Agility class was cancelled due to rain. We did a little practice at home instead. I hauled the mini-teeter and a-frame outside. Last week I lowered the teeter's PVC frame as much as I could. The first time he ran over it he gained confidence quickly, but when it was moved outdoors, the behavior predictably deteriorated. He was just starting to gain confidence in running for the foot target at the end instead of slowing down at the pivot point when the neighbor's dogs ran over and started barking at the fence line. I could have moved the teeter into the street, but I decided to just end the exercise. I removed the PVC frame from the teeter board and put it underneath the a-frame out in the street. The a-frame's boards aren't all that thick and are a bit springy. This makes him slow down when he runs over it. Again, with practice he was gaining speed and confidence, but I'm guessing that at a certain point I just won't be able to use the mini a-frame; it'll be steep enough that he should be running up quickly but the springy boards will prevent him from doing so. That's okay with me -- I knew when I made this equipment that it might not hold up all that well. I'm an amateur builder.
At one point he started sticking his tongue in and out like he had a piece of treat stuck between his teeth. I gently pulled back his lips and was horrified to see how much plaque he's built up. In this respect, I'm a bad owner. I brush him every two or three days, I weigh him whenever I can, and I keep mental track of the quality of his bowel movements, but I have been completely neglecting his teeth. I should know better, too, since his papillon buddy Jacques has dental problems and his momma has told me how careful she is about his teeth. I resolved to start brushing his teeth very soon.
In the afternoon we went to Pet Food Express and I used the second portion of my Christmas money and a 20% off coupon I'd been saving to buy him a 21" Noz to Noz soft crate. I'd been waffling on this -- I'd heard nice things about how they're easy to set up and so portable, but on the other hand, he's a tiny dog, and am I just being lazy about not wanting to break down/set up and carry his wire crate? But I lifted up the N2N crate and it was sooo light and easy to manipulate that I was instantly sold. Plus, it was green. You'd think, based on my room, that green is my favorite color ever. When I moved into this apartment the walls were already painted green, and my laptop and comforter are green, so then I started selecting other green things to match... it just snowballed from there. I guess green is Dragon's official color -- it fits, right? (Ira's official color was purple -- he had a purple bed and leash and a couple of purple collars.)
I also restocked my supply of bully sticks and antlers and pig bones, and bought doggy toothpaste and brush.
After the store we drove to an auto shop to replace my cracked windshield. I brought Dragon's mat along. I set it down by my chair in the lobby, and he laid on it for 45 minutes without any fuss. He even laid his head down here and there. Toward the end I dozed off for about five minutes and he hadn't moved when I woke up. Good dog.
When we got home I set up the N2N crate. Dragon immediately went inside and stared at me for treats. I gave him a treat, released him, and gave him a treat for coming out. He ate it and immediately ran back in for more. We repeated this two more times and then I had to physically block him with my arm to keep him from running inside again. I'm going to start using this crate during agility class instead of his mat. I need to start early if I want him to be able to relax inside it when we're trialing. At the beginning I'll keep the door open so that he's not locked inside, he's choosing to stay in in order to earn treats. In that way, it will be exactly like his mat, but it will be a more difficult challenge since his visibility will be greatly reduced.
And now the most exciting part of the day -- we took the Canine Good Citizen test! We took it at Metro Dog, my workplace, which was a boon because Dragon is used to working there and the location has a strong reinforcement history. He passed with flying colors. On the "heel past another dog" portion, he even outshined the tester's dog, who was not in a working mood and didn't want to sit! I had him heel for the "loose leash walking" and "walking through a crowd" portions and he did beautifully. The sit, down, stay, and recall were of course no problem. He did not get spooked during the visual or sound startle portions, which was thanks to all the counter-conditioning I've done with him. I am so proud of my boy! His full name is now Cinnamon Snapdragon CGC. (Today CGC, tomorrow OTCH and MACH!)
His friend Brooky the schnauzer mix also passed the test!
The end of the day left me wondering, "How am I going to brush his teeth??" I had him hop up on the bed and lie down, so that his mouth was closer to my eye level. I put my left hand above his muzzle and lifted his lips a bit, and clicked and gave a treat with my right hand. He didn't like it but quickly caught on to the game. I probably should have broken it down further, starting with just teaching him to raise his muzzle up to my fingers. (Be a splitter, not a lumper!) The hard part, though, is shaping the action of opening his mouth and holding it open. Any ideas?
Showing posts with label mat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mat. Show all posts
Friday, January 20, 2012
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Agility Foundation, week 5 recap, plus shopping fun
Circle work: jump, tunnel, jump, stop and reward, turn around and do it again. Tunnel, jump, same tunnel again in a tight circle. Doing well with driving ahead toward the next obstacle.
Turns next to the jump standard: 180 post turn, 360 post turn coming over the jump a second time, and front cross. I hadn't done the front cross next to a jump standard before. He's finally starting to develop his collected jumping skills.
We were on the other side of the agility field this time, where all the standard equipment is. (Usually we're on the side that has a jumpers course set up.) We worked with a full-height teeter, just getting the dogs to bang the end and, if ready, go into 2o2o. Dragon happily jumped all the way onto the end. Suzanne said that next week we'll lower that teeter almost all the way to the ground and put sandbags under it and slowly start making it more tippy from there.
We also worked with the dog walk and a-frame for the first time. Most of the dogs were just asked to get into 2o2o at the bottom and the handlers proofed their positioning and movement while their dogs stayed. Tiny Dog is the only dog doing running contacts. I had him walk partway up the ramp and then run off toward a toy thrown forward. Because the a-frame was rubberized, he was able to just walk up it. I was very proud that he had no fear! A couple of times one of his back feet slipped off the side of the walk as he was turning around on it (eep!) but he just pulled it back up and was not fazed. I guess after you fall out of trees a few times, the wide dog walk isn't so scary. I'm not sure how Suzanne will be progressing with teaching this equipment.
