STITCH

the weBlog of a Service Dog In Training

We've been sidetracked by the vertical paw-target and tricks and sore gums. As I've got little time to train this week, we're going to concentrate on Levels skills. We're done Level 2.

We start with standing Eye Contact and bmove quickly to alternately turning to the left and to the right. She's very good to the left, following me all the way around. A bit more trouble to the right. She starts out watching me aswe turn, looks down for a step or two, back up, down again. I'm going slowly and clicking when she's looking at me. This isn't the way I usually teach it. Usually I just turn and click for finding me again, and let the dog figure out that it's easier to hold on than to keep losing me. I wonder why I'm doing it this way? Maybe tomorrow we'll try it the old way. At any rate, nice job. I'd pass the turn to the left, and ask for a bitmore work if I were judging the right turn.

We work the Front Ray diagram - no problem, by the third click she's finding the exact centre and holding it. Several times, while I was waiting to make sure she'd decided on that position (I don't want to click for finding it in the middle of her bopping madly around, I made that mistake with Scuba and it took me several weeks to get her to hold a Front, she sat, in what I would consider a half-point-off Front for being a snitch too far out.

I put a stool upside down and ask her to go around it. It takes X10 for her to figure out what the heck I'm talking about, then I get back to about 5' away while she goes around it. I'm using Get By and Away as cues. I always guess correctly that she's going to go around, but not always correctly as to the direction she's going to go.

OK, I lied about not doing duration behaviours. She's working brilliantly, so we move over to a dogbed and see if we can get some duration, working toward the 1-minute stay. Yowzah! She's glued to the dogbed! I count to 10, she stays on the bed and I toss her a handful. I count to 20, same result. And 30, and 40, and 50, and 60. That's pretty darn good!

I get her a little pink paw target and put it on the rug. She's got that right away from 4' away. X30 - the only mistake she makes is that once she picks it up instead of whomping it. Another 20 with me tossing the reward over THERE and moving the target to HERE while she's snarfing the treat. Very funny the first time - she turns back, whomps the carpet where the target used to be, then starts backing up thinking she can't see it because she's standing over it. Then she starts swinging her head back and forth trying to find it. Finally she spots a speck that might be a treat (it isn't) and runs over to it. While she's there, she finally sees the target. She stares at it for a second - wait, wasn't I looking for something pink? - then startles and runs over and dives on it. Can't fool her after that!

And that's her breakfast, and we're done.

Apparently just saying I don't have time to work makes me want to work. I train three llamas, make a costume, and get two puppy sessions in. I'm pooped!

I spend a few minutes working Stitch on Go To Mat, getting her up to 60 seconds again with no trouble. Then I invite Scuba to come over and start working them both. I ask Scuba to Sit, click her, toss one to Stitch. Ask Scuba to Down, click her, toss one to Stitch. X10, then I ask Scuba for 2 behaviours and toss one to Stitch. We work up to 10 for Scuba, 1 for Stitch. I thought this would be a tough thing to explain, but somewhere in there the "duration" lecture seems to have sunk in. Stitch totally understands that the way to get treats is to stay on the mat, and that what's happening with Scuba really doesn't have anything to do with her. Some of the treats I toss at her bounce off and land on the floor, and she won't even get off to get them. Scuba, on the other hand, is really sharp, especially when she realizes that Stitch gets an extra every time Scuba misses a cue! I call this the Default Dog method - Stitch gets every single treat - except the ones that Scuba earns. Worked a charm for Scuba with Song, but I thought it would be another couple of weeks, if not months, before Stitch would be able to play it.

Had a brilliant day with the llamas, too.

We have her first puppy manners class this afternoon. We arrive 20 minutes early, which gives me time to do a little Loose Leash Walking in the parking lot before anyone else arrives. She's much more relaxed about the cars on the nearby street now that she can see them in daylight. I give her a kibble every time she looks at me and in 3 minutes she's blase about the cars. She really doesn't need work on LLW, she's doing great.

At least until the next puppy arrives. It's a Lab about the same age, so taller, but the owner has it sitting near her. Stitch is very excited about it and NOW we need to work on LLW. We're perfectly situated between the two cars - if she gives me a loose lead, I walk out from between them so she can see the puppy. When the leash tightens, I back up so she can't see it. Four times is enough to convince her that she needs to keep it loose.

