Dog training transition in progress

Peep show?  Ember after bodysuit was removed to wash, before the T-shirt has been put on.  I wanted to take my time peeking at her tummy this morning.

Friday's obsession (Thursday's too, for that matter), has been an ant colony in our own front yard.  Ember digs at it and refuses to be distracted from her purpose.  Ants are moving, making such a fascinating collection of prey.  Sigh.

Anyway, our Friday morning walk was delayed by about five minutes (felt like a lot more) by her digging at it.  Eventually enough cars went by to draw her attention, and I tossed a few "search" cookies onto the sidewalk to refocus her.  We then circled the block.

She's now a week post-op.  She's starting to become more demanding.  So, introducing more training activities.  I have begun working on establishing a "reward zone" at my hip seams on either side of me.  This is because I recognize that the "puppy pulls - mommy stops" form of training loose leash walking is indeed a form of punishment training.  Susan's putting "choice" as one of the priorities for the puppy means we have to train the puppy that there's something better than pulling... i.e. walking at her human's hip seam, where the hip becomes her "personal PEZ dispenser" for treats.

A part of me is a skeptic of whether I have the ability / persistence / patience to make it to totally positive reinforcement-based training.  The number of steps in conditioning and counterconditioning behaviors, i.e. "shaping" the dog's decisions, can be overwhelming.  I mean, what order do we work on skills?  Many of the games involve precedents of other skills that Ember has not been trained in.

Oh yes, and I use lures, as taught at Zoom Room, and they said, "you want to move away from using lures"... but I had no clue as to how to do that.  I am trying to be patient and take one step at a time, and not be too much of a perfectionist, while at the same time, trying to take the advice to "practice without your dog" for mechanics, like treat delivery etc.  So many things to learn, just take it one thing at a time, Barb!

Just started working on "reward zone" on Friday morning.  I've been doing "collar grab" and "ItsYerChoice" for over a week.  I started practicing without Ember the mechanics of training for hand targets on Wednesday.  Susan uses the cue "bump" for hand target, but Ember has already learned something similar as "touch", but she learned it via lures, so there's a transition happening there, too.  

Suit out of the laundry.  I geared up, let Ember out of her den, and the little one had wriggled out of the t-shirt I had her in!  But she didn't look any the worse for wear, and I managed (with incentives and cut-resistant sleeves) to get her back into the bodysuit!

We played "ItsYerChoice" with banana bits, then with cheese cubes.  I tried some of my lightly practiced mechanics for hand target training.  After a few of those, we went out for puppy walk #2.

While on the walk, we practiced kind of a half and half drill.  If she pulled, I did stop.  I waited for her to loosen the leash.  She usually does this by sitting.  Then I moved into position so that my side seam was beside her, and our hips parallel, headed in the same direction, touched the treat to my hip, and delivered it to her.  Her nose being right by either hip is the "reward zone".  The eventual goal is to get her to walk beside me, loose leash, by choice.

Our second walk, quite deliberately on my part, took us in the opposite direction of the first one, so that we would not pass by her ant colony digging hole!

Some things I really like about how Susan trains the trainer:  

• "Give yourself grace as you transition" from old methods of training.
• Also giving your dog grace and compassion.  Be curious about what caused an unexpected behavior... like the flies or the ants.
• Take the dog's emotions into account.
• You need to practice the human mechanics from both sides.  I love the ambidextrous nature of her training.  You don't have to always walk on my left, or my right, Ember, you can choose.  But off either hip is the reward zone.
• Same is true of hand targets... you might be asked to bump either my left or my right hand.

I'm feeling pretty positive that we are making progress.  There may be frustrations, but there are triumphs, too.

Oh, and good news!  Carl went to the vet this morning, and while he's on restricted activity for another couple of weeks to prevent re-injury, he was freed of the cone!  Ember has another week in the suit, and the same time on her restrictions.

Life is good.  Spark on!