Shawnee Is Growing Up

I am quite shocked by how long it has been since I last updated this blog. I know I had started blog entry several times, but I must not have finished them.

I have not been doing a lot of concentrated training with either of the girls. Actually, I've barely been doing any. I am struggling a lot with my health issues and have been dealing with a migraine for about two weeks now. I am also trying to do more housework and other things, which makes me too tired to blog or train.

It's hard to believe how much Shawnee has grown. It seems like only yesterday that she was the little puppy that I picked up in the room in the barn where they were born and had snuggle up and lick my neck. Now she lives here and she's quite a big girl. She still loves to snuggle.

At this point, Shawnee is rarely tethered while in the house. I think it has been weeks since she has had an accident here home. Although DH is quite sure that she will never be as easy to keep clean as Molly. She had some other odds potty incidents, such as peeing in the house at my in-laws while saying hello to my mother-in-law and peeing while walking on their terrace, leaving the semicircular trail behind her. A few days ago she went on our terrace here at home. DH told her to go out in the fence and potty but she went before she got into the fence.

Overall, Shawnee is now very reliable at pottying on command in the fence. We take her out and tell her to potty and she goes out in the end of the area the fence and does her business. She then runs eagerly back for praise. She also seems to be better able to understand the concept of going while out before coming in. She is often out of fence for several hours with Molly when the weather is nice.

She is still very odd when she poos and often walks while going or goes several different places. But at least she goes outside.

Shawnee still thinks that the best game in the world is jumping on furniture. DH has started letting her in the bedroom once in a while, usually while I'm still in bed. She thinks there is nothing better in the world than to jump on the bed. However, she's also learning to settle down and snuggle with me. She usually likes to lie down and have her belly rubbed, usually while covering my face with kisses.

In terms of training and behavior, she is showing an increase in her solidness in basic behaviors. This is despite a lack of actual training. However, she is much better at remembering to sit before talking to people instead of jumping. Her sit and lie down on command a very strong. We haven't been practicing rollover or flop. She is extremely quiet and well behaved in her crate and goes in on command.

Although I'm not training the girls still get plenty of playtime. Shawnee low longer relies 100% on Molly to return to the toys to us. She has not yet learned to give in to is in our hands, but she drops them reliably at our feet. If we do not quickly pick it up and throw it for them, she repeats until we respond.

Molly is definitely much happier with Shawnee's company. This is despite the fact that Shawnee is a toy and bone hoard. Shawnee is so possessive that she often growls at Molly if she approaches. We are working on living this behavior and on encouraging Molly to stand up to Shawnee and put her into place.

A Very Overdue Update

I'm sorry I haven't been able to to keep this blog up to date lately. The pain in my hands has become come unbearable, so I'm no longer able to type. But fortunately I just got a copy of Dragon naturally speaking, so I am able to update with voice. Some words may show up at the wrong word a little bit complicated, but hopefully you'll be able to figure out what I mean.

Despite me being sick and us having a number of family emergencies, the girls have continued well in their training. Shawnee is doing well with learning sit-stay. She is able to hold a stay for about a meter while we walk away and back to her. Molly's training is on break at the moment
because she's in heat.

Shawnee has learned to eat and is now eating consistently every time she is fed. Unfortunately, Molly has been going on intermittent hunger strikes. It may be related to her season, but for now we are putting her back on the strict eating plan.

I had been having some trouble with Shawnee on the tether and in her crate. She is no longer throwing herself to the end of the tether. I followed a friends advice and put some mentholatum on her leash and now she's not chewing on it anymore either. Her calmness in the crate has also improved dramatically.

Fortunately, she's almost completely housebroken now. Her accidents are very rare and very small despite increased time off tether. Additionally, she is alerting to her need to go out by going to the door. We are thinking of adding a bell but have not had the chance to create one yet.

I haven't learned how to put pictures in with the text yet. So for now you are stuck with text updates, but that's probably better than nothing.

The Great Crate Escape, Caviar, and Other Babblings

We should have named Shawnee Houdini. She's a 4-legged escape artist. We've been having trouble for a while with her finding ways out of the fence. The mask in the fence is too big and she can go right through it. So DH spent hours putting net up and other things to keep her in. We thought we had all the holes blocked, but she keeps finding ways out. We've found and secured a few more of her escape spots but we don't always see how she gets out. So going out in the fence does not mean she is very safe and I have to keep an eye on her anyway (Molly is fine and stays in even when the little one is running around outside teasing her).

