Parkour (7/5)

I wasn't sure how class would go after our experience walking the night before.  Shall we say it was "interesting".  Gimme was higher than a kite and her "energy" affected the other dogs.  The Aussie who is always so well behaved was quite flighty.  Gimme was very intense throughout class and was really rough when I gave her treats.  This sometimes happens when she's anxious about something.  Oddly the white standard poodle who was the source of all this was the best behaved in class - they said they'd taken a hint from us and were using string cheese for treats.

"Out" sequence 1 video - There were four props, 2 chairs, a pylon and a cone, and we were supposed to plan a route and then have our dog go around each of them.  I thought I was pulling a fast one by turning the stool so Gimme wouldn't see the shorter side and be inclined to do something other than "out".  Naturally Gimme still managed to do "hands" to it.

"Out" sequence 2 video - This time I had my route planned a bit better, so it went very smooth and fast.

Sequence 3 video - This sequence started in a "box", "out" around a chair and ending with "thru" the barrel.  Gimme did it beautifully.

Sequence 4 video - This sequence was a reverse of the time before, starting "thru" the barrel, "out" around a chair and ending with "box".  Gimme did it beautifully again.  She was really getting grabby for the treats and hurting my fingers, so we worked on this.

Crawl trainer 1 video - Took just a moment for Gimme to remember what this was about.  It took her much longer (edited out) to decide she could take treats without drawing blood.  Okay it's an exaggeration, but not by much.

Crawl trainer 2 video - Gimme did well again, but still took time to control herself taking treats.

Sequence 5 video - Here we put it all together.  Started with the 4 prop "out" sequence, crawl trainer, "table", "box", "out" around the chair, and "thru" the barrel.  We could do this much faster, but I was trying to encourage a little self control.

Sequence 6 video - "Thru" the barrel, "out" around the chair, "box", "table", "table", "below" the chair, crawl trainer, "walkies" on low board walk, and "out" sequence with 4 props.  Gimme's leash snagged on the pylon and brought it crashing after her.  You'll see Gimme wasn't the least bit concerned by the thing chasing her.

Sequence 7 video - We repeated the same sequence and Gimme did well.

Sequence 8 video - For this last run, we each got to come up with our own idea for a sequence, using each prop.  We started "thru" the barrel, "hands" to the stool", figure-8 "outs" to the pylon and cone, "hands" on the step ladder, "walkies", crawltrainer, "below" the chair, and then to make her happy - ended with "bacon" to both tables and into box.

Gimme was quite tired after class, as was I.  Unfortunately I didn't get to take a long nap during the drive home like she did.

Parkour (6/5)

Jo is back.  Yayyyy.   We learn so much more with Jo's exercises.

Distance sequence video - The goal was to leave Gimme in a "wait" in the "box" and move a bit ahead and to the side and then send her "thru" the tunnel and onto the "table".  The first time she did great, but I wasn't very far away and was moving alongside.  The next time she got "thru", but wasn't too sure about "table" since I wasn't moving with her.  The third time with the same distance and not moving with her, she needed a reminder, but was able to get it.  When the weather gets better, we'll be working distance behaviors at home.  We'll work this in with the cue discrimination I want to work on.

"Thru" chute video - This was really an easy behavior for Gimme.  What was challenging was focusing while two other students were doing stuff with their dogs so close.  Jo had them move so Gimme could have the space, but I guess they didn't really understand the point of moving.  Still Gimme did well with this.

Moving boardwalk video - The board was set on two bone-shaped fitness disks, so it wobbled when walked on.  Gimme was momentarily surprised, but then was non-plussed.  Because Gimme is much more advanced than her classmates, Jo had us do some control points on the board.  Gimme was fine with sit and down, but it took her a few moments to focus enough to respond to "stand".  She did what so often happens, offering me the last thing she got rewarded for, instead of listening to the cue I gave her.

Sequence 1 video - This was just a short little sequence putting together what we'd already done.  Gimme did very well and completely ignored the dogs in the corner.

Free practice video - We were to pick an item and do at least two behaviors with it.  I used the big cone and practiced our "out" a couple of times.  Then I asked her to do "hands" on it.  She has done this before, but its very hard because the top of the cone really isn't big enough for both feet and she has to position her feet just right to get both of them on it.  Even then I don't think it's exactly comfortable.

As I went to turn off the camera, I momentarily had my back turned to the room - which of course was the exact moment when the standard poodle owner lost control of her dog.  The dog came running up to Gimme.  Nothing happened, since I reacted so quickly and the poodle owner was just moments behind her dog -- the interaction was only 2 seconds.  But so much could have happened in that time.  Needless to say, Gimme was higher than a kite and really primed to take someone on.  I just couldn't get her attention, so we went outside for a walk and time to calm down.

When we came back in, I started working "whazzat", looking to the other dogs.  Gimme did it just three times and then said she didn't want to look at the other dogs. Instead she pulled me to her matt where she could be behind a visual barrier.  So I spent quite a bit of time rewarding pretend calm behavior.  I was really pleased with her efforts to self-regulate her arousal; such a smart girl.

Jo came over and set up another layer of barriers when it was time for the standard poodle to work the next exercise, which is done off leash.  She offered me the opportunity to go outside while they were working off leash, but I assured her I'd be watching and if the dog did come in our direction I was confident I could handle it.  I was certain a forcefully shouted "No! Bad dog!" would make her rethink approaching us. The dog is actually quite soft, but not well trained and not much of a relationship with her owners; I really feel sorry for her.

Rebound 1 video - We did two rebound sessions, but I goofed on the second session and only thought I was videoing.  The second session went pretty much like the first.  Gimme is on the highest setting of the rebound trainer.  She still has to learn her footwork, since she's tending to run the board, instead of rebounding against it.

I was really pleased to see Gimme trying so hard to work after the incident.  I used her peanut butter go toob to help her focus.  I don't think she was really in her working brain and there was a somewhat frantic edge to her rush for a reward, but she was purposeful in her efforts to do what I was asking and win the peanut butter. There was a time when she wouldn't have been able to return to work afterward, no matter how much peanut butter I had, so I am happy to see this improvement. 

Gimme slept all the way home, only waking up one minute from our exit.  Normally she starts whining about ten minutes from our exit.  Clearly she was very tired after this class and the additional stress.  It will be "interesting" to see how she handles the next class.

