A Frame of Mind

The cost of selecting the wrong dog trainer

2012-01-30T16:27:00.003-05:00

I see a lot of dogs. People typically want the best for their dogs, but they're not always in a position to know what "best" may be. They aren't the professionals in the situation and their perspective is very different than that of someone in an 'expert' role.

At the best end of things, the person just adopted the dog or had only done a few basic classes by the time they're directed to a vet behaviorist. After the appointment, (and often meds), the dog is able to learn better, do better, and actually progress in class and at home. The downside is the time, money, and frustration that the family unnecessarily experienced up to that point.

At the worst end of things, the family only does a consult after a lot of training or trainer shopping and after the dog has experienced some pretty horrible things at the hands of people who are often not all that skilled with various ...interesting....punishment strategies (whether intentional or not). The human-animal bond is often damaged. And it takes a lot more time, training, and effort to get everyone to start progressing.

As a puppy, Luna was anxious, lacking confidence,
had housetraining problems, and no trainers addressed
these concerns.

And sometimes the cost is higher. By the time the family is seeking more help, the family may not have the patience, time, or money to actually work with the right professional and follow through with treatment. The family might feel like training won't work because the five other trainers resulted in no real success.

The dog may go untreated for months, years, or life. The dog may be regulated to excessive crating or kenneled in the backyard. People, animals, or family members may be physically injured. The dog may be adopted out or euthanized. The family isn't going to feel so great about dogs for a really long time.

This is why problem areas need to be addressed right away. Families need to know how to seek help, and where to seek help. Beginning and less experienced trainers need to know when to refer. Beginner/basic classes and puppy classes should be taught by the most experienced people possible, not those just learning (they should assist and learn!). If problems are noted, the family needs to be pointed to the right help, right away. Trainers need to attend/participate in continued education events so they're better able to help people. Vets need to ask leading questions to identify problem areas ("How is he left home? How is house training? Storms and fireworks? Are you seeing any training problem areas?").

It's not easy.

And some real numbers with Blaze:
Puppy class. And a second, third, fourth class. Five or six sport classes. A lot of books. A few privates. Extra health tests. And then to the vet behaviorist (4.5 hours away!). Neurologist appointments. So, after only about $1800ish of training (not counting the very $$ obstruction surgeries that didn't heal well even though the pica is probably related to his behavior challenges) we had our $300ish appointment. He was diagnosed and we received treatment options.

Blaze was labeled as a "Just needs more training." puppy.

If we had gotten the right help from puppy class, it would have saved a lot of time, money, energy frustration. He would probably be a different dog than he is now, though not 'normal'. We would have saved a lot of money, or at least gotten more for our money rather than many classes where he didn't progress and instructors berated us for not practicing. I have family members, adults, who are afraid of Blaze. He's not an aggressive dog, just bigger and lacking self control. Their relationship with him and all dogs has been damaged.

Online Class Review

2012-01-25T08:05:00.000-05:00

Back in the fall we signed up for the first online dog training class I've ever taken. The class was taught by Fanny Gott and lasted about four months.

It was the best training class I've ever taken.

Advantages of online classes: You are able to show the instructor your best work. If your dog is having a bad day? Wait another day before taking your video. You have plenty of time to ask your questions and process your thoughts.

Things I loved about this class specifically: The training is just great. I know I've mentioned before that a lot of the clicker training in Europe is just more proficient than most of what's being done in the US. And this class is a great example. The training plans are brilliant. Allowing the dog to be as prepared as possible before doing the competition behaviors. Less incorrect approximations are reinforced. And it's all just beautiful. Not to mention Fanny and Thomas are successful in competition in a way that most clickerly people here are not. And that really stands out to me.

Things I learned in this class: The most obvious and most distressing and most important was that Griffin is too aroused while working. I have got to get him to settle. I don't need to keep building up his enthusiasm, though I should work to maintain what we have and I should expand his abilities to be working well as he will not work in some environments. Our playing has improved 10 times. This is helping all of our training. We've learned some new self control games that I'm sometimes teaching in classes too ("Reversed luring" and a send to bowl game that Griffin --loves--). This class was very, very good for us. It was great to see all the other dogs in the class, giving me more ideas on how to progress or on how it all fits together.

Now what?: The next group just opened for registration. I am attempting to use my self control to not sign up this time around. We're in an online running contact class, but it's just not as fun as obedience! I'm going to be reviewing our notes from class and continue to perfect our training/obedience exercises. And then, I'm not sure. We benefit from the help. I love obedience. I'd like to finally be ready to start trialing in obedience and agility.

In review.... an online class is different from a real class. The feedback is not immediate. But the feedback is great, you have time to think about it. you can watch yourself work while reading and re-reading the feedback. A good online class can be a fabulous option. I'm definitely going to be taking more classes!

Looking at Success

2012-01-22T12:38:00.002-05:00

There are a lot of books about success (and not) and looking at why certain individuals or groups of people are successful (or not). I've been reading a lot of these over the last few months. A few observations: (Other than that reading many books on the same subject means a lot of repetition):

1) A lot of practice is important.

2) Practicing the right things, and being efficient with practice, is important.

3) It's more about the right opportunities and practice than anyone being all that different or inherently exceptional.

4) It's important for challenges to be continually increased. The bar should always be set higher.

As I read, I think about this from different perspectives: for myself, for my dogs, for my students, for my students who are enthusiasts/in sports classes, for my 4-H kids, and for the many instructors that I know.

Myself: I know I've had a lot of practice. The short version is that I had a lot of practice early on, it wasn't great practice but it wasn't bad either. I had opportunities to work with many species and I've been obsessive about animals for my whole life. But I don't do as much practice as I used to. I make use of my time at the shelter to maintain and improve training skills. I continually work with my dogs. I am now much more efficient with my training sessions. In some ways I don't think I challenge myself enough (often taking the "easy route" in training), though my interest in various competition-type activities --does-- require me to continually work towards a high standard.

My Dogs: Griffin is 3.5. When Blaze was 3.5, he probably had 10-25x the training hours Griffin has had. Griffin is about a hundred times more proficient than Blaze. It's not just about Blaze's brain abnormality. I've had higher standards with Griffin. My greater experience has allowed us to be more efficient. We set out every training session with a specific goal (faster, straighter, closer, more still, higher, etc). With Blaze, it was about getting a lot of sits in a row. I can also see the dangers (and damage) that result from practicing poorly or practicing the wrong things.

My Human Students: There are a lot of times when we do exercises specifically to let the people get the practice. We do things again and again and again. In some ways, I don't like "wasting" the time, but they do need to get into the habit and not everyone will work at home. I am continually working to get the lessons to be more efficient, with more done in less time and to a higher degree of competency. I need to challenge this group more.

My Dog Students: It's hard having two learners. Sometimes the dog is holding back the learning of the person, and sometimes it's the other way around. Again, it's a balance of challenging the team but also allowing enough repetition and time for them to get comfortable and competent with the skills.

Enthusiast Students: They really like practicing. They don't always like (or think) to practice the stuff they should spend time on. Sometimes it's harder to get these teams to practice efficiently or with good technique/skill. They want to skip steps and shortcut. They can see the final picture but aren't always able to see what's required for each step in between. It's my job to challenge them at the right level and not let them get caught up in the big-picture goals. Some of these teams have been in dogs for a really long time. I'm often amazed at the poor training many people (students or not) have been able to get away with and still have success...and I don't mean punishment. Timing, setting criteria, reinforcement, training plans.

4-H Kids: This is a really interesting group. It's easy to get them to practice some things. Painfully hard to get them to see the importance of other things. We're on a limited time frame, meaning we shortcut some training steps or aren't competition-ready by competition day. But I do see many of them week after week for six or so months, every year for many years. It really gives me big-picture feedback on how our training plans are working. It also gets easy to fall into the patterns of doing the same activities again and again and not pushing that bar higher on a week to week basis.

Other Trainers: I know a lot of dog trainers (the internet is amazing). I have a lot of trainer friends. I have many in classes or that I see on a regular basis. I have some students who want to do teach. Without hesitation, I can say that I'm often rather concerned. There are many professionals who need to spend some time training animals (teaching is a different skill set) as well as expanding their teaching and training skills. Set the bar higher! Challenge! I feel a lot of responsibility to help my trainer-friends. It's easier when they ask for help. When they don't, it's a balance of finding ways that I can support or encourage them to keep working.

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At a dog-enthusiast group dinner, some of this came up. It was interesting to hear what others heard, experienced, or did.

Griffin's Dilemma

2012-01-19T11:01:00.000-05:00

Griffin has many really great competition behaviors. His real-life, daily-use behaviors are getting a little...rusty. In a training context we can do some very excessive "proofing" exercises and he is almost 100% successful. When he makes errors, it's often to move -away- from the things he really wants.

Yesterday we worked on his directed jumping. First a few to see how he was doing. Then with someone else telling us which jump to take. And then with some proofing exercises. Initially I had a helper hold him (so no stay to break). He perceived that as a recall exercise and blasted straight to me. Once I left him on stays, he was great and then only missed about 2 out of 20 repetitions over the day. We ended up with people running around the ring and taking the jumps, standing in interested positions, and carrying items through his ring. He barely looked away from me.

He can do most of his competition exercises with some fairly extreme distractions. Yet I do not think he's ready to trial. In the moment of excessive distractions, Griffin very much knows that it's a trick and he only works harder.

Attention!

So what do we do? Next week we'll do more repetitions with more subtle distractions. We'll do more exercises or pieces before reinforcing.

Are you making progress?

2012-01-13T09:07:00.000-05:00

For those in training classes, there are two people responsible for making sure there's progress. The instructor and the student. For those who are working on their own... there's just one person to monitor progress! It's important to be objectively monitoring any training process so that we can evaluate improvement.

If you are seeing progress:

What's the rate of progress? Can it be improved more? Do we need to set new goals? What are your plans for maintaining what you've worked towards?

If you are not seeing progress:

Talk to your instructor. I am always sad when I have students who are working with other professionals (trainers or vets) but are not seeing progress and have not discussed the lack of progress or additional concerns with that professional. Utilize the resources available! Get some help.
Do you need to "break it down" into smaller parts? Is the training plan not detailed enough?
Are you focusing on the right challenge? Example: When Luna is in class, she will often freeze up and stare at other people or dogs. If I addressed this as an attention problem...I wouldn't see too much progress. If I address this as a stressed/afraid dog challenge, we can work to resolve the underlying anxiety and then she will be able to focus on me.
Look at the reinforcers: What are you using? Is it actually reinforcing for your dog? Is there other reinforcement in the picture? Example: Young dog barking and pulling on the leash until he's allowed to meet the other dogs he sees during walks. Now he does a lot of barking and pulling every single time he sees a dog. The barking was reinforced with play!
How are you practicing? Are you doing training exercises to address the challenges at hand?
How is your management? Is your training being compromised at other times of day?

Monitoring student progress:

I make notes about dogs in group classes. The notes include a listing of the goals the family specified and a list of my goals for the dog/family. These are not usually the same! Each week I can add a few more things to the list or cross of those things we accomplished. We prioritize based off of the things that impact living with the dog and the human-animal bond. When students are not seeing progress, we can talk about what's going on. If they aren't working at home....then I'm not too worried. If they are practicing every day, then maybe the dog needs to see a veterinary professional, maybe the team needs a different learning style, or maybe we need to address some of the training skills. For teams who are complaining yet not practicing, we can talk about why and how we can change things. Some people learn better through reading. Some are great in class but can't remember a few days later.

Monitoring our progress: Luna in agility class

About three years ago, I noted that Luna really wasn't making progress in agility class. We were still facing the same challenges we had been working on for over six months (focus, nervous with the teeter, speed). I decided that we would take some time off to do some training on our own and then we would return to class. It ended up that while we both missed class, it wasn't reinforcing enough for me to head back soon with the hour drive each way and then bathing my dog most weeks (dirt arena.... great to run on. Not great with a longhaired dog!) We've worked on our own and have made improvements with her challenge areas and directly addressed her anxiety with veterinary help.

Two myths about crating/housetraining

2012-01-12T10:48:00.000-05:00

I hear these a lot, especially from experienced dog owners and it's common internet-advice. There's some truth to the statements, but there is enough danger that it is important to be cautious. There are exceptions to every rule.

Never let a barking puppy out of his crate!
The piece of truth: If the puppy/dog is barking to get out of the crate or to get attention, the approach and release from the crate will reinforce the barking. The dog will learn to bark to get let out. If you wait a while and then decide to let him out, you teach the puppy/dog to bark longer or with greater intensity.
The big picture truth: It's not appropriate to let a dog/puppy bark for a long period of time, especially if it is a very distressed barking or if there is anxiety. It's inhumane to let a dog be screaming and vocalizing out of distress. Many new dog or puppy owners are not able to tell the difference between "I want out!" and "I think the world is ending" barks. If you let an attention-seeking puppy out for barking.... he will bark more. If you continue to ignore a seriously distressed puppy, you could be creating bigger problems.
What to do: Be preventative. Don't let the dog or puppy get to the point where he is barking and/or distressed. Gradually work up to teaching him to be contained. If you have to be gone, -beforehand- test out other containment strategies. This could be an exercise pen or a small room with gates/doors. If you -know- your dog is bad in the crate....we need to gradually work up to him being contained. Consult an appropriate professional.

My puppy is peeing in his crate. I need a smaller crate!
The piece of truth: Most puppies to not like to sit in their pee. Many do not eliminate in their bed area.
The big picture piece of truth: Take your puppy out more often. If you have a puppy who doesn't mind sitting in his pee (...seems more common with some shelters and pet store puppies)...use the biggest crate you can. He has the -option- of sitting somewhere else. With a small crate, he has no choice. With these puppies you have to be extra diligent about the trips outside and reinforcement.

Management

2012-01-11T10:21:00.000-05:00

Management is under appreciated.

And it's a hard concept. For all problem-solving situations we discuss management, whether it's something more serious like separation anxiety/distress or reactive/aggressive behaviors or less-serious-but-still-annoying things like jumping on visitors and pulling on leash.

Management is not the same as training. Training will resolve or minimize the challenges. But training doesn't (usually) happen overnight. In the meantime, we need ways to prevent the dog from practicing the behavior. Every time he practices the behavior, it may grow stronger and the training may be set back.

Here are a few of the management techniques we use. Note...these are not complete training plans!

Food toy management!

Racing out the door:

Create an "airlock" so the dog can't escape.
Put a note on the door to remind family to crate the dog before opening the door.
Leash at the door to put on before opening the door.
Treat scatter in the house before walking out (with or without the dog following)
Tether or crate nearby.
Note on the door to have visitors/family to call before opening the door. The dog can be closed elsewhere before the door is opened.

Walking:

Harness or head halter so the handler doesn't "give" as much if the dog pulls.
On leash walks in the yard or near the house rather than the usual route.
Walk at less distraction times.
Exercise the dog differently until the walking training is further along.
Treat transport (from Agility Right From the Start)
Distance from the distractions

Jumping up on people and counters during meal preparations

Crate, doors, tether elsewhere
Family member teaching the dog to stay (the human works as a MannersMinder)
Food toys during meal preparation.

The hardest part is convincing people that this management is just as crucial as the training. I'm always sad when I hear dog people or professionals talking about how management is just a stepping stone and not appropriate forever and how horrible pet owners are for using management forever. I'm typically okay with management forever. I sometimes encourage it. The family is the one to decide their priorities. It's better to practice management than to let the dog practice the undesired behavior. There are only so many hours in the day and only so much someone can work on.

MannersMinder management!

January Thoughts

2012-01-08T13:50:00.000-05:00

1) We've had a lot of really, really warm days. 40-60* out. This is kind of unusual for this time of year. I'm still counting down the days until spring -really- starts in March.

2) Normally this is a slow time of year for animal-service related businesses. With people making big holiday purchases, typically there is less spent on the "extra" things of pet services. Less travel after the holidays, until spring break, makes it a slow time for boarding kennels. Surprisingly, we've had a -lot- of class sign ups this week. I had to get out of bed and make a few additional plans before I could sleep last night. The Tuesday class is looking to be giant.

3) Efficiency is important to me. Working on a few behaviors with Griffin, I'm struggling to find the "in between" steps for where we are and where we need to be. This isn't usually a problem, but for once it is a huge issue. It will be interesting to see what solutions we come up with.

4) Dog resources: There are a million books, DVD's, websites, and everything available. It's overwhelming for me. And probably worse for people who are new to dogs.

5) Lack of resources: Yet, I haven't found a basic training book that I love. Things are too long or too opinionated or too weird or too punishment focused despite a positive label and description.

Puppy Griffin!

Record Keeping :: Current system for my dogs.

2012-01-05T13:33:00.000-05:00

Because I'm working with multiple dogs for multiple activities and I have to keep tracking of training for students, 4-H'ers, and shelter dogs.... I can't "just remember" everything. Every few months I change my record keeping system to make it more efficient and more useful.

For about 24 months I've been fairly diligent and at various points tracked different things as well (time exercising, grooming, crating, etc).

Right now I have my very favorite system that I've been using for three months now. Every month I create a sheet for each dog with an outline of the behaviors/aspects we will be working on and a blank column where I will note the date and a tally of the number of sessions on that behavior. There are a few blank spots so I can add in a few more things and for classes where we will be assigned activities. Here's a sample:

(It wants to be small...you can see it here)
These are taped up to the wall. On the dry erase board I make notes about additional skills that I may add to next month's list.

On a daily basis, I update the charts and I make a super-short journal type entry about sessions. I keep these online so that they are easily searchable (unlike written records).

At the end of the month, the charts allow me to have a great overview of what we've done, what we didn't do, and how to change things for the next month. If we completely did not work on something I either remove it the following month or break it down into more achievable/specific pieces. I also do an end of the month short summary write-up for the dogs and this allows me to spend a little longer thinking about what we did and did not do and how on-track we may be for our goals.

Improvements over the previous system: Before I was just doing the journal entry and had a running list of things to work on. Sometimes we would go weeks without working on "important" skills or we would spend hours on behaviors that we don't really need. The charts are really nice because I can easily have an overview and I can prioritize and see our progress towards goals. Now I can see it all, first thing every day.

Future changes?: I feel like I'm always adding more to my "to do" list rather than crossing things off. I'll want to make a few modifications to be sure we're getting to those things. I want to simplify the form for my 4-H'ers (who often are doing multiple activities, obedience, showmanship, rally, and agility). But at the moment, I'm quite happy with how the system is working and how it's focusing us.

Winter Classes

2012-01-05T10:20:00.001-05:00

Many pet-related services see a drop off in clients/customers during January/February. Everyone is getting back to school and work after the holidays and they're a little more hesitant to spend money when they've just been through the holidays. As it starts getting warmer in March, services often pick up (boarding kennels with spring break travels, groomers with "spring haircuts").

Interestingly....we've seen an increase in class sign-ups in the last week. Most of the classes I teach are on-going enrollment, meaning that students can start that week. We had two "fixed start date" classes start last night, a class for shy dogs and a class focusing on walking and settling with distractions.

This time around, the dogs in ShyDog class are more outgoing than the first group. We have one dog repeating the class and three new dogs. I've already adapted the class quite a bit from the first time we offered it last fall. We're focusing more on handler skills than dog skills now, and hopefully this leads to better application at home and then more improvement. We're still keeping a lot of the same activities, but we're adding in more intermediate steps, specific homework, and group participation.

Luna looking like a shy dog in 2008 We were at a state park in... PA?
The trails were very rocky and steep. I was scared of the slippery steep path....
she was worried about the people we passed.

Luna and I get to be in the Focus/Distraction class, she was incredibly happy and loved the young border collie were paired with. Sometimes I feel like she's ready to go back to agility class. And at other times, it seems like I just barely have control. She was getting tired so I switched out partway through. I intended to let Blaze have a turn but he's not feeling good after crashing into walls during a fetch game on Tuesday.... Griffin got to work and I'm always surprised at how well he does in a group environment for the -very- small amount of group class time he has worked. The other dogs and people weren't a challenge at all and he's really quite reliable in a class setting. It's almost like the presence of the other dogs and people are a cue for him to have more self control and to be working harder with me.
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In other news.... early last year I was really excited about the great seminars for the year. Somehow, this year is even better! Everything seems really far away, but in reality it's going to go by incredibly fast. I can't wait until there are details to share!

Luna will never be a herding dog...

2012-01-03T23:37:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I feel bad that Luna doesn't get a chance to do breed-specific activities like Blaze and Griffin do. She's not interested in retrieving or swimming.

