I can't believe we only have a few more days until our K9 Nosework ORT!
When we did a mock ORT before the break it took forever for Reyna to stop trying to search the room and to focus on the boxes. Clearly we have not spent enough time on box drills!!!
At first I thought if I only put the hide in the boxes she would "get it". She didn't. She continue to search the room and was getting increasingly frustrated with the game. So we took a break for several days so I could come up with a plan. I wanted her to develop a specific pattern for searching the containers so that she doesn't miss one...hmmm...who do I know that teaches Nosework this way? Andrew Ramsey! He teaches a methodical search pattern using drawers. The same should work for boxes.
So I lined up four boxes and since this is drive building I put her toy in the box also. We hadn't done paired hides in a long time so we should probably do that anyway. The odor and the toy went into the first box...no lid. Of course she ran right out and grabbed the toy...well actually she hesitated with her nose on the odor tin until I said "okay", clearly we haven't done paired hides in a while.
We did that two more times until she would run straight to the box without looking at anything along the way. Then I put it in the second box and sent her with fingers crossed. She was focused and checked the first box, when it wasn't there she moved to the second BINGO! She was delighted. Since I want to keep her focus on that first box so she doesn't bypass it we did one more in the second box, then back to the first, then back to the second, then on to the third. Two hides in the third and then back to the first, then the second, then the third, then the fourth.
This may seem like a lot for one session, and for some dogs it may be. For Reyna this is easy fun, fast paced stuff. The boxes are open, the odor is paired and she gets plenty of tug time...what's not to love?
Next it was time to close the boxes...I'm using shoe boxes by the way...sturdy, easy to open, minimal venting, and free from a local department store where they were only too happy to hand their trash over to the crazy lady with the plastic bag! I definitely want to get official ORT boxes, but it didn't work out for right now.
Back to the training...
We closed the boxes this time, still with the toy inside, and started over with the odor box first. She blasted right past it...so on a suggestion from my friend Lisa I removed all the boxes except the odor box until she would head straight for it, then I kept the odor box in the same spot, but added a second box to the line and kept that until we have 7 boxes...she stayed focused on the line of boxes and didn't start wandering around the room. If she got to the end of the line she turned right back around and searched them again, this time indicating on the correct box. We redid the box open drill with the boxes closed...she's doing GREAT.
Tomorrow we will redo the drill but with odor only...so no pairing. After that I'm just going to mix it up with lots of pairing to keep her really super focused on those boxes. Her indication is clear, she freezes in place and if I don't reward right away she sets her chin or paw (or both) on the box...it's just getting her to keep checking boxes and not get caught up in Interior Search mode.
I'll keep you posted...the ORT is Sunday...
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Holiday joys
Last year the holidays started off very stressful because of Reyna's over-excitability. Fortunately we stumbled across a management method that worked for her and for us so we could all enjoy life again.
We kept up with that protocol throughout the year and along with everything else we have done to help with her over excitability we have a different dog than we did 12 months ago. I am pleased to say that this year the holiday season has gone wonderfully. We went to the in-laws house and the first half day we followed our old protocol...either she was in the crate or she was on leash tethered to me. But the second day we let her out of the crate in the morning and never needed to put her back in. She relaxed on the floor while my mother in law played and read with the kids. I was even able to be in a totally different room and not worry about her. She sat quietly for petting and often would self calm by removing herself from a room if she got too excited.
When we got back home we had guests over and let Reyna out after a few minutes she was a little over excited and wanted to lick faces but calmed down quickly and then was so quiet I thought Norm had put her back in the crate...nope she had just gone to her bed to lie down and nap!!!
Now we have my brother, his wife, and their two young kids staying for four days...that means four adults and four kids under 4 running around. We have put Reyna in her crate a couple times like during lunch today so she wouldn't be underfoot, but we do that as a normal part of our day at home too. 99% of the time she has been out of the crate with the run of the house. She's not perfect, she tries to lick my sister in law in the face too much, or she runs up and down the hall with the pack of toddlers, but nothing that a quick..."Reyna, cool it" doesn't fix. Most of the time she has actually been self calming by leaving the room or just backing away a few feet and going into her "relax" from the levels work.