Keeping Busy

I haven't talked about our walks or Gimme's reactivity for awhile, so thought I should catch up on it.

I decided several months ago to use classical conditioning when we passed other dogs during our walks.  It went very well, and I soon noticed Gimme would see other dogs and then look at me with her "well?" expression.  Its very much like what she does when she sees bicycles.  On occasion when we had room to get off the trail for more space, I've had her play the eye contact game (Chris Bach style) with me. 

Yesterday early on our walk she did the best ever playing eye contact when we were at the little park off the trail.  So later when we were walking on the trail with only 10' space, I saw calm dog coming and I got her started playing the eye contact game.  She did beautifully.  Then a bit later I saw another seemingly calm dog and set up for eye contact.  She did well and the other dog stayed calm until he got within 20' of us.  Suddenly he was up on his back legs pulling and growling with the low guttural "I wanna kill you" growl (thank God his owner was strong enough to control him).  It was too late for me to pull out the PB toob and there was no room to create more distance, so I just switched to constant feeding mode and when he was just past us, I threw a handful of treats on the ground for her.  Gimme was brilliant and this with a snarling dog at just 10 feet! She really focused on me, then the treats, then more treats.  When she finished them she looked back at him, but totally calm. I've never been more proud.

Today we walked again and did some more of this.  We stopped for eye contact while we were passed by a lady who was actually training her reactive dog, giving it treats and being calm and positive.  I think its a sad state when seeing someone training their dog makes me want to do the happy dance.  I want to see this so often I'm blasé about it.  Later as we were coming back I met her again, she had a different dog, and we stopped to talk awhile.  This dog was much calmer and laid back.  We shared the history of our dogs, meanwhile Gimme got treats for remaining calm.  Between then and getting back to the park we passed two more dogs.  Thinking Gimme might have accumulated some stress during the prolonged exposure, I switched back to classical conditioning for these.

When we got back to the little park, I set up my camera on a tripod and Gimme and I made four short Parkour videos.  I think I have enough for the Training Level title and I have a couple which should be suitable for Novice.  This afternoon while its hot I'm going to edit the Training Level videos into one and post it on the Parkour list to see if anyone notices anything I missed.  If I submit it and one of them fails, I can resubmit all of them with the failed behavior fixed, but have to pay the fee again. 

On my way home from church I stopped by Home Depot to get the things I need to turn a Go-Go Dancer platform into two TicTac boards.  I'm making one normal width and the other narrower.  I think it makes sense to have a narrower one to train on before I ask her to do it on a tree or something. 

The Go-Go Dancer platforms I got for free and didn't have any idea what I'd use them for.  So I'm making a pair of TicTac boards for myself out of one and will see if Pawsabilities wants the other to make a set for the classes I'll be teaching there.  I keep telling myself I need to stop bringing home "free junk", but then I find a really good use for something and my junk collecting behavior is reinforced.  Its on a variable schedule of reinforcement, which we all know creates the strongest, most resistant to extinction, behaviors.  ☺

Gimme will be happily surprised to see Parkour toys appear in her very own yard. 

Duct Tape

Today Gimme had her appointment with the reproduction veterinary.  As many of you know, I've been very clear about having no intention of breeding her, ever.  Its never been part of my plan and the plan hasn't changed.

Originally I'd planned to spay her sometime between 18 and 24 months - giving plenty of time for her growth plates to close.  My reason for not spaying her when the time came has to do with her dog-dog reactivity. I'd read some bitches are exposed to too much testosterone in the womb, which affects their brain development.  And, for those affected, spaying can make their reactivity worse because it removes the main source of estrogen and its temperament softening affect. 

Gimme fits the profile perfectly.  She marks more than any dog I've ever known - as many as 15 times in a 1 mile walk, over any other dog marks, but she also pees frequently in places where there is seldom any other dog marking.  When she is marking, she does so on three legs, aiming well off the ground.  When she is peeing, she squats to do so.  She is also pretty muscular, though she is not masculine in appearance. 

 

I thought I would just live with her seasons, in favor of her temperament, but as time goes on I have noticed a pattern which is presenting problems.  During the period of mothering following her false pregnancy she becomes hyperalert.  Her anxiety goes way up.  During this time we lose whatever progress we'd made in training related to reactivity since the last "weaning".  She effectively spends 1/3 of her life raising pseudo-babies (2 months for two seasons a year).  So while she has improved substantially from reacting at 60 feet down to 15 feet, our progress has stalled.  Following a weaning, I find it has bounced up to 25-30 feet.  Then we spend the next few months regaining the ground we lost, only to start all over again. 

 

I also notice her reactivity level closely follows a pattern related to her cycle and her estrogen level.  She is least reactive when she is in season (highest estrogen levels) and most reactive during the two months of mothering (lowest estrogen on the "whelping" date).  So this certainly supports my belief she may be one of the affected bitches.

 

I understand there are estrogen replacement therapies available, but I have concerns about the side affects with long term use.  And since spaying is a permanent change, its not like we can do the surgery and try ERT to see how it works and then reverse course if it isn't effective.  

Despite my teaching dog training, with a fair number of reactive dog clients, my very successful experience with another reactive dog of my own, and my own education for working with reactive dogs, I have not been as successful with Gimme as I had hoped.  She is four years old and we've been stalled for the last 18 months.  My goals for her are simply to be less anxious in the presence of other dogs and hopefully to be able to work/perform when they are around, without interacting with them.  This led me to conclude the two-steps-forward-two-steps-back nature of her cycle might be at the root of our plateau.

 

So it was suggested I should consult a reproductive veterinary who might have ideas to help us.   Her response was three options:

1. An herbal supplement for bitches with severe false pregnancies. 

2. Spay and try the herbal supplement to ameliorate any tendency toward male behaviors.

3. Spay her and put her on Prozac to mellow out her temperament and make her easier to work with. 

I was disinclined toward option 2 and 3 right away, because of the irreversible spaying.  Frankly I don't find her hard to work with and am certain we are well away from needing doggie Prozac.  So we were left with option 1.

