Week 5: I Actually Get Some Obedience Training Done and Then Realize I Have a Problem (It's Mabel)

I decided a few weeks ago that I wanted to re-train my adult dogs even though were, well, adults. My job is to teach reading to high school students, so I have this annoying belief that anyone can learn at any age and this applies to my dogs, as well. I can learn to train. They can learn to...keep learning. I wanted to take a real stab at training them to be great out in the world--not just kind of manageable if I keep them on short leashes.

As you know from my original post about this, I found some online trainers to study, cleaned out a little corner of a spare room, and got to work. I reviewed each dog's obedience cues individually in a room with very few distractions and, using what I was learning from the trainers I was studying, made spreadsheets to track each dog's progress. I find this all to be super fun and satisfying, to the great chagrin of my brothers, who are not nerds.

By week 5, I was proud of the progress of Cheeze, Porter, and Gussie, but I was a little concerned for Mabel, as she was making no progress. Although she loved doing skool in the quiet, safe, spare bedroom, I could barely get anything done with her once we walked out the front door.

Here is her loose leash walking progress compared to the others.

This was Week 1:

This was a few weeks later:

She is terrified of being by herself. She is terrified of other dogs. She's been like this since we got her. So I found myself in a chicken/egg situation where I couldn't figure out if I should work on her confidence first, her dog-reactivity first, or her obedience first. Some trainers will say start with obedience and then deal with reactivity. Others will recommend dealing with the socialization first and then the obedience.

Ultimately, when I find myself in a situation where professionals provide contrasting advice, I remind myself that different techniques work for different dogs for different reasons. It's just like people: different diets work for different people for different reasons, and it's also the same for teaching reading: different programs work for different students...you get the point. This is why so much confusing and contrasting information exists in the world: sometimes there's just no One Right Way to do things.

I decided to start with obedience because that seemed like a concrete task that I could work on by myself while I saved up money for the trainer I had been eyeing, but once Mabel learned her cues in a setting with no distractions and it was time to take her outside the house, I ran smack straight into a 20ft tall brick wall of problems. Or really I should say, I just ran into too many off-leash dogs. They are EVERYWHERE in our new neighborhood, including right across the street. I felt trapped in the house because I knew Mabel could not handle off-leash dogs and it was unfair to ask her to handle that distraction on top of working on building confidence and obedience.

Thinking I was smart, I loaded her and her favorite bravery buddy (Cheeze) in the car and drove her away from the house to what looked like a path in an empty field. I took her and Cheeze out of the car, scanned the field again, saw nothing, and decided that even if we did see other dogs, I had PLENTY of space to move off the path we would be on. Mabel was doing really well-moving forward, looking loose. I was trying to praise everything she did right.

About 10 minutes into the walk, two off leash dogs popped around a blind corner and it all happened in slow motion. I managed to turn Mabel and Cheeze in the other direction to try and walk calmly away but one of the dogs ran alllllll the way up to us despite our walking away. This triggered Cheeze and Mabel, who stopped following me and instead turned around to start lunging and barking at the dog to tell it to go the hell away. I got wrapped up in the leashes when the dog's decided to reverse course and fell over. I'm embarrassed to admit that this is not the first time this has happened to me when an off-leash dog has approached my dog-reactive dogs and disregarded their body language.

This particular dog, I don't really know what it was trying to do: What is trying to say hi? Was it trying to be aggressive? I don't know, but it kept trying to get close to my dogs. I couldn't get up off the ground while I was tangled in the leashes and the dogs were out of control. I tried to hang on to them while I crawled away and pulled them with me. I was really trying to hang on to Mabel, who was nipping at the off-leash dog like she was trying to pick skin off of a chicken.

The owner ran over frantically, apologized profusely, somehow plucked his dog out of the mix without a scratch and ran way. I brushed myself off and cried for a while on the closest bench. No one saw me because no one else was out there except for that damn guy and his two dang dogs. Here I was trying to help Mabel get out there in the world and just fucking it up so royally. I should not have been out there with dogs I couldn't control in an emergency situation. We would have been able to pass just fine if the other dogs were leashed, and now, thanks to me, Mabel had learned a brand new skill: nipping dogs makes them go away!!!!!!!!!! Her training was actually going backwards instead of forwards.

After my cry, I walked my deflated self back to the car and took the dogs home.

The next morning, I left Cheeze at the house and just took Mabel. I put on her muzzle and a proper collar and drove her back to the park to finish the walk by herself. A "get back on the horse" sort of situation. We finished the walk. I felt no real achievement at the end, though. Mabel looked scared and sad and I had a sinking dread of the work in front of us.

The whole situation in the field alternatively pissed me off and made me cry. This owner's dogs were not under his control. When he tried to recall them, he blew them off. They should not have been off-leash. At the same time, I should have put Mabel's muzzle on. I should not have brought Cheeze. I should have had her in a walking setup that gave me more control, but I didn't. I had scanned the park, thought it was empty...Mabel had been working hard all week pushing through fears and I wanted her to be happy. Walks with her brother make her happy. No muzzle makes her happy. I broke my own safety rules and took the dogs together. In return, I got what I got.

If could rely on the entire world to keep their dog's leashed, I would have way fewer problems with Mabel, but this last fuck up in the field made me realize that this magical world where every dog is leashed simply does not exist, as much as I wish it did. Even if there are rules, signs, by-laws, Instagram campaigns for people to leash their dogs... there will always be an off-leash dog, wherever you are.

The field encounter was bad; it set back my training and my hope.

I had to readjust my training priorities. Before I could take Mabel out of the house to gain confidence around new things, she had to be able to deal with off-leash dogs that may or may not approach her. I could make her wear her muzzle forever, and she might have to, but that still wouldn't help her underlying fear.

I reorganized the order of priorities. Obedience was no longer # 1, socialization and confidence were. Obedience would come later. Although I suspected all three would be combined a lot of the time, I still needed to have a priority.

Here was the new list in order of importance:

--->Experience new places and build confidence

---> Socialization with dogs.

---> Obedience

Since I had been unsuccessful getting her used to other dogs in the first three years of her life by doing the traditional things (puppy school, dog parks), and I had also not done the greatest jobs socializing my older dogs with other dogs, I knew I had reached the very short end of my personal capabilities. I watched trainers online. I knew there were options; I knew I couldn't do it on my own. I chose the trainer that I thought would use the best methods for Mabel's personality and I picked up the phone.

I have no sense as to how well this will all go and I hope to have some positive updates down the line.

Stay tuned.