Seminar and Public Dog (13)

We had a two day seminar this weekend in Corvallis Oregon.  I drove down Friday and came back Sunday night. 

 

Debbi Decker was fun, nice and entertaining.  That day was mostly about clever ways to teach tricks, though nothing really "exciting" (I'll describe them in the blog).  She relies a LOT on luring, which isn't my favorite way to teach things and not as useful for Gimme.  Kris Hurley on Sunday was all about Mental Management ("With Winning in Mind", Lanny Bassham), though that was only mentioned in passing in the seminar promotion materials.  She's about to become a certified MM instructor.  There were no exercises with the dogs - or even with people, even though it was advertised as a working seminar for people.  I guess she thinks a 6.5 hour "discussion" qualifies as a working seminar.  It was okay, but I wouldn't pay money for her again.

 

It worked out great for us because the seminar was in Julie's new building with 5000 sq ft usable floor space. Early sessions only had 5 dogs out at a time.  I used wire guides to make a reminder barrier, so that other teams wouldn't unintentionally encroach on our corner.  Also, I told the instructor we'd signed up for a working slot when Gimme was doing much better, about our recent regression, and to please look for us in the far corner.

 

We started the day by walking the grounds and coming in before others arrived to work on focus. She wasn't worried - just distracted. So I worked with her until I was getting good check-ins and cue responsiveness.

 

During the seminar, Debbi came to us last for each session, by which time I had already done a lot of "whazzat", so Gimme was focused and working.  Debbi was really impressed with how smart Gimme is and had a lot of nice things to say about her, calling her "exciting" and "gorgeous".

 

For the 3rd and 4th sessions, there were 8-10 teams on the floor and Gimme  was still able to work nicely.  It was a little harder for her, so I made it a point to cue "pretty" (a sit up "pretty", as opposed to stand up "dance") and then rewarded her with PB.  I've been using the PB to get her to hold the position with the intention of building her core strength.  With regular treats its hard to dole them out smoothly and she has a greater tendency to try and grab my hand with her paws to steady herself.  Plus she's not as inclined to work hard like she will for PB.  So in this case I was able to get two benefits from it.

 

During one of our sessions in the building we were doing LAT and I noticed that Gimme had stopped turning her head all the way to look at the dogs when I cued "whazzat". Basically she was looking at the wall behind and to my right and then looking at me. I immediately thought someone was *sneaking* up from that side and turned to look. Instead I discovered my little canine genius was using a wall mirror and dog reflections to play LAT.  She's always been fascinated by mirrors and particularly likes to pose in front of them and admire her lovely self. She'll even turn so she can admire the other side of her lovely self. So she obviously knows what they do - I just never thought she'd be aware enough conceptually to use them in that way.

 

We skipped one session because I found her sound asleep and I didn't have the heart to wake her. Then for the last session when I brought her in, she wasn't nearly as focused. A couple of teams were close... though not any more than had already happened. I saw her getting stuck and even with helping her get unstuck, she couldn't work for the cheese. So I worked through her slow and minimal behaviors to a known cue until I got a good response and then rewarded with peanut butter. Cued it again, got a faster and better response and I rewarded her heavily and headed back to the car.  It was particularly helpful for me to have looked at the descriptions in what I was writing and to distil it down to a short list of clues that she was reaching her limits.  Having just done that, when I saw two things from the list, I immediately recognized it and changed gears. 

 

One thing I noticed when she was getting a little stuck was that when I touched her she didn't turn to me right away. She's so tactile and normally responds to any touch by turning to see what she can get from it. So, I decided to play with that during class today, where she was immediately responsive to it every time (even for the poodle - see below).  I will try it in other situations to see if its consistent that she doesn't respond quickly when she's concerned.  If so, it may be an easy "test" for when I suspect the environment is getting to her and before it other clues become evident. 

 

In hindsight I should have let her take the rest of Saturday off when she slept through me walking up to the car the first time (she's "psychic" and usually wakes up when I even *think* about getting her). Still I found it encouraging that she was able to work through it...

 

Interestingly, after noticing the difference in her evening behaviors last week... Friday night when we arrived at Motel 6, she was calm and barely noticed the motel noises. She'd lift her head and softly wuffed once or twice. On Saturday, she was much edgier and barked several times. I went to bed leaving the TV on to obscure much of the hotel noises, turning it off at 3am. So I think evening behavior will be a consistent after-the-fact assessment of how well I managed her exposure during the day. 

 

On Saturday night when Gimme was alerting to motel noises with alarm barking...  one of the times I said "what's that" after she bounded off the bed to the door.  Instead of continuing to bark as I tried to cajole her to stop (as I had the other times), she immediately ran to me with a change of attitude, thinking I'd cued "whazzat" (which is why I picked that cue). It worked in the morning too...

 

I got "Through A Dog's Ear" CDs from the library and thank God I did instead of spending money on them.   For one thing, I didn't notice any measurable improvement for Gimme.  And equally important, I found them intensely annoying. I kept waiting for the next note and it was like Chinese Water Torture, just exhausting...  I may consider getting a white noise machine or a small CD player and some white noise type CDs, for when we travel.  And could use it here at home when she's had a stressful day.

 

For today's class, she did pretty well.   We were in the park, so it was easy to move around and use space effectively.  She was whining a lot, but I took it more that she was wanting to be "doing" something rather than stressed.  This class tends to include a fair amount of standing around and that frustrates her.  Once we started really working the dogs, then she got quiet and worked well.  I did notice that she often was watching the dog that came late (small poodle) keeping one eye on it almost the whole time.  The poodle did look in our direction a fair amount, so that could have been part of it - it could also be sudden environmental change, because of them joining our group so late.  She responded instantly every time I touched her, so I'll watch to see if that turns out to be a good test for us. 

