Hey, this dog training stuff is really cool!

We went on another trip today - 3 hours to my mom & dad's (and their old, noisy Mini Schnauzer), then a hotel, and the rest of the weekend will be spent in her crate in the truck while Stitch and I are at a Rally trial, then another 3-hour drive to my son and daughter-in-law's place to spend a day with my new grandson, then another 3 hours home.

I wasn't looking forward to the Mini Schnauzer because his barking is very scary for a pup. When we arrived, I went in the house for a few minutes until he got bored and wandered off, then I went out and got Syn.

Old Jimmy didn't bark again, and was so exceptionally polite that Syn only spent a couple of minutes under my chair before she started wandering around looking at things in spite of Jimmy being nearby.

Then my mom took them both out in the back yard. Alone, just the 3 of them. At first Syn cried and scratched at the door to come back in the house. When that didn't accomplish anything, she sat on the step and watched mom and Jim wander around the yard. Finally mom started calling PUPPY PUPPY. Well, that looked too much like the Come Game, and Syn is a sucker for the CG, so she raced the whole length of the yard to bounce around mom for a few seconds. Then she realized how far she was from the door-back-to-me, and how close she was to Jim, so she raced back to the step. By then she had the rips, so she raced back and forth four more times, and by then she was OK with Jimmy joining her, so the two of them raced around the yard and had a great time.

I knew it would come, but I'm still thrilled to see it.

If you recall, the first few weeks I took Syn out my front door to pee. I realized today that that really paid off. She now pees every single time we walk out my front door, AND every time I take her out of the car. Excellent!

I'm a happy camper.

Since we're doing so well on the introduction to Relax, this morning we went through a bunch of tests in Level 2. This is stuff I haven't exactly been working on - per se, but I've been working all around it, and sure enough, each behaviour is supporting other behaviours, just the way it's supposed to! Nice when a plan comes together!

We got a sweet and easy 30-second floor Zen, and 10 seconds of eye contact (though she started out sitting and jumped up at 8 seconds, then back into a sit - she never broke contact). I want that without the jumping up, but for now it was a clear pass. 40' recall, yes.

We started getting her to move away from hand pressure for Handling. That was a new concept, but we worked it just like giving to pressure from the collar, and once she figured out what I wanted, she was pretty good about it.

10 seconds of Down Stay? HA HA HA HA

In the evening we went to the first of another set of puppy classes. There were 2 other puppies, a Maltesy and a Beagly sort. At first they were all afraid of each other. After a few minutes, the Beagly pup started greeting people, and a few minutes after that, Syn started venturing out from under my chair as well.

Then a Finnish Spitz arrived - 7 months old, 30 (?) pounds - because he'd missed the first session of the previous set of classes. He was completely at home, a nice dog, but overpowering for Syn, who got up the courage to crinkle her nose and then bark/snap/yipe at him to tell him to get away from her. He responded by moving off but forgot himself frequently and came back.

I ignored her when she was doing this, lured her out in front of me with a hand target, and then clicked her for sitting, for downing, for looking at him, for doing her figure 8 trick. She was perfectly willing to do all these things, but retreated under the chair and snarked again when he came to close.

After a while I decided she was getting to the point of over-reacting, so I started tapping her on the head to distract her before she had a chance to curl her lip at him, then rewarding her for remaining calm. Soon I was doing "THIS is for the Fink, THIS is for Syn" with them.

She ALMOST got comfortable with the other two pups. She went over a couple of times to investigate the Maltesy pup, who was lying down under her dad's chair (growled at the Fink a couple of times). The Beagly pup was a little too confident for Syn, but I think next week she'll like him a lot.

It isn't often one gets the chance to seriously affect a dog's future personality twice in one week. Last week Syn could easily have been taught to be spooky, and this week she could just as easily have been taught to be "aggressive". By remaining calm, building her confidence, letting her express her concerns, and rewarding her for acceptable behaviour, I hope I've avoided both paths.

Shaping Syn to lie down on her side worked - sort of. It's a pretty quiet behaviour for a young active pup. She understands right away that she needs to roll her hips, and it only took five or six clicks to get her off her elbow as well. Getting her head down - that's another story.

She almost understood what I wanted. At one point she rolled up onto both elbows and put her head down between her front paws. That's not what I was looking for, but I clicked it anyway. It didn't help, she didn't repeat it. Finally I shaped her off one elbow and started luring her head down from there, which was working pretty well until...

She jumped up to think about what we were doing, then downed, then turned her head to her left instead of her right. I clicked that, and she immediately rolled right down onto her right side. Usually when a dog is shaped to do a behaviour one way, that's the way she'll do it forever, but Syn, I guess, figured if it was correct to roll onto her left side, she might as well try rolling onto her right side. Anyway, I clicked it, and three clicks later she stared putting her head down. I was so surprised I forgot to click, and she HELD her head down until I got around to it. What a strange, awesome little person.

But she's not allowed to lick my face until next Christmas.

We got a nice clean 10 seconds of eye contact today. It wasn't cold, it took her four clicks to get up to 10 seconds, but it was nice when we got it, and it says my work on curbing the dancing and singing is working nicely.

And we've worked our way up to a sort-of 3-second hold on a Chuck-It handle. She gives me 2.9 seconds, lets go, then grabs it again for another 2 seconds. Consistently. Tomorrow I'll remember Chutes and Ladders and not just watch her do this: one, two, threeletgo, one, two, click.

When she's holding, though, her mouth is nice and quiet.

She did the figure-8 trick three times in a row this evening with just a voice cue.

Nice to know I've learned something in the 6 years since Stitch was a puppy.

Syn came in from the yard this morning joyously tossing something, chasing it, tossing it again. She was having a WONderful time. A niggle of concern began somewhere in my throat, so I put on my glasses. Yep. Fur. With long stringy unfurry bits.

The back half of a mouse.

Here's the part where I know I learned something. I quietly got up, got a fistful of kibble and a Kleenex. I called Syn over and, as she was coming, I dropped the kibble on the floor behind me. She spit out the mouse and was gobbling frantically as I went to pick up the remains. She finished her kibble before I was finished my job, but I QUIETLY and CALMLY and REASONABLY said "no" (our Zen cue), and she immediately went back to see if she had maybe missed a kibble.

