Nosework (3/1) & The Project - Day 19+

Its been a full week.

About half an hour after my last entry, I got the beginnings of a migraine.  Its still with me, though milder.  I was unable to sleep Tuesday.  Finally about 5:30 a.m. after a long hot bath, I was drugged enough and relaxed enough try again.  Michael chose that exact time to get up and leave a pee trail from one end of the house to the other!  Having pulled all the carpet, it didn't take long to clean up, yet enough to get me wide awake.  I spent most of Wednesday taking drugs and laying around.  Around noon fell asleep, but 90 minutes was all Gimme could stand.  She thinks that since entertaining her makes her feel good, it should do the same for me.   Got up, had lunch, took more drugs, played tug for awhile and even had a training session on apple.

Apple - back into a box, back feet only
I discovered toward the end of the session that Gimme does better about backing in if I'm careful how I treat her.  If I throw the treat too far, then she turns and approaches the box head on - which means either walking through or turning and side stepping in.  If I drop the treat between us, then she only takes a step or so forward and so just backs into the box.  I'll do that each time for the next few sessions and see if we can get backing in more solid.

That night in nosework class, Gimme couldn't get focused during her first two runs, flitting around the room and having a devil of a time finding her hides.  I'm sure being cooped up all day was the reason.  Her buddy Grafton was the best overall that night; though all the dogs are improving.  By her third session, she was back in the swing.  We had three piles of boxes and the food was in one of the lower boxes, so the upper boxes were in the way.  Gimme and Grafton found their goodies in equal time, but Gimme excelled in getting to hers.  Grafton is a little timid about pushing into the boxes, whereas Gimme was more than happy to pounce on the pile and scatter them in all directions.

Thursday I ended up working my Wednesday stores and when I got done decided to get Gimme and me out to the fort for a walk.  She was very quiet until we got on Rainier headed out there and then she fussed up a storm.  Even though the rescue remedy has been wonderful for everything else (and since), she was just fit to be tied.  I don't know what sets her off.  I think she may have a little homing pigeon in her and somehow senses when we are approaching that area of the county.  I'm going to try some different routes, but the last mile has to be on the same road.  I'm thinking in the future when she starts in as we are going out there, if she doesn't settle fairly soon, then I'm just going to turn and head home.  Even if it does take forever to get there, I can't help but think the behavior is still being rewarded.

Since it took so long to get there, by the time we walked and were heading home it was getting dark.  I rounded the corner and just barely had time to slam on my breaks, there were cars scattered every which way and just at the last moment I swerved to miss the cause of this mayhem.  Myself and another lady managed to catch the fattest Pug I've ever seen - wider than he was tall.  Since I had crates in the car, I took him.  Went to the nearest well lit home and after about an hour was able to figure out where he belonged and drive him home.  The owner was a piece of work.  He was more interested in making excuses for how Bob got out, than expressing appreciation for the efforts of those of us who saved his dog's life and for my bringing him home.  Some people!  Bob was just very lucky that he stopped traffic when he did, since minutes after I stopped it was pitch black and no one could have seen him in time to stop.

Thursday and Friday I did some parking lot sessions.  I'm revising how I'm doing that.  Gimme gets about a minute to look around and satisfy herself about the environment, then I'm pushing her more to get to work.  Basically if she doesn't turn her attention to me, I just keep moving her around, so that she doesn't have time to look around.  I think the behavior is too self-reinforcing.  Naturally this requires me to accurately assess why she is looking around.  If she has a real reason to be distracted that would be a different matter.  If not, my plan is to interrupt the self-reinforcing aspect.

On the way home Friday we stopped by Home Depot to pick up something I needed.  Took Gimme in for her usual cookies.  She'd been doing so well with LLW that I didn't put her EasyWalk harness on her - 30 seconds after getting in the door we returned to the car to correct that oversight.  HD is a great place and we get some nice training in.  Plus, as luck would have it, they have some of the most dog savvy employees at my store.  If they aren't busy, they are more than happy to work with her.  She always gets lots of attention and is finally getting used to the bizarre concept that some people actually don't want to pet her.  She turns her nose up and walks jauntily by when she realizes its one of those really aberrant types.  She's just sure they need medical attention.

Peach - head under a chair
Friday after work I did another training session.  Gimme is having a real difficulty getting the idea of waiting for the cue (stage three of learning).  My thinking is either I'm doing something wrong or I'm doing something wrong.  When I cue Gimme, its like she isn't really listening to me because she's only right about which behavior to give me out of the four I'm using (peach, sit, down, touch) about 60% of the time, whereas her accuracy is around 95% any other time.  I swear she gets it in her head which one comes next (I'm working hard to keep it random) and then doesn't listen to what I'm actually saying.  I've emailed Ursula and we may add this to our upcoming private lesson.  She says that Gimme is just the type of girl she would expect this kind of problem and that she needs to improve her "listening skills".  She mentioned having the same difficulty with two of her seven dogs.  I re-checked my notes to see how to work on this part.  I'd been doing a combination of extending the cue and the mixed sets.  So I'm going to try clicking for waiting and see if that makes it clearer for her.  And if not, we'll add it to our private lesson next week.

