Hi, my name is Sanja Miklin and I come from a little European country Croatia. At the moment I'm in Hong Kong, though, and I will be here for the next two years, finishing my high school at Li Po Chun United World College.
I have two dogs, and they are back home, in Croatia.
My first dog, Brix is a neutered 3 years old mix breed (retriever/collie maybe?). He was found on the street when he was 3 or 4 months old, I took him when he was around 7 months old. We went to training classes that used luring, R+ and P+ (choke chain, leash jerks, alpha rolls etc). He did quite well in first few months, although I had big problems with switching to verbal commands and his motivation for work, heeling, he didn't want to play tug of war. I had some questions then some things I noticed but people couldn't explain me or help me the way I wanted. For example, we taught a 'No' to our dogs by luring them into sit and if they got up we pull the leash up, pushed dog's back down and yelled No! When I was using No in my everyday life and dog stopped doing what he was doing, I wanted to reward him (he did what I wanted him to do) but I couldn't cause No was associated with something uncomfortable. I also noticed that while using luring, my dog was very concentrated on the food in my hand, not on the behaviour. I didn't know how to put it in words before and everybody told me that it has to be that way.
Early in our training another problem occurred, I thing due to our LLW training (when dog goes in one direction, you go the opposite way and jerk him with the leash while walking... the training was very harsh cause sometimes the leash would get around dogs legs - it was a 10 feet leash - and you would drag your dog on the ground... that should've teach him to walk close to you cause if he does, non of those horrible things would happen). Of course, we were among so many new dogs and my dog wanted to meet them, and the main reason of him pulling me was to get to the other dog... and that was when the jerk came. Soon, he started growling at other dogs. I've been told to punish him. And not too long from then I was pulling my dog of the ground with my leash jerks jumping on him trying to put him into a submissive position and then standing above him yelling for a quite long time. A 13-year-old girl with an 8 months old puppy. I've been told to expose him to other dogs and punish him if he growls. And he did growl, and I did punish him, and it didn't help. It became worse and worse and worse. I just couldn't stop his growling anymore. He was on the floor, me standing above him, my hand on his throat, and he was still growling. What a stupid dog, didn't he realise why was he being punished for? Now, I tend to think that he was growling at me at that point, although that would be totally against his personality but I feel better when I think that he was growling at me. That would mean that he judged me, and found me guilty of my terrible crimes. But he probably wasn't growling at me. He is just too nice for that.
I started training for obedience with him when he was a bit older than a year, few months after I neutered him (partly because his aggression became male to male aggression and I wanted to make it less intensive. and I think it did help, a bit). And he was worse and worse, every day, especially with heeling. He could heel for just very short distances, often quite far behind, with wide turns. His retrieve was... well, he didn't have retrieve. Things got a bit better when I started doing tricks with him, and a bit of agility. But he got bored so easily and he didn't want to work with me. At that pint of my training, I heard about stuff I consider so normal and cool today, and I laughed at them. Clicker training Man, how can you not punish a dog when he is wrong, why would my dog work for a stupid click etc. Dog and human as partners... Yeah, I forgot to tell you, but I was really strict in 'dominance' things. My dog couldn't do lots of stuff because I was alpha. And he had to do everything because I was alpha. So, everything was stupid to me, and I was proud cause I knew that you can make your dog sit by luring him into the position (I guess I can be glad that we did use a bit of shaping, although the procedure advised to teach your dog how to sit fast when you stop while heeling were sometimes quite 'not fair'. even before you would stop you would yell sit and in the same time, while yelling, you would force the dog into the sit position... and I wondered why my dog needed 10 minutes to sit and he hated heeling).
But, things changed, drastically, when my second dog came. She was 9 months old (now she's 2.5 years), beautiful GSD mix. She was very fearful, I couldn't come near her at all first week or two. and she was aggressive. she was constantly fighting with Brix, I thought I wouldn't survive that period. I tried working with her with the same methods I used on Brix, but I tried to minimize punishment so she wouldn't be even more fearful. I tried using the same method for LLW as I did with Brix. It didn't work. above everything, she was a very hyperactive dog, and very stressful and paranoid too. And one day I went to a bookstore, and it was a day that changed my life. And their life too. I wanted to buy a dog food cookbook, but there was this other book called click to calm, healing the aggressive dog. I didn't realize at that moment that it was a clicker book. but well, I decided to buy it. Maybe it will help Brix. And I was disappointed when I found out that it was a clicker book when I flipped through it . But then, I read something that sounded so familiar and so true and so right: punishment didn't work with Ben's aggression. and I decided to read it. and research clicker training a bit more. It was last summer, my English was much worse than now and I had few problems with everything, new terms and long English words... but I did understand the core. and I fell in love with it (because it was based on science.. I was amazed) and well, my journey begun. it was a slow and insecure beginning, but it was a change.