And she's also not interested in herding.

Luna's been getting more freedom over the last few months. But sometimes I misjudge her current abilities. Yesterday she took a little adventure into one of the occupied cow pastures. She enjoyed the great smells (and snacks....).

Cows are very curious. Angus cattle are notorious for being "protective" and many people consider them to be more "aggressive" than some other cow breeds.

A few cows watched while eating hay. The calves cautiously approached Luna. Then Luna looked up and noticed. She did a play bow. Spinning in a circle. Then another bow before happily prancing away. I've also seen her playbow and offer play solicitation behaviors to 2,000lb bulls.... Maybe she would be different with sheep or ducks....but knowing her, I highly doubt it.

Working Towards Succcess

2012-01-02T10:14:00.001-05:00

Last night some of us had another sad "Why can't our dogs do more," moment.

It's fun (well, maybe not "fun", but enjoyable? Reinforcing?) to complain. In this circumstance, it's also helpful to think about -why- we're at this point.

A few variables:

Some, out of habit and/or necessity are spending more time on behavior challenges than training towards competition behaviors. This is understandable, but obviously can impact what's being trained.
Many in the sports are highly attracted to the people who are currently successful, seemingly regardless of methods. It's great to learn from everyone and take what you can. But it doesn't always fit together well.
Lack of motivation to work towards a goal. Have big goals, work with urgency! Use time wisely. Improve training skills.
Lack of local mentors. So....let's not stay local. Find the best people you can get to help you. Learn from them as much as you can.
Working together: Be around others with similar goals. This helps with ideas, motivation, and getting things done.
It's easy to fall into what has always been done. Watch so we don't fall into that pattern.

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We're still using last year's wintery pictures. Today we have a tiny bit snow which is hopefully enough to decrease the amount of mud! I love all the Griffin-running pictures. He loves to run. We're now also taking an online class for Running Contacts. (Note the above... "Find the best people you can get to help you. Learn from them as much as you can.") Hopefully this resolves the dogwalk and improves the aframe so we can soon start to trial.

Griffin: Attitude and Arousal

2011-12-30T21:01:00.000-05:00

Griffin and I are having a great time in our online obedience class. It's one of the best things I've ever done. I'm learning so much and we're being challenged in many ways.

But with the class has come a horrible realization that I've made some huge, huge mistakes with Griffin.

In many sports and activities there's a bit of discussion about arousal and performance. If you're really relaxed, you won't do well at most sports. If you're too worked up, you also aren't going to do so well. The optimum arousal will depend on the activity...obviously the optimum arousal for chess is different than that for speed skating.

I've made an effort to make enthusiasm and attitude part of Griffin's training. If he's not being excitable enough, we don't do heeling or retrieves. I don't want poor responses being reinforced, ever.

If you train low latency (time from the cue to when the dog responds) for a few behaviors, it's often generalized for everything. The same sort of thing seems to have happened. Griffin is quite excited and enthusiastic about training.

This is great for some behaviors, but not too great for others. I've intentionally-but-shouldn't-have trained him to be a bit --too-- excitable for many behaviors and this is (likely) contributing to the slow progress of stay duration.

Over the last 18 months we've worked really hard to increase the number of reinforcers we have available as well as to increase the value of the reinforcers. This is adding arousal to the behaviors. His attitude to training is continueing to improve.

Another challenge area was that I compared Griffin to the diagnosed-as-hyperactive Blaze. And in comparison, Griffin -is- calmer. But that doesn't make him calm.

Now to develop more ways to intentionally decrease arousal and excitement. We have to create a lot more calmness.

Exhaustion is not the same as calmness.
After 4 days of camp, Griffin was so tired he would not move.

Shaping: Shy dogs and outgoing dogs.

2011-12-29T12:34:00.000-05:00

Shaping is the same type of process, regardless of species or individual. But it can look very different depending on the type of learner, the learner's history, the skill of the trainer and the relationship with the trainer.

On Tuesday I did two training sessions, each about two minutes long. Here, you can see the first minute with two very different dogs.

Dog 1: Luna is a very shy dog. Notice that she is constantly scanning the room, frozen, then turning back to work. She gets distracted by small noises in the empty room and she is not quick to engage.
Dog 2: Blaze is a very confident and outgoing dog. Notice that when he is not working, he is often staring at me, almost asking what he should be doing. He gives me a lot of behavior to choose from. When he gets distracted by a person entering the room, he is able to quickly get back to work.

Shaping with shy dogs is often a lot slower. More in between steps are needed. There may be more pauses between behaviors while the dog is thinking about his environment. Shy dogs often move less and this gives the trainer fewer things to select from. If you miss a few clickable moments, you will probably have to backtrack and make the exercise easier. Otherwise, your dog might not offer the same thing again. Having treats the dog loves can help, but there will still be thoughts about the scary things out in the world. When the dog is spending a lot of time worrying about the monsters, he's not able to devote as much time to the tasks at hand.

Shaping with outgoing dogs can also be challenging. Blaze and Griffin sometimes give people so much behavior that it's hard to select or get the timing just right. There are more things to choose from, making the process go a little faster. The dog is less worried about the environment, making high value reinforcers a good option when working in a distracting location. It's a lot easier to work against things that are interesting than things that are scary.

"Not Good Enough"

2011-12-28T09:02:00.001-05:00

One of the things that many dog teams will say, especially those working on competition training or behavior modification, is "I just think he would do so much better if you were training him."

And the thing is, most dogs would do better with a trainer handling them. It's not that there's anything magical about most dog trainers (though there are a few I wonder about....). Most of these people have spent a lot of time training dogs, which means more practice, better decision making, better timing, better able to adjust criteria, and being able to evaluate the situation**.

That said, it's important to recognize that most trainers probably think the same thing at various points.

What would Blaze and Luna be like if they were in a home where they got appropriate help as puppies? Several trainers I admire talk about their challenging dogs and being able to overcome the challenges. I've had to accept that it just won't happen with Blaze. With Luna, who knows what progress is available, we're battling the lack of early socialization and bad luck with genetics. And while Griffin is a very normal and adorable dog.... he has siblings competing at the highest levels and yet we've had to twice walk out of the rally ring after less than half the course. It's definitely all me holding him back.

I know Griffin would do better with many of my students. He would benefit from long walks in town every day, from a busier household, with more time and attention and regular attendance in class. Hours and hours in the woods. A classroom full of kids every day. He would do well with someone who is a perfectionist. And I can't give him all of those things right now.

So what do I do?
- I make training plans for my dogs to address the biggest issue areas. I try to be productive with our time. We try to maximize the benefits of any choices we make on how to spend our time.
- I try to improve my skills. I spend time training my dogs and any others (....one of the reasons I volunteer at the shelter!). With good practice, I should get better.
- My class/lesson students are also part of this. This allows me to see things that work and don't work as well with hundreds and hundreds of dogs. There's no way I could learn so much with just working with my own dogs.
- I learn more and try new things. Seminars, books, DVDs, online articles and resources. Training groups and classes. There is just so much information available now.
- Learn from the best: In whatever area we're looking at. We use whatever materials we can get ahold of. We use what we can, make modifications of others, and try to evaluate and work to maximize our success.

And how is that working? I'm continually making refinements to our training plans. I'm getting better. The learning curve is not as steep as it was a few years ago. But if a small change cuts off minutes or hours of training, all the better.

Photo by Terri Tepper, 2008

**Massive amounts of practice or dedication are not, alone, sufficient. The practice time has to be "good practice." Spending many training hours of late clicking will only let someone get more proficient at late clicking. Some people are able to self-evaluate. Others need class and learning opportunities to become more proficient.

Holiday Training

2011-12-26T10:03:00.001-05:00

Last year I really wanted a photo of Griffin holding a bell and then Luna ringing the bell with her nose. Easy enough, and it would make an adorable card, right?

Training needed: Griffin to hold the bell. Luna to target the bell with her nose. They have both behaviors.

It proved harder, as Luna didn't want to get that close to Griffin, especially while he was all serious holding the bell. It was an invasion of personal space. We gave up.

This year I tried again, we got a little better results. And with 2 training sessions a year, maybe we'll be able to do it in a few years.

This is not "good training practices". This is a last minute what-can-we-get, can-we-cheat-to-get-the-photo.

Book 18: Dog University

2011-12-24T09:37:00.000-05:00

Dog University by Viviane Theby . Another really great trick training book! Amazon has used copies, I picked up mine ($6!) at a HalfPriceBooks in Columbus (they have it at multiple locations... I'm going back to get more copies!).

The author is obviously quite influenced by Bob Bailey and Ken Ramirez. There are simplified versions of many of the activities that those trainers utilize/talk about. The book almost makes it sound --too-- easy to teach a dog to copy another dog or be able to perform multiple behaviors with the same prop.

This book isn't going back on my shelf or even to my bedside table where my other "Can't live without" books reside. It's going right next to the box of training props so we can flip it open and be prompted to work on some of the behaviors/concepts.

Like some of the other trick books, it is probably too simplified at times and the steps might not be small enough for some teams to do well. At least one of the activities did list the how-to instructions in two different ways, one for more active dogs and one for less active dogs.

It's definitely a great book for people wanting to do a little more than the usual dog tricks!

Professional Responsibilities

2011-12-23T09:47:00.000-05:00

I read a book a while back that I really wanted to write about. This book really distressed me. And even two months later, I'm still upset! The training was, at times....not so great...but it was the instruction that horrified me. I didn't think it would be fair for the author to potentially read the post and be offended or upset because it's entirely -not- her fault, she's the one that deserved better. A large portion of the book is about the training instruction the owner (author) and her dog receive. The author wrote about how she dreaded practice, how the instructor would treat the human and dog students and the relief she had when practices or the relationship ended. That's not how it's supposed to be!

Why is it that instructors feel like they need to yell at students? Maybe it's because I've been clicker training for so long? It's not my responsibility to stand right there and physically/verbally "make" someone give a specific response. When errors happen, it's about reviewing the teaching plan, making modifications, and continuing the lesson. It is my responsibility to teach a certain skill set and that's through the teaching process, not just yelling out impossible tasks.

When clients/students are confused or responding incorrectly, the instructor needs to make modifications. Maybe use the same phrase once more, but if the same phrase is being used dozens of times, maybe the learner really just doesn't understand or doesn't have the skill set to respond correctly.

I took horse riding lessons for almost ten years. I was not very good by the end, though I had some amount of proficiency from the repetition. Looking back at that learning experience, I'm horrified at a lot of the things that happened. I can't believe how the instructor was allowed to be teaching kids. I can't believe that parents did not speak up or do something about it. There were some pretty basic skills I was never able to learn.

Some of it seemed to come down to what we see with dog training and in teaching dog owners/handlers.... instructors sometimes take the errors personally. The learners do want to succeed. They want to avoid the embarrassment or attention or 'correction'/direction they get with errors. They want to go on and do more things.

I'm amazed at the number of clicker-ly instructors who put blame on the human clients/students. If it was the dog, the instructor could look at breaking down the skill, using reinforcement, setting the team up for success. But with the human, they can't do it, take the errors personally, and direct the blame to the humans involved.

To some extent, the dog can't learn all week at home without the person working, and the person does have to take the initiative. On the other hand, why aren't people practicing? How can we make it easier, seem more achievable, more entertaining? Maybe they need some additional notes on what to do, or need to see or hear the instruction in a different way. Maybe they need to take a few notes themselves so that they remember what to do. Maybe we gave them too many things and need to simplify. Maybe they don't understand how to do it at home on their own.

It's also hard that dog trainers spend so much time learning about dog training. They go to conferences and seminars and learn more. Read books and lists and learn more. There aren't enough opportunities on teaching the humans. And often those are skipped in favor of training education sessions. Most of us spend more time teaching people than training dogs. Not only are we teaching the humans...but a wide age range.... young kids to seniors, everyone in between and a huge range in skill level. It's pretty ridiculous at times.

No snow here. It's been raining for a week. The pond is really full. Griffin has gone swimming. On Wednesday it was 60*.

Working with Multiple Challenges

2011-12-21T16:25:00.001-05:00

Very few people seek dog training help with only one little problem. Typically there are a few things that need addressed, sometimes these are related and sometimes not. Here's the things we think about when trying to prioritize.

1) What are the safety risks? We need to minimize risk for the dog, the people, and any other animals. This means getting solid management plans in place and addressing the issue through a few different training angles. Example: Anything involving growling, freezing, snapping, unhappy barking, jumping up if there are small kids, etc.
2) Will one thing work towards solving multiple issues? In TAGTeach there's a thing called a "Value Added Tag" where one clickable moment will solve many different problems. There's no word for this in clicker training, but the same sort of thing exists. Example: A dog bites his owner....when the person is "punishing" the dog for eliminating indoors. Solution: Housetrain the dog dog..... no more accidents inside, no more biting. The dog still needs some handling training...but we're closer to success.
3) Which aspects cause the most stress in daily life? Tackle the bigger issues. Later, address the things that only come up in rare situations. It is all important and can all be addressed.... but save the smaller things for later.
4) Which aspects have the potential for great damage to the human-animal bond? Sometimes these are the same as question 3...but not always. Sometimes the people don't realize the bigger issues at hand or they don't realize how the issue could get worse if not addressed. Example: I walked into an appointment for a dog that is not social (but not afraid/aggressive) with people. I find the dog has torn up furniture all over the house after busting out of his crate that day. The people are worried that the dog is not actively social. I am worried about the destruction/separation distress.

What Rescues/Humane Societies/Animal Rehome Facilities are Facing.

2011-12-19T23:09:00.000-05:00

11 months ago, I found two dogs running loose in front of the house. I was able to catch them and get two clinics to check for microchips. Local animal control and rescues were notified, posts were made to the local newspaper/lost and found resource. Within a month, one went to Golden Retriever rescue. The other is -still- with me.

And the thing is, it's not like I have no connections. I train dogs and spend hours and hours with dog people every week. I have volunteered at a Humane Society for 5-6 years, at least once a week taking a 'shift' and caring for the animals, going to fundraisers and events, hauling animals to adoption events, helping with volunteer training and everything else. I know lots of dog people in the area. I know what you're supposed to do when you find a lost dog. This is a normal dog too. He can get upset confined in a crate, but is great in an expen type set up. He walks well. He gets along with other dogs and kids. He's had training and does tricks.

One local rescue facility places a lot more dogs than where I volunteer (and they haven't had room for him! I'm there every week and can see for myself.). They've taken information in the past and it was a little upsetting the way they essentially told me he was unadoptable. I went in today to beg and plead in person. They looked back through months and months of calls...and found the records. Why don't they want him? He's black. I get that black dogs are very unadoptable. But it's not appropriate that dogs are sitting in rescue for so long. And after hearing about other dogs sitting there for months and months...I know he would deteriorate in that environment.

I've been able to hold onto him for 11 months. What if it was someone else? How many other dogs are in poor situations because of how hard it is?

I have more than a few students/clients in similar situations. Taking in a dog until it could be taken by the rescue. The rescue backs out or just "doesn't have room." The person gives the dog additional training to make him/her more adoptable. And it still doesn't go well. It's not that those people, or myself, don't love the dogs or want to help them...obviously that's why we dedicate so much time to the animal. But it's not always a good match and we aren't in a position to really add another dog to the household.

For us, four dogs means shorter walks for everyone, as I can only take two at a time (Luna isn't fond of Scottie, plus all four would more than outweigh me). Training time is limited. I can't take everyone to classes. Difficult rotational schedules so that we don't have any altercations. I can't do the normal training to get dogs to like each other as I don't have a helper to walk Luna (or Scottie) while I have the other. I can't take board and train dogs...just no more space, time, or energy. And I have to limit my travel to the bare minimum. It's hard enough to get away with just my three. But leaving potential fights isn't something I feel safe with.

After the seminar last weekend on behavioral health in a shelter. It was a good reminder that we shouldn't just go with the way things are and we need to be sure we're working to improve the behavior health of the animals. The facility I volunteer at is great, I know the people and the dogs and the volunteers. They trust me to let me do what I want in regards to working with the dogs. But they're also, understandbly, overwhelmed. And in the rush to get by day to day, it's hard to think about enrichment, training, behavior health, preventative training, etc. Other facilities in the area haven't been so into those ideas either. I'm glad to not be meeting the resistance that others see....but the tolerance isn't enough to make changes happen. The management really do need to embrace the changes.

So what can I do? Complaining can be fun and can make people feel better. But it doesn't resolve the issues.

I do plan to keep volunteering where I am, and to continue to offer help to others. It is very good for me to get training practice in with so many dogs every week. Handling the animals and knowing how a kennel situation operates are important skills for me to have when interacting with others who work or manage a similar environment. It's a different set of challenges than dogs in a pet environment.
I could find other group/s where my skills can be better utilized. I'm hesitant as in the past some groups have wanted to abuse this offer (" Please take this dog to house train him, then we'll place him! No, we don't want our foster term to learn how to house train a dog....why would a foster home need to know THAT skill!").
I could be a little more....forceful with my interest in more enrichment, education, training, behavior changes etc. My polite notes and reminders and casual offers might not be enough to get changes. But if others aren't ready, it's not good for the perception of the humans if this would be a battle. It needs to be a team effort.
I could work on more side-projects to get better understanding of behavior health, enrichment, problem prevention, etc... I have a list of ideas for these projects, most are manageable on my own or with a small amount of help. I could do these through my business.
I could start another rescue group to focus on education and prevention. I think I could make it work through potential grants, contacts, community involvement... but there's no way to say for sure. And as I don't know where I'll be in five years (literally and figuratively), I don't know that I would want to make this commitment. In some ways this is the easiest option....not a problem to do things my way. In other ways, it would be the most work by far.

Other ideas? Solutions that work in your area?

Non-Anthropomorphic

2011-12-18T08:58:00.001-05:00

I'm probably too careful to not use any human-type words or traits and I know it's annoyed more than a few people who spend a lot of time with me.

One I hear most is about "stubborn" dogs.

Lots of students tell me about how their dogs are stubborn. Many times, it's used to justify the use of punishment. With some people I help them by joking our way through the situation.

"My dog is so stubborn! She won't walk with me!" Me: "Does she enjoy staring at squirrels? How much fun has she had chasing/staring at squirrels? How much fun has she had for walking nicely? Remember....we've only been working one week. If you were a dog and given a choice, what would you probably do? Would that make you stubborn...no, she's just doing what is more fun."

The other part....stubborn seems to imply that the dog is making a choice to specifically annoy the humans, or at the very least, the dog is intentionally resisting the training process. This means the dog has to understand right-wrong. The dog knows what will "annoy" the person. The dog is intentionally avoiding the reinforcers/"taking" the punishment to further annoy the person. That's a really complex situation.....

So what's going on? I try to get the dog's family to look at what is going on.

We may be reinforcing the wrong behavior (Incorrectly done "Look at That")
We may not have strong enough reinforcement history for the situation (above example of dog and squirrels).
The dog may just not understand the behavior.
The interaction may be punishing to the dog...so despite reinforcement being offered, the way the reinforcer is delivered or something about the environment is making the dog really want to do something else (Think, a scared dog and the teeter).

In this situation, Griffin will often refuse food. Even raw hamburger.
He is too excited about the environment to be interested in food.
He is not making a choice to leave the food. He is not intentionally try
to get out of training.

What tends to help the most, is getting the people to develop some empathy for the dog and understanding of his situations. The most damaging part of some labels, like "stubborn" is that it puts the people against the dog and it's too easy for the humans to take the situation personally. Once we're able to step back and in Karen Pryor's words, see it as "just behavior," the training and interactions go better. Teamwork rather than putting the dog an person against each other.

Asking Questions

2011-12-15T15:25:00.001-05:00

In my classes, I ask a lot of questions. When I have problems, it's often because I didn't ask enough questions or I didn't ask the right questions.

Example: Family presents the problem of the dog (adult, young Labrador Retriever) approaching family members and growling.**
Question: When does this happen?
Response: When we are sitting on the couch.
Question: What is your dog doing during the growling?
Response: He has a toy. He comes over and growls.
Question: What do you do?
Response: We put the leash and walk him around and make him sit. We put him in his crate sometimes. Sometimes we ignore him.
Question: What is he doing right before the growling and right after?
Response: Before, he gets a toy, comes over, hits us with the toy and growls. After the growling, he puts his front end on the ground and is wiggly.

We suspected it was about inappropriate ways to get attention. The initial training steps have been teaching the dog to stay/relax, to focus on the handlers, to get his attention needs met before the family settles for the evening, and to teach him better ways to get attention.

