This is Ulysses. He is approximately five years old and spent a month in the Orange County Shelter after coming in as a stray. The front half of him is Australian cattledog and the back half of him is Australian shepherd.
Ulysses is extremely anxious like many stock dogs, but when overwhelmed he just sort of blanks out. When he first came out of the shelter he was damned near catatonic. He is my foster, and my job is to turn him into a functional dog with my reactive/spazzy dog training skills. I've had Ullie off and on since mid-May, this time I've had him for almost a month and he'll be here until he is ready for an adoptive home.
Low-key, all positive, no pressure training is stressful for Ulysses. When he's relaxed he is very food motivated, but training is somehow not very relaxing.
Clicker training started something like this:
Me: *click*treat* (repeat 20x)
Ulysses: "Sitting here eating one piece of kibble at a time is too much pressure, I need to wander off and stare vacantly for a while."
This evening Ullie was reliably targeting my hand with his nose, so I attempted to pair it with a voice command.
Ulysses: *nosebonk*click*treat* *nosebonk*click*treat*
Me: *anticipating nosebonk* "touch"
Ulysses: "You said a word, and I think it means you want me to do something, and I don't know what you want me to do, so I have to stare at the wall and have a scratch now."
Ullie is always off leash and in the house when this happens, he can leave anytime he wants and there is no pressure on him at all. Still, the mere possibility that I expect him to do something seems to stress him to the point of checking out. He is also strangely afraid of targeting objects, even if I'm hold them. Getting clicked and treated for sniffing the completely retracted extendible pointer I use for a targeting stick is somehow aversive.
I'm fortunate that Ullie does default to sitting and looking at me when he isn't completely shut down, though he is often too nervous to offer any other behaviors. In a month we've worked from a near-panicked fidgety sit to a ten-second sit-stay with zero distance/distraction. He has a down (sometimes) and nose targets but immdiately stops offering either behavior if I try to pair it with a word.
I'm not frustrated with him, I just feel so bad that training stresses him out. (This is a totally stressed out picture of him, he has a gorgeous intense focus that I get glimpses of now and then.)
Ulysses is extremely anxious like many stock dogs, but when overwhelmed he just sort of blanks out. When he first came out of the shelter he was damned near catatonic. He is my foster, and my job is to turn him into a functional dog with my reactive/spazzy dog training skills. I've had Ullie off and on since mid-May, this time I've had him for almost a month and he'll be here until he is ready for an adoptive home.
Low-key, all positive, no pressure training is stressful for Ulysses. When he's relaxed he is very food motivated, but training is somehow not very relaxing.
Clicker training started something like this:
Me: *click*treat* (repeat 20x)
Ulysses: "Sitting here eating one piece of kibble at a time is too much pressure, I need to wander off and stare vacantly for a while."
This evening Ullie was reliably targeting my hand with his nose, so I attempted to pair it with a voice command.
Ulysses: *nosebonk*click*treat* *nosebonk*click*treat*
Me: *anticipating nosebonk* "touch"
Ulysses: "You said a word, and I think it means you want me to do something, and I don't know what you want me to do, so I have to stare at the wall and have a scratch now."
Ullie is always off leash and in the house when this happens, he can leave anytime he wants and there is no pressure on him at all. Still, the mere possibility that I expect him to do something seems to stress him to the point of checking out. He is also strangely afraid of targeting objects, even if I'm hold them. Getting clicked and treated for sniffing the completely retracted extendible pointer I use for a targeting stick is somehow aversive.
I'm fortunate that Ullie does default to sitting and looking at me when he isn't completely shut down, though he is often too nervous to offer any other behaviors. In a month we've worked from a near-panicked fidgety sit to a ten-second sit-stay with zero distance/distraction. He has a down (sometimes) and nose targets but immdiately stops offering either behavior if I try to pair it with a word.
I'm not frustrated with him, I just feel so bad that training stresses him out. (This is a totally stressed out picture of him, he has a gorgeous intense focus that I get glimpses of now and then.)
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