We are signed up for a K9 Nose Work foundation class that meets every other Saturday. We had our first class last week and I'm glad they are two weeks apart because it gives me time to work out kinks. Here is what I have learned so far...
Reyna loves...
Searching outside
Searching off leash
Searching for her ball
She likes...
Searching for food
Searching inside
She is less comfortable...
In harness
She is not fond of...
Cardboard boxes
On Leash
So that means that if I want to increase her drive I should have her search off leash outside with no harness looking for her ball.
If I want to decrease drive I should have her search in harness, on leash, inside, with food hides inside boxes.
The difficult part about that is the class is inside, with boxes, on leash preferably with a harness, and food is easier to reward with. Sounds like a recipe to destroy her enthusiasm doesn't it? Now I could just ask her to do those searches and hope she "gets over it" and learns to love it, or I could break all the components down into easier chunks and help build her confidence.
Needless to say I'm going with number two!
Now how do you go about breaking everything down so it makes sense...well I know the three things she is least comfortable with are boxes, her harness, and being on leash so we will not be doing any sessions that combine those. The harness is the easiest so we'll start with that...
Harness Goals:
Comfortable moving in it
Comfortable leaning into it
Happy searching in it
For the first two we have spent time playing fetch, wandering in the woods, and jogging in the harness with praise and treats if she put weight into it and pulled at all.
Once she was comfortable moving in it we started searching...but I paired it with everything she loves...searching offleash for her ball outside. Her search enthusiasm in harness with her ball has increased and we're ready to start searching for food outside, offleash, in harness, I am starting over as if she has never searched for anything before...once she is in love with that we will move inside and go back to the ball and start over.
Next is the boxes...
Box Goals:
Gets excited when she seems them
Is comfortable moving around them even when they are unstable
Is comfortable searching inside them and pushing them around to reach the source
For this one just taking the things she loves was not going to be enough. Her dislike of the scary boxes was enough to overcome her drive to search for her ball outside off leash...so I took it one step further...we didn't search (I stole this idea from Lisa Mallory) I have spent the last two days playing fetch (her favorite game) around the boxes. I started by just having them in the yard while we played, and quickly was able to work up to throwing the ball into the boxes or knocking the boxes over with the ball. The key here was that the focus is on the ball not the boxes at all. Reframing this experience for her Reyna has already reached all three goals off leash outside after just two days. We will continue emphasizing the awesomeness of boxes, but I'm going to start back at square one and throw food in and around the boxes and then I'll bring them inside and go back to the ball again.
When she is very enthusiastically search in boxes inside for food, AND doing area searches inside for food in harness I will put the two together and go back to the beginning where we are playing with the ball in and around the boxes outside with a harness on and work our way back up.
For searching on leash that is going to take a little bit more time. Right now I have just started jogging with her on leash with the harness and she is happy with that, but I want to get the boxes and harness taken care of before we start adding the leash into the Nose Work.
This may seem like a little overkill, but she is very prone to shutting down, and her joy when she is in the game and loving it is worth all this component training.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Work
Work has been taking it's toll on our training time but here are some updates and exciting things...
We have not done ANY levels work, the summer is an extremely busy time for us and it's all I can do to keep up with Reyna's exercise needs.
In good news though, while her levels behaviors are suffering, her reactivity continues to improve. We pass dogs on walks with just a flat collar and no treats without issues. Two weeks ago we rounded a corner and came nose to nose with a big collie. Her hair didn't even go up.
We went up and visited some good friends of ours last week and their wonderful dogs. Reyna really did marvelously. More and more Reyna's reactivity is becoming a thing of the past. We are still not all the way there yet, but I think I would call it very mild at this point. We continue to use classical conditioning whenever possible to keep those experiences positive.
She complained about being crated away, she would always settle down but that is definitely something to work on. When she realizes whining does no good she settles in just fine and doesn't destroy her soft crate, but I still need to work on her tolerance for being left out of the fun.
I was VERY proud of her on the fourth of july when fireworks were booming and flashing around my brothers house where we were visiting and instead of stressing and whining she just fell asleep...good girl!!!
In other exciting news I have picked up a new dog sport...Nose Work!
As fickle as I'm sure I sound I just could not keep up with he time and equipment commitment for agility right now. I needed something I could really do anywhere, anytime, and NoseWork seems to fit that bill.
