Am I The Only Dog Parent Who...

Am I the only dog parent who expects a higher understanding of action/consequence than is possible from her dogs? One who totally understands they're probably not going to get what I'm trying to lay out for them but doesn't care?

Let me set the scene.

I had chopped up some zucchini from my garden-with-a-squash-problem and realized, though I do love me some beer battered fried zucchini, that 2 whole large zucchinis' worth was probably a bit too much for me and the Hubster.

So I chop 'em up further for an impromptu, let's practice 3-dogs-taking-turns-with-commands training session.  I zucchini'd each of them for sitting in turn.  Then I zucchini'd Sadie for a high five (Hurley & Maggie also offered one up).  Then Hurley (got another high five offered from Sadie & Maggie - 3 dog training is going so well).  By the time it was Maggie's turn, she was pretty excited and her high five knocked half of the zucchini from my hand.

Hurley & Maggie hoovered the floor.  Sadie just maintained her sit & looked at me for permission (I had been telling the two who weren't supposed to be high five'ing to stay).  That's my girl!  So I slowly fed her every remaining zucchini in my hand as Hurley and Maggie watched. She got about twice as many the other two stole from the floor.  I actually said to them "Look at Sadie getting all the rest of the treats because she's good."  I did not add "neener, neener, neener" and for that I am proud. 

Am I the only dog parent who does this?   While it was powerful for Sadie as she was amply rewarded for her behavior, Maggie & Hurley were also rewarded by the food they scarfed up.  Probably more rewarded than they felt punished by not getting the rest of the zucchini.  I mean, it is only zucchini after all.  I don't think Hurley even drooled over it.

Am I the only pet parent who does this?  In the moment, my sole (and snarky) purpose to teach Maggie & Hurley a lesson but it was Sadie who got the most out of it (unintentionally).

I really hope they learned their lesson. Seriously.

And this girl?

She's Awesome!

He's Ba-a-ck!

While we've had some good times poking fun at the Hurley Badger over the summer, it has and continues to be my goal to get him back into shop dog shape.

Classic Hurley in the shop montage starts now!

Quite frankly, he was probably ready a month or two ago...right at the time the Hubster was starting his 6 weeks off during the summer (he's in education, anyone who's married to an educator knows the vacation jealousy that's suffered by spouses all over...sigh).  Anywho, the choice was to start Hurley back in the shop and relegate him to his kennel for most of the day to control his introductions and interactions with each entering dog; or I could, and did, leave him home for the summer to continue their male bonding and so that he could enjoy kennel-free days with the Hubster around the house. 

The boys had a great summer but it's back to work time...for both of them.

Big head on a little body!

Hurley started back at the shop today!

The plan is to go slow and have lots of patience.  I can't expect him to magically not react to every dog who comes in.  But what I can do is set him up for success.

Sweet puppy Hurley

It starts with spending the day in the kennel at the shop.  He's still kenneled when at home alone so this is not a huge change for him in terms of how he spends his day.  I've got the kennel just at the edge of my storage room so that I'll be able to click & treat calm behavior every time a dog enters the store.  We'll stay at this level until I feel that he's demonstrated not getting bothered over hearing/smelling a dog in his territory.

Can I haz treat?

Then we'll graduate to public kenneling, ie his kennel being out on the shop floor and not back in the storage room.  I anticipate this being a really hard step for him and plan on requiring customers to keep their dogs in the front half of the shop while his kennel is set up at the back so as to give him tons of space.  As he gets more comfortable and less excited by the dogs in the shop, we'll move him forward or allow them closer.  During this time, I will allow him to interact with the dogs he already knows and loves.  Slowly and surely, I'll let him out of his kennel to say hello as he demonstrates he's ready for that next step.

Fluffer nutter - also, can you believe Hurley was ever small enough to fit in a basket???

After that, he'll progress to being tethered to me or an area of the store floor where he's less likely to react. Hanging out with me behind the counter, performing any training not related to his acceptance of dogs and free rein of the shop are big no-no's for now.  I'll only use the clicker and treats in relation to the use of the crate and to reward calm behavior around other dogs.  No more training fun tricks during the day for us.  Maybe I'll be able to lift that rule in the future but for now, I want Hurley to be crystal clear that in the store, him accepting other dogs in his territory is the only way he can earn food.

Christmas decorating is boring business

Over the summer, Hurley's had multiple trips to the dog park, attended dog walks & street fairs and spent 4 days at our favorite boarding facility, which is more doggie camp than kennel.  He spent those days romping in fields with other dogs and got an A from the folks there when he left.  He still is influenced by his sisters' reactivity but is getting better.  I've noticed since we boarded him that there is much less joining in the barking at the window.  We've started using the Leave It command at home when the dogs get all riled up about a dog or person who walks by our house and this seems to especially hit home with Hurley.  I would call him a rock star Leave It'er at this point.  He listens to me 95% of the time when I tell him Leave It (his current obstacle is the hundreds of crab apples falling on the sidewalk from a neighbor's tree).  All in all, his canine interactions outside of the shop continue to be stellar.  The issues he had are steadily improving - while he will react to another dog who started reacting first, he and I are both getting better at seeing those dogs coming and ignoring them. All in all, he's demonstrated that he's ready to be given a second chance at shop dog.

My personal favorite: Dog in a box

I've missed that dog in a box.  I'm so glad he's back!!

Hurley Badger Don't Care: To Mom's Advantage

Most of the times, Hurley's alter-ego Hurley Badger Don't Care means that he's getting into mischief.  Things like busting out of screen windows and destroying dog tents are par for the course around our house.

But there are times when the Hurley Badger's personality can be used to his parents' advantage.

