New Trainer - Need advice on how to train anxious, overstimulated, separation-anxiety-prone pup (whose sister-pup is in another room!)

[cphill]

New trainer here! Need any and all advice.

• I'm an assistant trainer, and have just been assigned one of my first one-on-one cases with an 8- 9 m/o pup. (So I don't want to mess it up!)
  
  She should have received training earlier - but was in and out of foster homes. She now needs basic puppy training, and manners, to start. She's had *some* puppy training already, and seems to grasp the bare basics, (ie recall, sit.) I successfully taught her "touch" pretty quickly, too.
• However, I'm supposed to be teaching her "stay" this week. But she barely grasps "sit" (just stares at me blankly half the time). So I feel I need to re-review and reinforce that first. Any advice on this? Should I approach it differently? I feel pressure to teach her what the parents want, and quickly, but if I can't get her to redirect or even respond to sit, how can I teach her to "stay"?

(Speaking of which...any tips/advice on the best way to teach "stay?")

• Second, the main conundrum is this: she's newly adopted, high-strung, and full of tense energy. A good girl, no aggression in her, just a ball of nervous energy. She's already developing separation anxiety and she's only been in her new home 2-3 weeks. She's very much a shelter pup, has shelter mentality (anxious, overstimulated, difficult to refocus and de-escalate). Plus, she's a large breed and that makes it difficult to manage her verbally (we try to avoid "molding" at all costs, though my sense is that this isn't always a bad technique. But we try to use positive reinforcement only w/ clicker training/secondary reinforcement like treats and verbal praise "yes!", above all else)
• Hardest of all is she has a big "sister" doggo, who has already lived in her new home for years. This sister dog is an adult and very protective/loving. Much more well-balanced - but super sensitive. Same breed. They're attached at the hip. Everywhere big sis goes, lil sis follows. But in training, I'm supposed to work with lil sis/pup privately. This means...she is constantly aware her big sister is in the other room and is always running to the door to try to get out/back to her. Like. Every 10 seconds. She is always more focused on listening out for big sis than she is on me or treats. Her tension only grows over our 30 mins together. I try to calm her down but don't want to feed into her frantic energy or reinforce her separation anxiety.
  
  It's tempting to just give in to her whining and constant breaking focus on me, and just bring big sis dog into the room for her training session.

... But I sense this isn't what I am supposed to do?

Advice, please? Thanks so much.

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@cphill The other dog being a distraction isn’t an ideal situation.

IMO the dog has t been in the home long enough to worry about training behaviours. She’s young and should really just be bonding with the family members through play and activity. The play help facilitate biological fulfillment and will help reduce stress and anxiety overall. It would also help increase hunger and therefore focus and drive for food so you might actually get some work done. Furthermore down the line you can work all the behaviours you’ve shaped into play sessions for more powerful reinforcement.

 

[cphill]

@imagebeastmarkbeast This is an interesting point, and I'll bring it up with boss. Thank you! I do think she'd benefit more from social time. She has lots of fam time, only comes to training and socialization 1x a week forna few hours. Maybe social/play time away from her sis would help? Just for an hour or two. Also maybe training interspersed with group play?

 

[maxi00]

@cphill What kinds of treats are you using? High value treats? With that energy, you would need to start small and reward heavily. A look at me and yes! Then expand on that. Start small and easy first (treats on the floor, "go find it! Yes!"). You will have to set him up for success. Success maybe a "stay" of 3 seconds (release them before they break it)
For "sit", are you luring him above the nose at first?

 

[cphill]

@maxi00 Hmm, thanks so much for this! Yes, the treats are high value, but now that I think about it, they could be higher. Also, she may benefit from other forms of reward like praise or pets.

Also, good tip! Starting small and easy sounds ideal for her energy.

I have been doing look at me with yes, though I've only worked with her twice so hearing that a least some things I'm doing right/are correct is encouraging. Becauase it's more that I worry/think that I should just give up or try another way entirely.

The problem is that she comes to me, can do look and a sit, and will take the reward, but then instantly runs away. So, stay right now is out of the option, even if sit isn't involved. She can't stay still let alone focus on me long enough to stay for more than .5 seconds.

I am wondering if I should just let her sis in the room like others are saying? I'm not personally against it; it just doesn't seem to be what the company I work for wants. Also, I think we are all worried it will just encourage seperation anxiety and give into her "demands" or encourage her anxiety at being apart from family when, in reality, she should be capable of her own autonomy for short bursts of time.

To be clear, I know I sound harsh, but she's dangerously adorable, and of course, I just want to make her happy. If she becomes too stressed, we end the session.

 

[rutendo]

@cphill I know a lot of trainers prefer to work alone with a dog as they can stay completely focused on the dog. Quickly show the dog that the trainer is in charge, and make immediate corrections during the training.

The trainer, however, does not live with the dog, the owners do. Training a dog itself is fairly easy and straight forward. What needs to be done, IMHO, is to have the owners there participating in the training. Basically training the owners.

The dog needs them to know how to best work it. You get to show the owners how truly amazing their dog is and how much fun it is to spend great quality time with their dog.

Remember, dogs just want to please you. They want to know you are the alpha so they don't have to be.

Best wishes

 

[maxi00]

@cphill If you see the other dog is a distraction in the other room, yeah bring them in and try. I had a pup that was really focused on where the owner is so I brought the owner in to sit beside me and we practiced that way cause I couldn't get them to focus on me at all.