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at-risk teens

Triggers

by Rita Argiros on December 18, 2008

The Family at Christmas
Image by shelms via Flickr

People sometimes ask me why some teens need residential treatment.  It seems extreme to separate a teenager from friends, family and community for one or two years (the average length of most therapeutic boarding school programs).  There are lots of reasons and I will write more about them later. But in this blog I want to talk about triggers.

About a year ago, I placed a golden retriever puppy, Coda, in the home of another employee at the school, Audra.  His first family was  unprepared for all the normal things a retriever puppy brings to the relationship and Coda is an above average Golden Retriever.  He has what it takes to be a great working dog — way too much energy for most pet owners.

Coda only spent a few days in my menagerie before Audra adopted him.  But it was enough.  The contrast with his former existence must have been huge because I became a a very strong positive stimulus.

In the weeks that followed, every time Coda saw me he became a wired-up frenzy of energy. It didn’t matter what Audra tried–planned ignoring, positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, teaching a competing behavior, nothing worked.   No learning was possible because we couldn’t communicate with him.  The second he saw me, Coda’s fore brain shut down.  He writhed and wriggled, bounced,  came up off his front legs whenever he saw me. His overwhelming urge seemed to be to lick my face in the classic puppy gesture of submission and joy.

In a young puppy, that behavior is beyond cute. But this puppy would grow to be a 70 pound monster knocking over toddlers and the elderly with impunity.   Audra understood that. She put Coda and me on “black-out.”  That is a term we use at The Family Foundation School.  Its a consequence applied when two students bring out the worst in each other.  We put them on “black-out.”  They avoid any and all interaction with each other.

Coda and I stayed on black-out while Audra worked with him on basic puppy obedience, gave him lots of exercise and while his puppy brain developed.  Gradually, she reintroduced me to Coda. I still have to be careful not to trigger his exuberance.  We keep contact brief and I don’t play with him becase the old associations are still there. They may never go away.

Wet Puppy

Image by Pirate Scott via Flickr

A good residential program is designed to separate an at-risk teen from her triggers just like Audra separated Coda from me.  Friends, music, patterns of family interaction; sights, sounds and smells of the neighborhood, styles of clothing, drug paraphernalia–all these can be overwhelming stimuli that fire-up the old neuronal pathways.  They can instantly bring back feelings, thoughts, and patterns of behavior that were violent, or addictive, or depressive, or abusive.  They are all there just waiting for resurrection.

The school creates a safe haven where we can make new associations and learn new patterns of behavior. The hard part is knowing  how much practice we need with the new patterns before we can safely handle even a limited exposure to our old environment.   It’s not easy.

Coda and I still have to be careful around each other.  Over the holidays Coda will stay with me while Audra and her family take a vacation. I will need to be mindful of Coda’s limits if we aren’t going to undo all the work Audra has done.  Most of our students will go home for the holidays. Let’s hope their parents are mindful of their limits too.

(Note: Please don’t misunderstand me. I am not claiming that dogs and teens are identical.  Human beings have a much more complex brain (mind) than dogs do.  Nevertheless there is some correspondence. We are both mammals, our neurons fire the same way. )

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Playing to Strength

by Rita Argiros on December 10, 2008

Intense teens work with Search and Rescue Dogs

Troubled teens, at-risk teens, difficult children, juvenile delinquents, angry and defiant kids. No matter the term, parents send their children to us at The Family Foundation School after they have tried therapy, medication, alternative schools, more discipline, less discipline, you name it.  Every semester between 15 and 20 of the 200+ students come to work with me in the dog training program, now entering its 5th year.

You may be familiar with other canine training programs, where prisoners train dogs, or where students interact with therapy dogs or where they train dogs to become assistance dogs for people with disabilities.

At my school, we train Search and Rescue dogs.  Not to knock assistance dogs. They do phenomenal work. They need to have great temperaments. They are smart and exceptionally well trained.  But the SAR dog is something else.

Your ideal SAR dog is “high drive,” a polite way of saying–you probably wouldn’t want this dog for a pet.  In fact, many search dogs are rescued from animal

Photo of a dog behind a chain-link fence at th...

shelters where they were surrendered because their clueless owners didn’t or couldn’t deal with their intense personalities. SAR dogs, with boundless energy are exactly what my kids need.

Students (and staff) in our dog-training program are a special bunch.  We tend to be a little less comfortable with verbal expression.  We have a hard time sitting still.  A substantial minority of us have trouble trusting other people.  None of that gets in the way of our work with dogs.    Dog’s don’t care if we talk, or not. Dogs are at their best when they are moving,  they crave exercise and, best of all, dogs can’t lie.

Training SAR dogs lets us play to our strengths.  Instead of talking, we observe canine behavior. A good trainer needs to learn to anticipate the dog’s next move and to read a dog’s mood.  We channel our energy into playing with our dogs.  Playing tug of war is one of the ways that the dogs are rewarded. Most of the training is based upon positive reinforcement. subject-found_-rewardOh yea, and we get to pretend we are lost–and hang out in the woods waiting to be rescued.  For many of my students, that’s the best part. Even though they know its only practice, it still makes you feel good to know that you have been rescued. I’ve been saved 100s of times by now and I still get excited every time a dog finds me.

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