Lastly we had the dogs go through a tunnel which had one end right next to the dog walk (we blocked the up ramp) and the other end underneath the middle of the walk. Some of the dogs balked but Dragon had no problem.
We were going to start on introducing the chute as well, but ran out of time.
At home, I bought more PVC so that I could switch out the height of my teeter. I lowered it as much as possible (about four inches at the pivot point) and practiced having him run across with his mat at the end, and again with his foot target at the end. He has more drive to reach the mat quickly because of the stronger reinforcement history, but isn't sure about lying down quickly. He was a bit slower to reach the foot target but did the proper weight shift at the end and held his position beautifully as I moved ahead. I had told Suzanne that I would use his mat on the teeter but I think I'm going to use the foot target at the end after all. It also has the benefit of not sliding around like the mat might, and not creating as much of a height difference when he reaches it.
In preparation for the chute, I folded up an old bed sheet and draped it over a chair, and practiced sending him underneath. No problems with that.
Other agility news: I received Susan Garrett's Success with One Jump DVD for Christmas. I also received some cash which I used to buy her 2x2 Weaves DVD, and I'm going to buy him a soft crate with the remainder. He's been staying on his mat beautifully during class, but I need to start transitioning him to being in a crate and having me leave his sight here and there.
In non-agility news, I took him shopping yesterday. We went to a salvage yard, a hardware store, and even a dog-friendly discount fabric store. He was perfectly behaved. We practiced heeling, and it reminded me that I need to commit to getting him out into various distracting environments to practice this stuff. He lost focus when people were walking by.
Turns next to the jump standard: 180 post turn, 360 post turn coming over the jump a second time, and front cross. I hadn't done the front cross next to a jump standard before. He's finally starting to develop his collected jumping skills.
We were on the other side of the agility field this time, where all the standard equipment is. (Usually we're on the side that has a jumpers course set up.) We worked with a full-height teeter, just getting the dogs to bang the end and, if ready, go into 2o2o. Dragon happily jumped all the way onto the end. Suzanne said that next week we'll lower that teeter almost all the way to the ground and put sandbags under it and slowly start making it more tippy from there.
We also worked with the dog walk and a-frame for the first time. Most of the dogs were just asked to get into 2o2o at the bottom and the handlers proofed their positioning and movement while their dogs stayed. Tiny Dog is the only dog doing running contacts. I had him walk partway up the ramp and then run off toward a toy thrown forward. Because the a-frame was rubberized, he was able to just walk up it. I was very proud that he had no fear! A couple of times one of his back feet slipped off the side of the walk as he was turning around on it (eep!) but he just pulled it back up and was not fazed. I guess after you fall out of trees a few times, the wide dog walk isn't so scary. I'm not sure how Suzanne will be progressing with teaching this equipment.
Lastly we had the dogs go through a tunnel which had one end right next to the dog walk (we blocked the up ramp) and the other end underneath the middle of the walk. Some of the dogs balked but Dragon had no problem.
We were going to start on introducing the chute as well, but ran out of time.
At home, I bought more PVC so that I could switch out the height of my teeter. I lowered it as much as possible (about four inches at the pivot point) and practiced having him run across with his mat at the end, and again with his foot target at the end. He has more drive to reach the mat quickly because of the stronger reinforcement history, but isn't sure about lying down quickly. He was a bit slower to reach the foot target but did the proper weight shift at the end and held his position beautifully as I moved ahead. I had told Suzanne that I would use his mat on the teeter but I think I'm going to use the foot target at the end after all. It also has the benefit of not sliding around like the mat might, and not creating as much of a height difference when he reaches it.
In preparation for the chute, I folded up an old bed sheet and draped it over a chair, and practiced sending him underneath. No problems with that.
Other agility news: I received Susan Garrett's Success with One Jump DVD for Christmas. I also received some cash which I used to buy her 2x2 Weaves DVD, and I'm going to buy him a soft crate with the remainder. He's been staying on his mat beautifully during class, but I need to start transitioning him to being in a crate and having me leave his sight here and there.
In non-agility news, I took him shopping yesterday. We went to a salvage yard, a hardware store, and even a dog-friendly discount fabric store. He was perfectly behaved. We practiced heeling, and it reminded me that I need to commit to getting him out into various distracting environments to practice this stuff. He lost focus when people were walking by.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Update on signals
Laura commented that my proposed signals for down and sit look similar and might be confusing. My reply was, nah, my previous dog didn't get confused on those two and I think Dragon is getting the idea, too. But just in case, I decided to test that theory...
I pulled out Dragon's mat to keep him in one place and make the exercise nice and easy. I asked him to do a couple of "push ups" on a verbal cue and then on the signals (arm bending at elbow and moving up for sit, and bending at elbow and moving outward and then down for down). He started to anticipate switching between the two positions as soon as I started to move my hand. I tricked him and started waving my hand and just slightly moving my arm but resetting him if he switched positions in response to that. He quickly stopped anticipating and waited to see my arm making a full signal.
At this point I gave him the test: I signaled him to sit, rewarded him, and then gave him another signal to sit. He immediately lay down. I reset him in a sit, and signaled him to sit again. Again he lay down. I reset him. I signaled him to down. He did. I signaled him to sit. He did. I signaled again to sit. He immediately and confidently lay down.
This tells me that he can't, at this pont, differentiate between the two signals. He sees one vague signal and understands it to mean "switch to either sit or down, whichever you're not doing right now". But he does have a concept of "sit means sit", not "do the other one". I've tested that before, and did it again to make sure. I gave him the verbal cue to sit and he sat. I repeated the cue "sit" and he stayed sitting. He tensed for movement and blinked at me, but he made no motion to lie down. I reset him and repeated the test, and got the same response with two more "trick" sit cues.
