The Weekend

We've been getting a little more exercise, though not as much as I'd hoped.  Even though Friday was officially the first day of Summer, it started raining late yesterday and still hasn't stopped.  Mary and I had big plans to take the kids, Gimme and Grafton, for a big walk tomorrow - since Mary has the day off.  Unfortunately the forecast is for rain and lots of it, so that may not happen.

On the phantom pregnancy front - things are going well.  I discovered the effect of Ignatia wasn't the same the second time around, which is when I realized that without intending to, I'd stopped giving her the Pulsatilla.  That is the homeopathic I started with, because I had it on hand, so she'd been getting it for five days when I first tried the Ignatia.  Now that I'm back to giving both of them, she is doing great.

Honestly she's being a big puppy girl, wanting to play all the time.  She is constantly bringing me toys and trying to engage me in play.  I've even put away the two babies and after a short while she stopped looking for them and transferred her attentions to her other toys.  There have been no more emotional outbursts or unusual sensitivity episodes.  Yesterday I took her to the park where the skateboarders are and she did much better with them.  She did show concern about one guy on roller-blades, but both times he seemed to appear out of nowhere.  I'll have to make sure to set that up properly.

We've also had two training sessions in the last 36 hours and she was completely focused and eager.  I'm also seeing that her impulse control is returning.  Of course, tomorrow's Public Dog class will be the big litmus test.  I hope she does well; if so, we'll get back to walking around the lake.  I'll also be eager to find where our loose leash walking has been hiding.

Yesterday we met Mary and Susan for a nosework practice; with containers, exterior and vehicle hides.  Gimme was enthusiastic and 100% focused throughout.  We have learned some very interesting things about these three dogs.  Gimme will basically do the same kind of element over and over and over again.  She doesn't get bored, though she may start showing some "creativity" as things go along - especially if she thinks she has been finding the hides too quickly.  Both Tucker and Grafton are lower drive than Gimme.  Tucker does best if we only do the same kind of hide a few times, then he wants to do another element.  Grafton will do one or two searches and then loses interest - even if Mary has really good rewards.  However, if we pair the hides, then he gets back into it -- so we'll be doing a lot more paired hides with him in the future.

I love nosework.  It is so natural to the dogs and its one time when they get to do what comes naturally to them.  It builds confidence in the dogs and teaches us humans to really carefully watch our dogs and go with what they are telling us.

Public Dog (9)

Today we met at the park for class.  I mistakenly thought Gimme would be completely okay with the skateboarders, since she'd seen so many when we were out walking without any sign of concern.  What I didn't account for was how many different and unusual sounds they make on the ramps and the different way people move.  Gimme did not think that was proper at all.  It probably didn't help that the sidewalk we used to get to where class was being held was between the skateboard ramp area and the open basketball court where a game was in progress.  

We worked on lots of "whazzat" with the skateboarders as we moved through.  Later we worked on it some more during class from the other side where I could play with the distance more.  Ursula coached me on some things I could do better in that respect.  After class we took the long way around so she wouldn't be sandwiched between the skateboarders and the basketball players.

Interestingly I've found she is doing much better right now with simple impulse control games than she is with moving things (like LLW).  And her stay test in class today was absolutely flawless.  

Ursula is concerned about how much worse Gimme "seems" during this false pregnancy than before.  I put that in quotes because after thinking about it, I believe it may not be an accurate assessment. 

I'm wondering if her false pregnancy is really that much worse this time around - or if its the nature of the Public Dog class and how much more it "pushes" her.  Before whenever she was in classes when her false pregnancy came around - we were working on behaviors that might be a challenge for her, but nothing that challenged the emotional side of things for her.  In fact the only notes I have in my blog related to her false pregnancy and class was when we were working on the distraction of doing a stand for exam, even though we've been in class during her summer f.p. a couple times before.  It occurs to me that she probably also has a false pregnancy following winter seasons (mid October), but I don't even notice them (which would be about mid December) - probably because we aren't in any class other than maybe one agility class that month and nosework.  

It also occurs to me that she isn't getting the amount of off leash recreation that she has in years past.  I have plantar fasciitis and I have been trying to get some rest of my foot.  And since she was acting more emotional, I thought it might be a good time to get that rest.  Perhaps that is exactly the wrong approach for her - maybe she needs more opportunities to relax and be a dog, not less.

Throughout this time, Gimme continues to do very well in nosework.  Admittedly she is not quite as focused as normal, but she's probably at 90-95% of normal.  Nosework takes intense concentration and can be hard work, but it doesn't challenge her on emotional issues...  

Also she is continuing to train well at home.  Again with a little less focus and intensity than usual, but for the most part she is eager and enthusiastic.  Tonight we worked on the perch trick again (getting on a little stool and turning around).  She wasn't doing that well, so I put it aside, brought in and washed a milk crate that was outside.  I'll probably cut a piece of carpet for it and zip-tie it on, but for tonight I used a folded towel.  With that increase in size, Gimme was working nicely.  I still wasn't getting the turn, so used a target stick to help her get the behavior and ten clicks later she was offering it.  During this effort, she managed to kick the milk crate over a couple times getting on and off, but she was basically unconcerned and impatient to get back on (not always waiting for me to get the towel in place).  

I would think that if she was really in that fragile of an emotional state, that kicking over the milk crate as she was dismounting would be upsetting.  And this is all while having just whelped two "babies".  Both are Dalmatians and neither will ever be show quality, but we love them both (though she does have a favorite).

Anyway, I've changed her to the another class on Thursday, since it'll be less chaotic.  We'll continue to go to Public Dog on Mondays and will just plan to stay further away from the crowd until she is back to normal. 

Public Dog (8)

Gimme did okay for class.  I've received the stress support supplement for dogs (Serenity Now) and have now given it to her for a couple days.  I don't yet notice any benefit, but even though the hormones cause stress, I think her condition is more about the hormones.

I'd discovered that her understanding of how to win while relaxing had deteriorated and essentially turned into a feeding frenzy.  Hormones are driving her to eat everything in sight and she's actually gained a couple of pounds.  So during class on Thursday, I worked on reestablishing a calmer routine and focus on self control.  It was hard for Gimme, but she is getting it. 

The class was working on all the things the dog needs to accept comfortably from other people.  During class we each did them to our dogs, while observed by an instructor and got signed off as either "good" or "needs work".  For instance one task is brushing the dog.  I didn't bring a brush (don't even own a dog brush), so I just used my wad of keys in my hand and stroked them over her body.  Gimme did fine with that - thought it was a bit odd, but she is really so good about any touch that nothing fazes her.  The other tasks were: examining teeth/mouth, ears and feet, pulling tail, and hard patting on the head.  Gimme got signed off on all the tasks - easily...

