Up until this point, my goal every day was simply to survive Rugby’s high level of activity and his wacky responses to sight and sound stimuli.  He was extremely high energy, and between trying to tire him out and surviving his barking jags multiple times every day, I had my hands full!!

But with the introduction of tricks, Rugby and I were thoroughly enjoying playing around together!  The combination of physical activity and mentally challenging tasks made for a tired puppy at the end of each session!  It really didn’t help with his reactivity to stimuli at all, but he seemed to be much happier in general, and that was worth a lot in my book!

The more we worked at having fun together, the more I started to see my little speckled and spotted puppy transform.  Because of our previous unsuccessful behavior modification work, I really felt that Rugby was a little sad about the idea of doing any formal training with me.  And because I was feeling burned out with that experience, I was ready to put formal work on the back burner and just have fun playing together.  I simply wanted to enjoy my dog and not feel like I had to be “working” on his behavior all the time!

I Had Created Something Neither One of Us Liked!

I had gotten to the point where I just didn’t care about the wacky behavior any more.  It was what it was, and I didn’t know if it would ever improve.  The tried and true methods I had used sure weren’t working for Rugby, and I felt like I was creating a lifestyle for him where he must have felt like he lived in a straight jacket!  In an effort to keep him from exploding into a barking and running frenzy, I had been focused on trying to capture every trainable moment that I could.  But it wasn’t working for us.  I was burned out and Rugby was bummed out.  The time had come to change my tactics, because I simply wanted us to have fun together and enjoy one another!

The Trick to Building Trust Was All in Training Tricks!

Doing some simple playing around with jumping and playing with some simple tricks was so much fun for both of us!!  I had zero idea what I was doing, but Rugby was all lit up and we were really enjoying our time together!  I got better leading him into the behavior that I wanted with bait, and he thought it was the most amazing thing ever in his whole little puppy life!  I made sure I didn’t correct him for anything, and I saw him come alive!

I knew that if he was going to trust me, I was going to have to present myself as reliably predictable….every single time we worked together, no matter what kind of work that was.  Trust is built on predictable behavior from someone else.  I had already created an unhappy working environment for Rugby, and now I had to unravel that big ball of yarn!

Nobody Likes a Cheater!!

At some point in the process of playing together with tricks, the thought occurred to me that from Rugby’s perspective, each of the tricks was like a self contained game, and they all had different rules for play.  He couldn’t play the “Crawl” game the same way that he played the “Jump into Mama’s Arms” game.  And because each of the tricks were a separate game, I decided that we both needed to stick to very specific rules for success in playing!

Think about it!  Why do we even play a game?  Isn’t the objective to win?  Who wants to play games with someone who cheats at the rules?  And from Rugby’s point of view, I saw that he didn’t see me as someone who played fair.  He didn’t trust me.  I had been consistent with what I had done, but without the basis of trust, and with more scolding than not, Rugby didn’t want to play the “work” game on leash anymore.

Keep in mind, that throughout all this time, I honestly didn’t have a clue that trust was the hiccup in our giddyup! I was working from the platform that all dogs trust humans unless abuse was involved, and Rugby didn’t appear to have ever been abused.  Neglected perhaps, but not abused.

He was not fearful at all around any of us.  His overall body language was good and his attitude was good!  He didn’t present as a wary dog who wasn’t sure about life. The Rugby I saw on a daily basis was confident, happy and active!  He was just what you would expect to see in a dog who trusted.  I think that this is why it took me so long to figure things out.

I really do think he trusted me on some levels, but in my efforts to increase trust between us, I finally had to come to the conclusion that what I had been doing had created an epic fail, and instead of building bridges between us, I had been responsible for tearing those bridges down.  Instead of increasing the likelihood that Rugby would trust me when he was scared, by limiting his ability to feel safe and run from me, I had created a hole that we were both falling into!

Congratulations on Your Epic Fail!!

