Yoshi & Trek Training Diary

Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - September 2011

By Ellen Clary (Copyright 2004-2011)
(reverse date order)

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Fri Sep 30

Yoshi Herding. Only Linda and Sheltie Cody were there, so it was a very relaxing time save for Elvie's lab deciding to bark furiously at either Corgi - I let him bark back and we moved on. Fortunately Yoshi is happiest in the herding environment and he seems to like Cody. This photo is after both dogs had worked goats and were tired and happy (click for a larger photo.)

Goat work. Went a lot better than last time where the goats were being goats. This time they mostly moved. One occasionally was being confrontational and I had to go make the goat move. the main reason we're working with the goats is to get a better stop and stay, and to work on stopping and then walking away from the goats. Out/back is important too, but not as essential as with sheep. With sheep we can just hang out at some of the obstacles and practice him moving out. The goats tend to "stick" when they spend too much time around a barrier (they decide they don't want to move any more, so we while we went through the barriers a fair bit we didn't hang out there too much (we did a couple of times, and the stickiness problem cropped up.

Trek was along for the ride but didn't do too much except tag along with me some.

Later Trek and I went on a walk in the Fernside. I let her find her way back and she mostly did it just fine. She has a great nose.

Thu Sep 29
I keep wondering about Yoshi if this is just anxiety fueled over-the-top prey drive. So I moved up Yoshi's Vet appt to Wed 11:30am so I can get the Xanax Rx sooner.

My thought is that if we address the anxiety then the self control training will go better and be less controntational.

Yoshi Noon Walk. Quiet, no drama and he was surprisingly relaxed. I didn't film it this time which may have been a factor He actually could sit and watch a medium size dog trotting on a flexi. I told him to Leave It and all he did was watch and growl just a little. You could also argue that it was the threat of correction that made for better behavior, but I don't know how to prove or disprove that. It still stresses him and it did take effort, so seeing if reducing his anxiety is worth doing. I know he is less reactive when on Pet Ease. I should try giving him a Pet Ease and then after 20 minutes taking him on a walk at noon and see if there's any difference.

... or it was because we were doing some outdoor mat work with both dogs (I did film this.) It works really well as if one dog sits up you reward the other dog. The dog sitting up thinks hey!" and lays back down and gets rewarded. Surprisingly effective. Yoshi heard a sound and thought about leaving once, but reconsidered which is a nice self control moment. Clearly more outdoor mat work is in order. Maybe under a shade though they like the Sun too. I might also leash Yoshi to cut the amount of time to reset him - maybe attach it to the ground.

Trek walk
This time we went down High St which is a relatively busy street (but still just two lane so not overwhelming).
She coped pretty well. I let her stop and sniff a lot because she'd never been there and she found it reassuring. We returned via Gibbons.

Wed Sep 28
Yoshi noon walk. I filmed parts again. right out the door we had a dog start to cross in front of us and a barking fit. I should have just U-Turned in the driveway but I had the camera on so just backed up which just gave me a bunch of lunging. Rest of the walk was uneventful. Most of the dogs behind fences didn't even bark at us.

I am thinking that I should probably spend more time in the backyard with Yoshi on a mat watching squirrels. He prey drive is probably the biggest problem and if I could control that then he would be more trustable off lead.

I made an appt for Yoshi to see Dr Applegate, but it's not till the 11th. Since I want to try the Xanax pretty soon, I may call and see if I can swtich it to Monday next week (Tue is her surgery day so appts are few that day.)

Trek ODTC class
We started out with recalls and if I have Trek's attention she'll do a perfect front but sometimes wants to blow by me and hide behind me. The we did sits and downs which were perfect.
Then heeling and she was being iffy since Hazel's very sweet Saint Bernard Samatha was laying down right beside the heeling path and then during a figure 8 exercise Susanna got after Charlie for no paying attention (all she said was a sharp sentence to him - he of course was looking at me for cheese) and then Trek was a freaky girl for a little while. Havel has us heel straight past the area inbetween Sam and Susanna/Charlie which after about three times she was able to do.

