LLW Training with Shawnee

I don't remember when these sessions happened. The first is made with the netbook and the other two after we got the video camera. But it is still not THAT recent. I am just way behind processing vids. I am even more behind with training.

Edited to add: I realize I didn't explain the goal of these trainings for those not familiar with the exercise. The goal is to have Shawnee walking on a loose leash (meaning the loose is hanging slack enough for the CLIP to her collar to relax into a vertical position--not pulling ins't enough). She should also be paying attention to ME. The goal is to reward the moments when she has the loose leash because she is paying attention to the handler, not just because she isn't pulling. For example, if the leash tightens, I have to go back until she returns her attention to me. It isn't enough if she just backs up but stays focused on the distraction element.



Session 1



Notes: The leash is too long.

Session 2



Notes: The distraction was not strong enough.

Session 3



Notes: I only planned to have one distraction -- DH behind the camera. Once I started training I noticed that getting too far away from him resulted in her being attracted to going around the house. Going that way usually results in a car trip. So I ended up working with two distractions in opposite directions. In some cases, she was also a bit too distracted by the garden. I think retraining in the same location it will go better, but I'm not sure.

Using a human as a distraction is a bad idea, because he is trying to tell you what to do. This made it difficult to concentrate on training the dog and doing what you know you're supposed to do.

While fishing for treats in my pouch I missed a lot of really great reward situations when she was paying extreme attention to me. In the future, I should stand still while getting treats, so I don't miss the wanted behaviors.

Loose Leash Walking

DH has been complaining that Shawnee pulls a lot on the leash. She and I had done some intermittent work on it, but nothing very serious. So for a quick potty outing, I decided to also do some loose leash walking training. Since Molly's heat is over, she's getting to come out on potty outings primarily off leash.

I filled my pocket with dry liver treats and headed out the door. Before Shawnee manage to stretch her leash out, I quickly clicked and treated. So Molly wouldn't feel left out, I called her to me to practice a recall. Then we resumed walking and repeated a few times. After both had pottied, we repeated the procedure the way back. On the way out I had to stop once and wait for Shawnee to let the leash get loose. On the way back, I started was to test and she immediately kept the leash loose. I of course clicked and treated.

It is going to take a little while for Shawnee to learn that the loose leash is the default behavior regardless of whether I have treats and a clicker. I'm also going to have to do some DH training to make sure he understands the procedure.

It's Good to be Home

Since we got home, we've mostly just been chilling out and trying to adjust to the time difference. I am trying to do some walking with Molly though to keep the muscles I built up on the trip. The good news is that on today's walk, Molly kept her leash loose for about 200 meters despite cars, horses, and people working on a fence on a property we passed.

Walking that far, even though it was on crutches, is really quite a work out for me, so as well as being very proud of Molly, I'm very proud of myself. One thing I learned on the trip was how and when to push myself and what the consequences are. The consequence is that I need to sleep 1.5 to 2 times as long as I've been active--beyond the 8 hours _at least_ at night--to recover at all. So I need a nap shortly even though I slept about 13 hours last night. I need 12-14 hours of sleep a day just to lie around and not really do anything all day. As soon as I add in any sitting upright or moving around, I have to sleep more. Such is life, but at least I have a better idea of how to cope now. Needless to say, I slept probably an average of two-thirds of the time that would normally be "waking hours" on the trip. I'm fortunately able to sleep quite well when fully reclined in my parents' back seats.

The past few days I've also started getting Molly back into a training routine. She is eating pretty normally right now although my DH is putting a lot of various extras in her food (not because she requires it but because we have stuff that needs to be used). She got pretty good, but not perfect, about eating while on the trip. I think she has more of a habit to eat now than not to, although there were days she skipped or we let it stand and she ate it later. But on the trip our schedules were all over and sometimes she seemed to need a rest before she could think about eating and we weren't about to get up int he middle of the night to give her 5 seconds to eat.

So, about this training routine. We got a lot of good tips from Erin for getting Molly working quietly. My DH hasn't had the extra energy to work with us to do the he-works-if-Molly-makes-noise routine, so I'm continuing with the retraining from scratch but requiring quiet routine. So the past few days she'd had several couple minute sessions with the old boot. It's actually going really well. I started with just touching the boot with her nose, what she first offered when I got it out, and am now up to short grabs and even a few double grabs. IF she starts making noise, the session ends, but I've managed to do a few minutes of training before it got that far. I'm going to try making my next few sessions even shorter to see if I can end the session _before_ she feels the need to make noise.

I've mostly been using shoes I can flip off without her help, so that way I'm not making her work and having to reward her for noisy efforts while retraining. Not much anyway. I've also been avoiding socks both for that reason and just because I generally don't like them.

My laptop died yesterday (screen won't get bright anymore), so my posting and activity checking out others' blogs and on my usual groups and forums will be very limited until I can find and install a replacement. Sitting at the desk to use the desktop machine is just too painful for me and even short posts like this one require a few breaks to get written.

