Morning Snapshots

 It's 5am walkies lately, so hot and muggy, but some good friends are awake for treats along the way...

The Power of Three

When Sherlock first came, the onset of walkies, the merest hint would set him barking in a mad frenzy. Looking over past training, I started a sit from the kitchen, walking backwards to the door keeping me in between, and whenever he got into a mad dash or started barking, we'd go back to the kitchen and start again, all the time with clicker and treats, of course. 

A year has passed, and the mundane bustle of Mummy has become just bearable: the rustle of coats, the proximity to the door, the scraping of shoes, the going back to the kitchen to fill the treat pouch, the popping upstairs for my mobile, back to the kitchen again for water or poopie bags, finding the shoehorn...Sherlock has learned to wait quietly, darting around a bit back to the sofa to start again and relieve tension in between, before calming down and remembering what he's supposed to do, sit quietly at the step and wait. He's becoming a loving, composed dog as each experience of success at self-control deepens his confidence.

 Now these doorstep protocols seem finally ingrained in his psyche, the next hurdle is the garden gate: he'll still make a mad dash down the stairwell, hollering blue murder at the bottom, jumping and cavorting like a mad dervish alerting the whole neighborhood he's off on a walkies. Infamous dog! 

But once we're out in the street, all is fine, he's as quiet as a mouse enjoying the sniffing, passing the pee wee baton, and scavenging (no, not poopies, arghhhh! Mummie's turn to screech like a banshee!). Nothing better than a relaxed walkies together, each day a different local path and direction to keep things varied and interesting.

We've got to the point where Mummy can drop the leash and the three sweeties will do a sit stay of sorts as I back off for a photo. That's such a wonderful feeling, no need to tie them up or fear they'll run off into the blue, the delicious scent of fish wafting around keeps the doggies happy while I fiddle with the camera-I just keep forgetting I've turned it off in between pictures, so I'm the only one to ever see some truly beautiful English setter poses! Rescues rule, hooray for the power of three.

Nighttime Alarm Barking

I am reminded of a poem by Spike Milligan from his Silly Verses for Kids given to me by loving and inspired parents, that has stayed with me over these fifty years:

"Things that go 'bump' in the night
Should not really give one a fright.

It's the hole in each ear

That lets in the fear,

That, and the absence of light!"

I digress, but Sherlock is so aptly named: such finely tuned powers of observation in sound, scent and sight, the intensity of input makes you slightly neurotic. Couple this highly sensitive individual with (probably) being chained up outside day and night, with no way to go and investigate what all those noises are, and a family that walks on by or uses fear-based training sessions to obliterate you into submission...
So what can be done to help a dog that alarm barks frequently and vociferously at all hours of the night and lately day? And of course their tormented family...
Thinking Holmes and violin, I am trying music (not fond of white noise) during the day, finding that sadly some of my high paced Latin dance music can make him a little hyper, while the softer rumba and ballads stuff is okay. I need to go for Mozart or Vivaldi, I guess...or doggie music? 
My other technique during the day which I have used so far successfully with Claire, is going along together to investigate what is causing the noise, followed by a thank you for guarding the house and it's okay to relax now, we've checked and it's nothing threatening. If Claire continues to bark outside I say enough and bring her in the house.  That's easy of course, I'm awake...
My third technique at night is to whisper to the dog, "shush, enough, please don't bark now, it's bedtime" while I grab Sherlock as he goes sailing by on the warpath and bring him to a down next to me on the futon. Needless to say this doesn't really work because he is still fearful of and alert to the continued bumps in the night, but it's about all I feel up to in my drowsy state.

The most helpful of the internet research I've done on reducing night barking is from a Carolina Great Pyrenees Rescue site in an article by Rose Stremlau. She says we have to acknowledge the Pyrenee breed is a night-time guard dog. Not that a setter is a barking guard dog, on the contrary they are ninja stealth snipers operating secret missions during daytime to ace the bird...all the more reason to hope!
...but obviously Sherlock has had a bad start in life. I don't think it's brain disease or bee stings or pain, although it could be a habitual response to dull the itchiness of being left to be eaten alive by mosquitos in summer (he is recovering from incipient heartworm) and delicate skin. The most important point that I learned from this article by Rose is, see your dog, accept what you've got, work with it:

"We can’t change hundreds of years of canine evolutionary adaptation. Instead, we changed our response, and it worked over time to reduce this unwanted behavior."

