Laundry Duty Problems

I am feeling very guilty and a little heartbroken today. I tried last weekend to film Molly emptying the washer. She started out okay, but then lost her focus. I thought initially that she was just distracted by DH, his friend, and Shawnee outside. It isn't normal for her to be so distracted, but it was my best guess.

Then when reviewing the film, I saw that she had banged into the tripod. It all went downhill from there.

I tried again today. DH suggested putting the video camera in the window sill on the minitripod. But Molly was still hesitant and insecure about her work. Throwing in an item she hadn't worked with before probably didn't help. Usually she doesn't blink at new items, but this was a rug from the kitchen floor with a rubberized bottom. It was hard to pull out and made noise against the sides of the washer. I had to help. (I am totally crashed now from the effort)

So we will be trying a lot of laundry for the next while. With even more frequent and higher quality rewards to help her build up confidence and get looking forward to the job again.

Doing Better and Public Access

We've been taking it pretty easy and Molly is seeming a lot more like herself. I gave her treats for coming into the laundry room, which she ate gladly and without signs of stress. We did some mat training today to build up time. We're also doing lots of named retrieves with things she knows, like mat, pants, and phone. She is gettign really good at the retrieves, even from quite a distance.

Today we took her to Farm Fun, which is a petting zoo-like place next door to us. The place is crawling with kids and dogs on leashes. We got ice cream for us and sat down. Molly mostly did okay, but she was whining a lot. She still responded to sit, down, and target commands, but didn't take treats (so she also passed on the road L3 zen).

The whining was mainly aimed at dogs and kids. We need more practice!!

Our thanks to everyone who has worried about Molly and sent her good vibes. I hope to be able to report that she's completely back to normal within a few days. We're going to stay taking it easy a little longer and not add any new behaviors yet. We will probably continue trying to improve and practice things she is already doing easily like we've been doing.

Stripping the Bed

Another of Molly's real jobs is helping me strip the bed when I feel like it's time to change the sheets and comforter covers. Those of you in the US might need a quick briefing in how DK beds are set up. We don't have the top sheets and piles of blankets that Americans usually use. We have a bottom sheet to cover the mattress, but because DH and I have adjustable beds we have two single mattresses that each get their own top sheet. The smooth cotton fitted sheets are uncommon here--usually the bottom sheets are stretchy with a towel-like surface if fitted or are smooth flat sheets. We have two of the towel-like stretchy ones and this year added a set of fitted flannel sheets. One of this years I'm going to measure to see if a set of US fitted sheets would fit the bed so I could get nice cool ones for summer... Anyway, back to the point. Beyond the bottom sheets, we have individual comforters with a cover made of sheet-like material (often a bit heavier) that is washed regularly. They usually button or tie at the bottom to keep them on the comforter. Our pillows are also square instead of the rectangular shape in the US and the cases either have an extra fold to keep them on or have ties. We have some of both. In addition to the regular pillows, we each have one of those pillows shaped to give better neck support. They are a bit harder to fit into the pillow cases.

So, Molly's job is to help me get all the cases, covers, and sheets off the bed and either out to the wash or in the machine. For the comforters and pillows, I sit on the edge of the bed and start them so that one end is free. Then I show Molly where to grab onto the cover or case and tell her to pull while I hold onto the comforter or pillow inside. As long as she doesn't let go and regrip, it generally goes smoothly. Sometimes we have a little trouble with comforters when she needs to change her hold and accidentally grabs comforter along with cover, but she is good at letting go on command then grabbing where I say so to try again.

After the covers are off the items, she takes them to the kitchen on command and drops them in a pile. I decided today that I want to teach her to drop them in the laundry basket, because we're having trouble coordinating what I intended as the next phase (picking them up from the floor and carrying them to me out at the washer while I stay there). It is a bit silly for her to run back and forth that much when I should be able to teach her to put them in the basket (or at least give them to me and I can drop them in the basket) then drag the basket to the washer. She loves pulling the basket and that is a more sensible task than carrying all the awkward comforter covers such a distance.

