First birthday coming up!

Last weekend Stitch and I did a 2-day seminar, with lots of help from Syn.

Nonbelievers, I'm sure, would have looked at Syn and thought "What an obnoxious puppy! Always jumping up and down, wouldn't stay in heel position, wouldn't stay on her mat, glad MY dog doesn't act like that!"

Believers, I'm sure, would have looked at her and thought "What an amazing puppy! Didn't want to stay on her mat because she spent the ENTIRE 8 hours wanting to come out on the floor and work, work, work. Followed Sue's left shoulder forward from heel position every time Sue moved it! So full of enthusiasm for the job she could easily have exploded!"

Her stamina and joy and willingness were bloody amazing. I had to tie her leash near the pause table to keep her out of my face. She was quiet, though, didn't whine or yap the whole time, but went to sleep or watched me from the mat while I was out on the floor talking or working with Stitch.

I'll definitely be working on her stamina for duration behaviours without feedback (gee, would that be the Level 3 we keep putting off?) in the near future, but in the meantime this was a marvellous affirmation of the fact that I've been assiduously creating EXACTLY the puppy I wanted to create, which is thrilling.

This morning we worked the buckets again, but this time I tossed out about a dozen items, including clickers, 5 buckets, a rubber shoe, a pen, a tennis ball so big Syn can barely get it in her mouth, a salad spoon.

Syn loved this game, where she got to pick what she got and bring things back on her own schedule. To my amazement, she was hot to bring back the buckets, and usually brought them first. At first she had trouble finding the clickers after retrieving the larger items, but she quickly shifted her "looker" to check for all the items. This was nice to see because it's exactly what she has to learn to do on the agility course - look for the next obstacle while she's taking the previous one.

I was particularly interesting to see her in the middle of picking up, for instance, the shoe, and spot a bucket. Then her brain went into overdrive as she tried to decide… bring back the shoe, get the treat, or drop the shoe and get the bucket? Buckets ALWAYS pay off… but the shoe is easy… and it's already in my mouth… Usually she brought back what she already had, but once in a while she actually dropped it to pick up the scary bucket.

Once she swung the #2 bucket around really fast, it hit the step and bounced back with the handle still in her mouth and hit her in the face. She jumped away from it and dropped it, but immediately darted forward, grabbed it, and finished the job. HUGE improvement!

And she TRIED to work up the nerve and know-how to bring the #4 (biggest) bucket. She tried it, lost courage, circled, tried it again, lost her nerve again, tried it again. At that point I sent Stitch in to get it and praised them both. I'm happy she was trying in the first place. The fact that she KEPT trying was thrilling. We did a few more after I took the big bucket out. Great session.

Then I got out Stitch's old Easy Button and asked Syn to lie down. Stitch immediately started whapping it. Syn watched carefully. Then I asked Stitch to lie down and released Syn, who IMMEDIATELY ran over to the button and started whapping it. COOL! She has never seen this button before, and she's never been taught to paw-target anything like it (to the best of my memory). The only way I can think of to explain it is that she's been watching Stitch retrieve buckets for several days when Syn herself had failed and be rewarded for it, and then Syn got to try the same thing again. That was really exciting for me, one of those magic little moments that show up in training.

We're doing Syn's second seminar starting tomorrow. I hope she does well. I can't imagine anyone not being impressed by her basic behaviours and enthusiasm.

We worked the bucket retrieve again last night and it went almost exactly as it did in the morning. Syn couldn't pick one up at first, so we shaped interaction with the cardboard box until she was thoroughly enjoying herself, then I switched to the #1 and #2 buckets. She tried several changes of subject. She saw the buckets come out, then turned pointedly and looked for the box. Then she went Around a chair. Then she thumped an exercise ball a few times. None of those worked, so she looked at the bucket. Click. Walked to the bucket. Click. Targeted the bucket. Click. That's as close as she could get, she growled (not a real growl, but her expressive Portie-grumble that she does under any and all not-normal circumstances), and then she started to lie down, so I asked Stitch to get a bucket, clicked Stitch and fed her. And again. And again. And again, and now Syn is desperately asking to get back in the game. I ask Stitch to down and Syn gallops in without being asked, grabs the bucket, and brings it to me. That's enough of a win for one session, and we run to the pantry to put her supper in the bucket.

