Robbie's Graduation

Robbie graduated from his Dog Romp 2 class last week. We worked on the following things in the class:

• Look At That
• Sit-stay (with distractions)
• Down-stay (with distractions)
• Loose leash walking
• Ring a bell
• CGC: Greeting a friendly stranger

He would typically bark as people entered the building and then settle right down. I have decided to repeat the class with him so that we will have a better foundation for the Rally class that follows.

Ella - weight check

Ella had her weight checked yesterday. She now weighs 22.8 pounds. At her last check, she weighed 23.8, so she is down by 1 pound! Only 4 more pounds to go!

Here is what she gets with each meal (2 meals per day):

1/4 cup kibble (reduced on long training days)
1/4 cup cooked veggies (increased on long training days)
0.2 mg Soloxine (thyroid)

Treats:
1 small Old Mother Hubbard biscuit (after late night potty)
1 stuffed Kong (yogurt, kibble)
training treats (these are high calorie) - enough for 10 minutes of training

Exercise:
20-30 minutes of Frisbee with Robbie each day
20-30 minutes of playing with the other dogs

Saccarappa Show and Go

Ella and I spent Sunday at the Show and Go in Westbrook. We had a great time hanging out with other dog people. The building was quiet, there was plenty of parking and there were not a lot of people.

What we did right:
Ella peed 3 times outside on cue.
She stayed in her crate without crying.
She only greeted dogs with permission (though this still needs work).
She did not act nervous.
She entered the building nicely, without trying to run away.
Ella stood in place for the Stand Walk Around!
Ella took the jump nicely.

What we need improvement on:
Entering the ring.
Removing the leash and holding the collar.
Off leash heeling.
Distractions on the floor (food, stains on the flooring, etc).
Not sniffing the signs.
Me knowing where she is while doing the course.
Not skipping signs.
Pressure from the judge (Why is this stranger following us around?!?)

What I wish didn’t happen:
Ella stealing Donna’s string cheese (sigh).
Me touching Ella in the ring (she thought I was correcting her and decided that she had had enough, but I was really just patting her and moving her closer to me).
Ella trying to leave the ring and being afraid of the judge when she did that.

I will admit that Sunday night, I was feeling very discouraged. I could not stop going over what we did wrong and I worried that we would be abysmal failures at our trial in April, which is only 3 weeks away. I had to think hard about what we did right and completely focus on that. If I don’t then I will be so nervous that we will be bound to fail in April. So, I have some goals for the remaining time we have before the Casco Bay trials and a few goals for the trial itself.

I want to point out that I deliberately did not choose “Qualifying” as one of my goals. This is because it really puts pressure on us. If Ella and I were able to attend more classes and more fun matches, then our goals might be different. We might have to use these trials this year just as training and getting used to the show atmosphere.

Next three weeks:
Practice heeling for 5 minutes each day.
Work on signs.
Run a few courses.
Work on leash removal and collar grabs.

Day of the trial:
Enter ring smoothly.
Take off leash without stress.
Do the first 3 signs well.

Stand p.3

We are making progress.

Ella held her stand while I stepped one step to the right and then while I stepped one step to the left. She also held it as I stepped backwards 2 steps.

Then, this morning, she held the stand for 7 seconds (10 out of 10 times).

Our goals for the stand:

1. Hold stand while I walk around her counterclockwise.
2. Go from a down to a stand (she now goes from a sit to a stand).
3. Hold stand while I walk away from her 20 feet.
4. Hold stand while I stay beside her and judge (read: stanger) touches her.
5. Hold stand while I walk away 20 feet and judge touches her and I return.
6. Do all of the above in a noisy area.

Now that she understands what I want, we will move towards these goals surprisingly fast.

Ring a Bell

Robbie has improved greatly over the past week:

He sits with one verbal cue and will hold the sit for 10 seconds and while I back up and return for 5 feet.

He downs with one cue and no longer needs to paw me before he downs. He will also hold the down for 3 seconds and while I back up two feet.

He will touch my hand with his nose when I cue him. He will jump up to touch my hand. He will also touch a target stick and he will follow the target stick about 2 feet in order to touch it.

He will place his paw in my hand when cued. He will also paw a bell when the bell is presented to him. I have begun introducing a verbal cue for paw/hand (shake) and paw/bell (ring).

Two More Trials

Ella is now signed up for two more Rally trials:

May 2, 3 - York County Kennel Club (Acton)

May 16, 17 - Vacationland Dog Club (Scarborough)

Stand p.2

We took a day off from training, since Tuesday night's session was full of frustration.

Thursday, we re-tried the stand and it had sunk in. Ella stood and held the stand for 3 seconds each time. I just needed to wait until she fully planted her rear feet.

Now, to introduce more duration.

Note: we tried the stand on Tuesday on the couch, on the floor and on the table. She would not stand unless I lured her or pressed my hand against her belly.

Robbie's Practice

Robbie has also been working on new behaviors. We are getting ready to start a new class in a week and I have been polishing some of his cues.

Sit
Robbie is quite good at sit. I have introduced a verbal cue and he will sit when given the verbal cue, the hand signal and both together. We have begun working on distance (3 steps back, 2 steps sideways) and duration (5 seconds).

Down
Robbie has some superstitious behavior trained into his down. He thinks that he has to touch me with his paw - sometimes on the hand, sometimes on the leg, sometimes on the foot. He will sometimes even jump up and paw my hand while I hold it up and then do a down. This is because I worked on touch, paw and down all together and he confused the three. So now, I am working on asking for a down (90% fluency), giving a hand signal while standing (95% fluency) and not clicking for the superstitious behavior. So, if he downs, but paws me first, no click. I have also been working on duration (3 seconds) and distance (2 steps back).

