Nothing

A couple of Fridays ago, the hubby and I decided to have a bonfire in the backyard.  We love having the dogs outside with us when we can, so we brought the whole troop out to join us. 

DuPont is not known for being calm out of doors.  In fact, he'd probably be remembered by any passing onlooker as a bucking wild child pulling me all over the place.  I mean I can actually hear them thinking to themselves 'Man, I'm glad that's not my dog!' 

Earlier on this particular Friday, I'd watched this video by the amazing Suzanne Clothier.  If you want to know what it's about, go and watch it.  My aha moment was when Sue touches on the value of doing absolutely nothing.  Of actively training your dog by literally sitting your ass down and doing...nothing.  She goes on to talk about how many trainers these days are constantly 'doing'.  Even with Pont I'm guilty of that; I'm constantly trying to teach him something in order to bring him under control.

Armed with this new theory, I put DuPont in his gear and took him outside.  He did the usual song and dance of whining, pulling, spinning, etc.  I went to my camp chair by the fire (DuPont is comfortable near fire) and sat down holding onto the end of Pont's six foot leash.  He would whine and chatter once and a while.  For almost the first hour, he was in a pretty high state of alert anxiety.  Any passing car, squirrel in a tree, rabbit peeking out from a bush was enough to completely overwhelm him.  It's like he's got to take everything in.  There are so many distractions even in a quiet backyard. 

Eventually though, he began to level out.  We spent four hours sitting outside and near the end of the evening, Pont was even laying under my chair!  It was a pretty huge accomplishment.  I would even swear that over the next few days, anytime I took him outside to potty or anything he was noticeably more relaxed.  Alert, but relaxed.  Interesting.

So, that's about all we've been up to lately!  Anytime he can safely join me outside, I bring him.  Unfortunately in a case like DuPont's, where he can become embarrassing and unmanageable in certain situations, a person's natural reaction is to avoid the situation altogether. But avoidance doesn't solve anything. Taking the dog into the situation repeatedly (as long as it's a safe one) is the only way to actively work on correcting the behavior. I think wild and crazy DuPont has been a shining example of that these past few weeks. He's doing phenominal! It's actually been a pleasure to have him with me lately. 

DuPont practicing the art of doing nothing

For inquiring minds, that thing on his face is called a Halti. It does not constrict him in any way, he is free to open his mouth (as long as he's not pulling) and he can eat/drink with it on, etc.  The Halti's function is to prevent pulling and aid in control. When he pulls, it turns his head to the side. It's an effective, safe, painless tool that I totally heart. You may read more about it HERE if you wish. 

Work Work Work

I put DuPont to work last night.  Over the span of about four hours, I did four 5-minute training sessions with him on varying subjects. 

Session 1: The first was eye contact and attention.  I go into this game in detail here, if you're interested.  He forgot how to play this game in the 6 months that he's been gone, but that's okay, he picked it up again pretty quickly.  I wish I had a Go Pro cam so I could show you what it looks like from my angle!  It's so cool to watch when they finally 'get' it.

He will play this with me inside for just about any type of food reward. 

Session 2:  I took Pont outside to try and recreate the eye contact game.  I even upped the ante by warming smelly cut up hotdogs.  *FAIL*   Pont's attention span outdoors has never been great, but in the time since he last left here, it's gotten much, much worse.  In the back yard on a regular leash and nylon collar, he will not acknowledge my presence in the least, and even hotdogs in front of his face are not enough to take his attention off of the leaf across the yard that may or may not be a squirrel or bird or rabbit.  If I pull on him and raise my voice, I'll get through to him enough to get him to sit, but he will be facing away from me, refusing to take his eyes off the prize. 

What kind of dog won't take hotdogs?!?!  The DuPont kind, apparently.

Session 3:  After feeling the complete failure of the last training session (which was really just him pulling me around the back yard) I took it back inside.  All of the impulse work I'd put on Pont last winter was gone, so we worked on 'Leave It'.  With a dog like DuPont, 'Leave It' is an important tool to have in your bag of tricks. 

