Mike's Doghouse

Mike is doing great with training. There are only a few issues such as Loose Leash Walking but even that is getting better. We started Basic Manners II classes last week (then had to skip the second class last night). That class is going to be quite intensive. I’m going to have to do most of it from my chair which will be interesting.

Mike’s DOWN is great! His SIT is solid although on a slick floor, or if we remain in one place too long, he will slide down. His WAIT is good but the length of the WAIT is short. He will remain still most of the time while I move around him but he will almost always get up when I move behind him. His RECALL is excellent, too. I use two different terms for RECALL. One is his name repeated in a friendly, playful, high pitched voice (Mikeymikeymikeymikey!). The other is the usual ‘Mike, Come’ and is done in a deeper, more authoritative voice. He responds to both the same. He comes charging from wherever he was, full speed.

I’ve started switching away from the clicker and more to a voice cue (Yes!). When I use the chair, it is too difficult to maneuver the chair, hold his leash, watch where I am going, and click the clicker. He responds just fine to Yes! as long as I have a treat. He’s not too sure about it if there’s no treat involved. He is very food motivated but I think he will not be too difficult to wean away from that. But I also know I will have to keep treats with me at all times for quite a while.

The one improvement I’ve seen is he is calming down in new situations. I can put him in a DOWN and he will stay there. He’s even flopped over onto his side if I remain in one place long enough. We will be going to different places and getting him used to being calm while at my side. I will have to restrict him getting pets. With Joella, it didn’t interfere with her learning or working. But with Mike, I think it will. I think with him, wearing the cape is going to be a big signal for him. Jo is the same no matter where she is (especially once she matured). But Mike will need that cape to signal it is working time vs “the world loves me and must pet me” time.

The “put the bone on the nose” trick didn’t work. It may someday but neither of us (me and Mike) are interested in pursuing it. So what we will work on is “Where’s your tail?” Basically, it is getting him to go in a circle. He’ll do this already. I need to fine tune it some and tack on the cue. I think this will be funny as heck since he has a nub.

Teaching Joella her main trick was easy since all I had to do was add a cue to something she already did. She does a “Dead bug” where she lays on her back. She sleeps in that position a lot, too. So all I had to do was say “Do the Dead Bug” and she’d roll over. Mike doesn’t have anything he does like that. I’ve been watching him, trying to come up with something but, nope. The only thing he does really well is when he is focused and sitting, he sits so far upright, it looks as if you could knock him backwards by touching his nose. Of course, you can’t, but that’s how upright he sits. I looked at that from all angles and couldn’t come up with something to make it into. Basically, its a SIT and nothing more.

Meanwhile, Mike knows DOWN finally. We are working on OFF. He’ll do a WAIT for a long time. He put himself in his SPOT the other day. I praised like mad but his attention was on his food bowl up on the counter. House training is still going. He came to me tonight (Lorna must’ve forgotten to latch his crate). I petted him and finished what I was doing but by then it was too late. He’d made a mess in the kitchen. I let him out the back door while I cleaned it up. He did tell me, though. I thought maybe he was just saying “My door was unlatched!” but now I know better. He’ll go into his crate when Lorna opens the gate to the bedroom and says “Time for bed”. If he is full of himself, he’ll still be running around but if he is ready, he goes right into his box. We still have the small crate in the bedroom for him and the Big Boy Box in the living room. That’s where he stays when we go out.

I also just updated the command/cue list. It is in a spreadsheet in two different formats:

Commands.ods (OpenOffice spreadsheet)
Commands-xls.xls (Microsoft Excel)

We went a half hour early to get caught up on what we’d missed. They’d started working on LEAVE IT. I already do this with Mike due to his desire to eat anything that fits in his mouth. They’d also worked on PLACE/SPOT, which, again, Mike and I were already doing. But I liked how she suggested doing SPOT by making it an enjoyable spot to be in. So far, Mike only knows SPOT is where he is forced to go and forced to wait until his food is placed before him. We’ve got to work on that and make it more positive.

This class, we worked on the beginnings of HEEL by getting the dog to sit on the left side, facing forward like we are and walking on the left side. This is going to be difficult for me, physically. It requires twisting to the side as well as walking while twisted to that side. With Mike, though, I don’t have to do it too many times before he gets the idea. I may also sweet-talk Lorna into working with him on it.

Next week is graduation (already!) so we need to get our trick figured out. Others have really good ones going but Mike and I haven’t a clue. But the assistant trainer gave us an idea. Mike and I have worked on LEAVE IT with me putting something wonderful on my knee and him not being allowed to get it. The lady suggested I start putting it on his nose. I don’t know that we’ll get it right in just a week but we’ll give it a try!

