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| Jack has a new step-brother, Malcolm. He's 8 weeks old! |
He had surgery on that Monday following my last blog post and returned on Tuesday. He was so painful that he couldn't lay down without hurting himself or sit or even rest. He was anxious because of Morphine and distressed by the wrap on his tail. I had Ronda call and get him more pain killers and spent the entire week doing nothing but caring for him and not training. He needed TLC, not progress on his task training.
The week following Jack was able to return to task training. We started on working on his hold and he began a new class called Dastardly Distractions with Max and myself. Ronda also had a treatment done on her back which left her very painful and almost immobile and Jack spent most of that week at home just comforting her.
His grip on the pencil we are working on now is getting good. He was still lightening fast on his grip, but he was starting to chatter his teeth. I pulled back to think on this since my normal methods of getting him to steady on the pencil didn't work. Waiting for two or three bites to get a single closer solid bite only resulted in Jack disengaging from the game. Releasing the pencil with my hand close to his mouth (almost touching) only resulted in his putting the pencil quickly into his back teeth and then chomping down with force. Cupping my hands under his jaw freaked him out. I had to think on what to do to fix the issue and so moved on to rebuilding his sit and starting to build duration.
Jack is unable to wait - his Zen is weak and his ability to wait for gratification is low. He couldn't do a sit/stay for longer than one or two seconds before he was popping up or dropping into a down. I had stopped this training until I could find ways to stop that and his other trick, which was to just slide into a down and get stuck. At the end of his Prep class we were working on Sit/Stay and I mentioned my problem to Kim Imel, his instructor at Diamonds in the Ruff and she suggested placing him on a mat to keep him from sliding.
I brought his mat in and set him on it and low and behold we got up to a whole 3 seconds before he went into spasms of behaviors. I didn't do much with him regarding formal training while he worked on his tail healing. Sitting still bumped it and made it hurt and he was grumpy with Max and Emma regarding their approaching his tail.
When he hit the ten day mark on having stitches in his tail I took him into his vet to remove them. At the time his vet was too busy to meet me in the exam room and remove them and just wanted the front staff to take Jack into the back where she was to do the job. Unfortunately, Jack was terrified. He was pressed against me so hard I almost fell over and he was shaking. He had turned to face the door and when I went to move him he was rooted to the ground. It was solely on his trust in me that he did move, and then he was panting, pacing and looking around rapidly. I refused to have him sent to the back without me and left.
Instead, I took him to my vet. I had taken Jack in a few times to just meet the staff and get weighed. He got lots of love and treats and had no negative associations with the office. When we arrived he was leery but willing to trust I wouldn't leave him. I had brought Max with me for an exam also and the three of us entered. Once in Jack lit up. He recognized the "Treat Dispensing Building" and was happy to be there.
He did a perfect weigh in at 63 pounds and settled in to work for treats with Max. He did Flat, Sit and Target without issue in the lobby and was upbeat and relaxed. When it was time to go to the backroom Jack was willing (we'd been in the exam rooms and had treats in THIS building and THIS building was great) and I had to wait out Max's expected, "So, that was a nice visit, let's go home" ploy for the front door.
Jack was happy to meet the vet and assistant. Max, who knew that once in the room he would get treats, worked the room. There was a point that Jack and Max, shoulder to shoulder and touching did a unison sit with the assistant to get their treats. I was very pleased.
Dr. Copley was amazing. I held Jack by his belly while the assistant held his head and fed him treats and Dr. Copley eased the crusted over stitches loose and removed them. The last one stung as she worked it free and Jack peered back at her and then kissed her. She apologized and finished the job. Then she and the assistant fed him more treats. The only time I saw a roached back and lowered head was during the stitch removal. The rest of the time Jack was showing confident and happy body language in the visit. Much better than what could have happened had I sent him away from me at his own vet office.
This week we went back to full training. On Monday I brought home a tiny black and red German Shepherd puppy named Malcolm. He will be my next service dog. Jack wasn't sure what to do with him right away, but by an hour of his arrival was play bowing at him. By the end of the week he was playing with him and working out how to play with a 14 pound puppy - it's going a bit rough, but Jack is a gentle soul by nature and I am certain Malcolm and he will get the whole thing worked out.
We worked on Retrieve and Go To Mat and Focus this week. Jack and I are finally communicating - something I knew we were missing. He becomes so excited by food he forgets to learn and just focuses on the food. I have been delivering the treats to him in a slow and controlled way and that seems to reduce his excitement and help him focus. I don't have them in my hands and have them in a bin where he can see there are plenty for whatever we are doing - which also seems to help. I tune out the world and just focus on him which brings a stillness to him. All of this has brought us to the point of a good solid contact with his teeth on the pencil and up to a 2 second hold with him taking and then pushing the pencil back into my hand. It will take a slow and easy process with him, but he's starting to understand what I am asking and is playing the game with me.
What I have seen as of late is a lot of roached back and head low and slow movement out of Jack when I say his name. I have to build his confidence again and make him happy and confident so he feels like he's a success. I am not sure if it is the number of ups and downs he's late as of late or something else, but he's having a confidence crisis again and so I am playing games with him that totally boost his confidence. I hope to see his body language improve.
With Focus he can hold eye contact for 1 second, but then goes into spasms of behaviors. It's a Jack thing I do believe. I am working eye contact slowly and should get up to 2 seconds before the end of the month.
Today we ended our week working on Go To Mat and Down/Stay. Jack truly amazed me by staying in a down while I worked other dogs in the room for up to five minutes. It is clear he does better when more is happening in some situations. He has a solid beginning on Mat behavior and will continue to learn it so by the time I am doing more active training with Malcolm I can set him in a spot and keep him out of the way.
Next week we'll work on improving his Zen behaviors to give him better impulse control and see what we can do about Retrieve and Mat work.
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 |
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