19 Months: October 14 - 18, 2013

Jack with his, "I need a cup of coffee" look.

Monday

Jack is progressing nicely on both is Retrieve and his play style with the puppy.  He's been a bit over excited about playing with Malcolm and I've had to tell him to stop.  Malcolm, who is growing in confidence by leaps and bounds, is now communicating well enough that Jack is settling into a more appropriate play style that Malcolm enjoys and can participate in.  What a soft boy our Jack is.

Today we worked solely on Retrieve while I tried to get some paperwork done and go through the Levels books and see where Jack and Emma really are within the lessons.  I don't teach all of the lessons exactly like the Levels books tells us too, since I have been teaching some of the basics of Communication, Handling and Recall for years.  So, some of the stuff I am not "focusing" on in a planned lesson plan but do throughout the day with them as we progress from play to lessons to rest and back again.

Jack had no recall when he came to us, but now races to me from the back of the property.  He had no idea how to get out of our way and actually would stop and lean as you tried to pass him, but now moves away when asked and gives space when needed.  He also had problems with some handling, such as cleaning his eyes, but now willingly lets us groom and manage him.  None of this happened in a formal training session, but did with daily living.

Thus, most of my day was taken up with puppy management, paperwork and a bit of training of the adult dogs.  Jack is up to holding a pencil in his mouth for 1 second 50% of the time and up to 3 seconds at least two or three times in a session.  He's still jumping about with excitement over the treats, so it's time to rework Zen and build up his Zen skills a bit more.

Tuesday

How YOU doin'?

I was noticing that when I say Jack's name he hunches.  I started listening to myself and Ronda and realized over the weekend it is because, even though we both know better, we had been using his name to correct him when he was doing something (barking, taking an object we didn't want him to have).  Even though no physical harm was happening, Jack is soft enough that just saying his name sharply was attaching negative feelings to his name.  Shame on me!

I have started to change that dynamic for Jack.  Instead of correcting him with his name (even getting his attention to redirect him is a correction with such a soft dog) I am calling him to me and praising him for doing what I asked.  In only two days of changing how I use his name he's drastically improved in his body language.

This morning when Ronda dropped him off I put my arms out and happily said his name.  He rushed up to me and got a treat I had hidden in my pocket for doing so.  His "maybe I did something" body language (which was just starting) changed into "I can't believe how cool that was" body language.

In the house when he accidentally made the baby yelp I redirected him to me and then sent him back to play.  He is starting to stand tall again.  I am so glad to see that.  There is a loose dog in the neighborhood and Jack is on the edge of bouncing over my fence whenever he sees him. As a matter of fact all of the dogs in the yard are going nuts when they see this dog, except Malcolm, and I really don't want him to learn this behavior.  I am now calling all of the dogs to me and playing LAT with them when the dog is in view.  I am up to them seeing the dog 20 feet away and staying mostly calm after I start the game, but once the dog is next to my fence we loose all control.  At that point I call all the dogs into the house to calm them down.

This exercise works on staying calm in the presence of their own worst distraction (cats too) and recalling from such a distraction.  They are all improving, but I am not happy with the dog being loose in the neighborhood.

Jack is recalling from great distances and does let me clip a lead on him and grab his collar when I do call him.  No bad has ever happened when I do this and thus he's eager to play the game.  He does settle in the presence of his worst distraction, but it takes time and my keeping his focus.  I have some work to do with him on this - he's very excitable outside and very protective of his yard.  I am at the stage of implementing the Three Bark Rule.  They are allowed to bark up to 3 times and then when I cue them they are to be quiet.  I am building the cue in by recalling them and rewarding them for coming to me - this is working well.  I am attaching the cue "Thank You" when I start the recall.  So it goes:

• See Dog
• Bark at Dog
• I say, "Thank You, Jack Come"
• If he comes to me he gets a reward
• If he doesn't come to me I go to him and repeat my cue and give him a reward.
• We move away from the distraction and give him space to keep his cool.

He is now turning his head when I cue him and about 20% of the time coming when I am over 10 feet away and 60% of the time coming when I am less than 10 feet away.  It's great progress in the past seven days.

Since Jack is so excited about food I am reworking Level 1 Zen.  He needed a quick reminder to keep his nose away today and on our second session I started to ask for eye contact.  I think if Jack knows exactly what is expected of him (he loves rules) he'll do better with his impulse control, but I do need to really super instill some impulse control in him.  He doesn't have the best impulse control overall and it is affecting his progression with Sit and Down, which we need to improve on.  So, Jack will finish the week really hammering Zen.  Once he has a solid Zen I think we can proceed with Sit, Down and Retrieve with better self control and an ability to think.

So, while playing in the yard I decided to add one final training session to Jack's day before his Mom came to get him.  What a break through that was!  I asked Jack to sit on the new Patio and got up to 4 or 5 seconds consistently for a Sit/Stay with me 2 feet away and at least three times up to 7 seconds and twice up to 8 seconds!  Wow!  I gave him a break and worked with Emma for a bit and then came back and put him on the ramp and he did five 10 second Sit/Stays with me 8 feet away!  WOW!  He was stable and focused and able to do the Sit/Stay without issue on the second round.  I was very impressed with him!

