Nosework (1/23)

These searches were a return to the basics, paired-hides in open boxes.  We were told not to pay unless the dog went back to a hide they'd already done.  In the past every time we've done this, I've noticed when we went to the next stage with unpaired hides, Gimme would check them and finding no treats, would move on without indicating.  I don't like this side affect, so I asked if I "could" add more treats when she was cleaning out a paired-hide location.  I didn't bother to explain why I wanted to, since it would result in a response from the other instructor disagreeing with me. 

Container 1 video - Gimme did move off and not get my treats twice, but overall she stuck around for them and was looking at me expectantly.  This went well and was a fast search.

Container 2 video - For the first search, all the hides were on the perimeter and there was nothing in the middle of the room.  The dogs all worked the perimeter.  So this time, the hides were still on the perimeter, but stuff was added to the middle of the room to see if it changed the dogs' search behavior.  There was some checking of the middle - every dog checked the pool, where we had "pooling odor" (pun intended).  Gimme sniffed toward the bathroom, but moved on without checking it.  She's done that before, "saving" a bathroom hide for later.  In this case, she always passed the bathroom from then on.  Dorothy mentions and you can see it in the video, she starts in the bathroom and then, turns to see if I'm coming and then moves on.  Its like she got distracted by checking on me and then forgets to finish the bathroom, and thereafter thought she had done it.  When she gets the drift off the nearby chair, then she goes in and nails the bathroom hide.  I was far enough away and didn't see her stop at the bathroom threshold, so if this happened in a trial, I don't know if I would have taken her in or not.  Interesting.

Container 3 video - For this search, we were to work on leash and let the dog pick a direction, clockwise or counter-clockwise and then stick with it.  Also the hides were now unpaired.  Gimme was the only dog in class that didn't check-and-move-on as I'd noticed before, showing my approach was right.  All the other dogs check-and-move-on and it was frustrating for those dogs and their handlers to have to readdress indicating and waiting for pay.  Gimme did a really nice job with this search.  The big hubbub about the bathroom hide, which you can't see on video, is how a treat got wedged under the flaps of the box where they were folded in.  Gimme was absolutely certain we couldn't move on until she got the morsel.  Of course in a trial I would never toss treats, so this isn't an issue.  This is the second time Gimme's gotten her head stuck in a box - its a good thing she doesn't get upset about such things, eh.

BTW her false pregnancy is continuing - she's doing well overall, but is obsessed by motherhood.  She's settled on PurpleDog as her baby, but hasn't completely left her other toys out of the family.  She has about a dozen other toys that she keeps moving around to be part of the litter.  There is a pile in her bed under the computer desk, a pile on the couch and a pile on our bed.  She moves them around from time to time, but its PurpleDog she is most obsessed with.  He's the one she always has with her and takes with us when we leave the house.  She's doing well with all her walks and classes and practices, despite having all these kids she's responsible for.  When it seems most to be an issue is when we are moving back toward the car from a walk or class, then she's in a rush.  When we are driving and getting close to home, then she gets loudly fussy and wants to be home RIGHT NOW!  She carries PurpleDog in her mouth for the last five miles, races in the house and checks on all the others in their three nests and then wants to settle down close to me.

Urban Tracking (21)

Last Friday we did our first urban practice since September.  As I said, we are backing up to the beginning for the pavement stuff, to install good habits and get rid of bad ones. 

Gimme has developed a tendency to "go visual" when things are challenging.  She can spot a treat very easily.  So at the last urban tracking seminar (early September) we came up with using beef jerky cut in small pieces (less than ½ inch square).  They don't seem to show up against the blacktop we mostly end up working on. 

For our practice, we started with one island hopping around three islands, with a sock at the beginning and article at the end.  Nadine put one treat between the islands.  Gimme did well, but seemed to struggle with the gaps.  I don't go forward with her until she puts her nose down.

The second time we did the same exact islands, but added two more.  I had Nadine space 3 treats across the gaps, with same start sock and end article.  What I found was Gimme got the first two treats, but tended to overrun the third one.  I was holding her back until she found it.  But I'm not sure I should.  I need to email Sil and see what he recommends.  Another option is to simply put down two treats, spaced closer to the first half of the gap.  Then when she gets the scent off the curb she can go for it.

