Mo's Escalating Behavior

[JMFS]

I didn't update after last week because Momo has officially stumped my Behaviorist and we kind of slacked off as she was turning the issue over in her head. She took the week to think on the issue because he blew through all the exercises she had lined up and he remains . . . a butthead. There, I said it. He's a butthead. :D This past week I've been working on targeting over his bowl, with and without food in it. While we're getting less "grrrr," and "seriously, Imma bite you, stop it" from him, he's still hovering over that bowl with his head and spreading his front legs to the side of it as though he's keeping it safe. I am able to put my hand in there now to drop in a tasty tidbit with less tensing from him, but he's resilient and attempts to call him away from his bowl are met with him hunkering closer and trying to grab big mouth fulls of meat pellets before he'll come.

 

I think targeting has helped immensely. I'm having him target to the right of his bowl, then cross over it to target on the left. Sometimes in that crossover he's flipping me the bird and grabbing his food instead. He's an obstinate little guy! I do think that eventually with all this desensitization and counterconditioning he'll come around, but I think we're in for a long ride and I'll be old and grey before it happens (I'm already working on that grey!).

 

We couldn't remember if she's been over 4 or 5 times and she said to heck with it, she didn't say good-bye to Mo so she's going to come over tomorrow regardless. She's welcome to come over any ol' time she wants to play with Mo - he really likes her. Heck, I don't even have to be home - she has her own gate code, he's already outside, and she knows how to handle canines. :p She also has three dogs of her own already, but still, there's only one Momo and he's something else, for sure.

 

Oh! She got him to roll over! 8 years I've tried, 8 stinkin' years! He was ridiculously stiff while doing it, but he looked like he might do it two or three times in a row with some practice. It was funny, he was So close to doing it and she put her hand on his thigh to give him a little nudge and Nope! Up he sprang, feet spread out like he was clinging to the ground, he wasn't having any of that nonsense. She laughed because she knew it wasn't going to work but dangit, sometimes it looks like just a wee encouragement will do it. She was able to get him to do it a couple more times after that so no harm, no foul.

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hi Jennifer,

Thanks for the update, I was wondering about how things were going.

Please be cautious with these exercises if his body language is so tense. I would be nervous sticking hands in a food bowl with a dog sending these mixed messages. Let your behavior professional know about this before doing more.

I can't really comment on the calling away as I am not familiar with that specific exercise and your behaviorists' approach. There are so many different approaches to the same problem.

 

Kudos to Momo for rolling over! He sounds adorable, well, an adorable butthead :D

[JMFS]

Oops, I should have done a better job with clarity. He's tensing up when I call him away from the bowl and there's no more tensing when I walk by it to drop in something tastier than his kibble. When I call him, it's as though he knows he's going to leave his bowl undefended so he's trying to jam as much into his mouth as he can before he comes to get whatever I've got. I have no idea what phantom kibble thief he's defending against, but it's apparently a sneaky one. The love affair with Zuke's wore off so I had to bump up to Club crackers - I think he's a saltoholic. I'll be glad when he's at a maintenance level so I can go back to being responsible with his eats. Today it's hot dogs, yuck.

 

He's doing nicely with the targeting and I'm kicking myself for not having known that trick all along. It's useful for so flippin' many things! I was watching his movements as we were targeting this morning and I'm thinking I can get him to do leg weaving. I told the husband I want 3/4" or 1" pvc pipes to set up an agility task for Mo, get his little tush weaving through those. Mental + physical exercise = tired pooch in 2 birds, 1 stone. Thus far I've been met with eye rolls - pvc pipes are for building, not playing! Contractors don't like us turning their tools into toys. He'd have a fit if I showed him some of the things folks have done with pvc pipe on Pinterest, haha. Off to Pinterest I go! :D

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Thanks for the clarification, I always get alarm bells sounding off my head when I hear dogs tensing during behavior modification exercises. Let your behavior professional in any case know, as she may suggest some sub-steps (or other solution) to reduce that tension. I wonder if he worries about some other dog coming unexpectedly and stealing his goodies.

 

I am sure Momo will love the extra mental and physical workout with all these great plans you have for him! Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Best,

Adrienne

[JMFS]

Well, we had to reschedule again. Longest time to complete training ever! We both keep having things come up. It gives me more time to practice with Mo before the next step at least. I'd say we're leaps and bounds beyond where we were when we started this adventure with his attack.

