Since i don’t compete much, i don’t get to brag very often. More importantly, Molly’s work has taken a backseat as gas prices have gotten higher and other obligations are taking more time.

If you’ve ever met Simon in all his spazzy glory, this will make a lot more sense.

Last Sunday, Simon and I worked with 8 reactive rover clients (10am to 3pm).  I was concerned that this would be too long and too much pressure, until i tried to put him away in the car while i had lunch.  He was so disappointed and confused; leaning back on the leash with his ears back the closer her got to that car.  He wasn’t feeling the pressure at all.  What’s better – his body language was perfect with every client.

So what’s his job? His job is to serve as emotional bait of sorts. The dogs in Reactive Rover show stress in a variety of ways. If they are super stressed then we stand across the small parking lot from them and the other dog does Look at That. Alot. With one client i sat down with Simon (the other dogs stress level actually went down when i sat) and Simon and i reinforced High5 – really we played PattyCake. For some clients they needed a dog to approach that wouldn’t go batshitcrazy, but show an appropriate amount of friendly interest. Happy ears, friendly tail etc. Some dogs tried to approach, but it was too stressful to approach face on and Simon would sit facing me, back to the dog. In some cases having him move around on the other side of the parking lot is helpful… so we do trick training and heel patterns. Or we walk back and forth like ducks in a shooting gallery.

The dogs have a variety of histories. Most have had unhappy dog/dog interactions – either beater or beatee. The point is to give them a dog that sends them all the right signals and allows the other dog to gain some confidence. As well as setting the handler up to better read their dog and learn some techniques to help them help their dog.

For the Stimulus dog – the emotional bait – it seems to be pretty exhausting. Once i finally got him in the car at the end of the day, he sacked out. Got home, ate, pottied and i didn’t see him again until 8am the next morning. Very unusual.  He was exactly what those dogs needed to get started and they were exactly what he needed to continue to learn better habits.

So while he’s probably retired for cattle work, this work is super rewarding and he seems to really dig it. YAY Simon!

Here’s an article on Stimulus dogs. This particular person uses a stimulus dog for individual cases, but the idea is still the same.

http://companionanimalsolutions.com/blogs/canine-assistants-for-dogdog-fear-aggression-cases

This, will probably be long.  Consider yourself forewarned.

My work Molly these last two months has been intermittent, but she has really done everything i asked her to.

So here is a map of the setup:

When i got to the farm one weekend… my fields were empty. Meaning that my yearling sheep were still napping in the barn. We had to go get them for ourselves. The mud is a little deep.  Molly was a pretty good little dog. We had 1 crash, but after a lot of thought… i know what i did wrong.

I know it doesn’t make a ton of sense… i’m doing it from memory.  The red line is that of the sheep. So they’re in the barn yard (the center box), see molly and start trucking into the barn where it’s safe. The interior of the barn is U shaped for hay storage in the center. we had to continue carefully along through the barn, into the small sorting area, through the footbath line and into a small (8×8) holding pen. Sounds a little hard. Now imagine this: she’s never worked with me not in the same pen. But i knew that I needed to be able to close the gate between the small pen and the footbath line. 

I was watching my feet and noticed a worm living in the mud, but didn’t get a chance to get a photo .

After doing that a few times the sheep were down with the program. So i took my 5, merged them with their buddies in the field and started working our outruns. Specifically not cutting in and coming in nicely at the top. We did a little large group driving, but nothing very far.  Just seems to be the only way she can drive successfull.  I’m sure this is a handler issue. However, she worked a solid 2 hours so i was just pleased she kept her head together.

The next week I took Molly out and we fussed around with the AKC obstacles (which BTW, i love) and she was really great. We spent about 20 minutes talking about what Down meant and completing a Come Bye flank toward a corner. Once we got a bit of a rhythm she was really tuned in and we both learned.

But here’s the neat part:  She remembered all her manners. It was so nice to work her and not sweat some of the little things. I took her lead off before we went in the arena and she tuned into the sheep from across the field, but sat immediately upon request. I hitched her up to the centerpen so i could go look at the set up of the obstacles and moved a cone to use for outrun work and she didn’t flip out. Just stayed there.

Truth be told, she could have gotten loose at any moment. Not like i *tied* her. She broke 1 stay while we were working out outruns. I didn’t freak out. Just said “oh hell Peanut” and she pushed out and got around instead of busting them up.  I think the yoga is working… things started to fall apart and i remembered to breath.

Crowning glory: There is a small sorting pen that also serves as an easy access between 3 pens; the one 1 was in, the field the lambs live in and small training pen. The lambs were put into the sorting pen while 4 or 5 lambs were in each field. Which means to get out of our field, we’d have to go *through* the 20ish lambs in a smallish pen without causing chaos. She had been so good that i kept her short leash off and had her ‘follow’ through the pen. She looked a few times at the sheep, which is fine. She never caught an eye or went rigid. Very polite. I was SO proud.

Reactive Rover isn’t stock stuff, but it’s Simon and when he is sucessful i like to give him the credit he deserves.  There are a lot of Reactive Rover type classes.  They are for the dogs that can’t seem to be near other dogs on leash.  Lots of pulling on leash and whining and throwing a general

fit.  Some times they are lungy, but the dogs in this particular class don’t have a history of true aggression.  This class is taught by my friend Christine Hibbard of Companion Animal Solutions.  Anyone who has taught a class in anything will tell you that having some extra help is always welcome.

We have been intermittently using Simon and Molly as Stimulus Dogs.  Anyone who has met Simon, especially on leash, knows that self control isn’t his forte.  Using him as a teaching dog to elicit a response out of the class dogs has put me in the unique position of practicing alot of the techniques i’m out of practice in.  He’s really doing beautifully and i’m able to take time in between class dogs to practice heel patters and loose leash walking in the middle of downtown Seattle.  Which is a huge plus.

He’s such a good lap dog.  She tries so hard.