Nobunaga loved meeting Kuriyama Trainer and was really trying to engage, all smiles and paws and play with me. Sherlock is looking a bit glum...I think he's been trained so much, although he knows what to do, what's expected, it's not a joyous experience for him, but one fraught with anxiety. When is the tugging and bullying going to start? sort of thing. He did appreciate the treats though, and Kuriyama Trainer is so unassuming, it was clear there was no threat. I'm afraid I only relaxed and remembered photos when Nobunaga got in the picture...
Such a wonderful rescue setter NGO, CACI Gundog Rescue, Kuriyama trainer volunteers with the setters and pointers there and came over to help me as follow-up looking in my quest for ideas and encouragement with Sherlock. She has her own pointer and a dachshund, so personal experience to build on along with training the dogs at the shelter. She remarked both on how inordinately and insanely well-behaved Sherlock was on the leash, so sensitive to the slightest tug, and how constricted his neck muscles were, suggesting I give walkies with a harness a go instead, to give him a totally new body awareness on walks. This is a welcome suggestion and makes a lot of sense:
...which I immediately implemented, putting him in Claire's old harness to get used to the feel before we go out on walkies. He's looking rather skeptical here, but that's before we go out walkies. Pretty in pink, my boy.
The barking is going to take rather a lot of work, like, I have to break down each movement related to walkies, clipping on my pouch, getting the leash from the wall, clipping it on each dog, hand on doorknob, etc. has to be only navigated once Sherlock is in a calm position, and stopped the minute he goes frantic again. She reminded me this would take a lot of time and patience, and to aim for it when I was rested and feeling up to it, rather than see it as a daunting chore. Small steps.
I just did a practice session training speak and shush in the kitchen as Ian Dunbar recommends. Trying to speak on cue, Nobu and Claire are steadily silent, so I got DH to sit down in the pack and be my peer example: clicking and giving treats and patting for a cue of speak with hand gesture cue of fingers pinching salt then spraying salt on the meal; made us laugh a lot, and of course Sherlock got closest to the idea, but it's going to need a bit more work.
Being there on the phone for consultation, coming over with concrete advice and good energy, great inspiring blogs on the net like Patricia McConnel and Eileen and Dogs, friends' warm comments on FB, Youtube videos like Kikopup and Ian Dunbar, these are all things that give me the stamina and encouragement to work with Sherlock. Thank you Kuriyama Trainer!
Our local walks progress at a stop and go pace as the dogs take time to check the peemail and urinal messaging sites, sometimes in odd places...
Of course with setters it's not just about the local dogs, it's also a lot to do with hunting...Sherlock is letting me know he's on to something...
Much to the discomfort of this wee stray, one of a family in an unoccupied house soon to be torn down. They are protected from the crows by the overgrown garden and trees, so it will be a mighty shock to them when their habitat is destroyed. Fortunately for them taxes on razed lots are much higher and if you include the prohibitive cost of destroying the house and disposing of the materials this mostly only happens when the old people finally pass, their heirs agree on what to do, and the greedy developers move in to build three or four new houses on the same plot; which means abandoned dilapidated houses abound in Japanese cities.
Sherlock, while an expert cat sniffer, is not a cat chaser...he likes cats. Nobunaga has had many a battle with this cat even through the fence, and a bloody scratch on his nose before I could drag him away howling with excitement...
I'm not a certified dog trainer or anything, so fortunately I don't have to remember all the latest jargon and its specific meanings...operant conditioning anyone? Something about Sherlock's wormy behavior when he arrived, hugging the earth while wriggling like a dachshund, tail frantically appealing submission, his complete stillness at the vet, his perfect heeling on leash all spoke to me of fallout from the use of aversives in punishment, a generalized apathy and conditioned suppression from negative reinforcement...in other words, it seemed to me he'd been walloped into unthinking, fearful submission by an abusive handler which was really sad to watch. I decided to let him have some freedom, to explore the world and begin to make his own decisions, gain some confidence.
Not that I knew the words two months ago, since then I've been reading all I can to try and find out how to heal his heart and get him to the point where he can control his own over-arousal and use his highly intelligent mind to channel his overabundant vociferous energy more peacefully ... I've ordered a new book, Fired Up, frantic and freaked out, by Laura Van Arendonk Baugh, because the title totally sounds like Sherlock, particularly the fired up and frantic bit. More on that when it arrives in a couple of weeks...I've also just discovered a new Eileen and dogblog by a US writer, Eileen Anderson ,which gave me the terminology to describe Sherlock (see link above) and which I'm going to enjoy exploring in the next few days. She labels the nasty training I experienced in the Honmoku dog run and the kind of abuse Sherlock has been used to in her post "Shut down dogs".
