Thyroid

Once I've promised to write a post about the thyroid.
After watching a Webinar from Ute Blaschke-Berthold I think it's time now to start my post about this topic.

Due to Lisbeths multiple behaviour problems I was thinking about health issues as well. Checking the thyroid was one of the first ideas I had in mind. Therefore I went to the vet and asked for a full blood analysis including thyroid values. The first time I went there I trusted my vet that he knows what values to check but I was wrong. When I went a little bit deeper into the topic I realised the the values total T4 and TSH (these two ones are the standrad ones) are not enough. Therefore I had to repeat the test but as I know today I still checked to less values but I did a full thyroid profile.
The result was that Lisbeths values are okay a little bit low but totally within the range.

As I have learnt now from Ute B.-B. a correct interpretation of the blood values is almost impossible. They can give you an idea but you have to include other signs a well. I'will continue this post about the thyroid because I think it is an important topic, but I do not want to overload this post with information.
One important fact Ute mentioned in her Webinar is that most of the time behaviour issues are related to training mistakes. So always try to improve your training and asked someone to have a look on your training sessions.
But if you still think there might be something related to the thyroid and the blood values are a little bit low there is one thing you can try. Give your dog canned larynx meat. Larynx meat usually contains the thyroid of the animal and therfore hormones as well. When you feed it raw it contains the carrier hormone T4 but when you buy canned meat the T4 was already deiodised into T3 which is a lot more reactive. You can feed this canned larynx meat for 10-14 days and if you see behaviour changes in your dog its time to talk with your vet about thyroid hormone substitution. But just use this canned larynx meat temporaliy otherwise it can cause problems with the liver.
I've started this larynx diet today. I will take notes about possible behaviour changes and I will post about my observations.
The information about the thyroid will be continued but I will finish my post for today!

Attention Signal

As I promised in december the story about our newly introduced cues will be continued.

It took a little while until Lisbeth understood the idea and the "cue" for her cuddling time. First of all I introduced her to the toy regularly and whenever she took it in her mouth she was petted. After some days I hade the feeling that Lisbeth understands what the toy means. But Lisbeth still didn't took it by her own initiative. I always showed her the toy when I had the feeling she wants to get in contact. And now after 2 months "training" she truely understands the meaning. She takes the toy and enjoys my attention for minutes.

Yesterday I didn't see her taking the toy but she dropped it on the floor close to me. I heard the noise and turned around, then she took the toy again and gor what she wanted. I love this cue and it helpped us a lot. The biting has decreased drastically and I need the interrupting signal only rarely. I truly can recommend this strategy for dogs who need a lot of attention!

Concentration

It's easy to motivate Lisbeth when we are at home. She sometimes is a little bit overstimulated and you have to make trainings sessions short but she reacts to my voice and my body signals. Outside it is a lot different. Most of the time she isn't able to react anyway. I do not want to force her to do anything but it would be a lot more relaxing and I could give her more freedom when it's possible to communicate with her. I try to be at places with only little distrections but beeing outside is already too much most of the time. I've read trough the internet what people are talking about thit topic but I did not like what I found. It's all about forcing your dog to listen to you (also without punishment) somehow but this is not what I would like to do. At the moment I do not know what is a solution but I hope to get a good idea soon.

Hunting

I really would love to know the experiences of others dealing with hunting behaviour.

Lisbeth is a hunter, but it's not to bad. In the past I have thought I should never ever let allow my dog to hunt. But I now think a little different. On our perfect walking place there are some wild animals - most of them are rabbits. Lisbeth loves to follow the tracks of this animals but allways stays in contact with me. It can happen that she finds a very new track and then she is away for some minutes but she allways returns back. We are working on a call back cue that also works to call her back from wild animals but thats a long way. And I have the experience that calling back from dog friends, mouse holes and wild animals only works when the dog is allowed to do those things regularly. So I try to find places where it's safe to "hunt" a little bit. I never allow Lisbeth to follow deer because this trigger is to much so walking off leash in a wood is normaly not possible.
But my experience is, that Lisbeth is more likely to listen to my call back cues when she is allowed to move freely and follow tracks as well. Last night we have been outside and I just let her go away for a while but it was easy to call her back afterwards. She was happy and satisfied and it feeled at is she wanted to share her experience with me.
I would love to hear your opinion about hunting, freedom and call back cues!