We are meeting tomorrow at the sports fields complex in Auburn.  Gimme should do well at this, but I want to make sure we don't overdo the time.  She's good on sports fields, but last summer I think we increased the time too quickly, which led to some challenging and frustrating experiences.  Certainly right now while she's in her false pregnancy, I want to make sure it goes well and is lotsa fun.

RallyFrEe practice (35)

Gimme is fully into her false pregnancy now.  She keeps changing her mind about which toy is "the baby" and brings a different toy to bed each night.  I thought the bunny toy was going to be the winner, but she's been obsessed with the little purple dog toy for 24 hours.  Today when we left home she insisted we bring it along and when I get her out of the car, she has it in her mouth and wants to take it into the building.  I have to remind her it will be safe in the car. 

First let me say I still have no recognition of the passage of time.  I had set my phone to chime at 7 minutes.   I thought then I'd spend another minute and then end the session at a nice 8 minutes.  Instead, this session was nearly 11 minutes... so even "1 minute" takes on a life of its own.  Next time I'll try setting it at 5 minutes. 

Session 1 video - My goal was to keep her busy working, with a good rate of reinforcement and mostly work on things she knows well.  I wanted to make it a point to start working heeling in "side" position.  Most of the time I start in "heel" position and then switch and I don't think I give it equal time, which I think is part of why her right side heeling isn't as good.  I kept the heeling short and sweet and then switched to other behaviors.  Putting her feet on things is a big favorite and especially backing onto things.  That is a high chair for her size and its hard to get her front feet up in it - takes a lot of core strength.  She almost always has to put her front feet on it first, I guess so she knows its safe.  I tried to work a bit on distance spins, but she wasn't getting it, so I went on to other things.  She knows the difference between "spin" (CCW) and "turn" (CW) in "center" position and from watching this video, I think she though this was what we were doing.  I'll work this at home using the wire guides to get success.  We've been working on "Otto" (back around me) and so she gave me one when I asked for "behind"; it was a pretty nice one.  She backs half the way and then tends to flip her rear out, so we still need the guides to clean it up while we make a correct habit.  And with the guides, then I'll be able to really jackpot when she does it correctly.  I'm surprised at how well this behavior is going - she does love backing up.  She tends to get stuck on whatever we've been working on and then throws it in when I've asked for something else.  Case in point, I was working a center-front-pivot and she turns it into "Otto".  BTW I completely understand this tendency.  If we've been working on something new, then it has a huge and recent reward history, so of course she'll be drawn to it.  It certainly doesn't help when I sometimes get caught up in her ideas.  :)  I did get back onto the center-front-pivots and she did nice ones, in each direction.  Then we worked on waiting for the cue for the paw-to-knee behavior.  (she's never been convinced I should get to drive the train)  We finally get back to "behind" which is what I'd cued when she offered "Otto" and successfully got me to play her game.  We worked with "behind" and "around" to get to "under".  Having her come up into my arm from "under" is completely new.  I thought she did well at it.  Its cute and simple.  I want to work it where I'm not standing with such a wide stance. 

Session 2a video - One of my goals for today was to get posed freestyle picture of Gimme and me for a photo tribute MDSA is doing.  So this second session is a short general warm up, a warm up of the paw-to-knee behavior and getting Gimme used to what I wanted to do with the hat.  Here's the photo we got.  [Sometimes her tail wags too fast to be captured on film]

Session 2b video - We did the intermediate course I'd set up for J'Anna.  At the first station, Gimme started "Otto" very well, but then flipped her butt out to face me.  Clearly it needs more work with the guides.  I didn't really plan out which behaviors we'd do at the FreeChoice signs, so things weren't as smooth as they could have been.  Right as I heeled off from Otto, Gimme heard a squeak toy (probably from the day care room).  She would always be distracted by this sound and it is something we need to work through.  But when she's having a false pregnancy, she is super distracted by squeaks.  There was a toy on the table, but it wasn't the source of the sound.  Just as I was getting her brain back, there was loud barking from daycare.  We haven't done plain backing up, so she wasn't sure what I wanted after the corner.  (you'll have to excuse J'Anna, she gets so involved watching beautiful Gimme, she forgets the camera)  She got a bit more focused on the "thru" sequence, so I did a couple extra and she ended up on the wrong side.  I messed up the switchback - you have to be smarter than a dog to train one. 

