Breaking Ace’s fixation
Note: This is part three of a three-part series on my dog’s tennis ball obsession. Click these links to read part one, My mutt has a fixation and part two, 10 signs your dog has a fixation.
Just like any addiction, rehabilitation takes a long, long time. In Ace’s tennis ball case, I have two options. I can either continue things the way they are and allow him to obsess over a ball until he ends up hurting himself, or I can begin the long process of correcting his behavior.
Obviously I am going to correct the behavior or I wouldn’t have chosen to do this series. The problem is getting started because I know how difficult it is going to be to follow through.
My goal is to have a dog that can control himself around a ball and play in a healthy way where he never becomes fixated. He will respond to all commands even if he has a ball. He will have the ability to stop playing and leave a ball alone without me hiding it or putting it away. Most of all, he will be able to play and socialize with other dogs as well as accept verbal and physical attention when there is a ball in sight.
Here are some rules I have set for Ace to begin right away:
1. No fetch playing for 30 days (at least).
2. No dog park for 30 days (but we’ll stay away as long as needed). The reason for this is there are balls everywhere and I can’t enforce my new rules if Ace is off leash in a big area surrounded by tennis balls.
3. Ace will begin a more regular, intense exercise program of at least one hour of running or walking at least five days a week.
4. Every day I will have Ace practice calm energy by lying on his side in a submissive position with a ball beside him. He will lie like that until he is totally relaxed and ignoring the ball. Depending on the day, this could take 30 seconds or an hour. He will also have to do this any time he brings me an object expecting me to throw it for him.
Once Ace has shown some improvements, I will move on to some challenges for him:
1. When Ace can manage to ignore a ball while lying down, I will move on to him sitting and then just being loose in a room with a ball, ignoring it.
2. Once Ace can leave a ball alone in a room, I will work on more mental challenges with him such as me throwing a ball while he sits and stays at my side. We will practice heeling by weaving around a yard full of balls with Ace on leash and then off leash.
3. Ace will get to play with a ball himself if he is totally calm. If he is even close to that fixated state of mind, the ball will be put on the ground and he will lie beside it.
4. I hope to return to normal fetch playing, but Ace must remain calm and in control of himself the whole time.
I have no idea how long this whole process will take. Maybe six months, maybe two years. Or maybe I will never be able to correct Ace on my own. It mostly depends on how well I am able to stick to these rules. If anyone has any suggestions, I’d like to hear them. My ideas are influenced by Jon Katz and Cesar Millan, but I don’t know anyone personally who has actually tried to break his or her dog of an obsession.
Click these links to read parts one and two of this series, My mutt has a fixation and 10 signs your dog has a fixation.
Image from flickr.com
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It sounds like a really solid plan – I’m interested to hear the result!
Ace is so lucky to have an owner approaching this with love and intelligence.
Thanks Apryl and Jan. Wish us luck!
I have high hopes for you and Ace to succeed in your goal of correcting this fixation. I will be anxious to hear updates.
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I brought a JRT home two weeks ago from a family that didn’t have time for him anymore, and he is stressed and ball-obesessive – I’m going to try this plan. I have put the toys up tonight while he wasn’t looking – wish me luck!
Chase, I wish you the best of luck! Please let me know how it goes and if you find anything that works really well!
How did this work out in the end??? We are about to do EXACTLY the same thing with our 1 1/2 year old chocolate lab. Did it work? Can Chase play with the ball peacefully now??
Hey Laura. It has helped my dog a lot, but if I don’t stay consistent he will go right back to obsessing. Basically every day is a new day. He has learned to “leave it” when I say so and will respond to commands when a ball is around. Those are big improvements.
If someone else gets a ball out and I let that person play fetch with Ace, he immediately fixates. The only reason he doesn’t get into an obsessive state with me is because I catch it before it happens.
So honestly, no, he doesn’t play with a ball normally but he is able to leave it alone after a few minutes if I tell him. If I don’t tell him, he continues to obsess over it. I never let him play with a ball for very long anymore because of this.
The good thing is he responds to me and even when we go to the dog park now, he will leave the tennis balls alone if I tell him. I just have to be serious about it and follow through.
Hope that helps somewhat. One thing that helps a lot is to actually take a tennis ball on walks and to not allow the dog to look at the ball. While on the walk, Ace has to heel on my left side and focus on moving forward rather than looking at my right hand which has the ball. Creating exercises like this where the dog has to learn limits are important but it takes a long time – many weeks – to see much progress.
Another good challenge is to have the dog lie down with his head up and then put the ball right against his chest between his front legs. Then correct the dog every time he tries to pick it up or look at it. Reward the dog for looking at you instead.
You’ll get creative. Let me know how it goes.
