This week we are looking at Blue a beautiful German pointer who has struggled with frustration since coming into the centre. When working with frustration I always consider the 3 Rs to help develop a plan. This is how we approached the three Rs with Blue.
Risk assessment
Risk assessments help us to keep staff, other animals and blue safe by identifying potential risks so we can mitigate against them in the other sections of planning. Blue hasn’t had any bite incidents since coming to the centre, however he has been grabbing at the lead and humping staff, this has resulted in some bruising to staff.
Reduce
Reduce is where our management of the behaviour comes in, managing behaviour not only helps mitigate any risks identified but also prevents the practicing of the problem behaviour which therefore prevents any unintentional reinforcement. For blue we utilised a brains and Braun approach to his training, this is where you have more than one member of staff working with a dog, to help make interactions predictable one member of staff is the brains and does all of the training with the dog, therefore carriers the reinforcement. The other member of staff is the Braun and is there to support by holding the lead or just being an extra pair of hands.
Free work, we identified being off lead in the run can be a trickier time for blue to keep his cool, so we started to utilise free work, part of the amazing @sarah fishers ACE. Free work provides different surfaces, rewards, and items for the dog to explore, engaging them in the activity, removing focus from the handler and allowing them to slow down and manage their arousal.
The third thing we implemented was using target bowls, this is where you place bowls of food along your route for the dog to eat from, once the dog learns about the bowls, we can make them slightly harder to find. Again, this removes focus from the handlers, and helps the dog move forward to the location your heading.
Resolve
Management is great but ultimately, we want a dog where we aren’t having to manage a problem behaviour, so we want to address the emotions and motivations for the behaviour. In blues case this was frustration, so we focused on three main activities.
- Controlled toy play- this is a great way to start to help the dog learn some self-control and frustration tolerance, we basically play tug games with rules, such as teaching a drop and a take it, when can then gradually build the excitement and the length of play. Top tip, using grass as a natural snuffle mat in between games can help manage arousal
- Loose lead walking- this was a great exercise for blue to help him control himself in the environment by teaching him that walking calmly and focusing on the handler pays off
- Pattern Games- these games form part of control unleashed which is a great resource for centre dogs. Predicable games like the up and down (where you place a treat on the floor then repeat when the dog looks at you) and ping pong (same but the treat is place to your side) is a great way to manage arousal around triggers and provide the dog a different activity. Practicing these games when you see a trigger in the distance, and then gradually reducing the distance can start to change the emotional response around that trigger.
After a few days of the training, we saw a reduction in grabbing and mouthing from Blue. We were also able to build his social dog circle so he could enjoy playing with other dogs to help improve his general well being and let go of some of his frustration with the environment.