This shows that he understands that if he's given a cue to sit while already sitting, he should hold the position. If he had really understood the sit and down hand signals, he would have stayed sitting when I gave a sit hand signal.
I have two options: continue training with these signals until he does clearly understand the difference, or change one of the signals. I've decided to change it to avoid the frustration and possibility of trial mishaps due to similar signals. I'm going to teach a new sit signal with my left hand, which seems to mostly bring my signals in line with the norm. In this case, I think there's a good reason that there's a tried-and-true method!
I took a video of myself (again, from Tiny Dog's perspective) doing my probable new signals. I included a come front signal this time. I still have to polish it and figure out how best to move so that Dragon can clearly see it, but I'm thinking that the common "bring arm across chest or over shoulder" will fit in well for my left arm.
In a slight segue, I'm planning on wearing a favorite black fleece vest for trials. I wear it a lot in the house (and therefore during training), and I can put it on over a sweater on cold days or just a tshirt on hot days, and show Dragon a consistent picture. My bare arms or light-colored sleeves will provide a good contrast for my arm movements. It has zippered pockets large enough for a number of treats or two small toys. If I wear it around the house and for matches and APDT rally trials it will come to mean that rewards might be pulled out of the pockets at any moment.
I pulled out Dragon's mat to keep him in one place and make the exercise nice and easy. I asked him to do a couple of "push ups" on a verbal cue and then on the signals (arm bending at elbow and moving up for sit, and bending at elbow and moving outward and then down for down). He started to anticipate switching between the two positions as soon as I started to move my hand. I tricked him and started waving my hand and just slightly moving my arm but resetting him if he switched positions in response to that. He quickly stopped anticipating and waited to see my arm making a full signal.
At this point I gave him the test: I signaled him to sit, rewarded him, and then gave him another signal to sit. He immediately lay down. I reset him in a sit, and signaled him to sit again. Again he lay down. I reset him. I signaled him to down. He did. I signaled him to sit. He did. I signaled again to sit. He immediately and confidently lay down.
This tells me that he can't, at this pont, differentiate between the two signals. He sees one vague signal and understands it to mean "switch to either sit or down, whichever you're not doing right now". But he does have a concept of "sit means sit", not "do the other one". I've tested that before, and did it again to make sure. I gave him the verbal cue to sit and he sat. I repeated the cue "sit" and he stayed sitting. He tensed for movement and blinked at me, but he made no motion to lie down. I reset him and repeated the test, and got the same response with two more "trick" sit cues.
This shows that he understands that if he's given a cue to sit while already sitting, he should hold the position. If he had really understood the sit and down hand signals, he would have stayed sitting when I gave a sit hand signal.
I have two options: continue training with these signals until he does clearly understand the difference, or change one of the signals. I've decided to change it to avoid the frustration and possibility of trial mishaps due to similar signals. I'm going to teach a new sit signal with my left hand, which seems to mostly bring my signals in line with the norm. In this case, I think there's a good reason that there's a tried-and-true method!
I took a video of myself (again, from Tiny Dog's perspective) doing my probable new signals. I included a come front signal this time. I still have to polish it and figure out how best to move so that Dragon can clearly see it, but I'm thinking that the common "bring arm across chest or over shoulder" will fit in well for my left arm.
In a slight segue, I'm planning on wearing a favorite black fleece vest for trials. I wear it a lot in the house (and therefore during training), and I can put it on over a sweater on cold days or just a tshirt on hot days, and show Dragon a consistent picture. My bare arms or light-colored sleeves will provide a good contrast for my arm movements. It has zippered pockets large enough for a number of treats or two small toys. If I wear it around the house and for matches and APDT rally trials it will come to mean that rewards might be pulled out of the pockets at any moment.
Friday, December 23, 2011
Agility Foundation, week 2 recap
Another week, another fun agility lesson! Only three students showed up today, so our dogs did a lot of work.
We started of course with circle work. We incorporated a tunnel into our circle work again, and added 180 and 360 pulls/outside turns, a front cross, and I also added a lead out once. I had to remember to accelerate toward the tunnel so that Dragon would drive into it. My tendency is to decelerate in preparation for turning a bit to run around the tunnel, but that gives conflicing information to the dog.
We did a number of sit-stay exercises (and I also did a lot of stand-stays). We had the dog run to us and get rewarded in the reinforcement zone. (Dragon is great at this.) We ran with our dogs and encouraged them to race past us for a thrown toy. (Dragon is reluctant to pull ahead of me without a target or obstacle ahead of us; need to condition him more to expect a toy thrown ahead.) We raced our dogs to a thrown toy. (The instructor told us to pick up the toy if we beat our dogs to it, but that would be demotivating for my guy, so I let him get it every time. He was still pretty fast.)
We proofed our targets. The other students are doing 2o2o, but we're doing a running contact. I'm having him run off the board completely toward a target set about 3-5 feet away from the end (to keep his speed up while on the board). I can now run forward past the target and he will stop to touch the target. I'm having trouble adding lateral distance, so that's my homework this week. Also I tried sending him ahead but he was conflicted between going ahead and turning toward me; another weak point to work on.
We reviewed the rear cross foundation on the flat, which is simple.
Dragon had excellent attention and did not try to sniff around except for one spot where he must have smelled a piece of dropped food among the woodchips. During his downtime he chewed on his bully stick on his mat. The weimaraner kept running away from his owner and trying to get the bully stick. Amazingly, Tiny Dog was completely unconcerned when I or the assistant would jump in front of him and catch the weim racing right for him. I gave him a treat every time anyway to reinforce being calm.