 

I've had people tell me I should just put him down and I shook my head. Sure, the thought crossed my mind Right after the incident, but when I calmed down (there's a Lot of adrenaline involved with dog attacks!) I came to my senses. I took this boy in, I signed up for whatever came along. We don't just put our children down and I say we need to figure it out for whatever other creature we open our homes to. If the dog bites severely, okay, we do jail our children for battery so that changes the game. He didn't bite me, though, he told me in dog lingo to back off. Otherwise he's a fantastic pup who learns quickly and is happy. A little on the spastic side, but so am I so it works out. :D I told my brother Mo is fine as long as someone doesn't mess with his food. He said, "here's my pet rattlesnake, he's a good pet as long as you don't touch him." Not quite the same thing. Mo isn't venomous for beginners! Secondly, a dog can be trained out of aggression, a rattlesnake not so much. Not all of us can inherit a fully trained bird dog from Germany.

 

Putting snark aside, I'm impressed. I honestly didn't think we'd get to this point. Yes he still hovers over his bowl and surrounds it with his paws, but there is zero tension when I come near now And . . . unexpectedly the other night he sat down when I stepped away and stepped back to the bowl. He's back to bowing to me when I come outside and he's Happy to have me out there - he's not shaking with nervous energy. I can see we still have a good distance to cover, but I'm also beginning to believe he Will give up his food to come to me.

 

Funny story - yesterday morning I put his food in a 3' x 2' area in the grass - natural snuffle mat. I let him "break" his wait to start eating while I was still sprinkling the food. He walked under me as I was shaking the kibble out and one landed in his mantle. He wore it for about 3 minutes before I couldn't stand it any longer. I called him to me and he actually came after only three requests (sigh) and I was able to pick it out of his fur. The important part is that he Happily approached me whereas before he would have been nervous or annoyed. I let him get back to his game right away and life was good. :) I really think "touch" was the key to our breaking through whatever was preventing us from moving forward.

 

Lastly, guess who got Momo to roll over? That's right, this girl. He's so stiff when he does it, haha. He's a compactly built little guy - all legs and rib cage. It took a little encouragement the first two times and the third time he nailed it. It's good to have my boy back and it was well worth the $500. Bonus - I know how to address this in the future. Extra bonus - I know how to prevent it from the start and I highly recommend everyone practice preventative training for this issue. Even with Gertie I practice trading up. It takes a lot less effort with her, that's for sure. I'm exhausted after a Momo session. Gertie shared treats with Max the Rottie today. He's taller than me when he stands on his hind legs - I'm right at 5'5". Such a sweet boy to share with Gerts, but he's a humper and next to Gertie he's ginormous - his paw is about as big as the top of her head. I love him. I'm pretty sure I saw something around here or in the training materials about that so off I go to peruse!

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Yay! Sounds like things are starting to improve after the initial hurdles. Thanks as always for providing updates. Don't forget to pat yourself on the back for being such a dedicated owner. Behavior mod can sometimes feel like watching paint dry, but when you start to see improvement, it feels amazing.

[JMFS]

Grrr, we had a setback this morning. For no apparent reason, too, but my hair was in the way so I probably missed a signal from his body language. For the past month I've been able to scratch his chest before giving his food and I've been careful to stand next to him rather than over him and it's been grand. This morning he accepted his ear scratches, even reveled in them, and all was going swimmingly. No signs of him being grumpy (as he's aging he's been developing moods, though fleeting). Fast forward through the boring stuff and we're outside where I commence chest scratches from the side stance and all of a sudden I feel a tooth on my wrist - too smooth to be a claw, I think - you know how things happen quickly. I straighten up, he comes with as he's got his paw wrapped around my arm and he's growling low. I tell him, "what the was that, dude," in a concerned neutral'ish tone. He stays. I tell him get down, he does. I mutter to myself, "nope," turn around and walk back inside with his food. I was not in a place to handle it properly so opted for retreat.

 

Now, after moving past the feeling of betrayal, lol, I'm thinking perhaps it was proximity to his bowl. We were right next to it instead of a few steps away. We also normally come out of the other door so a change in routine could have thrown him. This is such a pain in the you-know-what! We'll get there, though, we'll get there and I"ll keep updating to encourage others - and let them know it's likely to always be a work in progress, it's that commitment we make when we bring the little guys into our homes. I think it's important to know about the negatives so they're prepared. Adrenaline didn't kick in for me and he didn't injure me much (I'm pretty sure this itty bitty scrape is from his claw, not his tooth) so those are both bonuses. I Did throw his food into the yard after I got over myself (a little). He can work for his meal this morning! Which he loves doing so really, he got his food and a bonus treat . . ..

