The New Bentley

Bentley has his first week of success with no chewing within the home! For many months he had been causing some rather serious damage to his owners home whenever they were gone. Having owners who trained Bentley so diligently to follow obedience commands has drastically accelerated my ability to help his owners rehabilitate him. He easily master down and stay out of a person's sight for 45 minutes each day, although it was a big challenge the first two days. He also became desensitized easily to his perceived cues that his owner was leaving. This has made him an excellent student.

With the usage of modern technology it is easy for us to observe Bentleys behavior without even being present. This whole week there was no barking or whining and he spent nearly all of his time chewing on a fresh marrow bone which is provided each morning before his owners leave for work.

Bentley's next level of correcting his separation anxiety includes teaching him how to cope with being alone in a new place. Luckily his owners own a beach house piece of property that Bentley has never visited. They plan to start the behavior modification program from the beginning to be certain that he is successful there as well. They picked a great weekend to begin this important step of his rehabilitation, as it is going to be a hot weekend!!!!

Bentley's Destruction

Bentley is a one year old German Shepherd mix. He is very well socialized and follows basic obedience commands really well. Bentley has the misfortune of having a severe case of separation anxiety which he demonstrates by chewing and clawing doors and window moldings when he is left alone. Bentley has never been crate trained. At this point, the level of separation anxiety that he experiences would make it quite dangerous for him to begin crate training. Until Bentley has achieved several weeks of rehabilitation he has been prescribed some medicine by his veterinarian to help him relax until his owners return from work.

Bentley first level of training will begin by him learning how to lie down and stay for ten minutes each day out of his owners sight in different locations. He will also be learning that hearing keys jingling and seeing coats being put on are not cues to have anxiety, and that his owners are calm and matter of fact before leaving the home and when returning. Luckily his owners love him dearly and are willing to do whatever is necessary to correct his fear of being left alone. 

Molly the Maltese Mix

Molly is a nine month old Maltese mix. Her retired owners have hired me to help her learn to come when she is called. Molly has had several close encounters with traffic because she ran outdoors and wouldn't come to her owners when called. Her owner's were obviously terrified and realized something needed to be done.

After her initial assessment, I quickly realized that the first step for Molly's rehabilitation is to actually teach her what the command to come means. It was apparent to me that she ignored her name from over usage and the command to come simply because she had no idea For now her owner's will be using a twenty foot lead and practicing forty repetitions each day. These sessions will be broken down into eight short sessions each day. Her owners will be giving her a very high value treat and excited praise after each individual repetition.

Molly is a bright little dog. During my first visit and after only ten minutes, she was already beginning to realize that coming when called immediately and sitting was rewarding and also great fun! Molly will be learning many levels of coming when called and in different environments. To properly train her she will need diverse distractions to ensure that when she is fully trained her safety will no longer be in jeopardy. This project will take several weeks of dedication from her owners, but they understand their errors and are very enthusiastic about fixing the problem that they accidentally helped create.  

Jett and Grace

Last week I started working with a family that have two 18 month old schnauzers Jett a male and Grace a female. They are not siblings but have grown up together and are very bonded to each other. The problem for their owners is that they really only take direction from each other. When they are overstimulated, stressed or excited they feed off of each other. This creates a severe situation of excessive barking, housebreaking errors and unruly behavior within the home and on walks. 

My short term plan to encourage a stronger bond with Grace and Jett's to their owners is to keep them on leads withinn the home. Each  person will keep only one of them by their side at a time. They will be fed, excersized, trained and receive praise separately. Their owners will take turns spending time with each of them individually and to reward all the behaviors that they enjoy in them as separate individuals.

This is a slow process but once Grace and Jett begin to look to humans for support and direction it will be much easier to teach them to respond when given commands. Their owners are so devoted to them and now realize that taking on two puppies at once created a difficult learning and bonding environment.

It was amazing to watch them, even in the hour I was there I could see that they were begining to look to people for resources. A definate step in the right direction!!!!

Matilda's Fears

Matilda is a one year old female German Shepherd. She is very fearful of most people besides her family and demonstrates this by attempting to be aggressive. Her owners worked with several trainers, but they all gave up on her.

