13 Months: Training - Day 10

Jack and Emma, the Doodles!

Jack has settled into his new routine nicely.  This morning he arrived with Ronda and was wagging his tail when I opened the door.  Ronda handed over the lead and Jack went with me into the house with little or no fuss.  There was a very real possibility that Jack could have developed Separation Anxiety and I can see Jack is avoiding this by learning that Ronda can leave and his world won't turn upside down and she'll return.

He isn't left only in my care either.  Over the weekend Ronda had a couple of events to attend that Jack was not ready to attend with her, so she left him home without her or I present.  He didn't damage her home or have a panic attack.  This is primarily because during the early portion of their bond Ronda carefully avoided sending him into a full panic by having me watch him and I was able to give him gentle guidance on what is an is not okay to chew when bored.  Part of this is, Ronda has kept her absence from Jack short for the most part and he's not had to worry as much.  So, when this weekend she left him for over two hours at home he was okay with it and didn't destroy the house or panic during her absence.

 The steady routine of coming to my home for daycare and going home with her gave him a foundation to grasp upon and find stability in his life.  The fact that we are training him and helping him communicate has helped him find his balance sooner in his new home and new life.  Jack is doing extremely well.

I visited Jack this weekend when Max went to play with Ronda and her dogs.  She threw the ball for Max until he was tired and then we headed in to watch a movie.  Jack is given permission to be on the couch with Ronda in her home, as is Max with me while I am there.  Jack doesn't like Max or other dogs close to Ronda when he's on the couch and in the past has growled or snapped when they approach.  We have dealt with this before when DJ moved in and she would shoot across the living room to tell Max to leave.

What we did was tell DJ that the special spot she wanted, Ronda's lap, was not hers if she growled or snapped at the other dogs when they came near Ronda.  We did this by simply putting her on the floor the moment she made the noise.  In short order DJ decided she wanted the spot on Ronda's lap and could accept the other dogs near without reacting to them.  DJ weighs 11 pounds and this training was easy.

Jack weighs around 70 pounds and Ronda and I had to think again on how to tell Jack that his growling and snapping at Max or the other dogs when on the couch was not okay.  It was easy enough, we simply took his collar and lead him off the lead and then sat again.  There is no anger involved in this training - it is done without yelling, hitting or frightening the dog.  The dog is simply ejected from the couch and not permitted back for a couple of minutes.

It took one removal for Jack to decide he could share the couch with Max.  He curled on the other side of Ronda, away from Max, and slept while Max was between us.  This is early resource guarding, but since we are addressing it before it becomes a serious problem, Jack should be relaxed and okay with other dogs coming close to Ronda without feeling he needs to guard her as a resource.

If this doesn't work, mild separation and a period of "no couch for you" will be implemented to reset Jack's opinion of who chooses who can be on or near the couch.  The mild separation would be to lead him into the spare bedroom and closing the door between him and Ronda for a minute or so; or until he's calm.  Once he's released we act like nothing happened, but the moment he tries to resource guard again he'll be returned to "jail" and held for 20 seconds to life. Or at least, that will be Jack's viewpoint on the separation.

We'll also implement "no couch for you" for a period of time and then give him trial periods on the couch - as long as he is good on the couch he can stay, but once he resource guards he looses the couch for the night.  These techniques are used in conjunction with praise and reward when he's giving us the behavior we want - which is no growling or snapping at other dogs.

This behavior is limited to the couch and Ronda's bed at this point.  When Ronda is here and Jack is near her he doesn't resource guard her from Max or the other dogs.  When she's out with him in the yard or anywhere but those two locations he doesn't resource guard.  This appears to be a minor problem at this time which we are addressing with training and will continue to watch.

Today's Lessons:

Zen

Jack is working on Level 1: Step 3 Zen.  In this step Jack is asked to wait five seconds between being shown a treat in my open hand and the click.  Today I started by offering my closed hand to see if Jack retained his earlier training; he hadn't.  This is not unusual in the early training portion of this behavior.  Dog's don't learn in a straight line, but instead in waves where they are processing and working out exactly what is asked of them.  The behavior, keep your nose away from the treat to get the treat, is not fully cemented in his mind, so he's trying out touching and licking my hand to determine what exactly I am asking of him.  This is wonderful to see, it means Jack is thinking and trying new behaviors and learning.

