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| Deva, Jack's older sister. |
Jack lives in a household of five dogs and he's the only male in his home. He has two German Shepherd sisters - Deva and Sheba, 1 Rottweiler mix sister - Chautzie and one Dachshund sister - DJ. Jack visits my home and he's one of five dogs who stay with me during the week and he's one of four males in the house. For Jack, coming here is not really a vacation, but a change in hormones. Today he brought Deva with him.
Last year Deva had a very serious bought with pancreatis and nearly died. Both Ronda and I were terrified we'd loose her and when she had to spend up to 48 hours in hospital on IV fluids just to make it through and spent weeks either not eating or barely eating and in the end lost between 10 and 15 pounds before she recovered, both Ronda and I were sick with fear for her. Then she bounced back, was in great spirits and not hurting anymore and doing fantastic; until this weekend. Ronda announced Saturday morning that Deva started vomiting at 2 AM and was in pain. It was a return of her pancreatis and when Ronda fed her that AM she vomited again. Through Facebook discussions we both agreed she needed a 12 hour break between vomiting and limited water (offered every 20 minutes and kept from drinking too much to prevent vomiting) and stop the cycle that almost killed her last time.
It wasn't so much the flare up in her belly that threatened her; it was the loss of fluids and electorates that did. She had vomited constantly at the time and threw her whole body into a tail spin. We needed to stop the vomiting as soon as possible to keep her from doing it again. Ronda announced that Deva threw up her dinner too and thus another 12 hour break on her belly before trying again. At least this time she still had her appetite - she completely lost it last time. When I heard it was back I offered to watch her so she wouldn't be alone.
Deva came this morning with the happy announcement she'd kept her food down all Sunday as long as she had only a few bites at a time every 2 hours and it was boiled chicken. I asked Ronda what feeding schedule she wanted Deva on today, knowing if she vomited again we'd be on the 12 hour break for her tummy again. Ronda wanted about a 1/3 cup of food in her tummy per meal and have it introduced at 2 hour to 3 hour intervals. She handed me canned chicken and brown rice (uncooked) for her meal. I told her I would take good care of our baby and sent her off for the day.
While I trained Malcolm and Jack I boiled Deva's meal on the stove and then set it aside and let it cool. I split the amount of food I boiled into three servings and hand fed a portion of the morning meal to her at 9:30 AM. She held it down and got her second feeding at 12:30 PM after I returned with her and Max from my doctor's appointment. Deva is a counter surfer and a little destructive when left alone at home and is not properly crate trained (major escape artist) so I just had her ride along in the van with us on my appointment and wait in the van. Which she does without causing any problems - she doesn't realize it's a different type of crate I guess. She ate her final meal at 3:30 PM and was clearly uncomfortable and not feeling well, but everything she ate today stayed in her tummy. Tomorrow Deva will stay home, but I will drop in during the lunch hour and feed her a mid-day meal while Ronda is at work and will probably be doing so all week.
Jack worked 3 Rounds of Level 2: Step 1 Communication today. I had setup a chair to sit on and the other chair and bar stool made up the chute for him to back through. Deva, who had been laying in the kitchen when I trained Malcolm before this, was still in the kitchen while I trained Jack. Jack didn't care and worked the lesson. For Round 1 Jack was clearly doing the four footed shuffle but at least it's backwards and not in place. He is taking tiny steps and not moving much, but he is moving. I started to withhold the click and got bigger movements from him. He was soon backing almost into Deva and though he's still shuffling his front feet (I clicked too much for the back feet) he is moving his back feet more and with bigger steps. Round 2 he was starting to move his front feet more and with bigger steps because I had started clicking for their movement. He was up to 5 steps back before stalling and I had to be careful to catch him WHILE he was moving to keep the movement going. On Round 3 he was offering backing up and taking up to 7 steps, but the moment I went to introduce the hand signal (sign language for back) he lost his mind. He started to mouth my fingers and poke me and do the Poodle dance. He's not ready for the cue yet.
As I stated earlier I took Deva with me when I went to my doctor's appointment. Jack and Malcolm were crated and when I returned I found a relaxed Jack in his crate, though I got a huge hug (yes, hug, he's a hugger) when he got out. I let him and Malcolm play for about 30 minutes in the yard while I recovered from my appointment.
It wouldn't be until 2:30 PM before I could train again and after working Malcolm I returned to Level 2: Step 1 Communication. Tomorrow I'll pick another lesson for the afternoon or morning and let Jack think on what we've been doing. I am making the mistake of working on one thing only and it's too much for him to take in during the day. His performance was better because I removed the chute from the game this time. I wasn't worried about him going through a tight space, he's shown he can, but getting more movement. He is taking much bigger steps and he's moving back faster now that I just worried about his moving and not moving straight just yet. We worked 2 rounds and by the end of the second round he was up to 7 steps with an outlying 9 steps back. His average was 5 steps.