Trek did recover (I had Susanna spend some time with her feeding her cheese which helped. I also spent time feeding Trek and Samantha which is a hilarious contrast since Sam's head is 1/2 the size of Trek. I put her Thundershirt on and she was able to do a dumbbell retrieve on the flat very nicely. The new dumbell is slick and she's dropping it some. I'm going to cover it with cloth tape to see if that helps and while the tape can't go in the ring it's legal to rough it up some. Next year I might just get her a wooden one. I also have to decide if I like the standard angle of this one or maybe get a high angle one also. I can totally see turning into a dumbbell queen.

Also did stand for exam and since Lori told me I could walk around her wider she's doing fine with it. No squirreliness on my return.

Tue Sep 27
Yoshi noon walk. This time I did film parts of it. He was on a little more alert that he has been in the past, but I'll have to compare it to an evening walk.

Trek Agility Class. One of the skills that Sharon went over is sending the dog to the rear of the jump and then calling them back over. Sharon used the word Back, but that is way over used for us so I used Out with my arm extended out and forward and then once she's in position, turn my shoulders and move backwards and say Over. It consistently worked well for us. She was a little pokey for the evening except for charging up the A Frame which she had a blast doing.

My vet Dr Applegate called and we talked about meds for Yoshi. She said that Xanax is good for short term as it only lasts 6 hours (takes effect in 15-20 min). It can make the occasional dog more aggressive since the anxiety is gone, but I assured her if that were the case that I would know right away. She would also be willing to prescribe Prozac, but I'm leary of that though I still have some and could just simply try it again. I go back and forth on it but the dog that he mugged when he got away from me 2 weeks ago is still traumatized, so I feel it's the responsible thing to at least explore Xanax.

For him to go on either of these he will have to do blood work and he's due for his annual exam anyway. She tells me that the cost of the meds is not bad now that they are available as a generic.

Mon Sep 26
After yesterday, I just did a simple noon walk to let Yoshi relax - I do need to film him during the different times.
At noon he trots in a relaxed way, panting normally. Head at an average position. If I walk him in the evening, his head is held higher, scanning around, panting faster, much more up on his toes, much more tense.

Trek park training. Her heeling off lead has gotten pretty decent without my working on it too hard. Some forging but once she figures out that we're heeling she slides back to position. My right hand position seems to make her forge. This will go away once we get out of Novice and leashes. One thing that seems to help is from a sit tell her heel and if she jumps into a forge, stop after one or two steps. Repeating this a couple of times helped. Heeling is good in all sorts of directions save for backwards.

Her fronts still tend to target my hands so we spent a fair bit of time on them. I'm trying to get her to stay with targeting my face which is what she used to do naturally and still happens just not all the time. Hiding my hands on a recall helps.

Stand. Trying to use the method that Lori described by standing over her and have her go from stand to sit. It seems to be confusing us, but it's new. Having her sit beside me and I reach down and touch her belly which encourages her to stand does nicely, but I don't know how to transfer that to a verbal or a signal since the utility one is a signal, but it could take us a year to get out of Open (we'll you're never out of Open) but the point is that this is not a high priority issue right now. The bigger issue is to encourage her not to shift when I return.

I need to enter her into the late October trials for Novice A, but I am waiting until this weekend's trial so I know if I also need to put her in Rally as well (I'm hoping she gets her title that weekend, but things can go wrong like I could miss a station) . I guess I could enter her in Rally Novice and consider moving her up. Naw, that wouldn't be a good idea since it's a major leap in skill. It would just be an insurance Novice A leg (or would I move to Novice B?).

Sun Sep 25
Terri and I went to the Alameda House Tour which was much fun, but I decided to leave the dogs home
Dog walks afterward - pretty normal.