 

Ursula saw her flirting with Tor (Alaskan Malamute) and she has always been more comfortable with him.  So Frank and I are going to try to get together to go walking together, maybe Friday.  She needs more opportunities to walk with dogs that are well behaved.

For class on Thursdays (and all classes in the building) I have pretty much decided to continue grabbing the area that has the the only separate door to the outside. I'll also take the expen and stretch it around our space, enclosing the door. I can park my car right outside the door, backing in, so I can use it as a station as well as having her matt inside.  There are also visual dividers that I can set up as needed.  My initial approach was to start in the building and then leave for breaks... but that didn't seem to work well enough. So now I'm going to flip that and work outside and then dip in for short times, building up from there. Which of course, in hindsight makes perfect sense. Far better to start from a calm place and add small amounts of challenge than to start in a pressured place and try to relieve it. Duhhh...

 

Also I've been thinking I should try DAP again and see if its beneficial.  I tried it and it didn't work when I was trying to solve her car whining, back when I thought it was a stress issue.  Perhaps that wasn't a fair test, since I later realized its anticipatory whining, which is a rather different thing.

Confession Update

We have no classes this week - no agility, nosework or Public Dog. So I've had lots of time to work on our little discombobulation. When last I talked about this, Gimme had learned to lay down and wait whenever I sit and had even offered the behavior when I stopped to talk to someone. That continues still. 

We've had four walks since then. Monday we walked around the lake mid-afternoon and she did great with LLW, but was getting stuck still. Tuesday we had a very long walk out on the fort and it was delightful. Yesterday we met Mary and Grafton for a walk around the lake. I decided to only walk on the wide-side of the lake - the park area where we have distance that we can use to create space. The other side is a sidewalk sandwiched between a 5' wide strip of grass and the street (with traffic). I'd hoped that Grafton's presence might be comforting to Gimme and that she'd be less concerned about other dogs, but that didn't prove to be the case. 

I did discover, not surprisingly, that my own reactions do indeed feed hers. We were walking and a couple let their dog out off leash. It was about 50 feet from us sniffing and peeing and then made a beeline in our direction. Mary stayed put with Grafton and I quickly back-pedaled to add distance. I got to where we were about 60 feet from where the dog was with Mary and Grafton... I really couldn't get Gimme's attention and had nowhere else to go to increase distance. I was startled and alarmed... and then annoyed that we were stuck waiting for this person to remove their dog. Even after they moved away and we resumed our walk Gimme stayed aroused and kept scanning for THAT DOG. 

Mary told me what the idiot owners had to say - completely clueless, stupid, liars. They did try calling the dog, but it paid no attention to them. First they defended their off leash dog because she's so friendly. Mary reminded them that its the law and they could be cited. Then they said they don't have a leash for her. After which they went on to say, she's a therapy dog for dogs, because her presence puts other dogs at ease. Seriously! Where do people get this junk? 

Anyway I wanted to make sure we got in another walk today, but before doing so decided to take a hot soak to loosen up my foot. That worked and while I was at it I did some more reading in the BAT book. Decided to go to the back and read in Appendix 1 the clicker info about basic behaviors to teach. I was mostly interested in how they taught the basic u-turn for LETS GO. 

Of course, that led me to check out part of Chapter 7 for walks outside of training. And then back to the appendix. Part of my issue is that I often can't turn and go the other way, since there can be a dog behind us as well - so eventually you get sandwiched between two dogs (not a good place to be). I've decided to restrict our lake walking to the far side of the wide side and just back and forth over that half mile for the time being, thus we can use the 30-60 foot wide green to our advantage. 

In the course of reading about how to train the u-turn, I wasn't done soaking so read on further about the LLW advice and came upon something that gave me an ahah moment. That is using the hand touch as a target, which I had thought of. But she suggests backing up to teach it. That caused the ahah-duh... because Gimme does not react to dogs that pass us from behind. 

So I'm thinking when we do start walking all the way around the lake, when we have a dog approaching from in front, we'll LAT a couple of times and then have two choices. 

1. We can u-turn and walk a little slower and the moment the dog passes us u-turn again and be on our way in the original direction. 
2. Or I can back up with the hand-touch target and the moment the dog is about to pass us move forward again. 

Either of these will shorten the duration of the time when we are being passed and both take advantage of Gimme's greater comfort with passes that aren't head-on. When the time comes, I'll have to experiment and see which works better. Now, why didn't I think of that? 

Anyway, today's walk went very well. We were able to use the distance very nicely. I taught Gimme the LETS GO in just two clicks. Honestly, she had probably already picked it up, since its the kind of thing I might say not intending it as a cue. We did a lot of WHAZZAT and her loose leash walking was excellent. When we tried WHAZZAT and she seemed to get stuck, I cued LETS GO and moved 5 - 10 feet further away. Then most of the time she was able to do WHAZZAT without getting stuck. One nice thing was that some of the time when we were doing WHAZZAT, since I'd be standing still, she'd lay down all stretched out. Clearly we had good distance at that point and she was relaxed. Also we ended the walk with about a quarter mile of parallel walking with a white poodle mix, with 30-50 feet between us, doing WHAZZAT as we walked. 

It was a good walk. While we didn't reduce the threshold distance at all... it was a nice session and Gimme remained calm the whole time. Makes me feel better that we'll get back to where we were before long.