I have a dog that my husband and I adopted. He is 20 mos. old and fixates on shodows and has OCD. Exercise makes him more wound up. He is a sweet dog otherwise, but more than we can handle. My husband and I both work and I try to exercise him, but that is hard in itself.
So are you saying you should find the dog a new home? That is not always such a bad decision if it is best for the dog and the humans involved. It’s not fun to have a dog if you are always stressed out. If you are stressed, the dog will be stressed, too.
Still, there are things you can do to make life easier. Obedience classes would be very beneficial for the dog. Teaching him to be calm and to be able to stay for 20 minutes at a time would be one exercise to work on. For extra exercise you could take him to dog daycare or hire someone to come walk or run him while you are at work. You could also do dog agility.
i have a 15month old english bull terrier.i think he has a fixation with balls, or a toy that he can not get to that he wants. it like he goes into another world and he grabs onto his lead and wont let go. he has chewed through material ones and lost parts of his teeth chewing on metal. i cant walk him on my own as he uses weight to pull against you when he has hold of his lead. when he finally calms down it like he has no idea what has gone on. Do you have any advice other that what has already been given? thankyou in advance.
I would definitely learn to recognize the behavior and correct him before he has a chance to grab the leash in his mouth. For walking him, you should check out some training collars if you haven’t already such as the Halti or a prong collar. It’s very important that you are able to get control of your dog.
As for the actual ball obsession, the most important thing to do is catch his excitement and calm him down before it escalates. Watch for panting, ears forward, staring, whining, etc. Turn around and make him sit with his back to the ball and ignore it. Do not let him get his leash in his mouth.
You’ll have to keep seeking out or setting up different situations where there is a ball in sight so you can teach your dog to be calm. Reward him for relaxed behavior and for making eye contact with you. Practice walking and practice some obedience training when there is a ball in view so he has to learn to ignore it and pay attention to you. If he will accept food around a ball, then use some highly valued food to distract him for the time being (hot dogs, cheese, etc.), although most dogs will not even care about food when they are that obsessed.
For more tips, just search “ball obsession” on my home page. Here are a few of the many posts I’ve written about a dog’s ball obsession:
http://www.thatmutt.com/2009/05/12/tennis-ball-obsession/
http://www.thatmutt.com/2008/09/20/breaking-a-dogs-ball-obsession-days-16-20/
I was wondering if you have any tips for fixating on squirrels, as much of your plan seems like it might be applicable only to balls. I can’t exactly bring a squirrel into the home to get him to not fixate on it…
Haha! Good point! Does your dog respond to “watch” and make eye contact on command? I would start with that. Start with no distractions and then mild distractions. Use a highly valued treat to guide your dog to look at you. If you can always get him to “watch” then it’s easier to break that fixation on whatever it is. You’re going to have to find treats that are very valuable to your dog like hotdogs or chicken.
And if all else fails, you could always go the e-collar route. I usually wouldn’t recommend this though unless you are dealing with a serious issue such as a dog that bolts after squirrels and won’t come back when called.
Hm… I’ll admit I haven’t taught him “watch”. I praise him whenever he responds to his name, and I guess I thought that was enough. When he fixates on a squirrel, I’ve tried all of:
1) “leave it” — he knows it, but is unreliable when he really wants something (like discarded pizza on sidewalk…) and totally ineffective for squirrels
2) saying his name cheerily (no effect)
3) giving him a treat — I wave it in front of his nose, and then he sits quickly, pays full attention to me, but as soon as he gets the treat, goes right back to fixating on the squirrel; sometimes I try to lure him away with a treat (even hot dog!) but even that doesn’t seem to be really effective, since if I lure him away from squirrel A, if squirrel B runs by right when I’m giving him the treat, we’re back at square one…
4) ignoring the squirrel and try keep going — definitely doesn’t work, and he ends up pulling a lot, badly (something he doesn’t do otherwise)
5) a quick pop of the leash — acts like it’s not even there
6) giving him a touch or tap on his side or chest (Cesar style) — he adjusts position (if I do the side, he hops the back legs away, but never loses the squirrel
Finally, and to be honest I’m almost embarrassed to say this, but I “bite” with my hands, on his neck. I save the last one for when he’s fully gone after the squirrel, as I consider it last resort, but that is the only time he actually checks back in with reality. I try to make sure that I only “bite” as hard as it takes for him to respond, and as soon as he does, I let go and praise him. I also try to make sure to very soon after do some basic commands that he knows (like sit, paw, high five, etc.) so that he has a good experience shortly after that one. It’s not that I’m opposed to physical discipline because (a) I know it’s not a lot, given how I see him play with other dogs at the dog park, and (b) I don’t think a little bit of pain on the neck, controlled by me is so terrible, especially if it means that in the long run he’ll be safer (e.g., if I lost control of the leash or some such thing, I think these “bites” hurt a lot less than a car running him over). But by that time, I’m usually very frustrated, and we’re really not having a good time together, and I’m worried that I’m not leading with the right energy, and that stresses me out even more… and it just sucks.
