13 Months: Training - Day 22

She's mean and puts me in a crate when she leaves the house!

I woke in the morning with a full flare of whatever is happening to me and found I was out of balance and more pain than I had been in weeks.  I simply didn't have the energy or focus to train dogs that morning and knew I had an appointment in the afternoon I couldn't avoid.  Thus, I decided not to do much training for the day.

With the morning's rest and after running a couple of errands at the end of my appointment I returned still out of balance, still sore and tired, but able to focus enough to work on basic skills with Jack.  It was a short training day, but very productive for both of us.

Today's Lessons:

Zen

Jack is working on Level 2: Step 2 Zen.  Yep, he passed Level 2: Step 1 Zen!  He is progressing very nicely with constant reminders of Level 1 Zen and today flew through his Level 1 Zen behaviors without a hiccup.  I then put his food on the floor at my feet and he left it alone with that, "You can't trick me look."  We started working on duration after a few clicks and my giving him a piece of food from the pile each time, but once we started adding duration he got fussy and started to try to take the food for himself.  He needs a bit more work on patience, but he's getting there nicely.

Come

Jack is working on Level 1: Step 2 Come.  Today I was able to get Jack to chase treats I tossed around the house and recall him to me.  He's automatically turning to return to me and he's rushing up to me each time I call him.  He's ready to start the two person Come Game to build his recall.

Puppy Push Ups

Jack and I are doing a round of daily Puppy Push Ups and Jack is happily playing the game with me finally.  He's got a quick and fluid Flat and a spunky and rapid Sit, but his Brace still needs a bit of work.  He is able to do a Flat and a Sit on both hand and verbal cue, but only has Brace on hand cue at this point and not more than 60% of the time.  I will continue to work daily Puppy Push Ups with Jack.

Observations

I have been feeding meals or partial meals to Jack in his crate to improve his outlook on the crate itself.  We've also worked his training near the crate to make it a "part of the environment  like my chair or other furniture.  Jack no longer acts like the crate is charged and dangerous.  Unfortunately, because I had to leave him for a few hours I did have to crate him.  He entered the crate, as per usual, without a problem, but as soon as I closed the door to the house he began to howl.  This is because he's not fully crate trained yet and I hate pushing my luck with the crate when I have errands, but I don't want my house destroyed when I leave, therefore he needs to be crated during my absence.

Before, when I returned after being out on errands, I could hear Jack still howling in his crate until I got to the door.  The last two times I have returned after crating him I have not heard the howling, but he does whine until he realizes I will ignore him until he's quiet.

He was also in a near panic whenever I let him out of the crate before, but now is just stressed and happy to see me.  He's slowly growing accustomed to being crated, but I would rather have a long history of positive associations with the crate instead of a long history of "I must accept this because it will happen anyway" with him.

I will continue his crate work whenever possible to build good feelings with the crate.

Level 1

	Zen	Target	Come	Sit	Down
Step	Completed	2	2	3	3

Level 2

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