We then worked with a stick on Retrieve again.  He had a good grip and solid 1 to 2 second hold when we started and then he was able to hold and move a step or two to hand it to me!  We did this several times.  What a wonderful advancement for Jack.

When his Mom came we all worked on calm greeting behaviors.  I love working with Ronda because she listens and does what I ask to help Jack better understand what we want.  I had him and Emma on leash (been doing this for two weeks) and Emma is no longer attempting to jump on or shoot like a rocket to Ronda when she arrives.  Ronda's back has really been hurting her and Jack loves to give Poodle hugs, except when she first arrives he does so with such joy he hurts her.  With him on leash Ronda comes in the house and turns her back on him and we give him a second to get his brain back.  I let him approach her on lead and he moved to face her and SAT!  She praised him calmly and then took his lead.  He was perfect after three days of this new greeting method (her turning and not making eye contact when he comes in) and I do believe he's happier and calmer for the new greeting.

We are training Jack to paws up on cue, so whenever he paws up without permission we look at the ceiling and wait for him to paws down.  When he does we engage him again and praise him.  The paws up on cue will help Ronda dress him in the mornings, but we need to put stimulus control on his jumping.

Jack has also improved on his excited mouthing when he first meets us.  He used to gently and without causing any harm or pain mouth our hands or fingers.  We have been removing our hands and looking up when he does this and I can't remember the last time Jack mouthed my fingers when he greeted me.

Ronda and I talked about his Zen behavior and the fact it is not solid enough right now to make him able to focus for his other lessons.  I have assigned Zen and Sit with duration as his homework at home to build upon what he's doing here.  Ronda did a fantastic job with his target and basic Sit/Flat/Come behaviors I know that if she re-enforces the lessons at meals and in the evenings with him he'll be flying with them in no time.

What a great day for Jack!

Wednesday

Jack is a lovely boy who everyone who meets him adores.

Jack is really starting to get Sit/Stay.  We worked on that and the 2 person Come Game today.  My friends Shari and Brady came to visit.  Jack was shy at first with both of them, but quickly warmed up to them.  I was showing Shari how to clicker train and thought a great chance for all of the dogs to work with her.

Jack worked Zen and the Come Game with Shari.  I did the clicking and Shari offered the Zen hand and the treat.  At first Jack refocused on me when I clicked, but once he realized that Shari was the one treating him he tuned me out and really started working on the lesson.  I started to see a level of understanding in regards to Zen and some real effort in keeping his nose away and waiting.  Shari on the other hand needs a bit more work on waiting for the click before offering the treat (said tongue in cheek).

He was more relaxed with Shari after the Zen lesson and when we did the Come Game he was more than willing to play with her.  His initial shyness when meeting people quickly leaves once he's had a chance to determine if they are safe to be with.  It wasn't long before he decided Brady was okay too and when we went outside to play he played fetch with both Shari and Brady.

Later I worked with him on Sit/Stay and got a consistent 5 second stay (at 5 feet this time) and a rough spurt up to 7 seconds.  He seems to do better outside when working this lesson than inside, but we are making progress.

I worked Emma on Down/Stay today and at one point had her in a Down/Stay at the front door with it open.  I stepped out after cuing her to Stay and stepped out of her line of sight 3 times.  She flew through, but what floored me was so did every other dog in the house.  My insistence of door manners has really paid off.

I have been having everyone sit at the door and wait to be released by name recently.  I have not shaken up the order in which I release them yet since I am still working on them listening for a specific cue to go by my saying their name and releasing them.  It has stopped the "shot out of a cannon" or "and the gates are open!" launch Emma does out my front door.  Jack is still struggling with this concept - but he's getting there.

This time I left him off lead when his Mom came to pick him up.  Ronda had to do a lot of turning her back on him and reminding him to keep his feet on the floor, but he is a lot calmer than he used to be when she arrives.  Emma on the other hand did a perfect keep her feet on the floor with both Shari and Brady and later with Ronda.  Very nice.  We are starting to get door manners!

Ronda informed me that the night before she worked Zen with his dinner as per my instructions and it took half his dinner before he stopped bopping her hand with his nose.  I can see why I am seeing the improvement I saw today!  Nice work on doing his homework.  She is using his meals to practice important portions of his lessons and with his high food drive it's working well for both of them.

Jack continues to progress, though it's slow right now.  I know we'll suddenly have everything snap into place and be flying, but we have to work through this learning and processing point first.  It won't be long before I am bragging as hard on Jack as I am on Emma.

Another issue I have with Jack is his alarm bark when he sees people or other dogs.  He is a bit of a fence fighter and with his height he's close to going over the fence whenever he jumps up on it.  The loose dogs I talk about in Emma's blog are an issue with Jack.  Yesterday he had almost no recall when seeing them, but my adding a reward to every recall made a huge impression on his recall today.