On the reactivity note, last year my brother wanted to take her running and I said no, while she was doing really well her reactivity was still too intense to let anybody else handle her, I couldn't afford a set back. This year he asked again and I said yes without hesitation and never worried the whole hour they were gone. My brother even said an off leash dog followed them for a little while and Reyna didn't appear to care.
I am so happy with where we are...we had a small get together at the house with four more people...so 8 adults and four kids, laughing, eating, cooking, and playing. Reyna excused herself and napped on her bed during the mealtime with no cue from me. When too many people were sitting on the floor Reyna started to look a little like her old stressed self so we put her up in the crate for about 15 minutes. Then brought her back out and she did wonderfully. We worked on some CGC stuff for the test coming up and she did awesome. She also chilled on her bed while my dad chased the toddlers up and down the hall screaming and yelling. Again she is not perfect, we are currently working on not licking faces when people are sitting especially while people are sitting on the floor. For this holiday season though I am going to bask in the joy of a dog who is truly part of the family, and is finally able to participate in our events instead of being managed through them.
We kept up with that protocol throughout the year and along with everything else we have done to help with her over excitability we have a different dog than we did 12 months ago. I am pleased to say that this year the holiday season has gone wonderfully. We went to the in-laws house and the first half day we followed our old protocol...either she was in the crate or she was on leash tethered to me. But the second day we let her out of the crate in the morning and never needed to put her back in. She relaxed on the floor while my mother in law played and read with the kids. I was even able to be in a totally different room and not worry about her. She sat quietly for petting and often would self calm by removing herself from a room if she got too excited.
When we got back home we had guests over and let Reyna out after a few minutes she was a little over excited and wanted to lick faces but calmed down quickly and then was so quiet I thought Norm had put her back in the crate...nope she had just gone to her bed to lie down and nap!!!
Now we have my brother, his wife, and their two young kids staying for four days...that means four adults and four kids under 4 running around. We have put Reyna in her crate a couple times like during lunch today so she wouldn't be underfoot, but we do that as a normal part of our day at home too. 99% of the time she has been out of the crate with the run of the house. She's not perfect, she tries to lick my sister in law in the face too much, or she runs up and down the hall with the pack of toddlers, but nothing that a quick..."Reyna, cool it" doesn't fix. Most of the time she has actually been self calming by leaving the room or just backing away a few feet and going into her "relax" from the levels work.
On the reactivity note, last year my brother wanted to take her running and I said no, while she was doing really well her reactivity was still too intense to let anybody else handle her, I couldn't afford a set back. This year he asked again and I said yes without hesitation and never worried the whole hour they were gone. My brother even said an off leash dog followed them for a little while and Reyna didn't appear to care.
I am so happy with where we are...we had a small get together at the house with four more people...so 8 adults and four kids, laughing, eating, cooking, and playing. Reyna excused herself and napped on her bed during the mealtime with no cue from me. When too many people were sitting on the floor Reyna started to look a little like her old stressed self so we put her up in the crate for about 15 minutes. Then brought her back out and she did wonderfully. We worked on some CGC stuff for the test coming up and she did awesome. She also chilled on her bed while my dad chased the toddlers up and down the hall screaming and yelling. Again she is not perfect, we are currently working on not licking faces when people are sitting especially while people are sitting on the floor. For this holiday season though I am going to bask in the joy of a dog who is truly part of the family, and is finally able to participate in our events instead of being managed through them.
Monday, December 24, 2012
Merry Christmas!
This Christmas season hasn't gone as planned...the flu x4 then bronchitis and sinus infections for everybody, followed by food poisoning for the whole family. Cookie recipes didn't do what they were supposed to, rain came through on "outdoor yard work day", the kids fought and yelled all through Miracle on 34th Street, and to top it off our lovely little Christmas tree came crashing down without warning on Saturday, taking with it a large chunk of our Christmas spirit.
But somehow it's okay...we just take another deep breath and keep going. The traditional breakfast casserole is in the fridge ready to cook tomorrow, I forgot to grease the pan, but I'm sure it will be okay...all my family is one by one making it safely into town, and the kids are settling in to bed with dreams of grandparents and wrapped presents under the...uhhh....kitchen table? Oh well...
MERRY CHRISTMAS NO MATTER WHAT!
