Spring Walking

So with what seems to be the arrival of spring today and my arm starting to feel better I decided to try going for a longer walk with Kobi and work on his leash pulling. My new method for walking since breaking my collar bone has been to use the leash coupler that I used to use for Scout and my mom's dog as a leash.

  I find using a regular 6 foot leash and looping it around my waist makes it very short so Kobi can't sniff and smell. The coupler on the other hand can be adjusted to be longer or shorter and can either be clipped directly to a belt loop or can be strung through multiple loops for stronger pullers.

 The advantage that I've found of walking like this is that I can free up my left hand to treat him or grab the leash if need be. When Kobi walks loosely beside me I either click if I brought the clicker or say "good" and try to give him a treat, sometimes he's so focused on walking that he doesn't notice that I have food.

 We worked on building his attention on me during his walk, have started to work on the "Look at that" game from Control Unleashed and just walking politely. There were several times we had to stop for several minutes to get him settled back down and walking politely again. I always find it funny when he starts whining when I stop him from pulling, I can tell he's trying hard to figure out how to keep walking but just sometimes isn't understanding that pulling means we don't go forward. Every now and then when moments like this happened I needed to remind myself to give him a break, let him sniff and move at his own pace to reset and keep going.

Kobi now sits immediately when we come to a road. From the first day we brought him home this is something we worked on. My hope is one day if he's able to walk off leash I won't have to worry about him darting into the road because he knows to sit the second he comes to one.

There is a trail in the West End of Halifax that I love walking along, very nice and quiet and gets away from the cars and streets. The trail runs between backyards of two streets but runs from Westmount School all the way to the park on Chebucto. It's a beautiful little neighborhood to walk in. I always find it amazing the great neighborhoods and areas you find when walking with your dog.

Tuesday Morning Shots

 In celebration of finally regaining some movement in my arm I decided to get my camera out and trying taking some real pictures. Keeping in mind most of the shots were taken with the camera resting on the floor or my leg since I still can't hold the weight on it in my right hand.

 

Scout very rarely tends to move once settled.

Sit = Please

When I found Kobi at the shelter, he was one of the few puppies to have come to the shelter already knowing how to sit. Once we got him home teaching him basic commands such as sit and down were a breeze thanks to whatever training he got from his previous home. However from day one we needed to turn his sit into a default "please" command, which meant making him sit for everything! 8 months later Kobi is now able to sit almost immediately on command and give eye contact (sometimes brief), the second I ask him to sit. He has also turned sitting and looking at me into a default command. If I stand at the door to go outside, after a few seconds of the door not getting opened he sits and looks up saying, "please can you open the door now?" without needed any command. We use sit for everything, and I mean everything. He must sit before getting his food, before going outside and even when out on a walk we get him to sit before he crosses the street. Sit has become one of the only commands I can give Kobi when he does get excited, but it is because of the large amount of work we do with it.

 Everyday with produced an opportunity for training. I choose to make sit his "please" behaviour, but any trick can be used, or multiple tricks can be used. The point is to make your dog say please before he gets what he wants. We even use this concept of "please" when we're out playing. When I do play fetch with Kobi he must do a trick before I throw the ball. By getting them to say please for the ball being thrown is a great way to work on newly trained behaviors, it's great to have a default behaviour, but it is also very helpful to have a high motivational item such as getting the ball thrown to get them to do other things, sometimes i'll even do a round of commands before throwing a ball. "sit, down, sit, paw" then throw. You don't need to always have treats with you when working on default behaviors, usually the continuation or progression of what you were doing is enough of a reward. For example when walking, getting to walk again after sitting is the reward, or getting the door opened to go outside is the reward or finally getting that ball thrown.

When I started training Kobi's default sit I was more focused on getting him to sit, now I am working on getting him to look back towards me before he gets what he wants so that I can work on his focus and attention towards me. Sometimes he gets frustrated thinking "well I sat, why aren't we walking again" but he works it out eventually sitting again and looking at me. If he seems to be really struggling to think through it I will cue him to look and sit to remind him what he's supposed to be doing, usually by the next time we come to getting him to sit and look he figures it out on his own.

Tagging Along

The last two weeks I've been helping a friend at her agility classes. She has a tiny but very reactive yorkie. Though small he tends to lunge and aggressively bark at all dogs and people whenever they move. So she asked me to help her out, mostly by hanging on to the leash to free up her hands and for me to occasionally walk away with him if he really started throwing a tantrum. I've been happy to help since walking a 4lb yorkie doesn't hurt my arm and it gets me out of the house.