The questions I most ask:
Do you want to change that behavior? Is it important to you to stop/change the behavior? Sometimes the family does not. Sometimes they do. Sometimes they think they do, but don't want to put in the work (which is understandable!).
Do you think he enjoys/likes XYZ?
What are your goals?
Has the behavior changed (better, worse, the same) over time? How?
How would you use a stay/sit/down?   Sometimes people want behaviors for things that aren't as relevant for the problem.

And a few questions I've been asking more often:
What can I do to help you learn, what kinds of things make it easier for you to understand?   (Sending home books/written notes for some students, demos for others, letting them watch me, or directing to a video)
Is XYZ an option?   Rather than say to do XYZ..... (put the dog in his crate, keep him on leash in the house, etc.... I ask about compliance before sending them home. If they won't do it....we need to find another way.)
How do you know XYZ?

Some of the questions I ask are to see what the students understand.
Examples:
1) I see a dog pulling on leash. "Is he pulling on the leash?" "No!" I learned that the student has a different understanding of pulling or is not able to perceive the added pressure from the dog.
2) I hear that the training didn't go well in the week. "What exercises did you try?" And then the student responds with things that are completely NOT what I said...but I can see how they had misunderstood. I go over things again and then write down the key points or have the student write it down.

Happy 2nd Birthday to this dog who was a board
and train as a puppy. He's training to be a Search
and Rescue dog and I really miss him!

3) "What are his distractions/challenges?" "Can you write down his training plan?" And I get some interesting lists. There are things I would have added, there are things I didn't know about, and there are some parts I disagree with. Maybe I'm wrong or maybe the student perception is different.

**A few details changed for privacy!

Seminar: Behavior in a Shelter Environment

2011-12-14T09:08:00.000-05:00

The morning was about stress and then behavior assessments. The afternoon was on learning theory, resource guarding, and training with specific types of problems. Attendees were from surrounding states and a lot of local people. It was great to see so many students/friends/people I know (a 4-H camper parent came!). It's -so- different than even 3+ years ago when I went to events and knew absolutely no one there.

What I got out of this:
1) It's really, really hard to keep a low-stress kennel environment, as well as to maintain behavior/prevent behavior decline over time.
2) It's important to have management support (not just tolerance) to have a good program.
3) Some types of behavior assessments are better than others. Often, something is better than nothing. If potential problem areas are known, more assessment can be done and-or treatment/training can happen.
4) Many problem areas can be addressed, even in the shelter environment. But someone has to have the knowledge and make that effort.
5) We need to be realistic about how much stress the animals are facing in a shelter environment and do the best we can to help the animals.
6) Train and utilize volunteers.
7) Facilities who have the luxury of not taking in all animals should think twice about which animals to take in. There are only so many resources. What is the quality of life for long-term residents (....depends on the dog personality, some thrive, some don't).
8) Some problems/challenges are more easily addressed than others. But only if you have someone to actually do the the work.

The seminar is prompting me to make changes to how I spend my volunteer hours and what I'm doing. I have management tolerance for the behavior/enrichment things during my shift, but that's only 1/14 of the shifts out of the week.

Dog-dog problems in the same family.

2011-12-09T09:15:00.000-05:00

Theme of the week!

1) Separate everyone. 2 barriers (doors, crates, gates, leashes, fences) between the trouble makers at all times. We want a week or two of no incidents. This is to help the dogs calm down, but more so to give the humans a break. The humans need to start returning to the feelings of safe and calm in their own household.
2) Make a list of all the problem areas. Things that triggered fights, disagreements, growls, barks, freezes, stiffness, or stress. We can look for patterns.
3) If appropriate right now, off property walks for the trouble makers, 1 dog per human. If there is only one person in the household, this sometimes needs to be modified. If your dog is not good at walking....they aren't ready for this. If your dogs will still be upset on opposite sides of the street, not ready. Dogs should be far enough apart to feel safe and happy.
4) Have a plan. If the dogs were to get into a fight, we want to know the safest way to respond. We do not want people or dogs getting hurt. If we have to use this plan, and especially if it has to be used more than once, we HAVE to find out how "Separate everyone" is not working and how we can resolve that issue.

And, schedule an appointment with an appropriate professional. We want to be sure we address all the issues at hand. Sometimes one of the dogs has had a history of resource guarding with people as well. Or is a generally shy dog. Or is physically uncomfortable. All things that increase stress and can contribute to problems.

Note: This is play.

Drop on Recall Part V

2011-12-08T11:44:00.000-05:00

Apparently I've already written about Drop on Recall. More than once. More than twice.

I looked at the parts of the exercise.
A year ago, I tried a lot of different techniques for the behavior (mats, food placement, tethering). Interestingly, at that time, food/toy behind Griffin was not successful. I don't remember what happened and the descriptions in that post are not specific enough to give me feedback. The post led to the video below, where I looked at how a dog will Down....playing the video very slowly. Per the advice of many people, the type of Down supposedly doesn't matter as long as it's fast.
And then I did another technique, dropping my dog just after calling and adding a new cue. I don't really remember doing this. I also don't remember who the "instructor" was. That's what I get for trying to keep everyone anonymous....
Lastly, the most-simple tips I could give a 4H parent on teaching this exercise.

Onto the new parts!

Griffin has been learning a (slow and painful) front-feet-still down to use for our signal exercise. It's incredibly slow going. He's still not offering it reliably. But he is offering it more frequently. We have, essentially, no distance. However, in the week we've worked on this behavior, the morphology of his DropOnRecall has changed dramatically.

Look at the weight shift back! Much fewer forward motion steps to slow down! It's fascinating. I wish I could find a before-video to compare with this. This video was from Sunday or Monday night. And yesterday he was even better! Running faster, only stopping if I cued, only slowing when I asked for a stop.

During training group, we would do parts of the exercise. I would release Griffin to a toy at different parts. Sometimes I would feed him in position (at the stay or at the drop or at the front or at return to heel). We only did the whole thing through once. Sometimes I would turn at the last second and he'd run off to get a treat/toy I would throw. My favorite part was that he would respond to his "back" cue (turn 180* and go get a toy). The toy was not placed ahead of time, it was thrown after I sent him back. He didn't question me, and just ran back towards the start area.

Behavior chains are wonderful!

Griffin: Agility Class Week 6

2011-12-07T10:44:00.000-05:00

We did a pretty good job with the skills in class, but not with putting them together.

The last few weeks have been extremely variable. Sometimes really fast, sometimes not. Sometimes really attentive, and last week he couldn't even do one obstacle. Some weeks he's taking all sorts of obstacles whether asked or not, and sometimes he's so focused on me that he won't take something 2' away. I never quite know what we'll get.

We're probably going to skip class for Jan/Feb and do some more fixing.

Griffin can now weave, even in sequences. We've done some proofing exercises.... but I'm not as confident as Griffin yet.
Dogwalk needs trained and repaired.
A greater reinforcement history for sticking with me.
Consistent speed.
Longer sequences.
Teeter end behavior repair.
Chute repair: (straight path out)
Jumping repair....
Aframe proofing.

The part that's hardest will be the long sequences. We're pretty good with --any-- handling challenge, in a small enough piece. But the more that's added before or after, the more I struggle to get where I need to be. I end up slowing him down or just not directing him well.

Things that are really great:

He is fairly calm while the other dogs work (even noisy dogs)
We can do the various handling activities.
He tugs.
Consistently enthusiastic (...this hasn't really ever been a problem.... but some of our classmates do struggle with this!).
He's not afraid/avoiding obstacles.

For the next 2.5 months: More repair work and training and hopefully when we return, things will go better. It's pretty funny that he was entered in a trial a year ago (and we pulled before going). A year later and we're still not quite ready despite not having any serious problem areas. Being in a weekly class definitely has helped us and from here, it's probably just working on the skills.

We've moved some of our equipment to one of the pastures (Only well-fenced on the road sides) so we have more space than in the fenced yard. There's been so much rain this week, we've only made it out one day this week.

Details: Getting a Down

2011-12-05T13:08:00.002-05:00

The online class we're in is very detail-oriented. I like it, but it's also challenging. I'm having to re-look at what criteria I've set previously and some of if it is just not good enough.

Griffin will down in place without moving his body forward (his shoulders remain in place), but his feet sneak out front. This is good for some situations (probably a moving down, DOR). But not so great for the signals exercise. As I've noticed, if I'm not careful, it turns into a bit of creeping.

So we're working on learning a Down where the front paws stay in place. It seems easy enough, and would have been if this is what we started with three years ago.... the repair work is slow. I click at some of the wrong times, and miss other opportunities, but overall, he is giving me more of the behavior. Another modification is to feed lower, for longer.

But the next sessions, I modified and it's continuing to get better.

Heeling is Hard.

2011-12-04T13:45:00.000-05:00

His position is typically great and he is very happy about heeling. Things we're working on:

- Being called into the ring. Reinforcing Griffin for staying on the ground when the judge is talking.
- Using different 'judges'.
- Duration. Hahaha.
- Judge calling a pattern. Sometimes following the directions, sometimes not.
- Alternating between releases to a bowl with treats, release to a toy, and a freeze in place, reinforce in place.
- Distractions
- Feet on the floor, especially on the step off (no leaping!).

- Distractions.
- Susan-Garrett-Crate-Games-Structure

And of course, good training and only doing one part at a time. He's adorable and the heeling is continuing to get better. We especially have improvements in new environments.

Retractable Leashes?

2011-12-03T10:53:00.000-05:00

There's a lot of hatred for retractable leashes.... and there are a lot of people who love them. And then the people who hate them, but then add they're okay or great for some types of training and situations.

When Blaze went to training class as a 6 month old dog, we were told about the evils of retractable leashes. "They are the most frequently returned item to [large pet store]." "They break, and then your dog is free!" "You do not have a good grip on the leash!" "It trains your dog to pull!". "You could get rope burn or your dog could get rope burn, or you could CUT OFF A FINGER!"

And so, I too joined in the dislike for the retractable leashes. Last year I ended up with few as part of a product-testing situation. One was for small dogs and I gave it away. Another broke (It locked up on super-short), and the third is still occasionally used when I have a leash shortage.

There definitely are disadvantages.

The webbing could break or the spring that creates the retracting could break. But regular leashes could break too. I've had multiple leashes break on me. I've seen leashes break for other people.

Rope burn and tangling can happen, but it also can happen with regular leashes and longlines. I know from experience! Fingers could get hurt from being caught in the webbing (I've never heard of this happening, but I'm sure it has.)

Fingers can also get caught in the plastic case.... I had a student who experienced this. Her large breed dog circled behind her, and instead of rotating in place, she raised her hand holding the retractable leash up and over her head. The dog lunged away when behind her back and it pulled on her just right that she had serious fractures/broken bones/something resulting in many surgeries. With a regular leash....she probably would have been hurt too, but maybe not as bad or maybe she would have broken her whole arm when pulled over backwards. I know someone who had a finger get fractured when it was caught in a regular leash and her dog lunged.

A dog does have to put tension on a retractable leash to get more leash out. This can, theoretically, be teaching dogs to do more pulling. At the same time..... many people choosing to use this tool probably aren't all that concerned about polite walking or they wouldn't need or want their dog 10' away. So while this point is valid.... I don't know that it's convincing.

Are they a commonly returned item? Maybe they were at that point 10 years ago. A few years ago I worked in a pet store and never once had one returned while I was there.... I wasn't there long, but....0 returns in a few month time frame? Not a frequently returned item.

"How about NO leashes"- Griffin

"Irresponsible owners letting their dogs wander!" There's a reason I keep my (relatively friendly) dogs away from others when we're in public. We stay far enough away that it's not an issue, regardless of the type of leash. This might not work in all communities, but we've been successful for 10 years. I have seen just as many attempts of moving closer with regular leashes as retractables...so again, it's a bit unfair to put these characteristics to just those who use retractable leashes.....

Probably the most valid point is that there isn't much communication to the dog from the handler. Screeching stops and pulling the dog back so that the handler can then retract the leash a little more..... So what's the alternative? Training people to use a long line. How often are people interested in this? How many people would come to a class or session on using a longline? The people who are most comfortable with the retractable leads are the ones I feel it would be completely unsafe to use a longline ( slower response times, older owners, poor mobility...)

The point? It's fine to dislike retractable leashes....but there may not be as much validity to the dislike as it is just opinion and part of some-dog-people-culture.

I think I only have made the recommendation once in the last five years....an owner with poor mobility and a small dog that got tangled in the leash. Walking in her own yard, not out in public. The elasticy leashes were too long and the dog still could get tangled.

Can I or will I bring myself to recommend retractable leashes? Not by any means on a regular basis. But I also can't bring myself to talk poorly about them without strong evidence of their evils.

Book 17: Dog Games by Christiane Blenski

2011-12-02T10:43:00.001-05:00

I'm really far behind on my notes of dog books for this year!

This book deserves a special mention. There are a million dog trick and dog game books right now. And the books are all very repetitive. Basic. Similar. I found this one at the library, but I'm going to have to get a copy for myself!

Dog Games by Christiane Blenski has some of the usual dog tricks and activities, but also some that I hadn't ever heard of or thought of before! Much of the content was new as well as things that are realistic and manageable.

My major complaint of tricks books is that the steps outlined aren't as easy as the book makes it seem. Sure, some dogs might do okay with the lumping and types of prompts...but I don't think most dogs would. There are a few places in this book with this type of activity, but much of it is things that I can picture my students being able to do after reading the book.

The pictures and formatting are just fabulous. The dogs are happy and engaged and there are pictures of almost everything, not just the easier tricks. There are a lot of pictures with kids too!

There are chapters on less active games, more active games, outdoor things, activities with kids, and more. The grouping seemed a little odd at times, but there definitely is a lot of variety, and again, truely unique things.

One of the ones that I really loved was for an adult to hide a few big treats in a room of the house. Then the lights are turned off (play at night) and send the dog in to find the treats with his nose, and a kid (or adult!) in to find the treats with a flashlight. I can picture this as a great activity for dogs and kids who won't have trouble with resource guarding/rushing to grab the treat at the same time. And if the dog might take the treats too hard.... there could be treats for the dog and some other marker for the kid. Occupy everyone, good interactions, structured activities.

I've made notes to use some of the activities in class and to play with my dogs.

My only complaints: Again, lumping on some activities. And not so great editing. But the book is worth it! I wish -this- was the trick book available in stores here!

(( The publisher is having a 40% off sale right now, and if Google is truthful, shipping is only about $5! Some of the other books look great too!))

Shy Dog Class Review

2011-12-02T08:19:00.000-05:00

We finished up our first 6 week "Shy Dog Class" this week.

The class consisted of confidence building activities around people, noises, and the environment. The handlers learned about body language, making choices, and getting the balance between awareness of environment and focus on the handler.

Things that went really well:
The activities in the "noise and movement" chapter of Agility Right From the Start. I'll say this is the only thing that had complete success for all the dogs. We modified it slightly from the book due to the skill level of the students in the class, but again, it was a huge success.
Object Interaction: Even with less than ideal training (my fault), the dogs all were interacting with at least some of the things to go on and over.

Things that will be changed:
Kay Laurences Cavaletti DVD makes it seem like caveletti are the answer to all the worlds problems. And it could be! But with this group of shy dogs it took so many weeks to get them just to step over happily that not all the dogs were able to progress to trotting over lie we had expected. Will we keep this exercise? Yes, with some modifications.
Choices: We wanted the handlers to learn to work at that "point of success" where there was challenge but the dog was not concerned about the person/whatever. It was harder to get the handlers to take initiative and make choices and to differentiate when to be guiding the dog (body language, voice, and if needed, the leash) and when to be letting the dog explore. Next time around, we'll do more foundation exercises for those skills.

My shy dog looking very nervous!

Good Training Practices: Even with a good demonstration, the handlers focused on a different part than intended. Next time around, we'll do more handouts and a video demonstration rather than a real-dog demonstration.
All of the dogs can repeat the class again. Two were recommended to stay in the class and the others had additional options (some moving into regular classes, focus and distraction, or on leash agility).

I wanted to see more progress at class, but all of the dogs made big accomplishments at home during this time frame, and that's really the most important part.

The class will next run in January. I'm looking forward to the next group of dogs.

Approaching and Turning Away

2011-12-01T11:52:00.000-05:00

This is one of my current favorite exercises for pet classes, reactive dogs, shy dogs, excitable dogs! We have a few variations:

- 2 teams walk towards each other, turning away while at a success point.

- 1 team walking towards a person approaching, both turning away at a success point.

- A team walking towards a stationary dog and handler, both turning away at a success point.

- A team walking towards a stationary person, both turning away.

This is really nice for teaching people to judge how much their dogs can handle. We play it very safe with the reactive dogs. With the shy dogs, slight avoidance signals us to turn away on the next repetition. For the excitable dogs, any jumping forward signals us to turn sooner on the next repetition. The dogs give the handlers feedback about the choice of the turn around point.

This "success point" changes over time and the many repetitions start to get the handlers to be very aware about how they are working their dogs. A dog jumping up is no longer "Making mistakes," "having a bad day, " "Being awful!" The dog is saying "you were too close." Even though I have verbally discussed this in class, it wasn't enough. Now, students are making much better choices. It's black and white for them. Turning dog = slightly closer next time. Jumping/moving away = more distance next repetition.

In a class last night, we were doing an exercise where two teams walked toward each other, then away. One handler was clicking as the dog was looking ahead but walking nicely. The dog is slightly reactive but also has a lot of dog friends and likes playing with those dogs. It is good he can remain next to the handler while walking forward. But by reinforcing looking at the other dogs, we were increasing their relevance in the environment. * We clicked for turning away (the goal of the exercise to begin with). Soon the dog was glancing at the other dogs but not doing the stare he previously was trying.

Another component is the type of turn. A U turn to block the dog gives the advantage of a visual and physcial block between the dog and whatever else, but also allows the dog more leash to move TO the thing (not good for excitable or reactive dogs). An about turn, with the dog on the outside, limits the leash but leaves the dog "stranded" between the handler and the "whatever else" for a moment. The dog could make a good choice....or a not so good choice. The other option, is a front-cross turn, both handler and dog rotating to each other, then walking away with the dog on the opposite side from where he started. This limits the leash, this refocuses the dog on the handler, the handler is watching the dog the whole time, and most people can turn fastest this way (once they understand it!).

We talked about all the options last night and then tried the variations. My favorite is still the front cross turn.

* Yes, I'm aware of look-at-that type exercises. We would probably introduce that with neutral things, then moving parallel to things, then right towards the distractions. The timing would be different than what was being used in this exercise (Duration of nice walking forward to the other dog).

Our Current Favorite Food Reinforcers

2011-11-28T14:06:00.000-05:00

1) Fish Treats. Easy, fast, cheap.

2) French Toast. Mix egg/s with a small amount of milk (a Tbs or two for each egg? Maybe?). Dip a piece of bread in that goo... then cook on a griddle until golden brown (flip it over!). My dogs are --crazy-- about bread. Bread leaves crumbs...and it's always embarassing to leave a huge mess at training class. This gets rid of the crumbs, makes it even more appealing and the bread doesn't turn to 100% crumbs in your pouch/pocket.

3) Mozzarella Cheese: String cheese is overrated...it's way more expensive than "regular" cheese. There are variations in Mozzerella cheeses... my favorite brand currently is Kroger... it's soft to cut or break, it holds it's shape. No crumbs. We found a different brand last week that is not breakable but if cut into little pieces, it lasts forever without going bad and it has a very high melting point, making that brand great for hot days. Unfortunately the packages don't typically mention the melting point...

Fish Treats!

4) Cream Cheese: I personally dislike peanut butter.... yet recognize the benefits of licky treats. Peanut butter also makes dogs very thirsty and the oils can ruin clothes/floors. Cream cheese gets rid of many of these problems!

When Nail Trim Training Doesn't Go Well

2011-11-26T20:03:00.000-05:00

It's important for dogs to not just tolerate, but to willingly participate in nail trims. But even following a good training plan, sometimes it just doesn't seem to work. Now what?

Your Dog Doesn't Understand: Maybe at some point in the process, your dog stopped participating and just tolerated the process. At what stage was the behavior -not- loopy, being offered right after you reinforced? When did your dog start hesitating? Go back through and be careful to work only under the threshold of "participating" not that threshold of "tolerating."
Your Dog is Not Sufficiently Motivated: Some dogs have more sensitivity, making the nail trims uncomfortable. Often a higher value reinforcer or a greater history of reinforcement can help to motivate your dog to participate.
Your Dog Is Not Physically or Mentally Capable: Maybe your nail clippers are not sharp enough or you are moving the leg/paw in a way that is uncomfortable. Is there a way to make the situation look different?

