(Over)Confidence, Revisited

First of all, that quote in my last post? That's what's called an ugly quote, as in I never read the source I just thought it sounded good/on point when I happened to stumble across it. I was looking for a Pratchett quote about hubris, but I couldn't find it (and can't remember which book/character it was from). I do read Pratchett. (Religiously.) Still can't Google up the quote though... Let's go with another one of his, just because.
"In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this."
(Terry Pratchett)
This is not a quote about hubris, since cats just keep getting away with it...

As, it turns out, do I. So far... I find it hard to evaluate my actions and choices in regards to Monster's freedom, what is the right choice after all? Since I do keep "getting away with it", perhaps I'm overvaluating the risk? Or is it just chance, setting me up for a big fall?

Err... Whuh?

Last night Mom wanted to go berry picking again. Fortunately(?) as I arrived at their place with Monster a guest on a bike (Monster: "RRRRAAAAAAARRRGH! An ENEMY!") arrived at the same time, and Mom got a good demonstration of how I actually am not "constantly exaggerating" Monster's problems. To the point of asking me if I perhaps shouldn't leave him at home while we went to the forest... I patiently (well...) explained to her that absolutely nothing had changed from yesterday, or any other day when she blithely ignores my concerns on risk management with regards to Monster and thinks he should basically be allowed to run around free. And acts on it, if I don't keep a careful eye on her! Since he was no more dangerous after her seeing him react to the biker (as opposed to hearing me tell her about him reacting to something), her concerns should be no greater than before. Monster hadn't changed at all. With this he came along, and Dory too. This time I was however more successful in getting Mom to move further from the road (also helped by us going to a different spot, where the terrain was easier for her to navigate), which was a relief for me. The evening passed without incident - a couple of times Monster perked up toward the road and started to move toward it with interest, but he turned away immediately when I called him. Dory was very much getting on my bad side however, since she kept trying to lure him away! Following a path through the forest for a couple of minutes would lead to a couple of houses with dogs outside, and Dory quickly ran off to visit them (Mom: "... She'll come back eventually." Me: "!"). She did indeed come back (dogs howling and barking in the distance, to Monster's fascination), but only to fetch Monster. She ran around him in invitation and got him to follow her down the path, but! He wouldn't go more than 70-80 meters or so (after stopping them a couple of times I allowed it to see what would happen - hubris again, right?), when he reached the "too far" line - as decided by him - he sat promptly down and refused to take another step no matter what Dory did. When she eventually ran off without him again he started barking in frustration and running around, but he would not follow her! How about that...?

That's cause I'm a Good Boy.

Today, on our daily walk down to my parents' house, we encountered yet another chance for me to make the wrong, risky choice. Of course I took it! As we came around a bend in the road we spotted a deer in a field (150-200 meters away). Monster was off leash and noticed the deer a little after me, but I chose to not distract and leash him even though I had the option (probably). As the deer noticed us, and we kept moving towards it, it turned and walked into the forest behind the field. Monster, by then perhaps 20-30 meters ahead of me, picked up speed, his body tense, head high, tail rigid and upright. I let him go. Could I have called him back at this point? I think so now, and I thought so then. But I wanted a greater distraction, I wanted a test... Monster was running ahead, toward where he'd seen the deer disappear, and I could see the instant he crossed the scent trail - if he'd been running before he started racing now. I still let him go. He followed the trail into the woods, running flat out and completely fixated on the hunt, and when I couldn't see him any more I called out once, turned and walked away...

Did you think this through?

... And was instantly rewarded with an almighty crash behind me, as Monster immediately took the most direct route toward the sound of my voice (I'm guessing), and rather than retracing his steps through easier terrain just barged through bushes and small trees instead. He came literally thundering up behind me, covered in branches and leaves! Happy with this success I immediately proceeded to test him further (of course! why not end in defeat?), and turned around again and set off on a course where we'd cross the deer's trail quite close to where we'd seen it disappear. Monster still off leash. As we came to the spot Monster again became agitated, sniffing around, craning his head toward the forest edge, stepping in place and looking toward me. I didn't interact with him at all, just kept walking past. And Monster just dropped it, followed me and was as relaxed and responsive as before the whole thing. That's something, right?

(To be clear: the deer walked away quite calmly - for a deer - and had a good head start. If it had run off, if I had thought there was any risk of Monster getting very close, if it had set off across open terrain instead of into the forest, or if in some other way I had judged there was a risk of severely stressing the animal, I would have (attempted to?) stopped Monster from engaging. I do not think the world is around to serve our/my needs, I do not think I can make others "pay" for Monster's "gain". I made two judgments, the first that the deer was in no risk from Monster's pursuit, and the second that I could stop Monster from prolonging the pursuit beyond the point where I felt I had a good overview of the situation. You may well judge me as having put the deer at risk anyway, and I'll have to live with that, but I did believe at the time that I had the situation under control. I do believe in retrospect that I did not cause any harm to the deer beyond the initial alarm on seeing us approach - and that's unavoidable whether leashed or not.)

Down south where we live, the stupid animals hang around staring at us until we're just 10-20 meters away - or less - before they go running off in a panic across wide open fields. In that situation Monster would never be allowed off leash to begin with, much less allowed to pursue.

So. Did I do the right thing? Was it a horrible mistake? The result would (perhaps?) indicate I evaluated the situation correctly... I thought I could recall Monster from a hunt situation, and I succeeded. I thought even at a distance of a couple of hundred meters, out of sight, and more or less wholly engrossed in a strong behavior (tracking/hunting/pursuing), Monster would respond to my recall. Well, he did. I thought that even when seriously revved up by the experience, rather than it drawing him back to it again he would let it go when I showed no interest to engage in it with him. He did. So I walked away with a confirmation of my expectations. But the question I'm stuck with is whether or not that's actually a good thing?

