Personalized Training Program: Charzi
Charzi’s Previous Sessions!
Lots of good notes found here - I didn’t want to muddle his new Campaign page and information moving forward, but you can find all of Charzi’s prior session information from 2021 and 2022 here!
Cast Sanctuary Campaign:
February-March 2024
01/21/24: Mini Game Meet and Greet
01/31/24: Day Training 1/3
02/04/24: Inspiration Coaching Session 1/3
02/06/24: Midweek Touchpoint 1/6
02/07/24: Decompression Hike 1/3
02/14/24: Day Training 2/3
02/15/24: Midweek Touchpoint 2/6
02/18/24: Inspiration Coaching Session 2/3
02/23/24: Decompression Hike 2/3
02/28/24: Day Training 3/3
02/29/24: Midweek Touchpoint 3/6
03/13/24: Decompression Hike 3/3
03/17/24: Inspiration Coaching Session 3/3
03/19/24: Midweek Touchpoint 4/6
April-May 2024
04/10/24: Day Training 1/3
04/13/24-04/20/24: Board and Train
04/24/24: Decompression Hike 1/3
05/01/24: Decompression Hike 2/3
05/01/24: Inspiration Coaching Session 1/3
05/08/24: Day Training 2/3
05/15/24: Inspiration Coaching Session 2/3
05/22/24: Day Training 3/3
06/02-06/04/24: Boarding
06/05/24: Decompression Hike 3/3
06/12/24: Inspiration Coaching Session 3/3
06/26/24: Inspiration Coaching Board and Train Coaching 1/2
08/15/24: Inspiration Coaching Board and Train Coaching 2/2
To Be Scheduled
In-Person Drama Class 1/4
In-Person Drama Class 2/4
In-Person Drama Class 3/4
In-Person Drama Class 4/4
Your Scheduling Code: 5B52EA1C
08/21/24: Skill Check Maintenance Coaching, Centennial Park
The more you utilize your coaching line and share questions and observations about your dog, the better I am able to structure sessions to meet your needs!
“Your Canine Community” is my client Facebook group - a spot where you can find folks also working on similar challenges with their dogs, ask questions and share resources.
“Marco Polo” is an app that functions like a video walkie-talkie - connect directly with me with videos of your dog training, your dog’s behavior you have questions about, or to ask training or follow up questions. The link above will connect you directly with me once you download the (free) app.
Personalized Program Resources
Mini Game: 01/21
After our Mini Game:
Make sure Charzi has some extra yummy treats set aside for Wednesday, 01/31. I’ll bring some of my best stuff as well!
If possible, watch through Module 2 of Drama Class Online before your next Inspiration session, 02/04.
Download Marco Polo - send over anything relevant!
Day Training: 01/31
We worked at Cedar Lane Park for chicken and hot dogs! Charzi did a great job of:
Using movement to build comfort with a new space (and a person he doesn’t know well).
Being rewarded for engaging by allowing movement away and waiting for an offered return.
Responding to “look at that” when close to potential triggers (dogs and people).
Private Lesson: 02/04
Emphasis on learning early warning signs of Charzi’s discomfort - the “Learning to Speak Dog” lesson in Module 1 will go into more detail on individual details to look for, but focus on where Charzi tenses, chooses to move away, or leans forward or away from stimuli. Whether he will or will not take food is a big tell! Games that emphasize movement for him seem to help him not get caught up, so consider even “look at that” games might be improved by including some movement away from a trigger.
You’ll find more on settling in “Learning to Relax” in Module 2 but I want to make this extra predictable for Charzi as you can use it outdoors for triggers but also indoors as a primer for handling consent. For now, I wouldn’t go any further than noting body language shifts after he’s relaxed in the context of this activity and moving hands near him, or touching the leash.
Use a similar set up for puppy integration now to what we did with Charzi and Fig today. Start at a distance with Charzi already happy and engaged with handling. Have puppy brought out on a leash far away and have puppy still (use a treat scatter or food toy to help puppy stay still) while Charzi moves back and forth at a distance parallel to the puppy. Once Charzi is comfortable, puppy can move parallel back and forth as well. Let me know how that’s going and we can talk next steps!
We will have our first touchpoint meeting on Tuesday 02/06 before his Wednesday hike. I definitely want to hear about how he’s been doing and if you’ve been able to do any mini sessions, as well as any questions you have about the online class and adjustments we can make to behaviors at home.
