Sage and I have successfully managed a string of reasonable encounters this past week- including a really amazing one in which he did not even growl upon seeing Jesse walking toward him with her family. She was two house lots way and I kept the duration of her being visible brief to keep success likely, and it worked. We ducked off the road and he tried to plant himself in a sit so he could watch Jesse, but as Emma reminds us- Dont wait and see what’s going to happen- you KNOW what’s going to happen: he would sit firmly and watch* and soon forget about anything on the perimeter of his awareness. The perimeter will shrink rapidly like a drawstring around his own face and Jesse coming, the ears would go up, the whiskers flare out, the lips pucker, a growl, and then when he can’t sit still, he’ll stand up, weight on his back paws, head lowered ears back and bark bark bark, At this point he is well beyond hearing my voice. Then he will lunge and bark some more. If I have waited this long to actually DO anything- imagine if this point is the moment I introduce a reinforcing piece of chicken?- I would (and have) need to pull him away from sight of his trigger and have -in essence- ruined him for the purposes of any successful work the next several days due to the adrenalin rush of PANIC chemicals coursing through his brain.
*THIS is when you give the chicken and happily say- Good boy! that was so great to see Jesse, waaay over there. Let’s go walk! Chicken and Divert, or as real trainers say: Treat and Retreat.
Sage and I are good enough now that I can catch him early being good, his medicine keeps him from spiking too fast for me (though he will still spike if I were to do nothing and expect zoloft to take care of it- it won’t) and I know enough to call it a short successful day. Or do I? I talk with my favorite sister most days and she is a saint about enduring my obsessive reports and thoughts about this Sage-work, and is kind enough to share her thoughts from a more objective place. I told her about our success vs seeing Jesse but also that I thought Sage seemed anxious in general during normal house time, walking around panting and with his stress-face on. Laura pointed out that I had been taking him out a lot more than the plan I told her I had would allow. She was right. I got excited because of the successes we had been having and I was taking him off-property every day- to the forest with friends, then on walks in the neighborhood. I was forgetting to give him his down time to recharge. Without it, our possibility of a major FAIL goes up with each outing. “Put his leashes away for 4 days,” she told me exactly what an objective Me would have told myself. My drawstring had also become too close to my face. I agreed- he doesn’t leave the house and yard till Monday.
Feeling good about our successes, I leashed up Reilly later that evening and left Sage home with my daughter, playing Samba de Amigo on the Wii- but we were only a house and a half away when Raye came tearing out after me, screaming, “Seiji’s CRYING! He;s going CRAZY- like he saw MIA!” (Mia the cat across the street, whom he chased around the neighborhood one day as a pup with tremendous glee.) Only it wasn’t Mia, it was because I left him home. I sent Raye home, and she gave Sage a kong with a milk bone in it, which got him busy and calmed down. I took Rei on a short business-focused walk and went righ tback home. Thinking about the paradoxes of my training work and wondering how much trouble I was in NOW with Sep/Anx.
To work on his reactivity, the object is to get him more focused on me for direction and security- this is clearly working- however his Kai nature is strong (”one-person dog”) and his base owner-attachment level is stronger than most to begin with. His reactivity training increases that BUT I need to not overdo it and exacerbate Sep/Anx. I always recognized some sep/Anx in him, but he has never been destructive, mutilating about it. He just gets emotional for a few minutes then calms down and goes to sleep. By definition, I cannot be aware of what he does when I’m not here, because- I’m…not…here…Because he is not destructive, chewey, or self-mutilating there is no obvious evidence of Sep/Anx when I return. I imagine this is because his anxiety is not as bad and I can still manage it.
I cannot abandon his reactivity training, but I CAN chalk his more intense sep/anx incident to the greater stress of our outing schedule lately. He doesnt always get upset, so for now I plan to leave the radio on for him, no-fuss comings and goings, a kong when I go sometimes, and encouraging Jeff and Raye to give him Good Things too, but I do not think this will overcome his intense relationship with me- I think that is his nature.
