Basic Obedience Week Two

Jackie is continuing to do a great job in her basic classes this week, today we continued learning sit, down, and nose touch a hand target.  We also started short duration stay and learned a new release word, “break,” which will eventually become Jackie’s cue to start her agility course run. 

In transferring my previous release cue word which was “ok!” to a new release cue “break!” I learned today to say “break! ok!” and then I will gradually fade using the word “ok.” Also today while practicing short duration stays it was very apparent my timing with the clicker needs polishing, as I am still fumbling a bit with saying the cue, watching for the behavior, pressing the clicker, releasing with a new word first then the old word, then giving a treat. Whew!  Jackie is doing a great job in class. Me? Well I’m trying!

Our homework this week includes nose touch to the hand in different places with distance, the beginning of recall which is call their name and mark and treat them for looking at the handler, mark and treat for making eye contact and seeking eye contact, rewarding Jackie allowing me to grab her collar, spontaneously leaving food on the ground (also known as “it’s yer choice”) or what I think of as “hers whats” as in “hers whats ignores the cookie is hers whats gets the cookie,”and duration for sit and down stays.

Pearls:

• After 30 years using “ok!” as my release word, switching to “break!” is proving to be harder than expected
• To transfer an already learned cue from one word to a new word, you first say the new word followed immediately with the known word to get the behavior, then gradually fade the old word
• Training a dog is easy; training a human takes real effort!  My timing and clicker management are a work in progress
• Home work this week includes: nose touch in different places and adding distance, beginning whiplash turns (call Jackie’s name and mark and treat her for looking at me), mark and treat for making eye contact, reinforcing collar grab, hers whats, and duration for sit stays and down stays

Crate Games

Today in Foundations for Agility class at Cowtown Dog Sports we learned about crate games.  I’m late catching the bus on this one, but I’m so glad I’m on board now! Based on how quickly Jackie understood what was expected, I’m fairly sure her foster family must have practiced some version of crate games.

Our homework this week includes: putting Jackie in her crate, closing and latching the door.  Then I place my hand on the top of (or front of) the crate, which becomes a cue for her to sit (or lie down) and when Jackie sits or lies down I feed her a treat that I take from a bowl on top of the crate (rather than from a bait pouch on my body). Then I open the crate door; if she tries to exit the crate I simply block her calmly with the crate door, close it and start again.  Once she is sitting or lying down, I open the crate a tiny bit, Jackie stays laying or sitting, then I close and latch the door and feed her a treat from back in the crate (not near the door) as this builds value for being back in the crate.  

Eventually we gradually build up to opening the crate door completely and leaving it open while I stand back, while Jackie stays sitting or lying down, and Jackie remains quietly inside the crate until she is released with a cue. We also practiced Jackie staying calmly inside the crate while I put her leash on, and she only exits the crate when I release her with a release word “ok!” 

Playing the crate game builds value for Jackie being in her crate.  Going forward it is important to always be consistent when she is crated, to only allow her to exit the crate on her release word, and otherwise to build value for her to stay quietly inside the crate when asked, whether or not the door is open. 

It is ok for Jackie to decide to go inside her open crate on her own, and exit on her own. But when the handler places her in her crate on cue “kennel up!” Jackie stays in the crate quietly until released “ok!” whether or not the door is open or closed, and whether or not the handler is standing back, crouching, or holding her leash.

We continued with learning nose touch a hand target while in stand-stay.  The point is to reinforce Jackie for standing still in the same position. Our homework this week includes continuing to work on reinforcing stand-stay by having Jackie touch my hand target, then rotating my hand palm up and with my other hand dropping a treat into the now palm-up target hand and letting her eat it out of my flat upturned palm, and repeating several times while Jackie is stationary in a stand-stay.

When we were ready to leave class to go home, I was excited to see Jackie jump up into the back of the car into her crate!  Such a good girl, and it sure is a big help to not have to pick her up each time. In addition to being great for my back, this behavior is potentially life saving since it prevents her charging into traffic or loose into other dogs when exiting the car, or her crate at a dog show.

Jackie relaxing in her car crate, demonstrating the very useful and potentially life-saving crate game

Pearls:

• Crate games, where have you been my whole life!
• Foundations for Agility homework includes continuing to play crate games, and continuing to learn stand-stay
• Jackie can self load into her crate, and knows to stay there until released, which is not only extremely convenient for me, but potentially life-saving

Clarity

Organizing my training this week around clarity, I have been throwing too much at Jackie too soon. I have such a huge desire to consistently do the right thing, teach with the best practices, and educate Jackie toward continuing to be a great companion as well as looking forward to an agility career, with the ability for a career in obedience should we choose. 