Some dogs do seem to be more sensitive to pressure on the foot or nail. Dull nail clippers only make the problem worse. Dogs don't move in all directions and many dog owners will unintentionally move the dog's paw in a way that isn't all that comfortable for him.

When I was grooming, the preferred-by-dogs way was to have the dog standing. Move the foot backwards and flip the toes up (think "like a horse"). Be sure to keep the paw/leg underneath the body and to not pull it out to the side.

One of the shelter dogs who went from growly to pretty great has recently stopped participating. She'll let me clip a nail or two but isn't enjoying it like she used to. She doesn't move as well as she was before. Her arthritis is getting worse...and moving her toes/feet to get a good angle is uncomfortable. Some fresh-cooked chicken did motivate her to be a participant today.

Looking at Play

2011-11-25T12:19:00.000-05:00

I had two discussions this morning about play. In both situations, we were trying to determine what was going on with the dog who had poorer social skills.

What did we learn?

Video is more useful than photos for this sort of thing. While the photos could isolate one little part of the play, we also could have just had the dog at "the right moment" where his behavior could be interpreted differently. The video let us see things in context.
While we can rate play as "good" "bad" and anything in between, we also have to consider the play on the dog's individual scale. In both pairings, the play was not good, but it was very impressive for that individual dog.
The other dog involved should be getting regular interactions with dogs who -are- good at playing so that the less-skilled dog does not dissolve the social skills of both.
If in doubt, call dogs out of play.
The poor social-skilled dog should only be around dogs with very good social skills. We don't want him to learn bad manners.

Mud

2011-11-23T08:40:00.000-05:00

We've been getting a lot of rain. That means boring leash walks or a dog that looks like this. That's a muddy Griffin rolling in less-muddy grass.

And then multiply it by three dogs. I can understand why people really like very very short haired dogs.

Halfway through the online class

2011-11-20T20:51:00.000-05:00

Photo by Megan!

Unfortunately we're halfway through the online class we signed up for a few months ago.

The sections we've done so far are Play, Impulse Control, Shaping, and half of Heeling.

Play: I always know I need to play more with my dogs, especially during training. The class really made our weakest points stay out and six weeks later, we're still working to develop those areas... it's really the things haunting the rest of our training. Griffin wants to/enjoys playing on his own and does not "drive" back to me, even when other reinforcers are available. I'm really trying to repair this skill area!

Impulse Control: The activities are things I've done with my own dogs, but not student dogs. Since this section, we've started doing these things in some of my classes. For motivated/skilled handlers, they're great activities...I don't know enough to teach this to less skilled handlers. Again, we found huge weak areas in our training and things that I need to work on with Griffin. The two primary activities were a variation of the Susan Garrett "Its Your Choice." and a release-to-bowl activity, similar-but-not to the "Race to Reward" in my most favorite agility training book (Agility Right From the Start). The problem was not the run to the bowl, but getting Griffin to run to me from near the bowl, getting the enthusiasm and speed even with the potential reinforcer behind him. I've been using a lot of these activities in his training since then. We did one very memorable and great training sessions we did Go Outs, working up to someone "outside the ring" offering food, patting the ground, holding food. And Griffin was great. Some of the videos in this session were absolutely brilliant and things I wish everyone could see. Remarkable stimulus control, remarkable self control, and really, really 'clean' responses. I really really hope I can get Griffin half-close to that!

Shaping: I've done enough shaping before that this wasn't super hard... but incorporating play WAS very challenging. And I discovered that I just haven't done enough shaping with him. I need to schedule more shaping into our weekly training plans.

Heeling: Very similar to how I trained Griffin. And as I commented on the class page, learning about this heeling a few years ago was really a changing point in my training. Refining of shaping. Selecting ways that the "final" picture would be nothing like the training steps until you were ready.... so that you are not reinforcing "incorrect" responses as part of the training. It's really good to see the others in the group learn the heeling. I'm doing a bit of repair work and introducing right side heeling. One of the details I've noticed again recently is head position. Many dogs have a head-turned-to-handler position, especially clickerly dogs. Griffin's head is only slightly turned in, though it is pointing up. When he's stopped he always puts his head straight, but pointing up.

Overall Class Notes:
This is really great. I think it's a wonderful foundation class and it would be good for so many of my enthusiast students/friends. It seems kind of simple that there's only a few assignments for each two week period, but, really, it allows you to focus a lot on those things and really spend your time there. I'm often wishing I had more time in between. If another, more advanced, class is offered, I definitely will be interested! I really, really wish we had semi-local people with a similar training style and more opportunities to learn this type of clicker training.

A ten year project

2011-11-19T22:44:00.000-05:00

I was correct...Blaze did finish his APDT Rally Level 1 title last month!

10.5 years of training and we finally completed something!

The funny thing is, I've spent more hours training him than Luna and Griffin together (and probably multiplied by 10). What's different?

The primary difference is that I'm not quite as enthusiastic about training as I used to be. When Blaze was young, I would spend hours and hours every day working on various training projects. I still enjoy training... but not that much. Now I "get" it and would much rather spend my time on the more interesting challenge of teaching other people to train their dogs.

Another difference is that I'm more experienced and more efficient. I can make better training plans and better predictions of what will or will not work. It just takes less time to train a behavior or task, and to train it to a higher level than what Blaze learned.

The other difference.... Griffin is a normal dog. Luna is more "normal" than Blaze. Per the veterinary neurologist a few years ago...Blaze probably has some sort of brain lesion that is impacting his behavior/learning (as well as a cause of his seizures). Dogs with normal brain function learn better than dogs with abnormal brain functioning.

Blaze wanted to play with the ribbon rather than pose...

Additional Benefits of Training

2011-11-14T12:05:00.000-05:00

Griffin's relatives are very, very busy and it's been an overall very successful year for "the family." High level accomplishments in agility, obedience, field work, and tracking.

In an email his breeder sent out this week, she talked a little about the "richness" that the dog sports and training and activities add to our dog's lives, as well as to the people involved.

There's the change in behavior that can be useful/practical for daily use, but there's also the physical and mental activity, giving the dogs a chance to do doggy-things, to go places and do things (off property experiences can be helpful for preventing some types of behavior problems!), and more.

With my experience, it's really been a very different relationship between myself and the first dogs I knew and my dogs now. Through training and those types of interactions, it's created a very different relationship.

And even on the short term, there have been a few dogs at the shelter that have a -very- different relationship with me after training. Previously, people were for feeding and opening doors and anything else involving thumbs. Now these dogs are soliciting interaction and demanding to something with people.
Here's one of the dogs a few days ago. If I'm working another dog nearby, she stands with her nose pressed through the fence, getting as close as she can, hoping I'll do something. Occasionally she offers a sit or a down or a bark. She used to just go off and do her own thing, ignoring people.

Another Public Event : Pet Care Day

2011-11-12T13:10:00.000-05:00

We went to do demos and talk with people at a "Pet Care Day" event. It was held at a fitness center, and much to our surprise, we were inside rather than outdoors!

Griffin, as always, was great. We didn't have a lot of space and we did have a lot of people passing by very close. He worked for three hours, showing off his heeling, stays, and tricks. Towards the end, he was definitely tired and much more happy about the stays.

We talked to many people about agility, training dogs before a new baby is in the home, and dogs who bark on leash. There were also a lot of golden retriever related questions. Everyone thought Griffin was a puppy!

I've been thinking he looks much more mature and like an adult....but maybe I've just imagined it. It was interesting that so many people thought he was wild and "hyper." I thought he was being a fairly normal dog, wiggly and soliciting attention. If they saw him running in the fields.....I have no idea what they would say!

It wasn't as fun as the kids camps...but we definitely had a great time. I only wish I could provide him with these types of experiences every day.

Respecting Professional Boundaries

2011-11-11T21:40:00.000-05:00

Second theme of the week!

I get together with a trainer friend at a local park. It's amazing to have someone nearby to work with on such a regular basis. We meet a couple times a week and it's just so great to get me out and working and to have help. We tend to see the same people come to the park. The group of joggers. The people emptying the trash. And someone else who stops by every morning on an errand. After a few months, this person stopped to greet us and ask a question.

The person works at peoples homes....and one place recently added a very (very) large breed dog to the home. The dog would growl and bark and be unfriendly towards this person and other visitors. The owners had been notified. The person would bring dog treats and wanted tips. I stepped in with something like, "You must have the owner keep the dog put away while you are there. It is not safe." The person said that they'd had a conversation..... and that the dog had pinned him against a wall before. "You need to insist that the dog is put away. That is not safe for you. It's not good for the dog to be stressed either, tell the owners you're worried about the dog. If they want help, they can call us. Otherwise, be safe."

We haven't seen the person since then, but I sincerely hoped he took our advice. Why didn't I give training tips or mention how bad it is to be hand feeding treats to a nervous dog?

1) Liability. There was nothing in place to keep me safe and it's not a safe situation.

2) The owners were not on board. The primary caretaker has to be on the same page.

3) This person has good intentions! Going out of his way to buy treats! I want to prevent the person from having more bad experiences with dogs.

4) Safety!! A dog that is pinning someone against a wall should not be loose while there are visitors. It's just not safe.

5) Multiple concerns. It's not just with this one person, but all visitors. There are likely other anxiety issues as well.

This week, on a few discussion lists there was talk of food and nutrition, and visitors in households not treating dogs well and rescue groups asking for help in situations where a veterinarian should be involved.

Most dog trainers very much have a "helping-people-thing," and really do want to help. And in such an un-regulated field, we aren't always good at policing ourselves and knowing whether or not we cross lines is impossible when the lines aren't well defined. This year I've heard a few really great examples of trainers who understand the lines and a few examples of people who weren't aware there are things a trainer should not do or say. It'll be interesting to see how this changes in the future.

Enthusiasm as Part of Your Criteria

2011-11-10T11:28:00.000-05:00

This week we had a training group discussion about building enthusiasm and having it as part of your criteria for behaviors. I definitely intentionally do a lot of this.

When Blaze was young, I was constantly trying to suppress his behaviors and enthusiasm, but I did learn to direct it in agility. This resulted in a LOT of distance, a LOT of obstacle focus and him learning to work away from me to access reinforcers.

With Luna, Griffin and most student dogs, I try to build that enthusiasm, and keep it. And direct enthusiasm appropriately rather than suppress unwanted expressions of the enthusiasm (jumping up, mouthing, barking, etc).It's hard to do with the dogs who are very wild and very shy, and especially for the novice handler.

One of the best moments in class was when we had a group of students working together. One dog staying, another walking past, and then switching roles. One student who is great at encouraging and directing behavior. The dog was very focused on the handler, they were running past the other team. If the dog did get distracted or broke his stay, the handler would quickly be calling the dog back and using a higher rate of reinforcement. The other team was also new to dogs and very uncomfortable if the young dog jumped up. THIS handler would "off off! Get down! Stop Barking!" and constantly trying to 'make' the dog work properly. Initially the handler was horrified by the other team who had great work and speed and enthusiasm. But as class went on, the wild-dog handler started to imitate the other team. She was finally able to see that the dog could still be running and working well YET be focused and working. It's not one or the other!

An area where this can be hard is with precise behaviors. In an effort to get the dog to be careful, the humans slow down, the dog then slows down and then the behavior is very slow. Some trainers say that speed is a later criteria and comes after experience and confidence. But there are many behaviors were the fast behavior is physically very different than the slower variation. If you train slow....you get slow.

An important concept for the dog to learn is speed and enthusiasm. If you get a few behaviors with speed and enthusiasm, it's easier to transition this to some others, and even all work. This can become an underlying piece of criteria.

"How Important is it to You?"

2011-11-09T08:39:00.000-05:00

In basic training classes, this is one of the questions I ask about each of the problem areas.

Example 1:
Client: My dog jumps on me every time I step over the gate into that part of the house! But he doesn't jump up on my husband!
Me: How important is it to you that the behavior stops?
Client: I don't mind it, it's great.
Me: If you don't mind it, we are not going to address it. But think through this!

Example 2:
Client: My dog digs in the yard!
Me: How important is it to you that the digging stops?
Client: SO SO important! He's ruining my yard!!
Me: For two weeks we need to completely eliminate any chance of practicing the behavior while we do re training. Your dog will be on leash in the yard or completely engaged in an activity such as training or fetch games, as well as
Client: I can't do that! I have to put him out to go to the bathroom. I'm not taking him out on leash.
Me: How important is it to you that the digging stops?
Client: It HAS to stop.
Me: It's up to you. If you want it to stop, we can't let him have fun and practice the digging. If you want to let him out alone, he may dig for fun or for something to do. Every time he does it, he gets better at it and the behavior is harder to change. It's your choice. If you want it to stop, you know the start to plan.

Example 3:
Client: We need to train leave it! My puppy gets into the trash!
Me: Theoretically we can train that. Due to safety though, it's best to put the trash in a contained area or get a tightly sealed trash can. What if your dog ever makes a mistake and eats something dangerous. Plus....you could spend a long time on that training, or use that time teaching something else. Your choice.
Client: That's what I was thinking.

It's always interesting to see what is important. In my household, it's not important that my dog is quiet when someone knocks at the door. We don't have a lot of visitors and we don't have nearby neighbors. I don't mind my dogs going out the door without a release. But I do want nice walking in public, I do want my dogs lying on the floor while I eat, and I do want them to focus when asked.

APDT Trial

2011-11-07T16:13:00.000-05:00

A week ago I took Blaze and Griffin to a run at an APDT trial. Blaze is not a young dog anymore and I gave him too much of a warm up. But, even without the bonus exercise (I'm not letting go of his leash!), we passed and I think he completed his RL1, we'll find out when the paperwork is processed.

Griffin....had a lot more trouble. We ended up asking to leave the ring. He did the sets of stationary signs fairly well....but the in-between heeling was miserable, we tried to fake our way through it, but I just couldn't do it.

He did pretty well during the warm up, was excited about the close quarters and he did some barking (as well as getting barked at).

As a result? More training. We'll try to find a way to get to run throughs. I'd like to get in classes at different locations, but I don't know if that's possible. More get-out-of-the-car-work-and-leave And similar type things.

Since then, he's been doing really well in all the training we've done.

New Positive Retriever Training Book!

2011-11-06T09:55:00.000-05:00

I heard about this book only about two weeks ago. I impatiently waited, and ordered it as soon as the website was up and running. My book arrived!

The only drawback? It's written in French. Lucky for me, I can read it well enough to get through...with the help of google translate. "Puppy" "Training" "Ducks" and "Heartworm" are not words typically taught in French classes.....

Le Chien Rapporteur de A à Z comes with a DVD too! Even though it recommends reading the book before/along with the video, I'm cheating and skipping ahead to watch. The reading is super slow going (but getting faster the more I read and learn the dog vocabulary).

I'll admit I'm biased towards liking it because the guy has goldens and so the photos and video are goldens!

A few quick things I've noticed: Lots of praise and food use (sounds like dry biscuits or kibbles from the crunching!). Lots of petting and affection (face licking frm the dog, patting on the top of the head and shoulders from the human).

The video shows things going well and moments where the dog doesn't respond and working through those situations (replacing the dog in a stay, re-cueing the dog to go out, etc). Much of the outdoor video is shown from two angles...which is nice

The biggest differences in our training (other than the big, and obvious, differences of his successes at different events and in hunting!) are that I don't do as much luring and prompting and I get a higher fluency level before moving on. Maybe I don't need as much precision as I've been aiming for and maybe our nitpicking early on is holding us back?

I. Don't. Really. Want. To.Hold. It. But. I. Will.

I can't wait to get through the book and start utilizing the exercises.

(Not) Solving Big Non-Training-Specific Problems

2011-11-04T17:50:00.000-04:00

These have been some of the 'big picture' problems for the last few weeks.

General Public Perception of Animal Needs/Welfare and Reality: I do know these are often different and it's creating problems for the animals in the family and for the animals in the community.

Professional Standards for Trainers: Both in regards to teaching and training....and general business practices too. Many people do a great job..... but as the 4-H motto says...we need to "make the best better"

Efficiency in Training and Teaching: How can we use our class times best? How do we help people get the progress they want and need.

Trainer Programs: Some are great. Some aren't as good for...some purposes. How do we help people find appropriate programs for their goals? What kinds of things result in someone "understanding" training and why some take longer? I know some people who take years and years and work so hard...and others who just get it in a matter of weeks or months. What's different?

Luring and Shaping: When is it better to use one or the other? What are the differences in behavior aquisition, reliability, and shape of the behaviors?

Exploring Good Training: Why are clickerly dogs doing well in some areas of competition more than others? What's missing or different or...needs to change? How can we get more interest, more participation, more successes?

Almost Perfect Websites: Some of my favorite informational websites...are no longer favorites. I re-read the sites and found some serious and surprising advice/information/contributions that I just don't want clients to read and I can't believe it was added to the site! Why!

More Fish Treats: Fish Pancakes!

2011-10-31T14:29:00.000-04:00

My usual fish treat recipe is great.

Sometimes when I'm short on time and won't be able to bake that long or preheat the oven.... I use the batter and cook it like pancakes. It takes much less time, flip them over after a minute or two and then another minute or two and they're ready! It's a different texture (more crumbs...) but convenient.

If there was a timed contest for making treats...I would win!

Asking the dog to work, compared to the dog asking to work.

2011-10-29T11:32:00.000-04:00

Most dogs can fairly quickly to get to this point in class.

For some teams, it takes longer to get to the dog demanding work. The first things we look at are making sure the dog is comfortable (worried dogs have enough to think about other than work) and making sure the reinforcers are actually reinforcing.

Some handlers try harder and harder to 'make' the dog work and respond and even without using obvious and intentional punishment, the dogs can find the interaction unappealing. And if the interaction is stressful...they have no reason to stick around. The dog is more unresponsive and the handler tries harder and it's a really difficult cycle for everyone. It's understandably easy for the handler to think about the dog as "intentionally" not responding and to start finding ways to justify the use of punishment. Daily life and interactions become a battle that the person wants to 'win'.

Many of these dogs are quickly unresponsive to luring. The handlers keep trying because at some point the dog responds, the handler sees the behavior happen, and then the handler is reinforced. But it's a very different picture than a dog that is immediately and always following a food lure.

This week we saw success after long periods for two of these teams. For one, I was able to get the owner to only be tossing reinforcers and not hand feed. This changed the picture, decreased social pressure, and let us go for approximations. We were able to think about only getting what would be ideal and not asking for too much. Just because the dog would do a million behaviors with luring and prompting didn't mean those behaviors were our competition ideal behaviors.

For the other team, the person had a ton of stress over the week and really just wasn't caring about the training. While the other things in the life of the family were unfortunate, it did take away some of the focus from the dog's behavior and misbehavior. I didn't have to mediate the unspoken 'battle' to 'win'. They just worked. If we had a poor response, we easily and completely changed criteria and soon were back. It was easier for me. Easier for the human. Easier for the dog.

---

Until students feel the difference of the dog begging to work, it can be hard to understand the difference or even feel it. My dogs sometimes overwhelm other people who are not used to the difference. Once when Griffin was around 7-8 months old, I had a student handle him in a practice rally course to compare the difference between her dog who was lured through and not as responsive. She enjoyed the experience but attributed to his breed and personality. While those factors are important, it's not the only thing that gets a dog asking to work.

At the shelter there is a 8+ year old not-very-mobile beagle who always begs to work. She stares right at people and offers her behavior and offers stillness, trying to get any chance to work. She used to be very non responsive, but with her love of food and a few minutes each week, she has become very demanding!

Griffin Agility Class: Week 7

2011-10-26T07:45:00.000-04:00

For the last week of the session, we ran a 20 obstacle course..... or at least everyone else did. I tried to do 19 the first time (skipping the dogwalk at the end)...but Griffin apparently still can't weave properly (no surprise) and so we did half and then the second half. He did surprisingly well despite not having much experience running longer courses. His lines were nice and efficient and he was running. It was interesting to see that we made some different handling choices compared to the others in class. Most of them were similarly sized dogs. Two differences are that he's the only big dog with running contacts and that I just don't try to get in front crosses unless I know I can cue in time.

I also think that, in some ways, errors are less relevant to me than the others. I try to not just circle him back..we finish or run for a re-start location. He's attentive and responsive to cues and I want every single slow down cue to be relevant and to be followed by back-to-full-speed after the turn. I hear a lot about turns and stops that are "demotivating" and "punishing" and "my dog doesn't like it" in both obedience and agility. I want my dog to feel differently.

