A Big, Social Adventure

Tali and I hit the town this afternoon to help a dog join her owner (a good friend) who was a medal bearer in the Rick Hansen 25th Anniversary Relay.  Tali and I were tasked with picking the dog up at the meeting point and delivering her to her owner at their portion of the relay.  We had about 2 hours to kill between the two events, so I made the most of them time introducing Tali to new things.

The first meeting point shares a parking lot with the fenced off dog park.  I am not a fan of dog parks and, in general, keep my dogs out of them.  I do, however, regularly use them to work outside the fence on focus, etc. with my dogs.  I have found no better place to proof stays with other dogs playing and growling and barking.  I wasn't sure how Tali would react to the environment, but she was a little champ. All I asked for was focus and position in the RZ, the hardest part was getting her distracted, not keeping her focus!  She sat beautifully in heel position not three feet from the fence with a Basset Hound barking at her...  not even a flinch.

Since the focus was going well I threw in a couple quick Sit-Stays.  I asked for a few repetitions of a formal Sit-Stay (me moving out to directly in front, release coming from heel position) varying from 2 to 15 seconds.  Stays/Waits have been a struggle for us, but she did beautifully today!  I look forward to Susan Garrett's Crate Games arriving in my mailbox to hopefully help us with our Stays/Waits.

As we finished up working there were two dogs in the dog park that were of great energy, calm, fun, relaxed so I decided to try letting Tali go play.  She has a bit of a tendency to be bossy, so I wanted to make sure she was exposed to other confident dogs.  She was very well-behaved, initiating play, appropriate sniffing and checking back in with me, even offering some focus in RZ.  I was very pleased with her social skills.  After about ten minutes we left, making sure it was a very positive experience.


We then took a journey to PetSmart.  After some great patience and focus at the doors in we went.  We encountered a snarly, vicious toy mix of sorts in one aisle.  I'll never understand why people with unfriendly dogs insist on bringing them to public, dog-friendly places, but that's another post for another day.  Tali reacted perfectly to the snarly little beast, looking at it, not reacting and deferring to me.  In the past snarly dogs would send her running (flight response), but now she has the confidence to stay where she is and defer to me.  I was very pleased.  She did a beautiful quick heeling pattern in the toy aisle, and a quick Sit-Stay in the treat aisle (with a big stinky bone beside her).  I would like to work recalls in that environment, so I'll have to drag a friend along next time so I can do some restrained recalls to make sure she shows lots of drive and value in coming to me.

I did discover that the sounds and movements of shopping carts was scary for Tali, so I will have to do some more work around loud metallic noises and banging shopping carts.  I did get her taking treats off a stationary cart as we left, but she was clearly still unsure.

We then headed to our rendezvous point for the Relay, handed off the medal bearers dog and moved to the end of their portion of the route.  I took Tali out and walked her along the path, she was very interested in the loud music, the police escort sirens, the crowd of people, but stayed responsive to me and wasn't phased by the strange noises.  I, again, was pleased with her confidence. 

We also took a quick detour to take some pictures of Tali at Hillcrest Park.  It was a little windy!

To finish the day off I decided to lay a quick track for Tali at a baseball field.  There were several old tracks of people and other dogs there, but nothing to take this girl off her track!  I laid about a 50 pace track with a 45 degree corner.  This was our first corner, but she didn't miss a beat.  The corner was heavily baited, but the rest of the track was probably 60/40 no bait/bait.  She is starting to pull into the harness very nicely and is staying very dedicated to the track.  I just have to make sure she doesn't speed up to much in the un-baited portions as she races to the next bait.  Steady and sure is what I'm trying to achieve on the track.

Overall, it was a good adventure and I should have a VERY tired Tali tonight!

A Few Fun Games With Tali

I worked Tali for three sessions today focusing mainly on relationship building games. 

The first game we played was a stationary Yo-Yo game where I throw out a lower value treat, encourage her to get and then mark & reward when she turns back and gets a higher value treat from me.  I haven't been very consistent in working recalls with her, something I need to spend more time with.  You will see we went through several progressions in the video: 

1.  'Get It' - at first Tali didn't understand I was tossing the treat, so I had to show her that I wanted her to go 'Get It'
2.  Marking the Turn - no command at all, just marking the turn back towards me and verbal encouragement for coming in for the higher value treat
3.  Naming the Behaviour - still marking the turn, but introducing the 'Here' command as she comes back.  I want to be certain the command is never associated with moving away from me.

The second game we played was Susan Garrett's It's Yer Choice (IYC).  This game is designed to get Tali to always engage with the toy I have instead of running off to play by herself.  This game is hard for an independent bulldog, but we are getting there.  I played the game two ways:

1.  Toy Exchange - Playing with one toy with Tali and then letting her have that toy while I switched to another.  The goal is for her to engage with the toy I'm playing with.
2.  Play With Me - Letting Tali win at the game of Tug and then encouraging her to bring the toy in my direction to play with me again. 

