Patience, reinforcement & relationship building really do work!

Torii arrived to us four weeks ago as of yesterday.  Our work with her has been slow and steady. The focus has been around letting Torii make choices to engage with us and reinforcing her when she chooses to engage with us.  Torii is very food motivated so working for yummy food isn't a bad deal!

 

When Torii arrived to us, she was skittish and did not trust humans. She's also not one who wants to be picked up and touch towards her has been on her terms.  This is still true today.  Who knows the why of Torii's behavior - again all we can do is work with what behaviors the dog is showing us now.

 

From day one it was clear that Torii needed a bath.  She's was very dirty, didn't smell good and had some small pieces of dried poop on her back end.  Poor baby girl.  With Torii's presentation, giving her a bath wasn't an option as that would have been a horrible situation for her and probably us as well.  However, giving her a bath was certainly a goal.  When we get foster dogs, I pretty quickly make a list of short term/long term goals and the time frames on those goals shift with the progress of the dog. As with any dog, flexibility by the human is important.

 

So, we've been moving along reinforcing Torii with food whenever she comes near us.  She's getting good at hand targeting so that's helped a good deal with our progress around relationship building.  Torii will now jump up on the couch to be near us and we can offer our hand to see if she wants to take us up on touch. Some times she does and other times she not interested.  That's no problem for us as she has choice around touch.

 

This past weekend we were feeling like we had built up enough trust to see about giving her a bath.  We knew it would take both of us - one gently handling Torii and the other reinforcing her with high value food.  So, we got our game plan prepared and were ready to abort at any point in the process should it get too stressful for Torii. 

 

Our plan was to work on touch for a little bit using a high value treat she hasn't had before - Ziwi Peak.  I've never met a dog who doesn't go crazy for Ziwi Peak and Torii LOVED the new treat.  We'd built up enough trust that I was able to place a towel over Torii and slowly pick her up.  She did great, no wiggling and no air snapping.  We had placed a full size towel in the sink so she wouldn't slip and she could then sit in the warm soapy water which would soften the crusty items on her back end.  We turned the water on before we placed her in the sink.  And then the reinforcing began - reinforcing Torii's behavior of being calm in the bath and allowing me to gently wash her.   

 

Here's the video of Miss amazing Torii!

 

 

 And then when we were done, she did great with me holding her while the towel absorbed more water. Her ears are in their normal position and her eyes are not buggy.  I did not want to towel her off as that would be way too much touch for her.

Pretty & now clean Torii

Holding Torii and she did great

Here's Torii post bath as she shakes off the water and watch her tail - nice to see it not fully flattened to hear back end.  Funny girl is looking at me hoping to be reinforced with a treat - she's a smart little gal.

 

And both of us reinforce Torii with treats for a job well done!

 

 

And here we are a few hours later - Torii wondering what we are up to.

Up she comes on the chair I'm sitting on - yes she was reinforced for this.

 

 

Such a great little gal who is really starting to engage with us despite having a bath!

 

Good girl Torii, you're doing wonderful!