Winter is back. We need more rain so I have no complaints. The dogs like the cooler weather, as do I. Think it makes us all feel good all under to quote an old boss ;-) If my Dad or brother are reading this, they'll recognize that quote :-)
Nothing special with the dogs today - sort of an easy Monday after a busy weekend. Both dogs wore their spiffy new citronella collars while in the car at work. I hope that is going to be enough to keep Tor quiet. Realized that the collars are definitely being triggered by other things. I'm not thrilled about that - muddies the message. Still, I think they are discriminating enough to do the job.
Gave them both a quick run this morning. Played the ball sharing game with them. Ended up having a pretty spectacular crash between them anyway. Tor was going for the long ball. Gata was with me doing little things for short tosses. She was going for a short toss when Tor slammed into her with speed on his way back with his ball. He decided to get hers, too. That was enough for the morning. Gata was a little hesitant to put her left front down but walked it off within a dozen steps. Still - hate to see that sort of stuff. Makes me very nervous. Have been moving more toward another park that is really nice, close to work, and well lit enough to work on it in the morning before work even though it is still dark out. Like to let them just blow off some steam now and then but not if it is going to cause visits to the vet.
Worked both dogs over by Google this evening. Worked on Gata's SchH send out. Gave her a throw on a particularly nice run out as she was running to reinforce the speed and straightness. Ended up getting some of that circling behavior that drives me crazy. But she does know her job and that only occurred once. The next send out was beautiful - fast, straight and a very fast turn and down. She did that about 4 times - all beautiful. Rewarded each a little differently and that was about it. All the rewards were long throws - her favorite, difference was in the timing, direction of the throw, and where I threw it from (start position, next to Gata, partway).
Tor was just the basics again. Realized that I have lost the basic positions in strange positions relative to me. Have been doing too many in front of me, as part of fronts and with outing the tug. So have to go back and work on those again. I don't expect it to take long but I should know better. Part of it also has to do with the toy reward (tug or ball) - he freezes up a little sometimes when that has come out. Anyway, more to work on ...
Monday, February 14, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Update - 2/13/2011
The dogs have been doing alot more than just barking in the car or Candy's garage for the last week or so. It's just that we've been very busy and that means less time to write.
Tor is making tremendous progress in just about every facet of his training. Pretty much the only area that I am not very pleased with him in is his weight - he is as thin as a rail. You should not be able to see ribs through the coat of a Terv, even a Terv with a light coat. He is almost embarrassingly thin. You'd think I don't feed him but he is growing so fast and is extremely active and intense and he just burns it all off. I've added more variety to his diet and am giving him extra canned venison or beaver tripe with pretty much every meal and am putting more oatmeal (carbohydrates) in the meat mix. I'm considering adding some sweet potato or a high quality puppy kibble as well. He looks totally healthy and seems fine. He is just too thin for my tastes.
Everything else is going well. His "Out" is really pretty nice at this point and is solid on me, Dave and a couple of other helpers, too. His heeling work is going well although it probably doesn't look like much yet. I decided to go essentially 1-step at a time going for perfect position before we move on. He's heeling mostly for food - a head-up heeling position, but I occasionally use a tug for his reward. It's painful to work food with him because he really does try to gnaw it out of your hand. Working on that, too, but forget about it sometimes and that usually results in a painful reminder. His tracking is also going well. Again nothing fancy, just really solid work on pretty basic puppy tracks. Working a modified Dildei method in tracking. I don't agree with him on tracking straight lines so much but like the idea of using food to build hunt drive. So there is still food in every footstep but he is already doing multiple turns. He's like Gata in that way, turns help to slow and settle him down if he is working too fast.
His focus is really great. He's like Gata in that way, too. I worked just a little OB with him on the field on Friday while there was about 5 other dogs out. He was a little distracted at first but quickly focused on me. Did lots of rewarding for attention with a tug or ball. Also worked a little on baby judge stuff. Had him hanging out on the field around a group of guys that were talking and pointing but didn't have them touch or examine him, just had him sitting or standing and watching me. Also working on building duration on all of his basic positions.
The one thing about Tor that is a challenge is that he is very single-minded in his focus. If he is heading out to track - he wants to track. He doesn't want to sit and give me attention before starting, as in reporting in to the judge. He's the same way with protection work. So it is going to be really important to build in those things as part of the "start routine". In protection I think almost all of his bites will be coming through me. I suspect that he will need very few repetitions with the helper initiating the activity for him to understand those triggers.
