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The Gasp Works in Class
Halona is a 6 month old BIG pit bull mix who has been shuffled from class to
class. She was first enrolled at 4 months in my All-Maltese Puppy Class. Pretty obvious why that didn't work. :} She did fine in her next class until she outgrew her play-mates again. Size doesn't matter when the puppy learns to take "no" for an answer from other pups, and learns how to adjust play-style to different pups. Halona did neither. So she was briefly moved to a basic class with larger adolescents who all play together very well. Her first day, she got into a fight with another even larger pit bull mix. Or almost did. I somehow grabbed both dogs by the collar (Ali) and harness (Halona) and held them apart, snarling and lunging for each other, until their owners got control of them. Physically impossible, by the way. I'm only 104 pounds, weak and middle-aged, with arthritis in my hands. But that was the ONE day I forgot to put a blanket out in the training area, so I had no choice. Amazing what adrenaline can do. :} On top of that, there are HUGE owner problems with her. As in, being shuffled from a woman who I noted in my database the first night of class "doesn't want to be here," to her elderly grandfather who can't control her, admits to not working with her at home at all, and only takes her to class so she can play. She came in to her second class with the new group yesterday accompanied by her original owner, the woman. With all the classes she's had, she has learned to reliably sit and down. That's all. But she learned it in that one hour a week of class, with no work at home, which I thought showed some above average trainability in her. Apparently mom has finally fallen in love with her, seen what she is capable of doing, and is now interested in training her. All 3 other dogs in that class didn't show up yesterday, which was good for Halona. I spent the whole hour working with mom, mostly showing her how to deal with Halona's new behavior problems. Yes, NOW Halona is an adolescent, and what a change. She had great focus, and yesterday was one of the most difficult dogs to focus I've had in training. Plus it became obvious that she hasn't been exposed to nearly enough new experiences. She freaked over a child riding by on a small bicycle, a woman pushing a baby carriage, and an associate using a vacuum cleaner. Mom said she's "trying to protect us." Not even. :} She barked and piloerected (is that a word?), but her whole posture was fearful. If any of them had come in her direction, I'm sure she would have run under a chair. So we talked about taking her more places where she can experience more before she gets any older and more hinky, and how to react when she is fearful. Okay, I keep going off on tangents. But Halona has been weighing heavily on me for a while now. I had decided to try to talk her owners into surrendering her, and finding a place to foster her. Mom's renewed interest has given me hope. Apparently the new boyfriend also likes dogs, but he was at first relucant to work with her. "She won't do it for me," he said. We talked him into asking her for a sit, she did it, and now he's sparked, too. They've agreed to start over from Week 1 in my next Sunday class. No additional charge. It will be a basic, not a puppy, so no playing. She's already showing signs of needing close supervision with other dogs, and I talked with mom about that, too. Anyway, here's what I started out to write about. :} As I said, there was a different dog in the class yesterday. It's obvious that adolescence has hit and hit hard. "Eh" has absolutely no effect on her any more. So I tried The Gasp that worked so well on Madigan. Yup, it gets her immediate attention too. Most of the time. Exceptions explained below. :} I also went by instinct and found myself using techniques on her that I never use on other dogs. For example, she would sit on command, then bounce back up and focus on something outside of the training area, completely ignoring whoever was trying to work with her (me or her owner). Even a hot dog held in front of her nose couldn't get her attention. Normally I'd just put a leash on a dog like that, and hold it loosely but with only a couple of inches of lee-way, so the dog couldn't get anywhere and have any fun, and would have to turn his attention back to me. But she's too big and powerful to control that way. Besides, no matter how many times I've asked her owners to change her equipment, she has on a harness and a metal chain leash. (Yesterday mom agreed to get a regular buckle collar, but insists she'll eat any other type of leash.) So I found myself using the leash to immobilize her. For her, the physical correction worked. (Correction in the sense of not allowing her to move at all - of course there's no real "leash correction" one can give on a harness!). This is a dog who would probably do best on a pinch collar in class. Not to use for leash corrections, but simply to have physical control. She has one for walking, but we can't use them in class. I think I'm going to ask for permission to use it. (Our AT can give us permission, but we need it in writing.) On another good note, I think I wrote about Snoopy, the little dachsund puppy who was afraid of strange people and other dogs, and not warming up very well. He was in the class that Halona spent most of her time in, and they graduated yesterday. He also had his biggest break-through during his last class. Instead of following the other pups around barking non-stop, which is as far as it got, he was actively initiating play and playing - even with the big lab mix! And not barking. And for the first time, he ran up to me and gave me a kiss. Whoohoo!!! Sometimes I love this job. :} PetsMart Pet Trainer My Kids, My Students, My Life: http://hometown.aol.com/dfrntdrums/m...age/index.html Last updated June 27 at 10:00 a.m. |
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