Session 3 - Because the prior session went poorly, I wanted to end with one short session, with good focus, doing well known behaviors.  Unfortunately J'Anna only thought she was taping us.  Too bad, because it was a really nice session, about 4 minutes.  We did ”side", "heel", "around", "behind", "under", "thru", "spin", "turn" and "pivot".  It was a very good recovery session.

Overall, I thought Gimme did a nice job.  There was a lot to like here, even with her being in Mommy-brain...  We owe most of this to Kathy's great coaching.  It has helped bring clarity to the training, so Gimme is doing better in her training.  We didn't backslide during the last false pregnancy and I feel confident we'll do the same this time.

Sadly we didn't get any enrollment in the Parkour class I'm contracted to teach at Pawsabilities, so we are doing some other marketing things to promote it.  One really cool thing - they've added Parkour as one of the electives (must do 2 electives) for their owner-trained service dog program.   A lot of people in the program have PTSD, so getting them out and about with their dogs is a real plus.  It'll be exciting once it gets going.  BTW, as a Pawsabilities employee now, I don't have to pay for floor rental, saving me about $250 per year.  Nice!

Parkour (2/5)

Our return to parkour class was long awaited and Gimme and I were both excited.  Unfortunately I couldn't find the tripod in the car, so didn't get videos.  This class has four other students, making it bigger than before and all are unfamiliar dogs.  It didn't help when one owner let her 14 month yellow Lab stand behind our car barking before class started.  Gimme pretty much ignored the other three dogs, but has decided this one needs to be given what-for, which is aggravated by the dog's tendency to bark shrilly and repeatedly at anything strange to her.  With both dogs wanting to get to the other, it made it very challenging to move around class.  I finally got my brain in gear and played "whazzat" with Gimme, using the other dog to look at.  So then the last time we walked by it was better. 

Personally I think the other dog is a bit reactive and could get worse if not dealt with, but she's not my student.  I am going to look up some references and share them with Jo, suggesting, at the very least, they should teach her the Look-At-That game, which could be used to get her off the shrill barking.

To start with, we were each to warm up our dogs using equipment in the room.  Since I didn't know the other people/dogs, there was no way I was going to venture onto the floor among them.  I got a box and an upside down tub and we played with those within our space (behind a barrier).  It took a bit for Gimme to really get to work, but then she did nicely.

Our next task was to teach our dog to start from a 4-on position on a prop and step just the front feet off.  It was very easy to get Gimme to do this.  I'm sure Gimme thought I was having a senior moment, because if this is what I wanted, I should have cued "bacon", which she repeatedly showed me.  Still trying to drive the train.  I did get her to do the exercise my way and we started naming it "step".

Jo had set up 2 boards (stripes) with the 2 scaffolds (orange), so the dogs got to walk them in sequence.  Gimme loves this kind of stuff.  I was happy to see she remembered "flip" (180º turn) cue, even though we haven't done it since we were last in class, 4 months ago.

Then we had a series of distance exercises.  The basic setup was the PVC flap thing - I call it the carwash (pink), because there are about 20 straps hanging down the dog has to push through.  On both sides were PVC barriers (zigzag pattern), angled back toward the handler.  There was a prop on the other side of the carwash and we were supposed to teach the dog to interact with it, even though
we didn't go with them.

The first time there was a cone about 4 feet past the carwash which she needed to go "out" around.  Gimme did it twice really nicely, but when we tried to get her to go the other direction, then she got confused.  For the second direction, she was turning toward other dogs and I'm sure it was just too distracting.  To her credit she didn't leave me, she just couldn't focus.  I went ahead and broke it off since she was wildly throwing behaviors at me and we weren't accomplishing anything. She can do sends, but it seems the barrier confused her. I have a LOT of old PVC, so I may make a carwash to train this option (and then will have it when I start teaching).

I don't think Jo's way of teaching this send exercise to the dogs was effective.  She basically had us standing behind the carwash, gesturing and repeating the cue.  If the dog couldn't do it even when we leaned way over the carwash, she moved the prop.  I will teach this entirely different.  In Gimme's case, she will do a send to "out" from 15 feet, but its always been with a different approach - the PVC barriers prevented the approach angle she was used to, adding to the difficulty.  So I'll be factoring this in to how I teach it.

