Catching up

It's been an insane two weeks, but I'm still getting some training in. Working on the same old stuff. Nothing new and exciting going on here!

We did go to a friend's house and did nosework in her garage for someplace new.

Oh, and he passed his CGC test on Tuesday. It was more a test of my skills to manage him than his skills to pass. Sad, but true. There was a dog there that scared him very much. He could not concentrate because of that dog. (That dog did snap at another dog, so he probably had legitimate concerns.) I used a lot of hand touches to get him back with me through several tests. And for the petting and exams, I used a chin target to my hand to give him something to focus on besides being touched.

So, while I'm proud of him for passing, I also wonder how far training is going to take him. Will he ever be able to handle an obedience ring with strange dogs and people? Will he be able to do a stand-for-exam with somebody dressed funny or wearing a hat (one of his bugaboos)? Will his stays be solid, or will he break for something that scares him? I'm not giving up on him, I will continue to train, but I do wonder how far I'll be able to get him.

Poor Zane

Tonight Zane was standing by the family room door. The door was in that halfway position - not open, not closed - just halfway. I tossed a cheeseball to him. He missed and it rolled under the door to the other side. He kept sniffing it under teh door, trying to figure out how to reach it. He never, ever walked to the other side of the door.

I asked him, "Where is it?" That's his cue for nosework. Bella heard that and ran over to hunt. She started on his side of the door, and within 2 seconds was on the other side of the door getting his cheeseball.

Poor doofus Zane! I think he needs to work on those kinds of puzzles in nosework!

Using back to increase distance

Today we worked more on getting sit-back and sit-back-sit and down-back-down. This chain helps them sit or drop faster and to learn to sit or down while farther away. Zane has a long way to go with it, but here's a start.

My little funny boy

We don't get a lot of visitors out here. We're out in the country and a lot of people don't want to drive the dirt roads. We get quite a few teens and preteens in and out of the house, but not many adults. A friend who Zane hasn't met came over today. Zane just stood way back and barked at her for like 10 minutes. I finally grabbed him, pulled him over to her and fed him chicken by her. "Oh, I get chicken by her! Cool! Hi, pet me!" He just didn't know who she was and was expressing his distrust and fear.

He did 2 nosework searches today - one this morning and one for my friend. He still does some shaping type stuff on occasion, but he also gets down to work and sniffs. You can see the whiplash turns as he zeroes in on the scent.

When doing drop-on-recalls and go-out-and-sits, I like to use a backup to get them to hang back. So for the DOR, I call, drop them, tell them to back up and drop them again. It's really helped Bella learn to drop fast and not creep forward. I was trying the same thing with Zane's go-out and sit today, using the backup after the sit, but his back isn't solid enough yet, so we worked on just backing up instead. Interestingly, he hasn't done his little grumbling thing while training in a while, but he did it while having to back up.

Zane's Obedience Practice

Here's a video of Zane's obedience practice at the park this morning. It is way too long, but I wanted to show exactly what we do - good and bad and funny.

Agility practice

Here's a video of Zane's agility practice from last week. We obviously need to work to make him comfortable on the dogwalk. I would have thought this things like perching on the stool would have helped (learning to keep all those feet in a small space), but he is very uncomfortable having to stand or sit on the dogwalk.

Forgot the most important part

I was so tired when posting yesterday, I forgot the most important part! There are things we know, but don't always remember, and we have to learn them again or in new circumstances.

With the work on Zane going out to touch and then sit. . . at first he kept wanting to walk back to me before sitting. But where was I rewarding him? From my hand! No wonder he wanted to walk back to me. So I started placing his reward behind the target, and gee, he started staying out there to sit. Where you place your rewards is vital!

Of course, when we did the exercise this morning, I had to relearn that again. Sometimes I'm a little slower than the dog.


I learned that Zane's sister also boings out to the dumbbell. I think Beth slipped some kangaroo or jack rabbit genes into this litter. That has to be why they're so boingy.

We also worked signals this morning. I didn't move any farther than 6 feet away as he's not ready for more distance. And I have to watch those sits. From the down to the sit, I want those front feet pushing back, not the back feet coming forward. I will also accept something else he does - popping straight up so all feet move in to the middle. It's almost like he jumps straight up from a down. But the movement of the back feet coming forward tends to make dogs move forward on the sit, and I do not want that. Move back and maintain your distance is what I'm looking for.

So much going on!

It's hard to even remember everything we've been doing.

On Sunday Zane went to an agility trial with me. He did beautifully. He actually wanted to go visit some dogs, he was excited and goofy the whole time, and no signs of fear. There was some hesitation at times, but no outright fear. My oldest daughter came to watch and she walked him around. He didn't want to go with her at first, but a handful of treats convinced him.

In Nosework, he's gone from just working boxes to working various objects. The first time I took him into the room with the objects, he thought we were shaping. He went to every object and said, "Look! I can touch it with my nose. I can whack it with my paw. I can do paws up. I can do two-on-two-off. I can stand on it. I can sit on it. What do you want?" He finally figured out there was food hidden and got searching. He's done two more searches since then and went right to using his nose.

This morning we worked on some foundation work for go-outs. I had a target that I would send him to. Then I started building a small chain by sending him to the target, and when I would usually click, I gave him the cue to sit. That way the cue acts as a reinforcer to the previous behavior. It took him a couple of tries to figure out how to sit way out there away from mama, but he got it. Now to start adding more distance.

