Yoshi and Trek Training Diary

By Ellen Clary
(reverse date order)

Feedback is welcome:
Frap.org
Our You Tube Video Archive is here
For the human's blog see: The Non-Dog Blog
Non-Dog Blog Table of Contents


Sun Feb 7
I went skiing in the morning, but was back by late afternoon. (Yes, really.).

I'm dead sure her paw favoring is because her nails are too long.  It's her middle two toes of her right front paw.  So we spent time doing her nails again (last time was 2 days ago0 and will need to revisit it again.  Of course this amount of attention to the foot makes the soreness all the worse and she's restless for much of the night which makes me completely convinced that something else is wrong, but this morning and at lunch she's tearing around the yard with Yoshi, so we're going to call it even and I'm going to call it even for how and keep an eye on it.

Even with getting the same food and amount as Yoshi, she's still ravenous in the morning and was chewing on the wood step that we built recently.  (Hmphf.)  So this morning I opened up the pumpkin can and gave her two spoonfuls (which she chomped right down) and we'll see what her system does with it.

Yoshi Walk
One repeated dog sighting.
This dog was an older Aussie walking very slowly with his/her human mom or caretaker and human 2 year old (who is walking and is the speed control here) and stroller.  If there was someone completely ill-equiped to deal with a reactive dog I think we've just seen it, so we keep our distance and let them walk by.  We continue on our walk and I realize that at the pace we walk we're likely to seem them again as we near the end of our walk.  Sure enough there they are.  We stop again and let them turn on our path, but walking away.  We let them get 1/2 a block ahead and cross to the same block.  I'm thinking this is going to be the world's slowest walk home (I don't want to go across the street because I really don't want Yoshi barking at them) so I decide that following them is good for Y anyway.  Luck was with us and they turn on on Johnson so we are able to wander on by with them only 3 houses away and not even a growl from Yoshi which is very nice to see and hear.

Sat Feb 6
Trek walk.  I was hoping to get her out in the rain but it stopped before we had a chance to get out there.  However there were puddles and debris aplenty which she's fine with.  She's definitely favoring her right foot some.  I'll have to keep an eye on her to see if I should try to take her to Power Paws.  She's never favored a foot there (grass field) and has done so twice on the dirt surface at Sharon's.

We were nearly home (On Gibbons at Johnson) when she started to drag me.  When she does that I usually stop her long enough to see/hear what odd thing is going on.  3 houses down Johnson, some kids are playing basketball (sort of).  Ball bouncing sounds tend to make her very tense, because the bouncing is not continuous (these are young kids), we stay stopped and I just start feeding Trek.  She'll eat and start to walk away.  I do nothing.  After she hits the end of the leash and nothing happens, she'll come back and eat more and walk away again.  I do nothing.  Repeat a few more times and she stops trying to leave.  Then we moved a bit further down Gibbons and she relaxes.  The sound is still there but much less.

Yoshi - Dog Park TV
It's been a long time since we were at the dog park and given that it was just raining the odds of finding dogs in the neighborhood are poor and I want to get an idea of what he's like in/around the dog park environment.

We pull up to the small dog park, but there a 4 small dogs running around like frenzied prey, so I change my mind and move us to a more central location in the parking lot and then I carry him to the other side of the park outside the fence.  There are not a lot of dogs at the park and I'm noticing that because of the mucky ground dogs aren't running around a whole lot.  So feeling brave I actually take him into the park (on leash)

Can you say stressed swivel-head?  The one good thing is that he's not losing his mind.  He barks and lunges at a couple of dogs running by, but was surprisingly fine about three different dogs that walked right up to him.  We walked away in each case and the dogs went away (with owner encouragement.)  One very interesting thing is that he barked and lunged at a Sheltie on the other side of the fence (where he usually is).  I'm not quite sure how to interpret that one.  The dog was moving and not paying attention to him and Yoshi was way stressed.

After one circuit around I took him out of the park and we walked a circuit around the outside and his stress level went way down.  He was even able to watch a couple of dogs walk along the fence without reacting.  We were 15 of my paces away which is only around 50 feet so that tolerance has shrunk.  I let him greet a couple of small dogs through the fence which he did well at (probably wouldn't of done as well before the walking.)  Though as soon as the dogs started to run he wanted to chase them.

It all comes down to motion.  Everything is about motion and wanting to control it.  At least he doesn't feel this applies to bikes, and cars as some Border Collies do (and what gets many of them killed).  Fortunately with his herding training he is learning how to channel and cope the drive better.  And with the herding training I don't feel as bad about depriving him of chasing dogs.  He needs to learn that dogs are not stock, so more dog park work would be good.

The we retreated to the car and I moved the car closer so we could see the park easily, and we just watched the activity for about 20-30 minutes while I listened to an audiobook.  He could relax with the door shut.  When the door was open he was very watchful, occasional guttural growling, but not reactive.  If a dog he was likely to react to came near, I shut the door and the less noise and wind made a very real difference.  Sometimes I experiment with the amount that a window is open but I didn't this time (this is one bummer about electric windows - you have to have the ignition on for them to work.

