Yoshi & Trek Training Diary

Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - June 2007

By Ellen Clary
(reverse date order)

Feedback is welcome:

Sat Jun 30 - Sun Jul 1
I've have stuck a blow for intrahousehold peace (Cooper & Yoshi)! This has been something of an involved process so it will be tough to summarize.

Cooper stayed overnight on Sat and is still here (it's Sunday midday and Ive been taking time to work on having them coexist. They're both boys and generally like each other so we have to be able to work this out.

When Mark brought Cooper over we met out on the front lawn. Cooper was very carefully communicating that he wasn't a threat by sniffing the ground and not looking at him. the dogs were tense but after about 15 minutes they were willing to acknowledge each other and stand next to each other. We then too them on a breif walk down the block and that went well. Then I took them both on the same walk and they were still fine.

They got to spend the evening in crates near each other as we had a dance performance to go see. When we got back, we had them out in shifts. We did have one incident where Yoshi charged Cooper while Coop was in a crate. That yielded about the results you'd expect of My Y. boucing of the crate wall and me lifing him up by the scruff till he stopped struggling. I then put Yoshi on his G/L and had him stand outside of Cooper's crate. Cooper was not thrilled about this and was stress panting inside so I didn't do it for long For the night, we divided the house and I and Cooper were in the living room (him uncrated and me on the sofa, and Trek, Yoshi and Terri in the bedroom. While Cooper isn't thrilled about being around Yoshi, I can tell he's starting to trust me and that I won't let Yoshi hurt him.

Sunday morning I decided to focus entirely on their coexisting after morning rituals of going outside and breakfast. I have Yoshi on leash on a G/L and took all three dogs outside (Cooper was hanging back so getting out the door worked out nicely. Then we had me walking Yoshi around Trek wandering and Cooper on the step. I moved futher back into the smallish yard, and Cooper then came out into the yard.

This went on for some minutes. Then Trek and Cooper started to play, which was hard on Yoshi to be around but it seemed to help him see it so we stayed out there though I kneeled down and held his collar and put myself inbetween him and the other two. While it was initally tough on him he actually did start to relax some which way intrigued me as I didn't expect it.

When Trek and Cooper took a break I faked Trek into going into the house (she was not pleased about this subtrefudge.) and then I had just Cooper and Yoshi (still on leash). Cooper is having a blast rolling around and getting dirty and his whole physical affect is different. He's standing up, head in the air, mouth wide open with a huge lolling tongue, and not stiff at all. Yoshi is still a little stiff but I decide to walk him closer. What happens next is hard to describe but essential, wish I had it on tape. Yoshi is going towards Cooper but he's leaning back slighly and his head is in the air. He still is stiff but there's something different about it. He then does a sort chest ram, but bounces back a step and pauses. IT'S PLAY! Hurray! When it's a fight there is no backwards leaning, or back steps, and most inportantly: no pauses. Cooper realizes it too and they play for a while all the time dragging me around and he hasn't earned being off leash around Mr. C. Though I did take the G/L off and had the leash on the collar. I'm so releived. this is by no means over but we've gotten further than I thought we would.

I think one this that made a difference in today was that after playing with Trek, Cooper regained his confidence around Yoshi and had his more usual body language. A huge trigger for Yoshi the bully is dogs that broadcast "please don't hurt me" Some dog just don't tolerate weakness at all even though they crave the assurance that they rank higher than the other dog. Though he does accept it in Trek but Trek is usually extremely confident around him. So we need to work on Cooper's confidence just as much as Yoshi's reactiivty. I appear to be a claming influence for both dogs though I can't be around all the time so this will need more practice with others eventually.

I was originally planning on having them interact with Yoshi muzzled and may do that in the future, but what I wan't right now is for him not to react (and reinforce that neural pathway that I don't was reinforced) and that requires my being attached to him preferably via a gentle leader so I can control his head and break off his stares. It's working better than I expected. I'll have to remember not to push things too fast and build on success.

[later]
Ok I could help but pushing a little. Learned a lot. The trigger is Trek. Doorways much less so.
Tried Yoshi muzzled/leashed and Cooper in the yard. Cooper wasn't sure what to think of the muzzle and Yoshi was soliciting play by bumping him with it. Too bad as it was surprisingly cute.

