life, the universe, and donna

My copy of Control Unleashed just arrived, and I’ve been devouring it with great interest. It has an excellent program for dogs with, erm, issues (especially off leash, duh.) It’s designed for both trainers & dog owners who are working with dogs who have anxiety, and that’s RIGHT up my alley.

The biggest thing I’ve learned so far: Justice is WAY more anxious outside than I realized. She’s “hypervigilant” any time she’s outside on a leash, not just around dogs, but constantly scanning for ANY danger. I’ve always known she was extremely alert (and not always to me), but didn’t quite make the connection that her hypervigilance was a sign of major anxiety. I could always tell when she was having a “bad” anxiety day, as she occasionally has days where even without encountering a dog or even a person, she’ll start reacting to everything from a leaf blowing in front of her to a stationary garbage can 30 yards away… but I’m realizing now that even when she’s having her “good” anxiety days, she’s still very, very anxious when outside on leash.

So, there are lots of tips & tricks to learn. I’m not going to try starting her on “the program” until after I’ve finished reading the whole book (then I’ll go back and start going over the exercises one by one) but I do like a couple of the things they recommend… like calming exercises. So, this is what we’re working on now: conditioning a command that helps her relax a little. It starts by using the command word and stroking her and petting her when she’s at her most relaxed (like, when she’s flopped out on her back with her tongue lolling around, or even just as she’s drifting off to sleep) and slowly moving up into more every day activity, until hopefully it helps (even just a little) with her outside.

Makes sense to me, anyway. I think I, too, have a “calm” command… although it more involves a certain boyfriend stroking my hair & holding me. Seems to work pretty well, so here’s hoping the same actions work on Justice.