I guess the main thing I don’t know is how long something like this takes, and if I expect too much from him too soon: he’s just over a year old (we think) and we’ve only had him since September. We’re still working on him coming back when called (he does it in many situations, but not when he’s chasing something, and we almost lost him once because we thought he was trained for recall…) and he does bolt after prey (squirrels, opossums, deer…). So should I be investing in an e-collar, or should I wait it out? Every other thing we’ve taught him has just gone so well that we’re at a loss of what to do here…
I would consider trying an e-collar with a remote if you are comfortable with the idea. It is the same idea as biting with your hands only it gives you the ability to remain calmer rather than get frustrated. You don’t have to worry about your energy being too forceful/angry.
In addition to this, make sure you are providing him with enough physical exercise and mental challenges so the squirrels are not his only outlet. I’m sure you’re already providing these things, but we can all do better. Work on his obedience commands so that he listens to you 99 percent with no distractions on leash, then with mild distractions on leash and so on. Teach the “watch” command as I suggested earlier. When I’m working with squirrel-obsessed dogs, I usually block them with my body to get them to look away from the squirrel for even a second. This seems to tone the fixation down a notch. Then we do a U-turn and continue in that direction until the dog is calmer. Then we head back in the original direction, but I’m ready to do a U-turn again if the dog gets too excited. When the dog fixates or pulls or “chokes” himself, I do not move forward. We turn around.
These things take a long time to overcome. Some dogs are always going to have a prey drive and want to chase squirrels. But you can still have control over the situation. As your dog gets older and you continue to work with him, you should see some results. It’s a slow process, though.
Thanks so much, Lindsay! We’ve got the exercise down pat (I think) — at minimum he gets a one-hour walk each day, and most days (5-6 a week) that gets supplemented with either dog park or another 30 minute walk; sometimes his walk is a run. So he’s well-exercised. We need to be more consistent with his training, so thanks for the reminder on that!
I was thinking a lot about your post, and yesterday I realized that we do have an “indoor squirrel” to help train him. We have one of those cat toys that’s a furry ball on the end of a string, attached to a stick. It’s his *favourite* toy, and he loves stalking it, pouncing on it, and it’s the only toy that when we put it away, he searches for.
So yesterday I combined the game with training and hot dogs, getting him to stop mid-stalk, hovering the fur ball right near his nose while getting him to leave it, or putting him in a stay while twitching the fur ball right near him. He definitely got better by the end, and didn’t search as long for the toy when I put it away. So that might help get him to focus on me. We’ll transition to doing that outside, increasing distractions as we go. And I’ll teach the watch command.
The other thing I realized we were doing is not making sure he’s totally calm when we go out for a walk. We make him sit and stuff, but we don’t take the time to really “follow through”, as Cesar would say, and make sure that he’s totally calm before heading out the door. After doing that game yesterday afternoon and really taking our time out the door, he was already much better on his evening walk, and not only didn’t pull, but stayed in a heel with a slack leash the whole time! That was a first!!
I’m going to hold off on the e-collar for now (not because I’m opposed, but I’d like to try these other things). And I’ll try your suggestions of doing the U-turn — that’s one I hadn’t tried. And I’ll refrain from the “bite”, unless I know I’m really, really, really calm.
Again, thanks so so much for your advice. It’s very kind of you to help out a random commenter on your blog.
You’re not just a random commenter! You read what I write and contribute to the discussion. So thank you!
Okay, so here’s a quick update: I can get him to stop going *crazy* with squirrels with the “leave it” command. He’s still alert to them, but he doesn’t go bounding off. I’ve done a few things to get this:
- I trained him on “watch me”
- make sure he’s totally calm before we leave for walks
- use his “cat toy” (a fur ball attached to a string) as a training tool to get him in an out of prey mode on my command, including telling him to “leave it” and “watch me” while having him sit or lie down while the fur is “scurrying” around him
- taking him to Petsmart and getting him to “leave it” or “watch me” while we sit right next to the bird, hamster, rat and guinea pig cages (you should have seen him the first time we went to the bird cages — he was ready to catch himself some dinner!!)
So he doesn’t seem to be fixating on the squirrels quite so much, and even though he’s not perfect, it’s soooo much better. Thanks so much again for all your tips!
That’s great! So glad you are seeing some improvements! It is definitely a work in progress. It will get easier as he gets a bit older and has a bit less energy, too.