PABA Seminar 2011 – Day Three

I woke up on Day Three feeling a bit depressed. I know that three straight days from 8am to 5pm is a lot; it’s tiring and it’s a lot of information to retain…but I was depressed knowing that it would be over soon nonetheless. I wanted a few more days. I would have plugged a 2TB external hard drive into my brain just to retain it all if I could have. I was in heaven and I didn’t want to leave. Here I was in a room full of people who have dedicated their lives to the betterment of animals and have made the commitment to come learn even more. The sharing of knowledge and experience was heartwarming and inspiring.

In the past I have heard a few people say “the dog training industry is competitive and cut-throat” and each time I have stood up and vehemently denied it. I have more allies in this industry than I ever did in HR or any other career path I started on. The colleagues I have now are quickly becoming my closest friends and mentors; we learn from each other and we teach each other without fear of “stealing clients” or “stealing ideas” or anything else. We support each other and even refer clients back and forth when we’re not planning projects where we can actually work together. That, my friends, is not cut-throat. It’s professional.

But then again, I was in a room that was mostly positive-reinforcement based trainers as opposed to ones that rely lazily on shock collars, punishment, corrections, etc… so perhaps in that industry there’s a cut-throat aspect. Who knows. I’m happy where I am. I treat dogs and their humans with the same theory – positive-based teaching.

I digress. Back to PABA. Day Three:

Jaak Panksepp opened the day but due to a slight mild case of sleepinginitis, Mirkka and I missed most of the first talk and decided to spend the remaining hour speaking with the folks from Gentle Leader about their past seminars and their publications. We ended up networking with a few other positive trainers – one of whom even invited us up to her cottage for a break! Moments later, we were approached by Pat Miller who was stretching her legs before her own talk. We were so lucky to have had a few minutes to chat with her and pick her brain a little bit. She is just as delightful in person as she seems when you are reading her books. It’s no wonder she does what she does as I felt this incredible sense of calm when speaking to her and can only imagine the effect she has on dogs that are struggling with stress/anxiety in the shelter environment!

We were ushered back into the auditorium to hear her talk on modifying dog-dog reactivity and other unwanted behaviours. This was the part I had really been looking forward to. She runs a great Reactive Rover class in the USA and is a big inspiration to me when dealing with reactive dogs. Her talk really put me at ease with dealing with this type of dog (which sadly I do on a regular basis as it has become the #1 reason I get called in Toronto, due to our unnaturally high dog population) and even gave me some great pointers by breaking down the behaviours into tiny little pieces.

Let’s first note the signs of reactivity (oh there are so many!) while keeping in mind that reactivity is responding to normal stimuli with an abnormal level of intensity. (I like this definition very much.) Next, we figure out what is causing the reactivity. Is it stress? Lack of socialization? Bad experience? High arousal activities? Barrier frustration? An underlying medical issue? Then we identify the triggers and assign strategies (get rid of the trigger, change the association, teach a new behaviour, manage the behaviour or leave it as is).

Does that sound easy? If only it were that easy. There’s a lot that goes into treating reactivity but P.Miller really breaks it down so that it feels manageable from our standpoint and that’s half the battle.

A few of my favourite quotes from her talk:

“Behaviour is always a combination of genetics and environment.”

“Do not define the dog by the behaviour; ‘this is a reactive dog’ or ‘this is an aggressive dog’.

“Do not let the dog practice the reactive behaviour.”

P.Miller gave us the tools to work through reactivity in a realistic way that causes the least amount of stress for everyone by either managing the behaviour or modifying it. She even offered to send me information on treating dog-dog resource guarding since there is almost no literature on it and has been in touch via email ever since.

Lunch break! I needed to digest all of this and my mind was simply spinning. I was furiously taking notes and wishing my eyes and mind would double as a video camera during these talks so that I could just play it back later. Now, the trouble with lunch breaks is that a) the food never comes fast enough and you end up rushing your meal to get back on time, and b) when you’re done, you need kindergarten nap-time during the digestion process. Luckily for us on Day Two, we had K.Sdao right after lunch – you cannot fall asleep if she’s in the room. Unfortunately, Alexandra Horowitz has the most soothing voice on the planet and was up next.

