Resource Guarding, Ring of Treats, and General Update

I just worked on a little resource guarding prevention, and the pups did well. Neither dog guards their food bowl with humans. I've actually been pulling Tom away from Opie's food because she hasn't been finishing it. I want to keep this good dog behavior! Over the last couple of years every now and then, maybe every few weeks or more often if I'm thinking about it, I make a point of dumping something tasty into their food bowls when they're eating. I started out very carefully and made sure to say their names so they would look up and I would drop a treat in their food bowl. I've slowly been moving my hand closer while they're still eating and sometimes don't use their names. Today, I took it to the next step and did one or two of an easy version (dropping food in while they're eating) and then started pushing their heads aside starting with the hand with food in it. Then I tried it with the hand that didn't have food in it. I was quite cautious, watching for any stiffening or other warning signals. They were both very good! I think they both thought it was a bit of a pain in the butt to be interrupted constantly but they didn't mind it with the extra food. By the end of the short session I was able to shove them out of the food bowl (gently of course) and they were fine with it. Opal resisted a little, but was not at all threatening, because she wanted to finish her mouthful. I set up a few rounds where she moved aside easily for a treat and she was more willing after that. So yay for having dogs that don't guard food bowls. Marrow bones and bully sticks are another story! I would not drop my hand in to grab one of those. The problem being those are at the top of the value list and I can't think of anything more valuable that I could give. Most treat foods are better than kibble.

Dog show on May 19th. I thought I had a bit more time. I'm teaching Tom to walk on his back legs. I was hoping that would be ready but I doubt it will be. So I think I'll do the easy button trick since that's pretty cute even though it's a really easy trick. I don't know why more people haven't taught it.

The last dog show, if you remember, Tom ate one of the biscuits in the ring of biscuits that he was supposed to avoid. So I've been working with him on going through rings of biscuits. For the first trial I probably went a little too fast, too soon thinking that we've done this before, and he was glancing a lot at the treats and I had to say "uh-uh" or reiterate "leave it". I realized I was making him nervous so I started clicker training some behaviors around treats: look at treats, walk a little, etc. He got much more confident. I realized I could tone down the corrections. It's important to make sure he does not get the treats but if he's eyeing them I can also just wait until he checks back in with me and click that which builds confidence instead of fear. In the beginning he was side stepping around them when I'd call him through, but by the end he was still careful to give them a wide berth but came closer than when we started. He's doing well, I need to practice it out in the Real World and also practice taking him to rings of treats off-leash that he didn't know were there since that's how it'll be at the show. Hopefully they'll use kibble or something that can be hidden in the grass and it won't be as much of an issue. Still, I'd rather have the behavior better under control.

I also figured out a way to not fail out of Simon Says. Last show he lay down from a sit when I lay down. I realized he thinks my torso going towards the ground equals lie down for him. I tried it with lying back to end up on my back instead of my stomach. Bingo! Need to experiment more but he understands holding a sit to that much better.

Still thinking about getting a video camera and taping some trick videos. It'd be great to join the youtube community of positive dog trainers with trick videos. I'm planning to borrow a recorder after my paper is turned in and I have some time. (giggles, yeah right on having time!)

Working on the Cognitive Dog paper like crazy. 8-10 double spaced pages. It's due next Monday (not two days from now, but 9). Eeeeeeks! It's 50% of my grade. I think it'll work out, just need to force myself to get the darn thing written. Not all of the books I wanted came in, but Aloff's book (see below) is really helpful. I went through the school library and checked out six rather large books; all the books in the collection I thought might be at all useful. I walked around Friday with a stack of books under my chin and got some comments. Grins. I do appreciate having a library that actually has dog books even if half of them are about breeds and a lot of them are at least 20 years old. I'm friends with the librarian and gave her a list of books to add to the collection and she has ordered some. Positive dog training books of course. :-) If only students checked out books I could have started a secretive shift to positive training originating from the books offered in the library.

Oh, PSA to anyone who can access the Virtual Catalog through their library (I think most of Eastern MA can). Mount Ida is connected through the catalog and it is possible to get many dog books shipped to you. There are also a number of seminars including Patricia McConnell's 2 day advanced dog behavior one and Trish King's seminar on aggression. There are probably a lot more but I was only searching fear aggression. I had Brenda Aloff's book on aggression shipped to me. It is a godsend! 400 large pages of everything you wanted to know about aggression. Didn't think I'd find a good description on flooding but she has 2 pages. Perfect!

My paper is on fear aggression in dogs. I think I'll do a general overview, what it is, biological reasons for fear, amygdala's role, and then the various treatments (desensitization, classical conditioning, Constructional Aggression Treatment, and flooding).