Day 6

Yesterday was day 6 of my new training program. And quite honestly, I'm not seeing a whole lot of difference in the positive side. But I will persist on and give it more time.

The leg biting is TERRIBLE. She shredded my boyfriends pants yesterday. If this is extinction behavior for attention, I hope it goes away soon. I can't walk into her when she bites to make it unpleasant since she is more agile than me, so my plan has been to walk near home and if she bites, turn around and go home. Yesterday, we did this for about 30 minutes in the driveway before she stopped and we were able to continue on our walk. But today, she started again in the backyard, so I'm not sure that she has clued in.

She's just started barking at people all of a sudden. Which WORRIES me endlessly. She was completely fine before I started all this crating and no going to very public places.

Does she value my attention more...? I don't think so.

We are actively practicing NILF. She sits and waits for a release at every door.

What else to do...?

Day 1

This is day 1 of implementing some of the strategies Mike talked about. I feel like CRAP, crummy enough to warrant some capital letters. UGH.

What I did RIGHT:

1. Ignored her unless she came to me or did something desirable before giving attention. Today, this happened like 0 times during her off leash time, and 2 times while on leash during potty break. I will be patient and continue waiting.
2. Successfully worked on holding a sit until I release her to go through all doors. I am much more consistent with this now than at school.
3. Worked on loose-leash walking in front of house. 
4. Successfully ignored leg biting. But method could be wrong. My current approach is if I was originally walking, I'll keep walking and changing directions into her to make it unpleasant. It's now a tug game for her, but I am not saying anything or looking at her. She stops when I walk back to the stairs to go inside the house. If I was originally standing still, I will continue to stand still and not make a sound or eye contact. She stopped shortly when I stood still.

What I did WRONG:

1. Left her in her expen today instead of crating during the day. I cheated because I wanted to go out in peace. She is quiet and behaves in her expen. I will crate her tomorrow
2. Did not successfully manage the family. After barking for 5 hours while in her crate, Dad could not deal with it anymore and went took her out of crate to correct her. He has to work in 5 more hours. I took pupper out and pottied her after he left and she was quiet in the crate, and then put her in the expen until I was ready to go to bed.  She was crated in a room in the basement with the door closed and barked the ENTIRE time. She is quiet in her crate when her crate is beside me. I know the appropriate action is to ignore, but my parents NEED to rest to work. Tomorrow, I am cratng her during the day when my parents don't need to rest, and at night when it is bed time, I will move her to the expen until I am ready for bed. I feel like crap for this. Know I did it wrong. Felt guilty emailing trainer. MUST UP CONSISTENCY.

Training

Went to my one on one evaluation today with Michael Clay. I have to say, though I had my reservations as I was talking on the phone and emailing him, I loved meeting him in person. We drove 1 hour out from Toronto to make our 12 PM appointment, and had a great 3 hour session outdoors with Michael. By the end of the session, I had a better idea of what I was doing wrong, how to approach my relationship going forward with pupper, and a rough outline of a working plan for the next month or so.

Michael didn't want to give me a formalized plan because like Robin, he recognized my lemming tendencies when it comes to dog care. But for the sake of my learning, I need to commit the few key changes I'm going to make in the coming weeks onto paper. Though this is against the organic and thinking-based approached that Michael wants me to take, listening, processing, and writing down has been my approach to learning in academia, and makes me feel more confident and committed in dog care as well.

Key problem: Lack of a solid relationship
Main recommendation: consistent, fair approach

So here are the few key things we worked on today.


1. Proper greeting technique

In the past 2 months that I've had her, our experiences with strangers on the road and with my family members have reinforced the concept that jumping excitedly will get Pupper what she wants. The technique that Michael showed me today involved walking up calmly and confidently to the person, and being ready to manage the leash length so that pupper cannot land her jump even if she tried. From that distance, pupper needs to sit and appear calm before allowed to approach again. I practiced this with Michael and my sister, and came home to do more practicing with Shu (Amaretto's favourite prey, he's 5, squeaks, jumps, and makes sudden flaily movements), Jue, my dad, and a visiting aunt. In one quick evening we were able to really change the way she behaves on meetings. I plan to repeat this exercise tomorrow with variations of movement. Today we had the children walk close to pupper, turn around and run away before I walked up with pupper to greet. Tomorrow, I think I will let the children walk straight up. I'll also try to invite lots of friends over reading week to practice this technique. After pupper feels solid on meetings in the home, I want to slowly move this out to the real world starting with my drive way and familiar people, going to empty fields with familiar people, etc.

