Socialisation and fearfulness

[LesleyBrooks]

I have a rescue lab collie cross - I adopted him at 9.5 months old and have had him nearly 4 months now. Nothing suggests he had been physically abused, but it seems clear that he had no socialisation or training as a puppy. Meaning I have a fearful dog. He is getting much better with people, and loves being made a fuss of, but he throws a fear reaction when another dog is around (hackles up, pointing, lunging, barking) - this can make taking him for a walk very troublesome. I only go to places where dogs must be on leash, but it seems many people do not follow the rules/  Other than keeping on with the walks and teaching him that other leashed dogs are nothing to worry about - I didn't use to react at all just kept calmly walking, but then it was suggested I should give him a treat every time a dog is nearby to give him the sense that rather than being scared he will get a treat. I'm not convinced and it hasn't really worked. And I continue to be concerned about dogs who are not on leash running up at him.  I plan to follow your brain training through (as part collie he is very intelligent and as part lab he is very motivated by treats.  Can you suggest how best to socialisation him to other dogs?  He also barks at absolutely nothing, and gets very anxious when someone comes to the house.  Thanks,   Lesley

[Adrienne]

Hello and welcome to the forums,

I am glad to hear that he has improved with people and has starting to enjoy the attention from them. 

I have just a few questions so I can get a clearer picture of the situation. 

Where and by who was it suggested to you to give a treat every time a dog is nearby? 

Does he do well if he sees other dogs on leash? Or is it only with the dogs who come up too close that he struggles with? If so, do you know roughly at what distance he is likely to react?

Has he ever played or interacted with any dogs off leash? (not saying you must try this, only trying to understand how his social skills are off leash as some dogs struggle with other dogs only when they are leashed)

When you mention he absolutely barks at nothing, is it in the home or outside?

Thanks

 

[LesleyBrooks]

Great questions Adrienne, and thanks for the quick response.  You will see from my answers that Mac is a bit of an enigma. 

A trainer at Tararua All Breeds training club (New Zealand) suggested I give him a treat every time a dog is nearby to make him think dogs were good.  I have to say I thought it was odd at the time as I had always understood the best thing to do is to ignore and carry on with absolutely no reaction - no words, no tightening of the leash, no nervousness (which the dog will pick up).  Very keen to hear your thoughts on this.  He is getting better with dogs on a leash, say up to around 10m away - much closer than that and he gets nervous. When I first took him to training he could not cope at all, and the trainer advised me just to hang around the edge of the field - he now has a Halti nose collar which he hates and has managed to take off, so I am looking at the Halti harness.  I had him on a choke chain at first, but he really didn't care - he would just keep on pulling, and I didn't want to tug at him with the choke on. He is a dedicated and determined puller, when ever he pulls I simply stand still until he comes back to my side, and then we start again.  Some walks are literally one step at a time.

Here's the enigma - he goes to doggy day care twice a week and, after a challenging first few weeks, he is now okay with the other dogs - not all of them as the smaller dogs don't really like him - his manners are a work in progress.  But as soon as his lead is put on when I pick him up he changes and gets tricky - I don't want to say aggressive cos it really isn't, but its not quite fearful either - may I'd say its like making a point.  And yes, he barks at nothing at home.  He always lets me know when someone comes round, which is actually quite good as I live alone, and I'm in a rural situation, but every so often he barks at ghosts - I walk him around to show him nothing is wrong and he settles quite quickly.  Thinking about it its often when he rouse from a nap or quiet time. Though he barked furiously at the wood pile after it had been delivered, but he settled quickly once I walked him around it and let him sniff at the wood.  He sits quite happily now as I stack the wood into the shed.  No idea how he will behave when it gets colder and I set the fire (its a wood burner with a sturdy fireguard - I have a 2 year old grandson.

Mac isn't my first dog - I have previously had both a spoodle (I think they are called Cookapoos in the US) and a German shepherd, but Mac is my first rescue dog.  He's lovely, very loving, very intelligent and quick to learn albeit pretty headstrong, and I am sure that once I have sorted his problems he will be a fantastic dog.  I have started to introduce him to agility - just a small jump in my back garden, and it took him less that 5 minutes to learn "jump" - with clicker and treat as a reward. If I think about the 3 Ds - duration, distance and distraction - he sort of loses all training the minute he gets distracted - I put that down to him still being a puppy / adolescent - and I work mostly on the duration and distance training.

Still going through your Obedience 101 and enjoying the course so far - I am using the sit and down as reinforcement and have now started Leave It / Take It.  The lab in him is proving a challenge at the moment - but I am the collie will kick in soon.

I look forward to your response.  Apologies if this is a bit of a novel

Cheers,   Lesley

[Adrienne]

Thanks so much for the extra details as they are very helpful. The more details the better, so no worries, I like to read novels!