Why not?

Because adding to my confidence levels, both in my control over Monster and in my ability to judge my control over Monster, could after all lead to disaster down the line, right? There is a line between training and real world we all have to cross eventually, in most of our training. There is only so much "controlled environment exercise" you can do successfully, before it becomes time to (gradually) move it out of that environment. (Unless you're content with staying there, but few of us are I think.) I have zero ambition to walk Monster off leash in for example a city environment, but I do want to be able to let him off the leash in less stressful surroundings. In order to get there, I have to let go of the leash. But when? Where? How? I don't want Monster to be a threat to others. I don't want him to even frighten others (within reason; people getting upset at the mere sight of a calm, leashed dog some distance away can just learn to deal with their own problems, frankly). I think I have sufficient control over him off leash in order to be moving carefully across that line into the real world (while still staying in a very unchallenging environment), but how do you know? Well, I know the answer to that: you don't. You can only try to be objective and responsible, and keep evaluating as you go. Right? But for something like off leash control, the 80% rule doesn't really apply I think. You need to be much closer to 100%. But you never actually reach 100% though! You can never know with absolute certainty how a situation will develop or how your dog will respond, the best you can do is "fairly sure". (No matter what some people will tell you! No one can guarantee their dog's absolute obedience in any situation, it's simply not possible. And quite frankly, anyone who makes that sort of claim is someone I'd steer quite clear of, as it to me reeks of poor judgment and lack of responsibility.) And for a lot of people, even less than that is quite acceptable (at least to them); they have dogs they don't need to control all that closely, as they're perhaps small, cute, with zero interest in other people or animals... Monster is interested. And while I think he's about the most adorable creature who ever lived, not everyone shares that view of him. He's certainly not small. I need to have him under control. But at which point is he under sufficient control?

Just how much harder do you want me to work, really?

If I thought he was actually dangerous, he'd be permanently leashed. But I don't. If I thought he'd run off from me to confront someone we came across, he'd be leashed (perhaps permanently, but I'd at least try to work on that). But I don't. If I thought he'd go after the wildlife, he'd be leashed. But I don't. My assumptions in these things have been tested (1 by meeting a man on a close path, Monster barked at him but returned to me when called; 2 by walking past people picking berries in the woods by the road before I realized they were there; 3 by getting called off the hunt today), but that's not really proof of anything more than success in those specific situations. Sure, it's also good indications of reliability of behavior, but it's not proof. Proof can not be had. So. What to do? Do I (try to) rein myself in, or do I trust myself more? Because it's not like I'm impartial after all. No matter how hard I try to objectively evaluate myself, Monster, results, etc, I am also always driven by ambition. I want a specific result. How much am I influenced by that in my evaluations?

Don't you trust me?

Teach, you need to teleport up here and help us out! An objective view is sorely needed. I'm all alone up here... ("Try a shock collar!" I was told today. And then they stop listening when I patiently(?) try to explain why that's a terrible idea.)

What's that now? "Shock collar"? Fine with me - I'm the one holding the remote and they're the ones wearing the collar, right?

I would like to try some setups, I think... I would like to encounter people (with and without dogs) at various distances, moving and standing still, in our path and off to the side... But there is no one here to ask - no one who wouldn't use aggression and intimidation on Monster if he should approach them. And that's not a variation of setup I feel ready for. Not because I'm sure it would go badly - I'd estimate perhaps 80% certainty that I'd still be able to call him away - but because it's a somewhat higher risk, and most of all because it's not the kind of experience which will aid Monster's progress...

Nah, what could possibly go wrong?! I'm a very stable dude! No bad experiences are going to influence me...

And since quoting Pratchett is a lot like that proverbial popcorn eating, here are a couple more I couldn't help myself from cramming in here...

A difference I often observe in traditional vs. positive dog trainers:
"The presence of those seeking the truth is infinitely to be preferred to those who think they’ve found it."
(Terry Pratchett)

And something for all of us to keep in mind:
"Sooner or later we're all someone's dog"
(Terry Pratchett)

 I had to put them last so I could stop myself from just writing more and more by quickly pressing "publ

"Hubris Calls for Nemesis...

... and in one form or another it's going to get it, not as a punishment from outside but as the completion of a pattern already started."
(Mary Midgley)

We're enjoying the (comparative) freedom up here, Monster running around free of the leash every day - something he never gets to do back home - and me laughing at his antics and finding pleasure in how responsive and focused on me he is. But... The reason he gets to run around off leash is because there's a much (much!) smaller risk of encountering anyone else on our walks (animal, human or vehicle). The reason is not because I think he's magically "cured" here. In other words, I'm relying on the environment to accommodate his issues. But how does it affect me that it does? Because Monster has been off leash daily since we got here, for hours, and every time all goes well. I find myself expecting it to go well, taking greater and greater risks. And naming the beast ("hubris") does not seem to grant me control over it...

Woohoo, why would you want control!?

