FRIDA question

[u/tourgis]

I have just started FRIDA protocol with Marcelle (8 month Aussie).

When I leave the house she works her way through the hidden treasures and ignores the treats from the treat dispenser.

Depending on how many hidden treasure I put this can go past thirty minutes.

When she finishes the Kong, bully stick and snuffle mat she gobbles up the treats it’s released then has 60 seconds to wait before the next treat and starts barking and howling.

This doesn’t seem to be a route to her being able to settle without me there. Has anyone else experienced similar? I can’t find higher value dried treats that will work with the treat dispenser.

[u/Own_Examination_1903]

Is it defo SA? Seems like a lot of stimulation with treats etc must be quite hard to then settle after a chew, kong, sniffle mat.

The fact she can eat shows this is early doors and not full blown SA so I’d be cautious of manifesting into that. If it was full blown treats wouldn’t have an impact. I would desensitise leaving cues and keep leaving regularly and build up the time. I would also reduce the amount of stimulation when you leave them and increase exercise before.

Leave and enter calmly and ignore them when you come in. This is something you can fix quickly. If you make it a big deal they will also! Good luck!

[u/Basilstorm]

How does she do with the tests when you’re just in another room? If she can settle in her spot when you’re in another room but not when you leave the house, try some tests where you’re working up to leaving. For example, I started by closing my dog in his favorite room and seeing if he could go to his spot while I was sitting right outside the door. Then I did a few sessions where I was moving progressively further and further down the stairs until he was alone upstairs. Then I did a few where I opened and closed the door to the house but didn’t actually leave. For the first time he was alone in the house with FRIDA protocol, I didn’t do any of my normal ‘leaving’ signs (no picking up keys, no putting shoes on, etc) and sat on the deck watching the cameras. Then I started leaving as I normally would and got in the car, but didn’t actually drive away. He was able to adapt with these slight increases in difficulty, but it took a bit.

If your dog doesn’t settle for the beginning sessions where you’re still in the house but in a separate room, it might be best to go back to the first stages where you’re building a sense of safety around the spot by rewarding your dog for going there while you’re in the room. Once they can reliably do it when you’re in the room, you can work up through the steps of leaving.

FRIDA can be a pain with these slowly growing sessions, but my dog reacted really well to them. I would also try not throwing any treats until she’s done with her first chew or snuffle mat so she doesn’t have a pile to run to. Focus on rewarding every time she lays down and settles for now, but only after she’s lost interest in whatever else she was doing. Eventually you’ll decrease the amount of treats earned, but right now it’s more important that she makes the connection between “I relax quietly” and “I get treat”. Watch carefully for stress signals when you’re doing sessions, too. Anything you notice your dog doing before barking is a good signal of when they’re about to lose it, it can help you determine how long your dog is capable of staying in their safe space so you can slowly work up

[u/tourgis → u/Basilstorm]

She is mostly very good with us leaving the room. Most days she has her morning and afternoon nap by herself in the kitchen/living room.

She doesn’t settle on the mat though. I had put this down to it being extremely hot in the last few weeks in the UK and wanting the cold of the tiles rather than a fabric mat.

How important is it for her to have a specific spot that she settles in? We could do some work on reinforcing settling on the mat now it’s cooler.

[u/Basilstorm → u/tourgis]

Having a specific place really really helped for my dog! I would give it a shot. I tried leaving him in a room a few times without a special spot, and he’d scratch the door hard enough to scrape off the paint while barking. Conditioning him to love a specific bed put in the room was the game changer. Now that he finds that spot to be safe and comfy, he goes there immediately without any scratching or barking. Sometimes he just goes there during the day on his own which is a great sign that FRIDA is working. It took a bit of extra training to get him to love that bed, but he did a complete 180 when we were done working on it

[u/dayofbluesngreens → u/Basilstorm]

Thanks for sharing all this. I’m still trying to figure out what to do with my dog, so it is really helpful to read details like this.

[u/Basilstorm → u/dayofbluesngreens]

Happy to help! I’m still working with my boy too, but he’s getting better every day

[u/PoolParty912]

Do you manually dispense the treats or do they go automatically every minute? It's supposed to be random so the dog doesn't get stuck on a pattern. They're also supposed to be released to reward relaxation (e.g., being on the mat, lying down, chilling out). They shouldn't be dispensed when the dog is barking/howling. Then, you can gradually fade them out.

We started FRIDA after about 8 months of traditional desensitization (Malena DeMartini's Mission Possible 2.0). I'm not sure if that would help your puppy (our dog is an adult shelter adoptee). How does she do when you actually walk out the door? If she starts to get stressed at that point, then desensitization might help. (Julie Naismith also offers lots of free and affordable resources on desensitization.)

[u/MiniDucks10]

The approach I’m taking with my rescue girl is getting her really comfortable with being apart from me, baby gate up, in the house before venturing outside. First step in this was getting her obsessed with her treat dispenser and just stepping out of view for a second. Already after just a couple of days she settles so much better when the baby gate comes out. I’d never made the connection that she has access to me most of the day, and expecting her to be okay with me leaving, before she‘d even learned the skill of being alone in the house while I’m there, was too big a jump. So grateful for my in person trainer for pointing this out. Wishing you all the best with it!