A young lady called me one evening, she was really upset. She adopted a 1 year old female German Shepherd pup 6 months before named Heli, she’s seen 5 or 6 different trainers, spent alot of money and the dog was getting worse. To top it off, a few recommended euthanasia, she can’t be fixed. One “trainer” donned hockey gear and pushed her til she bit him – “yep, she’s aggressive, put her down.” He set the dog up to fail, then recommended the worst punishment of all.
She came right over and I did the assessment in vehicle. Got the owner to roll the back windows half way down and lets talk. I wanted to know any history on Heli. Heli was adopted by a farming couple at 8 weeks, they intended to work her on the farm. Well, that didn’t happen and Heli ended up locked in a barn for 4 months, and I think the only animals she had around her were a horse and a cow to teach her to be dog. Her current owner adopted her at 6 months of age. That’s when one should realize that Heli doesn’t have a clue how to be a dog, she never learned. She grew up in a really small world. I’m not going to train that – it’s not a trainable condition. Heli doesn’t trust anything, she has never been given a reason to trust anything. Someone has to focus on gaining her trust, and it goes way beyond food. There has to be a personal bond with the dog.
Told the owner to hide, but watch. Met Heli at the truck, she panicked, barked her head off. I didn’t look at her, just turned sideways and put my head close to the window. I have a 70 pound German Shepherd barking in my ear, she could have ripped my ear off, but she didn’t. She has no intention of biting. Heli is terrified, not aggressive but people treated her as if she is aggressive. If a trainer can’t differentiate that, then we have some serious issues in dog training. All they seen was teeth and slobber, someone has to look beyond that.
I opened the door a few inches so see her reaction, she barked more but didn’t attack. Opened the door and got in – she jumped in the front seat. She has no intent to harm. I sat there for a few minutes, and let her realize that I’m not a threat, not hurting her and I’m calm. She relaxed a little, so I got in the front seat with her. She was calmer, and we sat quietly but definitely fight or flight. She could have jumped in the back seat, but didn’t. Offered the slip lead, let her sniff it, slid it on and she cowered her way out of the truck, and laid down on the grass. I didn’t need to drag her out of the jeep. This is not flooding – this is this poor dogs daily life and it’s time for change. I’m not hurting her or dragging her around.
Heli was wearing a choke, an e-collar, a prong collar, and a flat collar all tied together with a caribiner. The owner also has a clicker and a bag of treats on her person. She wanted to muzzle Heli for my sake – but no, I don’t want that, don’t want to take away her ability to defend – that is taking away her positive reinforcement – punishing her. The owner has been hit from every side of dog training – and none could/would help her. Heli laid there as flat as she could make herself while I removed all the junk from her neck, back goes the slip. If I hurt her now in any way, it’s 10 steps back. I encouraged her to move forward, loose leash and it took a bit, but she moved. She didn’t walk, she cowered and near crawled – but she is showing that she wants someone to help, she’s willing to move forward – it has to be her choice to join me. Heli is supposed to have a problem with men as well. I took her for a 10 minute walk, if she stopped, I did too. This is the start of her making choices, and having someone to allow those choices. When we got back, she became defensive of her
owner and that’s ok, it’s only been 20 minutes. We all sat down in the grass, I sat a few feet away and the owner and I talked. Explained the situation, and said I would like to take her for a few hours, spend some quality time together.