I think Val already saw this online, but I wanted to include it here as a slow buildup handling example. Natsuki is similar to Charzi in that he revokes consent to handling quickly and angrily, and in somewhat unpredictable situations. These videos are roughly 6 months apart, with our sessions occurring every two weeks - that’s a long time to get to a pet on the back. But I know there was some concern voiced about the handling piece, and I want to emphasize that I don’t see that as a quick process at all. With Natsuki, we also had to teach the behavior he built - where I think simply “relaxing” will come more easily to Charzi - and goals and implementation are somewhat different for Natsuki. My goal with Charzi is to at a comfortable pace build up communication surrounding handling so you feel safe approaching necessary handling, and Charzi feels secure enough to nonviolently communicate when he’s uncomfortable.
Day Training: 02/14
We worked at Clarksville Commons for chicken and meatballs. Charzi did a great job of:
Being thoughtful about approaching or observing a trigger and making the choice to return to handler to treats or play.
Using play as an alternate reward, as well as novel surfaces and “things to do” as a way to burn energy from potentially stressful situations.
Approaching and retreating from a (tethered) dog at his own pace using a BAT-inspired set up.
Brief description of “BAT” (Behavior Adjustment Training)
Online course on the “Play Way” by Dr. Amy Cook for social play as a means to resolve anxiety and reactivity
A couple of the day school dogs being introduced to Play Way.
Private Lesson: 02/18
Rather than anything directly from Charzi’s session or a lesson video here, I’m attaching the clip from his decompression walk with Ahri. In setting up “interactions” with Teddy, I want to emphasize a few points of management:
Keep both dogs at a comfortable distance. Teddy should be able to refocus on his people and take treats and remain relatively calm without staring at Charzi, and Charzi should be showing comfortable body language - tail up but not tense, body loose, ears relaxed and neutral - and should not be staring down Teddy either.
Charzi’s clear tells of discomfort include a reluctance or marked disinterest in taking food, and panting when it’s not an “appropriate” behavior for the environment (he’s had water, it’s not overly hot, he’s not been exercising heavily, etc). Take those as indications to make more space until the behaviors resolve themselves.
Let Charzi lead the interaction. As you’re moving parallel past Teddy, always turn away from him to change direction so you’re not asking them to be any closer than Charzi is showing comfort with. He’s made some really excellent choices in these exposures so I want to continue to follow his lead.
When Teddy starts moving (just parallel with Charzi back and forth for now) bring Charzi back a little from where he was comfortable when still. Any new behavior from Teddy should mean a reset with Charzi to avoid a reaction that negatively impacts their relationship.
I think with some maturity (calmness and predictability) from Teddy and slow introductions without the express need for direct contact, I do think these two can get a point of, if not friendship, comfortable co-existence. I would recommend the “integration” extra credit module for my own case study of working through household comfort and integration with a young dog and an older, less tolerant dog.
Day Training: 02/28
We worked at home with activity outside the front door. Charzi did an amazing job today and the big pieces I would take away are that:
Charzi definitely benefited from neutral to positive peopel to practice off of here - we didn’t hear him vocalize at all and he had loose, secure body language for the majority of the session.
When given the opportunity partway through the session, it helped to play, have physical affection, take a little sniff walk around the house, and otherwise shake off any built up stress.
The toughest point of the exercise was when potential triggers suddenly appeared close behind a closed door. Being able to watch the approach was much easier for him.
Private Lesson: 03/17
I just want to reiterate how incredibly proud I am of Charzi this past weekend! I know we had a little reactivity at the end but we pushed him quite hard and I think we just reached his threshold at that very end point.
Before jumping into notes and protocol, I want to emphasize the discussion before Teddy’s arrival of what I think would happen if Charzi were not leashed with Teddy nearby. I do think that at most distances, Charzi would at this point make the choice to move away from Teddy independently. As we saw during the session, there is a point where the activity, closeness, and stress of an interaction would cause him to charge forward, but I think it’s worth keeping in mind (and a huge point in his favor!) that Charzi doesn’t want an altercation with Teddy.