 


Last night Mom (my mom; Monstermom's mom - this alias business can get confusing if you don't think things through before you set them apparently) wanted to go out and pick some berries. Since she has trouble with her hips and can't negotiate off road terrain very well we needed to stick very close to civilization. We brought her dog Dory and Monster along (I shouldn't have agreed to this, she has zero control over her and while Dory's quite friendly to others she will approach them, and Monster tends to follow her around everywhere). I kept wanting to move further from the road - Mom could stay where she was, a mere two-three meters from the road, but I wanted to take the dogs further into the forest so I could have some time to react in case someone turned up on the road - but Dory would stay with Mom and Monster would drift back toward them over and over again. Instead of realizing that the situation was out of control and calling it quits (leaving or putting one or both dogs in the car), I just muttered, rolled my eyes, or something equally constructive, and just kept at it. I picked berries and kept half an eye on Monster, calling him back to me if I felt he strayed too far but accepting that he was quite a bit closer to the road than I was. And eventually what I knew/ should have known would happen, did happen. A man who walks his (reactive) dog along that road every evening, walked his dog along that road this evening as well. Who'd a thunk it!? I noticed both dogs perking up and taking an interest in the road, Dory setting off for it with Monster close behind. I couldn't see what they were reacting to but let out a loud "YIP!" (my sadly halfassed "emergency recall", nowhere near as well trained and religiously reinforced as it should be, as well as being way, waaaaaaaay overused) to call Monster back - and he turned on the spot, thundering back to me with ears and jowls flapping in the wind! Perhaps he hadn't realized there was someone on the road, simply following his friend's interest rather than being interested himself? But no, when I recalled Monster the man approaching us called out to us too, to inform us he was coming up on us with a dog. I saw Monster notice his voice, but while he glanced in that direction he didn't hesitate for even half a step. He ran straight to me, and sat down at my feet when asked. Of course, as soon as I clipped the leash on him he lost the plot completely, lunging and raging at the man and dog passing by (by then visible from where I was standing too). So what does this mean? Was it a good thing or a bad thing? Well, good things:

• Monster showed a near perfect response to recall, to the point of leaving his friend who was running in the opposite direction
• He showed zero aggression while off leash
• Even with a fairly strong distraction (the man calling out to us) Monster remained focused on me
• While he was by then tense, staring at the man and dog visible on the road, he allowed me to clip the leash on
• ... I suppose it could be a good thing Mom got to see Monster's bad side, as she generally tends to think I'm exaggerating the problem (and takes him out for walks if I'm not looking!) ?

Not so good things:

• As soon as he was on leash he tried really hard to live up to his name
• My complete lack of judgment, putting us in the situation to begin with
• It took some time to calm him back down again
• The good points above

Wait, what? Why are the good points bad? Well, here we return to the point of this post: hubris. It all went well after all, right? Even in this potentially disastrous situation it was an utter piece of cake to control Monster! Surely I can relax and allow us both greater freedoms - what problems there may be, I can handle. Right? Right, let's go for that date with Nemesis right away, shall we?

Bah! I ain't scared!

But the problem is as I've already said, even though I can see my own hubris I can't control it. I think it's driven as much by desire as success, in that I want Monster to have more freedom so what successes we find have a squared effect on me. A lot of people with a fairly limited experience with reactive dogs (as in they used to have/know a dog who lunged on leash, they tried something or other and the "problem" stopped - they must be masterful dog trainers! ... I used to be one of those "helpful" know it alls...) will claim that the greater part of the problem is the handler's expectations - you expect the dog to react negatively and convey this with your body language, thus causing the dog to react negatively. I'm sure there's some truth to this, but with so many other things it's greatly exaggerated. I expect Monster to do splendidly, I really do. Every time we have a failed encounter of some kind, I'm surprised. The (or at least a) definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result; this may be slightly different in someone else (Monster) keeps doing the same thing in the same situation (reacting with demonstrative aggression to triggers) and I never expect it, but I think it could work as a definition too... I've been aware of this ridiculous optimism before (I consider myself a skeptic by nature while those around me describe me as a gloomy pessimist, so it's rather glaringly out of character), but now! Things just keep going well, even in situations where I find myself breathing a sigh of relief afterwards when I think about all that could have gone wrong, nothing does go wrong. So this stubborn streak of overestimation of chances, underestimation of risks just gets encouraged.

Good!

Maybe you're wondering why that's even a problem, since things are after all going well? See the quote up top. While I'm strangely optimistic in the moment I am aware of Monster's issues being quite real when I'm not in the moment (and usually about .0001 seconds into the moment as well). He is insecure around strangers, he does use aggression to get distance from triggers when he's restrained, and I don't have sufficient control over him to safely have him off leash around strong distractions - he's barely even trained at all around distractions, after all. So I'm taking risks I shouldn't. And I do it anyway. Admitting you have a problem may be the first step towards solving the problem, but it's not a very big step, is it?

I think you're exaggerating these so called "risks". And MonsterGran's with me on this!

I've been meaning to film a walk we take daily, a short one around half an hour, along a fairly deserted road (from the cottage where we're staying to my parent's house) - I realize it's about as boring a film as anyone (other than me) could ever see, but hey, my blog remember? I want to see/show how well he listens to me off leash, how far he ranges from me, how well he responds to recall and other commands, and, perhaps most of all, how well I pay attention to him and encourage good behavior (like checking in). Today I did, and of course it turned out not very typical at all! For one thing Monster was quite bad at keeping the "by me" command (a very loose "heel", where he just needs to keep kinda, sorta by my side), something I've been very happy with so far. But today, nope, wouldn't stay by me for more than a couple of seconds at a time... Maybe that's just because I had to make a more objective evaluation of his behavior, now that I have video evidence? But I don't think so, Monster has truly been performing "by me" in an exemplary way up here, I've been using it a lot (instead of leashing him around blind corners or cross roads, where I usually would) and I've been paying close attention to his performance. On this point I think we were simply having a bad day... Or!? Idea... Perhaps I wasn't communicating with him as well as usual, with my attention (at least partially) on the camera all the time? Was he simply responding to/mirroring my distraction?

I can't see you!

Another thing I reacted to was how much I used corrections with him, and this may genuinely be something I'm guilty of and didn't know before I found a new way of observing myself... Or, possibly it's another effect of being unfocused, defaulting back to old behaviors? Maybe a bit of both. Something to pay more attention to, in any case. (The corrections I'm talking about are simply verbal corrections, lowering my pitch slightly if he doesn't listen or breaks position, sharpen a command to stay if he doesn't stop right away, that sort of thing. From what I can tell it didn't have much of an effect but they were automatic and not something I was doing deliberately. At no point did I use anything stronger than verbal corrections, but I did natter on with those quite a lot...)