She suggests fixed bedtime protocols as with a child: a bedtime peewees, a biscuit, leading the dog to bed (far from noise), singing a lullaby, a goodnight kiss.  If and when the dog wakes, going with him to investigate the noise, gently asking what is up, telling him it's okay, thanking him for guarding, and going back to bed together.
Beautiful. So encouraging and exactly the kind of gentle approach I like. I just need to wake up enough to implement this...

Another site that I found helpful is reading the late Dr. Sophia Yin's blog entry on excessive barking - angels do watch over us. Again, it's the tone as much as the substance that I find encouraging. 
"it was clear she needed primarily to learn to pay better attention to Ashley. This required Ashley to ... teach the dog that she had to earn everything of value by politely, and automatically sitting as a way of saying “please.” First, we taught Kaya in the house to sit automatically for treats, and once she understood, we then also required she sit automatically and remain seated for other things she wanted—to go out the door, to get her leash on, to get petted. She had to sit and focus on Ashley’s face prior to receiving treats, meals and attention and to be let out into her yard. It seems so simple but the training is important. These Learn to Earn exercises teach dogs self-control and to look to their owners for guidance.
In other words, more of what I've been doing...counting my blessings, I have hardly any barking as I prepare for meals, and the walkies barking is coming under control...so just a matter of time and perseverance for night-time barking too. It's the hole in the heart along with the ear that lets in the fear...
Chiaro di Luna beams me some loving, healing moonlight energy from the rainbow bridge, go on, she says, you love the little blighter in my stead, just like I'm telling you. All will be well.

My new bible

Been out for the count with headaches, and Nobu has been down for a week or so with vomiting and diarrhea after ingesting quite a large quantity of lavender garden fertilizer bitten open courtesy of master Sherlock. After days of cleaning lakes of greyish foul poop and vomit from the couch, the futon, the hallways upstairs and downstairs, the sitting room floors and then some, two visits to the vet for an IV drip and meds, finally everyone slowly back to normal...meanwhile, Sherlock has made it to the throne of thrones, the armchair, which Claire has abandoned in the heat in favor of the cooler wooden floor.

I'm so pleased with my new book, Fired Up Frantic and Freaked Out by Laura VanArendonk Baugh, which seems to be written especially with Sherlock in mind, and is, as the author says, "a guideline for practical application, a sort of follow-along-at-home resource" for "dogs which are basically over-aroused for one reason or another - aggression, fear, fear-aggression, joy, or just plain over-stimulated".
"Inside the agitated dog, emotion and stress (whether good or bad) have taken over and are inhibiting some cognitive functions of the brain." The book aims to "teach the dog how to interrupt and manage his own arousal". Excellent, and of course always with positive delicious non-invasive no-walloping methods.

I haven't started from scratch which requires a mat, and I have to go buy one from the 100 yen shop, BUT, I realized that I had to get between Sherlock and the door, the moment he goes crazy, and reel back to begin in the kitchen where he's calm and able to sit. He's pretty proficient at sit, so I back down the hall from the kitchen toward the door, stopping every few paces for a relaxed moment of sit which he will offer himself as I hold up a treat, click for good and then slowly, gently, calmly, move closer to the door again, stopping on the doormat. There I just turn my back to him and then face him again, clicking for staying in the sit, then turn and a hand on the leash and back to face him, then touch my walkies waist pouch. Tiny steps, then calmly clip on my pouch, slip on sandals for extra speed, and again, after we've put on his leash, I again back down the stairwell between him and the gate, finally offering a tiny wee walkie together to the local park as the biggest reward for being able to control his urge to bark wildly. If he's alone with me it works a dream :) 
Unfortunately with the happy energy of three dogs it goes a little haywire, so I'm going to keep working on it throughout the day just him and me over the next few weeks. Best book in the world! 

Photos by Lelantos

Far from the Madding Crowd

Double recall training ... "here"...while Mummy picks up the poops...

Photos by Lelantos at Pension Olive in Nasu