Building Confidence and Concentration

Yesterday was "Shelter Day" and Steve & I set up the Confidence Course, or Playground of Higher Learning as it is sometimes called.

Angus is an adorable year old Pit Bull.  When I met Angus he stood up on his hind legs with his front paws reaching for my shoulders and started giving kisses.  Obviously a dog that is comfortable around people.  Turns out he is not comfortable walking on a lead and will quickly "Pancake" - flattening himself to the ground.

I always work at a dog's own comfort level and Angus just wasn't going to walk with me to go out to the field where we had the ground work set up.  It is very rare I ever carry a dog at the shelter and now I've done it twice in a month.  Angus was quite comfortable being carried and resting his head on my shoulder.

Because Angus was so reluctant to walk I started off with some gentle calming touches.  If you'll notice the way Angus was turning his head away, even this was too much for him.

We did some ground work.  It was difficult for Angus to walk with me at all.  Here he is stepping over the poles but at least was moving.  We worked the course 3 times and it took about a 1/2 hour to do one pass through.

I would say that the time was well spent.  After the ground work we did some more touches.  Although his head is still turned he has a soft and relaxed look to him and his eyes are open.

I did not have to carry Angus back to the corral at the shelter because he jogged with me.  :-)









Next we worked with DJ.  DJ is a 5 year old Pit Bull and is a complete sweet heart. You would have sworn that DJ and done this course a thousand times.

Not only was he great working the Confidence Course but he was quite happy with his touches too!










My biggest challenge is working with what we call a "fool around dog".  What exactly is a "fool around dog"?  Well stress is dealt with a number of ways.  The dog "Freezes", tries to "Flee", with "Fight" or "Fool Around".  Lance is a Fool Around Dog.

When I started with Lance he was jumping and bouncing.  Twisting and spinning.  It was difficult to even get Lance to keep his feet on the ground.  While Lance was going through all his motions I made sure I was breathing and focused on keeping myself calm and light.  I tend to want to throw up my hands and give up.  Not today!

Lance was "out of his body" and what he needed was a Thundershirt or a Wrap.  At first I put him in a Thundershirt and it was okay but I thought it was just too much sensation for him.  What gave me that idea?  He got more wound up and rolled around in the dirt and stickers!

The Thundershirt came off and a 1/2 body wrap went on.  Now I had quite a bit more of Lance's attention.

Usually I walk dogs counter clockwise around the star.  Lance couldn't pay attention when we walked that way so I switched and we went the other way.  He did fantastic.

A totally different Lance

How long did it take for Lance to calm down and focus?  Well after his 30 minute session he walked back to the corral with me without jumping up at all.  He was a totally different Lance.