an overdue update

Henry's Mom here. I can't begin to say how wonderful training has turned things around with Henry and me. It started out with teaching the "focus" (look at me) cue. I'd feel like he would never understand but very slowly he got it and I pushed the cue in itty bitty baby steps until finally he learned it in different situations with different distractions going on.

Next I tackled "come" head on, I was determined to re-teach this cue! I looked through my dozens of pictures of Henry, Jessica and I playing and romping off leash together in the woods, beach and lakes. Not that I could not make on leash walks just as happy and bonding, but it was my dream and belief for Henry to be off leash again-SAFELY.

My determination was daunted when I kept testing Henry and realizing I had failed to teach. However with the help of dogsters, I realized I was moving too fast and expecting too much. It was time to go back to itty bitty baby steps. No, not even steps. We went back to crawling.

I had to change some things about how I trained. I had to force myself not to repeat a command (it didn't matter what command it was) and force myself not to try to raise my voice and expect that to make my dog respond better. I worked on keeping my voice happy with strength and confidence inside me though.

I also tried finding a treat that would motivate Henry outside. I found that rewarding him with a game of tug was a high value reward to Henry. Also string cheese is a very high value reward, and compares to nothing else I've tried.

I used a long clothesline when I took Henry in the fields and woods. I would call him and get no response. But slowly by rewarding him with a game of tug just when he turned his head my way, that started building his foundation for "come".

Dogsters on the behavior forum were so supportive and helpful in our journey, giving me lots of insight and tips, and answering every question I had.

Eventually Henry began to respond to me asking him to "come". I forced myself to stay consistent and not push too fast, and Henry's learning process sped up! He was giving me "come" 50% of the time...then 70%...then 80%...then 90%!! In different scenarios!

I thanked the behavior forum. I'm still thankful. It's not that I didn't enjoy being with Henry when he didn't know cues, it's just that now I can relax because he knows "come". Anything could happen, the leash could break, or I could drop it, or his collar can slip off. I feel a lot safer and relaxed know he has a good recall now. And in the future when it's even more solid, I can take him to the beach again.

Right now I'm still being consistent and letting Henry tell me when it's time to push him a little further, and we're going to get to that 100% one day.

Training Log: A step back- recall trouble

I don't know why but Henry didn't listen to recall today. Inside the house I was looking for him 3 times and was calling him and all 3 times he just stayed where he was and I had to find him. His head and ears were perked up, so he heard me, but he didn't come. Then outside he also didn't listen to recall, even on his clothesline. I wonder what makes him listen so well some days, and then not at all another day. Or maybe he was just comfortable inside where he was and didn't want to move, but I'd still like him to come when I call.

Anyway not a training topic, but I fed the dogs salmon tonight. It was their first big salmon meal, usually I cut the salmon up in little pieces and add it to other meals as an extra but I just gave it all tonight. Henry took a long time to chew it so it was a good meal.

Training log: Alot of days, 2 steps back, 10 steps forward!

It has been a little while since I updated. But I have some wonderful progresses to report! There were also a few setbacks since I last updated, but the strides forward we have taken have made up for the setbacks!

I'll let Henry fill in the first accomplishment:

Hi I am Henry. I love to run! Mom took me and my sister Jessie to the woods. She had me on a long rope called a clothesline. My sister was off leash. Suddenly my sister caught the scent of something good! I know to watch her when she catches a scent. She looks at me. I know it's a good one! Then I smelled it too, and started to run full speed. Mom said "STAY" and I stopped right in my tracks! My whole body was quivering with excitement, but Mom was so proud of me! She said "come" and although I hesitated, I went to Mom!

Me (the mom) typing now:

I was so thrilled with Henry! I did see the deer in the distance, I saw the white of it's tail between all the brown leafless trees leaping away.

Jessie listened to, she ran up the hill toward the deer just a little, then came back to me.

The next day, I started letting Henry off leash at certain spots in the woods that have less deer usually, but the dogs found one again. And this time even though he had no leash or clothesline on, he still stopped again as soon as I said "Stay". He did the same thing again the next day and again today when he wanted to run after a deer.

I still have the problem where I need to repeat "Henry come" before he listens and comes. I know I'm reinforcing it by repeating it though, so I really have to work on just saying "Henry come" once then walking up to him and bringing him to the spot I was in. So he will listen the first time I say come.

But overall I'm really pleased with how the training is going. It's slow and started with baby steps, and I know I have to keep up with this, but it's a rewarding process for both me and Henry.