Cathy came over for our DVD evening and I told her to bring her dogs. Yoshi and I met them as they drove up and we watched them get out of the car. No reaction from Yoshi. I then put him in the crate in the bedroom while we got everyone settled (Abby in an expen Jesse on the sofa with Cathy, Trek at Terri's feet, and later I went and got Yoshi and we sat on the other sofa apart from everyone. As long as neither Abby or Jesse moved Yoshi was fine, but if one of them shifted he would go from being relaxed (I was massaging him) to on alert with one full out melt down. During the screaming struggling get-that-dog meltdown, during which he never left the sofa despite his efforts, I tried collar correcting him (no effect), shaking him and pinching his ear or otherwise causing some pain (made him worse), yelling right into his ear (no effect), covering his eyes (some positive effect, but he fought it), blowing on him (strong, momentary interruption - learned that from Trish King). There really was no forebrain there at all. Out of stubbornness I did not remove him from the situation ("You will learn to cope with this. Damnit.") and he did settle down though I don't think he every relaxed as much as before. He's such an odd duck. I do not know what specifically caused the outburst unless it had been building for a while, but I had been massaging him and he was relaxed, unless he had dozed off and woke up seeing dogs (don't think so). I think it was just the dogs shifting a little. Trek bless her heart came up on our sofa after all the drama. Sometimes when he's being high maintenance, she just leaves, but other times she checks up on him.

So once again. In my experience, corrections only are effective if you have a thinking dog. If you do, they can help. Telling him to not be a jerk to a small dog when on a walk appears to help, but if you don't have a thinking dog, they appear to be ineffective in my dog's case.

This is not the first time he's gone from being relaxed to screaming meltdown. I wish I understood it better. Last time was during a massage and a dog walked by. Maybe I should put a calming cap on him in those situations. The idea usually is to help the reactive dog relax around other dogs but for Yoshi I'll need to understand things better.

I didn't even think to try the dogs' Thundershirt (http://thundershirt.com) - duh - it would have been a perfect thing to try - next time. And yes there will be a next time.

He is getting some L-theonine/GABA at night and it is what helped him mostly cope (I don't think he would have been able to relax at all), but I don't know what's going to help him with the meltdowns. Next time I will try adding a Pet Ease to see if chamomile and L-Tryptophan helps put that reactive edge off (it certainly does when he's in other stressful situations.) I'm still debating on trying to talk the vet into Xanax.

Sat Sep 24
Both dog walks went fine.
Yoshi and I were walking on Central and a small Bully breed who lives on Central appears on a side street on our side - they were close and we did an immediate U-turn. Yoshi didn't know what happened until he looked over his shoulder and started to bark ("monster!") but I pulled on the leash (and repeat) and kept going till we got to the intersection before and crossed so we could work briefly on him seeing the dog. Went not perfect but ok.

Saw Max the adorable Corgi puppy. Introduced him to his collar and leash and sit and down. He's very bright and I encouraged Mary Ellen to start training him now.

Fri Sep 23
Trek class with Lori
Yoshi herding was canceled so we went to Lake Del Valle to see if he wanted to swim. He didn't, but it was nice even though it was 95-100 degrees out. there was almost no dogs at all. We saw one lying down (no reaction), and then saw one right as we go back to the car who he did react to. But in between it felt like a state of grace as we were on a dog run trail with no dogs (Friday afternoon).

Photos:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2254724720277.2122741.1013097814&l=a0303f5e53&type=1

Thu Sep 22
Today was a very educational day

Yoshi noon walk. Once again he seemed pretty mellow and happy. His mouth was open but he wasn't doing that rapid stress panting and he wasn't scanning and wasn't up on his toes.

In the evening, after Trek's walk (detailed later) I took him out again. What a different. He was scanning with his head up obviously more stressed, rapid panting, up on his toes much more erect body position - I should take photos sometime but I think I know how I can help him and I wish I had done this before..

The factors were level of L-theonine/GABA in his system and the time of day. while there were some dogs around there was no more than he's seen at noon, but even when there wasn't a dog he was nervously scanning. What we're going to try is cut his GABA in 1/2 in the morning and give him L-Theonine/GABA in the evening. Trouble is that it takes a little while to take effect but it might build up some if we gave it to him twice a day. There is no data on giving it twice but we need to try.
He's barking some tonight so I just put a little in a pill pocket and gave it to him.