Later still took Yoshi and Cooper on a walk and that went great. Seems like things are much better if they have something else to focus on. Yoshi even had a barking fit over a dog and that didn't phase Cooper at all and having Cooper along didn't interfer with my managing Yoshi. Though Cooper was pulling on the leash so much that he earned the other Gentle Leader. Then I had two dogs who would randomly throw themselves on the grass which was pretty silly looking but hey I could walk them.

When we got home when we walked in Yoshi saw Trek and immediately tried to go for Cooper (this was at the doorway again but it's clear it's Trek who is the catalyst. I dragged both C+Y into the yard for some training. Sit beside each other and eat treats. Once again this was fine till Trek showed up (we let her appear) and everything was fine till Trek walked over to Cooper. Yoshi had a temper tantrum and tried to charge and we did a fine immitation of a fish thrashing on a line and I did yell at him too - which did seem to get his attention some.

So exit Trek and I continue to work with C+Y and they go right back to doing well. One interesting thing I found is that Yoshi seems to be deferring to Cooper now which I find surprising. Cooper was sitting on the table and I tell Yoshi table and he won't get up there. He's fine with sitting beside Cooper but didn't want to join him on the table.

[evening]
Mark has picked Cooper up. The stay was very revealing and showed me where the lines are at present.
- they can go a walks together fine
- watch out when Trek is present
- all crated near each other works well
- Cooper is relaxing and that helps
- Yoshi is slowly realizing that there are limits to his behavior
- keep Yoshi leashed around Cooper for now
- Yoshi has a short fuse but he recovers quicky too
- consider doing more playtime sessions with the muzzle

Fri Jun 29
Trek agility class. Trek has anothe suiter (like she cares - but it's really funny watching). This one is a beautiful whippet named Cash and who is intact. This is the second time they've seen each other and he is completely smitten. When he looks at her you can see him melt and hear music playing (along the lines of "Why do birds suddenly appear ..."). He's almost black and white so I've started calling him PePe Le Pew. Once in a while I'll let him have a sniff of Trek's rear (she of course sits down) which seems to sustain him for a while.

With respect to agility Trek did well and is going faster. She still is not very thrilled about Sharon's tunnel but will go through. Went blazing by a lowered A-Frame, but it's because she had to poop so after we took care of that she was fine on it though initially I had her on leash for it. Still not entirely clear that you're always supposed to go through the tire and not between the tire and the frame but when I toss a treat through she gets it'

Took her over the teeter once (on leash, me guiding it down) and muddled through some weavepoles. I'll have to put the weave poles back out at home to practice.

Wed Jun 27
Yoshi did well in rally class today. He was attentive a responded well to the course that was laid out (first time with the signs this week.) He lags a bit on the 360's, but other than that did great. Behaviorally he did beter than the Chessie and the Dobie who were snarfing at each other. The Chessie in particular can be a real semi silent instigator as s/he stares at other dogs until they react. Yoshi was not reaction free but he would respond to other growls and barks and his response was not completely out of proportion as it has been in the past.

One exercise was just to get them use to the cones by walking them past them. The other dogs were walking by them as well in both directions so this turned into a very useful exercise in walking past other dogs without reacting.

Again 5 dogs today - no sign of the BC. The next class was small Zanna and Oliver, and Sharma and 2 of her poodles. Yoshi glowered a bit at Oliver, but later was very nice to him. His sits and downs were great.

Hazel introduced both left and right hand finishes. Yoshi's left hand finish is looking pretty good and he has a good start on the right hand around the back one though I'm still just luring him for that one right now.

Tue Jun 26
Ok this only periferally has to do with dogs but it still amuses me. I've been learning how to play the play money, online version of Texas Hold 'em poker and I've been doing it under Yoshi's name. In this version, you get to pick an "avatar" to represent you and natually I picked a chicken. It turns out that this works remarkably well. Nobody takes a chicken seriously (at least at first) so you can really take advantage of it. I of course do better when one of the dogs is in my lap (Trek was my blackjack dog till I got frustrated with it - and that's after learning all the strategy). We're up to nearly $20,000 (you start with $1000). Too bad it's not real money as that would pay for a lot of agility. Sort of adds to the "On the internet nobody knows you're a dog." saying. "On the internet nobody knows you're a person using your male dog's name with a chicken as avatar"(?)

