The Dogs Are Really In Charge

Engagement: Choosing to Work

>> Tuesday, November 4, 2014 – obedience , obedience revolution

I've written quite a bit on the work I've done with Vito's obedience training and the re-training I had to do for myself to stop trying harder than the effort he was giving. It was easy to wave the food or toys in front of his face and pretend that he was really engaging with me. But of course all of that was just fooling myself into believing that he didn't really have issues of focus and motivation.

All of our re-training went into Vito choosing to work and giving him the power. Our initial "work" was really 95% play. But it was driven by Vito and his choices. No more somersaults and pleading from my end. It also meant a lot more time spent on doing nothing. And we still have that issue, especially in new places as he has to check out the world. Baby steps.

But Denise Fenzi's blog post yesterday on the topic of engagement summarizes so eloquently the philosophy that I had to move to with Vito and have taken with all the puppies since.
Comfort first, then engagement, and then finally work.
http://denisefenzi.com/2014/11/03/basic-engagement/

Py loves offering focus and "heeling" for any possible chance I could be willing to train and hand out cookies! With Vito I have a million deleted pictures of his butt or maybe of his body but with his head swiveled in another direction.

Pyra 15wks

>> Monday, November 3, 2014 – pyra

Miss Py turns 16wks old tomorrow and weighs 20.8lbs. I'm easing back down on my guess for her final weight, maybe 37lbs now? But then again she still is up to where Gracie and Fiona were at the same age!

We had a few more fun days exploring the park and a new little neighborhood "nature trail" as well.
Sadly with the lovely invention of daylight savings time we won't be able to go after work anymore on the few nights I'm not teaching classes.

It's so hard to get Vito to look at the camera on our walks! He will stay, but that boy is constantly trying to air sniff

Learning this week has been trying to master 3 areas

1. Backing into the 2o2o position on a box. We've finally made some progress on this trick. For a few weeks now Py has had all my "prerequisites" and then some in order to be able to do it. But the lightbulb was just not clicking and I couldn't get her to offer it. I even tried some variations on my normal training plan with no luck. I can't say that she knows what I'm looking for, but at least she has done the backing up to the position a few times now.

2. Formal retrieve. The previous week we finally got open mouth on non toy objects (non thrown items) and now we have movement with the items. Still not to hand but I'm thinking we will get there this coming week. Py gets super frustrated with this trick. All about her paws and not so much about her nose and teeth.

3. Offering spins. Py has had nice fast spins left and right with a hand signal for awhile. But I haven't been able to get her to offer the behavior or listen to the verbal cues left and right. With the help of better reward placements we finally have offered Rights and I'm hoping for offered Lefts soon.

And Happy Birthday to Vito

>> Friday, October 31, 2014 – vito

Six years old already, wow. And graying like an old man!

Happy Halloween

>> Thursday, October 30, 2014 – lance , pyra , vito

Vito as the Riddler. Full of questions, but sadly he doesn't share the answers with me.

Lance as Batman. Of course.

Pyra as Harley Quinn. Adorable sidekick.

They do have hats.

Epic battle between good and evil.

Trick for Treat?

I think Batman was defeated.

Pyra 14wks and Video

>> Wednesday, October 29, 2014 – pyra , video

Miss Py had a few new experiences this past week. Most of them at the agility trial where she learned about lovely dirt floors and horses.

She's starting to lose her puppy fuzz and look like a real toller now! Well, still a golden retriever actually.

We played with toys and leaves outside and mainly used food inside the arena. Partly because I didn't want the toys covered in dirt and partly because she's very food focused and toy love is not quite as high yet.

Training wise the only new thing is she's starting to get the concept of biting an object for her retrieve training. Py had a nice nose touch previously but wouldn't open her mouth until this week. We also are building some distance on our sends around cones and trees for little puppy agility!

Our little pivots and side steps for heel work are pretty hit and miss right now. Lovely some days and other days she is completely insistent that I must want her either between my legs or in front of me.

