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| Jack loves being close to people. |
I let out the rest of the dogs and watched for Jack to urinate, which he did after a few minutes. When he did I said the cue we'll use when he's out in public and we want him to relieve himself.
Once in the house he and Emma has a rousing game of wrestling and bitey face and then my phone rang. It was my friend Robin. While she and I talked the dogs played around me. At one point Jack and Max got into a bit of a spat, which ended quickly and without incident, so I put Max outside for a bit to let him run and have some freedom from all the dogs in the house.
As our conversation continued I was watching Mr. Must Use My Mouth and saw him go to the wall by my front bathroom and then lift his leg! I yelled "AUCK!" at him and then went over and give a quick bump on his bum with my hand. He stopped peeing and went off to lay down. Hopefully, catching him mid-pee and telling him that I am not accepting that behavior in the house will stop his marking behavior like it did with Max.
Max, when I adopted him, was by default house broken, but he would mark the walls to make the house his. I hadn't caught him at it for an entire week and know it is futile to correct something after it has happened. One day Max stopped right in front of me and began to mark the doorway of my bathroom. I smacked his bum that day also and like Jack, Max stopped what he was doing and never marked in my home again.
Jack is a softer dog than Max, so instead of smacking his bum, I just touched it firmly to tell him I was unhappy with him. He got the idea. Let's hope this solved what could become a major problem.
While training Jack and then switching to training Max and then Emma I found out how soft Jack is. He was standing over Emma trying to steal her kibble from my hands, a behavior he does not attempt at all with Max, and was making it impossible to train Emma. I gently put my hand on his neck and gave a push asking him for space and Jack turned and went to lay on the far side of the glide rocker and waited for me to finish with Emma. It was not a hard push, but a gentle and firm push, and he took it as if I had yelled at him.
Later, when I was working Max and he wanted to stay right beside me, which was preventing me from training Max, I stepped toward him to back him up and again said, "Give me some space." Jack promptly went into the living room and laid out of my line of sight. Soft and gentle dog which needs a softer hand and soft redirection when he's crowding me. This is going to be interesting!
Today's Lessons:
Zen
Jack is working on Level 1: Step 2 Zen. Yes folks, Jack passed Level 1: Step 1 Zen in a day! I offered the Zen hand and Jack promptly turned his nose away and waited for the click. Amazing! We are building up duration slowly and got up to 2 seconds before he grew bored and walked off.
Sit
Jack is working on Level 1: Step 1 Sit. I cued Jack to sit this morning and he did, but only the once. I figure it was a fluke and will continue to work on training him to recognize the cue. He becomes a bit stressed with the hand cue, so I switch between luring him into a sit, which I was able to do 7 times today, and capturing sits during the day and clicking and treating for them.
Shaping
Jack is not in the game and doesn't understand he is making me click. I stopped our Sit lesson when I saw he was confused and was about to walk away. I gave him some affection and then played a bit of the Name Game with him and then started to click for anything he did. Eyebrow moved, click, chin dip, click, nose turn, click, nose flare, click .. so forth. In short order he was thinking maybe the click meant something, since his food was coming rapid fire. I will continue to work on getting Jack into the game by playing guess what I am clicking for and other games I can click for to improve his understanding he's making me feed him.
I did a second shaping session with him using a box. He was leery of the box, but I think he's starting to get the idea that the click or my saying Yes means he did something right. He is starting to turn his head and look at me when I click or say Yes.
Name Game
Jack is still learning his name, so we are still singing the silly song and feeding him kibble whenever we say his name to him randomly throughout the day. The nice thing is I am starting to see him turn his head and wag his tail when I say his name. It won't be long before he knows that word means good things happen.
Observations
Jack is settling into his new life nicely. He was calmer this morning when left and didn't have the nervous expulsion of bodily fluids and waste. Though he did try to mark my wall, I quickly addressed it while in the act and hope I don't see the behavior again.
He's still not in the game nor fully understanding that I am rewarding him for good behavior. He's still worried and concerned about his environment and whether he'll see Ronda in the evening when she gets off of work. It will take a little longer to get Jack moving forward on his lessons.
I keep forgetting that Jack is not clicker savvy. I have four clicker savvy dogs in my home and am used to them jumping into the fray when I call their name and pick up the clicker. I am also used to each understanding the rules about staying way from the dog I am working and letting me focus on just one of them at a time. Again, I am back to teaching a new dog the rules of sharing me, giving space and working with a clicker.
It won't be long before Jack is in the game and enjoying learning.
Level 1
| Zen | Target | Come | Sit | Down | |
| Step | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
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