More LLW Success

DH and I were out working on one of the fences yesterday. Initially we had Molly with us off leash. She was so good. She didn't have a ball or other toy, but she still stayed near us and behaved excellently. When people walked by, she did alert a few times, but quickly quieted down again.

Once we had a lot of things done, we had to take down a board that kept Molly out of a more open section of fence. We put her on a leash to make sure that she didn't run off anywhere--it wasn't somewhere we were used to having her and it is leash law season in the area.

But at one point walking with her, I noticed that she was leaving her leash loose even though it was connected to her collar. It isn't something we've trained a whole lot, but I have worked some on it.

So I decided to try the leash behavior test for Level 2. She had to stay on a loose leash for 30 seconds while I stood still. She did it without a problem.

Then I helped DH some more with fence work. When we moved to another part of the fence, I let him go well ahead of us as a distraction (she usually wants to keep up with him or, better yet, ahead of him on walks). Then I walked with her on her leash in a straight line. She kept her leash loose for more than 20 meters!

So Molly has now passed the leash tests for both Level 2 and Level 3 on a flat leather collar as well as on her front lead harness.

I don't have any pictures (it is raining now and I couldn't take pictures last night when I was supposed to be helping with fences).

I'm just really proud of my girl and of me and DH. DH says that a lot of the reason she's getting so much better with everything is that she's gotten older. But I say it is a lot more than that. Her age may help some, but I think most of it is all the positive training we've both been doing. She knows what we want from her and she gets so much positive feedback for doing it. She enjoys the training and the challenge of getting better at things all the time. It gets her thinking and keeps her thinking. Plus being my SD gives her a job--she feels needed and has a role in our family. It's a good thing.

Loose Leash Walking--She Passed Level 2

I'd been procrastinating working on LLW because I didn't expect it to go very well. Molly used to be a die hard puller and I'd tried a lot of things on her.

Then I finally listened when people told me to buy a front lead harness, so Molly got her BeBop front lead harness. It was like we had a whole new Molly. From the day we put it on her, she quit pulling. She is still eager to get her harness on, so we know it doesn't bother her.

Then a few times DH put her leash on her collar instead of her harness and she didn't really pull there either. The positive attitude about walking her when she didn't pull must have taught her how great it was not to pull.

Even though she learned not to pull that way, there is still a long way to go to walking on a loose leash. Molly tended to hold her leash tight but not pull.

So the Levels Book starts out with an unusual goal for LLW--the ability to stand still on a loose leash. But really it makes sense. If you can't keep your leash loose standing around, how are you going to walk with it loose when you need to worry about how the other person is moving?

With Molly not pulling, I've been working on getting her to have her leash loose. I've done only two formal training sessions. Both went from living room to outside. If the leash was loose, we went forward towards outside. If it was tight, I stood still. If the leash stayed tight for more than 5 secs, I backed up. The first time I trained it took her a while to "get it". Her second training session was this morning, when she could easily let a loose leash hang for 30 secs, after which I clicked and treated--I wanted to build up to the test to make sure she understood that I wanted her to stand still and let the leash hang loose.

Between those two formal sessions, I did a lot of training while doing small walks around here and other places. If she walked with a tight leash, I'd stop and wait. If she didn't quickly let the leash hang loose again, I'd take a few steps back and wait. With that happened often and usually when there was something she really wanted to do, she has actually learned that she gets somewhere on a loose leash but not so far on a tight one. She never pulls on the harness and I rarely walk her on the collar, but she has responded well to the same treatment the few times I've tried.

So after dinner tonight, I decided I wanted to test her and see if she could do it. She'd really impressed me this morning with how stable she was on a loose leash. We needed a distraction to work near, so we went outside where DH was trimming the hedge.

I tested several times with stopping and waiting. She had no problems waiting a minute on the loose leash before I moved on. When moving, I noticed she was leaving the leash very loose then as well. So once I was sure she passed the L2 test with standing, I decided to try testing her for the Level 3 test.

The level 3 test requires the dog to walk on a loose leash for 40 feet in a straight line with no more than two cues. We tried and she did it perfectly--the clip on the leash hung the entire time and most of the time the leash dragged on the floor. To be sure it wasn't a fluke, I tested twice more, walking distances of about 20 meters, which is well over the required, and she did it again both times. We were out in the pony pasture and moving towards DH, who she loves, and he was talking part of the time.

So Molly has passed LLW at L2 and L3 today. Passing it at L2 finished the last of her required behaviors for finishing that level!!! So now we are well into level 3 with as many behaviors as we have tested and trained already. You can see how Molly is doing by checking her training journal and scoreboard.

After all that testing, we took off the leash and harness and just had fun in the pasture. She loves to play with the sticks DH cuts from the hedges and also enjoyed just sniffing around the empty pasture and running in the high grass. Of course I used the opportunity to test her recall several times, which is still doing great at well over 20 meters. I'd call her in, pet her, and let her go back to what she was doing. Other times I'd call her to me then play with her a bit after I'd given her a sit and taken a hold of her collar. Coming when called doesn't mean the game is over in this household.