He loves his agility

For breakfast, Zane worked on his stand and "get in". His get in is a bit sloppy, so I pulled out the cone and worked on fine-tuning exactly where I want it. No, having your butt way out there isn't it.

For his dinner, we went out to the agility field. I walked up to a jump and was going to set him up, and he starts boinging back and forth over the jump. He just wanted to work! Forget setting up! I finally got him back and we did a bit of the Mecklenberg foundation work.

Then we played with baby serpentines and pinwheels. For each, we first just did the first two jumps in each until he could read that, then we added the third jump. Not perfect, but he's really starting to read it all very nicely.

Then we did the teeter. He's been needing some babysitting on the teeter. It is lowered, but he wasn't liking the movement and the bang. But today he just went right over it with no problem. He's learned how to handle it.

Then tunnels and tables. He is getting a very fast down on the table. Nice!

On to the dogwalk. He flew across it and slid right through his contact. He tried to get back on, but that's no longer allowed. Stick it or nothing. So we did it two more times and he stuck it like a champ.

That was a lot of work, but he didn't want to stop. He was ready to play some more!

Focus & Control

Last night I started a Focus & Control class (a lot of Control Unleashed work). Since I'm teaching, I can't handle a dog in it, so Jill handled Zane in it. He did very well. The first night is just setting up the basic behaviors. He knows all the basics, so she just worked them to higher levels. We haven't worked on going to the mat for quite a while, but he was sending 10-12 feet to it. There is one dog in class he doesn't like - that dog has gone after him before. I just have them on opposite sides of the class. That dog went after another dog in class, so I'll have to keep a close eye on him.

This morning we went to a new park to train. His heeling is so enthusiastic. I really have to watch him as he'll start forging badly.

He did full dumbbell retrieves, but I was laughing at him because he didn't run or trot to the dumbbell; he boinged to the dumbbell. I really wish I had my camera! When I would say "take it", he would go boing-boing-boing and pick it up. On short retrieves, I don't get mouthing of the dumbbell, but on the longer retrieves I did. Now I have to figure out how to stop that mouthing. Thinking cap on!

We worked on stand-for-exam with somebody who has never done them on him. We have to take it very, very slowly. His first reaction is to move away. When I insist that he stay, he ducks his head or pulls it away. So at first we did:
hand out - treat (repeat several times) - her hand didn't touch it - just reached out toward him.
Then we did hand touch to head and treat. This is all classical conditioning. I want him to think, "Hand coming to me and touching me? Yay!"
After several reps, he had two in a row where he didn't duck, so we stopped right there. He will need a lot of time and work to get solid on this, but it is doable.

The other fun thing we did was with the dumbbell. I was holding it and asking him to take it in various positions. He loves to leap up and take the dumbbell when I hold it up high. That was very reinforcing for him.

We also worked with food distractions. I had a little plate on the ground beside me. I put food on it, then asked him to sit. He had to think about it and get a second cue to do it. Then we did a down. Then I asked for a front. When he successfully did the behavior I asked for, he was released to get the treat.

Another thing I found is that we are going to have to do some work with pressure. When heeling, I will sometimes play a game with Bella where I push her out of heel position and she has to get back in. She will fight to stay in heel position while I push on her. She loves this game and it will rev her up. Zane does not like this game. "OMG. You pushed me away. I'm going to go pout over there." So I will have to condition this game and get him enjoying it.

Nosework

This past weekend I went to California for a Nosework seminar. And I was dogless! I don't do that very often.

So Zane has started learning the box work for Nosework. Just playing with it a couple of times away.

Meal times have just been a conglomeration of various things he already knows. I'm too tired to be creative right now!

Stacking Bowls

This morning I saw a Youtube video of a woman teaching a dog to stack food bowls. What fun! I had to try it! (Doing it a little different of course. . .) Here's hers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zK-8OtJxso

And ours. . . .




We had a couple of little short sessions on hold and stand today. The stand is just standing and doing nothing. I'm applying light pressure to his sides and pressure on his legs - he has to lock his legs and not lift them.

A little resource guarding?

This morning Zane worked on "stand" for his breakfast. Not getting in a stand. Just standing. Still. Without any foot movement. It's something I need to remember to build up with him.

Mid-morning we went out and he did a novice run-through minus the off-lead heeling and the down-stay. He did a minute and a half sit-stay. When I said "around" for his finish, he did a "get in" instead. I did the whole thing with no food - just him and me and us working and playing together. He did pretty darn good! Just the few bobbles.

For dinner, it's his second day of working on "hold". He's getting in the habit on the informal retrieves of just bringing the object to me and kind of tossing it at me. Uh, no. It's time to tighten up that bring and hold. I'm using an M&M tube and found a funny side-effect to it. When he bites down on it, the lid pops and scares him. He drops it, then he wants to avoid it. No go buddy.

When he realized I was going to make him hold it, he decided to just not get it at all. After asking him a couple of times, I put him outside (I still had his dinner) and brought Bella in and trained her. Then he got to come back in and try again. He picked it up a couple of times, had to work on the hold, then decided he didn't want to anymore. Travis had just finished his dinner, so I asked Travis to take it. Zane growled and grabbed it out of his mouth. Yes, he does do some resource guarding against the other dogs. And he didn't want Travis getting his training time and his food. Of course he didn't bring it to me either.

So we did several reps of that - sometimes he dropped it at me feet. Sometimes he wouldn't come to front. But we ended on a good note - he picked it up, brought it to front, sat, and held it until I asked him to release.