Funny Hello to an old mate

[Chris]

Hoping someone can open my eyes to a weird behaviour from Ty today because for the life of me I can't see where it came from.

Ty only has two dog friends, Jessie a bouncy Dalmation and Tess a 14 yr old black lab.

It's been 5 months since we've been able to walk Tess and Ty together due to Jo (Tess's owner) family commetments etc.

Jo rang up today to see if it would be OK to bring Tess up to work for a visit, Jo is unable to walk far right now but she thought it would be good to catch up again. Jo has never brought Tess up to work before as we normally meet down the walking paddock. Ty did his big dog bark and started to get into overload until he got a sniff it was Tess, all happy and the dogs trotted around. Sadly Tess has got very deaf and started to wander so Jo went over to put Tess on the lead, I called Ty back (he came straight away Yes!) and I threw the ball while Jo caught Tess. Tess came over for a pat and belly rub and Ty came over had a sniff and lost it. He body slammed her and got very snarly, Jo was Ok about it but worried about Tess being so old as was I. I pulled Ty away thinking it was a nothing but he did it again. I put him on the lead and said "Let go sit inside with them on lead" all Ok until Tess went to step in the door and Ty barked and sort of lunged at her. I got him pushing but everytime he looked back at Tess he'd bark and rush her.

We decided to walk them up the road and they were both happy as, sniffing the same sniffs and happy to walk side by side, so we walked back to the office and the moment Tess step inside Ty rushed and barked at her again. Jo decided it was too much for Tess and put her in the car, she kept saying "Well it is Ty's place" .

I've been trying to understand were it's come from since he's never done anything like that at Tess before and he has played with Jessie at work but Jessie doesn't come inside so don't know if he'd 'explode' if Jessie came in or not.

ta for any ideas.

[Sang]

Hey Chris, can you give any more info as to what their initial interactions were like back when they first met? How old is Ty now? And how old was he when they first met? Was there ever a time when Ty was corrected for getting too excited around Tess? Any extra info about their past interactions might be helpful.

[Chris]

From what I remember Ty was quite young 4-5 months old maybe when they met but I do not remember anything negative re their meeting. Tess is like my old Bear was, she has this like aura around her where 'all' dogs respect her and Ty has always done that. I will ring Jo tomorrow to see what she remembers but Ty's 3 1/2 now so it was a while ago.

I remember plenty of corrections for Ty around other dogs when out on walks but never when Tess was there, any time he's got too rough or wound up she just ignores him, lovely to watch this old girl who sort of had total control of Ty's emotions and such a wonderful calming effect by doing nothing!

[Heather]

I am just procrastinating about doing my work today and thinking about dogs because I can't get outside with mine...he has gone into a heat-induced couch potato state and won't move from the top of the a/c vent all day and all night...

anyway, I bet someone will ask you if Ty sleeps on the bed or the furniture at home or work, or if you have an excited greeting ritual with Ty? As in perhaps he feels connected to you via the attention you give him, so that when you would pet Tess or invite her into your space, Ty would feel unbalanced.

Or maybe Tess is feeling stress because of her own health issues and Ty picked up on that.

[Sang]

Tess sounds like the prototypical Lab

You mentioned that Jo has never brought Tess up to work before. So have any other dogs ever come up to work before when Ty was around? Or is this the first time that another dog has been in Ty's space?

[Sang]

There could be all kinds of things at play in this dynamic, so it's a bit tough to gauge what's going on exactly. But I'll give my thoughts on it.

Since Ty was corrected a lot around other dogs, he built up a BIG charge to them, while at the same time his attraction was increased to them through the corrections. So you've seen all the manifested behavior that resulted from that around other dogs. But even though his interactions with Tess were always good, and Tess was always fantastic at managing Ty's energy, Tess still holds the form of a dog, which would initially trigger Ty's reactive nature if only seen from a distance. But then once he gets to ingest Tess’ essence, it triggers his emotional memories of feeling good around her, and he can connect. However, even though he and Tess got along swimmingly in the past, I’d venture to say there was still always a lot of underlying tension that Ty was experiencing under all that “personality” of getting along with Tess. Since, as you mentioned, Tess was always good at just ignoring Ty, she never deflected enough energy back onto him to trigger that underlying tension. She was always just a great de-fuser, absorbing his energy without reflecting it back at him. And since Ty was taught to repress his energy through all the corrections and stuff when he was younger, he was just keeping a lid on it.

But now, since Ty’s learning to express his energy more readily, and is feeling much safer to do so, you guys giving attention to Tess would be enough to “burst his bubble”, which could cause him to go into overload. In other words, by giving Tess attention, she was made the object of attraction. And since you’ve been working with Ty to channel his energy into things you give attention to, like food in your hand for pushing, or a bite toy, when you put attention on Tess, that instantly gives him “permission” to dump his energy onto her. So if Ty could speak, he might say, “Oh, THAT’S what I’m supposed to get and channel my energy into. Ok, here I go!”.

And since from an emotional standpoint, the overload feels good to Ty as a means to move that old energy, he continues to do it. It only takes one time for a dog to experience something where energy is moving as a way to dump old energy, and he’ll continue to do it from that point on until that energy can be resolved fully into the object you want him to channel his energy into.

Now, if Ty has also not had dog visitors to his place of rest, particularly inside the house, combined with him now feeling safer to express his energy, then having another dog enter that space would displace him emotionally, regardless of if he knows the other dog or not. And as a result, he would feel the need to download his charge into the thing to which he gives credit for that feeling, which in this case would be Tess, since she is the new thing that has entered his domain and therefore unsettled and displaced the emotional balance of things. In his mind, most of the time everything has been fine inside his space. He had gotten accustomed to a certain energetic balance, and when Tess showed up, she displaced it. And since she is the only new element added to the energetic equation, Ty has no “choice” but to give Tess credit for the emotional/energetic displacement that he’s feeling, which then attracts all his energy to her.