Lisa, who we visited in NC has her dogs on odor already and it's very cool to watch them work. Reyna is still on food only, and we just enrolled in an intro class just down the street from us. I'll try and get a idea of her working soon but no promises.
So I really need to get back to work on the levels and I may do some Rally work as well when we are not searching the yard for a hide:)
We have not done ANY levels work, the summer is an extremely busy time for us and it's all I can do to keep up with Reyna's exercise needs.
In good news though, while her levels behaviors are suffering, her reactivity continues to improve. We pass dogs on walks with just a flat collar and no treats without issues. Two weeks ago we rounded a corner and came nose to nose with a big collie. Her hair didn't even go up.
We went up and visited some good friends of ours last week and their wonderful dogs. Reyna really did marvelously. More and more Reyna's reactivity is becoming a thing of the past. We are still not all the way there yet, but I think I would call it very mild at this point. We continue to use classical conditioning whenever possible to keep those experiences positive.
She complained about being crated away, she would always settle down but that is definitely something to work on. When she realizes whining does no good she settles in just fine and doesn't destroy her soft crate, but I still need to work on her tolerance for being left out of the fun.
I was VERY proud of her on the fourth of july when fireworks were booming and flashing around my brothers house where we were visiting and instead of stressing and whining she just fell asleep...good girl!!!
In other exciting news I have picked up a new dog sport...Nose Work!
As fickle as I'm sure I sound I just could not keep up with he time and equipment commitment for agility right now. I needed something I could really do anywhere, anytime, and NoseWork seems to fit that bill.
Lisa, who we visited in NC has her dogs on odor already and it's very cool to watch them work. Reyna is still on food only, and we just enrolled in an intro class just down the street from us. I'll try and get a idea of her working soon but no promises.
So I really need to get back to work on the levels and I may do some Rally work as well when we are not searching the yard for a hide:)
Monday, May 28, 2012
Update and a video...
I have been so busy with work and family I haven't had much time to work with Reyna...we still have not even begun NL3. In what little time I do have I have been trying to get Reyna out for walks and keep her energy levels down. We have been doing well on that front lately, getting in a 2-3 mile walk most evenings.
She is doing fine with walking and even occasionally passing other dog/handlers along the way without issues. We have three doggy friends in the neighborhood now, Sam a nine month old GSD, Lily a 4 year old Bichon/Maltese and Charlie a two year old Pointer. So three very different sizes, shapes, and ages and Reyna does very well with all of them. She can even walk with Lily or Sam, which has been very freeing. Even 6 months ago her leash frustration was so bad that if she was going to be close to another dog she HAD to be off leash or she would flip her lid. Now she can walk side by side with Lily or Sam and even have one person walk both her and another dog without a problem.
I have also noticed that Reyna has started defaulting to avoidance instead of reacting when she is uncomfortable. If I am walking her with the stroller (which I almost always am) and another dog runs out, barks, leaves their yard to follow us, Reyna will actually switch to the other side of stroller all on her own. I have been cueing this behavior for a long time (dog runs out barking - I make a gap between myself and the stroller and cue "other side" and she will duck between the gap to the other side putting the stroller between herself and the trigger) but now she has started to offer it at times when she would have reacted before!!!
Proof that even during training breaks learning still happens :)
For her agility training I have just been piddling around with it on the weekends, but she is still doing well. The 2x2 weave poles I made have been great, but as Reyna gets more confident I need to stake them down because they shift easily when she bumps them and they require constant resetting (as you'll see in the video).
We are up to 6 straight poles, just solidifying entries from all points on the arch and starting to introduce new locations...the left side of the back yard instead of the right, going towards the house instead of away, and even the front yard!! GASP!!!
If I have time next week I may even take the poles to the park and start over out there to see how she does. The poles have really worked well for me, especially for $19 for the whole set. I think my next purchase will be twelve stakes with a spacing ribbon, since it will take up a lot less space than an actual twelve pole set, or even a 6 pole set on a base.
Reyna is also jumping full height now, she has only been there for a couple days, so you will see her clip the jump a couple times, but no bars down and no tail thwapping the stanchions!
