(VICT) Re: Perplexing behavior

  • From: "Shelley L. Rhodes" <guidinggolden@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <vi-clicker-trainers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sun, 12 Oct 2008 22:21:46 -0400

Hi Chris and Jackie,

Chris I think you are right.  I have a peanut butter whip cream type thing 
and will take it and a hollow bone with me to work on Wednesday.  Someone 
else on another list suggested as a temporary solution using dog booties, 
they can't scratch with them on and may do that.

At work she is on tie down in my cubicle.  She does get some free time, and 
the tie down is about I would say three feet or maybe four feet long.  it is 
tied to a chair in the cubicle and she can either lay on her bed, which is 
not under the desk or go lay in the hallway if she wants where people can 
pet her as they pass by.  you can guess where she is most of the time, 
smile.  It was the only way to put a tie down in the cubicle without asking 
maintenance to put in an eye bolt.  She has tennis balls (yes I know they 
aren't very popular but it is the only toy that is small enough to fit in 
her mouth and that she will fetch, believe me we have tried almost 
everything around here and yee old tennis ball is the favorite hands down) 
and a bone to chew.

At home she has a crate she sleeps in, and the rest of the time she is free 
to roam.  I should add the reason she is on tie down at the office is she 
loves to shred paper, particularly cleanexes, or tissues, and post it notes. 
She will raid the trashcans and as every desk has at least one, there are 
about twenty trash cans for the picking.  So I am trying to work on that and 
the quickest and easiest solution was change the environment so only my 
trash can was reachable to her and she won't go into mine.  I let her loose 
if I can put my full attention on her, but when I am doing paperwork or 
doing other things at the desk and can't pay attention to her, I keep her on 
tie down.  I do trade up for the "goodies" she brings back if she brings me 
post it notes or the like.

smile, sigh.

I definitely know that all of this is a work in progress.  She is a great 
guide dog, does her job well, isn't afraid of too many things more curious 
and confident to try new things than anything else.  She does not take no 
for an answer, and she is definitely one of those dogs who believes that 
something happens once it will always happen that way, smile.  But I see 
maturity and control starting to blossom in that golden head of hers.  She 
is no longer dragging me to see every dog we pass thank goodness, nor will 
she go after birds when we are out on walks.  The other day we came upon a 
morning dove on the ground feeding.  It saw Guinevere and took off.  Guinnie 
looked at it with casual interest but a "hop up" and she kept going so nice 
as you please, was so happy about it.

So I know there is hope and progress, smile.
 Thanks for the thoughts.

Apparently the first night, I had her, I put her on tie down at the Guide 
dog school and went exploring the dorm with the other students.  She must 
have heard me as she started to whine.  The trainer went in my room to tell 
her shuch, and when she wouldn't she came to find me.  apparently Guinnie 
didn't want her trainer anymore.  She is a Velcro dog, she is happy in the 
same room with me, but, if I leave that space or her sight she will come 
looking for me.



Shelley L. Rhodes, M.A., VRT
And Guinevere: Golden Lady Guide Dog
guidinggolden@xxxxxxxxx
Guide Dogs for the Blind
Alumni Association
www.guidedogs.com

Though force can protect in emergency, only justice, fairness, consideration 
and cooperation can finally lead men to the dawn of eternal peace. -Dwight 
D. Eisenhower, U.S. general and 34th president (1890-1969)

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chris Acton" <c.acton@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <vi-clicker-trainers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, October 12, 2008 4:47 AM
Subject: (VICT) Perplexing behavior


> Hi Shelley and everyone,
>
> It's Chris Acton from Australia with seven-year-old Labrador Retriever 
> guide
> dog Yarra.
>
> Oh wow, you can most certainly have an assistance dog that is bonded to 
> you
> in such a way that unhealthy behaviours arise when separated from you. My
> own boy is a nervously active kind of lad who is far more likely to 
> display
> outwardly extreme behaviours when stressed, rather than becoming inactive 
> or
> subdued.
>
> I've had to try and think of this challenge as not him displaying problem
> behaviours as such, but more as anxiety/attention seeking/reinforcement
> triggered by a specific event, namely removal from an invisible personal
> space involving himself and his pack (that would be me). Sometimes I think
> the term "separation anxiety" has become laden with certain expectations 
> and
> styles of management, and I personally tended to get frustrated when the
> magic "tv solution" we so often see didn't work as fast as it did there 
> (of
> course you'd think I'd "get it" that nothing is that fast, but this type 
> of
> behaviour needs to be worked on as much to psychologically set myself up 
> to
> actually see the improvements, rather than the things we hadn't achieved).
>
> Rambling on here I know, but I've tried to approach it in two ways - 
> active
> intervention to manage the displacement behaviour, and modification of the
> nervousness behind it.
>
> Management-wise, if she's to be left for a long time, perhaps fitting one 
> of
> those elizabethan bucket collars might reduce the extent to which she can
> hurt herself and make the behaviour less pleasing, but as this won't 
> change
> what's driving it, she might just diversify into something else.
>
> Moving onto modification of emotion then, as frustrating as it is, I'd try
> to think of offering positive distractions like stuffed kongs or nylabones
> smeared with vegemite as almost default behaviours you offer at a given
> moment, not unlike you might have a certain ritual before harnessing up,
> exiting a door, etc. She would only get these treasured rewards when you
> leave, and they would disappear the moment you return. It takes but a 
> second
> to smear just a little vegemite or something on a bone as you head for the
> bathroom, much as you might divert your phone to answering machine or lock
> your computer.
>
> You know already this is a really tough and long-term approach, and should
> maybe be thought of as just another adjustment in your team together, 
> rather
> than a finite "task" that will reach ompletion within a time frame (always
> dangerous to set those when modifying underlying emotions in our dogs).
>
> A slightly less direct but quite useful strategy I've found is trying to
> increase the personal space that my dog and I live within. Yarra is an
> incredibly clingy dog when not relaxed, and will do things like dive 
> between
> my feet to "hide" from the world and gain support from his pack leader. 
> It's
> brilliant that he defers to me like that, but as our relationship became
> solid and my ability to read him increased, I tried ever so slightly to 
> give
> him a little physical space from me. Unless really really necessary, I
> rewarded him for lying just that little bit further away from me, and 
> we're
> only talking beside me as opposed to between my feet literally, not even 
> on
> the other side of the room initially. Sometimes I put something like a
> coffee table tween us, again just creating that faint space with physical
> things, not just air.
>
> I also paid attention to the sorts of places he liked to be when at rest.
> Yarra is an alert, vigilant dog who prefers to be in the middle of
> everything and preferably where he can see everything. He's a thousand 
> times
> more likely to bark and shriek if forcibly confined into somewhere out of
> the way. This is hard for me, as my personality leans towards hiding out 
> of
> the way, but for him, if he's "on alert" as it were while I'm away, he's
> more likely to settle.
>
> For you this might mean letting her come out from under the desk even just 
> a
> little while you're gone, or if stationing is required, putting her
> somewhere she's more likely to relax.
>
> Quite frankly, it's an incredibly tough adventure this one, because for me
> at least, it creates considerable anxiety personally as well, which of
> course magnifies the whole disaster of separation. It can also feel really
> imprisoning which is hard too, and is difficult to make others understand
> because they have a perception (not wrongly at all) that greater bond is a
> greater thing. It's not really about the closeness or otherwise of the 
> bond
> at all, but simply a particular temperament tendency of your girl's that
> involves you, her, and your joint personal space.
>
> This is faintly rambly, but I hope something here helps. Sincere good 
> wishes
> on this, and be kind to yourself as well.
>
> Chris.
>
> 


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