Another Public Event : Pet Care Day

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.

Griffin at CD Prep Class VII

We skipped two weeks for camp..... I probably would not have signed up for the class if I had known ahead of time that we would be such poor students.... but I'm very glad that we've been going.

Tonight we talked a bit about the next options for class and on the topic of maintaining criteria.

Golden retrievers who love chewing.

We did some group heelwork, I stopped frequently to play with Griffin. It was really hard because his tugging would upset the other dogs if he was too close to them so I had to be sure to maintain enough distance that they would be okay and not get in trouble due to my dog being rambunctious.      Griffin's actual heeling wasn't that great, I ended up reinforcing as soon as he was in position.

The next things we did were individual heeling patterns and figure 8.  Griffin's heeling was pretty great. I talked to him at a few places but did not feed during the pattern.   Afterwards, I did a bit more heeling with frequent reinforcement. I don't want to be going too long between reinforcement yet.    Our 180* about turns and our 90* turns both need work.    The figure 8 was  a bit of a disaster. He wasn't working hard to maintain position. I was sloppy and reinforcing with my left hand, resulting in a forging dog.

Stays:   Our stand for exam was half decent. Feet moved on one rep out of six. We were able to have the "judge" pat him on the shoulder.    Other stays, he started out barking.  The instructor wanted me to return to him right away. I wanted to wait for a pause.   We moved further away and he did well....still need more work.

Recalls:  We did an exercise where all the dogs were staying and being called to front at the same time, but at different angles.  Griffin broke his stay once and twice he left when the judge called, not when I called.   He DID always leave his stay to me....the best type of mistake he could make.   "Leaving on the judges signal, not the handler signal" is a common theme this week.

On our to-do list after this class:
-Increase stay distractions and auditory proofing
- Stays with 'pressure' of interesting things to either side.   Ideally this would include other dogs, but we probably won't have any to practice with.
- About turns, with and without my dog.
- Figure 8/serpentines/loops, maintaining heel position
- Back to reviewing his physical therapy notes and-or another consult....his fronts were straight other than that back left foot sticking out a bit.  
- Get rid of the head tilt on his fronts.   It's not an always thing, maybe 20% of the time....he will turn his head while his body stays in position.
- Recalls with various types of distractions.

We're on the fence about doing the class again. It's good to get me out and keep us working, but it's a bit of a drive and takes away from work/other activity time.    Plus with the heat...he just doesn't work as well as he does when it's cooler.   We have a few days to make a decision....I'm on the fence!

Bonus news: He did his first public scent demo, along with two others we train with.  As usual, he was adorable (something the people noted at the demo as well as his obed instructor!). He worked so well, very focused, even when we had the kids standing nearby (meowing) as distractions.   Best dog.

Other People Handling My Dog

In a Monday night class, we talked briefly about the benefits and risks of other people handling and cueing Griffin.

Griffin was added to my home to be my competition (obedience and agility especially!) dog.... but also my demo dog and to go out and help me help other people learn about training and dogs.   Both are very important, almost equally important and possibly a bit contradictory.

Other people cuing Griffin runs the risk of Griffin learning to generalize. He might responding to cues I would not normally want to be cues. He might start giving poor behaviors or responding incorrectly.  And he may be reinforced for it.   This could hurt his behaviors and hurt the concepts he understands.

At the same time... I do what I can to preserve our cues and behaviors.

• Performance and Casual cues:  I don't give away my special, "sacred," unique competition cues. I show people things that are not as important.*
• Supervision:  I can specify what things we will or will not reinforce, so the new trainers are doing things correctly.
• Consistency:  I am careful that when - I-  train, I do not accept poor responses.  Dogs can and do learn that different people have different requirements. I want to be very clear with what I expect and always expect.
• Fluency:  In some ways, his response to cues given by other people show that he has behaviors with a high level of fluency. He really gets it.  The behavior is proficient.  I can see what parts of the cue are relevant to the behavior and which are not.
• Discrimination: At the same time, there are some behaviors and situations where I do not want him to respond to cues given by other people (competition obedience).     So, I don't give away these cues. We don't work on these behaviors in the other-people-handling environment.    

I also recognize the benefits of this environment for Griffin.  He is learning to be even better behaved around kids. He's learning to engage with people.  I am recalling him back to me on a regular basis, meaning great recall training opportunities.  I can see which behaviors are strong, and which behaviors are not strong.

Last week, at the 4H Teen Camp, Luna's job was to come out during lunch. She's too shy to steal a supervised sandwich, but she would go around to the kids to solicit food.  They could ask for behaviors she knows well (Sit, Down, Spin, Wave). They would reinforcer her with a piece of food.  The kids were fairly stationary and sitting to eat, meaning they were not as likely to startle her  compared to the usual activities. By the last day, she was more enthusiastic, working harder, and less anxious compared to earlier in the week.  

Tired Luna.

There is the benefit for the people involved.  Cueing and handling a skilled dog is a very different experience than working with a less experienced dog.  It can help give a good picture of the final behavior, how discrete cues can be. How to shape behaviors and add cues.     In some ways, there is less risk of "messing up" the dog than with a beginner dog. 

The kids we played with on Monday, learned to quietly give a cue. They learned to reinforce the behavior. They learned to start out with the exercise as easy as possible.  They learned to interact with dogs and had a good time with a dog.   And all of that is -so- important. And in the long run, way more important than Griffin doing his beautiful competition behaviors.  That is why I'm so happy to have other people handle and train and play with my dogs.   

Demos for Boy Scouts

On Saturday the dogs and I went to do some demonstration/activities for a boy scout event. We had groups of kids rotating throughout the morning. The hardest part was the 30 minute time limit!

I'd debated for a few weeks on the activities to do. We started with a quick mechanical skill practice (food into a cup, one at a time, then adding in the click then food in the cup, then seeing a behavior, click, food in the cup).

We discussed targeting and it's applications. And then did a targeting activity with Griffin. Nose to hand. Click. Feed. It was perfect because we could use 3 kids, one for the hand, one for the click, one for feeding. After 5 or so reps, we rotated, and did that a number of times.

Next, we listed all the fun sport/hobby things to do with dogs that we could think of and all the serious work. And then we picked a behavior to train and talked about how to break it down. Most groups picked retrieve and jumping..... we spent about 5 minutes on each, making a training plan, running through steps, and switching roles. Griffin thought it was great.

And we ended with questions and some showing off with tricks. For me, it was most exciting that we had several people talk about training their cats. And we talked to one kid who does carting with his goat through 4-H.

It was a perfect day, I hope we get to do more of these!