Touch
Robbie will jump up to touch my hand, touch either hand and touch a target stick. He does not yet follow a moving hand or target stick, so we are working on that.

Paw/Shake
This a default behavior for Robbie. He loves to paw things. I have not yet introduced a verbal cue for this. He will paw a cupped hand (which is the hand signal I use) and will paw a bell. I plan to ask him to do a high five, too, but we haven't trained it.

Some other behaviors that we might need to work on but haven't: loose leash walking, heeling, recalls, and any other behaviors that Ella has been working on.

Robbie and I have also been working on some Control Unleashed work, too, in preparation for the class. We works a few times with children and in the car at busy places. We still need to generalize many of the listed behaviors and work on proofing them.

Teaching Stand

One of the Rally Advanced signs that Ella needs to learn is the Stand Walk Around Dog sign. At this sign, Ella sits in heel position, then stands and remains standing while I walk around her. I resume heel position and we continue on.

Stand is a behavior that has been problematic for us. Ella has never been shown in "breed" and does not know how to do a stacked stand. This type of stand is not required, but she has to stay in place and plant her feet while I walk around her.

We started working on stand about a year ago. It is fairly easy to teach a basic stand from a sit. You hold a piece of food in front of the dog's nose and move it forward slowly. As they stand to get the treat, you click and release the treat. Ella picked that up very quickly.

The problem is that she won't stop shifting her back feet. And, she will not hold a stand. There could be a few reasons for this:

1. She thinks that the behavior I am looking for is actually a touch, so she follows my hand.



2. She has been taught to orient to me and moves her body so that she faces me.



3. She is too food oriented and following my hand in the hopes of a treat.



4. She is responding to body pressure and moving her rear away from me (like with the pivots, which is a natural behavior).

Some of the same problems that we experienced with these two signs are cropping up now. We eventually fixed the problems, but it took some extra practice (and patience).

One of the things that we did for those signs that worked was to increase the duration of the behavior. So, I have begun working with Ella on long stands. She is at 3 seconds right now. That means, she will hold position for 3 seconds before she starts moving her feet. I have to be sure to click her before her feet move, so that she will begin to learn that stand means plant her feet and do not move them.

Then, once Ella realizes that she should hold the stand for as long as I ask, we will start to work on holding that stand while I move around. I might back up on step (or, even just shift my weight to begin), step to one side, back up two steps and so on.

Some trainers suggest that I hold Ella where I want her and walk around her. While this might work for some dogs, it is aversive for Ella and she will get worried and I will have to stop the session (she will not participate any more).

Note: This is another behavior I would like to have ready for the April trials, but if we don't, then we'll just have to take our chances!

Step stool training - part 2

Session 6 - Saturday

Ella and I continued working on the stool. In this session, we made two complete rotations around the stool to the left and one to the right. I am going to transition her to a small, round box instead of a stool, since it will be easier for the two of us to go around it.

Session 7 - Saturday pm at Mom's house

Ella showed off her stool prowess and did a complete left rotation on a small square stool and on a round stool at my Mother's house. She did this in the living room while my niece was playing nearby.

Session 8 - Monday pm

Ella will now rotate around the stool to the left with only small movements from me. To the right is harder and she keeps wanting to step off the stool. So, we started working on duration on the stool. Ella will stay on the stool for 5 seconds now.

Note: In order to transition Ella from the stool to the floor and into Rally pivots, I am going to have to fade the stool, introduce a cue for left and right rotation and make sure she understands that she should maintain heel position while doing this. Each of those steps must be broken down into smaller steps and each small step taught to fluency. We may or may not accomplish this by our April trials.

Step stool training - part 1

Ella and I have begun training rear end awareness using a step stool. The trainer in the previous post's video used a book and we will eventually phase to that, but the higher step stool works better for us right now (I do not have to bend as far to deliver treats and Ella knows she is on something).

Session 1 - last Thursday

Ella does not shape very well. She tends to offer behaviors that she is fluent in, rather than thinking about what I just clicked and repeating that. So, when I train with Ella, I often have to lure her a bit and then she will make huge jumps in understanding.

I started the session and tried to shape her to step on the step stool. After a minute or two, she was offering to paw the stool, which was amazing, since she doesn't usually paw things. But, she would not go further than that and started to get frustrated. So, I took out a treat and lured her up there (front feet). After luring 3 times, she offered the behavior without luring. Then, when she was offering the behavior, I upped my criteria to have some duration (3 seconds).

Session length: 5 minutes (after shaping portion)

Non-session work

I store the step stool next to the container that I keep the dog food in. This really solidified Ella's confidence in getting on and off the stool, since she was able to see into the container and that was rewarding to her. As I scooped out food, I would occasionally give her a piece to reward her.

Session 2 - Sunday

Ella immediately offered front paws on the stool at the beginning of the session. In fact, she offered a little too much behavior. She was all over that stool. Front paws on, one paw on, four paws on, jump over, circle the stool. So, I asked for a long down and she calmed.

I then indicated that I wanted her to put her front paws on the stool (up). I asked for duration a few times (7 seconds). Then, I asked her to stay in position while I moved. I only moved one step to the left or one to the right.

My final goal is to move into her so that she has to shift her back feet around the stool in a circle. This is a pivot and she has to be able to do them in both directions (this is important for Rally).

Session length: 5 minutes

Session 3 - Wednesday

During this session, we worked on varying durations (up to 10 seconds) and movement from me. While she did really well with duration, she was not keen on maintaining her feet on the stool while I moved. So, I need to change how I am doing that portion.

Session length: 3 minutes

Session 4 - Thursday

During this session, we worked on movement. Ella still steps off the stool when I move into her (from the right or the left). So, I stopped and I worked on getting her to be on the stool in heel position - she was only C/T when she was on the stool in heel position.