But somehow it's okay...we just take another deep breath and keep going. The traditional breakfast casserole is in the fridge ready to cook tomorrow, I forgot to grease the pan, but I'm sure it will be okay...all my family is one by one making it safely into town, and the kids are settling in to bed with dreams of grandparents and wrapped presents under the...uhhh....kitchen table? Oh well...
MERRY CHRISTMAS NO MATTER WHAT!
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Levels and stuff update...
First I think I should clarify something from the previous post...I said all my goals from last year had been met, that does not mean that Reyna is bomb proof. Not in the slightest. Last year I just wanted her to be a "normal" dog.
I wanted to be able to walk her down the street without a head collar, and without either of us anxiously scanning the environment for triggers. I wanted to take group classes where she could work for a full hour and actually enjoy it. I wanted her to be able to greet other dogs properly instead of charging and barking, and to be able to come when called in mid romp. I wanted to be able to have guests over and have Reyna be able to relax in her crate, or even out and about in the house (I seriously never thought we'd get that far but we did).
We still have goals to meet and progress to make, but now I can have a neighbor walk Reyna without me who has no dog experience, and not worry if she will explode at some SEC along the way, it's an amazing and freeing feeling.
Now back to other stuff...
Levels - we are chipping away at level 3. The retrieve was pretty difficult at first, like all duration behaviors, it takes her a little while to figure out that doing nothing is exactly what I want. Having to sit there just holding the pen...for 15...whole...seconds. It's a lifetime in Reyna's world. She kept wanting to snatch and play with it. Five broken pens later...we had a major break through when I sat down instead of standing up, and then rewarded her when she pushed it towards me instead of pulling away. Now she can do the 15 second hold with five different objects, and we can even do the part where I take a step back, but that still needs some work.
Her relax is doing okay, since we are dealing with duration it's just going to take a while to ladder it up...but at this point I trust the system :)
Her lazy leash is doing very well, we are starting to work around the feral cat feeding station...Reyna's nightmare distraction. She is doing very well around people and even dogs!
We have passed sit, down, come, crate, zen...very exciting!
CGC Class - I still don't know if we will pass by the end, but she is really improving, she is starting to check herself when we are approaching people in set ups...her focus is much better throughout the class, good eye contact, even doing well on the supervised separation.
Nose Work - we are signing up for an ORT in January and hopefully if we get into the ORT aannnddd if we pass we will enter the march trial. I am trying to get better about rewarding as soon as she alerts to source. I got stuck a couple of times because the source was reachable but she alerted from a different direction, and i confused her by not rewarding right away. Now my criteria is that if I could tell a judge where it was based on her alert I reward immediately, and so far that has cleaned up that handler error. Poor Reyna.
Phew! That's a lot going on...but then it has been awhile since an update. CGC class tomorrow.....hurray!
I wanted to be able to walk her down the street without a head collar, and without either of us anxiously scanning the environment for triggers. I wanted to take group classes where she could work for a full hour and actually enjoy it. I wanted her to be able to greet other dogs properly instead of charging and barking, and to be able to come when called in mid romp. I wanted to be able to have guests over and have Reyna be able to relax in her crate, or even out and about in the house (I seriously never thought we'd get that far but we did).
We still have goals to meet and progress to make, but now I can have a neighbor walk Reyna without me who has no dog experience, and not worry if she will explode at some SEC along the way, it's an amazing and freeing feeling.
Now back to other stuff...
Levels - we are chipping away at level 3. The retrieve was pretty difficult at first, like all duration behaviors, it takes her a little while to figure out that doing nothing is exactly what I want. Having to sit there just holding the pen...for 15...whole...seconds. It's a lifetime in Reyna's world. She kept wanting to snatch and play with it. Five broken pens later...we had a major break through when I sat down instead of standing up, and then rewarded her when she pushed it towards me instead of pulling away. Now she can do the 15 second hold with five different objects, and we can even do the part where I take a step back, but that still needs some work.
Her relax is doing okay, since we are dealing with duration it's just going to take a while to ladder it up...but at this point I trust the system :)
Her lazy leash is doing very well, we are starting to work around the feral cat feeding station...Reyna's nightmare distraction. She is doing very well around people and even dogs!
We have passed sit, down, come, crate, zen...very exciting!
CGC Class - I still don't know if we will pass by the end, but she is really improving, she is starting to check herself when we are approaching people in set ups...her focus is much better throughout the class, good eye contact, even doing well on the supervised separation.