2. Reactivity

Michael has a fenced outdoor exercise area for his boarding kennel. He asked his staff to select loud dogs that are not reactive and let them out so puppy could approach the fence. She barked when she first made eye contact with them, but when she went up to explore, she stopped barking. Then, she would be fine if they stayed in sight, but would bark again when they peeked out somewhere new. The goal is to make seeing dogs a non-event, so we hung out for a while talking outside the kennel. Eventually, pupper stopped barking even when the dogs peeked out. Pupper was also able to interact with a dog belonging to Michael's family, and Michael's latest training prospect, Carmspack Badger.

Badger was just let out of the house and didn't give time for pupper to build a reaction. She did not bark at him until he was able to put ALOT of distance between them again when he went to retrieve something. But she stopped very shortly. Badger is just WOW. I thought pupper was big...but she's a TINY TINY baby next to Badger. Badger was well-behaved enough to completely ignore pupper, and give pupper an AMAZING socialization experience. I think through meeting with Badger, Michael recommended that I not let Pupper run with other dogs until I develop a more solid bond. She appears to prefer interacting with other dogs to interacting with me. So I guess this is all still part of the original problem of a lack of a solid relationship.

While in Toronto, I'll be avoiding streets and places with possible dog interactions, as it'll help reinforce pupper's reactivity unless I can handle it well. But when I return to Kingston, I can recreate the same controlled environment with the field outside of the dog park, and give pupper the same exposure. I plan to take her there and just hang out with some audit readings so she can acclimatize herself to dogs without approaching them, and learn that seeing dogs is a non-issue.

3. Relationship Building

Relationship building is where I will be placing my emphasis in the coming months. Up until now, using my incredibly nerdy and faculty-appropriate analogy, I supply too much love and attention, since her demand for attention is fixed, this oversupply drives down the price of my affection. She isn't SEEKING me out, and I try too hard to engage her.

I'll be doing a couple of things in the coming weeks:


-Ignoring her until she comes to me, and then only lightly acknowledging her
-Let her go offleash in my back yard, and wait until she wanders to my left side, mark and reward
-Take her to big field with long line, do my thing and reward when she decides to come closer to me. Reward should be mix of praise, play, and food.
-Crate her when not actively interacting with me. I'm still not sure how to incorporate this 100% into my schedule, since I have a tight schedule to meet during the school week. I also live in an apartment, which means that I can't crate her and let her scream when it's not part of her scheduled routine. I'm thinking some crate games are in order. Please pass along suggestions!

4. General Handling

Improving my handling skills was part of my original goal of coming to see Michael.
He demonstrated techniques for:
-proper leash holding so I don't vertically fracture my arm in a fall (thumb through loop)
-distributing weight to anchor against pupper's movements so that she doesn't make any gains on pulling
-fading out food lures better on commands she already knows WELL
-adding context for commands she already knows (moving down instead of asking for a down while I'm standing still)
-knowing when to stop interactions to avoid overstimulating her
-DO NOT pause for leg biting, do not react at all, keep moving. 
-If pupper resists movement, just go without cooing or encouraging her.

Michael is sending me a formal report of the evaluation within the week, but these rough notes should be enough of a guide for me until then. In addition to the things he listed, I would like to finish reading purely positive training so I can develop correct intuition and responses to pupper's emerging behaviors.

I am very glad I was able to meet with Michael today to confirm that I'm not sending Amaretto down a path of destruction and frustration for both, and receive hands-on tips on how to manage and handle Pupper. In the coming weeks and months, my management of her environment will be key to our success. The current plan is to come back and see Michael again in a month or so, and continue our work then.

For next session, I want to ask Michael for more time for me to rehearse the behavior in front of him. From this session I found that the things I remember and perform best are actions I've rehearsed with him.

I know that was a bear of a post, but it was really more to archive and summarize my reflections on the training session before I forget all of it completely.

I am optimistic for the future, and will remember to remain patient, fair and consistent in my interaction with Pupper.


-

Stand

I was feeling lazy today. Woke up late at 11:16 and skipped my first class to hobo at home.

