Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - May 2007
By Ellen Clary
(reverse date order)
Feedback is welcome: 
Fri May 11
Class with Lori today. I think I'm just going to bring
Yoshi today so I can focus on him. Maybe in the future I can
cajole Terri into coming to the Wed class too and having Trek with
her. When my attention is split I don't learn as much even though
temperment wise he may be better.
Thu May 10
Terri's back this evening phew.
Walked Trek over to the vet's to pick up a refill of one of her eye
medications. She did pretty well on loose leash walking going
there but was worse about it going back and the noise of the street
makes her a little freaky. Need to do more of this. I
usually walk her on the fairly quiet streets near our house so I think
we're going to have to deliberately walk her along busier streets to
get her used to the noise level. There was one time where
something surprised her and she tried to run out into the street.
Good thing she's on a martingale collar and can't slip out of it.
KFOG's "Kaboom" fireworks celebration is this Saturday. I'm
thinking I should take Trek over to Bladium to watch it so she can get
some exposure to fireworks from a distance. Fortunately Yoshi
does well around fireworks but if Trek is frightened it might make him
think there's something to be frightened of.
Left a message for Dr. Applegate to call me (she's not in today).
Wed May 9
Terri had to run up to her mom's in Redding so for obedience
class I took both dogs which worked out far better than I thought it
would. First of all Patricia was there with Mr. Giles and was
very helpful when I would run out of hands, but even so I think I could
have made it work (albeit much more awkwardly). Yoshi is actually
noticibly calmer with Trek around, and wasn't over protective of
her. When the class started working on off leash recalls, I put
Yoshi in the crate and got Trek out which was a blast (she has a rocket
recall) and Yoshi was totally fine in the crate watching.
I had them both do a down with me sitting right beside them.
Yoshi was not being a freaky boy (despite there being a roomful of dogs
since the sits and downs are combined with the previous class) and
seemed reassured having Trek and I right next to him.
Trek was of course irked at being in a crate while Yoshi was having fun, but finally acquiesced.
Maybe I'll take both to Lori's class on Friday. Or maybe not - it's a lot of work managing both of them
Zanna made me laugh as she told me that my dogs were too skinny.
This is half in jest and half in amazement as they are half the size
of corgis she's familiar with. The dogs seemed thrilled to
hear it though honestly they don't yet know the "We're starving"
pathetic look that so many corgis excel at.
--
We've run out of one of Trek's eye medications and Animal Eye Care was
able to just call it in to Park Centre, which is really nice since the
Eye place is 45 minutes away.
Tue May 8
Took Trek for noontime walk and then later she went with me to a bookclub meeting.
Forgot to call Dr. Applegate - need to remember to do that tomorrow.
First altercation happened between the two dogs today. Yoshi was
investigating something behind one of the crates and Trek walked up to
see if she could steal whatever it was (her usual M.O.) Well this
time he objected (never has yet even when he would be plenty justified
in obecting) and she didn't want to back down (she normally is such a
peacemaker but she thinks he's there to be pushed around.) Anyway
there was a loud disagreement though not much contact though it took
some effort for us to separate them. I wish I had had the
presence of mind to watch them more carefully during this fight as I
would have learned a lot and they are unlikely to hurt each other (not
that I would let it continue but I wish I had a better mental picture
of what happens - like when I accidentally videotaped Cali and Reno
getting into a fight and we could tell only in slow motion that Cali
sort of started it, and Reno wasn't being a complete loon.)
Oh and the hidden treasure? A bully stick that had accidentally
rolled off the top of the crate (they are never intentionally left
out.) So I know what Yoshi will defend as he completely tolerates
Ms Entitlement Trek stealing toys right out of his mouth. (If I
were a dog I wouldn't put up with that.)
We crated both dogs to let the adrenalan ease off. About 15-20
minutes. Though you do have to be careful as the brain is aroused
for hours (actually days - so I've heard though I've never observed
such a thing - in my experience dogs get over such encounters pretty
quickly - I think grudge holding is more with dogs who truely
hate each other.)