I tell you to: STOP! that nonsense...

I also meant to show/see how often I missed Monster seeking contact with me, by a glance or simply by angling his ears back to check for me (he spends most of the time ranging ahead). I mean to encourage all such contact, but I think I miss a lot of it. But today there were few glances (and I think I caught most of them - although I was quite late on many of them), and he kept his ears trained on me more or less nonstop! Perhaps this also was due to the activity of filming him changing my general behavior?

Hellooooo? Anybody home?!

On top of this, we wound up with a couple of surprises along the way. First it turned out there were people picking berries beside the road, Monster was behaving a little "off", showing me he was picking up on something, but I didn't figure out what it was until we came across their ATV parked on the side of the road. Monster didn't leave the road and seek them out, which is of course great - I've wondered if he'd be confrontational if we'd come across pickers ("gatherers"?), especially in areas we visit every day where he can be expected to feel slightly more at home, since there are quite a few of them to be found in the area at this time of year (I've been picking mountains of chanterelles myself, yum!), so I'm happy to see he stayed with me. Maybe he didn't notice them? No, I think he certainly did, as I knew he was reacting to something before I spotted the ATV.

There's something going on over there...

And immediately after we'd inspected the ATV (I let Monster walk up to it and take a look, as all changes and new things are a problem for him) we met a woman walking a dog coming toward us. I don't know if Monster noticed them, I'm fairly sure he didn't (I haven't watched that far on the video yet, maybe I can tell from that), but by then he was on leash already - I leashed him when we spotted the ATV - and he turned immediately when I told him we were going back. We headed off road slightly and let the woman and dog pass by, by then I know he at least saw her (we also called out a greeting to each other) but I don't think he could see the dog over the tall ferns. Either way he handled it very well, calmly curious more than anything else, although he was a bit eager to sniff their trail as we moved up on the road again.

We should be walking in the other direction if we're to catch up with them...

So not our regular walk after all. But probably not an interesting show for anyone (else), I do realize that! Still, that wouldn't keep me from posting it... But it turns out to be completely impossible, since it would take about a day - or more - to upload it, and would use up a lot more than the monthly GB allotment this Internet connection allows! So, you will tragically have to wait for this riveting watch until we return to civilization.

Poor you! I'm so photogenic!

And on that note, it's time to leave you. (Apparently the cows have gone through the fence again. How fun.) A final word of wisdom: enjoy your Internet connections - you don't know how good you have it...

The cows? They're loose!? I'm staying right here until you've fenced them in again...

(Disclaimer: this is a fairly long text - sorry about that - and I haven't the time to read through it for mistakes or off topic - hah! - so it's quite possibly even more unreadable than usual. And there aren't even any new Monster pics to sweeten things up, thanks to the dearth of Internet here. But, you know, the cows are loose, deal with it.)

Disaster Strikes

I've had a fear for quite a while now - one of those "OMG, what if!?" thoughts you scare yourself with when you're having a bad day - and yesterday it happened... Out on a walk with Monster, I jumped over a ditch. Or rather, tried to jump over a ditch. I misjudged the landing, and broke my ankle. Let me tell you something: I screamed... And once I'd calmed down a bit and tried to relax, I tried to get up - it could have been just a bad sprain after all, nevermind the unpleasant crunching sound - and screamed some more as I fell down again. That leg was not going to participate.

That was a very strange game, Mom... And you were very loud.

Fortunately I'd brought my phone - something I usually forget - and called my sister once I'd stopped crying. I needed her to take Monster, that was my first priority. With Monster along with me, no way can I call an ambulance, I can't get help from strangers out walking, I have to get him secure. So my sister said she was coming (after some disbelieving "You did what!?"), and I proceeded to crawl away. I wanted to get up to the road so she could pick us up. Let me tell you, that hurt. And Monster was very confused by this strange new game we were apparently playing, wanting to get in my face, check out what I was doing, fetching sticks to play with - and getting the leash tangled around my leg. So there was some screaming directed at Monster as well. I knew I was being very unfair - he had no idea what was going on - and that the screaming and shouting would do nothing to calm him down, but I wasn't entirely able to act rationally by then.

Yeah, you were super weird...

I crawled for about 20 minutes before I realized I wouldn't be able to reach the road. It hurt far too much, not to mention I was crawling through thorns and had cut up my hands and knees pretty badly by then... Fortunately I was fairly close to a tractor lane, so I crawled out into a small field and directed my sister to try to drive down there, and sat down to wait. Monster thought that was a great idea, he had a good view of a couple of bike paths and could watch people pass by at a distance. Some people let their freerunning dog a little too close to us, but overall it went pretty well. I had a bag of turkey meat with me that I sprinkled around from time to time to keep Monster busy.

That was a nice break, we should do that more often!

When my sister turned up I had to crawl over and load Monster into her car - when she tried he first backed away, and when she insisted he laid down and pretended to be dead... Then I had to load myself into the car, and I'll spare you a description of the sounds I made for that little adventure. We decided the best thing was to leave Monster in my sister's car while I was at the hospital (I think my sister - who's broken both her ankles in the past - suspected I wouldn't be released right away) and headed off into town. I wound up spending seven and a half hours in the orthopedic ER, but I didn't need surgery! The doctor said I had a "very funny fracture". I'm not laughing, let me tell you...

I don't get the joke...?

