Getting Gusto

When a friend decided to breed her Australian Shepherd, I jumped at the chance to have one of his puppies. A pup from a sire with similar lineage to my first aussie with the same bomb proof personality was a fantastic opportunity. Gus came home with me at about 10 weeks of age. The breeder couldn't decide which male she was keeping and so she hung on to Gus for a few extra weeks.

I had the opportunity to watch the bitch interact with the puppies and in hind sight, she may have been a little too "heavy handed" with her brood. I've seen good mamas before and this mama seemed to me to be a little too corrective, perhaps, it wasn't her nature as much as the fact that the pups were 10 weeks old and she needed them to be gone. But I'm not a dog, or an experienced breeder, perhaps this kind of behaviour is normal...

He had been temperment tested by a third party and was this individual's "pick of the litter".

When I brought Gus home I don't recall any alarm bells going off about his behaviour. He was harder to crate train than I remember with my first aussie, whimpering and crying in the kennel unless my fingers dangled inside, but this only lasted a few days.

Aside from this, I have no memory of anything sticking out.

Gusto's Progression from Reactive to Aggressive

We began puppy kindergarten when he was about 16 weeks old. Unfortunately the only training place in town at the time didn't allow the dogs to socialize with each other, and worked solely on obedience. He reacted very strongly to an energetic golden retriever puppy. The puppy's owner and I arranged to meet early the following week at a park across the street where we allowed the puppies to meet and greet and play off leash. He got along with the golden better that night. But continued to be uptight in class. I don't recall if we met early again. I don't think so. I didn't know her, and it was hard to be the owner of the obnoxious puppy.

At 5 months of age he put his teeth on someone's hand who was pretending to judge him for conformation. (No damage - thank you bite inhibition training)

He bit his first dog in Clicker class at 6 months of age. A black lab type dog walked by him while he was working and he turned quickly and bit the dog in the hindquarters (No damage - thank you dog friends who he could play with).

At a year of age he could still play off leash with other dogs, but he was becoming increasingly reactive to new dogs, noises and people. Sometimes he would charge dogs and give them the same "cheap shot" he gave his first lab described above.

At two years of age he damaged a friend's dog's ear. I continued to walk him off leash around other dogs muzzled. I convinced the breeder that he wasn't a breeding prospect and she agreed to let me neuter him.

By two and a half years of age he had given minor injuries to the ears or face of all of his dog friends as well as his two canine housemates. He had exhausted the tollerance of even my closest "doggy friends." He was no longer allowed to socialize with dogs outside of the two aussies I lived with.

I started to tell people he was dog aggressive.

Working a Reactive/Aggressive Dog

Lots of people, including his breeder had a variety of ideas on how to "fix" Gusto. Most involved pain corrections or fear/intimidation corrections when he lunged and barked at other dogs. By now I had done a lot of reading on the subject and although I was sure correction could supress the outbursts, I was convinced that it would not really get at the root of the problem. I was sure classical conditioning and desensitization training was the way to go.

I continued to work with him in training classes where he had to work around other dogs. He was uncomfortable, but was able to focus. He wore a gentle leader head collar so that I could easily control his head. I worked on presenting treats around other dogs in an open bar/closed bar fashion. I attended training classes that were flexible enough to allow me to work on his issues with other dogs. He was able to work around other dogs and take treats. I knew I could control him, but I lived with the constant stress of wondering if someone else's dog might wander into his comfort zone.

When Gusto was three, we moved to Southern Ontario. Now he only lived with one other dog and I didn't have access to the flexible training classes with the instructor who knew and understood us. We continued to work in the parks when the opportunity presented itself. We prayed we wouldn't meet loose dogs, and informed people with dogs we met that he was dog aggressive. I started a new job and he didn't get much work.

At four I started him in Agility training with a local trainer. Over the next two years he learned all the equipment and he learned to play tug, though it is definately a stretch for him to tug around other dogs. He competed at fenced venues a few times and didn't loose focus on course except once when a dog squabble broke out just outside the ring. He charged the fence, but called off and finished the course.

Gusto is now nine years old. I'm working for a vet clinic teaching obedience classes and we have begun teaching classes for reactive dogs. FINALLY Gus will get the work he really needs. This blog will journal our progress in classes. Will we ever really get to compete in agility? Only time will tell. Follow our journey, if you choose.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

First Reactive Session of 2010 - April 20, 2010

Last weekend Gusto attended his first reactive session of the season. We worked opposite a worried little Jack Russell. To begin with we worked stationary while the other dog walked and worked around us. Gus did really well with this, though I did return him to his crate for a small explosion off the start. I'm sure it helped that the other dog didn't want to make eye contact with us.

Next we did some following exercises. The other dog followed us first. Usually Gusto has a harder time with this set-up than when we follow another dog, but today, he had a harder time following the Jack than when the Jack followed us. I'm not sure why, but it took a while before he settled into the following. After following we progressed to parallel walking. Gusto did well with this. I felt myself feeling a little uneasy. I find that I have trouble trusting that other people will keep control of their dogs. People see that I'm a trainer and they wrongly assume that Gusto is a friendly dog that we are using for the lessons. They don't know his history, and he looks like he is doing so well... I tried to take deep breaths and react only to what was actually happening instead of getting uptight as I was thinking about what MIGHT happen.
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Winter 2009/2010

Well, it has been a long, long time since my last post... The fall and winter has been full of changes without a lot of structured work. Due to evening light issues, the reactive classes were moved from week nights to occasional Saturdays and by coincidence they fell on days I couldn't attend.

In the month of November we moved from our country home into the city. Anyone who really understands a reactive dog will understand why I was very worried this move might cause Gusto to be very stressed. Instead of a quiet country life, his sensitive hearing will pick up a lot of traffic noise, people walking by and of course the neighbourhood dogs. It isn't that we hadn't lived in the city before, but it had litter ally been five years since we lived in an urban setting.

Well, Gusto adjusted surprisingly well. I attribute some of this success to our recent structured reactive work. Since the timing of the reactive classes was few and far between over the winter months, and they always presented a conflict for me, Gus and I worked on our own when we were out for walks.

Spring has sprung early this year and this year I am really trying to push the boundaries. He will be 10 years old this spring, if we are going to get better, I have to push him a little harder. I've learned over the winter that some of our lack of progress can be attributed to the fact that I'm NOT a pushy trainer. In the past I have always tried to keep him below threshold, which I still think is the best way to go, but there is too far below threshold to push improvement and then there is just below threshold where they are stressed, but able to contain their stress. For example, if I was out walking and I saw a dog walking toward us on the sidewalk, I would have crossed the street and walked on the other side until we passed the dog and then returned to the other side of the street. Now I will give some lateral distance as we pass by the dog, but how much depends on how much Gusto needs to remain just below threshold. In our case if I don't feel teeth when he takes the treat, we probably aren't close enough to the other dog. I know enough about the types of dogs that Gus will find difficult to know in advance how much girth to give. Last week I discovered that size and temperament of the dog may have less to do with Gus' comfort than with orientation. We passed by a dog on a flexi who oriented and took a few steps toward us just as we passed by. I heard him growl, but he didn't explode like he might have in the past.
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