At the School Park

SUMMARY: Just a note.

Took the Merle Girls and Chip to the school park today--first time in a long time. Drove because Tika can't manage the walk over any more. (And not sure whether I could, either.)

Let them all out of the car uncontrolled--Tika actually picked up to an excited trot to get to the gate, then did all her favorite sniffings around. Chip toted a 20' lead because we haven't worked enough on recalls in distracting environments, but I got a lot of good responses (unlike last time) and distributed a lot of treats.

Our Park friends Jake and Sheba (and their Human Parents) showed up--Chip tried to get Sheba the Pug to play, and she wanted to, apparently the first time in a long time since she has a sore back and isn't much into other dogs. Then Chip rolled over on his back to get a big tummy rub from the Human Parents.

Boost, meanwhile: All frisbee all the time.

Followed by a beautiful sunset. And through all of this, of course, I'm wishing that I hadn't left my camera in the car.

Altogether, a good outing.

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!

Chip Day 19 - Vet, Dogpark, and Other Random Stuff

SUMMARY: A few little notes.

Chip met our vet today. He cheerfully greeted the receptionist and got a treat. He slightly cautiously greeted the vet but accepted pets and a treat. He was completely calm through the entire exam, except that he didn't like being turned around on the metal table, but got over it.

Vet said that I should have him do a mind meld with Tika to try to get her to absorb some of his calmness.  My fear is that it would be the other way around and Chip would turn into a frantic screamer, too.

Chip checks out excellent. Joints seem solid, weight is good (33 lbs as Previous Owner said), heart rate is that of a runner (nice and low and even), rear is well-muscled.  A little tartar on his molars just on the right side--does he chew only on one side, maybe?  Eyes are a little red-- Boost's were awful a couple of weeks ago, very red and discharging, one of her allergy things that crops up, and she got a week's dose of eye ointment. Vet says Chip's aren't bad, just typical "hay fever eyes" and to keep an eye on them.

Other notes:

• He doesn't know how to follow a pointing finger (as in, there's food THERE on the floor for you, or get THAT toy). He'll learn, I assume; most dogs do.
• Happened to be near a dog park, so took him there because I saw (when I first met him) how he liked playing with other dogs at a dogpark. Thought I'd use it as a teaching/learning experience (for both of us). The yummy treats I took, however, he spit out the first several rewards I tried to give, so that didn't help. Mostly my goals were to (a) see whether he'd pay attention when I said his name (he didn't), (b) see whether he'd come in my direction when I tried various attractive activities (he didn't), (c) see whether he'd miss me and Boost when we hid behind the fence on the far side of the field for several minutes (he didn't), (d) get him used to the idea that I can grab his collar, reward/pet/praise and release, and that would make him more amenable to me coming up to him to grab his collar (he didn't, not really... I followed him around the park until he'd stop to smell something long enough for me to get close to lean and put my hand on his collar, probably a couple dozen times, but every succeeding time he'd trot ahead of me just out of my reach until he felt like stopping).  And he spent most of his time sniffing EVERYthing, very little time paying any attention to other dogs.
• The wall of the building that forms part of the dogpark boundary has realistic pictures of dogs painted on it. He spent about 3 minutes barking ferociously at them, ignoring/moving away from me, before he somehow decided that they were not actually dogs.
• I'm very happy at how well he's sitting and waiting for his dinner, and waiting to be released out of his crate.
• I seem to be sleeping with 3 dogs on the bed now. How DOES that happen? As long as (1) they don't try to take my space and (2) Chip doesn't make Tika feel pushed out, that's fine. Everyone seems to be getting along.
• Tunnels--he has run through U-curved tunnels after Boost several times in the yard now. I set up a wobble board and a low table yesterday but ran out of time to try them out on him. 
• I should take some quick vids of him doing various things.  Yeah, right, like I'm going to. But I should.