Dog encounters for the evening walk. Walking along and here a voice saying HEEL. Look around and theres a labX in a prong collar and a woman in her late 60s. Not that old, but not that confident or physically stable looking either. I let him look at the dog and he barks a little. This is clearly not a good sitation, so we just leave and he settles down some. We do see them again while we were talking to someone and he went running up her stairs and barked at the dog again but it wasn't a teaching situation so we again just left. He is starting to trust that leaving works and I like that. We we tailed by a medium sized black and white Springer and we just kept moving and even crossed the street as they were catching up. He was concerned, but keeping moving helped.

Trek obedience park work. She is so ready. She can heel off lead in a figure 8 even. I'm tempted to just put her in Novice instead of Beginner Novice. Beginner Novice is a completely separate titling sequence that anyone can enter so getting a Novice leg won't affect BN. It's funny, I decided that I was going to keep her in Rally till her heeling improved, but it already has so I think we need to just go for it. Too bad that entries for the trials we entered on Oct 1 and 2 have just closed. But my not speaking her her much may cause some question in her mind though I don't have to talk to her much as it is but I do say her name at every turn but in today's practice I didn't do that and she was pretty good.

Wed Sep 21
Yoshi noon walk. He's so happy. Sometimes wants to charge up to something to check it out (which I do check him some if he's not listening), but in general he was trotting along, but not stress scanning and not up on his toes. We did see the GSD on Fountain (diferent dog than the one we see walking - I think - not sure) who keeps trying to throw himself through the windows. This bothers me more than it bothers Yoshi. We did see a slow moving smaller dog across Central but no reaction from Yoshi.

Trek agility class tonight at 7:30.
She did pretty well. It's a more advanced class in general though the courses are the same. It goes at a faster pace so we often can squeeze in another run. She's tired and wasn't driving ahead on jumps that much. It's possible she needs to be in better shape or do more running with me.

We need to work on harder weave pole entries (like 90 degrees) so she understands the idea of finding the entrance. Susan Garrett's 2x2 method is good for this. I went back to using wires as I was more successful with it but it might be worth revisiting it. Her table was very nice tonight.

I don't know what I did but her stays are suddenly better. I tell her to sit and stay (just the word) and she stays. I think it's because she's more comfortable with the dogs in this class. If this class didn't conflict with ODTC's drop in obedience class I'd lobby to switch her over, though Sharon gives more instruction in the other class. In the meantime we'll do this one once a month while there's still space.

And princess dog was willing to go in the crates there without complaint.

Tue Sep 20
Yoshi noon walk. Saw the slow moving GSD, but even though the dog is moving slow a GSD is beyond my criteria so we cross the street and walk past the dog with Yoshi happily eating cheese. That was it for the whole walk. It's occuring to me that he's definitely calmer at noon. I'm wondering if it's because he gets his calming stuff in the morning. I'm going to go back to him only having the Pet Ease incidentally so he won't get that in the morning, but will still get GABA L-theonine and yogurt. And Terri tells me she's been giving him 1/2 the amount of L-theonine and neither of us have noticed any difference. I'm considering that maybe we should give him a little L-theonine and/or GABA at night too.

Trek walk. A large noisy UPS truck pulled up right beisde us and parked. She got a lot of cheese for it. the driver got out and asked if dog treats solve everything. I said with large noisy things like UPS trucks they sure can. Trek and he said a brief hello.

Mon Sep 19
Yoshi lunch walk. I'm usually walking Trek at noon because it's noisier, but it's time to switch things up some as I'm curious to see how he does during the day.
Not as many dogs, but there's less traffic so we can get a lot of work done when we see one.
2 dogs. One Aussie walking casually down Central. This is not the small dog criteria but I can't resist pushing a little. We cross Central (they were headed right towards us), but we don't go all the way to the sidewalk but stay in the bike lane. Yoshi starts to complain, I tell him to leave it [pop], repeat twice. then he relents, but the dog is just started to pass (figures). No reward except for the dog going away.
Now on Gibbons, we stop to let a JRT or Rat Terrier approach across the street. I let him get a good look at the dog and say Leave It (matter of factly - not threatening, leash is loose but at the ready.) He sits there watching. HE LOOKS BACK AT ME. Good boy (I praise him). Leave it.. He looks again. He looks back at me. Dog has passed with no reaction. Reward and Jackpot (cheese city) and lots of praise and petting.