Confession...

I have screwed up how I’ve handled Gimme’s issues in class.  Its hard when you have to make all the mistakes yourself so you can learn from them.  <sigh>

In Thurs classes, Gimme starts out fine, but then she gets into a frantic feeding frenzy, with dilated pupils!  I've been trying to use metronome feeding when that happens, but she continues and gets worse.  Thursday night was the worst. I had noticed 4 months ago that our Relaxation Protocol work was deteriorating, so the beginnings predate her season and false pregnancy.

Urs thinks I'm contributing to Gimme's frantic behavior and even the way I give her treats is a factor.  She suggested placing the treats, one at a time with two fingers, into her mouth - instead of letting her nibble them out of my fingers.  I did that and it helped; I think it makes it clearer how many treats she is getting for a reward. I spent the last half of class just sitting on the floor with Gimme, giving her one treat on her matt for shutting her mouth or taking a breath (without clicker) and using petting whenever she was relatively calm.  That also helped. 

I was so frustrated that I could have cried when I got home.  I tried to schedule a private lesson with Ursula to get her insights into what I’m doing wrong, but the timing couldn’t be worse coming into the 4th of July week.  So I’ve been talking over the situation with Kathy and Candy; they’ve helped me to analyze what was happening.

I had noticed that I could train her tricks non-stop during class and she'd do them or try, but she just can't get herself calm.  Still even during tricks training she is more distracted and not herself.  After thinking about and discussing the history, I’ve concluded some things are combining to create this problem.   Here’s my thoughts:

• When I was trying to use RP outside agility class this year, I made too big of a jump from where we’d been the year before to where we started this year, so I undid the matt’s association with calm and safe.
• When she was in her false pregnancy, I may have fed into it by trying to use food to calm her down during classes and not using distance enough.
• Possibly I’ve been misjudging her state of mind - thinking she was too close to threshold, so I switched to classical conditioning when she was still operant.  As a result, I unintentionally taught her to "act overwrought" for all the rewards it gets her.  Of course, how you act quickly becomes how you feel - hence the dilated pupils.

Since then I have taken her for two rest-and-walks around Capitol Lake.  The first time I started on the Capitol Campus with 15 minutes of hanging out.  She did well, though it took awhile to get the idea that nothing was going to happen.  It occurs to me that we often meet Mary and Grafton there, so she was expecting them.  We left after she was consistently relaxing, which means calmly watching all the different things going on.  I gave her about ten treats during that time, when I saw especially nice stuff, like rolling on one hip or taking a deeper breath.

Then we moved down to the lake where we'd walk about 100 yards and then stop and sit for five minutes.  After we got halfway around the lake, then we just walked the rest without stopping.  She quickly figured out that when Mom sits, Gimme might as well chill, cuz ain't nothing gonna happen.

I did notice her look-at-that behavior ("whazzat") was broken.  Almost every dog she saw she couldn't look away from.  So I had to add a lot more distance and refresh her brain on how we do that.  Clearly I let her get re-sensitized from not managing space better during the intensity of classes.  Bad me!

Today we walked around the lake again and she did even better, relaxing quickly each time.  When I stopped to talk to people, she laid down and stretched out.  I can't remember her ever voluntarily laying down while I was still standing up - huge progress.  She even laid down while I was talking to a lady with a very small dog about 10 feet away.

Much of the time I'm petting her as the reward for relaxing and only giving her the occasional treat for the best signs of relaxation.  I think that makes a difference.  While she enjoys the "freebies", she isn't getting into work mode.  I'm pondering doing Relaxation Protocol without treats, using petting instead.  Gimme is very tactile, so perhaps that will work better and keep her from going into work mode.

I got smarter and used peanut butter today, so got better "whazzat", but she's still more inclined to get stuck looking than she has in the past.  The cheese just wasn't enough reward for her to work through it, which tells me her threshold has grown greatly.  Before 8 feet was pretty common, and now its 20.  If it is dog types that she especially dislikes (ones that look intently at her, pull toward her or bark) then she needs 35-40 feet.  Yikes!  That's a big loss and one we'll have to do a lot of work to recover ground.  I'm sure we'll get it back, but it will take time.

Her LLW was good both days, especially today.  It takes reminders, but then she gets into the rhythm and is going really long distances.  I started counting, but stopped when we hit 60 steps.  She was also adjusting her pace on her own after lightly bumping into the end of the leash.

Yesterday and today I only occasionally used treats for the LLW, instead relying mostly on the functional reward of moving forward.  If she was hovering at the end of the leash, I just slowed down and that was enough to remind her.  If she actually pulled then I'd stop and only continue when she was back beside me.  If she didn’t come back beside me, I'd back-pedal 5-10 steps. I consider this a step forward.  I think its better to get more and more behaviors on life rewards.

Kathy suggested I train Gimme through Susan Garrett’s crate games because she’s seen it to have a calming affect on dogs.  Fortunately my friend Chris has that DVD so I can borrow it.  It also occurs to me I need to watch my Control Unleashed DVD set... it has some rev-up-settle-down games that might be helpful for Gimme.

The trick will be transferring this to classes and will very much depend on managing space much better than I've done.  I need to set up so she can deal with the chaos successfully and feel good about the experience.  There are two cubicles that will give us more flexibility and options, so I’ll talk to Ursula about making sure we get one or the other.  One has an outside door so we can always go outside to take a break.  The other is at the foot of the stairs and we could go up to the landing for more space.