Gata is doing great. She is learning some basic agility skills - distance work and obstacle focus away from me. We are working 2-on/2-off contacts much of the time with Derede but I'm not sure that we won't also have to work running contacts with her. It is unlikely that she will ever hit any of her up contacts unless we train them with her soon. I should probably spend some time learning more about training running contacts but really don't have the time/energy for it.
Her OB is going really well. Her heeling position is better than it has ever been - forging is almost gone. Her out of motions are getting pretty solid for her and her send out is awesome. Need to check on her retrieves again soon but need to rearrange the car first ;-) Really need to get back on the long down under distractions. Not saying that these issues have been fixed just that they are all improving dramatically. Too bad I didn't teach them right the first time. It would have been much less trouble to maintain them.
Finally, got Tor's new crate situated in the car. It's a little bit of a squeeze for him to get in the door - weird angle. But he is fine with it. He looks so much more comfortable in it. It was getting pretty bad in the old crate with his back up against the top and hair sticking out of it from all angles. Will try to finish the rearrangement of the car next weekend and get both crates strapped in. Then we'll be good to go :-)
Tor is making tremendous progress in just about every facet of his training. Pretty much the only area that I am not very pleased with him in is his weight - he is as thin as a rail. You should not be able to see ribs through the coat of a Terv, even a Terv with a light coat. He is almost embarrassingly thin. You'd think I don't feed him but he is growing so fast and is extremely active and intense and he just burns it all off. I've added more variety to his diet and am giving him extra canned venison or beaver tripe with pretty much every meal and am putting more oatmeal (carbohydrates) in the meat mix. I'm considering adding some sweet potato or a high quality puppy kibble as well. He looks totally healthy and seems fine. He is just too thin for my tastes.
Everything else is going well. His "Out" is really pretty nice at this point and is solid on me, Dave and a couple of other helpers, too. His heeling work is going well although it probably doesn't look like much yet. I decided to go essentially 1-step at a time going for perfect position before we move on. He's heeling mostly for food - a head-up heeling position, but I occasionally use a tug for his reward. It's painful to work food with him because he really does try to gnaw it out of your hand. Working on that, too, but forget about it sometimes and that usually results in a painful reminder. His tracking is also going well. Again nothing fancy, just really solid work on pretty basic puppy tracks. Working a modified Dildei method in tracking. I don't agree with him on tracking straight lines so much but like the idea of using food to build hunt drive. So there is still food in every footstep but he is already doing multiple turns. He's like Gata in that way, turns help to slow and settle him down if he is working too fast.
His focus is really great. He's like Gata in that way, too. I worked just a little OB with him on the field on Friday while there was about 5 other dogs out. He was a little distracted at first but quickly focused on me. Did lots of rewarding for attention with a tug or ball. Also worked a little on baby judge stuff. Had him hanging out on the field around a group of guys that were talking and pointing but didn't have them touch or examine him, just had him sitting or standing and watching me. Also working on building duration on all of his basic positions.
The one thing about Tor that is a challenge is that he is very single-minded in his focus. If he is heading out to track - he wants to track. He doesn't want to sit and give me attention before starting, as in reporting in to the judge. He's the same way with protection work. So it is going to be really important to build in those things as part of the "start routine". In protection I think almost all of his bites will be coming through me. I suspect that he will need very few repetitions with the helper initiating the activity for him to understand those triggers.
Gata is doing great. She is learning some basic agility skills - distance work and obstacle focus away from me. We are working 2-on/2-off contacts much of the time with Derede but I'm not sure that we won't also have to work running contacts with her. It is unlikely that she will ever hit any of her up contacts unless we train them with her soon. I should probably spend some time learning more about training running contacts but really don't have the time/energy for it.
Her OB is going really well. Her heeling position is better than it has ever been - forging is almost gone. Her out of motions are getting pretty solid for her and her send out is awesome. Need to check on her retrieves again soon but need to rearrange the car first ;-) Really need to get back on the long down under distractions. Not saying that these issues have been fixed just that they are all improving dramatically. Too bad I didn't teach them right the first time. It would have been much less trouble to maintain them.
Finally, got Tor's new crate situated in the car. It's a little bit of a squeeze for him to get in the door - weird angle. But he is fine with it. He looks so much more comfortable in it. It was getting pretty bad in the old crate with his back up against the top and hair sticking out of it from all angles. Will try to finish the rearrangement of the car next weekend and get both crates strapped in. Then we'll be good to go :-)
Saturday, February 12, 2011
My Peaceable Kingdom - or An End to Nuisance Barking
I debated and debated and tried every positive technique that I knew but Wednesday I ordered citronella bark collars for both dogs. I knew that my neighbors were tired of listening to Tor's demands and I had gotten in a bit of trouble at work for having my barking dogs in my car, even if I was parking off campus. Nuisance barking was getting me lots of unwanted attention and I wasn't even sure that it was really happening or which dog was primarily responsible. Gata has always been as quiet as a church mouse in the car but is a little guardy and doesn't really like skateboards. There is a skateboard park very near where I have been parking at work.
