We’ve had a few recall cue blow-offs….not any old casual recall cue… Decker’s do-or-die almost 100% fluent & reliable recall cue…
No real harm was done and he was never in any danger but these were clear blow-offs and the dog’s behaviour is information.
What’s going on?
As humans we look for rhyme and reason behind behaviour so that we can rationalise it, understand it, and shape our responses.
Settle in for some story-time before we get to the point…
Why?
A little before Christmas we were out, close to dark in squally winds. Decker had been running about, but appeared a little vigilant, stopping to sniff the wind, and look behind him with a lowered tail, before moving on again. This in itself would be unusual for this dog and I have maybe seen this response a handful of times in his life (he’s just under twelve!).
Ambling along, and suddenly he took off, directly with nose to the ground, in a bouncy gait. I would associate that with scent trailing…and I got a bit of a fright. This is also very unusual for this guy.
I yelled and yelled, and he eventually turned from about 50m away and returned, apparently unscathed. Recovered, moved on and no further recurrence.
Maybe he detected something worth worrying about, maybe his mind was on that, inhibiting his ability to respond to competing cues. Maybe.
Why?
In the last couple of weeks in this location, we’ve met four separate and different bitches in heat. Owners called out, but only one of these dogs was on lead. I mean…c’mon…
Decker is an entire male but isn’t really interested in face-to-face interactions with other dogs. Although, he is all about sniffing the girl-wee and spots where others have marked.
But he didn’t show any interest in these passing girls and I gave them all plenty of distance.
Maybe his interest in girl-wee is piqued significantly here and at this time…maybe one of these girls had passed our way just before us. Maybe.
Why?
Decker is an old guy and will soon turn 12. What’s more, that’s very old for his type, who are not long lived. At all.
As we age, our brains change affecting our behaviour. And as we age, changes to our brain, including atrophy of various areas, impact inhibitory control. This may causes increases in impulsivity and in sensitivity to delays in gratification.
(Drobetz et al, 2014) (Morales-Vives & Vigil-Colet 2011)
On top of aging and an impulsive personality type (which is largely unchanged since he was a youngster), when he was about 9.5 years old he develop cachexia after a stomach/gut impaction and intussusception. This increased his desire to eat all things edible (and many things not edible), and there have been notable changes in his ability to inhibit his responses across a range of contexts since then.
Maybe Decker just can’t resist moving onto sniff and gather olfactory information, continue to interact with his environment and experience glorious sensory feedback due to increased impulsivity. Maybe.
Why?
After a gradual slow-down over the last few months, we started Decker on Librela and December marks his third dose. After his first dose there was a very noticeable increase in activity, silliness and running about. With the third dose has come a whole new level of nuttiness and running. So much running and jumping and go-go-going.
Maybe all this increased activity, comfort and enjoyment just makes recalling not on the cards. Running about is so much more fun and he has time to make up for! Maybe.
Explanatory Fictions
Any or all of these whys could be in play; of course they’re possible. But we could fill in all sorts of details to satisfy some explanation.
What does the evidence say? Ask the dog!
Remember, the dog’s behaviour is information.
When behaviour does or doesn’t happen, look at function. How does the unwanted behaviour (recall-blow-off) meet the dog’s needs? What’s he getting out of it?
What would I advise?
Herein lies the problem. I would immediately be able to offer many words of wisdom to any guardian with whom I’m working, to help and support their and their dog’s progress.
But it’s hard to see the wood for the trees with your own dog.
My initial jump was to take it personally. I ran toward him and grabbed his harness, attaching his line. All thoughts of potentially startling him or poisoning this wonderful, all-powerful cue with my urgency.
You don’t get to blow off that recall cue. Nope. No way.
I couldn’t take that objective step back that I so advise my clients…”it’s just behaviour”, I say. “He’s not doing this to torture you...” I think.
All my knee-jerk human responses immediately kicked in. I lost my objective trainer hat pretty efficiently!
Perspective & a plan
We had three recall blow-offs, one each day three days in a row. In the same place and under similar conditions.
After the first one, I greatly increased the number of recalls when he wasn’t apparently interacting with something specific and rewarded with tossed kibbles and the opportunity to return immediately, or a ball throw or tug if he asked.
We still had a 98+% recall rate so all is not lost. Perspective.
His behaviour is telling me what he needs. And it’s probably not more recall-drilling.
He needs more time to do what he wants to do without me nagging him with recall cues, he needs to get to run around safely.
His blowing me off is telling me that.
We haven’t really been drilling recalls at all, instead working on visual cues for engagement. So perhaps we can work on olfactory interests becoming recall cues too. Make it fun and functional.
Behaviour ebbs and flows. There’s no such thing as a completely learned and certain response. Many biological and environmental factors affect behavioural responses all the damn time. Good teaching makes behaviour pretty predictably but neither dogs, nor their humans, are automates. We can’t expect anything but canine and human responses, respectively, and we shouldn’t.
The dog’s behaviour is just behaviour; just information about what they need. We just need to step back to see it.
AniEd Ireland 