Your Custom Text Here

 Personalized Training Program: Jimmy

Session Zero

04/10/24:

It was such a pleasure speaking with you both about Jimmy! I’m looking forward to working with all three of you and expand Jimmy’s world and everyone’s quality of life.

One of the opportunities we talked about is giving Jimmy some sniffing/scavenging opportunties in the house. I’m including two videos of ways I use sniffing in a smaller space - one is my own older dog Mouse searching through our house in a treat trail using her dinner, and the other is a series of dogs playing hunting games specifically designed to build confidence. Let me know any questions you have about adapting this to your own space!

While the first priority with Jimmy is to work on his comfort with guests in the home, I’d like to have our first session at the park to better set Jimmy up for success and comfort working with me. We can use our first session to introduce or adjust some behaviors and work outdoors, and then follow up sessions in the home or out and about as best fits his needs. Given that there’s a wide range of environments where you’re looking for tools, I’d like to recommend starting out with five private sessions alongside the online “Drama Class” resource. As much as you’re able, getting instruction from the resource allows our in person sessions to be more focused on implementation and adjustment of skills to your needs and lets us progress faster than if I’m introducing each behavior from scratch.

All my training packages include a “loot bag” of recommended products and resources, as well as the option to use Marco Polo (or other video clips) to send over for feedback between sessions. Based on Jimmy’s progress, I might recommend additional sessions to work specifically with Jimmy and Brie, or recommend incorporating the in person “Drama Class” if he does need more general practice working off of other dogs.

The cost of the package would be $1140.00 and the next step following registration would be to get on the books for his first session, and to sign on to your online course! Let me know if that sounds good to you and any questions you may have.

05/14:

Jimmy did so well with meeting me and working for me! I’m including the videos for the behaviors we focused on during our session, but those can each also be found within your online Drama Class (Staggered Approach is in “Rehearsal,” This Way is in “Escape” and Look at That is in “Cope”)! A few things to note with Jimmy specifically:

• Being able to make space made a big difference for him - keep an eye on his body language and reward from a distance. You’ve observed that he’s more comfortable approaching than being approached so where possible have set ups start with the new person being still and Jimmy choosing his distance to them. Have your new person sit angled away from Jimmy and have them avoid making direct eye contact or talking to him at first. It should almost seem incidental that they start throwing treats to him!

• When working off a distraction - especially once we started moving, make sure to note where you are in relation to your distraction/trigger and keep that distance unless you’re intentionally working your way closer. Jimmy is definitely conflicted about approach (especially when he realizes that the Kinda Scary New Person Has Food) so if you’re adding potential new difficulties like movement keep an intentional distance rather than following his lead.

• Your “yes” marker or your click should signal a reward is on it’s way. So the order of events ends up being - Cue or Offered Behavior —> Behavior —> Marker (yes or click) —> Treat. Make sure you are keeping your click as an indicator that reinforcement is on the way to keep things clear in his training!

• For now, use “Look At That” in “phase 1” - so clicking while Jimmy is looking away and using your treats to direct his attention back to you. You can use this in your house and work off of benign distractions as well to keep this behavior reinforcing and fun and not always a predictor of worrisome distractions.

We will keep this coming session at the park and continue to introduce a few new behaviors and practice cues with Jimmy but my hope is following the second session we can plan to move some of those behaviors towards your home!

05/21:

I’m so impressed with Jimmy’s bravery and engagement during the session where there were lots of distractions and chaos. While the presence of Fig was an additional challenge he was able to refocus on you both and keep working the behaviors he’s learned thus far. A few takeaways in addition to the skills we practiced:

• Practice “posting up” when Jimmy goes to move towards something. Your inclination is to follow him closer, which in many cases is perfectly fine and I love it when dogs are given permission to take the lead on walks towards what they find interesting or want to sniff - however in this case in particular I think he’s likely getting himself in over his head. While we want to avoid creating leash tension, if he creates it by pulling towards something, it’s fine to stand your ground and reward him when he turns back to you, or to walk up the leash and help him with a treat lure to prevent him from meandering forward.