Jack will return tomorrow without his sister, but Emma will arrive for the first time this week. Her first day generally means a slow start to the day. I am hoping to change that by making some changes in our "training" time in the training zone and just working on her learning to eat. I will review what Jack needs to work on next and build that up for his trip. I also need to make a plan for taking him out to work on some self control when passing people and things. It should be a good week for us.
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| Hey, what you doin' here? |
I was exhausted today and my start on the day was slower than normal. I hadn't even realized it was 7:45 AM when Max suddenly went nuts at the gate I had up across the bedroom door and all the dogs got riled up. I had gotten up and let Malcolm, Max and Dieter outside and had Malcolm in bed with me, thus the gate being up, as I tried to stop the spasms in my legs. I was dizzy, tired and my legs were stiff, spasming and painful and just walking made it feel like someone smacked the soles of my feet with a board. I now know what is causing this to some extent, but it doesn't make mornings like this any less miserable.
Max exploding at the gate was because Ronda, who had arrived with Jack, has simply opened the door and let him in so she wouldn't disturb me. We both agreed this was an acceptable way of dropping him off, but I really do try to meet and greet him and Ronda in the mornings to get any updates on appointments or problems or successes they've had. Ronda was running a bit early and I was running a bit late.
I knew from a message the night before Emma wouldn't arrive until after 9 AM and had hoped to have Jack and Malcolm trained before she arrived, but I was really not functioning well. I needed another half an hour after Jack's arrival to be mobile and then yet another half an hour to get ready in the morning. I got my shower and my coffee (one cup not enough this morning) and was considering starting to train when Emma's Mom called and said she'd pick up some papers and be there shortly. I delayed training for her arrival and decided to do some chores. I should have known better.
I transferred the laundry, did the dishes (this took me past Emma's arrival) and got myself a bite to eat. I got the recycling out to the big bin and took the garbage out to the can - this took me to 11:30 AM. Mind you, every single thing I just listed came with rest in between each task. I simply had very little energy to give and each time I used a bar I had to stop to replenish it. Oh, and I had to use my cane to walk with any semblance of safety.
It took 45 minutes to train Malcolm for 30 minutes. Yep, it was going to be one of those days. I finally got to Jack and he was more than ready to earn his kibble. Poor boy probably thought I ran out of food or something.
We worked Level 2: Step 1 Distance today. In this step he is learning to go around a pole. Sounds simple, but for some dogs this can be a major issue. I have a small stand for an ash tray I can use as a pole (it's perfect) for training this I got from a friend when his mother passed away. I have used it to shape Jack to target part of it with both his nose and his paws to teach him to move away from me and to think about shaping as a general idea. Jack tried all of old things I asked. He targeted it with his nose, his paw and even checked to see if the target stick I have was on it to target. In the end I used his target skills to move him around the pole.
For Round 1 I had him go around the pole to the right only. He was very excitable and wanted to offer a 101 things with a pole to get me to click. Nice to see he wants to think and work on a puzzle, but I had a plan and gently guided him through my plan until he was shooting around the pole nicely and smoothly by the end of the three minutes. Right is not his default direction when turning around something, but he got it well enough. Since I wanted to reset him to my left to send him around the pole one more time I would turn just enough to drop the treat just behind and to my left - this motion made me very dizzy.
For Round 2 we worked solely on his going around the pole to the left. Once again to reset him I dropped the treat just behind and to my right to get him in position. He was much stronger on the second round and his movement was more focused and purposeful than the first round. This meant he was understanding the concept and now offering a single behavior instead of trying to solve a series of behaviors to find the one I wanted. Nice.
During our break between the second and third round Jack began offering behaviors to get clicks. He did a fabulous bow I couldn't NOT click and rewarded him for. Then he did something I was just tickled over - he backed up twice his body length! This means that backing up IS a behavior he has in his bag of tricks! YES! I clicked it and he kept offering it until I could anticipate it and cue him verbally several times (thus attaching the cue) and then I would say the verbal cue BEFORE he backed up and low and behold he backed up half his body length after a brief pause and thought. After that I verbally cued him and then after a brief pause showed him the hand cue. He is a bit excitable about hands and he got a bit mouthy with my fingers when I showed him the American Sign Language sign for back up.
During Round 3 I alternated Jack going around the pole to the left and to the right by placing the treat either just behind and to my left or just behind and to my right. I am slowly building the hand cue and was no more than 6 inches to 1 foot away from the pole at any time. He was very good at going around both directions and only lost focus at the very tail end when he was getting tired. I will eventually teach him to directionally go around a pole like I am with Malcolm to make it easier for Ronda to direct him to pick things up as she needs.
