"All-Positive Monday 21" - Saga of the New Floor

Well, Wally's world got thrown upside down a couple days ago. My mom (Wally's owner) changed her floor drastically, and it confused Wally completely. While he didn't get into full fearful mode, he was noticeably uncertain.

So much of the last few days has been spent getting him comfortable with the floor and showing him that nothing really changed in regards to him.

It also didn't help that she put some rocks along the entrances of the rooms and had me put down a new tile design on the floor. That added to things to get him used to. Fortunately, though, he's come a LONG way from the way he used to be, so this was not nearly as hard as it could have been.

Much of the training was playing lots of games and getting him to eat tidbits of food off the rocks and the bench on the side of the hall. I also wanted to get him to move eagerly along the hall so that he could understand that the floor tiles and such are still easy for him to move on. I think over time he will love the floor, since the more slippery linoleum is gone.

This was a case where "all-positive training" really works. It technically is not under operant conditioning, but more desensitization, part of classical conditioning (think Pavlov's dog).

The work was successful as now he's sniffing the rocks as he goes by, just in case there's some food there! We kept up with the having him walk on just his back paws as usual, and all his usual routines and jobs are still there, though the change in the floor color did create a screwing up with his keeping out of the kitchen behavior.

What happened is that "dividing line" to him was, in part, the change between the white linoleum flooring and the brown tile of the kitchen. Now the floor is brown and it looks too much like the kitchen tile, so it's a bit confusing for him at the moment. We'll have to reteach it, so he can pick up on another landmark.

In all, it wasn't hard, but it was something of a setback and something to deal with a bit.

The Mystery of the Scary Dog Bowl?

This is something "new" that's come and gone a few times in the past. I have no idea what caused it or why it isn't consistent, but there are times where he will RUN from his food.

I've tried to come up with ideas for why he does this sometimes, but at least I can get him to eat if a put my finger in it and let him lick a little off, or just point to the bowl and be insistent about eating. I wish I knew what this was about.

The sporadic nature of it makes me think there's something else other than the bowl at work, but something about the thought of eating at that moment is something he wants to avoid - but what dog does NOT want to eat?

The first few times it happened, I thought he needed to go out to do his business; so, I let him out, and he did relieve himself. However, when coming back in, he still displayed the same behavior. If I take him out repeatedly, he won't go and can get even more anxious.

He is healthy otherwise and has his normal personality (once he calms down) and activity level. This makes me want to rule out any illness as I've seen him when he's was fully sick/stomach upset and he's lethargic and nothing like his usual self.

It happened again not too many days ago, but I did get him to eat. Tonight, I didn't get to take him out before dinner, so I'm sure he could have used a bathroom break, but not out of the unusual happened. He scarfed down his food in 25 seconds like usual.

For now, I'm going with some kind of upset stomach or something out of balance a bit (like mild constipation or something) and have trimmed back his food a bit. He's been good since so maybe that's done it.

I don't know. Sometimes, this dog really has me scratching my head! Wally, why you so quirky?

"All-Positive Monday 18 - Another Fearful Object To Battle"

The boxes I had bought at IKEA along with those stuffed animals to work on object matching with presented another challenge to us.

Not with using the boxes, but just approaching them. He avoided the boxes and was very reluctant to come up to them. He got so scared, he started to shaking again, just like he used to.

Things like this are perfect for an all-positive approach. For any interaction with the box, he got a click and a reward, this time a piece of deli ham. I wanted to give him something that he likely finds more enticing than even his beloved bread balls.

This got him at least looking at the box and stretching his next out towards it. I approached this as a shaping exercise, so no cues from me, just clicks and ham or nothing. I wanted him to approach or give attention to the box on his own. I didn't want him to feel like I was pressuring him or to add any more anxiety to what he was already feeling.

Working on this took a lot of energy out of him, something I remember from working on fear issues before. He needed a break, so I took him out for a leisurely walk (more sniffing and marking than walking) and then he took a nap when we got back in and settled (and cooled off).

This is something we'll have to keep working with so he can get over this as well.

"All-Positive Monday" 9: Fronts, Go-Arounds, And...Scary Food Bowl?!

The ninth "All-Positive Monday" happened, and for the most part it was another success, but there was some..."quirks" in it today. Read on.