So I knew that I was going to have to change Rugby’s opinion of what work with me was like.  Instead of focus on Rugby performing the tricks perfectly, I put my focus and goal into the simple experience of working together and having fun.  I absolutely refused to correct him at all, and actually said very little when we worked so that Rugby would be able to just think and focus on his part of things.  Anything spoken was happy and encouraging and I became more of a coach and less of a dictator in my approach.

Can’t We Just Have FUN???

I created specific verbal and visual cues, and soon Rugby was producing specific behavior for me right on cue!  He had amazing focus with tricks, and he could problem solve at the speed of light!  However, when it came to learning new things, I noticed that he often reverted back to old behavior very quickly rather than try something new. I think some of that was fallout from our previous work.  He was afraid to try new things because he didn’t want to do it wrong.

So it took some time and consistency without corrections for Rugby to realize that he had a free environment to experiment and try new things without consequences.  It was almost like his thinking process went like this:  “Hmmmm…..that’s different.  I don’t remember seeing that one before!  What is she doing now?  What?  What’s that mean?  Huh?  <frustration starts> What do you want from me?!  I’m just a little dog with a small brain!  Okay, Rugby, calm down and think now.  Use your brain and think.  <Pause while thinking>  Okay, I give up.  I’m just going to lay down and roll over!  That usually gets me a snack!”

And what I noticed as we worked together, is that his antics of problem solving often just made me laugh.  And I couldn’t be upset or frustrated or irritated or angry when I was laughing at him!  We often ended up snuggled together at the end of a training session, and from Rugby’s perspective, that had to feel like a pretty good day indeed!

So I kept stacking up those days of wonderful experiences!  I just quit worrying about the things in Rugby that I couldn’t fix and set my face to simply enjoy each day with my dog and create a good day for him with consistent fun and minimal corrections in our day to day.  He looked forward to our time together, and over time, started coming to me to ask me to work!  These were the important baby steps I was hoping to see!

And now I just had to figure out where to go from here!  How could I build on what we had started that was making a wonderful difference in our day to day life together?

To Be Continued…..

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Is My Beautiful Boy Broken?

My biggest fear, I think, is that Rugby was broken beyond repair.  Naturally, I was so very sad for him, but I was also sad for me, because I was afraid my dreams for giving him a great life were going to go up into smoke, and I’d be stuck living with a wacky dog for the next decade or more!

I’d dreaded that the day would come when I was going to have to accept that Rugby was who he was and nothing more could be done.  I wasn’t willing to completely give up, but I was so frustrated with very little progress in seeing Rugby break his behavioral coping patterns.  I needed a break from constant work on it, and really Rugby did too.

But without behavioral work to occupy him and give him daily focus, I had one bored puppy who was now turning to mischief to keep himself busy.  I found myself scolding Rugby for stealing things, and scolding my family for leaving things where he could snitch them! I was so ready to have a peaceful home again, but I had a feeling that as long as Rugby lived under my roof, peace would be fleeting at best!

I didn’t know it at the time, but I was venturing into uncharted waters for both Rugby and I.  We had such limited options available!  I could physically exercise him during the day while my neighbors were at work and their unleashed dogs were safely inside their homes.  But taking Rugby for simple neighborhood walks was off the table because he fearfully and anxiously barked from the moment he walked out the door until we got home.  The walks were simply increasing his anxiety, and making him more reactive and not less.

This video clip was from a walk last year in front of our house during the day when the neighbors were all at work and things were very quiet.  You can see how focused he is on everything else in the neighborhood, but he was able to listen and take direction from me.  Eight years ago, this sort of walk wasn’t possible, because Rugby melted into an anxious, barking mess!  He was unable to focus and unable to listen!  We’ve come a very long way together!!

Eight years ago, my dilemma was how to stimulate him from 5:00 until bedtime every night!  He was chock full of energy and that’s when he was doing most of his naughty behavior!  We could and did play fetch in the house….often for hours, but it just didn’t seem to be enough for him.  I could tell that he wanted more, but I wasn’t sure what “more” looked like!

