My Journey and Luna’s Story
When people read about my training methods and I know what many people think, “this is way too soft of training, my dog should listen to me and know I’m boss”, I thought the same way 3 years ago, probably more then some people. I’m not a trainer who thinks that there is one way to train a dog and that is it, that’s false, there are a thousand and one ways to train a dog, and the problem is, finding a method and techniques that work for YOUR dog. Each individual dog is different, every dog learns somewhat different, some dogs are sensitive and if you so much as raise your voice they look like you just hit them, then there are dogs that you yell and scream at and give leash corrections and these dogs don’t even flinch. If you were to use a leash correction on a sensitive dog, you would break the dog, break your bond and then spiral downwards from there, you would have numerous amounts of side effect behaviours (aggression, fears, behaviour suppression, anxiety) from the training and ultimately put yourself in a worse position then you were to start. This is what happen to Luna and me.
I had always learnt that you the person must be in control of your dog, your dog is a dog, and if you assert yourself as ‘the person in charge’ the dog will follow, easy peasy. Well, this is what I did from day one with Luna, I was VERY hard on her (a firm leader like the books tell you), any behaviour that I saw as wrong or inappropriate I would correct with either a verbal punishment or physical (leash correction, snout tap – your typical traditional punishment techniques to let her know it is unacceptable). Luna would bark at a person, in my mind I thought “how dare she bark at this nice person, what a rude dog, what an embarrassment to me!” so I would correct her, she would stop then continue again and again and again. What I didn’t realise what I was doing was creating a worse fear in her, I didn’t realise she had a true FEAR of strangers, I thought she was just barking because the person wore a funny hat or looked funny and that was her way to let me know. Luna was terrified, frustrated, and incredibly anxious and stressed out! She was doing exactly what her body and mind was telling her to do in order to survive, her survival instincts kick in (adrenalin released – fight or flight) and I’m standing there creating more negative associations by trying to correct her and suppress her natural reaction to a fearful situation. Her barking increased with each person we would meet and yes she would warm up to some people but there was that lingering issue of “arrggg, she’s gonna let loose on this person” and trying to avoid certain streets and area’s.
At the same time, Luna being about 6 months old she started showing aggressive behaviours to strange dogs. She had a traumatic experience when she was 10 weeks old, she was run down by 3 Husky’s, toppled over and over, screaming while running away from me. This event imprinted on her mind that whenever a dog was running behind her triggered her to react with defensive aggression, lashing out at the dog who just wanted to play! I knew in my gut that it was a fear but I was taught to correct that behaviour because she’s being dominant –“ not allowing another dog to chase her, true alpha behaviour” the media convinced me she was dominant, even powering over my initial gut feeling. So I punished her by leaving the “fun” park anytime she showed aggressive behaviours, because you cannot punish behaviour unless you correct it at the exact moment of exhibiting the undesirable behaviour. What I didn’t realise I was doing was doing EXACTLY what Luna wanted, to LEAVE! She started showing aggressive behaviour as soon as we got to a park with dog’s just so she could leave, leaving was her reinforcement for the aggression. Luna shows aggression, I take her and leave, she just got what she wanted. Smart dog! Not so smart owner….I was actually helping her aggressive behaviour.
By the time Luna was a year old, I and my husband were pretty much at the end of our wits, Luna was now no longer listening to known cues, she would shut down in fear anytime I so much breathed in exasperation. I constantly thought, “maybe she’s just not happy in this environment, and she would have a better life at the breeders where she could herd all day.” I kept blaming Luna! It was her breed that was wrong, it was her age, it was her sex etc. I never once thought to look at what I was doing. I stereotyped my dog and classified her as a simple minded ‘dog’ that has no emotions, feelings or choices, she acted like the media perceives as a dog with one simple goal in mind – to rule dogs and humans, leaving me baffled. We were days away from calling the breeder to take her back and exchange her for her brother who was completely laid back, we even started telling friends and family that we gave up, she was just too hard for us.
My heart was broken, I was a dog fanatic, I wanted nothing more than a Border Collie for years, I finally have this amazingly great dog that is capable of incredible things and I was thinking of sending her back! What a horrible owner! I researched the internet for hours on end, searching for answers when I came across an Applied Animal Behaviourist (yes, with a doctorate degree), I contacted her with the problem I was having, this is what she told me that changed my entire relationship with my dog:
“START OVER. Stop everything. No matter how good a trainer you are, something is GOING WRONG and with this particular breed that's a HUGE indictment of training method...huge. Go back to kindergarten: re-train everything using only positive reinforcement. I strongly suggest you learn about the clicker (if you have never used one, and even if you have, re-learn it).