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Ouch, I always cringe when there are setbacks especially those involving bites.

 

It sounds like this happened around food and the trigger was the chest scratch. Perhaps he misinterpreted your outstretched hand as an attempt to access his food, perhaps it's a regression due to not generalizing the food bowl exercises to the outdoors. Perhaps it was frustration.

 

In any case, for sake of safety and to prevent rehearsals of problematic behaviors, I would suggest not adding any elements that are out of the behavior modification protocol provided to you by the behavior professional who is following you. I know how tempting it is to raise criteria and see how things go or to feel more comfortable (and confident) to do certain things once there is improvement, but at times going a bit off track can cause problems.

 

Of course, report this happening to your behavior professional. It looks like more work is needed in getting that strong conditioned emotional response to proximity to the bowl and hands near the bowl and then generalizing this in different contexts. In the meanwhile, play it safe.

 

I'm glad to hear Mo has exhibited great restraint in his biting and that you didn't get hurt. Kudos to you for also remaining calm. Thanks as always for sharing your updates. I am sure they are very helpful to others.

 

Adrienne

Edited February 6, 2019 by Adrienne Farricelli

[JMFS]

I forgot to mention - I still had his food in my other hand. No way will I bother him while he's got food in that bowl, I like my fingers where they are! Normally we do a little chest scratching by the door as I'm coming out so his food bowl isn't even in the picture, yet. This morning we were right at his food bowl and I didn't even think about it, just reached down to scratch and he didn't think it through, just reacted. Boo on both of us. I'll just not do that again, that's a good plan. It's been a month of this routine with no issues and I unintentionally threw in a curve ball and ol' Mo doesn't do well with those. That paint's still drying! :D

 

I reached out to my behaviorist the other week to see how she's doing and she's now working at an animal clinic. I'll have to see if she's still doing training on the side. In the meantime I'll wait until After I've had coffee to feed him - I'm smarter then.

 

Edit: Her ears must have been burning. :D She texted me tonight and she's coming over Friday afternoon.

Edited February 7, 2019 by JenniferM.

[Adrienne Farricelli]

I forgot to mention - I still had his food in my other hand. No way will I bother him while he's got food in that bowl, I like my fingers where they are! Normally we do a little chest scratching by the door as I'm coming out so his food bowl isn't even in the picture, yet. This morning we were right at his food bowl and I didn't even think about it, just reached down to scratch and he didn't think it through, just reacted. Boo on both of us. I'll just not do that again, that's a good plan. It's been a month of this routine with no issues and I unintentionally threw in a curve ball and ol' Mo doesn't do well with those. That paint's still drying! :D

 

I reached out to my behaviorist the other week to see how she's doing and she's now working at an animal clinic. I'll have to see if she's still doing training on the side. In the meantime I'll wait until After I've had coffee to feed him - I'm smarter then.

 

Edit: Her ears must have been burning. :D She texted me tonight and she's coming over Friday afternoon.

 

I hear you, about the paint drying. No boos, it happens sometimes and can happen to anyone, even to professionals in the field. Keep us posted. Best wishes for a productive session!

[JMFS]

So her comment was the same as yours. It's like y'all know what you're doing or something! :D When she saw how far he's come she was proud of us both and that was a good feeling. I can now peel him off the bowl to come to me as long as I have goodies. If I don't have goodies I'm dead to him, lol. That's fine - I'll take what I can get and keep working towards the glorious day when he thinks, "hey, she doesn't want this, I can leave it and it will still be there." She did say he looks much more relaxed while he's at his bowl and when I approach. She cautioned that we may be practicing this forever, there's just no telling - it's all up to him (and me to the extent of continuing the reconditioning). What Is telling is that he's not reacting when we do our normal routine and that we went for a whole month without incident. As long as we stick to the routine we should be golden.