I'm not really sure where to go from here with the jumping...I guess it's time to actually purchase the Developing Jumping Skills book...I think we've gone as far as we can on our own without risk of messing her up.
So here it is in all it's unedited glory...
That's all for now...one of these I will get back to work on our levels...don't want any backsliding that's for sure!
She is doing fine with walking and even occasionally passing other dog/handlers along the way without issues. We have three doggy friends in the neighborhood now, Sam a nine month old GSD, Lily a 4 year old Bichon/Maltese and Charlie a two year old Pointer. So three very different sizes, shapes, and ages and Reyna does very well with all of them. She can even walk with Lily or Sam, which has been very freeing. Even 6 months ago her leash frustration was so bad that if she was going to be close to another dog she HAD to be off leash or she would flip her lid. Now she can walk side by side with Lily or Sam and even have one person walk both her and another dog without a problem.
I have also noticed that Reyna has started defaulting to avoidance instead of reacting when she is uncomfortable. If I am walking her with the stroller (which I almost always am) and another dog runs out, barks, leaves their yard to follow us, Reyna will actually switch to the other side of stroller all on her own. I have been cueing this behavior for a long time (dog runs out barking - I make a gap between myself and the stroller and cue "other side" and she will duck between the gap to the other side putting the stroller between herself and the trigger) but now she has started to offer it at times when she would have reacted before!!!
Proof that even during training breaks learning still happens :)
For her agility training I have just been piddling around with it on the weekends, but she is still doing well. The 2x2 weave poles I made have been great, but as Reyna gets more confident I need to stake them down because they shift easily when she bumps them and they require constant resetting (as you'll see in the video).
We are up to 6 straight poles, just solidifying entries from all points on the arch and starting to introduce new locations...the left side of the back yard instead of the right, going towards the house instead of away, and even the front yard!! GASP!!!
If I have time next week I may even take the poles to the park and start over out there to see how she does. The poles have really worked well for me, especially for $19 for the whole set. I think my next purchase will be twelve stakes with a spacing ribbon, since it will take up a lot less space than an actual twelve pole set, or even a 6 pole set on a base.
Reyna is also jumping full height now, she has only been there for a couple days, so you will see her clip the jump a couple times, but no bars down and no tail thwapping the stanchions!
I'm not really sure where to go from here with the jumping...I guess it's time to actually purchase the Developing Jumping Skills book...I think we've gone as far as we can on our own without risk of messing her up.
So here it is in all it's unedited glory...
That's all for now...one of these I will get back to work on our levels...don't want any backsliding that's for sure!
Thursday, May 3, 2012
NL2 Pass!!!
Well we did it! Reyna has officially passed level 2 of Sue Ailsby's Steps to Success! I can hardly believe it, and the change that Reyna has gone through is remarkable! She default relaxes when I come home from work...she now sees my truck pulling in as a cue to relax and won't get up until I release her!
The other incredible thing is that I don't get angry or frustrated with her during training sessions...if she is having trouble I don't drill it anymore, I was soooo bad about that. Now I just make it way easier and remind-reteach-rethink I am gradually learning to treat everything like a game of chutes and ladders.
Lessons learned...
- Never say never...Reyna wil NEVER learn to relax on cue
- Never say can't...she just CAN'T sit on the wood floor without sliding her feet
- Train the dog who shows up...just because I trained her to do xxx doesn't always mean the dog she is in this exact moment can perform xxx
- Do not hold on to the past except to enjoy it and learn from it
- Chute back to the start after the second missed attempt it saves so much time in the end.
- Pre-brief...Be brief...De-brief
- Play!!!!
I love these levels!
The other incredible thing is that I don't get angry or frustrated with her during training sessions...if she is having trouble I don't drill it anymore, I was soooo bad about that. Now I just make it way easier and remind-reteach-rethink I am gradually learning to treat everything like a game of chutes and ladders.
Lessons learned...
- Never say never...Reyna wil NEVER learn to relax on cue
- Never say can't...she just CAN'T sit on the wood floor without sliding her feet
- Train the dog who shows up...just because I trained her to do xxx doesn't always mean the dog she is in this exact moment can perform xxx
- Do not hold on to the past except to enjoy it and learn from it
- Chute back to the start after the second missed attempt it saves so much time in the end.