'Leave It' is taught like this:  You set up the dog in front of you, treats in both hands.  I was sitting cross-legged on the floor.  I put a piece of hotdog from my right hand on my knee.  As soon as he went for it, I snatched it back up.  After several attempts like this, he's like 'WTF' and the next time I put it down, he pauses.  'YES!'  I take the piece back up with my right hand and give him a treat from the left hand.  **Never allow the dog to have what you are asking him to 'leave'.  In the future if there is something that you actually need him to leave alone with this command you can't let him think that he can eventually have it.  This is why I'm using two hands so he sees the difference.  He never actually gets to have the piece that I am putting down for him to reject**
Once he is pausing with some duration, I begin to add the command 'Leave It' so he begins to associate.

Session 4:  I brought out the tug toy.  DuPont's most beloved toy in the world. 

He won't give it up, so it was time to try working on some sort of toy release.   I made him sit and wait before he could have it, then told him to 'Take'.  He jumped and we got a good game of tug going.  Then I stood up strait and relaxed and waited for him.  I made myself and the game as boring as possible, I put hands on either side of his face on the rope and took more and more.  Eventually, (it's a loooong eventually) he let's go.  'YES!' then I present the toy immediately and tell him to 'Take'.  His reward for letting go of the toy is to get the toy right back.  After a while, I'll require more duration between the release and the take, but for now, it's a huge thing for him to give that up.  He sucks at giving up his stuff.

As an after thought, when I took the dogs outside to potty one last time last night, I grabbed the tug toy and hung it around my neck.  I have never wanted to use the tug to train him because of how jazzed and over threshold he gets about it.  But after watching him reject some of the best food rewards I could come up with in an outdoor situation (hotdogs, steak pieces, chicken pieces) it became pretty clear. 

Sure enough, standing outside with Pont pulling me towards yet another potential bird/squirrel/rabbit I call his name and get nothing, then I swing the toy in front of his face.  He launches himself at it.  I can get him to respond to his name with it, I can get him to sit with it, he'll sit AND give me eye contact with it... It's a good thing.  I finally found 'the thing' that will aid me in turning Pont into a regular dog.  My hesitation comes in knowing there is a fine line in which I can't cross when using DuPont's prey drive to kill his prey drive. 

Strange

I must apologize for my lack of inside intel as of late.  We've been pretty busy around here so any training I do get into with DuPont, it's spur of the moment so I'm not pulling out the camera or recorder.  I'll get to it!

In the meantime, I wanted to share with you a strange phenomenon in regards to Pont and his relationship with one of my own dogs.  I've talked about Frankie here before.  When Pont returned this time, she again was quite irritated with him.  If he so much as looked in her direction I could hear her emit a low growl. 

And I get it, man.  DuPont's treatment of Frankie is less than gentle.  He jumps on her, sits on her, tackles her to the ground, chews on her neck and head, etc.  I'd growl too if I were treated this way. 

But then they find their rhythm, and this happens.























I don't know why she tolerates this. Five minutes prior, he was sitting on her head.

Literally. 

NILIF

Ever heard of NILIF? 

If you want to consider adopting DuPont, then you'd better become familiar with it!

NILIF stands for 'Nothing In Life Is Free' and it's a technique that my husband and I have employed with Pont since day one.  Wait, that's wrong.  Make that since day two.  I think day one was spent with my hubby and I staring at each other with bafflement at our new red headed house guest.

But I digress.  NILIF is used for everything.  Like, everything.  It requires the dog to do something for you before you do something for him.  Want me to pet you?  Earn it.  Want to walk through that doorway?  Earn it.  Want to come out of your kennel?  Earn it.  What will you do for me to show me that you deserve it?

Well how does a dog 'earn it'?  It's actually pretty simple, and he could do any number of things that could earn him a ticket to whatever he's trying to accomplish.  Going outside to potty, for instance, turns into several acts that he must pass to move onto the next, to ultimately earn his way outside.