Like with training gear.  Hurley Badger Don't Care about wearing harnesses, halters, packs.  Don't nothing bother Hurley Badger!

Until now, my walking gear of choice has been the Easy Walk Harness.  Back in the day, before I knew anything about training dogs, we tried almost every type of harness & training collar under the sun to get Maggie to walk nicely on a leash.  On that list was the Gentle Leader.  She hated it.  Hated it. HATED IT.  So much so that one day, she just chewed the darn thing up and that was the end of the Gentle Leader.

Then we found the front clip harness and our lives were forever changed.  Both Maggie & Sadie walk so well on it that I'd never considered using a different type of harness with Big Boy Hurley.

That is, until the front clip harness started losing its effectiveness.

We've been working so hard with Hurley walking with one of his sisters.  On his own, he's great on a leash.  Add in one of his siblings and you'd think the Dude had never walked loose leash style before.  It's a little bit jockeying for front position but mostly just trying to get to that thing on the ground that might be yummy before his sister can get to it.  And playing bitey face.  He really loves bitey face walks.  He's so strong nowadays that even with the Easy Walk, he can easily drag me down the sidewalk in his quest to reach a pine cone before Maggie. 

We are taking a vacation with all 3 dogs next week so getting them to walk nicely together is paramount to us enjoying our vacation and the dogs getting to explore places with us rather than being stuck in kennels at the rental cabin.

Earlier this week, the Hubster asked me to bring home the Gentle Leader head halter.  Recalling Maggie's hatred of this tool, I was a little skeptical that it would work for the Hurley Monster.  But when the Hubster asks and asks to use training gear that I have no strong objections to, I leap to obey. 

Home came the Gentle Leader.  Out came the clicker.  My only goal the first time was to get him to accept a loose loop around his snout for 5-10 seconds.  That's acceptable progress for the first time a head halter goes on a dog and many dogs take much longer to accept it.  (Maggie's hatred of it definitely stems from our lack of knowledge when she was a puppy and forcing the halter on her too quickly.)

2 minutes into it, Hurley was sitting nicely with the halter hanging loosely around his snout.  5 minutes into it, it was tightened and secured around the back of his neck.  8 minutes in, I left it on for 30 seconds and he didn't tried to get it off.

10 minutes after starting to introduce the halter to him, we went on a walk around our block.

Gentle Leader success!

Is it because Mom knows her stuff now?  Or is because Hurley Badger don't care 'bout no harness around his snout?

I'm going with the latter.

PS.  The Hubster was right about the Gentle Leader working for Hurley.  So far, he's amazing on walks.  Granted, it's only been 2 walks and the real test comes tomorrow morning when we add one of the girls to the walk but so far so good.  Enjoy being right, baby!  'Cause you know how often that happens. ;)

Our (New) Training Plan

Our training plan for the Hurley Monster and his bad shop behavior is well underway. Here are our goals and how we are going about accomplishing them.  The #1 most important thing we've undertaken is the Nothing in Life is Free Program.  Hurley's response has been so rapid that I am hopeful he'll be returning to the store sooner rather than later. :)

Goals:
1.  Diffuse the importance of Mom.  We hope to accomplish this by increasing the importance of Dad.  So far, we've instituted a pretty strict (when we're consistent about it) Nothing in Life is Free program.  Hurley has to sit to gain access to everything he could possibly consider a resource - the backyard, toys, bones, food, affection.  While this has many benefits, it helps to diffuse how important I am to him because many times it's the Hubster who is asking for the sit and granting him access to the resource he wanted.  Hurley has chosen twice in the past week and for the first time ever to hang out with Dad over Mom so I'd say our plan is working.  The two will also be undertaking "Dude's Week" once the Hubster is done with school for the summer.  A week full of fun, new and exciting adventures, all brought to Hurley by Dad. 


2.  Create alternative rewards for Hurley besides food (toys, affection, etc).  This is where the Nothing in Life is Free program shines.  Hurley has always had a hard time sitting if you don't have a treat in your hand.  By making him sit to earn other types of resources, I see him beginning to realize that play, toys, attention - yup, those are all things he can work for and it's not just about food.  We haven't seen any improvements yet in terms of how he behaves around food but I know it will take time and maturity for him to calm down in that area.  I'm just glad that I no longer have to wait 30 seconds or longer for him to sit before I open the back door! 

3.  Continue to build on his good behavior around other dogs outside of the shop. This is where Hurley gets to have lots of fun.  Increased trips to the dog park, doggie play dates, and participating in events like the Doggie Dash all serve to increase his confidence around other dogs. 

4.  Create a default "Look at me" behavior when he sees another dog.  Any time Hurley and I are out and about, I am constantly asking for "Watch Me's" but especially when we run into another dog.  By creating a default Look when he sees another dog, I will therefore be able to guide his response to that dog.  This one is going to take months but he's doing really well.  At the dog park the other day, he gave me such a sharp swivel of his head when I asked for a "Watch Me", I was floored.  He definitely is beginning to solve the simple equation of Look at dog + Look at Mom = Treat.

5.  Create neutrality in Hurley when around reactive dogs. Ultimately, I would like Hurley to always be solid regardless of the behavior of another dog.  In one on one situations with a reactive dog, he is likely to react back.  When surrounded by many dogs (like at the dog park) and one reacts, he avoids or ignores the situation.  He really just needs more training to encourage avoidance in all situations, even when it's just him encountering one reactive dog.  We practice on our walks and any time a dog barks, he gets a treat.  When we walk by a reactive dog in their yard, he gets a handful of slowly dispensed treats.  It won't be long before he starts associating a dog's bark with yummy treats.  And knowing Hurley, if he thinks a reward is for his taking, other dogs do not exist.  Unfortunately, this also means that Hurley cannot go on walks with his sisters right now as everyone is more reactive when walking together as a pack.  Once we've resolved the individual issues, we'll be back to multi-dog walks but for now, everyone gets one on one time with Mom & Dad.

