Mike’s Doghouse

Wow, it’s been six months since I posted anything here.

Mike is now 1 yr 5 mos old. He hasn’t grown much and is still a maniac. But I like that attribute!

My broken leg took forever to heal and now winter has decided to enter with a bang (see links below). We constructed a new dog ramp out back (see links below for that, too).

I’ve continued to do small things with Mike such as “what have you got”, “let me have it”, as well as all the basics we learned in dog class. He’s really good with “wait” although the more excited he is, the harder for me and him. Mike’s also had to learn to live with a kitten which has been a test for all of us.

I plan on getting back to serious work with Mike this week. It is going to be warmer (above freezing for the first time in weeks!) which will mean less pain and more patience for me. My plan is to start with the basics (sit, down, stay, wait, etc) and re-establish communication between us.

If all goes according to plan, I’ll be updating here again with his progress. He goes to the vet for his yearly checkup soon so I’ll have his weight to tell you!

Linkages: (links listed in chronological order)

Snow posts over on my blog:
(basically, it snowed 14-20″ and we were out of power for nearly 5 days)

First Snow
First Snow cont.
First Snow Part 3

Dog ramp building is not for wimps!!
(you can also view all of these in one lump but they are in reverse order: tag – construction)

House Projects: Wash and Ramp
House Projects: Square
House Projects: Angles
House Projects: Planking!
House Projects: Finishing
House Projects: Enjoying

It seems as though every time Mike and I get ready to start service dog specific training, something happens. He hurt his leg then Joella needed surgery on one of hers, and now I’ve broken one of my own! Will the fun never end?

At any rate, we are working with Mike on stopping his biting. He doesn’t hurt very often but will grab a shirt sleeve or pants leg and get skin, too. We are doing the “ouch!” and turning our back. I don’t allow the rough play anymore, either, which is hard for both of us to give up.

His scent-marking behavior is all but gone. He still marks Jo’s raised feeder every few days and recently found a new spot in the hall way after some things were moved around. Do I trust him to not hike a leg in public? Not yet, because we’ve not had a chance to get out there yet, dammit!

As we play, I use cues like “let me have it” and “get it” and others, getting him used to those terms. He releases an object easily which is a good sign.

Let’s see, what else? He’s going through a growth spurt but I don’t think he will be a big dog afterall. The last time we were at the vet’s, he still wasn’t 50lbs yet. If he reaches 70, I’ll be surprised. He’s a tall boy, just not filled out at all.

Oh, as for his hip injury, it was all soft-tissue like a strain or sprain. He had x-rays taken which were evaluated by an orthopedic vet who said all was great! Joella’s recovering slowly from her surgery. She has arthritis fairly bad in her back legs and we’ve started pain management now. Some days she is a puppy, other days she doesn’t want to move. I can understand that.

Mike started marking in the house two weeks before he was neutered. He marked everywhere. The living room, bedroom, bathroom, etc. He marked a lot of things such as the bedpost, the wall, the recliner, Lorna’s bathroom towel (that about got the boy killed). The weirdest thing he marked was Sam and Joella’s raised food-bowl stands.

I asked a positive training list I am on for advice on how to get him to stop. I’d like to mention the ones that seemed to work.

- We limited (again) where he had unsupervised access. The gates in the living room went back up for several days. He stopped marking in the living room and because of various other stuff, I moved the gate that kept him from the rest of the house. We kept the bedroom blocked and the hallway to the bathroom blocked but he (and the others) had access to the outside, the kitchen, and the Cat Room (the room between the living room and the kitchen).

- We were cleaning up the marking with the vinegar and water spray just like we had been his peeing. I was advised to change that routine slightly. The idea for peeing is to put the dog outside or elsewhere so they can’t see you clean it up (I think the idea behind it is so they don’t think you are Mama cleaning the den and that it’s okay to continue). But for the marking, it was suggested I let him see me cleaning it up and to increase the vinegar amount in the spray bottle. Basically, I was showing him I could mark, too. After about 3 days of this, I started seeing Mike back up when he saw the bottle come out. He watched me spray his spots and would run out of the house. I didn’t fuss at him while I cleaned it, but I did talk to him about it. I told him I didn’t like it and marking inside the house was not acceptable. He could mark all he wanted outdoors, but not indoors. This “conversational discussion” worked on Sparky, a Norwegian Elkhound we had. Yelling did no good. But put your hands on your hips and talk to him? He’d hit the floor and act all repentant. I think this is going to work with Mike, too.

- It was also suggested to take him for short walks and praise like mad when he hiked his leg to urinate and/or mark. This is to put a cue word for hiking his leg. We decided to not use another cue word but continue to use “HURRY UP” which is what we used during his house training. We took him out on the leash for a few days again, reinforcing the HURRY UP and him hiking his leg. He never marked when out on the leash but we did catch him marking in the dog lot so we praised him then. For reference, marking is when they urinate just a small amount, usually in several places vs emptying the bladder in one long pee in one place.

Mike now only regularly marks indoors in one place: Joella’s raised food-bowl stand. We’ve moved it, thinking he was really marking the cabinet where it sat. Nope, he’s marking the stand. We’ve started spraying it down until it is soaked and removing Joella’s bowl from it after she is finished eating. No clue as to why he is doing that. Sometimes he will mark Sam’s stand and sometimes he will mark on the front of the dishwasher. We think he does the dishwasher because of Callie, our ancient cat who has decided litter boxes are not for her. He marks the back porch but as I spray those down, the location is moving further and further away from the door.