Mon May 7
Popcorn catch. Oh what fun - popcorn has more hang time so
the dog has a better chance of catching it. Yoshi is getting it and
caught 6 dropping popcorn - his vision is clearly fine. It still
bounces off Trek's nose.
While sitting on the sofa clicked Yoshi for eye contact. Once
downside to using a scruff shake to get him to desist when trying to
charge a dog is that I've been staring right in his eyes when I do
it. This may make it more effective, but he's now hesitant to
look in my eyes for long. Aloff takes pains to not be staring at
a dog when she's shaking their collar or scruff, though when she's
guiding the dog to look at her she looks at them.
Took both dogs on separate walks. Praticed backing up for both
(well I back up and they turn to follow). Didn't see any dogs on
Yoshi's walk. Yoshi is really getting the backing thing
down. Trek is a little puzzled by it, but is getting it.
Sat Sun May 5-6
Aggression seminar with Brenda Aloff without dogs. I did
volunteer Yoshi and they thought about it but they already had 3 dogs
so after Brenda and I talked for 20 minutes or so her feeling was that
we had so much support in the Bay Area she wasn't sure that beyond the
foundation steps that she outlined in the seminar she could be much
additional help.
The foundation steps she went through are very worth while and it will
give us something to work on for at least a couple of months or
more. Certainly one of her resocialization groups has been
meeting for over 18 months Though Yoshi is not nearly as much a
threat as those dogs are or were. Granted he barks and wants to
lunge at some unknown dogs, but he's little and easy to control if he's
on leash or fenced in and he doesn't aggress towards people at
all. In short, he's a pain in the ass, not a threat to society.
What's going to be tricky about this online diary is something I
haven't run into before. The current material though she's talked
about it a lot is not yet published and won't be for another 3 months
or so, so I'm going to have to be deliberately vague but give enough so
that I know what I'm working on with him.
So in short, basic skills that any dog should have are
- eye contact (like 15 seconds and more)
- back away (walking dog on leash: handler backs up, dog turns and follows)
- calm down with a physical cue like rubbing their body or massage or T-Touch
- willingness to be restrained as a boundary setting exercise
hand under chin
hands holding collar or head collar or muzzle if needed
hands/arms on each side of head to keep the dog focused on you
body wrap or T-Shirt with ace bandage and/or calming cap
optionally a body rope underneath their tummy
She also suggested very short term Xanax for stressful situations in
Yoshi's case. Her point being that the Prozac and the Shen Calmer
did help and seem to have retatined their benefit beyond the time he
was taking them, now it just seems he needs help with not stressing.
She talked as well about getting the dogs out of using their primitive
reactive non-listening non-learning brain (I'm changing all the terms
away from hers) to using their cortex. The thinking, reasoning,
teachable brain.
I have reams more material but I'm not sure how much detail I should go
into. Her new book will be both a book and a DVD and will likely
be terrific.
I can however talk about my impressions and what I got out of it.
First of all she's quite entertaining and funny in that direct
mid-western style. she's also completely willing to drag you up
on stage to show you the answer to your question. This happened
to me twice and I received compliments (?) on what a good dog and good
sport I was. (Good thing I'm now comfortable in front of a crowd.)
Her methods now very much involved a lot of very gentle compulsion
(negative reinforcement such as collar pressure and physical
pressure). She was a clicker trainer, but she says she found that
she was looking for something that would work on nearly all dogs and
she couldn't get there with just R+ clicker training. I know a
host of folks who would disagree, but the subtext was more she was
looking for something that would work for nearly all owners and there
is resistance to learning the skills of clicker training and that's
hard to agrue with. It takes a lot of skill to develop good
clicker timing and that's without trying to care for small children at
the same time. I've had it drilled into me that touch inhibits
learning, but that hasn't been my experience and honestly I can't help
myself from touching and guiding my dogs. Yoshi in particular
likes it. With Trek I think I'll get more progress with the
target stick instead, though she likes touch also.
The timing of this all is very fortuitous, as I've been slowly coming
to the conclusion that Yoshi wants more physical guidance.
