I've been doing a lot of target training with Juneau to help build his confidence and excitement for training. Well, "a lot" is a relative term, I suppose. We work every other day or so for about 3-5 minutes, or enough to eat the leftovers of my daughter's dinner. Usually no more than two dozen "treats." Normally I would consider that working very little, but it seems that this super-short training session is perfect for Juneau. It keeps him involved, excited, and always wanting more, which boosts his excitement for the next time. It also prevents me from making the mistake of working him too long.
I noticed early on, with my attempts to get him into the bathroom without being terrified, that he would do fine at first, but the longer we worked on it, the more likely he was to break down and become frightened again. So the combination of really yummy people food treats and super-short sessions seems to have been gold for the whole scary bathroom issue.
I started off with just doing target work in the hallway and the master bedroom, then moved on to the bathroom. The first week I maybe got his nose into the bathroom a few times. I alternated with targeting AWAY from the bathroom, which helped keep him animated and not shutting down. The second week, it took all week, but he finally got one step into the bathroom. The third week I gave him a break and only did one session towards the end of the week, which went very well and he got both front feet into the bathroom. The fourth week he would go all the way in and even get his head up to the bathtub.
This week was the fifth week. On monday, I noticed that he would get himself all the way in to the bathroom just fine, but then when he didn't know where to go or what to do from there, he would look around, seem to suddenly realize the tight quarters he was in, turn around and scoot out in a rather worried fashion. But as long as he was in there and head facing the tub, he was fine. So in the middle of the session, when he was about to turn around again, I planned to close the door behind him and work on staying calm and happy inside the room, but I couldn't get the door closed (it's a very small bathroom) so instead I grabbed his collar and kept him from exiting. I really didn't want to do that, but honestly I just kind of lost patience with him. But he didn't get scared enough to wet the floor, and once he stopped scrabbling towards his escape route and looked back at the tub, he calmed down a bit, and I pressed him forward just a little and he hopped into the tub. I gave him several treats in the tub, then let him out, did a few easy targets away from the bathroom, and ended the session.
Tuesday, I wasn't quite sure what my plan was because I needed to see how he would react. I was afraid that I had messed up and gone too fast, and expected to have to backtrack. So I started slow, but he seemed fine, so I targeted him all the way into the bathroom and up to the tub again. After I clicked him for touching the target, he didn't even look at me for his hamburger, instead he spontaneously hopped into the tub on his own! He was calm the entire time! So I took advantage of this unexpected breakthrough, treated him a few times in the tub, called him out, and then simply gestured toward the tub and said "bath" as he hopped in again without even using the target stick! He went in and out of the tub four times without any issues!
On Thursday, I only had a handful of tasty food, so I just went into the bathroom and called him without even getting out the target stick, and he RAN into the bathroom and hopped right into the tub! It was great! Clicker training and the target stick broke the fear barrier with 13 sessions in exactly one month, for a grand total of about one hour of training time! How awesome is that?
I will continue working with him for a week or two before I give him his much-needed bath, then after bath day I will work with him some more so that the training doesn't end with a bath (even though he seems to enjoy baths.) I don't want him to backtrack between baths.
What is really interesting is that his confidence is growing in other areas as well, without specific training. Last week, I let him watch while Bandit and I played fetch for treats. Juneau seemed very interested, but has always supressed his chase urges when a ball is thrown for him. When Bandit was tired, I put him in a crate and tossed a ball for Juneau. He actually chased it, and even mouthed it a few times! Most people don't get excited about their dog chasing a ball, but I sure do!
Someday, Juneau will be a confident dog!