Today we had our appointment and did a full medical work-up.  Gimme got a full reproductive exam, geriatric blood and urine panel and an x-ray.  Doc wanted to do the x-ray because Gimme's bladder was so full when we got there, so she was worried about potential stone blockage.  I wasn't worried, because I was sure Gimme had failed to take advantage of her time in the yard when I got home, since she knew we were going somewhere and was distracted.  She also "likes" to hold onto her urine so she has plenty to mark with when she knows we are going some place away from home.  However, given the prices she quoted (rather low for this area) I thought x-raying and knowing for sure was a good idea.

The x-ray and urinalysis came back normal.  There was a small cloudy area on the x-ray, but no stones of any size.  So now we have the supplement and have to wait until we get the blood panel results on Wednesday before starting her on it.  I hope it helps her, it would make a big difference for us.  So time will tell.

Gimme was not too happy about the x-ray.  The table was way too slippery and they tried to manhandle her into a down.  I took over and laid her down myself.  She still wasn't relaxed, but it wasn't a scary battle.  I was so glad I hadn't turned her over to experience this without me there.  She enjoyed all the PB she got for tolerating it.  She also enjoyed the fact they have a little tupperware dish of PB in every examining room, clearly her kinda place.  Gimme loved meeting everyone and was very generous with her kisses.  The vet loves her and thinks she has a fabulous temperament (toward people), very responsive and sweet, as well as being incredibly beautiful.

You may wonder why I titled this blog entry Duct Tape.  Its because its about fixing something.  And because I am trying a duct tape home remedy for a wart I have - so it was on my mind.  

☺☺☺

Public Dog (28-29-30)

I've been remiss in keeping up with the blog.  Classes have been good - though challenging.  The goal of these classes is to get the dogs to work reliably off leash and without treats on our person.  These three classes met, twice in Ursula's new training room (above the kennels) and once in a tennis court.

We do a lot with the dog dragging the leash - in fact virtually the whole class is with the leash on the ground.  We also station our treat bag... in the building the first time mine was on the floor behind a divider and across the room, the second time was up in the window sill.  At the tennis court, I started with it on the ground, but my back was bothering me, so I hung it on the fence so I didn't have to keep bending over.

Gimme is into the concept of helping herself... and each time Ursula needs to remind me to use body blocking instead of a hand signal (for wait).  I can use the hand signal and Gimme will wait, but have to use it every time.  When I do use the body blocking, it only takes once or twice and she remembers it for the rest of class.  She completely gets what it means.  It just is not my first inclination.

Class is following a pattern.  We let the dogs drag the leash and then one by one walk out to the center of the training area, cue a behavior, verbally mark it and then go to our treat station to reward.  Gimme is completely fine with working without the treats on me - she gets the concept of delayed reward since its something we've done before.  Once or twice we unhook the leash, letting it fall to the floor and do the sequence completely off leash.  Over a few repetitions, we advance to asking for two and then three behaviors.  In that case we only verbally mark the last behavior - the reward for the first (and second when there are three cued) is another cue.  This is called Tertiary Reinforcement which you can find by following the link - the explanation is about halfway down in the entry.

Anyway, once we've done several repetitions, then we start going out in pairs and later threes and finally all of us (4 or 5).  The pairs don't bother me, but more than that I find stressful.  In addition to going out on the floor with another team that is moving at the same time, we are supposed to go someplace different than the middle of the room.  Each time after that we are supposed to go someplace in the room we haven't been before.  This usually means passing each other.  When we get to three or more teams going at once, its quite a circus.

That is a lot of chaos and stimulation and moving dogs in close proximity and Gimme does okay with it, she really tries so hard. Sometimes it just amazes me how much progress she's made.  I think its more stressful for me than it is for her, because:

• There are two dogs in class who's owners don't have good control AND are so slow to react.  When those dogs get out of control they always seem to rush in our direction.  So I have to pay attention to instructions, work with Gimme and watch both of them all the time.  Both are friendly dogs and I certainly appreciate their owner's efforts to continue with training; still it adds a lot to my "job" while in class.
  • In the tennis court, Echo (smooth collie) came rushing at us and the owner barely got her back before contact.  Gimme had just realized the dog was there when it was already being moved away.  I gave her treats and congratulated her on being such a good girl.
  • Then yesterday in the training room, Lily (labrador) went out on the floor for her first exercise and immediately rushed over to us.  I grabbed Gimme’s leash to do an emergency u-turn, just as she hit the end and it flipped her on her side.  She scrambled up and ran with me, not seeming any worse for wear.  Though I noticed a bit later she had that look in her eyes telling me she was having difficulty.  So I took her outside for a potty break and to decompress.  She didn’t potty, just sniffed around.  When we went back in she was ready to work again.
• When we are out on the floor as a group, it seems there is always someone sneaking up behind us.  Okay, I realize they aren't "sneaking", still they are often crossing so close right behind or to the side outside my view.  Even if they aren't right there, when I verbally mark a moment of good behavior and turn around to head back for our treats, there is always someone within one step.  I can literally feel my blood pressure spike at these moments!

So for me, the class is stressful and I'm always tired afterward.  I'm happy with Gimme and certainly thrilled with her efforts and progress, I just have zero moments when I can let my guard down.  I feel like I need a couple extra sets of eyes.  I have come up with a couple ideas to take the pressure off me a little bit.

• When we are waiting our turn, my tendency is to have Gimme sitting on the side of me,  between me and the nearest well-behaved dog (Tor or Tucker).  Which means when I am focused on her, my eyes and attention are turned away from the dogs that have been an issue.  So in the future, I'll have her on the side that is closer to them... so at least I'll see them coming with my peripheral vision and have more time to react.
• And when we are doing the group exercises, when I mark a behavior, I always do a sharp 180° turn.  So effectively I'm turning sharply into a blind spot.  My plan is to try more of a wide arcing turn, so I'll see what's behind me with my peripheral vision before I'm stepping right into it.

I had something else to talk about, but this is already quite long, so it'll have to wait.  Besides its late and Gimme and I are due for a couch snuddle...

Public Dog (27)

Gimme and I have walked a lot, trying to get ahead of plan since we'll be separated for a week while I'm in California.  I want to be sure to make our annual 500 mile goal together.  Meanwhile Gimme claims I don't do near enough with her.  We also got in some other light training over the weekend.

Today was Public Dog class at Auto Zone.  I was glad there were only four of us, because it was a small store.  We all started by handing over our treat bags to Ursula.  Its another exercise to work without food on our person -- the idea being to work a little bit and when we got something particularly nice... verbally mark it and then rush over to Urs for treats.

