Moku Helps a Reactive Dog Chill

Daily CHALLENGE & ACTiViTY Summary

Dog’s name: Moku

Date: Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Physical Fitness

Moku was quite active today! Right off the bat, as soon as I picked him up, he “broke a sweat” simply working on getting INTO the car. As I’ve said before, this is an interesting little challenge for Moku and me, which I am determined to help us both overcome – and be stronger for it in the end. What I realized today was that Moku’s difficulty in getting into the car (by jumping all the way onto the seat) is more a mental block than a physical one. I’ll talk more about that in the Cognitive Fitness section. But in the meantime, he spent a solid ten minutes this morning “attempting” to jump into the car. This meant a lot of walking away from and then back towards the car, and standing up on his hind legs, to put his front paws on the seat. While the beneficial results of this “exercise” weren’t necessarily intended, they are what I like to focus on, as I always prefer to think of challenges as opportunities for growth, rather than roadblocks to success.

When we arrived at my house, Moku and I shared the treadmill for twenty minutes of continuous movement at a decent clip of 2.5 MPH. This is a light jog for Moku, and while the distance is certainly not equivalent to a marathon or anything, you’ve got to take into account the fact that treadmill walking is much different than real world walking. In the real world, there is stopping, sniffing, changes in pace, etc. The treadmill provides the opposite, to balance out the free form nature of an outside walk. It also allows us to keep track of Moku’s progress on speed and distance covered over time.

After using the treadmill, Moku jumped into the pool to cool off, and had a leisurely swim. Once he was pretty well dry, it was time to leave and head back to the house where I’m pet sitting, as a realtor was coming by to show the house, and I needed to be there to situate all the dogs out back, where the five of them and I hung out until the house tour was over. Once back inside, I took Moku for a “strategic” walk with the little foster dog, Ranger, who’s been at this house for several months now (Moku has met these dogs before). I’ll go more into the purpose and practice behind this walk in the Social Fitness section of Moku’s report.

Cognitive Fitness

As I mentioned before, I had an Aha moment today when it occurred to me that this business with getting into the car is just as much a problem-solving exercise as it is a physical and psychological challenge. When Moku finally got into the car this morning, he did it only when I stepped into the back seat myself (did not record this, unfortunately). This afternoon, I watched as Moku kept trying to step up on the pile of “stuff” I had placed behind the passenger’s side seat, over and over again. I saw the light bulb go on, though, when he figured out that that particular method for getting into the car was simply not going to work, no matter how hard he tried, how many times he tried, or how much he wanted it to. Once he jumped in, it was a breeze.

Another exercise (I thought I had recorded, but apparently had not pressed record) we worked on today was the command FREEZE. This is to do with the pilot program at the middle school. I want to teach the dogs to stop abruptly on command, and incorporate it into some sort of Freeze Tag-style activity (which I have yet to actually design). We will work more on this at the Mission tomorrow.

Social Fitness

Moku was indoctrinated into a whole different pack today than he’s used to. While he has met these dogs before, it was only briefly and just once. All are pretty easy going, and accepted Moku easily, except Amy’s little foster dog (whom she rescued off the street a few months ago), Ranger. Like many rescue dogs, Ranger has some sizable fear issues to overcome. While he has come a hundred miles from where he was even a month ago, his default response to things (other dogs in this case) that make him uncomfortable is to growl; in other words, he is fear reactive. Not aggressive, but responds in socially inappropriate ways to frightening stimuli.

Moku was a GREAT HELP today! He is the perfect dog with whom Ranger is able to work through some of his issues, as Moku doesn’t have a reactive bone in his body. He is “taken aback” at most when a dog grumbles at him, and is learning when dogs are playing, and when they need their space (and controlling what used to be uncontrollable puppy exuberance that identified every communicative signal as “I want to play, come right back into my personal space!!!”. I go on quite extensively in the video about how we facilitated – and altered - the dynamics between Moku and Ranger in the video.

Emotional Fitness

As I did last time, I count the rigmarole (an underused word, I think) with entry into the car as an emotionally trying experience, and thus opportunity to strengthen emotional “muscles”.

Primal Fitness

Moku’s primal spirit was exercised today when he retrieved items in the pool, swam, and helped a fellow pack member work through his social issues to normalize the group’s collective balance.