Meet Motley

Motley came to A Canine Experience for a Board and Train program late Spring of 2019. He didn’t have any severe behavior problems, but needed some basic obedience and manners. The biggest challenge: he was blowing through their electronic fence system to go exploring and would not come when called.

Motley was a fun dog to work and we all enjoyed his willing, happy personality. He was a confident boy who was advancing in his training as expected.

When his owner called to check on his progress, I was proud to give a raving report. I was shocked when during the conversation she commented about putting all this money into a dog she didn’t even know they were going to keep. My heart sunk:-/

We carried on with his training working hard to help him become the well behaved, loyal dog they hoped for. He’d gone on a couple field trips to a park and a hardware store to work on generalizing his training, did well in the car, handled the new environments like a champ and we had some fun in the process. He was doing great!

At Motley’s go home lesson, we discussed ways to manage him so he doesn’t run off and how to continue working on coming. Motley and his owner practiced developing their communication skills and the new language he had learned. They seemed to be doing well, so we set up a follow up lesson and sent them home to practice what they’d learned.

The follow up appointment was rescheduled, so some time had gone by when I received another call about Motley. They were still struggling, so we got them started on classes and rescheduled the follow up lesson. They had both good and bad days, but he had gone in to get neutered and things seemed to be going better.

I received the call, Motley had gotten out, ran to the neighbors and was showing interest in their chickens. She needed to rehome him because she knew the consequences if he got to the chickens. I had previously told her, if it didn’t work out, let me know and I would take him as a project dog. So Motley’s journey with me begins.

I saw great potential in Motley from the beginning. He is confident, willing, friendly, social, affectionate and cute. My thought was, with some maturity and additional training he could be a nice medical or allergen alert dog. As he was a 9 month pup with a couple problematic behaviors, this plan came with a couple challenges.

Running off was his biggest issue. I wasn’t too concerned with this because I felt this had been poorly managed in the past and he never truly bonded with anyone in his previous family. He became attached to me quite quickly when he had been in for Board and Train. Through the development our relationship and management, I felt this problem would be easily resolved. I found this may be a bit bigger challenge than I originally anticipated, but still resolvable. I will share the charging off story and the solution in a Motley update post.

I’d taken him on a couple outings without issue, but I quickly discovered, Motley gets car sick. He loves to go, is not stressed in the car and gets in willingly. It is mostly an issue in the morning. If I feed him before we leave, he throws up his food: If I wait to feed him until we get to work, he sometimes throws up bile. We are experimenting to help him overcome his car sickness. I will post the efforts and successes in future Motley updates.

Motley loves using his nose and I’ve began imprinting on low blood sugar levels. He picked up the game quickly and begs for his turn when seeing the other dogs perform. This first phase of alert training is to make a positive association with the scent, so he sniffs a BGL sample of 70 or below and I reward him. Once he’s committed to the scent, I will add a paw alert.

Motley is one of the easiest dogs to have in the house, as long as he has sufficient, appropriate chewing material. We continue working on house manners, crate training, waiting at the doors, leaving the cats and chicken alone, coming inside when called, staying off the furniture, sitting to greet, staying on a place and trick for treats.

Outside the home we focus on confidence in a variety of environments with new sounds, sights, surfaces, smells and situations. We prepare for the unknown by practicing various skills in comfortable spaces, then applying them in the real world. We use agility equipment, FitPaw fitness equipment, self-made obstacles and natural obstacles to build confidence and muscle memory.

Training is a process and there is a lot to learn from each experience. As I continue Motley’s training, I will make updates on his progress and share the tools and methods used to prepare him for his future purpose.

I know Motley is meant to do great things. Follow his journey on my Facebook page Trina R Eddy.