Learning About Dogs - Teaching Dogs Article:

A Year with the Pits by Alexa Capra

Teaching Dogs Vol 3 Iss 3

In June 2003 I was asked to join a group of veterinarians and trainers involved in a project of ex-fighting pit bulls rehabilitation. This program is supported from the Italian organization for the protection of animals, ENPA (National Society for the Protection of Animals). The aim was to rehabilitate and rehome a first group of 22 dogs and bitches sequestrated from a breeder. Some of them did fight, they have scars from fighting, others where probably from the breeding stock.

The first group of experts split in February 2004, but I was called in June 2004 to restart the project. I was asked to form a new group, and to define a new program. There are now 3 people working with the dogs:

Carlo Magnoli, a psychology student and trainer

Lisa Corradi, a veterinarian doing her PhD

And me. I am a writer, a trainer of the Gentle Team and a “behaviour expert”, whatever this should mean. The Swiss biologist Alessandra Bourquin joins us for the temperament tests.

The program

The new program is divided into 3 parts: temperament testing, “rehabilitation” and, if possible, adoption. The training program changed a lot from the first time I was asked to work with the dogs.

I was deeply impressed by Sue Sternberg speech in Bruges, at the first European conference for Pet Dog Trainers (April 2004). She told us it is a loss of time and money to perfectly train dogs in a shelter. A perfectly trained dog will strongly bond with the trainer, and it would be difficult to transfer those skills to a new, inexperienced owner. What these dogs really need are the ability to connect and interact with people (to increase their possibilities of adoption), and to settle down in presence of people (they never have the chance, in a kennel).

Our goal in training is also to improve the dogs’ management and welfare in the kennel, and teach the dogs practical skills for rehoming.

As written by Linda Marston and Pauleen Bennet: “Obedience exercises facilitate positive interaction by providing focus and structure for the activity. Positive principle in training produce not only the most rapid results, but foster positive interaction between human and dogs. The training provided should be relevant to everyday home situations… A practical orientation in training ensures that the new owner will have some control over the dog from day 1.”

Wells: “Dog training may be another useful method of providing kenneled canids with social stimulation. This may be of particular value for sheltered dogs, considering the large number of such animals that are returned shortly after acquisition because of their unruly behaviour.”

In September we started an environmental enrichment program, providing raw bones, stuffed Kongs, interaction with a range of people.

The dogs

I already knew the dogs when we first began in July 2003 and at that time only worked with 6 that were considered the best choice for a rehabilitation program. In September 2004 we decided to work with all of them.

We started with 9 dogs (the others are kept in another kennel):

5 dogs: Sam, Wolly, Zeb, Sonny, Giordy

4 bitches: Sole, Zucchero, Miele, Magò

One of them, Wolly, was aggressive towards a trainer when we where choosing the dogs for the first program, in July 2003. She threw a ball a couple of time, he got excited, and when she stood still, he started to jump on her trying to bite her hands (the ball was on the ground, 4 metres away from her).

Aggression occurred again during the first set of tests, July 2004. Zucchero, an adult female, tried many times to jump on me with open mouth and towards my face, whilst I was walking back to the table with a ball hidden behind my back. Beside this two episodes, the dogs rarely if ever showed signs of threat against us.

When defining the temperament tests, we decided to test first random non pit bulls dogs from the rescue kennels. They were all more scary and threatening than any pit! Again, it was a great benefit to be at the European Conference in Bruges, since we learned to recognize the more subtle social signals in dogs.

One of the things that I found useful when dealing with the pits, is the difference between a confident dog and a friendly dog. Sonny, who was isolated as a puppy and grew up in the kennel environment, was extremely confident at the beginning but rarely, if ever, connected with us.

These are some of “our” dogs:

Sam

He has scars from fighting and is a big, powerful very confident male. He is perfectly aware of his strength. During the tests we were impressed by the intensity he exhibit destroying a toy (the dissection of a rope knot). He is well behaved on leash, he is crate trained and he most likely travelled a lot for the fights. He has great social skills with dogs, he never attempts to fight against the other dogs of the kennel when he is left free to roam in the yard. He avoids conflicts with dogs coming to the door of his kennel or staring and barking at him when walked to the training area.

At the beginning he was very passive during training, now he is more reactive, sometimes quite excited, even if we work with food.