Yoshi has rally class tomorrow

Mon Jun 25
Had today off for a lengthy Dr. appt in SF.
Worked more on their nails trying to get them more under control lengthwise. Took Yoshi to Lincoln Park to work on sitting/staying and tolerating other dogs walking by. Not that great at it, but certainly controlable, and when he has his outburst he seems to be ok. Odd duck. It's tricky as if I'm beyond his threshold it doesn't seem to be having any effect as he really doesn't register the dog unless we're closer. Then he really registers big time.

Trek also got a walk and met several neighbors.
Did doggy nails.

[Eve]
Mr. Y drew the line with Trek the theif over a kong. We broke it up but I think it's clear he wasn't going to hurt her. We crated both dogs but I let him keep the kong. Ms. Chutzpah steals everything from him and I'm only seen him take offense twice now. Once over a bully stick and now with a kong. So it appears that she can steal any toy she likes from him (and does unabashedly - just walks up and takes it right out of his mouth) but chewies and treat bearing kongs are higher value. Ironically this kong was empty but not long before it had held a treat.

Oh and what did Ms. Inflated Sense of Entitlement Trek do when Yoshi was charging and snarling? Ran away of course, but as soon as Terri got a hold of Yoshi, she tried to do an end run around them to get the kong - I caught her and crated her. The little instigator - next time I'll just let him go (ok, not really but it's tempting to let him make his point).

Sat/Sun
Something training wise occurred but I can't seem to remember what it was.

Fri Jun 22
No class for Trek today as it's my birthday and I'm going out with friends to Buca di Beppo.

Thu Jun 21
Trek's stool is much better now that I stopped giving her the chicken bits. Iron gut Yoshi will be thrilled as that means more for him.

I'll need to mail order some Red Barn as Trek seems ok with that.

Wed Jun 20
Yoshi Rally class. We were late as I was working late. 5 dogs this time (no BC). Yoshi did quite well. Barked a little when the Doberman took exception to the Chessie being too close, but we were fortunately relatively far away from them. He concentrated well even with the other dogs working nearby. On the sits and downs he was generally fine though was growly when Oliver the Cavalier walked in for the next class and he really didn't care for Archie, Barbara's Irish Terrier who also came in. During the sits and downs I kept him on a 5' leash and GL and kept a watch out for those entering. when I saw Zanna and Oliver approaching I knelts down beside Yoshi and held the leash close to the GL but didn't put any pressure on it. When he started to growl I pressed down on his back just to give him a clue that he should chill out. He never tried to break. I was right there with him so he may not have felt the overriding need to.

You know if he ever gets a handle on this self control issue he's going to be a very well trained dog. People often think he's so well trained and he is out of necessity. Then he turns into Kujo for a moment. Such a Mr. Hyde.

Trek has some diarrhea that comes and goes. Unfortunately I realized that it seems to be timed with my giving her the dried chicken. i remember now that a couple of months back if I gave her just chicken she would get the runs. It had to be chicken and some binder like potato.

Tue Jun 19
Worked with Trek a bit on the teeter with some dried chicken that I got from Western Farm. Oh now the teeter is no problem at all! I just have to learn to pay properly and then I will get results.

Mon Jun 18
Racheted up the teeter by one hole and Trek seems to be doing well on it. a little hesitant but not too bad.

Sun Jun 17
Herding day for Yoshi. He's such a maniac out there, but in the round pen I was able to get him to stop and sit which I find encouraging. We then put him in the larger pen and he was possessed and chasing sheep all over the place. When I finally caught up to him enough to grab the line we started working on stop then walk then stop then walk. After two cycles of this he took off at a dead run and I stepped on the line which twisted him round and he yipped and started limping. When I checked he had again torn a pad. Drat, game over this week. Joyce told him that he was just too fast, silly boy. Someone else called him "spirited" yeah that's one word for it. :)

Joyce gave me directions to Western Farm Supply in Santa Rosa and I went there to get some "Paw Guard" which softens conditions, but still toughens pads. They also had another product like it (I forget the name) so I picked up both to try since he has 4 paws anyway - I'll just two paws on one product and the other two on the other..

