The importance of the four C's

Sienna's training is coming along quickly now.  Her confidence is growing by the day and we are starting to really see her beautiful personality. She is incredibly gentle and once she trusts you, she loves receiving affection (and food)!

Another big day for her today.  Putting her harness and lead on is no longer an issue.  We still pair it with a little food, dropping a couple of treats down on the floor while we clip the harness together.  Sienna can still be a little jumpy about the noise. Once on, she is keen to go outside and explore.

With time and patience, we have worked on Calm.  Calm when receiving affection, calm when being groomed, calm when playing the chin targeting game, calm when having her harness and lead put on and so on.  Whilst Sienna has never been an excitable dog, she did startle at many things and was anything but calm when she was scared.

Next came Connection. Working on the connection between handler and dog is so important.  We do not use cues to get this, such as Look at me or Watch me. We do not want a dog that is forced to look at us all the time.       

We simply reinforce any connection towards us. When a dog chooses to look at us (and gets paid 😊) it feels so much better than when asked or commanded to do so. Choices build Confidence.

Just look at this girl today! We went out to the area just outside the front of the kennels where we had been previously and did a short sprinkles session.

Then time for a real walk!

She did incredibly well and happily ate food treats.  We encountered a passing car at one point, so we moved onto the grass verge and she took a constant stream of treats as it went passed.

We do this to desensitise and counter conditioning.  When the scary stimulus appears – treats follow. When repeated over time, she starts to look for the food as soon as she sees the scary stimulus.

It is important to remember that the scary stimulus is seen before the treats come.

Scary monster = wonderful food

Towards the end of the video, she stops after hearing a strimmer. She turns back and can see a person and another dog in the distance.  She stands for a while to assess the danger.  It is vital that we do not call her or her prompt her at this point. She needs to assess things out calmly and is not over threshold.  Once she has done so she happily turns her back and walks on with me.

We don’t go too far today – this is the first proper walk she has ever experienced so we do not want to overdo things.  As we return to the kennels, the strimmer starts up again.  She happily walks towards the source of the noise and as we pass the strimmer she pauses to look.  She quickly realises it is the kennel manager who she knows and trusts.  She immediately goes over to see him once he has put the strimmer down.  We stand and chat for a while and Sienna chooses to do the following

You can see the strimmer behind her. We would never ask a dog to sit in the presence of a scary stimulus but Sienna chooses this behaviour.

Before long a very noisy tractor starts heading down the road towards us.  Sienna remains by my side when she hears it but does not panic. I try to move us back a little so that we are not too close but the tractor comes up quicker than anticipated.  Again, we use food to pair the presence of the “scary monster” with food.  Although Sienna does move back, she does not panic and continues to take food.  The food stops as soon as the tractor has gone from view.

Soon after, another tractor is headed our way.  This time she remains sitting (her choice) by my side and receives a constant stream of treats as it passes.

You can just about see the tractor headlights in the distance to the left of my head. As soon as she hears it, Sienna immediately looks to me to see if food is on its way!

We then did some work getting her in and out of my car. After a couple of minutes, she happily jumped in with no prompting.

Next came grooming.  Sadly my camera stopped working so no videos of this.  We used the quiet enrichment room set up at the kennels, with a sofa, platform and lots of toys, including a snuffle mat.  Sienna happily worked the snuffle mat while I groomer her all over.

I was also able to wipe her paws with a towel and some more chin targeting. Today I was able to touch first her ears to inspect, then her eyes and then her mouth – all in one go.

By working through the four C’s, at her pace, Sienna is growing more and more confident so 

that new things are not as scary as they were.