He did a recall from 40+ feet when the dogs were in sight or near the fence and did so with speed and almost no latency.  He also got less reactive at the fence as the hours in the yard progressed.  Early in our playtime in the yard I saw him rush the fence and slam it with his front feet with such force it bowed out by about a foot.  It alarmed me and I had to go and get him and remind him I am paying for recall.  That was the worst reaction at the fence.  By the end of the day he could see the dogs next door and not respond, but it had been a long day of my calling and rewarding before we got there.

I am very pleased with Jack's progress and I know with the continued home education he receives he'll be progressing at a more steady rate soon.  Great day for Mr. Jack.

Thursday

Nap time at Tao Service Dogs

So, Mr. Jack has a bark that can send a Zombie fleeing.  I don't know how to describe it, but it's somewhere between a howl and a battle cry.  He does it when he sees people, dogs and cats outside of my fence - even if they are in Russia.  It sends every dog on the property (including Malcolm) running to back his play and start the famous fence fighting routine.  I suspect he disturbed several dead people in their graves this week when he spotted something and sent word to the troops.

It can be maddening when he does it because every dog on the property is suddenly deaf and won't do a recall.  I have spoken in depth about the loose dog next door and now there are two (one small), but don't talk much about the one down the street or the times a neighbor has visitors who let their dogs run free too.  Jack is reactive clear to 5 houses down with these dogs and it took me almost all summer to get him to see them at a distance and not react.  It came back when the dogs right next door started their charging the fence and/or walking in and out of line of sight.

A neighbor across the street has a cat that is always out and Jack reacts just the same - standing on my gate and sounding the battle cry.  And for two days he's launched himself into my raspberry bed and stood like a raspberry cane and sounded off at some sight down the street.  This I am addressing and we went from 5 times in the raspberry bed yesterday to only once today - nice improvement.

After the running slam into my fence earlier this week, I knew I had to teach Jack how to remain calm when something was outside of his fence and so started the Three Bark Rule or as I call it "Thank You" training.

I must thank Robin, my friend and mentor, whose helped me with problem solving training issues with all of my dogs, but especially the soft natured Emma and Jack.  Robin has more experience with Poodles than I do and also has experience with Labradors - each is very different than my beloved breed of choice, the German Shepherd.

Labradors are willing to repeat a single step in a lesson forever as long as they get treats.  Poodles like to read the last page of the book before deciding if they want to start - thus repeating a step bores them and they tune out.  German Shepherds want a straight line to follow from point A to point B and are willing to take tiny progressive steps to get there.  It can be frustrating when working on a specific goal and finding that you are not explaining it to the dog well enough for them to understand.

For me, that frustration has been Retrieve.  First with Emma and her sudden fear responses and refusal to train.  Robin and I discussed everything in length, coming up with new ways to explain the same thing in a way Emma could join me and feel more confidence.  I will say, Emma challenged my skills at splitting to the finest point to get her to progress slowly forward.  Jack is a much different creature than Ms. Emma - Jack can't seem to slow down in this joy to train and thus is stalemated in the same spot on the retrieve training.

I gave up the linear approach with Jack and turned the book to the last page for him.  I showed him, through shaping, that the goal was to pick up items and hand them to me.  We paused after that minor break through, but at least Jack was willing to start the book.  We went back to working on holding objects and once again stalemated at him chattering his teeth on the object or going for the grinding bite down in his molars.

Robin to the rescue.  We discussed what worked with training her Poodle, Sherman, and how much faster he was getting things with her method than her previous Poodle and other dogs.  I let the conversation roll around in my brain and simply did not work on retrieve for the day because of it.

What great insight did Robin give me?  She likes to introduce in the middle of a training lesson one new or difficult concept with maybe four or five repetitions and then go back to working material he knows and is simply proofing or polishing up.  She then lets him mull over the new idea for 24 hours and most of the time Sherman will return the next day with the problem solved.  Sherman uses a LOT of Latent Learning to solve the puzzles Robin presents him with.  Could it be I am not giving Jack the amount of Latent Learning he needs to be successful?

So, we spent Thursday working on recalls from distractions and teaching him to turn away from a distraction when I said Thank You and coming to me.  With Malcolm having a funny tummy day and us spending the day outside I was in the perfect position to work on Yard Manners for the day.

Jack improved so much by the end of the day that the whole yard seemed to be eerily quiet.  I loved it.  When his Mom went to pick him up and we noticed Emma with a straw I had dropped from my Latte the day before, we had a "ah ha" moment with both Emma and Jack.  I asked Emma what she had and could she bring it and she ran the straw to me from 40 feet away.  Wonderful.  While I was talking to Ronda Jack took the straw out of my hand, behind his canines, and sat tall and proud holding it for me (the one thing I have been trying to get him to figure out) and then thrust his nose forward and pushed it back into my hand.  YES!

Another thing Robin had mentioned was she hides treats all over her person.  She has the in many pockets and even in her bra.  What the heck, I can do that too.  My pockets and bra have been stuffed with treats for two days now.  I gave Jack three treats with clear joy in my voice and a huge smile on my face.  Little did we know what that single incident would mean for our end of week.

