Annie ran away

[D'Elle]

Whenever I have a new foster dog who is skittish I never take the dog outside the fenced yard without a well fitted harness, with a leash, AND a well fitted collar, with a leash. Best yet is if the harness is the kind with a front attachment, like the EasyWalk. I haven't ever had a dog get away from me when I use both at once, each with a leash. Unless I let go of the leashes, they simply can't get away. Slipping out of both is a near impossibility, because if one slips, I can grab the dog before he or she can get out of the other. Actually, I have never had a dog get out of a good well-made walking harness if it is properly fitted.

Good luck!

[Laurae]

I completely sympathize with your situation. Sophie was a complete nightmare as a youngster, and I mean that in the most serious way. She was my first dog and very smart, confident, and independent. I was very devoted to her but completely clueless and did not have a very stable lifestyle at the time. She is a textbook case of a dog who should have gone to "an experienced home," but I was the one who found her so it was me she was stuck with. I was in an on-again, off-again bad relationship, and we moved six times in the first four years of her life (and have since moved exactly once in the eight years following). In addition, she came to work with me, and the kayak shop I worked at then also moved once. In hindsight, though I know I had a lot to learn along the way, I believe all that instability was a major contributor to her being such a handful. Once I moved to Colorado and my life became much more stable, she began to trust her surroundings a lot more and calmed down immensely. I also discovered she was hypothyroid, and I believe the inexpensive meds she now takes have also helped her chill out. So, I guess I'm sharing this to let you know that stress may well be a huge contributing factor to her behavior and (while you should certainly take steps to improve her recall and reduce/manage her reactivity) things may improve with Annie when your lives calm down again.

[waffles]

I wanted to put my 2 cents in about the skateboards/bike issue. It sounds like you have been doing a lot of work on the matter and are seeing little results after months of work. If it were me, I would be looking into other or more creative ways to work on the issue at this point. Levi used to be afraid of any dog we would see on a walk and afraid of bikes coming up from behind. Sure I did a lot of clicking/treating when we saw other dogs but what really worked was doing group walks with other confident dogs. It helped build confidence by doing something fun together with other dogs and he also saw other dogs not being fearful of other dogs on walks. Same thing for bikes, we would take a walk and I would have a friend ride with us.

 

If I were you, I would get someone with a skateboard to walk with you (right next to you), same thing with someone on a bike. Instead of bikes and skateboards always coming at her or behind her and making her sit, bikes and skateboards just become apart of something that goes with her on a walk. You could also get other friends to walk their dogs with you to help Annie. She can only react for so long before she just realizes that walks include these objects and motions and they eventually hold less or no meaning to her. I don't want to always have to think about whats coming, having treats ready, asking my dog to do something,etc. I want the end result to be just walking nicely without focusing on other things.

 

That is just my opinion and experiences though, but figured I would throw it out there.

[Grizel]

"I can see we have a lot of work ahead of us. I can see so much potential in her. "

 

That's right... sometimes the worst puppies become the best dogs.

[Tiga's_mom]

Thanks again for the suggestions and stories. We're feeling a bit better. Waffles, that is a great suggestion. I think we'll try doing that with one of our bikes before it gets too cold.

 

We had a good day today. She was walking nicely on a loose leash, responding well to random sits outside, good eye contact and she did good with one of our recall exercises on a leash still attached to me. I have been checking and double checking that the leash is attached to the right ring and that her collar is fitted well. I also keep the leash tight around my hand. She actually cuddled with me most of the afternoon while I was napping! She's not much of a cuddler.

 

I also started switching her food again. I had her on Fromm Surf and Turf grain free but she seems to be hungry a lot. We decided to switch to Fromm Duck and Sweet Potato that is not grain free to see if that helps.

 

My partner is feeling better about Annie as well. Things are settling down a bit but I've been working with her a lot more. She had such a good day in fact that my partner accidentally put Tiga in Annie's crate this evening instead of Annie for a short period of time. It was dark and they look so similar, it was an easy mistake to make. And Annie didn't destroy a thing when left in the house alone! Tiga has never been in a crate but he didn't seem to mind. Oops! LOL!

[Pippin's person]

We just switched away from Fromm's because one of our dogs got really skinny on it despite eating about 3 cups a day. Since we switched, he's started putting weight back on.

 

Also just to add to the stories, we kind of disliked all our puppies from about 6-15 mos. Some were more of a handful than others, but they did all grow into rather pleasant companions. Sticking with a structure like you are and getting past the really stressful circumstances you've been dealing with will make a difference for sure.