Brought her to my apartment, she crept up the stairs – she’s never been in a condo, she needs to take her time and smell. My dog Monty was at the neighbors cause she’s not ready for another dog yet. And I let her be, grabbed a cup of coffee. Sat on the couch and we watched each other, reading each other. She knows I’m not a threat, she knows I’m not afraid, she knows I haven’t hurt her – but it’s going to take time for her to make the choice. Everything is calm, nothing is a big deal. It took near an hour, but she slowly came forward on me, I didn’t move. She needs to make the choice to come to me, to accept me. We went for a good walk, and she was definitely walking tall – but tail still between the legs. My job at this moment is gain her trust, and it doesn’t take that long. It’s about her deciding what goes down and when – it’s not my job to push her. She needs her free will back. I would stop during the walk, squat down a few feet away and offer my hand. If the answer was no, we kept going. Rinse and repeat, offer the hand. It took a bit, but she chose to come forward on me. I didn’t reach for her, little moves are great. We repeated this during the walk – and she finally came to me, and touched nose to hand. No indication that she wants affection, so I don’t offer. Baby steps and before long, she’ll be the fastest stepping baby going. It’s only been a couple of hours, there is no rush. When she finally moved forward to accept affection, that’s when things started to change. I needed Heli to start to trust me cause a dog that doesn’t trust has no reason to follow. I want her to choose to come to me instead of being afraid. Her tail started to come up bit by bit, and I continued to squat down and offer my hand. She consistently came to me, I’m gaining her trust now. And by the way, if a dog came by, I would redirect the walk, she’s not ready. I’m showing her, I’m here to protect you, I got your back – I’m not hurting you, and I’m not going to let you get hurt.
She amazed me, how fast she came around to me – she was showing that she wanted someone to trust. But, getting a dog to like you is easy – getting a dog to like the world – there’s the trick. I brought her to my neighbours to meet Monty. She was ready to try to meet a nice calm dog for the first time, up close. When the neighbour opened the door, Heli stood there taking it all in – the neighbour knows not to react in any way. Heli needed to choose to enter on her own – and that’s why I focused so much on trust. If she didn’t trust me, there is no way she’s going in. She went in, I’m sure she smelled Monty before we got to the door. She was on alert, but relaxed – not totally calm though. Give her time, there is alot of “new” to take in through the last couple of hours – but she’s with a person she’s starting to trust. Took her around the condo, let her investigate and sniff so there are no surprises. Got the neighbour to pick up Monty and present him bum first a couple of feet away. I’m in control, but I want her to sniff a butt, something dogly – and I want her to choose to do it. She moved in for a sniff and I let her, she is showing no signs of aggression and she is on a loose leash. She sniffed, stepped back confused, moved in to sniff again – and that’s when something broke in her. It’s likely the first time she did something ‘dogly’ and she chose to do it. Smell is a powerful behaviour changer. We all relaxed, sat down and Heli came to me, sat down beside me. The neighbour sat up, and offered her hand. Heli looked to me for my reaction but found nothing but calm. She made the choice to move forward and let a stranger pet her. She’s starting to trust her environment, and that’s the key.
Chelsea picked up Heli at the neighbors, and she was beside herself. Her dog was relaxed and calm and getting affection. Monty is there, she’s not trying to eat him – and she’s not on leash anymore. I need to learn to trust her too remember? The owner was blown away at what I had to tell her, she near cried, and so did I. Heli did amazing in that first few hours. Time for a dog park to start the socialization process.
When we hit the dog park the following day, it wasn’t overly busy and Heli was nervous, just her and I. Walking tall, but tail still between the legs. We hit the back trail so as not to run into too many dogs. Mind you, Heli has never been to a dog park, the smells that she would have to take in would be pretty intense. Let her take her time, let her decide. If a dog came by, we would walk into the trees – she would stand beside me watching a dog go by. I’m calm, she’s a little excited now. We carry on, I just want her to get used to the environment, she’s not ready for dogs yet. I offer my hand once in a while and she doesn’t hesitate to come on now.
If you made it this far, lets talk about positive reinforcement. Real positive reinforcement comes from the dog making choices because she she feels safe around her handler – not from a treat bag. I’m being a positive reinforcement for her. I want her to choose to overcome fears because she feels safe, because I proved that I have her back. She was ready for the main park, but not ready for dogs yet. Now is the time to learn calm – calm gets me what I want – impulse control. Excitement gets stop. When she reacted badly at the sight of a dog in the distance, I would have her lay down and I would stroke her until she calmed down. When she was calm, we moved forward – when she reacted badly, we stopped and laid down til calm. It took quite a bit for her to come to the realization that calm gets me moving forward, excitement brings stop – we don’t move toward what I want. I know what she wants, she wants to meet dogs – but she will only get her positive reinforcement when she’s in a calm state.