Friday

Gentleman Jack.

I did have a day job as a web developer that produced a majority of my income.  That job came to an end in September and my final paycheck was deposited earlier this week.  This means I need to find a way to make up the loss of income.  A family friend runs a Currier business and contacted me Thursday afternoon and asked if I would do a run for him.  It's income, so I agreed.

It took almost 7 hours to do the run and I didn't get to bed before 3:30 AM after arriving back home at 1:30 AM.  I was up again at 7:00 AM and was exhausted.  When Jack arrived just before 8:00 AM I simply fed the dogs and then let Malcolm play until he got drowsy and put him up in his bedtime crate and crashed on the bed until 10:30 AM.  The approximately 1 1/2 hour nap made the difference and I wasn't dangerously staggering about the house any longer.

It was right after I woke that Emma's parents called and arranged for an early pick up.  I left Jack in his crate while I ran Emma to meet her family and then Malcolm to the vet for a weigh in (check Malcolm's Quest for an update).

Jack is doing well with his crating, though today for the first time in a while, I noted he moved the crate a bit.  He's been sleeping, playing or going to his crate for timeouts when he need a break from the puppy.  His crate has become a place of safety for him, so seeing it moved a bit surprised me.  He wasn't howling when I returned and he's not frantic when I released him.

I am behind on household chores, the kitchen being one, so I did the dishes real quick.  When I was finished I worked with Jack to learn a new skill for his service dog work.  I'll have to film it sometime, but I taught Max to flip the dishwasher door up to shut it.  I am teaching the same skill to Jack.

Like Emma, I give Jack one new thing to work out over the weekend.  Today I introduced the idea of flipping the door up and next week I'll work on his actually doing it.  How exciting.

Today I needed to cut treats so I pulled out the liver I had cooked, the chicken I had boiled, hot dogs, and both beef and turkey Happy Howies to chop up.  I laid them all out on the counter and went to get the cheese I wanted to add and saw Jack sniffing the edge of the counter.  I just waited to see what choice he would make and was pleased when he pulled back and looked to me.  Nice.

I had to get something in the living room and watched as Jack again checked the counter and choose not to take the food that he could easily get.  This means that Jack has a breakdown with food in people's hands more than he does with food on plates or counters.  How interesting.

He decided to hover (as per normal) at my elbow as I cut treats.  I ignored him.  Whenever he laid down I would toss a treat between his front feet.  It took him a long time to decide to lay back down, but after the third time he did he didn't pop back up when I tossed the treats between his feet.  Excellent - he's learning if he waits patiently he'll be rewarded.  It's Zen in a different picture and the more pictures I draw the more he'll get it.

I bought tripe for Malcolm to train in high stress situations and chopped a little up for Jack for when Ronda came to get him.  He's still jumping and if I can use a super high value reward for just when she arrives and he keeps his feet on the ground I may get through to him faster that he's to be calm when she gets him.  He was overjoyed to see her, but the moment I started offering tripe he planted to the ground and focused on me.  I encouraged him to greet his Mom and she encouraged him to remain calm by doing calm greetings with him.  By the fourth "greet Mom" he was solidly planted on the ground and giving nice calm behavior.  Wonderful.

Ronda and I were catching up on my trip the night before and events during the day regarding Jack when we noticed he had one of Malcolm's toys and was racing through the yard with it.  We were laughing at his antics when he brought it up to us and dropped it.  Without thinking I cued him to pick it up and low and behold he did.  I tossed it down and we played the pick up the toy and exchange it for a treat game three more times.  It was the most beautiful retrieve I've seen him do to date!

We went in and I got an old pair of sunglasses and tossed them down.  Jack did another prefect retrieve and then he lost it.  He started to play with them on the last retrieve and pounced on them, knocked the lense out and finally got them for me.  I told Ronda I wanted her to offer him the chance to retrieve whatever was for him to do so and she was willing to risk him accidentally damaging while he's learning.

At 8:30 PM Ronda called me to tell me he got it.  He understands.  He's offering retrieves and making the leap.  Yep, she asked him to pick up 2 cardboard items and two plastic items.  When she was putting up the items he retrieved she returned to find he was picking up clips she had dropped.  He dropped them, but she praised him and asked for him to get them and low and behold he did it.  He's now at the stage that Emma was 2 months ago, just on that cusp of understanding what we are asking and starting the long process of becoming a fully trained dog with retrieve skills.

At this point Jack is building on success.  I asked Ronda to offer him the chance to pick things up, if he doesn't, but shows an interest reward him anyway - over time he'll gain more confidence in his retrieves and blossom.  This is a very exciting time.

I also mentioned to Ronda what Robin had told me about hiding treats on herself.  Ronda too is carrying treats in her pockets and when Jack does something good he is quickly rewarded.  It's improved Jack's performance and I do believe overtime we'll have Jack fully trained with retrieve.

