Back to the db

Fizz hasn't seen or touched her dumbell since March 17th.  I decided tonight to re-present it to her, and see where we were.   We're following Sue Sternberg's Inducive retrieve method. 

As soon as she saw the db, she grabbed it hard.  Big praise, and reward.  We went through 4 reps of that, and then I put it down to the floor.  She immediately grabbed it, and I praised/fed her.  I was sitting on the floor, and only looking for her to grab it.

Since all seemed to be well settled in her head, I decided to move forward to the next step: lifting from the floor to my hand.  I wondered if she'd balk at this sudden increase in criteria and was pleasently surprised at the answer:  nope!    She picked it up and held it long enough that I was able to bend down and get it (from a standing position).   Huge praise and a small jackpot of food.

We worked through quite a few reps, took a balance break of tug inbetween to keep arousal level high, and returned to grabbing from the floor.   There were two failures, in which she dropped the db before I could bend down to take it.   Nothing from me, and she immediately picked it up again and held it til I got it.  GOOD girl!! :)

Final rep was one in which she picked it up (while she was standing), and then held it long enough to put herself into a sit (I have no clue why she sat, and at this point, it matters not).   I was thrilled with the progress that we'd made and ended it there with a huge jackpot.

Plan to work on this some more tomorrow, with the goal of her bringing it up to my hand, without me bending over at all.  We finished our evening with a good game of tug, and she retired to her crate with a bit of pig's ear.

2 May 2012:    Worked a bit more with this today, here's some footage from our work this afternoon.  :)

Monday night's class

Fizz was brilliant tonight at class!   She gets exercised before class, and as soon as she's done, she turns tail and beelines HARD for the building, drags me through the door, past the owner (who wonders why my obedience dog is dragging me about willy nilly) and straight into the ring.   I have enjoyed seeing her enthusiasm for class build and have not done anything about it.

Our new rules are "no leash dragging, ever."   I expected an extended attempt to get into the building.  Took all my stuff in, set James up with the iPad, and went to go get Fizz.  I had made a special baggie of diced chicken breast specifically for the pre-class work.   Fizz and I are blessed with an amazing trainer who takes a genuine interest in her students.   No sooner was I in the building, than she asked if she could come outside and help me.   That really meant a lot to me, and I was slow to answer.   Esther, THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!  :)

As soon as I got Fizz out to potty, she was next to me, and had only one tight leash (at a stop and sniff spot).  I was fully expecting our usual drag, and it never appeared.  Even after she finished, she didn't bolt, but stayed with me.  At that point, Esther was out talking with another student, and Fizz was fully aware of her presence.....but she CHOSE to stay with me! :)  What a puppy!!!!!!!   We made a few passes back and forth past Esther, and there was one particularly noticable "I look at her, but I look right back to you, and don't bobble from it" moment.   Her choice was clear and concise.  click and treat, oh yeah!

After a few passes, we tried a sit and greet.  Got as far as hand shake and a brief few words when Fizz couldn't contain herself.  She broke to see Esther. I immediately stepped back, and re-set up.   I asked her for a sit, but as I was saying "sit," she offered a down.   This was quite interesting to me, b/c of the three basic positions (sit, stand, down), down has *always* been our weakest, and very rarely can I think of times that she's offered it up.   Either sit or down is acceptable to me for greeting, as long as she stays at my side and does not self-invite.   She held her position through another handshake, chatting, and all without any rewards from me.  I finally gave her the ultimate reward:  permission to go say hi.   When it was time to move on, she came right with me, and again, click/treat.

Following that big success, we were able to easily loose-leash it all the way inside.  I didn't have to back up once.   She also offered a down outside of the ring, and I asked her to hold that  a bit before proceeding in.  We worked and played while others came in.  No darting off to greet.  And at the very end of class, I was even able to walk right up to another student, whose Border Terrier was out on leash (vs being in her crate), and Fizz did not make ONE attempt to greet either dog or owner.   YAY!!!!!!

I was truly amazed at the success we had tonight.  I feel that her pattern of behavior at class (dragging me about) is fairly ingrained, and figured I had a long road ahead of me re: fixing it.  We will continue to work around stronger distractions, including a local dog park (don't worry, I would never consider to enter one......but it will be an awesome 'bad dog behavior' distraction from outside the fence!), the bus when Emilie gets off (this is HUGE excitement for Fizz!), and work up to visiting Home Depot on a crazy Saturday morning.  :)

Loose leash and non-greeting training

Since I failed our CGC on Saturday, we've been working on two things:  loose-leash walking and not rushing to greet people.   Fizz's leash pulling has never bothered me before, that's why I didn't fix it previously.  However, it is required for the CGC.   Also, she may not greet anyone until she's held a sit or down, and is given permission to go say hi.   This includes family members upon our return home from any outings.

