It’s been a while since my last blog post because I didn’t know what I wanted to say. I have been training dogs and doing behavior work with them as well for nearly two decades. I am at an interesting time in my career, thinking about what’s next for me and what direction I’d like to go in professionally. I love agility, I love animal welfare work, and I love behavior work. At the same time, I am not sure how I want to tie it all together.
I have been attending educational training and behavior seminars for years. It’s been a while since I have learned something new and innovative. Two weekends ago, I attended a seminar with Dr. Amy Cook, PhD. She blew my mind; Amy has taken what I know about Play (yes, capital ‘P’) to a whole other level. The reason I capitalized the word ‘Play’ is because she uses it as a therapeutic tool to rehabilitate a dog with anxiety or fear. Play is used to reduce, and sometimes, even eliminate stress. She shared anecdotes of dogs being worked with using her ‘The Play Way’ protocol. This protocol resulted in a reduction of stress and anxiety, even in situations not related to the original issue. Truly magical!
She made me think! Perhaps I have just taught Marvel incredible coping skills, and perhaps he isn’t comfortable in situations that traditionally caused him stress. How can I find out how he is really feeling? What would be possible if Marvel was actually comfortable? Mind blown.
Amy explained that one way to determine if the dog is comfortable in a specific situation, is to use a ‘fragile’ behavior, such as play, as a barometer to see where the dog is emotionally. This is just one of the many things that I learned this past weekend. I will be exploring this with my dogs, as well client dogs. I am still simmering…and I am excited! This might be the missing piece to the training journey I have been on with Marvel these past 4 years.
Something I talk about in my Face the Fear courses is similar to what Amy talked about her in seminar: it’s important to give the dog the ability to process what is going on in the environment. Let the dog check out the trigger and solve the problem he is experiencing internally himself. The difference is Amy takes it further by saying let the dog do this without you managing the dog. Mind blown again. By asking the dog to turn back to you, or cueing the dog to look at the trigger, or giving him treats while he is looking at the trigger or turning away from the trigger, doesn’t give the dog the opportunity to process the possible trigger. And the key to allowing him the opportunity to process is distance—be as far away as possible where the dog notices the trigger and can dismiss it (look away on his own), but not obsessively focus on it. This type of behavior modification work is called B.A.T., short for ‘Behavior Adjustment Training for aggression, reactivity, and fear in dogs.’ The protocol for this was developed by Grisha Stewart.
I have been incorporating the B.A.T. protocol in the work I do with shelter and client dogs for years. Amy takes this one step further. She believes that if the dog can look and dismiss something in the environment that is causing stress or fear in the dog (such as another dog or a person) and then return to play with the handler, the dog is letting you know he has solved the problem of this trigger. Over time, the distance between the dog and the trigger can shrink. The magic of this goes further…this technique has been successful in building confidence in dogs overall, not just in situations involving the trigger specifically. Amy shared a testimonial of someone who used this technique of ‘Look and Dismiss’ followed by ‘The Play Way’ to address a trigger. The person then found that her dog’s reactivity inside the car when driving around town completely disappeared. Magic! We can’t really know what the dog is thinking in any given moment, but Amy has reminded me that we can keep asking them if they are okay.
There are three major things I took away from this seminar that has me reinvigorated about the field of dog behavior:
- Getting consent is an important piece of training and behavior modification for a dog, especially if the dog is anxious or fearful.
- There is a distinct difference between coping techniques and rehabilitative techniques.
- It’s always important to be open minded—as soon as you say you’ve seen it all, you could very well miss something revolutionary and mind blowing!
I look forward to exploring these concepts with my own dogs, clients’ dogs, and shelter dogs in the upcoming months. I will keep you posted of my journey!
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