Gimme was less focused today in agility practice.  So I'm making the same changes.  She gets a few minutes to snoop around while I set up the exercise, then if she isn't ready to work I put her on leash and do the drill of moving her around, so that she doesn't have time to look or snoop around.  Again I think the snooping is just too self-reinforcing, so I want to interrupt the self-reinforcing aspect.  After I did that, she got right down to work and did some really good stuff.

I did some yard work today, pushing through the remaining migraine.  What should have taken an hour, took twice as long with Gimme's "help".  I've been unable to convince her that its not really helpful when she runs off with my tools, the weed eater line (while balling it up into a big knotted mess), and the big pieces of ivy I've been cutting down.  She says she only does it to air them out.  I maintain that since the ivy, the tools and the weed eater line have all been outside all along, they don't actually need airing out.  She remains unconvinced.

Orange - sit on a small perch
Since this is her other behavior we're trying to get waiting for the cue, did this today.  I selected this because its a little harder behavior than peach, so thought she might not leap right to it as readily.  I started clicking for her not doing anything and at first thought it was working... but as we got into it, she went back to "not listening".  She'd wait for me to give her a cue, but then about half the time give me some behavior other than the one I asked for.  If I waited, then she'd give me the right one.  So clearly this isn't going to be the magic fix.  I did notice that when I did a rapid succession of cues in tertiary reinforcement style... then she gives me the right behavior almost every time.  Curious thing and I'll be interested to see what Ursula says about it.  When Gimme gets frustrated she gives me a nice bark fest.

Afterward I tried easy stuff.  We got out the brick and did some "get in" (counter clockwise forehand pivot).  Gimme didn't seem convinced that I wanted her front feet on it and kept backing on.  I wonder if that's a carry over from apple or if its because of our playing with two small platforms for a stand.  The other thing, once I got her doing it was that when I say the cue as she is doing the behavior trying to get this on cue, she breaks off the behavior.  After I was done training it suddenly occurred to me why.  I have always used "get it" for a tossed treat and now "get in" for this.  They sound so much alike, no wonder she is having problems.  Smack my forehead!!!

BTW at one point she started pushing the brick (octagonal 7" diameter board) around the floor with her nose.  So I expect that next time we do melon, she'll be the push master queen...

I really want to use the "get in" for the forehand pivot because its in my head and the first thing that comes out of my mouth for that behavior.  So will leave it alone for awhile and have a few sessions of just using "yours" for the tossed treats.  Add to that all the times I'll use that when tossing her treats for resets, it should switch pretty quickly.  Then in a few weeks will come back to this and see if she's able to accept the new meaning for the cue.  It'll be a challenge and we'll just see.  She's pretty smart, so I think she will.  If not, I'll make the cue an elongated "innnnn" and then later start putting "get" in front of it.  You know I'll let you know how it goes.

We also did some work with our single stand platform, ala Michele Pouliet.  I need to go back and watch the video again to get clear in my head about how to teach it before I go any further.

You know, it occurs to me that she has so many behaviors that are well on their way.  I think as soon as we get past the hump of "wait for the cue", she is really going to take off in her understanding.  Training my little genius is such a fun adventure.

Well, drugs are wearing off, so must be time for the next dose and I'm sure I hear the couch calling me.

Melon - push cube with nose
Grape - dead bug (on back, feet in the air)
Not trained. 

My Little Bootie Queen

This is easily the funniest dog on the planet. 

You may remember early reports of how much Gimme likes to admire herself in mirrors.  Then there is the whole photo essay I did of her admiring the pretty puppy in the mirror at the end of the bed in my parent's motor home.  Of course, she didn't miss any opportunity to admire herself in the mirrors in her early rally classes. 

Tonight, I decided to break out our stand platforms and play with them for a few minutes.  One of the problems I've had is accurately seeing what she is doing with her back feet so I'd know when to click.  I have three narrow tall mirrors I bought, planning to find a way to put them together into one larger mirror.  Not having done that yet, I just got one out and laid it on its side near where I needed to see.

Gimme ran right up to pose in front of it.  She was noticeably dismayed that the damn thing was too short for her to pose and admire herself!  She'd pose, look at it and only see her feet/legs.  Then her head would go down to look in it, trying to figure out what was wrong with it.  Then she'd start over with posing.  She did that five times before giving up with a big theatrical sigh.  She is so put upon.

It was too too damn funny and I'm sure my description doesn't do it justice. 

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...