In order to be 100% consistent, it is impossible to teach all of this, all the time.  Starting Jackie in basic obedience class this week has helped bring some much needed clarity.  It seems obvious, but as an example I want to reinforce Jackie 100% of the time for coming to me, in order to teach a strong, reliable recall.  My observation was that if Jackie is interested in sniffing a snake, for example, and I call her off it to me, that praise and piece of reinforcing chicken in that particular moment is not reinforcing, but now rather I’ve punished Jackie for coming to me since she had to leave the much more interesting investigation of the snake.  

When I asked this question in class, I was given the permission to not get so much in my head.  Sometimes the handler cannot get into this negative loop of over-analyzing. One can bog down in the semantics and over-study of reinforcement theory, and miss the point.  And sometimes you just can’t allow the dog to do the thing, so recall her back and move on with your lives. Instead of trying to teach ALL THE THINGS RIGHT NOW, I’ve given myself permission to focus on just the basics to be learned this week: sit, down, and nose-touch-a-hand-target. 

Of course when the opportunity presents to reinforce other behavior I want, I will reinforce for that behavior when it is reasonable and clear to do so. Common sense goes a long way. However, for example Jackie knows to wait at the door before going outside, that should be enough.  I cannot dwell at the door, asking her to “sit” then reinforcing that, and then waiting for eye contact and reinforcing that, then reinforce releasing on an “ok” signal without me moving my body….. aaaaaahr! so Jackie is still at the door just wanting to go outside, which she does probably 100 times at day; it is a recipe for frustration! 

Instead, I need to pick one thing, she waits at the door then is allowed outside with a release word.  It is seemingly a small differentiation, but in the idea of making behaviors easy (for both handler and canine!) it is a BIG difference.  

Using the clicker more often has also been suggested to improve clarity, as much for me as well as for Jackie.  Using our marker word “yes” is fine too, but the clicker is a good skill for a handler to have, so I am making an effort to incorporate using the clicker in our weekly training.  

This week I’ve lessened my intensity in training, by focusing on only a couple three to five minute sessions a day, on the core elements from basic obedience class homework and basic foundations for agility class homework only. Slowing time down to speed up the training— a principle I learned  from dressage training during many years of ongoing clinic lessons with Jeff Moore, and a principle that I am still learning to apply with my dogs’ education as well.  

A dog, a person, a horse, can best learn only one specific skill at a time, so narrowing the behavior down to the lowest common denominator and consistently reinforcing that behavior will prevent frustration for the learner, and instill stronger skills in the long run. Eventually behavior will be stacked, but I need to avoid stacking behaviors when teaching.  I’m giving myself permission to choose A behavior, work on that for a few minutes a couple times a day, and otherwise give Jackie and myself time.

Pearls:

• True clarity and consistency occurs by focusing on one small  individual behavior at a time
• Studying theory is great, but leave it in your head while following best practices
• Jeff Moore often talked about how to “slow time down” to speed training
• Reinforce one simple behavior at a time; avoid stacking behaviors when training a new skill
• Give yourself permission to go slowly; work few times a day for few minutes only 
  
  
  
  Jackie being beautiful 
  
  

Border Collie Save Event

Today we got to meet some of the folks responsible for rescuing Jackie, at a fun event in Keller, Texas at Shannon Brewing Company at the Border Collie Save Brouhaha adoption event.  Jackie introduced us to her first foster mom and dad, who are the co-founders of Border Collie Save and Rescue. We were able to purchase some cool merch in support of the rescue, participate in a fund-raising raffle, and hear live local musicians as well as see a disc dog demonstration.  

We got to meet Kai, a little BC girl who was high on my list of potential candidates to adopt while we were still in the searching phase before we found Jackie.  Kai is as awesome as I imagined she would be, and while she may not make an international agility dog, she has the personality (and small size!) to make an awesome pet, and I’m sure she would excel at obedience, agility, and trick training, or anything else her person puts their mind to teaching.  At under 30 pounds she is the perfect size, and is the quintessential black-and-white easy-care coat that I love.