Kathy also suggested creating a calming association with the smell of lavender where she sleeps, which I can then spritz on her matt.  Initially I thought of both the bed and the couch, but with it being warmer, the door is open to outside.  Last night I noticed she alerted a couple of times to noises outside and alarm barked once, so I will stick with bed only since she snoozes through the night there.  I love lavender so have a lot of it and can make sachets for the bed and have a perfume that I can use on her bed.

I still feel very bad that I failed my precious darling.  But at least I now have a plan and am optimistic that we can recover lost ground and get over this hump. 

Listening Skills

One of the issues I've had with Gimme is that she has poor listening skills.  She tends to make assumptions about what I am asking for, without actually listening to the cue I used.  She loves offering stuff and so would rather run through her extensive repertoire of skills until I pay for one.  Naturally this isn't particularly useful.

And yes, I am certain that she actually knows the cues I'm talking about.  She is learning 53 cues with more to follow, and just about half of them are strong enough that they should be on cue.  We've worked the drill to put them on cue and she has demonstrated before that she understands how cue attachment and cues work. 

From what I'm seeing, I think she just prefers to do things her way.  There's a reason I bought her a little train conductor's hat and its not because she ever intends to let me wear it...

So tonight I decided to try something new.  Leslie McDevitt had given me the idea to use the Gimme A Break game as a reset for Gimme's frustration bark-a-thons and that has continued to be successful.  There are times she will quit barking, and default sit in front of me "talking" to me in the funniest way (sounds like a cross between a pigeon cooing and someone moaning).  I use judgment about her attitude when she talks - is it just talking (I "get" being verbal, being a yakety-yak type myself) or is it frustration?  If its frustration leaking out, then we wait for actual silence, otherwise I ignore it.

Anyway, the thing I did different tonight was to cue a behavior and if she gave me anything other than the behavior I cued, then I go to sit down and wait for a reset (Gimme comes and offers me a default sit to ask to work again).  My theory being that if she isn't listening, then she must need a reset.  It took a bit for it to sink in, but then she was really trying. 

There were a few times I'd give her a cue and she would start to do something else, then catch herself and give me the right behavior.  I rewarded that copiously... since she was definitely trying to do what I wanted and clearly showing that she understood.

By the time I ended the session she was doing very well.  I was even able to alternate between "finish" and "behind".  Both behaviors start in front position and are very similar - only differing in direction.  For finish she passes on my right, ending sitting in heel position; behind, passes on my left, ending sitting in side position (my right side).  In the past, no matter which I said she would just repeat what she'd done last.  So being able to alternate and/or mix it up between two such similar behaviors is a huge step forward in understanding. 

If we can get Gimme's listening skills to match her thinking skills, there will be no stopping this kid.  Naturally I'm thrilled with this step in her understanding.  She doesn't know it yet, but ceding a tiny bit of control to me will make training a whole lot more fun. 

Pouliot Seminar

Another great day.  Michele Pouliot is amazing.  If you have any interest in freestyle, she is definitely the person you want to spend your money seeing.  Her routines are so creative - it just amazes me how she thinks and comes up with stuff.  Her approach to teaching things is also very creative.  What a day.

And to make it even better, Gimme had another great day.  She did very well on all her work sessions.  The morning wasn't as good as it started yesterday, but then when I simplified and made it easier for her, she really got into what we were doing.  I was very pleased with her focus and attitude. 

Again at lunch we did a long session of playing look-at-that so she could just look at the things that distract her and get it out of her system.  So in the afternoon the first two sessions were really good.  She was very focused and working very hard.  There we are working just twenty five feet from the nearest dog team - and there were a dozen of them. 

I was so thrilled with how she did this weekend... with just a little bit of CU work, she was able to mostly ignore the other dogs.  Not ignore as in compelled to ignore, rather ignore as in not really interested in them, preferring to win treats from me.  That is a very huge milestone.

During the last session of the day she didn't do well.  She was well-behaved, just unable to focus.  That's understandable - there were a LOT of the teams that were pretty wiped out by then.  So I just made it all about rewarding any effort to keep her attention on me, which was about all she was up for.  I was very liberal with the treats, so it was a good experience for her, even if we didn't accomplish anything in terms of what the session was for.

When we got home she just crashed for the evening.  Today we had a nice shaping session and has been crashed ever since then.  Tomorrow we'll get to walk on the fort, so that will be nice for both of us.

BTW I met another lady with a Papillion that is working the CU stuff.  Both she and her dog were nice.  The dog was doing really well handling the distraction.  "Control Unleashed" works and I highly recommend it. 

Sdao Seminar

What a great day today. The seminar was just full of information... Much of which I knew, but presented in a new way or using new examples, so I am seeing different ways to apply it. Cool stuff.

The best part was the working slot I had with Gimme. Since today was basics (& more), and since there were a number of people who were less experienced, the structure of today's working sessions worked out just perfectly for us. The first session was all about the mechanics of clean clicker training. First we practiced without the dogs. Three one minute sets: how fast can you deliver treats, how fast can you click and deliver treats and then what affect do subtle changes in delivery have on your rate of delivery. Then we repeated the process with the dogs. So Gimme started by getting 26 treats for being cute. It is a system she really likes. Getting clicked and treated for really nothing suited her well too. Then the third set was clicked and treated for any head movement. Despite the distraction of all the other dogs, Gimme really was getting into this easy stuff.

Our second session was to shape a simple touch of our training partner's hand. Since Gimme already knows a hand touch, learning to do the same with someone else was very easy for her to figure out. So essentially two sessions early in the day -- easy, fun and with a very high rate of reward. During lunch we did a lot of CU look at that. That really set her up well, since I spent a lot of time on it and basically satisfied all her need to look.