He's adorable.

We then had two hours of teaching agility later in the day...with a new daytime class. Three hours of agility is not enough!

Creating how-to resources

2011-10-24T17:08:00.000-04:00

As a completion for a 4-H grant we received last year, we're working on creating a few guides to go along with the workshops we did. The one I'm most responsible for is titled "How to Solve Training Challenges." In the guide, we ask a series of questions. Each question-category has 5 questions to prompt the reader (be it advisor, parent, or 4-H'er) to think through the issue at hand.

We start with looking at the behavior, getting a second opinion, checking with your vet, looking at reinforcement, breaking it down, and changing approach. It's not a "do XYZ" type guide, but we're hoping it will have some use for those who are stuck.

Of course, under the "ask for help" part we're listing contact information and we're always happy to help other advisors and 4-H'ers.

I'm hoping that over the next few years we'll be able to refine the questions and end up with a very usable and useful guide.

Luna was Brave

2011-10-21T16:32:00.000-04:00

On Wednesday, Luna had her first class on since ~May 2009 when we stopped agility due to a lack of progress in agility and an increase in trouble-making. Luna was in a sort of self-control-around-everything-and-other-dogs class. She very happy. She wasn't very responsive to cues, but was offering more attention than I've gotten in -months-. In our daily training sessions she's been so inattentive, freezing and staring off into the world, and non responsive. But...back in the environment of "class" she was amazing. Last time she was in the training building with me she would jump at every noise and had her tail between her legs. Maybe it's being on anti-anxiety medications, maybe the past reinforcement history of a class setting...I don't know. I walked out ready to sign her up for agility class...then I developed some self control.

It was a huge contrast from Griffin at agility class. He did not have a good week. Our homework is a lot of speed and focus and response to cues.

SCAMPER: A problem solving tool (part 1)

2011-10-08T12:20:00.005-04:00

SCAMPER is a problem-solving memory-device tool. I originally learned about it for other purposes, but it's something I use every day in dog training without having to think twice. It's easy to get into the same patterns of thinking instead of looking at all possible options available.

S: Substitute: Obviously in animal training we have Response Substitution and can ask for alternate and/or incompatible behaviors. Sometimes another behavior can be used in place of what your dog is currently giving you. Sometimes another behavior can be pro-active and prevent the problem behavior from occurring. There can be other variables we can substitute, including the cues and the environment.

C: Combine: There are often behaviors that a dog already knows or at the very least, preferences that the dog has. How can we combine the known behaviors in his repertoire or skill set to get our desired results?

A: Adapt: How can we change what we already have? With a little extra work or a few changes to variables, we may be able to use a behavior we already have. We can change perceptions and make it go well.

M: Modify: There are changes we can make to the environment to increase or decrease the chances of getting specific behaviors. When dealing with problem behavior, we want to be sure we aren't compromising our training by allowing the undesirable behaviors to happen at other times.

P: Put to Other Purposes: The sort utilize the problem behavior for your benefit. Turn your unwanted behaviors into tricks. Your puppy is picking up everything? Teach him to bring the items to you.

E: Eliminate: Some behaviors we absolutely never want to see. Look at the behavior closely before working to be sure that you are getting rid of the parts you dislike and you aren't accidental getting rid of behavior you will want later. A dog who doesn’t get on furniture can be nice...but if he also doesn't know how to get into the car...that can be another challenge. We can eliminate behaviors, eliminate triggers, put behaviors on cues and eliminate our use of the cue.

R: Rearrange: By changing associations or the strength of associations we can change behavior. We can teach dogs to be enthusiastic in certain times and places. We can teach our dogs to like two things equally. We can take away opportunities for reinforcement to make other behaviors less likely to occur.

Adorable

2011-10-07T12:09:00.000-04:00

One of my many amazing 4-H kids made and mailed me this little felted golden retriever! It's absolutely adorable and the color is so perfect. The little golden retriever is so adorable! He now sits on my shelf of dog pictures. Adorable!

This week has been filled with lots of things did not go as well as they should. There were two really great parts. One manners class of advanced dogs with advanced goals. It was fun to have the whole group working on extra things rather than the "things that need changed right now." The other best part was my Thurs 6:00 class.... they all have similar goals of young enthusiastic dogs needing better manners.... and they all made HUGE progress in that class.

Griffin at Agility Class: Week 3 and 4

2011-10-04T11:40:00.000-04:00

Last week... Griffin was very fast, working very well, and amazing. We made mistakes on every single exercise. But the speed and enthusiasm are definitely a priority for now. I was very happy.

Today... Sometimes fast, sometimes not. Sometimes coming when called, so fast he would skid. And other times running out of the ring for water or to beg his friends for play time.

We had a lot of trouble with some of the exercises. Griffin was often moving in too close to me, rather than staying out and taking obstacles. Back to that obstacle focus issue.

For the first time in many weeks, we tried the weave poles... and only got it 1/3 times. One mistake was continuing on after the entry, and another time he cut out at the end when I moved past him. He can weave if I'm behind him, but we haven't done work with me ahead or moving past.

His very best parts today:

We did an activity with 'directed jumping' of sorts. He was great, I could be very far away and I didn't have to move to get him over. Because of our obedience work and fluency work...he already understood most of this. Many other teams had less experience in this area and they had to be closer to the jumps or move and prompt the dog.
Aframe, flipping to a tunnel underneath. He's always great at this, but we've never done it away from our usual training place. He was perfect and responsive. It sure was easier for me than it was for many of the teams who had to be much closer to cue.
Table: He's not seen very many tables, but he was able to jump up and Down right away. He almost broke position a few times as I moved, but he fixed it himself.
Stays: While others walked the course. He had people moving within 12" and he held position, easily!

Things to work on:

Straight out of the chute: He turns towards me quite a lot...making it potentially unsafe (for both of us) and more difficult for any handling challenges.
Dogwalk: (Help!).
Weaves: esp with entries, with handler ahead, and handler moving past
"pushing" out to a jump, away from a line we are following.
Recalls.....

Focus points today:

Keep food in my pocket until after the sequence.
Feed low (rather than high like for Heel position).
Run!

Seminar II: Looking at the Brain

2011-10-01T10:11:00.000-04:00

Back to the seminar notes for the Sept 2011 Obi Fox event.

There are a lot of neurons in the brain. Motor neurons "fire" (electrical/chemical changes within the cell) in response to a specific stimulus and then cause movements of specific muscles or muscle groups. The type of stimulus depend on the type of neuron. Some only respond to a visual stimulus, some only to touch, some to specific internal changes...etc. AND there are some that respond to two specific types of stimuli, and other to three or more specific types of stimuli.

Quite a few motor neurons respond to visual and tactile stimuli. This means that you are getting the same changes in the brain, the brain is perceiving the same thing... if the individual is touched or if the individual perceives something moving 'within' range. Specific body areas correspond to a part of the 'personal space' field.

By moving into a dog's space, the brain can be responding as if the animal was touched.

Just as important is that those neurons will continue to fire until the 'threat' is removed from the space or when the motor sequence is completed. If someone is too close...those neurons will fire until the dog can move far enough away that the person is out of the dog's 'space'.

That somewhat makes it even harder to think about dogs that are asked to "just get over it," both shy-fearful type dogs, reactive dogs, and super excitable dogs.

The personal space zone can change over time in response to desensitization or sensitization. It can get bigger or smaller.

And that's probably enough to think about for today. Any errors in this post are mine.

My goals, student goals

2011-09-30T18:20:00.000-04:00

Personally, I'm really horrible at setting goals. I've put in a lot of effort to learn about setting goals. I've used business resources, athlete resources, and general resources. And it never really works out that well for me.

I am better at helping students reach their goals. Probably because it's a lot easier to be asking someone else to do all the work to get from Point A to Point B than it is to do that work yourself. It's why I prefer teaching to training my own dogs!

That said... some of my recent reading has prompted me to re-think client goals. Should pet and sport/enthusiast classes be different? Shouldn't I hold everyone to a high standard? If I set high expectations, will everyone work to achieve those levels of success? Or should the content be different because of the different goals?

Blaze's goal is to never leave the water. Griffin is considering the options.

The first questions I typically ask in class are, "What are your goals for this class? What prompted you to sign up for class right now?" But maybe I need to add in, "How much time are you willing to commit?" More than usual, I've had a high number of clients who are not meeting their goals.

I don't want to be the stereotypical dog training instructor and say, "They never practice, it's their fault!" It's my responsibility to help them reach their goals and maybe my instruction wasn't clear or it was too difficult or I gave too many steps. With a lot of these recent cases, the first thing I hear is "We didn't get to work at all this week. The XYZbehavior is horrible, it HAS to change!" No training happened. More importantly, no management was put in place. The dog practiced the inappropriate behavior dozens of times during the week. Somewhere I am failing those families and something has to change.

I'm going to start adding in to my questions, "How much time are you wanting to put into training?" and we'll use that measurement to help with the activities. It's part of the reason I don't use the bells that some dogs ring to go outside.... most of my student's don't want to spend the time period teaching the dogs. I don't blame them...I've never done it. Last night we talked about a puppy getting into the trash. They've used some management, but not always. The puppy is getting more sneaky. We talked about all the training we could do...."But in reality, it would just be easier to get a locking trash can. Spend the $25-30, and then you have hours and hours to spend with your puppy training other things. You don't have to worry about your dog making a judgement mistake and grabbing something that could kill him." If someone doesn't want to put in the time, we can find variations and management options. For whatever reason, life-long management sometimes gets a bad name in dog training, as if it's not really resolving the issue. Sometimes other things are just more important ways to spend time.

On the other end of it, I've had a small number of very dedicated clients, with fairly normal dogs, wanting to do lots of sports and activities, wanting a high level of proficiency, and putting in a lot of practice. Yet they are getting very little progress. I can see the weak training skill areas. I try to design lessons to improve the human's ability for training and to address the dog's weak areas. And it still doesn't go well. I'm letting down those students as well, but in a very different way.

All that said, I'm not unhappy and am excited to see if the upcoming changes in classes will get even better results.

--------------------

In other news.... I'm already behind on processing and rewriting my seminar notes. Griffin was pretty great at class, super fast and not running away. We messed up every single exercise.... but the speed and enthusiasm were our priorities. It should go better next week.

Luna Notes

2011-09-29T00:44:00.000-04:00

More than one person has lodged (logged?) an official complaint that I do not say enough about Luna.

There is not very much to say about Luna. We take walks. She wrestles and chases Griffin. She sleeps. Sometimes she does training. On occasion we go somewhere.

It's been a very long time since we had our weekly(+) agility classes, occasional agility trials, camping trips, and other adventures.

We intend for that to change! In a few weeks Luna will (hopefully) be in a class designed for dogs to learn to be calm and controlled and wild and controlled around other dogs. There will be some obstacle/object interaction, some playing, and good training.

I'm hoping we can get back into agility trials by the spring...it may be wishful thinking, but we'll see what we can do.

Before our class that starts soon...we have work to do.

1) Car rides: Luna hates the car. Meals and super great treats in or near the car. Jumping in and out of the car. Time in the car with Griffin. Short car rides.

2) Crating: I will probably be teaching a class before/after her class. Luna will have to be crated in the training building. I've made some bad choices and the only times she has been crated in the last year has been for camp and maybe one day at the training center. It wasn't because she's comfortable without the crate...it was lazyness and not working on her crate-dislike issues. We'll practice going in the crate, eating in the crate, and spending time in a crate. I'll take her to the training center a few times before class starts and have her crated near Griffin.

3) Off Property Walks: I'm not able to handle the recommended twice a day 20 minute off-property walks. We'll try to get out 3-4 times every week. Either a different part of the property or a trip into town to walk.

4) Tricks and behaviors: Increase the reinforcement history for a few tricks/behaviors so that we have things we can do in class.

5) Find some great foods: Be sure she is on a good eating schedule, that we have high value reinforcers, and that I will have reinforcer options when we get back to class.

6) Visit the Building: We're lucky and the class is someplace I visit many times per week. If I take her when I work, she can have some time training and playing in the building after classes. I did this a few times early in the year, but she was often very skittish and easily startled unless Griffin was out with her. I think she'll do better in a class setting than in an empty room. Short visits and play times should still help prepare us for class.

What do I expect? Luna will be stressed and not happy, tail tucked, inattentive. After 5-15 minutes, she will probably get more attentive and work better except for moments when people are nearby and she gets scared. She won't eat well during that first part of the class, but then will eat more readily. Once she is comfortable, she will do her behaviors. I also expect that each week she will get to her comfortable point much faster.

I'm hoping that if we're in the building earlier in the day for training I can let her run around with Griffin. She's much more confident with him nearby. I wish I had a second person who could handle him so they could be together in class, or at least for the first day or two. I'll just have to prepare and take great treats!

Seminar: Looking at "Personal Space"

2011-09-27T13:47:00.001-04:00

Last weekend was a very unique 2 day seminar by Obi Fox. It was a medium sized group of attendees from all over the US.

Day one was powerpoint and discussion with a few short demos and video. Day two was all about working dogs and considering our new knowledge while watching the teams work.

Day one:
Scientific Perspective:
Discussion about science, scientific thinking, and the approaches used in different areas of science. This became quite a point to come back to all weekend. Most of the attendees were dog professionals or dog enthusiasts.... and all/most familiar with an approach to science and thinking about dogs from a psychology viewpoint. Fox was very much using the ethology vocabulary and giving us that perspective. This was challenging for many of us, but definitely makes it easier to think about "behavior as behavior" than to be (on the verge of ) anthropomorphic. I'd thought I was fairly good at looking at behaviors but I definitely have room for improvement.

The conflict for me will be that the more psychology-language can help clients be more empathetic to their dogs. On the other hand... we do want them to see that dogs are completely different in how they view the world and sometimes we need to help remind clients of that difference.

Some examples of the vocabulary: If we say a dog is afraid/fearful/shy, we aren't describing specific behaviors, we are describing groups of behaviors in a shorthand that is helpful when speaking to someone else dog-savvy, but not so helpful when it comes from a client's mouth. We could say specifically, "He moves away, he moves slowly, his tail is tucked." Or we wanted to group the behaviors under one term, we could say the dog is showing "avoidance". "Avoidance" helps us know what is happening in general, without the emotion and to not use a word that will prompt additional connotations or as much emotional response from the human. Another example: Distractions. That's a normal piece of dog training vocabulary. We know what it means. Something that's interesting in a problematic way. "Attractive stimuli" is another way to think of it. We're not saying it's good or bad. We're just saying it's there, something perceived in the environment, and the animal is interested.

Flight Zones:

A group of cattle watching the dogs. The cows are about 150' away. Cows tend to have one or two adults supervising a larger group of young.

This is something I've not had much formal training with, but I have had a lot of hands-on practice. All species have a flight zone...and how they are approached can impact the motion of the animal. Partway down this page is a diagram of flight zones with cattle (a cow drawing with circle around it). When I've had to help move cattle...I learned quickly. Moving slowly is better than fast (unless you want them moving fast!). They turn and move away from where the person is approaching. They notice the person a distance. Closer, and they move. Factors impact that distance... other individuals nearby, physical environment, speed of the approach. Flight zones are documented in many, many species. It's especially studied in livestock in an effort to make handling practices more efficient, safer, and more humane. We don't think enough about this with dogs.

Overall....the weekend gave me a lot to think about. It's kind of like operant conditioning...once you understand and think about it, you know that's impacting learning all the time, whether or not you want it to, whether or not you're thinking about it. This weekend opened up another similar concept. There are always things changing in the environment. These changes are always impacting behavior.

Taking it to a smaller level....next up will be about motor neurons.

How To Lure

2011-09-23T22:31:00.000-04:00

Luring is not evil. You are not a bad person if you lure behaviors.

If you do a bad job of it....then you get your own set of problems.

Practice Following: We treat it as a magnet and fairly closely follow some of the notes in Agility Right From the Start book on "treat transport". The dog should be licking-sniffing the treat the whole way. If his tongue is not on your hand, your had is too far away. Move slow enough so that he can be licking the whole time. This will allow you to carefully control and refine his movements.

Select For Your Behavior, Reinforce Approximations: If you are getting a down...you may release the treat when you see shoulders drop. A few repetitions later, release the treat when elbows hit the floor. And after a few reps of that...release the treat when the back end hits the ground.

Get A Good Behavior: There's some crazy popularized rule to "lure 3 times then no more food in the lure hand" . I've not found that to be a good rule to follow. I use food in the hand until the dog is -immediately- getting into position, efficiently getting into position, and I have the shape of the behavior I want. Then...some reps with no food in the hand, but same motion, feeding treats as soon as the dog responds.

Cue Transfer: At that point... New Cue (verbal or signal), pause, old cue (lure hand with no food in it). Reward.

Should I Use a Clicker? I often don't. But sometimes I have students...this helps them be exact about when to release the food. Otherwise they like to as for too much, too soon.

When to Lure? There are a few places where I am pretty happy and enthusiastic about using a lure: Fold back downs and kick back stands. I have ways to shape and get that down, but nothing great for the kick back stands. I'm not a targeting enthusiast..... but that could be another option. I feel like I can refine movements better with the lure than with a target stick.

I have students lure some behaviors...downs, stands, sometimes sits. On occasion, I let them get away with luring around cones and that sort of thing. It depends on their ultimate goals and what my goal is for the specific lesson.

Luring is Horrible! I've read a few really offensive things recently.... luring really isn't that horrible. It has a few advantages over other ways to get behavior. It has disadvantages. If luring is used well...it doesn't mean someone is a poor trainer or cheating or whatever else. And I feel quite strongly about that. At the same time, I'm still sometimes feeling guilty for luring behaviors!

Seminar weekend..... I'm going to have too much to say about it, provided I understand what's said!

Griffin at Agility Class: Week 2

2011-09-20T14:14:00.000-04:00

Last week was a bit of a disaster in a few ways.

During the week we worked did a few things to help us:

Almost daily contact training sessions to prep for the dogwalk. I moved the board taller and taller with a very high success rate. Last night after teaching, I ran him on the real one...it didn't go well. We tried to do training on it...and still had too many misses. We stopped and will do more work at home.
Weave pole work: Running through the steps and filling in the training gaps (addition of the second set of six). Did about 4 sessions with the weave poles this week.
Recalls and focus: Extra large amount of work.
Handling exercises: Practicing what didn't go well in class and recreating some of those embarrassing moments.

And right before or during class, I did a few specific things:

Extra exercise. Some dogs do better without exercise...he needs some right before class.
Good treats: Last week I had hamburger and ham and kibble stored with meat. This week I took kibble and cheese as my low value and the NaturalBalance rolls as my high value. He LOVES those. I HATE buying them...they're ridiculously expensive per pound and while the quality isn't bad, it's not the same as just feeding him meat. I was given a few of the sample sized rolls when judging last weekend....so we were able to use that. Might have to go buy more for class.
Training while waiting: Last week I just tried to get him to settle and did some hand touches and head on floor. This week, we did that along with duration touches, stand-sit-down work in front of me and some other small-space tricks.

The results? Griffin was really great. He didn't run off to visit. He had less barking than last week. He only missed one obstacle the whole class. We maintained criteria.

For next week, we're doing exercises specific to class, more weave pole and dogwalk work, and I will remember to bring a kong for our waiting time. If I could park closer, I would crate him until he needed to run...it's really tight quarters in the waiting area. Due to his voice.....we get more than our fair share of space. He did a lot of growling today which was scaring people.... it's hard for me to say "don't worry about it" when it's a deep and long growl. When Griffin is trying not to bark, he muffles it into a scary sounding growl.

I can't wait to see what happens next week! In some ways we're beginner dogs in the group...some of the classmates have done the class before, many are already competing, but we're still holding up pretty well in the environment!

Quick Notes on the "Drop on Recall" Exercise

2011-09-19T12:53:00.000-04:00

I have not trained this for a million dogs. Probably only about ten. This is not a complete training guide.

Yesterday I was helping to judge a county 4-H dog show. Afterwards, I was asked questions by some of the kids and parents. One parent really wanted to know how to train the Drop On Recall.

I paused....trying to figure out what to say that could make the biggest difference. These are the few tips that I thought would be most key. Note that a majority of the dogs were trained....very differently..... than things I would recommend to begin with.