Them's our goals!  The plan is to see significant progress on each goal before considering allowing him back in the shop.  I've seen such a difference in him these past two weeks of undergoing Nothing in Life is Free and staying at home.  I'm no longer his sole reason for being, he listens better, he comes better and he seeks out affection more.  All in all, I'm incredibly pleased with how much he's progressed in such a short time and believe he'll be back in shop before the end of the summer for sure.  We're going to take it slow and reward him with time in the shop.  Another way he has to earn what he wants.  :)

Thanks for your thoughtful comments on my previous posts about Hurley's shop issues.  It helps to keep us going and not give up!

When a Full Cup is a Bad Thing

Earlier this week, I posted about "Adolescent Puppy Brain" and the regression of Hurley's resource guarding related behavior at the store.  My mild-mannered puppy has been morphing into a reactive beast and it's not good.  Beyond recognizing this as a normal developmental period that all dogs go through when they regress in their training and behavior at about a year old (aka "Adolescent Puppy Brain"), I also had to recognize that some other factors were involved.

You see, Hurley's cup is running over.  His cup of stressors and when that cup is full, his threshold is reached and he's unable to deal with the dog entering the store.

Stressor #1:  The biggest stressor he faces is his conflict over sharing the store with other dogs.  Hurley likes other dogs.  He enjoys playing and has met and liked 99% of the dogs that come into the store, even if he was a little barky to them at first.  He's especially great with puppies and small dogs but can be intimidated by confident and/or large dogs.  He also is manic about food and conflicted about enjoying another dog's presence while simultaneously sharing the store - his Most Valuable Resource as it contains food, Mom, and is not shared with his sisters.  I've known he's had this conflict since last Fall but he made tremendous steps towards accepting the presence of all dogs in the shop six months ago. Now that conflict is not so resolved anymore due to "Adolescent Puppy Brain."

Stressor #2:  The leash.  Hurley likes to rush to the door to say hello to anyone, canine or otherwise, who enters the store.  I've been successful at getting him to wait until I release him to say hello to people but he finds waiting to say hello to dogs a little too challenging at this point in his training and life.  Which results in a Hurley Monster straining at the end of his leash while I hold him back so our customers may enter in peace. As you can imagine, this is extremely frustrating for him (and for me!).  The upside is that this leash reactivity is fairly limited to the shop.  He does not exhibit any frustration on our walks about not meeting other dogs, though he is not yet at the point where he can walk by another dog on the same side of the street without a little bit of a hello.


The good news is that I am practically an expert on leash reactivity, having worked with Maggie to get her over hers in the last few years. Counter Condition, Counter Condition, Counter Condition. 

The bad news is that it takes a while.  The impression on a dog's brain from one bad experience takes many, many positive experiences to erase (at least in my experience).  And Hurley, in particular, has a better memory than most.  The more instances he reacts, the more likely he is to react in the future.  This was a major reason why I decided that he needed to take a prolonged break from the shop.  At this point, he is conditioning himself to react to each and every dog who comes in.  His threshold is being reached quicker and I have less time to intercede before he is un-intercedable and must be removed from the situation. It's my job to make sure his cup o' stressors remains as empty as possible and since I can't accomplish that right now at the shop, he stays at home. 

But that doesn't mean we're not working on these issues!  I'll post more about our training plan in the next week or so. 

When Facing Reality Sucks

I know. I know.  I've sorta been lacking in my posts this past month.  It's been a tough one and not just because I've been sick twice in the past 6 weeks.  On top of it being a busy month, blogger completely changed their interface and stressed Sarah does NOT deal well with change.  OK, enough complaining about me now and on to why our month has been rough...

We have known that Hurley is a bit manic around food and that he's got slight resource guarding issues.  While we made tons of progress on these issues last fall, he has recently been diagnosed with a case of "Adolescent Puppy Brain" - otherwise known as regressing in training and behavior.  It happens to all puppies.  And it will likely happen again before he hits two. I am writing this so 6 months from now when we have the same issues, I will read this and hopefully feel better about the inevitability and completely out-of-my-control-ness of "Adolescent Puppy Brain."

His particular case of "Adolescent Puppy Brain" has resulted in a Hurley Monster who is not cool, man, not cool, about sharing the store.  Last Fall, he had the barkies at dogs who entered and now, the 80lb lug has progressed from barking to full-on reactivity to most of the dogs who come in to the store.  And since there is no magic pill to cure "Adolescent Puppy Brain", this mama simply has to continue counter conditioning, work on reactivity and socialization out of the store, and wait until this has run its course.

The sad part is that, since Hurley's behavior is in the "completely unacceptable for a shop dog" realm, he's staying at home for the time being.  Which means I don't get to enjoy this every day:

Big dog in a little box

Although it will be Hurley's behavior that determines when he's allowed back in the shop, I am full of high hopes that "Adolescent Puppy Brain" can be cured with time and diligence and that he can return relatively soon.  Why?  Dude will chew on opposite ends of the same bone with his sisters so I KNOW he can overcome these issues at the shop.  I'll be posting more this week about what our training plan is to counteract "Adolescent Puppy Brain", how his cup of stressors runneth over here in the shop, and the regression of his resource guarding behavior. 

Why Clicker Training Rocks

Today we started serious work on Fetch & Drop It, April's Training Challenge for Genius Puppy Hurley.  I grabbed a squeaky ball, the clicker and dumped a handful of diced carrots on the counter.  Ready, set, train!

