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!

Public Access and Refusing to Eat

Molly got more public access practice yesterday and it went really well. DH had a dentist appointment, so Molly and I went and sat on a bench in a very busy pedestrian area. There were tons of people and several dogs walking past us. She did whine a little, which is really bad, but overall it went well. She responded to commands well despite the distractions. We did some stay practice but with me still right there. She gave me a number of good paws ups both onto the bench and onto my lap. She retrieved my hat a few times. She also touched my hand with her nose on command several times. All this was with praise as the only reward.

I know she wouldn't have been whining at all if we'd been moving, but my goal was to work on her behavior while we are sitting still. She's going to need to be able to handle being still with people around when we are in the airport. I didn't think to take her mat with me. I think it would have helped.

Then we also went into the pet store for more dog food. She was a little overeager to talk to people there but also didn't have her vest on, so talking was allowed. I was able to get her to sit instead of jumping on people she wanted to talk to. She also did great with "leave it" for the baskets and tubs of dog treats at floor level!

The nice woman in the shop let us have two sample packages of dog food of a kind that Molly is used to (Acana), so that gives us some treats for the flight that shouldn't have problems with customs.

Another good thing on the trip front is that my parents' have received the crate, Orijen, and dog chews that I ordered for her for the trip. Also Frontline to keep her flea-free on the road. Now I just need her heartworm meds and we'll be set.

As for eating, she refused last night. She'd refused for DH in the morning, but ate when I came out and told her to. But last night she totally refused for me.

So this morning she didn't get anything and tonight she starts over at one piece of kibble. We're really frustrated but we so want it to work out. I also miss training her, but I'm working on practice with toys.

Using Paws Up

It is really a great thing for me that Molly has learned her paws up command so well. Because of my health problems, bending down is very painful for me. To put Molly's harness on and off, I used to have to bend down.

Now life is so much easier and less painful. To put her harness on for a potty walk this morning, I just pulled out one of the kitchen chairs and said "paws up." She hopped up onto the chair right away and stayed still while I fit the harness.

Then I told her to go down. I use a Danish word ("Ned") for this. "Down" means lie down and if I say it, she hops off the chair and lies down on the floor, which isn't what I need when we're on our way out for a walk.

After our walk, I can just cue her up onto the chair again. I don't even need treats for this.

The only reason I needed treats this morning was to get her to stay on the chair while I wasn't handling her long enough for me to take some pictures. But my blog was getting so boring without pictures that I needed to take at least one to share.

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.

A Good Day

There isn't anything exciting going on with training, but we still had a good day today. We did a short training on getting up on a chair with her front feet this morning. After just 3 clicks for looking at the chair, she was back on it with her paws. This is great considering the several day long break we've had from training.

We've also trained "watch" (her looking at me and making eye contact) in a few short sessions while playing. When she gives me her toy, I hold it and tell her to watch. After a good period of eye contact, I throw the toy. I was varying the time to make things interesting. But she could consistently hold eye contact for 35-40 seconds when I asked for it. A lot of the time I asked for less.

We've gotten some rain today, but she still got time out in her fence. She had a case of the zoomies and ran around like a puppy while playing with a piece of horse hoof. We save the pieces from farrier visits for her and this was a big piece from Daisy's (DH's oldenborg) last trim.

Thunder doesn't seem to bother her because she didn't react to that. She was inside though. I've only had her out in thunder once and noticed a minor startle reaction but it was less the second time thunder rolled. That was a few weeks ago. So it looks like she isn't afraid of storms, but we don't get them very often.

Shaping Success

We did another shaping session yesterday with clicking and treating for looking at the chair seat and moving a foot. It didn't get farther than that.

So today I thought about how I could set her up even more for success. I decided to rearrange so she could only access one side of the chair. That way she would be focused on that side and not running from one place to another. I used a stool on the one side, thinking that if she got onto it to get at the chair I could also shape the behavior that direction.

But Molly stayed at the accessible side of the chair. After lots of treats for looking and moving a foot, she pawed at a few treats. I clicked and treated a few treats for that.

Then she did it--paws on the chair up to support herself. I jackpotted. Then I clicked and treated several times for being on the chair.

Then I said "down," a command she knows for getting off the sofa, and treated her for getting off the chair.

Right afterwards, she was back on the chair again! I did another jackpot and lots of clicking and treating for being on the chair. I said down again. She hopped down and I treated.

We repeated several times until she'd been up on the chair about seven times and was going up right away after a down. She got lots of treats and praise.

When she was volunteering the behavior, I did start saying the cue, "paws up," when she was on the chair. I don't expect her to hop onto a chair on command, but I do want her to start associating the words with the act.

Once again Molly has made us very proud with her progress. She actually got a special dinner tonight. We were out running errands and got some liver for her. So she got cut up pieces of liver mixed with a little kibble. She was very happy.

More Shaping

In a second session tonight, I was clicking when Molly paid attention to the seat of the chair and moved a foot. Then suddenly she had her paws up on the chair. I jackpotted.

Then she hopped down. A few looks later, she did it again. Another jackpot. Then we quit for the night.

I'm so proud of her!

Shaping a New Behavior

I have a new thing I want to teach Molly. Bending down to put her harness on her isn't comfortable for me, so I want to teach her to put her paws up on a chair to make it easier for me to put it on her. It is going to take a while to train and I'm not expecting her to be doing it reliably soon, but we have to start somewhere.

First, we need a chair and somewhere to train. I picked the living room because we train most often there. This one seemed like a good choice because it is light and handy. It also usually has a cushion on the seat, so if her nails scratch it a bit in training, no one will notice.

I took the cushion off. If I had left it on, Molly might start interacting with it instead. I thought it better to take a pure item.

You may notice the cable wrap on the chair legs. This chair used to be in the kitchen and we wrapped chair legs to prevent chewing when Molly was a puppy. We've never bothered to take it off.

I used a variety of treats. I had some shrimp left from a failed watch session earlier that I wanted to use. I'd mixed some kibble in the make them taste better. She wasn't eating the kibble reliably though. Then I also used some pieces of a sample bag of another kibble that we'd gotten. Mixing it up kept her guessing and interested in training--a little anyway.


At first Molly wasn't sure what to do and she wandered around a bit. So I put her leash on to keep her more restricted to the area around the chair. Then I sat and wait for behaviors to build on.

Shaping builds a behavior very slowly based on things the dog volunteers. If I wanted to, I could have held a treat up over the chair and lured her to climb on it, but I want to work on my shaping skills.

So when she lay down like this and didn't know what to do and kept looking out the window, I started clicking and treating for the slightest look closer to the chair. I needed her to learn that today things revolve around the chair. It took a while, but I did get her looking at the chair. Then she got a bit more interested and got up again.

So once she was up and moving around, I started clicking and treating for looking at the chair and being near the chair. This got her really doing. She'd look at the chair and I would click and treat. She even started touching the chair with her body sometimes and I clicked and treated that. She had a few close sniffs that were almost nose bops. I clicked those, too.

At one point she sniffed standing up with her head over the seat. I clicked and treated. After she'd done it a few times, I started clicking and treating only for interaction with the seat. My goal eventually is to get her higher with paws on seat.

After lots of clicking and treating for stretching herself over the seat, we quit for the day. It was a good session, probably about 10 minutes. I don't want to overdo it too much. We'll see how it goes next time.