- Pre-brief...Be brief...De-brief
- Play!!!!
I love these levels!
Friday, April 27, 2012
Reyna makes friends!!!
Ever since our agility class I have been working a LOT on being more present with Reyna, the more I watched myself the more situations I found where I would just go cold in the face of Reyna's triggers, quietly marking and feeding her treats, but not actually truly interacting with her, touching her, talking to her. I have started responding to things like "reorienting away from a dog" the same way I would if she had just successfully hit all four weave poles and WOW amazing!
Just in the few weeks that I have worked on changing my behavior I have noticed a HUGE shift in Reyna's. Her thresholds are higher, she is more more confident, resilient, focused. It wasn't just over night but I think this is how somebody with a GAD dog must feel when you get all the meds correct and things start clicking.
We went back to the dog park last weekend and played "watch those dogs wrestle"....no issues. When one of the dogs left there was a 6 month old GSD still in the dog park. We walked up to the fence and away from the fence and up to the fence and away from the fence. The puppy didn't pay any attention to us and Reyna watched him, but wasn't concerned, aroused or anything.
So then we went into the adjoining section of the dog park and I let Reyna off leash. Neither dog really paid attention to the other. So then....in a massively risky endeavor I took her into the side with the other dog (with the owner's permission of course). I played the 1,2,3 Treat, and 2 Step games from Leslie's Pattern Games DVD. When I was comfortable that Reyna was focused I held back and let her wander on her own, the puppy wandered in the same general space until they happened to meander into mutual space and greet briefly but going off in separate directions. They did this a couple more times and then initiated play and romped around. They played for a little while without incident and then we left. She didn't bark or whine and enthusiastically tugged with me all the way to the car!
Then yesterday we met up with a neighbor and her 8 month old puppy who is one of Reyna's good friends. We took them both to a large field to play, they walked nicely next to each other neither dog harassing the other. While we were out at the field another family showed up with a little maltese cross. Reyna noticed it, her friend took off to say hi, but Reyna stayed engaged with me until I released her to go play, which she did without charging, barking, growling or anything. She actually barely paid much attention to the little dog and just romped around happily with her buddy.
I am so proud of how far she has come. I know we are not done yet, but I feel like we have crested the mountain!!!
Just in the few weeks that I have worked on changing my behavior I have noticed a HUGE shift in Reyna's. Her thresholds are higher, she is more more confident, resilient, focused. It wasn't just over night but I think this is how somebody with a GAD dog must feel when you get all the meds correct and things start clicking.
We went back to the dog park last weekend and played "watch those dogs wrestle"....no issues. When one of the dogs left there was a 6 month old GSD still in the dog park. We walked up to the fence and away from the fence and up to the fence and away from the fence. The puppy didn't pay any attention to us and Reyna watched him, but wasn't concerned, aroused or anything.
So then we went into the adjoining section of the dog park and I let Reyna off leash. Neither dog really paid attention to the other. So then....in a massively risky endeavor I took her into the side with the other dog (with the owner's permission of course). I played the 1,2,3 Treat, and 2 Step games from Leslie's Pattern Games DVD. When I was comfortable that Reyna was focused I held back and let her wander on her own, the puppy wandered in the same general space until they happened to meander into mutual space and greet briefly but going off in separate directions. They did this a couple more times and then initiated play and romped around. They played for a little while without incident and then we left. She didn't bark or whine and enthusiastically tugged with me all the way to the car!
Then yesterday we met up with a neighbor and her 8 month old puppy who is one of Reyna's good friends. We took them both to a large field to play, they walked nicely next to each other neither dog harassing the other. While we were out at the field another family showed up with a little maltese cross. Reyna noticed it, her friend took off to say hi, but Reyna stayed engaged with me until I released her to go play, which she did without charging, barking, growling or anything. She actually barely paid much attention to the little dog and just romped around happily with her buddy.
I am so proud of how far she has come. I know we are not done yet, but I feel like we have crested the mountain!!!
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Level 2 update
With the incredible feat of passing L2 Relax we moved on to Communication our last task in Level 2!
I got Reyna's dinner out, lured her between myself and a wall and stepped towards her, she swung out of my way to the left before I finished my first step...hmmm...I tried it again without a block...same thing, perfect.