Nose Work - we are signing up for an ORT in January and hopefully if we get into the ORT aannnddd if we pass we will enter the march trial. I am trying to get better about rewarding as soon as she alerts to source. I got stuck a couple of times because the source was reachable but she alerted from a different direction, and i confused her by not rewarding right away. Now my criteria is that if I could tell a judge where it was based on her alert I reward immediately, and so far that has cleaned up that handler error. Poor Reyna.
Phew! That's a lot going on...but then it has been awhile since an update. CGC class tomorrow.....hurray!
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
50th Post
Well this is officially my 50th post since starting this blog last year, and like last year I'd like to take a look back...
Two years ago I learned what "reactivity" meant. When I started this blog, a year into Reyna's rehabilitation, we had made great strides towards normalcy. She would still react to triggers but her reaction process had slowed to the point where I could intervene and avoid a full blown snark most of the time. I was extremely vigilant of her environment. In the past two years we have used the following methods...
Control Unleashed
Relaxation Protocol
Sue Ailsby's Training Levels
Behavior Adjustment Training
Counter Conditioning
Desensitization
Management Protocols
Nose Work Classes
All with the goal of increasing her confidence and "elasticity" (ability to bounce back quickly), decrease her stress and anxiety levels, and raise her thresholds to a point where she could function in the world.
I am going to be perfectly honest here...I think we have met all of our goals!
Now that being said we will never be "done". In fact I have just ordered Crate Games by Susan Garret to start adding that to our list as well. And somebody seeing us out and about for the first time may think we have a LONG way to go as Reyna jumps on our TD class instructor for the 5th time in a row...but what they don't see is that Reyna is taking food in a garage classroom with three other dogs present, and that she has not barked, puffed, up or even started stress panting the whole time we were there.
Last year when I wrote my recap of the previous year I pointed out some experiences that bench marked how far we had come. Here are just a few moments from the last two weeks alone...
At class last week a dog with reactive tendencies saw Reyna coming out of her crate as a Sudden Environmental Change and exploded....inches from Reyna's face...her tail raised about a third of the way up and she turned to me for her treat and ducked back into her crate...AMAZING!
We were going for a walk, two dogs charged barking to the end of their invisible fence on the same side as Reyna about 5 feet away, Reyna shifted into heel position with no cues from me and just kept going.
At TD class last night she performed the "walk up and greet somebody with a dog" behavior....WHOA
When strangers, dogs, or cats enter our yard she gives one bark at the window and then comes to find me.
When my in-laws came to visit she was able to be off leash in the house with them.
Sunday I took her to the dog park and she did a focused heel past a small terrier yapping, and she kept a loose leash while we walked around the outside of the dog park fence with dogs playing and wrestling inside (with a high rate of reinforcement).
The biggest theme from last year was that I was learning to read Reyna, be hyper-aware of potential triggers, recognize OT signals, intervene, manage situations, help Reyna recover when necessary, lower her baseline stress levels, and build up trust that I was there for her.
This year has been stamped with Reyna learning to relax on cue, learning that she can perform alternate behaviors to reacting, such as self imposing a time out to her crate in class when the other dog reacted, she is now telling me when she sees a trigger and I no longer have to be nearly as vigilant to everything that moves because if it bothers her she will tell me. She is developing default behaviors when she starts to go over threshold - currently her default is "focus really hard on mom" because she associates a very high ROR with that behavior so she finds comfort in watching me while scary/arousing things happen around her.
I would have to say that I would now classify Reyna as an excitable dog who can be insecure in situations where her job is unclear. When a dog barks at her, for example, she knows her job is to come see me so she is now quite confident when dogs swear at her from the ends of their leashes and behind invisible fences.
The biggest payoff is that she "leaks noise" less, the wrinkles on her forehead are softer, she eats her dinner, and she always wears a flat collar or a harness and never the head collar anymore.
With such an amazing year what do we have planned for 2013?
To start back where I should have when we first got her (and maybe she never would have been reactive in the first place...who knows), addressing her excitement levels through self control exercises like the crate games, hopefully passing L3 and 4 of the training levels, building strength, flexibility and confidence through trick training, and hopefully start competing!