Mission accomplished.

And... oh look, she found the front half. Isn't that PRESHUS!

So I cleaned that up too, and then watched as she went back to her toybox/dogbed and searched it with all the moves of someone who had just misplaced her cellphone. Dang, I just had it in my HAND! Where could I have left it?

Guess who won't be licking my face anytime in the near future.

We had some visitors last night. I'm not sure if she was going to do her submissive leaking thing or not - she approached the front hall in an upright manner, not slinking, not looking like she was going to roll over, and not in any way working on a more aggressive grumble (which seems to come before a leak when confronted with strangers - I'm big, y'know, I'm tough, you better be careful... eek, don't hurt me, please, I'm just little). Nevertheless, just as she approached them, I "dropped" a couple of kibbles on the floor behind her. By the time she'd cleaned them up, the strangers were just people, and people are fun.

Eye contact is coming along nicely since I've been concentrating on getting rid of the dance moves. She extrapolated from the leg-chute I was using the other day into thinking that I'd like her sitting as close as possible to me when she gives me contact - well, yeah, that's wonderful!

The figure-8-through-my-legs trick is almost ready to be presented (new puppy class tomorrow night. On the off chance that she doesn't freak out at the new puppies, figure 8 is one of the things I can ask her to do to convince her she's got a handle on the situation). She just needs a hand target to get started now, but she can finish it on her own.

I almost bought her a beach ball the other day. She has a huge tennis ball that she pushes around, but needs something bigger to practise for treiball. In case we ever get a chance to play treiball.

She immediately recognises the side-to-side version of the Come Game, drops her butt and starts ripping back and forth. Usually I call her with an "emergency" call (SYNSYN!) Once in a while I call her with a "real" cue (Syn, Come) and she comes, sits, and gives me eye contact. This game is a headslapper. Why didn't I ever think of this before?

For Relax, she's not going over on her side voluntarily yet, but last night I was able to lure her onto her side on the couch and get her head down as well. Once she'd been rewarded for that position 8 times, she was able to hold the position for 2 seconds while I moved the treat away from her nose and back to it.

That's it for luring. I'm going to try shaping it next.

Syn is turning into a young dog before my eyes. Her legs are growing an inch a day and she has paws that would do justice to a St Bernard.

She's also getting smarter - and dumber - and easier to live with - and harder. For the moment (before she starts seriously teething) I can afford to leave her out of my sight long enough to brush my teeth. She goes into her crate and sleeps through the night without fussing. She puts paws up on the car bumper to be lifted into her car crate. She rides so well in the car that I've occasionally forgotten she was there. She walks politely on a Lazy Leash. She can entertain herself long enough for me to do the dishes or get some computer work done. She can find the dog door to get outside from anywhere in the house. She rides around the yard (firmly seatbelted in) on the front seat of the Gator with her nose pushed forward in the classic dog-with-her-head-out-the-car-window pose.

On the other hand, she goes outside to pee and sees a feral cat - then screeches as if she's amputated a paw and comes running back into the house. By the time she gets to me she's feeling better enough to scold me for allowing the cat in the yard.

She is eating twigs regularly and then occasionally throwing them up - on my bed.

Without Stitch to exercise her, she gets the rips fairly often, and then she bites too hard. But not much.

To go with the curly body language I was talking about earlier, she's started submissive urination, so we're studiously ignoring her when she starts to "slime". The only way to get attention or get your crate opened is to stand on your own four paws. Upside down or curly doesn't do it.

For now, I've solved the problem of what to train per meal by working on these four things.

I've been working very hard on getting eye contact back and she's doing very well. We start every session with eye contact. I'm paying attention to her whining, her paw stamping, her lying down, and her scooting backwards. All these things were helped by me putting my legs out to either side to form a chute in front of me when I'm sitting down, so she has to come into the chute to do the job. The chute seems to calm her a bit and reduce the dancing, so now she's being rewarded for specifically making eye contact and doing NOTHING else. We're up to a pretty solid 6 seconds.

We're playing a combination exercise-and-Come-and-contact game. I sit in the middle of the room, toss a treat over THERE, she runs to get it, I call SYNSYN, which I'm going to use for come-a-runnin'. As she approaches, I click and toss a treat in the other direction, repeat ad nauseam. This way she gets practise in an emergency sort of recall, and exercise in that she's running the entire length of the room about 20 times per meal. Then once in a while I call SYN COME and she comes whipping in to me, sits, and makes eye contact. I click that, give her a treat, then toss another one over THERE and we start the running again.

Next we do some retrieving. She's eager to grip whatever I hold out to her - mostly pens, pencils, syringes and fingers so far, though we've also worked with clickers and toys - and she's got a solid 3-second hold, though she frequently thinks she needs to have a paw on the object while we're holding it.

Relax is a tough behaviour for her. We work on it sometimes when we're watching tv. When she's nearly asleep in my lap I occasionally hand her a treat for being relaxed. In the training sessions, though, we're working on getting her over on her side with her head down (this is a grooming position) with a bit of shaping and a bit of luring. The first day I got her over on one hip. The next day she went over voluntarily. The third day I got her off one elbow as well (head up). The fourth day I reminded her of the difference between this and the real down. Tomorrow I hope she'll come off her elbow on her own.

When relax has caught up to the rest of Level 2, we'll start rotating through the behaviours again.

Oh, and her trick - not cheating any more, though I expect to use Bang later. I'm teaching her a real trick - doing a figure 8 around my legs. The first day I lured her all the way around both legs, in and out. The second day she could do the last quarter by herself. Today she needed a hint to get started and a hint to finish, but she did the entire middle part by herself.

Had a good breakfast session, fooling around. A 5-foot sit stay straight ahead and 3 feet out to each side. A bit of eye contact without slinking - I'm sitting in a chair, tossing a treat and then playing the Come Game alone, having her sit when she arrives in front of me, and then I get several seconds of eye contact without dancing, head-flipping or anything else.

Then because a friend was having trouble figuring out some Level work, we videoed Level 2 Distance Step 3 (going around a suitcase), Level 2 Jump Step 2 (going around a suitcase with a bar on the floor), and L2 Jump Step 4 (going around a suitcase with a bar 6" off the floor. Videos should be on the website (sue-eh.ca) under the Movie Album link.

