We had another 30 minute lesson with Denise last Thursday.
We started off by reviewing heeling. Dragon was doing fairly well. Distracted here and there, but clearly knew the point and how to move his butt to stay in position. Denise focused on fixing my handling. I still need reminders to look ahead rather than at my dog -- a very basic thing that nearly everyone has heard and yet struggles with! I am not immune. Another thing she pointed out was that I tended to speed up if he drifted away, to try to attract his attention and get him to catch up. She said that instead of becoming more interesting, I should become still and be less interesting. Heeling is fun, not running away and then coming back. She had me do more circles and loops to the left and right, and said I should do way less straight line heeling, which is boring and difficult. By having me focus more on my body rather than my dog, we took some of the pressure off him and he performed better. Wow! I know I will need more reminders about this...
I rewarded him by wrestling and having him play-bite my hands, which is his favorite game and is easily transferred to the ring environment. Denise is always happy to see this example of "personal play" between us. Confidence booster!
We switched to articles. For months now Dragon has been fluent in metal articles, as well as 100% accurate when working with plastic pens and plastic pill bottles. Yet with the leather articles, his success rate was only 50% or so -- he would guess, often not sniffing the leather rings at all, but just grabbing the first one he reached and retrieving it. I'd talked to Denise about this last time we met, and she suggested that I warm him up with the metal canning rings, then keep the context exactly the same as I switch to the leather rings. It seemed to help at first but then he reverted to guessing. I was baffled.
We went into a little, bare room Denise uses to train close in work and I brought out the leather rings. Dragon sniffed the small pile, mouthed one and carried it over to another, then picked up another, then finally brought one back. Denise commented that he moved them around so much and so quickly that she couldn't tell if it was the right one. I didn't think it was. We tried again and had the same result. At that point we were frustrated because all the articles were quickly getting contaminated and it was hard to keep them straight. So Denise brought out three of her own large, leather dumbbells and had me heavily scent one, and we put them into the same corner. Tiny Dog immediately started to sniff the scented one all over and circle it, trying to figure out how to pick up the large object. I rewarded and with some coaxing he even brought it back to me. We did it again, and again he immediately indicated the correct one and managed to bring it to me. Third time, same thing.
Clearly Dragon does understand the exercise well, but there's something about the leather rings I had made by Paco Collars that throws him off, and he can't pick up my scent properly. I couldn't believe that after all the worry over teaching him articles, this was the answer all along. All I have to do is get a different set of articles, and we should be golden!
Next Denise asked to see his stand for exam, which he did perfectly! As I turned to face him I gave him the toothy smile that I've conditioned to mean "you're on the right track, keep going and you'll get reinforcement". As soon as he saw that his ears went up and he stared at me with big eyes, body tense. He didn't even glance at Denise as she walked up, leaned over, and ran her hand down his back. He even stayed while I returned to heel position. I'm so proud! I used to expect that to be the most difficult exercise for him.
Finally we did the sit-stay with recall to front. One time Dragon stood up when I left him but he stayed correctly twice. When I called "here!" he would start running quickly toward me, but then he would veer off to sniff something part way. Like most of his ring behaviors, we need to proof this in distracting contexts.
With an extra cue, he would come to front nicely. His fronts aren't perfect yet, but they're definitely more enthusiastic and straighter than when we saw Denise last month. Teaching him a "through" finish between my legs has helped a lot. Denise said that we're allowed to use it in the ring for small dogs, since we don't have to move our feet to do it and the dog isn't interfering with our performance. That would be great, although he also does a beautiful left finish.
Overall, Denise and I were both happy to see his excitement about working with me and doing the exercises, and his knowledge of the skills. We have a lot of work ahead of us in terms of distraction training, but Denise sees no problems with taking away the food and toy rewards when we go into the ring, since he loves to wrestle-play and I can use various tricks to keep him engaged and as a reward. Tiny Dog is my first obedience dog, so I am always amazed when we're able to pull this stuff off!
Showing posts with label stays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stays. Show all posts
Monday, June 4, 2012
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Handling and nosework
Yesterday I met up with Sarah and her dog Frankie. We've been online acquaintances but had never met in person before. We decided to use each other as decoys in training our dogs. Frankie is reactive toward strangers, so I was the decoy for a couple of BAT sessions. In return, Sarah acted as a mild distraction for Dragon while he was heeling with me. She just walked around and I heeled him closer and farther and rewarded him for looking at me instead of her.
For another excercise I would walk Dragon up to Sarah, put him in a stand-stay, and had her lean down and do a short exam (as for obedience). I would throw his ball forward for him to chase as a reward.
Later I held Dragon in my arms, gave Sarah the treats, and she did some desensitizing to reaching over his head. Hands reaching as he's being carried is a trigger for Tiny Dog and he snaps at the hands to make them go away.
We ended up doing some nosework as well, as Sarah had her kit with her and noted that the clutter-filled loft at Metro Dog was a great space to practice in. I'd never thought of that! Frankie is very advanced and she placed five simultaneous hides for him, using all three odors. It was so cool to watch him work. He got down to business right away, even when the scent carried him closely past me, the scary stranger. Then Sarah kindly did some hides for Tiny Dog and gave me advice. When I first brought him up to the loft and gave the cue "searching", he started zooming around in a circle in excitement. It was hilarious, but she noted that on one of the runs he caught a whiff of the hide, slowed down, and then started running again. We had done an unpaired hide to test his response. She suggested that if we had paired it, he probably would have gotten down to business right away, and that means we should go back to pairing more often. Will do! We did a few more hides paired with food, and he found them reasonably quickly.
Sarah and I agreed that it was rewarding to work with other trainers who have experience with shy/fearful dogs and know BAT, so we didn't have to do any extra explaining to each other. We will work together again!
For another excercise I would walk Dragon up to Sarah, put him in a stand-stay, and had her lean down and do a short exam (as for obedience). I would throw his ball forward for him to chase as a reward.
Later I held Dragon in my arms, gave Sarah the treats, and she did some desensitizing to reaching over his head. Hands reaching as he's being carried is a trigger for Tiny Dog and he snaps at the hands to make them go away.
We ended up doing some nosework as well, as Sarah had her kit with her and noted that the clutter-filled loft at Metro Dog was a great space to practice in. I'd never thought of that! Frankie is very advanced and she placed five simultaneous hides for him, using all three odors. It was so cool to watch him work. He got down to business right away, even when the scent carried him closely past me, the scary stranger. Then Sarah kindly did some hides for Tiny Dog and gave me advice. When I first brought him up to the loft and gave the cue "searching", he started zooming around in a circle in excitement. It was hilarious, but she noted that on one of the runs he caught a whiff of the hide, slowed down, and then started running again. We had done an unpaired hide to test his response. She suggested that if we had paired it, he probably would have gotten down to business right away, and that means we should go back to pairing more often. Will do! We did a few more hides paired with food, and he found them reasonably quickly.