Yesterday we met Susan and Mary for a nosework practice.  We met at Lowes and set up container drills in the parking lot.  Gimme was not as focused as usual and more whiney than usual.  Tucker is doing so well in the beginning and less so on later exercises; his attitude and drive have improved now that Susan is bringing better goodies.  I think he's gotten good enough with the food distraction concept that he gets bored with repetitions.  So in the future we are going to do just a couple of container drills and then some exterior searches.  Grafton did well on his first search but after that he was mostly checked out.  Turns out Mary brought unexciting treats and once Grafton found out, he wasn't inspired to work through the distraction of the environment.  We made Mary give up her dinner to use as treats and that helped quite a bit.  Right now his natural indication is in a state of flux... so we are working on strengthening a component of it.

Now am off to my parents' for Father's Day and painting...

By George She's Got It...

Yippy, Yippeeee, YIPPEEEEE WOO HOOOOOO...

Gimme has the whole Loose Leash Walking thing in her repertoire!!!  I have been avoiding (and terribly missing) walking around the lake with Mary and Grafton because I didn't want to set back our training.  Grafton is always trying to get her to play and she has to yell at him to stop being a boy AND she has always had a burning need to walk in front of him... so much so that even at her best moments she couldn't do LLW.

Tonight I broke down and did it and she did GREAT!!!  I was really very proud of her... she only needed a tiny bit more reminders than without Grafton.  Honestly that may have been because its been nine days since we last walked the lake for LLW training.  I really couldn't walk and talk and count, so the 300 Pecks wasn't happening consistently.  However, when I did count, we were right at the same distances as we were last time.   Mostly I just clicked/treated on a random schedule, with reminders as needed.

Of course, it probably helps a LOT that we walked 7.5 miles yesterday.  I didn't plan to walk that far, but just kept going "a little farther".  Then I got around the back side and when I wasn't sure where the road was to get back down to the car, I walked the long way... which was at least a mile more than needed to do that circuit. 

It also may have helped that we met Mary and Grafton early this afternoon for a nosework practice.  Grafton was just not into searching at all.  Gimme did a great job, though it proved to be challenging for her.  Since both dogs were having difficulty - I went back with a hair of mine and checked the breeze next to the hides and it was really flat or blowing back into the rock wall.  Turns out Mary had already done a bunch of nosework practice with Grafton earlier today, so that accounts for his lack of interest.  We have plans to meet with Susan and Tucker tomorrow, so we'll see if Grafton is back up to his usual interest level.

Yesterday when we were walking on the fort's training area, my shoes kept coming untied and so I had to stop three times to re-tie them.  The first two times Gimme came up and mugged me while I was bent over, so I leaned toward her until she stopped (in keeping with what we'd done in class).  Then when I was done with the shoes, I encouraged her to stand against the front of my legs and gave her some petting.  The third time I stopped, she just came up and waited until I was ready and then got her petting.  So I think I'm going to do it that way - Denise Fenzi has a name for it, but I can't remember what it is.  She uses it as part of her routine before entering the obedience ring. 

Public Dog (2)

Yesterday was our second Public Dog class, at the training building.  Class was evenly split between people who are almost ready for the test (they went elsewhere for a mock test) and those who were just starting.  The first thing they did was ask each of us what our goals were and I said:

While I'd be happy to get a CGC and the Public Transportation certificate, I most want to use the class to help Gimme with her reactivity issues and to take the next steps in "growing up" and [for a laugh] I'll probably need help letting go of my "baby girl". 

Little did I realize how true the last part would be.

The first thing we worked on was teaching Gimme to act more "adult".  She has a real tendency to mug me for attention, or if my face is in range lots of kissing and hugging.  First Ursula described those behaviors as submissive, but then we decided since Gimme surely doesn't lack confidence - the "submissive" label doesn't fit accurately.

So Ursula thinks she is using puppy behaviors to get tactile reinforcement.  She has two dogs (of her 7) that have a much higher need for tactile contact.  The other five dogs gave up the puppy behaviors as they grew up, but they didn't crave the contact, so they had no reason to hold onto them.  Whereas for both of these dogs, she had to actually teach them how to ask appropriately for physical contact in public settings.

It isn't that they can't get physical contact in public - it would just be different, more appropriate.  The idea is to teach them another level of impulse control, where they monitor there own needs and then ask for contact and support in a more suitable way.  Ursula has taught her two dogs to target her thigh with their body and then she gives them the contact they need.

We then talked about how or whether this would change her behavior at home -- since I was already suffering anticipatory withdrawal anxiety just thinking that Gimme wouldn't be my cuddle bug at home.  I admit it, she really is my baby and I love all her hugs and kisses...  Ursula likened it to the relationship between a husband and wife...  in the privacy of home they express affection in often intimate ways, whereas in public, they express affection with less intimate contact, such as holding hands.  So, we just teach Gimme that distinction.

The way to do it was to simply reclaim my space when Gimme intrudes inappropriately.  I say "simply", because its a simple concept.  However, putting it into practice is anything but simple.  So any time Gimme intrudes on my space in public settings, then I am to gently move into her until she gives way - at which time I immediately back off.  Ursula wanted me to be really fast about backing off when Gimme responds, because that is part of the reward and we don't want her to get the idea that I'm mad at her.  The other part of the reward is to reach down and give her the contact she wanted in the first place.

Part of what made this so challenging is that I have been a positive reward trainer for a very long time and, as Ursula said, we as a rule don't intrude on a dog's space - instead we respect their space.  Ursula also noted my habitual response when Gimme moves into my space is to take a tiny step back and let her have it.  I did that about 15 times in ten minutes.  Also Urs pointed out how much I use a baby-talk tone (not words) with Gimme.

So not only was the timing a challenge, it was timing while trying to overcome an unconscious habit.  I don't think I ever did get it exactly right.  Mostly I'd move slightly back as a reflex, then catch myself and lean or step slightly toward her, then rock back.  Gimme responded very well and very quickly - I was the one having the problem.  Gimme adores Urs so we were able to set her up to demo it.  She figured it out in about 90 seconds with Urs' perfect timing and all it took was a subtle shift to send the message.  She did better with me, but it wasn't as crisp or as obvious as how fast she did for Ursula.

I'm thinking I'll work this weekend on teaching her to lean into my leg and then will pet her while she's there.  The trick I think will be to distinguish between this behavior and heel position...  since I don't want her heel to morph into a lean.  I think maybe I'll have her do it at 45 degrees, where she is sort of leaning against the front of my knee and possibly standing.  I'll have to play with it.