This morning, we went into the training room together and without saying a word I tossed out all 4 buckets. Syn looked at the buckets, then at me, and then growled, and then… nothing. I asked Stitch to get a bucket and - that'll teach the little twerp - she picked the smallest one. Stitch and I did a little dance and ran off to the pantry for breakfast. Syn ran along with us and looked rather annoyed when, after Stitch started eating, I obviously wasn't about to put down the Syn-share.

I walked back to the training room. Syn went ahead of me, growling furiously. She went to the buckets and started walking around them, examining them from every angle. She took half a step toward them, backed off growling, and walked to another angle where she tried it again. She opened and closed her mouth a few times, thinking about picking one up, and then circled again. After a minute of this, she reached carefully for one bucket, but lost her nerve at the last instant and circled again. The third time, she picked it up and brought it to me. For this she got a) my handful of kibble; b) a big schnoogie; and c) a run to the pantry for her breakfast.

Someone asked me yesterday why I'm using Stitch to sucker Syn into the game. Because it's a decent strategy anyway. Because it's working. And because I think Syn has the idea that the shaping session is rewarding her for NOT actually picking up the bucket. I'm being very careful about my timing, trying to move ahead at a decent pace without pushing her too hard, but I still feel that she thinks the idea is to get as close to the dangerous thing as she can without actually touching it.

We had a fun session this morning, based on ongoing fear (hers) and frustration (mine).

I thought we had the scary-bucket thing ironed out, but I keep sort of fixing it and then leaving it alone. When I leave it alone, it comes back. And Syn has developed the undesirable response of lying down when she doesn't want to do something (when I've pushed her too far).

She wants treats. I want the bucket. She looks at the treats, she looks at me, she lies down. Thinking back, I rewarded this the first few times by helping her when she lay down - going and touching the bucket, or picking it up and holding the handle for her to make it easier. And it worked to get her to retrieve the bucket. Also worked really well for teaching her to lie down at the first sign of any frustration.

Also we're doing a seminar this weekend and it occurs to me that we have done very little shaping in the last few months.

So I did something HIGHLY unusual - I actually thought about what I was doing.

PROBLEMS: Syn is afraid of the noise her bucket makes when she drops it. She may also be afraid of it moving. She is starting to see the dog dish as a cue to lie down and quit. She's thinking the same about the cue "Are you hungry?". She will sporadically retrieve her #2 bucket, more often when it's on carpet than when it's on tile.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS: work on carpet until she's really comfortable with the noise. Get her to move many more objects. Don't put her in a situation where she'll quit when she sees the bucket. SHUT UP. And do more shaping.

First let me explain that I have 4 sizes of stainless dog bucket. The smallest one (#1) is about half a litre, but has a hook on it to hang it on a crate, so I don't use it for retrieving much. #2 is a "normal" dog bucket, about a litre. #3 is 2 litres. And #4 is a regular-sized bucket, good for watering llamas, carrying placentas to be buried, and washing cars. All have metal handles.

