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.