I’ve also decided that when we do the Basics II class, I will be doing it in my wheelchair. I haven’t thus far for various reasons, the main one being it would be such a distraction to the already over stimulated dogs. But the Basics II class should be able to deal with it better. That and the spring rains have started and my body is in huge amounts of pain. Mike and I need to do some work with me in the chair. And we’ll do that as soon as it stops raining.

As a reminder, Mike and I (and Sam and Lorna) take our classes from A Good Dog’s Life here in Asheville. I highly recommend them! The Puppy Class was taught by Gail and the Basics I class is taught by Susan. Both are well rounded and wonderful women.

We didn’t go. Lorna has a cold again and I’m still tired from my trip out of town this weekend.

We have to go to class 30 minutes early next week, though.

I’m exhausted. I’m glad I don’t have to drive home alone. Well, except for Mike, but he can’t talk to me or go into the Hot Spot for drinks. Lorna was almost as tired as I was, though!

Tonight we worked on FOCUS, SIT, sustained SIT, and Loose Leash Walking. We also started on DOWN.

Mike does great with the first three and we are working on the leash stuff. He does great at home but add in any distraction and out it goes! He is getting DOWN but not so good I am adding the word yet. I can do the hand signal (point down to the floor near his feet) and he will do it if he knows the treat is there. The teacher suggested to us that we switch the treat to the other hand once the dog is going down relatively well. Point with one hand, wait for the down, the click and give the treat with the other hand. She and I discussed Mike’s over-willingness (for lack of another word) to do a task. Like, he will do a SIT and then not get up, even when released. It was the SIT that got him the treat so by george, he is going to SIT. At class, he will get up and walk away when I toss a treat onto the floor and say his release word (free). But at home, nope, not gonna do it.

Tonight in class, we did a few DOWNs then he went into a down without me giving the signal. I didn’t treat for it because I didn’t ask for it. I knew this was Mike planning ahead. This is actually a good thing for a Service Dog as it shows he can think around a task and come up with a different way to do it. The best example of this is from an article I read a while back. This woman trained her dog to take the drink bottle from her, take it to the kitchen, put it into the recycling bin, and return to her. She then had the dog go to the kitchen and bring her a new drink. The dog one day dropped the empty bottle into the bin and stood there for a moment. He then got a new drink and brought it to her. This was him thinking around the task and realizing what was next. This actually cost him a reward since he only returned to her once but, of course, she praised him highly for his thinking. This was the same dog that, earlier in its training, brought her a cassette box one day. She figured he’d found it on the floor somewhere. She took it from him, gave him his reward, and she went back to work. Less than a minute later, he’s back with another one. Not wanting to discourage him, but wondering where the second one had come from, she rewarded him again. When he came to her with the third, she figured out what he was doing. The snot was going to the cabinet and taking out a cassette, shutting the door, and bringing it to her. He knew he got a treat for it the first time so, he went and got more. She doesn’t know if the first one was on the floor legitimately or not. Regardless, he figured out what worked for him!

Joella has a small mouth and only brought me one thing at a time, like, my shoes. She’d go get one then go get the other. Mike, who has a huge mouth, will likely try to bring both at once. That is unless he figures out that means only one reward.

Okay, back to tonight’s class. We started working on DOWN and Mike’s getting good at it. He and I need to work on it more, though, and we need to work on him not jumping up on people. I never had this problem with Joella since she dislikes standing up on her back legs. Mike, however, can dance that way. I need to get someone to help me with this, though. Maybe Lorna and I can work together one or two nights a week. It is a big issue with Sam, too.

Mike and I (along with Lorna and Sam) went to our second Basic Manners class today. Technically, I guess you could say it was the first class since the dogs didn’t attend the original first class but we’ll not confuse me further and just call this one the second.

Anyway, it really felt as if a lot of what we are covering was already done in Puppy Class. Gail, the instructor for that class, stopped by to pet Mike and I mentioned this to her. She said to use this as an opportunity to get SIT and FOCUS really strong in Mike and that the next class or so will start in with new things.

We worked on SIT, FOCUS, and Loose Leash Walking today. It is hard for me to do the leash work because we are confined to a small space and I must turn around a lot. Mike is great loose leash walking in such a small space but as soon as class was over and we headed toward the door? Oy. We eventually got to the truck (after stopping many many times) and got him loaded. Mike knows SIT really well although he is trying to get away with not doing it. Part of that is my fault since I am giving him second (and even 3rd!) tries to do it. I need to get back to Say It Once.

We tried out a new harness today, another front connecting one called the Sense-ation harness produced by Softouch Concepts. This one was the original design produced before Gentle Leaders’ Easy Walking Harness. We tried this one because the design is supposed to be a little better with narrow chested breeds (such as young Mike) in that it doesn’t cut into their armpits as bad as the Easy Walker did. Mike liked it and I think I will order one. He certainly pulled less while it was on! Sam had on one of Joella’s old harnesses that has a metal ring in the front. He did so well with it that Lorna got one of the Easy Walker’s for him to try out this week. Since he is much wider at the chest, the strap shouldn’t bother him.

