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.

Shawnee Learned to Stay

Shawnee passed her level 2 sit-stay and down-stay tests. I think we have DH to thank for this. Here are a few pics from last weekend's pasture play session when he did some stay training.




Before that, I had only worked on sit stay. This is the first she learned a down stay. But if you can stay when Daddy walks that far away with your toy--and turns his back to you--you can stay when Mommy walks that little bit away without a toy even if your sister isn't lying next to you offering moral support.

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.

A Video Starring Molly

Molly and I are competing in a virtual levels training competition. This is our entry. Since we went to all that work filming and making the video, I thought I'd share it here as well. Enjoy!

Finally Training Again

I did a short mat session with the girls yesterday. Even though it had been a long time since either had seen their mats, they did really well. I decided yesterday that I should test Shawnee on it today.

While the girls were out in their fence, I put the mats into place. Although Molly passed this level ages ago, I like to include her in practices and tests. It makes her feel a part of things.

As soon as I let the girls in the room, both ran to their own mats. I knew right away that Shawnee would pass her test.

Armed with my clicker and some fish flavored dog food, I started test. I sent Shawnee to her mat, and she went right to it. I told Molly go to her mat as well. Then I threw treats off the mat and repeated the commands. Both still went directly to their own mats and lay down. That passes L2 mat for Shawnee.

Molly reminded me how well she distinguishes different commands. I asked her to take Shawnee's mat and she took the right one. She took the mat as opposed to doing a mat behavior on it. She did the same with her own mat.

Then we played for a while, until Shawnee was good and tired. I crated her.

Then I decided it was time to do some were finished training with Molly. I haven't trained her at all lately. That she knew what she was supposed to do right away. She still won't hold eye contact while moving. But she is very quick to reconnect after she moved wherever I am.

Later, while Molly was out in the fence alone, I did some watch training with Shawnee. I've only done it in the bathroom before so this was new to do it lying on the sofa. She figured it out pretty quickly, but I only got up to a two second hold.

I need to get to training more with the girls, but it's hard for me right now. I'm frustrated by my pain levels and stressed with the government issues. It's also much more challenging to work with two dogs than just one.

Shawnee Reports on True Color Thursday: Black

Mommy sez dat I get ta help wif da blog now dat Im gettin ta be a big gurl n past Level 1 af da trainin program. So dese are my BLAK piks!

Mommy sez dat Im sposed ta say tanks ta Blue fur da idea.

Dis iz me n Molly. Weer tricullur border colliez, so dat meanz we r BLAK n wite n tan. But mostlee we r blak.

Molly iznt vewy happee wif me in dis piktshur cuz Im steelin da bone frum her.










Dis is Molly wif owr blak kong. Sumtimz Mommy puts yummy stuff in da kong fer os, lik peenut budder or pattay.


Molly liks da kong lots, but sumtimz she lets me play wif it too.


She iznt happy wif me if I take it frum her, but uzuly she lets me haf it if i wunt it.

Heer I am sayin, "Pleeze Molly, kan I haf da kong?"





Da krate iz blak. Dis iz me sittin in it. Wen I gets bord, I try ta let me out. Uzuly I'm stuk til Mommy or Daddy cumz, but wonce I got out on my own.

If I haz ta pottee, I wine n cry til dey kom n take me out. Sumtimz I try dat too if Im bord.

Da krat is big nuff fur wen Im big lik Molly, but it haz a wall in it now.


Da next pik iz af me n Molly playin wif da BLAK klude we had urlier. Mommy sez ta tell uz dat "klude" meenz rag ur sumtin lik dat.

Weev playd sa hard wif kluden dat it wuz fallin part. So Daddy gaf us a nu won taday. Itz blak too.


Mommy dropt her fone taday. Molly wuz busy playin soz I pikt it up n gave it ta Daddy. Dey didnt beleef I'd dun it, so dey dropt it igin n took a piktshure da secund time. Mommyz fone iz BLAK too, so heer I am pikken it up.

Playing Together

With my DH off work and doing much of the housework, Molly is mostly off-duty as SD. This is great because it is giving her plenty of time to adjust to her added role of big sister. Here are some pictures of the twosome playing in the fence outside.














