A Bit of History

In order to understand where I am at in my training decisions, I feel I should give you a bit of background. I was trained as a marine mammal trainer.  The marine mammal field was the first to start applying Skinner's operant conditioning and Pavlov's classical conditioning discoveries.  By now, the techniques have been refined and honed to an incredibly sophisticated level, and marine mammal trainers claim that if the animal is physically capable of doing it, they can train it.  As far as I can tell, they are right.  Here is a video of some orcas getting their blood drawn (while others are practicing).  If you think these whales are being forced into position, think again.  They are very capable of escape:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqrFOwgJ8lg

So this is where I come from.  The highly polished world of marine mammal trainers.  I only spent 4 years in this world, but it was long enough to make me think dog training would be a piece of cake.  So when my husband got a job in another state, I thought, "Eh, I can always train dogs."

Two major problems with this line of thinking:
1.  I had never owned a dog as an adult.
2.  A dog's world is a LOT different than a dolphin's.

Preparing to step out into the scary world.
Step 1: pay attention to Naomi.

Number 1 is self explanatory.  Allow me to delve into number 2:  A dolphin's world is very controlled by the humans in their care.  It can be as limited or enriching as the trainers choose.  Any strangers introduced to the dolphins (guests, etc) are strictly controlled by the staff along with any changes in the environment.  Compare that scenario to a dog's world in which at any given point a stranger can come ring the doorbell and "force" (in the dog's opinion) the owner to open the door.  Or out on a walk, a strange dog can appear from around the corner without warning.  Or construction workers with their scarry helmets and loud machinery can pop out of nowhere.  To state the obvious: a dog's world is naturally more varied and unpredictable.

Because of this difference, early training is essential for the puppy to become a well-adjusted dog.  Which is why rescuing a dog can be a bit of a crapshoot.  You don't know what you're going to get until you not only have it, but now feel attached to and responsible for it.  Aggie's a perfect example.  A little fearful when I first met her, I didn't know enough to gauge how fearful she actually was.  As mentioned in the introduction, she started presenting aggressive behaviors after a couple months of living with us.

Since starting these behaviors almost a year ago, it's been a long road.  We've lived in 3 different states since she came home to us, and each move has been nearly as traumatizing as changing families.  She has major setbacks each time which tries my patience (I should know better), and makes me question if I can really handle a dog with this much fear.

"Um, hello, I'm training.  Knock it off with
that annoying light or I'll..."

But then she makes progress, or does something that makes my husband and me almost cry with laughter, and I remember that I do enjoy Aggie.  And besides, I'm horribly attached.

"...Attack this man with kisses!!!"

Fear and Anxiety Ratings

This post will attempt to quantify Aggie's behavior.  Her fear of unknown people and dogs leads to anxiety of the presence (or even potential presence) of these unknown creatures.  Combine fear and anxiety with a lack of impulse control and you've got a dog that bites.  I need to lower Aggie's fear and anxiety, and increase her focus and impulse control.  How?

There are a million ways to do it.  First step: organize oneself.  If you can keep thorough records, you can oftentimes find patterns you wouldn't otherwise know existed.  I have a science oriented mind, and appreciate when things are as clear cut as possible.  Therefore, I want numbers and graphs.

I must have edited this post a hundred times trying to figure out how I was going to quantify Aggie's fear and anxiety.  I ultimately decided not to try to separate the two.  For now, any event that provokes fear, anxiety, or both, will be assigned a number from 1-5.  Here are some behaviors I expect to see in each category:

0:  No fear or anxiety, relaxed/loose body movements

1:  Eyes wide, body slightly tensed, will alert on object/noise (or scan the area looking for threats) but will let it go relatively quickly and go back to previous activity

2:  Mixed signals (tense body, wagging tail, happy ears, foot raised), Able to turn away from scary object/noise if asked but not able to relax easily, Indoors: unable to rest even if she looks tired, intermittently pacing and trying to rest (usually whining)

An example of Category 2.

She's checking in with me, but tense due to a train passing by ~1/4 mile away.

3:  Stops eating kibble but will accept higher value treats (beef jerkey, hot dog, cheese, etc),  Indoors: has trouble focusing on cognitive tasks such as scent detection but can recover if I work with her,  Destroys things, Cries in her kennel if she can't get to us but if let out will be jumpy and mouthy

4:  Will probably eat higher value treat but only if forced to turn away from object/noise (ie: gently pulled by leash)

5:  Unable to eat anything, Won't respond to me, Aggresses at scary thing, Complete shutdown*, Indoors: will bite at bars to get out of kennel (ie: when people walk in the house)

Part of what will affect her rating will be how long it takes her to recover from some of these behaviors.  I hope to start timing this and be able to have particular values shortly.

Also, I plan to start a chart to track her ratings and what the triggers were.  All with the goal of focusing my training on what she needs.  Here's to progress!  (or the hope of it...)


*for a video of what shutdown dog looks like, check out this blog:
http://eileenanddogs.com/2013/11/21/shut-down-dogs-part-2/