Blog10weeks

STITCH

the weBlog of a Service Dog, competition dog, pet and friend In Training

THE FOURTH WEEK HOME (10 weeks old)

Travelling Meeting new dogs Silent night	The three-hour ride in the car is her plane ride all over again. I put her, with her fake fur rug and a big soft toy, in her small kennel in the back seat of the truck. She whimpers a bit, but by the time we're out of the yard, she's asleep. We stop every hour to take her out, and she pees each time, but certainly isn't clamouring to get out. We arrive at mom & dad's, where she rips and tears around the backyard. There's a big empty ice cream pail which she carries proudly around the yard, and she has a good wrestle with Scuba. Mom's two Mini Schnauzers (her third and brand-new FOURTH UTILITY DOG!) intimidate her a bit, but she quickly overcomes it and runs around with them too. One of them gets a bit too pushy with her, but Scuba hip-checks him away from her. Scuba, apparently, is the only dog allowed to snark at her little sister. Because of the good wrestle, she's ready to sleep, thank goodness. I've got her crate in the truck, and I set up an expen in the trailer where the table usually goes, with a big dog bed from home, a water bucket and a few of her toys. Then it's pretty chilly so I bring her crate into the trailer and put her to bed with the crate on my bed. Two accidents in the trailer this evening.
I'd have to say this was the defining picture of the five days in the trailer. Note the beautiful filigree work all along the length. Note how exquisitely close to the plug it goes. Note that this used to be the plugin for my laptop. Replacement value: $140. Dear little Tat.
Wearing her out so she'll handle an enforced boring weekend Humans have to pay attention in order to housetrain	I'm working all day today, and I can't take the puppy into a doggie day care to do my clinic, so she's going to spend the day in the expen in the trailer. My biggest fear for today is that some passerby will call the humane society about the dog obviously being tortured in the trailer. We have a long wrestle, then she has breakfast and we go for a 15-minute walk. She's excellent on the leash. In fact, when she gets near the end of it ahead of me, she stops and looks back to check where I am, then continues with it loose. I'm thrilled about this! Obviously she doesn't keep it loose ALL the time, as inspirations overtake her puppy brain, but when she feels it tighten, she remembers immediately. Usually she backs right off. Once in a while she takes a more determined run at it, but she's giving me plenty of warning so it's easy to be backing up by the time she tightens it. Finally put her in the expen and go to work. Come out at coffee breaks and lunch, spray myself down with the anti-parvo stuff the vet gave me, and take her out to pee. Hmm. No noise at all. No tortured, abandoned, lonely, heartbroken puppy. Just a queenly little dog sitting sleepily on her big pillow. I'm in Heaven! After supper I go to bed early to read a book and she spends a couple of hours eating my toes and wrestling with my hair. Then she snuggles up under my chin and goes to sleep with me petting her muzzle. Eventually I put her in the crate and we don't wake up until 6 AM. I take her out to pee, bring her back in, and we sleep until 10. Two accidents in the trailer this morning, but this afternoon I'm starting to listen and believe that her fussing isn't just a bored pup but a declaration of an urgency. And she's starting to think I might listen to her, and holding it until I do.
Puppies should go on trips Leashwork She hates her collar	From a clicker-training point of view, I should probably be feeling guilty because we haven't done any work on actual "behaviours" for three days. OTOH, this time together is invaluable. In fact, I actually try to get a puppy alone in a motel room or trailer for a couple of days at this age. It's too easy at home to let her play until she's exhausted and then get her in the crate. Here, with no phones to answer and no chores to do, I want to cuddle her to sleep. And in this situation, it's easier for me to hear what she's saying about her housetraining. The leashwork is going brilliantly. She's completely at ease "going" on lead, and she's really concentrating on keeping it loose (the lead, not the "going"). We have two leash issues - the first is that when she has to go, she has to go, so I whip the collar on her, at the same time trying to throw on a jacket and find my shoes and open the door. She's started bucking about me putting the collar on. And, she doesn't want to come up the stairs into the trailer, so she can put on a pretty good rodeo about that, and I wish she wouldn't because my joints are sore and it's cold out and I do NOT want to walk back down those steps and have to pick her up. I expect this problem is more about her having not much fun in the trailer verses the adventure of a city sidewalk. Now that we've gone 24 hours without an accident, I'm working on the collar problem by asking her to sit (like pretend she's TRAINED, eh? Duh!) before I put it on or take it off, and so far that's calmed the situation right down.
