Soft dogs

I love TTouch. Circles on Kivi's chest turns him to putty in my hands. Even before I knew about TTouch I was massaging Penny whenever she was afraid and rubbing her chest was always where I instinctively started. I do believe it helps. Penny was best in thunderstorms if I let her hide herself somewhere near me. If it got REALLY bad, I'd sit on the ground with her and just put my hand on her without saying much. I think it helped her. 

Here's my theory, I think it is a 2 way street: you need to learn what triggers the most subtle reactions in your dog, and the dog needs build confidence and learn that a little stress is ok. Giving the dog a job will accomplish both things imo. By training your dog to do a certain task: bringing in the paper, fetching slippers, carrying around a toy, tracking, sheep herding, therapy/ service work, whatever, you focus the dogs mind, teach it coping skills and teach the dog to read your body language. For example, when I first started to do sheep herding with lily, I couldn't face her at all. My back always had to be to her or she would shut down. It was too much pressure for me to face her (she was too soft). So I would let her work and if she did something I didn't like, I would turn toward her. She would back way down and I would right away turn around again and let her continue working. Slowly she gained confidence and now there is not much that phases her. I have her in search and rescue training now and she passed all of the personality tests with flying colors. That never would have happened a year ago.

That's awesome to hear Jewlieee!! It's amazing to hear the success stories of dogs. I don't think anyone claimed that you can't take soft dogs far distances - you certainly can!! I think though, the main point was just that not all dogs will "recover" like that, and some dogs will only make progress so far.

I know with Shimmer, she's made leaps and bounds. But there will still always be a part of her I think that will be a challenge. If I'm proven wrong, then I can only be happy to admit that!!! :-)

crysania

When she's playful you can run into her all you want, push her face around, pet her roughly on the sides, and she interprets it all as playtime fun. 

 

I have been working through a book on affective neuroscience lately. It is really about how emotions work with behaviour. It would suggest that all mammals have seven "golden" emotions, and that how they react in each is different. Sounds ok to me. Play is regarded as a golden  emotion. If you extend this a bit further, maybe you could work in this emotion (which is used for rehearsal) and try changing the emotional state. 

The book is "Affective NeuroScience" by Jaak Panksepp. It is very text booky though, and is not a how to do manual. 

 Kim MacMillan and Jewlieee - great posts and absolutely what you do with a soft dog.  In fact, with any dog - even the aggressive ones.  You work first at the dog's threshholds and BUILD.  I had a riding instructor once, long before I became one, who said it very succinctly.  "Work with the horse you have at this moment."  I think it applies to all training - work with what you have at the moment.  Because, at times, you will have a very brave "soft dog," and at times a very soft "hard dog."  It's really all about learning to reinforce behavior you like.  That doesn't mean that you will ever change your dog's basic "this is who I am" - but, I know that the soft dog that was born nine years ago and the Sioux of today cope very differently.  Today, Sioux will go to a day long Expo on aging services, and she will wow the crowd all day.  Just like Jewlieee's search dog, she can now do a job nicely that would have been impossible had I not done what these two ladies have expressed so eloquently.  It's less about whether you coo or not, or do ttouch or not, it's about reinforcement and timing, and working at the right threshhold - namely, the human shouldn't be going faster than the dog;-)  Agility training, and other disciplines, can be great confidence builders, but not if you don't lay the foundation of the dog first being able to walk down the street, or get in the car to go to the agility class. 

See, I don't agree. if the dog is not recovering its because the stress/ pressure was too much for too long. That is what I was talking about regarding finding what causes the slightest soft reaction out of your dog then work with that as your starting point. Apply very slight pressure only enough so the ears go back, for instance, then take the pressure off the very next moment. Do not include any praise, totally ignore the dog during the whole thing. This is what will build that stress / soft threshold. That said, there are breed traits that do shape a personality. And those will always be there but the extent at which those traits come out is a factor of training imo

I have a breed that is known to be very soft, an Irish Setter.  Mine has always been skittish, reactive and unstable in my opinion.  He has two dogs that come into the dog park that have in his mind attacked him.  They did pounce him in an aggressive manner and fed his fear.  For two years now I try to avoid the times they come around.  But every so often they come at our time and he chooses to go on top of the picnic table, table between his legs and he just watches them.  I always stand along side him and do tend to softly reassure him its okay.  I make sure he stays and also that he see's them leave.  So he can relax again and go back to running and playing.  Everyone just knows my dog is a softy.  It is strange but since he started phenobarbitol (recently diagnosed with epilepsy) he is way less fearful of the two dogs.  He does still go on the table but his tail isn't curled to his chin and he is not as tense.  He also has found a couple softer dogs that he actually starts to bark and circle and well act dominating towards.  I stop that immediately, but I find it interesting that a sedative has loosed him up and actually toughened him up.  I don't agree that stepping in front of my dog to protect him from a fear or softly reassuring him when he is afraid will make the problem worse.  In our dogs case he needs it to keep from coming totally unglued.  I also feel he looks to me as his protector and it helps us build a mutual trust in each other. He has shown how he would protect me if I was in trouble as well.