Training Log: Days 5, 6, 7

Henry's responding to the "focus" cue at about 80% now.

When I have the clicker and food as the rewards, it's much harder for Henry to respond to ANY cue, not just focus. He is excited.

I have been asking for "focus" outside now also. Not a training session yet though. Before I let him run, I ask him to give me "focus". Even though I'd have guessed he would have a harder time outside since he's very excited, he WILL give focus outside every time the FIRST time I ask it (YAY!) when he knows the reward is going to be me allowing him to run.

Inside with the food may be harder because I've tried extending my arm out with the treat in that hand and asking for "focus" he has a hard time not looking at that treat. If I hide the treat behind my back, it's better.

I also started playing with a home-made flirt pole with the dogs. I have to make a better one though and let the dogs have more time getting the "prey" at first.

Training log, Days 3 and 4

Still practicing the "focus" cue. It's not quite 70% so I'm staying inside with it until he gets it 95% of the time.

The classical conditioning is helping.

I can't wait to concentrate more on recall, but I want to make sure "focus" (look at me) is gotten first inside and outside.

So Henry is staying on a long leash outside, and I got some game ideas from other dogsters to help build recall.

I felt a little disappointed (in myself?) today when a couple strangers who stopped to talk to me while I was walking the dogs, commented how Jessie (my other dog) was so in-tune to me, and Henry was not. Even strangers notice it. I don't know why Jessie is always focusing on me and Henry isn't, since I taught them both the same when I got them.

I think maybe I should click and treat when ever Henry looks at me on his own. I'll ask the forums what other ideas too:)

training log 2: associating the verbal cue with the action

Well this lesson didn't go well. How on earth is my Henry the dog who passed his CGC, having such a hard time? I guess this is a good lesson for me to always keep practicing commands and not just assume my dogs will remember them in months. Though I never really had the "look at me" command down good to begin with.

But the good news is he's good at looking in my eyes when I wait for it inside. I need to practice outside but I might be going too fast.

UPDATE

I did more classical conditioning with Henry by putting a piece of food in his mouth (after slightly luring his eyes to mine first) then when it was in his mouth saying "focus". Later when I did the training for the cue, he did look in my eyes when I said "focus". I didn't overdo it though because I didn't want to set him up for failure. But I'll keep practicing these two training methods. I still have to do the CC outside.

In other training- the "fun trick training" I call it- since it's hard to really work on command tricks with him yet (maybe after I get the clicker training foundation built good it will be easier) I've been trying to teach him cool frisbee moves. Well, luckily I have a soft frisbee so it doesn't hurt when it hits his face. When Henry does get a trick though, he is so happy when I praise him a lot:)

Training log: rebuilding foundation, day 1

I'm going to keep a training log just so I can keep track of the progress (and pitfalls) and what I am doing too.

I got excellent advice from everyone especially Asher and Laila in this thread http://www.dogster.com/forums/Behavior_and_Training/thread/645404/

First I am concentrating on only Henry responding to his name and the "look at me" command which I am renaming after I capture the cue enough times. I might rename it to "focus" because it doesn't sound like any other command.

We also started off anew with the clicker training, now that I have a better understanding thanks to this thread: http://www.dogster.com/forums/Behavior_and_Training/thread/645012

So far, Henry successfully understood that I wanted him to look into my eyes (without me verbalizing this yet) and then he got the click and treat. And so far we're only doing this in the kitchen, not anywhere else where he is less focused in training. After today though, I'm going to start doing it in different rooms of the house. Eventually, onto the outdoors!

bad and good training

Henry had bad experiences at the dog park when he was around 8 months old. I trained completely WRONG with a shock collar in the dogpark, even though Henry hadn't been aggressive. It was to get him to listen to me, as advised by what I know now was a poorly educated trainer. I know so much better now:(

Anyway, Henry is able to go to every other social dog place except this particular dog park.

I went back to it for the first time in a couple months. Even though I've given him treats around it ever since I learned better, and we had so much POSITIVE reinforcement training since his shock collar days (I only used the shock collar for ONE WEEK), he turns into a different dog in the blink of an eye, and is the paradigm of FEAR.

I don't go inside the dog park, I don't know if I ever would even if I think sometime in the future that he's ready to. There are so many potential reasons to avoid entering the dog park: disease, aggressive dogs, small space, ignorant owners...

