I feel like I am fighting a losing battle with Frodo's reactivity.

When I got home from work tonight I took Frodo for our evening walk. He didn't walk this morning or last night because I was giving him a break and some time to wind down.

Well, didn't matter because he had his worst reaction yet since I got him back. We were walking down the road and all of a sudden a Great Dane pops up from a down on a porch and starts bellowing at us. I hadn't seen him and Frodo definitely hadn't seen him. He had a full blown reaction, and I ended up having to drag him out of sight of the Dane because he was completely unable to do anything but react. Even after we got out of sight he kept looking back and every small sound caused him to bolt forward, ears pinned back against his head (if he had a tail it would've been tucked).

We were pretty far from home but I headed straight back. On the way back he reacted pretty badly to two different pairs of people. One laughed at his reaction, causing him to react even worse.

I had my clicker with me, and he was able to do most everything I asked on the way home (sits, downs, hand touches), all of which are easy for him to do. I wasn't sure what I should be doing after his reaction to help him. I know when I was doing the clicker tricks with him he wasn't at all de-stressed, he was taking the treats hard and he was still skittish and reactive towards the environment.

One question I have is where he was threshold wise during this time. He seemed willing and eager to work for me, staying close and giving me attention, but he was also skittish and reactive. So would he be considered over threshold during this time? I know dogs are not able to learn when they are over threshold, so I am assuming they can still perform known behaviors while over threshold?

On the whole, I just don't know what to do about the situation. Do I stop walking him? I know every time he reacts is practice for his reactivity. Every time he reacts the dog goes away. I feel like every time we go out we see more and more dogs and they ALL seem to be reactive! I don't want his reactions to continue to escalate, but I have no way to get him in a situation with a stable dog where I am able to really work with him, and even if I did he is still going to see dogs on his walks because I have no control over who has dogs and when they walk them.

Yay for setbacks :(

I feel like I blog a ridiculous amount compared to all the other blogs I read. Probably because I am trying like mad to keep myself busy and not missing Minnesota. Right now I am blogging on my break at work, halfway through a 10 hour shift. Bleck.

This morning's walk went not so well. Frodo decided it was going to be National React To Everything Day. Hopefully he isn't planning to follow up on this annually.

I have the day off today, so of course it is way too hot to go outside and do anything. Yesterday it was 103 here. Fortunately I was at work all day, we could not have done anything outside anyway.

Nothing much new is going on around here training wise. Still doing decent with the LLW work, when he hits the end of the leash he seems to be bouncing back to a loose leash more than continuing to pull the way he wants to go, which is great. Now I need to start working on rewarding at gradually longer intervals and then moving closer to trees and other environmental stimulus that he wants access to.

I charged the clicker last night a little bit. The problem is that he is getting 2/3 cup of TOTW a day. That only lasts me so long when it comes to training! I can't really break them down any more than they are now, and he is supposed to be on a diet, so I don't want to add a ton more treats to what he is already getting.

This isn't going to help the previous problem either:
They're beef ribs and I am going to use them to try and clean Frodo's teeth. Otherwise I am going to have to make him an appointment to get his teeth cleaned. They aren't all that bad, but they aren't pearly white like they were when he was eating all raw food. I want to order some turkey necks but I am worried they will be too large for my freezer.

I've been using the clicker with Frodo since we got home, but he hasn't really been "on" with the clicker how he used to be. He remembers all his commands brilliantly after 5 months, but I am going to go back and charge the clicker. I figure it can't hurt.

He's never been the best dog with the clicker. He tends to get frustrated and lose focus and attention easily. The treats must be doled out quickly, he's not much for hanging around and offering behaviors and really trying to make me click. If he gets frustrated his default is to sit there and bark at me. Not exactly productive. I think this is another reason why I have a hard time with training him, he has really scattered focus and I have a hard time sticking to a plan.

I think for now I am going to stop working on mat work and desensitizing him to the clippers/dremel. Instead I am going to work on building focus and see if I can get him to start working for a click and being more interested in food.

