Operation I Like My Car - (begun on day 5 of his coming to live with us, when we had overcome his initial stress of being rehomed and was more able to learn) First, I want to thank Jennie Murphy for her wonderful video clips she so kindly sent me on how to overcome the emotional trauma of getting into a car. youtu.be/E1GK0qgcDJo youtu.be/LG-z-YguikY I am absolutely gutted that I was unable to use this excellent strategy but our location and Buddys street reactive history was our downfall.... We do not have a front garden and once through the side gate and the very narrow area to the side of the house, it leads directly onto the pavement and road. It also became obvious to me very quickly that Buddy had seen his career in his last home as territorial guarder of anything that moved! I am unable to park our car down the side of the house and Buddy was able to look under the car and each side of it to see cars and people going past. His chase instincts well and truly switched on and he was in the zone! Jennies excellent strategy needed the location to be safe, calm, the dog able to be off lead so that it could choose as and when to approach the car, and above all no other distractions. There was no point in me training in other locations as Buddy also had a fear of cars and travel - a non stop 24 hour trip from a dog pound in Ireland had left a very traumatic memory. We needed lots of short repetitions of new positive associations to overcome his emotional response to the situation, so we needed to address the problem where our car would be parked every day. I retired to the house to have a long think..... First I needed to make sure the location and car were at optimum for success. With a lot of trial and error i was able to park the car at such an angle that either side was blocked by the house wall and fence. Then I folded the back seats down, opened the door at the back of the cage, lifted all sheeting out of the way to make the whole area seem less intimidating and claustrophobic. I also opened both doors of the cage so he could choose whichever side he preferred and leave whenever he wanted. Then i addressed the problem of routine and sensory triggers so that Buddy would know when we were going to the car and when we were not. After all we walked through the back porch and out the back door all the time to go down the garden and I did not want him getting worried (or excited once we has achieved our goal) as to what was expected of him at these other times. I had just bought a new treat bag (with a snap open and close mechanism) and had also bought the 6 flavours of liver treats from Barker & Barker - barkerandbarkertreats.co.uk/index.php?route=product/category&path=59_71. I would keep the treats in the treat bag on a high shelf in the porch (out of Buddys very extensive reach!) and not use them at any other time. I also kept his 2 metre lead there as well. So if I put the red treat bag around my waist and picked up the lead then we were going to play I Like My Car. This really worked well as he soon recognised the association of me picking up the treat bag and his lead going on his harness meant he was going to be allowed through the side gate. Getting his harness on was almost as bad an issue as when he had his collar put on, so Sean and I have used the Squirty Cheese two man method to put the harness on him earlier in the morning (now he loves the whole game) and we leave it on him the rest of the day and is not an issue when we go through the side gate. Finally to get the lead on him I offer him a liver treat tablet while the other hand clips the lead on. This is always done by the gate but on the video it was in the porch and was more intimidating for him. Silly Sally..... Now to the problem of how to get him into the car - I began with throwing treats into the car. Why am i not surprised that it did not work? OK, he overcame his fear enough to stand and reach in to get the high value treats (such as lumps of chicken, sausages, pieces of cooked liver, and cubes of cheese) but he kept his back legs firmly on the ground. The treats were eaten in fractions of a second and so he became aware of his fear and the surroundings as soon as they were eaten. Throwing them further back made him reach further in but I knew this really was not the answer. After two or three tries we retired back to the house via the gate and I left him to go down the garden and I sat and thought once more. What, i wondered, helps dogs most to build confidence and strong emotional associations? Environmental triggers. It worked with the routine of the treat bag in the porch and lead going on, so now I needed a strong visual trigger that offered long term concentration. Aha! I remembered my Treat Boxes which worked so well as a consistent visual trigger for recalls, introducing new handers at rescue centres etc and had worked so well when I used them on my first few visits to Buddy - dog-games.co.uk/treatbox.htm I needed plastic boxes which could use as a target for Buddy to go to and lick the contents out of - thus keeping his focus and attention for some time. I had quite a few plastic boxes which I used to keep food in the fridge. They wee cheap and easy to get hold of and were big enough for Buddy to get his mouth into and push around the cage as he licked. I also had a big jar of peanut butter - a taste which I had not given to him yet in his Kongs, so had great novelty appeal. I kept the jar on top of the cage and the box of treats, and used half a teaspoon of the peanut butter and smeared it around the bottom and insides of the plastic box, adding some of the treats and smearing them in with the peanut butter as well. I then left the metal teaspoon in the bottom of the box so he could lick that as well for further challenge and interest. Buddy air sniffed with great interest as he watched me to prepare the box and put it at the back of the cage and he jumped into the car cage in his eagerness to lick the contents out. It was imperative that these first few experiences were good so i left the doors open (both at the front and back of the cage) and just loosely held on to his lead for safetys sake. He could jump in and out as he wished without feeling trapped or fearful. We repeated this procedure twice more then retired tot he back garden for chill out time. On reflection I could have done it better by introducing the box and licking it in other locations before doing it in the car cage. However, I was immensely aware of how we needed to get Buddy out and about on interesting calm sniffy walks as soon as possible and I am renowned for being too impulsive and impatient! We repeated the Car Sessions two more times on day five of his living with us, progressing to closing the right hand door and leaving the box against the right had wall of the cage so the had to jump right in to get to it. On day six all cage doors could be closed while he licked the box out and then let him out as soon as he had finished. I am thinking of refining it further. What if i prepare two boxes (one for the beginning of the journey, one for coming back home after our walk) before we begin the ritual of going to the porch? Why not use sticky wet left overs from our meals so that there is variation on each box he finds in the cage? Lets make the car cage a wonderful happy place. The emotions will transfer to the excitement of the walks he will do later on but at this early stage lets work with stealing food - after all Buddy is a counter surfer expert from his previous home, so this strategy should really tick his box (or should I say lick his box) lol! Some of you may be thinking i am overthinking this problem. You may be right. However, car travel is a crucial part of our daily routine so I would far rather do plenty of counter conditioning and take my time to help him change his emotional response. If I just pick him up and put him in he will become wary of me touching him, break our new found trust, be reluctant to come when called when out on walks in case we go back to the car, probably drool and bark the entire journey, and be hyper stressed and reactive every time he gets out the car. That will be his default behaviours for the rest of his life. Is it fair to him (or us) to take this quicker easier for usoption just so we can go out for walks straight away. I personally think not. I want a dog who will enjoy cars, travelling, and get in and out with total ease and lack of emotional turmoil. It is a work in progress, probably the biggest problem we will face for a long time, and a lot more needs to be accomplished before we can say all is well. I will keep you posted on this thread of how it goes
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 11:45:18 +0000
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