Amari Had a Breakthrough

[Joanne Brady]

:bunny: :bunny:

I just had to brag about the little breakthrough that Amari had last night.

As you know, Amari is afraid of the world outside of 3 or 4 people. Well we have been working with her and we make slow and tiny advancements. Last night we had a very good walk. My husband and I were out walking Soleil and Amari on the golf course. Both dogs started to track during the walk, but what it was we had no idea. As we cut through the path to the road, we found out what they were tracking- a possum. Soleil managed to scare up the possum (it was out in the open) and the thing hissed and started to run at Amari and me. I have to admit, I was somewhat concerned about this since I had no way to fend off this mad possum. Amari and Soleil were excited, but after the possum took off into some foliage, I managed to pull Amari off and we continued on our walk. Amari was excited but managed to pay attention to me and get treated for breaking off and starting to walk with me. When we got down the path to the street, I asked Amari for a sit, and I got it right away. She would look off up the path, so I managed to lure her and ask for a "look" and I got it. Amari managed to settle down after a minute so I asked her for a "right here" and off we started to walk. A man across the street had been watching me work with Amari and he called over that that was a well trained dog. I had to look around to see who he was talking to and it was Amari and me!!!! (Soleil was about 1/2 a block a head with my husband). I was just so proud of Amari. I thanked the man for the compliment and told him that Amari was in training and we went off to continue our walk.

But the stimulation that Amari was to be confronted with continued - a large dog barked at her from inside a house - she perked her ears but continued to walk and check in with me for treats. Then a neighbour was walking his dog, so we turned back and walk away from their path for a bit and then waited for them to pass - no problem. Our neighbours cat was out on their driveway and Amari noticed Ernie, but continued on her way, again checking in with me and getting her treats for her very good behaviour.

This was such a high for Amari, while being confronted with so much stimulation, she was able to work through it and continue on with her walk. There have been times when she can't work through it and I just tell her that it is okay and that isn't the day for her and I will remove her from the situation and take her home and get her to do things that I know she can so that she will end on a high note.

I just had to brag about my little girls success.

Joanne

[Sarah Moore]

Yay Joanne :bunny: Isn't success sweet :)

[Jill Ramsey]

Good job, Amari!!! :yourock:

[Clair Taberner]

fantastic , well done u both!X x X

[Andre Mendizabal]

:wave2:
Congratulations to both of you!!!! is step by step that you accomplish the biggest challenges!!!! :bunny: :bunny:

[Amber]

Joanne, I must ask...my Sally is very attached to me, but will allow only certain other people to pet her. All others who approach, with or without intentions of touching her, will either get growled or barked at (a rapid, high-pitched bark at that!)

What I would like to know is, did Amari have a problem with walking on a leash when you got her? I adopted Sally from an animal shelter I volunteer at. Before coming to this shelter at 6 months of age, she had no human contact. I adopted her at 1 1/2 years old and she will be 2 in May. I don't want to fully train her right now, but I would like to get walking on a leash so that she will lose some weight. Thanks so much!

[Andre Mendizabal]

hi Amber... can you walk her in a quiet area, with no people or other pets around? this works for some dogs and it actually helps them getting "out there", and then slowly you can introduce her to other people and other dogs...

[Joanne Brady]

Hi Amber,

Yes Amari was terrible on a leash when I first got her, she had no idea what it was or what I wanted from her.

I am fortunate that I live on a golf course so I am able to walk her on the course. Amari would bark and lunge at cats, birds, dogs, people, and so on. I started to walk her at 5:30 in the morning so that we wouldn't meet anyone (including the club maintenance guys) and she couldn't see most distractions and then of course just before bedtime (again in the dark and with little chance of coming across anyone). This was a long processs - I would lure her to my left side with a very good treat and give her the command "right here". I would hold my left arm down to my side with the treat in my hand. At first, it was a constant stream of treating. Then I would hold on to the treat a little longer and would progress to taking 2 steps before giving the treat and then 3 and from there. If Amari would pull, I would just stand still and wait until there was no tension on the leash and then I would give the "right here" command and off we would go. At first, I spent more time standing still and waiting than walking, a short walk took a very, very long time. At this point, if Amari pulls and I standstill, she quickly comes back to my left side, gets her treat and off we go. I don't make Amari heel, but stay somewhere in the 7 - 11 o'clock position.

I did try clicking and treating while teaching her to loose leash walk, but the clicker seemed to muddy the water for her - she didn't really seem to grasp the concept. Luring her, treating her and praising her seems to be doing the trick for her.

I also put both Amari and Soleil into Sensation harnesses. Since the clip is in the chest, it is very effective for me to control Amari and turn her body toward me if she gets over-stimulated. Soleil gets to certain points in a walk where she just stands still and the collar slips right over her head - she can't slip the harness. Both dogs adjusted well and quickly to the harness.

Right now I am trying to get Amari to pay more attention to me. I have become very good at protecting her and keeping things away from her, but she has to start thinking for herself and paying attention to me. I give her a command "with me" that tells her that our walk is going to be a working one instead of a recreational one. We walk quickly or jog; I make sudden turns, she jumps over rope barriers and goes through split rail fencing. "With me" forces Amari to pay attention to me and to have to think, something she never had to do when she was locked up in that cage for those 7 months. She is getting very good at this but the leash is incredibly loose during these workouts. When we do "with me" I make sure I have really good treats like turkey, Cheerios, cheese or something like that.

Amari is progressing to the point where we now get up at 6 o'clock and go for our walk on the course. The maintenance guys are whipping around on the carts, the birds are walking around the course and in the pond. Amari can see our neighbours cats, in fact, Amari can now see what is around her since it is dawn when we are walking. I am just starting to walk her on the street where the chance of meeting a lot of stimuli is very high - we don't do this every day but we are going out there more often since I need to start working her in different environments to socialize her.