Before Jack came to use he was a beloved pet living with the owner of his mother. He had been part of a liter bred for the family and had, prior to his birth, been designated for a family member. After his birth his prospective owner was put in a situation where they couldn't take him and he ended up living with the woman who bred and owned his mother. She clearly loved him and did a fantastic job of socializing him and giving him a strong loose lead skill. He was 13 months when he came to us and was given to us because all of his siblings were working Poodles. Some hunt, some searh for loose antlers and some do search and rescue; the woman who had him feared he was being ruined by just being a pet dog and wanted him to become a service dog for someone. During the time she lived with him she permitted him to nibble on her fingers when he got excited. He doesn't use his teeth, you never really feel them, but he does use his lips and mouths your fingers.
We spent months breaking this habit, but it rears it's head when he gets excited still and when introducing a hand cue his first response it to mouth your hand. Thus, he was nibbling my fingers and mouthing my hand. I ignored it and only clicked for him backing up and he was soon not rushing into to play with my hand, but instead offering to back up. We have more work on the "fingers are toys" mind set he has.
I had to crate him twice today to run and get my medication and care for his sister. She stayed home, but needed a mid-day meal and I left in the hopes of getting both her meal and my meds in a single run. I should have checked my email before I left, but had been to tired to even think to do that. I was pushing myself beyond my limit and knew it and hoped I wouldn't crash physically. I should know better.
I couldn't find Deva's lunch so I left and go my medication. When I returned I called Ronda and found out where it was being kept and had to return. I was shaking by this point, so I decided to eat and rest briefly and then went and cared for Deva. On my return it was clear I had done it. I couldn't move without my joints flaring and I had no physical, mental or emotional energy left. I had decided before I left for Deva that I was done for the day, so I dropped the last of Jack's meal on the floor of his crate for him to eat while I ran my errand and did the same with Malcolm with his lunch in his crate.
Tomorrow Jack is staying home due to Ronda leaving at a very early hour of the morning for a meeting and my being so exhausted that I slept the afternoon out until she woke me when she came to get him. I am happy with how Jack is doing with his training and I do believe the brief break in our training will let him think on and solve more of what I am training him and come back with stronger skill sets.
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| Do you still love me? Even if I have food in my eyebrows? |
Jack returned today for training. With the end of the week quickly approaching I am starting to hit my wall and slowing down. Today was an off day for all of the dogs. I don't know if it was because there is a weather pressure front coming in or Jack's return after not being here for a day or because my taking new medication has changed my scent in some way, but every one of the dogs were out of sorts. Jack was quiet and polite, but I saw some of that withdrawn behavior I had been seeing prior to my vacation. Emma was barky and bouncy and Max was a butthead. Malcolm was wild too. Dieter was sleeping all day and had to be forced to go outside and I woke this morning to not one, but 3 puddles of pee - including a big one on my wheelchair wheel I can only attribute to Emma (not enough for Max and too low for his aim and too much for Dieter and too high for his stream). Emma, being the only girl in the house now, learned this past summer how to raise her leg and pee on things and sometimes she marks my wheelchair.
With my energy wall quickly approaching I wasn't able to deal as well with wild child, barking dogs who either got into grouch matches or tried to wrestle and play too much in the house. I was grumpy today. I think my grumpy affected poor Jack's normally happy mood.
I am feeling better with the new medication and have a bit more energy and my pain levels today were the lowest they've been in ages, but I still need to take breaks between tasks and tire easily. The nice thing is, with my energy levels being more stable first thing in the morning, I had all of the dogs fed and trained by 9:30 AM! This is a world record for me.
Today Jack worked 3 Rounds of focused Retrieve training. Ronda has five dogs and she's commented several times that Jack will pick up one or two bowls, but not all five like she needs. I told her I would work a bit with Jack on bowl retrieval and tried previously with no success. Today, with the gate up, I knew I could get something done with Jack and the bowls. Ronda had also mentioned that Jack has watched Max pick up the bowls in my house enough that when he does pick up a bowl it is much like Max does and he's following the same cue that Max does. How funny is that?
I sat in a chair and had Jack target the bowl for 1 minute. After that I held the bowl at an angle and rewarded Jack for taking the bowl in his mouth and making contact with his teeth. I did that for 1 minute. I then set the bowl on the floor and was simply going to click Jack for targeting it on the floor, but Jack picked it up and handed it to me, so we rewarded that behavior for one minute. That ended Round 1.