Overall, things are going well with Shawnee. She is having fewer accidents and getting better at pottying more-or-less on command outside. She and Molly are pretty inseparable with Molly taking a very serious protective role with her little sister. Shawnee has passed L1 sit but nothing more on the levels training. We're having trouble luring a down, so we'll have to capture it. She definitely understands the clicker though.

Initially Shawnee was very quiet in her crate, but she is in a screaming and trying to dig her way out phase. We are trying to be strong and hopign it will pass soon.

Training Watch

I got a new pair of glasses shortly before the US trip. Before that, Molly was able to make and hold eye contact with me for quite a while. But the glasses were a big change and she had trouble with the exercise again.

Her ability to make and hold eye contact on command and just in general while working is very important. It helps her be focused on me and it will make it easier to train several other exercises.

A few days ago, Molly was "Dog of the Day" on the levels training mailing list. As Dog of the Day and her trainer, we got a lot of encouragement for the progress we've made so far with our training and tips and ideas for continuing our work. It's really a great boost to be "Dog of the Day" because of all the support and the encouragement to talk about our personal training challenges.

Our lost watch is really what is holding us back from finished Level 3. I need watch before I can work on Finish and Heel. Of course she also needs her paw targetting, but it will do her good to work on something else for a little while.

So we've been training watch from scratch--as if she had never learned it. I'm not using a cue yet, just clicking and treating for eye contact. At first I only expected her to hold it for a second, but I build it up slowly, backing up if I go to fast. I am training in two ways.

1. Focused training sessions with treats and the clicker. I click for contact and build up how long she holds it before the click and reward with a treat. In those sessions, we got up to 12 seconds this morning.

2. Incorporating eye contact into play sessions. If Molly brings me a toy and wants me to play, she has to give and maintain eye contact before I will throw the toy. I vary how long I expect her to hold it--going both up and down to keep it interesting. Molly is very toy focused, so we are actually up to 17 seconds of eye contact when playing. I either use the clicker or make a clicking sound with my tongue to mark the end of the eye contact.

I need 30 seconds to pass L3. So once I have her consistently holding around 30 seconds in both situations, I will put the cue back in. Our cue is "watch." It doesn't sound like any of her other commands and it is easy for me to remember.

Unfortunately, spending a lot of time making and holding eye contact is actually quite straining for my eyes and tends to bother my head a little. So it isn't something I can do too much of in one day. It is great practice though and Molly can see where I am planning to throw her toy from how my eyes move when they break contact.

Paw Targetting

Even though yesterday was her birthday, Molly had a training session. She enjoys it, so no reason to skip it.

The last few times we'd trained, Molly still insisted on retrieving her paw target. After a tip from an online friend, we tried taping the post-it target to the floor. So far the tape seems to be holding up to her attempts to scrape it off the floor and she got a LOT better at the behavior in one short session.


Many of her hits did include trying to scrape the target off the floor, so I worked on clicking early, before the scrape, to fine-tune the behavior.

My timing wasn't perfect, so sometimes I clicked for a paw hitting off the target. But she did get less scrape-y in her pawing and actually did almost the whole session standing up! Standing it great progress because initially she thought she was supposed to lie down while pounding her paws into the floor.

I think she'll have this behavior down in no time if I just keep training.

Paw Targetting

I am starting work now on getting Molly to target with a paw. This is part of Level 3 target, but that i sonly part of why I am doing it. I want to teach her to push switches on power strips with her paw. That's my ultimate goal.

Today was our first training session. I put a post-it on the floor. Being very retrieve oriented, Molly wanted to pick it up and give it to me. I just ignored these attempts (no reward), taking the post-it from her and putting it back on the floor. I started by clicking and treating for looking at it. I wanted her to know that this is what it dealt with. She kept persisting with retrieve, so from there I went to clicking and treating for moving a paw, even just slightly. Then I refined to moving a paw near the target. She hit it sometimes, probably mostly by accident, but I reacted by rapid-firing clicks and treats while she was touching it.

By the time the short session ended, she was pounding her paws into the floor, often on the target, and only getting rewards when she hit the target. I didn't want to overdo it this first time (she does seem to learn amazingly quickly), so I ended by jackpotting her--rewarding her with a small handful of treats--when she again hit the target hard with her paw.

