 |
| In the two seconds to lift the camera to my face he moved the pencil to his molars. At least he's happy about it. |
Jack was groomed over the weekend and looks fantastic. He was in a silly mood today and our progress from last week, though not lost, was not as far along as before. This is normal progression and typical for Jack.
We worked three rounds of Retrieve to start his day. Jack knows how to retrieve, but he tends to get goofy when he does and flip things around or does what I like to call the Poodle Pounce and get silly when doing a retrieve. It's not professional or practical, so we are working on building a solid hold and a solid and complete retrieve process so he can quickly learn on the fly new items to pick up and new areas to pick up items from. Eventually he'll be getting items off of shelves and from under things when needed and he needs a solid, reliable retrieve process to make the task meaningful for his handler.
He is still chicken necking between 3 and 5 seconds, but he's starting to not flip the pencil to his molars when we hit the 2 to 3 second range. I have been gently cupping his chin with my hands and preventing the pencil from moving back when he tries to flip it back and giving him rewards when he stops the effort to flip the pencil back. This seems to work for him and I noticed we got up to 3 seconds of stillness and focus during out training session. We are using a new pencil and I am not seeing as many tooth imprints on the pencil. This is fantastic to see.
For the afternoon Jack was taken on a client consult. He was warmly greeted in the assisted living place we go to for working with Murphy. Three older women like to wait for my arrival to meet the new Service Dog in Training and let them practice saying hello to people with varying disabilities. Jack was tickled to meet the women and did his curled body hello as they met him. We then went to meet Murphy.
Murphy is a Shitzu learning to do minor retrieve tasks and hearing alert tasks. Murphy was a rescue and has a lovely temperament, but isn't certain about bigger dogs, so I bring along one of my dogs to introduce them and give Murphy positive dog experiences. He's met Emma, Max and Malcolm, but not the Tall Cool Drink of Water that Jack is. He was a bit confrontational of Jack at the door, so I asked Jack to back up and Jack shot backwards without hesitation. Lovely.
Inside Jack tried to engage Murphy in play, but I redirected him into a settle at my feet. For the dogs who come to Murphy's appointments it's their turn to practice laying quietly at my feet and learning how to wait until called upon. They also are demo dogs for different skills we are teaching and are learning to work despite another animal or person in their vicinity and in a home setting.
Jack did well during the visit. At the end I generally give the dog I bring a chance to visit a bit and Jack enjoyed that moment. He was a bit jumpy with Murphy coming close to him, but I simply put him back into a settle at my feet and rewarded the position until he was able to see Murphy move toward him and not move. At one point he alerted to my pain levels increasing and I rewarded that too. It's a task he gave himself and one we have been rewarding. What needs to be taught is to tell him when he's done his job and it's over, so I am now rewarding the alert and then putting him back in a settle and rewarding the settle.
Another part of the behavior he assigned himself is he applys pressure to his handler's legs to ease the pain and presses his chest into pelvic bone to change the angle of the spine. For Ronda, this eases her pain, so we also reward that behavior, but again, an off cue for the behavior needs to applied so he knows when he's done. I will begin training that too.
On our way out he met the gentleman that delivers medication and warmly greeted him. For Jack this is new, having been raised by women, and we've been encouraging him to meet and greet men of all kinds to make him more comfortable about them. If he says, by body language, he doesn't want to meet someone we don't push it, but reward staying with us. In this case, the man kneeled and I cued Jack to go say hi and he moved in and rested his head on the man's knee. He accepted the pets with a happy body and was surprised by a biscuit out of his pocket. It was a good visit.
A woman who moved funny came up and Jack shied away and moved to me. I reassured him he was safe and let him watch her. In the end he decided to say hi to her, but he had to have some time to access her. I had moved him a few steps away to tell him I recognized his discomfort and he need for space. It's those tiny things when we are out that tells him I have his back and he's able to push himself a little harder to learn how to behave in public. Wonderful.
We stopped in for a quick hi at the smoke shop on the way home. I had him paws up for a pet, which we've worked on off and on with the clerk to help start his training for paying for or taking things over the counter. He happily did and put his head in her hands and absorbed her hello. After that I cued him to settle at my feet between me and the counter and we pretended to have a transaction while I watched him from the corner of my eye. He put his head on his paws and relaxed on my feet while we did this! Yes! It's the behavior we've been training for and it was all done with zero treats on me. Wonderful!