Next time (2 weeks from now) we're just going in with me holding the line and practice walk/stop/walk/stop.

Joyce also sold me a cheap plastic herding mouth whistle and showed me the basics of using it.
Now herding whistles have quite the reputation for being hard to play but if you've ever played a wind instrument (I have though only a little) or can whistle, you probably can figure out that the most important thing is that your tongue has to be lifted up towards the roof of your mouth to narrow where the air passes through (just like in a normal way you would whistle.) The second thing is that the air you're blowing has to then go through the two small holes in the whistle so you can't be blocking those holes. I had a sort of sound coming out of it in about 5 minutes and Joyce said that she hated me as it took her 2 weeks. By the end of the day (practicing in the truck without the dog around) I pretty much had a reliable high sound though a reliable lower pitch continues to elude me.

Sat Jun 16
Trek eye appt.
Her left eye tear production tested at a 4 which is still quite dry. Better than 2 but no where near the 15+ it should be. I had brought in all of her medication and we talked about the Cyclosporine again since the Tacrolimus doesn't seem to be really helping. Dr. Friedman put some in her eye to see her reaction and it was much better than before. It appears that the Tacrolimus has gotten her used to oil based drops, so we're going to give it a try. I was going to have them dilute it (with corn oil) but if Trek can tolerate it it will work better at full strength (2%).

So the new regime is (fortunately much simplified)

Neo/poly/dex 2x/day
Cyclosporine 3x/day
Artificial tears, I-drops, and Genteel as often as possible

Discontinue Tacrolimus, Pilocarpine, and the Optimmune (which is just 0.2% Cyclosporine).

Took Trek and Cooper to the dog park. Mark and Jan have been super busy these days so I arranged to wisk Cooper off to the small dog park with Trek and much fun was had by both. Trek is getting braver though if I can't see her I need to remember to look down at my feet as that's where she usually is when not romping.

After the park I took Cooper over to our place to have him and Yoshi spend quality time in the same room. (Post Yosh going back on Prozac.) When I got home Terri had left for errands so I had to contemplate how to do this as smoothly as possible. I left Trek and Cooper in the truck and went and got Yoshi and put him in the living room crate that he likes so much. Then I went and got Trek and Cooper and brought them in (with Cooper saying that he really didn't have time to come in and will just be right over here in Contra Costa county (the next one over). Nice try Coop get in here. When we walked into the living room, Yoshi didn't make a sound and he was rigid stiff and staring in the crate. Cooper was very carefully not looking at him. Trek waltzed right into the other crate and laid down to crash which was perfect as she's the complicating factor.

After a few minutes, I started to alternatively feed both Cooper and Yoshi and that made a huge difference and they both started to noticibly relax. After I ran out of the first set of treats I decided that it was a fine time to put something brain dead on the TV so we can all just chill out for a bit. First this on the screen was golf. Perfect! People talking in quieter tones and something I can tolerate for short periods. By about 20 minutes I'd had enough and got up and Cooper and I went to get some more treats (EVO kibble). I again alternated feeding them and all dogs were relaxed. I did not take Yoshi out of his crate as I wanted this to be a purely positive experence and I was still by myself and I wanted dog holding help for that. I think we're really getting somewhere.

Did get Yoshi to Briones Regional Park and it went much better than I thought it would. First of all the sightlines are mostly great except in the woods areas. I had him on his Gentle Leader with a longer leash and it worked great as he was mostly by my side which make walking him on a leash so much simpler.

Encountered 3 dogs (2 were together) and he of course objected to both, but was easily managable. This I expected. Ehat I didn't expect was that we went much further than I was planning on (3 miles) and Yoshi did fine (he's really tired now), and we at one time had to go through a cow pen at mile 2 with many cows scattered about and it didn't phase Yoshi a bit (either that or it completely intimidated him into shutting up. Cue: The Far Side dog thinking that he should lay of his usual barking frenzy in the face of a slavering alien.)

