[Dog] School Anxiety: Part I

I felt relatively calm as I prepared for our first evening at obedience class. I'd signed us up for the "Polite Walking" module of the Family Dog Basic Skills Series, which featured other modules including Settle, Stay, and Self Control, Come When Called, and Polite Greetings. It seemed super lucky that the module starting 6 days after I adopted Lucy addressed walking on a leash. At that time, my primary concern was getting her to point where walking could be an enjoyable form of exercise, so I could tire her out before going to work. Having been totally ineffective in my own efforts to get her to acknowledge me outdoors/stop pulling, I was very, very eager for school to start!

I found the overlap between preparing for Lucy's first night of Dog School and preparing for a human kid's first day of elementary school hilarious. The PosiDogs website provided me with a nice list of School Supplies, and I felt sort of like an over-invested parent as I loaded Lucy, one of her 3 dog beds, her favorite blue fuzzy blanket, three types of treats, a bone, and her favorite toy into the car.

As I drove us 20 minutes outside of Columbus, I found myself imagining exactly how the class would go: Lucy and I would arrive, waltz into class with our supplies, meet all the other dogs and instructor, get the training, Lucy would--of course--respond well and master the skills, everyone would be impressed that she was a rescue who had never walked on a leash until recently! Okay, so maybe I'm playing this up a little, but really the point is that I expected our Dog School experience to be challenging, but for the payoff to be clear and immediate.

The first moment that I considered that things might not go as planned was when we pulled into the parking lot, and I turned around to announce our arrival to Lucy just in time to see her vomit all over the back seat. My poor girl! I couldn't tell if it was school anxiety (like mother, like daughter?) or car sickness, but regardless I felt terrible. Plus, despite enormous, parental-guilt, I'd deprived her of her dinner because PosiDogs' School Supplies list noted that dogs actually do better in training if they are hungry. Now here she was throwing up the remains of her last meal in the back seat.

Cleaning up her vomit and getting everything into the building proved WAY harder than I'd anticipated. I'd loaded the car in three separate trips: two trips for Lucy's School Supplies, and the final trip with Lucy. Now, I was juggling a little baggy of vomit, Lucy's bed, two tote bags with all her supplies, the blanket, and a dog who was pulling about 100x more than usual. I'm sure there were 100x as many amazing smells, but I quickly grew frustrated. I abandoned the bed, bringing only the blanket, and one tote bag. "Lucy! This way!" and 100 other such commands did nothing to draw "Outside Lucy's" attention back to me. I pulled her into the building, and once inside our roles reversed and she started pulling me.

This pic was from our last night of school, but it shows
the layout of the room: Warehouse feel, Blue floors,
little stations around the perimeter, instructor + her dog
on far right of photo. Is it just me, or does Lucy's
expression give the impression that I was 
subjecting her to some form of torture?

PosiDogs was basically a giant warehouse: It was one enormous room that was sectioned off into smaller areas using moveable paneling. The floor was this rubbery, bright blue foam/plastic material that reminded me of a little kids' gymnastic studio. I followed signs to the back area, and already the setup was different to what I'd envisioned. There were 6 little "stations" set up around the perimeter of the very large space, each a good distance from the next, and I breathlessly collapsed into one.

I realized we wouldn't be interacting with the other dogs so much as co-habitating the same space. I observed our classmates: so far there was a black lab laying quietly on his "settle mat" next to his owner, a late teenage?) boy. There was a family of 4 with Daisy, an Air-Dale terrier who had lots of energy and was bouncing around her station in the far corner. A woman and her husband were sitting with a calm Boxer-Pitbull Mix laying at their feet. And then there was Lucy, who had zero interest in settling on her Settle Mat, panting and pacing around my chair. My own anxiety was increasing rapidly. "Calm, assertive energy," I kept telling myself (Ceasar, the dog whisper's mantra).

Achievement of Week 1: Getting Luc to
sit at my feet. Objectives for
improvement: Sitting ON the settle mat;
Looking at me and not the other dogs

The instructor, a woman in her mid to late 30s, and her faithful assistant, an adorable 6 month old puppy--one of her 5 dogs!!!--came around to meet/greet each dog-owner pair, keeping at a reasonably far distance so her dog didn't get too close. Lucy was the only dog brand new to Dog School, which helped appease some of my discomfort at her less-than-ideal behavior. Her first instruction was for us to have our dogs lay on their settle mats, with their attention on us or somewhere neutral (i.e. not staring at the other dogs). All of the others, even Daisy, had this skill down, but I couldn't get Lucy to relax at all. "If your dog is having a hard time, [**i.e. If your dog is Lucy**] give them treats consistently as they sit. Every time that they look at you, feed them a little. You want them to learn that paying attention to you is a good thing, that good things happen when they focus on you." This technique was surprisingly effective at getting Lucy to sit still, though I realized I was going to run out of treats before we even got to the first exercise. 

