Day 3

I did the Scent and Stability challenge, and as I wrote in my notes, I was interested to see that Cheddar was totally focused while he was going through the different scents and treats, happily walking all over the different surfaces, but once he had been over everything (checking twice to make sure he hadn’t missed anything), he seemed to get a bit nervous, licking and yawning and looking at me… it was an interesting shift.

I think he may have been reverting to his old ways, he was self soothing as he didn't know what should happen next. When he looked up to you he was waiting for your guidance, maybe next time it would be good for you to reassure him with a positive praise. You can say: Yes, good job Cheddar- and give him a little scratch as you encourage him to do it again or move on to a little snuggle session.

Hi Leigh,
Isabela has made some good points, do any of them resonate?
What are your thoughts on the reason for Cheddar's reaction when he had finished? Can you analyse your thoughts of him being a bit nervous further? And how did you work together to resolve his feelings?

Actually, I had done those things at the time but he still seemed a bit nervous. What did seem to help was almost “releasing” him from the activity by moving rooms and then relaxing in there. He seemed to calm down after that.

Hi Leigh: Traumatised dogs need more processing time. Think of it as making a pathway through a jungle, versus a pathway through a meadow. The meadow is easier. You could think of these two environments as the density trauma plays in our brain landscapes. Our brains are capable of this wonderful plasticity to can make new pathways with positive experiences vs negative, but depending on what they are working with, jungle or meadow, it makes take finding the optimal frequency of the experience and planned resting time. Use a journal and track time, frequency and downtime all while maintaining the green pathways.