Why I’m advocating the very slow introduction is somewhat covered in one of the Extra Credit modules in Drama Class on my own household integration, which happened over the course of 9 months. Teddy is a dog who will be around for, presumably, the rest of Charzi’s life, and it greatly impacts your family’s quality of life to have them get along. I would much rather be cautious in that situation to avoid any negative interactions and take time building positive ones so there’s an incredibly strong foundation for the two of them of neutrality and enjoyment rather than use Teddy to push the bounds of Charzi’s reactivity. We can more safely push that threshold with dogs he already likes, like Rory, or dogs that it ultimately makes little difference if he spends time with, like we did with Fig.
Things to keep in mind from where we progressed the protocol this past weekend:
Set ups with Teddy should still start with Teddy being still and Charzi choosing his level of distance where he can remain relaxed and eating. However, this was such a nonissue, this “phase” probably doesn’t need to last more than 15-30 seconds at this point and should be able to phase out completely soon. On your own property though, where Charzi is a little more defensive, I would still make this step one.
When you’re closing distance between the dogs, always turn away from one another when you’re changing direction so the dogs aren’t accidentally getting too close to one another, and approach on a curve or a diagonal, not directly.
Work on relaxation skills separately with Charzi to build his ability to choose to lay down near Teddy. A structured approach to relaxation together that I like is Karen Overall’s Relaxation Protocol, where dogs are asked to remain in a sit or a down (I prefer a down, it’s more comfortable and relaxed for the dog) while receiving treats for maintaining position through a variety of distractions. There’s a youtube playlist for this protocol here (it’s also linked at the top of the page).
Once Charzi can relax, Teddy can practice his loose leash walking in a large arc around him, without going behind Charzi.
Things to watch with Charzi: overall tenseness of his body language - even if he’s making good choices and making space himself, if he’s routinely tense, move him away. Same if he stops taking food. This isn’t necessarily a sign to end the session (unless it keeps happening) but give him a food scatter break at a comfortable distance before coming back.
The next step is to add more energy into the interactions. Rather than having Teddy get excited (especially since he’s a puppy and may not be able to come back down easily) I would recommend having a separate dog, like Rory, get more excited nearby. Things we learned while doing this with Fig was not to decrease distance while this is going on and not to “trap” Charzi between the two dogs where he may feel more restricted. I don’t think it’s necessary to add this step at home yet, so would recommend waiting on it until we can do a little more with Fig and other neutral dogs during his sessions and upcoming board and train.
Day Training: 04/10
Today we tried heading to Petco but Charzi communicated clearly that he wasn’t ready to go in yet. No worries, we got a good study of communication and lots of practice in distracting places.
Charzi does pull when excited, but look for this low body language where Charzi is shifting weight so he’d be able to back off more quickly if he needed to make a quick getaway. The low body language and darting back and forth is a good sign to step back and reset.
Charzi was able to focus well in the shopping center despite a lot of really challenging stimuli, and recovered well enough to have not only a successful solo session at the park, but also worked very closely off of Fig!
Board and Train: 04/13-20
Private Lesson: 05/01
I was glad to get to work off a variety of distractions during Charzi’s session and was super impressed with his ability to handle everything we threw at him! A few takeaways from the session for the two of you:
When Charzi is pulling on walks I might adjust what I’m asking for depending on the situation:
If Charzi is just pulling towards interesting smells/spaces without triggers or the risk of a reaction, this is where I look for offered engagement over intervention. Keep in mind that whether we intend it or not, reinforcement drives behavior - so if Charzi gets to approach things he wants by pulling, he will continue to pull because he knows it might work. What I would look for after stopping is Charzi not only releasing tension on the leash but turning to look back at you. When he does so, you can encourage him to you by moving back a few steps, or even offering a reward. I would not move forward until he is definitively with you in those moments. You can practice this by working off of distractions that you know he likes or wants - like towards another family member, or a bag of treats/his favorite ball or toy.
If Charzi is pulling on the leash due to a trigger in the area this is where I would intervene. Since he can be sensitive to touch, I wouldn’t lean in for a tactile cue like I do in the video, and instead I would cue Charzi “this way” and tug slightly on the leash (a quick tug and then release, not consistent pressure). As he turns his head towards you, move back a few steps and invite him into your space for physical reassurance/play. He can also be offered treats here. I would be cautious to only use this cue with this full behavior - use his name or “ready” for grabbing his attention while you continue walking.