He's very ADHD in a way attention span of 2-3 seconds unless something is holding his attention.

Sun Sep 18
Took Yoshi to Lincoln Park to wander around kids playing chaos and the occasional dog. He did great. Saw 3 dogs and started pulling and I checked him back about 3 times per dog. Just to prove the point that it's animals in motion we nearly walked into a large lab lying down that we got within 20' before I saw him and skirted around - no reaction from the dog or Yoshi at all. Same thing with a cat lying down on the sidewalk. Mistook a wagon for a dog barked once or twice so we walked towards it and followed it some so he could get a look at it. All in all it was successful. He seemed to have a nice time.

Trek walk. It was getting dark so we walked through the Fernside and she walked at a good clip this time probably because she had been that way a few times before. Thankfully no raccoons.

Sat Sep 17
Terri and I went to Big Basin for a nice hike and then a very lovely decadent dinner at La Fondue. Jan came and visited the dogs a couple of times.

Fri Sep 16
Dylan Yoshi's littermate gets Xanax for situational stressful situations which is something to consider.

Herding today. It's so nice to go herding as he is at his best behaved there.

Herding the goats didn't go nearly as well today as the goats were being well, goats. There was moments but it didn't seem to go that well. Then for the next time Linda pur him on sheep in the middle pen and she did the majority of the handling and he did great.

Someday I'm going to get the foot work right. I he's too close, step through the sheep wack the stick on the ground and say "Get back" or "get out" and then just as soon as he turns slightly away, take 2 steps back releasing the pressure and keep the sheep going. You can change direction here too if you wish.

He's so much calmer with Linda - the sheep are calmer too. It helped that it was his second session and he was tired. I hope we get to continue to work in the middle pen so we can work on lateral distance.

Thu Sep 15
I've decided that I should start correcting Yoshi when he is just being a bully/jerk and not actually afraid of a dog. The obvious one is wee dogs because I don't think he's afraid of a wee dog. I'm not going the prong collar route (I don't think they're really necessary in our case since I'm stronger than he is. So I just pop him in his martingale. I have to choose such situations carefully or I just have a mess of a dog and no learning, but it can work if he has a hold of himself and able to make decisions. My concern is losing the warning but still getting aggressive behavior.

Walk with Yoshi Trek and Terri. Terri was nice enough to join us so she had Trek. Small white dog on our street. I hid behind a car for a bit and then let Yoshi see the dog. He started growling and barking and I gave him a leash pop. Relent, then back at it. Pop, and repeat then he chilled out but that might have been because the dog was going away.

Then a woman with what I thought was a small dog crossed the street to say hello. I hung back and crossed over but asked that Terri go take Trek over to say hello and she did. Terri tells me the woman didn't have a dog so I must have been hallucinating. As a result Yoshi had to heel past a cat and he did very well.

Wed Sep 14
Noon walk both dogs. Just the basic shot version. No dogs fortunately, but I did rig up a failsafe made of climbing slings that loops over my shoulder and attaches to the leash. That was if I fall or if another weird thing like yesterday happens It won't slip off.

Evening ODTC class. Mr Yoshi earned the right to go again this time with yesterdays f-up. He did ok, but I put him in a thundershirt and gave him a Pet Ease. The Pet Ease probably had the most effect though he was still stress panting. After a good on-leash stay, and some heeling that sent him close to other dogs and more importantly had other dogs approaching him I pulled him out sat in a corner with a ring gate in between us and the rest of the class and massaged his ears and face and neck. He actually laid down after a bit and I rubbed his tummy too. Everytime a dog came near I covered his eyes. He stopped stress panting.

The we got up and did some recalls in the hallway but he seemed to think that was weird. Then we got dumbells out and he was able to retrieve his dumbell while other dogs were working but I had him going away from them. He seems at the end of his good behavior so I put him in the car which is a shame as he's pretty good at jumping.

So after much debate I think I first want to address his anxiety before I start getting heavy handed with him and his misbehavior so that we have the best chance at success.

