[Susan Klavon]

No, the Snuffle Mat instructions don’t make sense yet…

1. Total amt of food. I’ve been putting 10 pieces of kibble in the mat, which takes Avery about a minute to find. If I repeat this process 5 times per snuffle mat session, twice per class, she will get 100 pieces of kibble, which is about 1/4 cup. She is supposed to be a 12.5 lb dog, and her daily ration is 1/3 cup. I need to use her daily ration for other things — she must receive food with her motion sickness meds to avoid stomach upset and as reinforcement during car rides to deal with her travel phobia. Avery is very food motivated, so toys are not a reinforcer for her. How can I make this work given our situation?

2. What is key about 5 reps per snuffle mat session? What is the key factor for behavior change in this exercise — total amt of food consumed (ie, food makes us feel better)? duration of experience (ie, focus on something pleasurable instead of focus on the environment)? multiple reps (ie, just when you think it’s over, voila, there’s more food to eat, which promotes optimism in a busy environment)? I think that too often we humans are arbitrary about # of reps (5, 10, 15 are round #s to us), so it helps me to clarify what’s really happening.

Thanks,
Susan

[Susan Klavon]

Feel better!!!

[Susan Klavon]

You wrote: “Do it at the beginning and at the end of class, 5 times in a row each session.” (bold added) I understand the instruction to do the snuffle mat twice per class (once at beginning, once at end). But what do you mean by “5 times in a row each session”? 5 consecutive classes?

New topic: go to place. Avery has a lot of experience with using an elevated bed, though we haven’t done it in awhile. (I don’t have enough room in my kitchen for a bed for each of the 3 dogs, and all of them want to get on the bed.) You can’t tell in the video, but I am sending her from 6 ft away. She is rather…ahem…enthusiastic about going to place and she tends to move the bed. I have a mat on the bed to keep her from sliding across the top.

Thanks,
Susan & Avery

[Susan Klavon]

Hi Bobbie,

Not sure if your email issues had an impact on reviewing our 12/11 snuffle mat video, so just wanted to to check

Thanks!

[Susan Klavon]

Snuffle mat at class video: https://youtu.be/45d_UA81qgU

Since our classes are held on a sand/sawdust surface, I used our mini snuffle mat and put it in her tent. There were two other teams working in rings at the time, but it’s a fairly laid back class. Avery is very familiar with the facility — she’s been going there since she was about 11 wks old.

I included a few seconds of her stationing herself under a chair, her “safe space.” (she chooses how often to do that…she didn’t do it too much today.)

[Susan Klavon]

How long should the video of her working the snuffle mat at class be? I (obviously) don’t want to give her a full meal. 🙂

I took Avery to my other dog’s PT appt this morning b/c I want Avery to get more comfortable in that environment (in case she ever needs any significant care). She wanted to hang out under a chair. So I put a towel under the chair and gave her a frozen Kong. She finished the Kong, and I noticed later on in the appt that she was rocked on a hip and had very droopy eyes while resting on her towel under the chair. She was like that for 5-10 minutes.

Question: Avery likes to go under chairs at trials and at the vet’s office. I let her b/c I figure she feels safe there (less likely to get stepped on). She will come out if I call her. Do you foresee any issues with her chair use?

Thanks,
Susan

• This reply was modified 5 years, 4 months ago by Susan Klavon.

[Susan Klavon]

Avery and I practiced shadow handling in class last Wed and Thurs, and she was doing her Sheltie prance (which means all is quite well). Because of her motion sickness issues, it’s hard for me to get her out into new environments (any car trip requires 4 prescription meds given over a 2-hr period before departure). So right now, class is my best practice option for shadow handling.

And should I be trying snuffle mats at class?

Thanks,
Susan & Avery

[Susan Klavon]

Question about shadow handling: Avery has already demonstrated that she has a lot of value for me…in the vids that I posted, you can see her skipping by jumps to be near me when she is uncertain and that occurred in a trial environment. She doesn’t have triggers per se, but does feel pressure from the environment. While in general I see value in putting more deposits into a shadow handling account, in Avery’s case I feel like it will not help much and that our time/training treat ration would be better spent elsewhere. (She gained some weight unexpectedly and is now on a diet.) What are your thoughts?

Thanks!

[Susan Klavon]

The reason I switched from the conditioning exercise to the RP is b/c I have been working very hard to slide her from being a thinker to a doer. I feel completely uncomfortable sitting with her for 10 minutes while she throws behaviors at me and I ignore them b/c that will undermine the work I have done to get her to offer behaviors instead of thinking. I am willing to consider other options for her, though, if you have any to offer.

