He's my boy!

Yesterday afternoon, Zane kept coming up and watching me. He was trying to tell me to get off my duff and go train him! So I did. (This is exciting to me, as Travis, my perfect *heart* dog would always come beg to train. I love that attitude!) We're having bitter cold temps right now, so I didn't want to go outside. What could I do inside? I pulled out his contact board and started working contacts! Yesterday I shaped him to get on the board, then to step off with his front two feet. Today we continued with lessons 2 and 3.




We're also working his stand-stays. He kept wanting to turn and face me. I had to think of a way to keep him facing forward. I put a treat on the ground in front of him and asked him to stay as I walked around. If I got past his bum, I released him forward to the treat. I gradually moved farther and farther forward on my way around until I could pause in heel position before releasing him. If he moved a foot (or more), I simply picked up the treat and asked him to try again.




For another video today, I started working on the finger hold, which will lead to the dumbbell hold for the retrieve.

Yesterday evening he got a roll of toilet paper out of the bathroom and was chewing on it. Here he is trying to be innocent. "Toilet paper? I don't know anything about toilet paper."


And here are Bella and Zane napping together at my feet.

Fronts

This is how I've been teaching Zane to front. I combined work from Laura Romanik and Chris Bach.

Make Some Noise!

Zane is mildly noise sensitive. It's not bad, but it is more than I want. So I have started a program where *he* has to make the noise for a reward.

We started with a toy electronic piano - he pressed the keys with his paw, he got a reward. He did get a little hesitant, but we persevered and he succeeded.

Next was a pile of milk jugs connected with a string. He pulled it around to make noise. No problem. In fact, I had it attached to my waist and dragging while Bella was heeling, and Zane was attacking the milk jugs. No problem there.

Today it was Poochie Bells. I shaped him to pick them up and carry them to me.

I will continue to look for ways for him to make noise. Knocking over buckets or cans, dropping silverware in a metal bowl, etc.

When he knows he can control the noise, he won't be as fearful of it.

Fronts. . . oh my

We had a little impromptu training session as I wanted to see how Bella would handle some of the Graduate Novice exercises. Zane kept getting into the action, so I started working him too.

His fronts were so funny tonight. His "formal" front training started with chair fronts, then wall fronts, and now standing fronts. The chair fronts and wall fronts get them in very close and focusing straight up the middle of your body. He is coming in and almost laying his chin along my legs, looking straight up. So I threw in some angled fronts. He's coming in, lining up and looking straight up. If I move away, he is working to keep his chin along my legs - I think he thinks "front" means rest my chin on your legs!

So I started playing with it. If I pivot to the right while he is in front, he maintains his chin on my legs and sidepasses around me. If I do it to the left, he overcompensates and goes into heel and rear pivots. This boy is really learning to use his body!

I need to get this on video now - but of course, he won't do it tomorrow.

I was doing some dumbbell work with Bella and he grabbed the dumbbell too. So I did a couple of holds with him. I usually don't do any retrieve work while they're teething, but he was grabbing it, so I did. Two kind of chompy holds, then I made him to a good, tight hold, and ended.

Now he's playing with the big orange monkey I bought him at the dog show. I love this boy.

Napping

Yesterday evening I couldn't find Zane. He wasn't under my desk. He wasn't under the girls' desk. He wasn't under the table. He wasn't watching football with my husband. He wasn't in his crate. I finally went to the girls' room. . . and this is what I found.


He was napping with Jill in her bed while she read.

I was gone most of the day today stewarding at our dog show. When I got home, I was tired, so I lay on the couch for a little snooze. This is where he napped (my head had been on the pillow behind him).


Unfortunately, he's a little gassy, and his butt was right by my head. Thanks Zane.

Here's a Flash Session

We did a Flash Session this evening and I filmed it. I won't say it was our best, but you can see how we just do whatever comes into my mind. And doing it for kibble takes so long. . . he has to chew every bite, and I kept dropping pieces. But here it is.

What's your name?

Zane still has all his horrible nicknames. Yesterday I didn't know where he was, so I called, "Where's Booger Butt Head?" And he came running. Oy. I have got to stop calling him that!

