Goals for 2012

I’ve agreed to follow Stacey Braslau-Schneck’s idea to train our dogs for 12 minutes each day for the entire month of January.

As a way of finding out WHAT I will be training during those 12 minutes a day, here’s a list of my goals for this year.

STIMULUS CONTROL OVER THE FOLLOWING CUES:
1) “Zitten!”
2) Whistle Sit; ‘Piew!’
3) “Lie Down!”
4) Down on Hand Signal (From Left shoulder to Right hip & from Right shoulder to Left hip)
Default behavior (in a training session, when not asked to do something) should be STAND.

BEHAVIORS WORKED TO FLUENCY THIS YEAR:
1 & 2) A solid RECALL to whistle ‘tu-tu-tu-tu!’ on the Acme 211,5 and voice cue; “meisje kom!”
3) RELAX on cue
4 & 5) Solid SIT STAY, able to stop her anywhere on voice cue “Zitten!” & whistle ‘piew!’
6) Solid DOWN STAY, an immediate drop, able to stop her anywhere on voice cue “Lie Down!” & hand signal (can then be combined with Sit whistle)
7) DEFAULT ZEN; food in hands Zen, food on tables Zen, food falling Zen, food on the floor Zen, open door Zen, CAT ZEN(? we need it, but I'm not sure I want to commit to it...), tossed balls Zen, food-lady Zen
8) CUED ZEN; verbal cue for Zen is “No.” I will train this behavior up to L4 before I start asking for it in daily life.
8) DEFAULT LOOSE LEASH; if she ever starts to think of pulling, I will back up at least 3 steps, have her Sit at my side, wait for calmness, then continue on. If she spots someone or something she wants to go to, I will make note of where we are at that moment, and if at any time toward that focal point she thinks of pulling, I will walk all the way back to our starting point and ask for a Sit at my side. Then we try again. NO EXCUSES!
9) NAME RESPONSE; any time I say her name, I will pay her. Any time I say her name, I want her to Look at me.
10) COLLAR GRAB; conditioned to the point of happy response (smiling face, bright eyes, pricked ears, tail wag) whenever I reach for her collar

WHAT I WILL DO:
1) If I need her to stop doing something; I will EITHER say her Name (and then offer an alternative behavior) cue Zen or ask for a Recall ONCE. If she responds by MOVING HER FACE AWAY from the thing she was engaged with, I will click and pay handsomely. If she doesn’t respond to ONE request, I will walk up to her and remove her with a Collar Grab, then give her another chance to do what I asked. If she needs my help twice, I will put her on leash and pay her for a Sit Stay at my side. I might then later give her another chance.

2) Train in Real Life; In the company of other people and/or dogs, instead of ignoring Luna and allowing her to practice reinforcement stealing and making her comply, I will take that opportunity to TEACH DEFAULT ZEN, NAME RESPONSE, LOOSE LEASH, SIT STAY, DOWN STAY, RECALLS.

3) I will always have a handful of other treats mixed in with her kibble, to offer a random surprise. I will use these treats whenever I happen to grab one, and not to specifically reinforce special responses. They should be a surprise, not a planned event. If any are left by dinnertime, I will take them out and use them the next day. She will not get the special treats for dinner.

4) Train by the handful, no longer than 3 – 5 minutes per session, 4 sessions a day.

5) I will TEACH a behavior ‘in the lab’, get it fluent & under stimulus control, then start integrating it in daily life.

6) After teaching a behavior, I will pay for EACH AND EVERY correct response for at least 30 days before I start asking for a little faith.

New crate

I ordered a crate for Susan Garrett's Crate Games. I used to have one years ago, but because I still live with my parents who HATE the crate, I no longer had one. Then I learned about Susan Ailsby's reasons for crates, the Crate behaviour in the Levels, and then Susan Garrett's Crate Games. Combine that with knowing that Luna loves to sleep in a den-like place, and I really wanted to have a crate again!

It arrived today, I assembled it, put a nice thick pad in it, tossed Luna's rawhide sticks in there and asked her to check it out. The first time, she went in, then came out again. Kind of like; 'Oh look, a crate. Whatever.' The second time she went in, laid down and went right to sleep. Whoohoo!

Here she is in her new den, her ears pricked because I'm taking the picture;

The only downside for now; it will have to stay in my bedroom at all times. Ah well... There's just enough room to play Crate Games. ;-)

Training Log for Dec 3

Last night, on our last walk of the day, we had a fun training session. We worked on Heeling, Fronts, Finishes, and Down, Sit and Stand in motion, in that order. Her heeling - short stretches, 20-30 paces, some right about turns - was beautiful; tail wagging, looking up at me, her shoulder nicely lined up with my leg, and smiling happily. What a wonderful little lady.

