Saturday’s class was a good one for Ellie. We had a substitute teacher and even though she uses some physical force to get the dog’s to do some behaviors, the content of the class was good (fortunately, Ellie has already been practicing her folding down, so I didn’t have to *push* her down as instructed!).

We practiced heeling and then doing the folding down while moving.

We practiced two different agility scenarios. One was running through the chute to the table. Then doing the folding down on the table. We did the table first, before trying the chute. Then once the dogs were comfortable on the table, we added the chute to the sequence. I have to remember to gather Ellie up as she comes out of a tunnel or chute to be sure she’s with me for the next obstacle. I was even able to sneak in a little shaping session on the table when no one was looking! Ellie *got it* right away and was starting to drive up onto the table.

The second scenario was going over a jump and through a straight tunnel. Then we turned it around and did the straight tunnel and then over the jump. Ellie did well until she started to get nervous because her leash was pulling the bar down. I jumped her back and forth over the jump without her leash and she recovered quite quickly!

Ellie was even complimented by the class assistant on her nice behavior. (!!she’s a good girl!!)

On to the next step with this behavior. I’m asking for a nice, square solid sit. One second count. Nose touch above her head. My hand target is within her reach so she doesn’t have to jump or really even move her body to it. Only her head. Hopefully, I’ll see the slightest bit of weight shift towards her back end.

(note: with new steps in the shaping of this, the original list will have to be redone.)

Session 1 :: Only problem is my sloppy handling. If she sits at an angle, she has a tendency to twist as she reaches for the hand target. I think I want her sitting straight on in front of me. Hmmm. Does that mean going back to shaping the sit and selecting for position. I think I’ll wait until after this next session and watch how bad the twisting is. I’m feeding this behavior in position.

Session 2 :: Patience. She’s doing really well. All I want to see is collection of the back. Keep sessions really short since the handler can’t seem to maintain her criteria for longer than about ten treats.

Next session. Same as before.

Katy hasn’t practiced her skateboard training in awhile.

During the last practice session, she was standing on the skateboard and easily tolerating lots of movement under her feet. Mostly, though, it was moving because of her weight shifts rather than moving because she was actually pushing it. I would like her to push it - moving with her front feet on the skateboard and her back feet on the ground.

Goal for todays first session: Orient the skateboard so that Katy’s body is closer to parallel with the board. Click for solid front feet on the board and a good position (between 12 and 3 o’clock). Any movement of the board is good as well.

Session 1 :: OK. So Katy isn’t clear on where her feet should be on the skateboard. Totally my fault - I never taught her that there was a preferred placement of her feet. The problem is that she tends to walk towards me on the board and ends up on the front, upturned end. And then she pops a wheelie on the board. Which is cute and she doesn’t mind it. But it conflicts with what I want the finished behavior to be.

Next session, she will be clicked for the placement of her front feet. Both feet, anywhere on the flat part of the board. I’ll stabilize the board a little bit so we can focus on the foot placement.

Session 2 :: Much better. I put the skateboard on the pink velour blanket so it didn’t move around too much. I’ll repeat this session a couple of times. After maybe one or two more sessions, I’ll change the criteria to putting her feet anywhere on the flat part except for the one inch before the upturned ends.

Session 3 :: Perfect. She’s getting and is successful at least 80% of the time. Next session, raise the criteria for feet being closer to the center of the board.

Last night during flyball class, Ellie got into one fight and had two slight leash altercations. Not a good sign as she enters her adolescent fear stage.

I’ve got a call in to Terry to see if we can get into his “Chill Out” class. We need to nip this behavior in the bud!

Note: the fight occured when an off leash JRT came over to my seat where I was sitting with Ellie on her leash. There may have been a little bit of space invasion that occured that set the whole thing off.

Suzanne Clothier has written a very good article about how altercations like this develop: He Just Wants to Say “Hi”!

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Oh, Yes! We’re in the class. And I even started our homework since we missed the first week of class.

The homework:

07/19/05 :: Chill Out Homework – Ellie

Functional Analysis:

1. Ellie will alert on new people or new dogs that enter her environment. She will also alert on new sounds. The triggers: dogs/people who are walking down the street in front of our house; sudden noises coming from the neighborhood. Anyone or anything entering our yard. (I would define her environment as anyplace where she is for more than a couple of minutes – home, car, classroom, hotel room, etc.)

2. She alerts and becomes defensive when dogs enter her personal space or approach her “things” (me, water bowl, treats, toys, mat).

3. She has started to go into play sessions with an overly direct approach to the other dogs. She prefers giving rather than taking during play. The ratio of giving to taking in her play with Katy is probably about 80/20. With other dogs, the ratio is even higher. She seems to enjoy getting other dogs to back-off. There may be one exception – and that is when she plays with Julie’s dog, Pete. They’ve been playing together off an on for the past six months and they seem to have a relatively equal give and take. The next time that they play together, I’ll pay closer attention!

Replacement Behaviors:

1. For situation one, I think it is okay for her to pay attention when something new enters the environment, but I would like her to look to me for direction when this happens. If we are walking and I want to keep walking, then she should stay with me and remain relaxed as we pass by – it would be okay if she showed “casual interest” like that allowed in the CGC test. If I would decide that it’s okay to meet the new dog or person, then I would like to have the appropriate manners for either interaction. Casual, polite interest with the dog. A controlled sit for meeting and even petting by a person.