Giving Tricks a Try

I’d never taught tricks before, and honestly wasn’t sure I even liked tricks.  My Corgis had been show dogs, and I had trained them to respond to cues producing behavior that was helpful and made sense to me.  We were being judged upon the teamwork that a judge saw in us, whether it was AKC Obedience or AKC Conformation.  The bottom line was that I had trained my dogs to respond to my cues and produce a specific desired behavior.

Tricks made me think of little poodles all dressed up in pink skirts walking on two legs, or jumping through hula hoops in a circus act.  I just couldn’t think of Rugby as a circus dog, so I was very resistant to train any tricks.  Adding to that, I had absolutely no idea how to train tricks, so it meant that I was going to have to learn something new as well.  That might have been the biggest roadblock of all!  I just didn’t know how or where to start.

However, it finally came down to this for me:  I wasn’t training other people’s dogs to behave all day long to come home and scold my own for naughty behavior all night!  Whether I liked tricks or not, I was willing to give them a try, because I knew Rugby was bored and frustrated, and I wanted him to have a great life with me, however that life was going to look!

So, I just started playing around with Rugby.  He’s ridiculously food motivated, and I could train during his mealtimes offering his kibble as rewards.  He was hungry and motivated to learn new things because it meant a few bites of food when he figured out the trick.  I didn’t know where to start, but I knew that Rugby could focus for food, so I just had to figure out how to make the connection for him.

This Old Dog Was Learning a Whole New Trick in the Way to Train Dogs!

This style of training was a bit different than what I had been doing for twenty years.  I had always used a leash and helped a dog learn what behavior I wanted by using the leash to direct him.  Now I wasn’t using a leash, and I was using food to lure Rugby into the behavior I was looking for.

I started with simple active things that involved jumping, because Rugby was a crazy jumping fool!!  The only thing he liked more than jumping was running, so jumping tricks just made sense to me.  Once Rugby figured out that we were going to play together through jumping, and he also got food or a fetch reward, he was all in with every last paw!  He was delighted to learn new things, and his focus was so very good!

Some of the early jumping tricks he learned were to jump over things like my legs when I was sitting on the floor, or a jump stick.  He could also crawl under my legs when I bent my knees, and then he learned to jump over  and go under one knee when I was kneeled down on just one knee.  He tried to jump up on top of that bent knee and balance there, but without success.

From there, I taught him to jump into my arms, so that I never had to bend over to pick him up.  I simply slapped my leg, and held out my arms, and Rugby would jump right up and let me catch him.  From there, I taught him to launch from my knee onto my shoulders, and that was a favorite trick for a few years, until Rugby’s adult size wasn’t comfortable for him on my shoulders any longer.  Rugby learned the difference between jumping into my arms or jumping up on my shoulders based upon where I positioned him at the beginning of the trick.

And I discovered that Rugby loved riding and hanging out on my shoulders!  He absolutely did!  He could often be found across my shoulders like a fur collar, and that became one of his very favorite places to be.  He learned to lock his elbow over my collarbone, which stabilized his front end and locked him in place so he didn’t move.  He typically let his back end dangle over the other side, and as he grew, he would “stand” his back legs on my belt and waistband of my jeans.

We watched TV like that.  I answered email like that.  I played computer games with Rugby on my shoulders, and it just became a wonderful option that we both loved!  It seemed that Rugby felt safer when he was up on my shoulders, and he really loved the closeness.  That almost seemed to transform him into a wonderful little snuggler, and we both really loved that.

Rugby loved training tricks!  He learned things so quickly once food or play was involved!  I tied in his love for food and play with thinking and problem solving, and Rugby was all in with every one of his paws!  I didn’t correct him when he made mistakes, but he learned that by failing and correcting his behavior, he could get me to throw the ball again or give him a nugget of food.  It was a gradual process to be sure, but it seemed like this was the recipe that worked for Rugby like a charm!

