No, not the film from the early 90's, but rather how my new client felt after her last appointment with her dog trainer. She called her veterinarian and told him about the work she'd been doing with the dog trainer and he told her to stop immediately and call me. This really panicked her and she was practically hyperventilating when she called me and left me a message. If there's one thing I'm good at though, it's talking people down off the ledge. When we connected, I asked her to take a deep breath and tell me what happened that led to that call to the vet and then to me. She agreed to me sharing her story as she felt like she couldn't be the only person who'd experienced this (she's definitely not!) and she hopes it saves someone else from having to go through all of this themselves.
My client unknowingly acquired a puppy mill dog. She thought she was getting an older puppy that a breeder had decided not to keep, when in actuality, she was getting a puppy mill dog who'd likely been used as a breeder unsuccessfully, and then sent on to a puppy broker for sale. My client had no idea what a puppy broker even was until after she'd already gotten the dog and started having issues and couldn't get any feedback from the person she'd purchased the dog from. The dog in question, an 11 month old female Havanese, was incredibly fearful and disengaged, was toileting all over the client's house, was terrified of the leash, and was unable to follow basic directives like sit, down, or come. At this point, she reached out for help to a local person who billed themselves as providing "balanced dog training services." Like most people, my client equated balanced with a positive approach (much like a balanced diet), one which would take into consideration all of her dog's needs and personality and thus be balanced in how the dog was treated. She quickly discovered after a few sessions with this trainer that her definition of balanced and positive, and the trainer's definition, were two different things.
Balanced dog trainers believe in an approach that utilizes both reward-based techniques and aversive consequences (punishment). What most people don't realize is that punishment can come in two forms, positive and negative. Positive punishment is the addition of something after the behavior in question that results in the dog doing that behavior with decreased frequency. Negative punishment involves removing a reinforcing item after the undesirable behavior in an effort to decrease the frequency of that behavior. In the realm of human behavior, an easy example of the difference would be spanking a kid who misbehaves (positive punishment) or taking away his Playstation (negative punishment). So what happened with my client's dog?
The trainer put the dog on a pinch collar and 4 foot leash and proceeded to use leash corrections ("popping" the leash so the collar tightened) anytime the dog resisted walking. At one point the dog had curled up and was being dragged with the pinch collar and leash. In addition, the trainer had suggested an e-collar to "speed up the basic obedience training" and, frankly, I don't even want to tell you what the suggestion was for the housetraining issues. I honestly thought everyone at this point knew that shoving a dog's nose in excrement doesn't teach them not to poop in the house. No wonder her veterinarian sent her my way; this dog and owner were at a crisis point. While the dog had been afraid and disengaged, she had never been aggressive. After two sessions with the dog trainer, the dog was becoming snappy and growly and the trainer was suggesting "cranking up the e-collar" in response to those behaviors. Again, something positive alright, positive punishment. My client didn't realize that punishment would be the trainer's solution for the issues she was having, nor did she understand why the trainer kept referring to them as positive methods.
I felt awful for this owner and this dog. She'd spent a great deal of money on this trainer and still had remaining sessions that she'd prepaid for. Truly hoping she'll be able to get her money back. Nonetheless, we had our work cut out for us as now her dog didn't trust her and sure as heck wasn't going to trust me at the outset. I sat on the floor, not making eye contact, and tossing treats away from me, until the dog finally approached me for a tentative sniff. I extended my hand and dropped a treat, and then another, until finally the dog was in front of me. I gently scratched the dog's chest and she sat. I told her "good sit" and gave her a big treat. Her ears went back, she dropped her head, and started to retreat at the word "sit," but she ended up not moving away. She was definitely expecting a shock for breaking the sit, which she didn't of course receive from me. I scratched her chest again, she sat, I repeated "good sit," and handed her an even bigger treat to chew on. She held the sit, but kept a close watch on me. It took the full hour and a bag full of treats, but I got this little dog to trust me not to shock her for slow responses. The second session, we started again with the treat toss game which she clearly enjoyed and remembered. I had brought a 6 foot leash with me, which I dropped at my feet for her to sniff. She definitely was suspicious. I told the owner that I wanted to build up to a nice, soft harness for her dog, but we'd start with a leash and flat collar, no pulling. I had the dog drag the leash around the house while we played recall games and worked on her basics. By the third session, I could follow the dog around the owner's yard while holding the leash. At the slightest leash tension, she'd panic, so I kept the leash as loose as possible and followed the dog around, encouraging sniffing by dropping treats to find. I had given the owner homework to do to start from square one on the housetraining issues and by that third session, the dog was having very few accidents in the house and was able to toilet outside on the schedule we'd come up with for her. The owner and I plan to meet once a month going forward just to continue to assess her dog's progress with what the owner refers to as my "gentle reprogramming." I love that. Reprogramming. I definitely feel like this dog came from a less than ideal situation (puppy mill) then went into a rigorous, punishment-based training program that basically just shut her down. We do need to reprogram her to see people as kind, providing structure and guidance and consequences that the dog can understand. She still acts like the food puzzles we're giving her are punishment as well, so we'll have to keep working on that. This dog needs to build her confidence with new tasks and those puzzles use treats she loves, but she frustrates and gives up very easily. No big surprise there. My client is patient, though, and happy to see her little dog start to wag that tail instead of tucking in, and not shy away from loving handling. Another work in progress for sure.
My client is now kicking herself for not listening to her instincts and stopping this aversive training program at that first session. Hindsight is 20/20 after all. Dogs are pliable and forgiving, and they do want to please us, but this dog had never had humans around in a truly positive manner, so it was like starting from the beginning all over again, building trust, setting up boundaries, and working on cooperative care. My client is all the wiser now, knowing why she'll never get a dog through a broker again AND why she'll listen to her heart when choosing anyone to care for or help her with her dog. If it feels wrong, it is wrong.
As always, if you have questions about your pet's behavior, you know where to find me.
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