By the time we started the afternoon sessions, Gimme was really primed to have fun. She had all the focus I could ever have wanted. She did really well and barely even noticed all the other dogs working on the floor at the same time (12 teams at a time). I was so proud of her. This was a huge jump in ability from last weekend. Her understanding and ability to focus despite distraction, is really just growing all the time.

BTW Gimme was a very popular photo subject. I think there are about 200 more pictures of her floating around the universe now. A man from Shanghai took at least half of them and has promised to email me copies. I got to hear how beautiful she is at least two dozen times. You know I really get tired of hearing that, not...

So, really looking forward to tomorrow with Michelle Pouliot. Gimme is clearly the cutest puppy on the planet -- I sure enjoy showing that this beauty comes with brains. Yah baby...

Gimme Chooses Mom

Today we went to a morning workshop on agility foundation with Andrea Dexter.  Didn't know what to expect from the instructor or from Gimme.  Andrea has some really great ideas about foundation work and I highly recommend her foundation seminar to anyone starting a dog in agility.

There were 8 working teams, three with were teenage dogs and the rest younger.  The first exercise was on transitions and I was sure happy that we'd already done some CU work.  The other teams were mostly learning about making the transition and how to get their dog into a thinking brain.  Gimme and I started at the car with reorienting as she got out of her crate, then again out of the car, then again entering the arena.  We walked a few steps which was enough for her to be distracted by the environment, so then I waited for her to choose to focus on me.  This happened a few times and then she was all about her Mom. 

So we did some run away games and Gimme was really wanting to stick with me.  Andrea stepped on her leash and distracted her once, Gimme chose me.  Andrea used my regular treats and distracted her, Gimme chose me.  Andrea took a bit of my peanut butter to distract her, Gimme chose me.  Then Andrea took my whole freakin' jar of peanut butter to distract her and my sweet darling baby girl still chose ME! 

I am misty eyed with the memory of this experience.  I mean, I love this dog crazy-like and I believe we have a great relationship.  But Holy Criminy... GIMME CHOSE ME OVER PEANUT BUTTER!!!!  And that was even knowing I didn't have any at all cuz she saw the transfer of the jar!

Andrea had a lot of nice things to say about Gimme and I was sooooo happy with all the foundation work we've done and what learning CU has brought to the table.  It adds a whole new element to Gimme's abilities.  By then I had so much attention from Gimme that we were able to heel out of the arena and to the car - whilst hearing Andrea pointing out our "lovely heeling". 

For our second working session, Gimme was really ready to go... with just a tiny bit of distraction.  I didn't have anything in particular that I wanted to work on, since we are really just starting agility.  I told Andrea where we are and what we are doing and then said, "feel free to chose something yourself,"  so she jumped at the chance to demonstrate something the other dogs weren't really up for.

So there we are free-shaping a completely new behavior in a strange place with 15 people watching and dogs in crates nearby.  At one point Gimme did notice one of the dogs and started to drift in that direction, yet she came perfectly when called.  After that I tossed her reward cookies in a different direction.  Twice Gimme made a leap in understanding and twice Andrea pointed it out, saying it was "accidental".  I just smiled as Gimme repeated the accidental behavior three or four more times.  After the second time, Andrea didn't say that again.  Gimme loves free-shaping and is verrrrry good at it. 

So it was a very fun day and even if I hadn't learned things, I'd still be very happy with the day because I could really see how far Gimme has come in a relatively short time.  It really is cool living with the smartest and the cutest puppy on the planet.

Work Ethic?

I have a pretty mindless job, which I know I've mentioned before.  Anyway, it gives me a lot of time to contemplate and cogitate about what is going on in my life and naturally much of that contemplation and cogitation is about Gimme, the Cutest Puppy on the Planet.

While working today I had another thought about how Gimme is progressing.  At class she spends a lot of time in her crate getting what some people call "free food for doing nothing".  Likewise, when we are working or just hanging in a challenging environment, she often gets more of that same "free food for doing nothing".  

Yet, when she is mentally ready for the environment, she essentially comes out of the crate on her own.  Likewise when we are hanging, she makes it clear that she's ready to work.  I do give her an attitude check, but if she really was just there for the free food, wouldn't she just stay in the crate and get some more?  I've always thought she had a really good work ethic and this is more support for my belief in her (and belief in this process). 

Recently I've had a couple of discussions with people who just don't understand and are convinced I'm making her into a mentally and emotionally lazy dog by doing what Ursula, Control Unleashed, Jean Donaldson's books and the Pigs Fly book, all agree will teach a dog how to function in environments that they find difficult.

I think the proof is in the pudding.  Gimme is getting better at this and able to handle more distracting and stimulating environments all the time.  Her progress is undeniable.  Letting her learn to deal with these things in a gradual and systematic way, means that she is able to have the experiences, learn to work amidst a level of chaos that she can handle and get rewarded for it - all without feeling bad or in any way overwhelmed.  Bad feelings mean negative associations and no matter what happens later, most of those negative associations never go away completely.  So, if all Gimme's experiences have a positive and rewarding outcome, then she will become mentally and emotionally stronger and more resilient, not less so.  

She really does love to "work"... or else she's just phenomenally determined to get me trained - no matter what the personal cost...

Our First CGC Class

Gimme had her first CGC class last night... but let me catch you up on the rest of our day first.

