Who's bigger and badder?

Yesterday evening I had Zane out on the agility field working on obedience. While working, my husband went to the back porch to start the grill. Zane kept watching him. He's so concerned about everything and worried that somebody is going to do something scary over there that he forgets where he should be focusing.

Some trainers would say to make yourself bigger and badder and scarier than whatever has the dog's attention so your dog won't worry about that thing over there. They're more worried about what you're going to do.

Instead, I turned myself into more fun. If he looked over at my husband, I tagged him and took off running. When he caught up with me, we played. Soon, his eyes were all on me and no longer worried about what was happening on the porch.

This morning at Bella's agility lesson he did the dogwalk several times (since starting the teeter here at home, he's a bit worried about the dogwalk - "It might move!") He practice TOTO on the A-frame, but didn't go over it (too high). He did tables and tunnels. And after class he got to do the chute (wind was blowing it almost open, so easy).

He saw Rusty's owner and just fell all over himself trying to get to her. I think he loves her because she is Rusty's person. Or maybe it's because she is just such a sweet, kind, caring person. He has good taste!

Fauxhawk

Silly boy

This morning, Zane just couldn't get his head around working. "I'm hungry!" When he's like that, he can be a little too enthusiastic. He'll get in heel, then immediately bounce out. When we stop on our heel, he can't sit - he bounces to front. These are all good opportunities to build more self-control in him. He did settle down and work - that's the fastest way to get the food after all.

After working heeling a bit, I switched to having him paw target my foot. Eventually I'll turn this into a trick with the cue, "Who's the boss." But I started playing with it today in a different way. I sat on the couch. I'd lift one foot and have him paw target with his paw on that side. Then I'd lift the other foot and have him paw target with the paw on that side. At first he had trouble switching paws, but then got the hang of it. I can turn this into the marching in place in tandem. I can picture him doing it in front, or while doing it while between my legs.

A bit later I pulled out the hoop. I had it a little higher and wanted to see if he'd put some effort into it. He still only wants to jump from left to right - need to work on the other way. Bella was the star of the hoop jumping - she was leaping high and jumping clean. Baby Dog Zane will get there. He's full of enthusiasm - he just needs to figure out how his body works at times. The funniest was when Bella jumped through and landed on him. They're such clowns.

Sheepies

Yesterday Zane got to meet the sheep. Sheep are vewy, vewy scawy. When I went in with him, he did better, but was still hesitant. We'll continue to expose him to sheep until he realizes what he's supposed to do with them. The instructor did note when he realized that *he* could make the sheep move. He liked that!




This morning we continued working on getting paper out of the mailbox. Now the key is that he has to bring it to me, sit, and hold it until I take it. He can be very impatient about that. He also worked on "pull" some more. He is pulling with lots and lots of gusto! I'm getting it under stimulus control. And now I have to get him to push on the drawer to shut it. . . . when all he wants to do is pull.

We also went to the park for a bit. He did figure 8's and then we worked on the exams. For the sit for exam, he jumped away from my friend. Then he finally held it. For the stand, we started with her just walking by, then walking to him and touching him on the back. It's going to take a lot of work to get him solid on the stands. He'd rather move away from the person.

This evening we went out and tried to get some videos of his movement. His front movement is off right now - he's high-stepping as his pace increases. He also over-reaches, but we knew that. He has a lot of drive in the rear. The herding instructor said his shoulders are a bit too straight, so with the high drive in the rear and less drive in the front from straight shoulders, he's trying to figure out how to get those front feet out of the way.

More distance and more food bowl distractions

We continued our distance work with more work on "go" - meaning keep going straight ahead. I set up a straight sequence of jump-tunnel-jump-table. We started with the table. Run to the table and find the cookies on it. When he was confident with that, he did jump-table to get the cookies while I stayed by the jump. And I added in the down after he got his cookies. He's getting good distance on his down too!

Then he did tunnel-jump-table. No more turning back after the tunnel! He just kept going. Awesome. Then he did the whole sequence while I stayed back at the beginning.

Then we worked a bit on out. I had four jumps set in an arc. I could only take a straight line from the first to the last jump - no curving in. He had to move away from me to take the jumps. No problem! He has learned to look for the jump ahead.