I don't how I would have felt two years ago if you had told me where we would be right now...would I be disappointed? elated? I'm glad I didn't know, that as we have been trekking down this path we have taken it one step at a time with no deadlines looming. We have celebrated every little victory and tried to learn from each set back, and then we turn to look back and say "wow, look how far we've come!"
My heart goes out to those just starting, or who haven't even started because they don't know where to begin. I see it on their faces when we're out walking and their dog lunges and barks as we walk calmly by...stress, embarrassment, frustration, anger...I hear it in their voices as they almost plead "he really is friendly" or "I'm sorry, she won't bite". I want to hug them and say "I've been there, it's okay, it's called reactivity, have you heard of Leslie McDevitt..."
Two years ago I learned what "reactivity" meant. When I started this blog, a year into Reyna's rehabilitation, we had made great strides towards normalcy. She would still react to triggers but her reaction process had slowed to the point where I could intervene and avoid a full blown snark most of the time. I was extremely vigilant of her environment. In the past two years we have used the following methods...
Control Unleashed
Relaxation Protocol
Sue Ailsby's Training Levels
Behavior Adjustment Training
Counter Conditioning
Desensitization
Management Protocols
Nose Work Classes
All with the goal of increasing her confidence and "elasticity" (ability to bounce back quickly), decrease her stress and anxiety levels, and raise her thresholds to a point where she could function in the world.
I am going to be perfectly honest here...I think we have met all of our goals!
Now that being said we will never be "done". In fact I have just ordered Crate Games by Susan Garret to start adding that to our list as well. And somebody seeing us out and about for the first time may think we have a LONG way to go as Reyna jumps on our TD class instructor for the 5th time in a row...but what they don't see is that Reyna is taking food in a garage classroom with three other dogs present, and that she has not barked, puffed, up or even started stress panting the whole time we were there.
Last year when I wrote my recap of the previous year I pointed out some experiences that bench marked how far we had come. Here are just a few moments from the last two weeks alone...
At class last week a dog with reactive tendencies saw Reyna coming out of her crate as a Sudden Environmental Change and exploded....inches from Reyna's face...her tail raised about a third of the way up and she turned to me for her treat and ducked back into her crate...AMAZING!
We were going for a walk, two dogs charged barking to the end of their invisible fence on the same side as Reyna about 5 feet away, Reyna shifted into heel position with no cues from me and just kept going.
At TD class last night she performed the "walk up and greet somebody with a dog" behavior....WHOA
When strangers, dogs, or cats enter our yard she gives one bark at the window and then comes to find me.
When my in-laws came to visit she was able to be off leash in the house with them.
Sunday I took her to the dog park and she did a focused heel past a small terrier yapping, and she kept a loose leash while we walked around the outside of the dog park fence with dogs playing and wrestling inside (with a high rate of reinforcement).
The biggest theme from last year was that I was learning to read Reyna, be hyper-aware of potential triggers, recognize OT signals, intervene, manage situations, help Reyna recover when necessary, lower her baseline stress levels, and build up trust that I was there for her.
This year has been stamped with Reyna learning to relax on cue, learning that she can perform alternate behaviors to reacting, such as self imposing a time out to her crate in class when the other dog reacted, she is now telling me when she sees a trigger and I no longer have to be nearly as vigilant to everything that moves because if it bothers her she will tell me. She is developing default behaviors when she starts to go over threshold - currently her default is "focus really hard on mom" because she associates a very high ROR with that behavior so she finds comfort in watching me while scary/arousing things happen around her.
I would have to say that I would now classify Reyna as an excitable dog who can be insecure in situations where her job is unclear. When a dog barks at her, for example, she knows her job is to come see me so she is now quite confident when dogs swear at her from the ends of their leashes and behind invisible fences.
The biggest payoff is that she "leaks noise" less, the wrinkles on her forehead are softer, she eats her dinner, and she always wears a flat collar or a harness and never the head collar anymore.
With such an amazing year what do we have planned for 2013?
To start back where I should have when we first got her (and maybe she never would have been reactive in the first place...who knows), addressing her excitement levels through self control exercises like the crate games, hopefully passing L3 and 4 of the training levels, building strength, flexibility and confidence through trick training, and hopefully start competing!