It was fun meeting other adopters and volunteers, and a bunch of great dogs. I am so grateful to the cadre of rescue volunteers out there, and especially to those at Border Collie Save and Rescue!

Kai:

As a Border Collie Save alumni, Jackie was given this sweet bandanna collar to show that rescued truly is the best! 

Pearls:

• Grateful thanks to Border Collie Save and Rescue for their excellent work saving lives
• It was very fulfilling to get to say a heartfelt  thank you in person to the people responsible for helping our sweet Jackie
• Kai, and many other great Border collies are safe and well-loved, and ready to start their next chapter thanks to Border Collie Save and Rescue

Time

Time is a fixed concept; we each have 24 hours in a day.  In my zeal to educate Jackie, it has been brought to my attention that I have to give her time.  Time for her to decompress, time for her true personality to emerge.  Time for her to learn how to dog.

In my defense I have been very patient, but patience can only go so far in a moment.  True patience has an element of passage of time, and there is (unfortunately) nothing we can do to slow time down, nor speed time up when we want it to suit our needs.  So in the passage of time, I have been encouraged to allow Jackie to do more sniff-walks, play with toys when and how she chooses, and smile and laugh with her often; and to limit our focused training to just a couple very short sessions throughout the day.

In Prissy’s final few weeks of life, we had some really awesome moments of closeness and affection. Because Prissy at that time wasn’t able to go for hikes or long walks, or run and play at the farm any longer, all that remained was time on the floor, on the sofa or bed, together, petting her and talking to her, just being with her.  To me that is the essence of a good relationship, that you can be together, happy and loving one another, even during “boring” moments of quiet time.

In the experimenting to discover what will be Jackie’s 100 dollar bill, it has become clear that one of Jackie’s favorite things is to be loved on and petted.  Jackie is very cuddly, and loves to lay next to her person. I’ll never know, but it seems Jackie may not have had much interaction with people in her life before she was brought into rescue, as she does seem to crave it now.  While she’s definitely not a velcro dog, Jackie certainly loves people and loves to be petted and groomed.  Similarly, she seems to relish being in a house, on a soft bed or sofa. She will very occasionally grab a toy and start to play with it by herself. In other words, she is  still “learning to dog.”

So this all takes time, and I am trying to keep my own agenda with her training in perspective.  Certainly with dressage the fastest way forward is often to slow down.  It has been said that it takes about three months for an adopted dog’s true personality to emerge; we have had Jackie now for six weeks; so….give it time. Above all I love her, and that is the most important item on the plan.

Pearls:

• Patience is good, and includes an element of the passage of time
• Lots of walks, sniffing, play and time to decompress is important for a newly adopted dog
• It’s been said it takes at least three months, or more, for their true personality to begin to emerge
• Even though I know I love Jackie very much, Jackie needs time to learn to be loved and feel love

Jackie learning how to dog

Theory Review for Agility Foundations

In reviewing dog agility theory, it has been iterated to me that a sport dog should maintain a lean physique, in order to avoid stress on organs and joints, and in order to avoid injury, as well as an ability to stay at peak output potential.  One wouldn’t expect, for example, to see a heavy marathon runner, so we should not expect our dogs to run well with extra weight either.  

It occurs to me this principle is best applied to myself as the handler as well, so while Jackie seems to have a body type (much like my previous Border collie Prissy did) that tends toward the lean-to-almost-skinny side, my own fitness level is best to be looked to as well, which I am actively working on by increasing exercise and being aware of diet choices. 

An exception to the lean rule is with a puppy; they don’t need to be rolly polly, but puppies should have a bit of extra weight because they are growing. In general, one should be able to feel an adult dog’s ribs, to feel their hip bones, and feel where their shoulder blades come together behind their withers.

Continuing the dog agility theory, the toe nails of agility dogs (really all dogs) should be kept short in order to maintain biomechanically correct movement as the dog runs, jumps, and moves over an agility course.  It is important to make a game of trimming their nails, with one snip and then a big fuss and a piece of cheese, another snip and another piece of cheese, and so forth. To get my dogs’ nail quick (the innervated vascularized core of the nail bed) to recede, I trim the nails very small amounts, frequently. 

Since Jackie is new, the first time I simply touched her paw while petting her and praised her generously then went on petting her.  The next time I saw if I could handle her paw during a petting session, which she consented to let me, and I praised her generously.  While grooming Jackie the first time, I held her paw then gave her a cookie. Then held her nail in my hand in the trim position (without the clippers), and gave her another cookie, and with her consenting I repeated that with all four paws and 18 nails, reinforcing for calm behavior.

