 Heinz learned the Wait command today, and we applied it to receiving his food and going in and out of a door. We also worked on the basics of Come When Called. Heinz still has issues with jumping when he gets very excited, so we will work on that exclusively next session.
 “Any man with money to make the purchase may become a dog's owner. But no man--spend he ever so much coin and food and tact in the effort--may become a dog's Master without consent of the dog. Do you get the difference? And he whom a dog once unreservedly accepts as Master is forever that dog's God.”
― Albert Payson Terhune, Lad: A Dog  Poor Ash is exhausted after a long day working. She was growled and barked at, never batted an eye when she was lunged at. I can't take all the credit for her calm demeanor, but she definitely makes me look good! Thank you, girl.
 Again we put Ash to work as we helped Bella with her reactivity to other dogs. Initially we had no problems introducing the two, and we even took a walk together. But once we brought out a rawhide bone Bella's resource guarding surfaced and the new friendship was over! Now that we are firmly aware of some of Bella's triggers we have put a plan into place to counter-condition them.
 My training partner Ash and I (Kim helped, too!) worked with Jenny to help her with her fear aggression when she sees other dogs. We used the Open Bar technique to teach her that other dogs are not a thing to be scared of. When she first saw Ash from about 50 yards away she reacted with growling, lunging, and barking. By the end of the session Jenny was standing next to Ash. By no means is Jenny 'cured' (only time and repetition can do that), but I showed her owners that by taking it slow the dog can be conditioned to accept something it was previously fearful of.
 Tonight we did some "open bar" work with Bella to counter-condition her whenever Nikki came into the room. Open bar is the technique of continually feeding the dog during the stressful situation in order to change the perception of a bad thing to one of a good thing. During my time there Bella showed no signs of aggressiveness towards Nikki at all, and was even learning to look at her owner for her reward when Nikki did appear.
 Being a hound mix, one of Molly's biggest problems is walking nicely on leash. So we took advantage of the weather and took to the back yard, where there were minimal distractions. I showed the owners the proper way to hold the leash and what to do when Molly pulls. After some practice repetitions we took her out front where there were cars, people, and critters. We started slowly, walking just a few feet at a time, but eventually had her walking pretty nicely.
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AuthorJeff Dentler, CPDT-KA, IAABC-ADT, FFCP, CTDI Archives
March 2025
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