Something I didn’t mention during the session but has come up during Day Training is to also note how he’s pulling. A pull towards a trigger will look different than pulling towards smells or sights he finds exciting. Even different will be in a place he finds scary or anxiety-producing - think about the pulling during his Day Training session at Petco. On reflection and after taking him other places it was definitely the traffic noise that was too much for him. Rather than pulling towards or even away from something specific, his pulling in that instance was very hectic and didn’t seem to have a clear direction or goal. If you notice this type of pulling I would change gears entirely to playing a pattern game (as we did) and/or just leave the area and find somewhere a little less overstimulating (as we eventually did!).
With Greetings Indoors:
I would definitely recommend setting a protocol with the whole family on how to introduce Charzi to new people in order to avoid him rehearsing bad habits. In addition to everything you’ve been doing I would recommend:
Including Charzi dragging a leash always (or having his leash in hand) in these scenarios. This way you can interrupt an interaction going south and have a quick management tool that doesn’t involve restraining him further. This also gives you the option of restraining him without someone needing to reach a hand in biting-range if he does become aggressive. If you’re concerned about him tripping himself or getting caught on something, you can always have him drag a tab like this or a slightly longer drag line like this one.
Include a plan for when people get up or depart - this seems to be when Charzi is most likely to snap towards someone, which isn’t uncommon for fearful or conflicted dogs. This might be as simple as offering a treat scatter as someone stands up, perhaps while casually stepping on the drag line to prevent him from moving too close.
Use the “staggered approach” style of greeting to allow Charzi to choose how close he wants to get to someone when greeting and let him settle in to a distance that’s right for him. If the guest wants to approach past what Charzi is inviting, I would recommend putting him up rather than potentially push him past threshold.
Handling Around Triggers
As I’d mentioned above, make sure you are using attention cues and rewarding attention, but saving “this way” for when you are genuinely changing directions.
While eating is a good indicator of Charzi’s comfort, it’s not the only one, so keep an eye on what his body language is also indicating! His movements get sharper and he is significantly stiffer when he’s on alert!
Letting him sniff is a great way to encourage his natural displacement tendencies. Sniffing serves many purposes but the one we focused on during the session is how it serves to diffuse tension. No worries if he sees a dog and suddenly gets interested in the patch of grass in front of him - I would encourage that behavior by offering a food scatter.
Breathe! Consciously bring the leash down and hold it against your body near your waist or hip. The more you feel the leash creeping up and you holding your arm upright, the more likely it is that you yourself are tense. Walking with a slightly longer leash can help with that as well since Charzi won’t feel as many minute tension changes in you with a longer line. My preference is usually about 10-12 feet.
Day Training: 05/08
Charzi did really well at Hickory Ridge! We took a long time to let him warm up to the environment and waited until he was ready to take treats. We wandered a little bit and I let him take the lead as much as possible. He did a great job of changing direction if he hit the end of the leash and recalling to me for physical reassurance rather when he wasn’t prepared to take treats. I was really proud of how he was able to warm up and his resilience through a lot of traffic noises and a lot of people and dogs around. He did an amazing job!
Private Training: 05/15
Charzi and Teddy!
I’m so proud of Charzi and his progress around Teddy! This was a hard step but he did a phenomenal job at every turn. In future sessions I would like to:
Start as we did outside with Charzi and Teddy walking near one another without coming too close and approaching the front door.
Keep Teddy outside until Charzi is less tense and alert to his approach once Charzi is inside.
Ping pong Teddy in and out of the house until he is able to spend more time in the house and progress slowly towards the sitting area with the eventual goal of having them able to settle at opposite ends of the room. Once they’ve reached this point is where I would probably bring out Charzi’s bed as an option for him to retreat to.
End the visit with something easier - the loop around the house is also what I would recommend for short visits as a way to normalize Charzi and Teddy being nearby but not interacting with one another. Keep plenty of distance and reward both dogs for disengaging and sniffing or exploring the environment or other things.
Charzi is definitely ready to take part in the in person classes as well so whenever would be a good time to get him signed up, you can do so at this link here (also linked at the top of the page). Your same code 5B52EA1C will let you book four class sessions!
