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Week 6
- Training up close or in small spaces
- Do a BAT Set-Up (submit video & written assessment)
UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL
My favorite part of BAT is when we are able to get the dog on social terms with the helper, easily and at the dog’s own pace. That may mean they actually get to the point of playing with the other dog or enjoying petting if the helper/trigger is a person.
Sometimes we have to work up close because there is no other option. For example, in the winter cold or hot summer sun, some clients are unwilling or unable to work outside, so you only have a training building to work in. Or you may just be too close because there is no other option in your city. “Close” is defined by the dog, so it may be that you have a large area, but the dog needs an even bigger one.
These times require some more creativity, and we’ll talk about that below.
GREETINGS WHEN THE DOG IS READY
It’s pretty exciting when the dog is ready to work up close. It means our sessions are paying off and the interactions are going great, but it’s also riskier, because the teeth are closer to the trigger and the dog’s emotional state can change more quickly. You may get to the point of working up close within one session with your helper, or it may take multiple sessions. But if it’s possible and safe, definitely do the up-close work with as many of your helpers as you can.
For dogs who are scared, a positive social experience can change the valence (direction of the emotion). That is, having a good experience can help him enjoy other dogs or people. For dogs who react out of frustration, working calmly up to the other dog/person allows them to experience a calm greeting. A lot of frustration seems to come from insecurity, as well, and this process builds quiet confidence.
If the issue is more predatory in nature, a full-on greeting is probably not a good idea, although the slow, careful BAT process can give dogs a chance to see cats, for example, in a social way instead of seeing them as food. A dog who has predatory behavior toward small dogs, for example, would benefit from a casual walk with a fence in between for safety. As I mentioned with cats, it seems to help them integrate that size of dog into the ‘social’ category.
My BAT book has information on the last 10 feet that still apply (even though the book is about BAT 1.0 until I revise it). If you have that book, go ahead and reread that section. I will cover as much as I can here as well.
Work on important triggers from a distance first. Even if your dog is great with the trigger at a distance, moving closer is a big deal. Your dog’s likely to react up close to things like eye contact, movement (especially if it’s sudden), freezing, sounds from the helper, etc. if you don’t work on those aspects of the trigger from a distance first. When you try something new and potentially freaky, move the dog away first, then have the helper do the new thing, and give the dog the option of going back again at his own pace.
I recommend going through a lot of these kinds of variations up through about 10 feet away from the trigger, moving back, doing another one, etc. That allows you to get a lot of variation out of ‘striking distance’ and gives you a little leeway if you mess up. We still want the dog relaxed and below threshold.
Vary your set-ups so that there are things like parallel walking, following, and approaching from different angles. Parallel walking isn’t really parallel because the paths of the helper and the dog should be natural and curvy, allowing free movement, not just side by side. When you do following, use your own judgment on when to do a slow stop, because (of course) the dog is walking right toward the helper, because that’s the direction they are already both walking. If your dog suddenly starts moving more quickly or gets taller, that’s a sign that you’re probably following too closely.
Safety is key. When you are confident that the dog would be comfortable moving in for a sniff and you’re seeing signs of curiosity (soft, curved body, relaxed muscles in the face, etc.), use some simple management tools to ensure safety.
For example, have a chain-link fence between the dog and helper if you are doing parallel walking, following, or walking up for a sniff. Other kinds of fences or even bushes can add some safety too, but it is riskier if the dog’s jaws or whole head can go through the barrier.
Fences are nice for greetings between dogs because they make it so the leashes can’t tangle. Before you begin doing greetings without the fence, make sure that you are able to properly do the “leash dance” where you keep only the leash between you and your dog.
One way to make this happen is to stand in a particular position relative to your dog (say, at your dog’s right side, toward the rear), and stay in that position no matter what. It’s like heeling except you’re doing it. If you are a dog trainer working with a client, this is good to rehearse before you allow your client to handle the leash during up-close work. As an aside, the leash dance is also good to practice in puppy class.
A muzzle is like a fence for the dog’s teeth. Some people say that if you need a muzzle, you are too close, but I totally disagree. I think dog trainers do our clients a disservice if we say that. We should only be working at a distance where we think the dog will be totally fine. BUT we are humans and make mistakes. The cost of that mistake is high, especially for the dog. So even if we are 99.999% sure that it won’t happen, we need a fail-safe. That’s where the muzzle comes in. It’s like a helmet for human sports. Train your dog to get used to it and use it whenever necessary, in order to expand the type of activities that are safe to try.
If I have a client dog who is totally wiggly and wants to greet a child, but has a bite history or any indication in the history that biting is possible, that dog is going to be wearing a muzzle for the first several greetings (or there will be a fence in between).
It’s so much easier to get helpers when they know that there’s safety in place. If I go rock climbing outdoors, go skiing, or go biking, I’m going to do what I can to not need my helmet, but I’m certainly going to wear one. If I have a dog with a potential for biting, there will be safety in place (like a muzzle) for close-up greetings, even though I’d only do the greeting if I thought the dog was ready for it.
Keep it moving. Dogs tend to have better greetings if they do them on the move. It’s like paying attention to where they are walking takes some of the stress off of the meeting. I think it also helps prevent freezing, or at least reduces it. Walking as they sniff also makes it easier to keep them from starting out face to face. Face to face is definitely the riskiest way to greet; nose to rear is usually much more successful, starting with the dog who has issues sniffing the helper.
Another reason I like having the initial greetings be part of a parallel walking or following scenario is that it is easier to get the dogs apart if you see any tiny signs of stress. They were already moving, so the one who is ahead just keeps moving and the one who is behind stops. Voila! The dogs are moved apart.
