Yoshi Training Diary - Feb. 2005

By Ellen Clary
(reverse date order)

Feedback is welcome:

Mon Feb 28
His sneezing is better.  Maybe he had a cold.
Taking him on a walk to see if his lawn diving makes it worse.
It didn't.

Sun Feb 27
still sneezing but improving.

Sat Feb 26
still sneezing

Fri Feb 25
Woke us up with a dramatic bout of snorting that had Terri grabbing clothing to race to the emergency room.  I'd seen just enough snort fests with Cali that I want to see if this one would subside on its own.  It did eventually after a long 45 seconds to 1 min. and it wasn't like a typical corgi backwards sneezing fit.  Gave him a Benedryl to see if that helps.  It did and he slept through the night with only the occasional sneeze.  It's seems likely the poor dear has allergies rather than something jammed up his nose.

[morning] Called the vet and we'll take him in later today.

[after vets] Saw Cathy Wydner.  After examining him it definitely seems like he has allergies rather than something up his nose.  She says that Benedryl (25mg) is fine to give him.

Thur Feb 24
He's sneezing a lot.  I fear the lawn diving is having an effect.

Wed Feb 23
Went for a walk at noon where he was constantly lawn diving trying to get the Gentle Leader off.

Took him to class and had classmates give him treats while in hats.  He was fine.  So it's more to do with folks he doesn't know.

Tues Feb 22
Obedience class.  [add notes here]
Just the 3 small dogs today and he's much more relaxed.
They got out the agility equipment and we all had fun though he didn't want to do the tunnel.  I put Terri at one end and she called him through and he did it.  They also had a mini dog walk, tire, jump, and a ladder on the ground.


Mon Feb 21
Walk

Sun Feb 20
Took him on a run/walk, so he's nicely tired now.  He growls and barks at many of the passing dogs though we're working a lot on "leave it" and using his Gentle Leader when we're done with running and are just walking, but I think we'll need to hang out somewhere where there's lots of dogs walking by to give him practice.  Though I think I would like to do this at an agility or obedience trial where the dogs are relatively well behaved.  Or maybe the small dog park (after he's tired - in fact maybe I'll do that now).  He's also reacting to hats now.  I've taken to stopping folks with hats that he's leary of and having them feed him.  Maybe I'll have agility class wear hats to see if that makes a difference.

So we did go to the park and then after that met up with Rosie the corgi that he had a disagreement a week ago.
Got to the park and there was maybe one small dog and looked like some good possibilities in the regular dog park so we went in that direction.  He had regained some energy so I was going to let him run around some, but in the entrance he started growling and barking at another dog, so I said "bummer" to him and walked back out,  Outside I put his gentle leader on him, and we proceeded to watch other dogs walk into the park.  He barked at the first 3 and I told him to leave it and put pressure on the GL (you really shouldn't jerk hard on it), but then he started to gradually chill out, and by the fifth dog he was pretty good.  So as a reward I let him go in and play and get really tired,  A couple of times I leashed him as he was being too much of a brat and we spent the last few minutes at the park doing some basic obedience (here, sit, watch me)

Now that he was tired, I was going to take him to our downtown area just to socialize, but on a whim called Patricia, Rosie's mom, and we had the two of them meet on neutral ground near her house.  They were intially fine with each other but Yoshi was reacting to other dogs just passing by on their walks, so I put his Gentle Leader on him.  Rosie didn't appear to like it on him at all and later lunged at him and Patricia promptly got on her case and told her that wasn't ok.  We did some walk bys and then since it appeared to be the GL that was bothering her, I took it off him.  We did some more and they interacted a little and Rosie rolled him (in mostly play - but play with a message if you will).  Then after a little bit longer it became  abundantly clear that Yoshi really didn't want anything more to do with her.  He would see something in the distance (real or imagined) and would start heading for it.  He also wouldn't look at or acknowledge her and only showed her his backside (can you say "calming signal"?).  Rosie in turn started ignoring him, so we decided to stop as having them resort to ignoring each other was not a bad solution, not wonderful, but fair enough.  We will do this again and see what transpires.  One possible complicating issue is that Rosie is possessive of people as well as food so she may be trying to stake a claim on me as she was thrilled when I put him away in the truck.  Very much fawning for my attention (nice try Rosie - I tried to resist rewarding her with very much attention - which is always tough.)

Sat Feb 19
Agility with Cali.  He got to hang with Terri.  They did some obedience practice.

Fri Feb 18
Still happy to do the contact trainer a few times.
Worked on some recalls and table.  It's interesting that he wasn't thrilled about doing a recall close to the weave poles even though we didn't work on them at all.

Thur Feb 17
At lunch took him over the contact trainer about 4 times.  Then he realized that it got him a smidge closer to the squirrels so he did it by himself twice.  Fine with me.

Wed Feb 16
Took him to agility class.  I showed them part of a discussion we're having on our owners mailing list about Yoshi.  They were joking about him being an ADD dog but a variation.  It's like he'll think something is fun for a week or two and then get bored of it.  Though I told them that he did well yesterday.