After the end of class Dragon and I practiced on the lowered teeter. The end of the teeter is about ten inches off the ground. The instructor commented that she was surprised that he liked that teeter, since the board is exceptionally floppy and bounces a lot after it hits the ground and when it resets. It's a testament to the careful work I've been doing with Dragon all these months. Although he doesn't like it when it noisily resets after he runs off, so next week I will spend some extra time just having him stand by it and giving him treats after I lower it and let it reset. I also had him run from end to end and after he understood how it would pivot and move, he was happy to run back and forth. I'm quite proud of him!
We started of course with circle work. We incorporated a tunnel into our circle work again, and added 180 and 360 pulls/outside turns, a front cross, and I also added a lead out once. I had to remember to accelerate toward the tunnel so that Dragon would drive into it. My tendency is to decelerate in preparation for turning a bit to run around the tunnel, but that gives conflicing information to the dog.
We did a number of sit-stay exercises (and I also did a lot of stand-stays). We had the dog run to us and get rewarded in the reinforcement zone. (Dragon is great at this.) We ran with our dogs and encouraged them to race past us for a thrown toy. (Dragon is reluctant to pull ahead of me without a target or obstacle ahead of us; need to condition him more to expect a toy thrown ahead.) We raced our dogs to a thrown toy. (The instructor told us to pick up the toy if we beat our dogs to it, but that would be demotivating for my guy, so I let him get it every time. He was still pretty fast.)
We proofed our targets. The other students are doing 2o2o, but we're doing a running contact. I'm having him run off the board completely toward a target set about 3-5 feet away from the end (to keep his speed up while on the board). I can now run forward past the target and he will stop to touch the target. I'm having trouble adding lateral distance, so that's my homework this week. Also I tried sending him ahead but he was conflicted between going ahead and turning toward me; another weak point to work on.
We reviewed the rear cross foundation on the flat, which is simple.
Dragon had excellent attention and did not try to sniff around except for one spot where he must have smelled a piece of dropped food among the woodchips. During his downtime he chewed on his bully stick on his mat. The weimaraner kept running away from his owner and trying to get the bully stick. Amazingly, Tiny Dog was completely unconcerned when I or the assistant would jump in front of him and catch the weim racing right for him. I gave him a treat every time anyway to reinforce being calm.
After the end of class Dragon and I practiced on the lowered teeter. The end of the teeter is about ten inches off the ground. The instructor commented that she was surprised that he liked that teeter, since the board is exceptionally floppy and bounces a lot after it hits the ground and when it resets. It's a testament to the careful work I've been doing with Dragon all these months. Although he doesn't like it when it noisily resets after he runs off, so next week I will spend some extra time just having him stand by it and giving him treats after I lower it and let it reset. I also had him run from end to end and after he understood how it would pivot and move, he was happy to run back and forth. I'm quite proud of him!
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Agility Foundations recap
We got a new skill to work on this week! Laying the foundation for a rear cross: dog sits and you practice stepping from side to side behind him. Easy peasy.
We also practiced front crosses and circle work, of course. The new instructor, Susanne, emphasized getting the dogs to break out of their trots and really run. I was surprised to see that Dragon actually did this for the entire lesson. Last week I was working on getting him to speed up consistently, and it paid off.
I've also been working on building obstacle focus, since Dragon already has a strong foundation in place for working next to me. When sending him to his mat between exercises I've been restraining him and then cuing him to go to his "place". This week I saw the work pay off again: I held him in front of the tunnel and said, "Ready?" and he tensed up and even pulled forward slightly. Release, run, jackpot!! Some of the handlers worked on leading out and staying ahead of their dogs, but my goal was getting Dragon to drive forward.
Reviewed nose targets, and confirmed with Susanne that for running contacts I can switch between a nose target, a toy target, or a thrown toy while running. He has good drive now running over my mini-plank and the plank at the field. Next I'll set out my mini a-frame, lowered flat onto the ground, and transfer the behavior. Also working on proofing my running around as he drives toward a target/toy on the ground.
The instructor and assistant often make comments to me about switching things up and not doing the same set-up over and over. In one session of the nose target I may do a lead out halfway to the target, and then lead out past the target, and then no lead out and run with the dog, and they'll see me just do one of those and say, "Now make sure that you do it different ways and next time lead out [farther/closer/to the side/whatever]." It's kind of annoying.
Afterwards I asked about drills for teaching the dog to hug the inside of the jump when doing wraps/turns. We were practicing that last night and he goes quite wide. Anne, one of the other instructors, suggested more practice of tight turns during circle work, rewarding tight pivots over the jump right by the stanchion, and lowering the closer end of the jump bar to encourage sticking to that side. I wish I could afford to just buy all of Silvia Trkman's training videos! Her Puppy/Tricks online course covered some of the foundation for cik/cap, too. I need to go back and practice that more.
We also practiced front crosses and circle work, of course. The new instructor, Susanne, emphasized getting the dogs to break out of their trots and really run. I was surprised to see that Dragon actually did this for the entire lesson. Last week I was working on getting him to speed up consistently, and it paid off.
I've also been working on building obstacle focus, since Dragon already has a strong foundation in place for working next to me. When sending him to his mat between exercises I've been restraining him and then cuing him to go to his "place". This week I saw the work pay off again: I held him in front of the tunnel and said, "Ready?" and he tensed up and even pulled forward slightly. Release, run, jackpot!! Some of the handlers worked on leading out and staying ahead of their dogs, but my goal was getting Dragon to drive forward.
Reviewed nose targets, and confirmed with Susanne that for running contacts I can switch between a nose target, a toy target, or a thrown toy while running. He has good drive now running over my mini-plank and the plank at the field. Next I'll set out my mini a-frame, lowered flat onto the ground, and transfer the behavior. Also working on proofing my running around as he drives toward a target/toy on the ground.
The instructor and assistant often make comments to me about switching things up and not doing the same set-up over and over. In one session of the nose target I may do a lead out halfway to the target, and then lead out past the target, and then no lead out and run with the dog, and they'll see me just do one of those and say, "Now make sure that you do it different ways and next time lead out [farther/closer/to the side/whatever]." It's kind of annoying.