I managed to stay awake throughout the whole talk on ‘what it’s like to be a dog’ which turned out to be not only fascinating but funny. The quote that really stuck with me is:

“Don’t assume that what you see is what everyone sees. His world is not our world. His experience is not our experience.”

How very true. Perspective is not something to be ignored. We all see things differently and it’s based on our own needs and interests. We look at a room and see everything in it. A house fly will see the food sources and the light sources. A dog will see the comfortable areas to lay down and the food sources. We all have different perspectives and we cannot force a fly or a dog to see what we see so we must be open-minded. (Perhaps this can be applied to all humans in our relationships, too.)

We need to think deeply about dogs to find out what exactly it is that motivates them and how they see the world. The truth is, they smell the world, first and foremost. Dogs have 300 million olifactory receptor cells in comparison to our measly 5 million. Of course they love to sniff – can you imagine being able to smell every tiny little whiff of everything?? Knowing that, how can we deny them of this unbelievable experience everywhere we go?!

A.Horowitz then talked about the vomeronasal organ that is located under the nose and above the roof of the mouth in a dog. It has the ability to detect hormones (pheromones) and…wait for it….CORTISOL!! Hooray! She answered my question once and for all. Remember in my Day Two post I had mentioned:

“M.Herron also explained the effects of stress on dogs and addressed the question that I have had for years – can a change in cortisol levels in a person be detected by a dog? We’ll get to that later though…on Day Three.“

Well, you can imagine my squeals of delight when A.Horowitz confirmed a dog’s ability to detect a change in cortisol levels. Now we can really begin to understand when people say that energy travels down the leash from human to dog. Not only does it apply to physical tension on the leash, but the change in our cortisol levels when we see the trigger for our dog’s reactivity coming around the corner up ahead. Our dog senses that and starts to react before even they see the trigger themselves. Keep your cortisol in check, people. 😉

The rest of the talk was just as enlightening, especially if you have a desire to work in tracking or search and rescue (which I do!) as it really helped to explain the entire process. (I won’t even try to attempt that here…)

Lastly, Andrew Luescher on companion animal welfare. He opened by saying that the bond between human and animal is a mutual meeting of needs – A meets the needs of B and B meets the needs of A. How true is that?! If you do not feel that way about your dog then your bond needs some work. It’s a two-way street.

He talked about the reasons dogs are relinquished by their owners and the top few reasons were quite heartbreaking:

Lifestyle changes
Behaviour problems
Moving
Owner illness
Lack of time
Too many animals
Pet being sick or old
Can’t afford expense
Pet is too large
Other

How many of these are avoidable? Do you give up your children when your lifestyle changes? If they are struggling with a behavioural challenge? Do you run out of time because you work too much and decide the child would be better of with a parent that works from home? Do you not realize how many animals you are bringing into the home or what a dog actually costs per year? Did you do your research on the breed before you realized that your Chocolate Lab is really going to be 90 lbs instead of 20 lbs like the “breeder” promised you?

The most shocking statistic was that the dogs that were at the highest risk for relinquishment came from homes with men under the age of 35, who showed weak owner-attachment and were kept confined in crates, basements, or garages. Ladies, we don’t get off easy here. We’re the ones who have the higher risk of becoming animal hoarders as older, single women. Set a limit and keep it legal...or get married. Fast.  😉

He finished by talking about breeding and the separation of show lines and working lines – something that has always interested me since my career began in Schutzhund and working line German Shepherds. But that is a whole other post.

All in all, the weekend was completely mind-blowing. I came away feeling like my head was 30 lbs heavier with knowledge and almost needed a vacation in order to digest all the new information I had filed away in my brain. It has given me much to think about, much to research and of course a list of new books that I will be ordering. I can’t help but wonder who is on the roster for next year’s PABA seminar and how soon I can register.