Hurley ran after his ball as I prompted "Go get it".  Actually, he meandered after it and pounced.  And then he brought it back, I asked for a "drop", he dropped it and got a click & treat.  Repeat.  Repeat. Repeat.  Wait...I thought this was something new we were training, right?  Guess Hurley pretty much has Fetch & Drop down.  So what to do now...

I decided to practice shaping using the clicker.  I am, by default, a trainer by lure.  It has always seemed like the quickest way to get the behavior I want and, other than encouraging sharkiness in relation to my hand, has been pretty successful for us so far.  But not all behaviors can be lured and I absolutely agree with the theories behind shaping as to its effectiveness in training by forcing your dog to think and problem solve.  Learning's a lot more effective and sticks when you have to figure something out for yourself.  It's about time that I added shaping to our training bag o' tricks.

I grabbed a box, a box barely big enough for Hurley to get in.  In fact, I had my doubts that all 4 paws of his 80 lb-ness would fit.  But, hey, we're just getting started - what are the chances Hurley's actually going to offer all 4 paws in the box today when he's never offered a single paw in a box, right?

It did take us over a half hour to get from one paw touching the box to all four in.  And the only time I helped was when he was stuck at the first paw in the box.  I told him "Other Paw" and he plopped his other front paw in the box immediately.  From there, it was just clicking and treating two paws in and any time a back paw went in.  From the second he got all 4 paws in at the same time, it was maybe 10 seconds until I got this:

 I had no hopes, no intentions of getting a sit in the box but apparently Hurley did.  So I started marking getting in the box with "In".  How the heck did we get from experimenting with shaping to verbally marking "In"?  a) Clicker training rocks and b) Hurley is a genius puppy.

We were out of carrots so I told him good job, gave him a kiss and hug and took myself a bathroom break.  A few minutes later, I came back out to Hurley, just sitting in his box.

I knows stuff!

Training Challenge Updates

No, the interwebs did not swallow me whole, nor did I get run over by a bus.  Sorry I've been M.I.A.!  We just finished the wettest March on record here in Portland and I had me some lack of sunshine blues.  But even though I've been a bit lax on taking the dogs on walks or to the park, we did make progress on our March training challenge to learn to twirl.  Luckily for the dogs, I am an expert twirler so I was really able to lead the pack on this one.  :) 

March roared in like a lion with Hurley having the hand gesture for twirl down before March 1st.  Rockin' & Rollin', my friends!  Unlike Roll Over, he had no problems learning to twirl in each direction.  As with everything, he's much more reliable with the hand gesture than the verbal so right now we are continuing to work on cementing our verbal communication.  And I have the best verbal command for twirling in each direction (think figure eight) - HIPPIE DANCE.  Hippie is twirl counter-clockwise and Dance is twirl clockwise.  While we have the foundation down pat, it's going to take us a little bit longer to get the two fully strung together into one solid Hippie Dance command.  Hehe...it makes me smile every time we practice as I imagine our progress getting us to the point where I say "Hurley do your hippie dance" and he meanders around in a large figure eight in typical "Hurley don't hurry" fashion. 

The girls did great this month with twirl too.  I figured out that Maggie learns much better without a lure.  A treat in my hand gets her so pumped up that she can't concentrate.  So we spent most of the month just working on her targeting my treat-less hand around in a twirl.  Such a better training experience for both of us!  I'm still working on fading the hand targeting to a hand gesture but that too will take more time.  And once I wasn't worried about always having that treat in my hand, I started practicing our twirl randomly throughout the evenings.  Hurley's doing his "Hurley don't hurry" thing when I call him to come inside?  No sweat.  The girls and I will just practice twirl while we wait for his meandering self.  Waiting for water to boil?  Perfect time for an impromptu training session! We got a lot more practice in this month than in previous months but overall, probably had less formal training sessions (one dog, 15+ minutes, treats, clicker, the whole shebang).  I feel like we've figured out a good groove for how and when we practice - one that doesn't stress me out trying to find the time to work with each of them and allows us more practice time in smaller increments throughout the week. 

I am considering March's training challenge a rousing success!  Are we where I want all 4 of us to be in our hippie dances?  Not entirely but we've got a good start and that's all I can ask.

So now it's on to April and what do we have in store?  Well, I need to lay the foundation for Hurley to learn a few things that the girls already know.  And I need to practice January's Back up and March's Twirl with the girls more.  So this April, Hurley will be working on Fetch & Drop.  He's not a natural born fetcher but I'd like to train him to fetch specific items by name and to put his toys away in the toy basket, both of which require a solid understanding of Fetch and Drop.  Since Maggie already has these down and Sadie really has never given a rat's arse about Fetch, I will spend the month making further progress with them on past training challenges.  Giving both them and myself this time to work on these challenges is as important as the accomplishments we make during each individual month.  Because it means we haven't given up even if we weren't able to reach the finish line at month's end.  Except for roll over.  I completely give up on teaching the girls that one and I don't feel one iota of guilt about that! 

It's Monday, I have the day off, and for once, the sun is shining.  So pardon me while I sign off and take the dogs on that super, duper long walk that they deserve. 

Sadie Shows Off

Sadie heard that she was trailing Hurley in our monthly training challenges.  This upset her so much that she made me make the following video so that she can show everyone how awesome she is at her favorite trick, Touch.  Then I tried to get her to speak (her very, very favorite trick) but apparently she had a frog in her throat.  The best part is when she offered up a twirl at the very end.  Woot!  I may be a slacker when it comes to March's challenge of training all three of them to twirl but they aren't holding it against me! :)

Leaping Ahead

You know that road to hell?  Yup, I made great progress on paving it this past month.  My good intentions fell by the wayside as I got both discouraged and lazy in the latter half of the month. 

