Another good night with Caspian, though I'm still struggling with my own frustrations at seeing how far we still have to go. This is the second week in a row that Cas has shown real signs that he's actually watching what the other dogs do, rather than just reacting to the sight of another dog.
So, last week we had one reaction that I don't think I mentioned in the blog. Another dog in class lunged at a bee, and Cas had a brief reaction. He was easy to redirect, though, which was a pleasant surprise. This week was the same - his behavior around the other dogs was definitely stressed, and we're still working at a pretty big distance, but the only time he actually barked was when another dog in class was staring at him. All of these are still signs of reactivity, but we're moving to reactivity for a reason, not just reactivity because other dogs exist in the world.
I'm having some trouble with him, because he doesn't always respond to the clicker. Right now, I'm cheating and clicking more than once. I'm worried that it will damage his response to the click, but it also seems to head off explosions. If I click, then wait a second, then click again and wait another second, he seems to 'snap out of it' and come back around to me. If I click once, then do nothing, he seems more likely to start staring, which I know will start a chain reaction of...well, reactions!
Today the rest of the class did a cool labyrinth exercise. One dog went in and did big, slow zig-zags working on LLW. Once the first dog had been through two zig-zags, the second dog entered the labyrinth. It meant that the dogs were usually doing parallel walking, though in the corners it was one dog walking in front of the other. Cas and I walked the labyrinth together twice, but without another dog going in after us - he still needs more distance than that between us and the other dogs. He was eating treats pretty reliably, and he was doing much less of the yo-yo action I saw last week - if I clicked and treated while we walked, then clicked again when he finished his treat, he'd look up at me and come back for the treat, rather than forging ahead and nearly knocking me off my feet.
Amusingly enough, our biggest distraction this week was people. He's such a sweetheart with humans - we need to work on how distracting they are, but I love it. On our second time in the labyrinth, my friend and co-worker Lydia came out of the building. That was the only time all of class that he refused treats for more than just a few seconds - he wouldn't pay any attention to them at all. When Lydia helped me by standing still and turning her back, he decided the instructors of our class would be acceptable substitutes and tried to drag me over toward one of them. I know I need to work on his self-control around people he likes, but I'm still thrilled that he can get over the presence of other dogs enough to be this driven to say hi to people.
Today the treats included ravioli, freeze-dried steak, freeze-dried salmon, cooked treats made of jack mackerel and oatmeal, and smoked salmon flavored cream cheese on a big mixing spoon. He occasionally turned down the cooked treats, and he ignored the cream cheese in favor of Lydia but nothing else. Everything else he ate reliably, which is awesome - his tendency to turn down treats erratically was wreaking havoc with my treat delivery. Click - how about this? No? All right, that? Hmm...maybe this? Okay, you finally took the treat, and the behavior and click happened a good 15 seconds ago.
His sister has class tomorrow, which should be interesting. The first week is orientation, which is usually without dogs, but I asked for permission to bring Kaia anyway. I want her to eventually be a demo dog for me in my own orientations, and I know she'll need to adjust to being in a classroom and - gasp! - not being the center of my world. I think with a kong and a bone and some treats for hanging out that she'll be fine, but I'd rather play with it during an advanced class, rather than while I'm teaching.
My goal for this week: go to a parking lot sometime during the week and work with both dogs on LLW and basic obedience. I'm unlikely to run into off-leash dogs there, which means I should be able to get some training in without panicking about not being able to control the situation, and I really do need to work on Caspian's leash manners. It's not fair of me to be simultaneously working on the reactivity and the leash work, I need to split those two things up whenever possible.
