Jillian's Jitters (from one week ago)

This winter, Mannerly Mutts has been working on the case of Jillian. Jillian's owner actually contacted me last fall. On her first scheduled lesson, I got a call where the owner thought her dog had been taken out of the house!! In fact, Jillian had turned the lock, and traipsed down to the pond looking for her owner. Jillian's owners were referred to me from a previous client. My client's dog, Willie, liked to try and bite anyone and everyone who came into HIS house. Since then, Willie has hosted some family Easter and Christmas parties:), and being a delightful non-biting host, of course.

Jillian has gone through a few crates since that panicky day and the elapsing few months. Unfortunately, our schedules did not align after that first lesson, but now we have found a corresponding day to work each week.

Jillian was a breeder dog. She is an English Springer, and had just had her last litter of puppies when my client discovered her. My client's had decided on an adult dog, because it would be easier than training a puppy (or so they thought Hah!!). Jillian had never really had a family to her own, and was kept pretty much chained to a tree or in a crate. So upon bonding with the human female of the house, it became pretty upsetting to see her go. You can imagine that perhaps Jillian never knew when she would next get our or get attention in her previous life. Now she had doting attention and she did not want to loose it!!!

Due to her messing in the house when the clients were at work (and the subsequent ability to pick locks apparently LOL), Jillian has needed to be crated. However, she has been upset the full period of time that she is in there, and has been figuring out ways of dismantling crates!! Then it will only be a short trip to a door that she may figure out how to open. Yikes!!

The first step has been to get Jillian to become unconcerned when the crate door closes on her. So we started just by putting Jillian into the crate, waiting for her panting to stop, then treating her immediately. As the spaces get shorter and shorter, we just treat her as soon as her breathing becomes calm (thankfully she is very food motivated) for a period of reps. Once we got her there, (and now the client can put her in the crate and leave without poor Jillian getting into hysterics) we start timing her for five minutes, then wait for breathing to calm (if not already), then 10 minutes. These sessions are all done now while the owner is in the house, but perhaps not in the same room. It depends on what we need to back it down to for Jillian.

Obedience is also being used. Jillian has not bonded with the male owner of the house yet. Sit on the Dog is being done by the male owner (and I will soon describe this exercise) to 1) have Jillian stationary away from the owner she gets separation anxiety for and 2) to have a bonding experience start with the male owner. These sort of commands start to give Jillian more confidence, and the owners can direct her to more experiences where she feels safe, and KNOWS that her owners are coming back for her:)

Wish them luck. These are very committed and loving owners.