I tried this, but every time I tried to go to Urs for treats, there were one or two other dogs right there and it would've been too close for Gimme.  I think having to walk the dog-gauntlet to get treats would have really taken the fun out of the cheese.  We did get treats twice, but it was 15 minutes into class, just not a high enough rate of reinforcement.  So when I could I told Ursula it wasn't working for us and why.  She gave me our treat bag, told me to put it on a shelf and work away and then back to it.

I did that and it worked very well.  I moved our treat bag to other locations (4 different places), so we weren't working in the same spot.  I have to say Gimme got a real charge out of this exercise and even the worst of her efforts, still had a lot of good attention to it.  Ursula noticed and said the same.

I've said before I think I'm boring.  That's why I'm really looking forward to the Denise Fenzi online academy courses that we'll be starting in December.  I'm sure that will help me be less boring and more fun.  As I see how Gimme responds to these different challenges - I also realize I don't challenge her enough.  I've always said she thrives on challenge and I clearly am not giving her enough.

When I got to class, Gimme was very unfocused, but this level of challenge just sucks her right in.  She just can't resist it.  We did a sit stay with Tor, just 7 feet away (I even dropped the leash and was about 8 feet away from her).  Gimme was completely fine with it -- that's pretty close to the separation we'd have in competition.  We even did a sit stay with me at the end of the leash when the black Lab was standing nearby and just as they moved away, Susan and Tucker walked by kinda close.  

What excited me the MOST was the unintended exercises in Sudden Environment Change.  Any dog with issues is likely to be really challenged by SEC and Gimme is no exception.   Because the racks in the store were so tall and the aisles so narrow, there was really no way to know if someone was about to walk by as we'd come to the end of the aisle.  Repeatedly  we'd be within a foot or two from the end when a team would walk by suddenly and close.  Gimme was fine every time.  She'd watch the dogs, but showed no concern.  Of course, she knows these dogs from class, but its still huge progress.

In thinking about this after class I realized that in our other walks, she has stopped scanning the horizon looking for other dogs.  At some point, she dropped her constant on-alert behavior and I didn't even notice it.  This is really exciting....

Public Dog (17)

First, I'm rereading "When Pigs Fly" by Jane Killion.  I wanted to review some of her excellent ideas.  I was fascinated to realize how often she talks about Gimme in her book, which was written in 2007, many years before my girlie was born.  At one point she says of pigs-fly dogs, "You are not going to get a Gimme when it comes to attention."  How did she know that Gimme would have such good attention skills (well, most of the time).  She mentions her many times in the book, but this one really stood out to me.  <g>

Today in Public Dog class Gimme did so well - the best she's done since we started this ten week round of classes.  I was careful with management - especially so after going in the training room to set up and having Max (giant Schnauzer) go off on me.  He's unpredictably reactive and his owner just corrects him for it, but isn't really working on the issues that set  him off.  So I made sure there was a good visual barrier between where we were setting up and where his owner was sitting with him.  I absolutely wasn't going to risk him going off when Gimme was near.

Our exercises were interesting and challenging.  First we were to walk a figure 8 with a dish of french fries for one pole and a person in a wheelchair for the other AND we were not supposed to cue "leave it".  One of the goals for this class is to get such things on an auto-leave-it when the dogs are working.  We were supposed to body block any attempt to engage either.  Obviously we want the dogs to be friendly and comfortable with people in wheelchairs, but we also don't want them to assume they are free to greet any person they see.   As it was set up, there was also the man with the creepy shepherd sitting nearby to observe, so Gimme had to walk between them and the person in the wheelchair.

I was very pleased with how she did.  It took a couple reminders to start with to get her into LLW mode, but then she was really very good.  As we went back in the building, they remote rang the doorbell - which was of no interest to Gimme, unlike two other dogs that had a barking fit.

After that we did a session in a cordoned off section of the room with Ursula for "join up".  I'm not totally sold on the concept of this, but still it can't hurt and Gimme enjoys the treats.  Once she realized I was going to pay with peanut butter, she was almost unable to be distracted from me.  That is no small feat given that Ursula was using a whole jar of peanut butter (opened) to distract her.  After that we went out to repeat the exercise in the fenced in play yard.  By then Gimme realized Ursula was back to her old tricks of trying to distract her but never paying up... so she did really well and didn't fall for it (well hardly ever).

Then we did a session with Elizabeth and her dog as one post and the food as the other post, again with the man and creepy shepherd observers.  So LLW between Elizabeth and her dog and the man and the shepherd was a significant task.  I cut the space in half and paid well the moment after we passed between them, so the second time Gimme never even looked at them.

Then Elizabeth had us stop and she cued her dog to bark for us.  That's a special trigger for Gimme and I didn't expect it to go well.  However, it was a single controlled bark and she barely took notice of it.  We were able to get within about 6 feet and she was still able to "whazzat" for a treat.  Then we lined up for down stays and rewarded the dogs heavily for staying put as Elizabeth heeled by with her dog.  Gimme did great.  She did not do as well when she went behind us.  In her defense the poop bucket was between us and the wall and when they detoured around it, their their line of motion changed so it was headed more toward us.  I made sure when I reset her in the down that I moved her a couple feet forward and the next time she did great.

Then Elizabeth cued her dog to get crazy with active play and barking.  That was almost too much for Gimme and I had to move her a little further away.  With a little more distance she was able to work through it nicely - about ten feet away.  Given that kind of thing is very difficult for her, it was a huge achievement.  We ended with a short session of all the dogs LLW around randomly in the play yard.  After all the other exercises, this was pretty easy for Gimme.

All in all it was a very challenging class and I was totally happy with how Gimme did.  She got stuck once or twice, but her recovery was excellent.  She was quiet and content up until I had to leave to meet friends at the Freedom Shootout.  I left her loose in the house for what turned out to be 4.5 hours (the longest time I've done this) and she was a good girl (she likes having light classical music playing on the TV).  I think she is showing that she has fully recovered from our earlier discombobulation and is ready to work on some of the bigger challenges.

An interesting note from the Freedom Shootout -- where we got to shoot trap, which I hadn't done in 20 years and have a major bruise already coloring up.  We got to shoot some practice rounds with an instructor to coach us and the one I got was very good.  He figured out right away that I am left-eye-dominant, so was able to tell me what to do to correct for it.  As he talked I was reminded of stuff Lanny Bassham says in his book "With Winning in Mind".

