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!

Understimulation

As quick as her food agression arised as quick it was gone again. The simple reason for this problem was hunger.... or better call it food unsecurity. Now we work everyday that she knows there will be enough food everyday - there is no need to protect it.

But what is a lot more important is our new training program.

Lisbeth has a stress problem I have realised this from the early beginning. She can only hardly cope with changing or new situations. Her stress level rises when she is in a new environment, when she is meeting strangers or other dogs. She loves to play with other dogs on the one hand but feels unsecure about unknown dogs. And sometimes she feels she has to show the other dog that she's the boss...
You can not take her with you when you are meeting friends or other dogs because her stresslevel rises and she is unable to relax. My strategy was to keep her away from every stress situation which means she has to stay home alone a lot. At the beginning this was the perfect solution and a lot of things get better. But after a while things was getting worse again. I've thought, that this was due to more stressful situations I exposed her on a regular basis. Therefore we reduced stressy situations again. I avoided any games that increased her arousal and I've tried to keep her calm most of the time. But there was something I had forgotten. Lisbeth is a young dog. Only two years old with a lot of energy. And even if you have to have look on her stress level she needs some "action" as well in her life. We have found a new area where Lisbeth can be off leash and she is almost perfect there. She is allowed to move freely and can do almost everything she wanna do and she rely loves it. She stays in contact with me most of the time and comes back when called. I try to make action in combination with some relaxation and it works quite fine. We do searching for treats, and Lisbeth can have a chew if she chooses to do so. She can run around, can chase birds or just sniff the track of the beaver. What is still impotant is that nothing else is happening in our walk. No strangers, no other dogs no other scary things.
The most important thing is that we are spending some time togehter and we are both enjoying it. There is no need to protect her form stress and Lisbeth is able to comunicate most of the time. There first thing what happens when stress level rises is tha Lisbeth is no longer able to take her treats. But this happens only rarely on this walks.
I also want to give her back doggy contact more regularly. But this is the most difficult part for me. We have a dog friend called Raviko, a 2 yeard old portuguesian water dog, but this is not the perfect friend for Lisbeth. She plays very rough with Raviko and she does not look very happy. But this might be also a reason of her higher stress level. We have to go to another place for walks with Raviko where are some other dogs and strangers around. A lot of unknown smells and so on. Lisbeth is not able to stay in contact with me, she is cannot eat her treats and she reacts on other dogs and strangers. Walks with Raviko are hard work for me as well. I do not enjoy this walks but I want to give it a try. We will meet on a regular basis, going always the same way take a lot of breaks and chews and I hope that she is going to enjoy this walks soon.
She is getting some food additives as well which should help her to relax.All the other things we are working I will tell about in the next post.

Food agression

I had to quit the lavendel collar, I don't know if she hates the smell or the collar but she totally avoids it by moving away when I take the collar.
I'm going to a behaviour specialist tomorrow, to discuss medication as well. We have tried a lot in the last months but Lisbeth still have a problem to relax at home.
I have tried more and less activity, I gave her a lot to chew, mental stimulation and all this things. But Lisbeth can only relax when nothing is hapenning around her.

And since two weeks we have a new problem. Ressource guarding! I have started to feed Lisbeth only out of the Kong and for search for treats and by something to chew. Maybe it was a little bit less as well, because I wanted Lisbeth to loose some weight. But this was an awful idea for her! Now she is growling when she is chewing and someone comes too close. Till now the foodbowl is full all the time again. Lisbeth needs to know again that there is always food and that she do not have to protect it! Food agression is something natural! It is by instinct. So never ever take away some food from your dog. If your dog trusts you you can take away the food but always give something better instead or give the food back!

Beeing relaxed at home

At the moment we have two things we are working on.

Beeing relaxed at home when mummy is working at home as well.
And stopping jumping and biting when we arrive at home.
The jumping will be a seperate post soon.

I have discussed several strategies with my friends and I do not like any kind of box training. Boxes with open doors are great but do not help in my particular case.
Training relax on a mat with treats is also no choice because Lisbeth only gets food focused and doesn't learn anything. Capturing calm behaviour is one important part in our daily life but no special help for this particular problem.
So what is the situation at the moment and what is the strategy we are working on.
We often have the problem, that Lisbeth doesn't relax when we are at home. Then she wants our attention and tries anything to be successfull. Preferably she is chewing the chair or the table.
For a stressed dog as Lisbeth it is important that she clearly understands what is going one so you need a good training concept that she does not get frustrated. So we are working on two different behaviours. One is to train relaxation on leash. This means whenever I start my computer I put on the harness and the leash. Take Lisbeths blanket and something to chew she really likes introduce a special cue and Lisbeth gets her chew. As soon as she stops chewing I unclip the leash and stop the training session for relaxation. This behaviour and cue should help Lisbeth in the future to relax on her mat in many situations.
The second thing is the nothing happens when mummy is working. Therfore I have prapared a collar with lavender instead a verbal cue. When I put on the collar she gets almost no attention. She can come to greet me but I won't play with her or pet her. I have started the program after a good walk when I was pretty sure she is going to relax. Normally Lisbeths rests 1.5hours until she gets active again. After this time I remove the collar and we are doing something together for about 10 min. Then I put on the collar again and the no attention time starts again. I have started today and so far she did quite well. I have to watch this for a longer period to be able to assess this program.

Status quo

Status quo of our work...

Lisbeth is again a little bit more stressed. I think this is related to the work we are having to "make" our garden.

