Sen

Bigiella ADM JDM3 JDO; 

MAAD 

born 25.11.2010

Sen is a lovely little lady with a happy heart. I am very lucky she is my dog but it almost wasn't so. She was one of three, and I was quite determined that her sister was the right dog for me. Fortunately her fabulous breeder Satu decided that Sen was the one, and it happened that I took her home even though at the time I thought it might be a big mistake! Sen is the dog that continues to teach me to read between the lines and observe what is really going on.

I first saw her when she was five weeks old. I wanted a bold and confident dog. I did some temperament tests on the three girl puppies, and in my opinion at the time Sen was the only one that failed. Fortunately for future puppies I have learnt my lesson about these tests. Even then she showed a bit of vigour and the breeder assured me she was the action girl. Sen aged 5 weeks (on right): 

 

Time went by and when the girls were 8 weeks old it was time to collect my new baby. By this time the puppy/owner assignment order had changed and she was the one on offer for me. Bigi and I went cautiously to "just see them again before they all leave for their new homes, we don't want a nervous dog". We arrived, the puppies saw Bigi and raced up for an enthusiastic play - 2 of them did, Sen hid under the sofa. She was frightened of Bigi, but fine when he was out of the room. I thought, "crap, definitely not taking that home". However when you sleep on things, your mind plays tricks. By morning my opinion was, "well, if she goes to a pet home, the future looks bleak. Better she goes to someone with a bit of experience in these things". So home we went.

She soon demonstrated that she was indeed cautious, but she was a real thinker. She loved nothing more than running around, even as a baby. To this day and hopefully for all her days her main passion is running fast. THIS we can work with! She was brave in her own way. Unfortunately for her we lived in a very isolated place, which did not give her as much opportunity for early interaction as she may have had. 

Sen at 8-9 weeks:

Sen (left) gets the upper hand on her sister Vilma:

Sen had been home for about two weeks, and things were going fine. Bigi and Sen were now friends. I started to notice that the movement of her right hind leg was odd. I put this down to puppy floppiness at first - she showed no signs of pain and she definitely did not slow down. I have a video of her from this time where she is bouncing on a bed "killing" a ball, and in it you can see the leg issue. After a few totally incorrect diagnoses from vets, in four days I could take her to my on vet (150 km away) and find out that the leg was in fact broken. ASAP we were on a train to an orthopaedic specialist vet  - complete with warning that given her tiny bone size they might not be able to operate successfully.

I am thankful every day that we were able to be treated by a top specialist (Jarmo Rintasalo at Seinajoen Elainklinikka, Finland). This clinic had such sophisticated x-ray equipment that the bones in the films looked like crystal glass - and showed breaks in not one but two places (physeal fracture of proximal tibia, and an avulsion fracture of the tibial tuberosity). The vet said he would try the operation but the chances of successfully setting these types of breaks in cheese-strength puppy bones were not good. I went to a hotel for a sad night. I have no idea how this happened and she was always well supervised. My guess is she did it playing.

Luck (or rather skill) shone our way and the post-op report was that he had managed to set both breaks. The tiny bones now had tiny screws and pins. This was followed by weeks and weeks of crate rest, physiotherapy, resetting moving pins, and finger crossing. End results:

- One fixed leg, best thing that ever happened!!! Luckily she did not grow tall, or the leg may have ended up shorter than the other and be detrimental for her movement. As it is you only notice if you watch closely for a slight kick-out on that side when she runs flat out. It has never caused her a problem since and I hope it never will;

- One dog that had been unable to socialise in the critical period for this;

- One dog with a few very clear associations, all somewhat with the general theme of "...when strangers touch me, it is very painful". Not exactly what you want.

After all this drama we could finally start to work. Sen was not like Bigi - she LOVED to work and did everything with 100% enthusiasm. She was a quick learner, and speed was her thing. She rapidly learnt all the technical aspects of agility equipment, and performs reliably. Of course she benefited greatly from the mistakes I had made in Bigi's training and what I had learnt to avoid repeating these. Every day I am happy that she can participate at all - it could easily have been not so.