PABA Seminar 2011 – Day Two

Ah, Day Two. I woke up feeling somewhat refreshed after staying in a very cozy bed & breakfast and having the first good sleep I’ve had in years. (I kid you not.)

We arrived at Rozanski Hall and jumped right in with  Jaak Panksepp’s talk on basic emotional processes and treatments for doggie-disorders. I will be honest. This was not something that blew the top of my head off and I felt like I was really nodding off. Had I done a full degree in Psychology I would have been lapping this up as it’s clear the man is brilliant…but I do not have a masters in Psychology and frankly missed quite a lot of what was going on. The room was full of veterinarians and behaviourists, who were all enjoying it immensely. I took in what I could and told myself that there’s always time to go back to do a masters if I so choose, but in the meantime I will study everything I can in order to better understand the species that stole my heart.

Next was our break. I mention this because there was a moment during the break where I met someone who is exactly who I was a few years ago. She was open, friendly and eager – lovely person, who means well. We had a brief chat and she was quite excited about training – she is an apprentice (trainer in training) in a small town in Ontario and wanted to branch out and learn a little more. As we talked, she asked us if we were subscribers of the clicker method and we answered “yes” of course. She nodded knowingly and then stated boldly, “I like the idea and all, but I would never use a clicker on an aggressive dog – that’s for sure!” Mirkka and I both took a deep breath at the same time and while she has the ability to hold her tongue, I do not. I smiled and tried to take the opportunity to educate while I wanted to scream “GET A NEW MENTOR.” I said to her “I would never dream of using anything else on an aggressive dog.” She seemed shocked that I would say that and I simply said “If you meet aggression with aggression, you’re not going to get sunshine.” and at that moment we were ushered back into the hall to listen to Meghan Herron speak about, oh, Canine Aggression. How fitting.

I try not to judge people. I really do. Sometimes it happens because we’re human, but here I knew my instant reaction was not appropriate as she is who I was 4 years ago. Using corrections, aversives, inhumane tools and not truly understanding learning theory, animal behaviour, psychology and canine anatomy. I stopped judging and started pitying her. That didn’t help either…but it just made me sad. I was excited to see her reaction to Meghan’s talk on aggression, so I bit my tongue and tried to remember how it felt to be gung-ho about correction-based training – completely blind to anything else.

So Meghan starts her talk and I keep a close eye on this trainer I’ve just met. About 10 minutes in, I sneak a look and lo and behold, her jaw is on the desk and her eyes are propped wide open in disbelief. I sighed with relief. Someone was getting through and hopefully inspiring her to leave behind the outdated silliness and move on to more science-based training.

M.Herron’s talk hit a spot for me. Aggression is something that I don’t deal with for a few reasons. When I first started out, I was not fully prepared in behavioural work and bit off more than I could chew. New trainers should never take on aggression cases until they have had a few years’ experience in all the other basic “stuff”. I learned my lesson after a pretty serious mauling and since then I will only deal with one type of aggression – resource guarding. The other aggression cases that come up always get referred out to my colleague who is an aggression therapist. I’m not afraid to say “I’m not qualified to handle this” and I’m more than happy to refer to someone I trust.

Listening to M.Herron talk about aggression brought so much comfort to me and helped me to the next level of understanding. I learned that even offensive aggression is based on fear – this is something that Parker suffers from and I never thought it was based on fear; I’m not sure what I assumed, but ‘fear’ wasn’t going to be my first guess. I also learned that aggression cannot be 100% cured and that after behaviour modification, managing it is the only option. This makes me sad, to say the least. It’s what I suppose I knew in my heart of hearts, but not something you want to say to your clients.

