I did it :)

A year ago, I couldn't go out in public without having a panic attack if I saw another dog... yesterday I competed in my very first rally trial, after working with our new trainer who taught us how to work on my issues with positive reinforcement and the clicker. Not only did I survive HOURS surrounded by other dogs, I did it without squeaking or having any panic attacks and managed to qualify. I would have done better, but mom dropped a few treats here and there, and we got a cue or two confused because we just started working on them for this trial. But over all I had a blast and mom says she is so proud of me and that I exceeded her expectations. And my sister did even better (but she always was the "good dog") and she placed 3rd in her group. I can't wait to get out to another trial so mom can get it right and earn me a pretty ribbon too :)

"Scenerity now!"

Gah, Blue just scaled the chain link fence to get to a goldren retreiver the
owner had no control over, he just let out of the house loose and it beelined
for our yard and immediately started fighting through the fence. Once they
actually met face to face they were fine and she started barking at the guy!

Basically, what happened. I just got back from a walk tht went really well. We
worked through a meltdown with a dog in the yard, and ending with a walk where
she was relaxed, actually sniffing around and just going along. We were in the
yard, and they were sitting near me when I hear a guy yelling for his dogs. The
girls noticed, I called them, and they looked at me, and I should have taken
them in right then and there, and I didn't react fast enough. The golden was on
the fence, the dogs broke and fence fighting ensued (I think Kaya actually was
the main reactive here to start actually, outside the golden coming in the first
place) But it sent Blue through the roof, and she was jumping by the fence. Just
as I was about to take hold of her she got a good jump and was over the fence.
She went right for the dog, who snapped at her, and Blue went into immediate
calming signal mode and the dogs made friends.

While I am pissed she jumped the fence, that wasn't so bad. As I was getting out
the gate (I would have jumped the fence had a dog fight ensued) I saw her jump
up to say hello to the guy, who got scared, understandably, she was super excited, and KNOCKED her down. Well, that set
her off and she started barking. I called her and she started to come but then
ran back and pecked him and barked, at which point I got a hold of her and led
her away, took her and Kaya to the front porch where I worked on having them lay
down until I got complete calm from both of them and released them for a few
minutes then brought them in because by THAT time I had to reheat my tea!

So, not a good moment, and I am a little concerned of the potential
reprocussions of that one :(

Why do people who know they don't have recall of their dogs insist on let them
out off lead? This dog (Dakota... I know because I hear the guy yelling it all
the time to no avail) has done this several times. But I have been good lately
about anticipating (when I hear the guy yelling his name) and gettign the dogs
inside. This time happened to quickly. Despite my huge sense of dissapointment there is a small part of me that is rather impressed with Blues athletecism! Hope she doesn't do it again, ever!

:( Chalk it up to ones of God's little challenges and just move on, I suppose...

Outside perspectives often help

Time is not on my side these days. Getting to do formal sessions with the pups has been hard. Late hours at work and early hours of dark, and uncooperative weather. I did get the girls out to the park on Sunday. There is a nice trail in the preserve out by the energy company that runs along the river.

I got there and there were two people coming out with their greyhounds, so I left the girls in the car until they packed up and left. Got the girls out one at a time. I worked with Blue first and got her focus. I used the longer leash, about 8 foot. It's actually a lead rope, but it gives her a little freedom. She's too excited to keep short, so I work with her just learning the boundary of roming I want to allow, and getting attention at random times or if she is surging against the lead. Kaya I attach to a hands free. I don't give her as much lead, even though she is the better pup because it would be too easy to tangle, but she has plenty of lead to sniff and check things out.

It was a nice walk. Both girls were pretty good. (No surprise for Kaya LOL) Blue was excited, but who canblame her. It's been a while since we have been out on a trail. Our last experience with the ticks in the early summer kind of scared me away LOL. We have been doing most of our work on focus on the road. I wanted to giver her a chance to "let her haid down" and get her sniff on, but in a controlled manner. I have been practicing at the training center walking around the pond, but for it being the first time in the "wilds" since spring, she did great. If she surged ahead I would stop and wait, and she was giving me (fletting) focus whereas in the past this was not the case if she fixated. I had to wait her out, but she did return focus instead of freak out at squirrles so we could move on. With coaxing we got some recalls too (recalls are perfect at home and in the neighborhood immediately around my house such as the neighbors or when visiting people - but that is it!) and she was good. She was not interested in food and was actually working for gentle praise and or forward movement, not something she typically works for, but seemed to be be enough for her in this situation, so nice...

