Juneau's confidence breakthrough!

Ah, Juneau.  The Malamute/husky mix dog who doesn't get excited, won't play, and is consistently anxious in training sessions for new things, to where I have to be very careful not to let him shut down, lie down and stare at the floor.  In my last post, I asked for some ideas for confidence-building exercises so he would not be so concerned about offering behaviors.

Since then, I have had several short target stick sessions with him, and have a fairly solid response.  He took to it very quickly and is enthusiastic about it (usually.)  In fact, lately I have been upping the ante on targeting by trying to use it to get him to go into the "scary" part of the hallway where he pees in fear if I call him to me.  Right now we're going about 6 inches into the hallway and then letting him go right back out or into a different room.  Very good.  Eventually we'll work up to getting him into the bedroom and the master bathroom (which, I think, is the reason why that part of the hallway is so scary, though he doesn't particularly seem to mind TAKING a bath, once you get him into it, and at particular times of the day where it has become routine, he will happily come into the bedroom on his own for some good oochies.)

 Anyhow, so I was thinking to myself the other day, "I have SO many things I want to teach Juneau, I should pick one and really focus on that for a while."  So I decided, the weather now is perfect for carting, and my older, experienced dog, Bandit, is getting arthritic, so it is pretty important that I get Juneau pulling the cart soon, before snow and ice make the roads too bumpy and slushy for the cart but not solidly covered enough for a sled.  Well, the last time I had him in harness working toward carting was about five weeks ago, due to our out-of-state trip.  He was getting good at getting into position and standing to be hitched, but when I tried to get him to pull, he was fine with pulling, fine with the shafts bumping him, but when he stopped and the cart pushed forward against the brakes, he got pretty freaked out.  So I went out expecting to go really slow, baby steps, probably not even make it out of the driveway.

What a shock he gave me! I started off with a couple reps of getting hitched and unhitched, then tried kneeling in front of him and pulling forward on the shafts like they would when he stops.  No problem. He stood like a rock and munched his liver. Wow, I thought.  Ok, maybe it's only when he moves, then stops.  So we took one step, click, treat. No problem.  Tried it again, same thing.  Tried two steps, fine. Three, we had some momentum going, I clicked, he stopped and took his treat, no problems. Well, now we were at the end of the driveway, so I thought, maybe when it bangs onto the road that'll bother him.  Step, step, BANG, click, treat, no problem.  He did glance over his shoulder, but he stayed relaxed. Weird, he's not bothered by this at all! We turned to go down the street, no problem.  We ended up going back and forth in front of the house a couple of times, making U-turns in the shafts (which bothers some new carting dogs, because they have to move a little differently than they're used to to turn.)  He was FINE.  Like he'd been doing it for months!  So I gave him lots of treats and praise and we went back inside and I mulled over his excellent performance, and told my husband I needed him to get his machine-shop buddy to build the double-dog shafts I designed, because we'd be ready for them in about 3-4 weeks.

3-4 weeks.  I figured it would take that long to get him to stay reliably happy and calm in harness, and to pull a weighted wagon (my daughter rides in it) the same way and for a decent distance, doing equal time with Bandit.  Wrong again! The next day I decided I would put both dogs in harness, put the daughter in the wagon, let Juneau pull for as long as he would happily pull, then switch dogs and have Bandit finish.  Juneau pulled the loaded wagon for TEN MINUTES, making stops, and turns, and everything, with NO problems!!  I think he would have gone the whole half hour if I'd let him, too.  I only switched them out because we were coming up on a difficult portion of the walk (distraction by rowdy dogs inside an invisible fence, and a long steep downhill,) which I felt he wasn't ready for and didn't want to chance a big mistake. Wow!  If he keeps up at this rate, all I have to do is get him up and down some small hills for practice, then work on distractions, and they'll be ready to do it together in just one or two weeks. I'm so excited! And so proud of my dog!

I just wish I knew what happened that helped him gain confidence and made him so comfortable in the wagon.  Was it the three weeks of bonding when it was just me and the dogs on my business trip?  Was it the hilly, rocky, hiking with his backpack on that we did while we were there?  Was it the target stick work?  I don't know, but whatever clicked in his head, I'll take it!

Michelle