Greta Kaplan, CPDT-KA, CDBC
In high school, I played on the varsity squash team. Squash is not widely played in the United States, so many readers won’t be familiar with it. It bears some resemblance to handball, though it is several centuries older, and the court has foul zones, so accuracy is required. Players on the indoor court use racquets the same length as tennis racquets, but with smaller heads. The ball is small, well under two inches in diameter, and one must have good hand-eye coordination to hit the ball reliably and well.
In the last half-century, a single Pakistani family has supplied numerous top players to the sport. Hashim Khan, the the most influential of the multitudinous talented Khans, wrote a small booklet about playing squash. The following advice therefrom is burned into my brain:
“Keep eye on ball. Is one most important thing I tell you.”
Anyone who plays a ball game knows how important this is — “keep your eye on the ball” is a standard metaphor for staying focused on what is important. In doing behavior modification with our dogs, what is important is our dog!
Anyone with a reactive dog tends to do what the dog does: Scan the environment for triggers. If we can see the dog, the squirrel, the bicycle first, we can head off the big reaction (we hope). We spend a lot of time dodging stuff. When I bring my dog to help a client’s dog learn an alternative behavior around strange dogs, my clients generally have a hard time taking their eyes off my dog, because they are used to needing to monitor the behavior of the trigger. (Or possibly they are just admiring my very beautiful and talented dog… but I digress!)
Part of each training session involves reminders and practice in the client keeping their eyes on their own dog. Not mine. Their dog will tell them everything they need to know. Can their dog take food? Can he reorient toward his owner? Then he is in good working order. Is he chomping fingers and unable to turn his head? Too close. “Too close” is not a number of feet — it is defined entirely by our dog’s behavior, by his ability to cope equitably with the stimulus. Get in the habit of watching your dog, especially his head. For the most part everything else is secondary.
Now, you do need to look around. You need to not walk into a telephone post or rose bush. You might spot triggers before your dog does. You need situational awareness to function well. But if you do not keep much of your attention actively on your dog, you are going to overshoot, or undershoot, or miss warnings, or punish good behavior, or reward undesired behavior. With practice, you will learn some key indicators that your particular dog shows. It might be an ear position, or a tail position, or a weight shift. Some dogs’ tails telegraph their mental states with complete accuracy; others’ tails are uninformative. You’ll learn what specifically to watch and what you can relegate to peripheral attention, just as you do when driving. With some practice, then, you can do both — maintain contact with the environment so you can walk safely and anticipate trouble, and keep steady attention on your dog’s key indicators. But without that attention to your dog, there is no way to avoid blowing it.
Keep eye on dog! Is one most important thing I tell you.
Amen. I used to be an environment scanner – I likened every trip outside to a military expedition, warfare. Now I watch Inara – as soon as her ears prick I know she’s on to something and I start working her through it.
Speaking as someone who trains a lot of reactive dogs as well as behaviorally challenged dogs, I prepare dogs for distractions before we ever meet the real thing. When they are trained to that much of a standard, you can deal and face things, rather than avoid and retreat.
In fact, I make a point of training a dog around (when ready) anything that they are having a difficult time with.
Very impressive to be able to completely remove the fearfulness to a stimulus before ever going to a place where the dog will be exposed to the stimulus! How do you take a dog a who is scared of all strange people and make sure she’s not afraid before going outside of her house?
Thanks,
Greta Kaplan
Companion Animal Solutions
If you have a question about my actual words, use my actual words. Here is what I said “I prepare dogs for distractions before we ever meet the real thing.” How does that become “completely remove” exactly? I prepare them so they are better able to meet a harder stimulus. It is impressive when training is done to teach a dog what to do in a lessor stimulus, and then able to work them up to a problem.
A dog isn’t a car, you don’t completely remove the part…sigh.
You said that you prepare your dog for distractions before you “ever” meet the real thing, and that “when they are trained to that much of a standard, you can deal and face things instead of avoid and retreat.” That literally means that all the preparatory work is NOT done around the “real thing” and that once you are around the real thing, you never avoid and retreat. Those are your real words.
Now, though, you are apparently contradicting yourself. I am not going to sit here and try to figure out exactly what you mean. I encourage you to write your own blog if you wish to explain how you work.
In any case, it’s off topic. The blog post is about being able to tell what is going on with your dog by watching your dog, not by watching the environment. This is useful for people who are AND people who are not doing behavioral work with their dog. It is useful for when people who are doing behavioral work and are unable to completely avoid exposing their dogs to trigger stimuli must go out into the world, e.g. my current client who lives in a loft in a very urban area and must take his dog outside to relieve herself.