Mat a 10 Feet

I've not been on much lately--my laptop died and working at my desk is
very painful. Poor Molly also hasn't been training much because of my
health issues and stress of trying to get through the system for a
pension or something.

Molly's mat has been outside on the clothes line since we got back
from the US. It needed to be sure to be flea-free and bad weather
kept leaving it wet when I wanted to bring it in. But it finally came
in this weekend and spent some time drying out totally before I got it
out to Molly.

So I decided to test her in the kitchen for doing the mat from the
proper distance. I put it down on the floor while she was out of the
room then called her in. She immediately ran over to her mat and lay
down. I think she was happy to see it.

Then I called her to me at about 10-12 feet away--the furthest
possible in the kitchen. When she came to me, I then told her to mat.
She ran immediately over to HER mat, ignoring the small rug I was
standing on, and lay down perfectly, completely on it. She stayed
with no problems. I treated her and did it again to make sure it
wasn't a freak. Nope. She ran to her mat and did it again. I
started dishes while she stayed without fussing or anything.

So she finally passed L4 mat and I am once again reminded of the
advantages of putting a tough thing aside for a while to let it settle
into her and get exciting again.

Traveling Like a Pro--And in Style

I'm sorry I'm a long time getting this posted, but I spent a lot of Thursday sleeping to recover from the trip. Then Friday I had a doctor appointment and spent another batch of time sleeping. So here's the trip report.

We got up at 3 a.m. Denmark time on the morning of 3 September. I'd asked British Airways, who is the airline listed on our electronic ticket, when we needed to be at the airport and they said two hours early. Molly was excited but well-behaved. I hadn't slept much overnight--I'm on antibiotics for my unspecified lung infection and they make me hyper, plus I was excited about the trip. DH woke up with a migraine. Despite all that, we managed to get ourselves fed, Molly walked, and headed to the airport, thanks to DH's friend who drove us.

The check-in desk was not open when we arrived. After we waited and waited and it was less than an hour before our flight, we asked one of the SAS people if they knew when it opened. It turned out it didn't open until 45 minutes before our take off time. Molly waited quietly all this time. She enjoyed watching other people moving around, but didn't whine or bark or get too upset by being still. I took advantage of the opportunity to pass one of her "on the road" tests for the levels. She is able to hold a loose leash while I am seated in my wheelchair and not moving around for a minute despite the distractions of people all over.

When they finally opened, I asked the man there about the arrival time but didn't get a satisfying answer. So if you're ever flying a BA flight done by Sun Air, don't believe them about the 2 hour check-in time.

Sun's flight wasn't booked solid. So Molly and I had the front row with 2 adjacent seats. DH sat across the aisle in a single seat and the couple rows behind us were empty. Molly behaved perfectly. She was a little stressed that DH and I weren't closer together and that she wasn't allowed across the aisle to him, but she dealt with it. Molly got a little motion sick as we were landing (some drool) but nothing serious. We were really impressed.

We then arrived in Oslo. We were met at the airplane by a man with a wheelchair. Although I thought it wouldn't work out, we were able to get my own chair immediately. So he put the airport's chair aside and pushed me in my chair. We didn't have to wait in lines. This man escorted us to the customs area so we could get Molly cleared for going outside. There was a little trouble there. I had the stuff we needed for Denmark and the US, but Norway requires a follow-up to a rabies shot to verify the presence of antibodies and a weird deworming verified by the vet. But they let us take her outside for a potty anyway as long as we promised to keep her on leash. They made an exception because she wasn't staying in the country. But I wanted to mention it to make sure that others traveling thought to verify the requirements of connecting countries.

Then we went to check-in with Continental. The man the airport provided continued to escort us through all this. Once we were checked in properly, he took us to a coffee shop near the door and set up where we should meet him later when it was time to head to the gate. We then took Molly outside, where she pottied on concrete on command in less than 30 seconds. That passes another OtR levels excercise.

Molly was a very good and helpful girl and insisted on cleaning things up off the floor. She hates pieces of paper and such all over.