Her Finishes often included a jump into position and a ‘Look at me go!’ face.

We did a Down in motion twice, then a Sit in motion twice - the first with an extra hand signal to remind her that Sit goes up, not down, she Downed anyway, I stopped and waited. ‘Oh, Sit!’ C/T! - and then I decided to see what she would do if I asked for a Stand in motion. Heeling, heeling, ‘Stand!’ and she Downed. I stopped a couple of paces away from her, intending to let her figure it out. Down didn’t get her the click. Sit didn’t get her the click. Down with her chin on the ground did not get her the click. Down on her side did not get her the click. Then, she said, ‘I don’t know!’ and she came to me and Sat. OK, let me help you! Heeling, heeling, heeling, ‘Stand!’ and my index finger lightly under her belly. She stood and remained standing as I walked on, Click & chase the ball! Repeated that another time, and then without reminding her of her back end. Heeling, heeling, ‘Stand!’ and I kept walking. She took 5 more steps & there was the Stand. YAY! Good girly! Get your ball!

Again. Heeling, heeling, heeling, ‘Stand!’ and I kept walking. She took 3 more steps and Stood. Whoohoo!

Again. Heeling, heeling, ‘Stand!’ and I kept walking. She took 1, maybe 2 more steps before standing. Eeh haw! Luna is the best dog in the world!

Wow. I was amazed. And SO proud. She was smiling and happy the whole time, even when I let her figure out the Stand on her own that first time. Such a difference from the sulking, hunched, insecure dog she was four years ago, in our traditional obedience classes. We ended the session with a little more ball play, and then I let her keep the ball as we continued on home.

I am super duper happy right now. What a fantastically smart dog!

Oh, by the way, the picture shows Luna at 4 years old, with the same happy face she had going all through last night’s session. I call it her ‘Wheehee!’ face. ;-)

Training Log for Nov 27

This morning we worked on Sit, Stand, Down at a distance, and Front on the street in front of the house.

This afternoon we took the dummybag to the driest field we have close by, as mud and consequently a very hard to clean black dog is not my idea of fun. We live on clay here, and wet clay sucks. ;-)

On the way to the field, about a 15-minute walk, we worked on Sits and Downs at a distance while Luna was trotting and running ahead of me. She did great! And the coolest thing I’ve discovered is that I can now say ‘Sit’ and she’ll sit without any sign of avoidance or discomfort. ‘Sit’ is our traditionally trained word for the Sit, and before, when I would use it, she’d sink into a sit, yawn and look away. Or worse, she’d lay down. Now, she gets the ‘yay, she asks me to do something!’-face and she does a perky Sit with no more yawning or looking away. Whoohoo! Took about a year to get to this point, but now I can clearly see that Sit=Fun hugely outweighs the Sit=Bad association. Classical Conditioning at its best!

Now, she will occasionaly still lay down instead of Sit, but that’s clearly an ‘I’m SURE you want me to Down’ rather than a sign of avoidance or feeling intimidated. In other words, it’s because she’s not listening to the cue.

On the field, we first did dummy retrieves. The first was simply the dog sitting at heel, tossing a dummy out ahead of us, and asking her to retrieve it. Repeated that another time. Then, I asked her to Sit, walked about 15 feet away, then tossed a dummy to the right. Asked her to come to me, turned to face the dummy and sent her to retrieve it from a Sit at heel. Repeated the same exercise with a dummy thrown to the left.

Then, I again placed her in a Sit, walked 15 feet away, tossed a dummy to the left and one to the right. Called her to me, lined her up and sent her to retrieve the 1st thrown dummy. She remembered it and went out in a nice straight line at good speed. Once she brought in the first dummy, I lined her up with the 2nd dummy and asked her to get that one. Again, success!

The last exercise I put her in a Sit, walked 15 feet away, tossed one dummy behind me and one to the right. First, I asked her to retrieve the one on the right, and then I turned with her toward the dummy behind me, and asked her to get it. She did it! Whoohoo! And, another thing worth mentioning, she delivered every retrieve right into my hand. Good girly!

With that, we quit the dummy retrieves and I tossed her ball a few times. Then, we spent some time playing with the ball, doing Leave It’s as I tossed it, throwing it as a reward for Sits, Downs and Stands, and I tried to get her to ‘speak’ by feigning to kick the ball a few times and saying ‘Whatdaya say?’ This gets her all revved up and every time she barked once, I kicked the ball. Great fun!