Something off topic

Again something a little bit off topic.....

Even if we are training an interrupting cue, our training is based mainly on positive feedback. I love to see my dog doing something I like and I am used to tell her so.
But most of the people are focused on the things they do not like.
Like some days ago. I met a dog. He was kind of perfect. He had no problems with all this strangers, with the cats and was calm and polite - but nobody told him. But the two times he barked on the cat he immidiatly was told to be quiet. How frustrating a life like this must be.....
I don't know whose words this are but somebody says you can measure a good dog trainer on the positive feedback he gives to the dog. One time of correction should be related to 15 times of positive feedback. I like this idea!
Try to tell your dog when you like what he is doing and I'm sure you will feel the positive reaction of your canine friend!

Conditioned Relaxation

I've already started to work on this months ago but not on a regular basis because it was hard for me to remind me doing it when Lisbeth was relaxing.

But today I know that this is an important tool for our anti-stress training. I think it will not work in environments were Lisbeth feels stressed at all but I need it for particular situations to bring her back to a state of mind where it is possible for her to think. I think of meeting strangers on a calm walk, or a walk with a dog friend, finding deers tracks on our way. This and a lot of other things stimulate Lisbeth that much that it is no longer possible for her to think. This results in beeing reactive or a very hard player and things like that. Having a chew or making a break together can help to calm her down again but it would be nice to have something which works a little bit faster.
I think most of you have heard about conditioned relaxation.... This does not mean that your dog falls asleep when you say a special world but that he relaxes in one way or the other.
We train it by putting on a special collar with a special smell (lavendula) and by repeating a special word when Lisbeth relaxes.

This can be when she is close to sleep, or when you pet her, or when you brush her. You have to do it very often and like all other behaviours you have to use it in different situations and at different places. Its easier and more effective when you combine the word with other senses, like the visual, the tactile and the olfactory sense (like we do). I hope we will be sucessfull with this because one of our biggest issues is not the stress per se but her inability to relax after stimulating situations.

To be continued

I promised to continue the story about our new working program.

Beside more excersise we have to learn some "rules".
Lisbeth is introduced to two new cues, one means its time to cuddle and the other one is some kind of an interrupting signal.
The first one is trained by buying a new toy wich is totally different to all the others (and buy some more that you'll always find one). When Lisbeth bites the toy and holds it in her mouth I have whatever I'm doing give her attention and pet her. I'm not allowed to play or make party but to calmy praise and pet her. This cue should give her security that she is able to get in contact with me. Until now she do not know how to get my attention, she tries biting some things, jumping, whining all those things. And now I'm channeling her need for attention to this special toy. And I have to praise her 100%. And like everything you reinforce 100% it slowly fades away. At the beginning she was not interested in the toy so I had to put a meaning on it by making it interesting and now I think she has a feeling what it means. I still have to show her when I have the feeling she needs attention but then she holds it for minutes. She is not fucused in retrieving so this is something special for her.
The other cue is the interupting signal, it's like a no but you should choose a word that sounds nice. You teach it by having your dog on leash and throwing some treats on the ground and your dog is allowed to eat them all then you say the word and you throw it out of reach. My dog got it very quickly that this word means stop what you are thinking about.
First of all I was a little bit sceptical because this means a lot of frustration but after a while I was thinking OK ignoring means frustration as well, and Lisbeth do not get the message. She needs to get clear information. What is important when you are using this signal is, to have in mind the reason for the behaviour you are interrupting. I'm going to use it for attention seeking misbehaviours and because I teach Lisbeth this "It's time to cuddle" cue as well she has an option to choose the right behaviour instead to get what she wants! Never ever just stop the behaviour without giving another option!!!
That's it for today... but it will be continued!