More puppies come - ShihTzus this time, and smaller than Stitch. Many more puppies, but it only takes three backups to remind her to give me LL. I'm sure the other owners think I'm unfriendly, but I'm standing back where Stitch has a good chance to win, and she's winning.

I also have time to talk her into getting in the car and into her crate on her own. I've replaced her tiny overgrown crate with a soft-side crate that will be the right size for her as an adult, which gives me a chance to lean into it and wrestle with her ever time she gets into it, then ask her to come out and try it again.

The instructor comes and we go inside. Stitch and I wait until the smaller dogs are in, then go in with a few backups. We find our chair from the earlier class and I sit down. Stitch watches the other dogs, but comes back to give me Contact and Sit very quickly. Then we turn all the pups loose to play. The Lab tries bullying the ShihTzus, then latches on to the instructor's Pyr puppy. The ShihTzus talk to each other, and that's perfect as it gives Stitch a chance to meet and greet on her own terms without drawing too much unwanted attention. She focuses mostly on the people, getting cuddles all around. She's much more relaxed than she was in the previous class. I'm pleased at her behaviour with the smaller pups. She makes some errors, but in general she's gentle with them and slower when she's near them.

The class does some Zen, then Sit, then LLW. Stitch has all this stuff down pat, but what I'm impressed with is her calmness and her ability to concentrate. The leash is loose between exercises, and if the instructor spends any time demonstrating, Stitch lies down and calmly surveys her fellow students, glancing at me occasionally to make sure I'm not interested in paying for anything.

She's settled in very well. This is the second time she's been in this venue and she's very comfortable now. Her ears are back where they belong (the first class, she had them pulled back), and her tail is wagging.

When the majority of puppies leave, I turn her loose with the Pyr puppy, which is younger but the same height and much heavier, and which stood up well to the rough play of the Lab. I'm a bit concerned about her ability to handle this, mentally. I reckon without thinking about the design of each puppy. The Pyr never gets near her. Soon they're playing with the Pyr plodding sedately around the room waiting for her small attacks, and Stitch zooming and dive-bombing him.

When we go back out to the car, she hops into the car and her crate as if she's been doing it every day of her life. She's totally quiet on the way home (she may be unconscious - she's done a lot of learning today!). A very successful day.

We start with some testing this morning. She nails the Finish - holding contact while I pivot left. Then Go To Mat from 5' away. She lies down automatically and stays there without fussing for 1 minute (AMAZING!). We try for the right about turn with contact, but she can't do that yet without looking at the floor to see if I dropped anything without clicking first...

We the 30-second, 20' SitStay, and she does very well up to 20 seconds, then comes over to visit.

She gets the Front Ray diagram with no trouble, 3 out of 4, then 7/8.

Nose targets 4 articles without a second thought.

I signal toward her paw target and she trots purposefully out to whomp it.

And she does the Down from Sit and Sit from Stand from 10' - then I realize we need to do that with no treats around, so we'll try that later. So she's passed 5 of the Level 3 behaviours. What a good pup. Next week in the parking lot at class we'll try the Level 1 On The Road stuff.

We're going to need a shaped trick, and she's not picking up on the lured Stand very well. I like to teach most things three different ways to be sure the dog and I are talking about the same thing at the same time, so I think I'll use Back Up for my shaped trick and, as a byproduct, use it to teach her to Stand.

I sit on the couch and click any backwards motion of any paw. This was a 10-click behaviour for Song, a 5-minute behaviour for Scuba. Am I getting worse? We use 200 kibbles to begin. I get a lot of extraneous movement. She turns her head to her right and any backwards motion is accompanied by sidestepping. I ignore this X50, then start weeding it out. I put the kibble in my right hand, feed from my right, and stop clicking the worst sidesteps. X50 and the head-swing is mostly gone, along with most of the sidestepping. We work on any backwards motion, no headswing or sidestep X50. With the final 50, I wait for two paws backwards. I get some headswing and sidestepping, but not much and they're easy to beat now. Next session I'll try to mobilize her back paws.

There's something to be said for this not having time to train business. I'm training more this week than I did last week! Or maybe I'm just using the puppy to avoid "real" work, like packing for the show and finishing costumes and getting my kerflushinner gelding to walk a plank. (My training partner and I have been through about 20 different ways to explain this to him. She's suggested I put a poster of a llama walking a plank on the barn wall and let him study it in quiet moments. I think we're getting a little giddy. 7 days until the show.)