Sarah and I agreed that it was rewarding to work with other trainers who have experience with shy/fearful dogs and know BAT, so we didn't have to do any extra explaining to each other. We will work together again!
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Follow-up on obedience lesson with Denise Fenzi
Here's the initial report on implementing Denise's suggestions when I had a lesson with her a week ago.
The bad news first: we've regressed further with the dumbbell. We put too much pressure on Dragon during the lesson; he can be very sensitive. I tried putting the dumbbell out at a few feet away from me and I thought that he would still be okay with picking it up and I could click/treat for that. He didn't even want to put his mouth on it.
I changed tactics and decided to lighten the mood by holding the dumbbell firmly in my hand and encouraging him to play with me. He was confused but I got him to bat at my hands and push into me while I was holding it in my right hand. When he was more relaxed about the whole thing I tossed the dumbbell out farther and went back to square one: C/T for looking, for moving toward, for putting his head down toward it, for putting his mouth on it. I stopped there because I could see his anxiety increasing again.
My plan is to pull out the liver treats and reteach him the pick-up as if he didn't know it at all, and continue playing games with him while it's nearby. Crossing my fingers that it won't take us long to overcome this setback. Later I'll use a platform in front of me to encourage him to get close in and stay there as I (very, very carefully) take it. And no more practicing on wooden floors!!
In the meantime I'm working on encouraging him to bring other objects very close to me and right into my hands, rather than having to reach for them myself. Seeing quick progress on it with his toys, tennis ball, and leash tab (his first retrieve object).
Moving on, the problem with him getting up from his sits in front or at heel hasn't appeared again other than here and there when he anticipates. It's possible that I will see it again in future situations when I am more nervous. In the meantime I am occassionally extending the amount of time I expect him to told a sit and giving multiple rewards for it. Not worried about it.
Our stand for exam is continuing to improve. I've practiced setting out his tennis ball or a big treat and releasing him from a stand-stay while he's focusing on it. Then I moved on to feeling him up while he stares at it and immediately releasing him to get it. We also did three repetitions of that with my sister, whom he adores and can barely stand still for, and he did well -- the "exam" was only 1 second to keep him successful.
Other things I have decided to work on: I need to reteach the stand cue. Once he's in the stand, he's great, and he recognizes the cue in the way that I do it for agility start line stays. However his response to the stand cues (both verbal and hand signal) in front and at my side in non-agility settings has diminished. No problem, we'll just start again and be more thorough this time.
We've been working on "go and throw", as outlined in the book Agility Right From the Start. It's a simple method: line your dog up, say the word "go", and then throw a toy forward. As your dog starts to anticipate the toy being thrown and starts running ahead, you deliberately start to delay the throw so that your dog is being rewarded for running farther and farther ahead. My tossing abilities are not great, however at the park he ran forward about 10 feet confidently, which is a great foundation. This isn't just for agility -- it can also provide a good foundation for the go out in obedience.
I mentioned recently that Dragon's appetite for Primal raw food was diminished. I switched to putting it into a food tube rather than on a plate, and making a mini training session out of breakfast and dinner. This has been a phenomenal success. Not only is he eating all the raw food, but his enthusiasm for it quickly started to increase! He now comes into the kitchen and stares at me as I prep his meal. I'm even able to use it as a reward outside.
The bad news first: we've regressed further with the dumbbell. We put too much pressure on Dragon during the lesson; he can be very sensitive. I tried putting the dumbbell out at a few feet away from me and I thought that he would still be okay with picking it up and I could click/treat for that. He didn't even want to put his mouth on it.
I changed tactics and decided to lighten the mood by holding the dumbbell firmly in my hand and encouraging him to play with me. He was confused but I got him to bat at my hands and push into me while I was holding it in my right hand. When he was more relaxed about the whole thing I tossed the dumbbell out farther and went back to square one: C/T for looking, for moving toward, for putting his head down toward it, for putting his mouth on it. I stopped there because I could see his anxiety increasing again.
My plan is to pull out the liver treats and reteach him the pick-up as if he didn't know it at all, and continue playing games with him while it's nearby. Crossing my fingers that it won't take us long to overcome this setback. Later I'll use a platform in front of me to encourage him to get close in and stay there as I (very, very carefully) take it. And no more practicing on wooden floors!!
In the meantime I'm working on encouraging him to bring other objects very close to me and right into my hands, rather than having to reach for them myself. Seeing quick progress on it with his toys, tennis ball, and leash tab (his first retrieve object).
Moving on, the problem with him getting up from his sits in front or at heel hasn't appeared again other than here and there when he anticipates. It's possible that I will see it again in future situations when I am more nervous. In the meantime I am occassionally extending the amount of time I expect him to told a sit and giving multiple rewards for it. Not worried about it.
Our stand for exam is continuing to improve. I've practiced setting out his tennis ball or a big treat and releasing him from a stand-stay while he's focusing on it. Then I moved on to feeling him up while he stares at it and immediately releasing him to get it. We also did three repetitions of that with my sister, whom he adores and can barely stand still for, and he did well -- the "exam" was only 1 second to keep him successful.
Other things I have decided to work on: I need to reteach the stand cue. Once he's in the stand, he's great, and he recognizes the cue in the way that I do it for agility start line stays. However his response to the stand cues (both verbal and hand signal) in front and at my side in non-agility settings has diminished. No problem, we'll just start again and be more thorough this time.
We've been working on "go and throw", as outlined in the book Agility Right From the Start. It's a simple method: line your dog up, say the word "go", and then throw a toy forward. As your dog starts to anticipate the toy being thrown and starts running ahead, you deliberately start to delay the throw so that your dog is being rewarded for running farther and farther ahead. My tossing abilities are not great, however at the park he ran forward about 10 feet confidently, which is a great foundation. This isn't just for agility -- it can also provide a good foundation for the go out in obedience.
I mentioned recently that Dragon's appetite for Primal raw food was diminished. I switched to putting it into a food tube rather than on a plate, and making a mini training session out of breakfast and dinner. This has been a phenomenal success. Not only is he eating all the raw food, but his enthusiasm for it quickly started to increase! He now comes into the kitchen and stares at me as I prep his meal. I'm even able to use it as a reward outside.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Obedience lesson with Denise Fenzi
Last Wednesday I had a 30 minute lesson with Denise Fenzi, a competion obedience trainer who uses positive methods (a rarity in this sport). We've had a couple of lessons with her before, but nowadays most of my training budget goes to our ongoing agility lessons, so it's been a few months since I last saw her.