For our morning one hour walk, Pupper and I did some playground equipment for fun. She tried climbing up a slanted smooth plastic board with just a few plastic knobs in for grip. Her front paws were on, but she didn't put her hind legs up. I didn't have treats with me so I couldn't do more encouragement up the board. Will bring treats for next time to encourage her to climb all the way up. I think this would help improve her hind-end awareness. She is always eager to investigate and bat around her front paws, but rarely moves her back paws. For instance, when we were first learning the "table" command, she would only put her front paws up. In "perch", she can put her front paws on the basin every time, but doesn't want to move her back legs at all. This is definitely an area that I want to work more at, and would welcome all back-end awareness exercise recommendations. Pupper used to be leary of the big swings that this park has, and would back up every time I moved the swing. They look like big plastic woks with 4 chains, so she was in her right mind to want to avoid being hit by one of these. However, today, after about 2 weeks away from the swing, she approached it confidently and even came up to investigate when I saw on the swing and moved it. Today was also the first time she jumped over 1 meter down and landed on wood chips. We went down the slide like usual, me first with the leash loose behind for her to follow. Instead of sliding, she jumped out of the slide. I don't want to encourage this behavior to avoid injury and stress to her growing joints, and will be avoiding curvy slides that encourage her to jump from now on. She is very brave with equipment, and this has transferred into going through agility equipment in class. I'm thankful that I did at least this ONE part of her upbringing right.

Our evening walk was a standard 1.5 walk with a leashed component through the neighborhood and school, and an off-leash component at the tennis court. For our off-leash time, I reinforced her stay, heel, down, and sit, and am in the process of shaping a fetch. We've made some progress in the fetch. She has gone from running around the court avoiding me at all costs after getting the ball, to coming back to me 70% of the time for a treat. She was very hungry this session, so that might have something to do with it. When she isn't driving right back after she reaches the ball, a quick "puppy" usually brings her back. My goal is to reward both of these actions every time. When bringing the ball back happens more consistently (80% or more), I'll cue it up. Right now, I say "go get it", but I think it's just gibberish to her.

Right before bed, I tried teaching "stand" per Susan Garrett's video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nyGRu6DQ7U0.

I followed Susan's steps, and started with some tugging to engage her. I worked with about 10 pieces of cheese at a time, moving through the steps. When I ran out of food, I say break and either tug or use the flirt pole for 15-30 seconds, then put away the toy to resume work. We've gotten to target the hand that's slightly behind her head so she has to jump up and land into a stand. Pupper does this 60% of the time. I'll be trying again tomorrow so the sessions stay short and fun. One of the things that I am having trouble with is the video calls for treating while the dog is stationary. Puppy moves around to get to the treat. I think this is a function of my poor treat delivery.

I really enjoy teaching her and playing with her, and am constantly browsing youtube and websites for easy games/tricks that I could work on with her. I try to keep sessions short and fun, with lots of play in between.

All the great positive things we're doing aside, we're still facing challenges in the following issues:

1. Dog reactivity
2. Ear glue crusts

Just emailed a trainer to see if I could make a 1 v 1 over reading week to come up with a plan.

All told, it was a good day for the pup. I read 5 chapters of auditing, so I guess it's a good day for me as well. :D

Of Ear Woes and Rebellion

I harbor complicated feelings for Mondays. I love the weekends, and dread every Sunday for the inevitable responsibilities that come with Monday. I love Mondays for the puppy class. As if I didn't say it enough in earlier posts, I REALLY enjoy learning and training with Amaretto. When we train together, I get a taste of the relationship that we could have in the future, when I can finally graduate from the pee-wiping, discipline-dispensing mother figure to a partner and friend.

Today was the last class for Puppy Level 1, and the trainer set up some low agility equipment stations for the class to try out. We were timed to see how quickly we could complete all the stations. Each handler and dog team got to go three times. Amaretto and I were the fastest the first time around at 55 seconds, but she wasn't as focused the second or third run. The stations are:

1. 3 signs with different directions on each sign. Sign 1 was sit + down, sign 2 was sit, sign 3 was down. You heel between the signs.

2. Wobble board

3. 3 meter long tunnel

4. Jump through a ring

5. 3 Low bars

6. Table + down

Pupper has no hesitation going on the wobble board, in the tunnel, or on the table. I am very glad that my socialization to different surfaces like slides, tunnels, and grates are paying off.

At the end of class, we were al presented with ribbons for completing the course. I hope this is the first of our many ribbons. :D 

Outside of class, today has not been a good day for us.