Then, because she'd just been introduced to jumping, I taught her to jump over my foot (heel on the floor, toes up). Man, this dog is SMART. I wish I had THAT little session on video. She was lured over my foot once, went around it once and got nothing, then jumped it back and forth about 8 times.

For lunch we visited a different PetsMart. This one had a doggie day care behind glass (didn't look like much fun to me, just a room with some dogs in it and a couple of toys).

Again we spent several minutes in the parking lot. Syn looked like an old hand, surveying the property. No trouble with the doors today, and we again worked in the foyer until I thought she was ready to go in. She immediately heading down the first aisle, alternately exploring and offering me superb moving eye contact.

Eventually we came to a cat room (also behind glass) and the dog room. She stopped walking to stare at the cats, and I clicked her for looking at them, but they were all still and silent and didn't present too much of a challenge. One step further down the aisle and she could glimpse the dogs - and they could see her. She backed up rapidly, but came right back when I offered her a treat. She was able to sit and down, peeking around the corner to see if the dogs were still there.

One of the dogs saw her owner and started barking, but she was saying happy things and this didn't bother Syn. Much.

After several minutes of performing, peeking, and being treated, she swung out in full view of the dog room to give me a sit - then glanced over her shoulder and saw where she was. She stood for a moment staring at the dogs, thinking of what to do. Then she tried out a mighty BARK! BARK! and was wound up for a third one but lost her nerve, her voice broke, and it came out more EEEEEK! By then I'd managed to move her back out of sight. She recovered well and we continued our tour of the store, coming back a few minutes later. This time she was able to look at them with her tail up, staring fixedly at them between giving me eye contact and offering sits and downs.

Finally we walked confidently out of the store. There was a police K9 unit in the parking lot, the dog vigorously warning everyone to stay away from his car. That DID bother Syn, but she remembered she'd be safe if she stuck with me, and she was. Halfway back to my car, she almost forgot about the police dog and started getting silly. Another successful outing. Puppy class again tomorrow night.

My baby's growing up. Her feet are growing an inch a day, her legs a bit more. Her mouth has reached the tiny-baby-teeth-in-a-huge-mouth stage (which will shortly be followed by the huge-monster-teeth-in-a-little-baby-mouth stage). And as of last week when we went to her first puppy class, she has reached the I-thought-I-was-invincible-but-I-was-wrong stage where almost anything could be fatal.

Yesterday a folded ex-pen slipped to the floor with a bang, resulting in poop, pee, and a major screech. Then some friends came over to visit in the evening, and she was visibly torn between wanting to greet them joyously and fleeing screaming from the room before they murdered her. Greeting won out, but with a large submissive urination.

Her turn-her-back-on-Zen-objects has morphed into a submissive slink-in-a-circle. I've got to be careful now.

Today I took about 3 meals' worth of kibble and wieners and went to PetsMart. We spent 10 minutes in the parking lot. A few adult dogs walked in and out of the store. Syn was interested but they were far enough away that she wasn't really bothered by them. I concentrated on rewarding any offering of eye contact, and if she stared at anything for more than a moment, I'd click and reward for looking at the dogs as well - or looking at cars, or people, or anything else.

When she was comfortable, I found a drain in the pavement and we played a game designed to teach her not to "mat dive" - once a dog has been "allowed" to pick up treats off the ground, she tends to not want any to escape, so she keeps searching until she finds one. I want her to know that if she doesn't find one she thinks is on the ground in, say, a second, she can come back to me and I'm guaranteed to replace it with one from my hand. The game is easy - I reward her for making eye contact four or five times, then I toss a treat down the drain. She looks for it... and looks... and looks, and finally gives up and looks at me. I treat her, then four or five more for eye contact, then another one down the drain, and so on.

Next we went to the automatic doors into the store. She thought she should be scared of the whoosh of the doors, but we moved away, did a few behaviours, and approached again. That went well. Did the same inside, then started to go into the store - oops, a large (calm, well-behaved adult) Sibe walked past her. Well, no screeching anyway, but she turned and booted it back outside.

I followed her out, worked her outside and in the doors again, and her recovery was excellent. Then we started going up and down the aisles, starting in the fish department where it was less likely we'd meet another dog. FanTAStic contact, sits, down, a little Zen (I'm not going to work much Zen until she forgets about that slink-in-a-circle thing), and a marvelouse loose leash.

By the time we'd done 1/4 of the store, she was starting to lead out ahead of me, examining merchandise. We finished the entire store without incident, used up almost all the food, and then paraded out to the car with her flag flying. She's started putting her front paws up on the back bumper to be lifted in to the crate in the car.

An excellent session.

First thing this morning I put Syn in the big soft crate, opened the top like it was last night, and sprinkled her breakfast on the floor around the crate. Then I sat down just out of sight. Sure enough, the little monkey climbed up the mesh using the official water-dog-getting-into-a-boat move where she pushes her head back against something (the closed part of the lid) to give her traction to climb.

Told her No (our Zen cue) and she stopped immediately. I picked up her breakfast and used it to reinforce her for being in the crate and quiet.

Then we had a rip-roaring playtime that Stitch would have done with her if she'd been here. This is exactly why Stitch isn't here - I'm forced to tire Syn out myself, which means *I* get the bond, not Stitch. When she started to slow down getting ready for a nap, I used 5 kibbles to shape her to go into the big crate, then shut her in with the roof open. She stood up, but I said No, and she settled right back down and went to sleep.

Yesterday I thought "I should work one meal on the Levels, one meal on retrieving, and one meal on shaping practise."

Today I thought "I should work one meal on the Levels, one meal active behaviours and one meal on duration behaviours like Focus and the stays."

And then I worked on my new website until I was too tired to think and put her second meal in her dish and she ate while I had a nap. The road to Hell is paved with good intentions...

Stitch left on a 3-week working vacation this morning. That’ll give Syn a chance to be an only dog for a while and learn to rely on me more than the obvious draw of the other dog.

I’m re-reading Stitch’s puppy blog. One big difference I see right away is that the kibble I was feeding Stitch was very small. I got many, many repetitions per meal, but she had trouble paying attention to them so I ended up having to give her 3 or 4 bits at once. Syn’s food is a more normal kibble size, big enough to keep her attention, but fewer repetitions, so I’m “forced” to concentrate on fewer behaviours at a time. I think this is a good thing. Because of that, and working diligently through the Levels, Syn is getting a much better foundation than Stitch got, though Stitch’s foundation was better than most dogs have.