Wanna know exactly how many training sessions I did with Maggie & Sadie after the last post on training roll over?  Zero. Zip. Nada.  (hangs head)

I don't wanna say that I gave up but that's sorta what happened.  Maggie got as far as I expected, which was to willingly lay on her side and lift a foot in the air.  For her, this is great progress.  A rolling over dog, she is not.

And then there's Sadie.  I love her to bits & pieces but totally don't understand how she can get something one day and look at me like I've never ever worked on it with her the next day.   The good news is that once we moved on to roll over, she seemed to start to understand January's training challenge Back Up.  So maybe once we start March's challenge, she might magically start offering a roll over?  A girl can wish. 

At least there's Hurley.  The genius makes me feel like I'm the World's Best Trainer.  It's a great ego boost!  He's a roll over god. 

So on this leap day, we leap forward to March, leaving roll over in the dust.  Good riddance, roll over! Hello, twirl!  Why twirl?  Because I truly believe this one should be easy for Maggie and after the last 2 months, girl needs a break.

2012 Training Challenge Standings

January "Back Up"
Hurley: Stellar
Sadie: Getting There
Maggie:  Oh you want me to hop?  I can do that!

February "Roll Over"
Hurley: I roll like nobody's business.
Sadie:  If there's carpet, a lure and a tent, you got a 1 in 10 shot at me doing that crazy roll over thing.
Maggie:  Good girls don't roll over.  It's uncouth!
 

The Training Shuffle

This post is part of our 2012 Training Challenges series.  Each month we'll tackle learning a new trick, command, behavior.  You name it, we'll train it.  Seriously...if you have an idea, let us know in the comments below!

For every one step forward, we take a few steps back.  And then a few steps forward, back, forward...you get the point.  I call it the Training Shuffle and it completely defines my experiences training Maggie & Sadie. 

If you like my Facebook page, then you might have seen my post last week about how awesome Sadie did in our first rollover training session.  It was amazing, unexpected and completely due to the Hubster's work with her.  She was lured into a rollover on the very first try!  And then she did it again...and again...and then on the other side.  Woot!  I was ecstatic that our training challenge for February was going so well with her, seeing that Back Up last month was, well, let's just say Sadie did NOT have it down by the end of the month.

Then we had a second training session, a third and a fourth - all complete and total training failures.  Not only did she refuse to be lured, she refused to lift a leg off the floor.  Yes, she would get on her side but that was it.  She wouldn't even move her head around to sniff at the treasure trove of treats I had in my hand.  What the !?!?!?

I was at a loss.  How does she go from absolutely no problems rolling over to get to a treat to zero interest in the treat?  Several theories later, I realized that it was the room we were training in that was the problem.  See, the Hubster does training in our den in the basement.  Our carpeted den.  I usually do training upstairs in our living room.  Our hardwood-floored living room.

So this morning, off Sadie and I went to the den to see if carpeting truly made a difference.  Voila!  Training obstacle overcome.  Princess Sadie must be comfortable when contorting her body into a rollover.  Either that or she must have her precious tent to hop into after each successful or unsuccessful attempt, which belongs in the Top 5 Cutest Things Sadie Has Ever Done list.  I keep watching this video and dying over how adorable she is.  Who needs a roll over when your dog hops into her tent with such utter joy after attempting said roll over?

While we had a step forward in our training this morning, I am sure we will experience some more steps backward but how could I ever get frustrated with a dog who has such enthusiasm for all things tent-related?  I don't.  She just makes me laugh.

Why Hurley Is a Genius Puppy

This post is part of our 2012 Training Challenges series.  Each month we'll tackle learning a new trick, command, behavior.  You name it, we'll train it.  Seriously...if you have an idea, let us know in the comments below!

I've often said that Hurley is incredibly smart.  I frequently call him a genius puppy.  Why?  His ability to learn anything faster than I can teach it.  Literally. 

Case in point.  We're working on Roll Over.  We started the last week of January and have been very lax in the number of training sessions we've done.  This is exactly how much time we've put into it:

Week One:  2-3 training sessions of about 15 minutes each.  First session was about getting Hurley comfortable rolling onto his side so he got clicks & treats simply for laying on his side.  Second (and third if we did a third that week, I can't remember) session was about getting him to roll over while being lured by a handful of treats.  No verbal command used to mark the rollover yet; it was just about getting him comfortable with the movement.

Week Two:  Last week, we did a couple training sessions in the store (probably 15 minutes each) continuing to build on his comfort level rolling over.  I also worked on withdrawing the lure by keeping my hand full o' treats farther away from his snout.  I was still moving my hand across his body/back to elicit the roll over but I was able to back the hand away about a foot to 18 inches away from his body.

Week 3:  This past weekend, the Hubster worked on roll over with him.  On Wednesday, I had a 15 minute session in the shop.  As soon as he hit his side, he immediately did a roll over without being lured (I did have treats in my hand but hadn't had the chance to move my hand before he flopped over) and so I started marking it with the verbal cue.  He even figured out the hand cue before I had decided what it was going to be.  If that doesn't tell you who's smarter between the two of us...

Total time Spent on Roll Over:  90 - 120 minutes.  Yup, that's it folks. He's about 80% of the way there. 

He is at the point that we are "showing off" his trick to customers.  Hurley loves to show off so I use it to cement whatever we are learning.   Even on a command he's being stubborn on, he can never resist the temptation to show it off to his adoring fans (yes, he is fully aware of how many people he has wrapped around his dewclaw).

And while he may be smart, he's not perfect.  Dude can't figure out how to roll over on his left side. 