So we started on carpet this morning, with both Syn & Stitch in the room, Stitch on her mat. I found a cardboard box about a foot square, open, and put it about 4 feet away from me. Shaped Syn to go to it. She was pretty tentative at first and it took 2 or 3 minutes to get her to interact with the box. Once she got that, she would stop when she heard the click but not turn back toward me to get the treat. Don't know what that's about. Is she waiting for me to toss the treat? Waiting for it to materialize out of thin air in front of her? Strange. Then she started to continue to work through the click, but listening, so I'd click again and she'd come back for the treat. That went away after another couple of minutes. I was happy to see that she got more assertive as she went along. The first time she moved the box with her paw, she was startled and thought about whether to go back to it, but decided that it was soft enough and quiet enough that it didn't present a danger, so she went back and soon got to flipping it and poking it with her nose as well. Then she shoved it up a stair with her nose and it rolled back down and hit her (oooh, scary, she got hit by a 1 foot square cardboard box! My Little Pansy). I'd clicked for shoving it that hard, but she looked at me, looked at the box, and lay down.

Now, I'm not saying it's a bad thing to have a way for her to indicate that something is too difficult for her. That's fine. The problem is that she's giving up too easily. 1+1=2 2+1=3 3+1=TOO HARD CAN WE WATCH TV NOW? She needs more mental stamina, which a lot more shaping practise will definitely give her.

So when she quit, I put her on the mat and got Stitch out to work. Stitch hit that box like a freight train, poking, bopping, going around, rolling over. She batted it all over the room, wagging her tail and getting clicked. Syn got the odd treat for being on her mat. Pretty soon she was dying to get off the mat, so I put Stitch back on and brought Syn out to work again. Now she was really In The Game, and was soon rolling the box around almost as well as Stitch had been. Then I opened the flaps and she started batting them back and forth. Then a light bulb flashed over her head AHA! She grabbed a flap in her mouth and wrestled the box up the stairs and gave it to me! She got a treat and a big cuddle for that one. I tossed the box back down the step and she did it again. And again. Getting a box up a step is a lot more difficult than getting a bucket to me on a flat floor, but the box is quieter. She was really having a good time hauling that box back and forth, so I tossed out the #1 bucket instead of the box. No, thank you.

OK, back on the mat. Stitch, come and get that bucket. No problem. Aha, says I, let's make some noise!

I tossed the #2 bucket for Stitch, and when it hit the ground, Syn startled and jumped off the mat. I asked her to get back on the mat, rewarded Stitch for getting the bucket, and tossed it again. This time I was ready and rewarded Syn about a quarter second after the bucket hit the carpet and before she could jump off the mat. And rewarded Stitch for the bucket, and tossed it again. And so on for a couple of minutes until Syn was comfortable and starting to look eager to come and play too. I went up the bucket sizes, letting the bigger ones clatter down the steps, and even tossing them onto tile when Syn was looking comfortable.

Stitch back on the mat, Syn comes out. Get the box, yep. Get the #1 bucket, no problem, hey, that was fun! Get the #2 bucket, no problem! Get the #3 bucket, yeah! I can do this!

So I started tossing the #3 bucket around the room, with Syn cheerfully pouncing on it and hauling it back. I went back to the #1 bucket and tossed it on the tiles with no diminished cheer from Syn, then #2, and #3, all cheerfully returned.

She got so into the game that once I tossed the #2 bucket away from me AND SHE CAUGHT IT BY THE HANDLE AS IT WENT BY HER and brought it back to me, almost giggling she was so pleased with herself. A few tosses later it actually bumped her as it went by, which didn't bother her either.

So, a grand session. This evening we'll do it again - again starting from scratch and working up through the box.

The good, the bad, and the ugly - but mostly the good.

The good: we went to an obedience fun match last night. Everything was aMAZing. First, *I* was amazing. I remembered why I was there (unlike my performance last weekend at the agility match) - to teach Syn that competition rings are WAY FUN places, and NOT to worry about her performance.