Amaretto's Poor Day

I left her buddy bowl in there like many days before, but today, she drank the entire bowl and chewed up the rim. Emptying the bowl also meant that she emptied her bladder in her crate instead of holding it until her 4 PM potty. I just bathed her this weekend and already she's successfully dabbed pee on herself. The naughtiness continues at night. She somehow PEED in my bed! I don't even know when it happened!! She knows for sure that she is not allowed on my mattress, and I can't help but think this was an act of rebellion.

Xuan's Poor Day

I've been getting worried about her floppy right ear, and used ostomy glue to glue the foam inserts that Robin sent me to help straighten her ear as she finishes teething.  Unfortunately for pupper, I SUCK at this. Her foam insert fell out 3 times from the first time we put it on Sunday till now. When it falls out, it leaves behind a big dried cake of ostomy glue. It was a bear to get that glue out. In the process, pupper and I both lost tons of brain cells sniffing at nail polish remover, and pupper also lost some ear hairs. I don't know if I should glue again or not. I am REALLY worried about doing more harm than good. Both her ears stood as a puppy, so I know they CAN stand, but will they?!

Ear with crusty glue.

Floppy Righty

Amaretto's also been shedding like crazy lately. A casual petting netted me this hideous hairball. Is this her blowing her puppy coat? Is this normal???!

Amaretto's now 10 days short of 6 months. What a gorgeous young lady she is growing into. Even with the floppy ear, the rubbed nose, and the goofy puppy-eyes going on, she is still the cutest thing alive. :D

Suffering for Beauty

On Sunday morning, Pupper, Jason and I walked 30 minutes each way to a home health care store. It was freezing cold, so we weren't fans of the long walk over. Pupper was not a fan of the return trip either. There was salt on the pavement and pavement pounding with no grass isn't fun. She was tired and wanted to lie down. But at -25, we only let her lay down for a few minutes before making her get up and move with us again. She got really frustrated and wanted to nip my legs on our return trip. But remembering the prong corrections, she only barked really really closely to my legs. I didn't want to correct her because I thought this was her trying to communicate with me, but I'm not sure. This highlights my need to find a trainer to work with me ASAP to better understand how to deal with scenarios like this. 

On our way home, we walked by a florist. Pupper meets helium balloons for the first time. 

The trip to the store was to buy ostomy glue. Pupper has a slightly floppy right ear. The tip bends backwards when running in wind, and it's droopy when she's sleepy. Under the advice of my breeder, I glued a pre-cut foam shape to her ear with Ostomy paste. It was a struggle to grab hold of her, but once I held onto her ear, she held relatively still for the gluing process. Unfortunately, I'm not very skilled at using this paste, and the foams came out twice already between then and now. It left a large area of dried glue caked to the tip of her ears, making the tip even more floppy. I got really worried until I was able to remove most of it this morning with nail-polish remover. She held really really still for this, and I'm really happy with the trust we're starting to build. There's still tons of glue in her ear, but less on her tip so now she can stand them by herself.

I don't know if I should continue gluing. She's at the idea age to glue her ears, but they already KIND of stand on their own. It's just a floppy tip. I'm really worried that my lack of experience will cause more harm to her. I'm not sure what to do. 

Suffering. Glued ears. Ick. :(

Big Scare Big Progress

Big Scare

The worst possible thing imaginable happened yesterday.

Amaretto was walking out on a prong that we just fitted to address her biting. We were walking on the sidewalk right outside my house at Princess and Alfred, a busy intersection in downtown Kingston. Somehow, when she pulled a little on the prong, one of the links CAME LOOSE. She ran from the side walk INTO the busy traffic both ways. We have just started restrained recall, and we both SUCK at it. So naturally, she wagged her tail and thought it was the best game ever to run AWAY from me. Traffic stopped both ways and she was just running rampant on the road. At one point, she ran slightly under the front of an SUV, and the SUV decided, "oh, no dog on the road, must be safe to start driving now". I screamed like in the movies "puuppppyyy". And I guess the driver must've seen the horrific look on my face and stopped.

I ran across the street and into an empty lot slightly fenced with cement blocks. Luckily, pupper followed me in. About 10 pedestrians came and helped me block off the little gaps between the cement blocks and help grab her as she bolted around. She thought it was the best game ever. Someone helped me grab her collar as she was running, and I immediately hooked her back to her flat collar. We went to the pet store, and got a tab for her prong instead.