I'm going to an APDT Rally trial next weekend, so for fun I've pulled out their rally signs and have played with them with Zane. He's so funny. "I can heel! I can heel! Oh look! It's Daddy! (boing, boing, boing) Hi Daddy!" He is also having issues with front if I stand straight up. He wants to swing into heel position. Along with wall fronts, I'm doing this: I toss a treat and tell him to go, then I place a treat between my feet and tell him front. He comes in and straightens up to get the treat between my feet. Then I toss a another treat. Back and forth and back and forth, then I "forget" to put one between my feet. He looks, then looks up at me, I ask for a sit, and he's in a nice straight front. It's all fun and games right now.

In December, there is an APDT Rally trial with a puppy class. He'll be old enough to enter. I may do it just to get a good laugh. A friend with a puppy just 2 days older than Zane is entering, and she wants to have another puppy in the class - no need being humiliated alone!

Our morning flash sessions are still a hoot. He's so eager to try things, and he did a down on a utility signal this morning. Of course, the next time I gave the signal, he looked at me like I was an idiot.

He has one baby tooth left - a canine. But. . . it has split in two. It doesn't seem to bother him as he's still tugging and chewing. It must already be dead as you can see the middle of the tooth.

Moving Stand

This morning's flash sessions included a moving stand. Zane was very confused at first. He wanted to drop, as that is what he's been working on. But after a couple of tries, he figured it out. It's definitely not fluent yet, but he got the idea.

He's done enough brickwork right now that his sits need some work. Instead of sitting straight, he always swings to get into heel position (or close to it). I'm doing a lot of wall fronts to remind him where front is, and I'm rewarding immediate sits if we're not working on front. Zane is learning about stimulus control - only offer the behavior when it is asked for. All dogs go through these stages. Have you ever taught a drop on recall, then your dog starts dropping on every recall even if you don't ask them to? Anticipation can be a great friend in training if you use it wisely.

He is now fluent on his rear pivots without the brick. Well, on the left side he is. The right side needs more work. He still has trouble getting into perfect "side" position. If I were doing freestyle, I'd be working it a lot more. But I'm not, so I don't.

Every morning Zane goes outside first thing to potty. When he comes back in, he is so cute. He acts like he hasn't seen me in two weeks and is full of wiggles and leaps and loving. We have to spend about 5 minutes just loving on each other before he can do anything else. My husband wanted a sweet, loving Aussie, and boy did we get one.

He Rallys! (Rallies?)

This morning at Rally practice, Zane got to run the course for the first time.

Ok, he didn't do the whole course. And he didn't do all the exercises in the part of the course he did. And I had food in my hand the whole time and heavily rewarded him.

But he still got out there and worked! He had some nice heeling, nice turns, he stood on command (but we didn't do the stand-walk around - he's not ready for that).

Baby boy is growing up.

Oh, and he lost another molar while he was there. He really is growing up.

Flash Sessions

This morning Zane and I had great fun with our first "flash session". This term was started (as far as I know) by trainer Linda Koutsky. A flash session is a short, but intense, training session. Instead of working one thing, you mix and match and throw lots of things into the session. I usually do it to music (one song and you're done!), but didn't this morning.

So in about a 3 minute flash session this morning, we did finding heel, rear pivot from the left, finding side (right side), rear pivot from right, peek (coming up between my legs from the back), stand, heel, down in front, moving down (still needs lots of work), down in heel, get in, stand in front, stand in heel, down on signal, and I don't remember what else. It was all very quick, very fun, and it kept him very engaged and focused.

Eyelashes. . . Oh my

Zane is definitely feeling better. I haven't worked him since Wednesday, and he spent all morning staring at me until I got up and did something with him. I love dogs who want to work and insist on it!

Zane has a long, long, long eyelash above each eye. Jill wants me to trim them. What do you think?


Today I watched Susan Salo's Puppy Jumping DVD and worked the first exercise.



We took this video last week. We were trying to get a video of Zane gaiting, but as you can see, he is now a gazelle. He leaps! Unfortunately, Jill broke her toe, so I haven't had any more help to try to get another video. And yes, I giggle every time he leaps. That doesn't help matters any.

No Training

On Friday morning, I wanted to continue to work stands. As usual I made his breakfast and we got to work. Not. He did stand, but would not eat. I broke off the training session as I want his work to be enthusiastic. If we practice ho-hum, humbug, then we'll get ho-hum, humbug.

He refused to eat breakfast. He threw up a couple of times. He didn't eat dinner. Threw up some more. And he was not his usual bouncy self. He just laid at my feet. Oh dear.