Fun With Fronts With Finishes Thrown In


This was something of a game. I would move away from him and entice him to come get me. I walked backwards as fast as I could while he comes trotting up to me to catch me. Then I stop. When he gets up to me, he sits down and then I click and treat him. We keep doing this all over, around corners, up and down stairs. He gets really excited with this and after a while I can't get all that far away from him since he's charging after me or mirroring my movement.

At this point, I just keep taking a couple steps back. He follows, and then I do it again. I click and treat after a few of these and then start backing up more and more times. I can hear him start to do his "dog laugh" and he starts "sitting harder" each time.

When we went outside for a walk, I let him get some running in by putting him in a stay and then going quite a ways from him (one day, I'll have to show a picture since I can't judge distances at all) and called him to front. He charges all hard and then comes to an abrupt stop in a front. I give him a treat and repeat the process. He loves this and it gets him some good sprinting in.

For the finishes, we didn't do anything special, but I attached it at the end of each sequence. This made it something of a precursor to a treat and another round of the activity which then became like a double reward for the behavior, making up, hopefully, for fewer "formal" repetitions with it.


Go Go Go-Arounds...Or At Least We Wanted To

For the go-around (where he goes around the indicated object) we played the station-to-station game. Or at least what we could of it. Back when we first played it, the weather was still kind of cool and the days a little on the short side, so there was some time we could go out and have the playground basically to ourselves. Now, with the weather warm and the days longer, kids are out all over the place (and I swear they are all girls, and little ones at that, which we just get no escape from). This was the first "quirk" that got in our way.

With all this activity, there's just no way to get the game in as there would be too many distractions and all they need to see is a dog they thing is sooooo cute and want to pet all the time running around the playground to get their attention. I swear, little kids have their own version of "prey drive"!

Anyway, for what we could get in, we did have some fun playing the game again. Wally remembered the go-around easily and loved the game just as much. I hated to cut it short, and Wally was still all fully of energy and jumping and bouncing around trying to get me to start the game again.


Really? Running From Your Food?

This really, really has me stumped right now. I mean, seriously, he is suddenly running from his food bowl and gets scared when he's laying beside it in what was his usual "CAN I HAZ IT NOW?" place where he waits for me to "allow" him to eat.

In fact, when I give the go ahead (literally, I say "go ahead!"), he goes to open the door and runs down the other end of the hall. Or to the laundry room (go figure that one too). What's equally odd is that if I put the food in a white bowl (one of my bowls) he'll eat it up. And then, as if it wasn't odd enough, this only happens during dinner. Breakfast, he just eats it right up.

Well, he's going to have to eat from the food bowl. So this part of the "All-Positive Monday" was devote to desensitizing him...to his own food bowl. Fortunately, it didn't take much to get him to get up (since he was hungry) and start to come over to sniff my fingers (I had some of the food on them). When he licked the food, I praised him. He kept doing it until he took the food off my fingers, which got him more praise.

Then I used a bit of targeting to get him to put his head in the bowl, praising every movement to the food. He was still a bit hesitant, but with some more encouraging and started to lick/nibble at the food. This earned him more praise and he then started actually eating, which got him more praise and I went away. I noticed that once he started eating, he devoured his food like normal, even licking the ball clean.

I don't get it. He still loves the food, he's very hungry, and once he eats, he's all normal (and looking at me like "Look! I ate my dinner!"). If any one has an explanation for this, I'm all ears. Right now, this has me completely baffled. I mean, when I put treats in the bowl to test and said "go ahead!" he chomped them down (this was before dinner) so it's just when it's his food in the bowl.

I don't know. It's one of those times I wish I could read his mind to know why he's suddenly doing this.


Even with the scary food bowl business, it was a good day and another success.

There's a Monster Under the Table! Oh...It Was Just a Pillow

No training today. Wally had the day off from my craziness so we just hung around when going outside, letting him sniff around "be a dog" as they say (what else is he going to be? Some of these expressions make no sense to me!) and just lay around the house and dig imaginary holes in his bed and whatnot.

Though he did one really strange thing. Usually he goes in the living room while waiting for me to get my shoes and jacket on to take him out. But I notice he got to the entrance to the living room, stopped and turn around. At first I thought he was doing some wacky thing, but when I asked him to go into the living room, he kept looking under the table and then would turn around again looking all agitated with his tail down and everything.