Rehabilitation — A Tale of Patience Commitment and Compliance from a Professional Perspective. By Niki Tudge 2012© After twelve years of involvement in the pet industry and eight years as a full-time dog training professional, it took a scraggy and pitiful little red merle Aussie to teach me a lesson in “long-term” behavior change programs and the true meaning of patience, commitment and compliance to the plan. She had been purchased as a five-weekold puppy from a breeder and then left to live loose on a huge tract of land with an elderly couple who made no effort to socialize or interact with her. They finally had her trapped and removed when they could no longer catch her to feed
Yes, I am one of those kinds of people! The kind that loves a challenge, loves change and strives to make a difference. Unfortunately this part of my personality is often in conflict with the other key part of my inherent being, the part that wants to fix things here and now so world order is restored quickly when it becomes unbalanced in my sphere of influence.
her.
It was two years ago to the day that a small “manky” looking red merle Aussie entered my life. Not only did she bring fleas, ticks, anxiety and a huge deficit in the socialization department, she also rendered forth the lesson book on patience in working a behavior change plan. This Little Adorable Red Aussie, to whom I refer, became affectionately known as LARA.
few memo issued from Rick. Sara, the contact person I spoke with, explained that they had a small Red Merle Aussie in their midst that was so shy she refused to reveal her face from her tightly wrapped body and remained pinned against the back of the kennel. It was proving impossible to get anyone remotely interested in adopting her and they were desperate not to euthanize her, having delayed the date three times already. Suffice to say I visited her twice and tried to interact with her to no avail. I lost sleep over this little dog and her potential demise so I worked on convincing Rick that, since with all our other Aussie fosters we had them ready for their new home in just a matter of weeks, why would this one be any different? When I arrived on my third visit I was armed with a crate and a leash and a rescue group release form, having sought the approval to bring her into the fold of New Spirit 4 Aussie Rescue. I was embarking on a long journey into the unknown, one that would require huge amounts of patience, kindness and hours of training. It was during this journey that I realized the huge transformational power of force-free training and the use of minimally aversive and invasive training protocols. Don’t misunderstand me, all my education and exposure to dog training has been under the umbrella of clicker training but the path I was about to embark on was going to be very different, far more intense and requiring lots of subtlety.
Having fostered lots of Australian Shepherds over previous years I was currently operating under a foster curfew. I had promised my husband that for a few months we could peacefully enjoy our farm with just our own three dogs and our array of yard ornaments, our mini donkeys, horses, geese, peafowl, and ducks. It was during that time when the dreaded call came from a well intentioned animal control manager at our local county “kill facility.” I remember the call well, it was the second time I had heard whispers about this particular dog and this time I could not manage to bury my head as the call had come directly to me and not via social media sites. They had me pegged and had clearly not received the foster cur-
The Little Adorable Red Aussie (LARA) curled up in an animal control facility in Northwest Florida
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