Something that was interesting to me was the advocacy for chemical restraint when need be. This is an area of training that I usually refer out as I am not a veterinarian nor a veterinary behaviourist, but there have been a few times where I have suggested chemical intervention in order to make some progress. It’s never my first choice, but in some situations, medication is the only thing that will help in the interim. After hearing M.Herron’s anecdotes and logic, I do admit that I would be more comfortable recommending early intervention in serious cases in the future.

M.Herron also explained the effects of stress on dogs and addressed the question that I have had for years – can a change in cortisol levels in a person be detected by a dog? We’ll get to that later though…on Day Three.

– Here we break for a gorgeous lunch at Milestones for the most delicious mushroom soup I’ve ever tasted in my life. –

Next up is the wonderful Kathy Sdao once again. Her talk was called “Hierarchy Malarky” and it was better than I had imagined. To say that it shook me up would be a staggering understatement.  I loved it. I really did…but it changed the way I see myself and my training. I may have taken things a little too much to heart and will need time to digest it, but right off the bat, I was shaken up.

I’m not a believer in the dominance theory but I used to be – that’s how I was taught and that’s what pop culture and the media teaches us as well. In the past few years I have been inundated with anti-dominance schpiel and have gone from one end of the spectrum to another; from “there is no such thing as dominance in the dog world” to “let’s define dominance so that we can appropriately label it when we do see it”. It’s unfair to say that it doesn’t exist as is does in the human world as well. Some people are just leaders, whereas others are just followers. Some people are stronger and we naturally defer to them (think about group projects in school or at work). That being said, dominance cannot be the one excuse we use when talking about poor manners and lack of training.

K.Sdao talked about NILIF (Nothing In Life Is Free) which is a program that I put into place with many of my clients as (again) it is how I was taught. The basic gist is that we ask the dog for a behaviour before it is rewarded with a resource (food, treat, toy, access to other resource like people, dogs, off-leash play, etc…). I see it as “saying please” or “eat your veggies before you get dessert”. I am a believer in this program and have felt very strongly about it…not for the sake of showing the dog who is Alpha and who is not, but more for the encouragement of good manners and clear communication. K.Sdao talks about how in order to subscribe to NILIF, you would have to believe that there is a rank in the household (Alpha) and that it’s very much based on the dominance theory. I do see where she is coming from – don’t get me wrong! I just think that it’s a matter of perspective. I want my dogs to communicate clearly with me without being rude, demanding bullies. I want them to say please and be respectful and this is the best way that I can teach them. I don’t want them to worry about rank in the household or fear me. I want us to respect each other and give and take equally like with any good partnership.

K.Sdao clarified something that all trainers should have tattooed on their forearm. Dogs should not have to earn love. Love is free and should always be free. I may not agree with her about the use of NILIF being in direct correlation with the dominance theory (while I can completely see how it would easily slide that way in the wrong hands), she did open my eyes to the fact that it’s important to understand every single exercise down to the core. Down to the core of the core.

Next was Alexandra Horowitz (and if you haven’t read her book “Inside of a Dog”, please go to the bookstore tomorrow and pick it up. It is so insightful and yes, she speaks as beautifully as she writes. She talked about testing anthropomorphisms of the domestic dog – do dogs feel jealous / guilty / proud ? Her studies are fascinating and frankly, there’s nothing that I could write here that could even scratch the surface. All I can say is that you need to read her book.

Lastly was the wonderful Karen Pryor. The pioneer of clicker training. The high point of this three-day seminar for me. I would love to tell you all about it but unfortunately I came down with food poisoning and I missed her entire talk, went straight out to buy soup and rice and gatorade and then back to my B&B to promptly pass out until the next morning. I’m trying to not think about it as I have wanted to hear her speak for years and I’m not sure when the next opportunity will be. I’m sure something will come up, even if I have to travel further the next time.

Stay tuned for Day Three – the final PABA blog…

PABA Seminar 2011 – Day One

When I was first emailed about the Professional Animal Behaviour Associates (PABA) Seminar in January, I bookmarked the dates in my calendar and tried my best not to think about it every day. I was so excited about the lineup of people I would soon have the opportunity to hear speak, and potentially even meet.

