During the seminar I did a few weeks ago in Denver we did a case study with a Corgi named Tucker. Tucker had gotten along well with the dogs of the household until a new female came in and they began to fight. Then he had an aversive encounter with another dog at day care and he became more and more aggressive, both to unfamiliar dogs and the other dogs in the household. Things got so bad that Tucker had to be kept completely separate from other dogs. We spent much of the afternoon with Tucker and his wonderful owner, Janelle, and talked about a lot of ways to help things along. The good news is that Janelle had already switched from a trainer who used lots of harsh, positive punishment -- leash jerks, etc. -- to one who had methods that she preferred. (Note that positive punishment Read More
Archives for 2011
Willie Under Water . . . Well, sort of.
Good news, bad news (as always in life, right?) Willie had his first session in the underwater treadmill with Courtney Arnoldy at UW - Madison. He did super well, given how sound sensitive he is. I wish I had a video of him when the water first began to flow. His face was hysterical -- honestly, as empathetic as I am to Willie (and if anything we are co-dependent), it was impossible not to laugh. He didn't look terribly afraid, just a bit anxious but mostly confused and should I say it? -- appalled at the rising water. The water flows in from the bottom, so first his feet got wet, then the water level slowly rose to above his shoulder. He reacted by raising his left paw higher and higher so that he kept at least one paw above the water. The look on his face was reminiscent of someone Read More
Not Faking Death . . . But What?
Seen this? The announcer tells us that the dog is "faking death." I'm just not even going to pursue how and why someone came up with that as an explanation for this dog's behavior, BUT... What IS going on? I have two hypotheses, but I'm staying mum until I get your ideas. I'll add mine to the comments sometime this weekend. MEANWHILE, back on the farm: It's high summer here, hot and humid but the flowers are bursting all around, the bees are laden with pollen, the ruby red tomatoes are swelling and the fresh corn has arrived. Yummm, have you ever eaten corn from the cob minutes after it's been picked? I mean, ripping off the husks while standing in the field and sinking your teeth into the kernels? SOOO sweet! Why anyone would cook it is beyond me! Willie is doing Read More
Case Study – Dog/Dog Reactivity – Hailey
Here's Hailey, who was one of the demo dogs in Pittsburgh a few weeks ago. Crystal is fostering Hailey, and had only had her for about a month before the seminar, and we were both concerned that her general arousal levels might make the seminar too much of a challenge for her. As it turned out, she did very, very well. She was definitely reactive when she saw other dogs, but it did not appear that she was fearful or intent on aggression. Hailey was the classic bark/lunger who became so excited when she saw another dog that she lost control. She could work herself up into increasing levels of excitement until her behavior became difficult to manage. Managing arousal did seem to be the name of the game here. Hailey was extremely friendly to me, mildly stressed about being on Read More
Case Study – Dog/Dog Reactivity – Ceilidh
I did a seminar last week in Pittsburgh for the Westmoreland County Obedience Training Club, and worked with 3 dogs who had "dog-dog reactivity" problems. In choosing those dogs I had a problem myself: I had to choose from over 12 people who offered their dogs for demo's. Right now I'm working on choosing dogs for a similar seminar in DENVER next weekend and have the same problem: too many dogs, too little time. And so I thought it might be useful to use one of Pittsburgh's dogs as a case study in the blog, and her owner, Jan, graciously agreed. I should say here that I don't have the depth of information I would if they were my clients, but here are the basics: Ceilidh (pronounced Cay-lee) is a 6.5 year old female Border Collie who fixates on other dogs with what I call the "locked Read More
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