In the morning, I did a session on sit, down and touch to establish our baseline.  It wasn't as bad as the night before... but still not as good as I expected it to be after a night of rest.  She was doing better toward the end of the 3 minute session, so that's good.  We'll need to continue working on that.

From there we went to work.  I was going to work Gimme in the parking lot, but then decided I wouldn't since we had class that night, that it might be better to leave her a bit fresher mentally. 

After working we went to the fort to walk.  It was cool, so during our walk I did some simple recalls and asked for sits and downs.  In doing this I noticed an interesting thing.  For sit, Gimme responds best to the verbal; for down she responds best to the hand signal.  She was pretty good on the recalls, but not that responsive on the sits and downs.  Clearly we have room for improvement.

Class was okay.  Its certainly not my style of training, but the instructor and I have an understanding that I'm just there to train in the environment.  It was a lot to take in for Miss Gimme, since it was an open floor plan with eleven other dogs.  We spent the first half of class with her in her crate just getting peanut butter in her Kong ball.  I covered two sides of her crate to give her a bit of visual break until she was ready for the room.  As she'd polish her ball clean, she would roll it out by my foot for a refill.  Each time I'd give her an attitude check and then refill it.  She ate a LOT of peanut butter. 

When she was ready, I brought her out and we worked on the same exercises the class was working on - attention, sit and down.  Of course, she knows all that and was doing very nicely.  From time to time she would look around at the other dogs, so I'd say "whazzat" ("look at that" from Control Unleashed), then she would look back at me and get treated.  That is very helpful for her. 

I find it interesting that for most dogs when they are concerned about something, they can't turn their eyes away from it.  Gimme has learned along the way that she feels better if she doesn't stare at stuff that worries her.  She looks, but then then is quickly satisfied and turns her back on it.  I see that as the beginning of her learning to calm herself.  Woo hooooo.

Also during class I discovered that Gimme may not care for the beef I'd cooked and cut up for treats.  She eats them okay, but isn't inclined to work as hard for them as she will to nibble a bit off a big hunk of boiled garlic chicken.  That may explain why she wasn't as responsive during our walk on the fort.  I think she really misses the hot dogs and deli meats.  We have no choice since I discovered it was the sodium nitrite in them that was causing her to have itchy ears.  If you look up side affects for sodium nitrite, one of them is pink and itchy skin.  There is much evidence that food sensitivities often show up in ear irritation or infection.  Put those two things together and its no more processed meats for Gimme.  [Of course, I came to this discovery just days after laying in a sizable stock of those things from a meat sale.]

Class was shortened last night, which worked well so that Gimme didn't have a prolonged exposure.  Afterward she made it clear she didn't want to get in the car.  She did have to while I went back in to gather our stuff.  Afterward we went for a nice walk on the Percival Landing boardwalk.  Gimme had never been there and was fascinated by all the different surfaces and textures to walk on as well as smells galore. 

There aren't nearly as many people walking on the boardwalk as there are around Capitol Lake, so we may go there again.  We met some people, almost all of whom had to pet the Prettiest Puppy on the Planet.  Anyone who likes dogs is just naturally attracted to her.  One young girl was a little afraid of her...  so I put Gimme on a sit stay and then stood next to the girl and helped her tell Gimme what to do using hand signals. 

I was very pleased that Gimme still had so much desire to work left in her after class.  I expected her to feel wiped out.  This tells me that she is making good progress on the things you don't see as well as the things you do.

Its All About the Attitude

I teach agility on Saturdays and this weekend after class I placed six jumps (uprights only) in a simple circle and brought Gimme in to play.  Initially I turned her loose to investigate the arena, since she hasn't been there in many months.  She ran around excited and wild and when she buzzed by me, I clicked her.  I only did that once or twice, because she didn't stop for the treat, so the clicking was pretty meaningless.  I figured she was too far out of her thinking brain to respond, so I just let her go and get it out of her system. 

What I did do was to walk around and back and forth in the arena.  Whenever she buzzed by, I'd change direction and walk in a direction more or less opposite to where she was headed then.  I didn't say anything or in any way try to curtail or change what she was doing.  I simply walked and changed directions as her movements called for it.  Before long I noticed, while she was still buzzing by, she was almost immediately curving back to pick up my new direction. 

When I saw that she was actually giving me some brief eye contact as she went by, I tried clicking again and sure enough, she was ready to respond.  She got her treats and then was free to go.  I repeated this until she indicated she wanted more from me and was ready to work.  After that we had a nice training session where she was totally focused and giving me all she had. 

At one point the barn dogs came out and were looking in the gate.  She was distracted then and left briefly to go check them out.  I was happy to see that she didn't show any posturing and soon came back to work.  So we are already making progress on that front.  Woohoo...

I was very happy that she gave me such complete focus in what is essentially a new place for her and worked hard for ten minutes.  I was even happier that despite distracting to the dogs, she came back to work with the same great level of focus she had before.  What did she learn in this session?  Not much agility, just going through uprights which she has done before.  But more importantly:

• Mom respects my needs
• I can play agility in a strange place
• Mom is fun
• Agility is fun
• Dogs watching are okay

Contrast that with a recent semi-private agility lesson.  It had already been a pretty full day and in retrospect wasn't the best time to have a lesson, especially a semi-private (not my choice -- it was sprung on me when I arrived).  Gimme did well for most of the lesson and was trying hard to give me what I wanted. 

While things started out well enough, after awhile Gimme started sniffing. The instructor told me that I was certainly more interesting than the ground and Gimme had to return to work.  I worked her through it as best I could and was getting some success.  Even if she wasn't learning anything, she was, at that point, still having a positive experience.