Session length: 3 minutes

Session 5 - Friday morning

I decided to lure Ella during this session. When she was on the stool, I held a treat in my left hand, stood next to her and moved into her space (to my left). She had to shift her back feet. As soon as she shifted, C/T. I upped criteria for this very quickly - if she wanted the treat, she had to move her feet a quarter turn around the stool.

Session length: 5 minutes.

Tonight and this weekend, I will be working with Ella to move around the stool next to me, both to the left and to the right. I should also point out that I do similar session of this with Robbie. He is not to the level that Ella is yet, though, since he is also working on perfecting his down.

Rear End Awareness Video

You would think that dogs have a natural awareness of their back ends, but they don't. Some behaviors in agility and rally require rear end awareness. This video shows one way to do that. I will write further on how Ella and I are working on the things that this Corgi is able to do. Be sure to check out this trainer's other YouTube videos, too, since they are all great!

Dog Pyramid

Some of my favorite dog supply sites are Clean Run, Dogwise and Pet Expertise. I recently placed an order from Clean Run for some agility books and decided to order one of these.

It is called a Dog Pyramid created by The Company of Animals in the UK. The bottom of the toy is weighted (like a Weeble Wobble) and there is one hole where food goes in (and comes out). This is a noisy, hard plastic toy (non toxic), but it is interactive, so I thought it would be fun for Possum, since she likes playing with toys and this one won’t roll away from her.

I put about ½ cup of kibble in there (it holds more than that) and set it down for her to play with. She spent about 45 minutes playing with it. The dog has to whack it fairly hard in order for it to tip enough for food to fall out. Of course, the more food that is in there, the easier it is for the dog to get the food out.

Possum is now sleeping and Ella is playing with the refilled Pyramid. Again, this is a pretty noisy toy, but Ella is having a fun time trying to get that food out of there. 30 minutes and there are still some pieces rattling around and she hasn’t given up yet. Nor has she become frightened by the noise it makes.

Not only that, but the toy is teaching her to use her paws instead of just her nose (if you recall, Ella tends to be a nose only dog, not a paw oriented dog, and I sometimes lament teaching her to use her paws).

The hole is fairly small – a piece of Solid Gold kibble just fits (I used Halo brand food in it). A small funnel would be useful if you want an entire dinner's worth of food in there. The hole is also the only spot that my small dogs can get a hold of in order to carry it around. It is about 7 – 8 inches in height and surprisingly heavy. I wouldn’t recommend that this toy be left with extreme chewers, but with supervision or dogs that just play with it, it is a great toy. Nor would I recommend that you put any soft food in it, since it is one piece and cleaning it would be nigh impossible!

All in all, this is a great toy.

It retails for $16.95 from Clean Run.

PS. When I was adding more food, I dropped the toy from counter height onto the floor. Not a scratch. On floor or toy.

Tricks

The ClickSolutions website has a lovely list of tricks we can teach. Let’s see how many Ella and Robbie know.

Ella
Nose touch to hand
Circle around me
Nose touch to other objects

Robbie
Nose touch to hand
Shake hands
Ring bell with paw

Last night, we worked with a step stool. I want them to put both front feet on the stool. Eventually, I want all feet on the stool and I also want just the back feet on the stool. This is a fun trick to teach and also serves to stretch and strengthen muscles. It is a helpful trick to know for agility.

Ella took to the step stool like a fish to water. “What, you want me to get up on this for food? O-KAY!” It took less than 5 minutes to have all four feet on that stool. Probably, having done this in the past helped:

Robbie was a different story. He walked around the stool. Sniffed the stool (click). Bumped the stool (click). Luring him with food didn’t work – he gave up quite quickly. So, I put my hand flat on the middle of the stool with the palm up. He pawed my hand (click). Pawed hand (click). Pawed hand (click). I moved my hand to the edge furthest away from Robbie. He pawed the stool (click). Pawed stool (click). We did this 10 or so more times. Then I lowered my hand to below the stool’s edge. He looked at my hand, looked at me, looked at my hand and walked around the stool. I moved my hand so he couldn’t paw it. He went back around the stool, I put my hand back. One paw went onto the stool (click). Paw on the stool again (click). Paw on the stool again (NO click). He looked at me, looked at my hand, put one paw on the stool (NO click) and then pawed my hand with the other paw (click with JACKPOT). When I next cued him to get up on the stool, he put both paws.

Robbie and I then worked a little on pawing a Staples Easy button. He paws it just fine, but doesn’t paw it hard enough to make it speak, so we have to work on that a little.

Then I asked Robbie to down. He wanted to paw my hand (no click) and thought about things and then downed. I will be working on requiring faster responses to the cue with this one.

Casco Bay Dog Training Club April Trials

I mailed out Ella's entry for the Casco Bay Dog Training Club's April 11 and 12 trials in Bath.

She and I will be competing in Advanced A.

No leash.

Noisy building.

I just hope that Ella doesn't turn around in the ring and head for the door.

Beginner Agility Week 2 – Ella

This week, class did not start well for Ella and I. I was tired from a very long two day conference for work and she was not impressed with the ride to Skowhegan and the classroom. The first thing she did after I took off her leash was to head straight for the door and stand there staring at it. She wanted to go home.

After a minute where I composed myself (when I get tired, I tend to burst into tears, which sucks), we grabbed a jump and went all the way to the back of the room away from the others. Ella and I practiced jumping where she sat and I called her over the jump. Then I walked by the jump and asked her to jump. Then I jogged and she jumped. After we had done the jump with me jogging a few times, then we went back and worked as part of the group.