The next grooming session, I brought out my guillotine clippers and held then to her paw (but didn’t clip) and gave her a cookie— repeat repeat repeat with reinforcement.  Then I progressed to trimming one nail, just barely into the nail, and reinforced her for lying still.  She was so chill about it all that I proceeded to trim all 18 nails, only just a little and with reinforcement for lying still. We had previously worked on reinforcing settling quietly so Jackie was already familiar. As a result, Jackie is now very willing about letting me trim her nails. (This is the same method I use with horses to teach them to stand quietly while I clip their ears, bridle path, and fetlocks, and pull their manes).

The other foundation that will help an agility dog is to allow her to walk over a myriad of different substrates, surfaces, textures, and elevations.  One can create this at home by laying items on the floor and walking the dog across and through them, and we can find many different surfaces while out hiking and walking in nature.  Not only is it fun, this also allows the dog to become aware of it’s own body while moving, a skill necessary to advance in agility. 

To teach the beginnings of making their contacts, the dog must learn a stand-stay.  The early phase of this for Jackie is, while standing she touches my hand with her nose when I hold it in front of her with my palm facing her, then I turn my palm up, drop a piece of food onto my upturned palm with my other hand, and let her eat the cookie.  Then I swivel my hand back facing Jackie while she’s still standing, when she touches my hand target with her nose I swivel my palm upward, drop another treat in my palm with my other hand, and let her eat it.  Then repeat, repeat repeat to build value for standing still. 

Pearls:

• Maintaining a lean weight is important for agility
• Nails should be kept trim, and over time with frequent trimmings the quick recedes
• R+ can teach an animal to consent to almost anything (in college a saw chimpanzees that would voluntarily stick their arm through their cage for blood draws using R+ operant conditioning; I can closely shave even the inside of a horse’s ear while he stands sleepily after teaching this method)
• Jackie is working on body awareness that will help her to navigate various surfaces and elevations, and stand-stay that will become correct contact behavior later

Jackie looking trim while being trimmed on the stainless grooming station

Dressage Lesson

Recently I’ve been riding Piper, a talented and patient off-the-track-Thoroughbred mare, in lessons with Lindsay Cooper at Kismet Sporthorses.  Today Piper and I did counter-canter loops for the first time which was great big fun.  In order to control my pelvis, it first starts with my shoulders.  By keeping my shoulders down and back, my elbows at my sides (think T. rex arms), and my torso tall, I can then influence my pelvis by moving with the horse.  Today we worked on my position, and bringing my inside shoulder back as I rise in rising trot, and by bringing my inside shoulder back as the horse’s withers come up (toward me) in canter.

In the counter canter loop, my inside shoulder came back-back-back-back in rhythm with the true lead canter, and in the counter canter phase my inside shoulder came forward-forward-forward while we were “bending” along the arc of the counter loop. This allowed my pelvis to follow Piper, and not to block her, so Piper was able to maintain her canter in balance.

With Piper, we want her to gain strength and build muscle, and while she is working on that we want her frame to be allowed to be a bit longer or “stretchier.”  But we ride with the idea that she is going toward carrying weight on her hind legs.  So even while she is stretching to the bit, we want to have the idea and the feeling that she is shifting her weight from her front end to her hindquarters.  Even when a horse is in very collected canter, for example in a canter pirouette, we want to know that in the contact we could stretch the horse toward the bit.  So we ride the greener horses this way, but with the idea that they begin to shift weight to the hindquarters.

Class Is In Session

Jackie had her first agility lesson today! We’ve enrolled in foundations for agility, and today we took our first steps. We worked on settling in a slightly more distracting environment, on the beginnings of body awareness over novel substrates, and body awareness while moving on a wobble board.  We also began stand-stay and continued learning being reinforced for nose-touching a hand target.

Jackie handled the training environment like a champ, and she did great around her classmates, among whom were a Portuguese Water Dog and a beautiful white poodle.  She handled the slightly longer car ride to the training facility very well, and settled nicely in her travel crate.

When we got to Cowtown Dog Sports, we were greeted by a friendly deer. I was glad to observe Jackie’s reaction, which was only very mild, if any, interest in looking at the deer. Today must have been our day for wildlife sighting because on our morning walk we saw a snake along the Trinity river!