Round 2 I set the bowl on the floor and stood. I had him hand me the bowl and rewarded him each time. I did this for one minute. I then got one of the other dog bowls and had him pick up 2 bowls for 1 reward for 1 minute. I then got a third bowl and worked on 3 bowls for 1 treat - he did fine for 3 rounds of that, but then lost focus or became bored. Either way, we ended with him picking up one bowl before the minute ended and called it good.
I was exhausted by the afternoon and my mood was not good, which would mean I was not in the game to train, so I gave him the last of his breakfast in his bowl and then had him hand me his bowl when he was done. He was able, for the first time, to do this in my home. This is excellent progress for Jack.
Ronda stated tonight he is indeed picking up all five bowls, but he starts to become sloppy on the 4th bowl. I'll help him practice bowl retrieval in my home in the mornings and fine tune his bowl task.
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| See ya all later next week! |
What a week! I have found that if I try to give Jack two training sessions in a day the second one rarely happens and I end up handing him the last of his food in his bowl about an hour before Ronda arrives to pick him up. I decided today, after seeing the pattern, that I can do all of his rounds in the morning and reward or work with what he knows for the remainder of the day. This ensures he gets his entire breakfast in the morning and we get in 5 Rounds of training instead of three.
This morning I gave him a break on what we'd been working on and began a new task training for him. He's been learning tug tasks and after getting the idea for tugging open a cabinet I am now teaching him he can tug many other things. Today I revisited Level 2 Target and focused on a Come After, targeting a foot.
Ronda has become stiffer and sorer over the last 6 months and I see days in her future where her feet and her hands will be too far away to take off shoes, socks and maybe even pants if she's having a very bad day. This means Jack needs to learn how to assist on those days and remove those items for her. This will be a secondary task, but one that on bad days will be invaluable.
I rested my ankle on my knee while I sat in the training area with Jack and got my foot up to near eye level that way. I then waited for him to glance at or brush my foot by accident to shape him to the foot. He has been previously taught to target a foot for passing Level 2 Target and I knew it would just be a minor reminder for him to return to that behavior.
He pulled out his best moves and tried backing up and sitting and laying down and even targeting items around the room and finally glanced at my foot and got his click. He was clearly waiting to find out WHAT I was clicking for and once he found it he was on that and ready to go. He SLAMMED his nose into my foot with such force his nose smashed up and made him look like a Pug. I laughed. Targeting is one of Jack's favorite games!
After a few very solid targets I waited on the next one and low and behold felt teeth scrape my foot. I clicked for that and increasing mouth behavior for the 1st Round. On our 2nd Round I loosened the sock and worked him up to mouthing and lifting the sock and starting to pull back on it. He remembered his tug skills and was on that and was soon pulling with consistency on the sock and even moving it a bit as he pulled back.
On the 3rd Round he and I had a bit of a frustrating run. He was pulling nice and putting tension on the sock, but not really getting much than slight movement on it. I tried to encourage him to pull harder or pull more than once to increase his pull and he became frustrated and lost focus. I thought I had lost him and would need to rebuild from scratch.
On the 4th Round I carefully worked on rebuilding that lovely target on the foot and regaining his focus. He got it. He went straight to picking up the sock and pulled it halfway off my foot. I had it very loose and pulling it free was easy enough, but instead of loosing him in the 3rd Round he had realized I was asking for something more and gave it in the 4th Round. I would not recommend pushing that hard with every dog, but for Jack it seemed to work this time.
On the 5th and final round I had already had increasing success with him taking, pulling and removing the sock as I put it on a bit more each time during the 4th Round. He was up to just over halfway with the sock on my foot and pulling with force enough to remove it and was handing it back to me when he did. I kept putting the sock on a bit more and had it on 99% of the way when he took the toe, pulled hard and with a single even pull and removed the sock and then handed it to me. We were at the 1 1/2 minute mark and he had some kibble left in his bowl and my hand and I gave him a huge YES and click and gave ALL of the food to him and ended the session. I was NOT going to get another wonderful pull like that in the remaining time and I wanted to end with him thinking, "What go me THAT reward" and return next week with it that much stronger.
We are done for the day, but I wanted to share a story from the night before. About 15 to 20 minutes before Ronda came to pick up Jack I was enjoying a Facebook game on my IPad and realized Jackw as standing very still looking in the mirror on my wall. I stopped to watch him and realized his body was completely relaxed and he was cocking his head one way and turning it another and sometimes moving in and touching his nose to the mirror. It was almost like he was saying, "Damn, I am good looking" or "Boy do I need a shave" and I couldn't help it, I laughed at him. He's such a silly boy!
We had a great week and Jack won't return until next Tuesday after spending a long weekend with Ronda. I want to wish Ronda a Happy Birthday and enjoy your mini vacation in celebration!
| 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 |
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