Then when it was time, the guy came back to get us. We got cut into line to go through the security check. It took a while--I had to have my shoes off and them run separately through the x-ray. Once we were all cleared, the guy pushed me to the gate and Molly walked along side. My poor DH had to carry both carry-ons and stuff.

At the gate, we had to go through a huge mess of checks and stuff because it's a US flight. Had to answer all the questions again about if we'd maintained possession of our bags and if we were carrying anything for anyone, etc., etc. Then I got spot picked for a carry-on search. The guy was really nice about it and lucky for him he picked the backpack that had Molly's stuff in it. The other one would have been really nasty to unpack and repack because it had my meds in it.

While we were waiting at the gate, the cabin crew arrived. A very nice woman stopped to ask some questions about Molly, how we were seated in the plane, and if we'd have enough space. She works for Continental and her name is Latania. Her name tag said she was from or based in Halifax and she managed the cabin crew. I'm telling all this because if you end up on one of her flights, you'll be a very lucky person and because we owe her a huge thanks.

Thanks to her, we were bumped to business class on the very full flight to the US. She wanted to make sure that Molly had plenty of room and a great experience. She came by our seat often to check that we had plenty of room and about half way through the flight asked if she could give Molly the ice cubes that I'd asked for for her. Everyone on the crew was really nice--asking to pet Molly and complimenting her behavior. With being in the higher class, there was plenty of room for Molly's mat to be put on the floor between us the long way and for us to both still have more than enough leg space.

We were, of course, fed a full business class 4 course dinner and plenty to drink. We shared our fortune with Molly, so she got bits and pieces of meat from our dinner, ice cubes from our glasses, etc. She never did end up eating much dry food. I was exhausted after we ate and hurting pretty bad, so I lay back to sleep and DH stayed awake to keep tabs on Molly. Molly actually was able to relax and sleep. She enjoyed looking at the people around us and the attention from the flight attendants.

They offered to find some kind of snacks or something for her, but we didn't want her to have too much. She did end up getting salmon. Our second meal was hamburgers with a first course of salmon. Molly got both of our pieces of salmon. So she also benefitted from the luxury treatment.

Our flight was rather turbulent. The seat belt light kept coming on. But Molly handled it fine and didn't seem to get air sick this time. She was pretty unhappy during landing. She just looked uneasy, but no whining or complaining.

We waited patiently for everyone else to get off before we did. My wheelchair was waiting, but no personal assistant this time. Poor Molly had to keep holding while we went through customs, immigration, and got our bags. Then we had to go to the agriculture people to get Molly checked and because we have horses at home. All that went fine and rather smoothly. I had to answer some questions, but we were prepared. Despite what a woman had told me on the phone before the trip, Molly is not required to get a second rabies shot when she has already had one.

Then we tried to hurry out. Our luggage had had to go through a second check. While DH was loading the luggage onto our $3 cart, Molly had an accident on the floor. She looked so traumatized. She'd been holding since about 4am US time and it was going on 3pm. I also suspect the floor may have been spotted already judging from the carpet. That would make it harder for her to continue to hold. But we immediately threw down a number of paper towels that we'd brought in her vest and called one of the people working there to alert them to the problem and apologize. The guy was really nice and understanding and said he'd take care of it, but we still cleaned the wet paper towels up into a potty bag.

Then we went the rest of the way out and found my parents. They helped us get out to their car for the drive "home" to their place. We made a stop at a park first to give Molly some water and a potty outing. She wasn't really interested in the water but did seem to appreciate the outing.

We went to a TGI Friday's for dinner but let Molly stay in the car. We thought she needed the quiet. It was so nice to have a steak. DH somehow managed to find a Dane to talk to in the bathroom.

Molly got some dinner when we got back to the car. She ate a huge bowl of Orijen dry food. Then we found another potty spot for Molly before going by my grandmother, who lives in a nursing home.

Getting to my parents' place, Molly met cats for the first time. She wants to chase them and move them around. A "leave it" quiets her, but they are very tempting.

The crate I had ordered for her for the time here had arrived, so now she has passed all the crate behaviors on the road. She went in quite happily and stayed in when needed.

So thank you everyone for your good thoughts. A special thanks goes to Latania, whose name I hope I have spelled correctly, for making sure that our Continental flight was so roomy and pleasant.