We made most of the trail without encountering anyone, but it was a beautiful day, so I wasn't surprised when we did come across someone else with a dog. There was another trail off to the side, so I moved down it to a distance where my dogs might not notice the other, or at least, shouldn't react. Unfortunately, the guy didn't go the way I was coming from originally, he followed me down the trail. I asked him if he could instead go past me on the original trail so I could get past him and get out of his way. So he did, but didn't realy move all that far, so I knew Blue was going to react, and she did. I still consider it a success though because although she did react, she did physically stay with me as we went by and returned her focus to me pretty quickly after we passed. She looked a few times, but let it go pretty quickly adn relaxed and moved on.

We were out for a couple of hours, and it was nice to really get some of that physical energy out of her. Hopefully, once we get past thenext few hectic weeks, I will be able to get them back on a better program again. In the mean time, classes are going well. Blue seems to be strugling a little with the adjustment in the time of day we go, but things will settle down again. Just makes me realize that she needs more variety of settings. I have to find some more places we can go, love to find more trails, but the tick thing is freaking me out... this past trail adventure left us ALL with ticks on us. Not as bad as the spring, but quite a few of them! Need to find some parks I can go and work them where maybe it isn't quite so wild !

Oh, and the point of the title. My neighbor came to let out the girls the other night because I had to stay at work from 6:30 am to 9 PM. I aske dhow they were (Blue can be a TERRIBLE greeter) and he said she was good. She tried to jump once but when he told her "off" she listened and behaved. He said he can see her getting better and calmer and that they were both really good. Listened, came in when called. So that was nice! He let them out twice, so it must not have been that big of a PITA. I am helping dog sit their dog next week and they told me they would help me out next July. I have two neighbors now that I could probably get to rotate times taking them out for me while I am on vacation. That would be awesome. Putting Blue (or Kaya for that matter, she can be pretty sensitive) in a kennel, I just can't do it to them.

Picking up in the middle...

I blog most of this elsewhere, but thought to myself, why don't I xpost this to Blue's personal page! :) So quick overview before I post the current stuff...

Then: All of my previous pets have been "easy" dogs to train. After the death of my beloved Greta Garbo, Kaya (my other dog) and I were left with a whole. It did not take me long to go to the local shelter and search for hours, determined to select a dog to bring home. After a painstaking search, I came home with Stella Blue (formerly Lacuna), a pointer hound mix of some sort. The complete opposite of my former companion.

For 3 years I tried to train Blue using my traditional methods. Treat training was a part of the equation, but a small part. I taught a very good recall this way. But for some reason, I never extended the concept elsewhere in our regiment, and over the years, many problems began to arise.

Since my methods of training were not working on this pup, I decided to find a trainer to help me with clicker training and R + training in general. I have begun to work with a trainer named Ali Brown (the other of Scaredy Dog and Focus not Fear). We have been working for a month now, and I have seen some nice improvements in Blue and decided I need to blog / keep track of this progress.

Now:

I haven't had much time to walk and really work with Blue alone, so I decided it was time to up a criteria anyway. I want Blue a notch less stressful yet while we are out and about. Certain areas are lines we cross that just set her up. Not nutty but on edge. Squeaky. I used to settle for squeaky. I don't want to settle for squeaky anymore! :) So the lack of time and the new needs fit in with the idea of just working her up and down and up and down my block. Focusing on me, but relaxed about it and looking around calmly. Working on not having to have her stare at me the entire time as a crutch. She did pretty good. I walked her past the spots that sends her level up a bit and would take her back to comfort zone, pushing a little further and further into the zone, but only rewarding for silence (regardless if she was looking at me or the object of desire. If she was looking at me I would reward her with allowing her to sniff or tossing a treat to the ground, if she wasn't looking at me I rewarded with a food reward so that she was being rwarded for looking calmly but had to turn to me for the reward. I repeated this exercise with Kaya too. Both were rewarded for waiting calmly while I worked the other dog (Blue I put in the covered crate in the car - Kaya was in the yard so she would get used to us being away from her, but I could reward her for not acting silly)

In the house today I worked on refining some things she knows.

1. Plotz (down with smaller hand signal and a verbal cue). Good. I would mix this u and was combining it with sits, stays, come, trying to get a quicker response with plotz.

2. Bow - she is starting to get the cutest play bow :P Need to catch it on video. I still haev to use food lures, and I misclick once in a while as she ends up putting butt on the floor to, but we are getting it. Had a couple really cute ones, and she held it, didn't start to put the butt down, so I must have caught a few good clicks in there. (The key is not just timing the click right but moving the lure hand away fast enough that the dog stands up and knows the behavior ended with just the front end down.

3. Heel, near me - Just walking around and clicking when she is near my side. Instead of rewarding her from my hand though, I am dropping the reward and continuing walking so she has to keep coming up from behind me. If she would get ahead, I would turn and reward for when she came up behind me again. Only did a short spell of this because she was doing really well.

4. We ended with a bunch of basic touches and the like. She is like a cobra. Target and bam she hits it, so it's a super easy one for her and just kind of loosens her back up. Then I did a last plotz and it was a good one, so I jack potted her with what was left of the food...