However as things continued, Gimme became more and more distracted and was clearly starting to stress. She started running out to the wading pool after the second jump in the sequence. The instructor would go and herd her back by pestering her.  As this pattern was repeated the pestering became harassing.  Gimme's brain was basically fried (my thoughts and later the instructor's exact words) and she was trying to avoid what she couldn't concentrate well enough to do.  The pool was then turned over and the next time she went that way, the instructor went after her, got in her face and yelled "get back to work." Gimme then came right to me, but she still couldn't do the exercise.

The instructor insisted that Gimme had to learn to work through her "fried brain" and that she could only quit on "my terms".  She said it wasn't up to Gimme to say when she was too tired and couldn't work anymore.  She would not accept that Gimme had enough, too much, in fact, or that it was sufficient reason to give her a break. I let it go on a few more minutes, broke down the exercise and basically the last time Gimme walked through it getting treats every two feet.

While the instructor insisted that was so much better, she couldn't see that Gimme was very stressed and behaviorally suppressed, only seeming her usual lively self for the last obstacle, a straight tunnel. Then after having said before that when Gimme did what I asked, we would quit on "my terms", she told me to do the sequence again. I said "no, that's enough" – which ended the lesson. I should have quit much sooner.

What Gimme learned from that awful lesson is that:

• Sometimes agility isn't fun
• Sometimes Mom isn't fun
• Sometimes Mom doesn't listen to Gimme
• Sometimes people aren't nice to Gimme

Obviously that's not where I want our training to "go".  Gimme is too great of a dog and has such a wonderful attitude.  Fortunately she has enough confidence and plenty of attitude to bounce back, even from that crappy lesson.  So what did Carla learn from that dismal experience:

• Don't let someone surprise me into doing something that isn't right for my girl (the unplanned semi-private).  I should have said "no" when I realized we weren't going to get what I had scheduled.
• Don't listen to someone who tries to push me into training in ways that my girl isn't ready for.  Such as exercises that are too difficult for her level of experience or discouraging me from luring Gimme to help her deal with the difficulty and/or distraction.
• Don't listen to someone who criticizes the advice I was given my another instructor who has worked much more with Gimme and who's method is showing results.
• Don't listen to someone who shows a lack of understanding about canine calming signals and who shows no evidence of having even read some of the latest works on helping dogs deal with distraction/stress, such as Control Unleashed.
• Don't listen to someone who is starting to channel Cesar Milan.
• Do tailor the training method to where Gimme is at in that moment.
• Do remember that while she is full size, Gimme is after all still a puppy.  She doesn't need to experience stress while learning (no dog does).
• Do pay attention to what the whole Gimme is telling me.  Its okay for her to tell me when she is done working; its not important for me to be in charge.  
• Do respect Gimme and her needs. 
• Do defend Gimme's needs at all times.

To clarify the title, "Its All About the Attitude"...  I'd rather have a dog who chooses to work with me, than one who is compelled to work with me.

I have to admit its embarrassing to share with the "whole world" how poorly I stood up for my darling girl in this instance.  I could hide it and keep my reputation intact.  I could explain in nauseating detail how and why I think it happened this way.  I could try to defend or justify my errors in judgment.  I have already analyzed it to death for my own benefit.  However, I think the important thing is to share it with you so you can benefit from what I learned. 

Please learn from my mistakes...  Do not try this at home.

The Project - Day 11

Our day has been an on-again off-again sort of day.  My students were dying to see Gimme, so I took her in after class and ran her through her paces.  It took a few minutes to get her mind in gear, but once I did, she ran the sequence quite nicely (bars on the ground).   

Distraction training
After I taught this morning I took her to a place where we could have a nice walk.  Before we even started walking, we did ten check-ins by the car.  She got focused very quickly.  Where I'd chosen to walk is along a busy street, but much of it is part of a green swath and is about 20 feet back from the road.  We walked 2 miles.  The other reason I picked this place to have a nice stable surface to walk on, since I'd strained my bad knee training with the 4H-ers Thursday night  and I want to make sure it has a few more days before I risk a rougher surface. 

I've known before, but have been ignoring that reality, that I've been neglecting walking her on leash and teaching her loose leash walking.  I just really enjoy walking with Gimme off lead where she can explore and romp at will and I'm so blessed to have a number of nice places to do just that.  So today I picked a place where we could have a long walk without huge amounts of distractions, though I knew some would show up all the same. 

The walk started off nice enough and when I forced myself to concentrate on using the EasyWalk to train her, instead of just using it for management, she got a lot better pretty quickly.  Amazing what happens when you actually take a little time to train your dog, eh.  It was shaping into a nice walk.  We had a couple bikers pass us and she just ignores them.  We had to cross a couple streets, so she's starting to learn to sit and wait for permission to go forward. 

She was doing well and we stopped twice to do a couple behaviors.  Just before the turn around point, we passed a home with two small terriers and a bulldog in their yard.  Naturally the terriers were barking fools.  They were about fifty feet away from us, so I spent some time with metronome feeding.  When she was more relaxed about them, we played "whazzat", my cue for the Control Unleashed "look at that" game.  Then we moved on.  It was interesting that even though she seemed to be relaxed, her loose leash walking suffered.  Oftentimes she doesn't show her stress overtly and you only know its happening because of how her performance changes.

