Relaxation protocol.

Leanne

Leanne

Sniffer Dog
Location
Shropshire, UK
My trainer has recommended I do this with Mas as he is constantly waiting for a command. He’s not (can’t believe I’m saying this!) naughty (well other than the jumping out of the windows etc) he’s just got to be busy - at school this is fine as frankly there’s is always something to do but as we have 6 weeks off now I want to work on this. I will be using this and doing an entry every day... if he can’t get through one day we will go back a day and then move on to the next one etc.
https://www.boulderhumane.org/sites/default/files/ProtocolforRelaxation.pdf
 
Leanne

Leanne

Sniffer Dog
Location
Shropshire, UK
Day 1

Had a fantastic sleep last night and slept from 9pm - 8am this morning! Not particularly bouncy this morning, but am very aware that even if he’s sound asleep and I get up to get a drink he follows me.. despite still being tired.

Completed all exercises relatively easily - interestingly he got frustrated when the random timings came into play - he was VERY focussed the whole time so when it was me moving around and clapping there was no reaction...

when it went from a 5 second down to a 20 second down he actually barked (which is PERFECT as that’s the behaviour I want to try and resolve ideally) so we went back to the previous stage and whilst he looked bewildered having to be up and down like a yo-yo he completed the whole days activities.

Another part I noticed was that when we are training he ALWAYS does the formal down (straight legs) but by the end of this he was doing his lazy down with his legs to the side of him... a more relaxed position perhaps?

He also fell asleep literally minutes after I had finished training him. He’s currently snoring away on the fireplace absolutely unconscious. We are pretty religious about training and whilst it usually tires him out he normally needs a few minutes to play with his toys or chew etc before he falls asleep!

Overall very exciting and looking forward to tomorrow!
 

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HAH

HAH

Moderator
Location
Devon, UK
Lovely picture, very soft and intelligent expression.
Really good read too, thank you for sharing and I'm going to have a go at this . I think our progress will be a little slower as when he's fully alert, Kipper's impulse control is still developing, but I'll look forward to getting to the stage of "Down while you jog around the dog, humming" :)
 
Natalie

Natalie

thanks for this Leeanne - I'm going to print off and have a go - Monty is a bit sporadic with his willingness to settle down and do nothing, so I'm going to try this.
 
Leanne

Leanne

Sniffer Dog
Location
Shropshire, UK
Day 2

Very bouncy today, had a walk at 7am and has been backwards and forwards most of the morning. Halfway through the training he started yawning and looking shattered.. by then we were onto the easier bits so I kept it going but upped the value (still just giving kibble as I’m mean but did stick in a few bits of cheese just to spark it up).

Only bit he struggled with today was the walking around him in a circle. He got up repeatedly to follow me... so we just went back and did it again.. and again until he didn’t get up and then had a decent handful of food. It’s good that it breaks it into tiny pieces.. you can see his confusion as he tries to figure out what I’m after..

The same as yesterday he started in his ‘relax’ lay down after about 7/8 instructions... and as soon as we finished he again laid down and fell asleep. This is very unusual for him, usually he’s quite excitable by training but this seems to knacker him right out...

I have to remember to not be exciting though! The temptation to do the usual squeak and GOOD BOY is so ingrained but the instructions are clear in that it’s to be calm and relaxed not motivating.
 
Natalie

Natalie

@Leanne -Just a (probably stupid) question - are they meant to move around at all between each task - ie - after a 10 second wait I say good boy, and treat - then I let him sit up and move around - or is the point that they stay in the lie down position all the time without moving, for the duration of all the tasks?
 
Leanne

Leanne

Sniffer Dog
Location
Shropshire, UK
I’ve rewarded for each task and have thrown the treat away from the down with an ‘ok’ to get him to break it. I’m assuming it’s individuals because frankly if a dog could stay down for the entirety of that they probably wouldn’t need help ?
 
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Leanne

Leanne

Sniffer Dog
Location
Shropshire, UK
We just did day 1 again. Poor pup having to redo it because of mummy’s incompetence ?

Much trickier now! ??? we did the entirety but i Need to get better st giving the treat when he’s in the down as he tries to get up to get the treat at the moment!
 
Natalie

Natalie

Oh right - glad you said as I would probably have let him break away too. I re-read the intro, and it isn't clear.
Pants, because I normally associate the giving of the treat with a break away.
 