Then we walked to the teeter. I lowered it and had him go over it. He decided he didn't like that bang and wanted to bail. I supported him through several times and put a line of cookies on it. He's not real confident yet, so I'll continue a lot of support on the teeter.

For his dinner, I put the food bowl on the ground and continued our work on heeling around the bowl. But I also added pivots around the bowl. Very, very little loss of focus. He's getting better!

Distance Work

Today we started some distance work in agility. The first distance command I'm teaching is "Go" which means continue on straight ahead.

I loaded a target with a piece of food. We both started behind the jump and I sent him over to the target. I stayed back at the start line. Then he had to go two jumps. Then three jumps.

At that point I put a tunnel in front of the two jumps. So we did the two jumps, then tunnel-jump-jump. He had a little trouble coming out of the tunnel and going straight ahead. He wanted to turn back and see where I was. But he figured it out, so we were able to do jump-tunnel-jump-jump.

This is going to be a slow process. There is no hurry, he's still young, and I don't want to push him too much right now. Jumps are only 8" and each obstacle is only 8 feet or so apart. I'm just building concepts.

Push and Pull

Tonight Zane started working on Push and Pull. He is pulling a drawer open and pushing a door shut.




This morning I did a couple of reps of getting the newspaper out of the mailbox. All the dogs were in the house and he and Bella had a team effort going. She would open the door, he'd get the paper. He's more paw oriented; she's more nose oriented. So she grabs the rope to pull the door open, whereas he paws the door open.

*Don't* get the paper

When I went out to feed this morning, I took the camera with me. I wanted to video either Travis or Zane getting the paper for me. Well, that was a big bust. One got the paper, dropped it long before they got to me, then they kept running back and forth right over the paper. When Travis did finally pick it up, Zane took it, then Travis took it back, etc, etc. I'm lucky I had a paper in the end!

So here you get to see Zane being Zane, no training, just having fun. He is getting kind of pushy with Travis - he thinks he wants to be top dog. Ha!



The past couple of days I have really tortured Zane. At meal time I take his food outside, put it on the ground and put him on leash. I make him heel past and around the food. If he pulls forward or loses attention on me, we go back to the beginning and start over. It's torture!! But he does get it. And what a great proofing exercise.

Contacts

I took some video today of Zane working on his contacts.

First is a picture. He's saying, "Hey, I'm here! Toss my cookie!"

Agility

Yesterday as I was sitting here at my computer working, Zane brought a tug toy over, held it while resting his chin on my leg, his eyes giving me a pleading look. Ok! Break time! We went out and played with some agility.

I had four jumps set up - three in a pinwheel and the fourth set up like the start of another pinwheel. So we did the pinwheel then a rear cross to the fourth jump. The first two times, I got a spin on the rear cross. Then after that, he had it! No more spins. And he's actively looking for the jumps now rather than looking back for the tug toy and missing the jumps.

This morning we went out and worked contacts on a-frame, dogwalk, and teeter. He sees me heading for one, and he runs and gets into two-on-two-off. So after working the contact a bit, I asked him to get in it while I stayed behind him. He can do it on the dogwalk, but has more trouble on the a-frame. He tends to go off and turn back to me. He does eventually get it, but it needs more work. I think lowering the a-frame will help too. I need help for that though.

I did ask him to walk over the whole dogwalk today. That was very, very scary. He would get halfway up the ramp and want to bail. So I just held his collar and supported him across. He did it twice. He definitely needs some confidence work on it!

After doing contacts, we did a couple of jumps. I would send him over a jump, have him wrap it, then front cross to another jump. No problem.

NTD

It's official! Zane is listed on the website for earning his Novice Trick Dog Title!
Look under Novice, then under Australian Shepherds.
Do More With Your Dog

A different "Get the paper"

Part of our morning routine is that when it is light enough, I head out and feed the horses and the chickens. As I leave the pasture, Travis runs ahead to our front gate, gets the paper and brings it to me. (He's such a good boy - I don't even tell him too - he figured this out all on his own, and it's a good 300 feet from the pasture to the front gate - that's a good outrun!)