Now we are ready to meet a dog. Just happened to be a friend and his Rottweiller that we met first. He knew I was working a dog, and offered his own. Asked him to turn him bum first and we approached slowly. She stopped 3 feet away, so, all stop. She needs to choose to meet this dog calmly, and she was calm but a little excited – and that’s ok. She chose to move in for a sniff and she looked at me. Gave her encouragement, she sniffed again and we moved on. She didn’t go face to face with the Rottie, step by step, it needs to register with her. Another dog bum sniff, and another, and she’s a good excited now – she’s learning how to be “dog” for the first time in her life.
I called the owner and told her to watch from a distance. It’s important for her to see her dog just being a dog but I don’t want Heli to see her. Her owner is watching her dog calmly meeting dogs and people now in a relaxed fashion. Brought the owner in, told her to be calm, don’t give affection, just walk with us. Same result, meet dogs, meet people – the owner was in tears, she couldn’t believe this was possible until now – she’s witnessing it. Now she needs to start trusting Heli to make choices. She takes the leash and we walk, letting Heli make the choices of who to meet or not. Now she’s connected to her dog, and feeling it. She needs to remember that feeling of being happy – and not be scared of what her dog is going to do to the public.
We met again for a follow up session a couple of days later for a long line session. Heli needed time with her owner and the owner has alot homework to do. She needs to focus on the relationship. The owner said the change in Heli is incredible. Instead of hiding out in the crate, she was snuggled up on the couch. Much calmer overall, little reactive barking – and she was learning to really trust her owner. We walked for some time, mostly to let the owner decompress and get back to that happy. Heli is just being happy, not trying to run away. She has 30 feet of line, and she was dragging it around, the owner felt comfortable dropping it. Heli wasn’t running, and she kept an eye out for us – the people that she trusted. Then the owner said it. This is ridiculous, I need to trust my dog. She put the short leash on her, walked over to a group and let her go. No issues, Heli ran a ways away actually playing with another dog for the first time in her life, game of chase. She came back to check in on her owner, nobody needed to recall her and off she goes again.
I don’t mind saying – I shed a tear watching that and I got that first moment on camera. Heli just became a dog. The owner has 2 way trust, she now has 2 way respect and just got a major confidence boost from openly trusting her dog to be off leash. We are almost done. We parted ways with the intent on coming back the next day just to go for a walk and make sure all is good. She called me a half hour before the appointment, she’s already at the park. She said she had to do it on her own without me – and that’s what I was waiting for. She was ready to fly on her own. I still went down, I had to see this with my own eyes and I stood on the bank and watched Heli be a dog. There was a tap on my shoulder, it was a rather large man and he asked if I was the trainer. He was the boyfriend that I hadn’t met til today, then it sunk in that I have been spending a fair amount of time with his girlfriend. Was he going to slug me. He stuck out his hand and thanked me for keeping the family together. He explained that I was the last chance, he had given an ultimatum that it’s the dog or both – he didn’t want to lose his girlfriend. He was here to witness it too.
It hit me hard when I realized I was Heli’s last chance, and I’m so glad I got to witness it – I will never forget that dog. The owner sent me updates over the months, Heli is doing great and they have 2 more dogs now. Heli can be a pain in the ass at times, but that’s what comes with giving a dog free will, giving a dog independence – the ability to use their brain.
It’s time to think different about our dogs. We need to separate training and behaviour again. The one thing about dogs that amazes me? When dogs learn how to be dogs, and they get the relationship they want from their owners – then it’s little to no training required. You have your family dog. You’ve learned to listen to your dog, to communicate with it now. You’ve learned to trust the dog, to respect the dog, to be confident with your dog. Your dog doesn’t have a reason to be scared anymore.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is how we “fix” reactivity and aggression. No treats or tools required.
And it was about 8 hours total that I spent working with Heli pro-bono. The owner did the rest, I just put her on the path. Every dog is different, they all have a different past that brought them to this point – and we don’t always know what their past was.
This was the moment the owner learned ultimate trust for her dog, she decided to let the dog off leash. That little white dog is named Pandora, she loves getting rough and tumble with the big dogs.