On Thursday night, Zane discovered the kitty litter box. I know he ate some. I can only imagine that is what upset his tummy. I was ready to head to the vet on Saturday morning if he didn't eat.

So Saturday morning I got up, fixed him a bowl of chicken and rice and pumpkin (much easier on a tender tummy). He gobbled it down and kept it down. Yay! He got the same for dinner. He loves it.

I can just see the future now. "Mommy, my tummy doesn't feel good. I think I need some chicken and rice and pumpkin for dinner."

We have a head!

Remember when I didn't like Zane's head. Well, he has a great head now! His stop came back and he has a nice little head. I'm so glad he's not a collie anymore. Funny how that head changes so much so fast.

This morning he worked on "chin" targeting. I use this in various areas: chin target while he gets measured for agility; chin target for the conformation exam; chin target for fun things like playing with the "pound a ball" type toys.

He also completed Day 3 of the Relaxation Protocol in a sit. We didn't have time to do it with a down. I haven't been working on it, so the fact he passed Day 3 on the first try made me happy.

He's now working on his stand-stays while I move around. I can't walk around him yet - have to work up to that. But I can step to the side and step away.

I tried to get some movement shots today and took the wrong camera. It took blurry shots. Jill tried to get him to gait and he kept leaping up in the air. He's an antelope! He's out of the giraffe stage and into the antelope stage.

Rusty Love

Here's the video of Zane and Rusty. Is that total puppy worship, or what?


Here are a couple of stacked shots of Zane from today. One was when we were on our walk; I stuck him on the big rock we passed. The other was at home with better lighting.





On our walk, Zane had a milder reaction that normal to barking dogs. Usually I just keep walking, and he strains at the end of the leash to get as far away from the dog's yard as possible. Today he looked at the yard, took a couple of steps away, then looked back at me and got back beside me. Good boy!

This morning he went to rally practice. He was able to come out and work on heeling, automatic sits, rear pivots, and his brick work. Oh, I started to introduce "close" - the first step to right turns and about turns. He also did easy stays - I worked on walking around him and walking up to 5 feet away and returning. He did well.

Heads up!

Not a lot of training this week - little bits here and there, but not a ton. I was letting that leg rest. It's all better now.

Good thing I listened to Beth about not trimming the hair on his head. All the puppy fuzz is starting to come out and he's looking like a real dog!

Shaping fun this morning

Our morning routine consists of Zane going out to potty, then coming in for breakfast (doing a little work for it), then when it's light enough, we go out, feed the horses, then I get the paper and go inside. This morning when I got to the paper, I realized I had a handful of treats in my pocket. So the clicker came out, and I decided to try to shape Zane to pick up the paper. At first he was paw targeting it. He *loves* to paw target. Then he started doing brickwork on the paper (front feet on, back feet pivoting around it). Finally he put his head down to sniff it. From then on, I only clicked interaction from his muzzle. By the time the treats were gone, he was picking it up and handing it to me. What a nice impromptu shaping session!


We went to rally practice today. One of the dogs there, Rusty, is a red border collie. Both of my girls (dogs, no kids) love Rusty. The first couple of times Zane met Rusty, he was scared of him, then liked him, now there seems to be a little love affair going on. Every time Zane sees Rusty, he runs to him and throws himself to the ground at Rusty's feet. He just rolls around there adoring Rusty. I have got to get a video of it.

I just heard Joelle yell, "Zane, no!" Then I hear little pounding puppy feet running as fast as they could. He had stolen a pair of underwear and was running to hide with them. Good laugh for the evening!

Down!

Zane is still favoring his hind leg, so not much training going on. I did find some tiny little grass seeds between the pads, but all of his feet had them. They are all pulled out now. He's still favoring it, so I don't know. I can't imagine he's really injured it somehow. He's such a wuss that any little thing has him screaming, and he didn't make a peep yesterday. I'll give it another day and see what happens.

This evening we worked on signal downs - the real obedience ring signal. So signal followed by verbal to introduce a new cue. It's about the 3rd time we've done them, and tonight he actually anticipated the down with just a signal about 4 times. Awesome! Can't wait until it's solid!

I think his head is improving too. Either that or I'm getting used to it! But it doesn't look at collie-like - he's getting a stop again! Now for the top of his head to get back into shape. And I need to tape his ears again, but I think they're getting infected. Argh on ears!