This morning she really proved her escape skills. I had to go pour jugs of water into the horse's trough because we still had -10C at 10am this morning. No way we will get the garden pump supplying them water today. Shawnee had been crated for an hour and a half to two hours before I went out. I'd been napping myself for that time. So when I woke up and she was still pretty quiet, I headed straight out to the horses without getting her out to potty first. To make as little noise as possible, I'd left the door to the hallway and the bedroom open--I didn't want to wake her up and make her think she'd get to go out.

When I came back from the horses (who were VERY thirsty and will need more water before DH is home from work), I saw Shawnee come running out of the bedroom when I got in. I took a quick glance at her crate, which appeared to be covered as it was when I left, then hurried to get her out for a potty walk. Good thing, too, because she was in a hurry to go.

When we got in, I shut the dogs in the kitchen properly and inspected for accidents. Nothing! I have no idea how long she'd been out--I was gone 15-20 mins--but she hadn't pottied anywhere. A few minutes later, I had to take her out for more walk, because I'd hurried in too much to check for trouble and didn't give her a chance to poo the first time. This is a great sign of the progress of her housebreaking that she'd been out long enough to go in the bedroom but hadn't left any puddles anywhere.

As my faithful readers have probably realized long ago, we have pretty spoiled dogs. One of Molly's main training treats has been canned shrimp from the start. They got some fresh shrimp a few days ago when we couldn't eat all of the container we opened (DH reports that Shawnee likes shrimp). Last night they got a further luxury when they got to share a small glass of red caviar. DH had gotten it in his Christmas present from work and finally decided he really didn't feel like eating it (I wasn't about to help, that's for sure! I tasted caviar once in my life years ago at a cousin's wedding and it was YUCKY!). So last night he gave it to the girls. Molly got the larger share. Shawnee wasn't quite as keen on it. They didn't eat all of it then and the rest was mixed in their food today. I made them share it. They're spoiled and they probably don't even know it!

Overall things are going well with htem. Molly has been getting more focused and responsive to commands despite Shawnee's presence and attempted interference. When I was lying on the floor with Shawnee this morning, Molly retrieved my blanket off the couch and brought it to me. Shawnee tried to attack her as she handed it over, but once I got the little one under control, she completed the retrieve with grace and eagerness.

Shawnee has been learning both lie down and sit very quickly. She also potties on command and tries to head for the door when she needs out (she is often prevented from going TO the door because she is leashed whenever out of the kitchen). I've also done two types of zen training with her--Molly Zen and Hand Zen.

Molly zen is the fine art of being in the same room as her sister without starting a war by attacking Molly constantly. Molly is fine with leaving Shawnee alone when we ask her to, but Shawnee doesn't have enough "leave it" yet, so has to learn. So far I have mostly done this by giving Molly a mat command into a corner of the kitchen. Then Shawnee gets to wander around and I click and treat for doing things other than attacking Molly. I keep the sessions short, but it is going well and she is less aggressive when not training as well. Every time Shawnee gets a treat for not attacking Molly, Molly gets a treat for staying on the mat and I repeat the mat command. I don't want her to think the clicker releases her and get into trouble and I also don't want her feeling left out. Staying quiet on the mat despite the Shawnee temptation is really a big deal these days.

While I did the dishes in the kitchen today, I had the crate open. Shawnee went in and out several times, often settling down in her crate for a few minutes. This is a good thing, because I haven't been crate training her properly. We just put her in and shut the door, ignoring whines and screams if she is well-pottied first. So I am very glad to see that she isn't hating the crate. I've also decided to do a better job of giving her a chew toy in the crate with her so she has somehting to do if she isn't sleepy and it seems a little more fun. When I put her down a little bit ago, she got a teeth-cleaning chew stick. Molly got one too but didn't get crated.

Molly is resting in the sun at the end of the sofa being a very beautiful and quiet girl.

Okay, my arm and hands hurt from typing so much, so that's it for today!

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.