But just outside this dog park is a normal park, where dogs need to be on leash. But go near the dog park fence, Henry in the blink of an eye today became fixated. He just stared, hunched over. It reminded me of a border collie stalking a sheep it's herding, but this was in fear.

I gave the "finish" command, which means for him to get into "heel" position. At first he didn't flinch. I said it again twice although I know you aren't supposed to repeat commands. The 3rd time he gave me the command and snapped out of the fixation, his body language relaxed again.

I do my best to make it up to Henry every day for making him endure such a wrongly paired training method and dog park. Shock collars can serve a purpose to protect dogs, but in a dog park they have no place and creates an association of pain with other dogs or the area. In Henry's case, he associates pain with the dog park, and thankfully not with other dogs anymore.

He goes to an off leash dog woods every day where he can run with all the other dogs and has not showed any fear aggression.

Anyway, on a different subject, I was thinking of being one of the legs in a rescue dog transport to their fosters and/or forever homes. There is one leg in my area, but I don't know how to get to the place I would need to, so I'm going to borrow a map from my Aunt (she is the queen of maps and giving you directions) and figure it out, then we'll see. I really want to be more proactive in helping causes for dogs and cats.

This transport, I read on the dogster railroad forum, would be 3 dogs.

bee stings

Today was not fun. Mom and friends took us down to the waterfall/river again. Mom was behind me and I was with two other humans because I like to run with their dogs. Mom was with Jessie and some other humans and dogs. The first two humans started down to the river, and all of a sudden, began screaming. I ran to "help" and then I felt all these pinches on my legs and thighs what was going on?! I ran in circles and bucked, then everyone started yelling at me to jump in the water but I was scared and ran to Mom:( She began swatting what are called "bees" off me and some bees were crawling in my thick fur:(

Finally, all were off and Mom led me to the water, but I just couldn't get comfortable. I dipped my hips in the water, then came out and tried rolling in the mud, and back in and out and in and out again. The two humans got stung about 10 to 20 times and had red welts and stingers. Mom looked, but couldn't find any on me but she knows I got stung.

Now us dogs and humans were all "trapped" on one side because the bees were on the way to get out. So we walked down the river a ways and those 2 legged humans can't walk as good on the muddy rocks as us dogs so they went very slow.

I still was hurt and scared and didn't play at all. Just followed Mom. My sister seemed to sense something was wrong, and she didn't play much either.

Finally we found a way to climb back on the trail, and what did we see? Two large bucks standing just a few feet away from everyone! That was enough for me to forget about my bee stings! Every dog-there were 8 today-ran! But we came right back, like good dogs. And I was feeling better now.

At home, Mom gave me this thing called benadryl since I was still biting at my legs. Now I'm sleepy.

Nature always reminds us not to take her for granted. Every beautiful place has it's dangers, big or small. Mom is wiser to be more careful now.

to the river

Today was a great day! Mom, Jessie and I met up with a few of my dog pals this morning and we car pooled. There were 7 dogs all together including me. Jessie, another dog and I rode in a jeep with no roof! It wasn't a long drive, and when we stopped we were at an open field. All us dogs acted like we'd never been off leash before, running around happy. This was a new fun place and we were all together so it was special! We all ran around and I chased a female samoyed named Georgia around the field.

Then the humans led us to a little dirt trail that went into the woods. We like this! Fun new smells! Even my sister Jessie left Mom's side to run around with all of us.

The only dog on a leash was the beagle. Come to think of it, I never see beagles at the off leash woods we go to. Mom guesses they were just bred to follow their noses, oblivious to anything else, like their humans calling them back. But the beagle still was happy on his long lead.

Anyway we walked that trail, Mom says for 3 miles. Then we cut down and got to a small waterfalls that emptied into a big clean pool of WATER! It was very deep in one part and one of the dogs kept jumping off the rocks into the pool/river. I swam a lot with 2 other dogs. Jessie, the beagle, and Georgia got their legs wet but didn't swim much and they explored around the pool. Jessie climbed alot. Then the last dog just was all over the place doing his own thing. Us 3 in the water played catch the sticks and tug the sticks with each other. It was so nice to cool off and play there for a while.

One of the human's sons went in the pool/river with us, in his human clothes. Our fur is much better, we just shake the water right off, when we're standing next to our humans of course.

Finally it was time to leave. The walk back was just as fun as getting there. After 2 hours, I'm zonked but dreaming of doing this again!