So I ordered a couple of citronella bark collars and left the dogs at a friend's place during the day. She had a couple of open runs in her garage that they could stay in. The first day she told me that it was Tor raising a fuss. Nothing major, just boredom. Along the lines of "Hello". "Anyone out there?" "It's me, Tor." "I'm stuck in here" "Maybe you could break me out and we could go play?" "I'm really friendly." "I'm sure my mom wouldn't mind." "Hello." "Anyone?" "Hello" ... You get the idea.
Anyway, so I put the collars on and it has been blissfully peaceful ever since. I even worked Gata in front of the car a little bit and Mr. Jealous Demand Barker was not in attendance. The funniest moment came the evening after they arrived. I was getting ready to go to bed and had taken Gata's off, Tor still had his on. Tor was snooping around in the kitchen. He's not allowed in the kitchen and it is one of those rules that Gata has taken upon herself to enforce. She gave a single loud enforcer bark, which triggered his collar to spray. It effectively corrected Tor for being in the kitchen and Gata for barking at the same time :-) I couldn't have done it better myself.
The dogs went to my friend's place again yesterday. She doesn't work on Fridays so she could give me some more feedback. I decided to put the collar on Tor only. That would help me figure out how much Gata was contributing to the problem. She has a plywood panel between the 2 runs since one of her dogs is dog aggressive. So, I didn't think that Tor would get sprayed if Gata barked. Anyway, Candy said she heard one teeny, tiny bark out of Tor as I drove away and that was it.
I thought it might cause problems with their bark and hold, something that Tor is just learning. But no problems were apparent last night at club. Tor actually did his first barking on the helper.
I am combining the collars with lots of positive reinforcement for silence at things that would normally provoke barking. So, hopefully, there won't be much fall out. At this point, though, my principle thought is ... why did I wait so long?!
So I ordered a couple of citronella bark collars and left the dogs at a friend's place during the day. She had a couple of open runs in her garage that they could stay in. The first day she told me that it was Tor raising a fuss. Nothing major, just boredom. Along the lines of "Hello". "Anyone out there?" "It's me, Tor." "I'm stuck in here" "Maybe you could break me out and we could go play?" "I'm really friendly." "I'm sure my mom wouldn't mind." "Hello." "Anyone?" "Hello" ... You get the idea.
Anyway, so I put the collars on and it has been blissfully peaceful ever since. I even worked Gata in front of the car a little bit and Mr. Jealous Demand Barker was not in attendance. The funniest moment came the evening after they arrived. I was getting ready to go to bed and had taken Gata's off, Tor still had his on. Tor was snooping around in the kitchen. He's not allowed in the kitchen and it is one of those rules that Gata has taken upon herself to enforce. She gave a single loud enforcer bark, which triggered his collar to spray. It effectively corrected Tor for being in the kitchen and Gata for barking at the same time :-) I couldn't have done it better myself.
The dogs went to my friend's place again yesterday. She doesn't work on Fridays so she could give me some more feedback. I decided to put the collar on Tor only. That would help me figure out how much Gata was contributing to the problem. She has a plywood panel between the 2 runs since one of her dogs is dog aggressive. So, I didn't think that Tor would get sprayed if Gata barked. Anyway, Candy said she heard one teeny, tiny bark out of Tor as I drove away and that was it.
I thought it might cause problems with their bark and hold, something that Tor is just learning. But no problems were apparent last night at club. Tor actually did his first barking on the helper.
I am combining the collars with lots of positive reinforcement for silence at things that would normally provoke barking. So, hopefully, there won't be much fall out. At this point, though, my principle thought is ... why did I wait so long?!
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Thoughts on Heeling
As I start the process of teaching Tor heeling there are many things running through my mind - training principles, mechanics, and previous things that I have learned.
