Category: Common Problems ¤
  Author: Shirley Chong ¤
   Title: Overcoming Fear Takes Patience ¤

Marty Baring has a six month old banditface, ooops, I mean Belgian
Tervuren who struggles against the collar so hard when he's frightened
that he pops out of the collar.
   Marty, the problem is NOT the collar. The problem is that you are
overfacing your Terv puppy and then trying to force him into dealing
with the scary thing on your terms. Well, if you were the one who was
frightened, that would be fine. But you're not the one who is scared--so
your puppy needs to be able to meet frightening things on HIS terms.
   Did you catch my post about Belgians in the last few days? I can't
say for sure about your puppy because I've never met him, but I can tell
you that MANY MANY MANY Belgians have a well developed fight reflex.
There are three basic responses available to a dog: flight, freeze or
fight. Belgians tend to come wired to fight. Which means that when he's
scared of something and feels like he's being dragged into it by the
collar, he's very likely to fight the drag on his collar. 
   Another thing I've noticed about herding breed dogs is their tendency
to fixate or be hysterical. The situation typically starts off with the
dog being told to do something or not to do something in such a way that
they become defensive and it's all downhill from there. Once they get
defensive, they're just fighting and they've lost track of what they
were fighting about. Pretty soon, if the handler tells them to do
something they normally adore (like "sit on the couch and eat this ice
cream") the dog says no because they're convinced it's some sort of
trap.
   So, what to do, what to do? Stop fighting. Stop pushing--the harder
you push, the harder he's gonna fight back. 
   I think you're on the right track in using the clicker as a calming
device. This use of the clicker is not actually operant conditioning,
it's classical or respondant conditioning. When the dog is so frightened
that they're fighting, using the clicker as a classically conditioned
stimulus is a way to reach through their fear and turn down the
adrenaline level. Once you've gotten through to the dog with some random
clicking, then you shift to using the clicker as a conditioned
reinforcer and reinforce any forward motion.
   Let HIM lead you forward--let him go first. Don't try to coax and
don't try to force. Chill out, decide that it's not that big a deal and
wait. I've discovered that there is nothing my Belgians won't do for me
if I relax and let them figure it out on their own.
   Moving to a new home is always stressful for both dogs and people,
but it's been particularly stressful for Rhiannon, my Belgian Sheepdog
bitch. She's going blind. She's not completely blind yet, but it's bad
enough that she can't see (for instance) the food dish when I plunk it
down under her nose. She has to bump it with part of her body to locate
it, so I'd guess that she doesn't have much vision left. 
   The fence here is woven wire with a wooden top rail. Bidge has
already demonstrated that he can jump it (I was trying to confine him
away from me, my mistake). Rhiannon just can't see it that well and ran
right into it. It must be a scary world to live in when you run into
things you can't see--and Rhiannon was frightened. So frightened that
she wouldn't come near the gate when I was calling her through it. I
could have forced her through it easily enough, she never puts even an
ounce of pressure on a leash--but that would have left it as a
frightening experience. So I got out my clicker and used it to shape her
to get closer and closer to the gate. Finally got her through the gate,
then turned around and shaped her through the gate again. Then I shaped
her to touch the wire with her body, so she could learn to shinny along
the fence to find the gate.
   Yes, it took a little longer. But what's more important, unpacking
another box <UGH!!!> or taking that time to help my Rhiannon feel a
little more comfortable in her new place? Ten years from now, or even a
year from now, it won't matter when I get all the way unpacked in two
weeks or in four weeks. What will be important is that Rhiannon stays
her happy, ditzy, silly self.
   Dogs are also very very conscious of body language. When you run into
one of these little snags with your puppy, take a second to go over your
own body mentally: are your shoulders relaxed? your voice at its normal
pitch? your hands relaxed?
   Remember that the faster your dog moves, the slower you should move.
This is why I have Belgians! I can't move very fast so I need dogs that
move at warp speed. In training, always make sure that the dog is
putting forth more physical effort than you are.
   It takes two of you for him to slip his collar. If he were dragging
his leash, could he slip his collar? Only by the freakiest of
circumstances! If he's pulling backwards and fighting the collar, the
last thing you want to do is to provide the resistance for him to fight
against. Think soft hands, soft hands, always soft hands. Let your hands
be like rubber bands rather than like brick walls. If you don't let him
pull, he can't pull. If you stop cooperating in his pulling backwards he
won't be able to pull backwards. I read about a t'ai chi exercise (I
think--may be some other discipline, my memory is going bad) called
"pushing hands." Two people face each other, place their hands palm to
palm and try to push against each other--but you're not supposed to meet
force with force! I've actually done this a little with Jim--it turns
into this very smooth dance of no resistance and no resistance.
Fascinating feeling. Handling a leash properly is much the same
thing--no force and no resistance. Handling a leash is like handling
reins--so many people haul the horse around by the mouth but far more
effective is to give and give and give with your hands until the horse
is no longer resisting and is doing what you want. If you handle the
leash properly, it starts to feel elastic, as if it were stretching with
every movement between your hands and the dog's collar.

M. Shirley Chong
The Well Mannered Dog