Waiting On The Breakthrough

Real Behavior changes occur when we have a breakthrough.

And sometimes, that breakthrough needs to be with human, before it's with the dog.

I'm working with a client who has an adorable little white fluffy. He just celebrated his first birthday. And while he's a precious ball of energy and lots of fun -- he's miserable to walk, and over-excited when guests arrive.

So as much as his people love him -- he's also driving them crazy. Sound familiar to anyone?

So we have been work on techniques to resolve the walking and jumping -- and while we have some improvement, we don't yet have it fixed.

Why?? -- the people needed a breakthrough!!! I had to find a way with words and a demonstration to show them where the flaw was.

The error is in time. In duration. In state of mind. Patience. And thinking the walk is the most important exercise. The walk itself is not the first step in the state of mind exercise. The waiting is.

You'll notice in my blog on teaching your dog to not pull on the leash we talk about stopping, making a u-turn, and NO forward progress happening if the dog is pulling. I tell people all the time -- don't go for a walk, until you master the work in the driveway. Then go one house to the right, one to the left and back to the driveway.... for days! Until the dog gets it

The key is NO. Zero. Zip. Nada.

The family would pause and the dog would sit. But the dog never changed gears. He never down-shifted his state of mind, before they would step forward again.

You see it's not about the sit. It's about energy and arousal. This little guy has only ever known "outside" to be anything but arousing.

So the exercise is going back to step 1. And waiting on the dog to get calm. Working in the driveway and practicing duration work. Lots of duration work to the point of complete relaxation. This includes place outside, Down stay outside. Sit and observe the world around you for extended periods of time. With no walk!

We have to be patient here. For some dogs, the first few days may be a struggle. It may take 30+ minutes for the dog to give up the arousal and get bored with the exercise and all the distractions. We need to be willing to wait "until".

When the outside is not the stimulus, then the walk will improve with the right techniques.

I once had a very high strung high anxiety, never settled, never calm, sleep with one-eye open kind of dog, I was working with. We began teaching place. He was very obedient and sat on the place but he would not relax. So I waited him out. For about 2 hours he literally vibrated on the place-board while I read a book. He finally was exhausted and gave into sleep. He slept in deep sleep about 2 hours. From then on we never had another issue with him learning to relax and get to a calm state of mind.

We can't effectively teach any skill if the state of mind is not connected to us, the dog, and the exercise.