Goals for the rest of May (I realize we don't have much time left!):
-Charge the clicker
-Building focus/attention
-Trying to get Frodo more interested in training/actually trying to make me click
-Continue low distraction LLW work
-FUN STUFF (aka: building our relationship)

If anyone has any suggestions for the 2nd and 3rd goal, it would be greatly appreciated. I will look for some programs tomorrow before work. I know that I will have to reduce the time I spend training and reward more.

I spent most of the day being a little down about this morning's walk and my thoughts after that.

We just got back from another walk and I would like to eat some of those words :p
Is Frodo ever going to be exactly what I want in a dog? No. And we are going to have more bad days, but as my mom always tells me, I'm good at making mountains out of molehills. There is no reason that both of us can't have a great time together without having 100% of what we want.

Anyway, more about our walk and what changed my mind.
For our walk I took some kibble, but I was prepared to not use it at all and to just go on a walk. Not go on a training session, go on a walk.

It was the first time I came back home empty handed! I didn't Premack at all. Instead I took the advice of a member on another forum and instead of competing against a very exciting environment (trees and good things to sniff), we spent most of our walk in back alleys, walking in the middle of the road. And he stayed in a LLW about 85% of the time. O.o <-- surprised face.

I was ecstatic! That's better than he's ever done. In addition, he did not refuse even one treat, I think Crystal was right, he was too stressed to take the treats this morning. He was so focused and relaxed that he didn't even notice the van that stopped next to us and the dog that got out. I attribute this to him being relaxed and not feeling like he has to be aware of everything in the environment. He was focusing! I am also trying to generalize the leave it command and so when he would wander towards something with small interest (a tire on a car, something non-smelly on the road) I would tell him to leave it and jackpot him. And when he got to a tree or something else smelly? I let him sniff it all he wanted, and kept myself relaxed. I was, like I ALWAYS do, trying to take too large of steps and getting frustrated at him instead of looking at the other end of the leash!

Three other factors that I think may have influenced this morning's bad walk. One is that Frodo, who usually sleeps until I get up or even longer, decided we should start the day at 7am. This put me in a bad mood and I had a headache brewing before we even left the house. New Rule #1: If in a bad mood, don't work with Frodo! Second is that although we got up early, I didn't walk him until around 10, I think. It was warmer than it was on our walk tonight, so I am rethinking my idea that heat wasn't a factor. I also hate hate hate the heat, so it leads to me being in a fouler mood as well. New Rule #2: Get walking during the coolest times of the day, early morning and evening. Lastly, I have been using a lead that, while very pretty and well made, gave me some pretty painful rope burns when Frodo would pull. This, again, put me in a foul mood, and therefore a way less effective trainer. This afternoon after our first walk I was cleaning out my closet and found an old Lupine 4 ft. lead. We used that instead for our evening walk and it was 150 times easier on my hands, and I also didn't have to worry about gathering the excess of the 6 ft. lead.

This is turning out to be a longer post than I was planning, but on a final note, a word about Frodo's reactivity. Being so bummed after our morning walk I didn't even get a chance to tell you about the run ins with dogs earlier. Unfortunately I have nobody with a stable dog that I can train with, so we tend to end up working with the situations we can find. Unfortunately we often have surprise meetings with dogs that we didn't see until we are on top of them. Today this occured with a yellow lab and an English mastiff. What I am noticing about Frodo's reactivity is that while he still reacts, he is recovering much quicker. It is almost as if the dogs are out of sight and out of mind. He can focus at times that he would have previously been trying to spin around and go back towards the dog. I am not sure why of the change, and I'm not going to say that it is going to remain this way. It could be him still settling in and adjusting, but for now I will take it!

Mini tangent:
Who in their right mind lets a 150lb English Mastiff off leash in the middle of town? Who???
The people down the street, that's who. This was one of our run-in's today. He was laying on the porch (no leash, no collar, nothing) and neither Frodo nor I noticed him until we were about 5ft. away. Frodo reacted. The dog never moved a muscle, thank goodness! But what if he had? If he wanted to I am sure he could make quick work of Frodo. I talked to my mom about it, as he was not there 5 months ago, and she said that she's seen the woman out walking him and has zero control over him. He pulls her over to visit children and whatever else he wants. Needless to say, we won't be walking that way anymore.