So. We had a very good session this morning. I moved to another room with a tile floor instead of carpet, and the frantic behaviour-throwing didn’t kick in when I asked for eye contact, so she passed the 2-second test. I’m not going for longer duration on any behaviour until I convince her that doing nothing IS a behaviour. LOTS of Chutes & Ladders!

She threw a few half-hearted somersaults at me when asked her to give to the leash, but she got nothing for it and soon started calmly releasing the pressure I put on.

She passed the first three Steps of Level 2 Target, up, down, sideways, over HERE, over THERE, with wooden, plastic, and metal objects, so we moved on to Step 4 - touching a sticky note on a wall. I got her to touch it first in my hand. That was a no-brainer. If I’m holding it, she’s touching it. I moved it around, then put a second note on the wall and moved the one in my hand near it. Still good. I put the first one away and tried pointing at the second one - no go, she focused on my hand until I wiggled the note a bit, then she had the idea. Sweet. That took 5 clicks from the beginning. (!) Two more and she was going 4’ to touch it.

Since we were in a new room, with her bed 8’ away, I shaped her to go to the bed. Took awhile for her to get started, making me think about how shaping is a learned skill for trainer AND dog. About 10 clicks in, she seemed to get a clue about what we were doing. Shortly after that (maybe 5 clicks) she was jumping into her bed and lying down.

Since she’s go eager to target things, we finished the session by jumping to Level 3 Retrieve. Step 1 is putting many different objects into her mouth. She got that right away, with 2 different objects - a wooden pencil and a metal spoon handle - and we worked on getting them all the way into her mouth, and on twofers - two “bites” for one click.

For lunch, I was still excited about retrieving, so we worked on that some more. Got a pretty good 1-second quiet hold of the pencil (of course I was still holding it as well).

For supper, I was still excited about shaping, so I shaped her to bump a big ball with her nose. That was fun. She kept forgetting what we were doing, but about midway through the meal she clued in and after that she got every click on the first try.

We went out this evening and left Syn in the big soft crate. When we got home, she wasn't in the crate. I have no explanation for this, unless she climbed out the window in the top, through a tiny bit of open zipper, over her head, without leaving any snags in the mesh on her way out. Very strange.

I thought maybe my husband had put her in the bedroom crate upstairs, so when I saw she wasn't in the soft crate, I went upstairs in the dark to let her out. She was hiding on the other side of my bed and peed when I came into the room, while alternating between barking and whimpering (Please don't eat me, I'm little, but I'll kill you if you come any closer!). She was so excited when I turned on the light and she saw who it was. For once I rewarded her frantic greeting - this time because she really WAS frantic. She calmed down after about 10 minutes. I think she ate something she shouldn't have because her stomach is taut and uncomfortable.

This incident makes me think about puppies left home alone without a crate. We tell people that a crate is a safe place for a puppy, from the owner's point of view AND the puppy's, but this really brought that home. Being loose in the house left her responsible for the whole house - and clearly too young for the task. That wasn't a kindness, it was just a scary time for her. Poor little tyke...

According to her vaccination schedule, Syn is “street legal” today, so we went to a puppy class.

My, didn’t she have a good time! She walked on a loose leash from the car to the building, had to think about stepping in the door for a moment but when I gave her the moment, she decided to go on in.

Inside, there were PEOPLE! People to play the Come Game with! And boy, did she! Wheee!

And then a horrible, monster 5-pound Cairn Terrier puppy showed up. This thing must have been related to Godzilla! It LOOKED at her! It wagged its TAIL at her! The HORROR! She squealed and ran behind me and peeked out through my legs. Yep, it was still there. Mom! Pick me up before it kills me!

So I picked her up, got a chair and sat down, held her in my lap for a few seconds, and then put her down and started giving her treats and asking her to do things - sit, down (would I settle for a sit? Yeah, OK), touch my hand.

Then a Miniature Dachshund puppy arrived. This was even bigger and nastier than the Cairn! It wanted to VISIT her! Back up on my lap.

When the class started, we made our way slowly around the outskirts of the room, sniffing good smells and eating treats. When we got back to our chair (alive! A miracle!) I set up her little soft crate and she dived gratefully into it. 15 minutes later she was making little forays out into the room to get treats, and backing slowly into her crate whenever a puppy came too close (a big improvement over screaming and diving into it). At one point she even had the nerve to sniff the back end of a Cavalier puppy that wasn’t looking at her (if you can’t be brave with a Cavalier, you can’t be brave with anybody!).

Near the end, a lovely, calm, rational adult Collie was put on a down about 4’ from Syn’s crate. She made a few treat-forays with him there, and then started offering me downs and sits. Maybe she thought he was big enough to protect her from all those dangerous monster puppies!

The class has been going on for 6 weeks already, and Syn was just invited for the last 2 weeks, so the other puppies are used to each other and the situation. If I had been expecting her to run into the middle of the class and show everybody how it’s done, I would have been very disappointed, but you can’t think that way. She’s a baby and she needs what she needs.

Right then she needed reassurance and a chance to assess the situation reasonably without being pushed into anything she didn’t want to do - and she responded brilliantly. Four things I was very happy about - first, she never stopped wanting treats. Second, she thought that if she came to me, she’d be safe (and she was right, I never stopped her from coming back into a safety zone). Third, she bounced back from her scares. By the end of the class when the pups were taken off lead to play, she was sitting in the door of her crate watching them run. And fourth, she was almost always willing to look at me and give me behaviours. If I can get a dog to give me behaviours that she knows, it helps to make her feel like she’s not totally helpless.

Before next week’s class, we’ll keep working on the Levels, and I’ll try to get there early so she has a chance to play the Come Game with the people again before the other pups arrive - and maybe say hello to that big Collie.

Much more reasonable day today. Last night after her supper, Stitch showed her how to open the door to the pantry and they both chowed down on a lot more kibble than they should have. Then Syn had a big drink, stretching her poor baby tummy until it felt like a balloon about to burst. At least that's what it felt like on the outside. It must have hurt a lot on the inside, because she came to me crying but didn't want to be picked up until after she went outside.

