Soom Soom

02/01-02/11/22 Board and Train

04/24/22: Follow Up Session, 1:30-2:15

12/23-01/10/23 Boarding, Heroes Guild (4 Days)

06/21-06/28 Boarding, Heroes Guild (3 Days)

10/01-10/08 - Boarding, Heroes Guild (2 Days)

Other Things to Try:

• Visual Blocking: Using window film or even just setting up gates away from windows and doors while you’re visiting places Soom Soom struggles with (depending on the options available) may help. Soom Soom seems very visually oriented, which meant that when he was in a room with visibility towards the outside at ground level, meant that he got stuck there pretty consistently. Even just blocking off his view made it easier for him to practice some of the other behaviors we were working on and avoid the interesting environments.

• Treat and Train: In order to avoid the need for more active/directed training, Soom Soom responded really well to using a “Treat and Train” as a “thank you” interruptor equivalent. Having that in his kennel or in a side room to use as an interruptor may give you more freedom during your visit while helping him build better habits.

• Nosework: While we didn’t introduce scent work during his stay, Nosework is a great way to work the brain and acclimate to new spaces, because if you are doing scentwork inside, the dog needs to sniff around the area and “get the lay of the land” in order to complete the exercise. It’s also a great alternative to burn energy and fulfill your dog’s desire to sniff! While as mentioned in his acclimation stay, Soom Soom didn’t seem to struggle settling in here at my house, nosework is something I use with my older dog consistently every time we go to my in law’s lakehouse in the summer - it’s a familiar space but she gets anxious in the ride up. A nosework session or two helps her decompress and acclimate to the new environment with a predictable and fun behavior.

• Decompression Hikes: Soom Soom definitely seemed to do better with distractions out the window and doors when he was feeling content otherwise - if he was keyed up or if we had just had a training session he had a little bit more of a tougher time - likely because he was on alert from either playing or working and being attentive to the dogs and humans around him. If it’s possible, I’d recommend a 15 minute minimum “decompression” hike when visiting with him - any green space (even a school sports field) will do - somewhere that he can sniff and wander on a long line and, like with nosework, get accustomed to the smells of a new environment. Bringing his overall arousal down will help him be more successful with the behaviors that you are working on with him.

Something to note: It doesn’t fit in much with the behaviors that we were focused on, but I did notice that Soom Soom will resource guard from other dogs and was redirecting that towards humans a bit if he was already a little amped up. I’m wondering if that’s related to the snapping behavior you’d seen prior to his acclimation stay. Rather than create conflict in those scenarios, I would recommend prevention around other dogs (all toys go up before they play) and with you, taking a few paces away and asking for a “trade” or “drop it” and then dropping something really delicious on the ground near you. Each time when he came away from the toy/bone, he was perfectly happy for me to pick it up once he had left it.

Behaviors Introduced or Featured in Videos:

• 1-2-3 Walking

This approach to connected walking starts with voluntary attention from your dog. Rather than asking for attention and potentially resulting in Soom Soom ignoring your cues, this begins with his eye contact (sometimes preceded by a treat on the ground). At eye contact, start counting “1-2-3” - every 3, a treat should appear at your side where he should be walking. If he breaks eye contact, stop counting and start over again when he makes eye contact again. This creates some duration of eye contact during a walk and some predictable patterns for Soom Soom to identify.

• Calm Hand Targeting

I know Soom Soom already has a great hand target, but noticed when we were out on walks that his hand targeting was very enthusiastic, and sometimes as a result led to more jumping and pulling instead of less. Since hand targeting can be a really wonderful and effective way to move a dog away from a trigger, we worked on offering calm hand targets while walking, and then switching to 1-2-3 if he got too excited. I still see some excited hops from time to time, but he’s staying much more focused during his hand targeting than previously.

• Go-to-Place

I believe this one wasn’t new too, and that Soom Soom already has a “bed” cue but we used it in combination with some of the other tasks, and particularly in sending him out of the room if something got to be too much for him. What I noticed about his alert barking in the house is that it seems very visual - understandable on the ground floor facing woods, where at home he doesn’t see those things just outside his window!