Not having such a good day today so far. Yesterday he did better than normal, and most of our walk was spent with him trotting along just fine, receiving lots of yummy treats for it, and sitting when asked so he could go sniff.

This morning was horrible. He didn't care that I had treats or what they were (even spit some out that I tried to give him! NOT normal), spent the whole walk pulling towards trees and refusing to go faster than a snails pace. ALL he wants to do is take his time and smell every grain of dirt and every leaf. ALL I want to do is be able to take him for a long walk at a decent pace. About 2 blocks from my house I put the clicker and treats away and tried to keep us at a slow walk. I was frustrated and trying to train would have accomplished nothing.

I am realizing that Frodo is farther from my ideal dog than I thought. The reactivity was what I used to view as our biggest problem, but his lack of activity and want to train is by far much harder for me to deal with. I think I was fine with it before because that was everything Izzy loved to do, so I just spent time training and walking her, and then giving Frodo as much as he wanted. Now he is the only dog I have to work on those things and really, he just isn't all that interested.

I thought a lot about a next dog while we were out snailing around, and I realized that I have no interest in getting a puppy from a breeder or going through a shelter. The next dog I get I want to know the exact dog that they are before I take them on. This is the type of dog I would need anyway having Frodo. But I want a dog who loves to train, loves fetching and long walks/hikes, and who I can compete with. I would rather take on another reactive dog than a really lazy, uninterested dog. Don't get me wrong, I love Frodo, but living with a dog that isn't what you want can be hard.

I realize that he could potentially become more like the dog I want. It's not like he hates training or anything, and for the most part he is food motivated, but I love dogs who go bonkers when you get out the clicker and who offer behaviors out of the blue. I'll keep working with Frodo, obviously, but I can't help but spend hours on Petfinder and rescue sites, knowing I can't have another dog for quite some time.

Hopefully the rest of the day is a little better. As soon as I get my first paycheck I am going to make an appointment to get Frodo completely checked out and make sure it's nothing physical that is causing some of this. I am going to make sure they check his teeth, since he spit out treats this morning.

Things (in very simple terms) that I need to do:

I thought corgis were supposed to be energetic little dogs, bred to work a farm all day between the herding, the ratting, the watchdogging, etc? Frodo disagrees.

Frodo and I got home yesterday evening and after all the worrying I had done about bringing him back home, it took him all of .05 seconds to settle in and fall asleep.

The drive yesterday was about 10 hours and he handled it like a champ. We stopped at McDonald's for lunch (he got a chicken breast) and talked with a man there who has SIX corgis!! Our only issues occurred when he didn't want to get back in the car after lunch and when we went over some rumble strips due to construction. They scared him pretty badly, and I'm not sure there is anything I can do for next time. He also exploded hair all over my car.

9.5 hours of driving left to Frodo. I am currently in a hotel in Kentucky and I am getting ready to head out in a few minutes. :D

Technically it is now Sunday, but I am still counting this as 3 days left on the countdown. Unless I don't get a chance to post tomorrow, then it counts for days 3 and 2. My blog, my rules.
I am mostly packed except for a few things I need to take to Ryan's house tomorrow, a few things I need to throw out, and a few things I need to stick in my car.

Anyway, I have been thinking recently about changing the words I use for commands. Mainly because Frodo has realized that he can get away with not listening to a lot of the commands I give him (even important ones like COME and STAY!) because of how badly I trained them the first time around.

I am thinking maybe German. Or something else. Maybe I will keep them the same. Ryan's suggestion was just switching them up, because it would be funny.

I'm really not sure which would be better for him and easier for me. I will mull it over a bit more when I am more awake and suggestions are more than welcomed by any potential readers out there.

4 more days, that is ridiculous. I can't believe I am leaving Minneapolis on Monday :(

Is it sad that the only reason I am posting right now is so there isn't a gap in the countdown? ... Probably.

Not all that much to add to the countdown today other than I need to start making a list of more things than I have money for to buy Frodo when I get home.

-treatbag (used to have one I loved that got chewed up by the dogs and I can't seem to find the same on on the interwebz!)
-head halter (had one, not sure if I will be able to find it when I get back though)
-harness (his should be still at the house, but again, who know!)
-mat
-a metric buttload of treats (cheese, hot dogs, NB roll, wet cat food, anything else I can think of...)
-dog food
-turkey necks
-evil cuz (I want to teach Frodo to fetch in the worst way and this is one of the only toys he will actually pick up and show interest in that he can't dissect)
-Batteries, for my camera. Wouldn't want to forget those!