Its not at all easy to keep your mind out of the way and to go with your unconscious mind.  I was thinking as my instructor was talking about how easy it is for us to go on a sort of auto-pilot when we are free-shaping a behavior.  If you wait to consciously note the behavior, your click is always too late.  So, I found if I treated pulling the trigger like clicking a clicker, that it went much better.  After that, for my round I hit 17 out of 25.

I understand that is considered very good and people who shoot a lot don't do that well much of the time.  One guy at our table had shot 23 the first round and 3 the next... so I beat him percentage-wise and he shoots all the time (I was uncharacteristically gracious and didn't say anything).  Still the word got around and a few people came up and congratulated me on doing so well.  I don't know of any other sport where a 68% success rate is considered good - I've gotten so used to dog sports where the standard for success even at the lowest level is much higher.

Seminar and Public Dog (13)

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

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

Public Dog (12)

Yesterday was our 12th Public Dog class.  Since it was Thursday, the day we are all crammed in the training building (last night 7 teams), I gave Gimme some supplements designed to help with stress.  Its hard to say if it worked, since every class is different and thus, its hard to gauge whether its better or not.

They didn't have any barriers up for this class.  As I'd said, I set up in the area closest to the little door and parked my car right outside that door.  During class, on an as-needed basis, I took Gimme out for brief breaks.  We went out 5 times, and just long enough to visit the grass strip and have an opportunity for a pee break.

First, Ursula on crutches and then Elizabeth in a wheelchair came around to visit each of the dogs.  Gimme is totally unconcerned with the medical equipment...  her biggest problem is no greetings until cued and then calm greetings.  Anyone wanting to bask in the fullness of her glory is just so very exciting.  I could have worse problems, eh.

Later on, Ursula came by with a broom sweeping around us and then asking us to move so she could sweep under the dog.  Gimme thought this might be a new game that her best friend Ursula wanted to play with her.  She's never paid any attention to my housecleaning efforts.

Then we worked on teaching the dogs another secondary reinforcer (besides clicker and marker words).  The goal is to have 3 additional secondary reinforcers.  Fortunately we already have one that I never intended, but works anyway because I'm in the habit of using it at the end of weave poles (a holdover from agility with Michael) and its always followed by very generous rewards.  Its the word "woohoo" said with enthusiasm - it gets Gimme's tail wagging faster every time. 

The idea behind these other secondary reinforcers is that we can use them as rewards, to wean the dogs off food... just being sure that we continue to pair them with food 80% of the time.  Unlike the clicker, which should be paired with food 100% of the time to keep the association pure.  I first heard about this concept the day I audited Public Dog Class.  Since then I read that Ken Ramirez promotes this method.  I plan to also condition a thigh slap.  Gimme is very tactile, so any touch is possible - though I'm finding that she's especially fond of deep ear rubs.

After that we worked on toy play.  I hadn't brought any toys, so was happy to see that Ursula had a Skinneez, which is Gimme's favorite toy.  She played with it long enough to demonstrate that she's an avid tugger AND has an awesome "release" on a verbal cue.  Then she noticed other dogs watching her play and wouldn't play in the building again.  However, I took it outside with us on our next break and she was quite happy to play with it outside.  BTW she's also fine with HER watching them play with toys, just doesn't want THEM watching her - kinda like the way most kids think, eh.

The last part of class was more greeting practice.  We set the dogs on a sit-wait and stood beside them.  If they broke the sit-wait when the "stranger" approached, then we moved to body block, followed by resetting them in the original spot and trying the stranger's approach again.  Gimme broke on the first two strangers, but on the third one she started to and then caught herself.  So, on that success we partied all the way to the car (it was the end of class in any case).

Overall I thought the strategy of setting up near the door went well.  I do still need to improve my own skills.  I believe I'm too slow to interrupt when she gets stuck (like watching the other dogs play).  Also, I need a better gauge of when she needs a break than just noticing that her ability to reliably/promptly respond to cues is falling off.  Ideally I want to give her that break just before she needs it. 

We had walked 3 miles on the fort earlier in the day.  Then after class, met Mary and Grafton for another 2 miles on the Capitol Campus.  I did notice that Gimme's LLW was nowhere in sight, but I figured her brain was gone from class.  My feet still hurt today...

BTW I'm reading Temple Grandin's book, Animals in Translation.  Temple has autism of a high functioning type.  She believes that the way people with autism view the world is very much like the way animals do - with visual thinking.  Everything she says rings true with my experiences and I expect to learn a lot from the book.  It is a very interesting read and one I highly recommend to anyone who works with and/or loves animals.

Space, the Final Frontier

Yes, I do love Star Trek, the shows and the movies.  No, this blog entry is not about Star Trek.

I have a fairly mindless job.  It is mostly routine and seldom requires much of my attention.  So, my mind is free to wander and ponder.  I do much of my best thinking while on the job.

Today I was thinking about where Gimme is at in her reactivity training and how our efforts are going in regards to the Public Dog class.  I was thinking about the relapse in her abilities that was caused, or at least exacerbated, by her recent false pregnancy.  I was thinking about what I've been doing long-term and in the recent short-term.  I was thinking about my future plans to become a certified BAT Instructor.  Naturally, that led me to think about the studying I've been doing to get ready for the BAT course in November.

All this thinking came together in a realization.  All that has happened, the failings and the successes, the relapse and the progress... indeed, the issue itself...  it all relates to issues with space.   (thus, with my fondness for Star Trek, the title popped into my head)

BAT uses distance as the main reward for the dog making good choices.  A BAT training set-up manages distance very carefully.  And by "set-up", the intention is always to set the dog up for success.  So:

1. First, the dog must be well-under threshold,
2. Yet, close enough to notice the trigger,
3. And, having a decision to make, 
4. Still, able to choose well, and
5. Then, is rewarded with more distance (which relieves even the slight pressure regarding the distant trigger).

We've already made a lot of progress, with her just working for treats and trying to win.  Gimme is determined, if anything.  Still it occurs to me that my use of distance is not as skillful as it needs to be, both to recover lost ground and take it to the next level.

Thus the title for this post:  "Space, the Final Frontier"  

• Space is about "distance", which is both important for where we are and where we need to go...
• Final refers to the "decisive" factor...
• and Frontier is another word for a "new field of learning" for both of us.

