Another road trip with Murphy

Investigating the Christmas tree

Murphy visited a busier place today to practice some of the skills he has learned and to do some calm observing. Murphy loves people and gets quite excited when he sees them. It's not surprising though when he is in kennels waiting for his new home to come along.

Once again, he was a star. Lot's of quiet and calm observations, just watching and sniffing. 

      Murphy would have liked to investigate the food hall in the garden centre!

Some lovely observations and sniffing

Murphy is watching people, children, cars and dogs - look how calm he is.

We did a brief practice of a pattern game too

Then back for a sleep to absorb all that learning. He slept soundly on the back seat as we returned.

 Fear free therapy!

Mr Murphy has a calcium deposit on one of his shoulders - calcification of the tendons, making it uncomfortable when he walks. The Vet suggested wave therapy (and of course some pain medication) to remove the calcium.

As with all things, it is important to ensure dogs have a positive experience and are not worried by treatment.

Laura, is a Vet Physiotherapist and runs Move More Veterinary Physiotherapy and is going to work with Murphy using the wave therapy. Murphy already knows Laura well so we started some desensitisation with him today. The machine although small makes quite a noise so it is important to start with sound. You can see Murphy lift his head but he quickly goes back to his licky mat.

Next we go a little closer for sound desensitisation.

and then closer still

 Murphy is doing really well so the next step is touching him with the machine (no sound or vibration)

What a star!

 Luna Bear

Another of the dogs in the care of German Shepherd Dog Welfare Fund is Luna Bear.

Some of the techniques described below are successfully used as part of our Without Worry Canine Education programmes. You can read more about them here - Without Worry Canine Education

Little Luna has just turned 1 year old. She is an affectionate dog and behaves in a very typical way for her age. She will need someone who is able to remain calm at all times. When we become emotional it can feed into the over arousal and excitability of young dogs (or more mature ones too) and increase their arousal levels, leading to more mouthing, jumping and lead grabbing! 

When she feels out of her comfort zone or when she becomes aroused and excited, she can jump up, gently mouth or grab the lead when on walks. She has no concept of walking on a lead and is very wary of traffic.

We began by getting to know her better, outside and inside. 

You can see from this video clip how easily she can become over excited and aroused. When I deliver the treat, I lower it slowly to the ground to try to slow and calm her down.

Several short periods of time spent together indoors, just relaxing helped to learn more about her. We wanted to know what things excite her and what things help her calm. So often licky mats or snuffle mats can cause frustration in dogs. Rather than just blindly providing enrichment, we wanted to know what would help her calm. 

We discovered that she loved using a snuffle mat in a calm manner and Luna soon settled down while I did some paperwork.

She has very little experience in the big outside world so we started small. Short walks in a very quiet place.

Luna was a little worried about vehicles and stopped to watch cars going up and down the road beyond the field. We just stopped and let her observe. No need to start shoveling food down her - what is needed is an opportunity to calmly observe.

Time for a road trip

You can see how easily behaviour can tip over into frustration or over arousal. It is important to set dogs up for success and find quiet places for them to walk, practice their skills and realise they are safe. We visited a large garden centre that had a sprawling car park - lots of places to go if things became too overwhelming. We stayed fairly close to the parked car to begin with. Apologies for the moving camera - it is very difficult to film, monitor and manage a dog and keep an eye on what is around us!

Luna Bear began to slow down and take in her surroundings, occasionally stopping to watch someone at their car or a car passing by in the distance and then she began to sniff. Teaching loose lead can come later, we just want her to learn she is safe and that she can calmly interact with the environment.

We did not use food - calm observations are more important so that she can file this new information away in her brain for future experiences.

Luna Bear is quietly watching some people. We just let her quietly observe. You can see at times she begins to get over aroused and does a little half jump. These were initially full jumps when we first met but she has learned they do not get a reaction and so these jumps are slowly fading out.

We placed down her favourite calming activity next to the car before getting in to return to kennels. We are fairly close to a road but lots of barriers are between us and the cars. If we went too close she probably would not cope yet. She can see and hear the traffic though but chooses to focus on her snuffle mat.

It is important to keep these sessions short and positive and then let them sleep while they process all the information they have gathered.

Another little superstar.

Luna Bear is with German Shepherd Dog Welfare Fund and is looking for her new home.

 Ramsey

Ramsey sadly needs to wear a muzzle in public (through no real fault of his own). He has very negative associations from having the muzzle put on without any training to help him feel comfortable. He is also rather uncomfortable about having a harness put on.

We need to go slowly and build up his confidence and positive associations. We quickly saw that just holding a muzzle in our hands caused him to quickly move away and avoid us so to begin with, his muzzle was hung on a hook opposite his kennel. It then had no meaning for him.

The next step was to introduce the muzzle in a positive way so we used lots of squeezy paste and avoided holding the muzzle in hands. 

You will see his progress in the video below where he pushes his face in to get the paste. Afterwards he grabs a toy which he uses to soothe and calm himself.

You can see his progress from the next video below. I am now holding the muzzle and he happily engages with it.

It is essential to NOT try and push it on his face yet while we build up the positive association and his confidence. Afterwards - toy time. Can you see the paste on his face?

In between his muzzle training we also just have quiet sessions of enrichment and play with toys.

Ramsey is one of the dogs with German Shepherd Welfare Fund and is kenneled in Lincolnshire.

 Rescue dogs waiting for new homes in kennels

We will be showcasing some of the fabulous dogs waiting for new homes and some of the work we are doing to help them on their way.

Please meet Mr Murphy! What a stunner.

For the first couple of walks we kept them short and quiet, while we got to know each other and Murphy learned some new skills.

As with all things, if we don't get the foundation right, everything will fall apart. We must think of supporting dogs with behaviour change as a process. 

He can be a little worried when he sees other dogs when out on a walk which, if too close or if they bark at him, can result in barking and pulling. However, in kennels, for the most part he walks past all the other dogs beautifully, completely ignoring them although he does like to say hello to some of the ladies .

After a couple of quiet walks over a period of time, next we headed off on a short road trip to see how he travels in a car and to see how he would walk somewhere new. You can see from the video he is pretty chilled and very interested in sniffing. It is so important to avoid rushing the process.

We chose a very quiet place to walk where we wouldn't see too many people/dogs - it is important to set dogs up to succeed.

Today we went on another road trip (photo was taken when parked)!

We chose another quiet place for a walk. We spotted a dog coming down the path towards us and moved over to the side. Space away from triggers can help dogs calmly observe and learn there is nothing to worry about.

What a superstar!

You can see he is quite alert but manages to quietly observe. We don't shovel food down him while he does this - he needs to calmly observe without any interference from us.

Murphy and I have been practicing some skills in a quiet place while he learns that he can engage with me or choose to watch. This short video clip is one of the pattern games he has been learning - up/down game. Pattern games are predictable and dogs like predictability. Murphy can choose to look around or engage in the pattern game with me.

We will post updates about Murphy's progress over the coming weeks. If you are interested in rehoming Murphy he is with German Shepherd Dog Welfare Fund and is in kennels in Lincolnshire.