2. For situation two, if a dog enters her space, I would like her to look to me for direction. Most of these situations are very brief and often happen in training classes. If she can remain calm and controlled for 5 to 20 seconds (or however long it takes), the situation will usually pass. The “intruding” dog will be collected by it’s owner or it will leave of it’s own accord. I want her to trust that I will not let another dog get into it with her. I also want her to understand that it is not her job to defend me, her treats, toys, mat or dishes. Any of those things may be shared if I say it’s okay and she should be able to tolerate it.

3. In the third situation, I’d like her to initiate play in a more friendly manner and give and take more during play. I think she’d scare off fewer potential playmates and as a result she’d get more experience interacting with different dogs.

Clicker Retrieve
From Deb Jones
with modifications for using a tennis ball in preparation for flyball.

TRAINING STEPS:

I. With tennis ball in your hand, close to you

1. Look at ball
2. Move towards ball
3. Sniff ball
4. Touch w/nose
5. Touch with mouth/teeth
6. Put mouth over ball
7. Close mouth over ball
8. Hold in closed mouth
9. Increase hold duration

II. With ball placed on floor within 3 ft. of you

10. Look at ball
11. Move towards ball
12. Sniff the ball
13. Touch w/ nose
14. Touch w/mouth/teeth
15. Put mouth over ball
16. Close mouth over ball
17. Pick up off of floor
18. Increase vertical distance off floor
19. Turn towards trainer w/ball in mouth
20. Move one step towards trainer
21. Increase number of steps towards trainer
22. Bring ball to trainer

III. Adding distance

23. Place ball four feet away. CT for pick-up
24. CT later & later on return
25. CT when dog reaches handler
26. Keep increasing the distance that the ball is placed away from the handler
27. Yo-yo distances
28. Place ball on a raised surface - like a chair seat, ottomon or overturned laundry basket.
29. Repeat steps 23 through 27 with the ball on a raised surface.

IV. Adding requirements

Retrieve over jump
Proof for send anticipation (stimulus control)
Proof for distractions

Solutions for common problems:

Playing with the object, including keep away: 2 treats/toys, trade, on leash work. Shorter, calmer retrieves. Place object rather than throw it.

Mouthing: size & type of retrieve object. Position of head.

Anticipation: NEVER CORRECT, just don’t reinforce. Reinforce the stay instead.

In class on Saturday, Ellie was off leash and decided to take off and visit some of the other dogs. This is always kind of embaressing, plus, not all of the dogs in the class are necessarily interested in meeting her (though fortunately, they were all tolerant of her).

She seemed to think that running away from me was quite a fun game.

Susan Garrett sets her classes up for this situation in the most excellent way. If your dog runs away, then your job is to leave the building as quickly and inconspicuously as possible. All of the other handlers are aware of the situation and it’s their job to keep their dogs under control. This eliminates the dog getting to enjoy a game of keep away. Plus the dog will hopefully learn that it’s their job to pay attention to the handler - because if they don’t, the handler may just disappear!

Unfortunately, not every class room is as well planned out as Susan’s. So, I decided last night that I have a great way to teach Ellie if I rush towards her and grab her collar it’s a good thing. Everytime I give her any special treats - like frozen bones or licks off of spoons - I’m going to rush towards her, grab her collar and then give her the special treat. She gets the treats anyway - so why not get some great training out of the situation.

I’ll probably also incorporate this into intermittent training sessions. This would be a great game to use with the veal flavored baby food. Sneak up on her, rush in, grab the collar and then let her take a big lick out of the jar.

I’ll also play the same game with Katy.

Quick session on the buja board. Very good. C/T for two feet on and making it move.

Second session - also good. Clicking for movement of the board. She started walking over it with her back feet touching the board as well. Almost without any concern for the movement of the board.

Third session. Excellent. Going over board with all four paws. Towards the end, she stepped on the board with one front paw and may have caught her other paw under the board. This made her a little bit more cautious. Next session, she’ll get lots of clicks for confidently hitting the board no matter what.

This is awesome progress for her!

8. Dog sitting in a solid upright sit, eyes on handler, Click for upright sit - three seconds.

Short session on step 8. Waiting for some feedback on making the transition to step 7.

She offered a few sloppy sits. When she’s in a nice sit, I give her eye contact. When she’s in a sloppy sit, I look at the floor just beside her. The idea being that she’ll seek out my eyes and scootch herself into a neater sit. She definitely responded when she couldn’t get my eye contact and tried her sit again.

8a. Dog sitting in a solid upright sit, eyes on handler, Click for upright sit - two seconds.

Average session. One key thing to remember with Katy - don’t toss the treat so that she can lie down and reach it. Once she lies down, she may never get back up!

Many more sloppy sits were offered during this session than in the last session. I think there was an “aha” moment when I waited her out while she was laying down, then sat up kind of fast and I was able to click and treat. We were able to end with a couple of nice, 2-sec, straight sits.

We’re still on this step though.

7. Dog sitting in a solid upright sit, paws moving off of the ground. Click for either paw anywhere off of the floor or collection of body towards the upright position (straightening of back, backwards lean).

OK, maybe not. As anticipated, the transition from extending the time of the sit to expecting some sort of back collection didn’t go very well. I think I need to assist in getting the next step. I don’t want to lure with food, but I could use either a hand target or a target stick. Which then I’ll have to fade.

Without a target, after a wonderful 8 second, straight sit and stare, Ellie broke from position, started to lick the carpet, then her butt. Lay down. Then started doing sloppy sits interspersed with more carpet licking.

Time to go get some advice from the experts! Then back with more planning.

Update: Answer from Sue. Use the hand target as a lure, but fade it ASAP. As soon as she gets into the “sit-pretty” position, click for position before her nose actually hits my hand. Then fade the hand target fast.