Lots of Public Access Practice, Eating, and Training with a Toy

Wow. We've been busy. Too busy to blog enough.

Two days ago when DH and I ran errands, I took Molly into a big store in town. For you Americans, it reminds me a lot of Best, if you remember those. You walk around the store and look at all the stuff. When you find something you want, you fill out the info on an order slip. When done shopping, you hand in the order slip and wait for them to get your purchases out of the back--in nice sealed packages and without anyone in the store having had the opportunity to fiddle with them. Some really cheap and special sale items you can just take out of bins, but most stuff works on the order slip method.

So anyway, the first time we were in the store ages ago, I'd seen someone come in and wander around a little while with a small dog on leash right past store people without anyone saying anything. It wasn't an SD. So I didn't bother about asking for permission, figuring I'd explain, apologize, and leave if asked. But no one said anything. So while DH returned the broken item we had, Molly and I walked around. She was so good!

Then DH also wanted to look at some other stuff so Molly and I went with. She continued being quiet and very well behaved. A very successful PA practice. Also the floor there is superslippery, so it is really good practice for the airport and other businesses.

Yesterday DH needed to go see the dentist for a follow-up so we went into town again. We sat down on a bench and worked on sit stays and mat for a while. Molly did really well and was much quieter and calmer this time. I think she'd just been a little excited the first time in town because of having been stuck home so much while in heat. She only made noise once and it was to bark once at a little kid wandering around alone. No idea why she barked at him. But maybe she was picking up on something I didn't notice. It was a 5-6 yr old boy walking through a busy town without any signs of an adult, so who knows. But parents are much more relaxed here in DK about leaving their kids alone, so it might have just been someone who lived locally.

This morning I started working on clicker training again. I got a lot of tips from Erin (Z's owner) so I am finally feeling confident that I won't devalue the clicker by not giving treats but playing instead. It showed me how way out of practice we are. I tried training Watch, a very important L3 behavior. She used to be able to give me 10-20 secs eye contact on command without much trouble, but I was lucky to get 10 this morning and she wasn't responding well to the cue. I realized I needed to back up and rebuild the behavior.

When I put the toy away, Molly wasn't happy--she really wanted to play with the squeaky yellow hedgehog, the only one she's ever had WITH squeaker (usually DH pulls them out for safety). I decided to use this excitement as a training opportunity and sat down near where the toy was on the shelf and invited Molly up on my lap on the sofa. After a while, she volunteered eye contact so I clicked and treated. In a little while, I got up to 15-20secs of voluntary eye contact. She was even offering eye contact while the toy was in her mouth. A few more days of this and I should be able to recue it and get her back on track for L3 watch.

As for eating, Molly got 1 handful yesterday morning (we went from one kibble the night before to the small approx. 32 piece handful). She immediately ate it and kept looking for more. So last night it was 2 handfuls, again eaten right away. This morning she got 4 and also devoured it.

We're going to stall out here at 4 handfuls for a little while. We want to wait to up it until she is reliably devouring that much _and_ looking for more. Then we can try building up really slowly.

I will try to get some pictures up a little later today if I can find time. I have tons to do, but Molly wants to report on her small friend that arrived in the mail yesterday, so I will try to find time to get pictures online for her.

Teaching Molly to Eat--Again

We've decided to try again to teach Molly to eat like a normal dog. This time we're using Sue Ailsby's method. Sue is the person who made the Levels Book that we use as our main training guide.

We started this morning. Molly refused to eat. So dinner tonight was skipped. Tomorrow she gets one piece of kibble in her bowl (Orijen).

Think good thoughts for us please. We really need her to get more normal eating habits!

Now is the best time for this work. I'm willing to lay off training her totally. So she gets no training treats, no rawhide chews, etc. DH is fully on board (he does the morning "feed").

Training Fronts

With clicker training, it is important to break behaviors into pieces, especially when fine-tuning them. A "front" isn't a cued behavior but a piece that is coupled onto other things, like come and retrieve. It is trained separately to fine-tune the positioning in a way the dog and trainer can understand.