Then, I put the ball about 30 feet away and laid a track of kibble every two feet toward the ball while Luna held a Down Stay. Then I asked her to come and use her nose. She wanted to go straight for the ball, but then she caught scent of the kibble and put her nose to the grass. Yay! By the time she got to the ball she was so engrossed in finding the kibble that I had to tell her to get the ball, haha!

To finish, I laid a second track on pavement while Luna held a Sit Stay, about 40 feet with kibble every two feet. She did this one nicely again, overshot some of the kibble but then went back to collect it. She was a bit scattered throughout, so next time I’ll lay the track as Steve White does, which in the beginning is just a line of non-stop treats. He also uses water, which we might do too.

Then, on the way back home, we ran into a friend with a German Shepherd and we ended up going along on her walk, so all in all we had two hours of activity! Nice!

The picture shows Luna on her 2nd birthday, my little wolf! ;-)

Training Log for Nov 16

Another one of Luna at 4 months. All legs and ears!

Zen: 40 treats, in the kitchen on tile floor. C/T for staying away from open hand with treat for up to 10s, ignoring treats tossed toward her in a stand and down. For the latter I wait until she looks at me before I click and pick up the treat to give to her. Once, while she was laying down, I tossed a treat right under her nose, she went to take it, I cued 'Leave It' and she did! Mind you, by the time I could give her the cue she was already touching the treat. Wow! I practiced not giving the cue until AFTER the treat started to drop, which, in practice, meant that the treat was usually on the floor before I said anything. Good girl! 100% Success!

Down: 40 treats, in the living room on hardwood floor. I asked her to Down while I was standing, sitting, lying down, sticking my arms and legs in all kinds of directions, standing with my face against a wall, etc. On 5 trials she had no clue what I wanted, too strange a position. That still gives her a Success Rate of 87,5%! She's doing SO good!

Tuck Sit: 40 treats, on the long rug in the hallway to prevent her from slipping. I remembered to not have treats in my lure hand! She is doing quite good, although I am not sure if she really understands what I want from her. She performs the Tuck Sit about 90-95 percent of trials with the lure of my empty hand, but still... I would really like a way to explain this to her without needing that hand... See if I can come up with other explanations for her.

Around 2.30 PM we went cycling to the park, all in all it was about 11-12 miles. Luna was having a blast! Just before we went, a package was delivered with 3 Fantastic Foam balls in it, which I'd ordered a couple of days ago. We took one of those balls and a ball launcher, and both Luna and I thought they were great! VERY light, which was something I have to get used to, as before I used Hucks, and those are very HEAVY. Luna also loves their lightness, they bounce and escape when you pounce on them, what fun! Luna also had a swim going after the ball, and she had a great time playing with a White Swiss Shepherd friend of hers, a GIANT male. Together, they tore the male's frisbee apart, and Luna was making super cute shepherd-talk noises all the time; 'I'm a little lady, and I want to play, but you're so BIG! And I want your frisbee, but it's a little scary stealing it from you!' And barking, now and then, 'GIMME DA DAMN FRISBEE!' *Grin* We got home around 4.30 PM. Whew, a day just like 'the old days' before the knee injury, boy have we both missed those!

Total training time: 1 hour, 20 minutes.

Training Log for Nov 15

Luna at 4 months old. Those are some big ears!

This morning we worked on Zen, Down and getting a tuck Sit.

She was beautiful on the Zen exercises. I'd put my open hand with a treat on it in her face, told her to 'Leave It' and could easily count to 10 before clicking and dropping the treat to the floor. And WOW, she had solid eye contact the entire time! Great! When we're working on Watch she can't look at me without whining or moving or thinking she needs to do something else, and then I say 'Leave It' and she can do 10 seconds of solid eye contact. That's mean. And cool. I also tossed one treat at the time at her while cueing 'Leave It', and she nailed those, too! So, that's a 100% success rate!

Then, we had a little break playing tug, and moved on to the Down. She nailed it 100% of the first 10 treats, so I started moving myself around, sticking my arms and legs out and even lying down on the ground. Again, she nailed all of them but 2, where she really thought she should target my hand. Interesting. Even so, I'm really proud of her! 40 treats - 2 = 38 treats = 95% success! Whoo hoo!

In there, I dropped a treat by accident, Luna went after it, I cued 'Leave It' and she did!

