Jackson, A Learning Tail!

Jackson was the first dog at the shelter who I helped to become a great and welcome family member.

Jackson was an 80 lb Golden Retriever, about 3 years old. I never learned how he ended up in our shelter, but his behavior around other dogs — high reactivity — suggested that he may not have been the most enjoyable family member, and it would come as no surprise to me to learn that this was the root cause for his situation.

The shelter where I volunteer uses a simple color coding system to designate what dogs can be handled by whom. The colors typically indicate a level of difficulty in managing the dogs, and a certain level of achievement is required to allow a volunteer to handle each level of difficulty. I had just achieved the coveted “blue walker” designation – the first level allowing me to walk dogs over 40 lbs with limited behavioral issues like Jackson’s.

I learned that Jackson would always cage fight with other dogs as we walked past their kennels to the outside walking and play area, or when we walked past the play yards with other dogs in them. As I learned to read dogs’ body language, it became obvious that Jackson was always on the lookout for danger, always surveying the landscape to see if any dog was too close, or looking his way, or entering his protected space. His behavior with people was wonderful — a typical joyful, people-loving golden with smiling face and wagging tail, joyful disposition around people of all ages, shapes and sizes. But the moment a dog entered his radar screen the snarling beast would come out and while he never directed himself at people around him, he would lose all interest in their presence focusing only on the dog/threat.

This became my challenge — how to help Jackson live like a “normal” dog who could be in a place where other dogs are present, and maintain his focus where it was beneficial for him and his family; how to help Jackson behave in a way in the shelter that adopters would not shudder at the thought of taking this wild beast home.

Fortunately for me, Jackson was easy going otherwise, so I could use him to learn the ins and outs of positive reinforcement training. He was highly food motivated, so cookies (dog treats) were enough to get his attention to help him learn some tricks. Quickly the easy tricks followed – sit, shake, drop, watch-me. Typically this training work was done in areas where no other dogs were visible, since any sign of a dog would defocus him. Eventually I learned that I could use the mental stimulation of the training to distract him when we were in the presence of other dogs. 

Over time we went from training only in very private settings to training while walking to training while walking past play yards with dogs in them. Eventually I managed to do full training sessions outside the training yards with small dog groups in the yard, then large dog groups in the yard.  I learned that it was easy to get Jackson’s attention with the smelliest of treats and the most fun tricks, as I gradually moved our training sessions from 30 ft away from the play yards to 20 ft away from the yards to 10 ft away until eventually, I was able to sit on the short wall that separated the yard from the walkway and do our tricks with Jackson while three other dogs in the yard were sniffing my back begging for treats. I would treat the other dogs, then treat Jackson and he would tolerate their presence. We learned that we could walk past the kennels safely even when the dogs in the kennels wanted to cage fight by making the walks training opportunities — cookie in his nose to keep his attention while we walked around the cages at a distance, sitting outside of cages with nice dogs and rewarding good behavior, eventually sitting outside of cages with dogs who were less happy about our presence and again, rewarding good behavior. Even the dogs in the kennels learned from these situations as they got cookies when behaving well too, and the training sessions became joyful experiences for all.

Eventually Jackson was adopted by a family with young teens, and became a beloved family pet. We received an email with photos from the family a few months after adoption showing Jackson with a goofy smile on his face beaming with the joy of being a Happy Dog in a Happy Home.

What was missing in Jackson’s life and why did he end up at the shelter? While I will never know the details, it is clear that Jackson missed out on opportunities to learn to be a good citizen, to be a happy family member. He sat in the shelter for some months prior to adoption, and while shown often his misbehavior typically was the cause of showings ending without adoption. The work that I did, as unschooled and simple as it was, added to his desirability as a family member. I’m confident that training and socialization of both Jackson and his original family would have made it less likely that he would end up at the shelter.

But why didn’t Jackson, like many dogs, get the training that he needed?

There are many potential reasons. 

• Often dogs are adopted or purchased as puppies into families with small children with the thought that the dog would fit right in without much help.
• Sometimes these dogs are pulled from their mother too soon, or have little interaction with their kennel mates prior to adoption, and have little or no interaction with other dogs when they are in the stage where socialization is most important for developing tolerance and learning good “dog” behavior. 
• Often dogs are trained as puppies with little or no follow through – the work by the trainer is thought to be sufficient to “teach” the dog, with the pet parent watching but not learning the techniques – how to read the dog, how to communicate with the dog, how to help the dog understand what’s wanted.
• Sometimes money stands in the way of the dogs and families receiving the training they need.

At A Dog In The Family we help our community members and their friends who are adopters and pet parents to learn what is needed to have a great family pet interaction. 

Connecting with our community for advice and counsel, and using our trainer community resources to find a trainer that will suit your needs best will provide you with help in making Happy Dogs In Happy Homes.

As always, share with your friends, signup for our newsletter here, and join our community.