 

Sadly, she's moving. Like Way far away back to the Ivory Coast. :( I'm excited for her new adventure, but so very sorry to see her go, and a little concerned for her well-being with things being so tense over there. She's a person worth knowing (most dog enthusiasts are). Until she makes the move, though, she has an open invite to come see us and take a load off from her crazy busy days! I have no problem working past the witching hour to make up for slacking with good people during the day (no one needs me at those times so I'm more productive anyway). :D Who knew Mo's derelict behavior would turn into a positive thing?

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Great to hear he looks much more relaxed! It's so true that it's something to practice forever. I still practice things with my dogs (well, dog, now) mostly out of habit.

 

With Einstein and Petra as puppies, we took several preventive steps (food bowl exercises, trading games, leave it/drop its etc) to prevent resource guarding and one entailed randomly approaching while eating and tossing some goodies in their food bowls that were always superior to the kibble. After several reps, you could clearly see that conditioned emotional response as they lifted their heads and looked forward to us approaching and giving that goodie. At some point, there were even tail wags.

 

Well, even once adults we just kept doing this out of habit (OK, OK, also because we enjoyed surprising them!). We still happen to do this today when we think about it. Einstein can be particularly excited about new toys, he actually used to always guard them from Petra, and when I need to remove them (in most cases because he might start chewing in a way I don't like) I still trade them with a bully stick or other long-lasting goodie.

 

With dogs I had over who resource guarded though I always had to take a more careful approach. I had to literally show the bully stick or other very high-value goodie (always kept handy with these guys), get the dog eager to have it, toss it across the room at a safe enough distance (with a door, baby gate between us if I was particularly concerned the dog may have done a comeback- never happened but you never know) and grab the dropped toy. Phewww, all good, the dog always thought it was a fair trade so no hard feelings.

 

Oh, too bad that she's moving, and so far! So nice though that she offered to see you until then. She sounds like a very nice person.

Best,

Adrienne

Edited February 11, 2019 by Adrienne Farricelli

[JMFS]

Yes! This is what I'm doing with Gertie - every so often I'll trade up or simply add to. I suggest this to friends and anyone who will listen! Don't sit there and pet them or put a hand in the bowl while they're eating. It's as if when you're stuffing your face someone starts massaging your shoulders. Sure, it feels great, but not while I'm eating. Okay, Gertie is a weirdo and she actually wants me to do that sometimes but I don't give in. She's attached to my hip as it is! If only someone had given me that advice instead of telling me to "pop him on the nose, he'll eventually figure it out." He sure did - she's gonna pop me on the nose, I'm gonna fight back!

 

I try to remember to think of it as someone coming to take my plate away when I'm mid-fork-stab into my mashed potatoes. My co-worker long ago kept sticking his hand into my chips without asking. One day I got fed up with it and smacked his hand, called him by his full name, and proceeded to tell him about himself and suggested his mother surely taught him better, so I can't really fault Momo - he and I are alike in that respect. My co-worker learned his lesson, though, and he asked permission from that day forward (though it took him a couple weeks to build up the courage). I guess it boils down to personality and until the pot boils over you don't know how someone or somedog is going to respond. I surprised myself with my reaction to my co-worker, lol. It just came out. In fact, I just had a great idea for a human interpretation of the dog's way of thinking. Someone should parody this. Have a person sitting down and eating a meal, then have someone else put their hand in the potatoes (I'm dieting and potatoes are a no-no so I'm hyper-focused on them!). Repeat this scene showing that it's a different meal each time to represent repetition. Then have the person eating yell, "hey!" and show aggressive body language when the interloper starts moving their hand to the plate. :D

 

Mo is unpredictable in his hunger. Some days he'll leisurely suck down his food and other days he'll maniacally gobble it like it's going to run away. On those days I have to show him the treat (and it better be good) so he'll break that singular focus on his food. After I show him what I have he'll sit when I approach or he'll come when I call. I limit it to twice while he's eating because I'd imagine it's still annoying even for a savory dog-version Oreo (his new fave). At least we're at a reinforcement stage now. It's much easier to maintain than the reconditioning phase. As long as I remember not to get too close to his bowl for the scratches we'll be a-okay.