So, part one of my nightmare scenario turned out OK: I had my phone with me, so I could call for help, and I was released from the hospital. Unfortunately, there's not much variation possible for part two: I'm in a cast. I can't walk. I can't drive. I live alone. How am I going to take care of Monster for the next two months!? My sister says she'll drive over and walk him for me, at least a short walk once a day. That's very generous of her. Unfortunately she's a firm believer in dominance theory and corrections, and we got into a fight on the way home from the hospital (talk about fighting from a disadvantage considering how much she'd done for me that day) about how Monster is clearly very dominant, since he lifted his leg veeeeeery high when she took him out of the car to pee...

Say what now?

But the bottom line is I don't know what to do. I can't walk him, not even a very short distance. I took him out last night for his evening pee and walked about five meters out, five back - then I threw up and fell over, in a cold sweat and blackening vision. It hurts. This morning I put him on a long line and sat down in the door and just let him walk himself over to a nice corner. I can't do that for two months, he'll go stir crazy. I wish I had spent some of those "OMG, what if!?"-moments actually coming up with a brilliant plan for this situation. But I didn't. And I can't find one now. If anyone has an idea, I'd be happy to hear it...

Happy, Happy Day!

I've just had the most wonderful experience with Monster! We've gone for a walk along with a Big Bad! Successfully!

Big What? What are you talking about? What!? ME?!?

That's right, Dobie. Monster and Dobie have been kept apart for quite a while now, since Dobie just wouldn't stop attacking Monster... What little they've seen of each other at a distance has been filled with hostile posturing and outright aggression. But tonight we went for a walk. And do you know who had the most problems with this? Dobie! That's right, Monster for the win!

And the crowd goes wild!

While I won't claim Monster was entirely relaxed, the one who dictated distance was Dobie. At the distance (15-20 feet) where Dobie could walk under some control, while still staring and occasionally lunging slightly at Monster, Monster was walking on a relaxed full length leash, sniffing the ground and busily ignoring Dobie altogether. How about that, people!

What're you so excited about? Nothing to it, really...

He did have a bit of a problem when we walked along a tractor lane for a couple of minutes. I've no idea what that was about, but while we were on that lane we had to increase the distance to nearly 50 feet or Monster would turn on Dobie quite aggressively. But as soon as we turned onto another road, the behavior was completely gone again! Weird...

You only say that cause you're not a dog... You just don't get it!

Now, I know Dobie is - in spite of all the problems associated with him - not the same as a strange dog. And I also know that what I'm so excited about as a successful walk would be a complete nightmare to someone else. But for me, this was really amazing! Unless you've struggled with something like this, you just don't know how depressing it gets sometimes... Tonight gave me a much needed glimpse of a light at the end of the tunnel, and it's such a high you would never believe it if I tried telling you. So I won't. But still. Such a high!

Uh-huh... Could you wind down now? I want to take a nap...

Such a high, people! Like you wouldn't believe...

Today's Cloud

Less than one minute after my brother entered the house, he squared off against an overexcited Monster and growled at him to -Cut it out!

Whaaaaat? Are you joking? Are you threatening me? I think I'd better react to both possibilities simultaneously.

So I asked Roar to please be mindful of not frightening the dog (who was by then bouncing up and down trying to get in Roar's face), while trying to distract and calm Monster down. Unfortunately, my brother appears to have heard this as "Please grab the dog by the neck and tell him off more sternly, and then try to grab him around the muzzle when he comes close again"...

Not sure how I could have mumbled so badly that that's what it sounded like?

Well, you work with what you've got instead of wishing you had something else. After leashing Monster and getting my brother to sit down for a while (not by telling him to do so, as that would most likely result in him starting a wrestling match with Monster, but by bribing him with coffee), things calmed down again. I don't know how long it'll last, but it's not a disaster it's just an opportunity. For what, I'm not sure, but I'm determined not to get bogged down in "if only" and "I wish".

Suck it up and deal with it!

Look, I know you're dumb... But you've got to know you're not fooling anyone - not even yourself, easy as that should be.

Today's Cloud

While out on our walk today, we happened to meet Boots again. You remember him, the man who lets his two dogs play with Monster (and thinks I'm vastly exaggerating Monster's issues).

Hello, remember me?

Apparently there's a family down the street with two dogs with some aggression issues, and Boots has volunteered to straighten them out. Personally I don't really see the point in having someone else work your dog for you, I don't think that will fix much, plus the methods used aren't the kind I'd recommend. But they are trying something after all, and I certainly can't demonstrate an amazing result from my convictions (yet), so to each their own.

However, Boots was walking one of these dogs today along with his own two. She's an older bitch, a little smaller than Monster, and apparently known as the scourge of the village 2nd to Monster (I've never noticed her, but I kind of have my mind on Monster when we're out, especially if there are other dogs around). Boots first walked up to us and introduced the dogs to each other, and then joined us on the path we were walking. My concerns at Monster's clearly stressed behavior went, I believe, completely unheard. Both Monster and the new dog were very explosive in their movements, they were playing - mostly - but in a way I consider unhealthy. Boots quickly let all his dogs off leash, and when we reached an open area expected me to do the same. This I completely refused. As we were talking we'd stopped walking, and I noticed some tension between the new dog and one of Boots' dogs. I pointed this out, but he believed they were playing. Things escalated into a staring match across a water filled ditch, with very tense body language, no blinking and lips pulled back. Monster became very agitated by the behavior of this new dog. She wasn't challenging him, but he clearly didn't care about the finer points. I pointed out that things were about to go south with my dog, regardless of whether he thought things were fine in his group. He told all the dogs to knock it off (further agitating Monster, but that's of course not something I expect people to make allowances for), and sent them out into a field. There the new dog began chasing Boots' dog, in a way which did not appear friendly, but he remained convinced they were fine. While I was trying to point out the situation as I saw it, the two dogs finally clashed and went down in a cloud of teeth and snarling. Monster went from "I don't like this." to "Alright, time to die!"...