The prong was just a quick thing I bought at a local pet store. One of the links came out again when I was correcting from the tab. Needless to say, I am NEVER going out with that prong as our main collar again. I returned the collar today and bought a sturdier looking one at another petstore

Thanks to the people of Kingston for stopping in the road, and for helping me catch her.

Big Progress

The prong is a GODSEND. Pupper has been SO well-behaved since going on it. I am extremely careful to only correct her for biting, and in just 2 days and less than 10 corrections, she has REALLY gotten the concept. She really thinks about it carefully when she is inclined to put her teeth on my skin now. I can pet her, brush her, and even BATHE her without being nipped. This was the girly, who two days ago, mouthed my hands for wiping her paws. I am really loving dog ownership right now. :D

Here is pupper fitted with the prong and flat collar yesterday.

Jason came to visit from Toronto this weekend, and we spent a good chunk of today out and about with pupper.

We started the day with a 1.5 hour walk in the morning to the school for some off-leash play. It was -24 today with windchill, so naturally, all three of us were numb in the face at the end.

Pupper was crated for 4 hours while we went out to eat lunch and to school again for my group meeting. At 4ish, we joined Amy and Guan for a trip to Loblaws. Pupper LOVES riding in the car, and so do I! She stayed SUPER still for the 15 minutes both there and back, and I got some good cuddling done. She leaned her head against my arms and knees. This is exactly what I thought dog ownership would be like before I got her, full of heart-warming cuddles.

Smugness.

While at the Kingston Centre, I was able to return the defective prong and get a new one from Petvalu. We also FINALLY found a flirt pole that I deemed worthy. Pupper took to the toy IMMEDIATELY. This is definitely a new favorite.

When we went home, I did a bit of structured playing with Pupper, and reinforced some basics. Without behavioral problems, this puppy is just a dream! I love teaching her, and I love playing with her. She is focused, engaged, and so much fun.

Heeling. I know it's loose by formal obedience standards, but I am SO PROUD OF THIS! :D

Waiting for a command.

Flirting.

We crated her for another 2 hours while Jason and I ate a dinner of Tonkatsu with Japanese curry. We decided to bathe her afterwards since she was shedding massively and starting to smell like a dog. IT WAS A MASSIVE STRUGGLE. She HATES the tub, HATES the shower-head, and is not a fan of the blow dryer. She did a bit of whining, tried to escape several times, and at some points when the shower-head was pointed at her, didn't want to take CHEESE. But she has improved ALOT with the blow-dryer. A month ago she barked at the dryer, now she will only try to get away, but can tolerate it.

Looking blue. Hoping to get out. Keenly eyeing opportunities.

Wet rat.

It was an even bigger struggle to put her ear cleaner in afterwards. There was a massive struggle, and she moped quite a bit after I was done. She laid down further away from me for a while before moving close again. This is her guilt-tripping me with her SAD little eyes.

What have I ever done!

 We played a FEROCIOUS game of tug right before she went to bed. Lots of panting and sweating was done by both parties. I really love tugging with her. It is so rewarding and just tons of fun. We put pupper into her crate just past 10. Busy busy day.

Small Progress?

So after my disheartened update 2 days ago, I went into a frenzy consulting my breeder and breed enthusiasts on the web. They really helped me realize how crucial it is for me to improve my leadership abilities and really enforce clear boundaries so Amaretto can development into a proper canine member of society. I contacted the local trainer that I use for puppy class, and went in for a 10 minute choke collar demonstration today. I have some reservations on how my trainer fits the collar because it looks different from the instructions on Leerburg's website. I'm not sure if I'm experienced enough to pass judgement on my trainer yet, but I will wait until the week of 18th to get another opinion. I don't want to do MORE harm to her training than I've already done.

But the session there today was still EXTREMELY beneficial to Amaretto because there were two other dogs in the room. Amaretto started barking when she first saw them, but calmed quickly. We were able to then do the "off" command while walking around a calm, downed, older dog. I think more opportunities like this would really help both of us.

In other news, I think I figured out what deterred her from biting me last time - stepping on her leash as close to the collar as possible. She goes into a down, and immediately stops biting behavior. I think that's why last time, whenever I stomped my foot, she was deterred. Foot lifting = coming for leash. I have no idea if this is correct, proper, harmful, etc...but it Worked. I do notice it getting less and less effective so I will still have to go to the prong.