Given that I decided to write Sopia Yin a locally famous vet behaviorist:

Greetings Dr Yin,

My name is Ellen and I have a dog-reactive Corgi named Yoshi who I have been training for 7 years. Using a lot of Control Unleashed and obedience work I now have a good handle on managing his behavior, but now that he's 8 I'm realizing that he's still pretty stressed being in his own skin and I'm wondering it there's something else I can do for him.

I tried him on Prozac and he attacked his best dog friend.
We then tried Clomicalm and then he would pin down the other dog in the house and just scream.

After that I swore off Pharma and for years have only done carefully researched supplements.

Right now he gets with his dinner of salmon and beef kibble (no lamb as it makes him worse)
- L-theonine
- GABA
- 1 pet ease for the L-tryptophan
- spoonful of yogurt

Activity-wise he does herding and some obedience training. He was trained for agility which is what I got him for, but other dogs being around makes him nuts and he's bitten more than one dog so I took him out of it.

You can see a photo of him here in our local Control Unleashed practicing the CU game Look At That: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/cu_dogs_sf/

For seven years I've kept a training diary of his and my other dog's training: http://frap.org/Yoshi/yoshi_training_diary.html

Some years ago we consulted with Trish King and the video they made of him playing with a toy doberman now makes regular appearances during her seminars. She gave me a copy and you can see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlFDAod_KVI

I also have before and after videos of his Control Unleashed training
Before Control Unleashed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZSOFsbR4fc

Him demonstrating the Control Unleashed game Look At That
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuV3MOvvyr4

While I have a handle on his behavior, he still reacts to dogs approaching with in a very particular distance, and if he's not in a herding pen he has to be leashed to me or crated. What's funny is that if I can cover his eyes during a dog's approach and the dog just appears near him not moving he's usually ok with the dog just standing there. It's the motion that's the trigger. And he is worse about dogs that don't look like dogs in his mind (i.e. not corgis or Border Collies.)

I am in regular contact with several of his littermates. Three of them are reactive. Two of them have to be separated from other dogs even in the household where Yoshi is fine with the carefully chosen female Corgi he lives with. I have a video of them doing low speed wrestling here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dNN9g_1f3k

So do you think there is anything you can do for him? He's come a long way but I'm hoping there's something else we can do for him without endangering the other dog in the household. Right now he may be stressed but his behavior is predictable and I worry about a medication making him unhinged.

Thank you for any thoughts and let me know what my next step should be.

Tue Sep 13
Yoshi noon walk. A Beagle on a flexi was catching up to us so we crossed the street and I let him see the dog. But the dog didn't have a human obviously attached and Mr. Y. lost it (barkbarkbarkbarkbark). This time I didn't feed him, but held his head and reasured him he was ok. He would listen for a beat and then got back to struggling. What's interesting is that he was expecting food even when he was panicking so it wasn't a full panic. If we had room to move laterally that would have worked. Moving away in any direction would have been a better choice than making him stay still which is good to note.

Rest of the walk was fine, but it took him two blocks to relax. This again was in the first block where his reactiveness always seems to be the worst. I should try just walking back and forth on his street.

Trek class
She shared it with Thyme. Trek and I did very well. Thyme is much faster so I'm still working out my timing with her but I'm better than I used to be.

After class I was messing around with Yoshi on leash on the equipment but when I wasn't looking someone in the next class came up to the upper field and before I knew it Yoshi charged off the A-Frame pulled the leash off my arm and attacked the small dog. Just saliva but Yoshi was in a completely different space and I had to tackle him to get him to stop. The owner kept the dog moving to stay away from him till I could grab him. It's that same mental place that he goes when he's lost it before. No forebrain at all, just a reaction "get that dog" machine. The poor other dog was pretty shook up and I gave the woman the two cheese sticks I had left over. I am more than a little peeved at Yoshi. If I have his brain, he's ok, but when he's like that the only way to reach him is to tackle him. While it's tempting to beat the crap out of him when he's like that it just makes him all the more mental. I would have thought that years of counter conditioning would have helped, but it only goes as far as he is able to stay thinking.

