First 24 hours of Luke

SUMMARY: Yikes.

Added more at the end June 9, 9:45 a.m.
Just trying to capture some notes--an inventory of where he is--while there's a brief peaceful interlude. In general, I'd say that he has the training that one might expect of maybe a 4-month old puppy, but he's maybe 12 months old (waiting for confirmation on age).

...  hmmm, I wonder why it's so peaceful and where he is and what he's doing? ... Oh, he just came downstairs from my bedroom and isn't carrying anything, so I guess that's good.

• He's mostly good enough in the house that I'm letting him wander around on his own.
• Big problem with that is getting up on kitchen chairs to find things on the table, paws on counters, etc.  I've been trying to keep things clean because of Chip anyway, but things feel so chaotic all of a sudden that I'll set something on the table and go quickly into the other room and forget.
• He was supposed to know how to use a doggie door, but seemed completely unclear on the concept for the first couple or three hours yesterday. But if I lifted one corner about half an inch, he'd come through.  So I finally figured out that he was distracted by it being in a sliding glass door that he could see through (vs a solid door or wall). So i covered the glass alongside the door and voila, he started getting it. Then I uncovered the glass again and we're fine.
• The only trouble with that is that, if Luke isn't under my close supervision or in his crate, he's happy to run out when Chip starts barking at the dog next door and join in. Just NOT what I need, 2 of them.  Which means I also need to do something about Chip, sigh.
• He grabs grabs grabs grabs my hands and wrists and even arms and toes and sometimes at my face. As in, with his teeth. Not hard, but OMG what a challenge that is proving to be.  Working out how to approach this. Interestingly, it seems to be better if I reach under to rub his chest sometimes, but mostly not. Have been told that it's because he wants to be close to you and/or affectionate and/or play. But, jeez, needs work.
• And completely unconcerned about jumping right up into or at my face.  Or, since I'm lying on the couch and using the computer, just right on top of me. Ouch and ouch and ouch, getting bumped and thumped and whapped.
• He's learning very quickly to sit before being released from the crate or to get his meal. Dogs find these things to be highly motivating for learning, yes indeedy.
• He has had his meals in a Leo Genius toy and the other big red egg-shaped thing. Figuring them out very quickly. However, he left some of his meal behind in the Leo for dinner this evening.
• Worked a little on not grabbing at food in my hands. Has had some background in that previously but needs a big refresher.
• Worked a little on nose touches to my hand. Getting a lot of tongue and mouth, too, but I think starting to focus in on the nose touch with little effort, so he might have had some background on that.
• After a little griping, he does seem to settle down OK in a crate.
• He does not like going into the crate, probably because he gets shut into them often. I need to spend time on some crate games, and ASAP, because I don't want to be fighting with this, and I still need to be able to crate him for some peace or when I'm out of the house.  I tried just a little last night, and it was a battle just to try to get him positioned in front of the crate!
• He's housebroken, definitely. At least that's OK!  There was one accident while he was still figuring out the doggie door, so that's why I made sure that he could use the door correctly (although I swear he'd been out less than half an hour before).
• He generally seems to understand what are dog toys.  Except that the pile of toys he'd accrued this afternoon included one of the shoes that I'd kicked off before hitting my couch office.  And the cell phone that fell out of my pocket while trying to do something with him on the floor. And my computer mouse when I raised my arm (leaving it on the couch) to fend him off.  
• He throws water all over the floor from the water dish! I think because he just leaves in such a hurry (he's a busy guy).  But his rescue person did point out that he's a water dog, with his feet in the ranch water bucket. And sure enough, once this morning I found him with both front feet in the water dish in the kitchen.
• No good name recognition (he came to rescue as Luther and she changed it to Luke--which I completely agree with, but that means that he hasn't had much time to understand it).  I get virtually no response when I say his name unless he's right in front of me and there are no other distractions.
• Doesn't really bring toys back when thrown. Maybe. Eventually. 
• Does love to play by himself, which is nice, too.
• Is clicker trained, so responds well to it. I'm using "Yes!" along with it to get him used to that alternative sound.

He and Chip are figuring out how to play with each other.  I think. Yesterday Chip wanted to hump him and climb on him and lie on him and I kept removing Chip, and sometimes Luke would come back at him to play, but more often not.  Today Chip's not being quite as pushy and they did run around together a bit and play a bit.

Chip is also being a bit grumpy at times even when Luke isn't doing anything.

But Chip seems exhausted for the 2nd day in a row (well, 3rd, with visit at our overnight spot's dog house), and So. Am. I.

Haven't had time to do more than glance at the photos that I took on our trip and afterwards. Ack ack ack.

Milestone! Chip Came!

SUMMARY: Chip makes the decision to stop in midcharge and come back.

Chip runs to go fence barking/fighting.

With my back as it has been--almost since Chip came home--for days or weeks on end I've not even felt the urge to do any kind of training or even playing with and rewarding existing training.

I worked occasionally on "Chip, Come!" just after he'd already made the decision to come to me, intending to gradually move that back to just about the time that he was making the decision, and then to before he'd made the decision.

