This video is about Dominic and Sam, two male dogs who live together and have been getting into pretty serious fights at home. They initially came to us and started in some private lessons to see if we could help them to get their dogs back together. Prior to coming to us, they had actually moved the dogs into separate homes because the fights were becoming so frequent.
Throughout the course of their private lessons we were able to get the dogs back into the house together, but they still had to be pretty much separated.So at a certain point, my trainer Katherine, who was working with them, called me in to see if I could help get these dogs actually back together.
Upon meeting them it became very clear to me that this wasn't the right moment to try to introduce the dogs back together again. Dominic was extremely excited and nervous as soon as he came into the training center. He was shaking and whining and making all sorts of noises.
Sam, on the other hand, looked completely shut down. I got the impression that he was triggering off of Dominic's nervous excited energy. So I decided to test Dominic by using my own dog Lobo, who has a very stable energy, to see how Dominic would react to him and see if I could introduce those two dogs together. I spent a lot of time making sure that Dominic approached in a calm manner but as soon as he got close enough he went right into the attack.
At that point it became clear to me that we couldn't finish this job in private lessons; we needed Dominic to stay with us so we could spend more time on his rehabilitation. I'm not going to be able to fix this today. We really need to get him into a Board & Train.
He's like, like I said this is as bad as it gets when it comes to dog aggression. Just that level of 0-60. It doesn't get worse than that. So we just got back from a little group walk with Dominic and my two dogs, Lobo and Charlie. We didn't have the cameras rolling during the walk, it would have been a little bit too challenging, we really had to keep things going at a fast pace and he definitely, in the entire beginning of the walk, just wanted to try and get to my dog.I had him on my left side and my two dogs on my right.
He just wanted to get over there. He's muzzled but he was definitely trying to bite so I really need to stay focused and keep moving at a good pace. Didn't want to worry about filming for that. The first probably five to ten minutes of the walk were pretty dicey.
I just kept him on a short leash and just prevented problems and he eventually settled in. As the walk continued he started relaxing, he started actually avoiding eye contact with my two dogs, which was good and the walk ended really peacefully.
He was looking pretty relaxed so I just wanted to seize this opportunity to have him around them, with them behaving a little more loosely. I've been allowing him to be near them, like this is really great, this, if you can see, just having my dog walk by without him reacting, compared to the last time he was around Lobo, was awesome and especially compared to the walk.
And he did actually, before we went and grabbed the camera, he actually approached both my dogs individually and was able to sniff them, sniff their butts without snapping, which he could not do that before.
So just that little walk, at least with these two guys, you know that's not to say if I brought in an unknown element, an unknown dog that he'd be equally as relaxed but at least with these two guys he's learning to be able to accept their presence. Not a hundred percent yet but we're getting there. Good boy, Dom. Good job buddy. So it's really important in a moment like this you'll notice the leash is relaxed, I'm not conveying any tension to him, but if you saw the way I sort of braced myself against the wall and changed my stance so I'm in a ready position but I'm not tensing up, I don't want to preemptively project any problems onto him.
I need to give him the opportunity to make choices and just be ready to intervene if I need to. And that was really good, you can see he was a little tentative, he kind of wanted to sniff. Now in the past his MO has been, he's gone in for a sniff and then instantly gone into an attack, so I'm very cautious when he does that. So it's actually nice to see that he sort of air sniffed a little bit from a distance and then showed some avoidance behavior.
So that's really really beautiful. It's just these little things. He is not totally accepting of the situation yet, he's not fully relaxed, but we're definitely moving in the right direction. So now it's a matter of repeating the process and adding different dogs. So this is actually really good, this is just the second day. This is just our second group walk and he's so much more relaxed already.
There were no theatrics today. Yesterday when we first started he was definitely a little bit dramatic in the beginning. Today he was much more relaxed, a little bit excited in the beginning but no lunging at the other dogs. And this, you see I'm letting him kind of sniff behind these guys here. Anytime he wants to sniff them is generally a good thing. Hopefully when we get back to the training center we'll do a little socialization.
