21 Months: Training - December 16th - 20th, 2013

Hello, my name is Jack and I have a 3 pencil a week habit.

Monday - Friday

This is a slower week for Jack.  We've worked on Retrieve again (to the decimation of yet another pencil) and confidence building.  I have had a week of more pain and less energy and Jack is the dog this week that got less training than the others.  It's a compromise, but Ronda understands and can see how tired I am nightly when she picks the big boy up.

We worked on Monday with retrieve and tug.  He did fine with the pencil for a long time and was getting a softer mouth and more control on his hold and more patient with it when we got up to 3 seconds and started for 4 seconds with him holding the pencil solo.  We even did some moving holds where I handed him the pencil and asked him to bring it to me for a foot or two.  Once we started that he tended to get flashy and try to flip it in his molars again.

When we played that game I would have him hold and carry and then Max hold and carry and Malcolm take it in his mouth.  We took turns between the three dogs and Jack actually loved playing that game and became more control with his carry after seeing Max's carry and hold.  Modeling, I just love it.

It was in displaying his hold to Ronda that Jack broke yet another pencil.  Sigh.

As I stated in my previous blogs for Emma and Malcolm, Wednesday was a wash for all of the dogs this week.  I had an appointment and then worked on getting health insurance, which took half a day and a load of frustration, and simply just took care of the dogs and ensured they didn't feel like I was going to eat them for dinner.

Handsome and sleepy after a major pencil killing spree.

Jack is very excitable when training.  He tends to loose his brain and gets too focused on the treats and too goofy in what he's doing to be under control.  I need to talk with someone and have them watch him and show me a better way of refocusing him.  I will contact a local clicker trainer for some advise and help with him to get him back under control and in the same game as me.

We did work on learning to flip the dishwasher door up for Ronda.  Max knows this skill and it took one lesson to teach him; I have to remember Max is not a typical dog when training a new skill.  Jack and I have worked for 5 lessons off and on and he's still not sure what I want.  I am shaping him to lifting the door up with his nose, but he's not getting his nose under the door.

I finally got his head near the edge of the door and then used a bit of targeting to get his nose under the door.  Once under the door I had him target my hand and he started the upward thrust I have been working toward.  I left the lesson there and will let him work A to Z out for a bit and then revisit the lesson.

Poodles are a strange breed of dog to train.  They like to read the end of a novel and then the beginning and fill in the middle themselves.  When training Jack I tend to show him the final result and then the beginning and then let him work the problem out and show me what he discovered.  When I do this he seems to solve the problem and return with the whole behavior in place.  It's odd, after working a German Shepherd who wants each step clearly defined to figure out the problem.

Jack is learning tug and retrieve to help his handler.

Friday was a slow day for Jack.  I decided to take Emma out for another public access run, which meant my energy levels would be drained until late afternoon after my return.  I was already drained after quickly going out and picking up poop from the yard when I saw the snow fall and putting de-icer and sand on my ramp to prevent a fall (Thanks Mom for the de-icer and sand!).  I spent almost an hour after that quick run recovering before I could take Emma out and had to take a hydro so I had my pain levels under control.

It wasn't until late afternoon I went to work on both retrieve and tug with Jack.  He was holding the pencil well enough, but he's so flighty about his hold that I am getting frustrated.  I decided I would need some advise from a friend and plan on seeing her this weekend and getting suggestions on toning down Jack's over excitement when training.

He is improving with his hold and as we worked I listened for the sound of wood crunching and wouldn't reward those holds.  He was softening his mouth  nicely and though we got a few teeth marks in the pencil, it wasn't broken.

I then went to tug and worked on teaching him the cue Pull to start applying his newly acquired tug skills to any door with a tug.  He got the idea to pull hard on the tug in my hand and was happy to play the game.  We moved to the fridge and he got the idea to pick up the tug and pull, but not hard enough to open the fridge again.  He got it the once, but hasn't since.