Clicker training involves marking the desireable choices a dog makes in
hopes that the undesired choices will extingusih due to lack of
reinforcement. However, Yoshi's reactivity is stress motivated
and also self reinforcing since the stressor usually goes away
(independent of his reaction, but he doesn't know that.) Trish
noticed that he wants to do the rewardable thing but is still compelled
to react. I'm thinking that the more I can guide him through
getting through a dog sighting without having a semi-meltdown the more
he will see that he has other choices and nothing bad happened.
Xanax or other calming agent may help with this. The advantage of
Xanax is that it is intended to keep the person/animal taking it
functional as opposed to knocking them out. I do have some other
herbal calming stuff, but it makes him sleepy due to the valerian in
it. Shen Calmer would help up to a point, but it didn't prevent
him reacting to dogs. Brenda's thinking it's likely time to go
for the heavier guns since this problem has proved to be so intractable.
I called one of my vets (Dr Wydner) about it and she said in a return
message that she'd like me to talk to Dr. Applegate as she had one of
her own dogs on it for a very short term. Dr. Applegate will be
back in on Tues.
[Time out for a little excitment, Yoshi surprised a juvenile possum in
the yard and was chasing it (sort of) around the outside of the
tunnel. I could tell he was onto something by his trotting back
and forth movement - herding dogs can be so indirect - but I was
surprised when the possum appeared on the other side of the
tunnel. Fortunately I was immediately able to catch the dogs and
I don't think Trek ever saw it so she never had the chance to add to
her hunting repetoire.]
After I got back on Sunday I took Yoshi out in the yard just on a
regular collar to see how he would do with backaway. We'd walk on
a leash and then I would start backing up. He'd immediately turn
and follow like he'd been doing it all along. After some
repetitions, I couldn't think of anything else we could accomplish in
the yard so we went out on the driveway (thus moving ahead by months in
comparison to Brenda's class.) In the driveway, I could see a
difference in his [lack of] composure. He was immediately
scanning for threats. I had put his gentle leader on by now and I
turned him towards me and knelt down and held him by the collar with
both hands on each side of his head. Every time he tried to look
left or right I moved his head back to looking at me. The clicker
folks wouldn't like not having a choosing, thinking dog but I don't
think he's thinking much anyway beyond stressing and he's been
reinforced for months for focusing on me and we're still having
issues. I think he wants to be shown what it is we want him to be
like.
After some time in the driveway with me rubbing his body and
redirecting his staring he seemed to relax so since I'm a bit foolish
and because I know I can control him, we then went on a walk.
Every so often I would stop and back up (I couldn't resist stamping my
feet a little) and he would turn and follow. Things were going
great when a dog appeared right as we were crossing the street. I
got him to the other side (the dog was on the side we were leaving) and
he was already having something of a tantrum (muted by pressure on the
gentle leader). On the other side of the street I got ahold of
his collar and wrestled with him about looking at me and not lunging
and barking at the other dog. By about the fifth time of trying
he relented, I praised him, but I didn't let go of him till the dog was
past.
Brenda says (and I've heard this before) that it takes 6000 repetitions
to make a new neural pathway. Only 5999 to go. Actually
we've sort of been already doing this so maybe it's just 5950 to go.
Fri May 4
Prepping for a Brenda Aloff seminar in Novato. Also
tomorrow after the Sat session I'll go up to Petaluma to pick up a
teeter base from Ellen Finch.
Thu May 3
I have some Red Barn food (like Natural Balance) and while the
beef flavor has wheat in it. It does not have rice or corn so I'm
going to try it with Trek (and Yoshi can have it too.)
Did some basic work with the target stick with Trek (she remembers last
session) and intro'd sit on my right side. She's starting to get
it, but wants to leave her butt sticking out, but the target stick
really helps with positioning. (Beats manually positioning her
which completely distracts her and makes her either want to chew on me
or roll on her back for a belly rub.
Did some more work on the tunnel with both dogs. That was amusing
and fun especially when both dogs would go in the tunnel and emerge in
a different order from which they started. Yoshi's being a good
little helper about this (well of course he's getting paid in Red Barn
so that may have something to do with it.