I upped her evening exercise to 2 hours in the evening and started tugging with her again this morning. I was really surprised at how STRONG she has become in the last 2 months. Even with my inexperience, I can feel her firm and strong bite on the tug. I LOVE tugging with her! It's a good outlet of energy for both of us. This girly also has AMAZING control while playing tug with me. If she catches a bit of my gloves, I'll hold still and she'll immediately shift off. Her "out" command is also really really solid. I can only wonder how great of a dog she would've blossomed into in the hands of an experienced handler.

Jason is coming to visit tomorrow. I can't wait to do some training like restrained recall and visitor manners with his help.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

I started this blog a few days ago to commemorate Amaretto maturing and moving past a problem that really dampened our fun together - leg biting. Alas, I spoke too soon. My two days of happiness were short-lived. The leg biting is back in full swing and harder than ever before. At least she has lost the "must-bite-Xuan-as-I-cross-every-street" problem. I don't know WHY she does it, or why my communication to her isn't working. In theory, she and I have a good relationship together because I'm literally her only family during the school year. In theory, she should want to not cause me pain, frustration, and sadness...but I don't think theory is working well for me.

Usually, the events go like this:

She spots my shoes, makes a dive for it. OR, I take something out from her mouth forcefully, like a wad of wet tissue or an old pizza crust she picked up on the street. She'll make a rumble and frustrated little growl, and go for my shoes. I tug leash and flat collar and tell her OFF. Sometimes the tug moves her head higher than my foot, and she'll snap at my legs. At this point, I'll be hurting so I try to keep her away from my limbs by holding her collar or leash far away from me, dangling her off the ground slightly. (I know it sounds terrible, but it otherwise HURTS like no tomorrow!). Then she proceeds to want to jump and bite at my arms, coat, or hand holding leash. Sometimes I have treats, and I notice asking her for a sit and doing a bit of obedience seems to work. SOMETIMES this works and it takes her off the fixation of biting me.On walks, I carry her squeeker snake and shove it in her mouth when she gets bitey to facilitate safe street crossing. But I've been doing that for 3 weeks already, and she doesn't seem to get the idea that I prefer her biting snake to biting me.  

I've also tried bitter apple, which only works when it's still freshly sprayed and wet. I've tried luring away with toys...no-go. I've tried time-outs in a crate, but she comes out and resumes. I've tried leaving her tied to something when she bites and we're outside and walking  away, but she also resumes when I return.

How can I communicate to her that leg-biting, and the subsequent body biting and snapping is FORBIDDEN?

My abuse victim legs with the criminal right beside them. :(

In other news, we had two REALLY good play sessions today.

This morning, I was going to take her to do off-leash play at the tennis court because I thought maybe more exercise will help with the biting. As we passed by the school new track and soccer field, I noticed it had a complete fence and no one on it. It was 10 minutes closer to home than the tennis court, and 4 times larger, so naturally, I had to take advantage.

Pupper's never been on artificial turf before, so she had a good time exploring this new surface. I feel REALLY good about the environmental socialization I've been able to give her. She used to be afraid of grates, and now she can walk on one without even batting an eye. She used to be afraid of sitting on benches too, but now she'd voluntarily put her front paws on them. She can go down slides, go on top any high platform, really go anywhere with me. If only bite inhibition and dog reactivity were this easy to solve as well. 

mmMMmm, plastic with particles of human sweat

Taking a break with her FAVOURITE toy in the whole wide world - the Jolly Ball! She is leashed here because we're getting ready to go home.

The morning walk and off leash time was about an hour, and kept her quiet in her crate from 11 - 3:30. I really want to extend this time, but she starts whining and barking at 3:30 if I am home. Something to work on over reading week!

For our evening walk, we were able to play in the tennis court. This was one of the BEST structured play and training sessions I did with her. She was engaged and focused with me for the entire 20-30 minutes that we were in there. I tossed her Jolly ball as well as her favourite squeaky snake, and we were able to work on lots of GOOD heeling and stays. She was also able to bring her Jolly Ball back to me for treats, which is GREAT because her default action with the Jolly Ball is to run as far away as possible from me. 

This is just her second day doing "stay", but she can already hold it very well if I'm move away from her in a straight line. If I walk behind her, she turns around to look at me. But she is still young, so there's tons of time for me to work on that.

