My niche has always been working with the weirdo dogs; the Mexican street dogs, herding breeds, reactive dogs and all that take on angst living in our modern world. Jill and I, through our Podcast Lift your Leg, have been talking about this.
To train any dog correctly we must understand the emotion behind the behaviour. For instance, if I am working with a dog bothered by loud traffic and gets tense, then sees a dog in the distance, its a fairly certain bet he will release his pressure on the incoming dog in the form of a lunge. He is ultimately feeling overwhelmed from the traffic, and as I walk closer to the incoming dog, if my response in any way adds to his feeling of being overwhelmed. that will be enough to make him lose it.
However, knowing this, my job is to make him feel LESS overwhelmed. In some way I need to relieve his angst. To do this, you need to know that dogs's personality a bit. Does this dog have a sense of humour so that I can lighten him up that way? Or if I talk very calmly. can I then use my voice to help him relax and let it go? If I give him more freedom in the leash, will that be enough for him to let it go?
I train a lot through latent learning and will demo the correct response for a situation. If they are feeling totally overwhelmed because of all the sensory noise ' and movement from the traffic, they begin to feel like Chicken Little and believe the sky is falling. At this point the tiniest added stress is much more than they can cope with.
If through my own response I show me relaxed, with calm, normal handling, and a relaxed voice that shows no adrenalin or alarm, they will probably let it go. If however, I show any speed in my reaction, showing that I too am adrenalized, I confirm their darkest fear that the sky is indeed falling. This is one example of how sensory dogs see the world. An outside stimuli bothers them, they take it in, then explode on something else. More often than not the way to retraining these dogs is to teach them to lighten up. Not only do they need to lighten up, but we must demonstrate through our own responses that the sky is not falling, show them that we understand their struggle + coach them out of it.
Sometimes neither of these will be possible until other training is done, but ultimately, there is no permanent fix for the situation until you change the original emotion behind the behaviour.
In conjunction to this, once we have a relationship with them and they believe what we say, we must start increasing their tolerance to outside stimuli, which is my building bravery class. In a weekly class of madness + chaos, these dogs learn to laugh and lighten up rather than always being suspicious and offended.
I do believe that this group of dogs are the most misunderstood and failed the most. More rules and structure makes them even less free in their brains, making them even more aware and mentally tortured by noises, movement, tight spaces or touch.
These dogs need mental freedom and for us to teach them to lighten up. It sounds so simple, and it really is once you understand them.
Monique Anstee
Victoria, B. C.
Author of As a Dog Thinketh and Lift Your Leg, the podcast.