Does any of that make sense? I’m sure Neil or Lee could add more to it, but hopefully there is something there that can give you some insight, or help you maybe see something you didn’t see before about Ty and Tess’ interactions.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by Heather

anyway, I bet someone will ask you if Ty sleeps on the bed or the furniture at home or work, or if you have an excited greeting ritual with Ty? As in perhaps he feels connected to you via the attention you give him, so that when you would pet Tess or invite her into your space, Ty would feel unbalanced.

None of my guys sleep on the bed or on the furniture. I think you're onto something about Ty feeling unbalanced. No excited greetings with my guys either but he does get a lot of attention due to having to mange him around dogs and at work though Mmmmmm food for thought, thanks.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by Sang

Tess sounds like the prototypical Lab

You mentioned that Jo has never brought Tess up to work before. So have any other dogs ever come up to work before when Ty was around? Or is this the first time that another dog has been in Ty's space?

Hi Sang

We get up to 3-4 dogs here at work every week with clients but Ty is put away in the run then were he barks his head off but it's not a situation where I can work him with clients dogs, none of them understand his actions. The dogs are normally only here 10 minutes at a time, when he was young and we'd get a stable dog I'd ask the owner if Ty could meet it but often Ty would go into overload and the owner would get upset so over time I stopped asking.

I talked to Jo and she agrees Ty was 4-5 months when he met Tess and it was love at first sight type of meeting with no corrections. Sadly I think Jo is a bit upset at Ty's reaction yesterday, Jo is in her 70's with a lot of old fashion thinking and she's coming up with a lot of 'human thinking' reasons for Ty's reaction and Tess is getting heaps of cuddles today to reassure her everything is all right

[Sang]

Yeah, it’s getting clearer now. So Ty’s been getting imprinted to go into overload when other dogs come into his space since he’s been in his run without getting the chance to make contact, and Tess gave him the opportunity to finally unload that stress onto something. So even though in that moment Ty “remembered” Tess and was able to connect with her, he had developed too much charge to dogs entering his area without being able to get resolution for it. Even though he “knows” Tess, he got emotionally overwhelmed by having Tess there, since he was “happy” to meet her again since she is a dog he gets on well with. But happy is a human term. In reality his “happiness” was him just getting energized by her presence, which just piled on top of all the charge he acquired from having all the other dogs come into his space, so he unloaded on Tess, who became the path of least resistance for him.

I think you know how to resolve this, but I’ll throw out some thoughts in case you might garner something else that you haven’t tried yet.

So if Jo brings Tess over again, have Ty isolated alone, in a place where he can’t see Tess, if that’s possible. Then once Jo brings Tess up to the same area, bring him out and push with him and get him to bite a toy if you can. When you bring him out, as soon as he sees Tess and starts to get energized, get him pushing with you and just keep that energy moving. Don’t let him pull you towards Tess, and don’t give him one single chance to divert his attention towards her. As soon as he sees her he’s going to feel that strong pull of attraction, so immediately get him to make contact with you and push, and then just keep on pushing the whole time, mixing it up with some heel work, going in a circle around her. You’ll have to move pretty fast, running backwards, having him maintain contact with you, by pushing and jumping up on you. Do whatever you have to do to keep him going and keeping him from getting fixated on her. If he gets out of sorts and starts fixating on her too much, and you can’t get him to push or rechannel his energy, muscle him around, sweep his feet, step on his paws if you have to. Anything to get his attention to keep him engaged with you. Then take him over to a raised platform or a box, and have him fight to get up on it and feed him there, have him get off the box, then back up again, and so on. Do this a couple of times until he starts to feel a bit more settled and grounded.

You already know this Chris, since we’ve had discussions before, but for the sake of others reading, what’s happening is that Ty is getting emotionally overwhelmed by his energy problem. He doesn’t know what to do with it, and it’s a problem he can’t solve. So by objectifying the problem by having him fight to get up on a box or raised surface, you are giving him a problem he can solve on his own, which puts him in control. And once he feels in control, he feels safe.

Only after he’s gone through this routine can he be allowed to then meet Tess. And keep him on leash so there’s no chance of him going at her. Then go on a walk together and come back. Then they can hang out together, but again, keep Ty on a lead or long line. In fact, you can even just tie them both up outside, close enough so they feel each other’s presence, but far enough away that Ty won’t be able to go after her. Ideally it would be great if Tess had the energy and gumption to want to play tug with Ty, as that would really help him channel all that energy into a common object, which would really help him learn to flip polarity and align with her. Which would then help him learn to align with other dogs as well. But Tess would need to be more playful, and from what I gather about her, it doesn’t seem her energy level can match Ty’s in that regard considering her age.

But if you just do the pushing and box work around Tess, his heart will start to figure out that going into overload is not an efficient way of handling his energy, but giving it to you is a much more efficient way to handle the situation.

Sorry if I've mentioned things we've discussed before. It's all a bit of a blur

Hope that helps Chris.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by Sang

Does any of that make sense? I’m sure Neil or Lee could add more to it, but hopefully there is something there that can give you some insight, or help you maybe see something you didn’t see before about Ty and Tess’ interactions.

WOW Sang once again I can't thank you enough, that is spot on with everything you talked about how Ty reacts etc and so so helpful I can't thank you enough.

One day I hope I'll be able to see these things in this light and with your insight and understand Ty so much better.

I'll see if Jo is able/happy enough to come back soon and see how we go, will keep you posted.

Thank you