Fri Feb 5
Trek is getting good enough at tolerating having her teeth brushed with the Winnie the Pooh electric toothbrush that I think we should make a You Tube movie of it but it's not something I can do myself given the changing angles of the dog's head and that I need both hands anyway to do the toothbrushing.  It's so much easier with an electric one as you just have to get the brush to the right spot and the brushing happens.

Yoshi is less thrilled with the process and prefers the brush off still, but he can sort of cope.

The Perpetual Dog-Stalking Yoshi Walk
3 dog sightings.  All of these were on Central Ave.  First one was a medium sized Golden going at medium speed coming towards us on our side of the street. Perfect.  the dog is one block down so we walk up to the side street and go down it, but this time only about 1/2 of a house length down.  The dog appears and Y does a guttural growl so we retreat to 3/4 and I see him relax.  But I don't know if it was the distance that made him relax as the other dog crossed the street (Central) and is moving away.

Back to Central.  We see two small poodles (?) moving slowly  across the street.  The small one is barking at us and Yoshi returned a bark as they passed and then he stopped.  I put a hand on him and in a calm voice said "You have to stop"  not sure if it made a difference as once again his stress level dropped after they passed.

We walk further down Central and turn around to go back down it (since we see the most dogs on Central), and we come to a screeching halt as the owner of the two small poodle-like doggies has crossed Central to talk to someone and they are only 4 houses away.  No reaction from any of the dogs.  Everyone is stopped.  I inch us to 3 houses away.  Still no reaction.  We play LAT for a while as I'm finding this fascinating  The dogs all see each other and no one is reacting at all.  Small barky one sees us but doesn't really stiffen or anything.  Yoshi is watchful but not horribly stiff.  I debate going closer but the owner is not in good control and not paying attention and the dogs would react if we got closer so we opt to turn around again where we see the third dog right behind us.  We would have been penned but the dog (a Springer)  crosses Central and moves on and Yoshi never reacted but I could have sworn that he saw the dog about a house width and a half away.  But the dog never approached just crossed our path.

Trek Agility Class
Well Princess Dog is back.  Sigh.  She's just not that interested in working beyond a few minutes.  Last time she was favoring her right front foot and that may again be an issue.  One thing is that I probably should get her in better shape than she needs to be for agility.  That would help he body tolerate the stresses better.  While it wasn't a factor today, she quits very easily and I might take her out into the heat more and hike longer distances - her life has always been go out in the yard and run around with her brother (either real brother or Yoshi) and then go laze around.  It could be as simple as her nails are too long and I had just done her nails before class, but they're really not short enough so she may have jammed a toenail.  Maybe after some rest, I should start taking her running.  She might really like that for a little distance.

Probably should have Ziji take a look at her next time Ziji is at Sharon's.

Of course this all happens right before she's entered at Turlock next weekend, so we'll just have to see how it's goes.



I've been thinking of a new CU practice session that we could do:

Evasive Action: The Art of the Retreat

We can practice
 - U turns
 - 90 turns down side streets
 - driveway retreats
 - combinations

The one playing the other dog can be
 - directly approaching
 - obliquely approaching
 - following
 - appear suddenly


SU_Dogs_SF post

Yoshi is calming down enough that I have the space to notice details I never did before.

I used to think it was the breed of the dog.  Now I'm not so sure.  What seems to matter the most is the body position and speed of the dog.

Fast dog - often a reaction
Slow dog - much less
Stopped dog - just about none unless something about the nonverbal communication is a factor

Body position
Head down and relaxed  - not much reaction
Head and tail up and body tense - much more likely to get a reaction from him

Dog is slinking with "Please don't hurt me" on his forehead almost always gets a reaction.

But the number one factor remains dog approaching.  But today I had a dog approaching slow and he was ok and dog approaching barking and he was less than thrilled.


Thu Feb 4
With impending dread I see that Yoshi got into the Southern Calif Corgi herding trial for April 10-11.

Yoshi Walk.  No dogs but a some interesting things.  He barked at a slow moving, larger than average size older man who was pacing and smoking outside a house.  There's a man of similar size (and even wears a hat) who he often walks past and doesn't react to though he keeps an eye on him. At first glace I couldn't tell if Cigarette Smoking Man had a dog with him and that may have prompted the reaction.

He did not react to
 - a woman walking with a shopping bag.  He looked very carefully at her though and I let him because I wanted to watch his reaction.
 - a darker woman walking directly at him though in this case I moved him over as don't like him to react to people.

And the most amazing one that Trek would have freaked about.
 - a working cherry picker doing tree trimming along with loud limb grinder.  We had to wait for a safe moment to pass and negotiate around some trimmed limbs.  He did great, even if he didn't like picking his way through limbs

Trek Walk.  While sprinkling.  She was a good sport about this but wanted to hurry so we hustled.  Earlier did some work on left and right with my throwing a toy that she likes to retrieve.  Pretty basic approach.  Walk in a straight line, turn my body in the direction I wanted her to go it and toss the toy while saying the direction and extending my arm (the one that's throwing the toy.  I used either arm as I'd like either hand to work.  She would retrieve the toy and earned a treat when she handed it to me.