During this class, we worked on two things: taking a series of jumps (2, in this case) and working in the tunnel.

Ella tried valiantly to stay right at my side (heel position) as we worked on the jumps. A couple of times, she would almost trip me, because I had to cross behind her to get in the right position to cue her over the second jump. After a few rounds, we were getting pretty good at doing two jumps.

Then we worked on the tunnel. The tunnel for class is a medium blue color. It can be really dark in there for some dogs, so practicing with this color would take some of the fear away for Ella.

We started with the tunnel lying straight. I use the cue “through” since it is only one syllable and will be fairly easy to say while I am out of breath on course.

Then we moved one end of the tunnel so that there was a 45 degree bend in one end. We spent some time sending the dogs through.



Then we moved the tunnel so that there was a 90 degree bend. Finally, we ended with a 180 degree bend (so both openings of the tunnel faced the dog).


Ella did great! She willingly entered the right side of the tunnel 90% of the time. That is, until I asked her to enter the left tunnel entrance at the end. She turned and sat down. Apparently, we didn’t generalize enough yet!

During our second hour, I worked with Ella on the lowered teeter. She would hop onto the middle and I would click her for taking one step, then two and then walking past the point where the teeter pivots (and then moves). She didn’t really like that, but did more this week than last. I made sure to have her walk to both ends of the teeter. And, I also started working with her to stop on the contact section (yellow) and sitting down – she isn’t confident enough to lie down yet.

The she got to explore the room a little and get used to the weave poles.

So, after a few glitches, we had a great class.

Front & Rear Crosses - Ella

Ella and I practiced front and rear crosses last night. She gets very excited when I bring the treat bag out and jumps onto the couch and lies down. I have to spend a minute or two getting her to stay on the floor so that we can train.

The beginning step of a front cross is quite easy for us to practice, since she stays in place while I do my footwork. Since one of the skills for Rally is for her to sit while I walk around her, she has this first step down!

Rear crosses were harder. I have been focusing on rear crosses where Ella turns to the right. I hold the treat in my right hand for right turns and my left hand for left turns.

She really resisted turning to the right. Funny, since turning to the left was easy and fun for her. For a while, I thought that it might be a physical limitation. Maybe it pained her to turn in a small circle to the right. Every time we would get to 3 o’clock, she would sit.

Since she will touch a target stick, I decided to try that next. I asked her to touch and she would follow the stick to about 4 o’clock and then stop following. We tried this a few times and it wasn’t really working. She and I will have to work on following a target stick farther and in more complex patterns.

I finally figured out that she thought that I wanted her to sit, since she was originally taught sit by holding the treat over her head. When she was at my side and the lure reached 3, it was above her head, just because of her size and how far I was bending.

As soon as I realized this, I lowered the treat as I lured her in a circle and – lo! She turned all the way. I clicked and she got a jackpot. We worked on this about 10 more times. Each time that she turned, her body became more fluid.

We ended the session with some puppy sit ups.

Robbie practiced down a few times. Then, he had a bath.

Road Trip!

Robbie, Ella and I went on a short road trip Sunday. We traveled up to visit Kathy and her shelties and to see how Charlie, Kathy’s new foster, was doing. It was a beautiful day for it!

Before we left, Robbie and I did a little training. He touched my hand with no lure, did a few downs with no lures and sat (slowly). Gosh, we really need to work on the speed of his sit!

Then we piled into the car. We stopped at Petco for some styptic powder before we got to Kathy’s. R&E accompanied me into the store. Ella has been in big box pet stores on many occasions and she handled the visit quite well. She looked around, took treats from me, and was not really scared.

Robbie, on the other hand, was over threshold – he wouldn’t take treats. But, even though he wouldn’t take treats, he was very interested in the sights and smells. It was just after the store opened for the day, so there were very few customers and no one bothered us. Robbie followed Ella’s lead but his tail was slightly tucked and he was quite happy to leave once we cashed out.

At Kathy's, Ella and Robbie stayed in the car while I went inside and helped with nails and grooming. Everyone had their nails trimmed and everyone behaved quite well. Charlie was a bit standoffish, but he willing took treats from me when I sat next to him on the couch. He will make a fine sheltie for someone!

Then Kathy let her dogs out into the fenced in area and everyone had a barkfest – Robbie and Ella decided that they wanted to be in the car (on the other side of the fence). This, plus the pet store, made Robbie a little more reactive that day.

We went home and I did a few chores and then we all had a nice nap.

For dinner, we went to my mother’s house and my nieces came, too. Robbie reacts to my nieces by barking at them. He reacts when they move quickly and when they are noisy. If they sit quietly, he ignores them.

Robbie and I did some training so that he would not bark at the girls while they moved around and the girls were quite good about moving slowly when they were in the room with him.

Most of the time, Robbie and I stayed in the kitchen and the girls stayed in the living room with their grandfather. This kept two rooms between us and was just enough so that Robbie could focus on me while we trained. When Robbie turned his head in the direction of the living room (he was focusing on the noise they were making), I clicked and treated him. We did this for about 15 minutes while my mom and sister finished getting dinner ready.

Robbie barked once or twice at my oldest niece before we sat down to dinner, but responded nicely to me (he came for a treat when I clicked him for not barking) and then he laid quietly in the corner while everyone ate. He was given treats for this nice behavior.

We left soon after dinner so he was only exposed to the girls for a short amount of time. He did really well with this and I was pleased with his progress. And, I was pleased with how well the girls did, too!

While this was not the ideal training set up, I managed to make it work well for all of us. It took a lot of concentration on my part and I would not make all the sessions like this, but it did give me a good idea of where Robbie’s threshold was for the girls.