I think we should make a habit of walking in places with good sight lines.

Fri Jun 15
Trek agility class. This time I was able to get there on time (I took Trek to work which made all the difference), so this was her first full class and she did very well. She did get tired but she never wanted to stop and she's not as intimidated by the dogs. She's in the beginning class for this 6 week session and then we'll reevaluate where she should be.

She's fine with jumping at 12" as I tried that a few times. I think what I'm going to do is keep her mostly at 8" to work on doing things at speed then add the 12" jumps so that USDAA is not completely unfamiliar to her and so she can learn proper form as over 8" she doesn't have to be nearly as careful as at 12".

She's starting to get the idea of a start line stay (sort of) - though I don't emphasize it too much yet.

She's a little hesitant on a full height dog walk, but when we lower it she blasts over it so I don't think her hesitation will be long. She has her moments of not wanting to go in a tunnel until I toss a treat in and then suddenly it's completely fine. I did guide her over the teeter, but I'm not pushing it.

If there is a row of jumps she wants to go over one and then cut over to me. I have to crowd her to keep her "out" and away from me. Will work on "out" in a bit.

Maybe Briones Regional Park would be a good place to walk Yoshi since it's so open.

Wed Jun 13
Yoshi (and Mr. Giles) started a Rally class with Hazel today. There are 6 dogs total in the class. Yoshi and Giles are the ones from the competitve obedience drop in class, the other 4 are from the lesser experienced "Off leash control": class.

Hazel has structured the class as first working on the most common essential skills of the rally exercises and we'll be working on that for the first couple of sessions before introducing any of the signs/stations. So today was the start heeling with attention, and the stop and sit with variations and suggestions on how to work on it. She also had us do some footwork exercises without the dog. Things like an about turn is not a U turn and the like.

Behaviorally Yoshi and my management of him continue to improve. He was not without attempts at outbursts, but I've discovered that if I pull up steadily on the Gentle Leader (not jerking, but eventually his front feet leave the ground if he struggles) I essentially have an exasperated, muttering, somewhat flailing fish on the line. He's not choking like he would be if he were on a pinch collar (I really don't see the point of those at all anymore), yet he's not able to bark since the G/L has tightened. When he relaxes, I loosen up on the G/L. The feedback is immediate and seems more effective than a scruff shake or other correction.. I do tell him to leave it and if I know a sitimulus is going to happen at what I consider to be a distance that I think he can learn to handle I put him in a sit and tell him to stay and stand in front of him (while still keeping an eye on the stimulus). If he locks on with his eyes I tell him to leave it and stay. If he still stares I pull lightly on the G/L to redirect him to me. This works once by as soon as the dog takes another step he's usually back to staring and now wants to lunge. I put pressure on the lead and repeat leave it and stay. Sometimes this works. Other times he falls apart and I have a fish on the line.. What's great is that since I know how many dogs are in the class I can stay outside with him working on this and then we're the last to go in.

We also did sits and downs with the drop in class (our class is right before theirs). Yoshi did well though I had him segregated away and tethered him and put his calming cap on. Also during the breaks I put him in the communial crate that they have there which worked great. i should probably bring his but with only 6 dogs getting access to it should be pretty easy.

So all in all he did pretty well especially considering that a couple of the dogs are pretty squirmy. Though thankfully one of the other dogs is a Border Collie that Yoshi instantly liked.

Sat Jun 9
Yoshi had a follow up eye appt today and there's been no change in his eyes so it most likely is that it's something he was born with and it won't change. (Retinal Dysplaysia usually stabalizes where the dog is 1 or 2. They're going to have another look in 8 months and if there's been no change then he won't have to go back again. Dr Smith tells me to remind them to dialate his eyes as that makes the exam go smoother (they did this time).

Trek's eye appt is next week also on Saturday.

I've signed Yoshi up for a Rally class that's being held right before the drop in novice class. I need to remember to send in a $125 check.

I just talked to Joyce Shephard and the ranch won't be open tomorrow as they need to do major maintenance on one of the buildings. Next week is fine though and Joyce says we can put some mellow sheep in the PT arena to let Yoshi work there (after I let him burn off steam in the round pen).