Another game of tug, and then I decided to tackle the tuck Sit, where I want her to keep her front legs in place and scoot her back legs under herself. Found some tips in Kay Laurence's 'Learning Games' book, she said to hold one hand against the back of the dog's head so she couldn't slide backwards. I tried that a few times, which worked, but then I also learned that if I moved the treat to her nose and a little forward, she would also tuck her back legs under. Nice! So we have a tuck sit! No cue, and I am still luring her nose forward to prevent a back sit, but this is a promising start. Next session I will not put the treat in my lure hand, forgot to get rid of that this session. But again, I am proud of my little lady! Yay!

If anyone has more tips on how to explain the tuck sit to my girl, I'd love to hear them!

Later today we will be doing the Come Game, Name Game and Target. Don't know if I'll be able to post that stuff today as my brother usually steals the internet in the afternoon, but if I can post about that today, I will update this entry.

UPDATE: Training done last night included the Name Game, Target & Come Game. We also did some impromptu loose-leash work on the street in front of our house before dinner. That was fun!

Loose Leash: 40 treats on the street in front of our house. I started this because she is always searching for her 'best friend' the Maine Coon, a very bold cat that will come and greet her from time to time. I didn't see him myself, but I thought it was a nice opportunity to do some LL work. I would stand facing her, then turn and walk straight backwards past Luna, clicking when she released tension on the leash and actively followed. By the end of the 40 treats she more often than not kept the leash from moving at all. She'd come with me as soon as I got past her shoulder. Whoo hoo!

Name Game: 40 treats, paid for making eye-contact upon hearing her name. She was standing the whole time, so I will make sure that for the next session, she's in a different position. She locked on every time I said her name.

Target: 40 treats, paid for touching my target hand wherever it was. Jump up to touch it, reach down low to touch it, left, right, chase it to touch etc. She missed 4, every time I put my target hand down below my knees. Interesting... will explain that to her in smaller increments next session. Success rate: 90%!

Come Game: we played this on our last walk of the day, on the street in front of our house. She's not yet turning away from me automatically to get the next treat. I click when she turns toward me after collecting the treat I tossed away, then drop another treat between my feet. No cues yet, 40 treats makes for 20 complete away-and-back-to-me's.

Total training time so far, starting today; 1 hour.

Writing training cards & having fun with my dog!

Building on what I did yesterday, I bought about 300 more business-sized cards today to write down all the new Levels’ Behaviours & their Steps. I also got highlighters to give each Level its own color.

    Steps to Success Level One = Yellow.
    Steps to Success Level Two = Green.
    Steps to Success Level Three = Pink.
    Steps to Success Level Four = Orange.

At this moment, I have 14 sets of cards, one of which contains ways to test Stimulus Control (also works for Cue Discrimination), three sets of cards for L1 Zen, Come & Sit, four sets of cards for L2 Zen, Focus, Come & Sit, four sets of cards for L3 Zen, Focus, Come & Sit and two sets of cards for L4 Zen & Focus. The individual sets of cards are held together with paperclips. Me likes!

I’ve folded the cards in half, written the name of the contents & the Level it belongs to on the front, and the requirements for the behaviour on the inside at the top. This way I can take a set of cards, which is one Level of Steps for one Behaviour, and simply flip through them to see what we’re working on to accomplish.

My first set of Zen cards that I made yesterday ended up in the trash, because I realized while using them that I hadn’t written things in the right places. I had written the requirements on the inside bottom half of the card, which meant that the TOP of the set of cards corresponded with the BOTTOM of the set of cards. Um, OK, that doesn’t work smoothly in a training session.

I’m definitely thrilled with my latest version though! Yay me!

To use up Luna’s dinner, we did another training session like yesterday. I still think her Cue Discrimination is pretty good, but until I commit to actually doing things in a way I can keep records, I won’t guess her Success Rate.

Also, she did absolutely BEAUTIFUL Leave Its tonight; no throwing out other behaviours other than Stand & Stare or Sit & Stare, both of which I like. And no diving for treats I tossed between her feet. She nailed one 20s open-handful-of-food-in-your-face Leave It fabulously. What a GREAT girl!

Let’s see if I can find another nice picture... yup, Luna at three years old in the back yard, ignoring me while I’m trying to take nice portrait pictures of her. ;-)

An evening of spontaneous training.

À la plan once, train twice, except this time it was plan none, train once. Either way, it was fun!

It all happened because I suddenly had an idea, which was to write the Steps to Success onto business-sized cards. And then I had L1, L2 & L3 Zen to work on, right there in my pocket!