1) I will come and help. Call, email, set up a clinic. There are a LOT of steps to this behavior and for success.
2) We want the Down to be fluent, that means that the dog should lie down on just the word or signal, without the handler having to bend over, without the handler having to repeat it, the dog responds right away, and with immediacy.
3) Focus on distance, have a parent hold the dog on leash. The person is to not say or do anything but stand completely still. Kid asks for a Down. Reinforce. Kid moves a step away. Down. Reinforce. Two steps away. Down. Reinforce. Up to about twenty steps or so. Teach the dog he can lie down far from the handler.
4) When you go to reinforce the dog, always toss the treat behind or throw the toy behind the dog. This will help to discourage the dog from keeping forward.
5) Consider teaching the dog to lie on a bed. Then you can put the bed between the dog and handler. Ask for the down. Reinforce. Do a MILLION repetitions. Most people get rid of the mat before the behavior is strong enough.

I really hope I get to go do a clinic in this area. It was THE most enthusiastic group I've judged for. A TON of kids. A TON in Novice! Many kids showing in brace! (which I had to judge!). Many teams! Many kids with multiple dogs. It was really really impressive. And many of them do agility as well!

It was also interesting that while everywhere I judge 95% are not showing in buckle collars.... this was teh first time I felt I had to intervene (more than once) in the crating area when I saw things that got a bit too rough. "Hi! One of the really important things at dog shows is showing the public how we interact with animals. They want to see everyone having a good time and good human-dog interactions. It's really embarassing and hard when your dog does XYZ... How about we don't give him a chance to practice that... lets (cover the crate, let him stand instead of down stay, walk him instead of standing here in the busy area). Remember, the public is watching. And if the judge thinks you are being too rough with your dog, it could impact your sportsmanship score as well. Do you have any questions about that or how we can help your dog?"

Despite all that, I really really do like working with the kids. It's going to be a long few months until we start up again in January/February!

Griffin Heeling

2011-09-17T08:22:00.000-04:00

Here's a short clip I took to evaluate our progress. Look how cute he is!

What can I see that I really like?

Position: For the most part, he's parallel and lined up well. His position is fairly consistent.
Head: I like that he doesn't wrap his head around in front of me. And when I stop he tends to keep his head up, but straight (or nose pointed out), not typically nose pointed towards me.
Enthusiasm: Consistent throughout. This part of the criteria for our heeling.

What can I see that needs work?

Starts: I tend to just go and he falls into heeling. We need to work on going from a sit...moving short little bits to reset as we will in the ring between/before exercises.
Halts: Monitor head position. He didn't do it so well in this instance. Are there other times he does it poorly and I miss?
Handling: I have been working on this heavily for a few weeks to make my walk more natural and my turns better. I've been practicing with an invisible dog, with a person as the dog role, and with another dog. I fall back into training mode as soon as I have Griffin....and start handling poorly again. I need to make my behavior more fluent!
Hands: I have to decide to keep my left hand down and moving (and teach Griffin to heel despite the motion) or have my left hand up and teach him to maintain his position despite the hand up.
About turns: And watch his head. I don't mind little flicks to take in information about the environment, but if he pauses as he looks, it could be enough to get him out of position.

Frustrations and Solutions

2011-09-16T17:53:00.000-04:00

Blaze has been really horrible for the last 4-6(+) weeks. It's getting to be absolutely ridiculous. I'm adding more to our management and training every single week. The naughty dog in the household is supposed to be the young dog....not the 10.5 year old.

For everything that's causing me problems, I come up with a training option (to help things get better long term) and a management option (to eliminate my immediate frustration and to not give him a chance to practice the behavior).

Yes, any sudden change of behavior should mean a trip to the vet. There's apparently nothing 'wrong' more than the usual issues. The changes might be a result of me getting slack in reinforcement or maintaining criteria or maybe I let him access reinforcers in his environment too often. Or a deterioration of his mental health issues. Or normal senior dog issues. Or some combination.

Here's a list of the recent frustrations:

Taking Treats Too Rough: He's always been bad about this. I don't know if he's gotten worse (possible) or if I'm just too used to Griffin (and most student dogs) who are 5,000 times more gentle. Not only does Blaze take treats roughly, teeth threatening to crush your fingers as he takes the one little crumb.... but he LAUNCHES towards the hand. The sound of the click is not a cue that reinforcement is coming, it's a cue to launch. It looks cute. The enthusiasm is great. The pain is not.

Training: I've pretty much given up on this. I could go with the recommendations I give students, lots of licking practice, feeding flat like a horse (he still fits my hand in?)...etc... but 10+ years of behavior is really hard to change and probably not worth the pain.
Management: I am NOT feeding him any treats from my hand. Treats are dropped into a bowl. From the MannersMinder tool, or dropped to the ground. Completely eliminate the option. I only started this two weeks ago and it's making my world a lot better. I loose out on placement of reinforcer...but I keep my fingers.

Counter Stealing: He's been bad about this his whole life, but we did get to a point where things could be out if he was supervised. In the past month he's gotten really bad about stealing food (tomatoes, apples, whole bunches of bananas especially). The thing is...when I looked at the exact scenario, it was always the same. He's typically reasonable if I'm present. If I'm occupied or attentive. If I'm near or far in the room. However...if someone else is in the room and I'm far away? Then he lunges for the counter.

Training: More mat work/stay training. Going into a crate on cue. Leave it practice (verbal and implied).
Management: Always crate him or stay him or take him with me as I move around the room. Remove items from the counter.

Not Dropping Toys: Again, a lifelong problem that is worse than usual. My solution for the past few years has been to tie him to the fence with the tie out/leash short enough that if-when he lets go, he cannot reach his head all the way to the ground to pick up the item. We got to the point that he was dropping items within 30 seconds of letting go. He's been getting worse. Today it was 15 minutes.

Training: Practicing DropIt ----separate--- from fetch sessions. Do not ask or want him to drop toys until we have had a lot more practice separately. Practice this outdoors as well. And in the fetch area....but without the actual run and chase parts.
Management: Be sure to only ever use the low-value toys. He probably will drop these easily. Don't be lazy and think he'll be okay with the others. Because he won't be. Go to the store and buy more low value fetch toys...since we're running low and just have all the nice high value toys for enticing the other dogs to play. Don't play as much fetch. Find other games so the DropIt is not an issue.

Pulling On The Leash: For whatever reason, pulling has returned in specific settings. To the door. To the car. To the pond. To the yard. Essentially, this is showing a lack of self control. He's wanting something and just tries to access it by himself.

Training: More walking training in those settings. And many repetitions. Spend whole sessions walking from the house and then two feet towards the fenced yard. back to the house. Three feet to the yard. Back to the house. Four feet to the yard, back to the house. Reinforcing often for being with me. Other self control activities will also help.
Management: Avoid those areas whenever possible. If I have to take him, treat or tug transport (...which aren't options for him). Collar transport. Use a harness or head halter so that he cannot lunge and be successful in getting closer to the Desired Things. Prevent his access to reinforcement (the things).

Barking: He used to be worse. But he's recently worse than his average.

Training: List all the situations that prompt barking and do training accordingly. Example: He barks if I come into the house and do not walk him the second I come in. It's an attention seeking bark, call-response sort of bark. For training I could, at a time where we just finished a calm walk or calm activity... do our session then. Leave and immediately come through and go out. Reinforce using the MannersMinder so that I don't have to approach (or hand feed) while he is in his crate. Repeat a lot. Another Example: Barking at cars going by: Be far enough away and replace with an alternate behavior.
Management: Avoid the scenarios whenever possible. Try to exercise or rest him prior to the usual barking triggers. Use a MannersMinder over his crate/in his area at all times.

We have quite a few problems and more than enough solutions.

Impulse Purchased my way into a class...

2011-09-15T16:24:00.000-04:00

I typically do not do impulse purchases. I practice my self control by shopping online and putting all sorts of great toys, books, gear...into my shopping cart. And then never going to the "pay now" page. I think about getting stuff, but don't. I practice that too often.

Sometimes though...something happens and I make an impulse purchase. Usually I'm happy about it but...regret the lack of self control. And that can last for days or weeks! Even silly little purchases....because they can add up and eventually cost way too much.

Today...I made my BIGGEST impulse purchase ever. If I'm putting a lot of money into something, I consider for weeks or months. Within 12 hours, I had made this purchase. I'll say that my friend made me do it.... I had to resource guard and get it too since she was.

And the purchase? A working spot in an online class: http://www.fannygott.com/foundation-class-2011

I debated for about two hours on whether or not to do a working or auditing spot....and did end up working. The instructor has a very similar style to how Griffin has been trained and I've been reading her materials for a long time. I'm VERY excited!

Agility is Hard

2011-09-13T00:13:00.000-04:00

It's a silly thing to say after a class where my "advanced" group did an absolutely amazing job.

I've been doing agility for a long time. Blaze started about 10 years ago. We went to our first trial almost exactly nine years ago. Luna went to agility class for years on end. Blaze did quite a few as well. I've watched a lot of agility, done a lot of agility, and read a lot about agility.

And it's only getting more difficult.

Initially it was about the obstacles and training my dog to do everything properly. Then we realized the speed aspect and worked to get faster. Soon after, I got more careful about handling and being able to do "all the crosses and turns." And that was agility for a long time.

But now....with more practice, experience, and huge changes in the sport....

-Obstacle training to even higher fluency. Proofing activities with all the obstacles.
-Nit-picking training plans to avoid having to re-train or fix things later.
- Working on speed as an aspect before even starting obstacles.
- Looking at dog lines and handler lines.
- Counting strides, is my dog moving the way I expect.

Griffin is three and we aren't near ready to begin trialing. He still needs to finish weave pole proofing and some pretty drastic repairs to his dogwalk. His recall can be lacking, his focus immediately in a new environment (...like the agility ring) is even more lacking. Crating all day in a new busy place? Out of the question.

But on the other end, he's fast, he turns well, he jumps well. He goes where I ask him to. The behaviors/obstacles he has are fabulous. His stay is quite nice.*

And I'm having to re-learn how to handle. He's a lot more like Blaze than like Luna. We run sequences after the advanced class on Mondays and I'm repeatedly finding myself, cautiously and unintentionally, holding him back. I'm doing more rear crosses, handling from behind and completely missing turns. When I plan to be ahead and have a specific plan...it doesn't always happen. It's not that he's ridiculously fast, just much faster than Luna is during training. Balancing my focus on my path, cueing my dog, where my dog is, my dog's path, his striding, his meeting criteria.... I end up loosing some pieces.

I intend to insert a video here....haven't fought with the camera to process the clips. Trust me....he's improving, adorable, and working very nicely.

*in this context!

Your Dog is Not A Fish: Using a longline to teach recalls

2011-09-11T09:03:00.000-04:00

We recommend practicing in lots of environments to get very fluent and reliable behaviors. It's especially important to practice in the environment where you most need the behavior.

For safety reasons, we can't just let your dog off leash in the front yard to work on recalls. And we don't want to give the dog opportunities to make errors or practice other behaviors (chasing squirrels).

The magic of a longline! We use longlines for puppies, small and medium sized dogs, and only big dogs under certain circumstances. We talk about using a harness and safely handling the line (no ropeburn for dogs or humans).

For big dogs, we tend to only use the longline in already fenced areas, giving us the chance to just let go if we think holding on could cause damage to the dog or person.

What we never -ever- ever -ever- do is reel in the dog like a fish. I always follow that sentence with, "well...if you saw a tornado coming or a car...then yes, do what you have to." If you have a lesser emergency, like needing to go to work, do not reel in your dog. Pick up the line and walk to your dog. You can gather in the line as you go. It's not the dog coming to you, you are going to your dog. Then you can hold the line at a normal leash length and walk him to the house.

Reeling in dogs teaches them to come when reeled in. It's not a bad skill, but it's 100% different than coming-when-I-call. Reeling in as a response to an incorrect response does -not- teach the dog he "has" to come when called. It teaches him he has to come when reeled in.

The real danger is that people then think the dog knows to come when called...and the dog learns to come when called (or else be reeled in). When the line comes off.... the dog knows it's come when called or go chase squirrels. There is no risk of fish-reeling in. And then the people get very sad that,"HE KNOWS when the line is on!"

Just like dogs that learn to not jump on the counter if a human is in the room....this is a much harder problem to fix. We have to go back to small fenced areas, completely off leash. Dragging a longline in safe fenced areas. Training the recall in small fenced areas. Working on all the recall parts separately. It's really much easier to just not reel the dog in the first place.

Where to Reinforce on the Go Out

2011-09-10T11:33:00.000-04:00

"It depends" on which part you are working on. These are not the only option and possibly not the best options... but they're my current favorites.

Looking ahead while at heel: Release and toss reinforcer forward

Initially leaving your side: Send and toss reinforcer ahead of the dog, prompting chasing before getting the food toy.

Running out while further away: Send and have a helper toss a toy out even further ahead of when the dog is at the "far" point. Or you can try and toss. But only toss if the dog is looking ahead. And monitor to be sure that the dog isn't looking back to you.

A sharp turn back: Toss the reinfocer in a way that encourages more of a turn after the dog starts. Griffin turns clockwise, so as he turns to face me, I toss the toy behind him, to my left.

A sit that creeps forward: Behind where you want the dog (practice with ring gate posts but not all the fencing so that the dog doesn't have to jump the fence to go get his toy/treat).

The launch back after the sit: Release from the sit, toss the toy in the direction the dog is to go.

The duration/stickyness of the sit: Run in and feed or play... gradually adding in duration. Same thing can be done with then tossing away, but if the duration is really a problem, it's best to be reinforcing in position to get the behavior more 'sticky'.

"He doesn't let us know that he needs to 'go' out!"

2011-09-08T22:56:00.000-04:00

This is a very common complaint...it's a common belief that dogs inherently bark or whine when they need to go outside. In reality? Not so.

Me: Most dogs won't and it has to be trained. For most dogs, you have to get them into a schedule and remember to take them out on a regular basis. Be aware of how changes in weather as well as changes in food and water intake will impact your dog's needs.

Student: But my friend/sister/neighbor/coworker has a dog that rings a bell to go out! I want my dog to do that!

Me: Excellent, that's a great goal. A rough outline of our steps: 5-10 sessions to teach your dog to ring the bell on cue. We want to be careful that the noise and motion doesn't scare your puppy. We have to have very good house training to start with too. The next step is to teach your puppy to ring the bell, then go out to potty. Not for walks or fun play. You will have to put away the bells as soon as you come back in. The next stage is for teaching your puppy to ring the bell on his own to go out and not to ring it to go out for play. Some dogs learn this right away with no training..... it might be worth a try. But on average it takes 4-6 weeks of diligent training to get them started.

Student: Oh.

Me: Isn't your house three floors? Will you be able to hear the bells when you are upstairs/the other side of the house/in the basement?

Student: No! What do I do!

Me: You could have several sets of bells...at the entry point to each floor.... but the same long training process. It's really much easier to be good about taking your dog out.

Student: Hmm.....

Me: Let's address the house training first, and then we will re-evaluate your goals.

Notes on house training:

Limit freedom
Reinforce correct responses
Keep a chart
Prevent errors
No punishment....you don't want your puppy to hide to pee indoors....unpleasant surprise.
Continue to reinforce outdoors to build motivation. The more motivated your puppy is to get outside...the more likely he is to let you know.
Next time around...if you are getting a dog from a breeder, find a breeder who starts the house training. There is NO good reason for a breeder to ignore this.
Bigger crates are better than smaller crates.
If you are getting many errors or see a sudden change for the worse, visit your vet.

When is Reinforcement Available?

2011-09-06T22:48:00.001-04:00

What started as a short jump-tunnel sequence ended up being a lot of thought on how a dog knows when reinforcement is available.

During the session, the young retriever was bouncing at his handler and then running off to get into trouble. He wanted the reinforcers, but did not seem to know how to get them.

For Griffin, he is to get treats if I deliver it to his mouth (as opposed to him lunging forward to take it), if I cue "get it" and toss or drop or present, or if I hold my hand in one of two "come get it" ways. Anything else? And there is no chance he will get it and he shouldn't try. We have similar rules for toys.

This allows us a -lot- of freedom that more beginner dogs don't have. I can have food visible and works without being distracted by it. The food can be on the ground and accessible and he will perform his task. My preparing/moving reinforcers are not disrupting our training.

How did we resolve the challenge with the retriever in class? We determined that the owner did have some rules in place about when reinforcers were (or were not) available. We had to make those rules intentional, with conscious decision, and we had to fine tune a few areas where the rules were vague.

Then, after our planning, we had to do some training to teach the dog the difference between accessible and inaccessible reinforcement. With most beginner dogs this isn't necessary, but he had learned that there were "sometimes accessible" cues and to try and get the food at those times.

I'll be interested to see what his handler says next week after another week to think about it.

Here's a video that I really like....showing how a group of sharks knows when reinforcement is available.
http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/shark-week-training-a-shark.html

Uncooperative Dog

2011-09-05T13:03:00.000-04:00

Griffin is not being very helpful this week.

I note our areas to work on. I make logical training plans.

Each session, I pick something specific to work on, get our plans and materials and everything together. We go and train and the "problem" is not a problem at all. It's something --else--.

Our retrieve turn was really poor last week. Wide looping arcs, rather than a nice tight turn. Today? 100% perfect.
If we did fronts from a distance, he would be crooked. Last session? Perfect, up to 3x the distance we need.
Out of sight stays were perfect. Yesterday? 100%. He didn't even think about getting up.
Figure 8 had moments of inattention last week. Today? Perfect. Completely attentive to me.
Last week, his stand was crooked. Last night... perfect.

So, what's different?

I did have good training plans, and for the most part would start the session in ways where it wasn't possible to make an error and build up from there. That said, I was expecting 20% or so of the responses to be errors. And as a result, we progressed way faster than I expected and were soon up to more challenging stages.
Maybe these weren't actually problems? I typically only write things on our problem list it occurs more than once or if something absolutely not good happens.
It's easier to repair pieces of chains than a lot of broken things. By addressing the one specific challenge area, we can progress faster and then put it all back together much sooner than if I was to be trying to fix the problem area -within- the exercise.
Sometimes we are in different places, different locations, different setups, different reinforcers. All that said, I am really surprised at his sudden perfections.

Our new weak areas?

Fronts with the dumbbell (now crooked is a problem, not distance)
Reliable release from stays
Right turns in heeling

It's a good problem to have...and we have our new training plans. We'll have to see what happens with your next training sessions....

Speed of Recalls

2011-09-02T12:02:00.000-04:00

Apparently that's the theme of the week. It's something we talked about at training group and something we worked on in classes.

There are a few ways to get speed for any type of behavior... here are the five I hear most often.

Train when the dog is already more energetic.
Selectively reinforce the responses with most speed/the moments of greatest speed/the act of increasing speed. Theoretically, speed will be increasing over time.
Prompt the dog to increase speed
Speed will come once the behavior is fluent.
Placement of reinforcer

Like most things in dog training, there isn't one right answer, but there are some things that work better than others and there are some things that are wrong.

Speed will come when the behavior is fluent: This was a huge change in my training. 6 years ago, I taught Luna to weave using a variation of 2x2.... and unlike the "real" thing (that wasn't available in DVD form at that point...!), speed was not one of my early criteria. Luna learned to weave. And she could eventually weave at class. Up to the 12 required poles. When she was more excitable, when she was more fluent, she did go faster. She moved with a bigger stride and then started running into poles or skipping poles and getting unhappy. She went back to her slower weaving. The act of weaving quickly, with speed, was physically different than weaving slowly. It required a different number of steps, different size of steps, and different way of moving. I hadn't taught her to do that and she wasn't able to learn it on her own.

IF the behavior is a specific motor skill; weave poles or a contact behavior... I now make speed a criteria from very early on.

Shape for Increased Speed: There are some behaviors where this works better than others and there are teams who have greater success with this piece of criteria. In my experience, unless there is a very specific "click point" for how to see the dog increasing speed.... it's too much guesswork and not precise enough.

Placement of Reinforcer: Obviously this is my favorite! Throwing, chasing, play type reinforcers can help increase speed. Where the reinforcer is tossed can impact the direction and type of speed as well. Working on fast recalls? Run! Feed the dog for catcihng up. Working on go out speed? Once your dog is leaving you.... toss treats and toys out ahead. Turns after a jump? Throw the toy or treats in that direction.

Prompt the Dog for Increased Speed: This is another of my most favorite moments from the Agility Right From the Start book. They have a specific strategy they call "Race to Reward." We do variations of this in training group and training class. We manufacture speed with a treat/toy person (who also can choose not to reinforce if for reason something goes wrong!). We build up speed from the beginning. We teach the dog how to perform with speed. The --huge-- advantage with this strategy is that, from the time the dog learns to do the race to reward with speed.... you aren't getting as many slow responses. You aren't reinforcing slow responses. The dog doesn't have a history of reinforcement for slow responses.