 

I have to board he and Gertie in March and I've already warned them that he gets uppity with his food and any food-related items. They assured me they can accommodate that by feeding him in his "suite" (such a fancy term for a kennel) and he and Gertie will have separate "suites" since Mr. Grumpy Pants likes his own space when it's time to settle down. Before bed time each of them will get a Kong that's been filled with peanut butter and frozen every-other-day (I don't want to come home to engorged pooches) and Gertie gets extra cuddle time every day. Momo doesn't because he doesn't like cuddles. They get to hang out with the daycare dogs for play time and they do that a couple times each day for about 2 hours at a time. It Sounds good, but I'll get a full report and pictures each day just to make sure. :D It's nerve-wracking leaving them in strangers' care! We did take a tour with Gertie on Saturday and I have to say they have it set up quite well and every "suite" was occupied so they certainly are popular, even the gal at the counter brings her dog there on weekdays and puts him back with the other dogs for playtime. Their Facebook page is full of repeat customers and that's a good sign. Okay, back to work for me. I needed a mental break! Pets and scratches to Einstein. :)

[Adrienne Farricelli]

You are blessed with a very deep understanding of dogs and this is a big plus for the work you are doing with your canine crew! Your reaction to the potato-chip event, is hilarious and yes, it's so close to what dogs must feel in similar events.

 

I hear you about boarding. I have always dreaded it, especially when my dogs started turning senior. It sounds like though you have found a really nice place. If you haven't already, make sure they have somebody experienced in dog body language if you are using their daycare and that they evaluate dogs prior to accepting them in groups. Check their ratios of attendants to number of dogs.

 

I have never felt 100 percent confident with daycare situations because I feel so many things can go wrong. I always requested play time/free time among my dogs rather than with other unknown dogs, but of course, there are exceptions and some places do a really good job in assessing/monitoring.

Edited February 15, 2019 by Adrienne Farricelli

[JMFS]

Soooo . . . there have been No incidents since last I posted! :D I continue to work with him daily to really reinforce this good streak we're having. I can even clean his eyes off before putting his food in his bowl while we're standing right next to it. I wasn't pushing for it at all. He came to me one morning because I had a Kleenex in my hand and his eyes have been itchy with the indecisive weather. He was all goopy eyed that morning and when he was a wee pup I would wipe his eyes every morning. I suppose he remembered that when he saw the Kleenex. Or maybe not - dogs, who knows, right?

 

To lower the anxiety (of which there has been very little) and keep communication clear I created a cue, "ears," for when I'm about to give him ear scratches. It's more of a question than a "command" because if he wants to get right down to eating he'll stay where he is. If he wants his ears scratched he'll step towards me. So stinkin' smart this guy. He had a bone in the crate yesterday and there was not so much as a growl as Gertie and I kept passing by so that's improvement as well, even though we haven't really worked on that. I think if it had been meat or peanut butter something there would have been a reaction, but hey - I'll take the win. His real test will be the next time my friend comes over to do the pool. If Momo ignores my friend I'll know we're in a happy place.

 

They did great at the boarding facility. There were pictures every day of all the dogs playing. I couldn't look at them while we were out of the country, cell service was sporadic, but I have since downloaded every last one of them. Gertie is a little social butterfly, Momo is a creeper, lol. Most of the pictures with him in it are him sniffing around by the fence or him watching the other dogs from a distance. Gertie on the other hand was always with a pack of pups having a grand ol' time, and usually making some screwy face or another, her expressions are not lady-like at all. Every other night they got that frozen Kong filled with peanut butter and Gertie got 20 minutes of "cuddle time" before bed time. Gertie's collar was removed after the first day because her little plastic "driver's license" ID tag got all chewed up. Thankfully extras come with that order so she's all set with a replacement. It's as though they know something about dogs and their propensity for destruction. :D I was told she really liked playing with that German Shepherd and in the 2nd picture Mo can be seen, hanging by his lonesome (in the shade because he's smart!). He May have been following the Dachshund - it's difficult to see the little guy in the back. Dachshunds think they're big dogs so I guess s/he got to hang out with the bigger kids. Gertie's the one one making goofy faces.

 

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Sounds like all is going well. Careful with increasing criteria (having friend around) if he's not ready for that level yet. Setbacks are always a pain. Crates and distance are always a good idea, but I am sure your behavior professional must have discussed that at nauseum already.

 

Great to hear all your doggies did well at the boarding facility! Gertie sure chose a handsome playmate!

