Thinking about it, everything Finna has learned has been because she wants to, because in some way it's relevant to her. And that's where the problem of my Finna comes into play. Finna has her life organized pretty well the way she wants it and strange people aren't relevant to her; in fact getting strange people as far away from her as she can is really what Finna wants. How do I make strangers relevant, how do I make strangers ignoring her relevant, and how do I keep everyone safe while I figure it out. If she was an adorable 10 pound puppy with her huge ears and paws she'd need to grow into some day this would be easy, I'd have everyone we met toss her treats. All her meals would be feed to her by strangers. Unfortunately, she's no an impressionable 10 pound puppy she's 70 pounds of teeth and muscle who doesn't want treats from strangers she wants strangers gone from her presence and she knows just how to get it--bark fiercely and show them your teeth and they'll go away or Mom will drag you away; either way no more strangers in her presence.
Ranger likes people. He never meets strangers just people who haven't fallen in love with him yet. To him new people are all potential sources of interesting things, maybe treats, maybe petting, maybe new behaviors. To Finna they are unpredictable monsters who might hurt her and will certainly push her outside her comfort zone. So how do I solve a problem like my Finna, how do I stop the barking and the growls. How do I solve a problem like my Finna. Can she learn to mind her Ps and Qs and even vowels?
It's an interesting challenge. We're starting with something that is relevant to her and that's her walks. Finna likes going for her midnight walks. We live near a busy church so throughout the day there are people coming and going and in our neighborhood the mail is delivered not to individual mailboxes at each house but at two central mailbox stations so all of the neighbors are likely to visit that area frequently. Walking her at midnight we're pretty certain that there won't be a lot of people to contend with but there will be lots of scent of people. I encourage her to explore the areas of the church where people have congregated and to spend time around the mailbox stations. Sometimes I'll see her tracking someone's trail and learning about them through their scent. The hope is that learning about people through her nose in their absence will make their presence less threatening.
It may be helping. I'm taking her out during the morning to collect the newspaper at the end of our driveway. Several houses down someone was out working in the yard. Rather than the wild barking that would typically have resulted from seeing someone I saw Finna watching carefully and sniffing the breeze. I'm hoping she was making the connection, that this was someone she'd smelled by the mailbox station and observing that this somewhat familiar through scent person was paying no attention to Finna so was clearly no threat.
Finna really makes me think about things. Ranger finds cooperating with me and doing the things I ask interesting. He enjoys the puzzle of figuring out what I want and seeing what happens when he does what I ask. Finna, though doesn't care about figuring out what I want she cares about what's in it for her and whether or not what I ask is relevant to her getting what she wants. Ranger enjoys the cooperation. Finna is all about the results. Lots more thought is going to go into how I solve the problem of motivating my Finna and how I make other people relevant to her but knowing that it's the relevance that's the key faction should help.
With my last dog I was on the Yahoo Groups Shy Dogs, and I read an interesting post by someone. She wrote of dropping her videos off at the rental place (yes, a long time ago) with her dog and the counter clerk asking if her dog would like a treat. The writer said, no, her dog was really shy. The clerk said he would leave the treat (a piece of cheese for the dog), but hold it in his hand for a bit to leave his scent on it. This went on for several months, and one evening the clerk was busy with another customer, and the dog went behind the desk and nudged him for the cheese.
ReplyDeleteDon't know if you have any obliging neighbors, but maybe if they could leave treats in a waterproof raccoon-proof container (thinking cookie tin)by their mailbox or gate, Finna can sniff the mailbox and get a treat handled by them. My Pupper never allowed herself to be petted (until she was really old) but she did like getting treats from people she knew (like the lady we always saw on our morning walks who always carried BIG dog biscuits [and never attempted to pet her])
I think you've done fabulously with Finna.
That is a very interesting idea and one that I can see having real potential. Thank you! And thank you for the kind words.
DeleteWith my last dog I was on the Yahoo Groups Shy Dogs, and I read an interesting post by someone. She wrote of dropping her videos off at the rental place (yes, a long time ago) with her dog and the counter clerk asking if her dog would like a treat. The writer said, no, her dog was really shy. The clerk said he would leave the treat (a piece of cheese for the dog), but hold it in his hand for a bit to leave his scent on it. This went on for several months, and one evening the clerk was busy with another customer, and the dog went behind the desk and nudged him for the cheese.
ReplyDeleteDon't know if you have any obliging neighbors, but maybe if they could leave treats in a waterproof raccoon-proof container (thinking cookie tin)by their mailbox or gate, Finna can sniff the mailbox and get a treat handled by them. My Pupper never allowed herself to be petted (until she was really old) but she did like getting treats from people she knew (like the lady we always saw on our morning walks who always carried BIG dog biscuits [and never attempted to pet her])
I think you've done fabulously with Finna.