excited again we stopped.  We went through this several times....Guinness was always the problem at this point.  Then when we got pretty close Murph started to become apprehensive....stiff body and tail.  At the first sign of that I turned him around and we heeled all the way back to the car and started the process again.  We did that two or three times.  Finally he really "got it".  He realized that nothing bad was happening as he got close to the other dog in the dog park and that if he got nervous I was just going to take him away and we'd try again.  On the final try he calmly heeled to the gate and sat and waited until I called him in.  It was the waiting itself that was the "correction" and with a little patience it really worked.  I also found that this seemed to keep DH and me very calm as well.  Murph figured out that if he lied down that would send a clear signal to me that he was calm and we'd move ahead.  Throughout this session we never used either treats or collar corrections....just the power of not moving forward until I got the behavior I was looking for.  It was pretty cool and I thought I'd share.

[Heidi Magyar]

Thanks for sharing - that is very helpful and has been effective for us too. We need to expand the wait a little like you did though. Getting overly excited has been the big problem that we have.

[Nina, Phil, Harlow & Lacey]

I am going to give this a try with Harlow when she gets over excited.

[Joanna, Zoe & Bender]

What do you mean by "restraining panics him"? Does that include collar and harness? I was thinking lately that the easy walker restrains Ben too much since it pulls together if he pulls. And that perhaps the way the harness pulls together might be associated with when he freaks out. Did you do this waiting exercise with them on a leash or without? I'm still having issues with Ben growling and lunging at other dogs. Seems like he does it when other dogs get close to us or he gets approached from the back and he can't see them. We also meed to get his vision checked out. Is Murphy ok at dog parks? We can't take Ben to dog parks at the moment and need to work on his training more before we can trust him to be loose. It makes me so sad. Sorry for the 1000 questions.

[Heidi Magyar]

We had a trainer tell us that when the dogs are restrained and they are approached they get more defensive and freak out. We had to trust him and let them off the leash at the dog park and things got much better. It really made a difference!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Murphy is highly dog reactive...it's actually fear based aggression.  For a really long time we tried to deal with this through training which was effective in teaching him to heel and sit, down.....until he had to walk past some other dogs.  We thought that if his heel was solid enough even with the distraction he would not "break".  It just never totally worked.  He was so fearful when he was on leash around some dogs (we never did figure out exactly why some dogs frightened him more than others) that we were never able to avoid the reactive outbursts.  He never had this issue off leash.  If I tried to hold him back and continue past the other dog or leash correct, things got worse and that's when we saw the actual aggression.  That's what I mean by "restraining panics him".  It made him even more fearful because he felt "trapped".  We finally took him to a Behaviorist who helped us to understand this.  Murph has always done great at Daycare because it's off leash.  We used to have problems getting him in and out when we passed other dogs because he was leashed but once we took that leash off everything was fine.  We've been practicing leash walking him around the dog park and removing him as soon as he's uncomfortable and trying again.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I should add, when he's actually in the fenced Dog Park he is always off leash.....they actually don't even allow you to bring in a leashed dog.

[Heidi Magyar]

I understand completely - it's nice to hear it described so well! Remy & Roux go to Daycare too that is all off leash - the only problems I have are when they are leashed - Thanks!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

It takes so much patience to be able to "wait them out" like this. It's so much faster and easier to just ignore the bad/inappropriate behavior, give them a bribe, or use collar corrections out of frustration. It's interesting that the waiting itself kept you and your DH calm as well, I was thinking I'd be going "Oh for Pete's sake, let's just get into the park already!"

Then I realized that we need to look at everything we do with our dogs as part of the training experience. The walk from the car to the park is part of the experience, and it would be so easy to overlook that and only focus on getting into the park and starting the training there. It still takes a lot of patience, but if you look at everything that happens from the moment you start getting ready to take them out of the house as part of the training, it helps.

I think all of us can try to do this on a smaller scale every time we take our dogs anywhere, whether it's a walk, a trip to the pet supply store, any time the dog is excited about going somewhere.

Thanks for sharing this, Jane, you continue to teach and inspire all of us.

 

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

It's really funny, Karen about how this "waiting" is calming for DH and me too.  It really is all about the experience...not just the end result which is getting inside the dog park.  In the past we would have been briskly walking from the car to the gate.  Murph would be very excited until he got close to the other dogs and then he would start to react (barking and lunging).  I would correct but continue on (usually multiple corrections).  If he did stop I would be grabbing for a treat.  Now that's stressful....for everyone.  This feels completely different, because before he reacts we just stop or turn around and give it another try.  He never even has a chance to board that "crazy train". 

[Bonnie and Kona]

Your remarks add another layer of understanding to this process for me. I am very much a "get to the goal" person over a "enjoy the process" person. I need clear cues to understand the whole process. Even in reading Jane's wonderful description, my brain would never have taken it all the way back to leaving the house. wow. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I had to think about it a while too, Bonnie!

[Diane, Hurley and Sidney]

Your reports on Murph always bring tears to my eyes and I have learned to be more patient with Hurley when he gets way to excited.  What I did start today was when he is a puppy on steroids in the house is to put him in PLACE.  That definitely calms him down.  And he is great about staying in PLACE until I release him.