Training transitions

 

The flowers are now blooming, only slightly shredded by Ember's puppy curiosity.  We have a cue:  "sniff but no nibble" that I use on her leash walks.  I now have a reason to use it inside the fenced back yard, too.

I started playing the first game with Ember on Sunday morning.  It's called The Collar Grab game, and if it sounds simple, it is.  I have seen several versions of it from various trainers.  Susan stresses the importance of the mechanics of treat delivery, in order to create the classic conditioning that associates the action of human grabbing the collar to "good things are going to happen" (I get a cookie!)

That's one of the reasons they want you to video your training sessions.  So, you can see the overall picture, then go back and watch again to focus on what the dog does, then go back a third time to focus on what YOU did.  Pretty standard learning tool these days.  Not what those of us "of a certain age" had back in our grade school days!  Welcome to the present!

One of my biggest transitions is that my home is not set up like those of the professional trainers.  I tried baby gates to "manage the environment" early on and discovered that my "little" lab could push them over when she was less than 4 months old.  I use closed doors.  This does not protect the major pieces of furniture.

I went through a "choose your battles" phase when I abandoned thinking about saving the cat tree and let her destroy it.  I still choose my battles but am trying to work my way to training her to make better choices.  Sometimes more successfully than others.  

Just now she's working at destroying an end table that I got cheap and used.  I try to distract her when she goes back to gnawing on it, but don't always get there in time to avoid further damage.  

She also fairly regularly strips the cushion off the couch (shuffling it out from under the pet protector and slipcover) and starting to dig with the goal of de-stuffing it.

There's only so much trainer energy in me, each day!

The phrase "this is why we can't have nice things" comes to mind.

Sunday afternoon I tried out the "Its Yer Choice" game.  It involves putting a collection of high value treats in your closed hand, letting the dog try to get at them, then going through an exchange of opening the fist to revealing the treats / closing the fist to protect them from the dog.  This is based on what the dog chooses to do.  Eventually, the goal is to get her to choose to leave those treats alone on your hand and wait for you to hand feed her single pieces.  We had a really good first session. We did not move beyond the first level of hand at my knee while sitting on a kitchen chair.  I tried getting lower, sitting on the floor, but had to back off.  The dog controls the pace of progress in this entire training.

Obviously, there's a lot to the mechanics of this game: how to brace your wrist on your knee so you don't turn the treat hand into prey in the dog's mind; how to position the hand so that it is level with or below the dog's head so that she truly is making the choice and can see what she's choosing.  The game escalates at the dog's pace.  When she gets good at the first level, you move the hand lower, until eventually it's on the ground.  Then the treats on the ground and you tent your hand over them, etc.  This game is to teach the dog self-control.  The dog is in control of her actions.  YOU control the resource she's wanting to get at.

I said in yesterday's blog with the video that I used a similar method to teach Ember not to bring the hose into the house.  I used the same methodology to teach Carl to leave sticks outside.  But with food, the mechanics for the human are more subtle.

On Monday morning's walk, we explored the northern section of the park, that Ember had not walked before.  We encountered two other dogs on leash, and we close to get off the path and sit and watch those two and their humans interact when they met.  I played the Collar Grab game with Ember, inserting several such grabs into our regular walking routine.

It was a longer walk than usual, and Ember got a little "couch cushion" assertive afterward, so she got crated for a bit while mom cleaned up after, etc.  Then I let her out while I cooked and ate my breakfast, and she started nodding off, as she usually does about that time of day, so she's back down for puppy nap #1.

The plan for the rest of Monday involves some more "Its Yer Choice" play.  Yesterday I played with chicken livers / chicken hearts as the high value treat.  I plan on doing one round with those today, and another with cubed cheese.  

The rest of the week we have my personal trainer on Tuesday and Thursday, Ember's agility class Tuesday evening, her pre-op vet visit on Wednesday, and her spay on Friday.  A busy week ahead!  I'm not going to try to race through the online training, and I have to come up with a plan for what I do with the "puppy class" versus "puppy agility" versus "online training".  She does still need interaction with real live dogs locally!

Life is good.  Spark on!