Normal Puppy Life -- with Monsters

The Wildflowers are at an age where we can see a normal “fear period.” I don’t like that term and so I shall call this developmental stage Accelerated Cognitive Expansion (ACE).

Puppies are suddenly much more aware and concerned about their external world. Pozy has, for example, gone from leaping joyfully on every stranger to preferring to ignore them for a bit in order to decide whether they are, in fact, an ax murderer.

This is normal brain development. The puppy is now capable of a more advanced cognitive appraisal process. The expression of this may look like fear or shyness but we are better served by not putting those labels on our puppy — labels change and shape our interactions with people and puppies and are rarely useful. Instead, we just deal with the behavioral manifestations of this very normal period of Life with Puppies.

So what do we do?

Chill Out

Puppies look to us for cues. The last thing you want to do is have a meltdown when your puppy is suddenly reflecting concern about Monsters. Doing that just tells the puppy that she was right to be concerned because OMG! Look at the effect the Monster had on the human!!!!

Stay calm. Project an attitude of, “Monster? Pffft. No Big Deal” to the puppy

Socialize

The puppies need to be out and about every day and have good novel experiences. Don’t avoid the places Monsters live but…

Pay Attention to Threshold

A threshold is the point at which it is all just too much — stay well under that point with the puppy. When a puppy bites extra hard when taking a treat, refuses to take a treat, and/or is trying to get the heck outta Dodge we know we went over threshold.

Dial it back.

Stay under threshold at all times and…

Counter-Condition

Use treats and fun to help the puppy have a positive association with the Monster — from a safe and below threshold distance.

Puppy looks at the Monster — click/treat (or say YES/treat).

Puppy sniffs the Monster — click/treat (or say YES/treat).

Build up the puppy’s Monster Tolerance, always staying under threshold, until the puppy realizes everything is as cool as the human’s chill attitude.

Protect the Puppy

Do not force a puppy to interact with anyone or anything she has decided is a Monster. Do not allow anyone to grab your puppy, try to pet her if she doesn’t want to be petted, or in any way force unwanted attention.

Remember…

Nobody should have unwanted attention foisted on them — not even a puppy.

Our job is to companion our puppy through this period of Accelerated Cognitive Expansion (ACE), building confidence and trust along the way by being smart, positive, and intentional in our training.

Have a happy, monster-free day!

What's in a Name?

I love Pozy’s name.

I love that the name conjures up a little bunch of wildflowers. The two syllables and the Z make Pozy feel like Zoey to me. It is a quick and easy name to say — I love that, too.

I want Pozy to also love her name. I want her to hear it and be filled with happy anticipation about what comes next. This means her name must always be followed by something wonderful — a cookie, a game, a tummy scratch, a toy.

I do not want her name to ever be associated with anything unpleasant or negative. This means I must not infuse her beautiful, happy name with tones of disappointment, outrage, anger, or frustration.

A loud and irritated “POZY CLARKIA!” cannot ever happen if I want this puppy to love her name as much as I do.

I also don’t want her to ignore her name. This means I must not use it in a situation where distractions are bigger than her ability to quickly respond to her cheerful, fun name.

I definitely do not want to stand there repeating “Pozy” over and over, which just teaches her to ignore her name.

I love that training dogs well is really all about practicing mindfulness.

This morning Pozy got to meet the neighborhood donkey when he was out on a walk with his equine family.

His name is — appropriately — Donkey.

Please have a terrific day!

Lesson from the Kitchen Faucet

We have been in the midst of a reconstruction project for 14 months since a failed dishwasher repair caused extensive water damage to the house. Demonstrating that disasters come with opportunity, a kitchen remodel has been underway.

I queried people about what I should consider for my new kitchen and got so many great ideas; my agility coach, Wendy, was the one who told me about a touch faucet. She was spot on because it is life changing. You simply touch the faucet and it turns on — touch again and it turns off.

Who knew?!

After months and months of washing dishes in the bathtub, the new sink and fancy faucet were installed — in the wrong countertops originally, but hey — it was progress (sort of).

The light on the faucet — blue means cold water and it turns red when hot. Fancy!

It took me a bit to get used to the faucet but soon I was a pro, touching it on and off like I had invented the thing.

And then — months later (not exaggerating) — the correct countertops were installed.

White countertops vs. black — quite different. Also, Pozy is standing on one of her beds to do this.

However, the touch feature of the faucet was suddenly not functional.

I knew this — and yet I touched.

Over and over and over.

Touch — nothing.

Touch — nada.

Even after I had used the handle to turn the water on, I would still touch it five seconds later in a vain attempt to shut the water off!

This went on for DAYS and DAYS.

It blew my mind.

The touch feature of the faucet is reinforcing to me in two ways: water flows but it is also fun, especially in the beginning. Those two things — water and fun — combined to create a behavior that was persistent and difficult to stop.

I did eventually learn to stop touching the faucet but only after days and days of no response. In other words, the faucet eventually extinguished my intrusive touching behavior by ignoring me.

RUDE.

I bet you can see where this is going.

If what we want is persistent and well-established behavior from a dog (or a human), we need to be a touch faucet, providing reliable and consistent reinforcers over time for the specific behaviors we desire. If we can do this, we will get behavior so ingrained and automatic that lack of usual reinforcers won’t matter — the dog, like me, will just keep touching.

Although strongly established behavior is persistent, even during/after periods of no primary reinforcers, for behavior to strongly persist outside my home faucet, I must also have a history of touching other faucets and getting water. I don’t, and so I rarely try to turn on other faucets by touching them.

Think show ring, Friends. The dog needs to touch faucets in other places — successfully — to make sure the behavior doesn’t just happen at home.

If a faucet can train a human to perform a behavior over and over and over — even in the absence of a reinforcer — just think what a smart human can do with a dog.

But what this also means is if the behavior we want from a dog is not happening, it is a training failure — not a dog failure. We clearly have not been enough like a well-functioning touch faucet.

It really is that simple.

Finally, consider this — if my touch faucet had only worked half the time and/or if it had sometimes shocked/scared me when I touched the wrong place, my touch-the-faucet habit would have been very different and so would my feelings about the faucet.

In fact, I am pretty darn sure I would just use the handle.