I'm fond of my thesaurus... indeed these are all synonyms that popped up as I was playing with the title.  Appropriately so, methinks...

Public Dog (11)

We had class at the park today.  We started with parallel walking.  Where the class was held, we were walking around a track and there was very little space outside the track... so I took the inside position so I could manage the distance.  I made a joke was that everyone that parallel walked with us must feel like they are walking alone.  They changed pairs frequently.  When we started, Gimme just couldn't focus enough for cheese.  So I pulled out the peanut butter.  Initially I lured her to get her brain engaged and remind her what was available to win, and then made her work for additional licks.  We started at 35 feet away, but by the end we were at 12 feet from our last walking partner.

After that everyone just sat down with their dogs and encouraged them to lay about calmly.  We were on the outer edge and the nearest dog was 10 feet.  I would have liked to have more space, but that would have put us sitting out in the hot sun.  Gimme would do okay for short bursts, but then she would pop up again.  She wasn't misbehaving... just couldn't get relaxed.  In hindsight, there was another shady patch about 60 feet away and I should have moved over there.  That was much more space than she needed, but it would have made it easier for her to relax and made it a more positive experience for her - next time.

After that they had us all move one-by-one to another dog.  Gimme didn't do as well as she has in the past.  I think it was too much at the end of class and with 7 other dogs in sight, to be left with a stranger.  She didn't do badly, just never relaxed, even though Elizabeth was shaping her to lay down.  The second stranger resorted to non-stop treats and that pretty much got her all amped up again. 

Mary called later and we met to walk the kids around the lake.  Gimme did pretty good with her "whazzat" work and got admired and petted by a lot of people.  She also got petted by a number of small children.  On a positive note, she was able to relax enough during some of our "whazzat" stops to lay down all stretched out.  It was closer than she's done before and I'm thinking it probably seemed easy compared to class - at least she didn't appear to be trigger-stacking, so that's good.  I do think that I need to improve my game and do the "lets-go" much sooner when she gets stuck...  In the future I plan to count in my head during "whazzat" and when I get to three if she hasn't looked back to me, then we'll do the "lets-go" and increase our distance. 

I sure wish there was going to be an opportunity to get Gimme and Grafton together out at the fort for an off leash romp before Sunday.  That's our trial day (second NW2 attempt) and I'm sure she'd benefit from a good rousing play session.  Its going to be a verrrrry long day, since its almost a 4 hour drive to/from where the trial is held, so we'll be leaving home at 4 a.m.  Its a resort town and, being summer, all the hotels within a 2 hour drive are booked solid (and expensive to boot).

Dang hormones - I know I've mentioned that Gimme's dog-dog threshold has gotten significantly larger since her false pregnancy and we're working to recover lost ground.  I've also noticed a couple other things that she's gotten "weird" about since then.  Neither of these are huge, but I don't like it that she has these concerns in her own home.  The one is an old issue, that I hadn't really worked through, since it was not that much concern to her, and easy to avoid.  Of course, now it and the other have become a bigger deal, so they are moved to a front burner.

• One is that she's very concerned about the bathroom - that stems from something that happened a long time ago and it used to be just a very mild concern to her.  Since the false pregnancy, she doesn't want to go in there at all.  I'm letting her spend a minute or two once or twice a day licking peanut butter in there... and also tossing cheese in there when she isn't looking, so she can find it later.  These I hope will desensitize her to the concern she feels.  I'm thinking I may play the name game in there as well...  I'm sure it won't take too long to resolve this.
• The other is that she's acting concerned every time I take a deep breath or make any blowing sound.  She's the only dog I've ever known to notice my breathing.  I first realized she was tuned into it because she picked up on the fact that I take a deeper breath when I'm about to get up from the computer (other dogs keyed in on me sliding the keyboard in), but she wasn't concerned about it.  Well, during her false preggers, I think I must've taken a deep breath and then coughed or sneezed and startled her, because now she is more vigilant about it and actually concerned.  I recently read something that said when a dog is pretty anxious about something, that your goal should be to work on it no more than every other or every third day.  So I'm taking it slow with this and trying not to breath in the way I know concerns her (i.e. no blowing on a spoonful of hot soup, etc). 

Tonight I hope to watch the next section of Crate Games to see what is next.  Meanwhile Gimme is following me from room to room and snoozing contentedly whenever I stop in one place..

Crate Games (1)

Last night I spent some time getting a crate ready by blocking the bottom below the door with duct tape, so no foot could get caught, and wrapping the area above the door with fake fur, for padding.  I wanted to be able to do stage 1-3 tonight, because that is supposed to be done all at once.  SG said it could take as much as an hour to go from stage 1 thru 3.  In our case we ran through all three stages in 25 minutes. 

The DVD said to use the all time favorite treat and we know what that is.  I got some peanut butter in a snack container and would dip my finger into it and then stick that through the top of the crate and let Gimme lick it off.  So the girlie was highly motivated to win.  I don't know if this will help her learn to calm down as suggested, but if it doesn't - she'll sure enjoy the peanut butter and no harm done.

Stage 1 - I Love My Crate
This was too dang easy.  On the fourth try, Gimme saw hand reaching for the crate door and immediately was looking high and to the back for where the PB would appear.  We did fifteen repetitions.

Stage 2 - Are You A Gambler
At this stage, you start working through distractions.  Gimme is too smart for that - just one time of starting to move out and seeing the door close and she knew what the game was.  She never budged again, no matter what I did.  We ran into the same thing with puppy recalls in Ursula's classes that first year.  Ursula would try to distract her and kept having to get more and more creative, because Gimme understood how to win the game.  I think that is part of why she still has such great recalls to this day.


Stage 3 - Yer In Yer Out 
The second time she went back in and got more peanut butter and that was all it took.  After that I had to really encourage her to come out and then she was trying to turn around in the doorway to get back in.  Sadly for Gimme the doorway isn't wide enough and being a metal crate has no give... so she got wedged for a second and couldn't decide what to do.  But then she did.  After that she realized she had to have three feet fully out before turning to get back in.  It was funny to watch...

I do think I'll do this with the crate in the car.  She gets a bit noisy there and has a hard time settling down.  I never let her out until she settles down, but it can take awhile.  So I think Stage 1 and Stage 2 with peanut butter might teach her how to do better and thus, get out sooner.

