True Behavior Change Can Only Happen If You’re Willing To Grow With Your Dog

Every dog comes with their own unique package of genetics and environmental experiences that shape their behavior. Unpacking each dog’s quirks and behaviors to fully understand them as the individuals that they are while also teaching their humans to shift their view through the lens of their dogs is by far the most fascinating part of my job as a dog professional. It is what I love the most about the work that I do. Each dog that comes to work with me is a learning opportunity, an opportunity to hone my skills as a behavior consultant and to grow as an individual. I like to think of myself as a forever student. 

    There have been many defining moments in my career, and each of these moments has been created by the dogs I’ve worked alongside. There have been a few beautifully challenging dogs along my journey that have really forced me outside of my comfort zone and pushed me to do better. I thought I’d take the time to share my experience with one of the many dogs who have had an impact on modifying my own behavior as a trainer.

    Enter Franklin, or Frank also known as Frank The Tank. A five-year-old Goldendoodle with an engine that could….like really could. He presented with reactivity on a leash directed towards other people and dogs. This looked like barking, lunging, and growling. He also had an incident where he bit a person while on a leash when they reached to pet him. This change in behavior has created uncertainty around having Frank around new people for fear that he might bite someone else. My initial thoughts around his behavior? Reactions seem rooted in some fear or frustration, exacerbated by the leash. Now reactivity is something that we work with quite often, so I was fairly confident in my ability to address and improve his behavior. I had constructed plans for behaviors like this a million times in my sleep. No biggie.

    Fast forward to our initial in-person consultation, a crazed Franklin brought out on leash at a fair distance flailed around, barking and lunging intermittently. I was able to coach Frank’s mom through the steps of a simple engage/disengage procedure. Once he was fully focused on mom and less concerned with me, he was let off of the leash. He then proceeded to interact with me, jumping like a wild boy, mouth wide open, heavy panting and pacing. I tossed food to the floor to keep his feet on the ground, and we were able to teach a few foundational behaviors, but he never fully settled. With any gap in direction, he proceeded to flail around mouth wide open like a madman. This was a different dog than I had assumed I’d be meeting. He didn’t seem like the nervous boy I was expecting to see. Although he did seem to struggle when meeting new people, it was not in the way I had anticipated. I went home that evening and constructed a plan for Franklin. Let me just sidebar and say that the plan I had constructed is not a clear depiction of what our sessions looked like. Boy, did this handsome pup keep me on my toes. 

I decided to focus our attention on his leash reactivity since that was the initial concern. With the leash and reactivity training, Frank did awesomely. He showed rockstar status on disengaging from his triggers, manners on leash in general, and was eagerly ready to learn each new thing we taught. Only one problem (and it was a pretty big problem), it took us about the first half of each session (nearly 30 minutes) to facilitate an introduction with me upon arrival to try to prevent him from losing his mind entirely when interacting with me. Not only that, but anytime we were not directly focused on an exercise, he lost all control over himself and that excitement would bubble over and he would go into “Frank The Tank” mode. I reworked our introductions in a million different ways. We added more space...we met outside...we did off leash...we did patterns….taught incompatible behaviors....we did treat scatters...we did place work...we did everything I could think of...and yet this behavior didn’t seem to improve no matter what we tried. Each of these things was able to pause his behavior, only to press play the moment he was without guidance. I could tell his mom was exhausted and feeling resigned about how to handle this behavior, and poor Frank was stuck with all of the feelings. 

After our third session, I was feeling pretty frustrated and stuck in a major imposter syndrome state. This was not my first rodeo working with an overly excited greeter, but this was different. I was missing something and felt like I was failing this dog and this family. I didn’t know what to do. So I sat in my uncomfortableness, and then pulled up my big girl pants and decided I would do what is always so hard for my ego to allow, ask for help. I brainstormed with a colleague and Boss Babe Trainer extraordinaire, Kristina Martin, then with the amazing Beth Berkobein of Rehab Your Rescue and got really great feedback along with some new ideas. I decided, what the heck, let me reach out to a trainer that has significant experience working with high-drive dogs and who has amazing achievements and expertise in the dog profession, Denise Fenzi. To my surprise (and with overwhelming gratitude), she gave me a call the very day I reached out for advice. Our conversation left me with my wheels turning and I soon had a clear direction to take. 

Amongst these conversations, I had some pretty significant realizations.

Aha moment #1: I was focusing too much attention on defining Frank’s feelings and where his over-arousal stemmed from. I was stuck trying to figure out if he is just really nervous about our interaction, overly frustrated….why was he feeling this way? Because if I could figure out why he was feeling this way, I could alter our plan in a way that would make him more comfortable to prevent this overarousal from happening in the first place rather than addressing the behavior in front of me. I was spending so much time trying to be Frank’s therapist, I wasn’t being the coach he needed. 

Aha moment #2: Dogs are not a “one size fits all”. This is something I knew already, but somehow got lost in the background noise of my mind, so really kicking myself for this one. Just because I had successfully implemented behavior modification plans for dogs with similar behaviors, did not mean those plans were appropriate for Frank...and that’s okay!

Aha moment #3: Nobody has all the answers. Asking for help and having humility is brave. 

    I’m sure you’re all wondering what I did with all of those “Aha’s”....well I went to work. I restructured my training plan with Frank which led us to a really really good place now. We were able to create greetings that he has an easier time coping with by offering clear feedback every step of the way, so there’s no tip-over into explosive “Frank the Tank” land. His mom has become an awesome observer of his body language and notices when he needs her guidance and steps in right away with clear instructions. He has even begun to self-regulate and focus on other things unrelated to our session at times. I am even able to pet him while he calmly(ish) leans against me. 

     I’m so overly proud of this team and the growth I was able to support for them, while I was growing right alongside.