Then she had to go out three times during the night.

Zen is excellent, but not a default yet, and this morning I forgot to give her the cue, so she knocked her breakfast out of my hand and spread it all over the kitchen. She dragged 3 dozen bits of dead weeds into the house from the dog yard, and this evening she threw up peanut butter, kibble, and dead-weed-bits all over her new dog bed.

When I went out this afternoon, I left her in her crate and Stitch loose in the house, which was apparently a lot more annoying than having everybody locked up, because when I came home she did her best to demonstrate the joys of separation anxiety - yapping, clawing at the crate, screaming. Unfortunately the poor baby got no attention at all for this amazing display of pique and had to wait until she settled down before she got to come out of the crate.

At supper, I used 3 treats per behaviour and ran through everything we'd done so far. Most of it she remembered and performed amazingly well. The leashwork we started yesterday was remarkable today, though. I put a little bit of pressure on her collar and she did a complete backflip and spin (this must be a triple Salchow, or a half gainer with a twist, or something grand like that) to loosen the lead. Sounds like a freak-out EEK MY LEASH IS STRANGLING ME reaction, right? Nope. She was perfectly calm, and did her there-I-did-it tail wag when she was done. I was so surprised that I clicked it and gave her a treat, and then she repeated it. By this time I'd figured out that she wasn't really loosening the leash and that I didn't really want her to do this every time she felt the collar tighten on her neck, so I stopped paying for it, which made her do it even harder. Eventually she stopped and did it my way, but I feel like I just told Beethoven to quit making so much noise.

Anyway, she is a puppy after all and not some freaky reincarnation of Scuba.

We had a quiet morning. Playing with Stitch first thing, she hurt her front leg and wouldn't put it on the floor. 2 hours of resting seemed to have cured it but we planned on taking it easy for the rest of the day.

Not counting the shower we took together and the paddling lesson, she had her first bath today. I think I'll buy a peanut butter company. She was busy with the pb for the bath, but it took a bit more than that to get the blowdryer on her. Peanut butter on the wall, on me, on the table, on the dryer hose, lots of cuddles. I dried her tail for about 10 minutes before she let me dry her hips, but it went quite quickly from there to her back, sides, and front legs. Didn't attempt the head. She popped her pupils once, but more pb and cuddling settled her down quick enough and she was OK from then on. When we were done, of course, she got the rips and just about wore Stitch out. So much for taking it easy. Leg seems fine. She's all fluffy now except for her naked little butt. She looks like a cross between a brown and white pansy and a baboon that stuck his finger in an electric socket.

OK now, seriously, this pup is starting to scare me. Scuba was exceptionally smart. Stitch is a lovely dog, knows a lot, is reasonable and reliable and fun - but she's not the sharpest crayon in the box. This isn't something I think about a lot, since, compared to Scuba, nobody is. But this puppy is SMART.

Or maybe it's because we're working word-for-word with the new Training Levels book, it just makes her seem smart. Yeah, that's it. I'm sticking with that.

Second day of Level 2.

Zen - Step 1, complete. She doesn't just stay off a treat on the floor. She actually turned her back on it and stared at me over her shoulder.

Took it outside on the front step - WHOA NELLIE! Totally different story! Thank you, Syn, for pointing out that you are a real puppy and not Scuba reincarnated or something. She had NO idea what the cue meant, so I stopped giving it. I had to teach her right from the very beginning, she had apparently never heard of Zen before. The neat thing, though, was that she was so engrossed in figuring out how to get the kibble out from under my foot that she paid no attention whatsoever to the big wide world.

Focus - she found my eyes with no trouble at all, even in other rooms and outside. When I started building duration, though, she made worse what had been cute-but-barely-noticed yesterday: remember that I'm-doing-it tail wag? It was so successful it moved to her feet and her vocal chords, so when doing any duration behaviours, today she decided to stamp her feet and warble to speed things up. THAT is not going to continue, so in spite of the fact that I was easily getting 8 to 10 seconds of eye contact yesterday, I dropped right back to zero today and made sure I was only clicking for silence and a quiet body.

Come - she's excellent, it's her favourite thing. Today we tested coming past my leash hand so I could snap her leash on without her eating my hand or the leash.

Down - the dancing and singing took over her down as well, so we worked very slowly on Chutes & Ladders.

Sit - she knows this one. I can walk 5' away and come back and she stays. I started moving from side to side.

Lazy Leash - this is the one that scared me. She sat in front of me and I put slight pressure on the collar. It took her maybe 5 seconds to think of releasing the pressure. The next one took another 5 seconds. Then she had it. Left or right, I couldn't get her to leave pressure on it (not that I wanted her to, but gosh). I tried pulling forward on the leash. For an instant she thought about panicking, started to rear up, then gave a little startle and moved with the pressure, doing that I'm-doing-it tail wag.

Target - she did my hand in Level 1, and my feet. Now we're doing twofers on a pencil. She tried touching my hand HOLDING the pencil but didn't get a click for that so now she aims at the pencil. And that used up almost all of her meal.

Stitch wanted to do some work too, so I thought I'd start Syn on understanding that she has to do what I want her to do (rather than barge over and grab) even if another dog is getting something, but either she really is as smart as I think she is or the "This is for STITCH, this is for SYN lessons are totally assimilated into her little brain. I put on her collar and leash, put her comfy little bed near a heavy chair, and tied the leash to the chair, giving her just enough leash to get off or get on the bed. Then I moved across the room and started working Stitch through all of Syn's behaviours.

She didn't even try to come over. She sat on her bed and wagged. I tossed her a treat every now and then. Once or twice she got off the bed, but then the treats stopped so she climbed back in. Once she tried barking at me, but that didn't get her anything, so she shut up and re-arranged her paws to let me know she was DOING what I wanted. She's not ready for me to take the leash off, but holy cow.

And she's listening to my voice and learning the cues. Teaching reliable voice cues is one of my worst things and she's getting them.

My fingers are tingly.

Back in the swing. We went for a walk today, and she's not coming under my feet, but she's happy again and galloping here and there. She runs to the end of the leash and then curls back to look at me, comes around behind and runs by me again. The circling will have to stop eventually, but it'll be easy to stop and right now it's just cute because the reason she's circling is because she's looking at me with the leash loose. If she was just barging out to the end of the leash and then leaning on it as she went around me, I'd stop it right now.