Beginner Agility Class Week 1 – Ella

Ella and I attended her beginner agility class last Wednesday. We signed up for two classes in one evening – Beginner Agility 1 & 2. It is a very small class, which is what Ella needs.

We practiced going over jumps. Ella has been jumping off and on and I use the cue “jump.” It is a one syllable word and will be easy to say while I am running around the field breathless.

Ella did not like one of the other teams in the class, though. The dog was very talkative and the owner used large movements and moved quickly. As long as I was between her and that team, she was OK with working. So, as a result, Ella would not jump over a jump if she was between them and me. Instead, she would run behind me or around the jump to avoid them. This made the first hour difficult for us. I ended up giving her treats for watching the other team being wild.

Thankfully, most agility trials that we have seen have a 10 foot barrier around the ring gates for the field. This should keep most dogs far enough away from Ella to keep her from feeling scared. And, in time, she will become used to the way other teams are.

The second hour was a bit more successful, since Ella and I were the only students. My goal was to have her become more confident around the teeter. We lowered the teeter down to as low as it would go and I clicked and treated Ella for any interaction with the teeter.

She started by offering one paw on the teeter (this is something I have been shaping her to do, since she isn’t much of a paw dog). Then she started to step with two front paws. Sometimes she would hop over the teeter. Other times, she would have all four feet on the teeter. At that point, she was jackpotted!

Then I started working with her walking up and down the teeter. When she walked down one side, the teeter wouldn’t move. When she walked down the other, it would move a few inches to the ground. When she was on that end, then she would get a jackpot of cheese. At that point, I jackpotted her whether or not she remained on the teeter when it moved.

I save the really high value treats, like cheese, for the harder equipment. She knows then that what she has done is really special.

We spent the last half hour playing with a ball, talking to the teacher and having her run through the tunnel. That was great because she has started to pick up speed on the tunnel and she comes out of it with her ears up, rather than half way laid back (indicating that she is worried).

Our homework was to practice front and rear crosses. I have to admit that we haven’t spent much time doing that!

When I left the class, I was torn by how I felt about agility. It didn’t feel as though we accomplished much that night. I was thinking about how hard it was to learn a new skill and how frustrating it was for me to not know the terminology and to get Ella to understand what I wanted. It is also frustrating when your dog catches on faster than you do!

But, as I reflected on this during the weekend, I felt the same way about Rally and now she and I are having a lot of fun practicing for upcoming trials. It will just take time and practice and breaking things down into small steps. We’ll get there!

*Thank you, Clan Duncan, for the great web art!

Training - Ella and Robbie

Saturday

Ella, Robbie and I drove down to the Post Office. Well, I drove and they rode. The parking lot was quite full, so I had a lot of opportunities to play "Catch a Glance" with Robbie. There was a man in a baseball cap driving a loud truck, an older lady with a walker and then an older couple who had bulky jackets on. There were a few more people, but those listed are the ones that stood out.

We sat in the car and Robbie was clicked and treated for watching quietly. We trained while sitting in the car. He watched (and I clicked) as the people pulled up in their cars, got out of their cars, walked into the PO, walked around in the PO (Robbie could see them through the windows), walked back to their cars, climbed in and drove off. He woofed once, showed tight whiskers once (this happens right before he makes the woof) and watched nicely the rest of the time.

Ella heard the same click that Robbie did, so essentially was clicked for staring intently at the treat bag. This might seem like a bad thing, but I think it really helped with our session on Sunday.

When I left the car to get my mail, Robbie watched quietly for me, but did not bark. Yippee!! That is awesome progress for him.

At home, Ella and Robbie each practiced with me for 5 minutes individually:

• Ella practiced sit-stay (with me walking around the corner and back), down, touch (target stick) and heeling between the living room and kitchen.
• Robbie practiced sit, down, attention and touch. He is really slow on the sit and tends to stare at my hand that is holding the clicker, so I have to remember to hide it behind my back. I lured the down, which he picked up on quite quickly. The next time we practice, I will only lure him once or twice to see if he is getting it quicker. Robbie only has one behavior on cue right now - sit.

Sunday

Ella and I attended the sheltie club's rally practice on Sunday morning. It was an hour long practice. There is no instruction - people just get together with their dogs and set up some practice Rally courses.

Ella tends to lag and not make eye contact with me when we heel.

• One possible reason for this might be because I have taught her to lag. I don't really think so, though, because I have always clicked her for heeling in the proper position.
• Another reason might be because she learned to lag when I had terrible ring nerves at our first trial. Again, this might be a small factor, but not enough to make her lag all the time.
• The third reason that she might lag could be because I have not taught her how to heel everywhere. In other words, she heels great at home - trotting nicely, eyes on me, happy sheltie smile. But, she does not do this other places. So, I haven't proofed (generalized and added distractions) her enough!

When I first taught Ella to heel, we used a target stick (she is too short for me to get her to touch my hand while I am walking normally). In order to use one, your dog needs to know how to "touch." Ella will try to touch that target stick while I am trotting, while I hold it above her head or if she has to jump up on stuff to get to it. I have proofed Ella well on "touch."

So, I hold the target stick in heel postion and ask Ella to touch it. She gets clicked for touching it when I give her the cue while I am walking. I drop the treat on the floor and I continue walking while she picks it up. Then I ask her to touch the stick again, so that she has to run to get back into heel postion. She likes this game and will target that stick even when we do about turns and 360 turns.

She would also walk alongside me and look up happily. This might be due to our special work on Saturday where she got clicked for looking at the treat bag - she would look at my face and then the treat bag while we were heeling on Sunday. I would often click her when her eyes met mine and she was maintaining heel (when she hadn't been cued for touching the target).