The interesting thing was that overall she seemed calmer.  We did a lot of LLW out on the floor with a calm Bernese nearby.  Gimme was able to handle that much closer than I would have thought.  Though after awhile, she did let me know she really needed some time in her crate to decompress.  Later we came out on the floor and resumed.

I had something else I was going to talk about, but my head and throat are starting to ache...  I thought late last night that I might be coming down with something.  So I've been taking Cold Calm and made it a very short work day.  Now to have a bowl of hot soup and curl up on the couch with my baby girl...

Agility Tonight

I had planned to get in a walk today on the fort's training areas, but by the time I was ready to go it was pouring rain.  Thought I might go after a short stint at work, but the rain hadn't stopped when I reached a potential stopping point...

Thus, Gimme was not as focused at class.  I'm sure it made a difference the rain also kept me from standing outside with her to do focus and RP work, which gets her brain engaged.  She did alright, just not as smooth as she has in recent classes.  While she blew right by the straight on weave entry, she did a lovely 100 degree entry and held onto it.

Usually when she isn't focused I try to take up the slack, but tonight I decided to take a different approach.  So for our second run, I put the PB tube in my pocket, zipped up my treat bag and threw it down in the middle of a section of course I thought would be easy for her to do.  Then we worked those three jumps.  Naturally she was distracted by the obvious presence of the treat bag and we spent about half our allotted time working through that.

We also discovered a hole in our training, based on my handling.  Gimme has developed a very late take-off (commitment) point and is always ready to pull off a jump.  Most of the time, I go past jumps I want her to take and she's come to rely on that as the true cue that I want her to jump it.  However, she's ready to pull off at any tiny indication.  Also Blynn told me when that happens, my tendency is to call Gimme to me and praise her and I often treat her as well.  In my head I'm praising her for coming to me and giving her a screw-up cookie... since I assume its my screw-up, not hers.  However, Blynn thinks I'm unintentionally rewarding her pulling off jumps and indirectly rewarding the late commitment point.  A valid point.

So we worked on me not doing that, being more precise about supporting my sends, without a slinging arm motion, and only rewarding when we both got it right.  Of course, I rewarded it well - to keep her motivated to work through this issue on both of us.  And we did get there.

It occurs to me that I need to let go of my "need" for screw-up cookies.  Its one thing to use them if she's becoming demotivated by repeated failures - but in that case, I should be breaking it down further, eh.  I think I've fallen into using them as a crutch to keep her from getting distracted.  And, the other lesson is that its time for Gimme to do some more growing up and develop more self-control and I need to let her.  Hopefully our summer classes with Ursula will help us get further along that road.

The other thing Blynn pointed out is my tendency, as I complete a sequence, to turn away (usually 180 degrees) and reward Gimme at my side.  Clearly I'm teaching her, again, be ready to turn and pull off at all times.  I need to vary that - sometimes straight, sometimes 45 or 90 degrees, sometimes with a front cross...

I love training with Blynn.  She always has some insight (or two) to send me home with.  She's patient and able to be flexible.  I like that she keeps nudging me toward better handling and better training. 

LLW Progress

I recently read something that sparked a rather different approach for me in trying to attain credible LLW.  First let me say that I've been teaching it the same way ever since I crossed over to reward-based training and I've never had any problems, until Gimme.  I've also been teaching proper people greetings in the same way all those years and never had any problems, until Gimme.  Hmmmm - what does that tell you?

The book is "Scaredy Dog!" by Ali Brown.  No, Gimme hasn't become a fearful dog - I just read a lot of good books and there are gems in all of them... this book is a perfect example.  Ali has a quote early in the book that I really like... as a reminder to not fall into bad habits, creating a dependent dog.  The quote is:

"The more you help your dog, the stupider you teach him to be."

Ali's approach is that it isn't about LLW (saying that's the easy part), rather its about self-control, attention, and ability to ignore distractions.  Her approach is that until you can reliably achieve the following six levels of self-control, the dog isn't ready for LLW.  The levels are:

1. Quiet in the car... which she defined as being able to remain quiet and calm while you let them out of the crate, leash up, and then remain in the car until released.
2. Outside the car - attention (reorient to handler) and 1 target.
3. Outside the car - 3-5 commands.
4. Outside the car - 5-10 commands.
5. Ten feet from car - 5 commands.
6. Twenty-five feet from car - 10-15 commands.

None of that is huge, but it does require the dog being capable of focus and self-control.  Ali recommended taking an incremental approach.  Rather than starting with the car, she suggested the front door.  Then the gate from the yard, maybe the car in the garage and then the car in the driveway, etc.

For me it was an interesting to realize that Gimme can do all levels in some places and none of them in others.  In parking lots where we do a lot of training... not a problem.  At Ursula's training building... not a problem.  At the Fort Lewis training areas or places where we regularly walk... not a chance.  Hmmmm - what does that tell you?

It tells me that I've worked much of this in some settings and not at all in others.   Yes, Gimme is a challenge in her ability to distract, going from zero to ninety in a nanosecond (thank God we did so much self-control work when she was a puppy).  It tells me that I've been lax in some places and have not taught (or even asked) her to think when we first arrive.  It wasn't that she couldn't do it, its just that I didn't make it part of our routine - call me lazy.  After about a block of walking at the training areas - we've always done a bunch of training interspersed throughout our walk.  It occurs to me that Carla was as eager to get on with the walk as Gimme was.

So, I started several weeks ago working on this in those places where it was problematic.  Gimme has done very well and is readily transferring her ability to those places where it was a challenge.  Yes, she still needs reminders... but its coming along very nicely.

And the beauty of this is... that without changing the way I'm teaching LLW, suddenly she is getting that too.  Twice this week I've done 3 miles with her and she's done very well.  She needs reminders at first, but very quickly falls into the rhythm.

And a side benefit that just is surprising for me - though maybe it shouldn't be - is that her reactivity has dropped way down too.  By engaging her thinking brain before we even leave the car, it's helping her to be in a mental place where she can make better decisions.

There's a place about 2 miles into our walk, where the path is much narrower, with a small grass strip on one side (dropping off into the lake) and a busy city street on the other side.  So when we meet dogs, it can be challenging to manage the spacing.  There was a couple coming toward us with two small dogs on flexi-leads and no sign of any awareness that they should reel them in.  I stepped as close to the drop off as I could and was fishing out the PB Go Toob, when Gimme turned sideways on her own and started sniffing the bushes.  The moment the little dogs passed she turned back to the path and was ready to go!

Woohoo... she appropriately chose to ignore the distraction and display calming signals.  She has never done anything like that before.  I was so proud of her and gave her a huge blob of PB.  I'm misty-eyed now just thinking about it.  My little girl is growing up...