As usual we started with heeling, since it's so important in competition. Denise liked his turns (both left and right) and his halts. He over-rotated on the left turns, but that's because he was putting in too much effort, and that's a better problem to have than not enough effort. For the first couple of minutes I didn't use any treats or toys to reward him, I just stopped and wrestled with him -- that's a big improvement in our training since Denise last saw us. His attention was drifting a fair amount, since he wanted to sniff and explore. I blabbed at him too much. I do that when I'm nervous. She had me do some large circles to the right so that I could concentrate on my rhythm and connection to him without worrying about footwork. She cued me to alternate praise, silence, and rewards. He doesn't need me to talk to him as much as I do when I'm nervous. Instead he needs me to praise him for making an effort to focus on the work.
We talked about working around distractions or in new environments. Denise noticed that I would call him back to me when he ran off and resume work. She commented that it seemed he had no idea that running off was "wrong". She suggested I use a clear no reward marker to communicate that he shouldn't run off to greet the neighbors or check out a smell. If I have to use it more than a handful of times, then it's not effective and I need to try a different tactic. I don't use NRMs often but I think she's right that this would be the right situation for it.
I had his crate set up and I would cue him to go in when we would stop to talk. If I didn't, he would immediately wander off to explore. He needs a clear structure of "down time in crate" versus "engaged work time". No grey area in which I expect him to just hang out with me while I pet him.
We practiced fronts and the recall next. Last time I saw her, we were just laying a foundation for fronts, using my hands to guide him to sit straight and then tossing a treat between my legs for him to chase. After that we went through a phase in which he would put his front paws on my feet and/or sit pretty. I fixed this by feeding him low to keep his body lowered toward the ground, and I didn't reward the times that he put his feet on my feet. We also spent a lot of time with me pivoting in place and rewarding him for adjusting to be straight again. His fronts are looking much better in terms of the angle. Oddly, he kept standing up from the sit every time I rewarded him at Denise's, something he never does at home. It must have been because he was nervous and/or I was moving a bit differently out of nerves. Denise suggested I feed him from up high again, as it looked to her like I was cuing a stand. Also if he stood up, I would pull the treat away, and he caught on quickly to that part.
We moved on to the dumbbell. Dragon had been doing very well with this, however shortly before our lesson he had dropped the dumbbell onto the wooden floor at my parents' house, and the sound traumatized him. He associated it with coming close to me and my reaching my hand to take the dumbbell from him. The result was that during our lesson he would pick it up when I tossed it, but he didn't want to bring it in close, and he refused to take it into his mouth when I held it out for him. Denise was coaching me to hold my hands close to my body to encourage him to come in, rather than reaching my hands toward him, but each time he felt the dumbbell's weight shift as I took it he would jump back with a scared look. This was very disappointing to me. I had known that he hated the noise and motion of dropping things, but thus far I'd managed to avoid that happening with the dumbbell by carefully reaching and taking it from him. Despite all the time we'd already spent on the dumbbell, the one time he dropped it on a wooden floor outweighed the positive history.
Denise tried to help him work through his fear by kneeling down and placing the dumbbell close to her body and giving him lots of happy talk and encouragement to lean in and pick it up. He was extremely conflicted. He circled her, darting his head forward and back, he rubbed against my legs and climbed on me for support, and a few times he did mouth the dumbbell but did not pick it up fully. We gave up with that exercise.
The last exercise we did was the stand for exam, which went better than expected. I'd been practicing here and there with my coworkers, but mostly we focused on the "person approaching while dog holds a stay" rather than the actual exam. We did just a few reps with Denise approaching and then she was able to give him a light pat down while he held his stand-stay. Good dog! She recommended that I work on this by myself as well. We want him to be focusing his attention on something else besides the person touching him. Usually that "something else" is me standing just a little distance away. If I'm by myself, I can set a treat on the ground for him to focus on while I play judge.
The next lesson will be in a few weeks. I'm about to also post a follow-up of how our next handful of training sessions at home went.
As usual we started with heeling, since it's so important in competition. Denise liked his turns (both left and right) and his halts. He over-rotated on the left turns, but that's because he was putting in too much effort, and that's a better problem to have than not enough effort. For the first couple of minutes I didn't use any treats or toys to reward him, I just stopped and wrestled with him -- that's a big improvement in our training since Denise last saw us. His attention was drifting a fair amount, since he wanted to sniff and explore. I blabbed at him too much. I do that when I'm nervous. She had me do some large circles to the right so that I could concentrate on my rhythm and connection to him without worrying about footwork. She cued me to alternate praise, silence, and rewards. He doesn't need me to talk to him as much as I do when I'm nervous. Instead he needs me to praise him for making an effort to focus on the work.
We talked about working around distractions or in new environments. Denise noticed that I would call him back to me when he ran off and resume work. She commented that it seemed he had no idea that running off was "wrong". She suggested I use a clear no reward marker to communicate that he shouldn't run off to greet the neighbors or check out a smell. If I have to use it more than a handful of times, then it's not effective and I need to try a different tactic. I don't use NRMs often but I think she's right that this would be the right situation for it.
I had his crate set up and I would cue him to go in when we would stop to talk. If I didn't, he would immediately wander off to explore. He needs a clear structure of "down time in crate" versus "engaged work time". No grey area in which I expect him to just hang out with me while I pet him.
We practiced fronts and the recall next. Last time I saw her, we were just laying a foundation for fronts, using my hands to guide him to sit straight and then tossing a treat between my legs for him to chase. After that we went through a phase in which he would put his front paws on my feet and/or sit pretty. I fixed this by feeding him low to keep his body lowered toward the ground, and I didn't reward the times that he put his feet on my feet. We also spent a lot of time with me pivoting in place and rewarding him for adjusting to be straight again. His fronts are looking much better in terms of the angle. Oddly, he kept standing up from the sit every time I rewarded him at Denise's, something he never does at home. It must have been because he was nervous and/or I was moving a bit differently out of nerves. Denise suggested I feed him from up high again, as it looked to her like I was cuing a stand. Also if he stood up, I would pull the treat away, and he caught on quickly to that part.