• Andrew Luescher (the man who changed my mind)
• Meghan Herron (the woman I want to be when I grow up)
• Kathy Sdao (need I say more?)
• Pat Miller (one of my heroes)
• Alexandra Horowitz (author of “Inside of a Dog”)
• Karen Pryor (the pioneer of clicker training)

At 5:50am on Friday morning (May 13th), I was inside Tim Hortons ordering road-trip sandwiches and drinks. At 6:02am, my dear friend and colleague, Mirkka Koivusalo arrived to take us to Guelph for the three-day PABA Seminar. It was way too early in the morning for my night-owl brain but I was so excited that I’m sure I buzzed and yammered the whole way. Mirkka is a patient woman.

The morning opened up with Andrew Luescher who completely blew me away with his incredible talk on the Psychological Needs of Dogs. He covered topics such as early development in dogs, genetic selection and behavioural effects (fascinating!!), and enrichment…just to name a few. I don’t know that I blinked the whole time. I have always wanted more information on the genetic side of things and here I was getting it. It was reassuring to hear that sometimes “it’s genetic”. I don’t rely on that and certainly don’t make a habit of using it as an excuse, but in a few cases that I have seen, the genetics or the early development has had such a profound effect on the dog that success was not possible. Andrew walked us from conception to geriatrics and made sense of it all. If I took away one thing from this, it’s that poor breeding (backyard, puppy mill, show breeding) can truly have a detrimental effect on dogs, despite all the hard work we can do in the critical periods of a puppy’s life and all the behaviour modification and management we do for the rest of their life. Three words: wake up call.

Next was Meghan Herron. I will admit that I did not know who she was before I stepped foot inside Rozanski Hall. I left that day feeling like I figured out exactly who and what I want to be when I grow up. This woman is strong, articulate, educated, experienced, eloquent and just plain amazing. She spoke about the different types of training methods that are out there – confrontational and non-confrontational. While her talk was interesting, I don’t know that I learned an awful lot more than I already know, but it goes without saying that sometimes we just need to be reassured. She shared some interesting statistics and case studies with us that really made me feel like my decision to choose positive training was the best decision I ever made.

After a lovely lunch of chicken tikka with Mirkka and a new-found friend, Emily Fisher, we sat down to listen to Kathy Sdao talk about whether training is “quicker with a clicker”. Honestly, I felt like I was in a comedy club. She is definitely the best speaker I have ever heard and I doubt that I will soon forget this experience because of her. Not only did she have us in stitches the entire time, but she shared much wisdom with us and really broke down clicker training for those of us who are not experts. She clarified the difference between “clicker training” and “training with a clicker” and suddenly I felt very small next to my true clicker training friend, Mirkka. I am a self-taught clicker-trainer trainer with a clicker so it reminded me that at some point I will need to focus my continuing education in that direction and take a break from the behavioural work…which is okay, I’ve decided.

Lastly, the wonderful Pat Miller appeared before my eyes. One of my dog training bibles is “The Power of Positive Training” and she is the author. Pat is not only an accomplished author, but is the queen of rehabilitation in my mind. She has inspired me from day one with her kind approach to not only dogs, but their humans. Her dedication in her work, her common sense and unwavering logic is astounding. Her talk on this day was about shelter dog assessments which is something that is near and dear to my heart (adopting only rescues and coming from a home that also only adopts rescues) and also something that I will continue to focus on in my work. Her step-by-step guide that she walked us through was so enlightening and again, reassuring.

After a bit of a long day, Mirkka and I headed out to Swiss Chalet where we continued to talk shop (because what else do dog trainers do?!) over dinner before heading back to our respective B&Bs for the night.

I was so wired after such a great day that I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep. Do you know what I did that really helped? I played Through a Dog’s Ear as I drifted off into a restful sleep. Not just good for dogs, I tell ya.

Stay tuned for PABA Seminar 2011 – Day Two