koalathebear

Ordinarily I have a training progress table set up for our fosters even before they come into care but it's been so busy and stressful at work lately, things have been stressful on the dog rescue front generally (what with Outcasts and things like that) so I didn't get around to it.

Anyway, I've finally got my act together and here is Jerry's progress/training table :)

Training Progress Table: Jerry the Hellhound

Behaviour	Arrival into care	Update
House-training	Already house-trained	Continues to be excellent. Takes himself outside to toilet. Even if one of the kitchen doors is closed, he knows to go around, through the house and back out the kitchen door
Doorway etiquette	Absolutely terrible. Barges through like a freight train.	Getting much better - will wait if told and do a desperate sit, but is still quite impatient
Car travel	Absolutely awful. This is his area that requires the most work. Jerry is highly stimulated in the car and will bark and lunge at the passing traffic. Water spray does not work, harness stops him ramming the window but he still lurches. He is stimulated by a combination of the engine noise, the sound of the passing traffic and the lights from the passing traffic. Putting him in a covered crate does not work - he tipped it over, barked like crazy and urinated everywhere.	We have been gradually desensitising him to the car. First of all, we fed his meals in the Jeep, then we used a clicker and fed him treats in the car when the car was stationery and then with the engine on. Then we drove him to a nearby car park. Today we did two short trips and he was much improved. We will continue taking short trips with him.
Mealtime manners	Terrible manners around other dogs. Doesn't wait, barges in - although will go to a crate to wait to be fed	Much improved. Sits beside the three other dogs and waits to be released to his own bowl. he is still a little bit impatient but when reprimanded, will stop coming forward and go into a drop and give you sad Elbie Eyes
Basic focus work (Watch), sit and drop	Very excited and scatty when first in care	Good focus in the house with sit and drop. Overstimulated outside the house but is improving
Go to your mat/crate/bed	Goes to crate when told but doesn't stay	Very good about being sent to his crate or dog bed and will stay at night. Doesn't like being sent into it when we're leaving the house though.
1-2 camera-friendly tricks	Seems to know the beginnings of a shake hands	Can shake hands and is learning spin
Assess friendliness/neutrality	Very excitable	Still quite excited when going out but calms down quickly. Got pats from strangers at the shops today and wasn't fussed by shopping trolleys, strollers and passers by
Assess other behaviours	Possible fence jumper and nuisance barker - shows signs of separation anxiety, broke out of his crate on the first day and barked through the night on his first 2.5 nights in care. Also barked in his crate when left alone and also barks when his humans leave	Sleeping through the night although temporarily moved to a crate in our bedroom - we'll move him out soon. No longer barks when crated and left at home when we go out - when we return, he is calm and in a drop. Also fine about being left when we leave him behind. Has also been left in the backyard for short periods to test whether he has any escapist tendencies. So far fine - no signs of wanting to escape and we have low-ish fences. No resource guarding of toys or food.

Optional:

Behaviour	Arrival into care	Update
Sit-Stay	Too early to say	Getting better - if excited, his stays are awful
Drop-stay	Too early to say	Getting better - if excited, his stays are awful
Recall	Too early to say	Good in the house. Haven't tried outside yet as he is still too excited
Loose leash walking	Too early to say	Awful when excited, but actually quite good when he is calmer
Slightly more complex trick	Too early to say	Still working on calmness and basic behaviours

Waiting for his food

Post-reprimand for rushing forward

Jerry Jeremiah and his GooGoo Eyes

Jerry and his octopus toy :) He loves playing with his toys

He's decided that he has earned daybed privileges

Jerry was pretty good at the Kippax shops today. Good on the drive over, got pats and was good around people.

*

All up, Jerry still has a lot of work left - but he's making good progress. We've had a few relatively 'easy' dogs that just had specific issues that needed addressing and Jerry is very much a reminder of the sort of foster dog that needs quite a bit of work before he can go into a new home but is actually a very, very lovely dog i.e. Jerry's the sort of dog that needs our help and probably the reason we went into fostering in the first place.

He's lovely, calm and extremely well-behaved in the house but he's quite high strung outside the house and because we know that he has separation issues/is needy, we've deliberately been a little cruel and ignored him a bit. This isn't uncommon, we often ignore the fosters for the first few days - letting them get used to the house, the dogs and the rules.

He's definitely not getting as many pats and cuddles as he might otherwise get and he's getting used to being left alone, being walked away from by either Dan or I.

For a dog like Jerry, it's also a reminder when training to break behaviours down into very small chunks ...

With some dogs you can jump straight to the behaviour you want but with dogs like Jerry it has to be very gradual. For instance, when we realised he freaked out if he was being left behind, we did things like pretend we were leaving the house even when we were just taking out the garbage or the recycling. If only I was going out, Dan would be quiet so that Jerry would think that both of us were leaving. We left him in the backyard when I left if Dan was home just to see if he would try to jump the fence when I left.

He gets on with our three dogs - although they mostly just ignore him - which is good for him. Even when they rouse on him, he backs down and is very submissive. He doesn't guard toys or food.

When we first got him I have to confess I was a very worried about whether we'd be able to turn him around - he just seemed so incredibly unsettled. The all night barking, the car agitation, the separation issues ...

If we couldn't get him ok in a car and ok with being left alone then he wasn't going to be rehomable. Combined with the stress, I confess to be in tears at least once. Fortunately, with the benefit of sleep, I now feel much better and I am feeling much more positive about him now even though we still have a lot of work to do with him. It also helps to have a clear training plan for him so that the behaviours can be addressed in small pieces.

Also reassuring is the knowledge that RADAR is the sort of rescue that never blames a carer. If a dog has issues and a carer can't handle it, RADAR will provide the resources for training and rehabilitation and in the very rare instances of that not working, then RADAR will make difficult decisions and not just foist an unrehomable dog on an unfortunate carer.

I probably shouldn't talk about this sort of thing on this blog but this is supposed to be the good, the bad and the ugly of fostering. Being a foster carer is incredibly rewarding but it's actually very difficult sometimes ...

Fortunately, we're a long way from that (despite my original anxiety) and Jerry is doing well. He's also super lovable and cute as you can see from his photos :)