Scary World
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| We're starting to look like a team here. <3 |
After becoming slightly more concerned by her continually present and fluctuating anxiety outdoors I did some further assessment and found that Summer's fits and starts of anxiousness and the trembling preceeding leaving the apartment are all actually just connected signs of sustained, chronic insecurity and fear and some lack of confidence in the management in the big, scary outdoors (the last bit is not surprising given we've only just hit the four month mark; my home is also very different from and much quieter than her others, and I am but one person in the face of Bad Things). The behavior outside is thus: unless she is busy relieving herself she is trying her damndest to get back to the general direction of the apartment. Pulling, straining, trembling (I've NEVER worked a dog her size that shakes as much as she does, although I had an Aussie get close) staring and then panicking when gaze is broken, even circling at times. A walk is sometimes something to suffer through. It's almost like working a dog with limited outdoor exposure that is scared of anything new, which I know is 100% not true. The only positive here is that she feels that Home is safe. Establishing safe places and people is always step one.
Knowing that we're still dealing with constant high levels of general anxiety outdoors - which explains why her triggers and timing would vary with few clear patterns - means that I've had to look at my current approach and dial it waaaay the fuck back to instead work with very basic building blocks. What I've been doing thus far is taking the commands she knows and insisting upon clean response while outdoors, which is a typical, reasonable place to start for a three-year-old rehome with previous training. It teaches place in our relationship, encourages confidence in doing something familiar, reinforces basic manners. It's not a bad approach by any means and her completion percentage along with cleanliness of response has improved . This isn't, however, addressing the main and overarching issue - which explains why our command completion success rate has plateaued the way it has. We are essentially doing a bit of running before we've learned how to lace our new shoes.
...so we'll continue to practice command on walk (though I may take number of commands back just a bit, we'll see how her distractability goes) to maintain that communication, but each walk will now have a few minutes of stillness in the yard for her to simply observe her world along with getting some basic attentive commands (respond properly to name, simple recall). In addition we're now going out on steroid days, which are my safest days during flare-up season, sitting on the dog show mat in full view of the apartment, and just chillin' for a good 30 minutes to an hour depending on her response. It's just pure exposure, really - very little work beyond learning to regulate the fear response.
Today was our first session and her fear response was astonishing. We weren't 20 feet from the front door, in the shade on a sunny, cool, autumn day, completely alone, and she was pacing and spinning and pulling and getting all tangled up in her lead as I sat there like the very calm rock I am while working an anxiety dog. She trembled almost constantly. Did not respond to best treats, which is the first time I've seen that from her. Eventually she calmed enough to be reminded that I will tell her what she needs to do, and she got a bit of her head around that fact and did her best to respond to her name appropriately. I absentmindedly brushed her butt and legs. Talked to two human friends and a dog friend. She naturally settled into a brief down twice, maybe for five seconds each, so I have a baseline to work from.
I don't have a good close for this entry - as I mentioned before, adjusting to a med dose takes away a lot of coherence - but it was important to record this interesting moment. It's also important for me to reiterate just how perfectly Summer fits into my life. She is exactly the type of Beardie I wanted and needed and I can't wait to show you all what she's hiding from all of us right now. :)
Knowing that we're still dealing with constant high levels of general anxiety outdoors - which explains why her triggers and timing would vary with few clear patterns - means that I've had to look at my current approach and dial it waaaay the fuck back to instead work with very basic building blocks. What I've been doing thus far is taking the commands she knows and insisting upon clean response while outdoors, which is a typical, reasonable place to start for a three-year-old rehome with previous training. It teaches place in our relationship, encourages confidence in doing something familiar, reinforces basic manners. It's not a bad approach by any means and her completion percentage along with cleanliness of response has improved . This isn't, however, addressing the main and overarching issue - which explains why our command completion success rate has plateaued the way it has. We are essentially doing a bit of running before we've learned how to lace our new shoes.
...so we'll continue to practice command on walk (though I may take number of commands back just a bit, we'll see how her distractability goes) to maintain that communication, but each walk will now have a few minutes of stillness in the yard for her to simply observe her world along with getting some basic attentive commands (respond properly to name, simple recall). In addition we're now going out on steroid days, which are my safest days during flare-up season, sitting on the dog show mat in full view of the apartment, and just chillin' for a good 30 minutes to an hour depending on her response. It's just pure exposure, really - very little work beyond learning to regulate the fear response.
Today was our first session and her fear response was astonishing. We weren't 20 feet from the front door, in the shade on a sunny, cool, autumn day, completely alone, and she was pacing and spinning and pulling and getting all tangled up in her lead as I sat there like the very calm rock I am while working an anxiety dog. She trembled almost constantly. Did not respond to best treats, which is the first time I've seen that from her. Eventually she calmed enough to be reminded that I will tell her what she needs to do, and she got a bit of her head around that fact and did her best to respond to her name appropriately. I absentmindedly brushed her butt and legs. Talked to two human friends and a dog friend. She naturally settled into a brief down twice, maybe for five seconds each, so I have a baseline to work from.
I don't have a good close for this entry - as I mentioned before, adjusting to a med dose takes away a lot of coherence - but it was important to record this interesting moment. It's also important for me to reiterate just how perfectly Summer fits into my life. She is exactly the type of Beardie I wanted and needed and I can't wait to show you all what she's hiding from all of us right now. :)
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| A stressed pant, but one from a dog that's learning what to do in the face of it. |
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