We moved on to the dumbbell. Dragon had been doing very well with this, however shortly before our lesson he had dropped the dumbbell onto the wooden floor at my parents' house, and the sound traumatized him. He associated it with coming close to me and my reaching my hand to take the dumbbell from him. The result was that during our lesson he would pick it up when I tossed it, but he didn't want to bring it in close, and he refused to take it into his mouth when I held it out for him. Denise was coaching me to hold my hands close to my body to encourage him to come in, rather than reaching my hands toward him, but each time he felt the dumbbell's weight shift as I took it he would jump back with a scared look. This was very disappointing to me. I had known that he hated the noise and motion of dropping things, but thus far I'd managed to avoid that happening with the dumbbell by carefully reaching and taking it from him. Despite all the time we'd already spent on the dumbbell, the one time he dropped it on a wooden floor outweighed the positive history.
Denise tried to help him work through his fear by kneeling down and placing the dumbbell close to her body and giving him lots of happy talk and encouragement to lean in and pick it up. He was extremely conflicted. He circled her, darting his head forward and back, he rubbed against my legs and climbed on me for support, and a few times he did mouth the dumbbell but did not pick it up fully. We gave up with that exercise.
The last exercise we did was the stand for exam, which went better than expected. I'd been practicing here and there with my coworkers, but mostly we focused on the "person approaching while dog holds a stay" rather than the actual exam. We did just a few reps with Denise approaching and then she was able to give him a light pat down while he held his stand-stay. Good dog! She recommended that I work on this by myself as well. We want him to be focusing his attention on something else besides the person touching him. Usually that "something else" is me standing just a little distance away. If I'm by myself, I can set a treat on the ground for him to focus on while I play judge.
The next lesson will be in a few weeks. I'm about to also post a follow-up of how our next handful of training sessions at home went.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Weekly multi-sport recap
Dragon's bowels are normal again and he's back on his regular food. I still don't know what caused his illness last week but no more need to worry.
On Saturday morning we graduated from our Intro to Odor class. Dragon was introduced to odor early last year by his Auntie Miki, and at this point he's doing mostly unpaired hides. He was able to get some tougher hiding spots than the other students. He loves searching and during our first couple of runs each week he would just prance around the room in excitement before getting serious.
On Wednesday we went to a conformation drop-in, just for fun. The other attendants were experienced while I didn't really know what to do, and Dragon has never been taught to gait or stack like a show dog. However it was an opportunity to practice our own training among other dogs and people and lots of food on the floor. I kept up a high rate of reinforcement for walking at my side, doing stand-stays, and getting brief exams from the instructor. The instructor was supportive of me using the class to practice obedience stuff like heeling and the stand for exam, so I plan to drop in here and there.
Speaking of heeling, we have a 30 minute session scheduled with Denise Fenzi next week! Super excited; I haven't seen her in months due to my training budget going toward agility classes.
Today's agility lesson included our first rear cross work on obstacles. The sequence was a straight tunnel and then rear cross as the dog takes a jump. Somehow Dragon did this beautifully, turning confidently in the right direction, even though we'd never done it before! We also did front crosses with 2-3 jumps. I do much better if I practice without my dog first.
I used a relatively small amount of treats during class and mostly rewarded the sequences with tugging. Dragon was on fire and really eager to tug and wrestle. The instructor gave me some guidance with the tugging and a couple of times I was able to do two things I'd only dreamed of: just holding onto the toy and shaking it minimally while my dog happily tugged on his own, and using the tug as a transport back to our starting point (though I had to move slowly and stop here and there to let him dig in and tug). I was grinning like a fool.
On Saturday morning we graduated from our Intro to Odor class. Dragon was introduced to odor early last year by his Auntie Miki, and at this point he's doing mostly unpaired hides. He was able to get some tougher hiding spots than the other students. He loves searching and during our first couple of runs each week he would just prance around the room in excitement before getting serious.
On Wednesday we went to a conformation drop-in, just for fun. The other attendants were experienced while I didn't really know what to do, and Dragon has never been taught to gait or stack like a show dog. However it was an opportunity to practice our own training among other dogs and people and lots of food on the floor. I kept up a high rate of reinforcement for walking at my side, doing stand-stays, and getting brief exams from the instructor. The instructor was supportive of me using the class to practice obedience stuff like heeling and the stand for exam, so I plan to drop in here and there.
Speaking of heeling, we have a 30 minute session scheduled with Denise Fenzi next week! Super excited; I haven't seen her in months due to my training budget going toward agility classes.
Today's agility lesson included our first rear cross work on obstacles. The sequence was a straight tunnel and then rear cross as the dog takes a jump. Somehow Dragon did this beautifully, turning confidently in the right direction, even though we'd never done it before! We also did front crosses with 2-3 jumps. I do much better if I practice without my dog first.
I used a relatively small amount of treats during class and mostly rewarded the sequences with tugging. Dragon was on fire and really eager to tug and wrestle. The instructor gave me some guidance with the tugging and a couple of times I was able to do two things I'd only dreamed of: just holding onto the toy and shaking it minimally while my dog happily tugged on his own, and using the tug as a transport back to our starting point (though I had to move slowly and stop here and there to let him dig in and tug). I was grinning like a fool.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Agility Foundations, week 2-2 recap
We had a new instructor today, Wendy. We spent the hour doing jumping and contacts review and then a short jumps-and-tunnel sequence so that she could assess where each team was with their handling and training. Her emphasis was on getting the dogs more reved up before their work, and on going back to reward stays frequently. The reminder about reving up was good for me. I tend to get too focused on the "how" and "why" of an exercise and forget to add that extra enthusiasm for Dragon. His performance is of course much better when I am able to get him more excited!
At home, we've done a couple of sessions of plank work on stairs, and it is building his confidence nicely. Here, too, it greatly helps if I jump around, run him in a circle, wrestle with him, and send him straight to the board instead of doing a lead out. In the meantime I think that I will not put him on the dog walk at all in class, not even to backchain it.
At home, we've done a couple of sessions of plank work on stairs, and it is building his confidence nicely. Here, too, it greatly helps if I jump around, run him in a circle, wrestle with him, and send him straight to the board instead of doing a lead out. In the meantime I think that I will not put him on the dog walk at all in class, not even to backchain it.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Agility Foundation, week 3 recap
Circle work, including accelerating into 2 tunnels, deceleration to test dog staying with us, and front cross. Even with these very short sequences, I have to run through it in my head multiple times before I can do it smoothly with my dog. It's clear that someday when we're competing, remembering the course and how I planned to run it will be one of my weaknesses.
