Body Handling Issues - Nail Trimming

With many behavioral issues, we go back to the basic desensitization and counter conditioning "rules."  The "rules" can be found at the link below.

http://ellaherdingcats.blogspot.com/2011/11/fear-based-behaviors-overview.html

When working with a dog that dislikes having his nails trimmed, we start very slowly and use a very high value treat. Some dogs have learned to snap when a hand comes close to their feet, so we start at a safer spot, such as the shoulder area. If your dog has back-end handling issues, you can do the same steps as below, but start at the shoulder area and work very slowly to the hip area and then down the back leg. If, at any time, you feel unsafe, consult with a professional dog trainer!

Make your dog and yourself comfortable for this, since this should be enjoyable for both of you. A grooming table can be very useful or have the dog lie quietly on the couch while you sit beside him. If you already use a clicker or a marker word, it can be used during desensitization and counter conditioning. Or, you can just give the treat. Each session should be about 5 minutes long and you can do multiple sessions per day, but do not take the next step until the dog is completely comfortable during the current step.

Some dogs have become afraid of the clippers, so having them where the dog can see them can be helpful, but we will not pick them up at first.

Assuming the dog does not mind being touched at the shoulder, start by gently touching and patting the shoulder area. At the same time, click, if using the clicker, then give a treat. Repeat this: touch the shoulder area, click, and then give a treat.

When the dog is happily anticipating your touch at the shoulder area, move your hand to the elbow area. Touch, click and treat.

Here are the next areas: upper leg, ankle, foot. Remember to practice at each area until the dog becomes completely comfortable.

Signs that the dog is not comfortable: panting, lip flicking, tucked tail, shaking, looking away, snapping, or growling. Some other signs include pulling the paw away or running away during the training session. If any of these happen, then you need to back up at least one, if not two steps.

Signs that your dog is comfortable: tail wagging, looking for the treat, offering the paw, begging.

Once your hand is on or near the dog’s foot, try holding the foot gently in your hand for the count of one. Remember that we are still clicking and treating! Slowly build up duration (time) that the dog’s foot is in your hand by working on one second hold, then two second hold, then one second hold, then three second hold and so on.

We are not quite to the clipping stage yet! We still need to part the toes, touch the foot with the clipper, clip the clipper, and then clip the nails. For the first two steps, still click and treat as you do them.

The “clip the clipper” step is an important one. During this step, we will use an old set of clippers and some toothpicks. Every time you clip a toothpick, your dog will get a treat. Do this over and over until he becomes comfortable with the noise. Once comfortable with the noise, clip the toothpick while holding or touching the dog’s foot with your hand (this takes a little practice).

Once the dog is comfortable with the noise, it is time to pair the holding of the paw with the clipping of the clipper. If your dog is easygoing, you could try to clip one nail at this point. When first starting to clip, I give a treat before and after the clip. Two treats for each nail. Once the dog is completely comfortable with being clipped, then I phase out the beginning treats and give one after each nail.

To review the steps: shoulder, elbow, upper leg, ankle, foot, holding foot, parting toes, touch the foot with the clipper, clip the clipper, clip the nails.

To review the rules: do not proceed to the next step until your dog is completely comfortable with the step that you are working on. Some dogs can fly through all of the steps in one session, but this in the exception. Taking a week or more per step is not uncommon.

Body Handling Issues - An Overview

Socialization during puppyhood includes introduction and desensitization to a lot of new things. Most people think of socialization as meeting new people and dogs. It does mean this, but socialization also needs to include getting used to being gently handled (grooming, petting, etc), experiencing many different types of flooring, riding in cars, seeing other animals, and a whole host of other experiences that can help make a puppy confident in his or her environment.

Body handling issues happen when a dog has not been handled enough as a puppy, dislikes being handled in certain areas or has had a bad experience that causes fear of being handled. It can be interesting to speculate why a dog might not like being handled in certain ways, but no matter what the reason, we can help them become more comfortable with being handled.

This series of articles about Body Handling issues will alternate with the Fear Based Behaviors articles during 2012.

