A Dog's Guide to Soliciting Attention

Concluding Thoughts on Beginner's Agility and Other Updates

This coming Monday will be our last Introductory Agility class. I have mixed feelings about this session of dog lessons. For one, Puppy was less "behaved" in this class than in her Puppy class. She stayed on the Gentle Leader for all 4 classes thus far to manage her effectively in close proximity to other dogs. In our Puppy Obedience class, she was able to work off the Gentle Leader for durations. I think this might be the closer proximity of the equipment and other dogs.

That said, I am really happy with the socialization she received with SO many dogs in close proximity, and the progress she's made in class.

Some particularly proud moments:

1. Puppy demonstrated that she is ALWAYS willing to try something for the first time with me. We were introduced to a mini dog walk. This one was about a meter off the ground, and 30 CM thick(?). The first time we were introduced, Puppy walked without hesitation while I clutched nervously at her collar and got off without incident.

2. Puppy overcame hesitation and fears. So after our glorious first go on the dog walk, Puppy decided that she really wasn't too thrilled about walking 1 meter off the ground with her slightly uncoordinated hind legs and a jittery handler. She went into a down when I got near the ramp, and decided to stay there. That's okay, I don't blame her, I wouldn't be thrilled to repeat the experience again. To overcome this, I put a few treats on the ramp leading up to encourage her to get on. She took the treats, and when the treats weren't there anymore, she offered to get on the dog walk herself to earn some more treats. This took less than 10 treats. She walked straight off, more coordinated than she had ever been, and even was able to hold a "wait" in the ramp coming off. She now readily goes on the dog walk when I go near it, and has no hesitation left whatsoever. I won't be overconfident and mislabel this as her trust in my handling, but I am still very proud of her for overcoming her own hesitations and fears.

Not so good moments:

1. There's a little dog in my class that is a bit shy and fearful. She recently started barking at Puppy. Puppy became more reactive to her after she started barking. I've began to manage the situation as soon as I noticed it, and now she and Puppy stay on opposite sides of the room. Last class, while she was near Puppy and barking, I was able to call off Puppy's focus on her with an "OFF" command. 

2. I think I was very reliant on the Gentle Leader this class. My instructor's thoughts are the Gentle Leader will help refocus Puppy and prevent her from making jumping at other dogs a habitual behavior. I wish I didn't keep it on during all of the classes, and tested her more often without it. I guess I am still susceptible to the peer pressure and judgement of the instructor and of the strangers in the class. I realize this is incredibly stupid of me, and vow to improve for our next session.

Next week is her last class, and I'm not sure if I want to continue on with the next round of agility. The instructor mentioned that the next round includes off-leash work in class. I am hesitant because there are other reactive dogs in class that I don't 100% trust in case Puppy runs off and goes into their space. I KNOW Puppy will run off at least a few times, her recall is not there yet. But at the same time, I think this off-leash time will be a great chance for her to learn to focus on me even with the freedom. The other option would be to do a weekend class in Toronto with another school. I was thinking of When Hounds Fly.
Opinions and thoughts on this is greatly appreciated.

Outside of class, we've been working on Sophia Yin's Say Yes by Sitting, and house manners. Puppy is GREAT with offering auto sits in the house during training sessions, but not quite there yet when she wants something dearly. We're continuing to work on offering sits in the house, and upping distraction for formalized training sessions. We can successfully train right outside our apartment, in the relatively secluded parking lot. We have now moved onto the side walk near where she potties. This is proving to be a bit of a challenge, but I am confident that we'll be able to manage well. Her other obedience has been great. Her "down" while I continue moving is greatly improved, and can down at a distance as well. We stopped practicing "heel" as I wasn't sure about my methods and her positioning. "Stay" is great in the house and in quiet areas while waiting for toy release.

In terms of house manners, she is being tethered to my furniture on a long line for a few hours each day to just learn to calm herself down in my room while not in the crate. In the beginning of this week, she was so excited while in my room that she could not stop moving and just walked around non-stop. She passed out within a minute of being put into her crate. Yesterday, with her dinner, I got her to offer me a default down. I fed her dinner at increasing durations between each kibble drop while she held her down for over 10 minutes. She now offers the down more readily when in my room. I prefer this to the non-stop pacing.