 But all in all we are fine.
We are no longer meeting our doggy friend, because in my opinion having some time off leash means more then having another dog around.
We only have one area where it is possible for Lisbeth to be off leash. But there she is perfect!
Actually it is the area from the post Stupid me".
Think Lisbeth feels save enough there to feel relaxed.
We are waiting for the results of the thyroid profile, because Lisbeth is what I would call untrainable.
Just due to the fact that she gets stressed and restless when you try to expose her to more stress.
But I will do a post about hypothyroism soon!
That's why there isn't much to tell! Due to less time and avoiding stress!

Scent discrimination - Search for Peppermint

Today something else than living with hyperreactive Lisbeth...
Its just search for peppermint!

She was already used to search for peppermint with a lot of other tea bags around. In glasses or some bowls or just on the floor, like in the video

But it was her first time, that she was searching peppermint in a ! But she did perfect!

Search games are definitely the best way to satisfy your (hyperactive, stressed) dog.

Yammmy

It's going to be food for the next 30 days.

Mhhmmm...

We are back to normality giving Lisbeth a lot of routine and less unfamiliar situations.

Live works but a little less reaction to new situations would be great.

I don't know if her new nutrition has any positive effect but for me its enough to see Lisbeth loving

her new food!!

I'm trying to set up a new training shedule and I keep you informed about our progress!

Healthy nutrition

 Let's start project healthy nutrition!

It's day number 16th since I have started B.A.R.F. Actually its only half B.A.R.F. because the vegetables and some meat is cooked.

And we both like it! I like it because her faeces are not that smelly and she likes it because its delicious MEAT!

I made this decision just to give it a try. For me it was important that her food is grain free, almost sugar free (except some fruit sugar) and a little less protein rich. You just read too often that nutrition effects hyperyctive dogs...

And I add magnesium to the food to have a better Ca, Mg ratio and to affect her cortisol level.
I've tried to find some scientific explanation for the Mg effect but I couldn't maybe some of you have an interesting link.
Even if this one is kind of advertise its worth-while to read.
http://nupafeed-dogs.co.uk/mag-calcium-stress/4582282178

We love Tracking

Tracking is my favorite dog game for my easily aroused dog Lisbeth.

She needs to work calm and concentraded to solve the task and I definitely builds up her self esteem.
Today I managed to film her working on her track!
It was her I don't know 15th-20th track... I do not count. So she isn't a newy but you can call her still beginner.
It's a 20min old track but I think the task was too easy. She follows a track I made without her watching me (she was waiting at home) The next step would be to make it much longer! And I would prefer that the track was made by somebody else.
But back to the VIDEO:
I like the scene when she stops because she lost the track - thinks and follows the track again (minute 1:13)
And I love the end when she is laughing proudly into the camera whem I arrive there.
What I do not like is that it took me so long until I praised her.

I'm sorry for the bad quality, but I have just a pocket camera. And its not so easy to organize the long leash, the camera, watch and follow the dog....

It was all too much

Driven from the great success we had - I exposed Lisbeth to more frequent stress situations with a lot of treats and patience.

BUT
It was too much for Lisbeth....
Having a 2 hour walk with a new "dogfriend" in an unfamiliar environment - too much!
1 hour walk in a park (new environment) with seeing and greeting some dogs -  too much!
Visiting human friends - too much!

Lisbeth is restless again. Like in the beginning she needs my help to calm down on evenings. The chewing of shoes and furniture is worse again and bladder infection is coming back as well!

So back to the beginning!
We reduce walking time again, we will just stay in the familiar environment. A lot of chews during the walks.
Will it sometimes be possible to life a normal doggy life???

Beeing polite to our dogs

In addition to my last post I want to add some lines.
Actually I already did this following my godfeeling but reading it in a book reminded me, that this might be interseting for others as well.
Most of us love to pet our dog's, but not all dogs love to be touched. But we can simply asked our dogs if they like our touches or not.
Pet you dog for a short time, then stop and wait for a response.
Does your dog show any calming signals or does he even stand up to leave or is he crawling near hoping to be touched again.
I use to ask my dog because I think petting should be enjoyable fo her - try to be polite and to the same!

Touching

Last weekend we had to stay one night at a Hotel. Lisbeth was truely disappointed- wandering around in the room, peeing on the floor and so on. I tried the short walk strategy but it didn't work. I was upset seeing my dog beeing close to destroying the whole room After taking a deep breath and using my brain I just grabbed my dog and sat down with her on the bed. I started petting her calmly and she started to relax. After a while she was ready and returned on her mat by herself. She calmly slept the whole night.

Watch out for little signs

Yesterday we did some everyday training and went to the railway station. We had been there before. We made a short walk at the beginning and then I sat there waiting for nothing. There was nobody else around so it was a calm atmosphere and even if Lisbeth didn't lay down she showed some relaxation signs.
Look at her tail - beeing down totally relaxed - most of the time it is up or wagging! And there was no leash biting!
So success even if the signs were hardly recognisable!

The power of short walks

I try to expose Lisbeth to daily stress from time to time, still watching out for small signs of stress. Some days ago we went to the restaurant. Lisbeth was already a little bit stressed on our way to the restaurant. We set down and ordered something to drink. Lisbeth immidiatly started to chew the leash and was unable to take treats. I decided to make a short walk before returning back home. And like miracle when we returned back to the table Lisbeth was able to calm down with the help of some treats! After a while she was lying down with her head on the ground without the need of any cue! But it still is hard work and we stayed a little bit too long so Lisbeth started to chew her leash again but all in all it was a big success!
And the key was the short walk after arriving there. She had the possibility to pee and returned back not to an unknown but to a familiar place with somebody waiting there for us!