It's amazing what she will do for kibble not long after she just ate breakfast (it was a small one... tilapia fillets... it was more like a snack)

Other than those two days, we had a couple nice days where I have had to do work in the yard. I just worked on their general behavior in the yard. At one point, Blue was getting a little stupid with the neighbors dogs, fence running. She would stop and come when I called, bt the moment I was back to what I was doing she would go off again. So I leashed her up and just worked on her being out front with me and being calm. She actually had a touch time with this. She was anxious just standing around the front fencing. I actually just worked on some classical conditioning. If I heard other dogs barking or saw things that might set her off, I stopped and just did some basic touches and the like to try to condition here to nice things when she hears these stimulating sounds. She did start to relax a bit by the time I finished. It's been hard to be consistent with this type of thing. Need to work on it more. Having to shovel will be an interesting challenge... don't want to think about that yet though!

Training Log

Today was a little more challenging. Not the walk part, but trying to get out of the house. In retrospect, things might have been a little easier if I had taken them both for a bike ride first, then tried. But it was raining and it was challenge enough to motivate myself to try and walk Blue again.

When I got home, I let them out for a romp in the yard, but then I have to keep Kaya in the basement (finished) so I can take Blue, because if I try to get out of the house without her she would make my life difficult. Who could blame her, she wants to go too, and I rarely if ever separate them. So she was whining and crying maing it hard to get a calm Blue to get out. She kept wanting to go check on Kaya, but then would "check in" and I would click and treat. At first she was screeching barking, but we finally got it to a mild whimper and a solid sit and look at me, so that was when I got her out of the house. She settled once we were out and couldn't hear Kaya (as did Kaya - I would have been able to hear her outside if she was still howling - it is the most pathetic sound you ever heard... she rarely makes a sound like that, but when she does, it tears your heart out)

The walk was good... I did a different (yet familiar) loop. Again, better on my street and when we were close... she was looking all over like she was looking for something to react to, but kept looking back to me...

While this rain sucks, it is actually a blessing in disguise because I can practice off the property without so much activity going on. Peoples dogs are in and the squirrels and stray cats are not so active. I notice that when we get to locations where we have had meltdowns in the past, she would get a little anxious and whiney, but she would almost have an "oh wait... let me check out the lady with the leash and she'll give me a treat" A few times she took a bit long to "check in" so I just stopped out forward movement ( a pretty big reward in her mind as it is) and when she id I C/T'd and continued our forward movement. Nary a pull... a few times she got to the end of the leash but did not try to pull through it... it was more of an asking if she could go check something out and sniff. A few times I encouraged her to keep moving and a few times, (her fav spots) I let her have a good sniff.

Tomorrow may be a non walk day, only because there is soOOoooo much to do around here (it's cleaning and garbage day), so I will probably do inside work and just work on doing some of our silly tricks and the like. Almost got roll over. :) Will probably still try to do some of those things tonight as well since they won't really get much yard time with the rain. Kaya loves to play those games too and it will be a good chance to try to work on them at the same time. With Kaya I am just using "good" for now because I don't want them getting confused over the clicker. I need to get one of those with 2 tones.

Training log

So it was a rainy day and I didn't attack all my goals, but I got some work in. This morning, I worked exclusively with Blue, my problem child. One thing I want to do is reintroduce her to the calming cap so that maybe I can implement it in the car. I put it on her and just kep treating her so that she wouldn't try to paw it off. Once I got her attention with that, I worked on some of the simple target training we have been doing with targeting my hand. After a bit, I took off the cap, and just kept going with the target training, walking all through the house, getting her to target my hand. She was pretty good. Would get ahead of me a few times, but would return to the target. That was it for the am... that was about 15 minutes worth.

This afternoon, once the rain stopped for the most part, I leashed her up... waiting for calm (for her... wasn't perfect, but I will take what I can get at this point) to put her harness on and clip the leash. I waited for focus going out the door and once we got out side. Again, not perfect, but pretty good. I did the same for the gate. I walked her loose leash. When she would reach the end and pull, I would stop and wait for her to look at me. Then it was click and treat (she heard the click she runs back for the treat.) A few times she got whine when she hit the end and couldn't go forward, but fortunately we didn't see any squirrels for a total melt down... and each time she did look back, got the click and the treat. She was definitely better along our street and got a little more wound up on the alley way where the pittie is, but she actually didn't really respond to him too badly. She seems to be responding pretty quickly to looking at me for "comfort" (ie food :P) Not bad for not using super yummy treats either... we were using kibble.

Afterwards, I put her "away" and took out Kaya and repeated the same exercise. She actuallyy isn't as good at "checking in" with me, but she also doesn't pull... she stops and sniffs, and usually a gentle tug with the leash and a "let's go" gets her on her way again. She might need tastier treats in general as she isn't as food motivated as Blue... but for her, letting her sniff around a bit is a reward. So it was all good... each got about a 10 minute walk... not as much as I would like, but I wanted to have an uneventful walk with Blue... I call it a win because there were no meltdowns...