Boots soon managed to separate the dogs, but Monster was beyond calming down at that point. Boots kept putting himself between Monster and the new dog, and I had to keep asking him to move as this only served to agitate Monster further and risked Boots getting bitten. The new dog was still off leash, and came up to Monster repeatedly, so I had to struggle with holding him so he couldn't get to her. I tried to explain to Boots that he really needed to keep her away from us, because Monster had taken quite a bit of offense at her attacking a friend of his, and there really was a danger he would hurt her. We finally parted ways there, and I dragged Monster off into a tractor track.

Oh, looks so nice and peaceful...

In situations like this I get quite frustrated that I can't raise my voice or be more assertive. But once Monster has started spiraling, if I sound or act anything other than calm and sweet he's going to lose it completely.

I'm sure Boots is a very nice man, and I'm sure he genuinely feels I'm handling Monster completely wrong. But that's probably part of the problem, because I feel his methods are wrong, and I think we keep talking past each other...

Anyway, once we'd put some distance between us and the gang, I just stopped in place and waited for Monster to calm down. It took about ten minutes, but he did eventually sit down, sigh, and look at me. Time well spent I think. After that he was almost as usual on the walk, except for when we were almost home and he spotted Boots and the dogs again a few streets over. Alert! Alert! Oh well, no crying over spilled milk.
(But I should learn to stop spilling it, though...)

Check This Out!

I just found a goldmine!

Behavior.org | Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies

This seems like a great resource. I've only browsed around a little so far, but I think I'll be able to find lots of interesting things here. Hopefully it'll at least help me understand enough to make it easier to continue learning more.

It'll be nice to have some more solid sources than silly little books about being nice to the poor little puppy (not my words), and shove them down the throats of the "one good correction will teach him his place"-people!
(Hello, there's that aggressive primate.)

Shaping Is Fun! (aka Today's Sunshine)

Monster and I have been working more on base position through shaping using a platform (I told you about this yesterday, keep up). While it's still far from complete, I finally get the charm of shaping!

Shaping has never really worked for us before. If Monster isn't being given cues and guidance, he'll just shut down. I assume this is a result from our unfortunate time of correction based training, and I'd more or less given up on Monster ever conquering this. As I told you yesterday, he did the same when I first introduced the box. Instead of experimenting and offering up a score of behaviors to try to find the right one, as you read about in all those smug, braggy (not really, I'm just jealous) explanations of shaping, he'll just become passive and either wander off or lie down and look at me mournfully.

But now! As soon as I walk near the box, he'll do an amazing flying stomp to get on it and then look at me expectantly. It's so great it's actually making me tear up! (I've had to put the box away when we're not training now, since he just won't leave it alone.)

Well, click already!

I've tried to use the camera to capture it, but it's really hard since the focus still has to be on Monster and rewarding everything he does right. However, I discovered something today I just had to share. Well, I've noticed it before of course, I expect everyone has. Tail position. Yeah, advanced stuff, right? But see, while I know dogs "talk" with their tails, and I can read Monster fairly well, today's training really drove home how precise it is, and how much it tells me about how the training is going. I couldn't catch an example of everything, so I'm using some other photos too. Check this out:

*Should be a photo here, but I don't have one. It looks almost identical to the next one, except the tail is limp and close to the body.*

Above should be an illustration of what it looks like when he doesn't understand, and is also unmotivated to try, perhaps even a bit uncomfortable. This would be how he looked when I first put the box in front of him and he shut down.

I don't get it...

Here his tail is pretty low, but he's holding it a bit out from his body. It says he's interested in the situation, but has no clue what's going on. This is what his tail looked like when he first started interacting with the box at all.

Hang on...

Here his tail is stiffer, and he's holding it out even further. This means he's fully engaged and actively trying to figure out what pays.

All right!

This tail is held almost straight out (looks like he has gas), and means he's really thinking. Once he's reached this position, he's working hard and figuring stuff out and learning. And enjoying himself!

Not sure if I'm doing this right, but who cares - it's fun!

Once the tail goes higher, it means he's either so sure of the behavior he no longer has to think about it, or he's become exhausted and can no longer focus. In either case, he becomes goofy instead of concentrating.

I rule the world!

And once it's high and tense, there's just no hope of working with him, he'll just jump, bark and be generally obnoxious. Too stressed.

I find that I get the best results if I try to keep him going between "Hang on..." and "All right!". If he goes lower than "Hang on..." it means he's not understanding, and if he goes higher than "All right!" it means he's either learned it already and isn't being challenged, or I've worked him too hard for too long and he's stressed out.

Our result from today is that Monster now realizes that the reward comes for moving his back paws, he'll now step around the box with his back paws while keeping his front paws on the box (and occasionally falling off).

So tomorrow - no scratch that. No planning while Dobie is here. Next time I'll try to get him to seek base position next to me, and follow me when I move away. We'll see.

But honestly, even if he never gets base position, I don't care because this has been an awesome experience!

(No, not really. He has to get good base position for us to be able to do pretty much anything... But you know what I mean.)

I've been working hard today!

Why Go Hard?

I brought my puppy home in the usual way - filled with grandiose plans for our future! I grew up with a fairly old school view of how to handle dogs. Dog is wolf, wolf is pack animal, pack is hierarchy = put dog on bottom of family pack hierarchy. Simple, right?

