Open Bar at the Track

Well, this past weekend I'd bought some of those cake decorating kits - where you squeeze the frosting out through the nozzle... fully intending to use them as a way to squeeze food into Toby's mouth at a continuous stream. In the moment getting the reward in fast and as often as I possibly can is actually allowing us to watch a dog go past and have Toby remain pretty calm.

So I set out today with some cut-up hotdog in my bait pouch (not a real, high value treat for Toby but good enough for how comfortable he feels at the track for some obedience work) and my frosting-thing filled with blended meat. I'd been hoping to try the Open Bar technique again but until my Direct Stop gets here I was voting for the safety of the track. And well... I thought it smart to test my new equipment before trying it on the road. Good thing too...

We get there, are barely out of the car and into the gate, not even on the actual track yet when some guy walks his dog past. I spot it first and am able to get Toby out into the middle of the track (I had to drag him away from a smell, but thankfully he just thought it was me being impatient). I still new we only had about 100 feet between us and the other dog... in this environment I wasn't too sure that it would be enough of a distance, but by then Toby had spotted the other dog. Equipment failure 101 - always have a back up plan. Because sure enough, when I went to squeeze food into Toby's mouth I discovered the hole in the nozzle was too small for the thick goo I was trying to squeeze through. This wasn't going to be just a quick pass from the other dog either... the dude had to walk the whole length of one side of the track, then of course turned, and had to walk half the small length of it before the sidewalk dips down the hill and the guy/dog would go out of sight.

I started shoveling hotdogs into Toby like you wouldn't believe. But they're not high value rewards for him... he was taking them but more because I stuffing them in his lips than actually reaching for them. So I changed to scooping gunk out of the sleeve of the froster and letting him lick that off. Gross, but effective. We did get some mild crying from him - because we were a bit too close once the guy turned and walked the width of the track, that put him quite a bit closer because of the angle I'd rushed out to. I'd expected him to go straight or turn the other way... not continue on closer to us. Nonetheless we made it through without an outburst...

But we've gotten an interesting new twist to this. In the car on the way home he saw someone so I fed him as we passed (might as well build on calm behavior right?). Then I saw a dog so I was feeding him as we drove past - all calm. I like this. We got to a stop sign and while I was waiting to turn he saw two dogs playing across the street. Now, normally in car that'll set him off into his cry-screams. Instead he whined and whipped to me, so I fed him hotdogs as we drove past and that was that. We were within 30 feet as we drove by (the dogs in a fenced in front yard) and while he was a bit nervy (breath a bit to fast, his eyes glued on the dog, a bit stiff but not overly tense) he was way under his normal reaction level for a situation like that.

Things are actually going pretty good... I think they'd go better if I could remember to breathe normally in the moment things are happening. I'm getting better now that I have a plan for how to handle the situations and we've laid some good calming foundation work for this... I just have to remember to breathe normally.