Day Training: 05/22
Charzi did phenomenally at Centennial Park! I’m so glad we got our little reaction and recovery on camera, and for the most part I have the salient points in the commentary. I want to emphasize a few things that I think helped him in this situation:
Lots of time and distance to warm up before we really started making things more difficult
Help coping through more challenging moments and then “recovery” treat scatters
Noting when he was slower to respond and leaving then before he ever got to a point where he fully wasn’t taking food.
As has been the theme of Charzi’s sessions, keeping things on his terms and supporting him through the tough moments without demanding more of him seems to be the best key to success for him throughout the session!
Private Training: 06/12
I’m so proud of Charzi’s progress with Teddy. He had a few moments of intensity but was easily redirected and stayed calm and nonreactive throughout the session. It was especially good to see that he could handle moving through the early steps quickly already, and was able to push harder with Teddy moving around in the house. The next sessions with Teddy I would like to focus on:
Increasing Teddy’s movement in the house
Adding stillness with Teddy and movement with Charzi in the house
Leading to relaxation with both of them in the seating area of the house
Continuing the parallel walks outside to make sure that they are no big deal to one another
We have two sessions scheduled in June and July where we can continue to focus on Teddy, and incorporating Rory into the mix so the environment is comfortable with all three of them. We can also work on incorporating more family members and on neighborhood walks.
We also spoke a little in our touchpoint on steps moving forward. I want to make sure you and the family feel supported moving forward from this current package. We do have the in person classes, which would be a great way to build confidence handling Charzi around dogs and in an environment that is less pressure than interactions with your neighborhood and within your family. Your scheduling code will include the four reactivity classes in your package (5B52EA1C)
Future sessions beyond that are a little dependent on what your next steps look like in terms of priorities. I do think that the Level Up subscription would be a nice maintenance phase for Charzi - the monthly subscription includes either a decompression hike, a private training, or a day training monthly, as well as “office hours” virtual coaching, group decompression hike or play, and a “club training day” monthly. If we’re not quite at maintenance, I would lean towards more private sessions specifically to build his and your skill set.
I also want to encourage you to join the client portal within the website (Guild Hall) - this is open to all my clients and will include links to drop in classes and events as well as will be a continual resource for building community and training opportunities.
Private Training: 06/26
I really can’t think of a way this session could have gone more smoothly than it did! Charzi did excellent and genuinely didn’t seem bothered or interested in Teddy at all. Going forward I would recommend that:
Any time you’re working on integration, start with a lap around the driveway and enter through the front door. Even with only one of the doors open, this is a way of entering that keeps things open and light. Let Charzi go in first so he doesn’t feel trapped headed towards Teddy.
The goal is to have Teddy and Charzi be able to relax in the same room. Having them practice working in multiple rooms at a far diagonal from one another worked well and kept Teddy at a distance that didn’t bother Charzi (and Charzi at a distance that didn’t tempt Teddy). We also practiced getting up and sitting back down again.
Similarly, I would end each visit where this is worked on with a “decompression” lap around the house. Charzi can follow Teddy out (again so he doesn’t feel that Teddy might sneak up on him leaving) and they can drift close or far from one another, but the focus here is to give them a good, calming experience to wrap up a session.
We will keep working on this as the goal in our next session in July. At the close of that session I’d like to talk more about next steps for goals - whether that’s continuing to work on in the house integration with my presence as coaching support, working on the two of them passing one another closer on walks, walking in the neighborhood, or even some of the goals we initially discussed back in Charzi’s very first sessions before Teddy was on the scene!
I’m so impressed with their progress and his comfort level during his session this week - can’t wait to see what else we can achieve with him!
Private Training: 08/15
I know there were a few missteps in this session, but I feel really good about the information we got from Charzi during his session with Teddy and Mom!
Pauses are not their friend. When they’re outside dragging leashes, keep Teddy moving away from Charzi. While interest is okay, it’s after a brief pause that Charzi decides to go on the offensive. I would keep walks and indoor work separate for the time being, since as we saw the reaction and the intensity of the outdoor work carried over to reactions indoors.
Indoors, keep sessions short and reward Charzi with breaks often. I think that while movement towards Charzi was what prompted his reaction, we had just pushed things too far along in one day.
I still would end each visit where this is worked on with a “decompression” lap around the house. Charzi can follow Teddy out (again so he doesn’t feel that Teddy might sneak up on him leaving) and they can drift close or far from one another, but the focus here is to give them a good, calming experience to wrap up a session.