Contact training, along a 12 foot dog walk ramp, to a target (stopping to nose touch) or to a thrown toy (thrown when he's about 2/3rds of the way across). Got compliments from Suzanne on his drive forward, not even looking at where I am, knowing that the toy will appear ahead. Awesome. His drive has definitely increased greatly since I started using food toys and throwing them ahead for him.
Sit-stays and stand-stays. We've practiced this a lot, and in many different environments, so that I can take posed pictures of him and also in preparation for competition obedience. His stay is far and away the best in the class. I can run around him in a circle or run past the equipment and he doesn't break. He actually has a much harder time holding a stay when I lean over him than he does when I walk out of sight.
Introduced the other class dogs to the table and shaped going between the jump standards. I practiced sending to the table and doing a default down, and doing tight, collected turns around the jump standard.
Before the other students had arrived I also used the floppy lowered teeter and did some conditioning to the sound of the board resetting. He's more comfortable with the noise of the teeter as it hits the ground than when it resets after he's gotten off. The delay in the loud noise (as well as the teeter moving on its own) is what gets to him -- just when he's relaxing or wondering what we're going to do next, BAM! There it goes. After doing a handful of repetitions of CC I went back to having him jump on the board and ride it down, release, and then get a treat for the bang of the reset. However he was unnerved and less confident when jumping on. Usually he doesn't notice it as much because he's moving away or eating his treats at the moment that it bangs. I have to continue being very careful with all the noisy stuff. I think next time I will hold onto the teeter and slam it upwards myself, so that the motion of my hand will predict the noise for him, and the board won't be moving all on its own. Inanimate objects are not supposed to move all on their own!!
Contact training, along a 12 foot dog walk ramp, to a target (stopping to nose touch) or to a thrown toy (thrown when he's about 2/3rds of the way across). Got compliments from Suzanne on his drive forward, not even looking at where I am, knowing that the toy will appear ahead. Awesome. His drive has definitely increased greatly since I started using food toys and throwing them ahead for him.
Sit-stays and stand-stays. We've practiced this a lot, and in many different environments, so that I can take posed pictures of him and also in preparation for competition obedience. His stay is far and away the best in the class. I can run around him in a circle or run past the equipment and he doesn't break. He actually has a much harder time holding a stay when I lean over him than he does when I walk out of sight.
Introduced the other class dogs to the table and shaped going between the jump standards. I practiced sending to the table and doing a default down, and doing tight, collected turns around the jump standard.
Before the other students had arrived I also used the floppy lowered teeter and did some conditioning to the sound of the board resetting. He's more comfortable with the noise of the teeter as it hits the ground than when it resets after he's gotten off. The delay in the loud noise (as well as the teeter moving on its own) is what gets to him -- just when he's relaxing or wondering what we're going to do next, BAM! There it goes. After doing a handful of repetitions of CC I went back to having him jump on the board and ride it down, release, and then get a treat for the bang of the reset. However he was unnerved and less confident when jumping on. Usually he doesn't notice it as much because he's moving away or eating his treats at the moment that it bangs. I have to continue being very careful with all the noisy stuff. I think next time I will hold onto the teeter and slam it upwards myself, so that the motion of my hand will predict the noise for him, and the board won't be moving all on its own. Inanimate objects are not supposed to move all on their own!!
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!
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 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.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Training session with Janette and Brooky
One dog doing silly tricks is fun. Two dogs doing them at the same time is funner!
We worked on stays and recalls, the dogs learned to target each other, and Dragon took Brooky for a walk.
We worked on stays and recalls, the dogs learned to target each other, and Dragon took Brooky for a walk.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Second obedience lesson with Denise Fenzi
Oh, how I love working with Denise. Her attitude puts me right at ease because she is upbeat, casual, and flexible. Her pointers are always spot-on and I end the lesson feeling like I know exactly what we should do, and energized to do it.
Last time I met her we mostly worked on heeling. We started off by reviewing heeling again, and I showed her our progress. Dragon had great position when he was paying attention, nice and close and pivoting beautifully. There was a small issue with his attention drifting. Denise had me tell him to take a break (signalling that he had lost the opportunity for reinforcement) and back up whenever he looked away. If he heeled nicely and payed attention for 3-5 seconds, then he would be paid. It can be surprisingly hard with a small dog to tell whether he's paying attention. I don't expect Dragon to look at my face the entire time because that's hard on his body, but he should be looking upwards and towards my legs. I will have to work harder to be able to recognize right away whether he's focusing or looking past my legs at something else. I'm raising my criteria and working on getting beautiful, attentive heeling before I ask for more duration.
We briefly discussed sitting at heel. I've been using a clear hand gesture/target to get him to sit nicely in position, to build up a good history of reinforcement. Denise cautioned me not to name the sit at heel. If I have to cue it, he won't do it automatically. If I wait him out and he does it and gets rewarded, then he'll learn faster to do it automatically. (When we practicing heeling on the rally course after I finished teaching class this evening, I practiced planting my right foot and shifting my weight slightly sideways as a cue to sit. He responded very well to this.)
From heeling we moved on to making training plans for all the rest of the AKC Novice exercises.
Fronts: During our last lesson, Denise had suggested that I use a front foot target and click for his butt being straight on, but he's been reinforced too much for pivoting from side to side and this was a frustrating exercise. I had decided to switch to backing up and using my hands down low to guide him in close to my legs. By now this had progressed to having my hands up higher and making an upwards motion, and Dragon would sit almost right between my feet. Then I would bend my knees outwards and throw the treat between my legs for him to chase (encourages him to get in close to my legs). Denise liked what we were doing and added that I should stop backing up when he looks at me, so that he gets to do the front and get reinforced if he's offering attention. I can also already fade the hand movement more. Once he's got that down I'll slow down my backwards movement until he's coming to front without my feet moving at all.
Stand/Sit for Exam: The Beginner Novice class has a sit for exam instead of a stand, and Denise recommended teaching that first. It's an easier behavior for the dog to be successful in, since he's less likely to shuffle his feet or move away. We used a CAT-like method to teach him to focus on me as a way to make the inherently-uncomfortable exercise end. Denise would step foward, click when Dragon looked at me, and then back away as I treated him. Build up to the scary stranger stepping forward and reaching, looming over the dog, waving stuff around, etc. I really like this method -- the dog learns that he can make the exercise end by standing still and watching the handler. It always works in the ring! Obviously you have to build it up slowly, so that the dog doesn't start breaking because he's too nervous about the stranger walking right up to him and looming over him. (Also, Denise didn't mention this, but using a stand platform would be a good way to set the dog up for success when transitioning from a sit for exam to a stand for exam.)