We practiced heeling for at least 20 minutes. Then, we practiced heeling with a sit. That means that Ella stops when I stop and sits while maintaining heel position. The clicker came in very handy with this, since she tended to forge ahead of me and not pay attention to when I was stopping. She would sit 10 inches forward of where she should be. So, I would have her touch the stick, then stop and ask her to sit.

After a few times, she was sitting on one cue of sit (no touch cue) in heel position. Ella has been clicker trained since she was a pup, so is very clicker saavy and learns very quickly now.

We then joined the other two people and walked through some cones in order to practice the serpentine and the spiral signs. The first time we tried it, Ella did not maintain heel position. So, I sped up my pace and used the taget stick frequently. After that, I just pointed with my finger to heel postion and she maintained it (I will fade the pointing once she is reliably holding that position and I have introduced the "heel" cue).

We then ran a course. We did a sit, moving side step right (which we need to work on), halt 1-2-3 sit (which she did perfectly), slow pace (again, she maintained heel), spriral, serpentine (she knocked a cone over) and an about turn.

We still need to work a lot on heeling, since this is the place where our performace will break down. But, she did an amazing job yesterday. I am very proud of her.

Canine Good Citizen

I recieved my approval from the AKC this morning to be a Canine Good Citizen Evaluator!

There was a 30 question test - I answered all 30 questions correctly! Of course, there was no time limit, so it was pretty easy.

Robbie's Private Lesson

Robbie and I had a private lesson yesterday with Sumac Grant-Johnson. Her training facility, Wag-It in Lincolnville, is awesome! Sumac is a clicker and positive reinforcement trainer, like I am. That means that she does not train using collar pops (jerk on the leash) or other types of positive punishment. It has been difficult to find a trainer that will work with my dogs the same way that I do. Physical punishment like collar pops may work in the short term and they can seem to work faster. But that might not be the case – the dog might just be repressing the problem behavior. My preferred methods actually change the fundamental way a dog feels (in a good way) and that works better in the long term. It also works better for my peace of mind, since I am not adding to my dog's stress.

Robbie is reactive to things around him. He is also hyper-vigilant (constantly scanning his environment).

I had to choose what 3 things I wanted to work on. This was difficult, since Robbie’s 3 things tie together. I chose his barking, his running towards and barking at strangers and his issues with children. All three of these things relate to Robbie’s confidence. All three are also triggered by movement, which is a part of his breed heritage. Herding breeds work with movement and are attuned to it.

So, we played a few games with Robbie.

The first one was targeting my finger. He will target my finger as long as I stand still. We have to work on him targeting while I am moving. To do this, I am going to teach him to target a target stick instead, since he is so little and I can’t move and bend over at the same time! Targeting is a good way to get your dog’s attention.

The second game was Sumac’s version of the “Look at That” game, developed by Leslie McDevitt in her book Control Unleashed. Sumac calls her version “Catch a Glance” (CAG) and does not introduce a verbal cue like Leslie does. This game helps me to help Robbie acknowledge something in his environment and then refocus on me. We played this game for quite a while – when the heater came on, when it went off, when the trainer moved suddenly, etc.

Robbie and I also played frisbee for awhile. He loves to play fetch almost as much as he loves food, so this was a great way to get him to stop focusing on his fears and to get used to the building. While throwing the frisbee, I accidentally threw it too close to the agility tunnel. Robbie ran to the frisbee and then ran away, without the frisbee. Sumac spent some time showing me how to get Robbie used to being near the tunnel using food. After that, when the frisbee would land close to the tunnel, he would run to the frisbee, pause and then sniff the tunnel. Then he would pick up the frisbee and bring it back.

My job now is to take Robbie places and play the CAG game with him at a distance from the things that bother him. As he gets better at it, we will move closer. While we are training, I can not allow him to engage in his fearful behavior towards what he is afraid of. In order to do that without confrontation, I have to limit Robbie’s exposure to children (his biggest fear) while we work on this. And, I have to set up times when we specifically train.

This is going to take work, patience and commitment. But, if you could have seen the improvement that I saw in him when we left the building! Not only that, but I felt much more confident that I could help him with these issues. More motivated, too.

As we were driving away, we had to stop on the road to allow a truck to pull another truck out of the snow bank. The people around the truck had on firemen uniforms and hats. Robbie and I played CAG for a minute or two and then he just quietly watched their unsuccessful (and then successful) attempts to get that truck out. No hard eyes or stiff whiskers. His posture was soft and relaxed.

He was the same way when we went through the McDonald’s drive through so I could get a cocoa. There were even 2 dogs barking at each other from different cars. He would normally have chimed right in, but we played CAG and he just watched. He just watched as I handed the money over and just watched as I got my cocoa. He also just watched as we passed a crew of electric line workers.

Then he napped the rest of the way home. In his own seat. He was really pooped.

While I saw improvement yesterday, we still have a lot of work to do. My next goal for him is for him to be ready for a class in March.

I think that he and I will take a ride to Walmart Friday night (if the weather isn't bad) and sit in the parking lot, people watch and play CAG. That way, we can see all kinds of people, but do not have to interact with them just yet (i.e., they won't want to pet him if he is in my car).

Pawprint

From Robbie's good back leg.

Confidence

This is what happens when you help your sheltie become more confident and daring.












She actually pushed the drawer to make room for her back feet.

And, her front feet are balanced on those bowls.

Rally Videos & Books

When I first started Rally with Ella, I found some awesome videos by Ruthann McCaulley. Ms. McCaulley is a rally instructor and judge and has also written an excellent e-book called Doodle by Design. This book is over 400 pages and is packed with pictures and instructions. She goes over each sign and also writes about fundamental cues that the dog must learn. She has innovative ways to teach a straight front and how to help small dogs with heeling. I really believe that this book made our performance better.