Brave Dog Owners

2011-08-31T09:44:00.000-04:00

Last night was week five out of five for a Walking With Your Dog student. We had progressed in so many ways.... rally call-fronts, systematic introduction of distractions, running through all the training steps for walking so that we could fall back to an easier level if we needed to, pace changes and stop-sits. We had even done walking around other dogs and over props and CGC type greetings.

And then....out came The Cat. A fake furry cat that meows and walks! The cat was too much, the dog was back to the end of her leash, pulling and vocalizing.

The cat went away, we had both owners walking (easier to get a high rate of reinforcement!). They were feeding for every good piece. Using treat magnets/transports to get the dog past the area at times. And while it was still hard...the dog recovered. I came back and she was attentive enough I was ready to pull out the cat.... at a greater distance.

While I had been moving around the room to help other teams....they had gotten comfortable enough to pull out the cat again! And were working only 20 feet away from it! By the end of the class, they were moving right past it. It wasn't easy, but they were able to.

The best part? The people were -so- happy. They were smiling most of class and looked so sincerely happy, even with the challenges. In previous classes they would sometimes go from neutral to unhappy if an exercise got hard. Last night however, they really seemed to be taking on the challenges and enjoying the challenge. I was very impressed!

Side Changes

2011-08-30T11:16:00.000-04:00

One of the classes I teach is pretty much a basic manners+... we get quite a few students who have very interesting goals that don't necessarily fit well into any of the other classes. A student who started last night is very interested in freestyle.

The primary goal was to get the dog to be walking on the right side. The dog is typically walked on the left and so has a huge history of reinforcement for being on the left. While we did a little work on it, I told the student to make the right side walking part of daily life, and to do right side walking only for the next week.

We also talked about how to get the dog to change from being on the left side to the right (and right to the left). Our training started with a few of the way too many options:

Front Cross on the Flat: Handler turns to the dog, dog turns to the handler, and then they go in the direction they came from. The turns can actually be greater or less than 180* for more...options. But for beginners...180* is a good start.
Rear Cross on the Flat: Handler turns to the dog, dog turns away from the handler (so both are rotating clockwise or both are rotating counterclockwise). The turns can actually be greater or less than 180* for more...options. But for beginners...180* is a good start.
Leg Weave: For a dog that knows this behavior... going on one leg weave (or an odd number of times) can get the dog to go from one side to the other. Horray!

Next week, I'll teach a few more:

Multiple Spins: Have the dog do 1+ full spins, then a 180* turn to go in the other direction.
Rotating in Front: Picture a dog going from front to a left finish..... We can use that type of rotation and get the dog to cross all the way back and forth in front of the handler to the right hand side...back and forth. Dog and handler always facing each other. We'll start this by using a box and teaching the dog to pivot readily back and forth. before we take away the prop.
Ducking Behind: The dog can go from left heel...behind the handler to right heel. And back again. We will start this with a hand target to get the dog to move up and a treat magnet to reset the dog behind the handler.
Foot Jump: This is combining a few other behaviors... but makes nice use of vertical space. Dog is one one side.... jumps over handler's outstretched foot, and then rotates back to the heel position on whichever side he is on.
"Quartering" (....I don't have a better description name!). Dog is moving ahead of the handler, and going on a serpentine path, back and forth, ahead of the handler. At any point the handler can pick up the dog in heel position again.... typically having to rotate 90* as the dog will be out further ahead.
Prop Use: When the dog is sent from heel to a prop (to interact with it in any way), when the dog comes back, the handler can rotate so the dog is now on the opposite side.

And there's a start to a list. The behaviors can be combined in so many different ways and depending on the dog's repertoire, you can get even more options.

A Pizza Test

2011-08-27T23:22:00.001-04:00

My brothers, Griffin, and I went to get a pizza tonight. We sat at a nearby park and ate the pizza.

Griffin only ate the crumbs we gave him. Somehow, all his training has paid off. He would stay next to the open box. The box was open and setting on the ground just in front of him.

I couldn't believe it, but on the other hand, he doesn't take food. He hasn't learned that is an option. He has a good automatic leave it. He's been reinforced for making good choices around food. He knows food will be delivered and that he doesn't need to snatch it. Griffin also knows that if he will lie on the ground and stare at people, they are likely to share. Bouncing or trying to steal will get nowhere.

He didn't even -look- at it though! He did wag his tail more when he thought sharing would happen.

We should do more pizza tests.

One Piece At a Time

2011-08-24T22:44:00.000-04:00

It's so easy to end up working on multiple things at once. It's hard to set criteria and stick to it. Here are a few examples from this week:

1. Sit AND Take Treats Gently: I saw this more than once. Dog owners want the behavior and the dog to be gently taking the treat. If the dog is jumping up or rough, they pull the treat back and then slowly lower it while saying "eaaasy." Yes, if we give a dog a treat when he's taking it roughly we reinforce the roughness.... that said, we can't be working on our sits, downs, etc AND taking treats gently.

So? We stop and work on taking treats gently. We talk about placing the treat into the dog's mouth, rather than letting him come up to take it. We talk about how to hold the treats. We talk about other options, like tossing, dropping, putting it in a bowl, or holding the treat in a flat hand ("like feeding a horse").

Then we can go back to our sit/down/etc training....and use the "alternative feeding methods" of dropping, tossing, placing on the floor, so that the dog cannot practice improper treat taking AND we can work on the behavior/s we need.

2. Come AND Sit: Another one we see often. Dog runs to the owner! Horray, past the distractions! And then the dog is asked to Sit. The dog gets distracted at that point or doesn't comply and wanders off. Not only do we have a that sit problem.... but we didn't reinforce the brilliant recall.

We work on the running to the owner part of the recall, without an end behavior. We do consider that by placing the treats right at the human's heels or between his/her feet, the dog is extra close.

Separately, we repair the Sit and teach the dog to auto sit in front of the human. Toss a treat away. Your dog eats it and comes back. Ask for a Sit. Dog sits. You toss the treat away. Dog eats it...comes back...repeat. Soon the dog is automatically sitting on the return. Only after lots of practice in many places do we put it all together.

Dog comes. Gets a treat. Sit. Gets a treat. And we start the repetition over. When all has gone well...we start to feed less on the come and still maintain the treat for the sit.

3. Stand AND Stay AND New Reinforcer AND New Handler: This one is all my doing. Today at training, some of the others had a Really Great Idea for training Griffin's stand stay. I wasn't all for it, but it probably wouldn't hurt either. I decided to let them try it.... that way if it was a disaster, the errors would at least be associated with someone else, rather than me.

His current favorite reinforcer is "Friend with a treat bowl, running away". We've used this some on his scent work, but especially for his Drop on Recall and some heeling. The person is behind Griffin a ways. He does the behavior. I mark and send him to the person....the person runs off. Griffin catches up and is fed little treat bits until I come and drag the unwilling dog away from his best friend. He loves this because it's "Friend+Food+Chase+Lots of Food Pieces".

During his Stand training...he had a new handler, his high level food person reinforcer-thing, and it just didn't go well. He actually wouldn't even stand for the new handler. He was SO excited and worked up that he would sit and down and bounce and bark. I laughed. We quickly gave up on that.

If we were to do it...I would handle him with his running person. I would have his new handler work on quiet/less exciting reinforcers. And then we would put it all together.

Griffin was -so- happy. He's adorable when he works and his enthusiasm is very amusing. Part of it is him, part of it is that he's a golden, and part of it is our criteria for enthusiasm.

That said...we only train one part at a time... enthusiasm is one of our primary pieces.... speed. Precision is much later. That's another story.

More 4-H Dog Show Judging

2011-08-23T08:49:00.000-04:00

On Saturday was my last judging assignment for this 4-H year. This event was bigger than the others, with three judges present so that all the classes could be completed efficiently.

It was very interesting that I received quite a few comments from parents and show staff, "I just wanted to say, you're so good with the kid!" And while I appreciate the reinforcement... I've been a little puzzled about it. 4-H events only have kids showing. Shouldn't "good with kids" be one of the criteria used to select judges?

We had many different breeds, some big classes, enthusiastic kids and parents, and some nice audience questions between the different class groups. Despite the high temperatures.... it was another great day!

Responding to Patterns

2011-08-22T12:22:00.000-04:00

At the Steve White seminar in April, Steve and Jen had a short talk on finding and noting patterns. The patterns could be things that happen before or after the desired behavior. Or in when or how the person cues or reinforces. Some of these are hard to see without video taping or without another person to point things out.

Today I noted a pattern that has developed with Griffin. We do heeling at the park. I reinforce a few times for great parts. The first one is absolutely beautiful. On the second set, I reinforce at different points, but the same amount of reinforcement. And he's much worse. Wanders more. Or less attentive. Or sniffing.

A few of my options:

Only ever do one set of heeling.
Do more, super short sets to see what happens.
Do two sets, but use a much higher rate of reinforcement on the second set.
Be in a new place for each set

A pattern we talked about last week.... a dog in class would jump every time the leash was put on. They would freeze and wait for him to be still. Then clip it on and go. But this had been going on for months and months with no change in the behavior. The dog had learned.... leash = jump on humans = humans ask for a sit = Dog sits = leash on = go for a walk. A nice behavior chain, well practiced and maintained for months on end.

How did we resolve and break that pattern?

1) Change the leash cue. Practice leash out, asking for a sit, feed a treat and repeating many times in a row. The many repetitions would help the dog learn faster. Practicing in a different location (not at the door)! will help the dog stop the jumping.

2) Practice sitting at the door. Approach the door, cue a sit, feed a treat. Walk away and return and repeat.The door will be a cue to sit.

3) If the dog does jump up...we will not stand still and then continue putting on the leash. We can go about our day, go check the oven, etc. Standing still and continuing had -not- changed the behavior.

4) When we do need to hurry out, scatter treats on the floor and while the dog is eating, clip on the leash and go out. This will break the pattern of jumping and not have the anxiety/frustration that standing still could have. This is a preventative measure until the training is in place.

Walking is one of my favorite things to teach. That said, I don't work so hard with my own dogs on walking. Griffin gets absolutely frenzied when we're going to the pond. He is completely focused on pulling ahead and getting there as fast as possible. So that I don't reinforce the hard pulling, I stop and wait for him to resume some level of manners before we continue. We go forward a step and he springs forward. Every week, students tell me about this happening on their walks. It's not a good pattern. Pull on leash. Human stops. Look at human. Human goes forward a step. Dog pulls as far as possible. Repeat and repeat.

How do we break this pattern? Use more reinforcement for the good behavior. Sure...going forward definitely is reinforcement, but we can see it's not the most desirable in this situation. Dogs can go months without learning to walk well...and Griffin's behavior sure hasn't changed. We add in additional reinforcement, typically food, at every single step. We start close to the house, leaving a few steps, then back to the house, then leaving a bit further, then back up to the house.... back and forth, gradually expanding the area where the dog can walk reasonably. No more "walks just for exercise" until the dog can walk well... back and forth, back and forth. Otherwise the training is compromised by letting the dog pull.

Griffin is getting that too...we go out about ten times a day for 90-120 seconds of walking training. Gradually further from the house, gradually closer to the pond. When I do need to take him there for exercise...we either just don't (and go somewhere else, do something else) or I use a treat magnet/treat transport from well in our safety zone to the pond gate.

We're constantly watching for patterns (good or bad!) in training so that we can adjust or utilize the pattern appropriately. Most end up not being desirable.

"Should I continue with class? Should I come back if there's a problem?"

2011-08-19T16:19:00.000-04:00

By then end of a class session, half the students have typically met their goals and are happy with the progress made. The other half asks, "what's next?"

What are your goals? If we haven't met your goals, we should probably keep working. We can talk about class options to see if there's something else that would be a better fit for your goals. For example, people wanting off leash control are often recommended to go into agility class, even if they don't aim to do agility.

Will you practice if you aren't in class? Some people need the weekly classes to motivate practice at home, others are diligent no matter what. Those who have more experience problem solving or "just trying things" are more comfortable with time off and without the support of a class. Others benefit from the problem solving, class environment, and new behaviors.

It's easier to prevent than problem solve. Those with younger dogs or who are newer to being dog owners can benefit from more class time and more guidance. A little experience goes a long way and can add skill and confidence to the human.

Always come back if you're experiencing a challenge. You're not on your own after class is over. Sometimes a few weeks in class can help with problem solving or sometimes it's a quick answer on the phone.

How reliable are your behaviors now? How reliable do they need to be? More class time results in more reliability. The increased practice, increased challenges, increased skill level all go together to help reach the skill level needed.

What are you getting out of class? This varies depending on the family. Some people aren't there to just solve problems. They are getting time away from family or time with their family. They are "doing things" with their dog. Sometimes out of the cold winter weather or out of the ridiculous heat and storms in the summer. The dog is reliably getting this piece of physical and mental exercise and quality time every week.

There are dogs that I recommend should continue in class. These are typically young, active dogs that are making steady progress every week, but I don't feel they've reached the ideal self control and reliability needed for long term results. Dogs who are -not- making measurable progress should not continue in class and the situation needs to be re-evaluated...either the dog referred to a more appropriate professional or a change in the teaching style (privates or in homes rather than group class).

It also makes me sad to hear -so- many people wishfully comment that they really hope and would like to do agility class some day. As if they're not sure their dog is "good enough" or "smart enough" to do it. I try hard to change the perception of agility to something that is very attainable and that everyone should consider agility class. While I understand why some classes require and recommend basic training prior to the agility class.... it could be built into the class format (...which is what I do). Agility is a great way to the reliability, basic training, self control and relationship building that are fundamental to so many parts of dog training.

Pieces of a Good Recall

2011-08-18T12:16:00.000-04:00

1) Dog turns away from something potentially interesting. This could be a smell, a sound, something still, ,something moving, an animal, or something very edible. Your dog could be moving or still when you call.

2) Dog runs to you at full speed. A fast moving dog is less likely to be distracted on the way back and he will have a straighter line.

3) Dog is close enough for you to hold. A dog that stops further away.... is not very helpful in most contexts.

4) You can hold the collar. This is especially important for emergency situation.

Just like with anything else, we train one part at a time. We have exercises for each piece. Once the pieces are separately trained, we can put the behavior chain together and run through the complete exercise.

What are you -really- training?

2011-08-17T19:29:00.000-04:00

For six months I've been quite confident I was training Griffin to find a specific scent and to lie down.

However.... it's not as strong as I had thought (and hoped). If at all possible, he will dig/paw/bite/retrieve the container rather than alert. The Down is only happening if it's surely inaccessible.

Now... he at least hasn't had much opportunity to practice the paw/mouth behaviors.... but we've also not gotten the other response strong or clear enough that he will resist his desire to retrieve/paw/dig.....

Back to edit our training plans....

Unrealistic Expectations

2011-08-17T12:16:00.001-04:00

Sometimes students have 'Potentially Unrealistic Expectations.' Behaviors that they say they want, and that we can theoretically train... but there isn't actually enough time, commitment, or experience to happen.

That's one of the reasons we emphasize management. Crates, Gates, Leashes, Kongs, Food Toys.... things to keep puppies and dogs from practicing incorrect behaviors, to keep dogs and puppies from making dangerous choices, and to keep people from getting stressed.

And then it comes down to percentage of reliability. Theoretically we can train a 100% reliable animal. In actuality, we'll just come close. Realistically...not always close.

During our anti-counter-jumping training I emphasize not leaving anything up there, even when your dog is reliable. It's not worth the risk of a very sick (or dead) dog. During our recall and off leash training....we say to be keeping the dog in a fenced area. When we work with dogs who want to chase cars and tires....same thing, fences and leashes forever. It's not worth the risk (to me!). In some situations, an error can result in no longer having a dog.

At the other end of it, is the safety for the humans. Super giant strong dog and the goal is to walk not with a head collar or harness? Sure...we can do it. We'll train for it in class. But I can't tell them to do it at home...I comment they should be using the extra tools. One distraction too great....and the person could be severely injured.

Ultimately I do have to tell the people that they are the ones to make the choices, but that I have to recommend the supervision and fences and leashes. Because I don't believe it's worth the risk or potential for injury and expense.

I'm all about safety!

He made it across...

2011-08-16T00:22:00.001-04:00

Today, Griffin swam across the pond! With only a little extra help. We'll get good at going across the "short" way and then work up to going across the long way.

We do only very scattered field work...no specific goals besides the golden retriever "Working Certificate".

But all the same, it was nice that our training plans came together and it worked out well.

"What was hard?"

2011-08-15T10:06:00.000-04:00

After leash reactivity class we try to always ask "Which part was the best and which part was the hardest?"

It's very, very interesting how most people will then tell the best part.. and the "worst" part.

Part of that probably is that "worst" is considered to be the opposite of "best"....and so it just comes out. It also just seems like a very human thing to do... to perceive the question as where the errors/mistakes/fault could be.

We ask the question so that the following week can be set up to decrease that difficulty, if at all possible, and then work through it. And also to keep the owners thinking about what is easier or harder for the dog. Sometimes someone will say that none of it was hard. If I had seen that the dog -was- finding parts to be more difficult, I can prompt with, "Were there any exercises that seemed to be a little more difficult than the others?"

The difference in the questions is very important. The "worst" part (not responding to a cue, barking, getting stiff when another dog barks, etc) is not always the "hardest" part (-when- another dog barked, -when- we got really far from the opening, -when- we were turning away). "Hardest part" tends to be something about the handler's choices or the environment. "Worst" parts are typically about incorrect or poor responses...and while we definitely have to consider these.... it's the environment and handler that we can change. And to change the environment and handler, we have to know what parts were harder and what components led to making things too hard for the dog.

I try to ask the "best and hardest" questions after all of my own training sessions. Griffin has been really great for the last few days. But a few of his behaviors hinted they could be weaker than I thought. He didn't make errors, he met criteria, and I couldn't even say how the behavior was different. Something wasn't quite how it should be....and I make a note of these weaker areas so that I can address them separately.

Is Dog Training "Too Hard"?

2011-08-14T09:30:00.000-04:00

Sometimes at training group we talk about whether or not training is "too hard." We struggle with parts of it. Our dogs aren't perfect (except for Griffin....). And how do we expect people to succeed when they don't want or need to know everything about training?

Sometimes I try to be nice and will give someone a training plan via some online source. There are management steps ("So we don't accidently make the behavior stronger and so that we don't compromised/undo your training") , a few training exercises/steps to resolve the situation, and a few notes on what to do if something goes wrong and the unwanted behavior happens. And 90% of the time I get told, thanks but no. The person either then does nothing or reverts to some punishment-based solution that they sometimes regret, and sometimes not.... but typically the problem is not truely resolved.

Sometimes my 'real life' students say something is very important and then they don't actually work on it. I get busy. I don't always work with my dog like I should. Despite that study I wrote about.... some things really do need practice at home and not just training class. Practice your greetings at the doors and on walks with real people. A few repetitions in class is not enough for most dogs to generalize, no matter how great the training plan.

But is it that they get busy? Sometimes they can't tell me the steps or exercises. On a few occasions there have been people who needed it written down and then they could practice. Some people need video so that they can see it. It's just too many steps for others....and I have to really condense/simplify steps.

An Example: A while back I had someone in class who had a hard time remembering multiple steps to any exercise, even if we back chained it, even if he was doing it well, she didn't know -what- he was doing. So we simplified and relied more on classical conditioning for a few weeks. "Call dog, drop treats between feet" were our early recall training repetitions. Once that had been practiced quite a bit.... we only dropped treats after the dog came. Because the dog was going to come after that huge history of reinforcement.

Dog training is hard. There are a lot of pieces to it. Ways to refine the training. Be more efficient and effective. I probably need to be simplifying even more than I typically am... that said, it's interesting to me how many people do want to know more and are eager for more details and a better understanding. Then again, we're so attached to our dogs that I shouldn't be surprised.

Conflict: Supporting Dog Businesses

2011-08-13T09:41:00.001-04:00

Recently a facility opened in our region for dock diving. The owners are also affiliated with a national dog training franchise that....is very different from what I do. It is not clearly evident that the two are related, however the same humans are associated with both businesses and it appears that the training happens at the same facility.