We will work out and about this week, but the next step in general I’d like to talk about how we can make the household feel safer for all of you, and to work on building Charzi’s overall communication skills to avoid similar escalations in tense moments in the future.
Private Training: 08/21
Charzi did really lovely at the park yesterday! I think continuing to move forward with his confidence in busier places while making time to hike and enjoy one another will develop your relationship and comfort in handling him, as well as continue to build his coping skills overall.
I think the below images capture primarily what we discussed in terms of working in practice for him as well as that enjoyment - and a few other notes:
Aim to keep the line slack as much as possible, if he creates tension, just start moving away and look to slacken the leash as soon as possible. If you do need to pull him away, pull in a short pull and release rather than keeping sustained tension on the leash.
Watch for Charzi’s comfort in taking treats - if he’s tense and alert assume he will react shortly - you can let him look but reward him back and away from a trigger. If he can’t turn away from it, start creating distance.
Nearby places I like to work reactive dogs:
For Training:
Centennial Park by the boat launch (where we ended up meeting!)
Lake Elkhorn at the Broken Land Parkway parking and by the dam
For Decompression:
Middle Patuxent Environmental Area (South Wind Trail)
Below is the Level Up Training Club sign up! I’m excited to have Charzi join the troops - go ahead and sign up whenever you have a chance, and we’ll apply the first payment towards September’s sessions and get him started then.
Getting Started with Level Up:
The Level Up Portal is always being built and will continue to develop as the service continues.
Under “Book Your Sessions” you can request your monthly 1x1 session (starting September) – let me know which service you want to do that month and any scheduling limitations and, if it’s a training session, what you would like the focus to be. You can be as general with that (“continuing muzzle and aggression work”) or as specific as that (“we’re noticing that when xyz happens, Charzi does abc and we’d like to work on a more desirable response from him) It’s also mentioned on here that you’re welcome and encouraged to send over a few minutes of video of a behavior you have questions about or training you’re working on for feedback. You can send the video however is most convenient and I’ll post response to his website here.
The “Level Up Events” page is where the group events are listed for registration. I’ll have the month’s calendar there, description of the different events you can sign up for, and the registration links for those – this is always the page you want to register through because it reflects that for Level Up members there’s no additional charge for the events. You can sign up for as many of them work in your schedule and are of interest – in September we’re having a group play, which I don’t think he will enjoy, but I do think he would like future group hikes. I’ll have online Office Hours 09/25, and training club will be on 09/28. For both the future hikes and the club day, I hold off on confirming the event location until I have a solid sense of who is coming and what the needs of the group are. I try to have this calendar posted for the upcoming month by the 20th of the preceding – so September is up now and October’s calendar should be up for registration September 20 or earlier. These sessions are open first to Level Up members – if we have space I do open them up at a “drop in” fee to other past or present clients. Also on that page is a prompt to ask questions for me to answer during Office Hours, and a request for boarding (all boarding is 10% off for Level Up members)
The last section of the page is the “Spellbook” where I post – aiming for monthly – a new skill tutorial as well as small case studies. The Case Studies are generally going to be board and train dogs with a short description of what they came to work on and the videos that were shared with them following their stay. It’s both a different way to present instructional information as well as a way to look at approaches that may work for Charzi if he’s having similar challenges as described in the case study.
Board and Train 04/05-04/12
Charzi was an absolute gentleman during his board and train stay! He settled in quickly, and we had a great week working on exposure and walking in busier neighborhoods.
🐾 Walking Practice:
Early in the week, Charzi was more inclined to pull and less food-motivated. So we kept it simple.
We paused shortly after starting each walk and played the Up/Down game until he was focused and ready to take treats.
Once walking again, I avoided giving many cues. Instead, I followed his lead and stopped when he pulled.
Once he was relaxed enough to eat while walking, pulling significantly decreased.
He made thoughtful choices, often creating space from people and dogs independently. We passed both fairly close at times, and he handled it beautifully. Occasionally, I used “this way” to redirect pulling, not necessarily because of triggers.
🏠 In the House:
He coexisted peacefully with both Fig and Mouse (who was behind a barrier). We practiced a release + scatter pattern for greetings, especially when he was excited. I also asked for a sit before sitting down to greet him—he was very successful with this!
All in all, he did incredibly well. Keep things slow and supportive—he thrives with calm, low-pressure interactions.