The good news is he's working really hard himself: now that he has some freedom during walkies (albeit within the radius of the 1.8m Ruffwear Flat Out leash which you can buy in Japan from Montbell) he's such a wee rabbit, jumping over the leash to untangle it himself when it winds round his legs, darting forward as far as the longer leash permits but rarely actually pulling on it, dancing back behind me to dart forward on the other side in a dervish twirl so that he gets more exercise and takes in the scents on both sides, fast fast fast, and then on again! It's a wonder he doesn't bang into things or trip up more, whirlwind speed and agility. He's using up so much energy, physically and mentally, no wonder he's not putting on weight even though he's been neutered and eats the same amounts as Nobunaga who has ten kilos more weight!
The peewees and poopies in the garden is coming along well, I have a constant stock of treats to lure him out every so often, although he hates the rain and getting his feet wet, it seems. I always get wet, but thank God for being British, a damp miserable childhood has toughened me up just for this. Thankfully the past few days things have been looking up, although I still don't feel confident enough to dismantle all the pet sheets posted up around the house just yet. What I'm doing differently is, he gets the treat before he pees and then goes to pee. I mean, he's not stupid, and I trust him to know what to do. Plus if he doesn't need a peewees, he simply looks at me with a quizzical look and refuses to budge beyond the doorway, treats or no treats. Okay, sweetie, fine, good boy.
And the barking, hypervigilant at night and jubilant during the day....well, more on that as time goes by...
The day begins with pouring rain and no hope of anything like a decent walkies...Mummy is secretly quite pleased because she needs a bit of rest...but you can tell by the look on Sherlock's face that he's not too happy about it...
Early afternoon the sky cleared and we took the opportunity to walk round the park. I stuck to the paths today because I was wearing a yukata...
Best casual wear for summer. 7500 steps on my pedometer. Happy mum, happy dogs.
Sherlock barking at the gate again yesterday was like a huge pent up howl of anguish mixed with elation: he's worked so hard these past few days to be quiet, but stopping the barking is like damming up a river, and it's going to burst out of him...It's as though every time we go walkies he revisits the frustration of being abandoned and locked up in the pound, the tension between current joy and the quivering mess of betrayal and anxiety, the pain of being behind bars, the effort it took to hold it together, he's riding it out again every time. This is deep soul stuff finally coming out...
I know with Nobunaga there was a huge pile of frustration, desperation, loneliness, betrayal in his heart that slowly cleansed out, and he did bark and lunge forward when approaching other dogs in his joy to connect, which could easily have been misinterpreted as aggression (and did annoy some other doggie owners, to be sure, only with a big smile and loud friendly greeting I breezed their feelings aside, assuring them he was safe and friendly and only wanted to play and say hello).
Now with Sherlock the key is to let him voice his anguish without allowing him to time-slip and actually get lost back there, to keep present joy and strength in his awareness as he revisits the pain, so he doesn't drown in it, but to let him get the gunk out of his system and express it...only of course, I have to maintain my own sanity in the process. A delicate balance.
Photos by Lelantos
Sherlock back from walkies, lazing up on the couch as though he'd been there from day one, has been in the family for a proud eight weeks now.
I hate to say the barking may be on the mend in case I jinx it, but I have had a little more sleep at night and silence during preparation for walkies is also improving. It is still a bit hard juggling a bag of shopping with the three dogs, Sherlock refuses to stay on one side, be it right or left, and continues to minnow around, darting hither and thither from behind my legs, which gets rough when there's a bag of shopping to wham into...and I don't have my hands free to untangle the leashes. But compared with the barking...no wonder they say silence is golden.
Sherlock wearing Chiaro di Luna's UK summer shirt, lazing in the heat after a long walkies and a good breakfast. All clean after a shampoo yesterday evening, Claire had a nice shampoo this morning after the walk, white as snow and picture perfect! I actually got a great night's sleep, meaning I did wake up quite a few times snuggling with Sherlock, spooning as I massage and stroke him gently, but he was quiet as a lamb...this morning too before walkies, managed to keep his barks to a gentle whimper...what bliss, the peace! Now to get in a wee energizing nap myself having washed out the entrance tiles with lavender to wash away pee smells, hung out various loads of washing and aired the shoes and the bedding...
