Here's what you need to know about Garmin and the car. If I say "do you want to go for a ride?" he gets excited. He loads up beautifully. But as soon as I close the door and he realizes that the car is moving, he panics. I think that part of his issue is just his general anxiety--he likes predictability and a car ride is inherently unpredictable.
Garmin has always had issues in the car. He barks, paces, whines and panics. Before I started utilizing a crate for him, he would try to get to me in the front seat. He would scale barriers, scratch at the door--anything he could do to express his discomfort. So, I started crating him in the car for his (and my) safety. And although he loves his crate, his behavior didn't change--he was still vocal. Still panicked. And still clearly not loving car rides. As we continued to work through this, the main issue was that the crate was near the back of my car, so it was impossible for me to safely reinforce him in any way. He wouldn't take high value treats (so no peanut butter Kongs, no oink sticks--nothing.) He simply wasn't having it.
It is difficult to modify behavior when your car is moving and you need all eyes on the road. And because the majority of the activities we do are within close proximity of my home, he didn't need to love the car. I just needed him to be safe in the car. Plus, with his reactivity and other issues, the car was always last on my list.
A few weeks ago Garmin developed a weird twitch in his shoulder, so we had to go to the vet. He loves the vet, but I knew the car ride would be stressful, so this time I decided to move the crate a little closer to me so that I could reinforce his good choices. It became clear, however, that he wasn't going to make any good choices (because it was still the car and he still hated it). But I figured we could do this one trip, get the shoulder under control and we would be okay.
But his twitch didn't get better and my vet and I decided to try six sessions of laser therapy. One trip where he is a bit vocal is one thing--but six is something else altogether. Before I continue, please know that we have been working on his car manners for years. I had tried waiting for a down. Waiting for quiet. Waiting for anything BUT barking. But those moments were few and far between. And when they were few and far between, he wasn't getting any reinforcement. Which means very little (well, no) progress. In fact, here is his car ride on July 20. You can here the barking, you can see in his body language how upset he is. He is clearly not having it. His conditioned emotional response (CER) to the riding in car is clearly negative at this point.
Garmin has always had issues in the car. He barks, paces, whines and panics. Before I started utilizing a crate for him, he would try to get to me in the front seat. He would scale barriers, scratch at the door--anything he could do to express his discomfort. So, I started crating him in the car for his (and my) safety. And although he loves his crate, his behavior didn't change--he was still vocal. Still panicked. And still clearly not loving car rides. As we continued to work through this, the main issue was that the crate was near the back of my car, so it was impossible for me to safely reinforce him in any way. He wouldn't take high value treats (so no peanut butter Kongs, no oink sticks--nothing.) He simply wasn't having it.
It is difficult to modify behavior when your car is moving and you need all eyes on the road. And because the majority of the activities we do are within close proximity of my home, he didn't need to love the car. I just needed him to be safe in the car. Plus, with his reactivity and other issues, the car was always last on my list.
A few weeks ago Garmin developed a weird twitch in his shoulder, so we had to go to the vet. He loves the vet, but I knew the car ride would be stressful, so this time I decided to move the crate a little closer to me so that I could reinforce his good choices. It became clear, however, that he wasn't going to make any good choices (because it was still the car and he still hated it). But I figured we could do this one trip, get the shoulder under control and we would be okay.
But his twitch didn't get better and my vet and I decided to try six sessions of laser therapy. One trip where he is a bit vocal is one thing--but six is something else altogether. Before I continue, please know that we have been working on his car manners for years. I had tried waiting for a down. Waiting for quiet. Waiting for anything BUT barking. But those moments were few and far between. And when they were few and far between, he wasn't getting any reinforcement. Which means very little (well, no) progress. In fact, here is his car ride on July 20. You can here the barking, you can see in his body language how upset he is. He is clearly not having it. His conditioned emotional response (CER) to the riding in car is clearly negative at this point.
So, I decided to start some work with some non contingent reinforcement. It was the one thing we really hadn't tried. Non contingent reinforcement seems like something that can't (or shouldn't work). Essentially, your dog gets rewarded at intervals regardless of what he is doing at the time. So what they meant is that I was to give Garmin food reinforcement REGARDLESS of what his behavior was. He could be barking, whining, pacing, panting--didn't matter. He got reinforcement. (So the reinforcement is not contingent upon anything that Garmin does. It just appears). We worked on that for the next two trips and by July 26, we had a lessening in his overall franticness. He was not as vocal and he was responding well to cues. You can clearly see, though, he is still anxious and not relaxed.
Fast forward yet again to July 30. We have been working on this now for about 10 days (three car trips)--strictly using non contingent reinforcement. Garmin doesn't have to do anything for food to appear. I just hand it to him throughout the ride. These videos show a night and day difference from where we started. Clearly his conditioned emotional response (CER) has improved in terms of the car. He actually offered an extended down on his own (second video below), which is something he previously would not do. He would lay down briefly and then pop back up and resume pacing and whining.
This is far from a scientific study, but it does clearly show progress in lessening his vocalization and pacing in the car. All four of these videos were taken as we go along the same route to the vet, so our next experiment is to try a route he doesn't know as well and see if we get a continuation of the quieter behavior or if the change in routine brings back some of his other behaviors. And if we get an uptick in those behaviors, we will continue using NCRs and see what happens.
Sometimes in dog training the correct answer is the one you think shouldn't work. But you can't deny the science of behavior--and the power of spray cheese to help change a dog's mind about riding in the car.
Sometimes in dog training the correct answer is the one you think shouldn't work. But you can't deny the science of behavior--and the power of spray cheese to help change a dog's mind about riding in the car.
And if you want to read a more technical description of NCRs, you can check out the article How to Use Science to Change Behavior. Lots of great information!
Happy Training Makes Happy Dogs!
Happy Training Makes Happy Dogs!
RSS Feed
