Practice Outside Today

I've fairly well determined that most of Charlie's crazy barking on leash/tether is due to resource guarding. He never actually seems to really go over threshold, even though he acts crazy - lunging and barking. He was able to HAPPILY respond to his rescue recall word after acting out several times. I rewarded each rescue recall with lots of treats followed by basic obedience skills to keep him busy. He never once ran back to look for what set him off - BIG CHANGE! Whoo Hoo! At least I'm getting some sort of handle on this. I find it so interesting that he can shut the reaction off so fast, and respond with happiness to commands following the incident.

We're also working on our more general recall. With few exceptions, that's coming along nicely as well. Most of the time (the incidents above), I was able to redirect the monster mutt with a "come" followed by a toy reward before he started his resourcing guarding this evening. Once the barking started, the rescue word had to be used (at least we're getting in some good practice outside).

The big news is the change in Sheila! She's now seeing a vet that deals with traditional western and alternative eastern medicine. Following acupuncture and herbal supplements daily, she's a new dog. She's back to running, jumping, playing like she did years ago. All of this and she hasn't had any pain meds for a week and a half!

Another note: I have both dogs doing unison tricks for their nightly treat. Even John said its impressive.

Object Discrimination and Back Paw Targeting

Training started outside. With so many people and kids out, it was a perfect opportunity to work on him chilling out with a lot going on. He did really well chasing/playing with sticks, a ball, and a black plastic flowerpot for a good 15 minutes. Then, all of a sudden, he realized that there were bikes and people and kids, and he started to get stressed. We called it quits, and moved practice inside.

Back Paw Targeting - Charlie is finally starting to recognize that stepping on something with his BACK foot is what is getting him treats. He deliberately was putting both feed on the phone book - LOTS of treats.

Sheila's not ready for anything like this. Even being led, she just shut down on me - even with click/treats. I'll back up and try with just a piece of paper.

Object Discrimination - Sheila excelled! Interacting with objects is one of her favorite things. She had to repeatedly touch the box with her nose and not the box. Even when I moved their position, it took her only 2 or 3 tries to get the right object. Yeah Sheilas.

Charlie is getting there, but its because he offers so much now, including head and paw positions. I just take it slow and click any movement toward the correct target. He did "get it", but it took a bit longer. However, once he got the idea, he was pretty hard to fool.

It was a nice session overall, and everyone really had to think. Charlie's beat!

Good, but Short Training

Sheila and Charlie are both getter better at targeting. I'm now able to get jumps out of Charlie - YIPPEE! Sheila's still a bit slow, but given her training background and her age, I'm very happy with her progress.

Charlie's is really starting to get very good at heeling, including sitting when we stop. I've also just about got the nail board on cue. Its such a relief to not have to trim those front nails. Now I can just focus on handling them with no clippers. Its really brought down his stress level.

I'm thinking about purchasing a Manners Minder so we can begin to practice without Sheila being locked up. I believe she is one of the reasons he's so reactive at class. He just doesn't trust her. If I could really keep her focused on something besides me, I think he could learn to work around her. The good news is that its not generalized to puppies!

Training Yesterday

We had a small breakthrough yesterday. I've had a horrible time teaching Charlie to heel. Yesterday I switched to a combination of targeting (fingers near my face) and capturing. Success. I swear his look said, "really, you want me to look at you while we walk, okay". He might as well have shrugged, too. It needs some clean-up before I can name it, but at least he gets the idea now. I was also able to add some very pretty sits and downs.

We also worked on targeting (nose to fingers). I realized that I'd been letting this slip a bit. He did everything I asked, including up on his back feet, walk forward, walk around behind me, back up, and under my legs. All without a hitch. Where is the behavior when we go to school??? ARGH.

We've almost got the "go around the cone" in hand, too. I can't wait to see his face when I ask him to reverse it. Poor boy. To my amazement, he's now really offering behaviors to click like different head positions and placement in relation to objects, so things are going much faster. What changed? I have no idea what clicked, but wish I did. I have locked-up Sheila during Charlie's training (and the reverse). I knew that would relax things for him, but I didn't expect to get so many specifically offered options on his part. That brain really worked hard yesterday.

Sheila did really well, too. I worked her on targeting, and was able to get her to make a 180 degree turn around me - a big step for my baby doll. She also did some work with the game 100 things you can do with a cone. She's now offered a nose touch, a paw touch, and is even knocking it over! This from a girl who defaults to a down position within a few seconds of no instruction. She's much more cuddly these days too!

All in all, a really nice training session.

Play Date for Charlie - Long Post

I took Charlie to a play date with a friend's new puppy. The visit had multiple goals. Start teaching the puppy targeting, working Charlie around MASSIVE distractions (the puppy), keeping the puppy social, and keeping Charlie puppy social. I had visions of Charlie getting weird and spending his time in the car, and was prepared for all contingencies - I even left his leash on him in case I needed to catch him.

I couldn't have asked for a better response from my boy. He was AMAZING! Listened well, behaved well, performed on cue every time (until the end when his poor brain was getting fried), and was very polite in general. The puppy was another story. While he had good people skills and a nice soft mouth; much to the shock of both humans, the puppy was scared of Charlie! I really wasn't prepared for that. My friend told me that the breeder said that the puppy spent most of his time under the coffee table, and was raised only with adult dogs - only puppy in the litter. In addition, anytime Charlie even moved in the puppy's direction, we'd here a loud YIPE!

