Last night was Cooper’s first night at his reactive dog training class, and I learned something interesting about him…
It started a little bizarrely (is that a word?) when we left the house. Apparently, Cooper has decided that he’s scared to jump in the car. When I opened the door, he tucked his tail and tried to dash. No amount of encouragement or treats would get him to jump in, so I had to lift him up and stick him in the back. Odd.
When we arrived at the facility, he saw a couple dogs and barked a bit, but I distracted him with a “find it” game with treats in the back until it was our turn to go inside. He got out of the car, and he was trembling. His tail was curled under all the way, touching his belly. He walked into the training room shaking from head to toe. I got him settled into his cubby – the dogs are all separated by partitions so they don’t have to stare at each other the whole time. He immediately started to stress pant.
As the trainer talked through the exercises, he whipped his head back and forth, trying to figure out where the other dogs were.
But once the class began, he had a moment. His whole demeanor changed slightly, starting with his tail coming untucked. I saw the change, and I realized what he realized.
“Oh. This is training. I know what to do here.”
And he did (mostly) fine. During the exercises, he did his “watch mes” as other dogs walked past. When it was his turn to walk, his sits were automatic, and he stayed relatively loose on his leash.
He completely lost it once. The trainer stood in the middle of the room and stretched, and that somehow set him off. The next time it was his turn to walk, he was eyeballing her. She tried to give him a treat, but he refused to take it, so I gave her my can of cheese and he accepted a cheese squirt from her.
Cooper’s bottom line, I guess, is that his fear bubbles to the surface when things are unexpected. Once he understand what’s going on – and if everything stays “normal” from his perspective – he can maintain his cool. It’s when something is unpredictable that he reacts. Which is the opposite of Lucas, whose reactions are so completely predictable.
Class ended about 15 minutes early because it was clear that all the dogs had had it. When it was our turn to leave, he once again refused to jump in the car. Add that to the list of things to work on…
Overall, I think this is going to be a great experience. The trainer is arranging for a variety of people to come by the class, which will be super helpful for Cooper’s reactions because he’s FAR more people-reactive than dog-reactive. Again, the opposite of Lucas.
Mostly, though, I’m just thrilled to be back in formal training with him! I’m working toward the goal of getting him back into agility, but for now, we’re taking it one class – and one car ride – at a time!
We had a similar issue come up when we took our pug Maggie to puppy classes…she went from outgoing, pushy to anxious and scared…the teacher even suggested the class would be to much for her to participate so we ended up bringing her little brother who did fine. You just never know do you.
stella rose’s momma
I don’t like for things to be unpredictable either and I’m a human.
Regarding the new car fear: my first thought is the trip back to Indiana may have something to do with it. If his trigger is unpredictability then getting in the car may represent a huge bundle of that. I’m imagining his thoughts being something like “Oh, God, where are we going NOW?!”
It’s great when you peeps figure us doggies out!
Murphy & Stanley
Mayorz For All Paws
What a great discovery for you. I can see that sometimes with Jack – he gets anxious in certain situations – ie Vet. but if I distract him with some of his training exercises he settles…not a lot but at least a little. Once the vet comes in, all bets are off though.
Wow, that is really interesting! It does make sense though. Mauja tends to show anxiety symptoms when things are out of the norm. I try to keep her life as routine as possible.
Man, I’m so jealous that you have a class like that! I need that with Rita! I’ve tried searching for a similar class here, but so far don’t see anything. Maybe we’ll learn something vicariously through your class experience. I’ve already learned that I need to get some cheese in a can. 🙂
They pick up on our energy, so he could have been picking up on signals coming from you that you were not aware you were projecting. Such as, when you wanted him to get into the car, you might have been worrying about how the class would go, and he sensed that something was a little “off”, therefore, he put on the brakes and refused to get in.
Aren’t you glad you invested all that time in training? It’s amazing how it can signal fun to a dog.
Honey isn’t usually bad with storms but a particularly bad one recently had her pretty upset. I took her downstairs to practice her favorite trick (shutting the kitchen cupboards with her nose) and she perked right up. Having something normal and fun to do in the middle of the storm relaxed her immediately.
I’m so glad I got over my disinterest in trick training.
Sorry to hear that Cooper is having problems with the car. I hope you can find the key to making it a comfortable place for him again. And I can’t wait to hear more about your class.
This sounds very familiar. Silas is fine with anything that he thinks is “supposed” to happen, even if it’s crazy. My only words of wisdom: start dealing with the car thing NOW. I kept hoping that Silas would get over it on his own, and then one day he just started refusing all together.