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.

No Gold and A Serious Distraction

It's Thursday so we should be posting pictures of gold things, but Molly doesn't wear jewelry and neither of the dogs have anything that would classify as gold.

Instead I am going to talk about training and distractions. Learning to work with distractions is on of the big challenges in a service dog's work life and even the training of any regular dog. You don't always know how well your dog will handle a command in different situations.

Up to recently, Molly has done very well with distractions. She has worked succesfully in a number of unusual environments, including stores, airports, family situations, and even a rodeo. She also came well when called when around other dogs.

But she never had a little sister before. Apparently a little sister is a much bigger distraction than anythign she's ever had before. So we're going back to basics and trying to train and refresh a lot of basic behaviors.

Yesterday Molly had two training sessions while Shawnee ate. Molly needed to eat too, but wasn't very good at just eating with the little one around. So I started giving her basic commands and rewarding her with small handfuls of her kibble. It went very well and she was able to sit, down, stand, and touch reliably (an extended version of puppy push-ups) despite the little one trying to steal the food and come over and talk to her. I even managed to have her retrieve my shoe a few times. She also did some short "watch" commands--moments of sustained eye contact.

We need to do more recall training and I have an idea for where we can safely do it, but I am sick today with what is probably a sinus infection and asthma, so I am not going out in the cold to do it.

Shawnee has learned sit very well and is starting to learn down. Potty training is really progressing well since we started giving her treats and clicks for outside potties. The small problem is that sometimes she is so focused on the treat that she forgets to finish her business. But she is starting to head for the door--try to anyway--when she needs to go and also doing some whining to let us know.

Pictureless Travel Report

If I took the time to download and put in pictures, I wouldn't have time to tell you anything about our trip. So I will do the trip report now and see about pictures later.

Let's see... we arrived on the 3rd in the evening. I told you that already. Thursday the 4th we mostly just chilled out at my parents' place, adjusting to the time difference. We got a walk out back and got all those nice pictures of Molly in the grass and my Mom gave Molly permission to play with Dumbo's bunny, which she loved. Thursday night we crated Molly while we went out to eat with my brother and his girlfriend at a Mexican place. Molly did fine in her crate and got a doggy bag of goodies from the restaurant.

Friday was a more hectic day. I had a doctor appointment and started by taking Molly in with me. But she had trouble settling down--there were a couple kids sitting and talking in the office and people moving around and I think she was just too excited about being in a new country. So my DH took her back out to the car while I got examined.

From there we went to Walmart, where she did really well working for me. I was in my wheelchair at that point and she is comfortable working with that now thanks to all those practice rolls at home on the bike path. My mom finds it odd that so many people look at her in her vest then talk to her saying, "You're working. I'm not allowed to talk to you. But you're a nice puppy" or something like that. I appreciate that they at least aren't walking up and handling her without asking, but it is a little distracting and she'll sometimes start her butt wiggle and jack-in-the-box spring butt effect. She's getting better though.

Friday night we went to my grandmother's. Molly got to be in the car part of the time while I greeted my grandmother's dog Jenny, who has always loved me. Then later we brought Molly in and tried to put the two together. It sorta worked but both were a bit edgy--neither has a reputation for being good with other dogs. So they took turns for the rest of the evening. Molly dug out 4 of Jenny's tennis balls that were hidden around the room and engaged everyone in play. She likes to make sure that everyone in the room is involved.

Molly impressed everyone, including me, with how quickly she learned to identify people by name. She already knew my parents as grandmom and granddad but by the end of the evening she was also delivering the ball on command to my aunt and uncle by name and getting better at IDing my grandmother.

The weather ruined our original plans for Saturday--the Green Lane border collie trial. But my old friend from high school was in the area for the weekend, so we changed our plans to spend the day with her. She has a small car, so Molly got to spend the afternoon with my parents' without me and DH. She did very well with that too and my dad got her out for a bit of a walk.

Saturday night my brother and his girlfriend came over for dinner and Molly got to help pick things up off the floor as needed, play with everyone with Dumbo's bunny, and just generally be a cute little lovebug.

Sunday was a big day. The weather had cleared, so we headed for the Endless Mountains Fiber Fest. As well as having sheep and llamas and other fiber animals, they had a sheepdog demonstration. A lot of people there knew or suspected that she was a BC and she got a lot of praise by knowledgable people. Several people did ask whether she was a mix or something because they weren't used to the smooth coats. I found it pretty odd when we got to the sheepdog demonstration when all the dogs there were smooths as well.

The demo was really neat and Molly was totally fascinated. We stayed through most of it and Molly got a little introduction to the crowd as a BC doing another job. I will try to get the pictures up eventually. When they started working a less trained puppy, we had to go because Molly was just whining like crazy in jealousy. She wanted to get out there and work the sheep.

When we left the festival, we took a very scenic drive home along the Delaware River from the Delaware Water Gap down to the New Hope area. Molly and I were tired and did some napping.

Monday was another busy day. We went to the college I graduated from (Delaware Valley College in Doylestown, PA) and visited the people I knew in the library. Molly came in as a working dog and met some people and spent some time chilling on the floor. Then she waited in the car while DH and I got a tour of the horse barns. We met two clicker trained horses, one of which was trained to pick up a toy from the floor. That was really cool!

Then Molly and I waited while DH checked out the dairy barn and some other stuff.

Finally we went to visit my mom's coworkers in the admissions department and Molly came in and made a great impression. She worked well and behaved nicely and it turned out that my mother's boss has BCs and his wife works with a rescue. So he really enjoyed her visit and it was nice talking to someone knowledgable.