Another useful book is called Click Your Way to Rally Obedience by Pam Dennison. This book explains each sign for AKC and ADPT rally and how to encorporate the clicker into your rally training routine.

Of course, if you are going to compete in Rally, then you need to know the rules. For AKC rally, you have to register your dog and you need to read the Obedience Rules and the Rally Rules, since the Rally rules refer back to the Obedience rules. Thankfully, these are both in the same book! You can also find AKC rally events in your area by visiting the AKC website and clicking on events.

APDT rally is very similar to AKC rally except that both pure bred dogs and mixed breed dogs can compete. You are allowed to use food at certain times and in certain places, which you can not do in AKC rally. You have to register your dog to compete in these events, too, and you can find everything you need, including the APDT rules and events, on the APDT website.

Lastly, there is a great Yahoo Group that has free downloads, lots of helpful advice and a great group of people who also compete and judge Rally! You can find the group here.

Nail Trimming Video

This is one of the best videos I have found that shows how to train your dog to allow you to clip his nails. If you do not want to use a clicker, you can use a verbal marker like the word "yes" instead.

2009 Goals: Ella

I have signed Ella up for a beginner agility class. It starts on February 4 and runs for 4 weeks. We are going to take the class from an instructor near us in Skowhegan.

In the meantime, I have been working on getting Ella hyped up about toys. She is usually a food fixated sheltie and I have only trained with food in the past. But, it seems to be important to have your dog be able to play with toys when you do agility. It increases the drive of the dog.

I found a tug toy that we use just for agility. It is a polar fleece braided tug, but the maker also braided in rabbit fur. Ella loves it and will tug quite well. It has seemed to get her a little excited. Honestly, though, I can get her more excited by running around waving my arms and laughing. She gets really nippy when I do that!

The plan is to still use food to get her used to the equipment. She loves the jumps and jumping on the table (I use "Get on that couch" as a cue, since we use that term at Nana's house). She learned to run through the tunnel quickly, too. I think the dog walk will be pretty easy. The A Frame and the teeter will be the hardest, but we can just compete in the Jumpers class (jumps and tunnels) until she is ready for the other equipment.

My goal with Ella is accuracy first and then speed, since I know that she can put on the speed once she is confident with the equipment. And, my biggest goal is for her to have fun.

Nail Trimming - Part 1

For the past two weeks, I have been concentrating on getting all of the dogs to accept having their nails trimmed. This is going to take awhile, since I was relying on groomers to do this and I think that the clippers are now a very aversive signal for the dogs. This is my own fault, but I am absolutely positive that I can fix this.

I will admit that it is a pain in the butt to get the grooming table out and train on this every night or so! But, it will be worth it in the long run.

Since nails that are too long can change the way a dog walks, I want to make sure that my dogs have very short nails. A good rule of thumb is that the nail should be short enough so that you do not hear the dog click on a hard floor when it walks.

The equipment that I gather before each training session:

1. Grooming table with arm and leash.
2. Treats - I like to use 1x1 squares of freeze dried chicken liver treats that I purchased at Green Acres Kennel in Bangor. They are a lot bigger than the "pea sized" treats that clicker training suggests, but I can not do this training with a clicker, since I am not coordinated enough. And, the treats are large enough that the dog takes a few seconds to chew it (or, for it to melt in their mouth, since it is mostly air and disintegrates when wet). I'll explain more below on why I like this.
3. Nail trimmers. I bought a new set, since my old ones were looking pretty dull. I do not use the guillotine type clippers, since those can actually crush hard nails like Maggie's and she doesn't cry out when I use the scissor type ones.
4. Styptic pads, just in case.

What I do:

1. Place dog on grooming table and give treat.
2. While dog is eating the treat, slip the leash over their head. Then give another treat.
3. Show dog the clippers and give a treat. After this, I give the treat first and work very fast.
4. Hold paw, give treat and manipulate the hair on the feet. Do not squeeze the paw. And, be ready to give another treat when they relax the paw a little. This will help them to realize that they need to hold the paw still and relaxed, not pull it back from you.
5. Hold paw, give treat and clip a nail. Since I am doing nails every three nights or so, I am only taking off a very tiny bit - like, a couple of millimeters. Tiny tiny! This is so I can clip a little each night and not hit the dog's quick.
6. Repeat step 5 until all the nails on one paw are clipped. Then, give a jackpot of a couple of treats.
7. Repeat steps 5-6 on the next paw.
8. Do no more than 2 paws a session.

Other notes:

• I repeated step 4 above for a week of sessions before I clipped any nails.
• I do not push the dog. Some nights, I can only clip one or two nails. Other nights, I can clip a few paws. Just like any training session.
• Keep the paws in line with their bodies in their natural range of motion. In other words, don't yank the dogs leg out sideways and expect them to like it. They have to adjust their balance when you pick up a paw, so they are getting used to that, too, while you are doing this.
• Sometimes, I just put them on the table, give them a treat and them put them down.
• Sometimes, they are on the table for a brushing, too, so I do not do nails when I am brushing, since I want the nail sessions to be short. Later, when nail trimming is easy, I will combine it with a grooming session.