I don't how I would have felt two years ago if you had told me where we would be right now...would I be disappointed? elated? I'm glad I didn't know, that as we have been trekking down this path we have taken it one step at a time with no deadlines looming. We have celebrated every little victory and tried to learn from each set back, and then we turn to look back and say "wow, look how far we've come!"
My heart goes out to those just starting, or who haven't even started because they don't know where to begin. I see it on their faces when we're out walking and their dog lunges and barks as we walk calmly by...stress, embarrassment, frustration, anger...I hear it in their voices as they almost plead "he really is friendly" or "I'm sorry, she won't bite". I want to hug them and say "I've been there, it's okay, it's called reactivity, have you heard of Leslie McDevitt..."
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Reactive???
HOLY SMOKES! We signed Reyna up for Therapy Dog classes with Melanie. Monday was our Orientation, which is normally without dogs, but Melanie also does boarding, so I brought Reyna to meet all the Loveline Goldens so we could be sure it would be a good fit if we ever needed to board there.
So let me give you a little background to the day...
I was at a conference last week, so poor Reyna didn't get out much, then over the weekend she stayed with our friend Elizabeth and her GSD Sam while we took the kids to watch the blue angels in Pensacola. We got back Sunday evening and then I had to work all day Monday of course. I came home and utter chaos ensued as we tried to get the kids ready to go to the sitter so I could take reyna to the class. I loaded all her stuff and her into the car, we dropped the kids off and booked it o Melanie's house.
Since we had the orientation to class first reyna had to sit in the car for an hour and a half. After the orientation was over Melanie brought one of her goldens out and as i went to bring Reyna out of the car I remembered I hadn't let her out to the bathroom in all the craziness of departure...crap...well this was going to suck...it was dark, she'd been cooped p this whole time with no exercise today, we were in a strange place with a strange dog, and she is ALWAYS more reactive when she has to potty...fun.
I let her out of the car, on leash and immediately asked her to potty before she noticed the dog. Fortunately we have been working a lot on going on cue in new locations, so she went right away...one variable down.
I was armed with chicken and as Melanie and I walked our dogs increasingly closer together and further away I marked and rewarded any looks at the dog and reorientation. Or walking toward the dog but turning back to me before she reached the end of the leash. Before I knew it they were doing drive by sniffing and then a couple more prolonged interactions. All without a single bark. Of course if I noticed Reyna starting to key in too much we would move away and start the approach over.
Melanie said that this was her most calm dog and we had like five others each getting progressively more difficult, concluding in a reactive dog of Melanie's.
The next dog to come out was another laid back female and we had no problems at all...same protocol, mark and reward any notice/reorient or any voluntarily moving away from the dog to focus on me. This time we walked with the dogs side by side for just seconds at a time. No problems.
After that we met Hobby, a big beautiful male who was very interested in Reyna. She got pretty playful, but calling her name or walking the other way would get her attention back. The goal throughout all of this was for the dogs to meet and sniff some, but then catalog the dog as part of the background and not something to get stressed or excited about.
The next challenge was a puppy named Hannah who was an absolute doll, and oh so playful! Same rules and rewards and both dogs did awesome...Reyna cried a bit when she left, she loves puppies, but quickly redirected.
The final dog we met was Melanie's reactive toy drive dog Biba, hmmm sounds familiar...
I was prepared for a challenge, but the dogs barely paid attention to each other. They passed head on in heel position inches from eachother. Performed simple obedience behaviors, and Reyna even held a voluntary sit/stay while Biba blasted after a ball Melanie threw. Let me repeat that...Reyna...Reyna sat down in heel next to me in the presence of another dog with no cue from me, and remained seated when Melanie threw a tennis ball across the yard and Biba shot after it. In fact, not only did she hold her sit, when Biba took off Reyna flipped her head toward Biba and then right back to me...she just played Look At That with a dog chasing a ball! HOLY SMOKES!!!! What the heck did I just witness!?!?
I could not believe it as I headed home that night. Reyna met five dogs she has never seen before in a place she has never been before, on leash, with food as a reward, and never once even puffed her hair up. I can NOT believe how far we have come. December will mark two years since we started on this journey with a highly reactive crazy dog and a book called Control Unleashed. Unbelievable.
So let me give you a little background to the day...