The second time the send was to a "box" and this was beyond easy for her.  The third time there was the barrel part of an agility chute.  She was supposed to go "thru" the carwash, "thru" the barrel, then turn right or left to come back to me "thru" the carwash.  This was a little more challenging, but a few tossed treats solved the problem and she was able to do it nicely afterward without tossing treats.

Then we did a longer sequence starting with the boards and scaffolds.  As we came off, the dog was sent around a cone and then to do 4-on with a low platform.  They were supposed to "wait" on the platform for ten seconds.  Gimme didn't do her stay very well, starting to come with me.  Its quite possible I didn't pause as I was giving her the cue, so she was following my motion and not really hearing the verbal cue.

To end class we were to pick a prop and work whatever we wanted on it.  Gimme was pretty tired, so I thought she'd enjoy doing "bacon".  She did it nicely into a chair, pretty high seat so she had to put extra effort into getting her front feet up.  I wanted to do it on the wall too to show off for Jo, but Gimme wasn't very enthused, plus the wall is not textured, so it was slippery.  I just encouraged her and rewarded strongly for trying, even though she only kept her feet up for half a second.  The floor was slick too, making it even harder. 

We'd ended up on the far end of the room from the door and Gimme was really done by this point.  So, I waited until the yellow Lab left before we moved through the room.  She'd worked so hard and I didn't want to risk ending on a poor note.

Last Week

I had a medical issue last week and wasn't sure how the ER folks at Madigan would deal with it.  So I took Gimme to Janice's kennel for the day and we left it open ended as to when I'd pick her up.  Without going into detail, things went well and we opted for the simpler procedure.  Unfortunately it took so long, I was too late to pick Gimme up - certainly too late to get her and head to Maple Valley for what was supposed to be the first class as we resume parkour.  This also meant I couldn't meet Nadine for tracking at the crack of dawn - turned out well since she had a conflict come up.

Later in the evening I got a text from Gimme (channeled through Janice doncha know), telling me she missed me and to sleep well.  I sent a text back.  There was another text I couldn't open.  I figured it was pictures, but my cell-phone is an "antique" and can't do pictures. 

Here are two of the pictures. One is of Gimme grinning.  She really likes Janice and grins at her all the time.  The other is her snoozing with Bunny-baby, who has since been replaced with PurpleDog-baby.



Apparently the drugs I was taking for pain made me more susceptible to Gimme's influence.  She woke me twice during the night to hold up the covers so she could get in bed.  I'd swear I was awake and could see her by the light of my diffuser.  While its possible Gimme just planted this in my dreams, she still had to be in my head.  I'd never put the diffuser in the bedroom before, so she wouldn't have known what the room looked like by its light, unless she'd gotten the picture from my head. 

Then the next day, before I could get her, I had to change the dressing on my owie and was taking a long hot bath to soak off the old dressing.  I was in the midst of peeling the bandage off when I distinctly heard "squeak-a squeak-a squeak-a squeeeeak squeeeeeak squeak-a squeak".  This is how Gimme plays with her squeak toys, making a long string of squeaks.  While I distinctly heard the squeaking, it did sound a little fainter, like she was farther away. 

Too too strange.

Nosework (6/22)

I'm showing you the searches for this class out of order (grouping interiors, then containers), because of the discussion about each.

We had a series of three interior searches and four container searches.  For the interior searches, they weren't hard, in fact the hides were pretty obvious.  After the first search Dorothy explained the idea was to test a concern from the last class where the dogs had so much difficulty with odor in small plastic containers.  They all had holes, so scent should have been plentiful.  The other instructor thought maybe the dogs were unfamiliar with odor-in-plastic.  They've not shown any trouble with odor in plastic tubing or in water bottles, but there are many different kinds of plastic.

Interior search 1 video - You'll see Gimme sniffs the odor container almost right away, but then leaves it.  Hard to believe it took her 1:09 to find it in this little room.  I thought she was goofing off.  While it did look like it, Dorothy said all the dogs were having trouble with this search.  We discussed the purpose for these searches after everyone went through the first one.


Interior search 2 video - We didn't have any reason for why she was acting so silly.  It might be because Auntie Janice (Freedom Kennels) was there and it was such a small room - it was her pockets Gimme tried to raid.  It just seemed to take a bit for her to get to work.  Even including the silliness, she still trimmed her time substantially, getting the hide in 44 seconds.