Next week Ronda is on vacation and Jack will not be staying with me.  I look forward to Jack's return.




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	0	1	0
	Jump	Relax	Handling	Retrieve	Communication
Step	0	0	Completed	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	Completed	0	0	0
	Handling	Communication
Step	Completed	0

19 Months: October 5 - 11, 2013

Jack has a new step-brother, Malcolm.  He's 8 weeks old!

Jack has been busy since our last update.  As I stated previously, Jack had his tail operated on to remove a bone spur that had pierced the skin.  They actually did what is called a re-dock and removed one vertebra from his tail.  He was absolutely miserable the next week.

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

18 Months: September 16 - 20

Goofy Jack.

Jack the goof!  What a silly boy Jack has been.  He loves to learn so much he gets to excited to learn.  he makes me laugh.  Just today I was working with Jack on retrieve and he did this flop and flip thing with the dish cloth we were working with.  He's funny and playful and gentle and can be a handful to train because of it.

Jack is learning to retrieve.  With the number of times I've seen his handler unable to pick up anything due to spasms in her back it became the priority for our learning.  He was so excited about grabbing the items I was offering he wasn't getting anywhere close to a hold.  I decided to change direction with him and shaped him to picking up a dish cloth.  It took two days of shaping, but he got it.  He's not perfect, but he's getting closer every time we work on it.

Since the break through of picking up items I have worked on his putting them into my hand with purpose.  Jack is not natural at sharing what he has in his mouth and this has been a harder lesson for him.  He's starting to move his nose forward and place the item in my palm, but it will be another week of training before we see the final product.

Another factor for Jack is he thinks I am pointing out food when I point and forgets I am asking him to pick up something.  So this too is being slowly worked on.  He's starting to get the idea that when I point I want him to pick up something, but again, we are in the rough stage of carving out a new behavior and none of it is very pretty right now.

While working on this we revisit the idea of taking and holding an object in his mouth for me.  He's bearing down with his teeth with a great deal of pressure and I have tried different textures and densities to see what would soften his grip and get the focus on what I am really working on.  It appears Jack is gentlest with metal objects, which he has no problem taking in his mouth, so I will work on his hold with a fork or spoon for a while and then transfer the idea to softer objects when he has the concept.

We also worked on Mat behavior and Distance this week.  In his class he was introduced to the idea of getting on and stopping on his mat.  I continued the lesson the following day and was seeing him get on and drop on his mat.  Nice.  I also worked on going around a pole.  I worked a bit on it o Monday, where he was totally confused and had no clue what I was asking, and again on Wednesday where he got the idea and started showing signs he understood.

We need to continue Zen for Jack.  He is so food focused that he stops thinking when I hold treats.  I have been using a treat bin and reaching only for the treats after I have clicked instead.  This has slowed him down a bit and gotten him to thinking of what he needs to do to make me click and treat.

I have also used shaping for this concept.  I want him to understand he has to do something for me to click and treat.  Once he gets THAT rule he should excel at learning.

Overall Jack is progressing with retrieve nicely.  When we were working in the kitchen I did see a lot of offered behaviors where he was figuring out what I was clicking for.  He did sits, flats, targets, paw raised (for shake) and eye contact all for a click before looking at the dish cloth.  I see a bit of that when I am sitting also.

When I am sitting the primary thing he offers is a flat or head on my lap.  The behavior of head on lap is due to our need to clear a thick semi white goo out of his eyes daily.  I started it in the bathroom, where he follows me and wants my attention.  I have treats by the toilet and when he lets me clean his eyes he gets one.  I have taught him to rest his head on my lap and let me clean his eyes - it is becoming a loving default behavior when I sit anywhere - which will make it easy to teach him a task for providing comfort when his human is having major spasms.  I find when he does that and I am in a lot of pain that it eases my pain to run my finders through his hair or pet his head while he rests there like that.

Overall, Jack is doing well this with his training.  I need to slow him down a bit so he can learn and progress, but otherwise I am happy with his progress.

Jack will have surgery on his tail next Monday.  His tail bone is still growing on the end and has pierced the skin.  To prevent infection or injury to his tail the bone spur will be removed and his tail cleaned up after the bone is cauterized to prevent regrowth.  He may need rest more than training next week.

18 Months: Progress Update

Gentleman Jack

I know it's been a long time since I wrote on Jack's blog, but that doesn't mean that Jack's training came to a halt.  A lot has happened for Jack and myself since our last update.

I had a foster dog for a while.  Her name was Maura and she was a handful all by herself.  During her stay here Jack stayed at his owner's home during the day.  At first she tried to crate Jack during the day, but that failed miserably.  Deva, Jack's German Shepherd sister, taught Jack he could escape the crate on day one.  Together they found enough trouble to ruin Jack's owner's language.  I was informed they had raided the counter, chewed a phone, destroyed DVD cases and basically found all sorts of mayhem.  This continued the entire time Jack stayed unsupervised and by the time he returned to me, he was without question out of control when it came to the crate.