I was at a conference last week, so poor Reyna didn't get out much, then over the weekend she stayed with our friend Elizabeth and her GSD Sam while we took the kids to watch the blue angels in Pensacola. We got back Sunday evening and then I had to work all day Monday of course. I came home and utter chaos ensued as we tried to get the kids ready to go to the sitter so I could take reyna to the class. I loaded all her stuff and her into the car, we dropped the kids off and booked it o Melanie's house.
Since we had the orientation to class first reyna had to sit in the car for an hour and a half. After the orientation was over Melanie brought one of her goldens out and as i went to bring Reyna out of the car I remembered I hadn't let her out to the bathroom in all the craziness of departure...crap...well this was going to suck...it was dark, she'd been cooped p this whole time with no exercise today, we were in a strange place with a strange dog, and she is ALWAYS more reactive when she has to potty...fun.
I let her out of the car, on leash and immediately asked her to potty before she noticed the dog. Fortunately we have been working a lot on going on cue in new locations, so she went right away...one variable down.
I was armed with chicken and as Melanie and I walked our dogs increasingly closer together and further away I marked and rewarded any looks at the dog and reorientation. Or walking toward the dog but turning back to me before she reached the end of the leash. Before I knew it they were doing drive by sniffing and then a couple more prolonged interactions. All without a single bark. Of course if I noticed Reyna starting to key in too much we would move away and start the approach over.
Melanie said that this was her most calm dog and we had like five others each getting progressively more difficult, concluding in a reactive dog of Melanie's.
The next dog to come out was another laid back female and we had no problems at all...same protocol, mark and reward any notice/reorient or any voluntarily moving away from the dog to focus on me. This time we walked with the dogs side by side for just seconds at a time. No problems.
After that we met Hobby, a big beautiful male who was very interested in Reyna. She got pretty playful, but calling her name or walking the other way would get her attention back. The goal throughout all of this was for the dogs to meet and sniff some, but then catalog the dog as part of the background and not something to get stressed or excited about.
The next challenge was a puppy named Hannah who was an absolute doll, and oh so playful! Same rules and rewards and both dogs did awesome...Reyna cried a bit when she left, she loves puppies, but quickly redirected.
The final dog we met was Melanie's reactive toy drive dog Biba, hmmm sounds familiar...
I was prepared for a challenge, but the dogs barely paid attention to each other. They passed head on in heel position inches from eachother. Performed simple obedience behaviors, and Reyna even held a voluntary sit/stay while Biba blasted after a ball Melanie threw. Let me repeat that...Reyna...Reyna sat down in heel next to me in the presence of another dog with no cue from me, and remained seated when Melanie threw a tennis ball across the yard and Biba shot after it. In fact, not only did she hold her sit, when Biba took off Reyna flipped her head toward Biba and then right back to me...she just played Look At That with a dog chasing a ball! HOLY SMOKES!!!! What the heck did I just witness!?!?
I could not believe it as I headed home that night. Reyna met five dogs she has never seen before in a place she has never been before, on leash, with food as a reward, and never once even puffed her hair up. I can NOT believe how far we have come. December will mark two years since we started on this journey with a highly reactive crazy dog and a book called Control Unleashed. Unbelievable.
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Speaking of rewards...
I changed Reyna's Nose Work reward.
I know, I know... I had awesome drive and enthusiasm, her focused response was coming along nicely, she was working very well with distractions....so why change?
The main reason is safety and predictability.
With her ball I would do my best to control the flight path, but once it impacted with the source all bets were off it could go anywhere. If Reyna caught it right away no big deal, but if she missed or tipped it she could send it flying in any direction. This was especially a problem doing indoor hides and hides near parking lots or roads.
Inside the ball could (and would) go crashing into stuff with Reyna skidding across the wood floor in hot pursuit....not very safe for our possessions, herself, or anybody who happened to be in the house at the time. But even more dangerous was outdoors. As we have started going to busier locations that have more foot and vehicular traffic I have had to be very careful, often just handing her the ball. This is okay from time to time, but I don't want her to learn that the busier the location the more boring the reward. I also don't want a wreck because her ball went flying into traffic. You may say just stay farther away from roads, but you should never underestimate how far a chuck-it ball can travel when it's being pursued by a crazed German Shepherd.
Soooo
Enter the tug
Why the tug? Why not a ball on a string if she is so obsessed with her ball?
