Parkour Class - All Alone

Drove over an hour to parkour class and saw there was nothing set up for class, which reminded me I'd been told there was no class this week. I decided since I was there to get in a parkour practice of our Backwards Walk On [video].  After all, it was going to be a two hour drive home through rush hour, so wanted to make the time worth our while.

I started with shaping Gimme to back-up to a target (margarine lid) on the floor. I quickly moved the target onto the board. I was trying to shape steps backward, but can't really see her back feet without a mirror. She wants to treat the plank like a pivot platform, a behavior which has been well rewarded. Thus we end up with a fishtail behavior, which I certainly don't want. I use pressure into her space to get backward steps, hoping to get her started. I missed her first independently offered backwards step at 2:25. I get in several good clicks at 3:15 and a little beyond. Unfortunately there aren't enough of them to make it clear to Gimme what I'm looking for and she again starts offering behaviors. So, I have to include clicking all four feet on the plank, which likely muddies the concept for Gimme and leads to frustration. The best shaping is to click one part of the behavior at a time.

I tried several variations on the theme, none of which gave satisfactory results. More than anything this session was about identifying options which didn't work. Gimme is such a good girl for putting up with my nonsense.

I certainly don't blame her for not getting this. I blame myself for not yet coming up with something that makes this clear to her. Given her love of all things going backward, I KNOW she'd be doing it, if she understood what I wanted. It's who she is.

RFE Practice (15) & other

We met J'Anna at Pawsabilties for RallyFrEe training this morning.  My emphasis was on focus, attention and confidence.  

Session 1 video - We didn't spend much time adapting to the environment and overall I thought she did better than she has the last few practices. I tried an "all done" as we've been doing in training, but it bothered her (hence kissy face).  She was distracted now and then, but mostly better.  There were a couple times she needed help with cues, but much better than recent practices.  After about two-thirds of the course, we worked on some box with a container she hasn't done before, with high sides and small footprint.  It was challenging, but she did well and seemed to like it.  She did okay getting back to RFE stations, a couple good stations, a couple not so good.  Ended with a nice "take-a" bow - well aligned (no butt-out).

Session 2 video - Gimme was distracted by smells of where the other dog had been.  Sometimes it seems worse when she doesn't actually see the other dog.  It doesn't help when I use the wrong cue.  She did well off and on.  On the off stations we work through fine tuning.  At one point I was working "set-up" to refocus her and also hearing a lot of barking and some weird comments from the daycare room.  From the sound of it, it sounded a bit out-of-control and I didn't know what they'd do, and could see Gimme was starting to lose focus.  So I opted to do some "box" just in case the unpredictable was about to happen, didn't want to set her up for a bad experience.  If you wonder why she didn't immediately get box treats, she has to have all four in the box to count.  I think we should have done "set-up" again to get her back in focus.  After the circle-turn she kept offering me "take-a" which always ends a run, maybe her way of saying, "I'm brain-done".  I sometimes do another behavior or two after the bow to break this association of bow=done and I really should have this time.  Put extra effort into some behaviors on the way to the end.  We finally get to the bow and she goes into food frenzy, so when I do get her to do it right I do extended metronome feeding in position.  Metronome feeding is both calming and has the advantage of extending the reward period.  The food frenzy seems to be a side affect of Keppra at this dose, but I've been seeing less food frenzy lately, so she may be adjusting.

"Box" work video - We spent some time doing a bit of "box" work.  I do metronome feeding to extend the duration of the behavior.  If the metronome hand is coming in with a treat and a foot comes out of the bottom of the box/container, then the hand immediately goes away taking the treat with it.  Gimme is quickly learning to keep all four feet in.

We've also been working on teaching Gimme to accept being on her back for a veterinary procedure tomorrow.  We did it for her appointment on Monday (with no training in advance) and she struggled so much the sample was contaminated.  More importantly, she was so stressed, I saw signs of it all day.  They want to do a sterile needle-draw of urine directly from her bladder.  While some vets do it standing, mine wants the dogs laying on their back in this wedge-shaped block.  Gimme rolls over every morning to have her tummy rubbed, but this does not translate to being a willing participant in this situation.  

So we've been practicing every day with her being on her back and getting to lick her peanut butter go toob the whole time.  She's gotten a lot better and while not what I would call relaxed, she does willingly stay on her back when the go toob is taken away - hoping it will come back right away.  I still don't think she'll like it tomorrow, but I'll be happy if she can accept it without fighting and being stressed.  Cross your fingers.

BTW we've moved up to #4 on the NW3 trial waitlist.  According to the trial secretary it is still possible we could get in, if at least 4 of the people ahead of me title.  Of course, no one should even be entered in two trials in the same area close to the same time.  So I personally don't think its gonna happen.  Guess we'll have to go to a barn hunt trial instead, eh...