When we got home I gave him the last of his meal with a round of Retrieve. He was able to hold still for 3 seconds and got one solid 5 second hold in without any chicken necking. It was a great session and once again there was hardly any teeth marks on the pencil. Here's hoping the pencil is in better shape at the end of this week than last week's pencil.
Tuesday
 |
| Now that's better. What a smart boy! |
While Jack, Emma and Malcolm have a romp in the yard I feed Max and Dieter. They appreciate the quiet and brief period of not having rampaging adolescent dogs in the house. Today I changed the routine a bit. I took the dogs back into the bedroom for a little bit and curled up on the bed. It was a bit of a mud wrestling match at first, but everyone calmed for a while and both Emma and Jack got the personal contact they need to feel good for the day.
Normally I have the dogs eating before 9 AM and don't take care of my needs. Today I decided to wait for a bit, shower and eat and get them a bit hungry before pulling out the clicker and kibble. I worked Malcolm first because he is convinced I am about to starve him into submission all day long and getting his tummy digesting makes him calmer for the other two. I then selected Jack for training. Patient, loving, gentle Jack would wait the entire day without telling me I missed him, so I try not to take advantage of that willing nature of his to wait for my attention.
We worked three rounds of Level 2: Step 1 Zen. In the book it talks of placing the treat on the floor and then flicking it to the dog when they pull back. With my back this just isn't as easy as it sounds, so I have modified it to my needs and to help the dog understand. I started with a version of It's Yer Choice on the bar stool in the kitchen and clicked for eye contact. Once we completed that I then placed a small pile of treats on the floor and clicked for eye contact and his staying away from them. He did fantastic on the first round.
For the second and third rounds I decided to up the difficulty because Jack had shown stationary treats are not a major issue for him any longer. I started dropping treats, first one at a time and then several at a time. One treat snuck into his mouth somehow (darn treats just jump into a dogs mouth, I swear), but otherwise he had it. I was able to move up to 2 feet away from the loose kibble on the floor and reward for eye contact. At the end of each round I cued him to get the food on the floor; it is important there is a "you can eat that" cue for this type of training so you don't confuse the dog.
On the third round I asked Jack to move around stationary treats. He had a hard time with this (that was when one kibble jumped into his mouth) and I had to help him understand that he could walk past the kibble and not eat it. Once he got that idea and was able to walk around the kibble on the floor and ignore it, but he would look at it every time and pause for a second making a choice to get a kibble or not. It was a great session.
One thing that helped was I can now block the other dogs from entering where I am working. Cherie loaned me an x-pen and I can set it up to block the kitchen and living room and simply put the dogs I am not working with in the room I am not in. It makes it easier for the dog I am working to focus on the lesson and not worry the other dogs are going to take their food.
I like being able to do more active or more intense levels of training without the dog worrying about the loss of his treats or another dog taking over the lesson. The x-pen has been a huge help overall.
For our next lesson we worked on Retrieve. This time I decided to make the concept of what I am asking clearer. I have waited for Jack to stay engaged even when I don't reward for a hold so I could define I want him to be still when he's doing the hold. He tends to pull back, lift up, push forward or chomp on the pencil and I just want him to hold and sit still. I am now waiting for the stillness and rewarding it when it happens. Sometimes it's hard, just as I am about to say Yes he'll suddenly move or do so as I am saying it, but slowly we are getting the idea. He did a lot of damage to the pencil while working on the concept, but we did manage to start seeing it. Let's see if he worked it out by morning when he returns.
When Ronda arrived we reviewed what we were working on and how to do it. I used Emma to demo the Leave It exercise and Jack the concept of capturing stillness. Ronda saw what I was asking and understood. We then had a long discussion of her travel plans for next month. She is heading back to her family to attend a family event and wants to fly Jack there. We put together a training plan to prepare Jack for the flight.
We will begin teaching Jack how to move into a tight spot and lay quietly for the flight. We will go to the airport at least 4 times and practice standing in line and just waiting. We'll also visit the baggage area and listen to the planes landing and taking off and take in the activities. We'll talk to security and find out what procedures Jack will need to do to get past security and practice them at home. We will also see if we can't take him somewhere in town and go through a metal detector and get him comfortable with that concept.