So, I worked Charlie on some basic obedience behaviors and tricks to calm him down a bit. Then, I got Charlie into a good solid down, while I fed the puppy near Charlie. To my surprise, Charlie stayed calm and let all sorts of things happen around him. I'm so proud of my boy. The puppy did start some targeting, so we ended that on a fun note.

We spent the rest of the hour and a half working on socializing the puppy to a friendly/calm dog (Yep - my Charlie stayed friendly and calm). Note: we took lots of breaks for both dogs with separated play time. The puppy ALWAYS had a safe place in which to "hide" if stressed. We took it really slow with lots of rewards for the pup and Charlie. In no order, other that what comes to mind, we did the following: I worked on shaping a heal with Charlie with the leash dragging. The puppy chased and pounced on the leash while Charlie kept working (YIPPEE!). Win, win here. Charlie worked under a HUGE distraction while the puppy got to play and have fun while following the big dog around. We played some basic recall stuff with the pup while Charlie chilled out in a down again (with random treats in place), as well as feeding the pup and Charlie nose to nose. We worked on puppy zen when I realized that mom wasn't treating the pup. I sat with Charlie, giving him random rewards for relaxation behaviors while not feeding the pup under any circumstances. When the puppy went to mom, lots of treats. By the time I left, the puppy would play bow and bark as long as Charlie was laying down. He'd run if Charlie got up, so I kept Charlie in a down, while the pup got to practice his play behaviors without any other social pressure. I feel like we had a lot of successes with both dog and pup today. We'll be doing this again, soon! Can anyone really believe that my crazy monster is now working on socializing a pup. I'm all but in shock!

An Interesting Night

Poor Charlie. The cold weather is really hard for him. Last it, he went out, did his business, and wanted right back in. Of course, he was then crazy with unspent energy. So, I set-up the cones in the living room and front entry, and practiced loose leash walking. His reward was tug, as I have less problems with Sheila that way. This helped burn-up some of his energy with moving and thinking. He did a really nice job overall. However, Sheila wanted to play this new-to-her game. I OBVIOUSLY haven't practiced this with her. She did somewhat okay until we got to the front door. She has always equated the leash with a walk outside. When we hit the door, she stuck her nose to it, and wouldn't move. I did get a nice sit, rewarded her with praise and a good ear rub, and worked Charlie a bit more. She followed us around, but didn't behave badly or get in the way. Guess I need to get her used to working on a leash INSIDE.

Nice Practice Today!

Last night, I worked on healing with Charlie. Since he follows me around anyway, I combined minimal targeting with capturing. He's starting to get the idea. I clicked/treated in place while moving when he was in the correct position with full eye contact. It seems to be working - including tight 180 corners. Based on trying several learning methods for heal, this seems to be working best for this particular dog.

Both dogs got to work today. As is typical, Charlie got more time than Sheila, but she has some time limits at this point anyway. If you work her too long, she shuts down, so I keep it short with her. We set-up the coffee table and a few other items to make a holding area in the living room. This meant that both dogs could see each other, but left 10 feet between the holding area and the working area. Then, I worked both dogs alternating every 20 minutes or so. I'm going to list by dog as its easier for me.

Charlie:

1. Shaping going around a cone 10 feet away while I sit in a chair. We're getting it, but its hard for him. He's NOT good at the going away part. This is a VERY clingy boy. Once you get him moving, he does pretty well. No where near being able to add a cue, but this is awfully hard for him. I admit, I did cheat. He already knows an informal "go"/"go around" command, and I used it several times to keep him moving. I am going to teach clockwise and counter clockwise behaviors, so need to decide what to call them. I may go with herding commands, as they already exist.
2. I was able to shape a fairly stylized "bow" behavior with paws between feet/nose to ground in just a few minutes. I'd like to refine this a bit more before adding a verbal cue, but this is coming along nicely.
3. Relaxation behaviors - a LONG way to go on this. However, I really think I'm going to have to move to a verbal marker to work on these - at least at first. The clicker gets him so excited, that he tends to be "on alert" the entire session.
4. Distance for sit/down - This again is hard for Charlie. Anything with distance is difficult. I worked with him in the holding pen with me pretty close (~3 ft away). He's getting it, including a drop down instead of a folded down. I really want that drop down at a distance! Looks like we may actually get there.

Sheila

1. Interaction with a cone: This is hard for Sheila. However, not only was I able to get a nose touch, but she knocked it over with her paw! I've had trouble getting a paw to even move, let alone target. Nice!
2. Find it: I threw a handful of treats across the room. She had to sniff out all of the treats. Good work for her, but something she's not very used to.
3. Sit/down: When I taught Sheila these originally, I never worried about distinction between the two. Right now, you get a sit for the first command, a down for the second command, and down on her side for a third command. Doesn't matter which command you use, that's what you get. I'm trying to get her to relearn these with full discrimination. She doesn't need to know the difference, but its good mental work for her. She's getting there, but it may take a while. She's had 12 years of history of no discrimination!