More collar work House-training Humans need cuddles	Another unbelievable day. She's not getting enough exercise/riproaring time. Nevertheless, she whimpers for only a few seconds when I put her in the crate. Sometimes I look in and she's awake but quiet. How can a puppy be this good? The collar problem is much better. As with most things about dog training, the problem is what she learned when I WASN'T thinking about it - thinking about housetraining, so that went MY way, NOT thinking about putting the collar on, so that went the OTHER way. Now that I'm thinking about it - asking her to come, to Park It, THEN slipping the collar over her head, then immediately taking her outside - the ducking and bucking has almost vanished. She's on the bed tonight chewing on my elbow when I realize we've been here for quite a while. I say "Wanna go outside?" and to my amazement she whips her head around, looks me in the eye, then starts down the stairs toward the door. At the door she sits, waiting for the collar. Good puppy! Did human babies once have fur? What ancient instinct, what distant racial memory kicks in to produce the wonderful feeling inspired by a small, warm, fuzzy body under my chin? No accidents today. I listen and she talks. A good day.
The first Flight Of The Bumblebee	The fifth day of too little free time, and still she keeps the leash loose (well, pretty loose). Then we go back to mom & dad's and turn her loose in the back yard with their Minis and Scuba. Stitch drops her butt to the ground and runs. She runs with Scuba. She outruns the Minis. She runs by herself. She runs with Scuba. Scuba and Stitch herd and deke. Stitch does several involuntary somersaults but in general Scuba's playing at exactly the puppy's level, and the Minis are playing well with her too. She outruns everybody and still she runs. Then she stops to get a drink from the fishpond, and then she runs again. Then she sleeps all the way home. I want to say "Tomorrow we'll start training again", but that's not fair, because the five days have been full of training, but it was clicker training without the clicker. Time well spent.
House-training	Three accidents when we get home. Probably being confined in the small area of the trailer has led to her forgetting that she has to go outside from the living room. No accidents when they're shut in the dog room, so from there she remembers to go out the dog door (to refresh - living room/kitchen to dog room, through dog door to porch to kennel, through dog door to outside). My trainer brain is going duh, hey stupid, have you considered TRAINING your puppy instead of sitting on the couch? My disabled brain is going OK, ONE more accident and she's going on the umbilical cord. Guess which brain I'm proud of? But I'm still sitting on the couch.
Stitch and Scuba are well and truly buddies now. Scuba runs in and out of the house, fully aware that the pup is following her. She chooses which toy she picks up based on where the pup is – close enough to play tug without SEEMING to be invited? Or too far away, in which case a solitary-type toy will suffice. Scuba still picks the longest tugs to tempt the pup, even though Stitch is now big enough to launch herself (I can't call what she does "jumping" – it isn't coordinated enough to be jumping yet) and catch the toy in the middle.
Dogs must have faith	The time in the trailer has given Stitch faith that she didn't have before – faith which in my opinion is a very important part of training a dog. She has faith that, if she tries to eat Scuba's food, she'll be driven off, but more than that, she has faith that if Scuba gets a dish, if Stitch sits, she will get her OWN dish. There's nothing I want her to have faith in more than this – to get what you want, trust me and do what I want. Zen as a way of life. Zen as a default belief. A big step.
Bite inhibition	Because of the enforced idleness of the last five days, Stitch has been over the top in her playing. While she still remembers to keep the leash mostly loose, her biting has gotten rougher as she's more excited than usual when she's playing. The control she had over her teeth was sufficient for her normal incredible joy, but this REALLY Incredible Joy demands a higher degree of control. This morning she hurts me, and I'm not expecting it. She's been responding very well to my voice – UH! or even a quiet No has been getting a response. So when I say UH! I expect her to back off. When she rears back and chomps me again, I'm not expecting it. I screech OUCH! and think I'm jabbing her in the side of the neck with my finger, but what I actually do is swat her on the back of her head. Which drives one upper canine quite thoroughly into my hand. For a tiny puncture, there's a goodly quantity of blood, a fair amount of pain, and a pretty good bruise. Well, there we have it. She's obviously a dangerous dog! And while I'm nursing my hand and swearing at myself, she's on the floor trying to shred my jeans. Boy, I'm glad to be home where she can wear off some of this energy!