The only dogs for which “keeping your eye on the dog, not the environment” might not work are the dogs I’ve met who are extremely minimal warners. A tiny percentage of dogs I work with are like this and of those, the great majority are that way because they have been so systematically punished for any warning that they do not warn perceptibly, and explode in a very sudden way. These non-warning dogs tend to be very dangerous. Thanks for the opportunity to expand on that point, which will be important to a small number of readers of this blog.
Greta Kaplan
Companion Animal Solutions
It’s not off topic to disagree with you. If you don’t want to train your dog to be responsible for their behavior, that is completely up to you. I see the people staring at their dogs, wringing their hands, and just cotinueing the anxousness. It is totally not my problem if you need to represent my words into your “unique meaning”. If you want to hobble people this way go at it, and I have my blog.
A blog where people can agree or disagree, and I have enough of a backbone to understand there are different ways of doing things. Good luck to you! And your clients!
I have not only worked with reactive and aggressive dogs, but lived day to day with two of my own dogs that were that way. It would have only increased their anxiety not to see me confident and assured of our work.
“You said that you prepare your dog for distractions before you “ever” meet the real thing, and that “when they are trained to that much of a standard, you can deal and face things instead of avoid and retreat.” That literally means that all the preparatory work is NOT done around the “real thing” and that once you are around the real thing, you never avoid and retreat. Those are your real words. ”
Seriously you quote what I say and then just twist it around to what you want LOLOL. Preperatory work is setting up situations that simulate the real thing, so when you get to the real thing you have practiced. Like a remote doorbell or a sound on a computer, or practicing at a distance, for the love of all that is holy.
But whatever, hobble people and dogs, if that is what you want, then you are on the right track. So sorry I decided to follow any replies, my fault. I did not know you would lack any backbone, and get so obnoxious that someone does not agree with you.
https://mannerlymutts.blogspot.com
Hi Robin,
The topic of this blog post is “watching your dog rather than the environment to tell if something you want to manage is about to happen.” The post is not about “how to do behavioral work with a dog,” or “what methods are best” or “overall goals for behavioral work with reactive dogs.” So yes, your comments about your methodology for doing behavioral work, which have nothing to do with whether it’s a good idea to watch your dog for information, are off topic. I don’t know how to make this more clear. I didn’t write about exactly how I do behavioral work in general, but you’re making a bunch of assumptions about that and attempting to criticize them. I’m not required to engage with you about your assumptions about something I didn’t even write about. I honestly don’t mean to be rude, but I feel you are picking a fight with me and I am not going to fight with you.
You’re welcome to disagree with me, and I will be happy to engage with you if you do so on topic. One example of an on-topic disagreement might be, “I prefer to have my clients watch the environment rather than the dog, because [fill in your reason here].” That is certainly relevant to the point I was making in my blog. Maybe I would learn something new, or maybe we could agree to disagree, or maybe we could hash out some useful additions to the discussion that would help pet owners with handling their dogs in public.
Thanks,
Greta Kaplan
Companion Animal Solutions
Robin Rubin, your most recent post submission does not meet our standards of polite and respectful dialog so I have not approved it and am ending this thread between you and the author.
Dear Greta,
On Friday, I set my ARPH dog, Niki free. I adopted her back in 2004 as a 4 yr old. Shortly after bringing her home I came to learn there were lots of things about how Niki interacted with the world around her that were far from normal. At the time you were part of the ARPH list and when you read about the trouble I was experiencing came to my aid. You set me on a great path helping me find good information and training opportunities to help Niki make better choices, find better ways to cope with the things in life which set her off. That journey allowed me to help Niki live a much richer life. We built confidence, cooperation, impulse control, and connection together. In the 7 & 1/2 years we had together Niki appeared at times to most people to be a ‘normal’ dog. I wanted to thank you for touching our lives in a way that made such a difference for both Niki and I. God Bless you, please say a prayer for Niki.
Wishing you the best,
Debb Kirschner – owner at K9 JYM
Debb,
Thank you for making the effort to write during such a difficult time. I’m not sure if you received my private reply. I was very moved by your message and I’m so very glad you found a path to a better life for Niki. My condolences to you.
Greta Kaplan, CDBC, CPDT-KA
Amazing that such an individual would write a blog entitled “mannerly” anything. Kudos to you for your patience and understanding, Ms. Kaplan. Keep up the good work.
Regards,
Asmara Polcyn
The Winnipeg Woof Pack