I plan on adding to this list whenever I think of something else. I know there is more, I can never seem to think of them all at once though!
And I need to stop at Petco before I leave MN because I want to have at least one bag of yummy dog treats on me for the ride home.

Oh and I keep forgetting to mention this, but if I stay at my grandparents house then there is no chance of doing the housetraining plans that I wanted to, so I am holding off on buying an xpen for now...

The countdown begins! 8 days until I pick up Frodo!

At this time next week I will hopefully be about 13 hours into the 20 hour drive from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Chapel Hill, North Carolina and getting about ready to find a hotel room for the night.

In other news, when Megan, Beckett's owner (I realize this isn't her name, but I just failed an astronomy final, I am entitled to a momentary vocabulary lapse), and I took Buzz and Beckett to Como Lake, BO (Beckett's Owner, not body odor...though it looks like a place: Como Lake, BO...HA!) was telling be about using dog calming CDs when going to new places to help the dog acclimate. And since I plan on moving Frodo back home to Bloomsburg, then Bloomsburg to another place in PA (more on this later), then from there to Minneapolis, I decided it would be a good idea to get started on this. Not to mention that we are going to be staying in a hotel on the way out and will probably stay in a hotel in PA at some point this summer as a dry run.

Which means...Amazon shopping extravaganza!!!
Here's the stash, it should be waiting for me in PA when I get there:

is to find as many dog blogs as I can so that when I need a fix there is ALWAYS a new post!

In my spare time I've started going to people's blogs....and seeing what blogs they follow and adding them to my blogroll...then going to THEIR blog and seeing what blogs they follow....then, well, you get the idea. It makes me feel oddly stalkerish and deviant, but I've found some really good blogs and a bunch of training blogs for reactive dogs, wohoo!

No real reason for this post other than to put off studying for finals for a little while.

Also I need to start a list of things I need to buy for Frodo that I will probably forget. Like a treat bag.

The End.

P.S. I paid for Frodo's new collar the other day, now I just have to wait until it arrives. Should be 2-4 weeks I think.

The End v2.0

I will eventually finish that other post...probably. I will also eventually post regularly, it's hard when I don't actually have my dog in my possession.

Anyway, I finished The Culture Clash and moved on to Emma Parson's Click to Calm. I've heard a ton of good feedback on this book and it is usually the first book to get mentioned when someone is looking to help their reactive/aggressive dog. I am about 3/4 of the way through it and I am much impressed and excited to use the information from the book with Frodo.

One aspect of helping reactive/aggressive dogs that comes up consistently in all of the books that I have read so far has been that of foundation behaviors (sit, stay, recall, name recognition, LLW, leave it, etc). It has also been mentioned on nearly every behavior modification trainer's website that I visited while looking for a trainer for Frodo. Every dog is expected to have these skills before being allowed in the class, particularly solid name recognition and recall.

Reading these books makes me think that this is where I really need to start with Frodo. He knows all of these behaviors at home and many while out an about if we are not in a stressful situation. Though there is that whole LLW thing that he (and by he, I mean me of course) absolutely fails at. But all of these behaviors need to be seriously strengthened and proofed beyond belief before I can use them as alternatives to aggressive behavior in any kind of real life situation with another dog around.

The top two behaviors that I would like to see get better before we come back to MN would definitely be a LLW and a solid recall. These are probably two of his worst behaviors currently, and also behaviors that I tend to get frustrated while trying to teach. At the same time I am very motivated to make these behaviors better as they are two of the behaviors that would make our lives much easier and get Frodo much more exercise. I obviously can't exercise him on leash as fast as he would be able to exercise off-leash, and our walks would last longer if he had a LLW (one of my biggest pet peeves is a pulling dog). I realize that there is a good chance he will never be a reliable off-leash dog, but I can at least give it my best shot and hopefully reap the benefits.

Less than two weeks now before I head to North Carolina to pick Frodo up!

Back to studying for finals!