18 Months: September 16 - 20

Goofy Jack.

Jack the goof!  What a silly boy Jack has been.  He loves to learn so much he gets to excited to learn.  he makes me laugh.  Just today I was working with Jack on retrieve and he did this flop and flip thing with the dish cloth we were working with.  He's funny and playful and gentle and can be a handful to train because of it.

Jack is learning to retrieve.  With the number of times I've seen his handler unable to pick up anything due to spasms in her back it became the priority for our learning.  He was so excited about grabbing the items I was offering he wasn't getting anywhere close to a hold.  I decided to change direction with him and shaped him to picking up a dish cloth.  It took two days of shaping, but he got it.  He's not perfect, but he's getting closer every time we work on it.

Since the break through of picking up items I have worked on his putting them into my hand with purpose.  Jack is not natural at sharing what he has in his mouth and this has been a harder lesson for him.  He's starting to move his nose forward and place the item in my palm, but it will be another week of training before we see the final product.

Another factor for Jack is he thinks I am pointing out food when I point and forgets I am asking him to pick up something.  So this too is being slowly worked on.  He's starting to get the idea that when I point I want him to pick up something, but again, we are in the rough stage of carving out a new behavior and none of it is very pretty right now.

While working on this we revisit the idea of taking and holding an object in his mouth for me.  He's bearing down with his teeth with a great deal of pressure and I have tried different textures and densities to see what would soften his grip and get the focus on what I am really working on.  It appears Jack is gentlest with metal objects, which he has no problem taking in his mouth, so I will work on his hold with a fork or spoon for a while and then transfer the idea to softer objects when he has the concept.

We also worked on Mat behavior and Distance this week.  In his class he was introduced to the idea of getting on and stopping on his mat.  I continued the lesson the following day and was seeing him get on and drop on his mat.  Nice.  I also worked on going around a pole.  I worked a bit on it o Monday, where he was totally confused and had no clue what I was asking, and again on Wednesday where he got the idea and started showing signs he understood.

We need to continue Zen for Jack.  He is so food focused that he stops thinking when I hold treats.  I have been using a treat bin and reaching only for the treats after I have clicked instead.  This has slowed him down a bit and gotten him to thinking of what he needs to do to make me click and treat.

I have also used shaping for this concept.  I want him to understand he has to do something for me to click and treat.  Once he gets THAT rule he should excel at learning.

Overall Jack is progressing with retrieve nicely.  When we were working in the kitchen I did see a lot of offered behaviors where he was figuring out what I was clicking for.  He did sits, flats, targets, paw raised (for shake) and eye contact all for a click before looking at the dish cloth.  I see a bit of that when I am sitting also.

When I am sitting the primary thing he offers is a flat or head on my lap.  The behavior of head on lap is due to our need to clear a thick semi white goo out of his eyes daily.  I started it in the bathroom, where he follows me and wants my attention.  I have treats by the toilet and when he lets me clean his eyes he gets one.  I have taught him to rest his head on my lap and let me clean his eyes - it is becoming a loving default behavior when I sit anywhere - which will make it easy to teach him a task for providing comfort when his human is having major spasms.  I find when he does that and I am in a lot of pain that it eases my pain to run my finders through his hair or pet his head while he rests there like that.

Overall, Jack is doing well this with his training.  I need to slow him down a bit so he can learn and progress, but otherwise I am happy with his progress.

Jack will have surgery on his tail next Monday.  His tail bone is still growing on the end and has pierced the skin.  To prevent infection or injury to his tail the bone spur will be removed and his tail cleaned up after the bone is cauterized to prevent regrowth.  He may need rest more than training next week.