Interior search 3 - There is no video for this search.  Dorothy wasn't quite ready for Gimme to burst across the start line and by the time she hit record, the search was over.  It was a don't-blink-or-you'll-miss-it kinda search.  Great job Gimme.

The other searches were all box container searches.  I told Dorothy before we started I planned to work Gimme's over-exuberant indication.  Not surprising to me was the other instructor's feedback - she and I have disagreed on just about everything, so I've come to expect it.  I found Dorothy's feedback very helpful and spot-on, as always. 

Gimme has been faulted exactly 1 time for pawing (over 11 trials) and the judge who did it explained her stand was to fault any touch.  It was actually one of the gentlest paw indications Gimme has ever done. I see no point training toward every possible rules interpretation by judges, just as I wouldn't train obedience next to a moving forklift just because its "possible" you could see one at a trial.  This is Gimme's natural inclination and I'm not going to require her to completely change for a dog sport - she isn't working as a bomb detection dog.  I'm simply training toward a gentler version of it.  If she morphs to no-touch on her own and its still clear, I'll go with it, I'm just not going to require it. This is my philosophy and I'm sticking with it. 

Container search 1 video - Just 1 hide.  Gimme did a nice job stopping me for the odor box, even though we were moving at a pretty good speed.  Her first indication was pretty vigorous. I did have to ignore the second one, but then she got milder with each subsequent one.  Overall I thought she did a very nice job.

Container search 2 video - 2 hides.  This time I ignored the first two indications because she was raking her foot across the box... on the third one her paw (while still a strong "bap") wasn't moving so I rewarded it.  With just that little bit of warm up, you'll notice on the next hide (blue box), her indication is deliberate, a bap, but not raking at all.

Container search 3 video - 3 hides.  Hide 3 was challenging because it was so close to hide 2.  Gimme was more reasonable in her indications.  No raking with any of these. 

Container search 4 video - 4 hides.  Gimme is completely unfazed by getting her head stuck in the first box hide.  She did a nice job on all her indications, with no raking.

I need to work this system in all her searches, all the time (not just containers).  What was particularly noticeable to me, was how she got more and more excited with each search, but was able to carry over what she was learning about modifying her indication from one search to another.  In the past when we've done multiple box searches, she's gotten more excited with each search until she just starts trashing boxes without even checking for odor.  So this was a huge improvement.  Its nice to work with a genius.

Tracking (35)

This is the first time we've tracked since Gimme got her TD in November.  Nadine had some other things going on and I was very busy at work.  Gimme is not impressed with either excuse.

Conditions were icy-cold.  The ground was frozen solid... even the mole-hills were like concrete.  There was no breeze to speak of.  I don't have distances for the legs, but this is a good representation.  It was about 45 minutes old.

Gimme was very eager to get started on this track.  She wanted to do it without any delay, such as pottying.  I had some difficulty convincing her we didn't need to run full out.  A very good decision, since the frozen ground was very unforgiving and it was too easy to catch a foot on some concrete-dirt and go down, which Nadine did.  The black block is the start sock and red blocks are articles.

Gimme did well on all the field portions.  She overran the second turn and took a little bit to sort it out, but then was solid.  The dashed line shows where she knew the turn was there and I didn't believe her.  Nadine said she put in a road crossing for us and I had it in my head it would be straight ahead coming down the hill.  Gimme cooperated with me and then just kept pulling me right until she got us both on the track.  You have to love her persistence.  She had trouble with the two road crossings.  She spent a long time on the first one before she finally decided to sniff on the pavement.  The article there was at the foot of a telephone pole.  From there she was quite willing to track along the side of the road and back to the cars, ignoring the second road crossing.

Really I was pleased with her efforts, given we haven't been tracking in two months.  Our plan is to mostly focus on urban, following Sil's plan to the letter.  I want to start over, back at the very baby stuff.  Gimme has developed a tendency to "go visual" when tracking on pavement gets challenging, so I want to resolve this and build a better foundation.  One of the things we have to do is make sure she can't see food drops, so we'll be using beef jerky, which blends in with the pavement much better than cheese. 

At the same time we'll be doing field tracking as needed while Nadine figures out which trial she will enter with Cricket.  Gimme and Cricket were in the same trial, but Cricket got a more challenging field.  She doesn't have Gimme's persistence, so she got the dreaded whistle right after the first turn.  When we are doing field tracking, we'll be introducing some TDX challenges for Gimme.