Retrieve: Dragon showed off his strong "bring to hand" behavior with his little leash tab. We talked about how dogs have trouble keeping items in their mouths as they sit. Butt goes down = mouth opens up. She liked that I'd been working on having Dragon do other tricks while holding onto his tab, and brought up using a platform, which was also on my to-do list once he was more solid with standing squarely on his new, narrow platform. We did practice with a large platform she had on hand, and lo and behold, Dragon was able to pick up the tab, get on the platform in front of me, and promptly sit with the tab in his mouth. Platforms are magic.
I need to order a dumbbell.
Broad Jump: I need to get some white boards to practice this. We did some jumping with her practice set, and I cued "hup" like I do for agility jumps, and he had no trouble with it. She recommended teaching him to go out to a target after jumping, and also putting a block by the corner of the broad jump to prevent the dog from learning to take shortcuts in training.
Stays: We ran out of time to practice but I said that his stays are great, in many different environments. I need to start practicing them with other dogs around. This will be easy if I remember to do it at work, where there is no shortage of both trained dogs who will hold their stays and green dogs who will be squirmy and break stays, for proofing.
I was amazed to realize how everything is coming together so well. I feel like we have a good foundation going.
Last time I met her we mostly worked on heeling. We started off by reviewing heeling again, and I showed her our progress. Dragon had great position when he was paying attention, nice and close and pivoting beautifully. There was a small issue with his attention drifting. Denise had me tell him to take a break (signalling that he had lost the opportunity for reinforcement) and back up whenever he looked away. If he heeled nicely and payed attention for 3-5 seconds, then he would be paid. It can be surprisingly hard with a small dog to tell whether he's paying attention. I don't expect Dragon to look at my face the entire time because that's hard on his body, but he should be looking upwards and towards my legs. I will have to work harder to be able to recognize right away whether he's focusing or looking past my legs at something else. I'm raising my criteria and working on getting beautiful, attentive heeling before I ask for more duration.
We briefly discussed sitting at heel. I've been using a clear hand gesture/target to get him to sit nicely in position, to build up a good history of reinforcement. Denise cautioned me not to name the sit at heel. If I have to cue it, he won't do it automatically. If I wait him out and he does it and gets rewarded, then he'll learn faster to do it automatically. (When we practicing heeling on the rally course after I finished teaching class this evening, I practiced planting my right foot and shifting my weight slightly sideways as a cue to sit. He responded very well to this.)
From heeling we moved on to making training plans for all the rest of the AKC Novice exercises.
Fronts: During our last lesson, Denise had suggested that I use a front foot target and click for his butt being straight on, but he's been reinforced too much for pivoting from side to side and this was a frustrating exercise. I had decided to switch to backing up and using my hands down low to guide him in close to my legs. By now this had progressed to having my hands up higher and making an upwards motion, and Dragon would sit almost right between my feet. Then I would bend my knees outwards and throw the treat between my legs for him to chase (encourages him to get in close to my legs). Denise liked what we were doing and added that I should stop backing up when he looks at me, so that he gets to do the front and get reinforced if he's offering attention. I can also already fade the hand movement more. Once he's got that down I'll slow down my backwards movement until he's coming to front without my feet moving at all.
Stand/Sit for Exam: The Beginner Novice class has a sit for exam instead of a stand, and Denise recommended teaching that first. It's an easier behavior for the dog to be successful in, since he's less likely to shuffle his feet or move away. We used a CAT-like method to teach him to focus on me as a way to make the inherently-uncomfortable exercise end. Denise would step foward, click when Dragon looked at me, and then back away as I treated him. Build up to the scary stranger stepping forward and reaching, looming over the dog, waving stuff around, etc. I really like this method -- the dog learns that he can make the exercise end by standing still and watching the handler. It always works in the ring! Obviously you have to build it up slowly, so that the dog doesn't start breaking because he's too nervous about the stranger walking right up to him and looming over him. (Also, Denise didn't mention this, but using a stand platform would be a good way to set the dog up for success when transitioning from a sit for exam to a stand for exam.)
Retrieve: Dragon showed off his strong "bring to hand" behavior with his little leash tab. We talked about how dogs have trouble keeping items in their mouths as they sit. Butt goes down = mouth opens up. She liked that I'd been working on having Dragon do other tricks while holding onto his tab, and brought up using a platform, which was also on my to-do list once he was more solid with standing squarely on his new, narrow platform. We did practice with a large platform she had on hand, and lo and behold, Dragon was able to pick up the tab, get on the platform in front of me, and promptly sit with the tab in his mouth. Platforms are magic.
I need to order a dumbbell.
Broad Jump: I need to get some white boards to practice this. We did some jumping with her practice set, and I cued "hup" like I do for agility jumps, and he had no trouble with it. She recommended teaching him to go out to a target after jumping, and also putting a block by the corner of the broad jump to prevent the dog from learning to take shortcuts in training.
Stays: We ran out of time to practice but I said that his stays are great, in many different environments. I need to start practicing them with other dogs around. This will be easy if I remember to do it at work, where there is no shortage of both trained dogs who will hold their stays and green dogs who will be squirmy and break stays, for proofing.
I was amazed to realize how everything is coming together so well. I feel like we have a good foundation going.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
8.2 mile hike in Redwood
Last Thursday I left our day free so that I could hike in the woods as long as I wanted. We went to Redwood Regional Park, my favorite local park, and did an 8.2 mile loop. It's a well-used bike trail, so the path was wide and well-marked, though there was one section where the map was misleading and I had to ask a ranger for directions (I was very fortunate that there happened to be a ranger station close by!).
I brought along my new fanny pack, water bottle, and visor, food for the both of us, and my trusty camera. The hike took us four and a half hours. It was a beautiful, foggy day. Plenty of pictures below:
Note Dragon standing to the right of the path, in the grass. He's standing upright, and the path is at about a 45 degree angle here.
Aftermath of the hike:
Dragon's first bath!
Filthy dog. It took me FORTY MINUTES to carefully brush all the burrs out of this tiny dog.
I also recorded a great video of Dragon climbing a fallen tree trunk. This was something he did naturally and I've encouraged it, although sometimes it can be a bit scary -- the apex of his climb here was about 10 feet above the ground.
And a video that just shows off our training at the park. This shows a couple of stays as well as "real-life agility" -- jumping onto a tree trunk lying on the ground and walking across it.
I brought along my new fanny pack, water bottle, and visor, food for the both of us, and my trusty camera. The hike took us four and a half hours. It was a beautiful, foggy day. Plenty of pictures below:
Note Dragon standing to the right of the path, in the grass. He's standing upright, and the path is at about a 45 degree angle here.