The evening walk took 1.5 hours, and she was pooped out for an hour in her crate before resuming chaos.

I REALLY enjoyed our walks together these past 2 days, and REALLY want the leg biting issue to be resolved. I can do dog-reactivity, I can do hand-biting...I just want to be able to enjoy our 2+ hours a day together instead of constantly worrying about being nipped in the legs. 

Just before she went to bed, we played with the Nina Ottoson Dog Brick to burn her little brain some more. I think she is just using brute force to get to the food though, so maybe I'll figure out a way to limit her paw use.

Floppy lefty.

Second Last Puppy Class

Every Monday for the past 5 weeks I've taken Amaretto to a basic obedience puppy class. Since Kingston's public transit facilities aren't pet-friendly, we walk about 30 minutes to get to the school each day, and cab back. Pupper gets really worked up on this walk, and I think it could be too long for her. Many times she gets to class and she's too worked up to listen or focus. Today, I went extra early and sat down with her for 15 minutes just to give her some time to calm down. That seems to have worked really well, and I'll be doing it with all future classes.

Here are some pictures from the walk! 

Pupper resting. She was already pulling and dashing like crazy at this point so I figured she either needed to potty desperately or was too tired. 

nomnomnom. Acorn...it smells like squirrels!!!

Today was our second last puppy class. I think the biggest lesson I've learned is that I need to adjust my learning speed and attention span to accommodate Pupper's. For example, I felt REALLY unsatisfied after the first class and all we had learned was the "watch" command. But now that I'm 4 classes in, I really can see the value of spending the week reinforcing the one command and being able to build on it for further exercises. As I mentioned in an earlier posting, adjusting to Pupper's abilities is a work in progress. Sometimes I still get overzealous with my training sessions and lose Pupper's focus and interest because I've dragged them out too long. My goal this week is to keep training sessions to 2 handfuls of treats and under, and always end with her wanting more. But the question is, when she is pushing at me for more treats...what else do I use to engage her and keep her away from destruction?!?

Things I learned in the past 4 classes:

-Watch. 

This gets practiced every day for at least 10 repetitions. In quiet environments, I just use the verbal command "watch", and wait for full eye contact. If she fails to offer it to me, or if we're in a distracting environment, I'll use my hand to direct her vision to me.

-Off (Leave it) - the cease and desist command

This works with some things...more practice needed. She completely ignores me if she picks up something like a wet wab of tissue or an old food container on walks. But it works for dogs (sometimes) and rabbits (when we're not too close)

-Using a gentle leader

This only sees use in class. I was introduced to the gentle leader to help redirect her eyes back to me when she is being reactive. It makes her more frustrated, so I'm thinking of trying the Easy walk harness instead.

-Heel

This gets worked about 3 times for 2 meters each time daily. Usually she works better with a toy or something high value like CHEESE! I think I need to work on getting more eye contact from her during heeling

-Touch - touch a target like the palm of my hand or a beer coaster with her nose or paws

I taught high-5 with the same hand signal...failure on my behalf. So now when I ask for touch and stick my hands out, she thinks its a high-5 and paws at them. I also used the palms of my hands to target her to cross her front legs...another training fail. Will work hard to correct this in the upcoming weeks.

-Wait - hold still and let me do something unpleasant to you.

This gets used daily as we come in from our walks and I need to wipe her paws. She bites my hands as I wipe, so I use treat and wait. It works when she can see the treat. It does not work when treats aren't in sight.

-Table - get on a platform

Pupper LOVES this and will randomly do it to platforms on walks in hopes of getting treats

-Tunnel

I take Pupper to the park daily and plays on slides and tunnels with her, so this was a sinch.

-Jump

She SUCKS at the jump command. I think this is a lack of rear-end awareness...what to do to work on it?

Things I learned today:

-STAY! 

Just started learning this. Can do very very short amounts of staying with me VERY close by. This will definitely be practiced every day.

-Practiced heeling around other pups and their owners. THIS IS HUGE for puppy since she is reactive to dogs outside of class

-OFF to distractions like the instructor bouncing a ball near us

Next class, I'll be going a bit early to have the trainer show me how to use a choke chain on pupper. She is testing the boundaries alot with me, and I can't effectively communicate that biting my hands are NOT allowed. I've tried several methods, and I think she understands the concept, but does it because I've let her get away with it before. Hopefully, 1 good correction will really make the idea stick in her head.