RFE Practice (12)

Last Thursday we met for a practice and I have to say I had very little focus from Gimme.  At the time I thought it was because of her false pregnancy, but since she had a seizure the following day, now I'm wondering if it was a precursor.  Hard to know.  I can't say I've noticed any onset pattern in her seizures, certainly none of the common patterns.  Since I increased her Keppra dose, her false pregnancy has just evaporated.

Session 1A video - As you can see she was very distracted.  I try to keep the leash on her until I know I have her focus, so she doesn't have a chance to practice wandering off.  The downside is how my crappy leash handing sometimes throws her off.  She started this course kinda needy, which in hindsight makes me think she didn't feel up to par.  Even when she was trying to do well, her lack of impulse control was pulling her into errors.  This felt very much like we'd backed up a month.  <sigh>  Hard to believe it took seven minutes to get through the course with all the repeats.  

Session 1B video - I saw a laundry basket sitting at the side of the ring and decided I may as well get some useful Parkour practice in.  I brought the basket into the middle of the ring area and cued "box" several times and Gimme immediately got completely focused on what we were doing.  It was surprising to see the transformation in her and it gives me a real clue to how much harder RFE is for her.  I think the difference is the element of duration impulse control needed for RFE, while Parkour is all about doing-doing-doing.  As we know, Gimme is all about doing-doing-doing.  Anyway, I had so much focus from her, so I did some heeling (both sides) and used a send to the "box" as the reward.  It was her best heeling of the day. Of course, you'll see she doesn't quite understand the send part, which is something we really haven't worked on.  Also I started out training this kinda sloppy, doing a lot of treating outside the box... so she was jumping in and immediately jumping out.   We did the course again, using "box" as a reward and it only took us 4 minutes, including the time spent on the reward.  This time around she was only distracted moderately 2 times and enough to leave me once.  Not perfect, but a significant improvement.

Session 2 video - I set up the course with three Parkour props, one for "box", "table" and "hands".  Before this session I would have said "table" was her favorite, but it became obvious she likes "box" best.  I started the session clicking for check-ins and took a moment to cue her for each of the props.  It wasn't as good as when I just added "box" on the prior session, but better than what we started with.  Honestly, given her condition, I think I'd just used up her brain.  On the other hand, we did two run-throughs during this session and she was more focused on the second one.  So perhaps it just took more time to get her mentally there.  She reeeeally liked the sequence of all three Parkour behaviors as a reward.  She kinda lost it right afterward, so perhaps it was too exciting.  It was really hard for her to heel past the box, so I was proud of her for doing so.

Session 3 video - There were a group of people and dogs getting ready for class and the dividers aren't very sturdy, so I decided to keep Gimme on leash.  Given the degree of distraction, this being her third session of the day and where we started - I thought she did pretty good.  One thing I see in these videos is a need to click for the first step when I start "heel" or "side", since this is where she is most likely to forge - she gets moving faster than I do.  She always gets it the second time, but I think I need to add more value to the first couple of steps. 

Interestingly, the owner of Pawsabilities was watching some of what I was doing using Parkour as a reward and after we were done, asked if I'd be interested in teaching for them.  They've been wanting to add Parkour and she liked what she saw.  They have a really great puppy and continuing puppy education program with tons of body awareness work, which would segue perfectly into Parkour.  And she showed me around at all the stuff they have to use for the puppy program - so they already have almost everything we'd need for Parkour.  She specifically commented how I must be doing it right if I can use Parkour as a reward for more challenging work.  She's always been impressed by the large number of titles Gimme has.   I told her I'd consider it, but I want to wait at least until I have training level and novice titles on Gimme.  They do have a slot available on Thursday afternoon which would fit my schedule, so it wouldn't involve any extra driving.

And now I have to hustle, since Gimme and I have to be out the door real soon to meet Nadine for tracking.

Parkour Walk for "hands"

Today we walked on a different part of the Chehalis West rails-to-trails and did 6¼ miles.  As I said, I planned to focus on our 2-on "hands".  Here are two collages of the things we found to do "hands" on. 

I started with a focus on tall stuff where Gimme would be unlikely to offer 4-on "table".  Several different shapes and sizes of trees, signs and barriers.  Some of the signs she wasn't too sure about - like the black arched one and the plexiglas area on the Chehalis trail map (she was fine with the wood part).  On the gasline pipes she was content to put her feet on the bigger center post, but had to be lured for the smaller pipe to the side.   The sign with the angle-iron legs was a real challenge because it was so narrow.

To begin I lured her to put two feet on things and paid her while she stayed there.  Then I switched to just motioning and when she was consistently doing the behavior, started preceding it with the "hands" cue.  By the end of the walk I could simply stand near an obstacle and give the verbal and she'd do the behavior.  Of course the true test will be when we can use both "hands" and "table" interchangeably, but it will be awhile methinks.