I also received two pieces of advice that I chose to reject.

- One was that Mike should be considered a “wash out” as a Service Dog. I see the point to it but I wanted to try and fix it, not be told to forget it. That male marking is often not un-learned and with Mike going into public areas, marking behavior is not acceptable. I agree to that last part but not to anything else. Mike is just 8 mos old. His house training was delayed due to his bladder issue. He is so smart that if I just could figure out how to train him out of it, then he and I could get beyond it. If the marking does not stop or if when I start taking him out in public he start marking there, then I will reconsider using him as a Service Dog.

- The other advice was to use a belly band or a diaper on him. The idea was that he would associate the nasty wet on his penis and stop marking. But I don’t consider this positive training. And I don’t think he would have made the connection between the wet diaper and the marking. Then there’s the increased risk of infections and skin irritations. I can see their purpose for older dogs who have lost bladder control. But I don’t see their purpose on an 8 mos old pup he has figured out he’s a male.

I’ve decided to drop out of the Basic Manners II class. Primarily because it requires more physical movement than I can do and I’m not sure I can keep up with the class in my chair. Instead, Mike and I will be taking private lessons from Gail, one of the instructors. I hope to take one class every two weeks. This will give me more time to do the training w/out over-taxing my body.

I think Mike is missing training. We put home training aside for a few weeks so I could concentrate on Joella (who is doing great). I had it in mind to start things up again this weekend. I woke up two mornings ago and couldn’t move my head. I can now turn it more but not much. So poor Mike is back in a holding pattern again.

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.

If you’ve followed along, you know that Mike is to be trained to be a Service Dog. He is to “replace” Joella, my current SD who is 8.5 yrs old. Joella is having some difficulty with her back legs and Tuesday (April 21st) she will be having surgery on one of her ankles.

Since Joella will be needing all of my mental attention, Mike’s SD training is on hold for a few weeks. It is Spring and he is happy to be outside playing right now so it will all work out. Starting over won’t bother either of us in the least. He and I start Basic Manners II the day we bring Jo home so we’ll still be working on that.

We’re thrilled Joella won’t be needing the more extensive knee surgery we all thought she’d have. We were concerned we’d not be able to keep Mike calm around her. He likes to sit on Jo which would not have been a good idea. Even with this surgery, we’ll still be keeping him quiet, but not as much as with the other surgery. It may be a good chance to work on SPOT outside of the kitchen, eh?

It is a harsh reality but it is something that is necessary, and, for some dogs, it is vital.

The Nothing in Life Is Free (NILIF) principal is simple: the dog gets nothing without first doing something to earn it. Some dog trainers say that toys should never be left laying around. That they should be taken up whenever a dog is not playing with it. When the dog is doing something you want to encourage, it gets the paycheck of getting a toy. If a dog has all the food it wants (free-feeding) all the toys it wants, why should it listen to you? All you do is place demands. Take up the toys, switch to two meals a day, and start placing tasks before a toy or meal is given, and the dog figures out what is going on.

Some say this is the positive reinforcements way of dealing with the “Alpha Dog” theory. I believe this is true. We can’t speak dog so doing posturing and positioning like a dog would do isn’t really the same. But, by teaching the dog that everything good comes from you, that makes you the leader.

Mike has been taught to sit before he gets his meal. He also has a set place he is to sit and remain, even when the other dogs are moving about, he is to remain there. Even when the food is put down, he cannot have it until he is released. We don’t have many toys down for him because Sam tends to de-stuff everything. We take up the high-value things like the chew toys. Mike gets these when he goes into his crate. He enjoys them more because, to him, they are something new and special. I have a toy we use as the jackpot toy during and after training sessions. He only gets to play with the toy then. I tried using toys he considered cool at home and he could care less when at dog class. So I got something new that had all his fave things on it: a ball that squeaked, a rope to tug/gnaw, and flappy things to grab. I know that if I were to let him have this toy at home, he’d not care for it anymore during training.

I had learned of this method during the classes Mike and I took for Puppy Class and Basic Manners I. I also read about it at the Rottweiler.net forum. I like how it works, how it puts the human in charge without any wrestling or other weird human-trying-to-be-dog stuff.

Imagine that you are in France. You cannot speak French and everyone around you cannot speak English. So they teach you some phrases so they can interact with you on a very basic level. Now, let’s say there’s a French word for something important that sounds an awful lot like something else important in French. Each time either of those two words are used, you have to pause and try to figure out which of the two applies.

I’m betting that is how our dogs feel. It is why I work hard to not have two dogs at the same time with similar names. We once had a cat named Max and a dog named Maggie. Call either one of them and they both would look at me trying to figure out which one of them was being called. We also once had a dog named Zeus and for several months, we babysat a dog named Drew. Oh, now that was fun!

I also try to not have command/cue words that sound the same. I also tend to use more than one word once the dog understand what the word means. OFF morphs into “get your fuzzy butt off the bed”.

Sometimes words are used that sound too much like words that aren’t commands. The best example is one given at the first dog class. Many people use FREE as the release command. The instructor had been either on a Search and Rescue exercise or a big hike, I can’t remember which. Anyway, they line all these well-behaved dogs up together for a group photo. They are all doing a wonderful SIT and are focused. The instructor, who was taking the photo, said “Okay, one….two…three!”

Can you guess what happened when she said “three”? If you guessed the dogs all broke their sit and went charging about in play, you were right! It was total chaos as humans were laughing, dogs were playing, and the instructor/photographer was going “What happened?”

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.