More play with Poppy

Some Q&As with Mark the trainer:

Q: Poppy seems to be running free right next to a road.  Isn't this irresponsible?

A: Poppy is a very high energy young dog and enjoys and can really benefit from some intense exercise.  Because I wanted to give her the opportunity to run and play on a large scale I did training with her with a remote training collar to learn the boundaries of the park and to come reliably and enthusiastically when called.  This training went really quickly and easily for Poppy and gave her the opportunity for real freedom to play and exercise particularly with other dogs.  Also the street this park is on is a dead-end street with very little traffic.  I would not allow her this freedom in a highly trafficked area or a high speed road regardless of good training.

Q: Why not use the dog park instead?

A: I don't recommend dog parks in general but especially not for any dog with training issues. Dog parks in general are extremely unstructured and uncontrolled environments quite often with dogs that are very inappropriate and owners that make little or no meaningful effort to control their dogs.  In the case of a dog like Poppy taking her into an enclosed space with ten or twenty people would be a complete emotional overload and unproductive experience for her. A consistent rule of training is that we try to only expose dogs to levels of stress that we can help them overcome through reward-based training in a controlled and productive environment.

Poppy has a ball!

Poppy has a puppy of her very own!



Poppy at Play

One of the great things about Poppy is that she is always happy to see other dogs and likes to interact and play with them.  She is fun with other dogs but she can be overly enthusiastic for an older or insecure dog.

Attention from my people?

 

Once Poppy moves past her initial state of panic and becomes comfortable with a particular person she is a very social dog who loves attention. So far with training she has learned to make this adjustment more and more quickly but continues to need consistent training help during the process of meeting new people.  With some people she only has to go through this cycle once and is fine with future interactions with that person.  With other people she has to go through the process each time she meets them, which could mean when they leave the room and re-enter the room with each time being easier for her. There has yet to be anyone that she can't adjust to and eventually be comfortable with.  Fortunately, in spite of how significant a problem this is for her, as yet, we have not seen any aggression towards anyone.  Certainly a wonderful thing about Poppy!

Poppy taking time to smell the flowers

And the work begins!

During her first two weeks with Mark, Poppy was extremely shy and panicked in the face of most new things – especially new people.  This is a video of Poppy after approximately two weeks of training.  Mark took her on a two mile hike where she ran into a number of dogs and people and did reasonably well along the way with training help.  Towards the end of their hike they reached a spot where there were a number of people and dogs clustered together.  As is seen in this video, Poppy is fairly overwhelmed by the presence of these people even though they are not near her or focused on her. Earlier on the walk Mark had been able to use food rewards to help her remain relatively calm and relaxed which was a nice improvement for her at this time but upon seeing the group of people she was too overwhelmed to take food.  Even though she has made great strides in the first few weeks of training, this shows that she still has a lot more work ahead of her.

Poppy's Story

Poppy and three of her siblings were spotted one day on the side of a rural Virginia road, all crammed in one small crate on a very hot day on the steaming heat of a cement parking lot.  They were accompanied by a woman with a sign indicating that the puppies were for sale.  A concerned passerby was so bothered by the conditions in which the puppies were kept that they immediately purchased all of the pups and reached out to HART for assistance in placing them in good and loving forever homes.

 

Poppy was the shyest and most fearful of the litter and HART felt it was important to rehabilitate Poppy prior to finding her forever home.  This blog follows her journey...