Training videos coming soon & next week I'll share the trials and tribulations otherwise known as me trying to train Maggie & Sadie.

February Training Challenge: Roll Over!

This post is part of our 2012 Training Challenges series.  Each month we'll tackle learning a new trick, command, behavior.  You name it, we'll train it.  Seriously...if you have an idea, let us know in the comments below!

For January, we tackled "Back Up" with moderate success.  1 out of 3 ain't bad?  

Since it's leap year and we've got an extra day in February, I'm not at all freaking out about not really having started for reals our February Training Challenge.  If you caught one of my posts on January's challenge, you might have caught the sneak peek at our next challenge, which is....drumroll please...Roll Over!

While this is a fairly basic one, it has been heretofore absent from our modest arsenal of tricks.  And it's been tried though not in a while.  See, last I tried, Maggie was probably about a year old and, at that point in her life, extremely averse to rolling onto her back.  Girl hated belly rubs.  Luckily, she's relaxed as she's grown up and it might be a good time to try again.  I hope.

The Hubster has had some previous success with Sadie but it hasn't stuck.  Which is more to do with our effort than her ability to get it. 

And as you saw a couple weeks ago, Hurley is already getting pretty comfortable with rolling over; now it's just fading the lure.  Which will be 100% about my ability more than his.  He's pretty patient with me and knows I need time to figure it out so I'm confident we'll get there.

What I'm really saying is....holy crap, we're already a week into February and I haven't even started working on shaping the rollover with the girls! 
 

Back Up: Completed-ish

This post is part of our 2012 Training Challenge and this month's challenge includes participating in Something Wagging's 2012 Train Your Dog Challenge for January.  We chose to work on Back Up so I would have a command to get Hurley's noggin out of mine when needed.

And with minutes (literally) to spare before the deadline, here are the results of Something Wagging's Train Your Dog Challenge!  If I were one to make my dogs compete against each other, Maggie would win for Cutest Wiggly Butt, Sadie for Best Effort and Hurley for Best in Show.  Also known as giving my other 2 dogs a bone since Hurley clearly smoked his sisters when it came to learning Back up. 

Since we've gotten Hurley, we've been working on the same basic training that we had done with Maggie & Sadie.  Up to this point, I've never tackled teaching all 3 of them something relatively new.  And so I never realized how completely different they learn.  Maggie & Sadie are high energy learners....as in, they will perform a tornado of activity, every trick they think they may know, just to earn one single treat.  They're hopping, twirling & wagging their tails a mile a minute.  It's chaotic and difficult for me to get my timing right with the clicker.  Hurley on the other hand is extremely calm when learning.  If he's not sure what I want, he will lay down and look adorable.  Smart dude knows calm behavior, a down stay and puppy eyes will get him that treat 99 times out of 100. 

More than them learning Back Up, which really only Hurley knows on command, this experience showed me how much I'm slacking when it comes to training Maggie & Sadie.  Just because they are relatively well-behaved dogs who pay attention to Mom's tone of voice well enough that tons of specific commands aren't necessarily needed, doesn't mean that they don't benefit from training sessions.  If for nothing else than it makes them so darn happy to earn a few treats.  And so I embark on the remainder of 2012 determined that this won't be the Year of Hurley the Wonder Dog.  Rather, it will be a year of training & bonding with all 3.  Yes, my expectations of Hurley will always be greater because he's out and about with the public on a daily basis.  Yes, he will likely always smoke the girls when it comes to his ability to learn new stuff.  But I had more fun trying to corral the craziness of Maggie & Sadie than I had expected.  Even when they're all over the place, this Momma can't get frustrated because their enthusiasm is too contagious.

(Yes I cheated and used the same video for Hurley from mid-January)

January is over and then some.  Hurley has Back Up down - we are now including it in strings of behaviors and he can back up 4-5 times in between click & treats now.  Sadie struggled at first but once I did some one on one training and incorporated jackpotting treats when she backed up without hopping, she really started to understand the movement I was asking for.  She doesn't have it "on command" yet but is close.  Maggie totally understands the movement but IS JUST SO DARN EXCITED FOR A TREAT that she can't help but hop backwards most of the time.  Her level of enthusiasm has always been an issue as she just can't contain herself.  While she did demonstrate that she understood the movement I was asking for, she didn't progress any farther along than Sadie by the end of the month. Needless to say, we still have lots of work to do on back up but that's not gonna keep us from moving on.


Stay tuned for tomorrow's post when February's Training Goal is revealed!

Progress Report: Back up

We are participating in Something Wagging's Train Your Dog Challenge.  Not just for the month of January though.  Hurley and I are going hard-core and training one new thing each month in 2012!

For January's challenge, we chose to work on the command "Back Up."  Here's where we are: 

Back up is coming along splendidly.  I know it's not the most glamorous of tricks - we'll get there - but it is a basic behavior that the Hurley I know needed.  I've used it to get his schnozzle out of the fridge, get out of my way when I'm moving bags of food and a couple other instances.  I'm loving how useful this one will be!

But I felt that the learning curve was pretty short for this challenge thing.  Too short for a new behavior that's supposed to take us 30 days to learn.  I know I started out easy peasy but he had it down pretty much as soon as I brought the clicker out on the 3rd day of training.  At the end of the first week, this was where we were at:

Training went so well with Smart Man Hurley-pants, I decided to include the girls in on the fun.  I've done a few sessions - all 3 dogs, just the girls, one on one and, while they seem to be getting the backup motion, they are no where near as far along as Hurley.  Maggie at first tried to hop back with front paws in the air and it took several training sessions for her to understand that I wanted all 4 paws on the ground but she's finally there.  Sadie just hops back. I cannot get her to stand in front of me without sitting (her default behavior).  And so she then does a cute little hop backwards into another sit.  Both of them will offer up every single thing they know in about 10 seconds flat as well before settling into understanding that we're working on backup.  And their energy level training?  Off the charts!  Neither of them have Backup down on either verbal or hand command yet so I still have to step towards them to elicit the step backward.  Sigh.  I've still got 5 days in the month left, right?