Making Mistakes and Adjusting Along the Way

I really didn’t know at all what I was doing with him!  I didn’t have any books on tricks, so most of what I did in those early days, was just through trial and error as we figured out fun things to do together!  Both of us made mistakes along the way, and we adjusted through those mistakes and sorted out the ways to improve, and before long, we were starting to become a team!

Over the years, we’ve worked on all kinds of tricks from simple things like “Sit” to more complex tricks like “Say Your Prayers.”  Even today, we often review the tricks that Rugby knows well, but I make sure that he also has some tricks that are works in progress.  When it’s time to work, Rugby will come to me and bark to let me know it’s time.  To date, Rugby knows about forty tricks well, and we keep working on new things all the time!

The thing that really worked for us with tricks is that it just didn’t matter if Rugby made mistakes.  I stopped correcting any mistakes and learned to relax and let him figure things out for himself.  He was delighted with this method of learning, and I was absolutely amazed and overwhelmed by how quickly he learned to adjust what he was doing and problem solve by doing something a bit different.  He was so focused on earning his reward, that he stayed in the game, and worked until he figured out what I wanted!  For my part, I learned how to lure with food better, so that it was easier for Rugby to guess what I wanted from him.

And while training tricks was one of the very important things that I think really built our relationship, I still don’t think Rugby trusted me yet.  When he got hurt, he still growled me away, and when he got scared, he continued to run and bark.  There was still work left to do in the trust department!  And much of that work included praying for answers!!

To be continued….

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Stay close to my heart….and my side!

Tethering a dog to his owner provides a lot of good, positive responses, but Rugby didn’t respond as well as I had hoped he would.  I was creating a lot of good behavior and teaching him that I would provide a consistent, positive reward when he produced the calm and relaxed behavior I wanted from him.  He soon learned to produce a specific behavior and immediately look to me for his reward.  That’s exactly what I wanted to see happen.

However, when he was triggered by something that scared him, instead of looking to me with trust for guidance , he only wanted to escape.  And as he discovered that he couldn’t run away, he completely melted down into a hot mess of barking, growling and lunging at his leash, grabbing it, shaking it violently, and tugging to get free.  No matter what I tried, he repeated this same behavior.  The only way that I was able to stop him from wigging out, was to remove him from the stimulus.  So that’s what I did.  A lot.  And he would continue to provide nervous, chirping barks that were high pitched and clearly anxious for several minutes until I could distract him and get him to focus once again.

I kept thinking that over time, he would sort it all out, and eventually start to seek me for help in knowing what to do.  That just didn’t happen over weeks and then months.  I was so frustrated with his response, because I was training other similar dogs with this exact same method, and they were progressing beautifully, just as I would have expected.  Rugby seemed stuck in a mire of meltdowns and limitless triggers to one stimulus after another.

Giving up…..and losing hope…..

I finally just gave up.  I had had enough.  I was out of hope for things to improve.  I decided that I was simply going to have to learn to live with his wacky behavior for the duration if he couldn’t learn to stop it.  I wasn’t going to give up on him in general, or in working through to find a solution, but I was completely out of ideas in working through his behavior, and I didn’t want to continue with a plan that seemed to be teaching him to become more aggressive in his responses.

So I just quit working on breaking his coping pattern.  I was done with it for a while and needed a break from it.  I had spent hours every day….virtually every waking moment that I was home, having Rugby leashed to me, armed with high value bait, and working on breaking his coping pattern.  We were both just done in.

In between work on his coping pattern, I had worked on the basics: Sit, Down, Stay, Come, Place, Get It, Bring It, Drop It, Heel, Auto Sit, Say Please, Watch Me, Back Up, etc.  I worked on those things every day, but frankly we were both pretty bored.  Rugby was super smart, and learned new behaviors lickity split!  Letting go of old behaviors, though, was a sticky wicket!