So, the crate games was after getting home from a walk around the lake with Mary and Grafton.  Gimme has a harder time with LLW when the boyfriend is there, because she thinks she has to be in front and so does he.  Overall she did well with WHAZZAT.   I have to say every village idiot that owns a dog is out in force this month...

One time was really cute, we were doing WHAZZAT with a big dog that was moving by really fast.  I cued her and Gimme thought it was too much trouble to crane her neck all the way around to look at that dog - so instead she looked at Grafton and then back to me.  I'm not sure she agreed with my reasoning for not paying for her creative approach.  I certainly appreciated it... I just didn't pay for it.  

Confession Update

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Public Dog (6) & NW Practice

I did get Gimme a bodywork treatment session yesterday and Tonya said she was better than before.  She thinks the energy work I've been doing is helping.  I was talking to my friend and she said they can start a false pregnancy well before the due date.  So, since I've confirmed Gimme has "fluffy boobies" - I'm chalking her weirdness up to her delicate condition.  I'm searching high and low for her baby lamb.

Yesterday in Public Dog class, she did not do well with the chaos of having 6 teams in that small space.  We played Doggie Tic Tac Toe again.  Gimme was mostly able to do her part - 5 out of 6 tries, but not to the standard we normally would do.  There was a practice round that ended up a draw, then four rounds.  They kept switching the teams around and even so, the team we were on won all four times.  So between Monday and yesterday, Gimme and I were victors each time - Doggie Tic Tac Toe CHAMPIONS...

The rounds were: LLW into a square and sit in the square with luring; butler style LLW into a square and sit in the square with luring; LLW into a square and sit in the square with food on us but no luring; and butler style LLW into a square and sit in the square with food on us but no luring. The leash had to remain in a J shape the whole time and we did it 4 out of 5 times, but it required a lot of me talking and helping her hold her position.  Once we were done and she got her treat, the moment I took one step toward our area - she was dragging me to get back to her sanctuary.

Tonight Susan and I met for a nosework practice on containers again.  We did eight rounds of searches with gradually increasing difficulty.  Gimme thoroughly enjoyed it - along with her marshmallow rewards.  Being false preggers does not affect her nosework ability.  She is contentedly snoozing as we speak.

Tucker did very nicely and I'll be eager to hear how he does this weekend - they are going to a match.  I did talk to Susan about possibly not coming to any container class with Joyce between now and her trial.  She didn't say whether she would or not.  I explained to her my reasoning and now its up to her to make a decision. 

Nosework (4/13) & Public Dog (3&4)

Since I last wrote we've had nosework class, two Public Dog classes, and nosework practice this evening.  Gimme continues to do fabulously all around.

Tuesday was Public Dog class - we met at the local county fairgrounds outdoors.  I started by working on focus, lots of "whazzat" and auto-check-ins.  She did well until all the dogs started moving around and then we had to almost start over.  By the time they were ready to do the group exercises, so was Gimme.

We used a large quadrangle to practice LLW.  To start with we walked with 15 feet separating us from the dogs in front and behind.  I used the 300 Pecks format so I knew how she was doing.  The best we got to was 14 steps, which I think is great given the level of distraction.  Then they added having the person in the back speed up to pass everyone on the left (about 10 feet away), taking up the lead position.  That didn't seem to bother Gimme.

Our next exercise was with the dogs on a down stay in front of us, while another dog and handler walked in a serpentine through the line-up.  The first dog that went by Gimme popped up, but then she quickly figured out that the way to win lots of treats was to ignore them.  I'm into making hard stuff worth her while and she's into letting me.

The last group exercise was to split us into twos and do parallel walking.  We were paired with Tor on our right, which worked well, since Frank walks him on the right, so that added additional space.  She did about half of that and then got really distracted and I thought she needed to pee - so peeled off to the grass.  When I did that, it became clear the co-instructor didn't really understand my goals for the class, so I stayed after to clarify.

Wednesday was nosework class and we met at the county's fireman training facility.  We had three different searches, one inside the climbing tower and two in an outdoor area that is set up to resemble indoors.  While a couple other dogs were intimidated by the noisy metal steps in the climbing tower, I don't think Gimme even noticed them.  She did stellar in all her searches.

The last search was a single blind hide.  Gimme had difficulty finding this one, but it was really hard.  There was a full size plastic barrel full of loose wood scraps and the hide was about 5 inches down into the scraps.  Add to that the reality that it had only had about 2 minutes to "cook"... which made it really challenging.  I knew pretty quickly what the general area was where it was, but I really had to wait for Gimme to source it.  If we ran into that same challenge at a trial, it would be much easier because there's a minimum of an hour between when they set the hides and when the first dog runs them - so there would be a lot more odor drifting out.

I stayed after class to help one of the students with her line work.  She doesn't use a very long line (about 9 ft), but still its always getting tangled around her dog.  Also, since its loose most of the time, whenever the dog gets odor and dashes toward it, on such a short line she is getting an unintended correction.  Minutes after I made the offer to her, Joyce talked to the class about one of the issues this person was having in her line handling.  Either great-minds-think-alike or someone was eaves-dropping.

Thursday Public Dog class was at the main training building, with six dogs in that small space.  They had set up the class in a "stations" format, where the dogs were learning tasks that are from the Therapy Dog class.  Joyce had set aside a space for me to set up Gimme's crate (which we only went back to one time).  None of the tasks were hard... just done in a different way than I would do them or have done them.  So it took more for me to get into their way of doing it than it did for Gimme.

One task was quite interesting, they call it "wall".  The idea is to teach the dogs to move into a sit, leaning against a wall, so the handler can be right there leaning against the wall too.  You might need it in a hospital setting if they needed to move a gurney down the hall.

Gimme actually already knows this behavior - its something I've been clicker training her to do in the front seat of the car.  She's gotten really good about staying quiet in the car... except when we are headed out to the fort or down to the lake - in which case she does a LOT of anticipatory whining.  So I put her in her seat-belt harness in the front seat.  Then I use the clicker and reward her for laying down or leaning back into the seat.  It keeps her quiet and I can do it without taking my eyes off the road.

So when I moved Gimme close to the wall and cued a sit and then waited for the slightest shift of her body, it took just 2 clicks for her to figure it out and then she was leaning against the wall over and over again.  We are supposed to gradually rotate our body position so that we'd be standing in front of the dogs with our back against the wall.  Of course, I was able to rotate really quickly.