Fear Based Behaviors - Part 1

Flower – the giant dog afraid of tile floors
Slippery floors are often a cause for fear based behaviors, especially in large breed dogs. It is important that puppies experience many different flooring types during their socialization period, so that they can learn how to walk on and adapt to new surfaces.

But, some puppies and adult dogs have a hard time with slippery floors. Some adult dogs have slipped and been injured and this leads to avoidance of the slippery floors. Some dogs will barely walk/crawl across slippery floors and others will make a mad dash across them.

Dogs that have lost a leg need to relearn how to walk on slippery floors. Extremely overweight dogs can have a fear of slippery floors because their legs are not strong enough to hold them up on the floor (in this case, the dog needs to lose weight while working on the floor issues).

It is important to manage this problem while desensitizing the dog to the floor. Management would include placing carpet strips (with non-slip backings) on the floor for the dog to walk on. Management might also include keeping the dog out of the room with the slippery floors during the behavior modification period. There are also products on the market, such as Paw Pads (http://www.puppylovepawpads.com), which are applied directly to the dog’s feet to give traction. This product is very useful for dogs that have lost limbs and are adapting to the new way they need to walk.

Flower’s owners tried the flooding technique in order to force Flower to get used to their kitchen floor. They dragged Flower to the middle of the floor and left her there. Flower just stood there and trembled until her owners dragged her back to the carpeted area. After that, every time they tried to get Flower onto the kitchen floor, she would fight against the leash. Her owners were afraid that she would hurt herself.

Flower needed to gain confidence on the floor. Since her experience with the flooring was very aversive, even using food to try to lure her onto the floor did not work. Neither did placing carpet samples and luring her onto those. She would not go into the kitchen at all.

After thinking about this issue, we decided to desensitize Flower to linoleum in the living room. This meant getting a piece of linoleum and placing it on the carpet and working with Flower there. We put the linoleum away while not working with Flower.

Thankfully, Flower was not afraid of the piece of linoleum, so we were able to start out by using desensitization and counterconditioning (DSCC) across the room from the linoleum. At all times, Flower was given treats for being in the same room as that linoleum. In one session, we were able to bring Flower right up to the linoleum.

The next session, we worked with carpet samples and the linoleum samples, still in the living room. In this session, our goal was to get Flower to step on each sample (our criteria was one foot). We used food to get Flower close to each sample. The carpet sample was easy. The linoleum one was a bit harder and we used a lot of food. At first we just tossed food around the sample. Then we tossed food onto the sample so that she was touching it with her nose. Then we lured her over and onto the sample with food. We did not force her to step on the sample. She was off leash at all times and could move away from the sample when she needed to (increase of distance to reduce stress).

After the first session, Flower’s owners were instructed to practice with her each day. Their goal was to have Flower be confident about walking over the linoleum sample while it was on the living room carpet.

After they were successful with this, it was time to start working in the kitchen. At first, we did not really work in the kitchen, but in the doorway to the kitchen. When Flower was comfortable in the doorway (again, using DSCC), we placed a carpet sample on the kitchen floor. We used food to get her to step on the carpet sample. By placing one sample next to each other and always allowing Flower to retreat to the living room when she needed to, we were able to bring her a few feet into the kitchen on the carpet samples.
The next step for the owners was to continue doing this with Flower until she was comfortable walking through the kitchen on the carpet samples.

Once that happened, we went back to the living room doorway. We placed Paw Pads on Flower’s feet (and used food to get her used to them). Then, we placed a carpet sample a short distance into the kitchen. Flower would need to take a step onto the real kitchen floor in order to step onto her safe carpet sample. Allowing her to back up into the safety of the living room when needed, we used food to have her place on foot on the floor. We repeated this until she was comfortable walking 1 step to the carpet sample, then 2 steps, then 3 steps.

Flower's owners continued with this process until Flower was successfully walking around a kitchen peppered with carpet samples. Then, they slowly began removing one carpet sample at a time until she was walking in the kitchen comfortably. At that point, they removed the Paw Pads and worked with Flower in the kitchen.