Chuck It Agility Toller in NADAC

>> Monday, October 27, 2014 – agility , NADAC , trial , video , vito

The Chuck it Launcher experiment continues for trial #2! Results were even more screaming than the first USDAA trial and holy cow he actually RAN in all 8 runs over two days. Many runs didn't just come close to backyard practice speed, but actually were full speed!

In the first run of the weekend he actually screamed a little bit DURING his run! He doesn't even do that at home! And it was jumpers, zero contacts on course! Sadly, no video of that run. But yes, he knocked his yards per second out of the water and the danger we can sometimes be in of not making time in jumpers wasn't there at all.

Q rate wasn't so high. We had an off course in each regular run, a knocked bar in that jumpers run, and another knocked bar in chances.

Touch n Go was my absolute favorite run of the weekend. Personal best of 6.78YPS and fastest time of all dogs. Bonus of a super nice turn off the dogwalk with an off course hoop staring straight at him. Best Vito video ever:

And he even did distance! With a (late) rear cross! Stupid knocked bar prevented him from getting a vary rare chances Q for him.

So now I'm spoiled. I had made peace with Trial Toller and now I'm super psyched for Chuck It Toller. Trying hard not to have expectations for our next trial. Next might not be until after Christmas though unless I travel.

The Corgi back to Agility!

>> Sunday, October 26, 2014 – agility , lance , NADAC , trial , video

NADAC trial this weekend. Lance's 4th and 5th day of trialing of the entire year so I was eager to get back to agility with him!

Sadly Lance seemed a bit off all weekend. Slower than normal and pulling off of obstacles. Not sure if it was due to the slightly deeper dirt surface, general aging, or what.

He did 4 run on Saturday and 5 on Sunday. The last run of the day on Sunday was jumpers and it was just sad. Poor Corgi was stuttering horrible and much slower than earlier :(

Sad Jumpers on Sunday

Not so sad Regular on Sunday

On the positive side we did knock out another Chances Q on Saturday on what I thought was a pretty tough course with only the 1st and last obstacle not behind the line. 4 more left for his NATCH and since the next NADAC trial isn't till end of December it doesn't look like we made our goal this year. Hopefully next year we will get to play some more agility and whatever it is that slowed the corgi down this trial will be gone. He's never been interested in playing agility on grass so training at home isn't really fruitful. It involves lots and lots of rewards for baby dog efforts of speed. Weekly class seems to be going fine.

Pyra 13wks

>> Tuesday, October 21, 2014 – plans , pyra

Pyra at 13 weeks seemed like a really big milestone for her. At 10 weeks I remember feeling like the lightbulb was starting to come on in her training sessions. She was learning that she was in control of the cookie delivery. And now at 13 weeks I feel like the light is getting brighter. This past week Py started offering most of her behaviors and you can see the wheels just turning in her head. Her Frog Legs trick that we were still struggling with a pillow under her hips she was able to purposefully offer for a cookie!

A few people who have watched our quick meal training sessions have commented on how I'm really not using any commands at this point. I'm just in no rush. Right now her training has very little to do with learning words and lots to do with Py figuring out how to communicate with me and discovering body awareness. If she offers a behavior other than the one we were working on I usually just go with it. I might later regret that I'm letting her hop from one thing to another but right now it's still cute and fun. I suppose that's how most naughty behavior start!

I'm also heavily managing Py's focus when she is out and about with me. We still have our romps at the park where she can just sniff and explore, but pretty much everywhere else when Py is on the ground I'm in training mode. I almost always have a toy or cookies on me to reward her for offering behaviors and for keeping focus on me. If I'm not able to give her that feedback then I'm just scooping her up in my arms. Or in her group class she's either in my arms or in her crate for 80% of the class so that the remaining 20% she can give me full effort. An hour class is too long for any dog, but especially a puppy!

Still working lots on chase me games to try and cultivate a love for running. While Py is still fairly uncoordinated she is sure gaining speed. I can no longer out race her and I've added the words Go Go Go to her tiny vocabulary.
And Py continues to claim the highest point of the couch. She says it has the added bonus of easily being able to see whatever food I'm eating.