I volunteered at a local shelter last summer as it was required to complete a certain number of hours to graduate from Animal Behavior College. With my business now up and running and going well, I found I was missing the shelter. The shelter is desperate for volunteers and I kept remembering seeing the cards on the dogs' kennels that showed the last time they had been taken out. Most hadn't been taken out of their kennel in over a week. I want to help. I want to train shelter dogs to make them more adoptable, and to be an extra set of hands that can can simply get the dogs out of their kennels for some play and interaction, even if no real training occurs. I also felt called to offer a free basic obedience class to the adopters. Not sure yet if that will work out one way or another but I'm trying.
Today was my first day volunteering. The wonderful woman who showed me around last time did so again this time, with a little more detail. When I needed my hours I basically sat in the interaction area and she would bring dogs to me, only a few times did I get dogs out and put them back myself.
I started today with Margo [Petfinder link], at the recommendation of the volunteer. Margo has been at the shelter a very long time. Nearly 4 months. She is a wonderful, sweet female pitbull. Gorgeous seal brown color. Her big issue is that she is obsessive about tennis balls. I took Margo to the volunteer room, a nice quiet room to work with her away from the barking and chaos and free from distractions. She explored the room, I pet her calmly trying to get her to relax a bit and get her interested in taking treats. She sat for me a few times. Good girly! She then managed to find a blue tennis ball I hadn't even seen earlier when I was being shown around. She hopped up on the couch with it and started chewing heavily. It's not polite to take a toy from a dog's mouth, and though she's not known to guard I just met her and she just met me and I wasn't going to stick my hand in there to try to get the ball. I encouraged her off the couch and applied gentle even pressure on her leash (she wears a front-clip Sensation harness). I kept her moving, walking up and down the small room with a loose leash so she wouldn't have the chance to lay down and focus entirely on the ball. When she fumbled the ball I was able to safely pick it up.
I held the ball in my left hand out to the side, and waited. She looked away from the ball to my eyes. "Yes!" I told her and offered her a treat. Pfft, treat? Who cares about a treat when there is a BALL. She would not take the treat. Hmm. Again she looked away from the ball, to my eyes. "Yes!" I said again and then tossed her a treat. She opened her great big pittie mouth and caught the treat. Awesome! Now we have a game. Sometimes my toss was bad or her catching was off and she missed the treat. She wouldn't get the treat because the ball was still too exciting, but she seemed to like the game even if she missed the treat sometimes- and I was able to pick up the treats and reuse them.
After playing this game for about 5 minutes, I thought it was time to put the ball on the floor out of her reach. She lunged. She scrambled on the concrete floor. She strained. She leaned. She scrambled and lunged. She lunged and scrambled. She stopped. She looked at me. "Yes!" and I offered her a treat from my fingers, which she took. Now we're really getting somewhere. Looks at the ball. Lunges, scrambles, stops. Looks at me. "Yes!" and a treat. Looks at the ball. Looks at me. "Yes!" that's what we want! No lunging!! I gave her a treat then said "ok!" and we ran to the ball.
As before I kept her moving, letting her mouth and chew the ball as she walked with me up and down the small room. I put a line of treats on the floor so she would spit out the ball, follow the line, and move herself far enough away from the ball in following the treats that she couldn't grab it again. Then we were reset, ready for her to look at the ball, then look at me for a Yes! and a treat. We repeated this many times. This game is "sit to say please" and is a basic training exercise demoed by Dr. Sophia Yin. Normally taught with treats, but Margo loves the ball.
During all this I was not requiring Margo to sit. Just for eye contact. With repetition she was beginning to grasp the concept and was relaxed enough to sit, so the criteria was raised. If she looked to my eyes she got a Yes! and a treat but she was not released to get the ball until she sat. She figured this out pretty quick without even a hint from me.
As one criteria was raised in requiring her to sit, another was lowered. I began dropping just 2-3 treats in a close pile so she could eat them then immediately pick up the ball again. I don't want her to think (or realize) that every time she lets go of a ball it is immediately taken away or put out of her reach. I don't want her to feel she has to obsess and keep track of it because it will disappear. I want her to be able to relax when it's out of her mouth. I worked with Margo for about 30-45 minutes, I'm not exactly sure.
When Margo was returned to her kennel I peeked in at Pancake, a shy dog on my list that had been highlighted as needing some TLC. He laid on the floor, looking up at me with scared eyes. Another volunteer intercepted me and said he was great once he was out, but she wanted me to first go play with a puppy. Well, ok then! I went and got Layla [shelter link] a 6 month old black & white pitbull puppy. She initially was all over me. Jumping up, climbing on me, it was tough to get the leash on! We went to the regular interaction area and I immediately engaged her in play after taking the leash off. Gotta burn some energy and have fun before I can expect attention! I was having her chase and play with a stuffed horse. I then stopped interacting with the toy and her. And she stopped and followed me! I looked down at her and she sat. Wow. "Yes!" and a treat. I sat on the bench expecting her to jump and climb on me. Nope. She put one paw up but I was already intercepting her with a treat. She put it down and was given treats and petting for sitting. I lured her to sit several times. She got it very easily. Down was a bit tougher but she was getting it by the end of our time together. She has a natural autosit which is awesome. I interspersed the training of sit and down with play, chase, and running around. Running around included some recall training. She's a great little puppy and likely won't be in the shelter long!
Another dog on my list, Onyx [Petfinder link], was in the kennel next to Layla. He's an overweight ~8 yr old black male lab mix. He wasn't interested in treats at all. He liked petting. But mostly he would step into the kiddie pool, spin in circles, then hop out and prance around, jump and slide in the grass and roll around. He was very bouncy and happy for a gentleman of his age. He didn't play with toys or anything else, he just happily hopped, prancing and being a goofball. Very lovable.
I returned Onyx to his kennel and spent my final minutes calming down a couple dogs that were going bonkers with their barking. Amazing what giving treats to the calm quiet neighbors will do to calm down the barker! One in particular was barking like crazy. I gave treats to the dogs in surrounding kennels until the barker stopped, then I tossed a few treats in his kennel. Walked away. Came back and did the same. Walked away. Came back. No barking this time! It was a great way to end my day there.
No comments:
Post a Comment