While Flower is still careful about moving around the kitchen, she will willingly walk through the kitchen to get to the back door. She will also come into the kitchen to greet her owners and to get treats. As time progresses, I expect that she will become more and more confident about the flooring.

And, Flower’s owners are now able to take her to places with slippery floors and have her feel confident about them.

Note: This same technique is used to help dogs learn stairs. We start with one stair, then two stairs and increase the number of stairs until the dog is able to go up and down easily.

Fear Based Behaviors - An Overview

What are fear based behaviors?
The easy answer is that it is a behavior caused by fear. Fear is a stressor and the dog will
often try to reduce the stress in a way that works for it. These fears can manifest in many
ways, but tend to fall into a couple of categories: aggressive type behaviors and
avoidance type behaviors (please note that I am generalizing here for the sake of brevity).

What are aggressive type behaviors?
These behaviors include, but are not limited to, barking, growling, lunging, and
nipping/biting.

What are avoidance type behaviors?
These behaviors include, but are not limited to, hiding, running away, and avoiding the
object causing the fear.

Can a dog display both categories?
Yes. Many dogs will show a combination of both.

How do we treat fear based behaviors?
We use a technique called desensitization and counterconditioning. Basically, we pair the frightening object with food. The important things to remember when working with a fearful dog is that the food should be high value (no kibble) and that the distance between the dog and the frightening object is very important.

To recap: food and distance! Food and distance!

The Basics of Desensitization and Counterconditioning (reprinted from a previous
article)

• This is not luring or bribing.
• Food does not make aggression worse.
• The dog does not need to do anything but take the treat (no sits, downs or stays)
• If the dog takes the treat and spits it out, some benefit will still be seen.
• Distance between the scary object and the dog is critical. Start with more distance
• at first and slowly work up to being close to the object.
• Do not force the dog to be close to the object.
• Food fundamentally changes the emotional response that the dog has to the scary
• object. Praise and petting does not do this. Punishment will make the fear worse.
• Remember this equation
• Object = scary
• Object = food
• Food = good
• Object = good

When to use desensitization and counterconditioning:
When the dog is extremely shy or fearful.
When the dog is afraid of objects or things that are unclickable (like wind and rain noises).
When the dog is afraid of the clicker
Anytime!

Flooding
Flooding is a technique that forces the dog to be next to the object it fears until it stops fearing the object. Food is not involved with this process. Many people see the dog shut down and think that the dog is over its fear. In reality, the dog has given up. Flooding is considered to be aversive by many positive reinforcement trainers. It has been shown to backfire in many instances, since the dog does not overcome its fear, but,
instead, either shuts down completely (given up) or becomes even more fearful.

Some examples of flooding:

• Hunting dog is afraid of gunshots, so owner forces dog to be in a kennel next to the firing range.
• Herding dog is afraid of sheep. Owner forces dog to stay in the pasture with the sheep.
• Dog is afraid of strangers. Owner forces the dog to allow pats by strangers.
• Dog is afraid of being outside. Owner forces the dog to be outside.

In each of these instances, it is a rare dog that overcomes its fear and gets used to the objects. Instead, we tend to see more behavioral issues: inappropriate urination/defecation, avoidance of the object to the point where the dog will hurt itself or the owner in order to get away, aggression towards the objects it fears.

Give that dog a job!

This is my version of this technique.

Many dogs need jobs. And, as owners, we do not want to have our dogs invent their own jobs, since dog-defined jobs like car or bike chasing, fence running, cat herding, barking or other problem behaviors can hinder the human-canine bond. Some of these dog-defined jobs can be quite dangerous for the dog, too!

So, we need to give our dog a job. Or, in some cases, we give them more than one. One way to give a dog a job is to feed him each meal out of interactive toys, such as Kong products, Premier products or Buster Cubes, to name a few. This is an easy way for owners to slow down eating and to give their dog a mental job.

Another way to give a dog a job is to work on obedience behaviors. This includes behaviors such as sit, down, stand, stay and heeling (or loose leash walking), but should also include fun tricks. Even 5 minutes a day of training will improve a dog’s confidence, improve the human-canine relationship and mentally stimulate the dog.