She did so well on our trip that today I took her into town to get groceries - alone! She put paws up on the bumper to be boosted into her crate. Then I sprinkled a handful of kibble in the crate and started off. She was quiet the whole way, didn't say anything when I got out and went into the grocery store. I didn't greet her when I came back to the car, just got in and drove away, and she was quiet all the way home. Yee hah! There's hardly anything I appreciate more than a dog who's good in the car!

AND all day today she's been heading outside on her own. Once she was playing tug with Stitch, gave a little startle, and then ran out the dog door. When she came back in, she picked up the tug toy and continued with the game. What a good puppy.

Since we've been going over what shows are coming up after her 6-month birthday, I checked for matches and yes, there's a conformation match in 2 weeks. Today we started practising stacking. All we accomplished in the first two sessions was to convince her that MAYBE she didn't have to sit at every single opportunity. That's a good start! And while she was standing, I got to move her back legs a little bit.

We moved on to Level 2. We started with Zen. She's not quite ready to test yet, but after one what-the-heck-are-we-doing-now? mistake, she's great at it. Since we've been practising with her NOT diving into Stitch's meals, she's very, very good at Zen. L2 Step 1 is floor Zen, that's easy, no matter where we do it. Step 2 is staying off for 10 seconds - not a problem. After 4 seconds, she scooches backwards, lies down, and turns her head away from the treat. From there she looks like she could go for 3 minute Zen. Outside and other rooms makes no difference.

On to Focus. I haven't done any shaping today so she's easy to get eye contact from. We go outside on the front sidewalk. She glances around once and then swings in front of me, grabs my eyes, and sits. From there she zooms up through 2 seconds to 6 seconds with no discernible difficulty. It's awfully tempting to push her too far, but I resist. I started Focus sitting down, so I tried it kneeling, then standing up. No problem. Once I was standing, she developed a serious drift to my left (towards my right hand). Since she was doing so well, I started turning my back on her when she drifted too far away from front. The first two times she decided that staring at my hand would be as good as staring at my eyes and I had to call Puppy Puppy to get her to come in front of me to find my eyes again. The third time, she gave my hand half a second of staring and then whipped around, finding my eyes, sitting, and starting that "Look, I knew what to do!" tail wag.

Can't wait for tomorrow!

Several eventful days! Not for Syn, but for me. My son called to tell us our daughter-in-law was in labour (this was, of course, not unexpected), so I booked a hotel, packed up the dogs and all our junk, and headed off on a 2.5 hour road trip with a 10-week-old puppy. I was NOT looking forward to this (the travel with the puppy part, not the having-a-grandchild part).

The setup: I put two wire crates in the back of my SUV, one for Stitch and one for Syn. Syn's crate had a couple of toys and the towel and cuddly bed from her soft crate. I also took the small soft crate that I had tried to introduce her to the other night because I don't want to have to carry the big wire one in and out of the hotel several times a day.

Before we left, we played a rousing game of tug and chase to get Syn emptied out. I put them each in their crates and then sprinkled their breakfasts, dry, on the crate floors to give her something to do while we were leaving the yard. I put them in their crates. They both did the mighty Kibble Hunt, then Stitch lay down and went to sleep, and so did Syn. I stopped once on the trip to let her pee and give her a drink, and again she went into the crate and went right to sleep (or if she was awake, she was playing with her toenails and not saying anything).

When we arrived the "kids" were home from the hospital awaiting further developments, so Stitch and Syn had a chance to come in, work the room, and stretch their legs (this is the marvelous home that recently said goodbye to old Scuba). They went back to the hospital and we went to check in at the hotel.

I do like to get pups into hotels relatively early so they can learn that they don't have to bark at every sound. This is quite a bit younger than I generally do it, though.

S&S played for a while, explored the space, went out to pee a few times (reinforcing the idea that even in this strange place, there is another choice than dropping on the spot). Then Syn asked if she could come up on the bed with me, and promptly fell asleep, where she stayed until I went to the hospital. I sprinkled another handful of kibble in the crate when I went in, and they were both sleeping when I came back out.

That was plenty of sleeping and I expected to have trouble getting her to bed that night, but when I finally put her bed, her towel, and her toys in the little crate, I didn't hear another word from her until 5 AM when we all awakened to my phone ringing - IT'S A BOY! Since this is Syn's blog, I won't go into that...

Took her out to pee, set my alarm to get up at 7 to go meet the little man, and woke up at 8 - I guess I can't read numbers at 5 AM.

Another round of car crate, then back to the hotel.

She wanted to play, which was fine, but when she and Stitch started really getting into it and she started to bark, I brought her up on the bed so I'd have a little better control of her mouth, and she fell asleep again immediately, and stayed asleep off and on until 3 when we went back to the hospital and then came home.

But what a rip-and-tear there was when hit the living room again! So another Wow! Wow, she was terrific. Why is this dog so sensible? It's a little scary.

Re the barking-in-hotels. We had a ground-floor room with a glass door out to the parking lot, so once in a while someone would walk through her line of sight. The first time she saw someone, she coughed at them and ran right up to the glass to watch them. Her body language was halfway between "Boy, are YOU guys in trouble!" and "Holy cow, are WE in trouble!". She'd watch them for a few seconds, glance at Stitch (who yawned and rolled on her back), look at the stranger again, then run back to me so I could go drive them off. Instead, when she came back to me for support, I told her she was a good girl, gave her a little pet and a bit of kibble, and then went back to the computer. She'd go back to the door and watch, sometimes going through the same routine three or four times before the ogres disappeared. By the third stranger, though, she was just watching, with calm body language - even when a couple of skateboarders went through the parking lot.

While we were gone, I'm sure her legs grew 3", and when we got home she just casually walked through the indoor AND the outdoor dog doors to pee. When I congratulated her, she looked at me like "Yeah, that's what they're FOR, eh?"

Finally got around to taking our official “generations” portrait.

This is Scuba on the left, Stitch at 8 weeks on the right.


and this is Stitch on the left and Syn at 10 weeks on the right.

I was busy today.

Ladies and gentlemen, Simon Ailsby, my first grandchild.

Gosh, the days are flicking by so fast!

