Another Milestone in Billy's Journey - And How Impatience Almost Cost Me This Partnership
Today I am at the library working on a project for school. Of course Billy is with me. We have been here for about 15 min now.
As you can see Billy is super relaxed, staying out of the way, as much as a dog his size can anyway, and mostly unconcerned with the environment. Exactly how a well trained service dog should behave when he and his handler are hanging out in the library. He is certainly aware of people who walk by, if you watch his ears they follow the people who walk by, but his body is relaxed and that awareness of who's nearby is part of his job. If someone where to approach me from behind, he should stand up to make me aware of such a thing so I don't get startled or frightened. This behavior from him, allows me to relax in a scary environment as well. Before Gypsy I had stopped going to Libraries all together because I could never relax well enough to read.
Why is this such a huge milestone for Billy? When we first started going out in public I made a few mistakes. I felt that he was ready for a low key outing when he really wasn't. I chose to bring us to the Library. When we arrived in the parking lot he was already wired and nervy. I unloaded anyway and sat on the stone wall outside the Library for 20 min waiting for him to relax and adjust to the new environment. Eventually he did and we moved inside the sliding doors. He was not afraid of them at all and I took that for a good sign. The lobby is on the ground floor and the rest of the library is the next floor up. We entered the lobby and there was some really strange noise and Billy balked. He did NOT want to continue into the strange place with the strange lighting and the slippery floor and the strange noises. At this time in his training he did not have the trust and relationship we now share. For all he knew I was bringing him to his death.
At one point in my life as a trainer I had learn about and used flooding as a technique to deal with fear in dogs. I've also had this technique used on me by my therapist with some success. So that's what I did. I sat myself down on a bench in the lobby and made Billy deal with it. We were there for about an hour with Billy as jumpy as a jackrabbit. I also destroyed what little trust he had built with me at that point. Eventually I had to give it up as a lost cause and we went home.
It took us about three weeks to recover from that mistake. I was seriously worried that I was going to have to wash Billy out as a service dog. Instead I backed off, worked very hard on building a relationship with him, got him a thundershirt, and put him on L-Theanine. For a while he was terrified of my car, and we slowly chipped away at that until he was completely at ease in the car. Then he was afraid of of parking lots. He is still a bit nervy in some parking lots, particularly if we can hear trucks backing up. But once he gets a good look around he relaxes. I hope to have him completely comfortable in parking lots before too long.
I tried a few things, including having a friend with another service dog accompany us to the library, in the hopes that he would be more relaxed. He was much calmer, but I still didn't like how jumpy he was. I know what's it's like to live with anxiety problems. I don't want that with my dog. So I started counter conditioning him.
Up until today, each time we came to work on him around the library, it was an event. We would spend up to an hour in the car in the parking lot just hanging out and then driving away. There were treats involved of course. Then we would unload from the car and he would get about a cup of kibble, one piece at a time, then we would load back up. Then we would start approaching the lobby, I was very careful to watch him, wait for that moment when he was indecisive and reward him for going that far, and encourage him to take that next step. Then we would leave.
We eventually made it up into the library proper where he was okay, but stressed. He would be fine and fairly relaxed, but someone would cough and he would get tense and start with the stress panting and collie stress face. We kept working on it though. I had broken him, and I was going to fix him, dammit!
He has made huge progress in most areas, using counter conditioning, confidence building, and working on our partnership. We trust each other now. He truly is my Co-Pilot. He's not had to a use a thundershirt in over a year and has been of the L-Theanine since the summer.
Today I pulled up in my car, and Billy didn't even pop his head up to look around, he just waited for me to get out, then followed me out. In the parking lot he looked around and then moved into position to have his harness clipped up and to do his job. I gave him a bit of a treat and we headed for the lobby. There was a little boy there, getting his helmet on and sitting on a little plastic rolly thing. Once he was strapped in, he drove his super loud little toy out of the lobby. I had already started offering Billy treats. Billy watched the kid roll out, unconcerned, munching on his treats. When the elevator door opened to let us get out on the main floor, a little girl and her dad were there. Billy didn't even blink. He just followed my instructions into the library. We walked around looking for a desk to work at. Once I got settled, Billy lay down, and here we are.
Billy and I have recovered from that first disastrous mistake. If we can fix this, what else can we do, together?
One thing to always remember when you are training or working with dogs. You don't know everything. There is always something else out there for you to learn about. What works for one dog, may not work for EVERY-DOG, so if what you are doing doesn't work or makes things worse, try something else. Don't stop learning, and listen to your dog. He's the only one that will be totally honest in everything.