Because she loves her tugs, not as much as the ball, but nothing compares to "orange ball" except for "other orange ball". She tugs well, works for them, and has a long history of being rewarded in training with her tugs. She has also played lots of "find it" games with them before we knew about Nose Work. And the best part is....it doesn't bounce.
So how do you switch rewards like that? Slowly.
The first hide I just wanted to see what she would do if I switched cold...she locked on odor, I threw the tug right into her face....she didn't even flinch, she actually stared harder as if to say "you can't distract me with that tug, if I wait long enough the ball WILL appear".
So then we went back to the start...
Out came the boxes and we started off with two or three hides with the box open so she could self reward. Two or three with the box closed to build up some drive for it, and then quickly moved to odor in the boxes and throwing the toy. Her willingness to accept the tug as a reward quickly shot up as she realized it was the same game.
Then we moved to area searches outside. After I threw the tug she would still hang on odor for just a second before snatching at the tug, so we did several quick, fast and easy hides. I would throw the odor tin across the yard and then let her go. Or I'd very elaborately place it down while she was watching and then walk back and release her.
It only took 3-4 sessions over the course of one day to have her fully engaged with the new reward.
For the next several days we would still start with her first hide being paired, in a box, or a cabinet, or a drawer so she could snatch the tug out of the container and then we'd move on to me rewarding for the rest of the hides.
Now she can go out cold and shoots after the tug. I'll try and get a video of it...one good thing I didn't anticipate is that she is MORE focused on the odor now because the tug is less distracting....I can wave the tug in front of her face or flop it around her head right before a search but she just stays staring forward waiting for the "Go Find" cue.
I know, I know... I had awesome drive and enthusiasm, her focused response was coming along nicely, she was working very well with distractions....so why change?
The main reason is safety and predictability.
With her ball I would do my best to control the flight path, but once it impacted with the source all bets were off it could go anywhere. If Reyna caught it right away no big deal, but if she missed or tipped it she could send it flying in any direction. This was especially a problem doing indoor hides and hides near parking lots or roads.
Inside the ball could (and would) go crashing into stuff with Reyna skidding across the wood floor in hot pursuit....not very safe for our possessions, herself, or anybody who happened to be in the house at the time. But even more dangerous was outdoors. As we have started going to busier locations that have more foot and vehicular traffic I have had to be very careful, often just handing her the ball. This is okay from time to time, but I don't want her to learn that the busier the location the more boring the reward. I also don't want a wreck because her ball went flying into traffic. You may say just stay farther away from roads, but you should never underestimate how far a chuck-it ball can travel when it's being pursued by a crazed German Shepherd.
Soooo
Enter the tug
Why the tug? Why not a ball on a string if she is so obsessed with her ball?
Because she loves her tugs, not as much as the ball, but nothing compares to "orange ball" except for "other orange ball". She tugs well, works for them, and has a long history of being rewarded in training with her tugs. She has also played lots of "find it" games with them before we knew about Nose Work. And the best part is....it doesn't bounce.
So how do you switch rewards like that? Slowly.
The first hide I just wanted to see what she would do if I switched cold...she locked on odor, I threw the tug right into her face....she didn't even flinch, she actually stared harder as if to say "you can't distract me with that tug, if I wait long enough the ball WILL appear".
So then we went back to the start...
Out came the boxes and we started off with two or three hides with the box open so she could self reward. Two or three with the box closed to build up some drive for it, and then quickly moved to odor in the boxes and throwing the toy. Her willingness to accept the tug as a reward quickly shot up as she realized it was the same game.
Then we moved to area searches outside. After I threw the tug she would still hang on odor for just a second before snatching at the tug, so we did several quick, fast and easy hides. I would throw the odor tin across the yard and then let her go. Or I'd very elaborately place it down while she was watching and then walk back and release her.
It only took 3-4 sessions over the course of one day to have her fully engaged with the new reward.
For the next several days we would still start with her first hide being paired, in a box, or a cabinet, or a drawer so she could snatch the tug out of the container and then we'd move on to me rewarding for the rest of the hides.
Now she can go out cold and shoots after the tug. I'll try and get a video of it...one good thing I didn't anticipate is that she is MORE focused on the odor now because the tug is less distracting....I can wave the tug in front of her face or flop it around her head right before a search but she just stays staring forward waiting for the "Go Find" cue.
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