Report on the dog's progress:

• Each dog has been having his/her nails clipped every 3-4 days. But, I am only taking the tiniest sliver off!
• I mark on the calendar when I have trimmed someone's nails. This helps me keep track of who is next for a session and to measure my progress.
• Ella is getting much better. I can hold her paw and either trim the hair or the nail for a few seconds before she starts to pull. That means that she lets me take her foot, comb the hair and trim a few cuts before she starts pulling. Her nails are getting shorter each day and she no longer makes click noises when she walks. While her nails were never really long, I am sure that her feet feel better! I also continue to give Ella one treat for each nail to reinforce the training. It is still aversive for her to have her nails done, so she will get lots of treats until this becomes so routine that I do not see any calming signals while I cut.
• Robbie has never liked his nails done. He will actually cry and get really scared. In just doing this for the past 2 weeks, he will now allow me to cut one nail for one treat. We have not tried trimming his hair with scissors yet (he is terrified of those).
• Maggie's nails are very difficult to cut, because they are hard and black, and she used to grab my arm (gently) when I tried to trim her nails. It was a mojor to-do when I got her on the table. Now, she will let me do one nail for one treat and I can do two paws in one session. This alone is an awesome, since her nails are like swords when they get too long.
• I use peanut butter with Bear. I attach a spoon to the grooming arm with tape and spread peanut butter on it. He licks it while I clip his nails and feet. This works better because he usually tried to turn around on the table looking for treats and this keeps him distracted and in one place.
• Possum uses the peanut butter spoon, too.
• The peanut butter spoon does not work for Ella, Robbie and Maggie because their nails are harder and not clear. They also need a lot more incentive to allow the nail trimming to happen. In fact, they will ignore the peanut butter in favor of not letting me trim! So, I have to use the barter method with them.
• Grace sits on the couch while I trim her nails and she lets me do all of them at once. Hers are soft and clear like Possum's and Bear's. Trimming the hair is a one-paw per session affair.
• Chummy also sits on the couch while I trim his nails. He doesn't really like it, but will allow me to do it and not move. He will also offer his left paw the entire time I am clipping his nails - it is a submissive gesture for him - he wants me to shake his paw.

I'll do an update in a week or two to see how things are going.

2009 Goals - Discussion

In my previous post, I listed my yearly goals for my pack of dogs. I did leave one of the dogs out, though. Maggie is a great little dog, but will be very hard to train for her CGC, since she does not like to come when called. This might be due to her past, since I adopted her at age 5. Or, it just might be that she would rather visit everyone in the room before coming back to me. She is a people gregarious dog and is very good with Possum, my blind and deaf sheltie. I would like to get her her CGC title next year, since it will take me a long time to get her to come reliably.

Nail trimming:
Possum is really the only one that doesn't mind having her nails trimmed. Mostly because she is more interested in eating the peanut butter and can not see the nail clippers coming. She is also the easiest to trim because her nails are clear. Bear is the same way. But, for everyone else, they see the clippers and pull and pull, so I am going to work with them on accepting the clipping. Then we will work on other grooming stuff.

Housetraining & Possum:
Possum came to me last July. Now, she is about a year old and completely deaf and 99% blind. When she is crated, for even a very short amount of time, she completely flips out and would do herself harm if left in a crate for any amount of time. The same goes for when she is left in a room by herself. So, housetraining is going to be a very long process with her. When placed outside, she will now go to the bathroom automatically, but doesn't hold it while inside. And, she does not indicate that she needs to go out. But, we have had some breakthroughs this past weekend: she will now go out the door - on her own - and go to the bathroom when I hold the door open for the others to go outside. And, she rarely has an accident when I am at home. Getting her housetrained and to go up and down the 4 deck stairs that I have will be an amazing accomplishment. I might have to cheat a little on the stairs and make her a ramp, but either way, I want her to be able to leave the deck area herself so she can sniff around and play with the other dogs (in the fenced in area).

Ella:
Ella and I took a one hour introduction to agility class last year and joined a few of our friends at a trial. It seems like a lot of fun and just practicing the jumping has made her much more confident. She will now even jump from the couch arm to one of the stairs when really excited! So, for her, I would like to have her take a few classes, get used to the equipment and go to a trial in the fall.

Ella has also earned her CGC title, but the tester never sent the paperwork to the AKC, so I have to have her retested. She did really well at the outdoors test, so I have no doubt that she will pass elsewhere. Woofstock, which happens in August each year, has a TDI tester come and I want to have her ready for that test.

And, since she also earned her Rally Novice title last year, I want to train her so that we can get her Rally Advanced title. We will have to work hard on her heeling off leash and my ring nerves, but I have no doubt that she can easily pass.

Robbie:
Robbie has some issues that we need to work on before I can comfortably take him to class. First, he barks, which doesn't bother me. Second, he is hyper-vigilant and that needs to stop. In other words, he spends all his time constantly scanning his environment for things that might frighten him, so he can not focus on me very well. I am going to take him to a private trainer who can work with us and get him ready for a class.

Once he is able to take a class, then he is going to be a spitfire in agility. He is tiny and runs very fast and I have no doubt that he would do well. We might not be able to compete, since he is missing that hip joint (struck by a car before I adopted him) but we are going to try, since his vet said that he should be OK.

Bear:
Bear is completely deaf and so cross-eyed that I really don't know how much he sees. He always tries to take a treat out of my hand about 5 inches to the side of my hand, so we are going to have to work on treat delivery before he can learn down. Why? Because he spends all his time worrying about where the treat is rather than focusing on me to learn the cue. Once I get him to be more confident with that, then I might switch to using toys and play fetch to teach him. That is a much better reward for him and he prefers it.

2009 Goals

Some of these goals are pretty easy. Others, due to issues that each dog might have, will be a lot harder.

All dogs learn to accept having their nails trimmed.

Possum becomes housetrained.

Ella takes an agility class.

Robbie takes an agility class.

Ella competes in an agility trial.

Robbie competes in an agility trial.

Ella earns her Canine Good Citizen title (again).

Robbie earns his CGC.

Bear learns "down."

Ella earns her TDI.

Ella earns her Rally Advanced title.

Robbie and Ella go on 5 hikes.

Possum learns to do the deck stairs.