The business is doing a lot of clever marketing. The event is a good way for people to "do stuff" with their dogs and compete....without necessarily having any training. Maybe that will prompt them to look into other activities, maybe not. But regardless, it's an increased quality of life for the dogs. There are going to be trials RIGHT there. Not 2-3 hours away where the other events are. People like proximity....due to time constraints and rising gas prices. Though, in reality, people probably just didn't know this was a type of competition available in the state.

So....what do I do? What do I tell my 4-H'ers (who would get a discount...)? What do I tell my students who ask?

Read the rules. There are a few different dock diving organizations. Find the rule structure that best maximizes what your dog can do well.
Does your dog even like the water? Like thrown toys? I can be surprised at those who don't have water-liking dogs and want to do this. Thrown toys aren't required, but to get your dog jumping maximum distances....it's important.
Of my own dogs... Luna doesn't like water enough. I wouldn't be able to get Blaze out. And I don't now what Griffin would do. I don't know that I want him learning to jump, he currently wades into ponds....which is preferable for a retriever. If he did a wild leap into the water, he could land on something sharp below the surface. I don't know if having him learn to do dock diving would change his water entry in 'real' ponds. I don't know that it's worth the risk. We have enough other things we enjoy.
I probably won't be discussing this with my 4-H'ers.... It's just not something I'm comfortable with at this time.

This brought up the conversation with a training friend....how is this different than entering a trial and supporting a 'traditional' club? I know with trials about how much money is going to the organization and how much is going to the club. A club is somewhat different than a privately owned business...while the club gets the money (and some of them have a lot of money over time), it's not going to the individual/s associated with the facility. There are clubs where I do not trial because I am not comfortable supporting the club financially.*

*Due to some of the rule structures in place/behavior towards people. It's not about the type of training that is or is not happening.

The Magic of Cues

2011-08-12T13:29:00.000-04:00

Cues mean more than a history of reinforcement if a specific behavior occurs. Cues can give so much information to the animal!

Griffin and I have been working on and off on his "Drop on Recall" obedience exercise. We do a session. It goes poorly. I come back to it a few months later. But something has happened and now he -gets- it.

And not only does he understand, but the behavior is NOT contaminating our regular recall in any way.

If Griffin is on a SitStay and I cue Front....he runs up and sits in front of me. If he's in a SitStay and I cue either Dog or Here, he will trot forward and drop when asked. Sometimes on the Here/Dog he will anticipate and drop on his own (I walk to reset).

The really cool part though.... no matter how many drops we do in a row, if I cue Front, he NEVER slows, he NEVER makes an error, he NEVER thinks about dropping. We've kept that cue clean and the criteria is so clear to him that the similar drop behavior is not impacting the straight recall.

It's amazing!

(A video from last year when I was using a slow motion feature to look at how dogs lie down:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDrb9QpYxcg&feature=channel_video_title

How often to practice? How many sessions?

2011-08-12T09:08:00.000-04:00

In the September 2011 Journal of Applied Animal Behavioural Science is a paper called, "The effect of frequency and duration of training sessions on acquisition and long-term memory in dogs."

From a first read-over, it looks fairly well done. The researchers looked at four groups of dogs. One group that trained 1-2 times per week for one session. Another 1-2 times per week for three sessions in a row. Another trained daily for one session and the last group was daily for three sessions in a row.

Interestingly, the group that trained 1-2 times a week for one session had the greatest progress rate.

All groups retained the task when tested four weeks later.

Now..How am I going to use this information?

My current recommendations for students are:

Work on only one tiny skill per session (stay for steps away. Stay for duration. Walking past distractions. Etc.).
Do a lot of repetitions per session.
ONLY do each behavior 1-2x if you have a bad day at work and want to see your dog succeed. This is not considered "training."
Training sessions should typically be 2 minutes or less.
If you want to do more, take a short walk around, play, or petting break and then have another session.

New emphasis will probably be placed on doing different skills on different days (so, more time between working on behaviors x, y, z). Obviously though, daily routine things have to happen every day and if you get a chance to see lots of people, polite greetings/etc. will happen. You have to use what's available!

How will my training change? I tend to only work on one thing for a few days and then I do something else. I'll probably pick 2-3 skills per week and rotate which ones we're doing every day. Again, more time between the specific skill. Not to say we won't ever be doing multiple sessions or work on behaviors daily. It will really depend on our schedule and what we're doing.

While there is quite a bit of knowledge on spaced practice/massed practice for humans, there isn't so much for dogs. I'm going to try to utilize this as best as possible, while realizing it's only just a start to what we will be learning about how dogs learn.

Themed Practices

2011-08-11T10:30:00.000-04:00

This morning we met with a training friend. She had mentioned that one of her dogs needed work with leaving food during training sessions. Her other dog had similar-but-not issues, being distracted by people (potential friends). Essentially, it comes down to the same self control challenges.

We both brought a set of 3-4 food leave it exercises. Some of them were similar, some were very different. We got through about half of them this morning and we'll meet on Monday to do the other half.

It's interesting to work on the same overall theme but with different exercises. Part of the myth of clicker training is that it's just "one way" of training. Any scenario can be approached many different ways and doing so will allow the dog to have a more complete understanding of the concept.

Placement of Reinforcer

2011-08-10T22:13:00.000-04:00

For about 6+ months now, this has been one of my favorite training things.

You can click whatever you want, and theoretically all goes well. But how and where you deliver the reinforcer can greatly add or detract from a training session. This can impact the shape of the behavior, the speed of acquisition, and the speed of deterioration of the behavior.

At training group today, I worked Griffin on several different exercises:
1) Dumbbell retrieve. I was specifically reinforcing a straight front. I would always feed the treats centered with my body and from my center line. It would be best if I could magic them there...but couldn't happen.
2) We did two sessions of Drop on Recall. After the click, I would send my dog to a Trained Treat Feeder behind him. The person would feed him treats until I arrived ("Race to reward" technique from _Agility Right From the Start_).
3) Scent Work: We did 2-3 sessions. After he indicated (down, nose to the odor), I would click and then feed the treats so that his nose was further pointing at the reinforcer.

I could have reinforced in other ways. Variety is a key part to training. That said... I do make an effort to feed in a way that will enhance the behavior and NOT detract from it.

CleanRun Article: On Leash Agility Class

2011-08-10T10:16:00.000-04:00

In this month's CleanRun magazine is an article that we wrote about the "On Leash Agility" class that we've been teaching on and off for about a year.

Horray!

The class is really great, focusing on good training, good agility foundations, and providing an agility opportunity for dogs that would otherwise be unable to do agility (not appropriate to be off leash or would not do well if an off leash dog would come up to him/her).

We don't shortcut or skip training steps....though we do only do activities that are safe to do on leash (no tires/tunnels). The humans learn appropriate handling, with only slight modifications for the leash in hand.

The only down side of this class? It always falls at a time slot when Griffin should be at agility or obedience class (As it just did, yet again!).

From the Car to the Class

2011-08-09T14:39:00.001-04:00

One of the things I always mean to talk about but never talk about enough is how students should enter class. Half of the dogs are fine and don't need any extra management. But the other half should have training start before the car door opens.

It's important to be on time, but it's better to enter five minutes late because "good training" was employed while entering the building.

Dogs are always learning and if polite walking is important, we want the leash to be loose as the dog comes in the room. And if the dog is very excitable, all the more important to be diligent about good walking.

Treats out, ready and go. The dog learns to come out of the car very calmly. The rule structure is in place for long term goals.

Griffin at Agility Class: Aug 8th

2011-08-08T23:46:00.000-04:00

There are currently only two dogs in our "advanced agility" class group. When one is absent...Griffin gets to come so that the dog gets enough rest. Our amazing terrier friend was absent tonight.

Griffin had some work after class too and he was just really great. He did go off to find some tripe crumbs and to get water. But mostly, he stayed with me. Like several of his siblings, he will jump and bark before we start working. I haven't minded (and even encourage it sometimes), he has enthusiasm, he is focused, and he's under control.

Tonight...was a little different. He was a bit scary for a moment and was very worked up. He ran so fast and so well and responded perfectly to my handling cues. It was the best he's ever run. On the other hand, he was agitated when crated and before working. We still don't have a good balance of enthusiasm and control.

As a result of tonight's work:

Have a higher standard for speed. As it is if he's "too slow" we stop working on sequencing. I don't want to practice poor behavior. He showed me tonight that he's capable of more than he usually does....thus our 'average speed' will be increased.
When he is more worked up/aroused, alternate between running/agility and obedience. Once we're "working" he calms right down to the task at hand (no jumping up at me or biting at me like, ahem, another dog I know). But I can't reliably get him would up again.
Vary our toy reinforcers more often.
Work to find other high value food reinforcers.
When he -is- worked up, rather than jumping and barking and mouthing me... get him to express his enthusiasm with super great heeling. I don't want to loose the bark jump completely but I wonder if I could transform it into something else.

I'm really interested to see what he's like tomorrow.

Stay Training: Exercise Set 2*

2011-08-08T08:11:00.000-04:00

This set is more for instructor use.... not enough details for someone who is not familiar with the exercise.

"Fresh" resets: Pick an easy type of stay (short duration, short handler distance, minimal distraction). After each repetition, release and then move to a new location for the next repetition. Handler should reward the dog either in position or after the release.
Stay for Toy Tosses: For dogs who have some leave it training.... (though cue is not needed in this step).... work up to dropping the toy. Work up to tossing a toy away from the dog. Work up to tossing the toy behind the dog (but away!). And then tossing over the dog. The dog can be released to the toy on 1/10 responses.
Stay for Petting: Handler works up to petting, poking, enthusiastically petting, the dog. Start with very small pats and working up to enthusiasm.
Proofing of the Stay Concept: Each repetition, leave the dog on a different surface. After a few reps, ask for a stay in a "not level" position. Dog partially on the stairs... or back feet on a low dog bed..... front feet up on a surface. When you're ready for a greater challenge, only one paw on a surface.
Handler Out of Sight: Dog is set near a doorway or corner. Handler works up to standing at the doorway. Then shoulders behind. Return. Reinforce. Halfway out of sight, return, reinforce. Almost out of sight, return, reinforce. Out of sight and immediately return. reinforce. Increase the duration of "out of sightness". An assistant is needed, or the dog should be wearing bells...or on a surface where nails may click slightly so that the owner can return and reset (and do a much easier repetition) if the dog gets up.

*I don't actually know if this is Set 2. If you can't find a set 1.... don't be surprised!

Five Non-Training Tips to Help Your Dog at a Show/Event

2011-08-07T07:50:00.000-04:00

1) Give your dog time to see the area. If your dog knows what is going on, he will be more likely to be able to be attentive and comfortable. Yes, there are exceptions to the rule.

2) Give your dog time to rest. If your dog has been up and moving for four hours, he will be getting pretty physically and mentally tired. A tired dog is not going to be able to give his very best performance. Be sure your dog's rest area is comfortable and not right at a flow of traffic area.

3) Take your dog for regular off property walks. This will sort of 'passively' socialize your dog to the world. He will be exposed to sights, sounds, smells, and experiences. If your dog is calm and comfortable in the world, he will be all the better at a show or event. If your dog never goes off property....the world sure can be exciting.

4) Read the Rules: In most activities there are things that handlers can do to loose points or even be disqualified. If you have not read the rules...you will not be able to perform to your very best. These points can add up very quickly. No matter if your dog is typically a good performer or not, there's no reason to loose the points that are in your control.

5) Physically prepare your dog: Exercise! If your dog gets tired and overwhelmed by the environment...and he's physically not at his best, the event will be even more difficult. I saw this as a potential issue with some of the dogs at the State Fair 4-H show this year. There were quite a few dogs entered in many events...and if they weren't at their physical best... performances could be less than what was expected.

Local 4-H Dog Show

2011-08-06T19:26:00.001-04:00

"My" 4-H kids showed today at our area fair. We only had four kids (one dropped early in the year, another decided not to show at fair). 1 in obedience, 3 in rally, 4 in showmanship, 3 in "dog care." Some of the judging was ... different ... than expected, but they all did well, each placed in at least one class and some of them did exceptionally well.

Most interesting, were some parent comments. Our club is strictly a positive reinforcement type training group. Most others in 4-H are not... Our parents are not used to seeing dogs get corrected and some were quite amazed/distress by the way kids were treating dogs.

And they have a point...as I said in a recent email exchange with a dog person... "It's one thing to be using punishment, even doing it properly. It's another thing to be teaching kids to use punishment and to refine their technique."

Because...when it comes down to it, most of the people teaching 4-H classes are dog enthusiasts, not dog professionals. Many are parents who were thrown into the role. Most don't have any sort of formal training or enthusiasm for continued education. They're doing what they've always been doing, and for the most part, it works well enough.

I would argue, however, that it's not necessarily what we want kids to be learning. We don't want kids to think about getting compliance through force. We do want them thinking about how to motivate others (humans, dogs, etc!). We want our kids to have empathy for their learner ("He doesn't understand, let's make it easier"), not put inappropriate labels to the actions ("He is stubborn. He knows that we're at a show and he can get away with it."). We want our kids to be good at problem solving and come up with many possible ways to get a behavior.

Not to mention we don't want the kids getting bit, escalating the force used, or being reinforced for the use of punishment ("It worked...I'll just pull on his collar next time!").

I've talked to quite a few people who don't like judging 4-H. They say it's too hard, the kids are too unprepared, that the kids don't know what to do in the ring. It's a very different event from other types of judging and for those who can remember the differences and for those that like working with kids, it can be a very good experience.

Now off to make a few notes in my file for next year....

Ohio State Fair Jr Dog Show

2011-08-05T00:38:00.000-04:00

The 2011 OSF 4-H Dog show week is now over! Agility. Showmanship. Obedience. Advanced levels of obedience. Four days of rally. Service dogs. Therapy dogs. Dog Care. Poster Contest. Skillathon. Drill Teams. Freestyle. Around 1300 entries, with many kids doing multiple events and/or showing multiple dogs.

Dozens of volunteers staying the week to judge, assist with the rings, help with scoring, and get everyone organized.

Some of the great points:
- Interacting with dog-crazy kids from all over the state
- Training discussions with other volunteers. Specifically about "good training" and the (lack of) interest in such.
- Seeing many of our campers, from this year and past years. I also saw kids from Griffin's favorite day camp and our regional workshops.
- Seeing many of "our" kids do very well.
- Talking to kids who are in their last year....they were sad but also looking forward to helping in the future

Some of the not so great points:
- Surprise! I was judging...often finding out the day-of the event.
- Seeing a lot of punishment being used....even by very young kids.
- Lots of kids not knowing the rules and loosing a ton of points because of it.
- Some of the judging/policies needing updated to make things easier/cleaner

What I'm going to try and change for next year:
- Be more prepared and ask about my jobs ahead of times.
- Continue with clinics, workshops, handouts, etc for the 4-H'ers...focusing on R+ type training.
- Work on education opportunities for the advisors/instructors to have more good R+ training.
- Increase enthusiasm for knowing the rules. Mention this at all events. Create a few games based off of knowing the rules.
- Make proposals for modifications to rules/policies.

I'm really good at complaining, but I often try to put changes along with it. If something isn't going well...we need to change something.

When A Training Session Doesn't Go Well

2011-07-31T10:20:00.000-04:00

Last night we got to the park before teaching a lesson. I took out Griffin. He lined up to heel. I gave him some cream cheese. And he turned away. I offered it to him immediately, he still refused. We tried canned food.

I worked to get him tugging. Once I'm sure that it's a reinforcer...we can go back to training. But it wasn't going to be a reinforcer.

After the lesson, we tried again and he still wasn't interested. So we went home.

Not very much happened but...as always I added some things to my "To Train" list.

Fix his -go-to-the-bathroom cue. I think part of the problem was that he needed to....but was too distracted.
Get him comfortable eliminating (quickly!) in various locations.
Continue to increase the value of varied food and toy reinforcers.
Do more sessions of getting out of the car to work for 1-2 min, back in to go to another location (usually a block away).

The work he did was actually quite nice. I was nervous about not having a way to reinforce the behaviors. There is ALWAYS something happening... the behavior growing stronger or the behavior getting weaker. And I don't want my behaviors to get weaker!

Quickly Solving Problems

2011-07-29T09:11:00.000-04:00

It's always my goal to quickly address the most pressing issue that a dog owner has, even when in group classes.

Recently we had a less than year old lab mix in a basic class. The challenge was pulling.

Our plan:
Management: Front clip harness so that the dog couldn't pull as hard. Stopping if the dog pulled to prevent reinforcement from the continued walk. Avoid walks if it was just a bad day, ONLY training walks allowed. Exercise before walks.

Training: Backwards walking (handler backwards, dog in front, feed for dog being close. I have video clips of this for it's own well-deserved post), walking next to the owner with frequent reinforcement and then less frequent, the rally call-front exercise (without the sit), leave it working up to using it on the real world, Squirrel game/ systematic distraction training, pace-change exercise (change pace, click for dog matching). Pivot box.

If you mess up and the dog is pulling: Plant your feet. Backwards walking. Treat magnet him away.

After 2 weeks of work the dog is great and now we have to come up with other things to work on in class! Two weeks! We stopped the reinforcement for pulling. We trained the dog how to walk. And if the dog did start pulling we knew what the best plan was for that point in time.

I wish everything went that fast. Some issues are more challenging. Some owners are less skilled. Some dogs have had more practice at the undesired behaviors. But a lot of it comes down to me really needing more efficient plans. We keep getting better!

Group Class Exercises for Greetings

2011-07-28T17:08:00.000-04:00

1: Offered Sit: The handler/owner/family can practice this. When the dog sits...toss a treat. Repeat until the dog is readily sitting with no prompting. If the dog does not offer a sit but does respond to the verbal cue.... cue the behavior, reinforce. Repeat 5-10 times and then wait and see if the dog will sit.

2 Sit for Petting: The owner practices petting the dog. Clicking for a still dog (at the hardest point of the petting), stop the petting, feed a treat. Pet, Click/Stop, Feed. Repeat. Work up to enthusiastic petting.

3: Rotate, Offered Sits: Everyone sets some treats on a chair 5-10 feet away. One at a time, the instructor holds a dog (reinforcing for quiet, stillness, etc) while the student goes around the room. S/he picks up a treat, approaches the dog, waits for a sit. Reinforces, then goes back for another treat. We do 3 repetitions per dog, then to the next student dog. It goes much quicker than it sounds. Those who are waiting for turns can practice offered sits and sits for petting. If the dog is doing well, we can add in duration to the sitting or add in petting from the visitor.

4: Sit with Handler: This time, instead of the visitor feeding the dog, the owner will feed the dog for offering a sit. The owner holds the leash at half length so that the dog can't get too far away. Repeat 3x per visitor, per dog. If the dog is doing well, we can add in duration to the sitting or add in petting from the visitor.

5: Turn Away: Any extra people/instructors are used, ideally one per dog. The dog and owner walk towards the person, then the owner moves backwards, reinforcing the dog for turning and coming with the owner. This is done at a distance where the dog is likely to succeed. This is repeated, walking closer to the person for greater challenge. For some dogs we have the person sitting, offering food, making eye contact, talking, etc.

Conflict regarding Greeting People

2011-07-28T11:33:00.000-04:00

We talked about this at training yesterday and it's been a constant source of....conflict... for me.

How should young and enthusiastic dogs be greeting people? If the dog is super enthusiastic and frenzied....is it ultimately best for them to be meeting and socializing? Will enough of that calm them down...eventually? Or do we want them to be primarily in work mode?

From when Griffin was 10-18 months (or so)...we tried different ways to get him greeting appropriately. Sit for treats from strangers. Strangers being still if he jumped. People leaving if he jumped. People walking closer if he was sitting. He got more and more and more frenzied.

Since then... for the most part, he's not allowed to socialize with people. If we're in public we stay far enough away that no one will ask or we are so focused that people are not likely to ask. If they do? We're in a hurry, maybe next time. I'm not willing to bet $100 Griffin will greet calmly and I don't want to compromise his training. I also don't want him to be very distressed about the greeting.

When we do camp and events.... he is great being pet by the kids. Because he is working. He's watching me, or getting a pet and turning back. If one kid came over...he did try to jump up and be all over the kid.... but if there were many and the kids were training him or if I was right there? Work mode.

Greeting people just isn't something we allow happen (same for greeting dogs when on leash). If greeting people happens, we try for it to be completely work, serious, focus on me... (or we try. There are moments where I misjudge!).

We are seeing measurable progress. He's much improved since we took away the greeting. The thought that he might get to greet had been taking over his head.....and that potential exciting event was just too much. But now he knows exactly what will happen and the interactions are less stressful for him, me, and the people.