OUR BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION ACADEMY
A Small But Mighty Class
The academy started last Monday – May 5th. We normally have eight students per class. This year so far registrations for many of our academies have been painfully slow. I blame it on the current political climate (we are near Washington DC and a lot of our students and family members of students are concerned about future income), as well as the increasing availability of online learning. I personally don’t think anything takes the place of hands-on experience, but I do understand the attraction of the convenience and lower cost of online…
At any rate – we only had four signed up for this class, and I decided to proceed with it anyway. Four is pretty much the minimum that I want to do an academy for. (Of course eight is better!)
So last Friday, May 2nd, we get a call from one of our students. She just had to euthanize her 15-year-old heart dog, and there was no way she would be able to emotionally handle a stressful academy week. Far too late to cancel on the remaining students, we decided to proceed with just three. I figured we could add our Kelpie, KC, into the mix so at least they would have a fourth dog to work with, and different behaviors and protocols to work on.
Monday started out well – three eager students – Mandy Hull from Leesburg, Virginia, who would be working with Frankie, listed as a Feist (but we don’t see it!) from Frederick County Animal Control (thank you, FCAC!!) Kelsey Moran from Washington, DC, who brought her foster, soon-to-be-adopted Lab mix Baby Girl, and Ashlee Correll from Ashburn, Pennsylvania where she has her training business, Spicy Paws (https://www.spicypawsllc.com/ ) who would be working with Jima, the high-energy Lab from a couple of blogs ago. Best laid plans… Thursday evening Mandy had to leave to deal with a personal situation, so we were down to just two.
Meet the Dogs
Frankie was one of four young dogs who came into the shelter as strays a few months ago.
All four had flat foot deformity, probably due to early nutritional deficiencies, perhaps with some genetic influence. The shelter had done a great job with rehabilitation for this – looking at Frankie now at the age of 10 months, you couldn’t even tell.
Frankie was somewhat fearful and was suffering from shelter stress – and the loud sounds of the new construction at the shelter weren’t helping him. He had begun spinning in his kennel, and was being given anti-anxiety medication, which was helping, but a week at Camp Peaceable Paws would be a nice break for him.
Baby Girl came with not a lot of history, other than she had originally come into rescue in this area from Alabama, and
soon after the academy was going to be adopted and relocate to North Carolina. However Kelsey met with the potential adopters and they all agreed it wasn't the right fit. She is around two years old, and exhibits fear-related behaviors on walks, with cars and trucks, and in new environments, but is calm and sweet much of the time.
Jima you met a couple of weeks ago in my “One Delightful Client” blog. Margie had graciously allowed us to use Jima in a prior Level 1 “Basic Training and Behavior” Academy, and I suggested that sending Jima to a BMod Academy
could help with his arousal behaviors and give Margie a nice break from his busy-ness. She readily agreed, so Jima was here to work on impulse control and calming.
KC is our five-year-old Australian Kelpie. She came from a Carroll County hoarding case four years ago, with a total of 28 dogs, four of whom were Kelpies. We fostered all four (hence the name KC, for Kelpie Chaos) and chose her to
adopt out of the four. KC is on Fluoxetine, which does a good job of controlling her light and shadow chasing OCD behavior and gets additional anti-anxiety meds for her storm phobia. For the academy, we planned to work with husbandry procedures – she is not at all happy about having her nails trimmed.
Protocols
Mandy and Frankie (for the four days she was here) Mandy did Find It and Search, Pattern Games (especially 1-2-3), Place, Harness and Counter Conditioning and Desensitization (CC&D) to sounds and touch. Frankie made great progress and was sad to go back to the shelter two days early.
A Counter-Conditioning Protocol for Nail Trimming - Whole Dog Journal
Ashlee and Jima focused on impulse control with a loooong list of protocols, including Polite Leash Walking, Find It and Search, Touch, Sit, Down, Wait and Get It, Trade, Go Wild and Freeze, Walk Away, Place and Muzzle Conditioning. Jima also made excellent progress with learning to control himself.
Ways to Calm Down Your High Energy Dog - Whole Dog Journal
Protocol for Teaching a Safe "Trade" With Your Dog - Whole Dog Journal
(Chirag Patel's' wonderful muzzle video!)
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Kelsey and Baby Girl did a lot of CC&D – she was definitely more sensitive than Frankie, and Kelsey had to take things a lot slower. She also did Find it and Search, Touch, Scatter, Pattern Games (Up/Down and 1-2-3). Baby Girl did well with these and still has a long way to go. Kelsey will continue working with her while they wait for the right humans.
KC did a session with each of the three students, focusing on Chin Rest for Cooperative Care nail trimming. She, too, still has a long way to go…
Teaching Chin Rest to Dogs – CattleDog Publishing
Lots of good work happened during the week! Frankie is back at FCAC waiting for his new humans to find him. Baby Girl is waiting for her forever home to appear. Mary is coming to pick Jima up tomorrow and will continue working with Lucy on all Jima’s new Impulse Control protocols. And KC? Well – I should get motivated and keep working with her on that Chin Rest…
A REHOME ASSIST REQUEST
This e-mail came across our desks this past week:
Good afternoon,
We are reaching out to see if your organization can be of assistance to us. My husband and I are looking to rehome our year and half old Tan Cocker Spaniel named Tommy. We have made this decision as he has become a threat to our home. He has attacked my husband and I and our cat, he is posing a great threat to our baby as well and we are fearful for her safety.