Everyone says how cute and handsome Mike is. He is growing taller each day! I need to get some pictures of Mike, Sam, and Joella sitting together. Easy enough since they all know WAIT. Ha.

Per Elena’s suggestion, I’m going to teach Mike the concept of SPOT. I decided to not use the word PLACE since it sounds so much like WAIT and STAY. We’ve not started working on this yet.

The following is all mind wandering thoughts as I work through this new command/cue/whatever.

To teach something using operant conditioning (aka positive reinforcement aka clicker training), I need to first break it down into little steps.

I want Mike to go to his SPOT, sit or lay there, and stay there until I release him. That’s three steps. He already knows SIT fairly well and he knows WAIT pretty much, too. So I need to break down going to his SPOT so I’ll break that part down further.

He needs to know what and where the SPOT is and he needs to know to go there.

To know what and where, he’d need to either link that to a particular place, thing, or area. Beside my chair? A bed in the corner? A towel on the floor? He already has his crate so a bed in the corner would be redundant. He knows “go in your box” means to go into his crate. Shoot, does box and spot sound too much alike? Vocal tone will be important here. Beside my chair is not necessary since that’s what HEEL is for (as well as several other tasks/commands he’ll learn later). So I’m thinking I’ll go with the towel or similar thing on the floor. This would be something we take with us and he’d always have the same SPOT no matter where we are.

I tried to teach Joella this but decided she was so big that a mat for her would just be too large in the public setting. But as I learned more, I realized it needn’t be that big. Just big enough for her butt print, or Mike’s butt print in this case. We’ll start with a large towel and work down to something manageable as we go along.

At meal time, the dogs know BACK UP means to go further away from the feeding area. We used to have dog blankets in there that they had to sit on. Jake, our Dalmatian, would back up, sit, back up, sit until her butt touched the first itty bitty piece of the blanket and there she would stay. The dogs we currently have aren’t as good about this I think because there’s no longer a dog blanket for them to use as a marker. But I digress.

Mike gets fed last (as the current bottom dog in our pack) over by the back door. I think a towel there would be the best place. We’ll be getting him a raised feeder soon and that will help him with knowing where to be.

I’ll take him to it, tap the blanket, and tell him to SIT. Once he is sitting and staying there reliably, I’ll add the cue word, SPOT. I’ll start adding distance and tell him “SPOT”. The idea is to tell him SPOT and he go there on his own.

Proofing the command/cue will be him doing it away from the kitchen. Will he go there in the living room? Will he go there the next time we are out and about?

As I’ve said in a previous post, Mike will eventually have a long list of tasks, commands, and cues (yeah, there’s a difference) under his belt, er, collar. For now, though, we are working on the basics of good manners every dog should know.

This Tuesday we go to our first Basic Manners dog training class. Lorna and Sam will be going, too. We went last week without the dogs to meet the instructor and get our first homework assignment. We were to come up with a list of things things we wanted to teach or encourage and things we wanted to stop or discourage. (I talked more about the first class already) I started Mike’s list a few days ago.

Stuff to Teach/Encourage:

loose leash walking
off
down
come
drop it

Stuff to Stop/Discourage:

Stick eating
jumping up
calmer pre-meal behavior

We didn’t make it to the dog park in Asheville the other day but we did go to downtown Weaverville to eat outside at one of our favorite restaurants, Blue Mountain Pizza. We took Mike and Joella. Jo did very well, as always. Mike on the other hand, well, walking on the leash is going to be a top priority. I don’t walk fast anyway but it took a very long time for me to get from the truck to the tables on the porch. Each time Mike pulled or lunged, we came to a stop. I didn’t say anything, just stopped. If he didn’t turn to look at me or at least ease on the leash, I twitched it to make him move toward me. When he did, I said YES and that he was a good boy and we took a step. Sigh. Rinse, repeat. On our way back, with him having sat and watched the world go by and lost some of his excitement, he and I actually go to where we could go about four steps before we had to come to a stop. But this time, it wasn’t that he was lunging with excitement. No, the crazy pup was chasing leaves, seed puffs, and whatever else was blowing in the wind! It was funny as heck but still, when he pulled, we stopped.

As for the others, most of it he is slowly getting, except for OFF. We realized he hadn’t a clue what that meant. Since he is in the crate at night, and we keep the gate up to the bedroom, he doesn’t get up on the bed that often. He does get up on the recliner, though, and that is where we will work with teaching him OFF. It is difficult for me to teach him DOWN so I can only work on that on good days. Up on the bed, he is just too excited for me to work with him. COME he is getting good at. I am really impressed! I can say “Mike, Come” and he will…if he hears me. We also use “Mikey Mikey Mikey Mikey” (saying it very excitedly) and he will race from where ever he was.