K9 Genius Strikes Again

Gimme was insisting that if I wasn't going to play nosework with her, then she needed more training... she does love it.  So we dabbled with some behaviors.  Then I decided to see what it would take to change the cue for her left and right high-fives.

I tried the traditional method - new cue, old cue, behavior, then reward...  After a dozen attempts, there was no sign that Gimme was getting it.  I tried another half dozen times with the treat in the new cue hand, to draw her attention to it - still nothing.

So I decided to just reteach the behavior, using the new cue hand.  She offered the behavior after just seeing the new cue, on the third try!!!  We did it a dozen times and by the end she was offering it 80% of the time on just the cue. 

Too damn smart!

Follow up -  The next time we worked on this... it seemed really confusing to her, so I've decided to leave the behaviors' cues the way they were.  Just means I'll have to work harder on getting them to a reliable verbal -- which is a good project to work on, especially given our difficulties with stimulus control.

Amazing Agil-Gimme

Gimme did so well in class tonight.

We started with our calming mat work and she did very well.  We set up in the same place, then a horse came out of the run behind us and was challenging.  A short bit of "whazzat" and Gimme ignored him from then on.  Then one of the other students brought her dog from the car to the area between us and the building - continually playing and tugging in a barking, whipping frenzy.  Naturally that was a LOT for Gimme to deal with just thirty feet away.  Still she held it all together and did admirably.  We played "whazzat" as needed and then she proceeded to mostly ignore the dog - though I noticed when she laid down on her mat again, it was diagonal so she could keep one eye on that crazy border collie.  So then what should happen, but the pony comes to the front of his stall to one side of us (turns out it was actually a dwarf horse).  That elicited a couple barks, then she was able to work me for goodies.

I was very happy that through all this, she did not once pull the leash straight.  She stood up a few times and expressed her concern, while still showing SELF-control.  It wasn't me imposing control, maybe helping her a bit, but she chose to work with me over and over again.  She makes me very proud.  Honestly after that prolonged gauntlet of what is supposed to be our calming prep time, I wasn't expecting her to do that well during her actual run.

Instead she was the Amazing Agility-Gimme girl.  I could not have been happier.  Every mistake was either clearly mine or something she was not ready for yet.  In several places on course, she did things we'd not yet trained for.  She started the course with a really oblique angle to the first jump, for the first time.  Many dogs when first exposed to that will come around the jump - it never occurred to Gimme to bypass that jump.  Even though we haven't really done much with the teeter in the last couple of weeks, she went over it and slammed it to the ground without the least bit of concern (several times, in fact).  I wasn't expecting her to transfer her chute training yesterday to this strange chute, but she went right through it... slightly slower, but without hesitation.  Then she went on to do the weave poles beautifully.  She had a bobble or two, but when she got them - She Got Them - all TWELVE of them!  Remember from the video, we are only training four poles at this point.

Blynn is great to train with.  She picks up things in my handling that I'm not aware of, explains it in a way I can understand and do, and when I get it right, then Gimme is right too.  Gimme has so much natural talent for agility, its amazing.  Even things that go wrong the first time, when we repeat them - she just leaps ahead of where her understanding should be and does it right.  Based on how well Gimme did, Blynn is under the mistaken conclusion that we did a lot more training than actually happened.  I should also point out that these are not simple courses - they are world team level challenges.  Gimme sure makes me look good. 

Gimme was great with seeing the other dogs as we were moving around outside the building.  For our second run, we were in a time crunch to get everyone another run, so there was overlapping during entry/exit.  Thus there was a dog on course when we moved out there... which Gimme noticed and then turned to me demanding I pay up.  Likewise as we were leaving another dog was entering the arena and she acted the same way. 

She is such a smarty pants and it shows.  Have I mentioned that before?

Private Lesson

Our lesson didn't turn out quite as expected, since Ursula got distracted by late arriving guests and forgot to bring her dogs.  So, she gave me a free lesson on the "wait for the cue" issue we've been struggling with.  Remember, this is the third stage of learning - the one referred to as true obedience.  Ursula sees it very much as a listening skill, one that very smart and very confident dogs often have difficulty with.

We first discussed what the consequences should be for a wrong response.  I knew I didnt' want to give a no-reward-marker because of the overall behavior suppressing affect of NRMs.  Still I wasn't clear on what to do that wouldn't be an NRM.  Ursula said to just calmly walk away until Gimme gives up the behavior and joins me, then turn back and give her a new chance to be right by repeating the cue.

Something Gimme had been doing and I'd been rewarding was - I'd say "sit", she'd give me a down (her new favorite behavior) and I'd wait, then she'd ponder and say, "hmmmm that's not getting a treat, now what did she say, oh yeah it was 'sit', I'll do that".  By rewarding that, she is still getting rewarded for a) not listening, b) not giving me what I asked for and c) poor latency.  So from now on I'll do the turn and walk away until she joins me - which will make it clearer and won't reward stuff I don't want.

Ursula suggested that I sometimes play a listening game with Gimme -- in particular when she is not in training mode.  I can give her a cue for a behavior she knows well without any other prompting (i.e. not saying her name to get her attention first) and then if she does it, say "good" and give her a treat, petting or some other reward.  I won't use a clicker since that gets her in training mode and I can't have the treats on or near me.  So, if I want to reward with a treat, I can repeat "good" on the way to where there are some treats.  BTW we are using "good" specifically because it is not our click-word (ours is "yes"), so if my timing is bad, I'm under no obligation to pay up.  For instance, I told her sit and when I said "good" she had started to lay down.  I didn't want to reward that so she got nothing and it wasn't a case of breaking the click=reward bargain.  (obviously you won't muddy the water with this approach for a dog that was a clicker novice)

Then the second thing we worked on was to get Gimme to give me a behavior only when I cue for it.  Ursula suggested that I might get better results if I tried the extinction approach, with a bit of the mixed sets.  I had worried about using extinction, since I didn't want to risk weakening the behavior.  In reality, using extinction won't weaken the behavior.  The moment she stops offering the behavior, then I'll cue it and she'll get rewarded for it.  At that time, its essentially on a variable schedule of reward, which makes the strongest behaviors of all.  Well duh...

We tried this with her orange behavior (get on a box and sit) and it worked well.  We were starting to get some good results.  We tried it with peach (head under a chair) and it didn't work as well.  Although Gimme clearly knows peach, she doesn't seem to be that fond of it.  I think that's because its not a particularly active behavior, which is Gimme's preference.  So before we work on that again, I'm going to train the behavior and raise its value by using Gimme's favorite reward.  You know the one - peanut butter. 