Still about the same with the back door bell. "Do you want to go
outside?" They look at the door intently, but don't make the leap
to press the button until I repeat myself and point out the
button. They will eventually especially if I make a point of
being slow to the door. :)
Trek's eye medication regime may be helping. Ironically, the one
that seems to help the most makes her vomit as the 2 drop dosage in her
food per meal so she's getting 1 drop instead. (I was warned this
might happen.)
Wed May 2
Dog training interrupted by gathering information for a lawyer
for setting up an estate.
The dogs coped well by wrestling and we tried Yoshi's new shirt on
him. It's a dog shirt that I got from Dog Bone Alley (will get a
photo of it) and he looks really silly in it but fashion is not the
goal.. The idea is that a snug fitting shirt seems to help make a
dog (or a human for that matter) feel more secure and can calm
them. He was certainly more subdued with it on but I think that
was mostly because he's not used to it. His coat is so thick that
he hardly needs one. Fortunately, he's been blowing coat so it's
not awful for him and we tried it in the evening.. We'll have to
see how this goes. Maybe I'll have him do obedience class in it
(oh the ridicule he'll have to endure from the other dogs.) Hey
tough guy Nyay nyay nyay.
The shirt is cute though. It's sleeveless and looks like a
motorcycle shirt and says "West Coast Chompers."
Tue May 1
Doing basic sequences with Trek. Jump-tunnel-tire, and the
reverse. Introduced calling her over a jump: jump-tunnel, and
back to the jump. She ran past the jump to get to me the first
couple of times until I placed myself directly on the other side of the
jump.
Tonight I was working on some paperwork for an estate that Terri and I
are going to be setting up. I'm making out these elaborate
instructions for the dogs, but do I know where my overvalued Bay Area
house should go if Terri isn't around to have it? Why, of course
not. Priorities you know, never mind that I will likely outlive
the dogs.
Trek is really starting to catch onto the screaming monkey
backdoor bell and the idea that if she wants to go out, that is where
she should go. She hasn't quite yet started pressing it without
being asked "Do you want to go outside?" But that clearly won't
take long and our lives will never be the same once that happens.
Yoshi even noses at it now but is still too tentative to set it off.
I've decided that I've gone as far as I want to go with the contact
trainer with Trek, so I'm going to donate it back to the Bayteam to
re-raffle it (I had won it in a Bayteam raffle a while back so it's
only proper that it go back to them since with any luck I won't have to
train a dog to it any time soon.)
Sun Apr 29
- Yoshi herding day. I kept him on the long line and
worked on stop. If he stopped he got to herd more. If he
didn't stop them I stepped on the line.
- Melted freeways and evasive action. A tanker fire took out 2
connector ramps one of which is how we got home so I got to
refamiliarize myself with various surface street work arounds that I
used to use a lot before the 880 freeway was rebuilt post Loma Prieta
earthquake. Even with relatively light traffic and evasive action
it still took 2 hours to get back from Santa Rosa (normally 1:15)
- Yoshi pad abrasion from last herding run. He's limping, but
fortunately just an abrasion, not a torn pad. He had somewhat of
a collision with a sheep on the last run and the resulting abrupt stop
might have done it.
- Adapted screaming monkey toy to be doggy backdoor bell and clicker
trained Trek to press it. This is hard to explain but NPR was
talking about the Maker Faire and adapting toys for purposes that they
were never intended. Which got me wondering if there's anything
we have that I could use as a dog doorbell. Then I remembered the
screaming monkey that has never really made it into the dog toy
rotation yet probably because it's a little obnoxious. What a
perfect dog doorbell. The manufacturers were nice enough to make
the noisemaker (a small box with some very simple electronics inside
and a speaker and a pushbutton switch) easy to remove from Mr.
Monkey. I had to take the springs out to make it easier to press,
as it was intended to be chomped not nose pressed. and then I
taped it to the door. When I think of something less tacky than
duct tape I'll take photos.
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Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Apr 2007
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