And finally, the third game was a Human Cavaletti - jump collection/extension game.  Tali is not destined to be an agility dog, but this will help with proper jump form in higher levels of obedience/rally as well as general body awareness.... plus it's fun!  I put in a couple slow motion clips on the end where you can see as she extends and then collects for the next jump.

Setting Up For Success

Today I took Maverick out to do some Sit Stay proofing in front of a grocery store.  My goal was to have him paying attention to me around his highest level distraction (new people) as well as holding his Sit Stay with people in motion around him.  

To give you a little background, Maverick was raised and reinforced being allowed to go up and greet people at his will.  This worked out fine for socialization, but has been very detrimental to working in performance venues.  It has led to judge visiting, being drawn to/distracted by the spectators and in recent times leaving the ring to go greet friends.  I have been working to transfer the value off other people and back to working with me.  This has been a very difficult value transition.  In the past I have introduced verbal and physical corrections for non-compliance or non-attention.  Clearly that hasn't been successful, so I have gone back to pure shaping working solely on impulse control around people and value in attention on me.

So back to today...  it was a cold day, so I brought along a 2'x2' floor mat so his bottom didn't freeze, a light line to use while working, some medium value cookies and of course a tug.  I started off by dropping everything I had about 20 ft from our door.  This was a new area to work so at first he thought he was there to socialize.  The first gentleman that approached Maverick was out at the end of his lead, wiggling his butt begging for some attention.  Thankfully, the guy respected my request for him not to pet Maverick since we were training.  I patiently waited for Maverick to acknowledge my presence and once he did rewarded him from the reinforcement zone (RZ) I've been working to develop.  As we've worked like this in the past, Maverick quickly realized he was there to work and started to give me great focus.  We did a couple quick heeling and focus drills at a distance from the entrance, ran back had a quick game of tug (with some position work thrown in) and then moved closer to the doors for some Sit Stay work.

 I first set the mat up to the side of the entrance, set him up in a sit and did a couple quick repetitions (varying between 5-30 seconds).  I then started adding more distance with me standing across the entrance (about 15' away) and got some great focus from him.  He noticed people walking in to the store in the doors behind him, dealt with the noise of shopping carts at a distance and held his Sit Stay.  Things were going very well.

Then things got a bit messy...  I'm not sure if others run into this when out proofing their dogs in public places, but it is a constant fight to keep people off my dog to prevent reinforcement of the behaviours I'm working to prevent.  I can work all these behaviours easily at home in a controlled environment, but as soon as I'm out in public I have people calling to my dog when he's in a Stay, running up to pet him, or standing around talking baby talk to him.  I have worked on all these things with other dog training buddies and have had success, but out in public when I don't always see it coming it can be very detrimental to my training.  Maverick has learned that eventually when he breaks someone will pet him, talk to him and he will get rewarded for breaking.  It's a constant frustration of mine, and of course he can sense my frustration which makes him more likely to break.  As a true bulldog it is much more fun to decide to go hang out with fun people than work with a frustrated owner.  The problem being I don't want to end the session on him breaking and getting rewarded.  This time I took him farther away from the doors, reinforced what I wanted (Stay), had a quick game of tug and then went back and worked it again with higher level distractions and had success.

We then ran into my second issue, all of a sudden Maverick is really interested in the ground.  He is holding his Sit-Stay, but is completely ignoring my presence and is in a position where his face is practically on the ground.  I waited for him to look at me and then clicked... and then he broke diving for some goodie on the ground.  Arghh..... for the life of me I couldn't figure out why he was diving, but then when I went to pull out the bag of cookies to refill, I realized there was a hole in the bag and cookies were falling out through the hole in the bottom of my pocket (thanks to my pocket munching kitty).  So the ground was littered with cookies everywhere!  Maverick is generally pretty good about not bait diving, but I think the distraction of people, plus the distraction of a cookie-filled floor put him in a state of 'Too Aroused to Respond'.  I picked up the cookies, asked for some quick, short heeling, played some tug and called it a session.

So all in all we had some successes and some major failures on my behalf in controlling the environment to set up for success.  The next time I go out proofing I will have to make sure:

1.  There are no holes distributing cookies everywhere

2.  I can better control the people in the environment (I may get myself an 'In Training' vest in hopes of discouraging some of the bulldog-molesters)

My goals for Maverick's Sit-Stay sessions are to work on:

1.  Staying even though people are calling him

2.  Staying with food distractions

3.  Proofing with noises coming from behind (he broke when a garbage man and a row of shopping carts snuck up behind him).

My 2012 Goals

In the past couple years I've had lofty goals for my dogs, but haven't really dedicated myself to the training, and particularly the proofing, required to reach those goals.  So this year I am setting myself a training related goal.  My goal is to spend two 5 minute sessions with each of my dogs every day working on one particular skill each session.  My secondary goal is to teach all new activities (and rework old as necessary) using pure shaping and clicker.