So that's some work cut out for us in the next few weeks.  Ursula agreed with me that Gimme has difficulty with this because its not on her agenda.  Gimme's agenda is "its all about Gimme-me-me-me".  We talked a bit about this, because Urs wanted to be clear that we aren't talking about dominance stuff - which she and I both agree has nothing to do with dogs. 

Rather, its about giving up control, which has to do with all species.  A dog that wasn't clicker trained or lacked confidence won't have as much of an issue because they've never really had any control, so there isn't much to give up.  THAT certainly doesn't describe Gimme.

'Nother Trial to Watch & The Project - Day 17

Thursday we walked on the fort's training areas. That may be our last walk there for several weeks as they close off the training areas for hunters. We almost didn't go, since it had been raining all morning and I didn't have gear in the car for a long walk in the rain. Guess its time to get out my winter wear. Fortunately we had a nice sun break for our walk. We didn't do any training on Thursday.

Friday, we went for a drive after work and Gimme is back to being whiny. Her behavior remains inconsistent and unpredictable. Sometimes she is really bad, other times she is really good and the rest somewhere in between. Overall, I do think the behavior is reducing. I am going to screen off the back of the car as I do find that sometimes she seems to be doing really well and then seems to see something and suddenly is whiny again. I never would have thought of doing that, but Victoria Stillwell uses it to great effectiveness on It's Me or the Dog.

Since we couldn't use the fort Saturday, we went to a USDAA agility trial near where my folks live. Stayed there about 90 minutes. It was good to watch agility again - didn't realize how much I missed it. Gimme did pretty good overall. She was showing some good self control around all the people and the dogs going by. However, dogs running on course was a bit much for her. So when I brought her back in the second time, I brought lots of peanut butter and she got to watch and eat PB. She did much better that way. She was clearly noticing the moving dogs, but more interested in the PB. Toward the end of that 20 minute session, I was able to let her watch the dogs when they were on the far side of the course and then just give her PB when the got in the 1/3 of the course closest to where we sat. She was able to keep in her thinking brain throughout. I was happy with that.

After that we went to my parents' and despite my prayers for rain, it was dry enough to mow. So that's what I did. I figure I walked 3 miles behind that mower. Ordinarily it isn't that bad but it was just wet enough that the driving wheels were slipping, so I did a lot more pushing of that heavy thing than usual. That left me really tired and sore.

Thus Sunday I didn't do much of anything. About mid-afternoon I finally got in gear. Took Gimme down to Capitol Lake for a walk. I've decided not to do that walk for awhile. I notice Gimme spends the whole time scanning the horizon for dogs. Our worst loose leash walking happens there. This is particularly noticeable after seeing how much better she does at the show and trial. She tends to have her focus out-there somewhere and we need to practice having it closer to where we are. I think that site just promotes the wrong thing for her. 

It very much like what I've seen with fearful dogs working in distracting places. One Tervuren I worked with was a complete angel at a trial or show. She acted so normal (only showing the most subtle of calming signals) that it was hard to believe that she was a real basket case. Anywhere else and her hyper-alert fearful behaviors were in full swing. When a dog is faced with a lot of what scares them, all their behavior tends to be suppressed. In that case, its like they are trying not to attract attention to themselves. I've seen similar behavior in anxious dogs at seminars when a dog or person leaves the area and then comes back, an anxious dog will react about them all over again. There's a technical name for this, its called Sudden Environmental Change.

In Gimme's case, she certainly isn't fearful or anxious. But she does tend to be hyper-vigilant in watching for dogs. When she only has to watch in one direction, like at Capitol Lake, then she can really obsess about watching ahead of us for the first sign of a dog. Whereas at shows/trials, they are everywhere, so since she can't watch in every direction, she ends up more settled. Anyway, that's my theory and I'm sticking with it.

So will probably do more shows/trials and leave Capitol Lake walks off our itinerary for awhile (though I could walk the boardwalk, since there are seldom dogs there). I could go down to the park on one side and just sit with her, clicking/treating for attention. There is a place that I think would be suitable for that and so I may try that.

Another reason to not go there is that people are S-T-U-U-U-P-I-D.... What part of the picture of someone with a dog moving well off the side of the trail with their dog and giving it a constant stream of treats as you approach in the opposite direction is an indicator that you should bring your friendly dog up to them, saying, "she's a puppy and loves to play" or "she's friendly and wants to say hello". The idiot gene is alive and well... Good grief!

Peach - head under a chair
We did a short session of this Sunday afternoon. First with the white plastic chair and then with my kitchen chair - 15 treats each. You may remember that last time, Gimme didn't think the cue applied to a different chair. This time Gimme got into this so fast and did so well. She started right off doing better than we ended with the last time. What a good example of latent learning.

Apple - back into a box, back feet only
Orange - get onto a small perch with all four feet
Grape - dead bug (on back, feet in the air)
Melon - push cube with nose
Not trained today.

Second Nosework Class (2/1)

First an update.  Its been cooler here, so I've taken Gimme to work with me more often.  Yesterday was a cool day and when I came out to the car between and after stores, I indulged in short training sessions.

The first time I first walked her around behind my Shopko account.  Remember this is where she once showed a lot of concern about the large truck noises on the freeway.  We walked right up to the edge of the behind-the-store parking lot and she showed no sign of even noticing the truck noise.  She was too busy sniffing and eating blackberries. Then we walked back toward the car and she found a squished and rotting bag of garbage that she wanted to investigate.  I took her past it closer to the car and did check-ins, then some eye contact.  After that decided to use that distracting garbage (never let a good distraction go to waste) to work leave-it and heeling with distraction.  She very quickly figured out that the goodies I have are far better than garbage - who knew....

After my TopFoods account we did more check-ins and then more eye contact.  We also did some heeling and I discovered that her duration in the sit between movement needs work.  Gee, wonder who's fault that is...?

I have to report a wondrous discovery.  Remember I lamented in an earlier post how the good behaviors never globalize like bad behaviors do?  Well I've discovered one of Gimme's that has - to a certain extent.  She was taught early in life to wait for permission to eat her meals.  I can set her full food bowl down and then put all the makings away, wash my hands, gather up the other dogs' bowls and go through the door, before sticking my head back in and giving her the "okay" to eat.  It is, without a doubt, her best self-control behavior -- showing that she obviously is capable and I just need to train more of it.

Well the other day we were going somewhere after breakfast, so I put her outside and got breakfast ready for everyone.  I set Gimme's breakfast outside the back door expecting her to find it and eat it.  Two minutes later I looked out the window to discover her standing there waiting for an "okay" to eat.  What a good girl she is! 