But isn't that kind of mean?  Dogs have to go potty several times a day and he should be allowed to do so!
Yeah, I agree with you.  He certainly should be allowed outside to pee!  But doesn't it then follow that I deserve to be able to take him outside to pee without having my arms yanked, my feet scratched as he pushes off them, my rugs tossed across the room?  Tit for tat, my friend.

To come out of his crate, he needs to either sit, lay down or give me eye contact.  He goes on alert as soon as my hand touches the handle on the crate door, so I just hold it until he offers one.  Once he does, he's earned his way out of the crate.

At this point he runs to the door.  He'll be dancing and spinning and just soooo excited to go outside!  I grab the leash off the wall and ask for a sit.  Once he sits, he needs to be still enough to allow me to affix the leash.  I'm not going to wrestle him until I can get my hand on the collar and hold it still enough to leash up.  Grabbing the leash in his mouth, breaking the sit, nosing my hands/arms, pawing at the door are not ways to get the leash attached.  He wants that leash attached, because he knows he's not going out until it's on.  Sitting and waiting will earn him the leash.

Once the leash is on, I move to open the door.  He again must sit and stay.  I open the door.  As soon as he breaks his sit without being released, the door shuts in his face.  Rushing the door doesn't earn you the right to go out.  Sitting patiently while I open the door and waiting for me to release you does. 

Seems like a lot of work, doesn't it.  Well, it is.  But it's worth it.  It forces him to slow his roll enough so that he can use his brain.  Once his brain engages, his threshold lowers and he becomes a reasonable dog.  Eventually, he'll do these things on his own and going outside to go to the bathroom won't be such a soap opera.  It won't be today.  Or tomorrow.  Probably won't be next week or the week after that.  But...eventually. 

NILIF.  Google it.  Read a book about it.  Watch YouTube videos.  Oh, and put your patient pants on, too, because you're going to do some standing around.  You'll thank me when he's no longer pulling your arms out of their sockets.

Happy Friday!

Irony

This post is neither here nor there.  It won't matter to you, but it's so damn ironic to me that I needed to get it off my chest.

The month of December is one of my favorites.  DuPont was with me all of December last year and I had several weeks off of work near the end of the month for Christmas and the New Year.  Our schedule (Pont's and mine) during this time consisted largely of us laying around on the couch watching Hallmark and/or Lifetime Christmas movies, drinking a lot of coffee with Pumpkin Spice creamer, dressing Pont up in ridiculous clothing, eating Christmas cookies, and other general decorating of things.  It's absolutely my favorite time of the year and Pont made last year's very special for me.

Well now, since Pont was such a fixture during Christmas time, anytime I think of him or come across a photo of him, I get that warm fuzzy feeling that comes with the memories he helped create.  DuPont = Christmas.  Christmas = DuPont. 

Are you catching my drift?

I picked up Pont yesterday, July 7th.  Isn't it incredibly ironic that this is happening right at the same time?

The Christmas movies that we watched are all playing this week, right smack in the middle of July!

Tell me that's not ironic?

Now, if only International Delight would sell that Pumpkin Spice shiz all year around, we'd have ourselves a little Christmas party!

Fresh Start

DuPont is back.

Appx five months ago, Pont was adopted into what everybody had thought was his forever home.  They seemed perfect.  Within a week, the rescue was asked to come get him.  He was adopted again into a family and they hung in there for almost three months before deeming DuPont as unmanageable and 'stupid'.   (Can you hear the steam ringing from my ears from over there?)

I haven't seen Pont since January and I wasn't quite sure what to expect upon picking him up yesterday.  I was pleasantly surprised to discover that my fun, intelligent redhead was still in there.  It took him all of thirty minutes to establish his place within the pack (um, the very bottom) and make himself at home again. 

There are a couple of new things that have developed since he left and I am eager to tackle them and share them with you.  As always, I'll record and report it here as we move forward.  This is DuPont's fresh beginning and with a new start comes new rules, new training and of course, a new blog design! 

I missed your mugg, Red.  Welcome back.