What is going to get him through this? Medication? He'd had a calming tablet. But the tablets only last so long and it was right on the edge of the amount of time it lasts. More mat work? Maybe I shouldn't have him in the agility enviroment at all but he likes it when the other dogs don't approach and he was doing fine, before completely losing it, but if I can't guarantee that he's going to remain tethered to me (that was weird that it was just the right angle to come off) then I shouldn't have him on the field at all. I can rig up a failsafe tether to me as I've been thinking about it for when I was the dog's together and if I where to trip and fall. Too bad I don't wear a belt but I could come up with a bag that fits around my waist and tether a rope between the leash and it. Or I can rig a chest harness with rock climbing equipment which might be simpler.

Every so often I ponder an electric collar but I would have to learn how to use it and I really don't like them and things happen just too fast to react with one.

It's funny how he isn't like this in herding though he will run to the fence to bark at dogs sometimes. I don't know what he would do if there was a hole in the fence, but usually he's focused on his job. But again an e-collar might be a good backup, or it would make him even more mental.

Mon Sep 12
Vital Signs Podcast was talking about a girl with Selective Mutism. What was interesting about it was the excellent description of Social Anxiety and Fear.
It's based in the amygdala and helps you to disinguish what are real threats. It's a balance of Serotonine, Norepinephrine, and GABA. The treatment for Selective Mutism is cognitive therapy in where the person learns to better evaluate what is threatening. I'm trying to figure out what I can gleen from this in relation to Yoshi. In the short term a patient will usually get Prozac which didn't work with Yoshi, well in the first few days he attacked his best dog frend, though I don't know if that was Prozac or Trek's arrival.

Most the concepts in the podcast I know, but it was a great sum up of all of it and I didn't know that it was centered in the amygdala, but that makes sense as much emotion comes from that and it was Patricia McConnell who pointed out that dog's have an amygdala too. You really can't do too much with cognitive therapy for a dog except reassuring words and you have to be careful that you don't reinforce the anxiety. Classical conditioning with food helps.

Using negative reinforcement like CAT (constructive aggression treatment - I think) does, can help a dog learn that threat displays don't work (you keep the "threat" dog around until the reactive dog stops reacting. But for Yoshi the threat is the approach of a dog. When the dog is past he relaxes. I'm wondering if more work in the dog park parking lot would help. What would help is to have another CU gathering, but he and the other CU dogs catch on quick to the "we're training" context and their behavior improves.

Feeding him helps. Covering his eyes sometimes helps and I'm wondering if i should do more of that. But that doesn't do anything to help him learn better. Maybe have a dog start to approach and when he tenses have them stop. Or maybe I should revisit BAT where the reward is to turn around. Yoshi loves that.

At noon went and picked up some more Pet Ease at the PetSmart in Albany. It's right off of 880 at (right) Buchanan on (right again) East Shore. Could even make it as a quick stop on the way to ODTC.

Because of that took both dogs on a walk in the evening. Walking the dogs together is going much better than I expected. Don't get much training done but it's not nearly as comedic as it used to be. I think all the mileage of walking them separately has really helped. Yoshi's behavior is no different with Trek around and Trek doesn't react to Yoshi barking at a dog. I don't know if Trek's presense helps him of not or whether it's now just neutral. They do drag me a fair bit though I can still insist on sitting at the corners. Yoshi pretends not to hear me say sit but I can say By Me which is hard are there is only room for one beside me.

Yoshi bark at a dog across the street on Central. We retreated 1/2 a house width and he was still watching the dog and really didn't relax until it was clear the dog was going away. Later we saw a GSDx at Gibbons. The person saw us coming and we both stopped at the same distance away from the corner. I waved her on and backed up to a house width from the corner and both dogs got to eat cheese while the dog and person crossed (they were on the other side of the street). So it appears that the magic distance is one street and one house width.

Sun Sep 11
Trying out Brown Cow yogurt for the doggies. One spoonful in the morning.