[ChantalB]

Jude had re same skateboard issues, it's a vey common thing to be reactive to. Go out and buy a skateboard and start doing some shaping exercises with it. They can be very inexpensive, the cheap kids ones at department stores.

 

Reward any positive jnteraction. Start asking for looks, target the board, touch. Roll it back and forth slightly after awhile and reward that level of interaction. Shape her tostand and ride the board.

 

Once my boy learned he could interact with the board and get so highly rewarded his aggression issues towards skateboards left. It was actually a very fast process from the very vicious response he one had to them. We quickly moved in ti having my buddy skateboard by us and then doing loud and fast tricks with Jude around. His now daily form of exercise is pulling me around the block on my longboard!

[Howling Farmer]

Oh I am sorry to hear about Annie. How scary. And frustrating.

 

Know that you are not alone. Tucker is still barking and lunging at other dogs. And sometimes his shadow. And his reflection. Sometimes I do think he is getting better. Other times I'm just discouraged. We are actually driving over an hour and a half next weekend to meet with a trainer in Rochester who does Feisty Fido classes. I really want to work with someone who is really familiar with BAT and CU. And I need some coaching, I think.

 

Tucker's recall also fell apart. But we seem to have gotten it back. One thing we did was put him on a long line in a large area (we used a 100 foot line in our hay field, but maybe you could use a shorter line in the tennis court) and just keep calling him and praising him and treating him when he came, with really high value treats, then letting him "go play" again. I've also just been calling him on our property, when I have a long line on him, even in the house, anytime I know for sure he will come, and rewarding him handsomely. Really trying to create a "muscle memory" so that when he hears his name, he turns around to us without even thinking (like the whiplash turn in CU.)

 

This really paid off last week. I was walking him downtown, when suddenly he was way ahead of me and not attached to the leash! I have no idea how it happened. He had on his Gentle Leader, and wasn't pulling even (and he'd barked and lunged earlier and NOT come unattached, thank god). Anyway, I saw him heading down the sidewalk without me and just said "Tucker!" without even thinking, and he turned, without even thinking, and came right back to me.

 

Yes, I keep telling myself "this too shall pass..."

 

 

 

Leslie

[Tiga's_mom]

I have to say, I'm not sure if it's the food switch or what but she's been doing pretty well the last couple of days. Much better on leash and she seems to be willing to settle a little bit inside. She seems less hungry and she's pooping less. I think the grain free just wasn't filling her up enough.

 

Leslie I know what you mean about thinking there's progress sometimes but other times not so much. Hang in there! I'm cautiously optimistic at this point but now I'm away for most of the week and I know my partner will not have much time to work on recall etc. We also missed our last class of grade 2 tonight but I've rescheduled it as a private class on Friday. Work slows down for me for a bit starting on Friday so I will be implementing a lot of the suggestions I've gotten here. I have a longer leash which I will be using to work on recall.

 

Here's hoping we're on an upswing!

[Tiga's_mom]

It's been a pretty good week. I really think the food is making a difference. She's completely switched now and she seems like a different dog. She's still reactive a lot to other dogs (I think she really just wants to say hi and play as usually the dogs are far away), but bikes and motorcycles seem to be calming down a bit. Granted, it's getting colder so there are less of these everyday. Skateboards haven't been around much. The number of times that we are able to redirect her attention is getting bigger. She's also getting better inside. She's chewing less things in the house and playing with her toys more. And she's starting to like cuddling and being touched! She also had huge mats of hair behind her ears that I've been trying to deal with (she was having no part of it!) and a couple of days ago she laid relatively calmly in my partners lap while I cut it all out. I was so proud! We are definitely seeing improvement in her overall.

 

I took her to our private lesson on Friday and that went well. It was great to have some one-on-one time with the trainer and find out all the things that I have been doing wrong and need to improve on. Seems to be helping. Been working on her recall but we still have a long way to go. We start Grade 3 tonight. There's a spaniel in the class that's even more reactive to other dogs then Annie and he hates Annie which always sets her off, so that's a little frustrating but maybe it will be good in the end. I'd love to be able to eventually run her in agility.

 

I've been looking locally for a martingale but haven't found one. I still have a couple of places to check before I go online. In the meantime, I check her collar everyday to make sure it's fitted well and we check, double check and triple check that her leash is attached to the correct ring. We've also been working on her sitting and being released before she goes out the door of her crate or the house.

 

Just thought I'd give a little update. She sleeping on the couch laying on my leg with Tiga touching her on the other side as I type.

[Sue R]

Sounds like good progress!

 

Lupine makes a good martingale collar, and I'm sure there are other brands, too.