Previous Owner had to walk him down and corner him at the dog park because he wouldn't come. I experienced that myself when we did a dog park to experiment. My motivation should be strong because I want to allow all the dogs off leash in appropriate places and be able to know that I can call them back. Annoying having to keep Chip on a leash or long lead all the time.  Yet, with pain and medications and all that, I wasn't taking dogs anywhere anyway, so motivation lower.

But, I've been thinking more about doing stuff. On Instructor Nancy's recent suggestion, I went just for "Chip". I liked the idea anyway, because he arrived here with a weak name response (e.g., might or might not look at me when I said his name, and with not much interest; if nothing else interesting was in process, a response was more likely). And I finally had the energy to just say Chip "a million times a day" and give him a treat every time.

I had already started that as soon as he came home, at agility trials on leash in particular or while out for walks on leash. His name response improved, but again, only at close range and not reliably and not very fast.

Is the neighboring Noise Dog there?

If ya can't see 'em, smell for 'em.

Anyway--started doing it much more often three or four weeks ago, out in the yard many times (although not every time). Just taking a bag of treats and randomly calling his name and giving one for coming.   His name response in times of no more than mild arousal had become instant--that head just whips around towards me.

Did I already talk about using the Premack Principle on his fence fighting with the Noise Dog next door?  I continued doing that as well, moving farther and farther away.  Again, I wasn't consistent about doing this regularly, but when I did more of it, he more often tended to do some barking and then immediately come back to see whether he'd get a treat.

Anyway, all of this combined to where, today, the Noise Dog hit the fence and made a ruckus, and Chip bolted straight in his direction.  When Chip was nearly there, I yelled "Chip!" from almost the other side of the yard (not near him) and he slammed to a halt, turned, and trotted back to me with no hesitation.  Huzzah! That's the first time that he's taken the initiative to come back in full flight! Yowza yowza! Every other time when I tested this, he might have slowed slightly and turned his ears back towards me, but then continued on his mission.

He got a ton of treats AND the frozen chicken foot for that!  (I knew that we were close, so I'd had it in my treat pouch the last couple of times along with the other treats.)

Everyone came away happy and quiet.

Well--quiet in part because he won't do the actual barking/fence fighting if I'm standing there trying to take a photo for evidence to be used against him. He's a suspicious kind of guy.

As I washed my hands afterwards, I thought--I have to keep up on this, repeating all the time for the rest of his life, which is what I needed to do with Tika. Because if I stopped practicing, a lot, frequently, her recall deteriorated and she'd no longer, for instance, call off of chasing a squirrel.  THAT might be one advantage to starting with a puppy: If their minds grasp the recall thing very early and before they get used to doing what they want to do, maybe it wouldn't require constant intense renewal.

Boost has a pretty reliable recall. Maybe because I taught her has a puppy. Maybe because she's a Border Collie.

Well, they can't all be Border Collies, and that's just as well. Chip is really really fast, and if I can harness that into agility, he could be a Contendah--if I can ever confidently run again.

I'm rambling again. Good night!

Today's Exciting Newses

Or perhaps not that exciting.

• Jake came outside while the puppy was offleash and stayed outside, puttering around the yard. Also, at breakfast, when I set his food bowl down and released him, Boost swooped in and shoved her face into his bowl. He looked very startled but didn't tear her head off. What a good boy!
• Puppy played with Tika this morning rather than acting worried; ran a mad game of catch-me back and forth around the yard, mostly *behind* the shrubbery along the long fence, with Tika racing back and forth outside, then perhaps through a tunnel or two (with Tika racing to the other end to catch her there), and so on until they were both panting quite thoroughly. Tika is being *so* good about this puppy.
• Puppy peed in her crate for the first time and it's my fault. I feel so bad about that. Boost was napping soundly and I thought I could sneak outside and have a nice game of fetch with the older dogs. She started sounding off with very loud yaps, barks, and squeals, and I figured she could just learn to deal with being in a crate while I did stuff with the other dogs. When I came back in eventually to let her out--what a mess! Poor puppy.
• Stopped by a friend's house to borrow a slightly larger plastic crate. Now she can fully sit up in the crate and lie down stretched out. Whew! Friend, who is a dog trainer and dog rescuer and does a work with the humane society, too, I believe, so knows quite a bit, says to expect the puppy to double in size between 3 months and 4 months. Holy cow--
• Boost's name recognition is already excellent, as long as she's not watching Tika race around the yard, in which case I'm irrelevant.
• Puppy is learning that the sitting position gets you lots of good things--and I never showed it to her, just waited for her to do it in a few situations and rewarded. I hope this keeps expanding.
• I'm tired.

Tunnels and Names and Dogs

Breeder confirmed that the puppies had an old tunnel to play in, on, and around for quite a while, so she was very familiar with tunnels. You should see her in the morning when she's loosening her bowels--she blasts into one U-shaped tunnel and blasts out and across the lawn without stopping and into another tunnel--

This is going to be one fast agility dog if I can get her to do the tunnels at the same speed and level of comfort with *me* making the decisions rather than her. The biggest flaw at the moment is that she often blasts to a halt inside the end of the tunnel to look around before taking off again. So when she goes in, I've been taking off running and calling her name, working to get her to follow me. I think it's working.

And she's having pretty good name recognition, too. I must've said it to her only fifty thousand times in the last few days, and I'll keep doing it, too.

Jake actually came outside briefly this afternoon while I had the puppy in the yard. That's progress for him.