OK, so yes, I tend to agree with the trainer's approach of providing a treat every time he sees a dog. This is based on a powerful behavior modification method known as counterconditioning, which you can read more about here:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/counterconditioning/

The method of giving a treat upon spotting a dog in particular is based on the "look at that' (LAT) method which we have in intro here:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/university/look-at-that/

I also have a Pre-LAT method outlined here:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/pre-lat-look-behavior-modification/

The goal is to create positive associations to the point of obtaining what's known as a conditioned emotional response:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/conditioned-emotional-response-cer/

Here's is a case study using a form of LAT:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/case-studies/03-homer-homers-reactivity/

It sounds like you were introduced to this method, but the biggest problems with LAT is going too fast in the process, failing to provide structured settings and working with a dog who is too over threshold to be able to function at a cognitive level.  Avoiding these issues is therefore key. 

The structured settings require taking baby-steps and working on distance work, progressing only once a dog is comfortable at a certain level, recognizing early signs of stress and going a few steps back if there is a reaction. This is why along with counterconditioning (giving a treat every time the dog sees another dog, with the goal of creating a positive emotional response) we also want to add desensitization (baby steps, exposing him to dogs less than 10 meters away until he's fully comfortable with that distance before progressing to closer distances).  Here is a read on desensitization:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/desensitization/

With a good desensitization and counterconditioning plan in place, we should therefore be better able of keeping the dog under threshold:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/threshold-levels/

Off-leash dogs or people walking their dogs too closely can create a lot of disruption.  Avoiding such areas is important. If a dog though is heading our way and our dog isn't ready for that level of closeness, we can use what's known as an emergency u-turn:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/emergency-u-turn/

Now, it sounds like your dog is fearful towards other dogs, but it's also important ruling out something that is known as barrier frustration. In barrier frustration, we are dealing with dogs who get alone well with other dogs but mostly off leash. These dogs struggle when on leash due to their frustration of not being able to go meet and greet other dogs. This can cause them to put up quite a scary display (barking, growling, lunging). 

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/barrier-frustration/

The problem with barrier frustration is that it can look a lot like fearfulness, but since it's mostly a display of frustration, the treatment is different. 

In fearful, under socialized dogs, we aim to change the dog's emotional response though counterconditioning and desensitization (LAT exercises) as discussed above, whereas, in dogs with barrier frustration, we aim to train an alternate behavior to engage in and improve the dog's impulse control and frustration tolerance.

For example, with such dogs, I like to make a smacking sound and train them to perform several steps of attention heeling upon spotting another dog, versus just feeding them food for looking at another dog. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/obedience-101/heeling-attention-heeling/

Because these dogs aren't fearful, they don't really need  much of their emotions changed (through classical conditioning), but rather, they need to keep busy at a more operant level (operant conditioning). So we are a step ahead. 

Therefore, it would be important knowing whether you are truly dealing with fear-based behaviors or whether they are frustration-based behaviors. I would assume your trainer who has worked with your dog specifically could have obtained an insight on this, but sometimes it can be tricky due to the fact that it's mostly by looking at the dog's off leash history with other dogs that we can deduce a better picture. 

I will be tackling the other issues you have mentioned in the next post. 

 

[Adrienne]

Barking at nothing. It may often look like that, but dogs have a much more sensitive sense of hearing than us so it looks like there's nothing, but in most cases there is. If it's the wood pile, there may be some type of insect there (grasshoppers, or even termites, yes dogs can even detect those!) and he just needs your reassurance that you have taken notice of the ordeal and communicate to him that it's nothing to worry about.

It can also be that he doesn't like new things around the home. Like some dogs will bark at new packages or anything new or weird (Einstein as a puppy would bark at an upside down chair). If that's the case, we can turn any novelty into some training opportunity. For instance, we can place any new objects in the middle of the room and use our clicker to reward any investigative behaviors in incremental steps. Like, we can start by clicking and rewarding initially for just looking at the object, then for walking towards it, then for sniffing it etc etc. This is based on a training method known as "shaping" and you can see an example of this when I introduced Einstein to a ramp. 

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/video-archive/train-your-dog-to-use-a-ramp/

For the anxiety of people entering your home, you can see an example of behavior modification protocol I use to reduce it. It employs desensitization and counterconditioning methods as well. 

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/dog-barking-someone-enters-room/

Of course, working directly with a behavior professional is important for both safety and correct implementation. 

Hope this helps! I know this is a lot to absorb, but working in a step-by-step fashion can also help us too!

Let me know if you have any questions,

Best, 

Adrienne 

[LesleyBrooks]

Thank you so much - this is gold.  I will take time to read all your links and develop a plan of action. I feel more confident already

[Adrienne]

Sounds like a plan!  Keep me posted on how things go.

I am always here is you have any questions.

Best,

Adrienne