Today on a hike, Aria encountered seven people on the trail. Seven people who all looked very different, had different hats and glasses, moved differently, and engaged differently. Aria is working on her fearfulness of strangers, and she is rewarded for visually interacting with new people and making calm choices.
At this point in her training, I am rewarding calm and visual interaction choices with food. With repetition, she is learning to associate assessing strangers with positive results, as I am also certain to keep us both at an appropriate distance from strangers. How is appropriate determined? By Aria's choices. If she feels the stranger is too close or moving too fast or wearing the wrong hat, she chooses not to take food or not to respond to the clicker or to move further away. These choices on her part tell me when I need to examine the situation and appropriately manage it for her success. Her choices are vitally important to her continued training and feelings of success in her world.
Choosing to remain relaxed!The seventh stranger that passed us was a trail runner - someone who had the potential to be very nervewracking. With six positive interactions offered from Aria prior, she made the choice this last time to offer repeated visual calm and watch the runner as he proceeded down the trail. This was a huge step, as runners are still concerning for her at this stage in her training. But with consistent repetition of rewarding for positive choices and assessment - she was highly successful!
Dogs who partake in this interact and choose game make strong and positive connections with things that they are fearful of - provided that we as handlers are consistent! It is very much as if you were on a walk with a friend, and you were afraid of trucks. Envision that a truck turns onto the street you're walking on, and you eyeball it...wanting to see if it's coming closer, what it's going to do. Suddenly your friend hands you a $50 bill. What? The truck gets closer, and when you watch its movements your friend hands you $100 bill. The truck passes, and you both continue your walk. Another truck turns onto the street, and your first instinct is to closely assess it to see where it's going. Your friend hands you a $50 bill. Oh yeah! Maybe there's a $100 bill coming. You choose to watch the incoming truck, and sure enough your friend hands you $100. After multiple trucks pass, you aren't feeling as much fear now, are you? You've changed to feeling somewhat expectant when trucks appear, and you choose to visually interact and remain calm in order to encourage the payday.
Now, if you assess a truck moving down the street at a high speed, you may choose to react differently. If your friend handed you two $100 bills when this particular truck passed, that would create a new association with speeding trucks, and you are likely to choose to assess and feel calmer the next time you see one moving swiftly.
With dogs, this is much of the same when we can offer them opportunities to make positive choices about how they interact with their environment. For fearful dogs, this can create significant leaps forward in their associations. The same goes for reactive dogs, or even puppies. It's all about setting your dog up for success in making positive and impactful choices.
No comments:
Post a Comment