The final goal is to have the dog approach the trainer to sit dead center in a formal sit position (with the hips tucked appropriately and the body straight) then make eye contact with the trainer. That's what I understand anyway. It only needs to be really really perfect if you intend to compete in obedience, but working on the exactness is also good practice for perfecting other behaviors.

To do this in an easy-to-understand and positive way, the Levels Book developer provided this diagram. The A line runs right under the tips of my toes out to both sides. The C line is dead center perpendicular to the A line--it goes out in front of me from right between my feet. The B lines are half way in between A and C on both sides. Adding extra lines in between is a help for shaping the behavior slowly.

To be able to see these lines while training, I set myself up so the line between the two carpets is between my toes. To make my A or B lines as needed, I cut a long piece of white string and taped it onto the floor. The picture to the right shows Molly between my strings, which are placed about half way between B and C.

Now Molly picked all this up very quickly. In our first short training session, I had Molly in between lines halfway between B and C and making eye contact most of the time.

After in our second session, I have her with some part of her body over the C line, making eye contact, and lying down. A down is Molly's "default" behavior--what she does when she isn't sure what we want from her--so I will need to shape the down into a sit in our next session.

But to pass Level 3, she only needs to have her body over the line and making eye contact 3 times in a row out of 5 tries. She could probably pass that here in the living room now, but I'd like to try in a few other locations before I consider the test passed. We're also having fun doing it!

I've also spent some time thinking about exactly what I wanted as a front when I consider my mobility issues and service dog work. I talked it through with other level training people (many of whom have SDs) and considered the pros and cons of different possible ideas. I decided to train the dead center front with eye contact as the program describes. I don't plan to do any competing with her, so the points of this training are to learn to train that way and to control where she should be in SD work. With Molly fronting dead center and making eye contact, she will be easy to reach when I am on crutches or walking, the behavior works well with my DH as well, and she is focused and ready for other commands. I can always follow with a "paws up" onto my lap or the arm rests of the chair to be able to reach her better or reach an item better.

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.

Starting Scent Training

I am starting to do a little scent training with Molly. It's one of the optional behaviors in the LEvel Book and I thought it would be fun to try. The first step is having her find a treat under a piece of cloth. It's to help her start learning that I want her to use her nose.

She just gets this right away. The directions recommend clicking and treating 10 times with the treat on the cloth before moving on to having the treat under the edge of the cloth. Then it is 10x click and treat for that before doing the treat actually under the cloth.

With Molly I did a couple times on then a couple times under the edge then right into it all the way under the cloth. I could tell she understood and just getting a treat off cloth seemed to bore her.

She had no problem with this whether I used a piece of Frolic or a shrimp. We repeated several times and she got in the habit of delivering the piece of cloth after she got the treat.

So just for fun, I went and got two identical cloths from the kitchen. I put them down on the floor and put a treat only under one of them. Molly sniffed both then picked up the cloth with the treat under it to find the treat.

The only problem Molly has is that she is so set on the treat that sometimes she picks up both cloth and treat and has trouble finding where the treat went. But it's really cute and she is still getting the point--finding the treat from under the cloth. She then delivers that cloth, leaving hte other alone.

I'm really proud!

Molly Reports "I Passed Another Test"

Mommy trained me at putting my paws up on a chair this morning. I got lots of yummy treats, so that must mean I'm getting good at it. In between "paws up" commands, she had me doing all sorts of things like sitting, lying down, and touching her hand with my nose. I think she's silly, but I'll do it if it makes her happy. She's had a headache, so I really want to make her happy because then she doesn't look miserable.

This afternoon we lay down together out in my fence. Mommy read a book and I chewed on my kong. It had liver stuff in it and kibble and it was SOO yummy! I tried to share it with Mommy, but she'd rather read her book. Silly mommy.

When Daddy got home, he fiddled with fixing something in the kitchen. I wanted to help, but they wouldn't let me. So Mommy played with my kong with me and I got the rest of the yummy out of it. She squeezes it in her hands then throws it on the floor and more comes out. I like it when she helps me.

Then when that was gone, she had me get up on the chair in the kitchen. I haven't done that before, so I did mess up once. It's hard to do this new stuff and be ready to help Daddy at the same time. But Mommy says I did good and this means I pass my test for my trick at Level 3. I'd have started putting my feet on chairs ages ago if I knew she'd make such a big deal out of it!

