Quick Training Update

Last night I did a short eye contact session with Molly. I used hot dogs as treats but didn't film it. I limited the length by limiting the number of treats to 10.

Today I did an approximately 3 minute session with Shawnee on distance and a similar session with Molly on finish. I filmed both sessions, but I think I want to do a few more before I post anything.

I am moved from the kitchen to the living room, so that I would have a new environment for training. Both girls have worked in the living room before, but I had been using the kitchen because it has more space. I had to move a rocking chair and the dog basket to get anywhere near enough space for the session. The chair for Molly's training does not roll well on the carpet. With Shawnee, however, things went better because treats did not bounce as much.

I use a timer set to a little over three minutes but started it before I started the film. I was shocked when the timer rang because I thought I would have more time than that. This proves to me how badly I need to limit my sessions, because obviously I've been training most of the time for far longer than I realized.

The shortness definitely paid off. After I told Shawnee, she was free and turn off the camera, she went twice around the object to try to get me to reward her again. I did give her one treat, but then I quickly took things up so she wouldn't do it again.

With Molly, I had trouble maintaining concentration for the entire session. The problem was that Shawnee outside suddenly found something to bargain and that dragged Molly away. While she was barking, the timer rang. I called her back and did a quick repeat then quit. I don't want her feeling like she decides the length of the session, but I also didn't want to keep going when she wasn't fully focused.

Despite her lack of concentration, Molly did very well moving when I did. It shows that I really was wrong about how well she understood the behavior. My continued repetition of eye contact made things worse because it made her bored. I thought I need to do it because she wasn't understanding what I was doing. Now I am confident that we will have this behavior mastered soon.

More Distance Training with Shawnee

I tried to focus on some feedback I got on our last distance training session. I needed to make sure I clicked while Shawnee was moving. I also only rewarded her for going around the object in one direction. Last time I had accepted both. I also tried not to move my treat hand before I clicked and treated. I also wanted to be sure that she was understanding this too is going around the object and not using the wall or the oven as reference points.



Although I may have improved on these respects, I found new errors while looking at the video.

This session was way too long. This explains why I was having trouble towards the end with her lacking focus. I should've stopped shortly after changing positions.

Additionally, Shawnee was distracted by Molly complaining in the other room. Although she's usually fine, Molly was whining this time despite the door being closed and the radio being on to cover the sounds of clicking.

At one point, a fly is also distracted her.

I should have repositioned the camera when I changed positions. The second half of the film shows too much of me and too little Shawnee.

L2 Distance Session 2

I forget hwen I did the training, but I think it was sometime earlier this week or late last week. I am trying to film more and more of my training sessions so I can track the progress and have a better chance of finding bugs in my training methods. So here is one of them.

L2 Distance--Start and Restart

Shawnee got her first distance training session today. It went well. A few click-treats for looking at the thing then she started moving and I was able to shape a more than halfway around in one short session.

While things were set up, I swapped dogs--Shawnee in to DH in the living room and Molly out to me in the kitchen. I thought I'd see if Molly remembered her "Go Around" command.

She didn't. She wanted to retrieve the thing I was using as the object-to-go-around. Hrmm. I remember that from last time. So I gave her a leave it. Frustrated, she lay down and stared at it and at me. So I threw a treat and started over with luring the go around. She'll probably need more sessions to remember it than Shawnee will to learn it.

Shawnee has more courage to experiment and do things than Molly does. Molly tends to fall back to "safe" behaviors, like lying down, sitting, or retrieving.

Training Update

We've number a number of small short training sessions in the past few days and made a great deal of progress. Her handling behavior is great. Molly had her nails trimmed with absolutely no stress for anyone. She's also been getting combed a lot. A net friend recommended I try a flea comb to remove the loose hair from Molly's short coat and it works great. It is also really nice right after she's been out in high grass for getting rid of ticks. Her Frontline treatment kills them, but it is even better to get rid of them before they crawl off somewhere in the house or get attached at all.

Her training on distance (aka around) is up to passing level 2 standards. She can also down stay while I walk quite a distance away and back. Her sit stay is a little shakier but it's getting better. She tends to want to down when staying.

I had to recue Molly's target work from the command "nose" to "touch." She was confusing nose with a silly game she played as a puppy hunting mice in the house. I need to extinguish that behavior.

Molly's zen is at least at Level 4 in the Level Book. But she hasn't tried Level 3. It involves a stranger and we don't have many of those in our life right now. We'll have to find out at some point to catch Level 3 Zen. I can put yummy food on the floor and say "leave it" and she'll stay away from it for well over 30 seconds.

