Kippy, Wallflower to Center Stage

This is the story of Kippy, a 3-year-old female Coton de Tulear. Purchased from a breeder at the age of 12 weeks and shipped cross-country to her new home in California, Kippy had a history of being very shy with new people. When we first met, Kippy was 18 months of age. Her owner, Lynne, wanted to enroll Kippy and her “brother,” Kosmo, in the doggy dayschool program.

Her brother, Kosmo, also a Coton, was 8 months of age when we met for the first time. Kosmo is outgoing and quite the social butterfly. He took to training like a fish to water, quickly figuring out what the clicker was telling him and enjoyed every minute of the half-hour training sessions.

Kippy, on the other hand, avoided being picked up, submissively urinated when she was picked up, and ran away from me if I didn’t have her on a leash. The problem was that she had never really been on a leash much so even that was terrifying to her. Quickly realizing how traumatic it was for her to have to interact with me at all, I let Kippy sit up on a tall high-backed bench while I worked with Kosmo. Several times during the training session with Kosmo, I would briefly go over to Kippy and give her treats. My goal was just to get her to relax in my presence and to associate me with good things, i.e., the treats.

After two weeks, Kippy was still on the bench. Although she had progressed to learning to touch her nose to an outstretched finger (her owner practiced that at home, as well), she was clearly terrified that I would try and interact with her one on one. Meanwhile, Kosmo had learned to sit, down, walk nicely on a leash, and spin on cue. He was his momma’s shining star.

One day, I set Kippy on the floor with Kosmo, hoping that she would now be comfortable enough with me—and with the added presence of Kosmo—to interact directly with me.

It worked! She was much better even though she would still avoid any movement toward her. I decided to simply click anything that she did and see if I could get her to make the connection between her behavior and the click. Again, it worked! She now understood that she could make this person give her a treat. At this time I was working her with a leash, but she was just dragging it around. The leash was simply on for safety (to prevent door dashing as we were working in the lobby of the daycare center) and to enable me to pick her up because she would still run from being picked up.

Each session started with both dogs working together, but then I would put Kippy back on her bench so that I could concentrate on Kosmo. Occasionally, I would take a break from training Kosmo and do some finger targeting with Kippy, but most of the time I focused on Kosmo since their owner understood that Kippy was going to be slow-going, and she wanted Kosmo to keep progressing.

One day, after putting Kippy on her bench, I returned to work with Kosmo only to find that Kippy had jumped off the bench to join in the fun, pushing her way in front of Kosmo for the treats. This was a huge milestone!!!! From that day, Kippy would not be left out of the training game. If you put her on the bench, quick as a bunny she’d hop down and prance around, vying for attention.

Soon, I began to split the half-hour training session between the two dogs, Kippy now perfectly happy to work one on one without her brother being present. I also had my training partner, Nikki Myers, start working with Kippy and Kosmo. Kippy quickly learned that she could “operate” Nikki as well!

We began doing some “free shaping” with Kippy, which means we would click anything she offered. This teaches dogs to freely offer behavior in order to get the click and the treat. It also helps teach a dog that it is in their power to find a behavior that will earn them the click.

Next, we took one of many of her new offered behaviors, e.g., jumping up and backwards in excitement, and then progressively “shaped” something out of that. Kippy now has a too-too cute toss of the head and prance backwards. Next, she learned to spin, outdoing her brother in both speed, height, and enthusiasm. She has since learned:

• Sit
• Down
• Walk on a leash
• Check it (explore something she is afraid of by walking to it and touching her nose to it)
• Say Please (bark on cue)
• Chin (place chin on the floor)
• Hoop (jump through the hoola-hoo)
• Come
• Here (touch nose to hand)

Kippy has now performed in front of an audience at the daring duo’s joint birthday party, executing synchronized spins with her brother, and has delighted her family and friends with her tricks. She has come such a long, long way.

Most importantly, she is no longer the wallflower, shying away from people. Best yet, she makes the world go around.

Terry Long, CPDT
Nikki Myers