[JMFS]

Hard to believe we went nearly 3 months without an incident! I was even able to give him a leg massage while he was eating this morning. He's got a charlie horse or cramp or something that causes him to yelp when he does Just the right movement so I was working on it for him and it must have been doing the trick because he was all about it and relaxed. Normally I would have waited until he was done eating, but I'd already started massaging before feeding him and he kept looking at the food scoop so I dumped that into his bowl and kept on keeping on. He didn't even tense up, which has been his unfailing indicator that he's about to lose it.

 

So it's raining here and Mo is getting to where he wants to be with us instead of outside during times like that. I let him in and put him on the dog bed with Gertie. We'd played several games of Find It for about 30 minutes with the pups taking turns (one on the bed, one in the living room searching for treats). I wish I'd seen what happened to cause a ruckus. I gave each of them a treat on the bed for staying on the bed and I put their treats on opposite sides of each other so their faces would be turned away from one another. After they ate their treats I turned around to set up another game of Find It. That's when poo went sideways. Gertie was playing, Momo was Not. The treats were Long gone (my favorite, Zuke's minis) but Mo was suddenly in jerk mode. Any time Gertie moved he would bark and move towards her. No snapping, but plenty of teeth showing and a little growling, mild compared to past incidents. Gertrude didn't help at all by wiggling her little butt all over and tossing her paw onto Momo's face. So much for dogs being body language experts - Gertrude most certainly failed that doggy course. Mo was definitely restraining himself - I could See it. I had him get up but Little Miss Oblivious is still trying to engage him into play so he's rubberbanding back to the bed to growl at her, torn between going with me and having the putting her in check I suppose. I finally got him to follow me and he was sent back outside to simmer down since the rain had stopped.

 

Clearly we're not to the point of treats mixed with lounging on the same bed. /sigh Other than that, though, he's been leaps and bounds better than when we started this journey (never before would I have been able to so much as pet him, let alone mess with his hind leg). And, where most people may have been horrified, I was actually kind of pleased that it was all noise and show because 8 months ago that could have been a real real bad scene. 8 months ago I wouldn't have even tried that, though. You can bet it will be a good long while before I do again, and absolutely not until we've done some training.

 

Thought I'd give an update since something interesting happened.

[JMFS]

We had a doozie on July 4th. Holy Toledo! I had a Kong stuffed with Lemon Oreo-type cookies made for dogs and a jerky treat in the middle to keep him busy while the world was exploding around us. I had to walk past his bed to get back to my loveseat and brushed against his tail and How Dare I! Boy, if I thought we were in the green zone I sure was wrong. This was like red alert level 5. Okay, maybe I'm being overly dramatic because he didn't bite, but still, the little dude was over the top crazy. I let him get back to his chewing after our "I'm not challenging you but I'm not moving from this spot" shoot out. I made the smacking sound for Gertie and he went ape poo Again but this time coming towards me with his carrying on. At that point I wasn't risking anyone getting hurt and opened the door for him go outside, but he wasn't budging. All the while he was growling and snarling. I finally totally lost my senses and said (in a loud voice but Not yelling), "NOW!" My husband darn near went outside on that one. I don't know Why I didn't just make Mo go to his crate. In hindsight that's what I should have done and I think I was not thinking clearly because every time we have one of these altercations my adrenaline kicks in. It's very intense. His bed is far away from everyone else's couch and at the far end of my loveseat so I rarely have to go near it, but dang it all if I didn't need something off the shelf next to him that time.

 

He's not bothered by fireworks (one year he grabbed one of the ground spinners with his mouth while it was spinning - he went on the leash after That brilliant move), but I thought I'd give the old man a break this year since he seems to be wanting inside more often. Maybe next time I'll put an old sock in the Kong so it's less valuable! We were doing so well. :( Time to take steps back and recondition / desensitize again.

[Adrienne Farricelli]

So sorry to hear about this setback. It's always upsetting when this happens. Perhaps this is some treat that Momo finds super highly valuable and this has therefore brought up a new challenge, or who knows, even though he may look chill despite the fireworks, he may have been a bit stressed, and this has triggered an escalation, lowering his reactivity threshold upon feeling something brush against his fur. And then, as a compounding factor you may just have that "tension" upon eating a special treat, where a dog may never be able to totally relax in fear of losing his valuable.

 

Just a few days ago, Facebook brought up a picture of Einstein and Petra watching the fireworks out of a window several years back and the caption was " Happy 4th of July! Hope everyone's dogs coped well. Petra and Einstein "enjoyed" the firework display and were waiting for their favorite treats. "

 

I had worked some days in advance by giving a high value treat for every 'booming sound" when my neighbor fired some fireworks and I thought I had things down pat for the big day because I got a conditioned emotional response to the sound after a few trials and we had practiced before.