I found that if I start training Amari, in a room, by ourselves is the place to start and then I gradually move to different rooms and then out to her yard - this increases the distraction factor - if she can work through each of these, we go forward, if not, we go back one and then try again.

Joanne

[Amber]

Wow, thank you so much Joanne! Sally won't even walk on a leash, but I haven't tried luring her with treats yet either, so I guess I have to try that! She just sits there and shakes like a leaf. A sensation harness may be good for her as well...I don't know.

Andre, I can't walk her at all. The only place I have tried to walk her is my backyard, where it is quiet, with no other animals. As soon as I put the leash on her collar (or harness, whichever I choose to use), she either sits on the ground and shakes like a leaf or lays on her side.

[Joanne Brady]

Amber,

There are only 4 people who can pet Amari at this time - me, my husband, my mother-in-law and the trainer is just starting to be able to. Petting Amari on the head will cause snapping. The first time I took Amari to the trainer, there was no speaking from, looking at or petting from the trainer. Kellie did treat Amari but it was very casual. Amari was nervous and would stand back and stretch her neck out for the really good treats that Kellie was offering. When Kellie first touched Amari's head, the poor thing kind of shirked, as if she was expecting a beating or to be hurt. Amari is now much more confidant having Kellie touch her head. Kellie is now working on touching Amari's back, again she will shirk like she expects to be hit or hurt, but she is slowly accepting of this.

We have a lot of people come to the house. I use them as "dog bait", a term I got from Pam Dennison's book "Bringing Light to Shadow" (an incredible book by the way). I explain Amari's background and then set the ground rules - no looking at, speaking to or reaching out to Amari. I bring her in the room on leash and I have good treats ready and let her get use to everything. I then let her move closer on her own schedule. If she is doing really well, I let the visitors throw her some really good treats. A couple of weeks ago we had some scuba students out in our yard. One had his back to her and I guess she found him the least threatening, so she started to walk up to him. She got to within 3 feet and was reaching out to sniff his hand and I guess she got overwhelmed by it all. Amari had this look of "I don't think this is such a good idea now, but what do I do now mom". Amari had no idea that she could just simply walk away if she wanted to. I got her ball and distracted her with that(the students were all dog people and one also had a fearful rescue dog at home).

It was from the book "Bringing Light to Shadow" that I learned about agility commands and shaping a dogs behaviour. Some of those agility commands would come in very handy for a dog like Amari. She is also doing well with shaping her behaviour, but it is along road because we have to break things down so small to get Amari to understand what we want from her. She does really well with agility skills though like going over a jump, through a tunnel, up a plank, on unstable ground, where to place her feet, and so on. Anyway, I called a very dear friend of mine in Crystal River and told her what I had and what I needed to accomplish. Crystal River is too far for us to get together, but she had a friend in my neck of the woods who may be able to help. I spoke with Kellie and had her read Amari's story on the rescue website so she had some idea of what shaped Amari's fear. Kellie was ready for the challenge and told me that she would simply ignore Amari, stand still if she lunged and let Amari decide what she would and would not accept. It has been amazing to watch and experience this.

Will Amari ever let just anyone walk up to her and let them pet her, probably not, but she will in all likelihood become better with it by knowing that I would never let anything bad happen to her and to trust me. I have seen first hand, that she can change and let people touch her and is willing to open her very small world up to others, it just takes time and work.

Keep working her in her yard if that is where she is most comfortable. Try to keep things short. I have to keep things to 5 or 6 reps before I lose Amari. I am so glad that Amari is motivated by food, so I try to change that up and have some really good treats for the times I am teaching her new things or trying to re-inforce the really import things (like a solid recall, which she still doesn't have). When I started to teach Amari how to target a ball, I had to sit in our walk in closet with her just to get her undivided attention.

I have my fingers crossed for you and Sally and look forward to your first report.

Joanne

[Amber]

Thanks so much! All I really know about Sally is that she came from a household with 31 other dogs. The lady who had them thought that she had run off to die because she hadn't seen her in such a long time. In actuality, Sally (who at the time at demodectic mange and was dehydrated) was hiding in some discarded insulation under the woman's house. Sally was 6 months old when she came to the shelter and had little to no human contact before that, so she has a lot of trust issues among other things. Through another thread, I found a really good site www.acabn.com I do believe it is, and I found a book called Help For Your Shy Dog by Deborah Wood and Cautious Canine by Patricia McConnell. The first book has a lot of chapters that will help me with Sally. The second book sounds like it is about desensitization. I'm going to pick up the first book tonight after I get off of school! These may help you as well with Amari.

Thanks again for keeping your fingers crossed!

[Joanne Brady]

Amber,

Cautious Canine is a good book. I also have Fiesty Fido, Click to Calm and a library full of books on aggression, over stimulation or whatever you prefer to call it. I have taken little bits from each of these to determine what it is that I want from Amari and experimented with how to get it from her.

Our trainer has been a great addition to all of this - she has 7 dogs of her own and a yard that has all the agility equipment. She recently had one of her dogs, an unreactive dog, meet Amari through a fence. It was amazing to watch this little Welsh Terrier just stand and look at Amari while Amari ignored all the doggie calming signals and just barked at the other dog. Apparently Amari doesn't know how to communicate with other dogs outside of Soleil.

I am also looking at learning Tellington Touch massage to use on Amari for times when she is at the vet or around things or people that scare her.

Read and learn as much as you can and then try different things with Sally, something will click and you will be off to the races.

Joanne