I had barely instilled crate skills in Jack at the time, and thus found myself at a loss as to what to do about Jack and his crate behaviors now that they were gone.  Since a friend (Thanks Judy) loaned me a set of crates to crate Maura, Emma and Dieter (who at the time was still crate bound) I had enough crates to rotate who was in what crate if I had to run an errand.  Emma went into a plastic crate as did Dieter and Jack took over the wire crate.  He also came very close to destroying it.

After two rounds in the wire crate and no successful escape, Ronda brought back Jack's crate.  The one he learned he could escape from.  I once again asked him to stay in his crate while I was gone.  I came up with a few strategies to convince him that escaping crates in MY home was not possible.  I removed his bedding - since he returned to shredding it again - and then parked my power chair in front of the door with the back of the crate pressed against a wall.  Low and behold, Jack couldn't escape and within three times of leaving him for errands I was able to return bedding without his shredding it.  I left the power chair in place each time I left for up to 5 times of leaving him in the crate and then moved to leaving the glide rocker in front of his crate door.  I did this until Monday.  On Monday I crated him, didn't block the door and left for a quick errand to pick up my son.  He was still in his crate when I returned.  I did it a second time when I took my son home.  Today I left him again in his crate when I went to run his Rott/Mix sister Chautzie to the vet - which is the longest time to date of leaving him in an unblocked crate and returned to him calmly and quietly waiting for me.

The howling, fit throwing, door popping behavior has been replaced by a dog who willingly enters his crate, quietly lays down and is calm and waiting for me when I return.  I am not getting the howling (which we had not fully removed before the upset in his crate training) and over excited behavior on exit I used to get.  This does not mean he's crate trained for anywhere but my home just yet.  I need to take this one the road and build up his crate behavior again and again until he's crate trained - but we are making progress.

When we last left Jack he was struggling with Zen.  His drive for food was so strong that he couldn't think and thus learn.  Jack is now 18 months old and with age his ability to self contain has improved.  I started to make real progress on Zen once he returned and watched it blossom when Jack attended his first group class.

Jack took Headstart at Diamonds in the Ruff in August. I saw a huge improvement in Jack as he took this class.  Ronda and I took turns taking him into class, so I also got to chance to see his progress as he attended from one week to another in the classroom setting.  Another bonus was I was an assistant for one of his classes, so I got to see him in class all three weeks!  It was fantastic.

His Zen snapped into place after the first class he attended.  He picked it up at the Ruff House and carried it over to my home.  He also learned he could be in a busy room and still focus on me, something he had trouble doing.  On his second class he was very alert to Ronda, and was - with some difficult - able to ignore me.  Ronda was having a bad back day and Jack was alerting her to her pain and comforting her.  I took him to his third class and the dog I had taken in on the first one was refined and controlled.  He could relax and put his chin down, join in on the training, wasn't as worried about the instructors and his Zen was up to my putting treats on his feet and all around him.

Meanwhile we've worked on leash manners, focus on us while out and about and adding duration to his sit and flat.  I've also been working on his separation anxiety.  What I haven't done is an honest evaluation of where Jack is and what needs to be done next.  I'll be doing that shortly and move forward with Jack's training.

Right now Jack is attending Prep at Diamonds in the Ruff.  I will check what his homework for the week is and work on that as well so he has greater success in his classes.

16 Months: Training - Day 39

Jack spent a 4 day weekend with Ronda.  She had taken the time off for the Memorial Weekend in hopes to go camping, but had injured her back so badly a week earlier that she was unable to leave for her trip.  Instead, Jack spent the weekend curled up with her and giving her comfort while she recovered.

I am happy to say that for the first time in over a week Ronda was almost walking normally.  Jack truly needs to learn how to do retrieves, something Ronda could have badly used with this injury (something that happens to her whenever she has to bend too many times and I've seen her like this before).  This means working hard on his other foundation skills that build up to the retrieve.

In that spirit Jack entered my home today to work on shaping.  I spent the day working on two skills that build his understanding that he makes me click and  forces him to think of what I am asking of him.  It was a good day for training for Jack, but a bad day of no play.  Emma injured her ACL at the end of last week and is on restricted activity, which means that Jack and her cannot just relax and play like they normally do.

I do want to mention I have noted that Jack's concept of waiting to get what he wants is still very poor.  Though he's offering some level of "other dog Zen" and I am seeing Zen creep into his daily life, his idea of waiting for a treat or not mugging a person who is eating or even not jumping on his Mom when she comes to pick him up is low.

I have setup some "Zen" traps in my home.  Emma fell for one and learned quickly that if a bone, even a new tasty one, is not on the floor for her to have she cannot just take it and chew on it.  I have placed a bone in the window sill by my front door.  It is now being left alone without issue by her and Jack.  I also left a slice of cooked bacon on my counter today for  most of the day and noted no dog attempted to get on the counter to steal it.  This is fantastic, because it tells me where Jack is on his Zen concepts.  Jack has Zen issues with people in general.