After Daddy finished, they went out and left me all alone inside. I was good but I could hear them talking to a horse out there. I dunno why they don't let me come and help. I could hear them telling her to stand still--if I'd been there she'd of learned it. I'd be ready to help and stare at her until she did what they said. For some reason they don't like for me to work the horses. I'm just trying to help! Mommy says it's because I could get hurt, but I think they just don't want to share the big beasties.

But eventually they came back and Mommy let me out in my fence again. Daddy was in the garden so I got to be with him for a while. Then it was dinner time and I had to come in again.

Mommy put some rice in my bowl but that's BORING so I didn't eat it yet. Maybe later if I get really hungry. It's better when they play with me and give me food by hand. I was good while they ate and just lay down quietly. Daddy used to play with me during meals but he says I'm too old for that now. Whatever "old" is, I don't like it.

Now I'm going to see if one of them will play with me before bed time. It is cool now and I wanna play.

Mat Training

Before starting mat training, it helps to understand what the point of a mat is once the behavior is trained. The mat and its behavior is sort of like a cross between a crate and down-stay. The mat doesn't have walls, so requires much more self-control than crating does. However, it is more relaxed than a typical down-stay, because there is a physical marker and the dog is allowed to change positions.

Initially it is a good idea, according to my reading, to stick to the same mat. This also gives the dog the comfort of a familiar item. Later when the dog is more experienced and the behavior is more solid, you can use anything you find as a mat, like a park bench, a jacket, or a leash.

I really want to get Molly mat trained because I think it can be a very useful thing when she is working as a service dog. I can use the mat to encourage her to settle down in one spot. Bringing her mat with us will give her a familiar smelling spot and something comfortable to lie on no matter where we go. I picked a throw rug because it is easy to wash and handle. This way I can keep it clean and presentable, so I always have a nice looking mat when going places. Additionally this means that Molly lies down on something I take with me again. If she does drop any shedded hairs or anything, they will leave with us on the mat if handled properly.

Having her mat should also be a help while waiting in the airport and sitting in the airplane. It will add something familiar to the foreign environment and make it easier for me to show her exactly where I want her to lie down.

I actually got started with training the Levels Book as an entire program because we were having trouble with mat. But now that we're doing the whole program, mat is easy. Last night Molly passed Level 3 mat, which requires her to go to the mat on command, lie down on command, and stay lying calmly on the mat for a minute.

When I was originally training mat, I varied the method a bit from the guidelines. I used a higher value treat any time she offered a down on the mat. Now downing on the mat is getting to be Molly's default behavior. So she didn't need the extra down command--just the mat command.

To make sure that the dog associates the behavior with the mat itself, not the location, it is important to move the mat and the handler's location--just not both at once before the behavior is getting reliable. So Molly has practiced mat all over the living room. We even took her mat along to my in-laws the other night and used it there. Even though she was only holding 30-45 seconds reliably when there (this was before the test with 1 min), it was still a help that we could send her to the mat if she was being a bit too eager for attention. She loves my in-laws and they like her, but sometimes the limits on behavior are a bit too fuzzy for her. Sending Molly to her mat calmed her down quickly and gave her something to do that everyone could praise her for.

Mat training is basic shaping. You click and treat when the dog gets near the mat. Then for a paw on the mat. Eventually you work it up to all four paws on the mat and get the command in. Of course somewhere in there you mix it up by moving the mat around and a little bit away from you. That way you can send the dog to the mat at a reasonable distance wherever the mat is. Molly isn't great at recognizing and finding her mat yet, so mostly she has to see me put it down to find the right mat. Otherwise she finds something that looks likely and lies down on it, for example, she's pulled a blanket off the sofa for a mat, used the sofa itself, and even crawled under the chaise longe when she wasn't finding her mat.

To help make sure that Molly thinks her mat is fun, I've also sometimes given her extra yummy treats and chews on the mat. I also try not to leave her mat lying around if I'm not paying attention to treat her for being on it. I don't want to discourage the behavior by accident by failing to reward it. So usually when a mat training session is over, I ask Molly to take the mat and give it to me. Then she gets an extra treat for delivery.