Wondering what's next on our training agenda?  Here's a sneak peek!

Three Dog Walking

I did it folks.  For the first time ever, I walked all 3 dogs together.  I was a little concerned about how calm I could remain, how frustrated I would be by the time it was over but things have been going so well on our 2 dog walks, I figured it was time to up the ante.

For those who haven't been following this blog for long, our Maggie has a history of leash aggression and Sadie is leash reactive.  Hurley didn't get too many walks with them in the beginning so their bad behavior didn't rub off on him.  Meanwhile, we have been working hard on their issues and both were finally ready for 2 dog walks earlier this year. 

And it went very well.  Hurley was the worst with Maggie & Sadie virtually perfect.  How did I get here? 

1.  Our first 3 dog walk was today and it is cold, wet, snowy, slushy and just downright not fun walking weather.  I figured this would result in dogs that were less than thrilled to be out and about in it and therefore, a bit calmer.  Mission accomplished! 

2.  We've practiced loads of 2 dog walks in the past few months.  The Hubster has especially been great at getting them out together while I do at least one multi-dog walk per week with more individual walks throughout the week. 

3.  Perfecting single dog walks.  We've spent the majority of our time since we got Hurley working on everyone's individual walking behavior and only recently working on multi-dog walks.  Sadie & Maggie finally seem to understand that our expectations are the same whether it's just one of them or the whole lot of them.  They are finally understanding a lot of things that previously they struggled with - something I attribute to the addition of Hurley. 

4.  Our dogs "earn" each block they gain access to.  When we first started multi-dog walks, we just walked back and forth for a half hour on our block only.  And in the middle of the street.  If they were good, then we walked one block up and did the same back and forth.  It's amazing how quickly dogs start walking well on a leash when they get bored sniffing the same thing over and over and over...

5.  I don't have the same expectations in terms of 100% loose leash when I am walking all 3.  At this point.  So even though Hurley was not great, he wasn't terrible and that's about all I can ask on the first 3 dog walk (technically, the 2nd as the Hubster took them all 3 out once, which was a "disaster" as he called it).  This one is most important for me - the level of my frustration/anxiety directly corresponds to the crazy leash behavior.  The calmer and more laid-back I am, the better they all are.  The less I push them to be "perfect", the better they are in comparison to the last experience.  So I let go of any expectations that this walk would be a success, just decided to try it so I would know what we needed to work on and voila!  It was pretty darn great. 

6.  I carry a water bottle on our walks to spritz Hurley.  Because he thinks walking with another dog is a great time to play bitey face.  I only need to use it once, when we first start out and he's fine the rest of the walk.  My hope is that over the next month, I can phase out the use of the water bottle entirely.  I much prefer to use this than attempt any leash corrections (which I still don't get how to do them correctly and don't believe they are the best training method for achieving a dog happy to be on the other end of the leash, a critical attitude needed for working on leash reactivity).  And since bitey face is a result of Hurley getting amped up, I try not to use a lot of treats at the beginning of our walks as that just amps him up that much more. I wait until he is calmer about getting to walk with his sisters, then we pull out the treats for practicing "watch me"s and sitting nicely at corners.  Today,  I didn't try either of those though as I just wanted to get a feel for where they all three were at when it came to walking as a pack.

7.  I use front clip harnesses on all 3 of them.  They pull less and when they do pull, it's less jarring on my arm.  This results in me being able to react and control them better as opposed to just trying to keep my arm from being pulled off.

8.  I walk the dogs between 8 and 9:30am.  This seems to be the perfect time in our neighborhood for the least amount of encounters with people, dogs and cats.  All of these things puts the dogs into a tizzy so by walking at less busy times, we are able to achieve better walking behavior.  Once we are 100%, we will start upping the ante by walking through a local park, at busier times, etc but we're not there yet.

I was really happy about how Maggie & Sadie were content to walk side by side and didn't try to compete to be out front alongside Hurley.  When Hurley was walking between them, we had the best success and for a few precious minutes, all 3 were on very loose leashes, all walking side by side with no side trips to smell grass, no jostling for position.  Then we reached a puddle which Hurley had to jump over (Hurley doesn't do puddles) and the peace was broken but those few minutes showed me that we're not far away from entire walks that calm and peaceful.  

I have to say Thank You!  to 24 Paws of Love.  They posted today about the one behavior that they wished magically could be fixed.  Theirs was walking behavior as is mine.  Their post inspired me to just give the 3 dog walk a try.  It was only my uncertainty on how it would go that stopped me from getting to this point.  So I decided to wave my own magic wand, bite the bullet and just do it.  Sometimes, that's all it takes. I'm sure we're are going to have absolutely terrible, frustrating, awful 3 dog walks in our future.  But we started out pretty darn good and we're gonna keep going, no matter what. 

In other news, Hurley saw snowflakes for the very first time today and had no reaction.  Zero.  Zip. Nada.  It was disappointing because Maggie & Sadie love romping in the snow and I get giddy excited at the possibility of seeing any here in Portland.  Not only did the weather let us down by not snowing steadily for more than 2 minutes at a time, none of it stuck.  They say we may get more tonight but I'm not believing those deceitful weather people who toy with my emotions any longer.  And how could Hurley not even take notice of the white flakes falling on his nose?.  Not even notice!  Disappointed, dude, disappointed.