 Also where I'm interested in eventually getting involved in agility to build up some confidence with Kobi, I'm learning lots of very valuable tidbits. Today they were working on serpentines and introduced the balance board. Some advise given to the students was to really do a lot of rear end awareness work with their dogs so that when introduced to equipment like the teeter totter they would have a much simpler time positioning themselves on it. The instructor also mentioned the importance of building a strong foundation. That by teaching you dog lots of tricks they build confidence and are more willing to experiment when presented with new situations. I've recently started working on a hand touch command with Kobi, getting him to solidly plant his nose in my hand and follow me around and this morning I started working on getting him to put a paw on a box. Hearing these tidbits from the instructor was very reassuring, that I'm not wasting any time by doing lots of trick training with Kobi. Working on tricks is also something I can do comfortably inside right now and it helps to tire him out just as much if not sometimes more than a walk. I've got a long way to go and tons of stuff to work on, but I'm happy to know that all the foundation work I'm doing with be highly beneficial in the long run.

And a silly picture of Kobi just for fun.

Building Attention in Distracted Dogs

Since I broke my collar bone I have been avidly reading a book that was recommended to me by our obedience trainer called "Control Unleashed" by Leslie McDevitt. The book is geared more towards agility students or trainers but if carefully read the exorcises can easily applied to your daily life. I must admit it's tempting to immediately start working on some of the more challenging exercises but it is incredibly important to get solid training foundations before a) adding more difficult tasks and b) expect to have those behaviors in all situations.

What I've been working on with Kobi is building his attention. This is something I took for granted when I first got him when he was young. I thought I never wanted to have one of those dogs who's eyes are glued to you at all times, I wanted a dog, not a robot. At the time I didn't realize that I could work on building Kobi's attention without creating that robot dog. As a result of my lack of attention building, Kobi finds whatever environment we're in way more exciting and rewarding than I am. I'm okay with him exploring and viewing his environment, but if I want his attention, I should be able to get it, at all times. Right now that is not the case. Indoors is not to bad, out doors and especially in exciting situations, almost none existent.

In Control Unleashed the author discuses building attention by using "Premack's Principle", that "states that more probable behaviors will reinforce less probable behaviors". Sounds complicated. How she breaks it down is that you need to become more exiting than the environment. Sounds to easy right? I've only been working on this with Kobi for a few days and I've already noticed a huge improvement, including his walking skills.



The way this system works is you allow your dog to do what they want. They get to enjoy the environment their in, they get to sniff and explore. Often the environment becomes more exciting than you are because the environment is forbidden. We prevent our dogs from sniffing and exploring, we demand their attention or limit them with leashes and pull them away from objects of interest. To become more interesting than the environment you must have a reward to give them every time they acknowledge your presence. Treats are better in this case because they learn to associate you with something yummy and happy vs play time. If you reward with a tug or toy there is the risk that they will only pay attention so long as you have the toy. It is also much hard to reward with tugging if out on a walk than it is to reward with treats. So keep something yummy in your pocket. Start off with a higher value reward and ween it down to kibble then finally nothing at all. Right now I'm using either cooked hot dog bits or liver fudge. Every time your dog makes some sort of acknowledgement that your their either click or mark it then reward. What I've learned from this so far, if your dog is already conditioned to a marking work or a click, it is okay to click something even if they are too far away to get the treat or make no effort to come get the treat. For the first few clicks they won't know you have treats. The key with this exorcise is to build criteria slowly. Start of for even a slight motion or turn of the head towards you to coming directly to you and eventually giving you undivided attention. The trick with this is once your dog comes to check you out, you must send them away again. I've been telling Kobi to "Go on" and motion away from me. If he won't go and stays looking at me or near me, I click and treat then tell him to go away again. By telling the dog to go away you are removing conflicting desires for them. They want to come to you because you have rewards, but they still want to go and smell and explore. Eventually what they should learn is that you will have something yummy and be desirable, but the environment though interesting doesn't always provide yummy things.

Below is a video from Dogmantics that essentially shows the same principle minus telling the dog to actually go away. She is just playing an attention game, getting the dog to focus on her. The difference in the two methods is she is making sounds and running around to get the dogs attention and does not send the dog away. Either method works, but I've found it is easier to start calmly, especially if your dog easily gets riled up. So just standing or slowly walking around and waiting for them to come to you without any cue.