Faith and fear periods Dog walk	There was definitely a fear period in there somewhere. She's not scared of the world, but she's a bit more careful of life in general. She wants to examine the little bridge from the living room out into the greenhouse before she crosses it, and when I ask her to come out the door from the screen room to the agility yard, she needs to examine that too before she makes a decision about it. Fear periods are about balancing the dog – cutting her down a peg so she doesn't walk blithely off cliffs. But training is about balancing as well – teaching her that if I say walking off the cliff is OK, it's OK. So when I see her thinking about whether it's safe to come out the door, I take a handful of food and head for the dog walk. We spend that handful getting her to walk up the contact, turn around, and walk back down again. A height she could jump off safely. In fact, a height she could fall off onto the lawn and not hurt herself. One back leg slips off halfway up, but it doesn't bother her. She's a bit happier to successfully walk OFF the contact than she is walking on it, but there's no force involved and she's OK to be doing this. Now she knows how to get off it if she wants to. My thinking on that is that if (no, WHEN) she ever gets to a height where she loses her nerve and has to bail off, she'll know that she can get off safely. When I want to continue working on the dogwalk, I'll take it apart and teach her to walk the board on the ground.
Retrieving Down	For lunch we go out in the screen room to start formal training again. She's bright and ready to work, so I don't bother with Contact but go straight to the dumbell. She gives me a good grab, and about one second of hold. Eventually I ask for more, and get two grabs. Several times she tries resting her chin on the bar, but that doesn't work. The two grabs evolve quickly into a grab, slide the bar out to the incisors, then a second grab. Great. Then I put it on the ground nearby and she goes to it, grabs it, and lifts it just off the ground before I click. Does that consistently six times, with no attempt to paw it or avoid it. I lure a Down once, and then she starts volunteering them. As she's consistently volunteering, I add the cue about 20 times. Then we switch to Sit. Hmmm. Today's default is the Down, she's really into Down. Tomorrow if I work on Down at all, I'll work Sit first AND more. Not that it isn't wonderful to have a puppy that lies down (even if she doesn't stay there yet), but I need her to value Sit as well.
	No more accidents yet, maybe she forgot that she forgot about housetraining. If I was my student, I'd be really upset with my lackadaisical attitude to housetraining.
Sit Retrieving	For breakfast we go to the screen room. We work first on Sit. I lure a Sit and then wait for an offering, but she offers Down. I lure a couple more, but she's obviously confused, so I switch from trying to reinforce GETTING into a Sit to reinforcing the actual Sit. So I lure her into a Sit and then reward that Sit ten times. Let her get up and lure the Sit again and reinforce X10. THEN she starts offering Sits and I go back to clicking and tossing the treat so she gets up to offer me another Sit. Then we switch to the dumbell and work just on getting a hold. I mentioned before that she likes movement behaviours better than stationary ones. The hold goes well, but a couple of times she looks behind her and goes to touch a bit of leaf to see if maybe that will work. Nope, back to the hold. It's hard to click at the right time even when I'm asking for several grabs because she's so fast. She's like a chicken. She doesn't have to shift her weight or anything to make a huge motion, so one second she's doing THIS and the next second she's doing THAT with nothing in between. Finally I notice that when she's serious about leaving her mouth on the bar, she looks up into my eyes.
House-training? Play date	Then we're done with breakfast, but it's lovely sitting in the screen room so I stay there a bit. She offers me a Sit and I'm out of food so I hand-wrestle her. Then she does something marvelous. She goes to the door and looks out. Then she turns and looks at me. Then she looks out the door again. I ask if she wants to go outside. She perks up her ears and comes partway to me, then runs back to the door. Clever little tad, I'm thinking. So I get up, open the door and let her out. THEN the marvelous part. She runs 8' out into the yard, then stops, turns around, and stares at me. "Hey, ma, you have to come too!" When I step out and shut the door, she runs full steam into my leg, bounces off, rips twice around the yard, then grabs my pantleg and I get to drag her growling and pulling all the way around the yard. Have I mentioned how googly I am about this small creature?
An altogether unbelievably good week in the trailer. Learned lots about snuggling, being held, walking on a lead, dog dish Zen. I thought it would be a nightmare.		PREVIOUS 9Weeks Old	NEXT 11 Weeks Old