Class Night

Tonight Jill worked Zane in my Foundations class again. As the other dogs came into class, he barked, but no growling this week. The barking showed he was concerned, but we got him under control, then Jill started playing Look at That (Control Unleashed) with him. He quickly settled down and went to work. He even got within 2 feet of one of the dogs without reacting. Yay!

This morning I continued to work on "put it in". But. . . I'm starting to get a superstitious behavior. He thinks he needs to put a foot in the bowl before putting the toy in. I have to be very careful what I'm clicking now to get rid of that.

Pull and Stools and Putting it In

Yesterday we worked on "pull". I"m hold a rope and clicking him for taking it, then for pulling it. I started to add the cue as he's a natural at this.

Yesterday and today I pulled out a couple of little folding stools and working Bella and Zane on getting on the stools and sitting, and occasionally asking them to do their contact behavior on them. This is exhausting for them! They are doing massive work on core muscles, working hard to balance, and also getting nice, tucked sits.




This evenings for his dinner, Zane started learning to "put it in". He doesn't understand the concept yet so no cue is added yet, but this shows the very first training session for this. Instead of asking him to pick something up, carry it to the bowl and put it in, I'm backchaining it. The retrieve object (a toy for now) is in the bowl. He looks at it, then touches it, then picks it up, etc, all for clicks/treats. Eventually he drops it outside the bowl. For awhile I put it back in the bowl - that's where it belongs, right? Finally, I don't click for getting it out. I wait, and wait, and wait. Eventually instead of trying to give it to me, he turns and puts it back in the bowl! Yes! This is a bit more stressful for him than most of our training. He is not understanding the concept yet. That's ok - he has to learn to work through stress, and this is a nice way to do it.



Yesterday we went hiking too. Here are a couple of posed pics from that.


And Zane kind of disappears into Arizona colors:

3:10 to Yuma

So many things have happened the past few days. I know I'm going to forget some of it!

Thursday I started adding my movement to his contact work. Before, I was just sitting on the couch. Now I'm moving around the contact board while he gets on it and hits his two-on-two-off. Yes, the movement means that he misses a lot. But he's gradually coming to understand that he does it no matter what I'm doing.

Friday morning, we got up, and my husband, Zane, and I drove to Yuma. He had a company Christmas Party to go to and asked me to attend. But he was also doing some work, so Zane and I planned to get in some training in new places. I didn't know what I was in for!

The company keeps a house on Yuma Proving Ground, so we were planning to stay there. It has a fenced in yard, so easy for potty times. But the yard behind "ours" had two dogs who barked every time we moved. (Remember Zane's fear of other dogs?) So I pulled out clicker and treats and we played Look at That from Control Unleashed. Then we started BAT. Within a couple of minutes, he was glued to my side, all focus on me, not caring about those barking, nasty dogs. He would sit and down and heel. And he was more comfortable in the yard in general.

So I pulled out some toys. He is very high in toy drive. So we played. When I would throw a toy, he'd go out to get it, then have to stop and make sure the dogs weren't coming for him, then he'd pick up the toy, still watching the dogs, and finally bring the toy back.

He did some quiet woofing at the dogs, but no growling. Nice, big improvement for him! I've had him at the end of the leash, as far from other dogs as he can get, when we've met other barking dogs behind fences (and they were usually farther away). I've also had him lip curl and growl at barking dogs farther away. So this quiet interest and watchfulness and quiet woofing is good.



The house we stayed in has a sliding glass door. He's never seen one before. So when we walked through the house to get to the back door (the sliding door) to go into the yard, he walked right into the door! Smack! Poor puppy had never seen glass at his level. Later that evening, when it was dark, he was a little concerned about his reflection in that glass.

Now I'm going ti inundate you with pictures! I took so many of him.

Zane is not known for his catching ability yet.

Fail


Fail


Fail


Fail


And his first catch! He did catch a few others that day, but this was his first.



Look at that rich, red coat he's getting:







I put his leash and bait bag on the end table, and he kept taking them off! Multiple times! I finally moved them to the kitchen.




And look at that tongue. He smells his "cookies".




Throw the toy. . . throw the toy. . . throw the toy.




And yes, at almost 6 months, he still pees like a girl.



"Throw the gingerbread man."



"Please throw the gingerbread man."



"Mom! Please, please, please throw the gingerbread man!"



Merry Christmas, and many happy gingerbread men to you.



Finally relaxing at watching the other dogs.



















I had just untaped his ears. He had to scratch!









Can you get the camera out of my face?

Class time

Last night Jill worked Zane in my Foundations class. It's all young dogs in that particular class - 5 month old Golden (fearful submissive), 7 month old Husky (confident), 10 month old German Shepherd (boisterous), and Zane (fearful aggressive). Overall, he did very well. He did growl at the GSD twice - once when the GSD walked into the building, then again toward the end of class when the GSD got close. He also barked and growled at new people coming in for their Orientation afterward. He still has a long way to go.

I teach a Focus & Control class based off of Control Unleashed work. I think I'll have one in February and have Jill take him through it. And we'll continue his BAT training.

In the contact training, Zane gets right into two-on-two-off and plants his nose on the floor. He is really figuring out the shaping game and learning new behaviors quickly.

I watched a Michael Ellis DVD and he showed a "find the left leg" exercise. When you halt, sometimes stop with the left leg a step forward or a step backward from the right leg. Your dog's job is to stay with that left leg. Zane can do it! He also reminded me of the Silky Leash exercise, although he does it a big different, and I liked how he used it for specific training exercises, so Zane is working Silky Leash going from front to behind me and then backing up from heel position. He's pretty darn good at it. The big difference between Ellis' way of doing it and mine is that he uses a slip lead or prong collar - he wants the dog stressed. I do it on a buckle collar. I want him giving him even if there is no pain.

But that brings up a dog learning to work through stress. That is an area I'm still figuring out how to train. How do we introduce stress in our training? What is the humane way to add stress? I'm still pondering that! Ellis uses a prong collar to introduce pain and the dog working to escape the pain. I want to find a different way. Now don't get me wrong. I see a lot of value in what Ellis is doing - he's making amazing changes in the working dog world. I like some of his techniques and style. But I have to change some things to fit my personal training style.

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.