I was patient with him and stayed in the lower steps to refresh and remind him of what we are working on.  He soon got the idea and we ended with a lot of rapid fire Closed Fisted Zen to really build up that step before moving forward with later lessons today.

Sit

Jack is working on Level 1: Step 2 Sit.  In this step Jack is to offer sits while on a leash now that he is offering them off a leash.  Since I have been working slowly with building his understanding of the hand cue for Sit I decided to start with Step 1 and test him again today.  Jack had to think a bit harder than I like about the hand cue before offering the sit; as a result we worked on Step 1 for the morning lesson.

I was starting to get a lot of "look, I am about to sit" behavior out of Jack today, which is fantastic.  Jack is starting to think of Sit as a tool in his toolbox and is now offering it as a way to get affection or rewards from me.

For our second session with Sit I chopped up some very smelly soft treats and lured him into a sit, a down and a stand.  Jack is one of those dogs I find hard to lure, since he is so big and so long, but in short order he figured out what I was asking and offering the behaviors rapidly.  Jack is learning Puppy Push Ups.

I will continue to work Step 1 and 2 until Jack can do a Sit with both a verbal cue and a hand cue and facing any direction around me.

Down

Jack is on Level 1: Step 1 Down.  In this step Jack is to do a down (what we will call a Flat) off lead with a hand cue.  Jack is starting to offer Downs as a behavior and worked hard on the behavior during out Puppy Push Ups.  I started to add the cue as he committed to the down by saying "Flat" when I saw he was collapsing to the point of no return into a down.  Jack soon was offering a Flat with verbal cue only when I said the word and did so quickly.  This does not mean he knows the cue fluently, but he's starting to understand what Down is.  I will continue to work this step until Jack can do a Flat with both a hand cue and a verbal cue and facing any direction around me.

Observations

Jack, like Emma, is a teenager.  Unlike Emma, who is hitting the more difficult part of teenage dogdom, Jack is just out of that and entering into a new stage of maturity.  This maturity is tempered by his still young and impulsive nature like any 16 to 18 year old human would have.  He can and does make good decisions, but he also has the inability to think through and solve complex problems - such as figuring out how to escape my front bathroom after the door closed behind him.


My front bathroom has a tug on the handle so Max can help by opening it when I need.  In that bathroom a set of shelves were built over the tub by the previous owners, since the tub itself is unusable with a huge crack in it.  The shelves are handy, since my home has horrible storage space, and therefore my bake-ware and crock pots are kept in the bathroom.  When I am taking them back to put away after use I generally have my hands full and ask Max to pop the door for me.  Therefore, that door is never latched.

Jack found his way into that bathroom and the door closed behind him, but didn't latch.  He is not at a stage in his exploration of living in a house to figure out all he needed to do was push the door open with his nose.  Instead, he cried when he realized no one was going to let him out.  Emma, who's been problem solving since early puppyhood used her front foot and freed him.

Jack missed some of those basic lessons in his early life, but if Emma, Max and any other dog I have owned is any indication - he'll have it all figured out by the time summer rolls around.

I am enjoying watching Jack's understanding of the world expand and grow and look forward to continued work with him.


Level 1

	Zen	Target	Come	Sit	Down
Step	3	2	1	2	1

Level 2

	Zen	Come	Sit	Down	Target
Step	0	0	0	0	0
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	0	0	0	0	0
	Jump	Relax	Handling	Tricks	Communication
Step	0	0	1	0	0

Level 3

	Zen	Come	Sit	Down	Target
Step	0	0	0	0	0
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	0	0	0	0	0
	Jump	Relax	Handling	Retrieve	Communication
Step	0	0	0	1	0

Level 4

	Zen	Come	Retrieve	Target	Relax
Step	0	0	0	0	0
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	0	0	0	0	0
	Handling	Communication
Step	0	0