This morning I gave all the dogs bones, so when I fed the horses, none of the dogs came with me. They were busy. As I left the pasture, Zane left his bone and came up to join me. I walked to the paper, and as I approached it, Zane picked it up and brought it to me. What a sweet boy!

Of course, one morning I had shaped him to pick up the paper, but that was awhile back and since, he's only tried to take the paper from Travis's mouth as he runs to me. This was a pretty big step for a young dog.

Jump into my arms. . .

Zane and I are working on getting him to jump into my arms. Bella will do it, but it came about accidentally from another game she plays. Zane doesn't play the same game, so I have to figure out how to get him to do it.

I started off sitting in a chair and asked him to jump into my lap. Of course he can do that! He loves it! Then I put a pillow in the chair so I was sitting a little more upright and asked him to jump. Little by little, I've added another pillow and another pillow, pushing me more and more into a standing position.

I'm not all the way standing yet, and I find he does better if I have my legs offset, but he is starting to get the idea.

The main problem with doing this? His claws on my neck! He jumps up and grabs on, and my neck is showing the result of those claws digging in! I think as he gets more comfortable with this, he'll trust me to catch him without having to catch himself.

Next trick to work: teaching him to jump on my back!

Morning Session

I was watching Bella and Zane play this morning. They are so different. Bella is so quick and light - she's like a little wood sprite flitting around. Zane is. . . . not. It's hard to come up with the right description for him. My first thought was a rhino or hippo. But he's not short and fat. But he does kind of plow through things. Then I thought of a high school basketball player. But he's not that long-legged overgrown type. But he is kind of "galumphy" like they are. He's definitely not graceful at this point.

Here's Zane's training session this morning. We started with "get the paper", moved on to "wipe", and then finished up with jump through a hoop. He has "get the paper" down now. Wipe needs more work. And he is getting jump through a hoop.

I've had some questions on why I'm shaping the hoop. Too many times when a dog has been lured through the hoop, they won't do it unless they have that hand motion. I need a nice, independent hoop. Several later tricks need him able to do it on a verbal cue only. By shaping it, there is no hand lure to fade. He is also learning exactly what is required for this - he will have spent enough time experimenting with different behaviors that he will know exactly what *is* required. I'll do the same thing with the broad jump.

Mailbox

Another trick we started working on is getting the mail. He can't get it out of our real mailbox as it's one of those centralized units, and I don't think he can operate the key. (That's a joke.) But. . . he can do a Little Tikes mailbox.

Today we just worked on opening the door. You see a nice extinction burst and recovery, then finally extinction. He wants that butterfly. Even after he gives up and works on the door, he goes back to the butterfly and tries again. So we extinguished the butterfly, it came back, and then extinguished again. Just remember, if you're trying to use extinction on a behavior, if you ever, ever, ever reward it, you just made it stronger because you've got it on a variable reinforcement schedule.

Tomorrow we'll work on getting something out of the mailbox. Then we'll put the two behaviors together. Here's a video of tonight's work.

Smorgasbord

It's been a smorgasbord of training today. We just did lots of short little sessions of many different things.

Let's see. We worked on:
Carry my purse (by the handle please Zane)
Jump into my arms (right now I'm doing it while I sitting and gradually working my way to standing)
Leg Weave (He can do 3 or 4 weaves, but it's not fast or fluent yet. We need speed and enthusiasm.)
Paws on my arm
Jump through a hoop (Completely shaping this. Oddly, he's decided that he only jumps it one way. He walks around it and jumps from the other side. And he went through the whole gamut of nose touch, paw touch, bite it, under it, around it, etc.)

I looked for a bike horn today. Can't find one.

This evening a plastic storage container fell and made a loud noise. He went running. Ok, learning opportunity. I dropped it and tossed a treat to him. Dropped it, tossed a treat. Gradually got the treat closer and closer. Finally I would drop and put the treat on top. He would start to run, then turn back for it. I think I'll start dropping things before every meal.

Tricks and Wipe

Here is Zane meeting the requirements for his Novice Trick Dog title.



Here is Zane's second session of shaping "wipe your paws".



And for contrast, here is Bella's. Bella doesn't wipe - she dabs. But I don't think I'm going to get wipe out of it. That's ok, I may get something even cooler!