Ultimately, I think that management of his environment is going to be the easiest for Soom Soom in new places, since he didn’t seem anxious at any point with me, but it is going to be difficult to practice consistent exposure. What I would recommend is setting up a quiet bed away from any windows/exciting outdoors where he can rest and decompress when he struggles with the windows and doors. We worked on this by routinely going to the kennel and reinforcing a go to bed cue a few times over if he got worked up by the outdoors.

• “Really Real” Relaxation

This is what I like to refer to as “anti-training.” The issue with using a lot of “Down Stay” as a way to promote relaxation is that often dogs are not…relaxed…when they start to hear training words. If they are food motivated like Soom Soom, it’s more likely that they get tense and active and alert - they might down, but it’s with the tense anticipation of what they’ll be asked to do next.

Instead, taking 5-10 minutes in the day to lure Soom Soom into a down - either on his bed or somewhere else comfortable, and assuming a relaxed position while feeding him intermittently for relaxed body posture and non-focus (not looking at you or the treat pouch, but casually observing their environment) will help build this behavior so when you relax, he is practiced at relaxing as well.

• “Thank You!” Interruptor

When a bark starts, it’s easy to not know what to do next. When Soom Soom started barking, I started telling him “thank you!” - as in, thanks for letting me know there’s something out there, that will be all. That “thank you” was paired at first with the loud noise of kibble hitting a stainless steel bowl - somewhere away from the door/window he was interested in. Soon he was running to that spot (which we gradually moved to the room his kennel was in - the most insulated room in the house) after he heard the “thank you!” cue. This helps keep your emotions out of it - it’s hard to be mad at a dog you’re telling “thank you!”, interrupts his barking before it increases, and gives him a little distance from whatever he finds challenging.

• Look At That

There’s often a lot of focus in training on asking the dog to look at you and ignore whatever it is they are startled/excited/worried/upset by. However, learning to cope with those things is equally important. Telling Soom Soom “What’s that” before he looks toward something potentially interesting, and then marking and rewarding before he looks back means I am rewarding a calm observation of his environment. Eventually he learns the pattern well enough that he will offer eye contact back towards you after he looks as long as he needs to. Here you want to make sure you are marking and rewarding before he can bark!

Using Look at That and (new!) Ready Get It:

• Engineer practice scenarios - especially in places that are difficult for Soom Soom - to work on Look at That. This is really the exercise that will teach him what to do if he gets startled by something new, rather than working just on moving past it. Check out the first video (starring Finn!) to review Look at That.

  • Problem: He won’t look away from the cheese. This is my favorite problem because it’s not a problem at all! If Soom Soom won’t look away from you when you tell him “look!” - congratulations, you are the most salient thing in his environment! If this is out and about by a potential distraction, great! If it is during a practice session, this is a sign that you can decrease your distance or increase the intensity of the distraction. He’s well under threshold.

  • Problem: He’s getting sticky and won’t look back at you. This is a sign that we’re on the edge of threshold. Remember you can always dial back the difficulty of LAT and mark yes for calmly watching the distraction and use the treat to direct his nose back. Watch Soom Soom’s mouth and ears for hints that he’s getting more amped up. If you have two sticky repetitions in a row - move backwards or decrease the intensity of the distraction. You’re teetering on the edge of a reaction.

• At the parents and when he’s tired: These are two scenarios where you’ve identified things are just a little harder for Soom Soom. In both cases, lean on easier behaviors that will accomplish your goal. One of the reasons I like Ready Get It so much is that it is a great stand-in for recall, loose leash walking, and a way to move away from a distraction.

• At night: This is where I want to stress management over training. You don’t want to need to wake up and train, and you also don’t want Soom Soom successfully practicing unwanted behaviors in the middle of the night. Test sleeping with the door shut, and keep a food scatter available for him so it’s minimal effort to give him an alternate task if he does bark at night. If it does seem to be sound-related, consider sleep stories (I like the Calm app) as an option for nights where he’s a little bit extra amped.

From Heroes’ Guild Adventurer’s Log, 12/26/22:

Today we welcomed our guest boarder, Soom Soom, to a Heroes’ Guild session. Soom is boarding with me for the next few weeks and will be attending day school on Mondays and Thursdays, so you’ll see him joining in on some of the same work our regulars are doing!