Ronda will talk to her vet to ensure that she has what shots he needs, knows if he needs heart worm meds when he returns and get calming medication in the event he may need it. I talked about giving him treats during take off and landing to help him pop his ears and that I would show her how to preposition him in the event he stands during flight and an exit plan if he has problems with flying and her possible need to get a rental car to complete her trip.
I will continue to work on Retrieve with Jack, but I am going to start training Jack how to position for the flight and curl up in a tight spot and feel good about it. Its good she gave me a month to prepare Jack for his first flight. I am certain that their bond is good enough for the flight and look forward to the report of how he did once she returns. This is an exciting time for both of them.
Wednesday
Letting the dogs go out and run off the excitement of morning greetings is working. Emma is in a better mood and out from behind the recliner more and Jack and Malcolm are calmer by the time I call them back in the house. Jack is a silly boy and the above video will show you some of his silly behaviors while training with him. I truly enjoy working with Jack.
Jack is preparing to go on his first flight next month, so I have started airplane training. He needs to learn how to back into a tight space and settle for up to 2 to 3 hours without fear or fussing. He needs to handle distractions such as noises, people moving around and carts rolling by and he needs to be able to stand or sit beside his human and not wiggle and squiggle all over like he does on his public access outings right now. This means he needs stay and he needs it now.
So, today's training is working towards that goal. Round 1 of his training was Sit/Stay with Distractions. I am flapping a hat above his head in the video. A flag flapping over head can be a bit worrisome, so I am flapping a hat and making the flapping sound positive for him. I am whistling and whooping and moving around him and bouncing balls (exciting moving stuff). As you see in the video, he's doing extremely well. I am keeping an average click rate of 2 seconds while working with him. I was very pleased - a month ago none of this could have been done with him.
For Round 2 I setup an aisle for laying in, much like he'd be in a plane. I wanted to see his comfort level for going into a "tight" spot and laying down and see if he'd turn around if cued. As you can see, he doesn't understand what I want, so I just left his butt facing the "aisle" of the plane and worked on comfort laying in tight spot and making noises to improve his down/stay. The results had me laughing at times, but in truth Jack did very good.
Round 3 was used for shaping him to back up into the aisle, which is the preferred method. I would like him to back in and lay down and settle fully. I will then increase the distractions and build up his ability to lay still. I won't be able to build the full flight time, but Ronda is a good handler and should be able to get him to fall asleep on the flight if we get a solid enough idea of a stay before it.
It was a great lesson. I planned on revisiting the lesson with a second set of chairs to make the rows, but Ronda was sick and came early to pick him up. I don't know if I have him again tomorrow, but I will make a concentrated plan to prepare him for his flight. I am so glad she gave me enough heads up to prep him for it.
Thursday
 |
| Jack has finally learned to sit properly, not like a drunken teenager. |
Teaching a dog to eat raises the value of food for them overall. Kibble becomes a valuable resource in their life and they are more willing to work with it. Jack's problem wasn't his willingness to work for food, but his over willingness to do so. He was food stupid. He would get so excited about the food we were training with he couldn't learn. It made his lessons inconsistent and Ronda and I spent all of December teaching him how to think in the presence of food. We used a combination of It's Yer Choice and Zen to do this and by the time he returned from vacation he was able to focus and learn. You can see it in his videos. Food is there, but he's now working to earn it and is able to think through the problem.
That single change has made Jack a pure joy to train. I love watching his happy, engaged, focused face as he works with me on the problem. You can see it in the above video. He's in the game and he's playing the same game I am. I love it.
Today we continued to teach Jack to back into a tight space in preparation for his upcoming flight. He is figuring out I am clicking for his feet and is offering other behaviors less. He is moving two or three steps at times and a couple of times backed up 5 to 8 steps in a single quick motion. He's not fully there, but he's on the cusp of understanding what the behavior I am asking for is. We worked for three rounds in the morning and he was improving each round. I look forward to see how much he figured out about the lesson come tomorrow.
For the afternoon we worked on Sit/Stay for two rounds. My son Wayne came to visit and do some laundry. Since he was a novel distraction I asked he just walk around the kitchen while I clicked Jack for keeping his sit. Jack had a hard time with this in the beginning of the lesson. Round 1 was spent with him popping out of his sit a great deal and doing a lot of looking to see what Wayne was doing. At one point Wayne went back to work on the laundry and Jack could hear him, but not see him. It was then I was able to get Jack a bit closer to the final behavior of doing a Sit/Stay and not worrying about what is happening as much.