So, after the humans had dinner, off we went.
TL1 Zen: Step 1 - Dog moves away from a treat in seated partner’s hand. Pass.
TL1 Zen: Step 2 - Oops, I overlooked this one.
TL1 Zen: Step 3 - Dog stays away from a treat in partner’s open hand for 5s. Pass.
TL1 Zen: Step 4: - Dog stays away from treat in dog dish in hand. Pass.
All of these without reaching for the treat first!

Then, on to Level 2 Zen.
TL2 Zen: Step 1 - Dog moves away from uncovered treat on floor. Pass.
TL2 Zen: Step 2 - Dog stays off a treat on the floor for 10s. Pass.
TL2 Zen: Step 3 - Dog stays off a treat on the floor for 30s. Fail. She began offering, Sit, then Down, then Chill & then she decided she could have the cookie. Haha!

Then, as I was fumbling with my cards, Luna looked at me, went over to her dog dish, PICKED IT UP and brought it to me! Hahahahahaha! That was hilarious! So, from there, I decided we’d just work on some Cue Discrimination, as that’s pretty poor as well. No to mention that we have no Stimulus Control whatsoever, demonstrated by all the behaviours she’s offered up to this point.

But, Cue Discrimination. She is DEFINITELY getting better at this! Dare I say she was 90% correct? I think she was. Let’s say 80%, for the sake of being truthful and not overestimating her ability. I asked for Sits (Park It), Downs, Stands (Sta), Touch, Chill, some Chin (Kin) and Nose (Snuit) once.

Then we did some more playing with retrieving the food bowl into my hand, & I added some Zen because as soon as she’d eaten the treats she’d pick the dish right up again. So I started asking for Leave It before asking her to Give it to me again. She did this very nicely! Once she got it, after 2 reps, she Sat & Stared when I said Leave It. Good girl!

Last but not least, I decided to try some more Zen-type stuff. I’d say Leave It as I dropped about 5-8 treats on the floor, she’d do that EVERY TIME and then I would ask for another behaviour (Touch, Park It, Down, Chill) before clicking & releasing her to eat the treats on the floor. When I asked for the Chill, she said ‘but there’s treats on the floor!’ So I asked for something else. The next time I dropped the treats to one side of her so she had enough room to do Chill without lying down amidst the kibble. She did it!

Then, I had er put her dog dish back where it belongs, cued another Leave It, dropped her remaining kibble in her bowl, waited for her to commit to Leaving It, and then I let her finish her meal.

This was definitely a VERY cool, VERY fun session!

The picture is Luna at 14 months, all curled up in Cedric’s (a West Highland White Terrier mix) dog bed! Isn’t she CUTE?!

Hello & a plan.

OK, my first blog post here. Luna and I will not be working the entire Levels program for another two weeks due to an injury to Luna’s knee. I want her to make a full recovery, so we will be starting the Levels as of Friday, October 15th.

For two weeks following October 15th, we will be working mostly on Zen, Down & Down Stay, Sit & Sit Stay, Handling, & Watch.

After that, we will be working the full Levels and we will also be doing regular, daily roadwork. I intend to take her cycling for 2 miles on leash one week, 2,5 miles on leash the next week, 3 miles off leash the week after that. Once we’re there I will up the distance to 5 miles off leash, and after a week of that I think she’ll be ready for 6 to 9 mile rides at least three times a week, weather permitting.

She does not get to play with other dogs until October 21/22, when we will be visiting Willemien and her black Lab Tibor for the weekend. I will be monitoring their play to make sure it does not get too rough.

I will also focus specifically on strengthening her hind legs, to keep her knee safe. For that, we will be doing hind leg awareness exercises, hand-stands, standing on her hind legs, sitting up etc.

Also, I will not let her play with other dogs on leash OR throw a ball while she is running after it. I will only throw a ball or any other toy while she is in a Stay, and release her when the ball or other toy has stopped moving OR when I am sure she cannot catch up with it BEFORE it stops.

So, that’s our plan!

At this moment we go for ±1 mile walks four times a day. I have her Sit or do a non-formal Heel when we run into other dogs. I leash her when I am not sure she’s able to do that.

Oh, and another important thing; I changed her food and the amount of training and thus treating I did in a day a few months ago, and due to my being lackadaisical with how much food she was getting in a day, Luna is now also 7 pounds overweight. She WAS 9 pounds over. Yesterday she weighed in at 69 pounds. Goal is to get her back down to 61-62 pounds. Maybe 60.

At this moment she gets 300-350 grams of kibble a day, and this is also what I use as treats. At the end of the day she gets whatever amount is left. She used to get 385 grams PLUS lots of treats during the day as well. Oops. And - after reading the label again - more oops because 385 grams is for a 77 pound dog! HA!