Intro to BAT Course

Lesson 13: Troubleshooting

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Week 5

  • Troubleshooting BAT Set-Ups
  • Do a BAT Set-Up

UH OH, TROUBLE!

The perfect version of BAT is boring to the casual observer, with the dog in the green or blue zones on the ocean chart. Sometimes things go wrong and we need to change them to help set the dog up for success.

Good socialization (and re-socialization) really comes down to micromanaging the situation versus micromanaging the dog. Whenever you can set the dog up for success just by changing the environment, do it. That option empowers our dogs by giving their behavior realistic consequences. Micromanaging the dog just empowers us.

Our general rule of thumb is to use the least intrusive tool that helps the dog offer appropriate behavior. We are teaching the dog that she can handle (and even enjoy) these situations by setting up scenarios in which she is comfortable.

That means working farther away from the trigger or reducing how exciting the trigger is, so that your dog can navigate the situation without your obvious help. Sometimes it means stepping in and making the decisions for her (calling the dog, luring away with a treat, etc.) but if that happens, it means you need to reassess what you are doing and come up with a better way for your dog to be successful without you making decisions for her.

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?

If your dog looks at the trigger, disengages quickly, and then just stares at you without going anywhere, your dog is in ‘working mode.’ Some dogs need more direction than others and freely wandering around the space may feel unusual or uncomfortable.

  • Walk near interesting smells, so he can take his focus off of you. If you are working in a field, go to the edges of the field or to trees and bushes, where there are better smells. You can also casually drop treats behind you so that your dog can discover them later.
  • Later, do some wandering walks with no triggers around, using the same trick of casually scattering treats mentioned above. You should have already done them at this point in the course, but you may need to do more.
  • The dog may be stressed and looking to the handler for help. In that case, regroup and start again farther away from the helper.

[vc_video link=”https://vimeo.com/135901999″]

If any of the following situations happen, you are probably waiting too long to stop your dog. Whenever you have to prompt the dog away from the trigger, go far enough away that he doesn’t glance back right away. If you use a recall cue, move your dog away from the helper and then always reinforce your recall cue, say by tossing some treats on the ground.

If it’s difficult to stop your dog in the first place, he’s already in over his head, so call your dog away. I like “Treat Party” as a recall cue, which I reinforce with many treats tossed on the ground, one at a time. “Touch” is also a good behavior to do here.

If he walks directly toward the helper again after disengaging, call him away, unless you are really sure that he is relaxed enough to handle it.Most of the time when this happens, the dog is too focused on the trigger and at least a few steps into the water.

If it takes your dog more than 2 seconds to disengage, his toes are in the water. Don’t take control right away, but you will suggest where to go next using Mark and Move.

  • Relax and wait for him to disengage on his own, then suggest that he move away, using the right level of intrusion (control/prompting).
    • If your dog was air-scenting (gathering info) and pretty relaxed, prompt in a small way by shifting your weight away from the helper.
    • If turning away was a little challenging, use a more obvious prompt: ask aloud if he’s “Done?” and shift your weight away from the helper. [The old Stage 3]
    • If he’s getting more excited while you wait (face muscles tight, taller, up on toes, breathing faster, heart rate going up, mouth closing, leaning toward the helper, spine pointing directly at the helper, chest puffing out, ears forward, tail up, forehead wrinkled), call your dog away! He’s moving deeper into the water at this point, so you can’t give him time to check things out.

Most dogs seem to be drawn to the helper in some way. For one thing, they are a social species and tend to be interested in people and dogs in one way or another. That’s certainly the case for dogs with frustration issues, but even for dogs who are afraid, curiosity tends to take over if they are at a safe distance. Furthermore, learning about something that is scary makes it less scary, so there is a good reason to get close enough to gather information.

The dog should gradually be getting closer and closer to the trigger. Make sure your dog is the one who drives the approach. Don’t get greedy! It’s a slow process, especially the first several times. You might even start out at one distance and then realize you actually have to be farther away. In the beginning of your sessions, you are experimenting to find the right working distance. That’s critical: working at the right distance is the most reliable way to help your dog overcome these issues. Throughout each session, continually evaluate to make sure the distance or excitement level of the helper is at the right level to keep the dog in the green or blue zones.

If he completely ignores the trigger, you are too close or too far away, the area is way too interesting, or he just hasn’t noticed the trigger yet. Here are some options:

  • Walk him further away. If he starts to look up at the helper at that point, you were too close before.
  • Jingle tags for helper dogs or have helper humans say something to make sure he knows the helper is there.
  • Sneakily put down some treats so that as he searches for the food, he works his way closer to the helper. Just make sure he doesn’t sniff his way up so close that he is shocked and starts barking when he notices the helper for real. DO NOT lure him into a situation that he’d consider to be dangerous or scary.

OTHER TROUBLE

Controlling handler: Please burn this one into your memory!

Another thing that can go wrong in a BAT session is that the handler has a plan for what is supposed to happen, so she leads the dog around instead of letting the dog guide the process. I am guilty of that myself – in fact that was part of the early version of BAT.

In the older version of BAT, we would retreat and then walk back when the dog looked relaxed and ready. We always were watching for signs of stress, but because dogs tend to follow us (reinforcement history) we often led them too close to the trigger. This wasn’t done by force, but still, it was a problem because we often brought the dogs into the yellow zone. Take a look at this video for an example of that:

[vc_video link=”https://vimeo.com/135890865″]

A final note: If your dog barks, growls, tries to flee, etc. you are clearly way too close! Move away and do Find It until your dog can relax and begin again. You might just have to stop for that day and try again at a better distance, in a better location.

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