Another thing happened that summer. Reeva was getting more and more aggressive. often, it was about food. I remember how she attacked Brix over it but we kind of solved t. But it continued with other dogs. And the problem was that she never gave warnings. maybe something very short, cause I new that she would attack split of second before she did, but that wasn't enough for me or the other dog to react. And she wasn't on the best terms with my neighbour's dog, golden retriever Luna. And one day, they got into a fight. And Luna's owner tried to split them apart, grabbing their collars. And she got bitten in the process. I don't thing it was a real bite, though, wound was just on one side of the hand, like it was ripped by a teeth in the moving jaws. Things were going downwards from then. I guess I was one to blame, too. I didn't want to accept that my dog was aggressive and I didn't manage the aggression at all (she wore a muzzle sometimes, but I was afraid for her when she got into a fight with a rot three times heavier then her). She was just so unpredictable... Most of the time she was a wonderful dog, playing and everything and then... That, and my strange training methods turned me into a least favourite person in my local dog park. It was very hard on me. I was 15, nobody wanted to listen to me, I didn't have any support. We do have a clicker trainer in my town, I took few private lessons with her, she didn't help me at all. So, I was on my own. I read books, as many as I could. I had hard time getting some stuff cause my parents didn't let me to use their credit card to buy stuff from Amazon (and dogwise doesn't deliver to Croatia, btw) and bookstore over which I could order some books, couldn't order all of them or any DVD-s.
But I learned more and more. I found out about calming signals, TTouch, I read some marvellous book that gave me much better insight into the world of dogs, I read tons of articles, I got familiar with new psychological terms. But dog trainings isn't in books. and I was lacking the practical part, mostly because I was afraid of doing something wrong, and it was hard working with my dogs on their aggression, especially with Reeva. Brix, though, got better, on his own. I just stopped punishing him. We stopped obedience training, after some time, agility too cause it wasn't working. Because of me. I felt terrible working in that dog training club, felt pressured by other people to punish my dog... people were laughing at me because I used clicker training and well, it wasn't nice. At one point I was doing agility with Reeva, too she wasn't bad, very food motivated, high prey drive, but it was so hard to work with her, she couldn't stay concentrated for long time, distraction level was too high (who would say, 50 or more other dogs running around...) But, after consulting with Turid Rugaas, I stopped that too, cause it just made her more stressful.
So, where am I now, better to say where was I before I left home?
Brix is doing fine. We just do tricks and he likes it, his recall is often bad but he is quite good in walks. He still growls at male dogs but it easy to interrupt him with one 'lets go'. at home, he's the best dog, just lying around...
Reeva... well, she still has lot's of problems. She's very territorial and barks at everyone that comes close to our yard. he's afraid of people, especially males and sometimes barks at them when I'm walking her. She does the same thing when someone enters the house but only if she sees him entering. It's very hard to walk her in populated urban areas cause she goes ballistic when she sees another dog/cat/bird/whatever. she pulls on her leash, lunges, barks etc. We are going to another dog park and she's nice there, behaving more like a normal dog. she got just into one fight that lasted more than few seconds and I pulled them apart the other dog was OK (usually they are, I don't think any of the dogs that she attacked had to go to the vet's now when I think of it... there was blood, and fights looked awful but...). So, I'm proud of her behaviour in that dog park, although I don't go there often because she's impossible to handle on walks. I have some ideas on working on that, I'll post that later to see what do you think about it. when we are in nature she's incredibly great. she has a good recall (very reliable unless she finds a rabbit or a deer or something) and she knows 'where is Brix?' cue which is very helpful when he doesn't come. She knows lots of tricks (Brix too) and is very easy to train, good at offering behaviours. at home she's really good and nearly a perfect dog in the house. but outside. she can be wonderful for few hours, just wonderful and then snap. For example, we were having a walk (Brix, Reeva and me) with my friend and her three dogs, male golden, young female golden mix and a malinois puppy. and they were playing, sometimes a bit rough and I saw that Reeva had a bit too much (I started noticing her body language change when she gets over excited.. I don't know what it is but it is something) and I called her to me. and I put her on leash. the puppy came to and was near Reeva. I was talking to my friend, not paying much attention to Reeva and the Puppy cause they were playing for the past hour and then I hear terrible screaming and saw Reeva holding the pup by her head.. I still have no idea what have happened. But she is getting better in some aspects of her aggression. half a year ago she was constantly fence fighting with Luna, our neighbour dog. She was looking for her wanting to start a fight. After some time Luna was the one that started the fight and when her owners removed her from the fence, Reeva was still very excited running by the fence. now, she just goes back to her doghouse and sits on its roof. I would call it a progress. I have feeling thought that our relationship got worse she doesn't trust me in walks (why would she, it's not that I was very helpful), she doesn't want to play fetch anymore either...
I guess I could've done more with my dogs, especially with Reeva. But I was too lazy sometimes, mostly to unsure about what I was doing. I want to get more experience (I'm working with some homeless puppies here in Hong Kong) and learn more. Read more books, watch more DVD-s attend some seminars if possible (money is a problem... There are not many seminars in Europe. There is one by Suzanne Clothier in Italy quite soon, and it's very close to Croatia, but I'm in HK so I cannot go. And Turid Rugaas will have some seminars in Japan in March, but it's too expensive for me to go... well, everything is too far and too expensive actually. But, well, I'll manage somehow...
So, that's bout it... I know it was long but well, it's two and a half years of very interesting travel... and I kicked out a lot of things...I didn't talk much about how I felt and how I feel about everything and I think that's important, but I think I'll just do it some other time... for now, I think this is enough.