Aftermath of the hike:
Dragon's first bath!
Filthy dog. It took me FORTY MINUTES to carefully brush all the burrs out of this tiny dog.
I also recorded a great video of Dragon climbing a fallen tree trunk. This was something he did naturally and I've encouraged it, although sometimes it can be a bit scary -- the apex of his climb here was about 10 feet above the ground.
And a video that just shows off our training at the park. This shows a couple of stays as well as "real-life agility" -- jumping onto a tree trunk lying on the ground and walking across it.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Pictures from the Albany Bulb
These pictures are from a trip to the Albany Bulb last Wednesday.
It was low tide, so the beach was not so pretty.
I've mentioned before that asking your dog to stay while taking a photo is a great real-world training opportunity. This day we practiced our sit-stays:
Down-stays:
And stand-stays:
As usual, tiny dog is tiny.
Stand-stay on sloped surface:
And in a concrete tube:
It was low tide, so the beach was not so pretty.
I've mentioned before that asking your dog to stay while taking a photo is a great real-world training opportunity. This day we practiced our sit-stays:
Down-stays:
And stand-stays:
As usual, tiny dog is tiny.
Stand-stay on sloped surface:
And in a concrete tube:
Monday, August 8, 2011
Starting the stand for exam.
Tonight I took Dragon to visit some friends in San Francisco. He's been to their house a couple of times and was always welcomed because he's calm and fluffy and adorable. He sat on my lap while we ate dinner, though he was a bit restless and was soon transferred to my friends' laps for cuddles.
After dinner I asked one of my friends to help me start training Dragon on the "stand for exam" exercise in competitive obedience. The final version of the exercise, in the utility class, is that the dog heels next to the handler, the handler cues the dog to stop and stay standing as she walks away, the judge approaches and pats down the dog while he stays standing, and then the judge retreats and the handler calls the dog back to heel position. Of course you have to break this exercise down to all of its components to teach it successfully. That includes:
- heeling
- stopping on cue
- staying standing as handler walks away
- staying standing as a stranger approaches
- staying standing as a stranger leans over and feels up the dog
- returning to heel position on cue
Each of those items must be broken down further yet.
Today I was kneeling in front of Dragon and feeding him as my friend stood next to him and practiced reaching for him, and just barely touching him. My goal was to heavily reinforce the lack of movement on Dragon's part. The first time he felt fingers touch his fur, he shifted his weight and moved a couple of feet, but otherwise he successfully stood still.
Next time I work on this exercise I will practice having my friend coming and going or moving around him, or I will have my friend stay close to him but start to gently "examine" him. Or I will only practice the same step we were at today, but decrease the rate of reinforcement. There are also plenty of steps for me to work on without another person around, and then with people around but not interacting with him. And then there's switching from working with friends to working with strangers, which is a whole 'nother kettle of fish.
I enjoy breaking an exercise down into little parts like this, and then seeing it all come together. This is a critical aspect of successful training, to make sure that the dog understands his job and is fluent in all of its components. I used to think that competitive obedience was a dreadfully boring sport, but once I started thinking about splitting out each of the exercises, I felt drawn to the challenge. I'm especially excited because I've scheduled a lesson with Denise Fenzi, a positive comp obed trainer (rare indeed!), at the end of August. Before then, one of the top items on my to-do list is to read the obedience regulations and make sure that I fully understand each exercise, and then make more training plans consisting of each exercise split out into its component parts.
After dinner I asked one of my friends to help me start training Dragon on the "stand for exam" exercise in competitive obedience. The final version of the exercise, in the utility class, is that the dog heels next to the handler, the handler cues the dog to stop and stay standing as she walks away, the judge approaches and pats down the dog while he stays standing, and then the judge retreats and the handler calls the dog back to heel position. Of course you have to break this exercise down to all of its components to teach it successfully. That includes:
- heeling
- stopping on cue
- staying standing as handler walks away
- staying standing as a stranger approaches
- staying standing as a stranger leans over and feels up the dog
- returning to heel position on cue
Each of those items must be broken down further yet.
Today I was kneeling in front of Dragon and feeding him as my friend stood next to him and practiced reaching for him, and just barely touching him. My goal was to heavily reinforce the lack of movement on Dragon's part. The first time he felt fingers touch his fur, he shifted his weight and moved a couple of feet, but otherwise he successfully stood still.
Next time I work on this exercise I will practice having my friend coming and going or moving around him, or I will have my friend stay close to him but start to gently "examine" him. Or I will only practice the same step we were at today, but decrease the rate of reinforcement. There are also plenty of steps for me to work on without another person around, and then with people around but not interacting with him. And then there's switching from working with friends to working with strangers, which is a whole 'nother kettle of fish.
I enjoy breaking an exercise down into little parts like this, and then seeing it all come together. This is a critical aspect of successful training, to make sure that the dog understands his job and is fluent in all of its components. I used to think that competitive obedience was a dreadfully boring sport, but once I started thinking about splitting out each of the exercises, I felt drawn to the challenge. I'm especially excited because I've scheduled a lesson with Denise Fenzi, a positive comp obed trainer (rare indeed!), at the end of August. Before then, one of the top items on my to-do list is to read the obedience regulations and make sure that I fully understand each exercise, and then make more training plans consisting of each exercise split out into its component parts.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Bay to Barkers and Control Unleashed week 4
This afternoon we stopped by the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society's biggest annual fundraiser, Bay to Barkers. There was a ring of vendors' booths set up, with some games in the middle of the square. There was a little ring with signs from APDT rally. And of course there were hundreds of dogs and people!
Dragon was dressed in his best.
The wind streamlined him.
He's going to fly away on those ears!
I carried him as I checked out the booths so that he wouldn't get stepped on or accosted by larger or rude dogs. I don't let him greet unknown dogs while he's on leash, anyway. He was calm in my arms and got attention from people won over by his ears.
We went into the rally ring for a minute to do some tricks and get reinforcement for focusing in that context. He's not fluent in heeling yet but we did some sits, downs, stands, circle work, spins, and backing up. Of course, heeling and all other performance behaviors are just advanced tricks, so to the dog there's no difference!
From there we drove to Walnut Creek for the last week of our Control Unleashed class. We continued with reinforcing staying on mats and in crates, played Look at That, and upped the ante in the Give Me a Break game by moving the dogs on mats closer to the ring gates. During our second turn in the ring, with the other dogs lying close by, Dragon was suddenly unfocused and checking out every leaf or piece of debris on the ground. Since during the previous turn he had been coming right back to me to restart the game, and doing 4-5 behaviors per treat, it was likely a stress response. Then he started sniffing an area with no debris on it, and I suspected he might have to pee, so I took him outside. He did pee, but not much.
