Dog training in animal shelter - dealing with mistakes (video)
We can have a training plan in mind but it's the dog who will tell us if the plan is good or not.
I decided to work with a dog who is scared of people and is one of the most interesting cases in the shelter. I've been meeting him outside his kennel/run. Employees of the shelter then told me that it's normal, it's just what he does. He jumps through a 2m fence, checks everything out and comes back to his run. One time, I even saw him jumping through to his enclosure. What a fit dog! One time when he was outside I started to give him some food and he was coming towards my hands with no visible hesitation. I walked next to him, allowed him to touch my hand with his nose and follow that with a treat.
I came up with a training plan to first build trust and teach eating as a behaviour. He used to avoid people so eating from hand was already a big step forward. At some point, employees told me that he had bitten one of them. This convinced me that it was a good call to be cautious and vigilant on what I'm working on. I didn't expect immediate and huge progress, I worked with what I had. I was teaching him “target” which was my closed fist. He got it very quickly. My plan was to work towards touching him with his consent. I started by teaching him to touch me first. I progressed to showing a flat hand so he can put his muzzle on it while offering a target in front of it. It worked really well. When I decided to try a flat hand without the target, it also went well the first 2 or 3 times so I tried again. This time he moved towards my hand a little bit without putting the muzzle on and then stood there rather confused on what I'm asking for. He then pinched my palm with his teeth but he didn't put any pressure whatsoever. Even though he pinched me very gently, my immediate reaction was to take my hand away as he simply surprised me. I also had in mind that he had bitten someone before so taking my hand in an abrupt movement was an instinct and not a conscious choice. You can see on the video that he jumped away like he got scared of my sudden movement. I then realised that he didn't really bite me and at the same time, I decided that I pushed him too far too soon. Maybe he wasn't ready to move further? I then proceeded to simple behaviours that I think he knows well. I wanted to make sure that my sudden reaction, he seemed to get scared of, did not affect him in any way. It turns out, he recovered almost immediately. I wanted to give him more time and more practice before I ask for the behaviour I had in mind. I don't blame him, I work with what I have. On the video, I can see why he got confused. Before I put the hand out I touched my treat pouch. For him, it is a sign that the food is coming but this time I did that by mistake. It was not his fault that he didn't know what was going on. It's my behaviour that confused him.
I wanted to share this to show that sometimes taking things slow and moving back with our plan is the best thing that we can do. I don't want to blame my learner for not doing what I thought he should do. He had a different idea than me. It could mean that he did not yet understand what it is that I'm asking. It could mean that he still is worried about my hand and did not want to put his muzzle on it. Maybe he expected to get a treat (by my own mistake) and when I didn't give him one he showed a little bit of frustration.
I also want to be honest with you and share my thought process that happened after it. When I came back home I was harshly blaming myself for the situation and felt that I'm not a good enough trainer. I thought that I will never move forward with him, that I don’t know what to do, I felt ashamed and unprepared for the task. I didn't want anyone to see this as I thought it was a huge failure. I've been in a dark place with my negative thoughts clouding my whole view. However, I showed the video to some of my friends without telling them how I feel about it. All of them said that it looks like nothing serious and that he just beautifully recovered. I even heard that he looked like he was thinking: "uh-oh is something bad going to happen now? No? Ok, give me a treat" which made me smile. They've helped me calm down my negative thoughts, although not immediately. I needed to come to terms with it and it took me many days to start to see it from a different perspective. Yet, here I am, no matter how long it took.
You might ask, whether I had managed to move forward, and I need to say that unfortunately, not yet. I only had 2 brief moments of working with him after that and the first time he was so excited that I worked hard to keep him calm rather than try this behaviour. Again, I needed to work with what I have and not on my imaginary plan and expectations. I later found out that the reason he was so excited about the meat I had as a treat, is that he didn't have any meat for the last 3 days. He naturally was more excited about it. I worked on calm behaviours instead. Why only two times? Because I also had different dogs that I wanted to work with and didn't have enough time to do more sessions with him. Later I became sick and couldn't visit the shelter anymore. Will I come back to the shelter? Only, if the shelter allows me, taking pandemic into the account. I would love to move forward with him but even if I don't, I already learned tons from him and will be forever grateful for the journey we shared so far.
To sum up. What to do when things don’t go according to our training plan:
Don’t be afraid to move back a few steps and ask for less at any point.
Work with whatever you have in front of you. If the dog is not doing what you’ve asked for, work on something else instead or finish the session sooner to think about the situation, possible explanations of his current behaviour and possible ways you can influence it next time.
Ask, what changed in the environment that could have affected his behaviour? Just like I did when the dog was overly excited.
When you have doubts and you don’t know what to do, don’t be afraid to ask someone knowledgable for help. It’s great when you have a video that you can show to them and sometimes just seeing it by yourself can give you the answer you’ve been looking for.
Be a superhero for your dog, he will love you for it!