lostcoyote
btw,
how did you get your dog to move through 1) her fear of people 2) her fear of other dogs and 3) her resource guarding? you stated that a clicker would never solve these so if you did work these issues out, what technique(s) did you use to fully eliminate these behaviors?
Wow, those are big questions, especially ones to be able to answer in one sitting. I'll do a simplified version as I'd never be able to write exactly about everything that I've done.
Firstly, I'll say that I had her for her entire life. So I have her entire history to look back on, knowing that there was no "past" that kept cropping up that I don't know about. I like to think that it wasn't genetic, since she was of our family's breeding, and because there was absolutely no indication we would have produced a dog like her, going by her sire/dam/previous litters/other relatives, however she grew up in a great home so I have to believe there could have been a genetic component. On another note, her dam died when she was born (during a c-section), so her litter was raised part-time with a surrogate mother. Also, because the litter did not get the colostrum at birth, the entire litter developed a severe respiratory infection at just a few days old, and put the pups at a lot of undue stress. I'm a person who is very much in tune with the neonatal and juvenile development of puppies and I sincerely feel these also had a strong effect in contributing to how she turned out.
In terms of her problems, they really started to manifest when she was an adolescent. I started noticing little issues, how she found direct eye contact (even from family members) quite aversive, her increasing fears of strangers as she aged. One time when she was young I handed her over to my friend in the car and she proceeded to urinate all over her, from fear. It was at that point that I began our work together.
To illustrate the problem - she could not remain in the same room, or really even yard, with strange people without flipping out. She would bark, back up, ears back, and stare at them, not letting them out of her sight, but petrified of going near them or them going near her. Her anxiety was unbelievable. To start, I clipped a leash on her and had her by my side the entire time anybody was in the home. We started out in a separate room and I would reward her heavily for being attentive to me and not barking when she heard people in another room. Eventually she got to the point where she was excited to hear strange voices, so I knew it was time to go to the next step. We slowly worked our way into being in the same room as strangers, still on leash, at the opposite end of the room. People were instructed to ignore her completely and pretend she wasn't there. I rewarded her for calm behaviour, and re-directed her to do some of her favorite fun tricks. Once she became relatively comfortable doing that, I took off her leash. I continued to keep her attention and keep her otherwise occupied, but I began slowly allowing her to approach other people - if she chose to do so. I kept people ignoring her (I selected my people carefully so that we wouldn't have to back up if they frightened her) completely at that time. Eventually I loaded people with treats and if she approached them, they were to just hold treats in their hands, without interacting with her in any other way. This way, over time, she actually learned that people = treats. She quickly began seeking people out to get that lovely reward. Over time I had people slowly start to interact with her, in subtle ways. To talk to her while not looking at her, to look at her while glancing away, etc. She will take treats from anybody and everybody now. She jumped up on the couch to lick one person's face for the first time about a year ago. She seeks out people, even though she doesn't allow much touch from people.
If you came to our house now, this is sort of what you'd expect: barking (we've got 14 dogs, so they all bark at first). Most times you wouldn't know right away that she WAS afraid of people. She'll run around like the others, tail wagging, she'll jump up against your leg, etc. It's when you actually begin interacting with her, one on one, that you'd know. If you reached out to her, she'd still back away most times (she has let 6 people to date rub her chest/chin/butt area with her own consent). If you pushed it, or if you stared at her, she would likely bark and back away, but still wagging her tail. She'll take treats from you, jump up against your lap for them even, and will actively interact with you, even though she's still not trusting of you. If you're calm, she'll approach you more on her own. When my step-uncle stayed for Christmas for four days, she really came to, well, almost like him. She always seeked him out for sniffs and soft talk, she'd jump up against his leg just to check him out, and because he was a great sport he didn't frighten her. By the time he left he had been able to actually touch her and interact with her in a pretty normal manner.
Will she ever fully trust strangers? Not likely, it's in her personality. Can I help her adjust better and see more improvement? I'm confident that we can. That's the joy of desensitization and counter conditioning, you are able, even WITH genetics (but within its limitations as well) change behaviour quite drastically. The amount I've watched her grow has taken my breath away. People who have known her since she was a baby are amazed at how far she's come.
It was not a quick fix, at all, and it'll be a lifelong learning journey, but I would not have done it any other way. She has grown, of her own choice and doing, and to see her blossom was just amazing. It can bring tears to my eyes if I think about it long enough.
The dog issue is still ongoing. Again, it's in her personality, and due to her fear of strangers working around strange dogs hasn't gotten as much work as with people. She'll accept any new dog into the household, so it's not like she can't "get used to" other dogs, but strange dogs at, say, the vet, we manage for the most part. If there's only one dog, then we'll work at a distance, but I am very careful how we interact.
Her resource guarding issue we nipped pretty early before it turned into anything very serious. For a long time I did only manage it, until I was able to work on it directly. Once I did, it was quite easy to fix. I did a write-up on it here just recently, I'll try to find you the link to it to save typing again.
Keep in mind, this is a girl who is naturally anxious. At one point she was on clomipramine for about 5 months because she had developed obsessive-compulsive tendencies. She would take digging fits where she would dig as though her life depended on it. It wasn't just a fun "make your bed" digging, it was an anxious, whining, dig whereever she could digging - on the couch, the hardwood floor, under chairs, under the bed, wherever she was she felt the need to dig. She would have whale eye, be panting herself silly. At that time I couldn't distract her, and it required her taking a medicine that could calm her enough to focus. It was actually then that I found clicker work, and it's clicker work that actually helped fixed it. It was allowing her to take control of her own learning, it totally and completely boosted her confidence in herself. Within a month and a half of starting clicker work, we weaned off the medication and she hasn't needed it since.
When she had surgery for her tucked vulva, it required 47 stitches in a half-moon between her vulva and her anus. She required an elizabethan collar for ten days while it healed. Her anxiety again came back at that time, and she actually started digging fits again. The vet was discussing giving her some medication to help her through it, but I passed it up and worked her through it. Between T-Touch, distracting toys (Kongs/bully sticks), and clicker work she got over her anxiety in a couple of days.
This is a girl for whom a simple NRM is very aversive. An "ah ah" or "no" in teaching will shut her down. Like I said, a really stange gal.
We've got another girl here who has trust issues, although not nearly to that degree, and I've been working with her in much the same way. She's shown a lot of improvement. She's been to several clicker classes, a Rally obedience class, a Rally workshop, various puppy walks, etc. She has even competed in a couple of obedience trials and rally matches. So she's far ahead of Gaci, but she's got a different style of fear. It's a quieter fear. And before anyone asks, on the offchance there was a genetic component involved, neither of these girls have been or will be bred. We would never take the risk of reproducing that type of personality. I am considering getting my mother to sign over the papers to put her in my name and keep her and continue working with her, we've developed a very special bond together.
Anyhow, I think that's it in a nutshell....a really large nutshell. :-P But discussing the working of behaviour problems isn't something that you do in a small sentence or two, so I hope you've kept on until this point.