Afterwards I asked about drills for teaching the dog to hug the inside of the jump when doing wraps/turns. We were practicing that last night and he goes quite wide. Anne, one of the other instructors, suggested more practice of tight turns during circle work, rewarding tight pivots over the jump right by the stanchion, and lowering the closer end of the jump bar to encourage sticking to that side. I wish I could afford to just buy all of Silvia Trkman's training videos! Her Puppy/Tricks online course covered some of the foundation for cik/cap, too. I need to go back and practice that more.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Teeter play
We've been playing around with our mini teeter. Moe had told me to teach the teeter by putting a foot target at the end and teaching him to hop from the ground onto the end of the board. I should feed multiple treats on the target, keeping his body low, and then release him straight forward and completely off the teeter. I should slowly raise the height of the end of the teeter. This means that eventually he will have to be jumping from a raised object onto the teeter, such as a couch or chair.
Yesterday was the first day that I used the mini teeter I created. Since we'd already done lots of work with other practice teeters, I was able to quickly raise the end until it was about 10-12 inches off the ground. At that point it was hard for Dragon to hop from the floor onto the end. I tried to get him to jump from a chair onto the teeter, stupidly without any prep work! He got spooked and I ended the session.
This morning I was ready to actually prepare him for that step. I pulled out his mat and a little round bed. I had him move back and forth between the mat/bed. I put the mat onto a box and had him hop onto that and back onto the bed on the floor. I put the bed onto a chair and had him hop onto there and then back to the mat on the box. This was about 1.5-2 feet above the floor. Now we were ready to transfer this behavior to the teeter.
I put one end of the teeter up on my agility table and the other up on a crate, so that it wouldn't move. I put his mat onto one end of the teeter and practiced hopping from the mat onto a chair and back. At this stage I had to put my arm between the two so that he actually hopped instead of placing his front feet and then his back feet on the mat. When he was happily doing this I moved the crate so that the teeter end under the mat would fall about two inches and hit the agility table. At this point I ended the exercise.
I decided to throw in one more exercise to increase his comfort level on the teeter. I placed the bed on the opposite side from the mat and had him run back and forth, with the teeter falling about two inches every time. This time I cued him to lie down on his mat when he reached it. He liked this exercise. Thank you Control Unleashed!
Next session I will have him hopping from the box or chair onto the end of the teeter and resume slowly raising the height. I think that I will keep using the mat for a bit, then redo it with his foot target when he's comfortable with a good height. The mat creates a softer landing spot for him and will lower the difficulty of the exercise. And I'm going to continue with the running back and forth between his mat/bed, at a much lower height.
Having worked through all these baby steps at home should set us up to coast through the steps much more easily when we're eventually working through it with a full-size teeter in class.
I wish I'd gotten all this on video!
Yesterday was the first day that I used the mini teeter I created. Since we'd already done lots of work with other practice teeters, I was able to quickly raise the end until it was about 10-12 inches off the ground. At that point it was hard for Dragon to hop from the floor onto the end. I tried to get him to jump from a chair onto the teeter, stupidly without any prep work! He got spooked and I ended the session.
This morning I was ready to actually prepare him for that step. I pulled out his mat and a little round bed. I had him move back and forth between the mat/bed. I put the mat onto a box and had him hop onto that and back onto the bed on the floor. I put the bed onto a chair and had him hop onto there and then back to the mat on the box. This was about 1.5-2 feet above the floor. Now we were ready to transfer this behavior to the teeter.
I put one end of the teeter up on my agility table and the other up on a crate, so that it wouldn't move. I put his mat onto one end of the teeter and practiced hopping from the mat onto a chair and back. At this stage I had to put my arm between the two so that he actually hopped instead of placing his front feet and then his back feet on the mat. When he was happily doing this I moved the crate so that the teeter end under the mat would fall about two inches and hit the agility table. At this point I ended the exercise.
I decided to throw in one more exercise to increase his comfort level on the teeter. I placed the bed on the opposite side from the mat and had him run back and forth, with the teeter falling about two inches every time. This time I cued him to lie down on his mat when he reached it. He liked this exercise. Thank you Control Unleashed!
Next session I will have him hopping from the box or chair onto the end of the teeter and resume slowly raising the height. I think that I will keep using the mat for a bit, then redo it with his foot target when he's comfortable with a good height. The mat creates a softer landing spot for him and will lower the difficulty of the exercise. And I'm going to continue with the running back and forth between his mat/bed, at a much lower height.
Having worked through all these baby steps at home should set us up to coast through the steps much more easily when we're eventually working through it with a full-size teeter in class.
I wish I'd gotten all this on video!
Thursday, December 8, 2011
eye recheck, and agility recap: Focus and Motivation class, week 5
This morning we had another checkup with the ophthalmologist. Everything is looking good. He still has blood in his eye (it takes a very long time to reabsorb) but the healing is continuing without any problems. We are cleared to practice the teeter again!! He is no longer taking the Atropine, and the Neopolydex and Cosopt are now only once a day instead of twice. The Prednisone is continuing twice a day. The next checkup is in February.
Tonight was the last night of this agility session -- next week we become an offical Agility Foundations class!
Today was great. Dragon did not try to sniff/explore during the working time at all. His focus was nearly 100%. The only couple of snafus were when I told him to "take a break" out of habit to let him know that an exercise was finished, and he disengaged and wandered off. Whoops! I need to remember to use a different transition when I actually expect him to stay by me. Usually I pick him up or trot with him to a different area to start a different exercise. He was also more comfortable staying on his mat and chewing his bully stick when I had to move closer to the instructor to listen.