We did some testing this morning. Down and Sit, no food anywhere, on one cue from 10' away - brilliant response. Stand from Sit, no food, one cue - I used a hand signal. The work on backing up that we did yesterday really lightened her rear end, she popped right up and stayed there (not a Stay, but indicated that she wasn't going to drop right back into the Sit).

A few days ago on the Levels list, "Nita" wrote that she'd had a really nice success at something she'd thought her dog would "never, never, never" do. I'm finding that that's staying with me and becoming part of my training life. As in "That kerflushinner gelding is Never, Never, Never going to walk a plank!" Or "Stitch is NNN going to keep eye contact on an about turn!" Just saying it helps me focus my attention on the behaviour and the fact that I need another way to explain it.

She holds contact when I pivot left. When I pivot right, she looks at the ground. OK, I start to pivot right. As soon as she looks at the ground, I "get lost" - start pivoting left. She has to realize I'm lost, and start coming with me to the left, which means she automatically grabs contact again. Click for contact, and start to the right again. She drops her eyes, I escape to the left. X6, and suddenly she's got it. She's holding contact so hard at one point she jumps sideways to hold on. Hmmm - interesting, she doesn't know she can walk sideways in this direction, though the other direction was no trouble at all. Well, she's figuring it out now. Thanks, Nita!

I try the go-around-pole from 4' on one cue only, but she's not quite listening to the cue yet. I have to step closer twice before she realizes what I'm asking. Then she whips around - in fact she whips around twice before she realizes that I clicked and she can come get her kibble.

Wow, she's whipping off Level 3 MUCH faster than I thought we would! Wow!

Her eye's better and we go back to the Trick class. She's a different puppy tonight. She's not afraid of the big noisy things with lights going by on the street nearby. She's eager to get into the building - to the point that I have to back up five times to remind her about the loose leash. And she pees on cue before we go in. Last week she was MUCH too disconcerted to think about peeing.

I hold her on my lap while the big dogs play, but this time she thinks she'd be OK on the floor. There's a honking big Golden and a young Dane - I think she's better off on my lap. All the dogs come to visit her, though, and she enjoys greeting them. When they lose interest I put her down but keep her on leash. She watches for a bit, then turns and gives me eye contact, so we work on Watch a bit, with Sit and Down and Sore Paw and Princess Paw. She doesn't have trouble with any of these.

The first trick of the night is the bow - she remembers it and is totally willing to give it to me - great, in the company of these dogs that she was afraid of last week. She does it on voice cue and on a hand signal, which is a swish out to the side with my right hand - a mini bow on my part.

I put down a carpet sample, and she shows me that she can do Go To Mat here as well, in spite of it being a strange place, strange circumstances, and a totally different Mat from the one we've been training on. Clever puppy!

Then each student is presented with a box of Kleenex. We're to take a tissue out, hold it in our hands, and see if we can get the dog to target it, then to target it on the ground, then in the box, and finally work to see if we can get them to pull the tissue out of the box. I'm a little nervous - we haven't worked on any retrieving since (last week?) when I screwed her up and she quit on me several times. We start with one tissue. Or, as a friend of mine said later, "Portuguese Water Dog Heaven!". She started mouthing it and it was soon a soggy ball and we got a new one. I put it on the floor - she was picking it up. On top of that, it was difficult to spit out or drop, so I was able to take it from her several times. Then I started working on the tissue in the box. Oh dear, they're in there pretty solid, I don't know if my widdle bootsy will be able to get one...

Within a minute, she's ripping out tissues - rip click treat rip click treat rip click treat - soon we're surrounded by an immense and growing pile of loose tissues, she's ripping them out of the box as fast as she can, and I'm laughing so hard I can't breathe. I clean up the tissues and we work on retrieving a cute little basket instead.

We move on to the paw-over-the-nose routine. I put a bit of tape on her nose and get about a minute of enthusiastic pawing, after which she pretty much ignores it.

Fun class.

LIFE BEHAVIOURS :

Loose leash walking.

Getting in/riding in car.

Being comfortable in new surroundings.

Playing with other puppies.

Go To Mat.

Sit and Down.

SKILL BEHAVIOURS :

Paw target.

Go around stool.

Finish.

Front.

Heel.

Loose leash, Sit, Zen in class.

Retrieve.

Back Up.

19 Weeks Old

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17 Weeks Old