Then, just as Lucy had settled down (note: nowhere NEAR her settle mat), a giant german shepherd walked into the room with another couple. To me, he seemed completely and totally calm as they entered, but Lucy--seemingly out of nowhere--erupted! Growling, jumping, barking ferociously. I had never seen her respond this way to another dog and quickly I became flustered. "Let's get Lucy's attention away from Sarge" (that wasn't his name, but it might as well have been). Easier said than done. "Calm, assertive energy," I repeated.

Achievement of Week 2: Getting Luc to
lay down ON her settle blanket and focus
on her peanut butter kong. Room for
improvement: Staying there haha 

The rest of the class passed quickly, though it was painfully stressful. The instructor would give an explanation of a technique and exercise, explain the rationale, demonstrate with her puppy, and then tell us to get up and practice. We'd do each mini-activity for 2-4 minutes and then "give the dogs a break" back at their settle mats while she explained the next variation. I couldn't get Lucy to do a single thing I was supposed to get her to do and every time she saw Sarge, she lost it (The instructor ended up moving us to a different station, which helped significantly).

I honestly felt terrible for Lucy, who was obviously overwhelmed and confused about what I was asking her to do. My own parental inadequacies were painfully obvious to me. I had to ask for additional treats from the instructor, having gone through my entire small bag within the first 15 minutes. I kept dropping things and stumbling over her. I know she is SUPER emotionally sensitive and therefore was feeding off my anxious energy. "CALM ASSERTIVE ENERGY!" I kept telling myself (in a panicked tone). When 9 o'clock rolled around, I let all the other dogs leave before I attempted to get us back to the car. I gave Lucy tons of praise, but on the inside was feeling relatively hopeless. As we left, I stopped to chat with the instructor who made some comment about "Since Lucy is an anxious dog we need to do XYZ to help her adjust." I resisted this idea, pushing back, saying something to the effect of, "Well, she's not really anxious or reactive normally." In hindsight, total parental denial.

Lucy pulled me back to the car, and I loaded everything inside. I am going to save the description of the technique that we used to learn polite walking for Dog School Anxiety: Part II, but for now, I'll end with the lessons and achievements from Week 1 and my reflections from the drive home:

Lessons for next week: 

• Bring a WAY better toy for her when we are "giving the dogs a break." As much as she loves her Lamby, that is not a good enough distraction 
• Bring WAY more treats 
• Wear a sweatshirt that has better pockets for me to keep training treats easily accessible 
• Develop some sort of a better organizational/transport system for supplies 

Insights:

• Dogs pull because they want to GET THERE FASTER. Walking on a leash is not something that they were bred to do and it does not come naturally. My job will be to teach Lucy that my side is a great place to be!
• Walking should NOT be her primary form of exercise. In fact, walks are more important for cognitive stimulation (exposure to new sights and smells) than they are exercise for a dog. Lucy is agile and meant to go FAST, so walking at my pace will not get her heart rate up at all. I need to find other ways to tire her out. 
• On a related note, walks should be relatively short since each one is a training opportunity. The longer we go on any one walk, the harder it will be to keep her attention. A stroll around the block to "do her stuff" was really all she needed at this stage. This was a HUGE relief to me as my hour long walks, twice a day were simply exhausting for me. 
• Walking her is NOT the time for me to socialize with friends or make phone calls. Maybe eventually I can do those things, but during this training phase, she needs 100% of my attention. 
• Dogs are aware of all sorts of things I'm not aware of. Turns out eye contact is a major sign of dominance/aggression in dogs. Sarge the german shepherd seemed calm to me, but was actually making intense eye contact with Lucy. Dogs also have memories. We don't know what Lucy's past life looked like, but there is probably a reason she is distrustful of certain dogs. 

Achievements: 

• Getting Lucy to sit at my feet, relatively close to her settle mat 
• (With bribes/treats) Lucy eventually primarily focusing on me during breaks
• Completing the final "backwards walking" exercise relatively successfully 
• Getting back to the car without dropping anything
• Developing a better understanding of why dogs pull, the philosophy of their training approach, and useful ways to start practicing at home

Overall Reflections: 

• Lucy is still brand new to me and her new life! This poor girl has been through so much. She needs my patience and love. 
• All the other dogs have been to school before. I don't know what they looked like during their first class. 
• I'm striving for progress, not perfection. 
• This is going to be way harder than I thought.