We have owned Tommy since he was eight weeks old. When he was about six months old, we began to experience food aggression with him as well as minor anxiety with strangers and grooming. We enrolled him in training however, this was nonbeneficial to the concerns we were having. These aggressive behaviors started to increase and become more unpredictable as to the triggers.
We sought advice from his vet who prescribed Prozac. However, we were unsuccessful at identifying his triggers and cannot figure out how to help manage him and his aggression. We spoke to other trainers with no results; we are at a loss and need to do something as we are in fear for our daughter’s safety.
When Tommy was a puppy we socialized and took him in public and he met a lot of people and dogs with little issues at first. However, in the last six months we are unable to socialize him as we do not know when he will attack others. We live in fear with him being in our home as we never know when his next attack will be. Does your organization accept surrenders, if not do you know anyone I could contact? Thank you for your time.
This was my response:
Hello Carol,
I am sorry to hear about the challenges you are having with Tommy. Certainly having a small child in the home greatly increases the risks, and I support you in trying to find other options for your boy.
Sadly, dogs with the behaviors you describe can be very difficult to rehome. You love him - and are looking to rehome him because of his behaviors. And you want someone who has no emotional connection with him to take him on, along with the risks that accompany a dog who has aggressive behaviors... Another concern with that is that once you have rehomed him, you lose all control over what happens to him, and there are far too many people out there who will do really bad things to dogs in the name of "behavior modification."
https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/lifestyle/dog-rehoming-when-is-it-the-right-decision/
We do not accept surrenders here, sorry - we are a behavior/training business, not a shelter or rescue. Has he actually bitten/broken skin on anyone? Some shelters and rescues will not accept dogs with bite histories or known aggressive behavior due to the liability, depending on the severity of the behavior and the resources the organization may to do good behavior modification...
So - here are my thoughts:
1. Where did you get him? If you got him from a breeder, a good, responsible, ethical breeder will always take back any of their puppies at any time in their lives, regardless of the behaviors. Contact Tommy's breeder and see what they say.
2. One of my first suggestions to clients who find themselves in similar situations is, "Do have any friends or family members (who don't have children) who already know and love Tommy and might be interested in taking him? If so, this is always a best bet, since rehoming is challenging and carries so many risks.
3. I could suggest doing good, solid behavioral modification work with a ***good, experienced, knowledgeable force-free*** behavior professional as an option, but this would take time, there's no quick fix. With a small child in the home this may just be too much of a risk, and there is no guarantee that Tommy would ever be comfortable with your child. If you would like to pursue this option, I am happy to refer you to good professionals in your area, if I know any, or we are happy to work with you here, if you live close enough.
https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/training/find-the-best-trainer-for-you-and-your-dog/
4. Private rehoming to the general public can ***very*** risky. People may misrepresent themselves and their intentions, and you really have no way of knowing what they might do to him. PLUS - if Tommy goes off and bites someone after you rehome him you may still be liable - I would suggest talking to your attorney about this one. If you do choose to go this route for Tommy, be very, very careful!
5. You could try Cocker Spaniel Rescue. If you go this route you will want to do diligent research - there are some bad rescue groups out there - some are hoarders pretending to be rescues, others are well-intentioned but simply in over their heads. You also want to be sure it's a rescue group that uses modern, science-based force-free methods for any training and behavior work they do (or work with professionals who do). Here is a link to one Cocker rescue - but I do not know anything about them. https://www.cockeradoptions.org/about.html
6. You could try shelters and other rescues - again with the caveat about many not willing/able to take dogs with aggressive behaviors, as well as the possibility that he may end up being euthanized anyway. (Even so-called “no-kill” shelters do euthanize dogs…) Also - some of the non-breed specific rescues may be (but not necessarily) less rigorous in their standards of care and handling, and shelter facilities can also vary widely - from excellent to horrible - so check them out carefully! Go see for yourself - do not just take someone's word...
7. Finally - behavioral euthanasia, as heartbreaking as that is, is a reasonable alternative. I have often said - if I found myself in that position, knowing the likelihood of my dog having a long, safe and happy life is slim and the risk of him being abused or injuring someone is high... I would rather have my dog say a peaceful good-bye in my arms than have him face unknown terrors in the world.
I do hope some of this is helpful to you. Please do let me know if there is anything I can do to help.
Warm Woofs,
🐶🐾🌼🌻🐶🐾🌼🌻🐶
Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA
This Week at Peaceable Paws
Clearly, this week was all about academy. But that didn’t stop the beautiful world from going on around us. Hope your week was good, and you are enjoying our wonderful Spring!
Warm Woofs,
Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA
www.peaceablepaws.com ; info@peaceablepaws.com