Arlene mentioned that once Scully (mixed breed) learned an obedience exercise she didn't see the point in continuing to do it so Arlene  deliberately wouldn't practice.  When Scully got her CDX they hadn't practiced in a year(!)

Debbie still thinks that Yoshi is pretty typical for a corgi teenager and that he'll be ok when he matures.  Gail thinks so too but said that keeping the training sessions short and happy should help.

He did well watching class.  In fact seems to like watching class.  This time I didn't even have him in a crate just tied to a pole with Cali.
Took him over to see the sheep and llamas in the adjacent pasture.  This time he seemed more interested.

Tues Feb 15
Obedience class.  It was raining quite hard (by California standards) and this helped cut the numbers down in class so we only had 6 dogs instead of 10 or so and that was much nicer.  The 2 dogs that seem to make him the most nervous (an Am Staf and a very hyper Boxer puppy) weren't there which helped.  I also put his Gentle Leader on him.  He was fantastic.  Paid attention to Terri.  Responded well to commands.  Seemed interested in working.  Though over time got resistant to going down.

Details.  He did well on sit/stay still needs more work on down/stay though he is better than he used to be. 
Instructor introduced marker words or clicker, and intermittent rewards, and raising criteria.
Discussed how laying down is a good leadership exercise, - can do when watching tv, paying bills, working on computer, etc.  Consider using "wait" instead of "stay" for these and maybe give them a mat to lay on so they have a place.

Practiced greeting behavior - sit instead of jumping up.  He did very well at this.
Hand touch.  Treat no longer in hand but the reward can come from the other hand now.

Leave it demo.  The instructor Elizabeth just brought out a large puppy for a demo.  Yoshi looks a little worried but did ok.

Walking at side.  He did great.  Walk out and then turn around and go back.
Then walk forward and then sit.  The little dogs are much better at this but that's hardly fair since 2 of the little dogs have experienced owners.  Walk in a straight line - casual heeling.  For Yoshi this is "close" (if it were on the right side it would be "side")  He did find but he's starting to get stressed and shutting down some.  Fortunately we don't have much time left.

He's watching a large dog named Max(ine) quite carefully.  She's enthusiastic, but under control.

Front.  He's doing well with this.  Though when Terri lowers her hands to try to entice him closer he thinks she means down and goes down.  (Good boy.)  I mentioned this to Terri later.

Walking briskly.  He's working better now.  (Something different I suppose).  He sits when they stop and when he's not distracted (which does happen once in a while.)

Next week: desensitizing to collar pressure - get them used to hand touching the collar (good timing as we're working on that a lot right now).  Also "give" when playing with a favorite toy.  I spoke to Terri about not emphasizing this too much since we're working on his confidence level.

Sat Feb 12
We had a frapfest today at Patricia's.  Yoshi and Cooper played and played and had a blast.  Yoshi and Rosie didn't do as well as he was being too in her  face and she turned on him and he didn't backdown and a loud, but no blood drawn fight ensued that we had to break up.  This was not the first time today for Rosie, but Yoshi really does have to learn how to play nicer with other dogs who may not appreciate his usual play intensity, or he will get hurt one day.

Wed Feb 9
Worked with him some at lunch on the contact trainer, as the break from training agility seems to have done him well.
I need to remember to keep the sessions short and happy.  The trick will be to figure out how to start putting a criteria on his contacts again.  Fortunately he's going slow enough that he's not jumping off.

Playing a lot with him where I grab his collar (been doing that a few days now) so he doesn't shut down as much when I try and lead him around with it.

Cali has agility class tonight.  Have to decide if I will be bringing him or not. (I did).

Tues Feb 8
Obedience class.  He was a little testy when dogs would walk fast by him.
The instructor had half the dogs sit in a circle while the others walked around them.  He was fine as a walker but he hated sitting in the center.  It will probably be useful for me to think of him as a Border Collie obsessed with controlling motion.  (dogs, squirrels - odd that it doesn't really extend as much to toys.)

In class they are working on stays (sit and down), and introduced front and stand, and added distance to "here."
Bring a long line to class next time.

Mon Feb 7
Cathy brought Jessie over and he and Jessie played for hours.  Too fun.

Sun Feb 6
No more barfing.
Went snowshoeing (well he didn't).

Sat Feb 5
Barfed this morning, but doesn't seem to be ill at all afterward.

Had him do the dogwalk a couple of times.  He's ok with it as long as I don't put much pressure on him or do very many reps.

Got brave and took him to the dog park where he ran and ran with his friend Jessie.

[this week]  Terri works with him on sitting beside her and it seems to be improving.

Tues Feb 1
More laying down toy tug (me laying down on the bed).  He's quite strong when he wants to be.  Had a cartoon moment when the part of the toy that he was tugging on came loose and he shot backwards a ways.  He came right back though.

Class.  Seemed to do fine.  Hesitant about sitting at Terri's side so Elizabeth (teacher) suggested having him by a wall.




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Yoshi Training Diary - Feb 2005
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