A third way to give a dog a job is to institute a Nothing in Life is Free Program (or Work to Earn). Now, many people think that asking a dog to sit before giving a cookie is NILIF. Well, NILIF is more than that and requires a bit more from both the dog and the owner than sitting for a cookie. It is a way to establish rules around the house (house manners). It is a way to establish benign leadership without the use of force, pain or fear. It is also a great way to give a dog a job.

So, what does NILIF look like?

You are sitting in your chair watching TV. Your dog comes up to you and wants some attention. You could just reach out and pat him. Or, you could make him earn the attention by asking for a sit first. That is working (sitting) to earn attention.

You are preparing all the dogs' dinners. They are racing and running around. You could just feed them. Or, you could wait until they are quiet and in their crates before you feed them. That is working (quiet, calm behavior) to earn food.

You are throwing the frisbee. The dogs are very excited. You could just throw the frisbee again. Or, you could make them sit and lie down before you throw the frisbee again. That is working (sit and lie down) to earn play.

You are getting ready for bed. Your dog wants to sleep on the bed. You could just allow him up there. Or, you could ask him to sit before he jumps up. And, if he misbehaves on the bed (growl/snark at the other dog or the cat or the spouse) then you could not allow him on the bed at all. Good behavior earns a place on the bed. Bad behavior means you sleep on the floor. The same goes for the couch.

You are getting ready to go for a walk. The dogs start barking and getting excited. You could just clip the leash on and go. Or, you could make them sit and stay (while being quiet) before you clip the leash on. This is working (sit and stay while being quiet) to earn walks.

You are getting ready to let them go outside. You could just let them go outside. Or, you could ask them to sit and stay while you open the door and then release each one to go outside. Release each one at a different time. This is working to earn being outside.

You decide to give them a treat. You could just open the treat container and ask them to sit for a treat. Or, you could ask them to sit and stay BEFORE you get the treat out and then give them a treat. This is working to earn treats.

Do you see how Nothing in Life is Free (Work to Earn) is MUCH different than holding a treat in your hand and asking for a sit? It fundamentally changes the way your dog sees you - you control all resources and you decide what the dog needs to do to get them. You can not allow herding breeds to be in control or they will control everything - so, we have to be in control and this is how we do it without pain or fear.

When a dog is showing behavioral issues, then I immediately start a ?Nothing In Life is Free/Work to Earn program, obedience training, and physical and mental exercise. Once those steps are implemented, I work on the problem behavior itself, if extra training is still needed.

Barking - Part 1

Types of Barking

Barking is one of the most common complaints that owners have about their shelties, whether it is a rescue sheltie or not. There are a lot of different types of barking, but I group them into 4 major categories. Any dog can exhibit any of these types of barking—sometimes at the same time. The first part of reducing barking is to identify the type of barking.

Demand barking - The dog barks at a person in order to get something. This type of barking is very easy to fix. Typical examples of this type of barking are: When playing, the sheltie will bark at the owner to throw the ball or Frisbee again. The barking stops when the play resumes. Some shelties will bark at other shelties to try to initiate play.

Some shelties will demand bark when they want attention, food or to go outside.

Alert barking - The dog barks because of something. Typical examples of this type of barking are: Barking at the UPS driver, barking at activity happening in the neighborhood, leash reactivity—barking at things while on leash

Boredom based barking - The dog barks at everything. These dogs do not tend to be fearful, but are very smart and very active.

Fear based barking - The dog barks at a person or thing, but it is fear based. This type of barking often includes the other categories, but also has a fear element. In this case, we train a bit differently than for non-fear based barking issues.

When working with a problem barker, we first need to evaluate the dog, its environment, its health and activity levels and its overall outlook. Then, we need to set up a well-rounded training program, since problem barking is solved through a combination of training and often minor changes in the dog’s household and how its owners interact with the dog.

Next time: Case Study 1: Bruce, the demand barker!

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.

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).

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!

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.

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.