I taught him a high five to get a sit, since he would walk back when lured and never offered a sit in the beginning. To be fair, I taught him the high five because I could not get a sit and I was frustrated. I realized he was lowering his back to find balance, so I started to click for the sit. I used a chair to teach him the down and he scratched all my hand, using his paw as he had previously learned. He eventually lay down in the “Do Nothing” exercise after two months of work. He would relax when free, but was alert when on leash.

Sonny

Sonny is my favourite. As Kay Laurence told me, dogs like Sonny “keep you honest”. Sonny keeps you more than honest, he makes you wonder about your training abilities (and dogs’ learning skills).

Sonny is a real bully. Tail up constantly and in the beginning he never connected with us. Just sniffing, marking, chasing pigeons, barking at dogs. During training he was not motivated by food and was over excited by the ball. He would either jump crazily or disconnect completely.

The typical training session with Sonny was: jump, jump, jump, disconnect, grab the leash or start to chew anything, guard barking, chase pigeons. His ability to interact with people increased greatly in just 2-3 sessions and now he will stay with us for 30-40 minutes without trying to destroy something, tail low and relaxed and enjoying petting. His ability to concentrate and self control has increased.

After 2 months of jumping, walking back, disconnecting, we got a sit! He never lay down in the Do Nothing and he is getting worse. On Saturdays the volunteers take out the dogs and most likely they pull him to take him back to the kennel, Now he will pull back whenever he is on leash and cannot do what he wants. We will have to work on it – keeping us honest!

Zeb

Stress was a big concern with all dogs, and we learned to read it through their behaviour during the training sessions. Most of them just disconnect, some of them become excited. Sonny looks for something to chew (including my shoes, my trousers and my arm!). Others start to sniff and mark. Of all of them, Zeb was, and still is, the worse case. He shows something I label as the typical behaviour of learned helplessness.

In the training area, he will chase frantically lizards, flies, shadows, to avoid contact with people. When we try to interact with him, he comes close to our leg, sideway, leans on us, his body is tense and he just stays there as long as we touch him, talk to him or keep him on the leash. When he feels free to leave, he starts again to chase. He will crouch and freeze any time someone tries to touch or leash him. He has no skills in interacting with people, but just tries to stay as close as possible, with no signs of pleasure, or bumps against you.

He would not eat, and since he has food allergy we can only use dry kibble. Working with him was a nightmare, we felt everything was wrong. Then we discovered he would eat his kibble with frenzy when in the kennel.

Talking with Alessandra, we thought he could be conditioned to the bowl. We started to use the bowl during training, and he started to eat. Now he will eat from the hand or the ground, and in the last period he did not exhibit the chasing. He will stay near us even if he is unleashed. He also started to use the new, learned skills to interact and feel safe with us.

This is great progress for both him and us.

Magò

Not all the dog are as challenging as Sonny or Zeb. Some of them are quite easy dogs, confident, social, good learners. Magò is our best student. She loves people, she is highly motivated by food, she will not get exited, not even when playing with the ball. She is an amazingly fast learner.

If you start thinking of a “what a nice dog to work with”, I forgot to write about her behaviour in the kennel. She will chase the bowl all over the kennel, take it in her mouth and try to get attention sitting in the front with the bowl in the mouth.

Not that bad, you might think, but she throws the bowl in the dirt and covers herself with dirt. We are trying to make her play with a stuffed kong, instead of the metal bowl. She will get covered with dirt anyway, but it is much better for her teeth (those left).

These are some of the skills we are teaching to the dogs:

Give attention, simple and with distractions

Give attention to the person who holds the leash

Off (move the head or the body away from something)

Sit and down

Get into a crate (base, closed, stay into the crate, 30 cm high, in the car)

Wear a muzzle

Touch the hand with the nose (recall)

Take the pill (touch muzzle, touch lips, open mouth and put a treat on it)

Do Nothing

I first heard about “Do Nothing” from Swedish and Norwegian Obedience trainers, and then from Sue Sternberg. We sit in a chair, hold the dog on leash and put down a towel.

Our criteria are:

lie down within 20 minutes and

stay down for 1 minute

If the dog does not lie down in 20 minutes we wait until he relaxes, and stop. If the dog goes down during the 20 minutes, we pet him after 1 minute and then unleash him.

Exchange

We will start working exchanges after the second part of temperament tests.