After that I started paying closer attention and realized that when she is fed in her crate, she's doing the same thing, after a fashion.  She runs in and out of her crate, even though the bowl is already in there and I was thinking she was evidencing that she didn't want to get in the crate.  I've been putting her in and walking away.  Now that I've watched her, I realize she is waiting for me to give her permission to eat.  No telling how long she's been sitting there ignoring her uneaten breakfast all this time.  Bad mommy for not noticing good Gimme's good behavior.

There are also rules to this behavior that I probably need to work on, rules that Gimme invented and that are too too funny.  First, Gimme thinks this only applies to her meals in her bowl on the floor.  It does not apply to dropped food.  It does not apply to her bowl on the counter.  It does not apply to Meaggi or Michael's bowls.  That's my girl - Queen of Hoots...

On the way to class last night, Gimme was fussy, which surprised me, since we had trained twice already.  I had to stop five times on the way to Albertsons - which promised to make it a long trip to class.  When I came back to the car, she was clearly still primed to whine.  So I got her out of the car and did a short training session there.  Again check-ins (interrupted by a child that had to come and pet and hug Gimme), then eye contact.  There were a lot of comings and goings and so this was very hard for her. 

When we were done she got back in the car and was completely quiet for the rest of the drive.  This lends more credence to my thinking that she is happier and calmer when she gets plenty of training.  Is there such a thing as a training-junkie?  Could she be developing train-aholism?  Hmmmmm.

Once we got to class, she whined briefly, but quickly settled down and was quiet for the rest of the time.  Woo hoo...  Next time I'm going to get her out when we get there and do a set of check-ins and eye contact and see how that works.  If that's what it takes to keep her happy and contented - its certainly a system I can live with.

Nosework class was great.  Now that the class is broken down into smaller groups, we are in the later group of five teams.  Gimme is far and away the best in the class.  My buddy, a Boxer-mix, is the next most enthusiastic.  There are also two Border Collies and a blind Aussie.  One of the BC's is fairly enthusiastic. 

During the first set, there were less boxes than before and more spread out.  Gimme was all over the place and just wild to find them.  She is verrrrrry busy and verrrrrry fast.  This week we were to follow them and add food to the box when they found the hide.  That was hard for me because Gimme would snarf up the food and be gone so fast I couldn't catch up some of the time.

During the second set, the boxes were more spread out and again Gimme was little Miss Speedy.  The instructor was trying to distract her by moving around the room and past Gimme with other boxes, but she only fell for that once.  She is very into this game and thrilled that so many people went to so much effort to invent it for her enjoyment.  It's great being the center of the universe.

The third set was done on leash.  The boxes were set up around the perimeter, with one up on a chair (the box opening was to the front, not up).  Gimme raced around the room and found all the hides.  She missed one the first time around that was in the first corner, since she was going so fast and rounded that corner.  Denise Fenzi would call that an error of enthusiasm.  The instructor said that as the finds get harder, she may slow down to do what she needs to in order to find the hides.

She came home and slept without moving until it was time to go to bed.

Frustrating Friday - New Lesson Learned

I expected that Gimme would be fussier on the drive today.  So, I made it a point to play with her some before we left, but oh good Lord, it took 2:10 to drive 2.5 miles!!!  By the time I tumbled to just how long it had been, we were already past the halfway mark and I was getting lower on gas.  I thought that at least once we got to the park and walked, I'd be able to drive home without a lot of stops.

The weird thing about tonight was that she was much fussier than she has been all week.  And there were a few short tantrums during the stopping breaks, before she would settle down.  We haven't had that during the drive -- only at the end when she was insisting that it was time for Gimme to get out and play RIGHT NOW.  Once we got there, she fussed for about 20 minutes and then finally settled down a bit.  Then I had to do the reach, pull away, reach, pull away drill for a bit before she remembered that the way we get out of the crate is to sit and that pawing at the door and whining are not part of the sit behavior, even if she is so multi-talented that she can do all three at once.

When I got her out, she just couldn't focus well enough to walk decently, even though she was wearing the EasyWalk harness.  I finally got so fed up with having my arms jerked out of the sockets that I sat down on a bench and tied the leash to it.  Then just clicked her for any sign of attention, any check-ins, any default sit, etc.  That helped some.  I got her in my lap and tried doing some Ttouch to settle her, but it didn't help.

Weirdly there were very few people in the park at that hour and she was even more distracted than usual.  I don't know if that was because she was still keyed up from the drive.  Or possibly because there was so much less going on, it was easier to focus on really minute things that she'd never noticed before. 

Since we weren't making any real progress, I decided we might as well head home, cuz if it was going to take two hours... it would already be past midnight before we got home. 

Walking back to the car she was still flinging off in all directions.  So I started doing what I do in the arena, only this time on leash.  If she went left, I went right.  If she went forward, I went back... whatever she did, I did the opposite.  I have to admit it felt sort of Koehler-ish.  Probably because I was frustrated by this time (and I always found training that way frustrating), though Koehler was always trying to set them up for a big leash correction.  Since Gimme was in a harness she wasn't getting any corrections. 

In no time at all, I had a super attentive dog on the other end of my leash.  She was into this and thinking it had GAME POSSIBILITIES.  Not being one to disappoint her, I turned it into a game.  I was dashing all around, changing directions and constantly making it more challenging to her.  When she'd catch me, she got clicked and treated.  I changed directions a LOT, but still generally heading toward where we'd parked. 

It was fun for both of us and has given me pause for considering things...  but, I am sooooo going to pay for that tomorrow with sore achy knees.  So the drive home was absolutely silent.  Gimme went from crazy dog on the drive down to the contented puppy on the way home.  She is dozing right now, contented.

So I've rechecked my blog (which doubles as my training log) and I see that when the whining went from annoying to much worse was after our classes with Ursula stopped.  It increased again after started doing the distraction training at the beginning of the month and then when we stopped training the fruit project 2 weeks ago to try to spend some time on tightening up her responses to sit and down cues.  Each of the noticeable differences seems to coincide with changes in our schedule that resulted in less training and/or less mental challenge.  And now that we've been working on the whining, she is getting even less training, but the sharp uptick tonight seems late - unless you consider that the extra exercise in the form of walking around Capitol Lake and on the boardwalk may have bled off some of the mounting frustration. 

Perhaps I'm wrong, but its certainly something to explore.  Gimme has always loved to train and I've often thought she needs the mental exercise.  I think she is the kind of dog that has to have a job.  We learned during classes with Ursula that Gimme doesn't do well when stuff is too easy cuz she gets bored.  When its hard to puzzle through and do, that is when she thrives.  So it may be that while I've been focusing on stuff she knows, trying to tighten up her responses, that I've unintentionally been boring her during the training that we have been doing. 