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HAH

HAH

Moderator
Location
Devon, UK
Ohhh, I'm so pleased you asked @Natalie, and you checked it @Leanne - I've been breaking in between each task. Had a session this morning (secretly hoping Kipper would flake out like Mas :)) but actually Kipper found it too exciting and we had to stop after the second sustained 20 seconds lie down as he was so pumped. Happily a walk has solved the energy levels, he's now snoozing on my feet!

Will try again later with sustained down - as we're a bit basic, I'm anticipating we might need to split all the sessions in half.
 
Leanne

Leanne

Sniffer Dog
Location
Shropshire, UK
Natalie said:
Oh right - glad you said as I would probably have let him break away too. I re-read the intro, and it isn't clear.
Pants, because I normally associate the giving of the treat with a break away.
Click to expand...
Yup so do I.. which actually is a habit I probably need to break anyway because it makes it tricky when I’m rewarding him for not looking at a dog etc and then I give him the treat and he’s like Aha! ?

Mas got the hang of the staying down quite quickly though.. although he did some weird push up things trying to get to the treat and then I backed off and pleasingly he went back into the down.

I’m fairly sure he approaches our training sessions with a ‘oh god let’s get the bumbling idiot through this one’
 
Leanne

Leanne

Sniffer Dog
Location
Shropshire, UK
HAH said:
Ohhh, I'm so pleased you asked @Natalie, and you checked it @Leanne - I've been breaking in between each task. Had a session this morning (secretly hoping Kipper would flake out like Mas :)) but actually Kipper found it too exciting and we had to stop after the second sustained 20 seconds lie down as he was so pumped. Happily a walk has solved the energy levels, he's now snoozing on my feet!

Will try again later with sustained down - as we're a bit basic, I'm anticipating we might need to split all the sessions in half.
Click to expand...
It’s actually a lot harder than it looks to keep them calm isn’t it? I noticed when I was clapping that Mas was very interested and straight into the ‘formal’ down that I associate with training... I’m aiming for the relaxed down that I get when he’s snoozing.
On research some people are doing the training on a mat.. something like a towel etc that only goes on the floor for this exercise.. the point being that when the mat is down is relaxation time and they will be down for a period of time to get them used to the idea.. I like the idea for things like when we go to a friends etc but also don’t want him to only associate staying down when there is a mat involved if that makes sense?

Also HAH it states very clearly that you take it at your dogs pace so even if you ‘only’ do 5 at a time that’s still progress!
 
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HAH

HAH

Moderator
Location
Devon, UK
Leanne said:
I like the idea for things like when we go to a friends etc but also don’t want him to only associate staying down when there is a mat involved if that makes sense?
Click to expand...
This makes complete sense, I've mulled this as it'd be really handy if e.g. going to the pub for a meal, or a friends house - but just like you I don't want an asssociation tied solely to the mat so settling isn't a comfortable thing to do anywhere when it's asked for. Also it's another thing to forget and have the stress of being half way through the car journey - "I forgot the settle mat!" :eek: And finally, IF we ever do any gundog training, I've seen reference to targeting boards for positions etc. so I'm not sure I want to introduce too many targets for too many things. Probably overthinking on many levels, but apparently that's what I do at the moment (I've been studying for faaaar too long!)
 
Leanne

Leanne

Sniffer Dog
Location
Shropshire, UK
That’s exactly it. I’ve got visions of Maslow being in a lovely sleep and me wanting to go and make a coffee and him jumping up to follow me jusy cos he’s not on his mat.

I’m not teaching this for obedience I’m teaching it for comfort. I don’t actually mind him following me but on occasion he has followed me to the toilet, I go in and come back out and he’s laying down outside the door.. he has literally got up to follow me and then laid back down.. I would like him to be comfortable enough to stay laying down if he’s still tired.
 
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snowbunny

snowbunny

Location
Andorra and Spain
Natalie said:
I normally associate the giving of the treat with a break away.
Click to expand...
Leanne said:
it makes it tricky when I’m rewarding him for not looking at a dog etc and then I give him the treat and he’s like Aha!
Click to expand...
A few people I follow talk about having different reward markers based on where you're going to place the reward. It's not something I've ever really thought about myself (although I do have a few that have just evolved that way), but I'm consciously doing it at the moment, marking with "take" for when I want them to know the treat is coming to them and "get" for when the treat is going to be dropped or tossed on the floor. It's a prerequisite for one of the courses I'm starting this term :)

I realised that probably wasn't very clear, so edited to add, these are event markers, replacing the click or the "yes".
 
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