Matilda did become nearly hysterical for the first few minutes on our first meeting but she calmed down very quickly. Her owners were taught by previous trainers that they should verbally and physically reprimand Matilda when she barked at people. In her mind strangers whom she was already afraid of caused her to be punished and corrected by the people she trusted. Poor Girl :(  With the usage of  her favorite liver treats, we brought her into a room with myself and her owners present. Matilda was kept on a leash, as we talked we let her bark. She was  repeatedly rewarded her with treats and a ball whenever she stopped barking at me for even a moment. Her owners also rewarded her whenever she displayed relaxed behavior in my presence as well. Within about twenty minutes Matilda was taking treats from me and began allowing me to pat and touch her. She was even soliciting attention fom me!

I realise that Matilda has been rehearsing this behavior for any months.  Matilda's owners have seen the positive results by completely changing their approach.  From now on whenever she is in the presence of strangers great things will be happening! Our next goal will be to work on her making more eye contact with her owners more frequently. That way she can look to her owners for direction when she needs support. Her owners will also be keeping her on lead and by their side until her stimulation level goes down.  She is going to be just fine. 

Thatcher's Is Responding

Thatcher is making excellent gains. With the usage of a Gentle Leader his family is having much more control of his behavior around other dogs.  With my instruction and guidance Thatcher has been having daily and repeated exposures to many different dogs while walking. He has been receiving his favorite treats in their presence and for accepting them nearby. Now he is begining to associate other dogs with positive reinforcement and only looks at them briefly before turning to his family for a reward and feedback. I have noticed that although his owners are still a little unsure and ask me many questions about how to handle specific situations, they now have control when put into difficult positions with other dogs. This has enabled them to travel for Easter with Thatcher, even though there are other dogs living in that home. Next week I plan to advance Thatcher and his family. We will begin training in a much more challenging environment for Thatcher. He is clearly ready for bigger challenges. My plan is to take him in a very high volume dog area where there are several dogs that are on lead but confrontational. I think if we exercise him and practice some basic obedience before hand he will go through this next level easily. 

Jasper's Challenges

So Ive been working on an interesting case with a Briard named Jasper. For three years he had been well cared for by a couple who recently divorced. As a result of their separation Jasper has had some dramatic life style changes. Jasper ended up living with the husband in a new home. His owner is a doctor and works very long hours and Jasper has for the first time in his life had to face being alone all day. Jasper's dominant nature has always made him a poor prospect for a dog walker or dog daycare. His owners had tolerated his behavior and accidently supported it, instead of becoming his leader. He could be very aggressive at times with visitors and had bitten his owner a few times due to misplaced aggression. Jasper's owner recognized his need for exercise and companionship but was fearful that he might be too dangerous for anyone else to handle. Jasper is now doing wonderfully!!! He is calmer, has much better impulse control and has become quite affectionate. He is responding to my program and his owner has really changed his way of thinking about his relationship with Jasper. I have several sessions to go but I'm certain of a happy ending.

Addressing Max's Separation Anxiety

Max is a three-year-old labradoodle who suddenly started having trouble with separation anxiety. When his owner would leave her apartment he would bark, whine, and pace throughout the day. Putting on coats or shoes, or hearing keys jingle, all triggered Max’s troubling behavior. His owner was very worried that the other tenants in the building would start to complain.

We began by addressing the behaviors that reinforced Max’s anxiety. Max would constantly follow his owner from one room to the next. When a dog suffers from separation anxiety, continuing to allow such behavior encourages and supports extreme dependency. We taught max to lie down and stay on his mat, even in the presence of distractions, using treats and praise.

We also worked on desensitizing Max to the cues that triggered his anxiety by practicing the actions that Max associated with his owner’s departure. This helped reduced his anxiety when his owner really needed to leave. It was critical that his owner remained as calm as possible when coming and going. Dogs often adopt the mental state of their owners, and understanding that his owner was calm under stimulating or stressful situations greatly reduced Max's anxiety.

After just four weeks of slowly reacclimating Max to being alone, using positive reinforcement, and being neutral with him before leaving and when first arriving home, Max made a complete recovery. Watching Max's behavior on camera, we can see that when his owner leaves, he now briefly goes to the door and then returns to his mat. He sometimes plays with one of his favorite chew toys, or naps until his owner returns home.