I continue to not know if we have a bond, since I don't really know what I'm looking for. I know that she recognizes me and is at least somewhat fond of me since she chose me over a raw bone last weekend. I know I am already very attached and in love with her. I am disappointed that she is reactive to dogs, especially since I really wanted her to be my go-anywhere dog. But she is still young, so I am very optimistic that with continued training and exposure, and continued improvement in my handling skills, we will reach my goal.

Some pictures:

Puppy with a new toy. She likes the rope part much more than the ball part. I think I'll just stick to ropes and plushes from now on.

I don't understand this body language, but thought it was hilarious. Puppy looking at me while I nap.

Of Ears!

Took off the last of her ear form from her floppy ear today, and both ears are standing great. Going to continue with the gelatine for the rest of the week since there is no harm done. After this, will be working on lots of handling practice with her ears, since I've only really touched them to put glue on, drop cleaning supplies in, and peel glue off. She is okay with me petting them, but a bit leery if I reach over with both hands purposefully. I know I would be too after all I've done to her! 

The one on the left is her today. The one on the right is her 2 months ago, at 5 months old. Is she aging? 

She had quite an exciting day of eating today. Ate pizza crust from the sidewalk, shards of a beer bottle, 4 slices of bread to cushion the shard, and some ice cream while I struggled with her ears. Luckily, girly was still attacking her kibble with fervor at the end of the day.

Some pictures

This was literally a week ago. Us at the big park next to the dog park, learning to make an non-event of dogs. She is PERFECT at ignoring dogs behind the fence about 50 meters away. Seeing a dog move about outside is another story. But the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step, so I am patient, and I am willing to continue working. 

 

This was also last week, our first warm day after winter I think. We were playing at the closest patch of green grass outside a really nice row of townhouses. She is strung onto all the leashes I own to give her the closest experience to "off leash" so she could play with her ball and be a dog on a thin THIN patch of grass. There were lots of people passing by 10 meters away, so that adds a bit more value to our time as well.

 

Her sleeping pose hasn't changed much from her first day home. They're all sprawled out and unlady-like. I love them. :D 

 

This was from 2 days ago. It's a 10 minute brisk walk each way from my house to this field. We took some time to just relax here so she can look at the people. Puppy gets excited when joggers are near by, so I thought seeing masses of people practicing on sports teams can make jogging less exciting for her. She's looks so different in these pictures...kinda buttheaded, kinda silly, but much older. Her usual picture-taking pose is a sad, soulful look. My trainer says she knows how to play the game well to illicit sympathy, extra treats, and untimely petting. :D 

Second Session

Michael saw my distraught blog posts and called me in for another training session. This time, we're addressing the biting with a correction instead of treating it as a non-issue. My pain tolerance is not high enough to ignore it. I must say, though this is a band-aid solution to my overall leadership problem, the band-aid gives me the much needed room to work on the other issues.

The theme of my training is still building value in me. I seem to be not very good at this. It's like those relationships in high school, where you lose if you like them more. I definitely like her more right now, but I'm working to change that. 

Two things in particular that I'm working on are NILF and attention when walking.

I'm having a little trouble with NILF because though I understand the general concept of having the dog work for everything, and having the dog understand that I control all resources, I'm having a hard time translating it into dog language. Some of the things I do are easily recaptured in another light when Michael looks at them, and then they seem not so clever at all. So I guess, though it is an organic and adaptive way of life, I still need more guidance to establish familiarity with some patterns before I can make my own decisions, and have these decisions be RIGHT.

Attention when walking is going well for me, mainly because it's something  that I fully understand the purpose for, and know the criteria I want to eventually achieve with puppy - her being aware of me when I walk. We're making slow and steady progress, and I have fun working on this portion of our training, so hurray!!

On a recent walk around my Toronto home, we heard dinging at a construction site, Puppy showed curiosity, so I walked her over.

 

I've been sick this past week, high fever and hacking cough, but I caught a break yesterday and took puppy out. We went to the big field next to the dog park to work on interacting with her when she comes with me, with the added bonus of desensitizing her to dogs. She still barks at dogs she sees on the streets, but the distance we were standing at got no response from her. I will stay at that distance because I mainly want to use the field to gain engagement with her.

Little black dots in the distance are dogs.

Got her a new crate last week, she then had TERRIBLE diarrhea from eating some tasty yard gunk. Luckily, the crate was so big that she could move around the crate and make puddles while keeping herself clean. T_T

I took my own beautiful Vana Fung out of the picture, but there's my own beautiful puppy at attention.