As for what to discourage, oy, the boy has got to stop eating sticks! And bark! And walnut shells! And dirt! And styrofoam! And anything else he can find outside! It’s why he’s not out playing more. If we let him out unsupervised, he eats nothing but that stuff until his poop looks like particle board material. Even when we are watching him, he still eats quite a bit before we get the stick or whatever away from him. We call this process (pulling stuff out of his mouth, often quite far back in his mouth) Dumpster Diving. Jumping up is becoming a problem. He is bigger now (way bigger) and has the weight behind him to do damage. We’ve discouraged it, of course. It’s just time to get all serious about it now. And meal times is getting downright dangerous. He sits when we put his bowl down and waits until released. But prior to that? He’s a maddog. Starting in the morning, we will be working with that. I will get up and hold him back during the entire process, keeping him in a SIT STAY until Lorna puts his food down. Mike eats last which means each of the other four bowls going down involves a lot of “back off Mike” “stop Mike” “Mike it’s not yours” etc etc. He used to have this cute jump in the air and pivot so he is facing the opposite direction thing going when Lorna came toward him with his bowl. Not so cute now that he is over 40lbs and way way taller.

Oh, and as a side note, the medication for his urge incontinence seems to be working. Now we are just backing up and working on house training as if we’d not done anything before. He’s not drawing pictures, but he still gives no notice he has to go. We started using the timer again today and I’ll continue it tomorrow. We will also be using the new crate more. It is big enough he can move around and he likes it in there. He still insists on sleeping in the smaller crate in the bedroom. Anyway, here’s hoping the house training actually starts to take!

Like we learned in class last night, there are three stages to training. I can’t remember the first two (and I’m too lazy to get up and find the notes) but the third is the “proofing”. This is answering “will Mike do this behavior outside the normal area”.

Today I had to take the truck back to the transmission place for its 14 day check up and to have them check on a problem with it. The repair place had a “no pets allowed” sign on the door so Mike and I stayed outside. This was good for him because he was exposed to a lot of different things. We were just a few feet away from a busy side road and just beyond it was a major 6 lane highway. Cars and trucks and motorcycles were whizzing passed us. There were people coming and going from the repair place, there were employees doing their thing, and then there was Mike.

He did fairly well. We worked on SIT and WAIT/STAY. He got better at it the longer we were there. It was cool to watch him process all the stimulus in addition to me asking him to sit and stay there. The longer we were there, the better he got. He was excited when he saw the truck come to park near us. He was really weirded out earlier when some guy got in it and drove it away!

I had to push down on Mike’s butt a lot. Probably, in the beginning, I was putting him in a sit over half of the times I asked him to sit. That percentage changed and was much lower by the time the truck was repaired and we could go. I didn’t have the clicker with me nor did I have treats. I think it would have gone better if I had grabbed my bag when I got Mike out of the truck. We’ll have to try it again somewhere else.

Lorna has tomorrow off and we will be taking him and Sam to the dog park. We’ll also be taking my chair to see how much of it (getting into and out of the enclosed spaces) I can do on my own. If all goes well, it will be a place Mike and I will go often.

Lorna and I went to the first class for the Basic Manners at A Good Dog’s Life dog training. Lorna will be taking Sam and I will be taking Mike. The first class was w/out the dogs. We discussed a lot of stuff we’d already covered in the puppy class but I think me and Mike are the only ones in this class that had taken their puppy class. Mike will be the youngest there, I think, at 6 mos (cannot believe he is that old already!). Sam will not be the oldest, though. In the class Lorna started to do earlier, I think he would have been the oldest by far at only 3 yrs. The teacher for this class will not be Gail (the Puppy Class instructor) but Susan Wilson. They have very different teaching styles. Lorna “got” what Susan was saying but didn’t really follow Gail. It is what works for each of us, just the same as the dog.

We have homework as usual. Most of it Mike and I already know or do so I will just work on distractions. This is when you have the dog do what it knows outside of the normal place it knows it. So since Mike and I train inside the house, we will be going outside some and, perhaps, going somewhere else such as Home Depot again. The idea is for the dog to do what you want him to do no matter where you are and no matter what is going on around you. If a dog will do a sit without reservation while in the middle of a busy pet store or hardware store, then chances are that dog is truly trained. This is especially important for Service Dogs. The safety and health of the handler is at stake, not just being embarrassed at misbehaving Fido.

Part of our homework is to list what behaviors we do not want or want to stop and what behaviors we do want or want to continue. I’ll post my list here when I get around to making it.