The profile of a shelter dog...

One of the lectures I attended at Clicker Expo was titled: Transformers - Training shelter dogs and it was amazing!

The presenter was Leanne Falkingham and she with other positive based trainers helped to create Shelter Training & Enrichment Course through Karen Pryor Academy Of course this topic is near and dear to my heart since our fosters are usually coming from a shelter situation.

Here's a typical profile of a shelter dog:

- adolescent: 6 months to 2.5yrs old

-energetic

- untrained

- not spayed or neutered

I would also add another profile point: a lot are males

 

As Leanne was listing the profile a number of our past fosters came to mind but, one in particular stood out - Cayuse!  This little guy was picked up as a stray and the shelter was full so, he had very few days left due to shelter space.  Cayuse was a firecracker and he fit all the components of the shelter profile listed above.  Like a lot of dogs that come to us, someone likely got Cayuse when he was a super cute puppy and then decided he was too much work.  This irritates me to no end!

 

If you don't want to deal with all the puppy stuff then don't get a puppy!  Puppies are a huge amount of work.  So, if you don't have the time, energy or patience then look to an older dog.

 

Cayuse - fostered in 2012

 

Cayuse was (is) a great little dog - he just needed humans to help him with basic training and impulse control.  And the humans needed to understand where he was developmentally - his behavior was TYPICAL behavior for a dog of his age.  Again, it's the humans responsibility to mange the environment and work with the behaviors in front of them.

 

I'm happy to report that Cayuse (now Usher) was adopted by a wonderful guy who was fully on board with adopting an energetic terrier who needed work on basic skills.  The two of them attended a number of classes at a local positive based training school and Cayuse was rock star awesome!  I've heard from Cayuse's dad a number of times and he's head over heals with his sweet energetic boy!

 

 

So, what did the "Transformer" lecture focus on?  It was around teaching some very basic skills to increase the dogs "adoptability". These skills include:

 

- crate training

- increasing handling sensitivity

- increasing eye contact

- taking treats gently

- learning how to sit

- reducing barking

- reducing jumping

 

I think all of these skills transfer over to the dogs that also come in foster care.  We've had a run on fosters that have been under socialized so, the focus of work with them was around slow, positive exposure and confidence building.  However, sweetie pie Tremolo is not under socialized and he fits the above shelter dog profile. 

 

Over the next couple of days I'll be creating a plan (specific to Tremolo) of what the two of us will be working on together.  So stay tuned on what we are going to be working on and how we are doing it!