Bud’s training and re-training is going well.
He sits on command except when he is excited about food. We are expanding his “stays” to about 20 seconds, I’ll keep at it until we get to three minutes.
Yesterday, a wake-up call, he was too aroused in the pasture yesterday. One of my failings as a dog trainer is impatience, I sometimes jump the gun and push dogs too fast too soon. I have always been an impatient person.
Bud charged too close to the sheep and the donkeys, it didn’t look or feel good, and it was a warning sign to acclimate him to the animals here rather than just turn him loose on them.
I believe strongly in letting dogs work out their problems, one curse of the Boomers is that they don’t permit their children (or dogs) to have any problems, so they never learn how to deal with them.
So I started a calming training regimen for him today, we returned to the pasture. I took him out near the sheep and donkeys on a leash, walked him around, then let him off.
(I never run from a problem with dogs. If there’s trouble, I move towards it, I never abandon the dog to troubling or dangerous habits.) And I keep a very strong attitude in my head: We will figure it out.
But ran with Red and Fate a bit this morning, but otherwise he sat calmly in the pasture today, a dramatic difference from yesterday. My training theory: Boston Terriers are family dogs and are rarely aggressive but often protective. Bud does not yet understand that these animals are part of our family; he thinks they are intruders and rushes to warn us about them and push them away.
I can tell by the way he reacts to them that he sees them as a threat, not as part of our little community. I can also see he is beginning to understand that they live here, and they are not going away.
My idea is to be flexible, calm and consistent. I always study the dog to see my opening, my opportunity to get a message through to him.
This dog seeks affirmation and loves food. those are pathways into his psyche. And he is smart and sensitive to our responses. That is good fodder for training.
My approach to the pasture issue is to go out with Bud to spend time with the animals on a leash, and then let him off leash while standing close to me, getting verbal reinforcement for being calm and also some treats to distract him and keep him from obsessing.
We go out alone, no other dogs to arouse him, and then we go out with Red, who calms Red and who Bud studies faithfully. In this way, Bud will come to see the animals as part of our family, they need to come inside his umbrella of protection.
And I clearly see Red teaching Bud, and Bud watching him closely.
I did this twice, once yesterday, once today, and saw visible results already. Bud loves to run around with Fate and Red, and he did that, but he kept his distance from the sheep, barking at them once or twice.
They paid no attention to him – a sign that he is calm around them. He paid no attention to the donkeys at all. I plan to do this for several weeks until he is familiar with the animals and begins to understand who lives here and who doesn’t.
People with pets don’t grasp the value of working with animals like sheep and donkeys. By watching them, I can read the dog. They are prey animals, and if a dog is aggressive, they freak or panic. They are not afraid of Bud in any way, they don’t charge or run or take flight.
By watching the donkeys, who were grazing within a few yards of Bud, I could see they were not concerned about him. They were yesterday.
I think that this approach will help the problem resolve itself with no shouting or drama or tension. Dogs don’t like either, neither do I.
Otherwise, we are doing well, remarkably so for six days. Bud is marking much less than he was at first, only once or twice in the past couple of days. He comes when called 100 per cent of the time, only not always instantly.
He has defecated inside the farmhouse twice, both in the evening, both in the dining room and on that carpet, which is old and has hosted many dogs. More crating in the evening. He does go outside, and is outside for much of the day. I think he can’t yet quite distinguish the old carpets from grass.
I never correct him unless I catch him in the act.
He was table-fed before coming here, and started hovering and even jumping up on our chairs while we ate.
I got two cans of Pet Corrector, which hisses and sprays air at dogs who jump up or obsess on human food. We never give our dogs any kind of human food and Red and Fate pay no attention to what or where we are eating.
When Bud put his paws up on my knee while I was having dinner, I gave him a blast of air from the can, he took off for the dining room, and then came back into the living room and went to sleep on the couch. He didn’t bother us again while we ate. I don’t think he will.
We are socializing him steadily and the Open House will tell us a lot about his confidence and tolerance. I’ll bring him out on a leash a few times to test things. I think I’ll bring him out when we herd the sheep as well.
But has been at the Mansion training for therapy work three times, and has done well each time.
He is jumping in and out of the car by himself and is climbing the stairs with some confidence. The trick is to keep moving.Once we are moving away, he comes along. And once he hears the sound of food being poured into an aluminum bowl, he is down the stairs in a flash.
Bud is anxious about being alone, he always comes once he senses no danger. And he is still wary about coming through doors or up or down stairs. He seems easier and more confident by the day.
Bud is now fully crate trained, he sleeps in the crate until 6 a..m. and then I take him out and he hops into bed with Maria and I, and cuddles with us for a while, then moves down the bed and leaves us alone.
But is calming down, slowing down. I feed him first – he is a bit of a food guarder – and then feed Red and Fate. Normally, I would feed Red first as he is the oldest and biggest, but Bud is anxious around food as dogs are when they never got enough when young. My goal is for them to learn to eat together, and we are close to achieving that.
Bud always wants to know what the other dogs are eating, even before he is done with his food. I stand with the dogs to discourage that.
He eats his food, and then Red and Fate eat theirs, Bud goes and checks on what everyone else is eating, then goes back to his food.We don’t have a problem.
Gus is bright and observant, he anticipates our behaviors as smart and anxious dogs will do.
He gets a lot of slack for a week or two, he’s been through a lot and this is a big change for him. But I believe training is essential for his safety and well being, my prime task as a steward. He needs to learn how to live safely and comfortably in a hostile and difficult world.
I’m going to continue emphasizing hanging out with the farm animals, then working on basic calming training – come, sit and stay for up to a half hour.
Bud is a great dog and we have all the elements in place for training. I work at home, and he is bright and attached he loves food. That’s really all I need, those things give me a foothold on Bud and how he things.
When I train a dog, i find the thing the dog loves most – work, in the case of border collies – and I ruthlessly exploit that to teach the dog what he or she needs to know. None of my dogs get anything for free.
One day at a day, steady every day. He’s going to be a great dog. More reports coming.