Today's Lessons:

Sit

Jack is working on Level 2: Step 1 Sit.  In this step Jack is asked to sit while I walk 5 feet away from him.  Jack is able to do this now 90% of the time I work on this step.  He is also able to handle my walking around him in both directions and walking 5 feet to his left and right.  Jack is about to pass this step.

In the training I am doing with Jack on this step he's working in a low distraction setting and has little problem with the lesson.  On the other hand, working with his Mom when she arrives is very different.  Today we started his lesson on sitting and waiting for her to walk up to him.  With her back finally on the mend enough to give her relief and return her to her normal pain levels, the last thing I wanted was for Jack's jumping up on her and bouncing off of her to reflare her spasms.

I put Jack on lead and stood on it when I opened the door.  I had put Emma in the bathroom and let Max and Dieter exit the house when I opened the door.  I told Ronda to walk toward him only if he was sitting and to stop when he broke his sit.  It took us up to 5 minutes before Ronda could cross the 5 feet to him while he was seated.

Once she got to him he jumped up and I took the lead and walked him away from her.  He had to walk back on a loose lead (which he defaults too) and great her calmly.  Whenever he got too excited or he jumped I once again walked him away and returned him to his Mom.  In the end he stood close to her and kept his cool.  It took a total of 10 minutes to work through this, but Jack learned a lot and got the ultimate reward of greeting his Mom when he succeeded.

We'll continue this process to teach Jack to calmly greet her when she comes to pick him up.

Shaping

Today I wanted to teach Jack about his body and his ability to make me click.  I also wanted to work on Jack learning to think and try new things.  When Jack gets confused he lays down and stops moving and I want to break him out of that pattern and teach him he can and should offer me behaviors to find out what I am asking of him.

To do this I worked with him on sitting in a box.  Jack has had a couple of lessons with the box before and he's getting the clue the box has something to do with the lesson, but not what yet.  Today he tried sniffing, sitting and laying by the box.  I would toss the treats off to the side for him and to my amazement Jack looked at the tossed treat and then to me, I gave him the go ahead to eat them and he got up and did so.  So, my Zen training is taking, just not in some areas I need it!

Jack did get his front feet in the box once today, but he's not fully into shaping with the box.  I think I'll continue this lesson until Jack gets the idea he can do many things with the box to get a click.

Observations

Jack is a sweet and loving boy, but he's a bit clingy and pushy with his need to be in on everything.  He needs more real life experience in Zen and lessons on Communication in regards to giving space when people are walking through the house.  Jack is progressing nicely and this week should be fun as we work our way into shaping behaviors with the box.

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

15 Months: Training - Day 38

Food Dish Zen - Max, Attitude and Dieter.

Attitude always struggled with Zen also.

Zen, the foundation to all the other behaviors Jack needs, seems to be his hardest lesson. Jack is better than when he arrived and had zero Zen behaviors, but he's still putting his nose in or on everything and tries at least once a day to steal a treat out of another dog's mouth while I am training them.  His "other dog working Zen" is improving daily, but he's still struggling with it. So, I chant daily with him, "Zen, Zen and Zen!"

Zen; what is it?  It's the ability to wait to get a reward.  To wait to get the reward to go outside or his turn for a treat when I am doling them out to the entire household or a pet or even to get his treat AFTER he's done a behavior and not try to take it from my hand BEFORE.  Zen means wait and you'll get what you desire - most of the time anyway.

So, here is Jack, Mr. Impatient himself, trying to figure out exactly what I want and he's starting to get it.  The classes I have taken with Emma, which has had some new material as compared to the same class when I took it with Max, has helped.  That new material has given me more tools for explaining Zen.  Max's classes have also worked. In Max's classes we are learning how to ramp up or calm down a dog depending on our needs.  In this case, Jack needs to be calmed down around treats - and he's getting it.

So, Mr. Impatient is starting to display true Zen behaviors in certain situations - the more I explain and the better I explain what I want will lead to him offering it in all situations.  Here's hoping for that happening.

One thing he needs serious Zen in is "Mom is home Zen".  Ronda has done something to her back and has been in terrible pain.  She's walking like poor Dieter was at the beginning of the week.  I can see it wearing her and slowing her down.  She's clearly struggling with the pain and Jack's over reaction to her returning home is only adding to that pain.  Jack jumps on her and mugs her when she returns and that is something we'll need to stop.  I think tomorrow Jack will learn jumping at her will result in being stuffed in my front bathroom - he simply needs to learn calm when she returns home.

I do want to apologize to Ronda.  I was on the phone with my Mom when she arrived to pick up Jack and my son was there.  I didn't have time to chat or even dress Jack and manage the dogs.  I felt bad because I felt rude to my best friend when she picked up her very energetic boy and my sending Walter out to help her get him dressed.  I am sorry I didn't give you any time to chat or find out how things went - I wasn't ignoring you, honestly!

Today's Lessons:

Zen

Jack is working on Level 2: Step 3 Zen.  In this step Jack is asked to wait 30 seconds while a treat is on the floor.  Jack is not ready for this - 1 second is a life time to him right now.  I am still working on quick rewards for eye contact and working the same basic lessons I did yesterday.  Jack is improving rapidly on these and I am starting to see the confidence in the game which means he's finally understanding.