This is a sophisticated training tool that is often misused/abused, yet it is also forgiving. In the case of your dog, you can't afford to make a mistake. You must understand the science behind the tool and be certain you're using it correctly. Put aside all of your immediate goals for this dog: they don't matter if the dog ultimately not only fails but BLOWS UP, and that's what this dog is going to do: blow up. Give her a "vacation" and re-teach everything, SLOWLY. Take her off NILIF immediately; her subordination at home may be creating an extreme lack of confidence and her over compensation for this lack is demonstrated with dogs at large in a manner she cannot control. When you've achieved the basic "commands" (cues) and the dog is
* voluntarily working for you for *click*/treat
* off NILIF at home
* freely interacting and communicating at home (if she's even able to do this at this point, she may not even try)”
I read with all my heart as she poured on and on about the science behind Luna’s behaviour and that is wasn’t all chalked up to dominance and how I was mainly to blame, definitely wasn’t fun to hear and the trainer in me kept scoffing but I kept reading, I was determined not to be another person to give up their dog. I thought, “this woman is emailing me on her own time to help a stranger fix a problem, either this woman is delusional or amazing.” Because I was at the last bit of my thread with Luna, I tried it, I had to, what harm could it do, my dog was already messed up. I engulfed myself with articles on clicker training, positive reinforcement training, Youtube’d training video’s then came along a fantastic trainer who is by all means my idol, Emily Larlham (aka Kikopup on Youtube). I watched her video’s almost through an entire night, and was so excited to start training with Luna after her vacation, but until then……I read, watched and breathed this new training.
Two weeks were up and I had a whole new look on training, the rules were as followed:
- · No corrections, punishments or even raising my voice at the dog for anything, if she did something wrong it was my fault.
- · Not putting her in situations where she would show aggressive behaviour, if she’s failing, I’m failing and my training is failing.
- · Start training a new emotional response through reinforcement, learning what Luna’s reinforcements are.
- · Learn what Luna is afraid of.
- · Clicker train ALL her behaviours over. Start new.
I literally had to re-learn my dog, and this time I watched with a new pair of eyes, I stopped judging every minuet behaviour and what it means behind it and started enjoying my dog and Luna started enjoying me. Her constant licking (anxiety related and subordination related) started to dramatically decrease as the weeks went by, she started hopping around the house and overall being happy and I could notice the change. Now it was time to start with the behaviour training.
For her fear of strangers I started using Leslie McDevitts Look at That Game, changing her emotional response to a weird looking person from “evil” to “sweet treat! Come closer weird person, you make treats appear.” I read, Patricia McConnell’s At the End Of The Leash, I stopped taking her to dog parks, she was NOT a dog park dog, most likely due to her traumatic event and my training earlier didn’t exactly help. I started socializing her on walks with strange dogs, them on leash and Luna on leash, treating after every calm encounter. I started interrupting bad behaviours with her interrupter cue “laser”, her stressful/fearful reactions started to change from “leave me alone….” to “I’m going to go play with you!” and initiating play which would ultimately lead to yummy rewards and praise (which she loves).
My life and my relationship with not only my dog but my husband improved (dog stress effects the whole family dynamic, stress lingers into everything). At this time, Luna was around 2 years old, yes, this training isn’t overnight, it certainly didn’t take overnight to create it. But at 2 years old I was proud of Luna and how far she came, at 3 years old now she is now 99% fixed. She is still very scared of larger dogs (yes even though she is large herself, a whopping 51 lbs) but dogs the same size can actually scare her, she’s nervous around bouncy, hyper large dogs and can become very anxious still (hard to control an off leash bouncing dog – so we just interrupt and leave now as I’ve found it’s the easiest for my lifestyle, it’s very far and few where we meet them, and it causes her stress so I think it’s best for both parties). But Luna is even shocking me every now and again where she will spark up a play run with 1 or 2 dogs and let them chase her without her feeling nervous and my eyes light up! She has learnt to share balls and toys with other dogs and thoroughly enjoys chasing dogs while they get the ball (like any herder).
I wouldn’t have my Luna if it wasn’t for the Behaviourist who took the time to change a life, I’m passing it on. I make free video’s to promote this training, and offer my advice to anyone with questions. I want to see the corrections and abuse these animals put up with, out the window. I want people to learn to enjoy their dog, create stronger bonds and not feel overwhelmed or frustrated at the idea of training. I'm not perfect, no one is! You can change the way you train though, so if I change one person’s training or even one hundred, I’m thrilled beyond belief.