In the second round Jack was much better about keeping his stay and even dropped into his drunken teenager position. He was less concerned with Wayne and more focused on me. It was good improvement. I have noted a problem with our Sit/Stay and I need to fix it for the trip also. He can only do a Sit/Stay if he is facing me, not if he is sitting beside me. I will start this new portion of the lesson tomorrow.
Throughout this training I kept Jack at an average rate of re-enforcement of 2 seconds and was able to move to an average rate of re-enforcement of 3 seconds with an outlying 5 seconds and 0 seconds to keep him focused and engaged. He was highly successful waiting for the next click and when I threw in the longer ones he would look to me to see if I had forgotten him, but could wait for the click. It's a lovely change from before when he had zero patience for anything.
Jack is progressing nicely and I am loving training him. I really look forward to see how cleaned up his behaviors become over the course of the next few weeks before his flight.
Friday
Level 2: Step 1 Communication
Fridays are hard on me. I have worn myself out over the course of the week and can feel myself slowing down on Thursday and having to push myself on Friday. After this set of dogs, I am not doing board and train any longer. It is simply too exhausting for me and I have decided I will work with a client on an hourly basis, but not board and train anymore after I finish this set of dogs. The only exception would be for a woman who called me in tears needing a dog to keep her safe - health wise she may not be able to care for a puppy during the 8 week to 24 week stage and I stated I could house break, build basic training and crate work for that period to ease the stress of starting her journey with a new puppy. If that happens, I may have the puppy for 7 days a week and will maintain a blog of the puppy's progress for her. The stress of starting with a puppy for her could be life threatening and I would gladly give up some sleepless nights to help her get the dog she needs. It's a special case and an offer I made if that was the choice she made for herself.
So, this morning after getting my shower after Jack's arrival, some food in my belly and my coffee in me so I was actually awake, I had to force myself to train. I started with Malcolm today and after training him had to take an almost 1 hour break before I could train Jack. I knew I was exhausted, but with the fantastic progress both dogs are making I really don't want to skip a chance to get even a little training in.
I set the two chairs I have been using when training Jack this week up and worked on him backing up between them. This is technically Level 2: Step 1 Communication - The dog backs up. Jack is aware now I am clicking for his feet. He is very purposefully lifting his hind feet and setting slowly on the floor to test what I am clicking for. This is good. The fact he's testing (including trying Sits, Downs and other behaviors) means he's very close to figuring out what I am asking.
I am seeing more movement going backwards and bigger steps instead of shuffling, but today I discovered he's not ready for me to delay the click to get him to give a bigger or more movement. He got lost when I stopped clicking for every step. I will have to work it just a bit longer and then give him a chance to get a bit frustrated and give me a bit more next week.
I intended to train him a second session, but my exhaustion after filling out paperwork for my social security disability claim was complete and I just fed him his remaining food. It was a quiet and lovely day otherwise and Jack was in good spirits. We got a lot done this week and I am impressed with his overall focus and ability to stay on task when training. I am very glad Ronda and I took the time to improve his Zen and work It's Yer Choice to get his mind on the game and off of the food.
Level 1| Zen | Target | Come | Sit | Down | |
| Step | Completed | Completed | Completed | Completed | Completed |
Level 2
| Zen | Come | Sit | Down | Target | |
| Step | 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | Completed |
| Focus | Lazy Leash | Go To Mat | Crate | Distance | |
| Step | 1 | Completed | 2 | 5 | 1 |
| Jump | Relax | Handling | Tricks | Communication | |
| Step | 1 | 4 | Completed | 1 | 4 |
Level 3
| Zen | Come | Sit | Down | Target | |
| Step | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Focus | Lazy Leash | Go To Mat | Crate | Distance | |
| Step | 0 | Completed | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Jump | Relax | Handling | Retrieve | Communication | |
| Step | 0 | 0 | Completed | 2 | 0 |
Level 4
| Zen | Come | Retrieve | Target | Relax | |
| Step | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Focus | Lazy Leash | Go To Mat | Crate | Distance | |
| Step | 0 | Completed | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Handling | Communication | ||||
| Step | Completed | 0 |
No comments:
Post a Comment