We went about another block and had to come back by.  I would have preferred to not go past them again on the return trip, but it just wasn't possible.  And the street we were on is so busy that I wouldn't have considered crossing the road to increase our distance.  However, when we went by them, she paid them little notice... and then sort of stuck her nose up in the air and moved on.  It would have been more effective demonstration of 'tude if we hadn't had to stop in five feet to sit and wait for the light! 

Also interesting... after that her loose leash walking came right back.  So going back past those foolish barkers seemed to work to her advantage.  I'm guessing because it gave her the opportunity to deal with them on her terms.  Then again I may be anthropomorphizing.

Apple - back into a box, back feet only
Not trained today.

Orange - get onto a small perch with all four feet

Not trained today.
 

Grape - dead bug (on back, feet in the air)

I trained this after melon...  it is rapidly becoming Gimme's favorite thing to offer.  She is likely to throw it in at the oddest times.  Probably because I always end up laughing at her shenanigans and that pleases her inner-clown.

She is exhibiting a tendency to wiggle ever so briefly and then continue rolling over.  Even though I'm confident the vast majority of my clicks are hitting when she's momentarily stable on her back, I think that her continuing to roll is getting rewarded along with what I want.  So, first off, I've backed off naming this.  And I'm also beginning to withhold the click until she holds her on-the-back position a little more.  I plan to wait until she will hold in position for a strong 1-2 seconds before putting the name on it.

Peach - head under a chair

Not trained today.

Melon - push cube with nose
She still likes to bat at the cube with her feet and bite it.  I have been unsuccessful in deterring that.  I'd been trying to give her the hint by picking it up whenever she used her feet or bit the cube, but it wasn't working.  So I tried a different tactic.  

But before I did, there was a point halfway through this session where she was getting a bit frustrated by my obtuse insistence on not clicking her creative ideas, so she increased the level of wonderfulness.  She threw herself on the floor and grabbed the cube with her feet while doing grape.  Or she'd throw herself onto the cube, trying to do grape on it.  And a couple times she threw herself down next to it and while doing grape, would push the cube with her cheek or the side of her muzzle.  In her not-so-humble opine, a good grape variation is always worthwhile.  You have to know I really regretted not getting this on video.  I've always loved her ideas and often wish I could use more of them.

After that is when I decided to change my approach.  Rather than trying to discourage what I didn't want (pawing and mouthing), I upped the reward with a multi-treat jackpot, for nose pushes.  And to make the nose pushes more obvious for both of us, I tried setting the cube on one of the small ends (its about half an inch longer in one direction).  Then when she nose touches it, it rocks or falls over.   This seemed to work and toward the end she was giving me a lot of nose touches and pushes.  It really seemed to finally sink in for her. 

Hmmmm focus on rewarding what you do want while ignoring everything else.  Now where have I heard that before?

We also today got started on our long platforms ala Michelle Pouliet.  As always, I was astonished by how quickly Gimme picked this up.  Her brilliance makes training so much fun.  At one point, she did try many other variations.  She just never quite believes that I'm going to be happy with the simple and boring ideas I come up with.  She did lots of forehand pivots, spins, dancing in place and, of course, several grapes...

She is the funny one...

What We've Been Up To…

 

We've been up to quite a lot. We walk on the Fort Lewis training areas or lower acreage of St. Martin College several days a week. Gimme enjoys that a great deal, as do I. Here is a recent picture.

We are training in several performance disciplines at once, as well as continuing our work on life skills. I'm fortunate that she is the canine genius that I thought she'd be when I picked her, since bouncing from one thing to another is pretty much the norm for people with adult ADD.

 

Tracking:

Gimme is doing great with tracking training. This picture is our first tracking adventure in her pretty blue harness.  Cute eh...

This is Gimme's first time actually following a scent.  She has a phenomenal nose and loves following it.

We are using the serpentine method. We are fortunate to have access to Fort Lewis' training areas, which is where many of the local tests are held.

 

There is lots of different terrain and cover to play in. Gimme is currently doing tracks with multiple turns soft curves of about 45 degrees.

We tracked in snow once just to try it out and she was great. I hadn't noticed any breeze, so was surprised to see her nose just inches to one side of my foot print. When I did the wet finger check, sure enough she was right.  Unfortunately I didn't get a picture - maybe next year.

Our next goal is to start aging the tracks a bit more.

Our only area of difficulty was article indication, but we did some training to address that and, as you can see, she is doing fine now.

Obedience & Rally:

We are working on basic skills and she's doing well. Some things she picks up so fast it makes my head spin, others take a little longer. She starts rally classes tomorrow night. We have enough of the basics that I expect her to do good. 

This picture is what I see when I look down at her sitting in heel - any question why I love working with her so much.  Who could resist that face?

I think the biggest challenge in class will be dealing with distractions. Interestingly and quite unexpectedly, stay seems to be her strongest behavior – which I'm surely not complaining about. I'm also noticing that she seems to generalize the things she has learned much faster than other dogs I've personally trained or taught. Another thing which I'm surely not complaining about.

Agility:

We continue to work on her basic behaviors. I'm in no hurry to get her in the ring, being much more concerned to protect her joints and baby body so she can have a nice long trouble free career. She learns everything I teach her so fast and is quite happy to show me how smart she is all the time. I have a baby dogwalk in the front yard and whenever she sees me coming she likes to get on it so I can see how well she hits her running contact. She also likes to stand on the cross plank and pose for those who are walking by on the sidewalk.

I spend all my free time with her, training, cuddling and playing. We are also working through the dog_read_study_group study of "Control Unleashed". I am learning a lot and I think it will benefit Gimme over time.

She is a treasure and I am blessed to have been adopted by her.