Today went much better - I gave him the K-9 Calm about a half hour before I left the house, and I brought my calm dog as well. I let Seren (calm dog) out of the SUV first, and he happily followed her (yesterday he tried to jump back in the vehicle as soon as he jumped out). I crated him, and worked her, with a focus on areas he was spooking in yesterday - she couldn't have cared less about the building. I crated her, and brought Starr out. I saw a big difference immediately - we did a heel pattern which focused on problem areas, and although I saw very minor signs of stress, he was able to work through it. As soon as he started stressing/became distracted, I put him back in the crate and worked Seren again. He loves stacking rings, so I brought that along as a retrieval toy, instead of focusing on his dumbbell. I tried to toss one into a difficult area, and then another into an area where he was more comfortable - I switched back and forth. He had trouble focusing enough to stack the rings (that takes a whole other level of concentration), but he did retrieve them. I also took his balance ball, which he loves, and worked him in a corner where he was shutting down yesterday. At one point there was some unexpected noise, and he couldn't focus, so I crated him again and took Seren out. I took out his dumbbell after. For the retrieve over a jump, I raced him to the jump, essentially treating it like agility - that helped create more drive. He was clearly much more comfortable retrieving today than he was yesterday. He even retrieved one that banged into the back wall, which he didn't do yesterday.
The only problem was sit stays (3 min, out of sight for CDX) - he kept standing, sometimes before I even left the ring. We have a fun run tomorrow, so I think I'm just going to stay in the ring for that, and continue to work him next week.
He often stresses when he sees a building he doesn't like. For example, most trials are held at the CLE building - he knows what the building is, so he doesn't even like going in the doors. He's better once he's in and he sees that the other dogs aren't stressing. However, once he's in the ring his stress level goes up exponentially - he works much better outside the ring than he does in it. I like the idea of breaking it down and playing outside the building - we'll give that a try next week.
Unfortunately he would, and would probably ignore the squirrel. A few things went on in the building that would normally be quite stimulating for him - when he's shut down, that's it - he won't react to anything he normally would, including a squirrel.