Crazy Cheap Training Treats

In my quest to find highly desirable but cheap training treats, I have tried many many things. I've tried making dough type training treats I've tried cutting up existing treats from the grocery stores, but so far the cheapest, highest yield and tastiest treat is cooked hot dogs! A pack of No Name hot dogs at the store costs just under $2, you can cut them any way you like, dry them or keep them raw, and it only takes about a half hour tops if you use the entire pack. They are also very very easy to make, great project to do with kids, just supervise them with the use of a knife. These are so easy I'm still able to make them with my left hand due to my broken collar bone.

Cut the hot dog lengthwise in half, than cut each half lengthwise again to create quarters. (If you're looking for larger treats just cut the hot dog in half, if you want smaller treats cut them lengthwise again).

Once cut into quarters cut down the hot dog, you can cut the slices as thick or thin as you like. If planning on drying them cut them larger than what you want since they will shrivel when cooked. If keeping them raw keep in mind thin slices tend to stick together.

Once all your hot dogs have been cut, spread a single layer of paper towel over a plate and sprinkle the pieces all over the plate. Try to spread them out as best ou can to avoid them sticking together.

Put them in the microwave for 3 minutes on high.

Once done the first 3 minutes, take them out, you can either stop here, they are crispy on the outside but still not totally dried out. If continuing, put a new sheet of paper towel down and try to move the pieces that were on the inside to the outside and put back in the microwave for another 3 minutes.

Allow to cool. If dried out completely these don't need to be refrigerated unless your planning on using them sparingly. With the rate I go through training treats these are gone in a few days.

Good luck with you training!

Tough Times Ahead

So I haven't been able to post within the last week and sadly won't have too many over the next couple of weeks. Last week right after the doggie expo I went skiing for the first time this year with a couple of friends, and just a couple of runs in I was slammed into by a kid and I fell and broke my right collar bone. So typing is slow since I can't move my shoulder very well but I'm figuring out how to manage things with my left hand. This last week has been touch on everyone, and especially Kobi. Scout my older dog sleeps most of the day so he's not to bothered by my decreased energy and attention. Kobi on the other hand is making it very clear that he wants to get going again. The first few days were the toughest. Our schedule was all off, I needed help walking the two dogs, it was clear I was in pain and I was napping a lot. Kobi started taking it out his frustration by resuming his barking at random sounds (all the time) and had started biting and pulling on his leash again, something he hasn't done since his first couple months home. For the first couple of days he also became more reactive to people and things out on walks again. It was like all our training had just totally disintegrated. Walking alone is enough of a challenge. My right arm is in a sling so i've been using the leash coupler for the two dogs to attach one end to kobi's gentle leader and the other end to one of the loops on my jeans. I've been putting the clicker in my right hand and feeding treats with my free left hand (since the leash is attached to my pants I don't have to worry about the leash). I've been lucky to have family and friends help me get Kobi out for some longer walks and out playing some games to try and tire him out. We managed to get to point pleasant yesterday to let Kobi run for a while, and it was obvious he needed it. I don't think I have ever seen him run so much and so fast! The next few weeks will still be a challenge getting back into a routine is helping to settle things back down, even if that routine is slower and tougher than usual. I did finally receive my copy of Control Unleashed in the mail so I've been reading that. I'm excited to start putting some of the training to practice once my shoulder heals a bit more. I'll post more about the book as I'm able to type more.

