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, August 18, 2009

Week 4

Tonight was our fourth session at reactive classes. It has been 3 weeks since our last class. One week class was cancelled due to the long weekend, and we missed last week as we were away on a trip. Before our session we took a few minutes to to some TTouch and relaxation work ("Gentle"). In our sessions, we worked with a high drive little lab cross who has some minor dog-dog issues. In our first session we did some following and parallel walking along the road. Due to an abnormally high volume of traffic we continued work on the driveway. Gusto did well working with Aspen, but did show some signs of tension such as a tense mouth, hard bite and some glances toward her. Overall he did quite well. At the end of the first session we did an exercise I'll call "leap frog" where one dog overtakes the other from behind and cuts in front. Then the new dog in the back overtakes the dog in front. You continue to "leap frog" around each other along the walk. This exercise definitely made him uncomfortable but he did well. We also did some walking around each other. This makes me a little more uncomfortable. I'm constantly concerned that another dog will come into Gusto's space and he'll nail somebody. His obedience is very good, which has the downside I think of giving other dog handlers a false sense of safety around him...

In our second session we started with the leap frog exercise from before. Gus did really well. We also practiced an impromptu T-greeting in the mix. By this I mean that a couple of times when Gus wasn't expecting it (we assume), instead of cutting in front and walking in the same direction, Aspen would cut across at 90 degrees and walk straight across our path. This had happened once in the first session by accident and Gus had reacted a little so we thought we'd throw it in. Gus did well with this, so I asked Aspen's handler to scuff her feet to increase the noise as she crossed. This did get a little charge out of Gus toward the dog, but there was also an increase in Aspen's speed in that trial which may have also contributed to Gusto's threshold. We'll play around with those variables next time. I ended the session as Gus had done really well.

My sister was in town visiting and watched our session. She noticed that I get very stressed and talk really fast during class. I'll have to work on this.
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