16 Months: Training - Day 39

Jack spent a 4 day weekend with Ronda.  She had taken the time off for the Memorial Weekend in hopes to go camping, but had injured her back so badly a week earlier that she was unable to leave for her trip.  Instead, Jack spent the weekend curled up with her and giving her comfort while she recovered.

I am happy to say that for the first time in over a week Ronda was almost walking normally.  Jack truly needs to learn how to do retrieves, something Ronda could have badly used with this injury (something that happens to her whenever she has to bend too many times and I've seen her like this before).  This means working hard on his other foundation skills that build up to the retrieve.

In that spirit Jack entered my home today to work on shaping.  I spent the day working on two skills that build his understanding that he makes me click and  forces him to think of what I am asking of him.  It was a good day for training for Jack, but a bad day of no play.  Emma injured her ACL at the end of last week and is on restricted activity, which means that Jack and her cannot just relax and play like they normally do.

I do want to mention I have noted that Jack's concept of waiting to get what he wants is still very poor.  Though he's offering some level of "other dog Zen" and I am seeing Zen creep into his daily life, his idea of waiting for a treat or not mugging a person who is eating or even not jumping on his Mom when she comes to pick him up is low.

I have setup some "Zen" traps in my home.  Emma fell for one and learned quickly that if a bone, even a new tasty one, is not on the floor for her to have she cannot just take it and chew on it.  I have placed a bone in the window sill by my front door.  It is now being left alone without issue by her and Jack.  I also left a slice of cooked bacon on my counter today for  most of the day and noted no dog attempted to get on the counter to steal it.  This is fantastic, because it tells me where Jack is on his Zen concepts.  Jack has Zen issues with people in general.

Today's Lessons:

Sit

Jack is working on Level 2: Step 1 Sit.  In this step Jack is asked to sit while I walk 5 feet away from him.  Jack is able to do this now 90% of the time I work on this step.  He is also able to handle my walking around him in both directions and walking 5 feet to his left and right.  Jack is about to pass this step.

In the training I am doing with Jack on this step he's working in a low distraction setting and has little problem with the lesson.  On the other hand, working with his Mom when she arrives is very different.  Today we started his lesson on sitting and waiting for her to walk up to him.  With her back finally on the mend enough to give her relief and return her to her normal pain levels, the last thing I wanted was for Jack's jumping up on her and bouncing off of her to reflare her spasms.

I put Jack on lead and stood on it when I opened the door.  I had put Emma in the bathroom and let Max and Dieter exit the house when I opened the door.  I told Ronda to walk toward him only if he was sitting and to stop when he broke his sit.  It took us up to 5 minutes before Ronda could cross the 5 feet to him while he was seated.

Once she got to him he jumped up and I took the lead and walked him away from her.  He had to walk back on a loose lead (which he defaults too) and great her calmly.  Whenever he got too excited or he jumped I once again walked him away and returned him to his Mom.  In the end he stood close to her and kept his cool.  It took a total of 10 minutes to work through this, but Jack learned a lot and got the ultimate reward of greeting his Mom when he succeeded.

We'll continue this process to teach Jack to calmly greet her when she comes to pick him up.

Shaping

Today I wanted to teach Jack about his body and his ability to make me click.  I also wanted to work on Jack learning to think and try new things.  When Jack gets confused he lays down and stops moving and I want to break him out of that pattern and teach him he can and should offer me behaviors to find out what I am asking of him.

To do this I worked with him on sitting in a box.  Jack has had a couple of lessons with the box before and he's getting the clue the box has something to do with the lesson, but not what yet.  Today he tried sniffing, sitting and laying by the box.  I would toss the treats off to the side for him and to my amazement Jack looked at the tossed treat and then to me, I gave him the go ahead to eat them and he got up and did so.  So, my Zen training is taking, just not in some areas I need it!

Jack did get his front feet in the box once today, but he's not fully into shaping with the box.  I think I'll continue this lesson until Jack gets the idea he can do many things with the box to get a click.

Observations

Jack is a sweet and loving boy, but he's a bit clingy and pushy with his need to be in on everything.  He needs more real life experience in Zen and lessons on Communication in regards to giving space when people are walking through the house.  Jack is progressing nicely and this week should be fun as we work our way into shaping behaviors with the box.

Level 1

	Zen	Target	Come	Sit	Down
Step	Completed	Completed	2	Completed	Completed

Level 2

	Zen	Come	Sit	Down	Target
Step	3	0	1	1	4
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	1	1	1	2	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