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.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Week 3

It rained this week. I only worked Gus one time. Due to the rain we worked an exercise called the "Look at THAT!" game which we took from Leslie McDevitt's book "Control Unleashed." Basically you use a reward marker like a clicker to train the dog to look at an object, person, or in our case, dog. We invest a lot of time teaching our dogs to look at us. It this really practical. Our worried dogs need to look at THAT! Why not teach them to look and then look back. I LOVE this game actually. I love how it can take a dog who wants to stare down another dog and teach them to just do short looks which serve the purpose of earning a treat instead of gaging whether or not to explode barking. We did multiples, but Gus was a little distracted by all the people crammed into the garage. The dog we chose, was the instructor's male chocolate lab, as I hope someday we will be able to go for walks together. I'll keep you posted on that.
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Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Week 2

Our second week of reactive class put Gusto with a new dog. This week he worked with a male Siberian husky named Harley. We started with U-turns again, this time at 120 feet. Gusto was definitely more worried about Harley than he had been about Kaya as he let out a few woofs during the exercise and his teeth got "sharky." Throughout the work I tried to keep his mouth more relaxed by insisting on licking to get the treats out of my hand. I found it a little more stressful working with this dog because I wasn't as familiar with him or his owner. When walking or working your aggressive dog, you really have to trust that other people can control their dogs as if their dog gets into your dog's space you know it could end with a bite. It is also so important to try and stay "present" and "in the moment." If you are stressed about what MIGHT happen IF ... then you are getting your adrenaline fired up and your dog can sense that. This adrenaline may also cause an OVERREACTION on your part if the dog does indeed have a reactive or aggressive outburst.

The second round was a little better as Gus had had some T-Touch and relaxation work. I have to try to get there earlier next week so that I can do some of this before his turn. I also requested that I not go first so that I'll have more time.

This week I finally came to grips with the fact that some (all?) of Gusto's dog aggression issues stem from guarding. Is he just an extreme guarder? He doesn't guard from people - we did and do guard prevention work all the time - But is his aggression just an extension of his guarding. The bites he has given the dogs he knows well or lives with have all stemmed from guarding. I will continue to assess and ponder this possibility as the weeks progress.
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Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Our first night at Reactive Dog Class

Well, our first night went fairly well. Gusto worked with a little rotti cross named Kaya who is also reactive with other dogs. I didn't work him on his head collar, just his flat buckle collar. We worked "U-Turns." Essentially you walk a predetermined number of steps toward another dog and about turn (180 degrees) away from the other dog. For example we started 100 feet apart and started with 1 step. Each handler and dog takes one step toward one another and then turns away.

Gusto didn't have a barking reaction to Kaya, and barely looked at her during our session. He was very excited to be there and was barking and carrying on as he usually does when it is his turn to work. His mouth did get hard (he bit my fingers while taking treats) as we got closer to the other dog, so he definitely knew she was there and was stressed about it, but not enough to give a full blown reaction.

I didn't choose to work the confidence course (a few obstacles we set up to help dogs increase their confidence with "weird stuff") as I wanted to focus on relaxation with him between sessions. I worked on T-Touch and "Gentle" to help soften his mouth and relax his body and mind.

The next session was noticeably different as he wasn't as noisy as he was the first time. He managed himself as well as he did the previous time out and we introduced some "Parallel Walking." In parallel walking the two dogs walk parallel to one another at a predetermined distance. For us it was 20 feet. This was harder for Gus and Kaya and they both had a little woof at each other. By the end of our turn they were walking about 15 feet apart. Yeah for Gus.
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