Anyway, that's kinda where my mind is right now.  So will play with that over the next few days and see what we get.  On the fruit training, I'll work on the three behaviors that aren't on cue yet.  And with the sits and downs, I think I can make them more interesting for her if I throw them in with a bunch of heeling games. 

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...

The Project - Day 10

This was a busy day, with much on our agenda.  As the holiday season approaches (I already have Halloween on display in three of my four accounts), I am trying to make the most of my days off.  I decided since it had been a week since we last worked on The Project, that it might be a good idea to do a baseline and figure out where we are on things.  Thus, my plan was to just do 10 click/treats on each behavior and see where they were after the week away. 

I'll try to get things set up for better quality videos next time. 

Apple - back into a box, back feet only

First, you can see the modifications that I made to her apple box.  It stays nicely out from the wall and no longer tips when her foot hits the sides.

Interestingly, the front feet returned with a vengeance the first time around.  I was careful to not do any extraneous clicks, but it seems its a behavior that is pretty firm in her mind.  I'm sure that is my fault.  Waiting for her to take her back feet out and then return them to get a click/treat didn't seem to be affecting her tendency to start with her front feet.  Its a distinction that I don't think was clear to her, so instead I was seeing a lot of unproductive frustration.  

So even though my plan was to baseline each behavior, I decided to try something and do another 10 treat session to see how it went.  I put her on leash, keeping it loose.  She "could" have pulled to get the front feet in, but never even tried.  In class our work was always on leash, so that may explain why she tended toward no front feet more often there than at home.  I think I will continue with the leash a few more times and then gradually fade its influence.

Orange - get onto a small perch with all four feet

This went well.  We are at the stage of teaching her the concept of waiting for the cue.  So that is what you are seeing here.  There's a little bit of extinction, a little bit of clicks for waiting (carefully extending the time) and some of the mixed sets.  I think she was beginning to get the concept toward the end. 

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

Its really very funny how much she loves this behavior.  She'd make a very good clown.  You can see based on just the time it takes to get ten click/treats with this versus the other behaviors.  I'm still giving her a click when she gets into down, just to get her started since this behavior has no prop.  She's also getting a click for rolling over at the start.  Once the name goes on the behavior, those clicks will go away.  I am just starting to add the name in this session.

Peach - head under a chair

When we left off, this behavior was on cue.  It becomes very clear in the beginning of this clip that Gimme thinks the cue only applies to the chair we were using at class, where we added the cue.  Interesting thing to see - so clearly I need to get the behavior better generalized BEFORE adding the cue, possibly adding the cue over different sessions using different chairs.  In any case, once I got her started putting her head under this chair, it only took a couple repeats of the cue for her to understand that it applies to this chair too.  That's because she's such a smarty pants.

Melon - push cube with nose
This is the behavior that needs the most work I think.  Her tendency to bat at or bite the cube is still very strong.  It's just going to take awhile for her to understand and accept the behavior I want.  At this stage where I have to still have one hand on the cube most of the time, I find I'm all thumbs.  Its just so hard to manage the cube, clicker and treats.  I am continuing to pick up the cube briefly if she paws at it.  And of course, if all else fails, offer The Grape.

Distraction training
I had several errands to run, so did the parking lot thing. 

At Topfoods she did exceptionally well and really got to training quickly - only 8 check-ins before she was ready.  We were at the far end of the lot and it was quiet.  The only challenge being that it was a place she'd never been before.  At Target, it started out well and I thought it might be much like the prior mini-session.  But then a car parked near us and the lady off-loaded a kid.  Gimme looooooves kids and even after they were gone she was still distracted by their having been there and the mere possibility of kids.  She did finally pull it together.  At Albertsons, it took her quite awhile to get focused, but once she did she did well.  At the fort before our walk, it took a long time, on par with how long it took after the kid distraction.

One interesting thing I notice is that toward the end of her 10 check-ins (around #7), she tends to move into heel position.  She looks around, then checks in, then looks around again, then checks in.  She's not really ready to go to work when she moves into heel, but this shows me that at some level she knows what comes next.  Quite astute.

My sense is that its too much for her to do her fruit training and distraction training so close in time (separated by about an hour) and maybe even too much to do them both on the same day.  The distraction training seems to be more taxing for her than is immediately apparent.  So in the future, I'll make sure that at the very least there is several hours between them, if not on different days entirely.

And so now we are off and running again.  I have promised to go help the 4H kids that I judged recently.  Its something I try to do every year before they go to state.  I join them for a training session and give each kid that qualified for state, a ten minute private in which they can address anything they want.  Its fun...

Distraction - part 2

We tried the walk at Capitol Lake again.  Started an hour later and can't believe how many people were still out and about. 

We no more than got out of the car then two nice guys came up and had to meet Gimme.  I managed to convince them that it really would be more helpful if they'd hook a thumb in her collar and keep her from jumping up or climbing on them.  So many people encourage her cuz she is so darn cute - it makes it very difficult to convince her that not everyone is charmed by her muggings.  They were very interested in liver coloring and clicker training.  So we spent fifteen minutes talking, by which time Gimme did calm down (she still loves men, her favorite after her Mom).  Then they had to go so they wouldn't be late for an AA meeting.

There were still people out and about all the time we were there, even when we finished at 8:45, there were still a good number.  There were lots of couples walking, joggers beating the heat, a few people with dogs, a Mom with stroller, and some teens playing Frisbee.  Gimme was interested and distracted, but not so over the top.  We periodically did check-ins, followed by ten for simple behaviors and for the most part she did well. 

By the end of the walk she was being more consistent about not pulling - she'd pull through even with the WalkEase harness, unless I stop and make her turn back. 

Every time we saw someone with a dog, I stopped and did the metronome feeding while she watched them.  She was alert, but not showing the same level of tension in her body as she did on Monday.  Except when the couple passed with the nasty little barking Westie.  Gimme was pretty certain that little snot needed to be taught a lesson...  but, on a positive note, she settled down quicker than she had before.

We also had two episodes of large dogs barking in the distance.  The first one she settled down quicker than she had yesterday at Home Depot.  The second time she almost ignored it.  To be honest though, they were further away, so that was probably a factor.

BTW we've found a local CGC class to get in, starting September 13th.  Its super cheap and run by Parks and Rec.  The instructor is an old friend of mine, so there won't be any problem with me doing my own thing.  It should be a good experience.  We were the 7th to join the class.  Hopefully it won't fill as he accepts up to 12 students, which I think is too many for one instructor. 

Tomorrow I'm getting back to the project.

Getting Past Distraction

Gimme has always shown a tendency to get over-the-top about new and exciting things.  She often has difficulty calming down once she gets excited.   For that reason, the timing for the classes with Ursula was great.  It gave us a perfect environment for helping Gimme learn to resist distraction and to feel calm in distracting settings.  We made a lot of progress, but we still have a lot more work to do.