 

However, I kept looking at the picture. Were my dogs really "enjoying" the fireworks? I zoomed in and looked and noticed that Einstein had the corners of his lips pulled back in tense way and Petra had a spatulate tongue. At a distance, it looked like they were copying fairly well, but at a closer look, they were likely somewhat stressed as we had moved to the city and never had fireworks at such a close distance and we failed to work at fireworks at that level.

 

Your post also brings me back to a day of apprenticeship back in training school when our instructor challenged us with a quiz. I can't recall the exact wording but he told us something along these lines: "What's one way a dog with a biting history can be taken back to the time when it just growled without biting?" We thought long and hard.

 

I then sheepishly suggested: "by tying the dog to a pole and moving away every time he barks/growls?" Bingo, that answer was correct, although he thought keeping the dog behind a fence and moving away was a safer option. Although, back then, I would never encourage this method as the only treatment option for rehabilitation due to the unpredictable nature of canine aggression (who can say the dog will never bite again just because the growling is reinforced by giving the dog distance, what if the dog is cornered, stressed or feeling ill?), it is good that Momo in this instance exhibited restraint and chose to use "his words" versus biting. I know of many dogs who would have chosen to bite when startled this way, especially if they had no time to see whether it was their owner or another dog touching them in the middle of a meal.

 

Resource guarding is one of the most challenging issues to face. I hope your trainer pointed this out. It requires lots of management and "Cold Trials" using desensitization and counterconditioning so to generate a conditioned emotional response to our proximity when dogs have a resource, in hopes that at a minimum, some day, when we are caught unprepared, the dog will not react. However, we can never be entirely prepared as there are so many variables that cannot be entirely under our control. Setbacks can always happen and management is always the safest option. However, one of the biggest challenges when dealing with behavior issues is when we measure behavior and stay a long time with no incidents and get a false sense of security (and this happens to dog behavior consultants as well!).

 

I tend to think of a dog prone to resource guarding as a dog equipped with an internal spark. Do nothing about the behavior and when enough triggers happen and enough circuits connect, the spark will ignite quickly into a fire and you will see a full blast of barking/lunging/growling and even biting. Work on the behavior, and you may reduce the number of fires and eventually extinguish some. Sure, we scan the environment and read our dogs turning us into good smoke detecting experts that manage situations before they escalate, however, that spark may always be there and we can never be entirely prepared as there are variables that may not always be under control.

Edited July 9, 2019 by Adrienne Farricelli

[JMFS]

You're right - I probably overdid it on the "yum" factor with the vanilla oreo-like cookies and the jerky. I wanted to ensure he was engaged so he wouldn't pay us, or the fireworks, any mind. I wish my brain reacted faster than my instincts! Mo and I are a lot alike - we react impulsively and we don't like people in our space. When he started encroaching on my "territory" I should have stood there, turned my back, and waited it out - that's what my brain would have told me. Instinct told me to get him away from us. I have as much work to do as Mo does!

 

Thus far he's been Great with his food bowl and the only instances have been inside where the criteria is increased. Since my trainer is in Africa now, and they haven't found a replacement, I'll have to figure out some baby steps. Maybe starting with Gertie at the window while I'm giving treats to Mo during desensitization training. Next I suppose I could have the husband outside with me, though Maruska was there with me when we started the training so that may not be a necessary step because Mo was fine with her being close during training - she was moving around us deliberately to desensitize him to that distraction. Maybe husband with Gertie on a leash on the other side of the lanai / sunroom / Arizona room ;) to start and Mo on a leash Just in case. Decrease distance as we see Mo relax until he starts associating husband and Gertie as a precursor to goodies. Husband and Gertie outside the lanai if being In the lanai is too much stimuli.

 

You're right, again, Momo is good at using his words instead of taking action with me. I think he is good at restraining himself because I don't reach out to him or move towards him. I think if I pushed the envelop we'd get a bite so I won't push! Like the day Gertie thought Mo was playing and she kept trying to engage him - he snapped at her. Still no bite, but I think if I hadn't separated them it would have escalated. Poor oblivious Gertrude - thinks everyone wants to play when they really only want to be left alone.