I haven't been out of the house much
this week, and I could tell Glindy was getting a bit restless
yesterday. I got moving a bit too late to drop her off at day care
(they don't offer half-days there), so I decided to take her for a
walk instead.
I had two goals for this walk. First, I wanted to work on her
loose-leash walking in a high-distraction outdoor environment.
Second, I wanted to reduce her arousal level when coming into
contact with strange dogs.
While we often work with a pinch collar to avoid power-struggles in
working situations, I decided to go with a flat-buckle collar
during training to avoid aversive stimulus. Especially when
encountering other dogs, I really wanted Glindy to learn more
self-control, rather than receiving a correction—even a
self-inflicted one.
So, I put on her new "
Evolution
Blue" flat-buckle collar from
Silverfoot, and added only one
small concession to increased control: a medium
SnapBack placed between her collar and her blue
Knot-a-Leash to reduce
the impact of any lunging. So, now properly outfitted, off we
went.
At first, Glindy would forge past me every few feet. But, since
this was exactly what we were training against, I simply planted
myself and waited for her to come back to my left side before
proceeding forward again. She knows that drill well, even if she
doesn't follow it regularly.
Sometimes, she continued straining at the end of the leash in order
to sniff a particular bush or other object. When that happened, I'd
take a few steps backwards to provide "penalty yards." Once she
returned to my side, I'd walk her back to her object of interest,
although she'd usually lost interest by that time.
The system worked pretty well. While I wasn't keeping score, by the
end of our 45 minute walk, she was definitely forging significantly
less than she was at the beginning—although whether this was
a result of real training or just being tired is too hard to tell
at this point.
From a training point of view, it didn't hurt that it was almost
mid-day, and the hot desert sun was putting a damper on her high
spirits by the end of the walk. Mild exhaustion can be a real help
in training, when the goal is to reduce arousal.
Throughout the walk, we'd walk by houses with fenced-in dogs. As
usual, Glindy would start whining and forging ahead whenever she
sensed another dog nearby. But this was part of our training, and I
had a plan.
Whenever she began whining, I'd stop. We'd stand there on the
sidewalk until her whining either faded significantly, or paused
altogether. Then we'd begin walking again. Glindy finds forward
motion extremely rewarding, so no treats were needed; I just waited
until her arousal level dropped noticeably before allowing her to
proceed.
She definitely began to get the idea. By the end of our walk
yesterday, she was most definitely a less reactive dog. Again, the
heat and exercise played their part, but I think the message was
definitely getting through.
We did share a watershed moment on that walk, though. Near the end
of our perambulation through the neighborhood, we passed by a house
where a largish dog (Great Dane, I think) was standing unfettered
in its driveway. Normally, Glindy would react to a reachable dog by
whining, barking, and trying to rush up to greet it, but not this
time. I stopped about ten feet away—just shy of the distance
where I thought her arousal level would kick into high
gear—and stood there with a loose leash while praising Glindy
softly.
A woman ran out of her garage, and grabbed her dog's collar. She
apologized, presumably for letting her dog roam the yard or
something, but I cheerily said, "No problem!" and strolled off with
Glindy following calmly behind me.
And you know what? It really
was no problem in that
instance. Glindy was calm; she was quietly interested in the dog,
but in full control of herself. I was very, very proud of her right
then.
We finally got home around noon. Glindy polished off the contents
of her water bowl and collapsed on the cool kitchen floor to
recover from the heat of the desert sun. She seemed tired, but
happy—and I was happy with her.