See how two different dogs will have such different shaping sessions for the same behavior? That's why shaping is an art as well as a science.

Wipe Your Paws

Since Zane finished his Novice Trick Dog requirements, I was looking at the Intermediate tricks. He has to do 12. He can do 9 right now, so I have to decide which ones to train him to do. I decided the first one is "wipe your paws". I've never taught this behavior before, so it will be new for both of us.

I started with a nice, soft, rubbery frisbee type thing. It really doesn't matter what it is - I just wanted something for him to target. I first clicked for paw targeting it. When that was reliable, I waited. He would either pull his foot backward (wiping motion!) which I clicked, or he would put his other paw on (I clicked that too). I think it will quickly turn into a wiping motion.

Hmmm, if I'm good, I'll get the camera out and tape it tonight!

Catching up for the week

I can't believe I haven't posted since Monday! Let's see if I can get it all caught up.

Tuesday morning we went to Rally practice. Zane got to do the course. It was an excellent level course, but I kept him on-leash and didn't do the jumps. He's at that stage where he's forgotten things, so I'm back to retraining. All dog learn, forget, learn it again, then know it. One of the things he's forgotten is his rear pivot. Huh? He was awesome at that. So the pot is back out and we're working it again. He did the honor and held it although his BC buddy, Rusty, was on the course.


Wednesday we worked contacts on the "big" equipment. He's not going over the equipment, I'm simply putting him in position and rewarding him for staying there while I move around.

Thursday we went to obedience practice. We worked on a lot of heeling. That morning for his breakfast, he did NOT want to get into heel position and sit there. He kept getting on the fireplace mantle and getting in two-on-two-off. "Look, I can do that! I don't wanna' do that." At the park, he would get into heel position with no problem. No, I don't know why. I'm starting to push him away and have him fight to get back into heel. He thinks it's great fun. We did some recalls - we've only done "front" from close, so that was a new experience for him. I need to work on this, slowly getting farther away. He seemed a little lost.

Friday we were back at the park. A friend was the witness as he met the requirements for his Novice Trick Dog Title! Woohoo! It's been sent in, so soon he'll be official.

There's the chihuahua at practice that he likes. Today he held his stay while she went running past him. It was hard. . . but he did it.

Agility

This morning we headed to Bella's agility lesson. Before class, Zane got to get on the table a couple of times, through the tunnel a couple of times, and I put him in 2o2o and rewarded that.

During class he was in his crate with my chair in front of it. When the Australian Terrier finished his run, his handler threw his ball. The terrier brought the ball to me (I was sitting in my chair). He was growling and rumbling - all in play - it's how he plays with is ball. But Zane did not like that and growled back. Hmmmm. Something else to work on.

This afternoon I did the exercises from the Human Agility Training dvd. Zane watched very intently, wondering why I was acting so weird. He finally just feel asleep. I must be weird often enough that it gets boring after awhile. ;-)

Home Depot

Today, Zane's big event was a trip to Home Depot. He used to go a lot when he was younger, but hasn't been in a while. I wanted to pick up some paint, so I took him along. I put him on a waist leash so I'd have both hands free and we picked out paint colors, paint, and wandered around picking up stuff.

He did very, very well. He wasn't 100% comfortable, but he wasn't unduly stressed either. He wanted to sniff a few things, pulled a couple of times to go sniff people, but was better behaved than the majority of dogs in the community. He sat when asked and held the sit until released. Overall, a very good visit.

Temperament Evaluation

Today I took Zane to Tucson. I have a trainer friend there who does temperament evaluations. She works for a service dog organization that does these evaluations, and she's an expert at reading canine body language. She and I traded services: she did a temp eval on Zane, and I gave her a rally lesson.

She used the temp eval from Sarah Kalnajs. Here are some of the things I remember. She'll give me a full written eval once she watches the video she took of the testing.

The first test was how he would react to her. She took the leash, and I left. He did look for me and try to get to me, then she started petting him. She was watching to see if he would ask for more petting, interact with her, ignore her, focus on the environment, etc. He did look for me a lot but did circle back to her for some pets too. He wasn't really into her but didn't react negatively either. Overall, I thought it was ok for an Aussie who is supposed to be reserved with strangers. He did work wonderfully with her later in the test, so I think it was natural reserve.

