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The Calm-O-Meter!

Aidan's picture
Mon, 04/16/2007 - 11:10 — Aidan

On Saturday morning I went to take my dogs for a big walk, sort of an attempt to make up for a lack of good walks during the week. Sabella was really amped up to be going on a walk, and was whining (she is a reactive German Shepherd) and quite frantic.

I leashed up the dogs, but didn't want to open the kitchen door to leave until Sabella had settled down. Why? Because leaving with her in this state would reinforce her frantic, hyped-up behavior. I at least wanted a period of no whining so I could click and open the door.

As it happened, I had run out of treats so Cath offered to cut some more treats up for me so I could do some training on our walk. This meant that Sabella had to wait longer. If left to her own devices, this would probably see her get more and more anxious to leave - but I didn't leave her to her own devices. I rewarded her when she was calm.

When we were ready to leave she walked nicely to the car. We had a quiet ride to our destination. She didn't bark at any dogs on the ride. Throughout our walk we encountered many dogs, including a pair of off-leash Labs who were very keen to introduce themselves as top-dogs in the area (no fooling anyone there, they soon changed their attitudes when they met Django - the world's greatest diplomat).

On this very enjoyable walk I was wondering about the difference between more successful and less successful walks with Sabella. Certainly when she has had lots of exercise, she is more likely to be easy to handle and less reactive. But on this walk she had had very little exercise throughout the week and, in fact, I was expecting her to be a nightmare in all honesty!

The difference this time was that, rather than just reinforcing a minimum acceptable level of calm, I was able to ask for (and get) more calm. I guess I hadn't been raising my criteria appropriately, there was more "calm" available than I had bothered to ask for in the past.

I vowed to make it a rule - we don't leave the house until she is at that level of calmness.

I decided that I really needed a scale so that I knew exactly how much "calm" I could ask for. I thought about all the observable behaviors I could look for, but that got complicated. Truth is, my brain already KNOWS what to look for. It's better if I don't have to think too hard about it! All I really need to do is ask my brain to tell me, "on a scale of 1-10 where 1 is 'amost asleep' and 10 is 'about to smash through a window and bite someone', how calm is this dog right now?"

Clinical Psychologists use the 'SUDS' which stands for "Subjective Units of Distress Scale". They ask clients, "on a scale of 1-10, how frightened/angry/upset does that make you feel?" Of course, we can't ask a dog, but we can make an assessment based on their observable behaviors and in many cases, a dog's owner will be able to give you a reasonably good figure even if completely untrained in doing so. Most of us know when our dog is very calm, calm, moderately anxious, anxious or very anxious, right?

Hence, the Calm-O-Meter (TM) was born. This will easily enable me to assess how calm Sabella is before I leave the house, before I put her in the car, before I let her out of the car, before I attempt to walk past an approaching dog rather than turning the other way and leaving.

It will also enable users to set criteria for an appropriate level of calm. It makes no sense to take an untrained, reactive dog and ask for Grade 1 Calm straight off the bat. No doubt there are some people who could do it, but not 99.9% of the population. Whereas 99.9% of the population could click and treat when their dog is just 1 grade calmer than before. 99.9% of the population could put off leaving the house until their dog is at a grade of calm they know they have achieved in the past.

Let me know what you think! If you have a reactive or high-energy dog, try it, report back to me by posting a comment below (you may need to register first).

Comments

Wed, 04/25/2007 - 09:06 — Jane Higgins
Jane Higgins's picture

Calm-O-Meter

I am going to start applying this to my little terrier/border collie cross, Frankie before we go through the back gate on our morning walk through the bush. There are lots of scents (rabbits, cats, possums, bandicoots) which he is keen to follow and he nearly pulls my arm out of joint until after about 5 minutes, he has 'filled his nose up to capacity', loses a bit of interest in 'hunting' and is happier to trot along by my side (usually off lead by this time). I will reward him for calm behaviour before we open the gate and work forward from there. On another 'calmness issue'........ On this bush walk last Friday, we met the dog that had attacked him in a nearby park months ago that left him a physical and emotional mess. I followed the protocol Aidan taught me that we'd been practising since then i.e. call him to me, scoop him up in my arms until danger has passed. The 'attack dog' circled around my legs looking up at Frankie in my arms and I just kept turning away while the owner called to no avail. Eventually the owner came to the dog & grabbed her collar but then her second dog came up to us too so she had to grab two collars. All the time while this was happening, I kept my voice down and maintained a calm attitude. Frankie seemed quite relaxed in my arms but I had to put him down on the ground to pick up his bag of droppings (I'd had to put it down when I picked him up) and he went from Grade 2 up to Grade 10 - he was terrified because even though the dogs were being restrained, he could still see them and recognised them as a threat.

Tue, 04/17/2007 - 09:47 — Aidan
Aidan's picture

Picking dogs up

I feel I should add that Jane practises picking Frankie up lots of times when there are no other dogs around. Failure to do this would likely result in Frankie's fear getting worse, rather than lessening.

Sometimes we have to use the Calm-O-Meter on ourselves. While the other dogs were not responsive to their owner, they weren't likely to attack you or Frankie while he was in your arms. So it's really just a case of remaining calm, and waiting it out. Ask yourself "On a scale of 1-10, how calm am *I*?", if you're not somewhere between 3 and 4, you're probably sending the wrong message to everyone so it's time to take a deep breath and put it into perspective.

Regards,
Aidan
http://www.positivepetzine.com

Thu, 05/31/2007 - 19:09 — Dogle3

Vivat We have become the

Vivat

We have become the proud 'Mum and Dad' of Derek. Derek is a Beagle (Mum) and Doberman (Dad) cross. We got him just before Christmas last and he was eighteen months old and had spent five of those in the home. When we got him he was very good at home although a nervous dog but very difficult to walk. He barked at other dogs, jammed himself between our legs if we stopped to talk and had obfviously had no socialising. As we walk the dog path and the dog beach and meet lots of other dogs he had to be socialised. He was clever and learnt quickly with the lots of praise method when he did something good. We have always made him sit and stay before he gets to go offleash or do anything, even have his food. This calms him - and us! Now after just a few months he comes back (most of the time)!..

Because we have the long beach to run we have taught him a threefold return method. That is we call, use a whistle and raise our arm above our head - the latter because when he is at the beach he often cannot hear because of the waves and the distance away but he sees the raised arm and comes to that.

He is so good now we can take him into town and have a coffee while he sits at our feet. although last time he did have a bit of a bark at a trainee guide dog. We felt that was good training for the guide dog! He does bark at flat trays and utes when he is in the car because he expects to see another dog on them.

Having owned Beagles before Derek it is a novelty for us to have a dog that comes back when called.

Cheers, Dogle3.

Wed, 06/06/2007 - 22:04 — pos4015

"We have always made him sit

"We have always made him sit and stay before he gets to go offleash or do anything, even have his food. This calms him - and us! Now after just a few months he comes back (most of the time)!.."

This is great news, it really does make a difference to ask for calm before they 'have permission' to go off and do the fun stuff.

You get what you reinforce.

Regards,
Aidan
http://www.positivepetzine.com