After reading week, I'll be starting Agility 1 at the same facility. I AM SO EXCITED. We'll be working on the same good principles of focus, self control, and obedience, but with FUN FUN EQUIPMENT. 

Bully Stick Chronicles

I chew bully stick.

Oh did you hear that? There's a person talking 2 floors down and 1 block away. 

Don't judge!! The ends are hard to hold with no thumbs. 

Sunday Night Cuddles!

 First day since she came home that we didn't also go on an evening walk. But we did go on SEVERAL potty breaks. For mental stimulation today, I fed 1 cup in a treat ball, fed 1 cup scattered across the stairwell. She's become a bit more agile lately. When we first started playing in the stairs, she would be able to navigate the stairs, but would be unwilling to take treats from the middle steps. I guess it's harder to keep going up or down when you stop? But now she can hunt out kibble from the middle steps as well. We also did some reinforcement of behaviors already taught, like touch, shake, down, watch, sit, etc. One thing I really need to work on is knowing when to cut short the training session. I always get really involved and want to tire her out, so I train until she starts losing focus a little bit. I really need to learn to time it so I can stop while she still wants more treats.

Big wide space, but she must sleep squished right here. :D
Pupper was sleeping just fine, then she heard a dog bark in the distance and started barking in her sleep. After a few grumbles, she woke up and started barking. This reactivity...:(

This was later at night, doing some light training in the house. 

Pupper from Sherry's Birthday Party

Pupper doing a high-5 for the crowd. Sherry took the photo during her brief hours of sobriety on February 3rd.

Sunday Morning Socialization

I woke up late this morning at 10:30, a bit later than usual. I thought pupper was relatively well-behaved this morning in her crate. But alas, what I thought was well-behaved was just time spent quietly scheming. I opened the crate door, and she bolted to a corner of my room and snatched one of my old socks. Then proceeded to wedge her in the most awkward spot possible to avoid persecution.

I wanted to procrastinate from reading audit so I took her on a 2 hour morning walk downtown.

There were TONS of people. Pupper is SLIGHTLY calmer around people now, but if they show just the slightest interest in interacting with her, she'll still start bouncing off their legs. Oh well, better extra friendly than reactive.She was okay on leash, but pulled when something exciting was in front.

We met horses for the first time!!

They were really calm and majestic. Pupper, like always, was DYING to meet them.

She's dead in her crate right now from all the adventure, and will be crated from 1PM - 5PM to help maintain my school day schedule.

Story to Date

Pupper came home on December 15th, 2011. Since then, I've become completely sympathetic towards teenage moms. Yes, we did bring this upon ourselves, we BEGGED for the puppy/baby when no one else thought it was a good idea. But...my god is it difficult.

Pupper before she came home. 

Pupper with me during the winter holidays.

Pupper yesterday:

Her life from the day she came home until the blog started:

http://www.germanshepherds.com/forum/pictures-pictures-pictures/173010-its-hard-life-amaretto.html

Recent training and socialization updates:

http://www.germanshepherds.com/forum/development-socialization/175545-daily-enrichment-log-amaretto.html

In Celebration

I think Pupper might be growing up. Either that, or the Lysol she licked yesterday really did a number on her.

It's been two days since she last bit my shoes or pant legs on our walks. This was the dog, who to my great embarrassment, had to be DRAGGED across the street while her sharp little puppy teeth clung stubbornly to my pant legs or boot rims. I don't want to jinx it by putting it into words and sharing with the world-wide web. I don't really want to think too much about it. I'm terrified that I'll wake up tomorrow, go on a walk, and be nipped and herded like a sheep again. I'm especially terrified because I don't even know which one of the many things I did got through to her, so replicating this result might be impossible. Bah.

She also has been improving SO much on her loose-leash walking. She almost entirely maintained a loose-leash during our one hour evening walk today.

I wanted to put her progress into words and celebrate them while she is still a wee puppy. I wish desperately every day for her to grow up, to calm down, and to be trained. But these past two days, the change was so sudden that I'm not quite sure what to do with it.

For mental stimulation we:

Trained off-leash heel 2 or 3 times this morning with a ball at the tennis court
Fed 2 cups of kibble in a treat-dispensing ball
Walked downtown and into a bookstore for the first time
Went to some sort of sporting event on campus with lots of running and shouting

Here's a photo from this morning's walk.