 

Good luck!

[G. Festerling]

Ah!!! The small but ever so sweet traces of success! Good job!

[Tiga's_mom]

Thanks ladies! We started grade 3 last night. The trainer said we must have been working a lot as she noticed a huge difference in Annie! Hooray! BUT her recall is TERRIBLE! Drilling that a lot this week for sure. She did really well with everything else. Sit-stay, attention in heel position with distractions, targeting, push-ups. I know it's something I'm doing wrong. Tiga's recall has always been terrible too. I'm going to go back to homework from grade one and start over with the recall.

 

Definitely celebrating the successes but we need to figure out what we're doing wrong. The trainer said I'm not exciting enough so I guess we start there.

[gcv-border]

Thanks ladies! We started grade 3 last night. The trainer said we must have been working a lot as she noticed a huge difference in Annie! Hooray! BUT her recall is TERRIBLE! Drilling that a lot this week for sure. She did really well with everything else. Sit-stay, attention in heel position with distractions, targeting, push-ups. I know it's something I'm doing wrong. Tiga's recall has always been terrible too. I'm going to go back to homework from grade one and start over with the recall.

 

Definitely celebrating the successes but we need to figure out what we're doing wrong. The trainer said I'm not exciting enough so I guess we start there.

 

Restrained Recalls - Google it and I think you will find advice, techniques, etc.

 

I feel that restrained recalls - particularly if you run away - really amp up the dog. It is a way of playing with you, rather than "Oh, OK. I guess I have to go to Mom now. Boring." <-- if we could read the minds of dogs.

 

Jovi

[Root Beer]

One thing that I have found helpful for recalls are send aways.

 

I put a large feed bucket out at a distance from the dog and send the dog away to it (the large feed bucket is highly visible, but if you don't have one you could use a large food bowl or a small regular bucket. Anything the dog can see very easily into which you can toss treats). A second person throws some treats into the bucket once the dog has committed to sending out to it (if you don't have a second person, you can leave your dog in a stay as you bait the container). Of course, at first, the food is used to attract the dog to the bucket, but it doesn't take dogs long to figure this out.

 

Once the dog is consistently sending to the bucket, we add in the recall. After the dog has had a chance to get the treats in the bucket, the handler calls the dog (either using the dog's name or a recall word). Soon as the dog commits to the recall, the handler clicks. The final reinforcer could be a game, an environmental reinforcer, or food (handed to the dog or tossed).

 

It's a great way to work on conditioning the recall word solidly without drilling. The send away and variation of the final reinforcer break up the feeling that it is the same behavior over and over again. Then you don't have to worry about being "interesting", which is a very unnatural concept for some people (not saying it is for you, but it is for me, and I know others for whom that is the case)

 

This also builds the structure for the dog of being released in a real life situation (to go sniff, play, hang out, explore, whatever) and then called back. Or, eventually, to be called off of things.

[Tiga's_mom]

We have done a little bit of restrained recall work but not a lot. She gets it sometimes but not always. I haven`t really tried send aways but it`s a great suggestion. Mostly what we`ve been working has been calling her when she`s leashed and attached to me and as soon as her head turns I click and run backwards and treat when she`s front and center. This morning we had 100% success. Yesterday it was about 70%. I`m here in the days alone a lot and have no helper so it`s hard to work some of these things alone. I`m also having issues with her release. She doesn`t seem get it when I release her. A lot of the time, she just stares at me. Something we have to work on along with the recall.

[Root Beer]

I`m also having issues with her release. She doesn`t seem get it when I release her. A lot of the time, she just stares at me. Something we have to work on along with the recall.

 

Do you mean a true release, as in you are finished and she can go be "at ease"? Or do you mean a working release where you intend to pick up and start working with her again.

 

I've found that if a dog doesn't recognize a true release, the best thing to do is just go on about my business. The dogs always figure out, eventually, that interaction/training time is over and they can disengage.

 

For a working release, send aways might help with that, also.

 

One thing, also, that I do with working releases, is reinforce them. So, I might have the dog on a mat, and then I will release, and send a treat flying into a different room. The dogs learn to anticipate that particular release. That's a good one to have for Agility where I am going to be releasing the dog into running. In true reverse fashion, doing this reinforces the stay, as well, because the opportunity for reinforcement is not there if the dog releases before the cue.

[Tiga's_mom]

I mean working a release when we still intend to work. When we're done a session, I release her and walk away and she gets it pretty quick. I will try what you suggested. We do that a little when we're working on mat targeting so it should be easy to incorporate. Thanks!