That was nice to see, the introduction of a new dog that he's never met before, he was definitely more tense. She came right up to him to greet him and he wasn't 100% ready for that and he got a little bit jumpy but it was so minimal compared to what he had been doing in the past, compared to his first meeting with Lobo.
And then the fact that he was able to go up and snif her butt and walk away without snapping at her just tells me that we're making really huge progress with him because he's never met her before and she came in with some pretty strong energy and he handled it. Not perfect but we're on the path. Yeah, good boy buddy! That was good. That was really good.
Charlie corrected him, he jumped but he didn't lose his mind. That was really really good. What we've done already is we had Sam in a socialization group by himself and what was interesting to see is he came in very excited and very happy-go-lucky, and then at a certain point just sort of switched and started getting highly stressed, started trying to control dogs and manipulate them.
His tail would go from being straight up to being down and tucked, and then you'll see him in a second with the video. He's very stiff, panting and trembling right now. So we then went for a group walk and that's where I brought out Dom and him together for the first time. So I had Dominic and Lobo and Charlie on my left side, him on my right side and then Amy had a few dogs as well, and they did very good on the walk.
Dominic actually sniffed his butt a few times. He's very very avoidant and after the walk we just came in here and basically just started doing some socialization. So this is the first time now in quite a while that these two have been together where they can freely interact. Sam's just dragging the leash right now, Dominic I'm holding his leash at the moment, but I'm basically letting him go wherever he wants to go and they're really avoiding each other completely.
What's been very interesting is Sam, who, you know sort of thought that this guy was the main source of trouble, Sam's energy is just way off.
And when Lobo and Olive started playing earlier, Sam actually went in and lunged at them while they were playing and so we had to interrupt that. Dominic, that triggered Dominic to start getting worked up and go back into his old pattern of the stress and trembling and whining, but I just corrected him relatively lightly and he actually snapped right out of it, which was really awesome because previously, once he was in that state there was really no coming back from it, which is why we needed to bring him in to board and train, because in private lessons he would just instantly trigger just coming in the building and then you couldn't really get him back to a normal place within the context of a private lesson.
So it's nice to see him be able to kind of go in and out of that state a little bit more freely. Obviously we'd like to see him not even go there, but the fact that he was able to snap out of it quickly is a really good step in the right direction. So we're just gonna let these guys move around a little bit more.
Sam's obviously going to need a lot more one-on-one work to get him to a better place emotionally because actually Dominic, who I thought was gonna be the much bigger challenge, is actually turning out to be really chill in socialization.
He has his moments of course but this guy's a nervous wreck. Sam's a nervous wreck right now so we're gonna have to deal with that. So today is day seven for Dominic and day two for Sam, and I just want to point out how relaxed Dominic is at this point in here. So far today we did a little bit of a group walk, and I just had Dominic on the dog powered treadmill.
Did some work with him on the treadmill as well as him being near Lobo while Lobo was on it so that he could practice not triggering to excitement. That's been one of his things is fast movement; high energy activity is one of the things that triggers him so having him near Lobo while Lobo's on the treadmill, Lobo moves pretty intensely on there, is a good exercise.
Overall, Dominic at this point, we've got Charlie, Lobo and then Sam his housemate in here, and I don't even really need to keep an eye on him. He's just chill, which is amazing to see. Some people will ask, you know, if he's doing so good, why the muzzle still? You know, we take safety really seriously here. For me, just because the dog's done good for a few days or a few weeks isn't enough, I need to be a hundred and ten percent certain that that dog's not going to injure another dog or a person if there's human issues.
He doesn't have human issues. And especially if we're gonna bring in other dogs that belong to other clients, we don't risk anything here. You know, this isn't a television show. We're not going for sensationalism. This is real, real world rehabilitation and muzzles are there for safety.
So you know he's only here until the end of this week. I probably won't really remove the muzzle in an off-leash socialization setting within that time frame because it's certainly not enough time for me to have seen him doing good to be that 110 percent certain, and we just don't want to take any chances. But you'll see him, you know, wandering around.