Short sniffs and call away. Mark and Move is great for the first part of your greetings. This is the part of BAT that’s probably the most similar to regular clicker training. Make sure to have enough time away after each time that you move away, and don’t lead the dog back. Let the dog be the one that wants to go back in to see the helper.
Here’s how I tend to do things. This applies to fear, frustration, and proper aggression, although I’ll spend more time using treats for the latter two issues.
- Mark going in to sniff with a click, move away, and treat [gradually start clicking later]
- Mark looking away (or other small disengagement) with a click, move away, and treat
- Mark head turn with a click, move away, treat
- Mark head turn with “done?” move away, praise
- “Proper” BAT 2.0 with just following the dog and avoiding tangled leashes
Fade out Mark and Move asap using the steps above. For most dogs, who reactivity has a component of fear, I need something like 5-10 clicks worth of sniffing (building up duration), then about 5 for looking away, 5 for turning away, and then go without the food. The sooner we can make the greeting be about the interaction between the dog and the helper, the better – with the caveat that we only allow dogs to be in situations that we think they can handle.
Extend the greetings. As you do your Mark and Move, you’ll gradually let the dog be ‘on his own’ for longer and longer periods of time. So at first you might click the instant that the dog goes toward the other dog’s rear end. Do that twice and then click later, after a ½ second of sniffing, then 1 second, then 2, etc. This applies for all issues. It’s either a calm, controlled greeting for a dog with impulse control problems, or a calm, not-scary greeting for a dog with fear issues. Either way, short and successful greetings are a good thing.
In this video, I am working with Bean using a recall cue and moving away when he’s ready, then treating. You would want to fade out the treats, as I’ve done somewhat here.
End on a good note! We humans tend to be greedy trainers and want to get our dogs closer and closer to the trigger. Sometimes they don’t want to, and that’s just okay. If they greet for a short period and move on, that’s also okay. Try to end your session while they are still nicely getting along and your dog is not yet saying, “I’m done.” If he does say he is done, listen! For example, park your car close to your set-up location, so your dog can head back to the car when he’s ready to go.
I like to have the last 5-10 minutes of a session be parallel walking or following at a distance that I know for sure the dog is totally fine with, as in ‘very light green’ on the ocean chart. That way, the dog and owner both have time to process and have a chance to have a positive experience in the presence of a trigger. Your choices are really endless, but finishing off with a pleasant activity is useful for owner morale and for the dog as well. Just make sure you don’t lure the dog into a place where he feels uncomfortable by having the helper feed him, for example. If you have a human helper and you do want to have them feed the dog, use Suzanne Clothier’s Treat and Retreat instead of just feeding from your hand. A super-short summary of her technique is to toss one treat to where the dog is and then the next behind the dog so he retreats. Repeat. The key is to not lure the dog forward, but to reinforce where they get to and then help them move away so they can choose to come back.
TRAINING IN A SMALL SPACE (including tight spots in the city)
If the dog isn’t really ready for working at the distance you have available for your set-up, you have a couple of options, which are basically the same as the Survival Skills we talked about earlier in this course:
- “out of sight” (reduce stimulation level)
- “out of mind” (reduce attention to the trigger using distraction).
Out of Sight: This is the best option because it maximizes the dog’s control in the situation and lets her practice decision-making. Change the more distant ‘antecedent arrangements’ by doing something that makes the helper less scary or exciting. This can be done by having the trigger behind a barrier, sitting or lying down, facing away, etc. or reducing the dog’s general arousal via exercise, diet, medication, etc.
Out of Mind: This is all about getting the dog to think about something else so that the dog is able to show calm(ish) behavior around the trigger. This works to keep the dog calm during training, but in my experience, it slows things down if your goal is for the dog to be comfortable in the world without micromanagement from you. This could be for a number of reasons, but one of them is that the tools we use to distract the dog (food, verbal cues, etc.) are often context cues and without those cues, the dog resorts back to the old behavior.
Mark and Move, which we discussed in Lesson 3, is a combination of out of sight and out of mind.
- Behavior (yay, dog does something, learns his behavior is effective – requires setting up the situation carefully so the behavior happens)
- Mark (out of mind – as soon as the marker happens, the dog is more distracted)
- Move Away (out of sight – reducing arousal level by moving away, may reinforce behavior)
- Reinforce (out of mind – reinforcer is distracting and reinforces earlier behavior)
Whenever possible, arrange your set-ups so that your dog can just do ‘regular’ BAT without any aspect of distraction. If that’s not possible, at least arrange it so you can use Mark and Move with the least distracting/intrusive combination of behavior, marker, and reinforcer.
Parallel Play is another combination of ‘out of sight’ and ‘out of mind.’ Basically, the dog is doing something interesting while BAT is also happening. The regular version of BAT, following the dog around as he investigates an interesting environment, is an example of parallel play. That’s my preference because it’s the most natural and seems to promote generalization (it works in other situations). Other examples include Sprinkles, massage, TTouch, clicker training, agility, scent work, and Treibball.
When using something like a scent game or activity, be aware of potential resource guarding or frustration issues as well, and make sure to keep both dogs within their comfort zones.
There’s a fine balance between mood and distraction. Improve your dog’s mood and keep him calm, but don’t distract him so much that he barely notices the trigger. This is one of the potential risk with parallel play. And remember, while you do these activities (or really, any activity in your dog’s life), you are still doing BAT: let the dog check out his environment, slow stop if needed, and don’t bug him to go back to work unless he’s headed over threshold.
Dogs in ‘working mode’ can almost always go closer to the trigger without exploding, so it comes in very handy. It’s just not as useful for changing the emotional response to the trigger or fixing the issue long term, so try to find a nice big, interesting space so that you can do BAT without needing to have the dog in working mode.
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