Continuing with our red letter day, Gunner had a great report today at his cardiology check-up.  His blood pressure, pulmonary pressure, blood levels, lung function, echocardiogram, electrocardiograph, and radiographs were all stable compared with his last cardiology visit, which is great news.

Do you see a snake here?  Neither did I

Not the biggest snake I’ve ever seen, but certainly not the smallest

Jackie, ready to run:

Jackie being a good girl on the way to her very first agility lesson:

In case you were wondering, deer scat is apparently fascinating and fragrant; Jackie enjoyed sniffing it in the grass. We were greeted at Cowtown Dog Sports by this gentle and curious deer:

Gunner got a good report at the cardiologist today, making it a red letter day! Gunner on his way to see Dr. Rebecca Fields Bennie, his veterinary cardiologist, also his first time in the new travel crate:

Pearls:

• Jackie took her initial steps toward her agility career at our first ever class in Foundations for Agility
• Wildlife sightings seemed to be a theme today
• Traveling with a secured crate is a good idea
• Gunner’s heart condition is stable, and I’m grateful

Inspiration

Today I attended as a spectator an all breed agility trial sanctioned by the Australian Shepherd Club of America (ASCA).  So many great dogs, and interesting to see the differences between ASCA agility and that of the American Kennel CLub (AKC) and North American Dog Agility Council (NADAC).  It was inspiring to see some excellent dog and handler teams.

Jackie’s training is continuing too; we’re currently working on proofing her sit stay, down stay, and recall by taking it outside to add a layer of distractions.  At every opportunity that presents itself, I reinforce Jackie for coming to me at a high rate of reinforcement.  I’ve only just started putting the “sit” cue on a variable reinforcement rate, but for now, especially while Jackie is still learning everything new, I’m keeping cues to a high rate of reward, and of course new skills in process of being learned are reinforced at 100% rate, with occasional jackpots for novel behavior, extra challenge, or extra effort or speed offered.  Eventually we will go to intermittent reinforcement, but for now the cues she knows are still being rewarded at a high rate to keep Jackie’s motivation high, and new learning is reinforced at 100% for the same reason and to ensure clarity.

Gunner is working on handstand.  He already knows the cue “feet” to put his hind feet up on a platform or step since this is how you teach contacts for agility.  We have progressed to walking backwards up stairs and putting his back feet up on a pillow stack and then onto the sofa.  The plan is for this to progress to backing up a platform, and then to straight up a wall until it is a full handstand along a wall with no platform or pillows.  Aside from being a hilarious parlor trick, this is building front end strength and hind end dexterity as well.

Gunner demonstrates what will become handstand

Between the two of them, I feel like there could be a circus act

Pearls:

• Inspiration was abundant today at the ASCA all breed agility trial
• Jackie is beginning to proof sit stay, down stay, and recall with minor distractions
• Gunner continues to add to his already impressive tricks repertoire 

Jackie’s Crate Arrived

We love these Omlet Fido Studio crates, and Jackie’s one arrived today. Three of them line up nicely to act as a low cradenza in the bedroom, and the dogs seem to really like them as well.

Speaking of beds, I’m working with Gunner to get him used to sleeping with his head propped on a pillow.  While I sincerely hope that Gunner is one of the many dogs with heart disease that do not go on to develop heart failure, dogs that do, often try to sleep in a sitting position on their chest in a sphinx posture if they are having trouble breathing, and can often be restless sleepers.  So I’ve begun experimenting with roll shaped and triangle shaped pillows to get Gunner used to propping himself up comfortably.  

If it comes to heart failure, and of course I hope it doesn’t, however I’d rather Gunner be familiar with and comfortable sleeping propped on a pillow long in advance.  Prissy used to like to prop her head up against the side of her crate or on the armrest in the truck or sofa, and I have observed Gunner and other dogs do this as well.

I like how the three crates together form a low credenza

I’m experimenting with these shaped pillows to get Gunner comfortable with propping up his head to sleep on his chest in the sphinx posture if he wants to do so now or in the future:

So far the best has been this little triangle shaped fox; Gunner uses it to prop up against the side of his crate:

Pearls:

• Omlet Fido Studio crates work well in our space and the dogs like them
• Hoping for the best but planning ahead to get Gunner comfortable sleeping with his head up on a shaped pillow should he want to do so
• Heart disease can kindly consume a phallus