Then took Yoshi out to Bay Farm to train. Barked at one dog who was staring at him but others he was ok with. Not too many dogs at Bay Farm Fetty terminal area so we moved further down to a park closer to the entrance near the BF bridge. Saw more doggies and even walked some along a path which we've done before. Passed a Sheltie from behind fine but when approaching them he needed to be fed pretty continuously to hold it together. Also was able to work obedience around a couple of smaller dogs - though we did have to move out of the way one time when one started coming right at us. Also was able to cope with a three different larger dogs passing by. One at 70 feet the other a bit closer.

Trek walk. Fine. Stopped and gave solicited opinions on halloween costumes.

Sat Sep 10
I went on a hike - w/out dogs since it was too far for them (9 miles)
Yoshi did get a walk later.

Thu-Fri
various dog training moments - mostly successful.

Wed Sep 7
Yoshi noon walk. Someone walking by remarked: There's my favorite Lincoln doggy. Cute.

Trek evening walk. I was going to go to ODTC class but am running at low energy so passed. On Grove I found a wall/hedge that Trek and I can practice backing up along. She throught it was weird, but coped.

Tue Sep 6
Trek walk - straightforward.

Yoshi walk. It was 7:30pm and I was concerned about raccoons so we went through the Fernside where the trees are smaller and the streets quieter and the sightlines are better. Now that we've walked there a few times he seems more relaxed. We had stopped to work on right hand finishes and he paused looking up. There was a lab walking along a bike in the road. So he got to each a lot of cheese as they passed and he coped ok. Also back on our street he got to eat more cheese as a wee dog walked by across the street. Keeping the cheese in his face to begin with helps with his reactions. After a short while I can let him look at the dog without the cheese and he can look and then look back at me

Mon Sep 5
Mary Ellen and her sons came over to say hello to Trek and Yoshi and that went great. They are getting a Corgi puppy soon and we spent a lot of time talking about Corgi's and I answered some questions.

Yoshi walk. Couple of sightings and they both went without barking frenzy's. I'm feeding him more and I need to stop mentally apologizing for it as the food is working and may be helping his anxiety some. Today I noticed that while a dog on Central was going by he lept up on me to eat. I realized that standing on his hind legs is incompatible with lunging so I encouraged him to do it. He did for a short while.

Trek walk. Some chaos of garbage carts being taken out but that's about it. I can see we're going to have to work on Leave It as that might be an issue since the next two rally trials are on grass. There is no agility class tomorrow so I'll take her to the Rally drop in at Oakland DTC.

Sun Sep 4
I moved Trek up to Ex A JWW and she got her first Q in it. It was a lovely flowing course.
And this was in 85 degree heat but she was in the car today.
If she has been in Ex B she would have gotten 2nd.
Fast again was a no go. Didn't make her even try Standard since she had done so well in JWW.

Yoshi walk
Yoshi walk. We stopped about a house width away from Central to let a passel of 5 small dogs go by on the other side of the street. It worked!

Sat Sep 3
Trek got her JWW Open title today. Though for the most part she was sulking about the Dixon heat which got up to 85 degrees.
Fast was in the morning and didn't go well.
Standard was an I don't want to touch contact equipment sort of thing.

Fri Sep 2
Can't remember right now.
ODTC agility trial is this weekend

Thu Sep 1
Trek walk. Said hi to a small child and her mom. Trek coped fine. Rest of the walk was almost uneventful until we were almost home. I heard my neighbor's Rottie barking which is normal but the barking sounded closer like they were at a fence. The it occurred to me that's not how their yard is set up. Sure enough the dog is outside barking right at us. I was pretty startled and was in the position of do we run or walk. The dog was by the front door defending it so we slowly crossed the street and the dog didn't follow us and I let a neighbor know to call the owner (who works locally). I've had friend's dogs killed by Rotties so I'm not a fan though this one just wanted to go back inside. I never know whether to just drop the leash and let Trek run or hang on to her and defend her that way. She's not slow, but a larger dog can catch her and she risks being hit by a car, and I don't know if she would think to run under a car.

Yoshi walk. A few successful dog sightings. One I wasn't prepare for so I just held his head facing me and away from the dog. He doesn't like this but it works. My teat technique is improving. I give him a treat and immediately another follows which interrupts his reaction. It's funny I know he's worried about the other dog but not so much that food isn't a really good distraction.