And my colleagues all suggested that I just get another dog after seeing how hard I was working and things weren’t improving.  They almost all reminded me that the shelters are full of really nice dogs being put to sleep daily.  And they would sadly look at Rugby and shake their heads, saying, “Rugby is one messed up puppy!”  That sure didn’t help things for me, and only added to my hopeless feeling.  I kept wondering if there would be any answers, but at that point in time, I was fresh out and completely frustrated.  My family was mad at me for bringing him home, and yet I could see so much potential inside of him if I could ever find a break through.

Which way to go?

So, while I was re-grouping, I was thinking of what direction I could go next with him.  I kept mulling things over, and reading everything I could find that seemed relevant or helpful.  I tried things here and there, but my heart just wasn’t in it, and frankly, most of the ideas weren’t all that helpful.

He was such a little snuggler.  He really has always liked to snuggle as close as he can get!  He was right on top of me,  laying on my feet if I wouldn’t invite him to get on the furniture with me.  He was absolutely very much a poster child for a Velcro dog!

Because of his snuggly behavior, I mistook that for trust in our early days together.  He did bond to me quickly, but I thought he trusted me as well, and looking back on it, I really don’t think that he did.  I mistook the snuggling and desire to be stuck to me 24/7 as trust.

Bottom Line:  I was all he had.

Imagine how scared he must have felt in yet one more home!  So he snuggled with me.  Looking back now, I think he snuggled as a way to feel safe from me and nothing more.  When he was snuggling with me, he knew I wasn’t going to do anything to scare or hurt him.  It’s sad to think of it that way, but that’s honestly a way of life for many dogs.

I never knew what movements or noises I made would trigger fears from a previous owner or bad experience.  Once Rugby decided that something was scary or bad….it was always scary and bad!  I quickly learned that negative experiences got absolutely locked away into his little dog brain, and he never forgot that fear.  Part of the difficulty in working through his coping pattern was that Rugby often anticipated the scary thing before it happened, and reacted as though it had.  I had to find a way to be a step or two ahead of him, and that just seemed impossible!

While I was trying to sort it all out, in Rugby’s world, life was just all about survival, which included food, snuggles and play.  When he was relaxed and chilled, he was the most active and playful puppy I’d ever had!  He simply loved to play and he always wanted all humans engaged with him.  Fetch was by far his favorite game, and he went to all of us sharing his fetching toys and waiting for us to throw one more round for him.  He made sure that he gave everyone an equal opportunity to play with him, and I just loved the inclusive heart that I saw in my little dog.

Wanna Fetch?

I just focused on getting through the day with him and let him do his wacky stuff and rolled my eyes and waited until he calmed down.  Over and over, that’s what I did.  Day after day.  Week after week.  Month after month.

And the wacky stuff didn’t go away.  It didn’t get worse, but it sure didn’t get any better either.  At least he wasn’t as aggressive in his responses since I didn’t have him tethered to me any longer, and he seemed much happier to be dragging a leash and barking his little puppy head off when something triggered his all too familiar response.

However, because I wasn’t doing a lot to stimulate Rugby’s thinking throughout the day like I had been when we were working hard on his coping patterns, he started to think of new naughty games, like “Keep Away With Contraband!”  He would go “shopping” for something he could steal, and then he wanted us to play keep away as he dodged capture with his treasure.

However, Rugby wasn’t my first rodeo with this particular naughty behavior, so I simply didn’t play his game.  Instead, I enticed him to fetch with a toy, which was his very favorite game in the whole wide world!  Dogs produce naughty behavior because they can, and also because they get something out of doing the behavior.  So when Rugby was trying to entice us into a game of keep away, I just didn’t play.  Instead, I chose to entice Rugby to play MY game, and it worked like a charm!

But his consistent shopping told me that he was bored and looking for an outlet for his brain!  He was thinking and creating a naughty game, because he wanted something more out of his day.  I just needed to come up with new games that he would like that could challenge his mind.  We were about to enter the world of tricks!

Story to be continued….

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