Weeeeell, if you think about it some things start to look a bit weak though. Especially about the clear hierarchical structure of a natural wolf pack, and how that translates to walking first, eating first, and so on. Wolves aren't stupid, and the whole point of living in a pack structure is to benefit from each other. So, is it somehow the case that there are some kinds of super wolves out there, that are the best at everything and are born leaders? Or is it the case that even if the alpha is a worse tracker than the omega (or beta, or gamma, or...), the alpha must walk first - or lose status and risk a coup? It seems to me, that the reasonable thing to do is let the one who's best at tracking walk in front. But if he's also small and can't bring down anything bigger than a rabbit, you might want to switch who's walking first once you catch up to the buffalo he so masterfully tracked. Perhaps they should have a quick fight about it though, just to make sure everyone knows who's leading the pack...

Woohoo, I'm first!

Alright, so it's not quite that simple, and perhaps not quite that stupid. But serious arguments have been made that the early research done on society and behavior in wolf packs, the observations which formed the base of old school thinking and which can be said to have penetrated our culture completely by now (go read a book about werewolves and the handsome alpha males who lead them!), was badly flawed. The studied wolves were in captivity, not in their natural habitat, and it follows that any displayed behavior may not have been natural in turn. Later studies of wild wolves in their natural habitat have shown different results.

Not to mention, dogs aren't wolves. They're. Not. Wolves. Do you actually believe that if you take in a wolf cub and raise it like a puppy, it will behave like a dog? It won't. Because dogs and wolves are not the same.

So why do people buy into it? I did, and I'm not sure I've completely abandoned every aspect of it yet. I think the main reason to believe in and use old school dominance ideas is the immediate result. You correct a dog displaying a bad behavior, and odds are he'll stop it right away. That's great!

Head in the sand is for dummies!

So why not use it and stick to it? Because you think of it as telling your dog "stop doing that", when what you're telling him is "if you do x something bad happens". You can't really be sure exactly what x is going to be for him. That's why trainers using correction emphasize timing so much - if your timing is off you're creating a bad association to the wrong thing, sometimes with very bad results.

Another reason, which Monster has shown me so very clearly, is that exposing your dog to discomfort makes him more used to discomfort. Next time you need to correct your dog you may find it requires a much stronger correction than before. Now, some trainers recommend you to go all out from the start. If you want to correct your dog, do it guns blazing - that way he won't gradually get used to it. But he will. You won't necessarily see it until he's reached the threshold, but once you're there what are you going to do? Many grit their teeth and allow themselves to make the correction even stronger (because it used to work, dammit!), pushing the next threshold crossing into the future. Dogs don't live that long, right?

Another risk you're taking is that corrections are likely to make your dog uncertain and passive. These can be seen as great things for the human (when the effects are moderate)! It means the dog is much less likely to make mischief, he'll stick to you and when not given a command he'll tend to go lie down. Makes life simple. But he's sticking to you because he has no confidence, and he's staying put because he's worried if he tries something he hasn't been told to, things will go badly for him... Nice for a comfy human, hell for an active dog.

*And as I'm writing this my Monster chose to help me illustrate this point with an example. He went and made a phone call, just for fun. This isn't a trick anyone's taught him, he came up with it himself. He'll walk over to the phone, push the handset off its cradle, and mash the buttons a few times with his paw. Then he'll listen, hoping someone picks up. He started doing it when he was young, and while I don't think it's a very good idea (he might scare or irritate the people he's calling, for example) I've never corrected him for it. I've moved the phone to make it harder for him to reach it, and I've made sure to be observant and stop him if he starts doing it anyway, but I've never told him off. When I moved into the more correction heavy methods of dealing with him, though, this behavior stopped completely. I had formed no negative association to the phone for him, but the general use of corrections made him passive and unwilling to volunteer behavior and experiment with his surroundings. Today was the first time he returned to it again, after I stopped the corrections a couple of months ago. It's very encouraging to see that he's bouncing back.

Sure, having your dog use the phone is impractical to say the least, but aren't you also a bit amazed at his ingenuity? Would you really like to miss out on your dog doing something equally amazing, just so you can cling to using corrections?

Correcting your dog for bad behavior also means he just won't like and trust you as much. I'm not saying your dog doesn't love you, I'm sure he does (sleep with one eye open). I'm just saying you're not just the greatest thing since cat leashes (seriously, you might want to lock your bedroom door), you're also a source of discomfort. No matter how "right" you do the correcting (it's not a punishment, its a consequence; your timing is impeccable; you never threaten, you just correct; you never lose your temper, etc), your dog is not an idiot - he knows you're the one causing the discomfort. He may not hate you for it (quick, look behind you!), but the whole point of correcting bad behavior is to create an association between the behavior and the discomfort. That association, although weaker, will form to the person doing the correcting as well. But I'm sure your dog's brain works differently. (run away!)

For me, however, the strongest argument against using corrections is the thought behind it. You want the dog to form a negative association, "doing that is unpleasant". But it's not likely his thoughts are going to be that clear, and some (or even all) of that association will form to the trigger to his behavior! Meaning, if you correct your dog for barking at strangers, he may stop doing it. But he'll like strangers a lot less, and once something pushes him over into behaving badly at strangers again (bad day, got yelled at for pushing a vase over, feeling a bit sick, unusually suspicious looking stranger, anything really) he may not just bark any more. After all, strangers make bad things happen to him...

In our case, I corrected Monster for his behavior towards dogs. I had a good trainer demonstrate the when and the how (I'd used mild corrections before that, like telling him off and grabbing him by his neck, but he had never so much as blinked at those), and it worked! I timed the correction perfectly, I made it unpleasant enough that he immediately responded to it, and our walks became blissfully peaceful... For a while. Soon I noticed Monster starting to get tense when another dog approached. Every sighting of dogs made him react earlier and stronger, until he snapped and started his earlier aggressive behavior again. Only much, much worse. Going outside became impossible, we had to go for walks in the middle of the night, or drive off to the remotest areas I could find. Getting Monster into the car meant first going out to scout the area so no dog would turn up while I was loading him.

