She leaps at me, eyes wide, her paws cling around my waist and she pants excessively nuzzling her face into my stomach. She feels vulnerable, desperate for human reassurance, she is not seeking attention but rather protection from an unknown foe. The big wide world, that for a dog whose spent the first year of her life in a kitchen, is a pretty scary place to be. Turning my back on her at this time does not feel right and so I trust my gut and don’t do it, she needs a mother figure right now, not an obedience trainer.
It’s all about priorities, in that moment what will be of most aid to the dog, me attempting to decrease her jumping up by applying negative punishment and ignoring her in her moment of need, or positively reinforcing her choice to come to me for guidance as opposed to reacting at the object. Which in this case is a fallen down tree.
We walk away from the tree together, and I do some zig zags on her body and scent work with the tree in sight but at a distance that is no longer causing her distress, she is a very honest dog so guessing at her thresholds is not needed. I don’t lure, but wait for her to choose to approach the tree, I praise her gently and continue scentwork in the opposite direction to reset her incase she become over whelmed. By now she is curious as opposed to worried and in a movement that suprises me, play bounces the tree. My brain ponders on is she trying to create distance or engage the fallen tree, so we continue our nose work to determine this, in the end in one quick jump she is over the tree and proudly sitting on the other side waiting for her slow handler to untangle the lead and climb over to be with her. Off we walk together, her checking in calmly from time to time and me stroking her head when she does. A partnership.
So what is a partnership? The word equal springs to mind and a sense of togetherness where any battle faced you face together, supporting each other through thick or thin, for better or for worse. Like marriage, but better. I’ve seen better dog and handler relationships than I have marriages but maybe I’m a cynic.
With a relationship between the same species or a differing species, the ultimate goal would be to preserve your own survival and each others I imagine, and to seek each other out in times of anguish. So for me, if a dog I am working with is in a moment of trauma, providing comfort and togetherness in that moment overrides all else and I will do all I can to ensure their emotional well being. It’s a thing of trust isn’t it, if your safe attachment figure can’t get you out of a sticky spot and leaves you to suffer alone, then why would you trust them in other situations? Just how reliable are they?
My primary goal when working with a dog with aggression issues, or any issue for that matter, is to make them feel that I am safe, that when they’re with me they will be safe, and consequently when I’m there the environment is also safe as is the trigger because if they press that panic button at any time we are out of there as a unit.
Disclaimer alert! Of course before I awaken any trolls regarding stress thresholds and systematic training – I do that, in every session, every day. I plan, I measure, I assess and critique myself. But at times it will be going well, very well, and then something changes unintentionally in the environment and the dog will signal I want out, and in that moment we need to listen, always.
They will be consistently braver, the more we don’t force them to be. I remember as a child in a swimming lesson being unsure of jumping in the water, I wasn’t the best swimmer and was a serial wimp, the instructor held their arms out and said they’d catch me, so I jumped, and they didn’t catch me. A deliberate miss. Did I ever trust them again? Hell no. Did I like them after that? Not one bit.
In a similar way, the old adage of letting dogs that make noise when left at night ‘cry it out’ so eventually they give up barking screaming and wailing into the night and fall asleep as they learn no one will come when they call? What part of that feels right? It doesn’t feel very ethical to me, for a dog to learn that in your moments of distress you can ask for help as much as you like and no one is going to come to your aid. The learned helpleness kicks in and the dog goes quiet. Success! With the bitter sweet tinge of delibately inducing a traumatic experience.
I see it especially in dogs that have just been rehomed, or puppies, where they are in a new environment, had extreme levels of trigger stacking that day already, and they are expected to lie there in the pitch black surrounded by smells that are not theirs, and just cope?
How many times do you wake up when you are away for a night and forget where you are? And then because you are human you remember you’re in the holiday inn on a training course and haven’t been kidnapped by a lunatic and fall back asleep. Now imagine you are a species that lacks this level of rationale and understanding, and when you try to reach out, theirs nothing but darkness and failed attempts to find comfort. Am I being over dramatic? No i don’t believe so. As trauma is trauma.
My good friend Guy Williams blog about raising his puppy will explain more about setting the dog/puppy up for success but at the same time responding to their panic button in the right way when they call for help: https://positivepolicedogs.wordpress.com/2016/03/
The more training sessions I put in with my girl the less she pushes the panic button, she has learnt that I’m her buddy and so now as opposed to a jump she simply glances at me with her beautiful bright blues, and we then together work out the best course of action.
In summary, if in the words of doting dog dad Gene Hill ‘his presence by my side is protection against my fears of dark and unknown things’ then the least we can do is return the favour.
awareofthedog 