For most of her training, I have not used a clicker, and am not even judicious about using a verbal marker.  I focus mainly on placement and timing of reward.  I do tend to use a verbal marker, but not consciously so....more because I'm a chatterbox.    For this work, I felt the clicker was a more noticeable mark of "yes, that's correct" and so it now comes with us for all on-leash work.   I hold the clicker and leash in my left hand, food is in my right pocket, and delivered with my right hand.

We started on Saturday afternoon with simply being able to go down the driveway.   That probably took us 10-15min.  I she pulled, I backed up.  Pulling = no forward, or a complete direction change by me.    We were able to work down to the street, and maybe go 20-30 yards from the driveway.   I ended the session when my food was out, and we went back to the house.  Later that afternoon, we went out again.  Her understanding of the new idea was showing nicely and we made it easily down the driveway (about 125ft) and out into the street.  

As soon as I said "let's go for a walk," Fizz would surge ahead.  I backed up, or circled around, and clicked/treated when she was back in place and we were moving forward properly.  Simply coming back to me only was rewarded maybe 4 or 5 times because that was not the final behavior, and I upped the criteria.   On our 6th attempt at "let's go for a walk!", she stuck to me like glue, hard staring at me and demanding her meatball for good behavior.   She got three! :)

Yesterday, we were able to progress not only to the block, but about 1/3rd of the way around it.  There we met up with several strong distractions that used up a lot of direction change and reward for choosing correct position.  A robin running along the side of the street (and she is an AVID robin chaser in our backyard!), a man who came out of a house, using a very LOUD and seemingly somewhat agitated voice to yell back to his buddy inside, and a group of children playing in a yard where they were obscured from vision by scrub and trees.   Fizz loves kids and pulled real hard at this one. 

Today, we took our show on the road.  I wanted to track her, and then head to the store for bones and food.   I had hoped to work with her outside the park while James played on the playground, but no dogs allowed anywhere on the property, so that plan was scrapped.  I explained to the staff at the store about our failure, and how we were working on it, while I paid for my food.  Then, went back to the car and got Fizz and went back in.  

There are 2 doors to go in, and she sat at both automatically, and waited for me to invite her through.   This is not something I've worked on in a long time, so it was rewarded both times.  Her reward was leftover cheeseburger, chopped into bits.  I also had a tug with me, covered in real rabbit fur.   There was initially a good bit of pulling because we entered near the elk antlers and various other kinds of natural chews.   I simply backed up each time the leash tightened.   She was rewarded for coming back to me.   Initially, she was rewarded for simply looking away from high value treats when I called her name.

Fizz has been in this store many times.  She enjoys it, and they enjoy her.  Today, the slick floor bothered her.  And as she stressed about it, she knuckled up her feet, making her footing worse.   At that point, I learned that food has higher value to her than tug.   I am still learning about Fizz, and she is still maturing, so I recognize that preferences are in a state of flux.   I know for Xcel, ALL toys always trumped food.  For young Banja, all food trumped toys, but as she got older, some toys (cuz!) trumped most food except for the very rarest of beef.    She put her mouth on the tug and gave me a half-hearted grip, but it was not a real tugging session, and was not able to release her stress about the floor.

However, she did work well through the stress and settled down.   We worked on a down stay, return, leave again and recall (as was done in Saturday's test).   We worked on sitting and not greeting while several customers came in and walked near by.   And we worked simply on loose leash walking, which she was giving very nicely after the initial "I must see all treats."    Finally, I was able to ask a staff member to help us, by coming to say hi to me, but not to her.  Fizz broke on the first time after we were shaking hands and talking.  I replaced her (she was in a down), and tried again, this time she held it and got a handful of cheeseburger.

We then had loose leash walking all the way back to the car.   I am VERY happy with how she is doing.  Our BIG challenge will be class this afternoon.  She loves class, she loves Esther, and she drags me hard to get in there every Monday.   We may spend the first 20min of class just trying to get inside in n appropriate manner, and if that is the case, so be it.   That is what we need to work on right now, and so we shall. :)