Sen at 7 months:

Sen at 3 years:

Her weakness is concentration, steeped in her nervous issues, and partly because she tries to do everything faster than she can sometimes think. She is a "stress up" dog and is also so blinded by the power of food rewards that it can be problematic. However, she has a lot of passion for work - I just needed to learn to distinguish between these things (stress, desire for food, and play passion) in order to train her effectively (which took some learning!).

She scored two clear round wins in her first competition! Mama was so proud - finally some decent proof that I could train a dog that rocked (:)). For her first two years of competing, she did not have much opportunity to train with other dogs or compete (competitions involved 1200+ km round trips, and so needless to say did not happen often). The bigger problem was lack of group training, but I did manage to get a nice agility group going where we lived. When her results are good, they are truly excellent.

Sen 2.3 years:

Fast forward to the end of 2015. After a year of living and competing in the city, I made an honest review of Sen's competition life, and her life around other dogs in general. Great results she has had, but over time instead of her becoming more comfortable with competition environments, she has become distinctly more bothered. At first I didn't really realise the extent of this, and of course there was a component of denial and disappointment - woe is me, I have this very fast and super technically skilled dog that crumbles at competitions. But at the end of the day you need to ask yourself: "Is this a happy dog?" and in Sen's case when it came to competitions the answer was clearly no.

In the beginning of 2016 (after a year of very few competition outings) I finally decided to call it a day for her. At first it was disappointing but like many things when it is the right choice you eventually accept, despite what your personal goals/obsessions may be. I don't want my relationship with her to be about competition failures, I want it to be about calm and happy times with me, where I can respect the aspects of her personality that might not be changeable towards my purposes.

I was partly able to make this choice because I finally "saw the light" about how Sen really was and what I should really be doing about it. This was thanks to taking an online course by Dr Amy Cook, called "Dealing with the Bogeyman - Helping Fearful and Reactive Competition Dogs". The techniques taught in this course are far superior to anything I have read before (be it BAT, LAT, classic counter-conditioning or whatever). I have to say that now I really get it.

The Bogeyman lessons are many, but for me the most important message is - measure the dog's comfort levels with personal play (without food or toys) because it is incompatible with stress - otherwise you are really just guessing about how stressed the dog is feeling. By the time you notice their stress, no matter how skilled you are,  it is already (in most cases) too high for a change towards less reactive behaviour to occur. Using personal play as a comfort measure eliminates the guesswork. By following the methods of this course, Sen and I (and it is very much about changing the behaviour of both parties) made more progress towards confidence and calm in a few months than we had over the course of her entire life.

After at least a year of working this method (as it is written! - originally I made the cherry picker mistake of trying to just use parts that I thought we needed), I started to see real change. For the first time in her life, she could be calm around other dogs, she could be off-lead around other dogs, and she could (really) concentrate anywhere other than at home. This process is never over, but I am very happy I now have a method that works for her.

As a bonus it also worked for me. After that year, I re-introduced her slowly to competing, and what do you know! Finally she could be the dog she can be! He runs are now for the most part focused and consistent. I still need to practice careful management, and practice the Bogeyman way daily, but now I understand how to evaluate what is OK for her and what is not.

Sen's qualifying run for her ANKC Master's Jumping title (November 2016 - a very proud moment):

In the "bad old days", she would come home from competition days (or even urban walks) a wreck of nervous exhaustion. Now she comes home with energy to play and happiness - the real prize! She was even able to recover without mental scars from an unfortunate and quite serious dog attack that gave her multiple puncture wounds. These events, from the good and bad ends of the spectrum of what life can present, demonstrate that for her meaningful behavioural change has been achieved. I feel happy that I have given her coping skills that make daily life for her easier because she can dismiss concerns that were once unbearable.

Sen in 2013 - always my princess!