Much of Monday evening we spent packing for the road trip. Tuesday was a hectic day with packing and errands. Molly had to stay home when we went to the grocery store because the car was packed with my chair. But she got to come later to Walmart and impress people again with her demeanor and skills. We met more of those people who say "you're working so I can't talk to you" in silly voices.

Wednesday morning bright and early we hit the road for Virginia, our first overnight stop. Molly camped out between me and DH in the back seats and we tucked her in under the blanket when she looked cold. Molly came to breakfast with us and lay down nicely under the table at Perkins. We were really proud of her for settling so well and being so quiet. DH sneaked her a few goodies as a reward. She also got to work while we toured a museum around the middle of the day. She again behaved well and made a good impression on everyone we met.

At the hotel Wednesday night, we put her crate on the bed because there wasn't any floor space. She settled happily into it on her mat. She was too tired when we arrived to eat, but got up and ate at 11pm after a potty walk. She got us up again at 1 for another walk.

Thursday we let her stay in the car during breakfast because we ate in a Waffle House and the space is limited. She also had such a big day ahead of her. Lunch we had in a park in Spartanburg, NC, and she got to come out on a long line tied to the picnic table.

After that, we had to Erin and Z at the Good Dog Academy for a training session. Erin has given us several tips before on our training and we thought it would be a good idea to see her while we were in the area so she could check out Molly for herself. Molly did really really well. We started by working on teaching her not to jump on people. Erin made some progress with her in a short training session and gave us a lot of ideas for working further on the problem.

Another big problem was Molly's tendency to be noisy while working. We have a good idea for that one now--having my DH do Molly's job if Molly is noisy because Molly _hates_ for someone else to do her job.

Then we worked on some socialization with Erin's dog Z and that went really well. Molly started settling down around Z and wagging with a loose tail. She got lots of clicks and treats for short and prolonged looks at Z.

We had a few play breaks in all this when DH played with her with her kong. We ended the session with some mat work. I've had trouble getting Molly to find her mat from a longer distance. Amazingly she did great and was even able to pick her own mat out at about 10 feet with a choice of 3 mats. Wow. We'd been doing some training there, so it doesn't count as a levels test.

Then from Erin's we drove to another Internet BC friend, Brenda with her boys Jake and JJ. Brenda did great helping us work more on the not jumping thing and Molly really seemed to get the rules. Then we introduced her to JJ. It took some slow work, but Molly was soon wagging at JJ with a loose tail. We let the two of them loose and Molly ran after him all over Brenda's fenced back yard.

It was going so well that we added Jake to the mix. By then Molly was playing like a dog and it was a beautiful sight. They ran up and down the steps to the deck and chased balls and frisbees and just played like dogs do. She also was quite comfortable drinking their water with them around. I didn't do any training in the backyard then successfully recalled Molly at 40' or so through the other two dogs... So that's a recall pass for my levels tests! YAY!

Then we headed for the hotel and another night's sleep. She behaved well all night. I have determined that my body is not happy about picking up after her when she potties. My DH had done it at the earlier stops, but this time there was a grassy patch right outside our door so I took her out myself. It is a little backwards to have an SD that has a primary job of keeping me from bending over then to have to bend over to pick up after her... Hmmm...

Now my family is itching to hit the road, so I want to get this posted. We had breakfast here at the hotel and let Molly stay in the car. Now we're heading for a few scenic stops before we spend the weekend at my brother's with my family.

Tomorrow we have an appointment with Robin at Shoofly Farms for a herding lesson! We're so excited!

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.

Off Leash Reliability

Molly has gotten so much more reliable with recalls and attentive to us that we've started taking her routinely on potty breaks without a leash. Despite being off-leash, Molly has still been doing able to potty on command within 2 minutes.

We've had a few incidents where the dog next door has started barking and she has ignored it and gone about her business. She used to react a lot to the dog next door, so this really shows the progress we've made on that front.

A few little things this morning made me want to write about her progress. She is really showing how far she has come in reliability and obedience.

Molly's main potty area is along the trees at the end of our yard. She prefers to go in the higher grasses and weeds a bit into the trees rather than in the yard itself. But right on the other side of the trees is our neighbor's driveway. The neighbor's with the very noisy golden retriever-looking dog that apparently has serious separation anxiety and other issues that make it bark at everything and pretty much constantly when its people aren't home. This is the dog that's she's been learning not to react to when it barks on walks.

Today it was also the people she was being good about. They were in their driveway messing around with cars and a trailer. Initially she ignored them but at one point she got a bit upset. Her hair stood on end and she started barking.

Very quickly I just said, "Molly, home." She immediately ran for home and stood waiting at the house door until I came. She didn't get to finish her potty outing, but I felt at that point it was more important to avert the barking and the risk of her doing more about her stress than just barking.

I was really proud of her for the prompt response to the command despite her concerns. When she got to the door, her hair relaxed and she just turned to look at me and watch me come. I didn't have to repeat anything. I opened the door and she hurried inside. We found something yummy for her.

A little later she again expressed her need to go out (no surprise there), so we went out again. She started out quickly then stopped to wait for me to get closer. When I got within the range she knows is acceptable, she continued on to the potty spot. Without even being told what to do, she squatted and did her business. Again waiting to stay within the appropriate range, she then turned and ran straight to the house door.

I was so proud of her that I did something I don't normally do. I took her into the fenced area for a little play session. She ran around with a case of the zoomies and I threw her bone and talked to her. Then I came in a filled her bone and her kong with some leftovers and kibble to make it yummy. I froze the kong and gave her the bone outside.

She stayed out chewing on it until she asked to come in. Now she is here by my side on the floor working on her partly frozen kong.