Monster had stopped showing agggression towards other dogs when I corrected him. But the reason for his behavior, the thought in his head going something like "Other dogs are a threat, keep at distance!" was not only still there, it was reinforced! Clearly dogs were bad, bad things kept happening when they were around. So the pressure to act on his feelings built, and eventually he snapped.

Do you want your dog to hate and/or fear the triggers to his bad behavior?

Dogs are individuals, they respond differently to things, and they also show their responses differently. For lots of people the dominate and correct will work - or seem to be working depending on your viewpoint - perhaps for the dog's entire life. That doesn't mean it's right, it just means your brain likes patterns and causality, and humans form associations as well as dogs.

Why are you being so mean?

I'm not saying it doesn't work, I'm saying it doesn't work the way most people think it does.

Does pain teach?

Sure it does. But what, and do you want that taught?

[Clarification: when I use the word "pain" I'm not making the claim that the old school way of raising and training your dog means hurting it. I'm using the word as an oversimplification to make a point. The idea behind old school correction is to cause discomfort, physical and/or psychological, when the dog is doing something undesireable. It's not to hurt the dog for funsies, because old schoolers are sadistic serial killers in training, all right? These corrections can be anything from a stern voiced and sharp no to actual physical pain, usually graded to the offense so mischief barking may get a no, while chasing the cat may get an "alpha roll". And all people are individuals, so no two old schoolers correct in the same way.

There is also some debate about whether dogs are as sensitive to pain as humans, meaning the line between causing the dog discomfort and causing him pain is also not clear.

So why do I use the word pain? Because of what pain is. Pain is a discomfort signal, it's the body telling us "wrong". What is pain to one person barely registers with another, but most of us feel it at some point. Whether a correction is registered as pain or not, it fills the function of pain. When a child puts its hand on a hot plate it hurts, meaning the body is saying "wrong, don't do that", and when we tug the leash or "bite" the neck of the dog stealing from the table we're telling him "wrong, don't do that".

Old school dog training contains the potential for causing the dog (mild) pain, but certainly many who train their dogs in this way never actually use pain.

Just to be extra clear - old school dog training does not mean hitting the dog! I don't believe that it does, I'm not claiming that it does. Some do knowingly cause some pain to get the dog to cease a particularly bad behavior, but the point isn't to harm the dog. People who do this (for training purposes, not as a way to vent frustration) love their dogs too, it is an attempt to help the dog (if done right). I don't condemn people who use physical correction - up to a point. I just think they're barking up the wrong tree.]

Now, first of all, I'm not any kind of expert. I'm not claiming I have experienced all facets of the different schools of thought on dog training. All I can offer is my own view, based on my own experiences, prejudices and misunderstandings. Let's face it, I'm probably wrong, right? I don't have a problem with that, simply because I don't believe any of us have a clear, objective view of  anything. We filter the world through ourselves, all anyone can tell you is what it looks like to them.

Or maybe you do know it all?

What the truth looks like to me is this: I used to believe in the dominance/leadership "old school" stuff. Not to the extremes, I never believed you should abuse your dog to "teach him a lesson" or whatever rabid notions some (thankfully a minority) of the followers of this philosophy claim. I did believe, however, that it's important to be the leader, to dominate your dog, that the natural way to keep order with a dog in a human household was to always reinforce that he was at the bottom of the pack. I also believed that causing discomfort (i.e. correcting, for example through a short, sharp tug on the leash) the dog for incorrect behavior was the responsible and smart thing to do.

Go ahead, make my day!

You need to have an obedient dog, you need to be able to control him. Punishing bad behavior makes sense!

However, my views have changed. While I do still believe that punishment can work, I no longer think it's a good idea to use it. Not because I'm such a nice person, who just doesn't want to be mean to the widdle cuddly-wuddly doggies. No, to be honest: if I could have a guarantee that if I use one extremely hard correction (we're talking real pain here, electric shock, whatever) once, Monster would be cured, I'd probably do it and I wouldn't feel bad about it. Being an aggressive dog hurts Monster too, not just his surroundings - fixing the problem would be worth nearly anything!

But I have tried correcting him, I have had trainers correct him, and I believe I'm fairly clear sighted when I tell you it wasn't just useless, it made things worse. Sure, for a few weeks after getting help from a correction-heavy old school trainer, Monster was better. In fact, we could pass other dogs on the street without him putting a paw out of place. But it cost us. Not only did he become much more reluctant in all training, even his favorite activities like tracking, but also the correction "cost" kept going up. He was easier to handle in most situations, but if he did start to react to something stopping him demanded greater and greater corrections. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that if you keep going down that route you'll eventually wind up having to use too much force for your own comfort - no matter where you draw the line. You may think I'm too soft to do it correctly, that you would be willing to "do it right". Sure, it's pretty much guaranteed that there will be people who are "tougher" than I am, but my point isn't that you need to be callous and hard to be so cruel as to correct a dog - it's that you're entering a bad cycle where correction makes the dog harder, a harder dog requires a greater correction, which makes the dog harder, which... Well, you get where I'm going. For many dogs it still works, because they're less extreme. They don't have many strong behaviors that need to be corrected, and more importantly they take rather small steps up the hardening ladder. Monster is an individual who climbs up that ladder as if there's a chew toy at the top, which means correcting him is a bad idea.

Alright, let's see what you're made of...

But the point I'm really trying to make - in spite of telling you I'm aware I know nothing and am probably wrong - is that I actually think correcting any dog is a bad idea. No matter if it seems to be working for you, it just means your climb up the ladder of escalating corrections is slower than ours. So you may never reach the point where it's no longer possible (much less ethical) to use corrections. But does that really mean that it's working, or are you only pushing your problems forward and hoping you'll never catch up with them?

Maybe those clicker hippies got to me after all...