Traditional Training Vs. Positive Reinforcement Training

Photo courtesy of Maritimedogs.com

This weekend I attended the Doggie Expo at the Forum, running a booth for my Pet Portraits. The turnout was fantastic and I got to meet lots of wonderful people. For the first part of the morning I brought Kobi with me. I knew it was going to be a very overwhelming experience for him but I thought it would be worth it to get him around so many people and dogs. He met lots of people and was very friendly. He did react fearfully to a few people and did spend the majority of his time there barking. In preparation I had made up tons of training treats to reward him for silence, I went through almost all of them, yet he still barked. It wasn't until the very end of the day when one of the many trainers present at the event came over to talk to me about his barking. She was telling me that even though I was rewarding Kobi for his silence, that he was clever enough to figure out that if he was silent until he got the treat, all he had to do was bark again then be silent for a few seconds to get another treat. And I felt that she was right. Before I got Kobi I had seen all the TV shows like The Dog Whisperer and At the End of my Leash. I agreed with many aspects of the training, but also disagreed with many other. I did a huge amount of research before I decided that a puppy was indeed what I wanted and I did a lot of research into positive reinforcement training. I believe that it works very well for many aspects of dog training, but that it doesn't work for others, or at least I have difficulty in other areas. The obedience classes I have been taking have been using positive reinforcement training, and I will admit there has been some great improvement, but I still feel stuck in certain aspects of Kobi's training and most of them have to do with behavioral issues and simply good doggy manners when he's around people. I find it is the people that I'm trying to introduce Kobi to that make positive reinforcement training difficult. If Kobi is barking that them they are not willing to wait for him to settle down before petting him, if he jumps they say "oh I don't mind" but I do mind. As well treats are nothing to Kobi compared to trying to get attention from someone. I've made some progress with having him not lunge at people but that was largely due to the Gentle Leader he has been wearing, when he lunges towards someone he gets pulled back towards me. The thing I am finding difficult is the is the strong reaction people have to one or the other type of training. Those who are very pro positive reinforcement tend to be very against any form of correction and that dogs have absolutely no "pack/leadership behaviors". Where as those who believe in correction or alpha training are totally against the use of treats. I'm not sure if I'm the only one, but I feel very trapped between the two training methods, I think there are pros and cons to both, just like most other things. What I very much dislike is the guilt put on people for choosing one or the other training method. Is there no way to get a happy medium between the two types of training? Does anyone else ever feel trapped between the two? All I want to do is use a training method that is not only right for my dog, but one that he responds to and that works for him. Me as the trainer, I am comfortable using either method or using a bit of both, but I want to choose the one that he responds to best.

Proofing stay at the Bank

Kobi has been working on his Stay command since we first adopted him. I try to work his stay into as many random places as I can. He stays before he gets his food in the morning, he stays at the top of the stairs while I get my shoes on to go for a walk, we get him to stay while we eat dinner and I try to throw in short stays out on our walks. The way to get a reliable command in any situation, is to use it in every situation you find yourself in. Kobi is still working on staying when there are more distractions going on. He's able to do it in the yard and on a quiet street, but kick a soccer ball or if a cat darts by he breaks his stay. I made sure to start him with minimal distractions and am slowly working at building in more distractions. Our puppy class was a great help for working on his stay, for him to just sit and watch everything moving and continuing on without him while he's stuck in a stay is very hard for him. Today though I decided to bring him to the bank with me. I knew that he would have a tough time holding his stay and would probably bark a fair bit but I was up for the challenge. I did make sure to bring some of the Tuna/Liver fudge treats I had made (I'll post the recipe soon) to keep his attention. As soon as we got into the line I signaled him into a down and told him to stay... and he did! The line ended up getting pretty full, there were lots of people moving and talking but he stayed! And only barked once! I may have been handing out treats like a pez dispenser, but he stayed! I was soooo impressed with him. Once I was done with the teller she leaned over the counter to give him a treat, I released him from the stay and motioned for him to stand so that he was tall enough to get the treat! Everyone loved it! These last few weeks are really starting to give me hope that I will be able to put Kobi through the Therapy Dog evaluation closer to his one year mark rather than waiting until two or three years. That being said he is very very much still a puppy. As soon as we left and rounded the corner he decided to through a tantrum, running around me in circles, biting at his leash and thrashing himself around. I guess it was payback for making him behaving so well.

Agile painting

I decided to work on a painting to sell at the Doggie Expo. The painting ended up taking about 5 hours to complete.

Outlining is the first step.

I then like to fill in the underlying colour, in this case white.

I then start adding in the layers that sit on top of the base colour.

I like to leave black to the end and finish off by outlining in light black.

All that's left is the ring.

Check us out at the Doggie Expo!

This weekend is the GPAC Doggie Expo at the Halifax Forum Multipurpose room from 10am to 3pm. I'll be there to get the word out on my pet portraits (Pet Portraits By Zonia Clancy), I'll also be helping out the Therapy Dog table as best I can. I'm planning on bringing Kobi in the morning for a couple of hours then taking my older therapy dog Scout in for the rest of the day. I know it will be hugely overwhelming for Kobi but it's a great training opportunity and socialization opportunity. I've been making treats like crazy in preparation for the copious amounts I'll be giving to him to reward any calm behaviour. I expect a lot of barking, pulling towards strangers and tantrums, but I'll stick through it as best I can and hopefully he gains something from it. I'll be taking Kobi home probably around 11 to get Scout. Scout is bomb proof at these sorts of events. He usually ends up sleeping in the middle of the floor while other dogs and people walk around and over him. Scout is a fantastic Therapy Dog ambassador, he may even wear his T Shirt again.




