The Hardest Thing

Gimme is such a smarty and picks up most things so quickly, its hardly like training at all. We have now identified the one-thing that will be her biggest challenge -- the stand-for-exam.

I've mentioned before that she was having difficulty "getting" the idea of a stand-stay. We are still working on that. Her sit-stay and down-stay are both so good, that I know once its clear to her what I want, she will get it and be very solid.

I've also mentioned before that she finds people the most attractive thing on the planet. I wrote in a prior entry about her inability to restrain the impulse to jump on people and our recent huge strides in getting past that problem. She's continuing to make headway.

Since we had finally made it solidly on the other side of that hump and since she did so incredibly well on her down-stay, even with our instructor, Ursula, stepping over her body (we had the behavior down cold in less than two minutes)... I thought she was ready for the next step. Without a stand-stay in place, I decided to try the "exam" part of stand-for-exam during a sit-stay.

LIONS AND TIGERS AND BEARS - OH MY!

This is proving to be "the hardest thing" for her. We've tried it three times in class and its quite challenging to read her and relieve the pressure before it becomes too stressful for her. In a left-brain way, its interesting to see how the self-imposed restraint in the face of a positive stressor so quickly builds into a negative stressor.

She is working so hard to do what she knows I want that she is internalizing all this stress. She isn't giving me her usual stress signals - which is a certain look in her eyes that I recognize but can't really describe. As a result we've unintentionally pushed her too far - all three times.

The first time (last night), she broke her stay. She knew she was supposed to stay put and certainly wasn't supposed to go toward the instructor, so when she just couldn't hold it any longer, she broke and moved away. We knew we had pushed her too far and decided that the next time we would do more "ping pong" of the instructor's approach and quit much sooner.

Tonight we did a short session of ping pong (where the instructor moves in and then moves completely out of her social area before returning and varying more the level of difficulty). We stopped when Gimme started turning her head away and got a bit fidgety, but was still holding her stay. When Gimme and I went back to our cubicle, she went in her safe-place crate and had a peanut butter bone and then came out ready to work with me again.

The second session tonight, we kept even shorter because the fidgeting started much sooner. Because of that, I knew we had still pushed her too far in the first session of the class and that she hadn't adequately released the stress between those two sessions. She had to have two peanut butter bones before I saw relaxation in her face. Also this is the first time since the first two weeks in class that she's turned her back on the class to enjoy her bone. Even after those two bones she still wasn't able to actively work, so I practiced relaxation protocol with her.

When the instructor came back around, we didn't do another session, instead she stood there talking to me and giving Gimme treats. It took her about 2 dozen treats to get back to the relaxation we'd had before the instructor's return - and this is a person she really loves. Then Gimme gave her a big love.

We discussed other ways to relieve Gimme's stress in the exercise in a more positive way. She is so determined to be right that I believe the physical stillness of the stay is masking the internal struggle. So we are going to try using an "okay" release as part of her reward for getting the stay right in the face of this distraction. That will help her burn off some of that stress in a positive way and will up the fun for her.

I'm also going to ask the instructor to help me figure out what other stress signs she may be showing that I'm missing. I think when she is working, she gets a sort of game-face that hinders my ability to see the usual look of stress in her expression. Ursula is so good at reading dogs, that she will certainly pick up something that I'm missing.

I've just reread this and I have to say it sounds like we've been pushing the hell out of her. That is not the case. These sessions have been very short. The longest one (the first) was less than two minutes, the second one about a minute and the last one less than a minute.

In closing, I have to say I am eternally thankful for reward based training. Gimme is such a wonderful dog and so smart, it breaks my heart to even think of what it would be like for her if she were being trained by "traditional" methods.