With Lexi and Seeger today, rather than brave the cold for engagement, we did some fun things indoors. We started out with backing up, but my camera didn’t catch Seeger!!! So Lexi gets an extra long clip demonstrating what they both worked on. I love working back up with dogs who are already thoughtful, and while Lexi knows the behavior, it was fun working on backing up in a straight line (notice the gate as a guide) and for longer and longer stretches before marking and rewarding forward.

Soom and Sam worked on some CCC today! Soom was introduced to the puzzles for the first time - and I love looking back at this as the other dogs are progressing, because he made so clear the importance of taking small steps forward. While the puzzle at face value might seem easy (all the dogs “know” it well by now) it took very slight movements changing the orientation of the puzzle to avoid frustration building and keeping Soom calm and thoughtful. You can see he either sits back and looks for help, or starts pawing at the box if I go too far, too quickly.

We also worked on Treat and Train behaviors with Seeger and Soom Soom. For Soom Soom, who lives well above the ground floor in DC, the woods right outside his door is fascinating, and can make him hypervigilant about checking around outdoors, especially when he visits his grandparents’ house. He has previously learned that “Thank you” can result in a treat away from the window, but when he stayed last we also worked on the Treat and Train as an alternate, hands-free interruptor. Today we refreshed that skill while I paced around and made things make noise outside.

For Seeger, who is nervous with meeting new people, and especially abrupt movements, I wanted to use the treat and train as a precursor to staggered approaches/treat and retreat greetings. Since treat and retreat has a person tossing treats away from them to build confidence, the smaller movements of the treat and train will help him get used to them before they need to start moving. Of course he’s comfortable with me, so today we focused on getting used to the sound of the treat and train itself, and the movements back and forth from person to prize.

Lastly, Lexi and Sam worked some Look at That with my fake demo dog. Even though Fig can do most demo work for me these days, I love using a fake dog because I can use it to test responses that wouldn’t be fair for Fig to deal with - like letting Sam get a little too close and pulling, and then seeing how he responds when pulling doesn’t get him to the pup. For Lexi, I made things a little harder - while distance can make things easier, separating the dog by the door means that it was harder to sniff out that this wasn’t a real dog. We had some huffs and some whines, but no big barks, and both dogs made excellent decisions throughout!

From Heroes’ Guild Adventurer’s Log, 12/29/22:

The last day of Heroes’ Guild 2022 has come to an end! Thank you again to everyone for making this transition so seamless earlier this year - I’m so excited to continue to grow with these dogs over the next year. Today, we focused on CCC and getting outdoors with Korra and Oscar, and continuing to cement the CCC skills with Soom Soom. Korra and Oscar were working the puzzle boxes in a new environment up at the school, and like the Tuesday dogs found the new environment very exciting - especially as a lot of folks were talking walks in the pleasant weather. However, both dogs were able to focus and do several repetitions of a puzzle map. For both though I think we will be looking for some middle ground environments - Korra was more frustrated on the puzzle solution than I would like, and Oscar tuned out much more quickly than I’ve come to expect from him with CCC. Soom was able to solve the puzzle from all angles with minimal frustration - I’ll be looking to add some pauses on a mat during his next session next week.

We also worked on some transitions in and out of the crate. For Korra, the challenge here is in staying in her crate until released and not just bowling ball running out of the crate as soon as it opens. For Oscar, the focus is more on his engagement upon exiting. Both of them did very well, and Oscar even was able to do some basic behaviors with Fig there to distract him. As we continue to work with Thursdays team, I’d like to see them be able to do more and more of their manners behaviors with other dogs out.

Soom continued his work on noises outside and his “thank you” interruptor with the Treat ‘n Train and did well - next sessions will have him focusing on the treat ‘n train behaviors while someone other than me makes the noise outside.

From Heroes’ Guild Adventurer’s Log, 06/22/23:

We had Soom Soom join us for Day School today, and worked through a lot of engagement and foundational behaviors across the board! Oscar and Coco both worked on the “Give Me A Break” game which is geared to give dogs more mental breaks during training as well as create more drive to engage with their handler. Coco followed it up with some Look At That towards the fake dog, which Soom Soom also worked off of.