Some of the tests were reactions to novel items: sight and sound. She opened an umbrella in his direction. He immediately ran to the end of the line he was on, hid behind the holder, and was barking madly. He would not approach it, even for food. He even reacted when it was put farther away, then when a breeze made it move a little.

Then she pulled out "robo-rat" - a remote controlled rat. He's seen many, many remote-controlled toys here, and I even have a similar rat (although he hasn't seen it in a couple of months because the batteries are dead). He reacted like he did to the umbrella. He would not go near it and did not recover, even after several minutes, not even after she played the look-at-that game with it. She had to cover it with a coat to get it out of his sight.

Then she dropped a metal food bowl on the concrete. Again, instant reaction - hiding, running to the end of the line, barking. She did get him to approach it when she put food in it, but he was very conflicted - reaching forward but leaning back.

One test was her giving him a hard stare. Some dogs will immediately go on defense, muzzle punch, and react badly. At first he looked intently into her eyes, "Oh, eye contact, I know this!" Then the pressure of her stare hit him and he immediately dropped to the ground and curled away from her. She gave him positive attention to get him up and interacting, then gave another hard stare. He immediately looked away. Then, she started to turn toward him, he thought she was going to hard stare again, and before she even had eye contact, he was looking away.

Testing for resource guarding. Bowl full of kibble and canned food. She had an assess-a-hand (a fake hand on a fake arm so the real hand/arm don't get bit) and started off by petting his back with it while he ate. He just continued to eat. She put the hand in the bowl. No problem. She pulled the bowl away. No problem. She commented that he didn't even give whale eye (common, mild stress reaction). She did the test again, and he did give some whale eye the second time, but no guarding or aggression. She ended up just reaching down with her hand to get the bowl because it was obvious he wasn't going to react.

Then he was given his choice of a bully stick or a rolled cow cheek. He chose the cheek. We gave him time to get involved in it and enjoying it. Then she went over with the assess-a-hand. Stroke the back - no problem. Hand on the chewie - he looked up at her. She wiggled the chewie - he put his paw on it! No mouthing, no grabbing it, no punching or biting the hand. He continued to look up at her, just put his paw on it. She repeated test a couple of times and the same reaction every time - he just plops his paw on it. He would let her take it away, but he was using his paw to say "Mine." Interestingly, the evaluation doesn't talk about the paws on this part of the test - only the mouth. The paw was a definite reaction, but he wasn't seriously trying to keep her from it.

The last test was reaction to another dog. She took Zane and had her husband bring one of her dogs. At first it was Zane just standing while the other dog walked around. He did show some interest and moved toward her, then went back to Crystal. Then she started walking him around while the other dog stood still. She noted that he immediately went into training mode. He didn't offer his natural behaviors - he offered what he's been trained for around other dogs. He kept his focus on Crystal, only occasionally looking at the other dog, then right back at her. It was great to see him working with her so nicely. Then they took the dogs on a parallel walk then gradually moved Zane closer to the other dog. Crystal saw a little tightness in his mouth, but no negative reaction at all. They never got closer than 5 feet away, but Zane stayed focused on her - kind of the "If I don't see that other dog, it's not really there." But she was very impressed with how well he is responding to the training I've done to get him able to be around other dogs.

I can't wait for the full written eval. It was neat to watch, and even I was surprised at how intense his reaction was to novel objects. I know he doesn't like new things or things that are different, but he's seen umbrellas and moving toys here. And I know we drop stuff. But he definitely reacted and it wasn't mild and there was not quick recovery.

Scent Work

I've been discussing scent work with some friends. I learned a new method at the Laura Romanik seminar, and I've been playing with it. To help others, I made this video using three of my dogs in various stages of training.

Em has never done this work. Zane has been doing it and has been choosing between 2 items. Bella chooses among several items and does some pretty good room searches.

Warning: This vid is 10 minutes long! Way too long in my opinion, but there are a lot of steps along the way.

Training at the park

This morning's training started with working on sit/down/stand while I sat on the couch. It's like Susan Garrett's Green Eggs and Ham training. Can you sit while I sit on the couch? Can you down while I sit on the couch? (Can you eat it in a box? Can you eat it with a fox?) Tomorrow morning I'll work on those cues while I sit on the ground. I *know* that one will be harder for him.