We warmed up with more circle work. I've been working specifically on accelerating during both circle work and obedience heeling. We moved on to running to a nose target. I baited the target a couple of times but for most reps it was empty and he still stopped on it as I kept running past. Success! I just need to watch out because I tend to turn my body toward him to check whether he's stopped, and I know that that's a huge cue to him. I now need to practice having him run to the nose target as I do increasingly more distracting things, such as front cross, run in a different direction, do jumping jacks, etc. We also practiced running to the target over a flat plank, and down the weighted side of a teeter that was lowered nearly to the ground.
We practiced running between jumps standards and coming to front if I was stopped, running toward a toy on the ground if I was moving forward, and running to me and continuing on toward a thrown toy if I was moving forward. We're a bit ahead of the rest of the class in this, although I do need to practice it more. Dragon was more confident in discriminating whether to run ahead or come to me compared to last time we practiced. I need to practice running ahead toward a thrown toy the most.
At the end we played the bang game with the teeter. It was only a couple of inches of the ground and it moved very slowly and made almost no noise when Tiny Dog jumped on it, haha. I was super proud that he was comfortable on it, though. Our months of work are really paying off! At the end of class I raised the end to about six inches and practiced having him hop on and ride it down, and it was the perfect level of difficulty -- he didn't jump on smoothly at first but after a handful of reps had no hesitation.
Another wonderful thing is that he tugged with me! After running to his food toy he would pick it up and tug with me for a few seconds, and then I would mark and reward the tugging with the food inside. It's working very well -- a few times he was super into the tugging, pulling backwards with his whole body, and didn't even let go when I clicked. I have my dog back again!
Tonight was the last night of this agility session -- next week we become an offical Agility Foundations class!
Today was great. Dragon did not try to sniff/explore during the working time at all. His focus was nearly 100%. The only couple of snafus were when I told him to "take a break" out of habit to let him know that an exercise was finished, and he disengaged and wandered off. Whoops! I need to remember to use a different transition when I actually expect him to stay by me. Usually I pick him up or trot with him to a different area to start a different exercise. He was also more comfortable staying on his mat and chewing his bully stick when I had to move closer to the instructor to listen.
We warmed up with more circle work. I've been working specifically on accelerating during both circle work and obedience heeling. We moved on to running to a nose target. I baited the target a couple of times but for most reps it was empty and he still stopped on it as I kept running past. Success! I just need to watch out because I tend to turn my body toward him to check whether he's stopped, and I know that that's a huge cue to him. I now need to practice having him run to the nose target as I do increasingly more distracting things, such as front cross, run in a different direction, do jumping jacks, etc. We also practiced running to the target over a flat plank, and down the weighted side of a teeter that was lowered nearly to the ground.
We practiced running between jumps standards and coming to front if I was stopped, running toward a toy on the ground if I was moving forward, and running to me and continuing on toward a thrown toy if I was moving forward. We're a bit ahead of the rest of the class in this, although I do need to practice it more. Dragon was more confident in discriminating whether to run ahead or come to me compared to last time we practiced. I need to practice running ahead toward a thrown toy the most.
At the end we played the bang game with the teeter. It was only a couple of inches of the ground and it moved very slowly and made almost no noise when Tiny Dog jumped on it, haha. I was super proud that he was comfortable on it, though. Our months of work are really paying off! At the end of class I raised the end to about six inches and practiced having him hop on and ride it down, and it was the perfect level of difficulty -- he didn't jump on smoothly at first but after a handful of reps had no hesitation.
Another wonderful thing is that he tugged with me! After running to his food toy he would pick it up and tug with me for a few seconds, and then I would mark and reward the tugging with the food inside. It's working very well -- a few times he was super into the tugging, pulling backwards with his whole body, and didn't even let go when I clicked. I have my dog back again!
Friday, December 2, 2011
Focus and Motivation agility class, week 4
Recap of yesterday's lesson!
We warmed up with circle work and running to a nose target. The instructor then brought out a couple of circular wobble boards, a tiny tippy board, and a dog walk plank. The students rotated between the stations. Tiny Dog was excellent on the boards. On the wobble board I was able to slam my foot down on it and he was airborne for a micro-second and he just continued walking over the board and sniffing for treats. Excellent!! All the time I've taken with that has really paid off. On the tippy board he also was not concerned about the movement at all and I had him hop onto the end and ride it down (all of the two inches) just like we'd last been practicing with a mini-teeter.
With the dog walk plank he didn't drive across it as quickly as I'd expected, but I think that that's because he couldn't see his nose target very well. I switched from the gold metal lid I'd been using (which was similar in color with the woodchips at the agility field) to a bright white yogurt container, but he still has a little trouble in the dark. At one point when all the stations were taken I snuck off to a corner of the field and had him run along a folded-up teeter to his nose target for more practice. (I had him run down the end that was resting along the ground; no teetering movement.)
We did sit-stays and recalls, making sure to separate body movement from the release word, and rewarding by throwing a toy ahead. I used the new food-stuffable toy I made. It works great except that I had to replace the original magnetic close with metal snaps, because Dragon had learned to pick it up and shake it to send the treats flying. Also I need to add some weights to the bottom so that I can throw it farther.
We moved on to tunnels. The other dogs in my group also had experience with tunnels, so we used one that was fully extended. I rewarded by throwing the food toy ahead.
We ended by having our dogs sit-stay on one side of a jump (no jump bars, just a support along the ground), tossing a toy on the other side, and releasing our dogs to drive through the stanchions toward the toy. Easy-peasy for Dragon.
He did well staying on the mat, chewing a bully stick, except when I had to stand about ten feet away to be able to hear the instructor better. Even better was that he didn't try to sniff the ground until the end of class when he had to potty again. His focus was wonderful when I remembered to take breaks and cue him to look around. Next week is the last class of this "focus and motivation" session. After that we will move on to the official "foundations" sessions, although obviously these past few weeks have focused on foundation agility stuff as well.