Today she came in through the triple dog door all by herself, and went through the single several times without thinking about it.

I'm changing her feeding back to 3 times a day, she seems to be spending a great deal of time with a full tummy - not that she wouldn't eat until she exploded.

I bought her a new smaller soft crate yesterday and put her little bed inside it last night. No deal, thank you very much. This was not HER crate, and she was NOT having anything to do with it. I put her back in her big crate and she went promptly to sleep.

I probably won't get to go for a walk today, I'm busy getting ready to leave to await my first grandchild's appearance in a slightly closer location, but once we're ensconced in a hotel and waiting, I expect we'll have lots of time to play outside on dry (paved) ground.

And start training Levels again.


That's a lot of work for 5 minutes, but she dug right in and got the job done!

I was right about trusting her bell-ringing. She's forgotten what that's about, so we're starting back at the beginning, reteaching it and reintroducing it.

The only training we did other than that today was making up for that killer acrobatic manoeuvre she did yesterday. We went for another walk and she was behaving very seriously, walking directly behind me with her tail down. It took me almost 15 minutes to get her running beside me with her tail up. I hope tomorrow goes better.

I have 2 dog doors (cold climate, eh?). One is in 3 parts - inside flap, outside flap, and insulated flap in between. Further inside the house, there's a plain plastic see-through one. I've been holding the heavy one open for Syn to come through, but haven't bothered with the lighter one yet. This morning, using Park (sit) and No (Zen cue), I got Syn to stay with Stitch in the little porch between the 2 dog doors while I came into the house and closed the big door. Then I asked Stitch to come in AND SYN STAYED SITTING IN THE PORCH!! OK, that's just unbelievable. And people, THIS is what I want my training to be - that I have a chance of getting a behaviour the dog doesn't know by combining things she DOES know. Not that I thought for an instant that at this age and with this much training I could get Syn to do a sitstay while Stitch ran away from her and disappeared. And I must remember not to rely on this EVER happening again. Still. Wow.

Anyway, then I called Syn and tapped on the see-through dog door, and she pushed right through it and came in the house.

Bad night last night. We were out late and that threw her clock all out of whack. She woke up at 5 AM, ready to play. Didn't handle it well - muttered at her periodically to shut up until Ron took her out at 6. Then she slept until 9, wretched little brute.

Between the frozen peanut-butter-kibble kong (which she only gets when I'm leaving her in her crate), Scuba in the crate right next door, and me mostly remembering to put her in her crate when she lies down for a nap, she's getting pretty darn good at being in her crate. If I'm going out and she doesn't have her kong (sometimes I can't find it), I sprinkle a little kibble inside the crate so she has to hunt for it. Then she whimpers a couple of times when the kibble's gone, then she settles down.

A few times she jumped up yelling when I came home, but I just stayed out of sight (or retreated out of sight) until she shut up and either sat or lay down, and now she sits silently until I open the door. Then she circles my feet all the way to the going-outside door, grumbling madly the whole way to let me know what she thinks of the idea of being left behind.

In the afternoon we went for our second walk, hoping there would be some dry ground on the road. No such luck for at least 200 feet out from the house. Then we hit dry road and wow again (maybe I should change her name to Wow). She remembered the tiny bit of mud Zen we were doing the first time out. She'd sniff a clump of mud, get ready to pick it up, startle, stare at me, get a treat, and walk on. Leash was tight several (many) times, but she was lightly hitting the end of it and then coming back to stare at me rather than getting to the end and pulling. Most of the time she was conscious of where I was and how much of the leash she was using.

So many wonderful smells and textures!

This time on the service road we got to work on Horse Poop Zen and, once again, wow. She blundered into the scent cone from the first batch and walked to the end of the leash. Since she wasn't really pulling and we were going on HER walk, I just stood and let her sniff it. After a few seconds, she startled again and came back to stare at me. Click! We walked by more bunches and she scalloped toward it but never went close enough to grab any. On the way back, she actually walked OVER a clump of manure, dropped her nose to smell it as she was walking, and kept right on coming.

Back in our lane, with long dead grass on the sides, she got "the rips". She'd come to me for a treat, then drop her back end low, spin her tires, and race through the grass to within an inch of the end of the leash in front of me, spin and race to within an inch behind me, then forward again to stare at me to get a treat. That was WAY fun until one of her stunt-driving turns picked her up off the ground into a full airborne somersault and landed her with an audible thump on her back. That hurt. She squealed for a minute with her tail down. I picked her up and some part of her butt hurt but she got over it in a few seconds (and a few kibbles). That settled her down, no more ripping around. She walked politely at my side for at least 45 seconds.

Whatever problem she was having with sounds last week seems to have blown over. The hose in the dog tub made a strange gurgly noise that would have bothered her last week but was only mildly interesting this week, and I did her nails with the grinder again with no trouble (and very little peanut butter).

AND another "accident" because I wasn't paying attention. She's doing a good job - she's going right to the door and putting it there, so she certainly has the idea of housetraining. Now we just need to work on communication (HEY, STUPID, I NEED TO GO OUT!). Started with 1/3 of a meal shaping her to ring her bells. The next 1/3 I hung the bells on the door-to-outside. The final 1/3, I closed the door. When she rang the bells, I clicked, opened the door, and tossed a couple of treats on the other side of the door. See? You ring the bells and the door opens so you can get what you want...

Finally, since she's no longer fussing about noise, I got the outsides of her back legs shaved, and scissored her muzzle. I'm sure George Washington Carver didn't think he was inventing peanut butter so I could shave my pup's butt, but he goes down in my book as a great man anyway.

Long day, good day, synced Sync into the ground. Amazing the lengths I will go to to avoid doing income tax.

I feel like I'm on a roller coaster. With an entire class of 8 year olds.

Today was a super day. I paid better attention and there were no accidents (of course I use the word "accident" lightly - any accidents are totally my fault). We've tested out every behaviour and every extra in Level 1 and she's PASSED. And she walks pretty well on leash. And she rarely bites at or claws at the walls of her crate. And she came in the dog door once - I suspect she came in between Stitch's legs because the next time I found her curled up quietly waiting outside the door.

