Rescued With Trust - Guest Blog by Heidi Steinbeck, CPDT-KA

A NOTE FROM EVA:  Here are some startling 2012 statistics.  According to www.statisticbrain.com, a website that publishes statistics and financials of organizations in the U.S, 5 million companion animals enter the shelter system annually.  60% of dogs and 70% of cats are euthanized.  Other sad statistics from another source include the fact that 20% of dogs relinquished to a shelter were adopted from a shelter. Reasons for return are most often due to dog behaviors that the owner doesn't like or can't deal with.  

Education about dog behavior and training is essential to change these dire statistics.  This is an issue very close to my heart.  It is essential that we stop looking at dogs as disposable. 

With this in mind, I asked Heidi Steinbeck, CPDT-KA, to share her thoughts on rescue dogs and the importance of using positive training techniques.  Heidi is the owner/trainer of Great Shakes Dog Training, educated to train dogs through Jean Donaldson’s Academy of Dog Trainers and serves the areas of Gig Harbor, Tacoma and Port Orchard.

Rescued with Trust

By Heidi Steinbeck, CPDT-KA

Training dogs cooperatively and compassionately is currently accepted as modern dog training.  It is  

backed up with a pile of well done research and successful training for all manner of dogs by those skilled in positive reinforcement.  These methods are not new but change is slow as molasses to humans because of emotion, past investment and belief systems among other reasons.  I am wanting to put that statement out in front of the rest of this blog because all dogs can and should be taught without coercion.  These humane training methods are increasingly being adopted by zoos, pet dog trainers, police, Schutzhund and hunting dog trainers and more resulting in dogs that are more emotionally stable and enjoy the learning process.

Now let us talk about rescued dogs which may include those gathered in raids from hoarders and puppy mills, strays, feral, or surrenders.  Many have had to find ways to survive in unhealthy and dangerous environments, many have never seen the light of day or the interior walls of a home.  Some have been reared like chickens in cages or lived a whole life on the end of a chain, while others had the comforts of a home they thought was their own only to be discarded and left confused in a shelter.  So many wonderful rescue organizations are working tirelessly to get these lives into the more “normal” environments of foster or forever homes to reduce the greater trauma of prison life that is riddled with stress and for many or most, resulting in death.  Many of these canine individuals have been trying to eke out a living on their own, learning that humans and new things may be dangerous to their survival.  Whatever the case may be, they come to their adoptive homes quite often with varying levels of fear, stress, PTSD, health and behavioral problems and gaps in their learning.  

 Now let’s get back to my first paragraph.  Why-oh-why would  anyone choose to interact with these fragile souls using efforts other than those which will instill trust and reduce fear?  I ask myself this question over and over again.  I can’t nail it down except to say that unlike our forced acceptance to advancements in technological science, we are resistant to adopt advancements in learning science.  There is no greater urgency for non-coercive training for any life, be it a puppy, happy adult dog or a stressed out rescue dog.

Any dog can be brought to fear through the process of abandonment, horrid life beginnings, dubious genetic offerings, maternal stress or by just plain scaring or hurting them to get the sought after behavior.  As for humans, most of us equipped with the ability for empathy, the question of why we don’t employ compassionate methods that are readily available and effective is unfathomable to me.

Our dogs are great at camouflaging true emotions.  It is not in their best interest to “show” their fear, since in the wild this would make them easy pickings for predators.  What is often seen is aggression, not the fear kindling underneath or their avoidance in an effort to disappear.  Another way to gain respite from terror is to not do the thing that causes it to happen.  In science this is called behavioral suppression and is quite effective for the dog when trying to avoid the choke, prong or shock of a collar, getting yelled at, hit or being forcibly rolled and pinned on the side.  Looking guilty has also been a great get-out-of dodge maneuver for many as it often keeps the giver of bad things from giving the bad things, even if the dog didn’t doing anything about which to feel guilty in the first place.  When re-habilitating our canine friends, previously reared coercively, it can be a task just to get them to offer a new behavior.  In their minds they weigh the odds of success and failure and frequently offer nothing as this may be the safest choice.  The behavior of an adopted dog may be suppressed for the first month or two before you start see the real personality emerge.  Sometimes what you see are just more of the behaviors that you have been inadvertently reinforcing during that period or other behaviors that could be of greater concern.  What is important is to recognize a dog that is behaviorally “in trouble” and to seek the immediate help of a trainer skilled in modifying behavior without the use of force.  An investment early on can save a life.    

We also assert, beyond any shadow of doubt, the contribution to learning suppression by way of brain chemistry.  It is not disputed by anyone who knows behavioral science and any research article known to neuro-chemistry that during chronic stress our brains prepare us for mere survival and produce a marinade that allows for fight or flight and not much else.  So let me put this in human terms.  If I walk to my car and out of the dark I am suddenly grabbed and held by sinewy heartless hands at knife point with the cold, sharp metal pressing firmly into my quickly pulsating carotid artery, I can assure you I will not be able to answer the question, what is 9x8?  My brain will be too busy preparing for survival and cannot be bothered by silly questions.  If a dog lives this way, day after day, week after week, month after month or year after wretched year must I then explain to anyone why new learning is a struggle without first addressing the underlying issue of chronic stress?  This is a repeating saga in the lives of rescued dogs as well as dogs reared with fear.  The stress is already there, we do not have to add any deposits into that stress account.  In this scenario we must make withdrawals and transfer funds, instead, into the trust account.  Then with regular deposits, the stress account becomes more depleted and the trust account begins to yield dividends in the form of a dog who isn’t waiting for the next shoe to drop, isn’t as afraid to encounter new things or people, isn’t paralyzed when trying out a new behavior and can rest in a more peaceful state.

So, just as we would be with one another, let us be with all dogs.  Let’s teach rather than force what they will benefit from learning in order for them to live with us in our human world more comfortably and cooperatively.  As we become better educated and better consumers, we will, I’m sure, drum out the old coercive methods and lobby for the safety and wellbeing of our charges.  Do it without force, without fear and without pain.

All of the photographs in this post are of dogs who were rescued by force free trainers.  The two dogs above are Lilly and Ringo.  The stories of Hazel and Bernie, written by their owners, are below.

Hazel was surrendered because her owners could not afford on-going treatment for her mange.

She caught the eye of a few volunteers who were drawn to her because of her sad disposition. Believing that she would not make it out of the shelter without foster care, a volunteer reached out to my husband and I and we went to meet her on May 9th. We brought her into foster car the following day. Hazel spent several weeks healing from her mange, secondary skin infections and an upper respiratory infection. Once she had healed, we began working on training and officially listed her for adoption.

  

 Hazel was adopted for one week and returned to us. At that point, we decided that she would stay with us, as we had deeply bonded with her. Since that time, Hazel has proven to us how amazing she is time and again. Reward-based training has turned this once sad, scared little girl into a superstar whose ability to learn and to make us smile never ceases to amaze us!

 

 Bernie was left in a house when people moved out, he was eight years old. His foster family told me that he had been alone for about 2 weeks. I went armed with turkey meat to pick Bernie up. Bernie

was very thin, and had flaky dry coat, he was timid, afraid of small dogs and cats, vacuums and apparently didn’t like water. He also seemed withdrawn and kind of sad.  Every time he approached me on our initial meeting he was given a nice helping of turkey. This helped him to warm up to me and he has followed me around ever since. Bernie has thrived in the 3 years he has been with us, his coat is stunning and he is always, always happy. He has learned to trust people and is now good around small dogs and even sleeps when I vacuum.

  

 Heidi Steinbeck, CPDT-KA

Owner/Trainer of Great Shakes Dog Training