He's just looking fantastic, and I'm just really focusing on Sam now. Sam's got some insecurity and confidence issues and he tends to shut down a little bit more in socialization, so we're working on just some really simple agility equipment just to get his feet moving. And to get him and Dominic moving around each other a little bit more because yesterday they just sort of avoided each other for the most part and that's basically it for today.
Good boy, Sam! Yeah! Good boys! Good job! So this play that's going on is awesome because this type of energy is exactly what used to trigger both Dominic and Sam. Sam would just go right in for a bite in the past when stuff would get this energetic and Dominic would start going into his total stress state, trembling, whining and then eventually kind of going in and wanting to be involved in that, so the fact that they both learned to just accept this type of energy and to not have reactions to it is such an important part of their rehabilitation because it's the excitement that would often trigger them to then get in fights with each other at home. So much of our work has been about not reacting to situations that previously would cause excitement.
Good boy buddy, good job! So today's actually the last day that we have Dominic and Sam he re, and today we also have Kya the Rhodesian Ridgeback. She's just here for day training. She comes in once a week or every other week for some day training and she's a very fearful dog and has socialization issues because of her fear with both people but but also other dogs.
And there she is here. And so it's just awesome when we get dogs like Dominic and Sam here, and they've been with us for a while. At this point their behavior is so good that I'm actually using them to help work with Kya. So we just got back from a group walk and now we're just socializing and it's just the four of us here.So I have Lobo and Dominic and Sam and Kya is over there. And you know these guys are just paying it forward.
They've been here working it hard, working hard and they've come really far and now they're able to help contribute to the rehabilitation of another dog which is always a beautiful thing. You know, the big thing is, you guys have started with your obedience, that's all good, but I don't want you to become over dependent on that. I think the key is making sure that you are who your dogs need you to be, you know what I mean? You know, they need to see you as in control, as, you know, protecting them and keeping them safe, as moderating their behaviors, as, you know, putting parameters on their choices.
But if we just say okay you're gonna lay down there, you're gonna lay down there, don't move, we're not allowing them to make choices so we're not influencing their choices. So at a certain point we have to have them around each other and that's where the muzzles come in to make things really safe. Good boy Dom! And so I just wanted to make sure, he might be, you know, with you guys present sometimes that changes things. We especially want to see if there's any jealousy, or anything like that. This is now a new experience for him being around other dogs around mom and dad.
That's a new experience. And this is something we can do more of in private lessons even, right. And so if I'm watching him and his behavior is getting to a level that I'm uncomfortable with, I would just step in and tell him to stop, you know what I mean. I don't need to necessarily wait until he snaps. If his ears start going up and forward and that tail is sticking straight up and he's puffing his chest out, I might step in right there and just say no, enough.
Hey! And that's all it takes with him. It's easy, right. And again because he goes right into surrender, you don't have to, it doesn't need to be any more than that. See this is controlling space, you see it? and Lobo's being very respectful but he's moving Lobo. He's keeping Lobo at the perimeter of the room there, you know. Again, some of that's normal but it starts to become excessive, right. See how he's doing it? He's doing basically what we have you guys doing with the food and everything else.
This is the natural, where it comes from. So you can see Dominic was like "oh yeah Lobo's here," got a little excited, but he was able to let it go a little bit more easily.And that's what I mean, like that's a little hint of what I mean when I say he's a bit more unstable. He actually, he's able to move on easier. He's hard, like when he's in that high intensity, he's hard to pull out of that, but from an emotional level he's actually, it's actually easier for him to move on.
He's still clinging to his need to control. He needs to see you guys are in control because that's what makes him feel safe. Sam needs to see you guys in control because he's a control freak, and he needs to know that it's not his job to control everything, you know what I mean? He needs to let go of that. He's hanging on to that so hard, he needs to just let it go. That's the whole name of the game.Things that cause excitement, we want to practice calmness. You don't need to worry, I'll keep you safe. You need to stop being a control freak. That's the conversation.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment