Rowan's 1st Lure Course Trial!

Today we took a drive down to watch my very first lure coursing event. Lance and Vito's ridgeback cousin, Rowan, was competing in his first trial! The dogs were insanely excited. Apparently in lure coursing events all manners are thrown out the window and dogs are encouraged to be naughty. Lance wasted no time.

He was very interested in everything lure coursing. The sound of the motor was like bells to his ears, and Lance seemed to just know he could outrun those whippets to catch "da bunny." I have never heard him whine before, but whine, bark, and pull he did as he cursed his ineligibility to participate. Lance looked longingly at Rowan's cool cape.

And barked his encouragement.
Vito also looked on with interest
But overall was more intrigued by the yummy grass.
Soon it was Rowan's turn to go. (Note the encouraged naughtiness!)

Just a speck in the distance
Then came a lot of waiting until Rowan's next run. Lance stole both pigs ears and was so happy!
He played it smart and kept cool.

Vito just wanted to play. Luckily there was another field where I took the 2 pups to play some fetch. But even Vito's tounge rolled out to the side, he still didn't know what to do with himself. He eventually decided to bother grandma
Finally Rowan was up again. This time wearing stylish blue
All ready to goGet da bunny!
Rowan ended up doing very well for his first trial. Hopefully next time he will be able to enter in doubles! And as for Lance, I'm just hoping the thrill of being allowed to bark, pull, and whine doesn't go to his head!

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Lance Obedience Run Through

Since Vito's agility class is taking a break today and next Friday, I was able to go to a run through at SPDTC (not his normal club). Because of the problems we've been having in a ring at trial I decided to try something different. I knew that if I brought treats into the ring Lance would have no problem, well at least not a problem with being distracted. But this time I decided to see what would happen if I left the treats on the table and told the "judge" that I just wanted to do 2 heeling patterns and exit the ring between each pattern to treat him. That was the plan.

Lance started out great, there was even the "slow" right away and he still maintained eye contact. But by the first halt Lance was gone. It was extremely hard to even get him back into heel when I told him swing, and I just settled for a sit. By the time I finished the first pattern I was glad I had Lance on leash since he was ready to bolt out of the ring. The judge thought Lance knew he got treats out of the ring, but since this was the first time trying this I knew he didn't and was just excited. It was frustrating. I gave him a whole bunch of treats anyway and got ready to do the second pattern. He was a bit better the second time, but it still wasn't pretty. This time as Lance was ready to bolt the judge said she would call out a right turn which helped since Lance hit the end of the leash and then did run to catch up with me.

I know that Lance is affected by my body language in a ring setting, but I also know that this behavior is not because he is shutting down in any way. Lance does shut down easily, but this did not look like that in anyway. His attitude was very excited.

It is just really frustrating because it is so hard to work on. I feel that doing small heeling patterns and then running out to get treats could help Lance, but even if I was able to do a run through every week (which I rarely can do) I can still only do 2 heeling patterns in the time I'm allowed. Ideally I would have liked to do at least 2 more so Lance would get the game. If I would have given Lance even 2 treats in that ring he would have been fine like he was in our warmup, but that clearly hasn't helped his real trials where I can't do that.

So anyway that is my vent for today!

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Separation Anxiety Treatment Log Wk1

I have started to keep a log of my SA sessions to track my progress and enable me to see where I am doing great and where I may have raised criteria too quickly. I recommend that you not read the rest of this blog, or at least skip to the last paragraph unless you are really interested! At least to the right I've included a picture of what Lance gets to do when I'm acting like a nut walking in and out of the house. He takes it to his "special hiding spot."

I started the SA sessions on May 7th and briefly blogged about it then, so this starts with Day 2.

Day2: Worked for about 10-15mn. Started with 3 exit/enters only, then progressed to a couple 10sec absences, and a few 30seconds. Vito did great for the first approximately 8mn, but then stopped chewing his bones. I kept entering and picking up the bones and putting back down the bones as I left anyway. Within 2 more trials he was happily chewing his bones again, so I did 2x30sec trials and called it quits.

Day2 session2: Worked for 10mn and did 11 trials. Did 10sec, 15sec, 4x30sec, 40sec, 2x45sec, 60sec, 30sec. At no time did he stop chewing his bones or get up from the doggy bed.
After I was done, I left Vito in the kitchen with a rawhide and the baby gate up while I went to the living room. He is still being content to chew his bone for the past 20mn. I am sure he knows I am home, but I'm being very quiet typing this so who knows.

Day 3: Worked for about 10-15mn and did 10 trials with a pigs ear. We did 20sec, 2x30, 45, I added pb to one of the bones to reward him, 2x60, 75, 2x90, added more pb, 105, 60. Vito did great, chewed his pig ear the entire time.

Day 4: I read that it's better to do long sessions rather than short ones when treating SA, so I set out with that in mind. I ended up doing 37 trials over 35mn, but it was not what I had planned. I started with 45sec, but Vito wasn't eating his bone (rawhide strip) when I came back so I then did 2x10sec trials, but Vito still wasn't eating. I then did 6xout/in trials where he started to eat his bone by the last couple. Next I did 3x10sec, 20, 30, I then offered him a marrow bone as well. I did 45sec, 2x60, 3x90. On the last 90sec trial Vito was standing on the dog bed when I came in, I think he had just finished chewing his bone as I was walking in. So I moved it down to a 30, 60, 75, but on the 75sec trial Lance barked outside at Adam and when I came in Vito was waiting by the door. I then sighed and did a 60sec trial where he wasn't eating, did 2xout/ins, and a 30sec where he was eating. I then bumped it to 45sec where he wasn't eating again, did 2x10sec where he was eating, 20sec, 2x30sec where he again wasn't eating on the last 30sec trial. So I did 3x15sec where he was eating and ended with a 30sec.

This was extremely frustrating. I didn't want to go so long, but I wanted to end on a good note. He mainly preferred the rawhide strip to the marrow bone, but went back and forth when both were down. I probably should have worked my way up and shouldn't have started with such a high time.

Day4 Session2: Worked for 30mn and did about 64 trials. This was also not the greatest session. I started with a pigs ear for Vito and just doing some out/ins (O/I) (about 2o trials), but Vito wouldn't even touch the bone until about 5mn in. I then tried a 10sec trial but it was too long as he was by the door when I cam in. So I did about 20xO/Is and Vito didn't touch the pigs ear until about the 15th trial. I then put a little rawhide down and 3x5sec trials where Vito chewed on the rawhide. I decided to put peanut butter on the pigs ear and did 3x10sec trials with Vito happily licking off the pb and 2x O/I. He was done licking off the pb at this point, but chewing on the ear so I did 15sec, 2x5, 2x10, 2xO/I, 15, 2x20, 2x5, 2x20, 15, 30.

I didn't feel like I could push it with any longer time this session so the highest I got up to was 1 30sec trial. He did have major diarrhea right after so maybe that had something to do with it? Aftwerward I waited about 10mn and left him in the kitchen with a different rawhide to chew on while I was in the living room. He chewed on it for a couple minutes before stopping and waiting quietly to be let out. I decided to go into the kitchen and put the dishes away to get him eating again before leaving him "alone" again.

Day 5: I worked for 20mn and did 41 trials with a pigs ear and a rawhide stick, but Vito went after the pigs ear the whole time. I started with 6xO/I, 2x5sec, O/I, 2x5- on all of those trials I decided not to pick up the bone upon coming in the house in order to get him really started on it. For the rest of the time, I picked up both bones upon coming in the house, except on the O/I trials I did not. I then did 3x10sec, 3xO/I, 2x15, 20, 2x5, 20 and then added pb to the pigs ear to reward him. I then did 2x30, 3xO/I, 30, 40, 2x10, 45, 5, 2x10, 45, 3xO/I, 10.

Vito chewed on the pigs ear the entire time we worked. I really tried to keep it very easy with him, the longest time I was gone was 1 45sec trial. I've decided that I really want to keep the times varied that I am gone, not always leaving longer. I know when teaching "stays" you have to be careful to make the time random so the dog continues to enjoy the stay and not dread each stay longer than the previous one. For SA, I have read conflicting ideas on what to do. Some articles say that it's ok to continually increase time since you are working on changing the emotional response and the dog is (hopefully) getting continual reinforcement while you are gone. I think that I am going to vary it though to be on the safe side and not risk Vito becoming anxious.

Day 6: I worked for 20mn and did 27 trials with a pigs ear and rawhide stick down. Vito only chewed on the pigs ear. I did 3x5sec, 2x10, 2x20, 2x5, 3x30, 10, 45, 2x5, 45, 60, 30, 60, 30, 15, 75, 2x10, 45, 60.

He chewed on the ear on the entire time. The highest time reached was a 75sec trial, but Vito also did 3x60sec with no problem.

Day 7: I worked for 25mn and did 29 trials with a pigs ear and rawhide stick down. He only chewed on the pigs ear except for a couple trials where I also added a empty marrow bone with some peanut butter smeared inside. I started with 10sec, but it was apparently too much as Vito was by the door when I came in, so I did a O/I, 3x5, 2x10 and Vito started eating the ear immediately on the first O/I. I then put the pb bone down and Vito licked it for the next 3 trials. 10, 2x30, 15, 60, 20, 2x60, 20, 5, 75, 90, 2x20, 90, 2x5, 75, 15, 30.

Wk1 Conclusion:
This has been the end of the first week of work. I was only able to do 9 sessions because of my split work schedule, but I still feel that it was a good week. In some ways we didn't make any improvements by the 9th session than the 3rd (highest time gone today was 90sec, highest time gone on the 9th was 105sec), but I feel more confident on my departures now. I think that I started out too high, even though he did great on day3, I don't think Vito fully understood the game (that I come back shortly and that great bones are his when I'm gone!) and that's why he started feeling anxious again on day 4. But I think that Vito is doing good now. It appears as though he really wants the bone and doesn't want me to come back to take it away.

Wk1 Data: Highest time by end of week (not including day3) was several 90sec trials. Still need to start each session with no greater than 5sec departures and gradually work up.

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Cuddle Buddies

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Packing

I decided to take time today to teach a trick I've wanted to do for a long time. Vito was up first, although technically the cat beat him to it. When I was still shaping Vito to stick his head in, Luke decided that dogs were stupid and jumped in right away. Unfortunately, no pictures of that!

Vito was really confident, but it took him awhile to figure out what I wanted. Several times he wanted to try his handstand trick and use his back legs to kick the top open. Then he didn't want to lie down on the the suitecase floor since the metal bars were apparently too hard. I tried a doggy bed in there for a bit, but Vito just wanted to eat his bed! So the bed came out and he eventually got it. Well, most of the time his tail stuck out :)

Lance was up next, but Vito didn't want to share

I kicked the little bugger out and got started. Lance had no problem quickly learning to lie down in the open suitcase, but it was quite a jump for him. When I started to gradually close the lid on him though, Lance became unsure of the game. He even tried balancing on the edge of the suitcase, neither out nor in, to see if that would produce treats. It did not. So soon Lance became brave and very quickly figured out how to flip the lid open himself to get in.

It turns out he didn't even need to lie down inside to not be seen :) So I had to call him out to get any pictures. His ears support the top

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Tired pups

Both dogs are tired. Lance even let Vito cuddle up to him.

They can barely keep their eyes open
And they're out

Lance did well in his agility class. We mainly worked on pinwheels and a couple sequences to work our front crosses. At home I did some weave poles with him where we almost have a closed channel. There's probably only a one inch channel between the poles!

Before I left for class and dropped Vito off at daycare, I worked on some separation with Vito. At first he was extremely confused on my repeatedly coming and goings out the door. He even went and hid under the kitchen table. I'm sure he was thinking I lost my mind. He wouldn't chew on any bones for the first 15mn of my insanity, but I kept going since I didn't want to quit until I saw him comfortable and knew he would settle down. Finally he started to chew his bone and ignore my erratic behavior! So we have a start at 30second departures!

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How to really fix Seperation Anxiety

I am writing this to officially commit myself to a full separation anxiety program with Vito. I have decided that just working on it now and then and has helped, but each time I have to leave him alone for real it undoes most of the work I have put in. While I was extremely excited about his behavior when I first left him alone in the kitchen, it has since gotten worse as he is now whining, pacing, and not eating his bones anymore. So here is my pledge for the next 4-8wks to do the full SA program.

For those of you who are interested I will describe a little bit of it.

1. Keeping my departures and arrivals unemotional. I already do this so it shouldn't be a problem.

2. A counterconditioning program. This is most of the work. Luckily since Vito isn't a horrible case, I can skip a couple steps in this and don't have to get him used to my pre-departure cues. Most dogs feel anxious as your getting ready to go, like when you pick up your keys, put on your shoes, etc. Since Vito comes with me most places he doesn't know when I'm leaving him until I actually close the door behind me. So this will save me at least 1wk of work as I can skip to actually leaving the house right away.

However, most of this work with Vito will involve me putting down a bone (that he probably won't eat in the beginning), opening the door, closing the door, and picking back up the bone. Then gradually extending it till I am actually leaving for longer periods of time before coming back in and picking up the bone. The first 10mn will be the hardest to conquer, since I don't really want to raise criteria until he he is calm enough to actually eat something when I'm gone. I want Vito to think "Drat! She's come back! I want my bone!"

3. Never Leaving him alone. This is why most people think they can't do this program. If you do all the counterconditioning work with your dog and then leave him alone why you go to work, your dog feels anxious again and you are back to square one. Luckily with my jobs I only have to leave Vito alone x2/wk when Lance has his classes. But now I have made a commitment that Vito will not be left alone to feel anxious during those times so Vito will be dropped off at daycare. For other people out there, options are dropping your dog off at a neighbor's house who works from home, hiring a dog sitter, or doggy daycare. IF you have absolutely can't do that, you could set your dog in 2 seperate areas of the house. One room you would use when you are working with him and where he will never feel anxious, room 2 is where he would go when you have to leave for real and he will get anxious. Just be careful that you put your dog in the 2nd room before you go through those predeparture cues or you will undue all your work.

4. Getting your dog un-velcroed. This is mainly what I've been doing with Vito so far. Teaching Vito that he only gets bones when he is in his crate, away from me. Doing crate games where he has strong drive to run to his crate and stay in there with the door open. Not letting him snuggle with me for long periods of time. Letting him "chill" in a room where he can see me but is baby gated away from me. Working on stays, especially doing out of sight stays. And just basic impulse control where he can learn to be patient and deal with frustration.

Most dogs can be completely "cured" of SA in 6-8 wks. So while it really involves a ton of work, seriously it will be so annoying to have to keep leaving and entering the house, it has an extremely high success rate. I am hoping that if I keep at it, Vito will be better in a lot less time because of his age, non destructive behavior, and lack of predepature cues I have to desensitize. But either way, I am announcing my commitment to once and for all get rid of the SA beast!

Update:  I spent 13wks devoted to fixing his SA and you can read any and all posts relating to his progress under the label "SA". We built up to about 3hrs of absences and seemed to hit a wall but with our lifestyle, 3hrs was liveable.

Update 2/2012:  Vito's anxieties increased dramatically when he hit 2yrs of age.  Due to the likely strong influence of genetics, we decided to put Vito on medication.  He is currently on Fluoxetine.

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Sunday

I love Sundays!

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