This morning we also met a friend at the park for training. Zane greeted her Chihuahua and Australian Terrier very appropriately. The Chi, who reads dogs very well and will not approach a dog she doesn't feel she can trust, was trying to get him to play with her! And he wanted to! Big break-through for him. At one point he got a little pushy into her space and she told him off. And he didn't take offense or act scared or worried! Woohoo! When approaching the terrier, he was appropriate, didn't lunge at him, didn't growl in fear, acted nice and submissive and didn't push him at all. Whew!

He did some light heeling at the park. We played with the retrieve. First just a casual toss and bring it back to front. Then offering food and dumbbell and asking him to "take it" and he had to take the dumbbell. He could do it. We had to work hold a little bit as he tried to spit it at me a couple of times. But overall, very nicely done.

And he did stays! It was his first time to do stays in a line-up (the line-up was the terrier, Bella, and Zane, but it was a line-up!) They did a 2 minute sit-stay and a 4 minute down-stay. I have never, ever, ever asked him to stay that long, but he had no problem. I did go reward the sit once in the middle. And I rewarded the down a couple of times when I was throwing major distractions out there and he held his stays. Nice job Zane!

His sit-stay. He sits so upright!



The down-stay line-up.


And close-up of Zane on his stay. He always looks so regal and proud!


Yesterday we went tracking again and here he is following the track to the glove:



And this is what happens to poor doggies who live with young teenage girls who like to torture them.

Back to Basics

The past two mornings, Zane has simply done sits, downs, and stands in random orders. And I'm trying to gradually increase distance. He doesn't have stand on a verbal only yet - he still needs the hand signal - so that one is still close. But I want him to only change position when I tell him and from wherever I am without him moving forward. Every once in a while he will sit when I say down or down when I say sit. Of course, there have been times when I've done puppy push-ups with all of my dogs, and somebody will get out of rhythm and sit and down opposite the rest of the crew. They aren't really listening to the command, they're figuring what I want next and doing it.

Zane had a big change in his life yesterday. I switched him to a raw diet. His eyes are always red and watery. I haven't found a food I'm totally thrilled with (I opened one bag and it smelled rancid. Ewwww!) So he's on raw. Yesterday was the first day, and his eyes are already looking better. And no, I don't feed kibble with corn, so I know that wasn't the problem. Let's just say he's loving his new food.

And yes, I can still use meals for training with raw. I just have a spoon or fork in the bowl of food, and feed him pieces with the utensil. He has no problem with that!

Zane goofing around

This is a picture I've been meaning to get for a while. Zane has loved this toy since he was a little puppy. No, it's not a dog toy, but he adores it.



A couple of months ago Zane decided that one of his jobs was to lay down on top of me if I lay down on the couch. It's morphed into laying on the back of the couch when anybody gets on it. This morning, he cuddled with his daddy.




This evening, he almost cuddled with Jill.



And here's a video of Zane playing with his new babble ball.

Little sessions

I just did little random training sessions throughout the day today.

I learned that if I drop a treat and ask him to touch my right hand, he can. But if I drop a treat and ask him to touch my left hand, he just stares at the treat. His right side always needs more training than his left side.

We played with take it like we did with the touch with distraction. One open hand with treats, the other hand with the dumbbell. I told him to take it, and he took the dumbbell. I also held the dumbbell in different places - by my side, up high, down low, behind me - and asked him to take it. He had to think on the one that was high.

We played tug games with the new rules from Foundation Fundamentals.

I worked on distance sits and downs. He can do down from 6 feet away, but has trouble with sit. So that's an area that needs work.

I put him on the exercise egg and did some work on it. He jumps right on and isn't worried at all. He does have to work to maintain his balance while turning, but that's what we're working on with the egg.

And I bought him a ball that talks to him. It says things like, "Hot diggity dog!" "Come here puppy!" "Yeah baby!" "Oh no!" "I'm gonna' get you!" "Ouch, don't do that!" He likes that ball, and likes to make it talk. . . all the time.

I also bought some new tug toys, but he doesn't get those until I'm ready to play with them.