I worked the RP with our OCD dog for around 8 months, so I saw how it worked for her (and she couldn’t even hold position when we first started). I wasn’t worried about getting it perfected with Avery during this course.

Thanks for understanding,
Susan

[Susan Klavon]

Hi Bobbie,

RP video: https://youtu.be/cg0dAjHtWLQ

We’ve been working on the RP for 11 days now. I am bouncing between days 1 to 5…it seems like the more active I get, the more alert she becomes, so I haven’t gone beyond RP day 5 yet. On the sixth and seventh days that we did the RP, Avery was rocking on her hip and holding it for some duration…but since then she has reverted to no hip rocking and lots of fidgeting. Reinforcing the staying on her hip has been tough as she seems to move back to sphinx position when I put the treat between her paws, even though I am trying to move quietly and calmly.

This video is 9.5 minutes long (sorry!). Around the 3 min mark, my husband decides to start prepping breakfast in the kitchen (even though I had asked him to wait till we were done with our session), and at the 4 min mark, I ask him to stop (b/c rattling bags and prepping food is not conducive to relaxation). Around the 6:10 mark I remind him again. I recognize that she’s not ready for this level of stimulation at this point in time.

After we finished the RP tasks (and around the 8:20 mark), I bend down to see if she will maintain stillness on the mat and maybe rock onto her hip. I take some deep breaths to see if that will relax her (sometimes works, didn’t in this situation). She is very fidgety, which makes reinforcing stillness tricky, b/c I don’t want to create an inadvertent behavior loop of fidget-fidget-fidget-stillness-treat.

This was one of our worse sessions, so good for you to see. 🙂 Avery missed both of her classes last week d/t Thanksgiving and she is off her usual exercise schedule, so I think she’s more pumped up than usual. We have been practicing the RP daily (she gets her breakfast ration during the RP) and then she gets snuffle mats with kibble for lunch and dinner.

Thanks for any help you can provide,
Susan & Avery

[Susan Klavon]

Hi Bobbie,

If you want to check out Avery’s interaction with a snuffle mat (not sure if this is a video homework assignment!), here’s a link: https://youtu.be/D4n6e-O76ys

I complained about Avery finishing a snuffle mat in 2-3 minutes, which is true, when I sprinkle the kibble on the top. For this session I buried the kibble deep into the fleece, and Avery spent over 6 minutes with it. (I don’t expect you to watch the whole video, I just kept the video on till she indicated she was done.)

Thanks!
Susan & Avery

P.S. “Bringing Up Baby” is playing on the TV. Nice of “George” to start barking during Avery’s snuffle mat time. 🙂

• This reply was modified 5 years, 4 months ago by Susan Klavon.

[Susan Klavon]

“Each student will be using the Snuffle Mat technique in a way that best supports their dog and the issues they are facing.”

This is what I needed to see. 🙂

I am still unsure about what’s best, mainly b/c I really don’t understand Avery’s emotional state(s) in relation to agility…yet. That’s one reason why I am here. But I am much better prepared to take a wait-and-see approach b/c of the feedback you gave, so thank you very much!!!

Susan

[Susan Klavon]

To clarify question 2 (since it doesn’t look like I can edit my original post): I am not seeing how a snuffle mat before going in the ring can help Avery (who tends to go slower or bypass jumps) get in an appropriate arousal state to run. (I can see how it could help a dog that tends to get overaroused.) What am I missing?

Susan

[Susan Klavon]

Question 1: Avery has a snuffle mat…and can clean it up in a very short time (2-3 min) even though it’s a big mat. How important is duration to reduce arousal and anxiety?

Question 2: Tracy Sklenar used to refer to “cookie coma,” how food can interfere with getting the dog in a “just right” (“not too hot, not too cold”) mindset to run. I can see a snuffle mat reducing anxiety, but I am not seeing how it can help the dog get into an apppropriate arousal state to run. What am I missing?

Thanks,
Susan

[Susan Klavon]

We got to day 6 of the RP and now she is beginning to come off the mat (it didn’t help that my husband burst into the house talking loudly when we were near the end, sigh). Since we have a house guest (and my husband is a wildcard while he’s off this week), I am going to back up to day 4 and work the early days of the RP to make things easier for her.

Question: On the good side, Avery began to rock on her hip, yay! First real sign of thinking about relaxation. Should I stop what task I am doing and reinforce that rock onto the hip and then just keep going with the next task? Or focus on reinforcing the rock onto the hip to the exclusion of the task list? I realized that Avery is always looking alert and usually in a sphinx position when any type of “working” is going on or when she rides in the car. So I am leaning towards reinforcing the rock onto the hip for now to build that behavior.

Thanks,
Susan & Avery

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