Fri Jun 8
Trek Agility Class. Doggy's first agility class!
She was intimidated by all the dogs at first but she was able to concentrate enough to do some short courses.
She's fine with tunnels though sometimes goes in them and back out the way she went in. I'm not concerned as she's just experimenting with what works. Was a little hesitant on the dogwalk but clearly will be fine and quite willing to go along and eat up whatever treats I put on there for her. Some issues understanding that the tire there is the same as the one at home and you should just through the ring not between the ring and the support rope. Her jumping is great. All in all a very good beginning.

Rachelle was very sweet to comment that you can totally tell when someone has already trained an agility dog.
Now the issue is to figure out whether she should be in the beginning class or the intermediate one. She's probably closer to the intermediate one skillwise, but that class is more crowded. I'll have to write her and ask her which one.

Thu Jun 7
From a performance corgi's post I made:

Subject: spontaneous losing of teeter noise fear

(Now that's a convoluted subject line).

I'm about to write this up in the dogs' training diary and it made me
think that I bet others have similar stories...

I taught Trek on a wooden teeter and the one where she's going to be
taking classes, has a metal base that clangs some. So I borrowed an
adjustable height metal teeter and suddenly the normally very resilient
Trek is cringing at the clanging to the point of wanting to run and hide
(took me a while to figure out that it was the clanging that was
bothering her). Once I finally realized that it was the clanging I took
the teeter apart (as the last thing I want is teeter phobia) and took a
pipe of it and did a lot of clang, click, treat which she was not
thrilled with at all, but sometimes would hang around long enough to get
a yummy treat.

We did this some for about 3 days and then I took off on a 4 day Mt
Shasta trip and Trek stayed with friends. Now I'm back and I had a few
moments to work with her on the teeter yesterday and she seemed not to
be phased at all by clanging sounds, so I got brave and put the teeter
back together (some parts duct taped to mute it) and set it on the
lowest height.

Trek hopped right on the teeter with the attitude of: Let's get to it -
you've got the goods and I want 'em. I held the teeter board the first
few times to make sure it was quiet, and then started letting it make a
little noise. I was prepared to stop there but she jumped up on it
herself and ran to the contact just like she'd been doing it all along.
Marveling, I gave her a jackpot.

Anyone else's dog go through a spontaneous recovery? Trek was not
around a teeter at all while I was gone.

Ellen
and Yoshi and Trek

Posted with permission. A well thought out reply from Alisa:

I have found this almost to be the norm rather than an exception,
especially with Edgar who has more fear issues. I would invest all
this time in overcoming an anxiety to almost no apparent avail and
then, one day, the cure was complete. No intervening steps, just
utter anxiety to hey no problem. The other thing I have found is that
once the cure/learning comes, it's permanent.

I suspect the fact that dogs don't tell themselves stories has
something to do with this. When I was afraid of flying, I would sit
on the plane telling myself stories about how these things can fall
from the sky. Then, I did some biofeedback work to get over the
phobia and my story changed. I told myself how stable these things
were and what turbulence consisted of. I did my breathing.

What I was doing while phobic was reinforcing the fight/flight
chemistry of my brain. The fight/flight system was activated, I felt
fear, I explained the fear and reinforced it by telling myself scary
stories, which helped produce more scare-inducing brain chemicals. By
telling myself calming stories and doing my breathing, I activated
the parasympathetic system that calms and turns off the fight/flight
system. Because I can still tell myself a scary story from time to
time, I have to work the system to keep from getting scared again.
Dogs don't tell themselves stories, so they don't backslide.

With dogs, scary noise turns on fight/flight chemistry. Dog feels
fear, gets avoidant. We do counter-conditioning which isn't effective
at first because fear chemistry is still flooding system. Eventually,
the fear-producing nerual pathways established in response to
unfamiliar stimulus are overwhelmed by tasty food. Fear is simply
gone. The dog doesn't tell itself stories, so it doesn't remind
itself how this was once a scary teeter, but now, it's a food-
dispensing device and my bestest ever friend. It's just on or off.

Alisa
& Edgar (CWC)
& Poppy (CWC)
& Al (CWC)