Second, Syn was amazing. We did Novice AND Open. I've recently switched her focus in heeling from my face to my left hand at my waist, and, with very little practise (what else is new?) she's really getting it. Note to self: in situations like this, use soft treats. I took the wrong box and wound up at the match with nothing but plain kibble. Though Syn stayed focused and excited, the kibble took longer to get down than a bit of hot dog would have. So her heeling was grand. She stopped once to sniff a post on the figure 8, but we started again and she did it right the second time. We did a sit for examination rather than a stand, since we haven't worked on stand yet. Recall - excellent. Front, not so much, we'll have to work on that one of these weeks too. Sit stay, excellent. There were a couple of dogs that were breaking constantly, and Syn wasn't even remotely interested in doing anything but staying In The Game and holding her sit until I got back. Downstay - she offered me a Chill (rolled on her left side and looked dead) when I cued the down, and stayed that way for the entire 3 minutes and until I was back in position beside her.

It was a fairly long wait for her turn in Open. I hadn't bought a crate so she had to down beside me, so not a LOT of rest happening. She was a little more distracted when we got into the ring the second time, but held on. Heeling was very nice again - gave me chills, actually - as long as I remember that she's training and still needs treats to do it. Retrieve on flat was great. Retrieve over the high jump - the first try she wound up very close to the edge of the jump. You could see the thoughts going through her head - go the long way back over the jump? Or go the short way back around it? We've put a fair bit of effort into proofing the jump, and she's never actually had the "evil" thought before, and she made the wrong choice. Got no smile or treat for it, and did it perfectly the second time. Drop on recall- Yes! Lovely. We didn't do the longer out of sight stays because - well, because it was a long evening, she's a puppy, and she's not ready to do them right yet. EXcellent evening.

The bad: we tried testing her L3 Lazy Leash - going away and back to me with another handler - and she failed - well, not dismally but we obviously have a fair amount of work to do on that before we test it again.

And the ugly: she chewed up the rubber mat beside the grooming table, and robo-vac gets stuck on the battered remains, so I threw it away. Then I asked Syn to jump up not the table and her feet slipped. She hit the table edge right on her diaphragm, with her front end on top and her back end hanging off. She yelped for over a minute, and peed when I touched her. What a little pansy. I petted her until she shut up and then we went back into the kitchen and did some fun behaviours. She thought that was fun. Then we went back in the dog room. I put down another rubber mat and asked her to jump up again. She was reluctant to follow me into the room, but once I asked her to jump up she was OK to do it. Gave her a good cuddle on the table and put her back on the floor. She was OK to get back on this morning, and didn't worry about coming into the room with me. A good reminder to me to consider safety all the time.

Gosh I like this puppy. We are having SUCH a good time.

This morning I "hid" the two dog buckets (big scary one and little unscary one) in the next room, started robo-vac, put Stitch on a down stay nearby, and asked Syn if she was hungry. I'll take that as a yes. She handled the vacuum very nicely, she remember that she had to get both of them to get the job done, Stitch didn't bother her at all, and the buckets were fine until she swung the big one around and hit some furniture, but she recovered fast and kept her tail up. Very nice performance of all the tough factors involved. Video here

Syn and I went to the vet today. She had a wonderful time while she was there. She kept offering to hop up on the very high examining table while I was talking to the vet and I had to keep putting my hand in between her and the table and saying No. She'd settle back for a minute and then start volunteering to jump again. The vet got kissed all over, loved up the staff, displayed her excellent Handling behaviours and generally had a very good time. We took some training time in the waiting room - heeling, sits, downs, Chill. Excellent. Walked in and out on a loose lead.

We stopped at the dog park on the way home. Oops. Her teenage self isn't quite as assured as her late-puppy self was. She really wanted to play with a young Lab, a young German Shepherd, and an old Basset, but in the end then old Basset was the only one that seemed trustworthy. She'd run like a fiend after or up to the two younger dogs, then peel off at the last second and run back to say hello to me, pretending she was only going to look all along. The Lab chased her back to me a few times where she sat between my legs and worried a bit. Obviously we need a bit more strange-dog time. Nice loose leash to and from the park, though, and good comes while she was there. And some nice retrieves. She'll be spending a week in a household with four or five strange dogs soon, and I know they all have good communication skills, so that should help.