Unfortunately I have not yet found a way to have Molly help me with the bottom sheets. To make the situation worse, it is the most painful part of the process for me. I can only cope with doing it on a really good day. Otherwise DH has to do it. Even on a good day, I have to take a lot of breaks. It might be easier if we didn't have the two mattresses pressed together. We also have two metal brackets on the outside of each mattress to keep them on the bed. But if anyone has any ideas, please leave me comments with them.

So all that went really well. I didn't use treats as rewards for it but played with her instead. She did an excellent job putting the items into a pile in the kitchen and leaving them there on command, so I'm really proud of her for that. After the stuff was washed, she also did a round of laundry duty to help me get it hung out.

I haven't started training her to help me make the bed yet. DH is kind enough to help with that part so I don't have to push myself too hard.

Her evening reward for a day's hard work in hot weather (we also did some great training today with loose leash walking and stays with distractions) was a trip to the beach. But I'm too tired to blog that now. It will have to wait until tomorrow. There should be pics on the camera.

Some Real Work--Laundry Duty

Even an SDIT can't spend her life training. Sometimes she actually has to do some of the jobs she's trained to do. Today is laundry day so that's hard work for both me and Molly. First, she helps gather up my dirty laundry from the floor in the bedroom. There isn't room for a basket in there on the floor and I'm not up to taking it out to the laundry room when I get undressed every night. DH manages to deliver his to the laundry basket, but mine is usually in a pile on the floor (although if he has some on the way to the basket, Molly helps by passing mine on to him). But with Molly's help, I regularly move my pile to the basket when I'm ready to do wash or it just starts getting annoying. Gathering that up is a basic series of take and retrieve commands so I can put it into a basket.

Then Molly pulls the basket into the laundry room for me. I sit down on the floor to sort the laundry and put the right stuff into the machine. I haven't taught her how to sort laundry yet. She could pick up everything and give it to me one piece at a time, but I think it gets a bit ridiculous for her, so usually I just get down on the floor or onto a chair and sort it into piles. We have a sturdy counter there that I can use to pull myself up.

When a load of laundry is finished, it is time for Molly to get to work again. I open the door to the front load washer (we don't have a dryer at all) and say "laundry" to Molly. She pulls things out of the machine and gives them to me. Today's wash was some towels and underwear, so it was a pretty big work load. The towels get tangled up and she has to pull hard to get them out and the underwear she takes one piece at a time and it takes a while. But she keeps at it, sticking her head in the machine to get at them or picking dropped items up off the floor. She gets a tiny treat tidbit every few items and especially after the bulky ones. When she gets to the end, she sticks her head in to make sure she didn't miss anything else in the machine.

In the beginning of learning to do laundry, Molly wouldn't put her head in the machine. I had to start things by getting them to the edge of the washer. But with practice she started sticking her head in more and more. Today is actually the first time she put her head in and looked around for more items when it was empty. I gave her a couple treats and extra praise for that one.

My laundry basket is Molly-ready with an old t-shirt braided onto one side as a tug for her. I put it onto the floor, indicate the tug with my foot, and say "PULL". Molly grabs on with her teeth and starts pulling. In places where it doesn't slide easily, I help with a foot or a crutch, but she's an experienced puller now and knows how to deal with the basket. On easy surfaces, she gets excited and adds extra circles and curves for the fun of it.

We're still working on adding exact directional cues to her pulls, but she definitely loves the job. Today the weather was right for hanging outside, so she happily dragged the basket out there for me. But she didn't want to stop, so tried to drag it off the patio and out into the yard.


With a little more encouragement, she got the basket over right next to the rack so I could hang it up. I need to focus more on guiding her than taking her picture. But her job wasn't finished yet. I needed her to help me get the items out of the basket. All that bending over to take out each one just wouldn't be good for me.

So once again we had lots of takes and gives to get each item out. She worked hard and did well, although some items were pretty awkward and unwieldy for her. Like her bath towels.

But she kept at it and gave me everything so I could get it all hung up to dry outside. She's a hard-working BC SDIT and I love her for it.

After all that work, the girl deserved a break. I'd prepared a kong for her earlier with kibble soaked in meat juices and warm water and chew stick stick. I'd put it in the freezer to chill and get a little more difficult. She got that out in her fence and I lay down on a blanket to keep her company.