Chaotic dogs can be extroversive or introvertive in their behaviour, the commonality is that most are often adrenalized and reacting to their owners and the environment in this state. An adrenalin rush puts the dog into readiness for fight or flight. The memory of the adrenalized experience is emotionally learnt and stamped in the brain as a trigger for the future. When the amygdale part of the brain recognises the trigger it immediately goes into fight or flight response. Once triggered it over-rides and bypasses other parts of the brain changing how information is processed, stored and interpreted. You can’t unlearn or undo this emotional learning and often cognitive strategies are limiting and focus on controlling or diminishing the symptoms. Sometimes they make things worse as they mask the symptoms while the underlying problems remain. Learning in an adrenalized state occurs differently from an operant state and teaching strategies are most effective when they are sympathetic to the state the dog is in. We are approaching the chaotic dog problem from a different angle than most. From years of working with shelter dogs that are constantly in a fight or flight state strategies were developed to teach sympathetically to the learning state the dog was in. This has evolved into a training system designed to reengage the parts of the brain that the amygdale has suppressed and assist the dog with calming. Owners can use and even evolve the system to calm and educate their dog through obstacles rather than further excite and frustrate the dog through applying more control and stimulation Owners are empowered to assist their dogs and enhance their relationships bringing the dogs to a calmer state. From this calmer state they have the opportunity to reteach some skills that may have been missed. Many owners and dogs find just a few hours of learning can have a dramatic effect on their relationship and training with their dog. For us, the trainers, it gives us an opportunity to really help out some owners and dogs that need that bit extra assistance.
Posted on: Mon, 12 May 2014 11:25:30 +0000
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