Once Jack is able to offer Zen the moment he knows a treat is in my hand we'll be well on the way to solid Zen behavior.  I will continue to remind and refresh on Zen behavior until Jack becomes the Zen King.

Observations

I believe a stronger job of controlling Jack's greeting of Ronda when she comes to pick him up is required.  His jumping and mugging is a clear sign he loves her, but not appropriate behavior and needs to be redirected.  I will think on various ways to explain to him what I want and work with Ronda on teaching him a calmer greeting routine.

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

15 Months: Training - Day 37

I see this a lot during the day.

This is Wednesday's blog post.  My week has been so full with building raised beds and caring for Dieter and dealing with server issues with my day job that I am running behind on a lot of basic work for the dogs!  Jack is doing great though and I am very proud with how well he occupies himself when I am busy.

Jack and Emma have been playing hard when we have outside time and learning a lot of new thing while he's here.  He started the week with power saws and power drills while my Mom and I built four new raised beds for my yard and I was pleased to see him sleep through the process.  He has been doing well on letting other dogs eat out of their bowls without trying to help and he's starting to off "other dog training Zen", though it is so very hard to do.

He's also spent the week giving me snuggles and hugs a lot.  He's a very affectionate dog and loves to give kisses or just be held in a hug - something dogs normally don't like, but he hugs back and he loves it.

I also shaved his face. He was squinting through the fur on his face and I finally couldn't take it anymore and took my clippers to him.  At first he and I were playing a dance of "how do we do this" and by the end of the clipping he was reluctant, but willing to let me finish the job.  He and I are now working on "clippers can make you feel happy" by my pulling them out and having him touch them with his nose and giving him a treat.  After three days of this he is wagging the moment he sees the clippers.  I have had them unplugged sometimes and plugged others and done it with them both on and off (he doesn't nose touch if they are on, just looks at them).

But with the busy week our training schedule has been off a bit and he's not working on lessons as often or long as he was before his vacation.  Hopefully next week will be better for both of us.

Today's Lessons:

Zen

Jack is working on Level 2: Step 3 Zen.  In this step Jack is asked to stay away from a treat on the floor for 30 seconds.  Jack's Zen has been his weakest point.  He simply cannot keep his mind around food and he's very very very very hand oriented.  He loves to nibble on fingers when he's excited - though there is not pressure or malice in the act - it is a sign that he has a problem with self control regarding hands.

I have been working Zen in as many ways as I can find to help him keep his nose, teeth and tongue under control.  Jack would be fantastic at Zen if his mouth would just listen to his brain!  In Emma's Finishing School class we were shown a few ways to explain Zen to the dogs and I am using those techniques with Jack to further explain to him what I want.

I am asking him to look to me, not my hand, not the treat, but me when he sees the Zen hand.  I have not added the cue back in yet and won't until he's got total control of himself - Jack simply gets too excited and tries stealing treats out of my hands the moment he smells them.

These new techniques are working.  One is to hold treats in both hands off to the sides at shoulder level.  Jack can look at my hand all he wants, but he will not get a treat until he looks at my face.  He quickly got this idea, since it gave him a clear "what to do" action, and he was quickly locking into my face and eyes and not even looking at the hands.  When I said "Yes" to mark he did right I would feed a treat from the hand he did not look at.

Another technique places the treats on a chair or my knee and again he's not to look at the food, but into my face.  He had a harder time with this at first, but soon had it and was a champ.  Each time he looked into my eyes I would click and feed a treat from the pile right into his mouth.

Taking the second technique further I put a pile of treats on the floor and would only pick up and hand him one when he looked me in the eyes.  Again, the click happened when he focused on me and not the food.  This one again threw him for a loop and he was on his side, sliding into home with tongue in action trying to slurp a treat from under my protective hand.  He got it in the end, but he had a hard time with this concept.

We worked for his entire lunch on this lesson.

Sit

Jack is working on Level 2: Step 1 Sit.  In this step Jack is asked to sit while I walk 5 feet away from him.  Jack has a hard time with this concept.  He wants to get up and follow, something he does naturally with people he likes, and finds my walking away too tempting not to follow me.

He is starting to get the concept and I am starting to see confidence in his sit when I walk away or around him. He is starting to build duration on every 10th time I walk away and we got up to 6 seconds by the end of his breakfast!  Great job!

Observatons

Jack is a sweet boy who loves people in general.  Once he considers you part of his world he's like glue on you. I am one of his "people" and he loves to see me.  He gives hugs and kisses and even just leans into me and rests his head in my lap off and on all day long.  He is the most affectionate dog I have ever met.

He has a hard time therefore being separated from his people.  Learning Distance and Duration will give Jack more confidence and he should come out of Level 2 with an extremely solid foundation in key behaviors of Sit, Down and Stay.

Jack is doing a great job and I am not worried about his progress at this time.

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