I'll probably continue the bikerides for the exercise walks for now, because they don't get much chance to react on those, and I can do them together. I'll keep them separate on the regular walks and keep them shorter so I can work on loose leash walking. Blue was still zigzagging a bit, but I am not going to try to get perfection day one! Right ow I am ust happy that 85% of the walk was completely loose leash, and it was our first try in a long time.


Yesterday they had a playdate with Bigfoot in the back of me. They were good girls. Kaya actually started a quarrel over a bonel but Bigfoot stood his ground and put her in her place, and it was quickly over... he is not an aggressive dog by any stretch, but didn't tolerate Kaya's silliness. so that was good. Blue was much less barky and defensive with him and actually got into a playful wrestle with him. We kept Kaya to the side, because when she gets in the mix, she tends to pick on Blue a bit.

Don't think I updated yesterday... but I did do some target work with Blue... it was a light training day. I had a bit to do in the yard... but today was good, and we will keep it up all week. :)

Now for MY answers because I was tagged twice

Blues answers to the same tag

My good buddy, the Captain of the USS Enterprise, Jean-Luc, tagged me!! The rules to this game are to put in four of the following and then tag four other pups! So here goes:

Name four jobs that you've had.
1. Tissue recycler
2. Door Bell
3. Mom's Lumbar Support
4. Mood Stabilizer

Four places you have lived.
1. The pound
2. Mom's house
3. Kaya also live in Asbury Park NJ
4. Kaya also lived in Texas

Four places where you have been.
1. (Kaya) Telluride Colorado
2. NJ Beach
3. Jacobsburg park and some other local hiking trails
4. New Hampshire

Four places you'd rather be.
1. At the park
2. Going for a walk with Mom.
3. Going for a ride in the Car!
4. Cuddling in bed with Mom.

I choose to tag noone... sorry for being a bum, but I never keep these things alive past answering them :P

I was tagged :P

Name four jobs that you've had.
1. 6th grade social studies teacher (taught computers before that)
2. Paraprofessional - basically a teacher aide in a preschool handicapped class working with kids with a variety of learning disabilities from ADHD to Autism
3. Woddwinds sheet music Sales/ Cashier at Sam Ash Music store
4. Waitres for a variety of restaurants, a webpage designer, swim instructor/ coach...

Four places you have lived.
1. Edison, NJ
2. New Brunswick, NJ
3. Several places in north Jersey (I was somewhat homeless for a while, every where from Highland Park to Ridgewood)
4. Asbury Park, NJ.... somehow I ended up in PA from there....

Four places where you have been.
1. Tough one... think I figured out I have been to something like 34 states... favorite places included Colorado and Vermont
2. All 13 original colonies
3. California
4. Jamaica and Bahamas are the only time I left the continental US, but also went to Canada which is the only other country I have been to...

Four places you'd rather be.
1. Colorado
2. Colorado
3. Riding my horse in Colorado
4. Walking my dogs in Telluride Colorado

Am I going to melt?

Of course while the weather was at it's best, mom had to work at the barn and visit family and what not, now,we are done with the holidays and visits (for a while, i think), just done with it, the weather is going to be so stinking hot I'll be surprised if we get to (or will want to) walk out the door. Today started it all. I knew it was going to be bad when mom actually turned on the A/C! First time all year, and it ihas been hot a few days here and there.

She tried to take us for a nice walk as it started to cool down, but we were spent by the time we got to he park. Barely wanted to roam around... now if there was water for swiming, I may have found a second wind... but there was going to be fireworks show that can be seem perfectly from our back yard, so she didn't want to go TOO far and miss it (though i would have been happy too. Kaya was all nervous and Mom wouldn't let me out so I could bark at it....)

I sure hope mom gets to take us to the river beach for a swim soon. Maybe Tuesday. That will be day three of crazy heat and getting stir crazy.... Oh... I'll keep dreaming about it, maybe it will come true...

Home Sweet Home

Or should I say home SWEAT home... it is good to be home, but boy is it hot. i already miss swimming in the bay. I have to try to talk mom into running the sprinkler... but it keeps threatening to rain and she doesn't want to waste water :(

I don't even want to stay outside... Kaya on the other handis happy laying in the shade... I don't know how she does it with all that hair....

So iget to follow mom around in the house while she cleans... but she won't turn the AC on either.. sheesh. She says she doesn't want to turn it on because it is supposed to cool down this weekend... at least the basement / TVroom is cool....

It is nice to be home though. I love running around my own yard and teasing my cat. She act like she doesn't like me, but I think she missed me while I was gone... she came right up to me and smacked me on the face and ran. I think she WANTS me to chase her...