We went to the vet to get her second parvo shot. She loved up everybody and was intensely curious but unfazed by the various noises we encountered - the printer, the phone, busy people whirling by, a dog whimpering in the back. She sat on cue on the scale, and when I put her on the examining table she responded to the sit, down, touch, and Zen cues. Doesn't seem possible something this young can think of all that. She whimpered for a moment in the car on the way there, but quickly stopped and mellowed out for the rest of the ride. Whimpered once or twice on the way home, then curled up and went to sleep. Puppy vaginitis has cleared up, but she's got a bit of unfriendly bacteria in her ears so we got some meds for that. She was excellent when I cleaned them yesterday and when the vet looked at them today.

Wow! On to Level 2! And in another week she can go to puppy class (there'll be 2 classes left when she's OK to go, and she's been invited to come out for them).

I have to start trading her a treat for things she has that she shouldn't have, instead of just grabbing for them. She's starting to turn away when she has something in her mouth and sees me coming.

Maybe the most impressive thing she did today - for supper I had them both sitting, one on each side of me. I picked up one dish in each hand. I looked at Syn and said "No. (our Leave It cue) This is for STITCH." Then I put Stitch's dish down and Syn held her sit and waited. Then I said "This is for SYN." and put her dish down. There they were - each eating politely (OK, gobbling hysterically) from her own dish, and no more than 2 feet apart.

I took a neat series of photos today. My husband was badly bitten by a dog when he was a child, and when two dogs start playing really rough, he gets concerned. I think these photos are perfect for demonstrating the difference between rough play and serious annoyance.


Playing. Look at Syn’s body language. Her tail is up, she’s jumping at Stitch. Stitch is ready to grab her by the throat with a big enthusiastic grin.


Argh! Going for throat backfired! Puppy has her down! I love to watch adult dogs play “rough” with puppies.

And then Syn makes a serious error. She grabs Stitch’s tail.

Look at Stitch’s face. Her muzzle is all crumpled up - not the happy toothy grin she’s showing in the first picture - and the corners of her mouth are pushed forward. NOBODY touches the flag, Jack! Her voice has changed, too, from a cheerful “ung-ung-ung” to a lion roar. Syn hasn’t had time to react yet.

Here’s a better look at that crumply muzzle. Stitch is SERIOUS, and she’s letting Syn know it. Puppies who bite tails get in BIG TROUBLE.

No fool, Syn realizes her error. She’s pulled her ears tighter back, let go of the tail, and she’s backing up as quick as she can and turning her head away. If I didn’t know the dogs and saw this picture cold, I could easily think that Syn was about to be seriously injured. Stitch didn’t stop at just yelling “OW!”, she’s still coming, and she looks dead serious.

When she gets to Syn, though, her muzzle is starting to un-crumple, and since Syn stopped biting immediately and is accepting the correction by turning her face away, Stitch is content with a sideways bump to say “And I COULD have killed you if I’d wanted to!”

This is REAL dog communication, between dogs who speak Doggish. No actual force necessary, no matter how grievous the offence.

20 seconds later, Stitch offers Syn a better alternative for playing tug and Syn, understanding the lesson she was taught and taking no offense from it, is happy to accept.

Go for a long walk? Apparently I have no brain at all. I dreamt of being tortured all night and woke up in agony. Syn is still sleeping, an hour past her normal second-get-up time, and didn't pee when she was taken out at 6. Maybe next time we'll go for a SHORT walk.

I felt ill the rest of the day - sore, headachy, whine, whine. Syn had 4 accidents, ate 2 electric cords and a shoe, got poop on her foot and walked on my beige parlour carpet, and looked so cute when she fell asleep on my lap that I almost cried.

I ran through some of the Level 1 behaviours we've been working on - I think she's finally getting the hang of Zen without jumping up and trying to suck treats out of my hand before she backs off. Sit and down were excellent, and she was giving me downs on her mat. I took her out on a leash once and she was very good.

We did one whole meal working on Stitch's-food-Zen. At the end of the session, she was proudly staying away from Stitch's dish, her little tail wag-wag-wagging.

Then I went out and bought two short PVC exercise pens that come apart, and put them around a) my 10' kukui tree, b) all my computer cords, and c) at the entrance to the computer room so I don't have to keep trying to keep it blocked with assorted cardboard boxes and briefcases. Tomorrow should be easier.

I lost a couple of blogs between this one and the previous one. Don’t know how that happened but thanks, Ari Kornfeld, for finding them for me instead of working on your PhD deadline...

The last day of her 9th week. Is it really 2 weeks since I first met her?

What a change in my attitude since yesterday! Thinking that she might actually ask to go outside has changed her in my mind from a walking, talking poop and pee machine to a very smart new baby dog.

We started the morning with a brief run-through of everything we've done so far. She's definitely responding to the sit cue!

Then a nap - I'm starting (starting!) to feel the pressure of a deadline. My first grandchild was due today, which means that sometime in the next 7 days, I'll be suddenly going on a trip. Of necessity, Syn will be spending some time in a crate while we're gone (she and Stitch are coming with me). I introduced her to the world's most important invention - a small Kong stuffed with peanut butter and kibble - and I've been putting it in the crate with her whenever I think of it (mostly every time I go to the bathroom). She's doing so well at night that I've moved her bedroom crate from beside the bed to the foot of the bed.

The weather was beautiful this afternoon - almost 7 above zero. Snow is squishy, mud is muddy. Stitch went to an obedience match with her friend Fish, so Syn and I went for a long squishy, muddy walk. She hasn't worn her harness and leash for four days, but she hasn't outgrown it (quite) and she remembered how to walk on the leash. She had a blast! She ate about 4 pounds of mud and half a bale of dead grass - let's see, mud and dead grass, gosh, she's making a brick! I hope it comes out before it sets... She got "the rips" and ran big circles around me, respecting the leash but not inhibited by it at all. She found horse footprints on the service road in front of our place and had a wonderful time following them, and then (gasp) a truck went by ponying some racehorses from the nearby track. I picked her up so she could watch them go by, and then she tracked them again. She got tired about halfway home so I carried her the rest of the way. I rinsed her muddy feet and belly and we had another long warm cuddly nap.

And we ended the day with a 3-way Come Game. Boy, does she know the Come Game! She plays it at the least hint that somebody might want her, racing enthusiastically back and forth between people. If she isn't tired tonight, she never will be!