I'm going to poke around the internet and read up more on Derrett's handling system, since that's what Moe had started us on and Jump'n Java is using it, too. I know that I'll be able to train more confidently once I have the bigger picture in my head. We're quite ahead of the class and I don't want to lose momentum!
We warmed up with circle work and running to a nose target. The instructor then brought out a couple of circular wobble boards, a tiny tippy board, and a dog walk plank. The students rotated between the stations. Tiny Dog was excellent on the boards. On the wobble board I was able to slam my foot down on it and he was airborne for a micro-second and he just continued walking over the board and sniffing for treats. Excellent!! All the time I've taken with that has really paid off. On the tippy board he also was not concerned about the movement at all and I had him hop onto the end and ride it down (all of the two inches) just like we'd last been practicing with a mini-teeter.
With the dog walk plank he didn't drive across it as quickly as I'd expected, but I think that that's because he couldn't see his nose target very well. I switched from the gold metal lid I'd been using (which was similar in color with the woodchips at the agility field) to a bright white yogurt container, but he still has a little trouble in the dark. At one point when all the stations were taken I snuck off to a corner of the field and had him run along a folded-up teeter to his nose target for more practice. (I had him run down the end that was resting along the ground; no teetering movement.)
We did sit-stays and recalls, making sure to separate body movement from the release word, and rewarding by throwing a toy ahead. I used the new food-stuffable toy I made. It works great except that I had to replace the original magnetic close with metal snaps, because Dragon had learned to pick it up and shake it to send the treats flying. Also I need to add some weights to the bottom so that I can throw it farther.
We moved on to tunnels. The other dogs in my group also had experience with tunnels, so we used one that was fully extended. I rewarded by throwing the food toy ahead.
We ended by having our dogs sit-stay on one side of a jump (no jump bars, just a support along the ground), tossing a toy on the other side, and releasing our dogs to drive through the stanchions toward the toy. Easy-peasy for Dragon.
He did well staying on the mat, chewing a bully stick, except when I had to stand about ten feet away to be able to hear the instructor better. Even better was that he didn't try to sniff the ground until the end of class when he had to potty again. His focus was wonderful when I remembered to take breaks and cue him to look around. Next week is the last class of this "focus and motivation" session. After that we will move on to the official "foundations" sessions, although obviously these past few weeks have focused on foundation agility stuff as well.
I'm going to poke around the internet and read up more on Derrett's handling system, since that's what Moe had started us on and Jump'n Java is using it, too. I know that I'll be able to train more confidently once I have the bigger picture in my head. We're quite ahead of the class and I don't want to lose momentum!
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Focus and Motivation agility class, week 3
We worked on restrained recalls, restrained recall through a tunnel, circle work, nose targets, and sending the dog forward to a toy.
Dragon won't play with toys right now. I had to go through the whole explanation of, "No, he does have toy drive, and I know how to build toy drive, he just won't play right now because of his eye injury" with both the instructor and the assistant. But I was really happy with the instructor's response of, "Well the border collie people all think that your dog has to tug, but my previous dog never tugged a day in her life. I just used toys with food inside to get her to drive ahead toward something." So I'm turning one of Dragon's old torn-up plush toys into a food pouch that I can toss ahead. That should be good for building drive to run ahead because the prednisone makes him SUPER HUNGRY. Still, I want my playful, tuggy dog back!!
He was much better about staying on his mat during downtime, and a bit more focused as we walked around the yard between exercises. I don't allow him to do his own thing on the field. He's either doing an exercise, walking next to me with attention instead of sniffing at the end of the leash, or he's resting and free to look around while in my arms or on his mat. We also practiced a bit of obedience heeling and I brought his dumbbell and liver treats to practice after class.
During most of the time that the instructor is talking to the class, it's super basic stuff and I'm a little bored, but occassionally I'll notice a hole in our foundation. I need to work more on Dragon driving to his nose target independent of my movement, and especially while I keep running ahead. While we don't get many reps in front of the instructor (we only did two recalls and two runs through the tunnel), the biggest upside of doing a group class is that she sees us week after week, and so we're getting steady advice throughout the training process. When I was doing privates with Moe, it was nice to have her undivided attention, but I can end up training the wrong thing or leaving big holes when I'm left to train mostly on my own.
Dragon won't play with toys right now. I had to go through the whole explanation of, "No, he does have toy drive, and I know how to build toy drive, he just won't play right now because of his eye injury" with both the instructor and the assistant. But I was really happy with the instructor's response of, "Well the border collie people all think that your dog has to tug, but my previous dog never tugged a day in her life. I just used toys with food inside to get her to drive ahead toward something." So I'm turning one of Dragon's old torn-up plush toys into a food pouch that I can toss ahead. That should be good for building drive to run ahead because the prednisone makes him SUPER HUNGRY. Still, I want my playful, tuggy dog back!!
He was much better about staying on his mat during downtime, and a bit more focused as we walked around the yard between exercises. I don't allow him to do his own thing on the field. He's either doing an exercise, walking next to me with attention instead of sniffing at the end of the leash, or he's resting and free to look around while in my arms or on his mat. We also practiced a bit of obedience heeling and I brought his dumbbell and liver treats to practice after class.
During most of the time that the instructor is talking to the class, it's super basic stuff and I'm a little bored, but occassionally I'll notice a hole in our foundation. I need to work more on Dragon driving to his nose target independent of my movement, and especially while I keep running ahead. While we don't get many reps in front of the instructor (we only did two recalls and two runs through the tunnel), the biggest upside of doing a group class is that she sees us week after week, and so we're getting steady advice throughout the training process. When I was doing privates with Moe, it was nice to have her undivided attention, but I can end up training the wrong thing or leaving big holes when I'm left to train mostly on my own.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Focus and Motivation class, week 2
I've finally managed to find an introductory, competition-focused agility class that fits into my schedule! It is with Jump'n Java Agility and taught by Dorothy Fukushima. The location is an outdoor field covered with woodchips. Unfortunately this time of year it is cold and dark, despite the small stadium-style lights.