Okay this is weird, I've never worked on this before...I'll stump her this time...I have her sit in front of me facing my left side...take a step forward, she swings all the way around into heel position...WOW
So we just tested our way cold through most of L2 Communication!
I still need to get her to back up stairs and untangle a leash from around her own leg then we are done...not just done with Communication but done with Level 2 HOLY SMOKES I can barely believe it
And speaking of things I can barely believe I took her to our local dog park to work on remaining calm while other dogs play within earshot. It was pretty quiet, no other dogs, until a guy pulls up and lets his dog out of the car without a leash. The dog comes straight for us, I pulled Reyna behind me, he stopped and the owner regained control.
Reyna was understandably amped, but she never barked at the dog even when he was less that three feet from us. I walked us away to put some distance between her and the other dog. I took a deep breath (her prep cue for relax), she looked at me, I took another one, she sat,another one, she laid down, then I said " can you cool it?" and she DID. I didn't wait for duration I immediately released and rewarded! Total time from dog rushing to her relaxing...two minutes...that is unreal!
Then we walked towards the dog park area and did some look at that with the dog in the park getting all the way up to the fence line. She even watched him chase a tennis ball! She locked in the first time so I walked her away before she could escalate, but after a few reps she was able to watch the dog chase the ball and look back at me. At one point we were about 30 ft from the dog park, she could see the dog playing, I said her name, she looked at me..."cool it please" and she relaxed into the flopped down, no prep breaths or anything! I definitely want to go back out and start working relax at the dog park more for duration, but WOW she was upper focused, willing to play tug, did her LL, didn't react to anything and even did some off leash work. She is really coming along nicely!
I got Reyna's dinner out, lured her between myself and a wall and stepped towards her, she swung out of my way to the left before I finished my first step...hmmm...I tried it again without a block...same thing, perfect.
Okay this is weird, I've never worked on this before...I'll stump her this time...I have her sit in front of me facing my left side...take a step forward, she swings all the way around into heel position...WOW
So we just tested our way cold through most of L2 Communication!
I still need to get her to back up stairs and untangle a leash from around her own leg then we are done...not just done with Communication but done with Level 2 HOLY SMOKES I can barely believe it
And speaking of things I can barely believe I took her to our local dog park to work on remaining calm while other dogs play within earshot. It was pretty quiet, no other dogs, until a guy pulls up and lets his dog out of the car without a leash. The dog comes straight for us, I pulled Reyna behind me, he stopped and the owner regained control.
Reyna was understandably amped, but she never barked at the dog even when he was less that three feet from us. I walked us away to put some distance between her and the other dog. I took a deep breath (her prep cue for relax), she looked at me, I took another one, she sat,another one, she laid down, then I said " can you cool it?" and she DID. I didn't wait for duration I immediately released and rewarded! Total time from dog rushing to her relaxing...two minutes...that is unreal!
Then we walked towards the dog park area and did some look at that with the dog in the park getting all the way up to the fence line. She even watched him chase a tennis ball! She locked in the first time so I walked her away before she could escalate, but after a few reps she was able to watch the dog chase the ball and look back at me. At one point we were about 30 ft from the dog park, she could see the dog playing, I said her name, she looked at me..."cool it please" and she relaxed into the flopped down, no prep breaths or anything! I definitely want to go back out and start working relax at the dog park more for duration, but WOW she was upper focused, willing to play tug, did her LL, didn't react to anything and even did some off leash work. She is really coming along nicely!
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
We passed Relax!
WAHOO!!!
It took a LOT of work and time, and patience, and patience, and time, and work...but here it is, the behavior I never thought I would get out of Reyna....Relaxing. I chopped large chunks out, because even I couldn't handle watching it at full length...deliciously boring during the settle portions!
I started to film this just using food to get her excited, but then I decided that would be wimpy, so here it is with a tug no less! WAHOO!!!!!!! Just about done with Level 2!
It took a LOT of work and time, and patience, and patience, and time, and work...but here it is, the behavior I never thought I would get out of Reyna....Relaxing. I chopped large chunks out, because even I couldn't handle watching it at full length...deliciously boring during the settle portions!
I started to film this just using food to get her excited, but then I decided that would be wimpy, so here it is with a tug no less! WAHOO!!!!!!! Just about done with Level 2!
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