[Susan Klavon]

Last week I was assisting at a charity K9 holiday photo shoot. A young dog came in and clearly showed she didn’t want to be near the holiday backdrop we were using. We startedto working with her and developed a pattern of toss treat, get treat, then get away from the backdrop (using full length of the leash) while the photographer snapped pix as she could. We ping ponged the difficulty of where the treats landed, sometimes close to the edge, sometimes closer to the backdrop. We talked about how letting her retreat away from the backdrop to relieve pressure was an additional reinforcer. We gave the dog a break for a few minutes. After the break, we repeated the treat/retreat pattern and the dog was more willing to be closer to the backdrop.

It was great to see these principles help a young dog, her owner, and the volunteers have a positive experience. 🙂

[Susan Klavon]

We tried the Relaxation Conditioning exercise, and it didn’t feel like a good fit for us at this point in time. After 5 minutes Avery began offering behaviors, and since I want her to become more of a doer than a thinker, I prefer to reinforce action when she takes initiative.

So I decided to switch gears and try Dr. Overall’s RP and it’s a much better fit for us. This video is of the RP’s Day 2 tasks. I have the TV on for background noise (we have 2 other Shelties so white noise is always good to try to avoid barking interference). I am talking to Avery softly most of the time (you may not be able to hear me well). I’m using kibble as the reinforcer. The laptop is up so that I have access to a timer, and you’ll see me referring to a hard copy of the RP (the audio version doesn’t work for me).

Thanks!
Susan & Avery

[Susan Klavon]

FWIW, you may also want to look into vet behaviorist/sports trainer Tom Mitchell in the UK. Here’s a link: https://www.facebook.com/behavet/

Dr. Overall treats Asta’s OCD (we started working with her in 2012). In 2015 I turned to Dr. Mitchell for help with Asta’s table issues (involved overarousal and a negative association) since he knows agility so well. He does video consults. We’ve had a positive experience working with both of them.

Hope that helps,
Susan & Avery

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

[Susan Klavon]

Well, my questions have popped up faster than anticipated! 🙂

I understand how the RP works (worked on it with our OCD dog). She is very much a “doer” and I saw how over time she learned to be calmer from the RP. (Dr. Overall told me that dogs will learn to choose calmness b/c it feels good, and in fact, she did learn to dismiss her OCD symptoms and choose calmness on her own.)

What I need help understanding is how to work on calmness skills without inadvertently promoting stillness over “doing” with an overthinker. Avery naturally thinks all the time (her instructor says she’s like a little accountant running numbers through her head even when she’s running a course). She is very willing to be still in all kinds of situations (she has an excellent default down), and I have had to work hard to nudge her toward doing/taking action. I understand that stillness and calmness are not the same thing (a dog can be still yet emotionally distressed at the same time). In addition, we can make the argument that thinking isn’t calmness, either. However, how can I approach calmness/RP work without her thinking that stillness is the preferred thing to offer in all situations?

Thanks for helping me think this through. I’d like to gain proficiency on her calmness skills without losing her growing “doing” skills. 🙂

[Susan Klavon]

Hope it’s OK for me to post on another student’s thread.

As of January, Dr. Overall was still doing long distance consults (that’s how we have worked with her on our dog’s OCD). You should be able to find her contact info via this link:
https://www.dacvb.org/search/custom.asp?id=4709

Good luck,
Susan & Avery

[Susan Klavon]

In general, I am all for the RP (I worked it with our OCD dog as the foundation for her behavior mod plan, and it was time well spent). But I have avoided it with Avery on purpose:
1. she is such a thinker that I have chosen to spend time on nudging her toward being more of a doer
2. she has a fantastic default down in all situations, so the RP hasn’t seemed quite as necessary for her.

But we can discuss pro’s and con’s for Avery when we get to that point…there may be pro’s I haven’t considered sufficiently yet. 🙂 Thanks!

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

[Susan Klavon]

Hi Bobbie,

We worked with Karen Overall (via long-distance consults…I have yet to meet her in person) on Asta’s OCD. Dr. Overall is utterly amazing! We also worked with Pat Miller to address some of Asta’s non-OCD behavior issues, since Pat is local to us (and she is also amazing!). Both Dr. Overall and Pat have used Asta’s case to teach their students about OCD.

Avery’s motion sickness is treated by Leslie Sinn in Leesburg, VA (she’s about an hour from us). Dr. Sinn has been so wonderful, the right match for Avery.

I am very aware of how behavior mod works and the time/consistency that is needed to effect change. (Asta’s OCD symptoms have improved over 90% since diagnosis, and it took a long time and a lot of work to reach that level of improvement.) I am grateful that this class will give me new “tools” to help Avery!

Thanks,
Susan & Avery

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