Things I still need from Previous Owner:

• Info on his microchip registration.
• Info on his license expiration.
• Info on previous vet and innoculation history.
• Whether he's ever had heartworm medication.
• Confirmation on his birthdate--have it but the comment was "pretty sure". Not that it really matters exactly, since Tika's, Remington's, Sheba's, and Jake's bdays were all best guesses. But I'd just like to know for health reasons and for personal knowledge if the info is available.
• When and whether they're going to get together with Chip for a goodbye afternoon/day/weekend/week. I think Chip would love to see them from time to time over time, if they're willing. Waiting to hear.

Chip Training 1

SUMMARY: Sit/stay, come, fetch, release, name.

I was SO tired and sore yesterday after the weekend--what has become of me?--that I wasn't up to training. So we took the day off, rested, and played a bit in the yard.

Today I worked a bit with Chip on a very few things for a total of maybe 15 minutes scattered through the day:

• Release word: I'm using Break, which is what I use for Boost, which is confusing her--when I release him, she also releases. I apparently didn't make the connection for her early on that I need to be addressing her directly for it to apply to her.
• Recall (Come): Using suggestions in Mandy Book's book Quick Clicks to get him wanting to come to me as I have treats. Started with him a foot or so away, show the treat, then wait for him to come get it; click & treat. Repeat a few times. Then stand back another foot or so, repeat a few times. Then put a treat on the floor in front of him, step away about 3 or 4 feet, and click/treat as soon as he turns his head to see where I am, click. Treat when he comes to me. He seemed to like that, although he would periodically get stuck staring and me, wondering what I wanted (so I was moving too quickly along the progression). No command yet.
• Sit/stay: Goal is that "Sit" means "sit until I give you the release word." Using a "forced sit"--hold collar and press on that part of his hips so that he has to sit (without pushing hard in the wrong place, which could hurt or make him resist), along with the Sit command. Step slightly away, praise & treat, step back next to him, praise and treat, release. He actually let me walk all the way around him without him getting up (in the kitchen), progressing quickly within just a very few minutes.
• Fetch: He seems to be bringing the toy voluntarily more and more often, as he realizes that (a) there's no keep-away going to happen and (b) if he brings it, I play with him, which has to be more fun than playing by himself or just standing there waiting for something to happen. I think I might up the ante by click/treat as he makes any move towards me and see whether I can speed this up.
• Respond to name: At random times on today's walk and while in low-stimulation situations here at home, I say his name and reward when he looks at me. He's doing that pretty well, but that's with no distractions whatsoever.

He does like to play tug and is getting more enthused and sure of himself all the time. I'm starting to add a little body/head/face patting as we play--I want him to keep playing and being intense even if there are distractions on his body. This would be helpful for things like weave poles--if he doesn't care that he's up against them with his face, that would be very good. 

Trying to give the other dogs equal time for treats and praise, but am mostly just repeating old tricks rather than trying to increase their repertoire--I'm just not having the energy at the moment to think through things for 3 dogs at a time! But they seem happy.

Follow-Ups

SUMMARY: Plastic wrap:Yum! and amazing ADCH and PF vs Ch.

Plastic wrap

One thing you need to know about Tika: When I toss the toy for the dogs, Tika likes to scoop it up and keep on going in a straight line until something possibly interesting or possibly inconvenient (e.g., a fence) appears before her. Then she drops the toy. Then Boost brings it back. If the object was interesting, Tika might not follow Boost back immediately, but does so usually before I can throw the toy again.

The other thing you need to know about Tika is that she is a chow hound beyond belief. Off leash, she seems happiest when sniffing around in the grass, or around other people's canopies, for lost molecules of food. She has veered off in the middle of agility runs to go out to the edge of the ring to scoop up a morsel that no human could have detected.

So, Sunday morning, there's this huge beautiful lawn where we can warm up our dogs. I toss the frisbee, Tika scoops it up and runs till she gets to a row of canopies (no one there yet, it's early), drops the frisbee, and starts sniffing.

I call her name once (I try not to say "Come" unless I know I can enforce it) and don't worry too much about it when she doesn't respond. Sniff sniff sniff, while Boost brings me the frisbee.