I moved him to the tug on the cabinet door under the sink and he easily opened that door each time.  So, we have some of the idea, but not enough force.  I need to build up persistence in his tugging and really get him thinking he can pull a semi if we ask.

I then took him to a new type of tug on the door to the front bathroom.  He pulled it and even opened the door twice, but after a bit went into stupid, can't think, just feed me the treats mode.  Sigh.  Time to fix this problem so we don't get stuck each time we increase difficulty.

Jack just before a grooming....still handsome.

When Ronda arrived we talked about what we are working on and I showed her what I wanted.  He was amped up and excited and promptly snapped the pencil.  I had Ronda feel how it should be with Jack gripping the pencil and just feeling his teeth connect and rewarding him for that.  I then said, as he got consistent on that and keeping the pencil behind his canines, to add duration between the grip and saying yes.  She misunderstood me (I phrased it funny) and she delayed the yes up to 2 seconds after he had let go of the pencil.  I apologized and asked Max to demo what I was asking her to do.

I had Max take the pencil and together we held it for 2 seconds and then I said yes and sent him to Ronda for a treat.  He was pretty pleased with himself.  She understood then and we had her practice with Max, who got silly and played tug with the pencil instead of just sharing the hold, but Ronda had an idea of what I wanted.

I also asked her to teach Jack how to play tug.  I want a good solid, I am not giving this back to you, this tug is mine, game of tug from this soft boy.  I want him to think tug is a fantastic game to play when invited.  I want him to have persistence and if she plays tug with him and really gets him thinking tug is a fantastic game maybe I can get his tug tasks progressing.

Let's see how far Jack is on tug as a game and tug as a task next week.  He has been given something to mull over for the weekend and I suspect he'll come back with A and Z connected or pretty close to being connected.

Level 1

	Zen	Target	Come	Sit	Down
Step	Completed	Completed	2	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

21 Months: Training - December 9th - 13th, 2013

Tired after a long day of training.

Monday - Friday

Jack is working on Retrieve and Tug skills this week.  Ronda has a possibility of having surgery in the future and with it needs Jack's ability to pick up anything, including delicate items, built up to a fine art.  This means I need to soften his mouth and reduce his silly behaviors when performing a retrieve.

Ronda has been doing her homework and his retrieves are less pounce and bounce and more controlled and focused.  I am using a pencil to gauge his bite strength on an item and have run into the problem of his flipping it back into his rear molars and crunching when I get to the stage where he holds it on his own.  This is a huge issue and needs to be addressed to improve his retrieve.

We started the week with my holding the pencil and his taking it and making the "first tooth contact" behind his canines.  We built up from there to a solid 5 second hold with both of us sharing the pencil together.  I then released it to let him hold it for a second and he flipped it into his molars and crunched.   No treat.  That shook him and we managed to get up to 2 seconds on his own before a crunch.

Coffee, please?

By Thursday he got up to 3 seconds before flipping it back and crunch and then he snapped the pencil.  Sigh.  I decided he'd need to stay at 2 seconds and I would only reward for not flipping the pencil back into his molar for a while.  This seemed to help and his bite strength on the new pencil decreased.

On Friday he broke the second pencil at 3 seconds again.  We ran out of pencils during that time and Ronda said she'd buy more pencils for me to work with so he could continue to learn to not bite down and damage them.  Once we have that I can work on his picking up a plastic egg without harming it and then build him up on more delicate items.  Softening his mouth will take time.

We also worked on learning to open the cabinet by the tug attached.  I shaped him to taking the tug into his mouth, lifting it and then pulling back until he opened the door.  That took 3 separate lessons.  I then went to work on the fridge door and he once again went back to flipping the tug into his molars and trying to chew through it.

I decided to take down one of Malcolm's tugs and teach him to tug and not chew when there was pressure.  The first lesson was when I was holding the tug and he picked it up and eventually began to pull on it.  The second lesson I attached it to the fridge and clicked for the same pattern.  The third lesson is below - what an amazing process to watch!

