Intruders!

A post about those "bad guys" that seem to invade the house occasionally...

Whenever we have guests over, Aggie is always put upstairs in her kennel behind a closed door before their arrival.  She barks when she hears them come in, but the barking lasts about 30 seconds to one minute, and she usually falls asleep (or chews on her incredibly yummy bone provided for just such an occasion).  If the guests are all seated and calm, and Aggie has been quiet in her kennel for some time, I allow her to come see them.  This training has profoundly changed Aggie's response to people in the house.  She used to come down the stairs tense and nervous with difficulty paying attention to me (I didn't require her attention, but she was always rewarded for checking in with me).  As long as we were far enough away, she would be able to watch without growling, and would be fed lots of yummy treats.

Now, she comes down the stairs wagging her tail with a wiggly body and pulls toward the guests to greet them!  But here's the catch.  She has a bite history!  Her self control in times of excitement leaves something to be desired; this dog in a state of excitement can not be trusted any more than when she is frightened.

Currently, I am allowing her to get close enough to the guests to smell, hear, and see them clearly (about 8 feet away).  Her body language is still full of excitement, but she is still able to focus on me (one time I let her get 6 feet away and she was so excited she couldn't stop pulling towards them, completely ignoring me... we were too close!).  I hope to be able to decrease the gap slowly with her still under stimulus control (ie: focused enough to sit or lay down when I ask her to).  Eventually, we will practice allowing her to sniff hands while in a calm state, but that's not going to happen for a while!

Children, however, are an exception.  Last night we had a group of friends over with children.  Aggie is terrified of these erratic little beasts, making exposure at safe distances all the more important.  I knew when I decided to bring her out last night that I needed to increase the distance, and was curious to see how she would respond.  I did not expect any behaviors from her, I just wanted her to watch them for a few seconds, eat some treats, and go back to her kennel.

As we headed toward the staircase (Aggie was upstairs in her kennel, the kiddos were playing in the living room at the bottom of the staircase), Aggie's ears were pinned back; she knew what was down there.  I should have stopped right then, given her loads of treats, and taken her back.  But no, I became a greedy trainer and moved her to the top of the stairs.  She did ok for the first two seconds, watching the two girls giggling on the couch as I fed her treat after treat.  But then one of the girls got up and ran to the couch closer to the staircase.  A low grumble of a growl grew from Aggie's ribcage as she stared at the girl.  I quietly called her name, she took a second to respond (eek, she was really stressed!) but finally peeled her eyes from the girl and gave me eye contact.  I asked her to follow me back to her kennel and she readily complied for which she was reinforced.  Yikes!  Children are really scary!

Once summer rolls around, I hope to expose Aggie to children outside at even greater distances where maybe she'll be able to watch them for longer periods without feeling stressed.

I am very proud of the progress she's made with having people over, especially adults.  It's a slow process, but she's starting to trust that I will not put her in harm's way.  With every training session that trust grows and expands toward new people.  I do not know how far she'll get with trusting strangers; maybe she'll never be able to greet a stranger in the house off leash.  However, I plan to continue creating positive interactions with strangers and intruders for the rest of her life.  The more she trusts her world, the more this poor anxious dog will be able to relax!

Have an experience like this or feedback for my training?  Feel free to comment or email me at roots.naomi@gmail.com.  I love the comments so far!  Thanks!