And when we got home, a 4 yo and her mom stopped by for a visit. The kid loved dogs but was excitable and squealy. She wanted to throw a toy for Syn, but was too scared (and squealy) to take it from her when she brought it back, so I had to take it from her, give it to the kid, and then wait for her to bring it back again. At one point the mom was trying to talk to me, the kid was squealing and throwing, and Syn got a bit overwhelmed. I didn't quite see but heard her little tooth-snapping yip as she told the kid to back off. Excellent response from Syn, great communication, but not socially acceptable. Shame on me for letting it get that far, particularly just after she'd had to defend herself several times from the young Lab. Mom wasn't upset at all but told the kid to settle down. I held Syn's head for a second and got her to settle as well, and then they went back to playing with me paying much better attention.

The holiday season is over and life is getting back to normal. I've been feeling like I was rushing the entry into Level 3 before the holidays, so I retested a few of the duration behaviours from L2 and started over again in Level 3.

Syn did just as well this time as she did the first time. We went through the first 6 behaviours, everything we could except things which require other people, and we'll get to them this weekend - there's an obedience fun match coming up. She had the most problem with the early retrieve behaviours. She's good at the finished product but apparently we glossed over the Syn-and-me-holding-things-together part, so we'll be working that up for a week or so. L3 Target is coming along nicely. She can paws-up on pretty much anything, horizontal or vertical, including the back of a rocking chair (which rocked when her paws landed on it - she looked like a kite surfer), but with no duration unless I'm petting her or my lure hand stays over her head.

The nervousness she displayed over retrieving the dog buckets has disappeared due to that pre-meal Miracle Minute. The connection between getting fed and bringing me the bucket really clicked about 4 days ago. All I have to do is THINK about feeding dogs and she's running to bring me buckets with enthusiasm and confidence.

The other idea that has really gelled while she learned to retrieve scary buckets is the idea of having an entire job to do. I usually see this begin on the retrieve, when the dog tries to hand me an object and I fumble the catch and drop it (or she drops it before I cue the hand-off and I pretend I didn't have a chance to catch it). For a moment the dog will look at me waiting for her click, and then it hits her - the job isn't done! She doesn't get the click until the object is in my hand. So she picks it up again and holds it more firmly until she gets the cue.

In retrieving the buckets, Syn has put the finished-job idea into meals. I need TWO buckets, one for each dog, before I can put food in either one. Syn will bring me one, look at me for a moment, and then enthusiastically search out and bring me the second one.

Stitch and Scuba were both very careful to bring me the easiest item first (perhaps on the off chance that one would be enough this time and they wouldn't have to bring me the more difficult object after all) but Syn brings the first one she finds - the smaller, easier one, or the bigger, heavier, noisier one - and then goes back for the other one.

Her retrieving is so good, in fact, that she gave me a good lesson in changing the subject last weekend. There was an agility fun match and, since she can do all the obstacles (except the teeter and weaves, which I just avoided), I assumed she could do a course (which I have assumed before in class and should certainly know better by now) of 18 obstacles. There were 4 jumps and then a tunnel, and that was a long enough course for her to decide that since I wasn't clicking but just kept telling her to do the next thing and the next thing, I probably didn't know what I was doing, so instead of continuing on the course, she started retrieving the traffic cones marking the course. Once she started it was quite difficult to convince her to stop - made worse by the fact that she had both me and the audience laughing out loud as she paraded around the ring carrying cones and growling loudly to let us all know how pleased she was with her solution. I should have stayed for a second round but my asthma was acting up and I needed to go home. If I HAD stayed, I would have done the first 3 obstacles one at a time - jump, yes, treat. Jump, yes, treat. Jump, yes, treat. Then the next six or so I'd do 2 at a time - jump, tunnel, yes, treat. Jump, tire, yes, treat. And so on, and then try 3 in a row - or maybe just finish the course 2 at a time. And I WILL remember that she doesn't know how to do courses!