What I didn't realize was how much that changed my visual for what Gimme was doing.  She was repeatedly leaning her ribs against the wall, but I was watching for her shoulders - thus she wasn't getting clicked.  Naturally that was very frustrating to her and she started whining and fussing.  I saw the co-instructor was approaching with her itchy trigger-finger and the evil spray bottle... so I moved between her and Gimme to make sure I could stop her if need be.  In doing so I looked down from a different angle and saw that Gimme was indeed leaning against the wall - clicked her and we were off and training again, with no more whining.

So add to all that two long walks on the fort and nosework practice tonight -- suffice it to say, Miss Gimme has been one busy little girl.  She is sound asleep as we speak.

BTW I made it clear to the co-instructor at the very first class that I am not interested in her "generous offer" to squirt Gimme in the face, should she ever whine or bark during class.  I believe I said that any attempt on her part to do so would result in her having a bloody stump where her hand used to be.  However, it seems her eagerness to dish out this particular punishment overrides her sense of self preservation.

I am not surprised to know she is happy to use punishment - since I'd heard things before about her.  I hoped what I'd heard was wrong, that Ursula knew better and that's why she was okay partnering with her for these classes.  What I've been most sad to learn is that Ursula is completely okay with this being done in her classes and even chatting it up about how many squirts it takes to shut the dog up.  I'll have more to say about this in another blog entry...

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...

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...

Agility Girl

Gimme was so happy to get back to agility class last night (we wuz taking a break while she was in that condition).

She was so focused and taking direction very well.  All the mistakes except one were mine and even that went away with a little clearer handling.  Gimme was doing so well that Blynn was able to really focus on my handling and she was brutal... On top of that while we were waiting and watching, for the first time Gimme offered me her "whazzat" behavior when the dog before us suddenly popped into view 6 feet away.  I was so proud. Blynn commented that it was like Gimme suddenly did a bunch of growing up and was so much more mature this week.  I don't know about that, but she was sure on her best behavior.

After class we went to my parents' to say "Hi" and just hang out for awhile.  Gimme got to come in and show off all her tricks.  She's getting really good at the crawling backwards and I need to get that on tape, cuz its waaaaay beyond cute.

In a couple of weeks we'll be starting our ten week round of summer classes with Ursula.  She has a new program that looks like it'll be perfect for us.  We're sure gonna stretch someone's brain...  I'm looking forward to it.

BTW someone took pictures of Gimme at the trial as we were walking up to and doing the practice boxes.  Unfortunately I'm having problems getting them to upload, so will have to try later.

Moving Whazzat

I had a lot more planned, but the day conspired against me.  Hopefully tomorrow will be more cooperative.

We walked around the Capital Lake, making it a training walk.  Gimme continues to have difficulty with loose leash walking - I think its conceptually just too darn vague for her.  Though we are making some progress.

Because it was early afternoon, we only met a few dogs.  For one of them we were actually able to pass while doing a moving "whazzat" (look-at-that).  That's the first time I have tried that and only did so because we had room to play with it.  Even though the dog (a Boston Terrier) was staring and pulling toward Gimme, she did really well.  So while its been slow progress, we are making headway.

After that we met Tonya at the barn.  I had noticed some warm spots after exercise, so I scheduled an appointment.  Gimme is MUCH improved over her last treatment, as I expected.  Tonya said much of what was wrong now is not about being stuck, rather she has some soreness and tension in muscles in a couple of places.  Tonya suggested massage.

I know TTouch and bodywork would be very good for Gimme, but she has real difficulty with the whole stillness thing.  Every time I've tried she hasn't been able to just be still and accept the work - instead always wanting to turn around and lick me or try to play and other things.  So now I have to get serious about teaching her to just be still and calm...

A funny -- when Tonya was showing me where I need to focus the TTouch/massage, it was hard for me to see, because someone is such a wiggle butt.  Only Dalmatians come to us with a full set of pre-installed locator spots, so we used those...

I also talked with Tonya about exchanging training lessons for treatments.  She doesn't really have a lot of money for classes and I'd like to get Gimme treated more often.  So this could work out well for both of us.

More NW Match

Here is more detailed information about the match:

Vehicle: 1 hide - 50 seconds.  
Exterior: 2 hides - 1:06.  
Interior: 2 rooms & 3 hides - 1:06 and :17 seconds.  


At the converging odor seminar, a friend showed me a big timer that she wears on her wrist and starts at the beginning of each search, so she knows at a glance how much time she has left.  It has a big face and she wears it with the dial on the inside of her wrist so she can glance at it.  It'll be a really handy tool when you get to NW3 (where she is) and have time limits in which you have to call "finished" or "clear".  And now I'm seeing a use for it here.  I got the info from her and need to find my notes and order one.

I also noticed how incredibly sloppy my line handling is with this shorter line.  You know I'm going to nip that in the bud.  Using the much longer line forces me to handle it well.

Today we set up the food distraction exercise again - twelve bags, 2 rows of six.  Eight with food distractions, three blank and one with odor.  I didn't plan it that way, but where I set it up, there were two large dogs behind a fence about fifty feet away.  They started barking their heads off the moment I got Gimme out of the car and never stopped until I'd packed up and left.  We did three quick searches and Gimme did very well.  She was clearly distracted the first time and had a little difficulty sticking the odor bag, but after that paid less and less attention to the barkers.  So while that wasn't the goal for our exercise... it was a nice side benefit and I was quite pleased with how well she did.  Sometime soon we'll do that again and on purpose.

Again she was most distracted by the rice krispie treats.  She paid no attention to the dog biscuits and very little attention to the cooked chicken.  I got a slice of bread from a friend (since I no longer eat wheat), will toast and butter it and use that for a distraction.  Gimme has always had a fondness for bread of any kind.  I'll probably buy her an order of McDonald's french fries too; another favorite. I can get some saltine crackers when I'm at my parents' this weekend.

BTW we are working on a cute trick for my parents.  Its a variation of ring toss... where I'll toss and Gimme will "catch" the ring on her nose.  I made a very soft and light ring with a wrapped fleece cover.  She's already catching on to how advantageous it is for Miss Gimme to carry the ring on her nose.  She really will do almost anything for food, doncha know...