Afterwards he got to hang out with his pal Jacques the papillon while I chatted with Jacque's mom. To commemorate the end of class, I took pictures of them doing a mini-group stay.
We will hopefully see Jacques and his mom again soon, as she is developing her land into a training field and I'd like to lend a hand.
Dragon was dressed in his best.
The wind streamlined him.
He's going to fly away on those ears!
I carried him as I checked out the booths so that he wouldn't get stepped on or accosted by larger or rude dogs. I don't let him greet unknown dogs while he's on leash, anyway. He was calm in my arms and got attention from people won over by his ears.
We went into the rally ring for a minute to do some tricks and get reinforcement for focusing in that context. He's not fluent in heeling yet but we did some sits, downs, stands, circle work, spins, and backing up. Of course, heeling and all other performance behaviors are just advanced tricks, so to the dog there's no difference!
From there we drove to Walnut Creek for the last week of our Control Unleashed class. We continued with reinforcing staying on mats and in crates, played Look at That, and upped the ante in the Give Me a Break game by moving the dogs on mats closer to the ring gates. During our second turn in the ring, with the other dogs lying close by, Dragon was suddenly unfocused and checking out every leaf or piece of debris on the ground. Since during the previous turn he had been coming right back to me to restart the game, and doing 4-5 behaviors per treat, it was likely a stress response. Then he started sniffing an area with no debris on it, and I suspected he might have to pee, so I took him outside. He did pee, but not much.
Afterwards he got to hang out with his pal Jacques the papillon while I chatted with Jacque's mom. To commemorate the end of class, I took pictures of them doing a mini-group stay.
We will hopefully see Jacques and his mom again soon, as she is developing her land into a training field and I'd like to lend a hand.
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?"
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Trip to downtown Berkeley and playing with a friend.
On Sunday morning we took a trip to downtown Berkeley to a comic books store. I usually take the car when I'm traveling with Dragon -- it's convenient and it's a hybrid so I don't worry about the cost of gas -- but for the sake of socialization we took the subway this time. Dragon had ridden the subway for the first time last week, just one stop down and back, to make sure that he would be able to cope of the noises and movement. He was a champ. He settled down in his crate and quietly watched the other commuters going to and fro.
I put on his coat just for the sake of dressing up! For this picture I asked him to hop up onto his crate, which I had never done before. Thanks to the reinforcement history I've created for climbing on things and holding position there, he automatically stayed balanced on top of the crate until I cued him to jump off.
It was a beautiful day, with lots of people bustling around. Dragon confidently strode through the crowds. This was his first time in Berkeley.
Bringing the camera along meant that I was frequently prompted to ask him to sit and stay in new places. What a great training opportunity!
At the comics store the clerks "ooh"ed and "ahh"ed over him and he rubbed against their legs like a cat, which is his favorite way of soliciting attention. Then we headed over to the campus of UC Berkeley.
Dragon saw a homeless man carrying a large trash bag over his shoulder, for the first time. He was suspicious and drew in deep breaths as he investigated the strange man from a few feet away, snorting out the air in warning puffs. I gave him treats for being brave and curious, and he soon forgot to be suspicious.
Dragon was game to do his sit-stays and down-stays in strange places as long as the treats were delivered every 3-5 seconds. Considering that we rarely practice them when we're out and about, I considered this a success. That is, until he saw squirrels running by, and his brain melted out of his giant ears.
Before he would sit and stay next to this statue, he politely approached its rear and investigated. Then he came around to the front and slowly, carefully, sniffed the jaws of the bear. Finally he was satisfied that despite its fierce expression, it would not harm him.
At this point I realized that if we didn't get back to the subway right now, we would be late for our Control Unleashed class in Walnut Creek. Oops! We hurried back (I carried him past more squirrels) and made it to class 10 minutes late.
This was the second week of a four-week session. We are taking the class as a foundation for focusing among other dogs. This week the instructor coached us through the Look At That and Give Me A Break games. We also rewarded a default behavior of returning to and lying down on a mat, and, of course, reinforced relaxing in a crate.
After the class was over we got to hang out with Jacques, a fellow papillon.
Jacques is smaller than Dragon (who is on the larger side for a papillon) and his coat has fully grown in.
Small dog is small.
Pay attention to meeee!
What a cutie!
I put on his coat just for the sake of dressing up! For this picture I asked him to hop up onto his crate, which I had never done before. Thanks to the reinforcement history I've created for climbing on things and holding position there, he automatically stayed balanced on top of the crate until I cued him to jump off.
It was a beautiful day, with lots of people bustling around. Dragon confidently strode through the crowds. This was his first time in Berkeley.
Bringing the camera along meant that I was frequently prompted to ask him to sit and stay in new places. What a great training opportunity!
At the comics store the clerks "ooh"ed and "ahh"ed over him and he rubbed against their legs like a cat, which is his favorite way of soliciting attention. Then we headed over to the campus of UC Berkeley.
Dragon saw a homeless man carrying a large trash bag over his shoulder, for the first time. He was suspicious and drew in deep breaths as he investigated the strange man from a few feet away, snorting out the air in warning puffs. I gave him treats for being brave and curious, and he soon forgot to be suspicious.
Dragon was game to do his sit-stays and down-stays in strange places as long as the treats were delivered every 3-5 seconds. Considering that we rarely practice them when we're out and about, I considered this a success. That is, until he saw squirrels running by, and his brain melted out of his giant ears.
Before he would sit and stay next to this statue, he politely approached its rear and investigated. Then he came around to the front and slowly, carefully, sniffed the jaws of the bear. Finally he was satisfied that despite its fierce expression, it would not harm him.
At this point I realized that if we didn't get back to the subway right now, we would be late for our Control Unleashed class in Walnut Creek. Oops! We hurried back (I carried him past more squirrels) and made it to class 10 minutes late.
This was the second week of a four-week session. We are taking the class as a foundation for focusing among other dogs. This week the instructor coached us through the Look At That and Give Me A Break games. We also rewarded a default behavior of returning to and lying down on a mat, and, of course, reinforced relaxing in a crate.
After the class was over we got to hang out with Jacques, a fellow papillon.
Jacques is smaller than Dragon (who is on the larger side for a papillon) and his coat has fully grown in.
Small dog is small.
Pay attention to meeee!
What a cutie!
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