Then suddenly, Tika dives under the lowered canopy, grabs something large, and starts chomping. I yell various useless things, tell Boost to "down", and run as fast as I can in Tika's direction. It's a big field. As I get closer, I can see that she has one of the huge sandwiches that Quail Lodge provided us for lunch--huge!--and still mostly wrapped in plastic wrap! Crap!

I yell other things, like NO! and DROP IT! (neither of which Tika understands, I can guarantee that) and COME! (which she knows what it's supposed to mean but doesn't care enough), but she understands my rapid approach and tone of voice, so flees just far enough away from me so that she can stop and swallow the whoooole thing, and I see the dangling plastic wrap disappear inside my dog.

That's a lot of plastic wrap.

An agility competitor who's also a vet makes a casual comment about Tika not needing dinner today. I confirm with her that I can probably not worry about the plastic, since Tika's a large dog and her system can probably deal with it, but just to be aware if she's not producing poop, starts vomiting, or stops eating. So I don't worry about it. Tika shows no ill signs all day.

Monday, no sign of plastic wrap, and everything else seems to be working normally.

This morning, when I went out for our morning play session, there was the plastic wrap. Whew!

So I probably should have signed up for Susan Garrett's brand new online course, "The Five Minute Formula for a Perfect Recall". I've listened to her video about the course, and it sounds great, but that wasn't in my budget and I have various susan garrett (and other) games related to recalls already that I only pay attention to once in a while (and when I do, the recall improves). So maybe later. And hope that meanwhile Tika doesn't kill herself in some way where a reliable recall would really have helped. Plus I'm sure registration is closed by now. But it's the budget that's the biggest issue at the moment.

Amazing ADCH

Friend Cheri and her Border Collie Jeepers earned their ADCH this weekend. I can still remember so clearly when they had their first trial coming up, and Cheri was so worried that she'd embarrass herself with her new dog and all her training mistakes.

...No wonder I can remember it clearly, because that was JUST 10 MONTHS AGO! They've been in Masters for exactly 3 months.

Even Tika's performance ADCH, which she got very quickly as an experienced and speedy dog, took 6 months after her last class moved from Championship to Performance. There were probably fewer days of trials in those 6 months than there have been in the last 3, but still--C&J are a Qing machine!

Congratulations to an awesome team!

Championship vs Performance for Tika's scores

Sometimes I feel odd about Tika being in Performance when she was still doing reasonably well in Championship. But then I remind myself that I did it because of her recurring soreness and arthritis, and anyway, now she *is* 9 and a half. Dog participation in our USDAA trials drops off noticeably at 7 years and again pretty sharply at about 10 years. So she's getting up there.

It is so much fun for me to be winning classes and top ten points; we'd have never been in the Top Ten in the Championship program and we almost never won classes there.

And then I get put in my place by a dog like the super-accelerated Daz who whupped our butts in several classes this last weekend. I don't know how old Daz is or why he's in performance, but we've got our work cut out for us if we see much of him/her.

Anyway, I thought I'd compare Tika's wins from this weekend with the Championship 26" dogs to see how she'd have placed (assuming she'd have had the same speed at 26" rather than 22" AND kept her bars up, either of which I dunno).

• Saturday jumpers: Won P3 22". In champion 26", would've been 3rd of 20 or so.
• Saturday Snooker: Won P3 22" and SuperQ. In Ch 26", would've been 4th of 20ish, but there were only 3 SuperQs (we did that a lot, one out of SuperQ position).
• Saturday Gamblers: Won P3 22". In Ch 26", would've been 2nd place.
• Sunday Standard: Won P3 22". In Ch 26", would've been merely 5th.
• Sunday Jumpers: Won P3 22" (with a faceplant and really wide turns). In Ch 26", would've been a lowly 10th of 20 dogs.
• Saturday Steeplechase Round 1: Placed 3rd (behind Daz and Chaps). In Ch 26"--here's one of the weird disconnects--she'd have placed 2nd!  Round 2: Placed 3rd (same dogs). In Ch 26"--she'd have placed 2nd also!

So, anyway, we're still doing well in comparison. Mojo score!