Getting Past Distraction

Gimme has always shown a tendency to get over-the-top about new and exciting things.  She often has difficulty calming down once she gets excited.   For that reason, the timing for the classes with Ursula was great.  It gave us a perfect environment for helping Gimme learn to resist distraction and to feel calm in distracting settings.  We made a lot of progress, but we still have a lot more work to do.

Based on the issues we had at Sunday's show, I have created a list of upcoming shows and trials for the next three months (not that I think that's all we'll need).  My plan is to attend at least 2 per month and just find that area where Gimme is able to be comfortable.  We'll do relaxation protocol and just hang out.  If need be, we'll start in the parking lot.  We may not get into any of the buildings for awhile.  Its more important that Gimme be mostly calm and able to deal with her environment.  I'll continue at whatever level we find ourselves, until she demonstrates that she can handle more.  I'll know she can handle more when she can consistently perform simple commands in a particular setting.  Such as: touch, sit, down, a few steps of heeling, wait, etc.

Obviously two sessions a month will not be enough to make solid progress.  So in the meantime I am scoping out other local areas of interest to work in.  There's a great walking trail around Capitol Lake (2 miles) parts of which have small parks adjacent to the trail.  There are a lot of sports fields nearby, some at schools and others in parks and recreation.  Olympia is the kind of city that has lots of events, street fairs and farmers' markets, etc.  All of these are good possibilities for training.

Last night we went to the Capitol Lake park and walked and sat.  Over all, Gimme did well.  We saw boys and girls playing soccer, lots of runners and walkers, about a third of them with dogs.  One lady tripped over her dog's leash and that caused some excitement as a white standard poodle came rushing toward us and relatives were diving for her leash.  I didn't want them to meet like that so did my best to avoid the situation and as soon as things were settled I kept tossing treats on the ground until Gimme was calm again. 

I learned a lot watching her posture and how she reacts and what the fine line is between one emotion and another.  She got a lot of treats for just watching dogs coming and going (counter-conditioning) toward calmness. We sat in the grass at one point and just engaged in some serious people watching.  When Gimme got bored, she started offering "grape" (the dead bug) to get more treats out of me.  Next time I decide to try that place, I think I'll go down there about half an hour later when there is less activity so we can practice calmness.

I would have preferred a setting that was a little less exciting, so Gimme could relax more easily.  Runners, walkers, bikers and skateboarders don't get her going -- until they get close then they might be coming to pet her.  The dogs get her pretty keyed up.  I wish the setup was a little different, since there is no real place where we can be on the periphery and stay outside her threshold.  The grassy area is a triangular strip (100' wide at the wide end, which is where the soccer players were) with the path on each side... so with a constant stream of people and dogs, it was a lot to take in.  We'll try it again, but may have to scope out some other places with less stimulation to start with, places where we can train until we are ready for that.

So today I took a different tactic - parking lots.  I serviced one of my stores and when I came out, got Gimme out of the car.  I just stood there in the grass strip and let her take it all in and watched for any little sign of attention.  I didn't use any cues and just waited.  Any time she looked in my direction, I clicked and gave her a treat.  I had counted out ten treats for the checking-in behavior. 

One funny thing that happened while I was waiting to use up our ten check-in treats... a fire engine went by, sirens blaring.  There's a fire station about a mile down the road from my house and they often go by and sing "hello" to Gimme.  We always sing back.  So we sang along this time too.  Gimme is really funny, she always sings the same words, "wooooooooooooooooooh, wooooh ahhhh woo, wooo ahhh rowh", over and over.  I'm sure people watching thought we were nuts, but we were having fun. 

After we finished check-ins I asked her for a few simple behaviors (again having counted out ten treats).  Sit, touch and down were the most successful.  I tried a bit of heel, but she just couldn't focus that well.  So instead I had her sit in front of me facing perpendicular to me.  I'd step sideways and she'd step forward and sit, for which she got a click and treat.  After we used up those ten treats we got in the car and drove away. 

Our drive was very short, just 100 yards to another place in the same parking lot, where we got out to repeat the process.  This time the 10 treats for checking-in went much faster.  Interestingly this time we were able to do single steps of heeling.  This second mini-session went very quickly.  From there we got back in the car for another short drive. 

This time we ended up at Home Depot, about two blocks away.  I'd planned to stay in the same mini-mall parking lot, but the only other grass strips were on the edges, near the roads and that was more distraction than I wanted.  At HD things started out very well and Gimme seemed to be on track with the prior mini-session, but then I noticed I was losing her focus.  It took me a bit to realize she was listening to a dog barking somewhere else in the parking lot.  He was muffled enough that I hadn't noticed him before.  Sometimes he'd sound really muffled and other times more clear, as if someone was opening a door and then closing it again.

Gimme has always been rather sensitive to the sound of a large dog barking.  So I changed gears and started metronome feeding her whenever the dog was barking.  Metronome feeding refers to giving her many treats, but moving your hand away between and then bringing it back for another treat - in a rhythm, much like a metronome. 

After ten treats, I asked her to sit, but got no response.  Sit is a simple behavior that Gimme is very good at and normally responds quickly to, so it makes a good barometer of her mental state.  If its normal speed when I cue for it, then she's fine.  If the sit is slow, she's showing some "concern" about something, but still able to think and respond.  If there is no response when I say "sit", then she is over-threshold and either needs more time to adapt or needs to be moved away.   In this case, based on the whole picture of Gimme, her posture and expression, I was sure she would adapt, so we stayed there.

After another ten treats of metronome feeding, Gimme was then responsive to the sit cue.  Not quite as fast as normal, but not very far off.  After that I counted out another ten treats and we started over with check-ins.  As soon as Gimme realized that was the game we were playing, it went very quickly.  Then I counted out three more treats (less than the prior sessions because I didn't want to push too much after the barking dog thing) and asked for simple behaviors.  From there we got back in the car and drove out to the fort's training areas for our long Tuesday walk.

I decided that from now on, no matter where we go (except when arriving home) when Gimme gets out of the car we will go through the ten for check-ins and ten for simple behaviors pattern.  I'd like it to be a routine Gimme expects - a couple minutes to get adapted to the location and then expect to work.  It took longer to go through here than any of the other sessions because Gimme is so used to getting out of the car there and just going.  Still, once she understood the rules it went really fast.

During our walk we continued the random clicking for being within my comfort zone.  Gimme did well.  On the way out to the turning point we found a large blood stain on the road.  Some critter lost its life there.  I was able to get Gimme to go past it fairly quickly.  Then on our way back she ran well ahead to investigate it.  Since she wasn't paying any attention to me, I used that as an opportunity to hide behind a tree.  It didn't take her very long to realize I'd disappeared and she quickly came running.  As we walked past the crime scene, she paid no attention to the evidence this time.  That hiding thing always gets her attention glued on me. 

So all in all, it was a good day.  Gimme worked hard and really deserved the new toy I'd gotten for her...