This is from the lady’s original message:
‘Dan is showing obsessive behaviour signs, especially with water and now with his ball. If he gets into any water – the sea, a river, a large puddle – he is obsessed. Not sure if it’s shadows/light/ movement but he will stay in there to the point of hyperthermia’.
I’m getting desperate.
On one occasion, and the last time the lady had him off lead near water, he drank so much sea water that he was seriously ill. He wouldn’t come out of the water.
Interestingly, the behaviour is only in shallow water. On their boat he takes no notice of the surrounding sea until they get into the dinghy to get to the shore. Then he fixates on reflections in the moving water.
This is a puzzle and needs some new ideas.
Unusually for a dog with abnormal repetitive behaviours, Dan is generally a calm dog.
However, a degree of arousal is part of the trigger.
They live by the sea with the beach being the best walks. Dan associates the sea with ball play. He’s now also becoming obsessed with guarding and possessing the ball. Obsessed with repetitive ball chasing.
Playing ball on the beach will pump him up. Pumped up, he will be much more likely to start on the water.
Then his compulsion to be in it, to leap onto reflections and try to catch or eat them is overwhelming. It’s like an addictive drug. The more he does it, the more he wants. It’s a merry go round of frustration, chasing something he can never catch.
Removing something means replacing it with something else.
We are talking about management – removing all balls and keeping well away from any shallow water. And we are also talking about removing the OCD-type behaviour. In both cases, the vacuum then needs filling with another behaviour that is incompatible with the one we want to extinguish.
This is a trial – an experiment.
A floating ball: the ‘incompatible behaviour’ approach
The ball that I’m thinking of is, to my knowledge and experience with my own dogs, dentable but indestructible. The blurb calls it a ‘floating’ ball and there is a size that is larger than a standard ball. They are also made with a rope attached.
The first thing is to work on the ball – let’s call it a ‘not-ball’
The not-ball isn’t for catching. The not-ball is for fetching from somewhere it’s been placed and bringing back. So, first the dog will learn that it’s a thing you exchange for food. That’s all.
This lightweight ball is not a toy.
It’s not something to chase.
The next step is for Dan to learn to pick it up and give it in exchange for food. Then to pick it up from somewhere else. Finally to pick it up from his water bowl and return it for food.
The lady has trained Dan well, so this shouldn’t be too difficult.
Now we are into water, we gradually increase the amount of water. Washing up bowl to puddle to paddling pool to stream etc. The sea will come last.
Dan should enter the water thinking of coming out again (with the not-ball). Not thinking about the water at all.
A clicker-type marker: the capturing the desired behaviour approach
Now the lady will teach Dan to understand that when he hears the click, or the word ‘Yes’, it’s followed by food. It captures the moment he does something.
It’s not a big step to imagine him being near water. Not too near though – and each time he looks away from it or moves away, the lady marks and rewards that moment.
Again she will start at step one with small volumes of water. She then can build up to walking on the beach at a distance from the sea and with Dan on a long line.
I shall be very interested indeed to see how this case progresses.