We missed the first week because I had a scheduling conflict, but that didn't matter because Dragon is already ahead of the game thanks to our start in private lessons. The point of this class is getting our dogs to be able to focus among distractions rather than about agility itself, though we did do circle work and decell cues. We also did restrained recalls and sit-stays.
Dragon wanted to just walk around and explore rather than really focusing on me during circle work. I think my rate of reinforcement was too low for that part. But he shone during the stays (I even had him do stand-stays) and the recall.
During our downtime I had him on my lap or lying on his mat. He tried to wander off to explore here and there when he was bored but he didn't try to leave the mat due to activity from the other dogs or people. Next week I will try bringing a bully stick for him to chew on. Under normal circumstances I don't think that he would be interested but the prednisone is making him super hungry so hopefully it will work.
We missed the first week because I had a scheduling conflict, but that didn't matter because Dragon is already ahead of the game thanks to our start in private lessons. The point of this class is getting our dogs to be able to focus among distractions rather than about agility itself, though we did do circle work and decell cues. We also did restrained recalls and sit-stays.
Dragon wanted to just walk around and explore rather than really focusing on me during circle work. I think my rate of reinforcement was too low for that part. But he shone during the stays (I even had him do stand-stays) and the recall.
During our downtime I had him on my lap or lying on his mat. He tried to wander off to explore here and there when he was bored but he didn't try to leave the mat due to activity from the other dogs or people. Next week I will try bringing a bully stick for him to chew on. Under normal circumstances I don't think that he would be interested but the prednisone is making him super hungry so hopefully it will work.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Taking training on the road.
Yesterday morning I took Dragon to a pet supply store to do training. My goals were to get him interacting with novel objects, get reinforced for focusing on me in a distracting environment, and practice nosework in a new indoor location.
It is fun to scan the shelves and find new items to interact with. I free-shaped him to stick his head against the rim of a plastic elizabethan collar. I had him pivot by my side with his front feet on a frisbee. He learned to use his nose to prod at metal choke chains and make them jingle. He did a handstand onto a low shelf about four inches off the ground. He faced his fears and knocked over some plastic toys, creating both motion and noise in order to get yummy treats.
Then I had him lie down on his mat while I went around the corner and hid his nosework tin. We were interrupted a couple of times bybumbling friendly employees who couldn't see that we were working fawned over his cuteness, but when I moved him away and reminded him to search he would get back to work.
He had much better focus than I had expected. Initially he would try to wander off when I asked him to work, but once he realized that we would do a little bit of work and then we would continue walking around the store and he could continue to explore, he was much more willing.
It is fun to scan the shelves and find new items to interact with. I free-shaped him to stick his head against the rim of a plastic elizabethan collar. I had him pivot by my side with his front feet on a frisbee. He learned to use his nose to prod at metal choke chains and make them jingle. He did a handstand onto a low shelf about four inches off the ground. He faced his fears and knocked over some plastic toys, creating both motion and noise in order to get yummy treats.
Then I had him lie down on his mat while I went around the corner and hid his nosework tin. We were interrupted a couple of times by
He had much better focus than I had expected. Initially he would try to wander off when I asked him to work, but once he realized that we would do a little bit of work and then we would continue walking around the store and he could continue to explore, he was much more willing.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Fashion show
I didn't think that I would be one of those owners, but then my friend Miki gave me a tiny raincoat for Dragon, and he looked so precious, and I enjoy sewing, so... I made a coat for Dragon to wear.
The cut is not very fancy but I think he looks quite dashing in that print.
And it's reversible! Isn't he handsome?
This was the raincoat from Auntie Miki.
She also gifted a shirt! It says "Punk Barker" over the shoulders, has a little floral swirl pattern, a heart, and a skull and crossbones. He tolerates wearing it.
Reinforcement history was again on my side when taking these pictures. We have been working on his stand-stays recently, and Dragon has also learned that when the camera is pointed at him, I often reward him for holding whatever position he's in. I didn't have to ask him to stand-stay as I was snapping these pictures -- he just held still automatically! And I of course rewarded him between takes. (Though to be honest he was also slightly shut down while wearing the shirt -- note the awkward wide stance and low tail carriage in this picture.)
I think at this point he was thinking "Get that damn camera out of my face!"
"Oh, the torture I have to endure."
"Someone please save me."
Speaking of do-it-yourself, this is the cover I made for his mat. We're working with a theme here.
He likes his mat. Food comes to him when he is on his mat. His mat is a happy, relaxing place.
"Are you done yet?"
The cut is not very fancy but I think he looks quite dashing in that print.
And it's reversible! Isn't he handsome?
This was the raincoat from Auntie Miki.
She also gifted a shirt! It says "Punk Barker" over the shoulders, has a little floral swirl pattern, a heart, and a skull and crossbones. He tolerates wearing it.
Reinforcement history was again on my side when taking these pictures. We have been working on his stand-stays recently, and Dragon has also learned that when the camera is pointed at him, I often reward him for holding whatever position he's in. I didn't have to ask him to stand-stay as I was snapping these pictures -- he just held still automatically! And I of course rewarded him between takes. (Though to be honest he was also slightly shut down while wearing the shirt -- note the awkward wide stance and low tail carriage in this picture.)
I think at this point he was thinking "Get that damn camera out of my face!"
"Oh, the torture I have to endure."
"Someone please save me."
Speaking of do-it-yourself, this is the cover I made for his mat. We're working with a theme here.
He likes his mat. Food comes to him when he is on his mat. His mat is a happy, relaxing place.
"Are you done yet?"
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