Based on the issues we had at Sunday's show, I have created a list of upcoming shows and trials for the next three months (not that I think that's all we'll need).  My plan is to attend at least 2 per month and just find that area where Gimme is able to be comfortable.  We'll do relaxation protocol and just hang out.  If need be, we'll start in the parking lot.  We may not get into any of the buildings for awhile.  Its more important that Gimme be mostly calm and able to deal with her environment.  I'll continue at whatever level we find ourselves, until she demonstrates that she can handle more.  I'll know she can handle more when she can consistently perform simple commands in a particular setting.  Such as: touch, sit, down, a few steps of heeling, wait, etc.

Obviously two sessions a month will not be enough to make solid progress.  So in the meantime I am scoping out other local areas of interest to work in.  There's a great walking trail around Capitol Lake (2 miles) parts of which have small parks adjacent to the trail.  There are a lot of sports fields nearby, some at schools and others in parks and recreation.  Olympia is the kind of city that has lots of events, street fairs and farmers' markets, etc.  All of these are good possibilities for training.

Last night we went to the Capitol Lake park and walked and sat.  Over all, Gimme did well.  We saw boys and girls playing soccer, lots of runners and walkers, about a third of them with dogs.  One lady tripped over her dog's leash and that caused some excitement as a white standard poodle came rushing toward us and relatives were diving for her leash.  I didn't want them to meet like that so did my best to avoid the situation and as soon as things were settled I kept tossing treats on the ground until Gimme was calm again. 

I learned a lot watching her posture and how she reacts and what the fine line is between one emotion and another.  She got a lot of treats for just watching dogs coming and going (counter-conditioning) toward calmness. We sat in the grass at one point and just engaged in some serious people watching.  When Gimme got bored, she started offering "grape" (the dead bug) to get more treats out of me.  Next time I decide to try that place, I think I'll go down there about half an hour later when there is less activity so we can practice calmness.

I would have preferred a setting that was a little less exciting, so Gimme could relax more easily.  Runners, walkers, bikers and skateboarders don't get her going -- until they get close then they might be coming to pet her.  The dogs get her pretty keyed up.  I wish the setup was a little different, since there is no real place where we can be on the periphery and stay outside her threshold.  The grassy area is a triangular strip (100' wide at the wide end, which is where the soccer players were) with the path on each side... so with a constant stream of people and dogs, it was a lot to take in.  We'll try it again, but may have to scope out some other places with less stimulation to start with, places where we can train until we are ready for that.

So today I took a different tactic - parking lots.  I serviced one of my stores and when I came out, got Gimme out of the car.  I just stood there in the grass strip and let her take it all in and watched for any little sign of attention.  I didn't use any cues and just waited.  Any time she looked in my direction, I clicked and gave her a treat.  I had counted out ten treats for the checking-in behavior. 

One funny thing that happened while I was waiting to use up our ten check-in treats... a fire engine went by, sirens blaring.  There's a fire station about a mile down the road from my house and they often go by and sing "hello" to Gimme.  We always sing back.  So we sang along this time too.  Gimme is really funny, she always sings the same words, "wooooooooooooooooooh, wooooh ahhhh woo, wooo ahhh rowh", over and over.  I'm sure people watching thought we were nuts, but we were having fun. 

After we finished check-ins I asked her for a few simple behaviors (again having counted out ten treats).  Sit, touch and down were the most successful.  I tried a bit of heel, but she just couldn't focus that well.  So instead I had her sit in front of me facing perpendicular to me.  I'd step sideways and she'd step forward and sit, for which she got a click and treat.  After we used up those ten treats we got in the car and drove away. 

Our drive was very short, just 100 yards to another place in the same parking lot, where we got out to repeat the process.  This time the 10 treats for checking-in went much faster.  Interestingly this time we were able to do single steps of heeling.  This second mini-session went very quickly.  From there we got back in the car for another short drive. 

This time we ended up at Home Depot, about two blocks away.  I'd planned to stay in the same mini-mall parking lot, but the only other grass strips were on the edges, near the roads and that was more distraction than I wanted.  At HD things started out very well and Gimme seemed to be on track with the prior mini-session, but then I noticed I was losing her focus.  It took me a bit to realize she was listening to a dog barking somewhere else in the parking lot.  He was muffled enough that I hadn't noticed him before.  Sometimes he'd sound really muffled and other times more clear, as if someone was opening a door and then closing it again.

Gimme has always been rather sensitive to the sound of a large dog barking.  So I changed gears and started metronome feeding her whenever the dog was barking.  Metronome feeding refers to giving her many treats, but moving your hand away between and then bringing it back for another treat - in a rhythm, much like a metronome. 

After ten treats, I asked her to sit, but got no response.  Sit is a simple behavior that Gimme is very good at and normally responds quickly to, so it makes a good barometer of her mental state.  If its normal speed when I cue for it, then she's fine.  If the sit is slow, she's showing some "concern" about something, but still able to think and respond.  If there is no response when I say "sit", then she is over-threshold and either needs more time to adapt or needs to be moved away.   In this case, based on the whole picture of Gimme, her posture and expression, I was sure she would adapt, so we stayed there.

After another ten treats of metronome feeding, Gimme was then responsive to the sit cue.  Not quite as fast as normal, but not very far off.  After that I counted out another ten treats and we started over with check-ins.  As soon as Gimme realized that was the game we were playing, it went very quickly.  Then I counted out three more treats (less than the prior sessions because I didn't want to push too much after the barking dog thing) and asked for simple behaviors.  From there we got back in the car and drove out to the fort's training areas for our long Tuesday walk.

I decided that from now on, no matter where we go (except when arriving home) when Gimme gets out of the car we will go through the ten for check-ins and ten for simple behaviors pattern.  I'd like it to be a routine Gimme expects - a couple minutes to get adapted to the location and then expect to work.  It took longer to go through here than any of the other sessions because Gimme is so used to getting out of the car there and just going.  Still, once she understood the rules it went really fast.

During our walk we continued the random clicking for being within my comfort zone.  Gimme did well.  On the way out to the turning point we found a large blood stain on the road.  Some critter lost its life there.  I was able to get Gimme to go past it fairly quickly.  Then on our way back she ran well ahead to investigate it.  Since she wasn't paying any attention to me, I used that as an opportunity to hide behind a tree.  It didn't take her very long to realize I'd disappeared and she quickly came running.  As we walked past the crime scene, she paid no attention to the evidence this time.  That hiding thing always gets her attention glued on me. 

So all in all, it was a good day.  Gimme worked hard and really deserved the new toy I'd gotten for her...