As you can see Billy is super relaxed, staying out of the way, as much as a dog his size can anyway, and mostly unconcerned with the environment. Exactly how a well trained service dog should behave when he and his handler are hanging out in the library. He is certainly aware of people who walk by, if you watch his ears they follow the people who walk by, but his body is relaxed and that awareness of who's nearby is part of his job. If someone where to approach me from behind, he should stand up to make me aware of such a thing so I don't get startled or frightened. This behavior from him, allows me to relax in a scary environment as well. Before Gypsy I had stopped going to Libraries all together because I could never relax well enough to read.
Why is this such a huge milestone for Billy? When we first started going out in public I made a few mistakes. I felt that he was ready for a low key outing when he really wasn't. I chose to bring us to the Library. When we arrived in the parking lot he was already wired and nervy. I unloaded anyway and sat on the stone wall outside the Library for 20 min waiting for him to relax and adjust to the new environment. Eventually he did and we moved inside the sliding doors. He was not afraid of them at all and I took that for a good sign. The lobby is on the ground floor and the rest of the library is the next floor up. We entered the lobby and there was some really strange noise and Billy balked. He did NOT want to continue into the strange place with the strange lighting and the slippery floor and the strange noises. At this time in his training he did not have the trust and relationship we now share. For all he knew I was bringing him to his death.
At one point in my life as a trainer I had learn about and used flooding as a technique to deal with fear in dogs. I've also had this technique used on me by my therapist with some success. So that's what I did. I sat myself down on a bench in the lobby and made Billy deal with it. We were there for about an hour with Billy as jumpy as a jackrabbit. I also destroyed what little trust he had built with me at that point. Eventually I had to give it up as a lost cause and we went home.
It took us about three weeks to recover from that mistake. I was seriously worried that I was going to have to wash Billy out as a service dog. Instead I backed off, worked very hard on building a relationship with him, got him a thundershirt, and put him on L-Theanine. For a while he was terrified of my car, and we slowly chipped away at that until he was completely at ease in the car. Then he was afraid of of parking lots. He is still a bit nervy in some parking lots, particularly if we can hear trucks backing up. But once he gets a good look around he relaxes. I hope to have him completely comfortable in parking lots before too long.
I tried a few things, including having a friend with another service dog accompany us to the library, in the hopes that he would be more relaxed. He was much calmer, but I still didn't like how jumpy he was. I know what's it's like to live with anxiety problems. I don't want that with my dog. So I started counter conditioning him.
Up until today, each time we came to work on him around the library, it was an event. We would spend up to an hour in the car in the parking lot just hanging out and then driving away. There were treats involved of course. Then we would unload from the car and he would get about a cup of kibble, one piece at a time, then we would load back up. Then we would start approaching the lobby, I was very careful to watch him, wait for that moment when he was indecisive and reward him for going that far, and encourage him to take that next step. Then we would leave.
We eventually made it up into the library proper where he was okay, but stressed. He would be fine and fairly relaxed, but someone would cough and he would get tense and start with the stress panting and collie stress face. We kept working on it though. I had broken him, and I was going to fix him, dammit!
He has made huge progress in most areas, using counter conditioning, confidence building, and working on our partnership. We trust each other now. He truly is my Co-Pilot. He's not had to a use a thundershirt in over a year and has been of the L-Theanine since the summer.
Today I pulled up in my car, and Billy didn't even pop his head up to look around, he just waited for me to get out, then followed me out. In the parking lot he looked around and then moved into position to have his harness clipped up and to do his job. I gave him a bit of a treat and we headed for the lobby. There was a little boy there, getting his helmet on and sitting on a little plastic rolly thing. Once he was strapped in, he drove his super loud little toy out of the lobby. I had already started offering Billy treats. Billy watched the kid roll out, unconcerned, munching on his treats. When the elevator door opened to let us get out on the main floor, a little girl and her dad were there. Billy didn't even blink. He just followed my instructions into the library. We walked around looking for a desk to work at. Once I got settled, Billy lay down, and here we are.
Billy and I have recovered from that first disastrous mistake. If we can fix this, what else can we do, together?
One thing to always remember when you are training or working with dogs. You don't know everything. There is always something else out there for you to learn about. What works for one dog, may not work for EVERY-DOG, so if what you are doing doesn't work or makes things worse, try something else. Don't stop learning, and listen to your dog. He's the only one that will be totally honest in everything.