• I’ve seen the relaxation practice you’ve been doing in Marco Polo! He’s looking great - I love that he’s resting his hip on one side and that his body language is completely relaxed in these situations. In addition to working this outside, I’d recommend working it as part of his protocol before anyone comes over - after they’re over is good too, but getting that baseline of relaxation down will help him cope with the stressful moments to come.

06/04:

Jimmy did incredibly during his home visit! The big things that I would keep in mind for future sessions and greetings are:

• When does Jimmy start to become tense about visitors. Keep ping-ponging treats back and forth, especially across thresholds and leave plenty of room for him to make space as he needs to.

• I think where the bed is set up works well but if you aren’t sure you can experiment with different spots. Think about keeping him from feeling boxed in and ensuring visitors don’t need to get too close into his space.

I think for a next session we can do more work on moving around in your house. He didn’t have much trouble with me going through the halls but I do want to make sure we can push through moving around the home, sitting down, getting up - all with him being as relaxed as he was during our session. We also can absolutely work on adding new people to that protocol so we can better prepare you guys for having people visit comfortably!

10/03:

It was so great to see you both and Jimmy this week! I’m so glad that he’s doing well and is all moved in to his new place.

For new visitors:

• Start outdoors working on approaching and retreating, and then going into the house with plenty of room for Jimmy to retreat

• Toss treats for Jimmy while the new person moves in an arc around the house, even going out of sight

• Before you start the main visit, unless Jimmy is super chill, I would put him up so you don’t worry about it. As he has more good experiences with new people, start moving forward with the protocol for acclimating him to Jamie for other new folks as well!

For working on acclimating to Jamie:

• Encourage distance for the time being, but have Jamie sit in different areas of the room, always with plenty of distance from Jimmy

• Since he’s not 100% sold on the canvas crate yet, opt for tethering him or having George hold him while Ashley and Jamie go out of sight into another room.

• If he offers crating, you can close the crate and have everyone go outside.

• If you’re comfortable, start having distanced walks around the perimeter of the yard with Jamie. For right now we’re staying on leash, but this is how we will move into off leash work once he’s been completely comfortable with these scenarios, and he’s comfortable in his muzzle.

For muzzle training:

I’m linking the similar video for head halter training - but you’re going to use similar steps for a head halter. Since Jimmy is so willing to offer a chin rest, start there before adding the open muzzle. For basket muzzles I like the Baskerville Ultra as a starter muzzle, and the Muzzle Up Project has both good instructions for getting accurate measurements, as well as resources for additional/custom muzzles, including more solidly bite proof muzzles if that’s of interest.

I would highly recommend window film or another covering for your front windows to discourage Jimmy from watching too much Dog TV and practicing reactive behaviors at delivery people when you aren’t there. My personal favorite is this one on Amazon, but there are (more expensive) fancier ones here that look a little better from both directions.

Next session we can work more with Jamie if she’s available or we can keep moving forward with muzzle training and planning!

10/10:

I’m so thrilled with how well Jimmy has been doing and how much he handled during this last session! Since we didn’t focus too much on new behaviors for Jimmy’s reactivity, I want to reiterate to just keep doing what you’re doing and moving slowly with his introduction to new people and his work with Jamie.

For the two behaviors we did work on, I’m attaching videos first of building a “trade” cue with a young dog and how I would recommend building Jimmy’s drop it from the ground up to avoid conflict for him, and then a video of how I do consent care with my dogs. I would start this work with Jimmy and one of you, building the skills and his understanding of how to “turn off” the handling, and then you could also feasibly use it to have touch introduced with Jamie in addition to cooperative grooming care.

I would love to continue working with you both and with Jimmy.  As we discussed, it sounds like we have a pretty solid roadmap towards broadening his world in the house, but I’m completely open to helping that along at any step or time that you need.  I also would be happy to work through cooperative care goals or other manners behaviors now that you do have a plan moving forward for him.  Let me know what you’d like to work on next and we can figure out a plan that would best suit your needs!