Down is also at least at Level 2. I need to read the descriptions better and test her some to see where she really is. Level 2 is down from a sit with 1 cue only and no food or aids. That's easy. My rough guess is actually that she's at Level 5 or 6.

Tonight my husband and I took her out in the fence in the yard and worked on level 2 come. Its goal is to make her excited about coming when called from a distance. It was fun for all three of us and we finished up with fetch. Fetch for us also has downs, down stays, downs from a distance with a distraction (the ball), and walking slowly one step at a time instead of running mixed in with the usual high speed border collie ball chases, jumps, spins, and herding crouches. We had a ball, literally and figuratively.

Molly also really impressed a new friend yesterday (I hadn't read L3 zen yet to know to ask her for help testing that). Molly was running around with a rawhide chew while she was here. The new friend was surprised that she was allowed to take Molly's chew from her and even pretend to chew on it while Molly looked on happily. Molly has basically no food or toy aggression. The only sort of resource guarding she ever showed signs of was not wanting to share my husband with another dog but we quickly got her used to that (a really nice aussie male when she was around 9 months old). Now she does not whine or complain when he talks to other dogs--she knows she'll still get all the love and attention she needs.

Today she made me proud when the farrier came. We let her run out to say hi off leash. She kept four on the floor almost the entire time. She lifted up a little bit at one point in excitement, but didn't try to jump on him. That's a good Molly. He gave her lots of attention (he likes dogs and has met Molly several times before) and we also praised her several times for her excellent behavior.

Another thing about Molly off leash. Since we made that fenced area outside, Molly shows no interest in going away anywhere outside when she's off leash. We leave the gate open (or at least not pushed shut) when there aren't horses or Molly in it. She has learned to open the loose gate with her nose. So if we open the door and tell her to go in the fence, she opens the gate and goes in for a play or to lie down and relax. When we get home from somewhere, we can open the car door and tell her to go to the kitchen or her fence and she does. If she gets to the kitchen before us, she'll lie down and wait or come back or go in the fence. As long as we're around, she even ignores the annoying dog next door that barks most of the time!

Molly's item recognition and retrieve at a distance are also improving. This morning I told her to take pants from a long way away and with a little help, she managed to do it. She also pulled pants out of a pile that included a blanket, a knee brace, and a pair of socks. She had a little trouble locating them at first because they weren't where they usually were, but I was still at a good distance when she located the right item and retrieved it. Don't worry, she got high value treats for that one and praise and a snuggle. She's a good Molly.

It's been a long day so I'm overdue for sleep now. Molly is already dozing on the couch beside me. She'll be happy to move onto her bed in the kitchen so she won't be disturbed further tonight.

Distance (aka Around) and Handling Progress

Even though I spent yesterday caught up in worries about certification, I didn't neglect Molly or her training. We practiced both handling and distance. She's gotten better at both and I've started cueing distance.

"Cueing" means adding the command word. For this distance behavior, I'm using the command "around" to tell her to go around the object. Yesterday I praised circles she made with "good around" and used the word when she volunteered the behavior. This morning she did the behavior on request. I want to practice it more and with different objects before I consider it mastered, but it is real progress.

Handling is going well, too. She lets me hold her ears and move them around. I can look into them and prod them about for 10-30 seconds without a problem. I can also touch her stomach down at the bottom towards sensitive areas without a reaction.

She is still a little unsure about her tail and paws some of the time, although we can usually get through nail trims and vet exams without stress. I think she just can't quite figure out what I am up to at this point. I'll keep working on it. The more we practice, the more she will realize that I'm not doing anything harmful. We've also never hurt her trimming her nails, but it helps that she is calm.

Training "Distance"

One of the Level 2 behaviors is called "Distance" in the Levels Book. It is basically getting the dog to go in a circle around an object at a short distance. We've been working on this one since we finished Level 1, but not very intensively. We've just done a few short sessions a day as I've felt up to it.

It's been a while since I did a new behavior from scratch so it's reminding me how long it actually takes to do this. First, Molly wanted to do what's she used to doing that works--retrieving. She kept wanting to pick up the object I wanted her to go around. When she isn't picking up objects, she's pulling htem usually, so she kept trying to interact with the object instead of go around it.

But with patience and the tiny Frolic treats, I managed to click as she moved her feet around it and she started to get it a little. I also mixed in some luring by throwing some of the treats ahead of her. It helped to quit using her regular hard kibble because they bounced all over and didn't always lead her in the right direction.

At this point, Molly is volunteering partial circles around the object and approaching full circles. I want her to do full circles before I start adding the cue. Things are improving though and it is fun to be doing something totally different.