I added lower things with the potential for 4-on after we'd done many "hands" already, hoping she'd understand it was a 2-on paying day.  She did.  I started with the bench approaching from the back where she'd see a more vertical surface.  When we went to the front she did get up once, but I just had her get off and then cued "hands" again.  She quickly figured out to only offer me "hands" since it was what was paying today.  She did only "hands" on the two big rocks, though I could see she was thinking about getting on one and then decided to give me "hands" instead.

I also found this cool forked tree and we did some "g'won" to it.  This is where Gimme must go between two obstacles for her Parkour through.  For the training level title the requirement is: the two obstacles must be less than dog’s body length apart.  For the novice title it is: the two obstacles must be less than twice the dog’s shoulder width apart.  There is no through in the higher levels.  One of the very cool things about Parkour is how the tasks are scaled to the dog's size and you can even ask for variences in special cases. 

The ground is lower on the back side of this tree, making it a bit more of a challenge.  Gimme would have no difficulty with either level, as this is more than is required.  We had fun playing with this.

I've always enjoyed our walks as watching Gimme sniff and snoop is fun all by itself.  Interacting with stuff along the way is even more fun.  Gimme is dead to the world right now.  

Parkour Class (2/1) & Walk

We walked on Saturday and I started introducing some Parkour style obstacles.  It was our usual place and I didn't remember this many options, but I guess I'm already developing Parkour-eye.  I had her climb on some large rocks ("table") and walk down benches ("walkies").  I got her to walk on a curb around some landscaping.  Because it wasn't high off the wood chips, it took her awhile to figure out to put all four feet on it.  Toward the end I found some more options, but they'd be hard to describe.  We'll do them again and I'll take the camera.

The thing I observed which was really cool was how much fun this was for Gimme, and me.  Mostly our walks are about me getting mileage on my chubby tushie and Gimme getting to sniff and be a dog.  We occasionally do a little training.  What I saw was how much Gimme enjoyed this interaction and exploring stuff together.  I've always enjoyed walking with her and watching her sniff and be a dog.  I've always been sure she enjoyed, even needed, the sniff-and-be-a-dog time.  But I think this interactive exploration of our environment brought a whole new element of togetherness to our walk.  Fun stuff.

Last night was our first class with the dogs and it was every bit as good as I'd hoped.  To start with Gimme was completely unable to focus.  I'd set up an alcove for us in the far corner with her soft crate, bedding, room dividers and sheets for visual breaks.  It was a challenge to get her in the building and to begin with, I found she wasn't able to be Operant.  For you non-trainer-geeks, this means she was not able to thoughtfully use her own behavior and actions to get me to give her something she wanted.  
 
We started out with PVC ladders and a wonky cavaletti. 

 





Gimme got to interact with these and she did okay, was able to slow down and start thinking about her feet more than the environment and the other dogs.  The instructor, Jo, was very good about making sure we had the room she needed to be comfortable and noticed and commented each time Gimme started making moves toward being thoughtful.  She's very supportive and I felt good about the environment.  Gimme needed a lot of peanut butter go toob to start with, but then was able to do with less and less.

Jo had us do cookie stretches and other warm up behaviors to get their bodies ready and we are supposed to do it at the beginning of each class.  Lots of "spin", "turn", "thru", "behind", "around", "sit", "down" and "stand".  Gimme could do these, but in this environment I had to lure her through them.  We got a couple to the cue at the end of the warm up session.

I was able to set the camera on a chair and get a little video of part of our "box" training session.  We'd already done quite a bit and then she'd taken a break in her crate before she did this little session.  By now she was getting into what we were doing and was thinking about her feet and how to get me to pay up.  At the end of this part of class, Jo went around the room and had each of us show off what our dogs were doing.  Even though one dog had been through this class before, Gimme was still the most advanced.  We did so much rear foot work when she was a puppy, so she has a lot of awareness about the part of her body behind her elbows, which is not true of most dogs.  Of course, knowing how challenging this environment was going to be for her I'd have been thrilled even if she wasn't the best.
"box" work video

After this Jo discussed the importance of the dogs learning to back up for some of the higher levels of Parkour.  Gimme and one other dog already had some understanding of backing up.  In fact when Jo came to see how well she could do it, she said she thought Gimme was ready to back onto things - which I had to admit she already does.  So I showed her off backing onto the oil pan.  Then we decided to work her on something higher - a small table they have.  This little video is our first attempt at backing onto the table.  You'll see she assumes I just want her to do the 4-on "table" behavior, and when it doesn't produce treats, she listens to me and puts the "back-on" cue together with the obstacle and goes right to offering the exact behavior I wanted.  This is one of the really great things about Gimme - her ability to make intuitive leaps in understanding.  
"back on" video

She really is a canine genius...  This is why I love training her - she makes me look waaaay better than I am.  Of course sharing this intuitive leap sure lets the cat out of the bag...

Gimme says, "Cat!  What cat?"