CBRC One-To-One Sessions With Misty
One To One Weekly Behavioural Support For You And Your Dog
Every dog is different, and their personalities are determined by breed, genetics, their upbringing, their experiences, and their environment. Helping owners understand their dogs and their issues and how to work with them, empowers them to move forward and help their dogs with confidence.
Normal sessions would be an hour weekly, but bespoke packages are also available. Please use the contact form to get in touch for a free telephone consultation so that we can establish if this option works for your dog and for you.
Having a dog with issues can be confusing, frustrating, heart-breaking, and frightening, we can help you get to the root cause and help you to understand and move forward. A call to us can be the first step towards a better life for you, your family, AND your dog.
Working with Misty
In May we worked with Misty and her family and these are her diaries.
WEEK 1:
One to One, session 1 with Misty ? Misty and her mum started one to one sessions with us to help with her high level motion, sound and environmental stress, as well as her dog and stranger reactivity. This week we all ventured into the village and worked on Misty's various triggers. We traffic and people watched, and followed people and dogs at distance, taking frequent breaks in a nice quiet grassy area to let Misty shake it off and switch off. We put all our lessons into practice being out and about and Misty's mum called on her newly acquired skills to support her. We selected and worked from specific areas in the village and these 'viewing points' give misty a shelter and safe place to observe without pressure way behind her threshold. Misty and her mum will be using these same points over the next month to keep practising the desensitisation work and also using micro signal reading. Over the weeks Misty's thresholds will improve as she continues to desensitise and relax further, and in the meantime we will be working remotely together each week until we meet up again later in the summer. It's been fantastic being a part of their journey and a pleasure to have met Misty and her family ?
WEEK 2:
One to one, session 2 with Misty and gate crasher Bruce the cat ? Misty has been working hard with her mum on focus work, toy trading and sound desensitisation as misty is environmentally triggered especially by noise. Today we worked on door knocking, outdoor sounds and more command work with items and laying foundations to help Misty relax and to find the world less triggering. Bruce the cat is not issued but his handler focus work is excellent ? aka Misty's chicken pieces more like! ?
WEEK 3:
One to one, session 3 with Misty ? Misty is a very busy collie who easily gets over stimulated by audibles. This week we continued to work on sound desensitisation and focus work at distance from audibles with her snuffle mat and she is coming along nicely ? Next week we are off into the village to help and support her and her mum to put their new skills into practice. Minster joined us this week and has excellent focus skills.
WEEK 4:
One to one, session 4 with Misty ? Misty and her mum started one to one sessions with us to help with her high level motion, sound and environmental stress, as well as her dog and stranger reactivity. This week we all ventured into the village and worked on Misty's various triggers. We traffic and people watched, and followed people and dogs at distance, taking frequent breaks in a nice quiet grassy area to let Misty shake it off and switch off. We put all our lessons into practice being out and about and Misty's mum called on her newly acquired skills to support her. We selected and worked from specific areas in the village and these 'viewing points' give misty a shelter and safe place to observe without pressure way behind her threshold. Misty and her mum will be using these same points over the next month to keep practising the desensitisation work and also using micro signal reading. Over the weeks Misty's thresholds will improve as she continues to desensitise and relax further, and in the meantime we will be working remotely together each week until we meet up again later in the summer. It's been fantastic being a part of their journey and a pleasure to have met Misty and her family ?
When dogs like Misty have numerous triggers such as people, dogs, sound, motion etc it makes the world a very difficult place to be; life, even normal life is basically one long reactivity detonator and managing a dog with high reactivity can be a demanding task.
It's important to understand that dogs like collies and other intelligent working breeds have instinctual behaviours that are amplified in everyday environments, which can lead to a heightened state of reactivity. These busy breeds often suffer with loaded, multi-faceted triggers and exist on a minute-to-minute basis. They run on chemical highs, are over faced, and their issues easily stack, and this level of stacking makes everything a challenge for dog and owner alike.When you have a dog that is consumed in the environment, that wants to chase wheels, vehicles, shadows, birds flying over, and hears every sound amplified and then that dog meets a new dog or person it naturally sends them reeling into reactivity and over threshold behaviours as one trigger after another confronts them. It's quite simply emotionally and physically exhausting for the dogs and the owners too.
For the owner, it's a delicate balance of providing enough stimulation to satisfy their dog's working breed instincts while also managing their reactivity. The key is gradual exposure and consistent training. Using time, and by introducing distance as a buffer, and engaging in focused training exercises, these 'triggers' can be managed effectively, and the little grenades can be deactivated one by one. It's about creating a safe space for the dog to learn and gradually desensitize to the stimuli that cause reactive behaviour. Patience and persistence are crucial, as is the understanding that progress may be slow. Each small victory in managing a trigger is a step towards a more peaceful and enjoyable life for both the dog and the owner. It's a journey of acceptance and understanding, whilst you adapt and grow together.
Remember, taking a moment to breathe and approach each challenge one step at a time can make a significant difference in the world of a reactive dog.
