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"Mighty Bitey Bing" --
November 18, 2005
Well, I'm back from Arizona. I can't say I'm happy about the weather here, but I am excited to write about how we're resolving Bing's "other" training challenge...the reason we jokingly call him "The Mighty Bitey Bing."
This puppy seems to be the master of single-event learning! I suppose that a really astute puppy will learn things quickly, particularly if the situation involves fear or discomfort. Here's what happened.
About a week after we brought Bing home, we were walking in our nearby park. As a little pup, he was so observant; if he came upon something he hadn't seen before, he'd simply sit down and watch it for a while. Talk about zen-doggy! In this case, he decided that he had to watch a party taking place at the picnic pavilion. I was starting to worry that he'd never move! We made our way to the nearby stream, but he was so smitten by the partying folks that he stumbled and fell completely into the water, submerging his head. None the worse for the wear, we went home, and I promptly forgot to clean out his ears.
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Of course, this lack of thought on my part resulted in a double ear infection, most immediately noticeable by the drooping of one ear. My vet instructed me to do a 'brain wash' on each ear with a solution. At first, Bing loved the cleanings. But after a week, the itching diminished and he clearly wasn't loving the treatment anymore. I don't exactly recall, but I bet that the last time I cleaned his ears he made some sort of snapping response.
Eventually, after about a month, Bing's ear stood back up again. Whew...I'll be able to show him in conformation after all! But...
Then Bing developed a love of chasing the hose (as you know from Bing Blog #3). It’s great fun, especially when the weather is steamy, but one squirt of that hose in the eye, and you’ve got problems. This time, Bing developed some irritation in his eye so I tried to give him an eye drop. He snapped and squirmed. So when I took him in to the vet to have his eye looked at, I warned her ahead of time. Bing snapped at the vet, the vet tech, me and Pete. We tried unsuccessfully to get a muzzle on him. The vet expressed great concern over this behavior and said she’d never seen such "aggression" in a pup so young (5 months), and have I mentioned this to my breeder? I smiled and told her I’d mention it to her (and I did, and we had a good laugh about it. This is not a temperament issue; it’s learned behavior!)
Fortunately, we had our trusty clicker and treats with us, which allowed us to keep him still enough in a down position so a few other things could be checked (Bing is a remarkably operant fellow), but he was so freaked out by our handling attempts that we couldn’t get an eye exam in. We went home with an ointment to try, with the hopes that no further investigation would be necessary. Boy oh boy, did I have my work cut out for me. Now I have a pup who barks in the crate in the car under certain circumstances, and who sometimes snaps at people when they approach to pet him. Fortunately he has great bite inhibition because he hasn’t broken skin on anyone. It's a definite warning snap, but it looks scarey because of how fast he is.
I have spent the past 5 weeks or so keeping him away from reaching people, and carefully selecting "live bait" to help me countercondition his emotional response to the stimulus of a hand moving toward his face. If he is particularly anxious (if there are many people or dogs around, or if the person is moving really slowly or hesitantly), his eyes will get really big and he'll give "the look." This is where management comes in. He is particularly volatile if he's held or restrained. With careful practice, we are resolving the issue.
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We started show handling classes a few weeks ago, and he promptly snapped at the instructor (who was filling in for the regular instructor). This man's response was, "I'm waiting for a correction." I looked at my friend, she looked at me and smiled, and I informed him that there would be no correction coming from me. However, it had occurred to me that giving a mild correction was an option (not a good one, but an option nonetheless, and one I didn't want to use but wondered what effect it would have) so I agreed to try it. The next time Bing snapped at Ed, I gave him a correction on his show lead (nearly impossible to do well on such a tiny collar over so much fur) and gave him a stern "No!" Bing completely fell apart. He jumped backward, curled up, and looked horribly frightened. That's the last correction I'll give him. I don't know why I felt that I needed to try it, but if it taught me never to do it again, I'm glad I did it.
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The next week, the regular instructor was in, and I was very anxious about how it would all go. She was wonderful! She understood what needed to be done and has been helping us a lot. She spends time feeding him, offering him treats for coming closer, petting his cheek while feeding him, etc. This week, she was able to run her hand down his back, check his testicles, and tweak his nose! I was also able to show her his teeth; everyone was impressed at his improvement!
While I was en route to Arizona, I was able to read a book from my stack of unread books (all trainers must have one of these). This time it was "Mine!" by Jean Donaldson. One of the topics covered is hand shyness and resistance to being touched on the face. I have begun to follow the 60 step protocol, and it's definitely helping. One caution she makes is that the simultaneous presentation of treat and handling does NOT make an association. The treat MUST come after the behavior. This means that we've been doing some stuff wrong (such as what the instructor is doing) but since we're making headway already, some tweaking of the work we are doing can only help.
I will write more on his progress next time. This little man clearly has me busy!
Ali
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