 But I have to remember I'll be there for my business this time. I'll need to remember to run my own booth. I'll have a couple of pieces of art for sale, some great tug ropes, same ones I make for Kobi. A good friend of mine will also be attending with me, she's made some super cute doggy kerchiefs that she'll be selling as well as taking any orders for knit wear. She makes stunning knitted dog coats.

Kobi sporting the plaid style kerchief that will be for sale.

I look forward to seeing new and familiar faces this year, but do stop by my table, I'll be giving out discount coupons for use towards a portrait as well there will be ballots for a chance to win a FREE pet portrait!

Obedience class can teach more than just obedience

Last night was our last Basic Life Skills class with Sublime Canine. I knew going into the classes that I wasn't going to take much away from the actual lessons as I had already taught Kobi his basic obedience skills and he excelled with learning them. What I really wanted out of it was proofing, that he was able to preform these skills in a new high excitement situation. The basics like sit and down weren't to hard for him, but staying or focus exercises proved to be more difficult to get him to preform them when there were other dogs and people around. Kobi is what our trainer calls a "spirited puppy". All he wants is to socialize. To him people and dogs mean play time. Kobi needed to work one being able to calm down around people and dogs and that just because dogs are present, that doesn't mean it's play time. Our first week was pretty tough, he spent most of the night barking and pulling towards other dogs and people. The second week was a nightmare, it seemed as though he was entering another fear period and was terrified of everything and everyone that night. The third week was much like the first, no real improvement made. Then for our fourth week was when I started making the liver treats, we also got him to wear his Halti that night as well. I'm not sure what the cause  was but it was as if we had a whole new dog. He still struggled to not bark at other dogs, but he was making an active effort to not bark. He was able to stay on command, even when other dogs walked right up to him. He walked politely on his leash, and he even rolled onto his side a few times. Our fifth session was again fantastic, he was showing no signs of regression and was getting better at calming himself. Last night was our sixth and final class. I was expecting him to have difficulty as he had been reactive to noises all day at home. Instead Kobi spent a good majority of last night sprawled on his back. He would lie right on his back and stretch his legs all the way out, giving him the nickname RoadKill. Over our six weeks in obedience class, Kobi learned to control some of his excitement and desire to play with everyone. I still believe obedience classes are a must for those who need help learning the techniques for training their dogs, they are also a great way to get kids involved in a dogs training. However, just because your dog is fantastic at learning at home and you make an active effort in their training, doesn't mean that classes don't still have a benefit. Obedience class helped to boost Kobi's confidence, that he doesn't need to control every situation and that not every time another dog shows up that it's play time. I will be continuing classes with Sublime Canine in their Advanced Life Skills class then will be joining their Agility Foundations class to teach Kobi an on off switch for exciting situations. In the mean time between classes I've been given permission to come and work in a side pen while classes are going on to continue working on his impulse control. So if you've ever thought that obedience class wasn't for you, think again, it teaches more than just the obvious.

Breakfast Scatter

With mornings being a hectic time for most people, few ever think to include a training session with their dog into their breakfast routine. I do a training session everyday with Kobi before breakfast. If I have time it can be up to 10 minutes when teaching him a new trick, or just a few seconds if there is no time. I like to do training before breakfast so that Kobi is working for his food and he knows he must do work to get his food. The other benefit is that you can use their kibble for training treats. Morning training games can be as simple as learning to eat food from your hand politely, working on making eye contact, teaching basic obedience or tricks. This week we've started working on the Breakfast Scatter game. This is simply where I take a small handful of his kibble, say "Kobi Look" then drop them on the floor and let him eat them. The purpose of this game is to learn the command  "Kobi Look" when I try to scatter treats on the floor for him. When Kobi becomes excited he tends to focus on the source of his excitement like most border collies do. However, if he is getting riled up or starts barking, I need to break his attention to calm him back down. This has proven to be intensely difficult. We've tried sticking treats right in his face to lure him away, nothing, so our training recommended tossing treats on the ground to make him look down. Great idea, didn't work. Now that we've found that he responds to liver treats we're having more success in breaking his focus, but still not much luck at tossing treats on the ground, he just doesn't pay attention to it. So our training suggested training him and giving him a command for simply, LOOK! There is free treats on the ground! Eat them!! So we've added it into our morning training. Just a few tosses at every meal.