Level 1

	Zen	Target	Come	Sit	Down
Step	Completed	Completed	2	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

21 Months: Training - December 2nd - 6th, 2013

Malcolm and Jack do like each other, when Malcolm
isn't jumping on his head.

Monday - Friday

This is a shorter blog than normal because most of our work during the week was working on improving Jack's mood and rewarding calm behavior.  Jack has been over excitable about training, to the point he can't learn, so taking a prolonged break during the week was needed to let me do some research and figure out how best to approach the problem.

That and Jack was once again looking mopey and sad.  I don't like sad when working with the dogs and I really wanted Jack happy and upbeat when working on anything.  I suspect his lowered mood had to do with the fact we had a major cold front come in and it flared my pain levels dramatically and reduced their playtime in the yard.  We were hovering in single digits all week and the house was extremely cold, which made me ache all over.

Jack is sensitive to people's pain and tries very hard to comfort them, but is learning that when I am hurting I want space.  For him this causes stress and I had to make time to reassure him he was making the right choice for me.  By Tuesday evening he was starting to see what he was doing was appreciated and it improved his mood and by Wednesday he was back up and wiggly.  It was nice to see.

We worked on greeting Ronda when she came to pick him up by changing the routine a bit.  I put Dieter in the front bathroom, Max in the office and Jack in his crate.  I kept Emma off lead and leashed Malcolm and let each dog greet her and when that dog calmed would bring out the next dog and wait for the overall excitement level to lower before adding another dog.  Jack is always the last dog because he gets hyper excited and giving him time to chill in his crate keeps his excitement level down enough for a manageable greeting.  It worked very well and I will continue to follow that routine when answering the door.

Wednesday was our big day.  When Ronda arrived we worked on Jack aligning with her when laying down and not being in traffic when in public.  We also discussed the need to start teaching Jack to lay beside her on lead and staying in a down for up to 2 hours so we can eventually work on his public access training for going to movies.  Afterwards we arranged to take Jack and Emma out for a public access training session.

Jack is due for a grooming appointment.  He was
scheduled to go in on Saturday to get his Spa treatment.

We met after feeding the dogs and went to a local feed store.  In the store we worked on Jack doing proper counter balance work with Ronda and Ronda trusting Jack to keep up with her and make the right choices as they worked by feed bags.  We also worked on clicking for choosing to not sniff the stuff along the aisles, doing down/stays and sit/stays and focus.  The lesson lasted about 30 minutes and by the time we left I could see Jack and Ronda were working better as a team.

It was then Ronda offered to take us to dinner (we humans eat too) and so we went to a local Chinese restaurant.  We informed the waitress both dogs were in training, but without the practice they can't learn the behavior to work in public.  She was very understanding (she was family of the owners) and seated us in a quiet part of the restaurant to give both dogs a better chance at success.

Jack went under the table without fuss and settled for a little bit.  We were in the process of selecting our meals when Jack came out from under the table and laid on the floor in as much space as he could take.  I glanced down and told Ronda to send him back under, which she promptly did.  It was all Jack needed for instruction - he went under the table, turned and put his nose against the back wall and fell asleep for the remainder of the meal.

We spent approximately an hour and half in the restaurant.  Jack was perfect after being sent back under the table.  I was very impressed with his manners.  The one thing I need to work on with both him and Emma is when to shake off and when not to shake off.    They both shook off after getting out from under the table.

The rest of the week was spent letting Jack and Emma process the evening we'd spent.  It was a slower week than normal, but Jack made some wonderful progress overall.

Oh, we did work on opening a cabinet door with a tug on Wednesday.  Jack succeeded wonderfully and has a nice even pull when he opened the door.  I used shaping to achieve this goal and was very pleased with how quickly he got the idea.

I went to transfer the idea to the fridge, but with the cord on the fridge he tried to chew through it and not pull on it.  I need to think on that and work on teaching him to tug and not chew when working.