Bulldogs are not a breed that does well with drilling exercises over and over again.  I have to remember in my training to keep it fresh and fun and if they give me perfection on the first repetition to move on from there (after we have our party of course).  I need to set a timer for my sessions, and end on good notes, in the past I have made four critical mistakes (in my opinion) in training my dogs.

1.  Training for extended periods of time - often working a dog for 30-45 minutes instead of quick, shorter sessions to keep drive and enthusiasm.

2.  Not having  a clear goal for each session - working several different skills with no particular goal in mind.

3.  Pushing past success - Instead of ending the session on a good note, being so pleased with a response I ask for it again and again until the dog gets bored of it and the successes are limited.

4.  Not Proofing - not working in different environments around different distractions enough to truly proof behaviours.

So as they say the first step is admitting you have a problem.  Now that I've identified them and developed a plan to work on them I hope we can make some great strides in all our venues as well as bringing joy and fun to all we do.

I'm currently five days into my new 5 minute program and am having great success.  The days thus far have gone like this:

Monday - Maverick working dumbbell hold and picking it up off the ground.
Tali working on retrieving by using an array of toys with the 'new' toy being thrown when the first hits my hand.


Tuesday - Maverick working on taking a pop can (metal article) in his mouth.
Tali working on retrieving and a quick sit-stay session


Wednesday - Maverick working on retrieving a pop can over a short distance (1-2 ft)
Tali working on the down position (a difficult one for her) and holding it


Thursday - Off Leash walk with recalls incorporated off distractions for both.  Rewards coming from the Reinforcement Zone (heel position).

Friday - We're headed to PetSmart to work on focus with Maverick, and positions and impulse control with Tali!

Who Are We?

Through my beginning years of dog training I have often heard about the value of keeping a Dog Training Diary so that you can log how much (or how little) training you are doing with your dog, what you are accomplishing (and not accomplishing) and how your dog is reacting to different training challenges.  I have tried daily logs in a written journal, I have tried a calendar, but my organizational skills and lack of follow through have not led that to be a success.  I have big dreams of what I can accomplish with my current (and future) dogs, and have a pretty strong idea of the methods I want to use to get there.  My goal for this blog is to keep me honest in my training endeavours as well help my focus my goals and share my struggles.

My recent loss of my Rottweiler, Justice (Little Justus von Kuiperotts RN), to osteosarcoma has reinvigorated my training mojo and I am more determined than ever to not miss a moment with my current dogs.  Justice was a special boy who brought me great joy and much frustration.  Due to some negative experiences and poor training choices on my behalf he had some issues we had to work through together.  The journey we took from picking up this belligerent teenager from the breeder at two years of age (after he had been returned by his previous owner) to the joyful moments of relationship building through obedience work forever changed my perspective both on training methods and on the relationships you can build with your dog.  Justice was one of a kind who set me on this journey to not only train and trial my own dogs, but to teach Puppy and Manners classes to help others on their journeys.  

A friend put together a tribute video for him (something I don't have the strength to do yet).  I think it really shows his joie de vivre, something he exuded from every molecule of his being.

My two current dogs are bulldogs... not your typical performance breed.  Maverick is a 4.5 year old male bulldog and was bought as a companion for my husband while I worked out of town.  The bulldog with their low energy requirements and couch potato lifestyle seemed like the perfect fit.  Well, Maverick had different plans for us!  This high-energy, high-drive boy has introduced me to dog sports that I never though I would be entertaining with a bulldog on the end of my leash.  My husband took Maverick to his first obedience class at a little over one year of age.  He came home raving and raving about how Maverick was the star of the class, I smiled and nodded doubtful from the start.  In a short gap in employment I signed Hubby's Dog up for a Level 2 obedience class and Lo and Behold!  Hubby wasn't lying, Maverick was a genius.  It wasn't long before I was hit by the obedience bug.  We have been out trialing in Rally Obedience and just achieved two legs of our PCD (traditional obedience) last spring.  We've also been bitten hard by the agility bug, which has been our focus since spring.  We hope to hit our first agility trials this winter.

This is Maverick showing off his SuperMav skills this past summer:

The newest addition in our house is Tali, an 8 month old, female bulldog.  She is an absolute joy and an absolute stinker and I love her to death.  She has a bit more of a stubborn streak than Maverick, but possesses his smarts and drive.  I have really been focusing on raising her with pure positive methods and teaching through pure shaping methods.  It has been fun to work with her this way, and is a giving me the opportunity to grow as a dog owner and trainer.  Our current focus with Tali is tracking and conformation, while laying the foundation for obedience work.  

I started tracking in the summer as an activity for Justice and myself to enjoy and brought the puppy along for the ride.  She has surprised me by taking to it and enjoying it.  

Conformation is a new world to me, so I'm hoping Tali will be patient with me as we navigate those waters together.

So that is my dogs and I in a nutshell.  I look forward to sharing with you our journey in performance dog sports.