It all starts with a few observations about the differences between Gata and Tor and identifying what I want the final picture to look like. Essentially, I want Tor to heel like Gata - head up, prancing, intense, powerful. Gata looks graceful when she is heeling but not in a refined, elegant way; it's in a more powerful, barely contained, get out of her way she's going to explode at any second fashion. That's what I would like from Tor, too. However, he is a very different dog than Gata. He does not move the same way that Gata does to start with. He is lighter on his feet than she is and at the same time more firmly rooted to the ground than her. Though he is a very powerful dog, I don't see it in his movement the same way that I do in Gata's. He stalks me much more than any dog ever has before. And if I am entirely honest, I don't really like the look of dogs that do the stalking heel. I don't dislike it, but I prefer that the dog move more freely in heel.
Also, Gata was heeling as well as most dogs ever do at about the age that I got Tor. So she learned to heel when she was physically small and essentially had to trot and keep her head up just to keep up with me. As she got bigger and her stride lengthened she had to slow to maintain her position and that essentially turned into her "prance". She already had developed the muscle memory that dictated that heeling is done at a trot so it never occurred to her to do a flat-footed walk to heel. Tor is already 7 months old and the mechanics that he learns will be much different than the they were for Gata. He does not need to trot to keep up with me at a "normal" pace.
So then I think the biggest issue is how to start? Should I start with movement or with position? I'm afraid that I won't be able to capture the movement with Tor due to his tendency to go into stalk mode, which I don't want. So, I think it makes most sense with him to start with position. Maybe even to the extreme - reward for a perfect basic position, then 1 step, 2 steps, etc. Then as he gains confidence in the position add speed and movement and hope to add in the power and prancing that I like.
There is no question that he has the physique to do the prancing. He does it all the time when he is playing. So if necessary, I could almost train the position and movement separately and then combine them.
We'll see how it goes ...
It all starts with a few observations about the differences between Gata and Tor and identifying what I want the final picture to look like. Essentially, I want Tor to heel like Gata - head up, prancing, intense, powerful. Gata looks graceful when she is heeling but not in a refined, elegant way; it's in a more powerful, barely contained, get out of her way she's going to explode at any second fashion. That's what I would like from Tor, too. However, he is a very different dog than Gata. He does not move the same way that Gata does to start with. He is lighter on his feet than she is and at the same time more firmly rooted to the ground than her. Though he is a very powerful dog, I don't see it in his movement the same way that I do in Gata's. He stalks me much more than any dog ever has before. And if I am entirely honest, I don't really like the look of dogs that do the stalking heel. I don't dislike it, but I prefer that the dog move more freely in heel.
Also, Gata was heeling as well as most dogs ever do at about the age that I got Tor. So she learned to heel when she was physically small and essentially had to trot and keep her head up just to keep up with me. As she got bigger and her stride lengthened she had to slow to maintain her position and that essentially turned into her "prance". She already had developed the muscle memory that dictated that heeling is done at a trot so it never occurred to her to do a flat-footed walk to heel. Tor is already 7 months old and the mechanics that he learns will be much different than the they were for Gata. He does not need to trot to keep up with me at a "normal" pace.
So then I think the biggest issue is how to start? Should I start with movement or with position? I'm afraid that I won't be able to capture the movement with Tor due to his tendency to go into stalk mode, which I don't want. So, I think it makes most sense with him to start with position. Maybe even to the extreme - reward for a perfect basic position, then 1 step, 2 steps, etc. Then as he gains confidence in the position add speed and movement and hope to add in the power and prancing that I like.
There is no question that he has the physique to do the prancing. He does it all the time when he is playing. So if necessary, I could almost train the position and movement separately and then combine them.
We'll see how it goes ...
Tor in the Park, Full Face, 2/5/2011 - 7 months old
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Tor in the Park, 2/5/2011 - 7 months old
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Sitting around drinking coffee ...
And desensitizing my dogs. Gata has been getting a little more protective and guardy of the car. Mostly as a result of a couple of bad experiences but definitely getting worse with time. The addition of Tor has only made it worse. Now I have 2 dogs barking in the car and egging each other on. So, I'm sitting in front of a busy coffee shop and rewarding my dogs for being quiet. What could be better on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in February???
Special thanks to the nice guy riding the really cool Ducati motorcycle who parked right behind me. He let me use him (in his helmet) and his motorcycle as a desensitization exercise. Both dogs doing really well by the end of our time there but I'm sure we will continue to work on this for awhile. I HATE dogs that bark in the car - NOT COOL.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Special thanks to the nice guy riding the really cool Ducati motorcycle who parked right behind me. He let me use him (in his helmet) and his motorcycle as a desensitization exercise. Both dogs doing really well by the end of our time there but I'm sure we will continue to work on this for awhile. I HATE dogs that bark in the car - NOT COOL.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
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