Wordless Wednesday: A Miracle on Treat Street

 

Today, we were just practicing some impulse control - stays and leave its while I tossed treats around him.  He was doing so well that I decided to up the ante.  Look what happens when you just go with the flow!  Great job, Hurley man!

January Training Challenge: Back Up

Back, Back, Back the truck up!

For our first 30-day training challenge of 2012, Hurley and I will be perfecting "Back up".  The practical uses for this are numerous.  He's in my face?  Back up.  Not in heel position?  Back up.  Too close to his food bowl?  Back up.  About to be sprayed by a skunk?  For doG's sake, BACK UP! 

I foresee this being used a lot.

The verbal command will be, duh, "Back up."  The hand signal will be my hand gesturing away from my body.  We will videotape this at some point so that you know what "my hand gesturing away from my body" looks like.  If I were talented at drawing or even using Adobe products (hell, Paint could probably do in a pinch), I could illustrate what this looks like but alas, I have no such talents so your imagination you must use. 

My goal is to get Hurley to back away from sit and stand positions, in front of me or beside me.  I'd love to add distance (he backs away even when he's not right by me) but am unsure if we'll get that far in 30 days.  Maybe someday we will spend an entire walk walking backwards.  That would drive him insane and therefore, makes me giggle thinking 'bout it.  I could totally be that crazy lady in the 'hood who walks her dog backwards!

To start out, I ask Hurley to sit in front of me.  Once he's in sit position, I step into him while extending my hand over his head (that's the "my hand gesturing away from my body") and I say "Back up" once he starts to move.  When he moves his back paws, he gets a good boy and a treat.  Two days in, we are still at this stage.  He is offering a backup each time though and not sidling to the side or offering a paw so he's beginning to understand.  While conventional wisdom dictates not adding a verbal command until the behavior is down, I find that Hurley and I work better when I start out with both hand gesture and verbal command.  It's not always appropriate, depending upon what we're training, but it's worked well for us heretofore so I'm sticking with our unconventional way of doing things.

Step 2 will be to remove me stepping forward from the sequence and simply use the hand gesture and vocal command.  To get there, I will be fake stepping forward towards the end of our training sessions over the next couple of days.  Fake stepping means I just lift my leg as if I'm about to step forward but not actually step into him.

After that, we will be working on from a standing position, on a taut leash to get back into heel position and from a distance. 

Wish us luck! 

And don't forget to comment with any tricks you would like to see Hurley learn this year.  We're still working on the list! 

2012 Training Challenges

Did you know that January is Train Your Dog month?  I didn't.  Not until Pamela over at Something Wagging mentioned it earlier this week. 

Someone also posted on Facebook the TED talk re 30 day challenges (if I were one to make New Years Resolutions, mine would be to watch more TED Talks). The concept is that 30 days is the perfect amount of time to try something new.  It's the perfect amount of time to develop new habits and the short length is not so daunting as to un-motivate.

Both of these got my lil ol' brain working overtime.  Hurley and I have reached a training plateau.  The basics are down and while we're working on repetition, increasing duration, distance and distractions, we really haven't been working on anything new.  I've also been feeling unmotivated to blog - mostly because of a lack of ideas of what to blog about.  What I'm saying is that I need some fodder, folks.

So I challenge myself (and Hurley) this year to a series of 30 day challenges.  Over the course of 2012, we will tackle one new command/behavior/trick every 30 days and spend the month focusing on training that one thing.  Sure, we will fail sometimes.  We will succeed others.  But most importantly, we will try.

And here's where the fun part comes in.  I haven't yet come up with the 12 things we will train so I'd love to hear about what YOU would like to see Hurley accomplish in 2012. 

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post talking about what we will be working on for January's training challenge!

Christmas Comes Early

Christmas came early in our house and I got the best present ever:  Hurley has stopped barking at and reacting to dogs who come in the shop! Thanks, Santa!!  Once again, you knew exactly what I wanted.

It happened one fateful day otherwise known as last Tuesday.  Hurley is usually tethered behind the counter with me and normally when a dog comes in, I untether him so that I have more control over him and can work on his barking behavior.  But on this magical day, I decided to leave him tethered and position myself, water bottle in hand, between him and the entering dog.  I was in position, ready to douse him once the barking commenced.  But. It. Never. Did.

For some unfathomable reason, being tethered behind the counter virtually eliminated the barking.  It goes against every experience and instinct I have.  Tethering would only increase the reactivity of my other two in the same type of situation.  With Hurley, tethering has had the exact opposite effect.  He now calmly greets canine visitors and the barking that has happened has definitely been excitable "Let's play" style o' barking and not "Hey, you're on my turf now" type of barking.

I'm sure it's not just magic.  Our training class has helped Hurley learn how to be calm and non-vocal around other dogs.  It has helped him pay attention to us in the presence of distractions.  While I had my doubts about Leader of the Pack style training, the sparse use of treats and the focus in the class on using affection as a reinforcer in lieu of treats has helped me learn how to better phase out treats.  I've limited use of treats in the shop, which has helped to make it a less valuable resource for Hurley (I think).

Whether it has been fighting fleas or working on Hurley's rotten social skills at the store, I feel that the over-riding theme of this Fall with my dogs is this:  Never Give Up.  There were many times that I didn't think we'd make it over this hurdle.  Many times where I started to resign myself that he wasn't suitable to be a shop dog.  I got angry.  I was frustrated.  I even cried.  But I didn't give up and Hurley responded to our continued efforts sprinkled with a little magic.  I may never understand why being tethered creates calm and relaxed canine greetings in my puppy and I'm not too concerned with figuring it out.  I'm just glad that we made it here, a place where I don't even think twice about loading him up in the car and coming to work with me.