Korra and Natsuki both worked on relaxation - for Korra, the focus is the offered behavior away from a remote reward and building duration of the behavior. Meanwhile, Natsuki is being introduced to the behavior for the first time, so we rewarded the behavior heavily until he could offer the behavior himself. Lastly, these two worked on some shaping behaviors -Korra continued working on offering the “perch” behavior, and Natsuki continued building his chin rest behavior to move towards some cooperative care skills.

Monday, 06/26:

We have a busy week this week! We have a few overlaps with boarding dogs, which meant we had lots of guests for our Day School today! After a few of the dogs had their treadmill runs, we worked on introducing Penny to the mill as well. She’s still a little uncertain about the whole process, so my focus is in building her confidence and making it fun for her. After some treadmill time, we worked on relaxation for the majority of the group - either through a little worry or a lot of enthusiasm, lots of our day schoolers struggle to settle near other dogs. We started with Lexi and Seeger. Lexi isn’t one of the pups that are excited to play, so she and Seeger have had very few reasons to interact or see one another. We worked behind a barrier and eventually brought them close to one another. And then with our Thursday dog Korra, who is boarding until Wednesday, settling next to Penny after they found out they were long lost besties. The last settle session worked off of Fig, since Zuko can be a little extra uncertain about other dogs, and I was already asking Korra to work a second session off of relaxation off of our guest Soom Soom .

Andre was feeling a little under the weather today, but continued his hind end awareness work with backing up (a couple solid steps onto the platform today! and pivot bowl work. Lexi and Seeger also worked on the pivot bowl for their second session, while Zuko worked on confidence taking food outdoors and offering relaxation in a more stressful environment. The only dog who hasn’t yet had their second session is Soom Soom, who will be working at dusk on reactivity towards things he’s a little less sure about.

Tuesday, 06/27:

Today was another full day with lots of playtime and treadmill time for the pups between the heat and the storm! Each of the pups had some new playmates to meet, which resulted in some great opportunities to bust some energy even when things got stormy towards the afternoon. After mill time, both Snoop and Finn worked on offering the behavior of getting on and staying on the treadmill- Snoop got some more movement in there, and Finn worked on holding still once there!

In terms of hind end awareness, we did some pivot bowl work across the board - working through persistence with shaping with Finn, the perching behavior and some slight hind end shifts with Snoop, Korra, and Bailey, all the way up to some offered heel position with Pickle. We also worked on introducing a back up behavior for Bailey and Pickle, as well as with Korra.

Our other boarding pups, Soom Soom and Zuko, worked on “dog park TV” with the help of Korra, Finn, and Fig. While the three of them played, both boarding dogs worked on look at that and relaxing behind a barrier. They also worked on a “this way” cue to help them quickly exit bad situations.

Our points of practice during Soom’s stay this week were a little all over the place. We didn’t end up having Day School on Tuesday, so I have his chin rest videos from Thursday to post!

On Tuesday we did a little work all over the place, as well as some more on Saturday while we were at FastCAT. Some things to note:

• Soom Soom walks so nicely on leash, potentially to his detriment when triggers come into play. Make sure you are making the whole walk about rewarding attention/engagement/loose leash walking (etc.) and rewarding him frequently to keep that expectation high when things are more difficult.

• Several times during our walks, we stopped and intentionally got him excited - with tug or a little chase, or just tagging him and wrestling. After he was in it, then asked for a control behavior like a sit or a down. He does get over excited and then control tends to go out the window - this will be good practice for when the baby starts toddling around too!

• Chin rest was the behavior I focused on during Thursday - especially because he gets so wild when excited, this may be a good interim behavior to use to move him from an excited state (either one intentionally caused for training or brought about because of the potential triggers in the area) to being able to get to a food scatter , ready get it, or an impulse control behavior like sit or down.

• Lastly just some observations from FastCAT where I did see him get tense about the little dogs - distance is of course your friend, but even asking for less than continued walking. Making space and playing Look at That seemed to make a big difference, not just for avoiding a reaction, but also for the amount of tension in his body language. He’s very clear about how he’s feeling, so we can use that to know when we can move forward and push his threshold a little and when things need to be easier for him.

As we mentioned at pick up, definitely send me videos if you can grab them of what you’re seeing (or even what different walks look like without the reaction) so I can perhaps pinpoint some adjustments that can be made. As always, he was a pleasure!