Jennifer wrote up a nice summary of Grisha Stewart's BAT (Behavioral Adjustment Training) approach and seminar that she had at Marin Human Society.  BAT is a less stressful alternative to CAT that also uses distance as a reward, but the difference is that the reactive dog is the one that gets to retreat and increase the distance, and she works at or below threshold, but tries not to cross it.  Jennifer was noticing that her dog didn't want to turn his back on a trigger.

I wrote:
Thanks for the summary Jennifer,

You say that  your dog worries about retreating, but that lateral movement seems to do better.
I've been experimenting with retreat options in Yoshi's Training Diary and I have found that Yoshi had to learn to trust that a retreat was going to involve the trigger going away or lessening.  Yoshi is less fearful of dogs than Murphy is and he (Yoshi) is more of a herding dog control freak too.

Turning around and going the other direction gets the quite funny "There's a monster chasing me!" slightly whale eyed over the shoulder look, but over time he's learning that this means that the trigger is going away, and he's learning to trust that this is going to work.

But the most powerful for him is the lateral retreat as he can watch his trigger carefully and that's important to him.  This means I use a lot of driveways and side streets.

Or we actually do a lot of combinations of the two.  We see a dog approaching and we do a U turn and walk away ("Monster!") and go back to the closest side street and retreat down that.  What's cool about the lateral retreat is that I can measure the distance pretty easily by house widths which are pretty standard where I live, or I can pace it off after the trigger has go on.  the cool thing is that you can see gradual improvement and most recently I've discovered I can see more detail in my dog's reactions when we're standing at his/her threshold (sounds more profound than it really is. :)

I do use food but these days not so much as as a treat in front of the face and more back to the reward for not reacting.  That changes depending on how penned in we are.

Ellen


Also:
Cummings School of Vet Medicine's publication of Your Dog (I don't see a
web reference unfortunately) has an article on dogs that suffered from
partial seizures that resulted in a gamut of completely crazy behavior:
eating a wine glass, and attacking the owner who tried to take it away
(some call this "rage" and many a Springer's life was lost to this) or
gulping air and trying to eat just about everything (rocks, dirt, ...). 
Other cases are extreme tail chasing.

They were diagnosed with an EEG and it showed  the electrical storms
going on in the dogs' brains.

I must admit to being a bit jealous that as soon as they put the dogs on
phenobarbital their symptoms improved.

Ellen
and the mostly sane Yoshi



Wed Feb 3
Dog walk blissfully dull.

That night
Yoshi when on a continuous alarm barking tear.  I couldn't get him to settle at all and just crated him where he continued to bark.  In between barks we could sort of hear a dog barking in the distance, but that didn't seem to cover it.  Finally he paused long enough for me to hear.  (and the sound had gotten closer so deaf human (who hears well for a human, but is still human) could hear.  Racoons - and the really really weird high pitched eerie sounds they make.  No wonder he's freaking.  Probably several of them.  This is technically an island, so you have to wonder how they got here, but it wouldn't surprise me to hear of them crossing bridges.  They finally continued on and the excitement subsided and I again am relieved that I don't have a dog door as the vet bill and the experience if he had charged out to them would have been just awful.  They usually run, but not always and are fully capable of exacting damage to a dog.  They more than anything are why I make the dogs wait at the back door when I open it (Ok, there are skunks here too, but not as common.)

Tue Feb 2
Yoshi Walk.  We pretty much nearly walked into neighbor dog Cisco (medium size and a touch reactive) who was on a walk.  I took evasive action just a little late and Yoshi started barking and lunging even as we crossed the street.  Judy kept him walking but since I had a hold of Yoshi (by the scruff) I had a moment to watch Cisco.  He had barked some but it seemed to be mostly his body position that was such a trigger.  His body position was stuff and his head was held high.  Non reactive dogs never look like this as far as I know so I'm going to have to add that to my observation list.  Body position may very well be a huge predictor of your dog's reaction.  Yoshi's triggers are stuff upright dogs and mincing, don't hurt me slinking.  Confident, average, slow moving dogs are the least likely to trigger him.  In this case Cisco was coming at us fairly fast, and upright, stiff, and clearly looking for something to react to and even us moving out of the way didn't help much as we were still too close - Yoshi tells me his reaction was justified, but I'm not buying it.  I might have considered continuing to move on, but I wanted to make a point that I didn't like what he was doing and we just stood on the opposite corner with me holding him by the scruff with two hands.

His stress level didn't seem to run off the edge either as it has in the past, but no further triggers appeared either.

Trek walk.  Walked by some wood smoke which she wasn't thrilled about but coped.  Did well negotiating some moving van paraphernalia all over the place and some noisy cars.  Later we worked on left and right at the school yard.  Left is great.  Right not as good yet.

Mon Feb 1
Yoshi walk.
Nothing until we nearly got home then things got interesting.
Coming down Lincoln there's a Foxhound across the street and he saw it first  we went down a neighbor's driveway and as he retreated he barked at the dog but not freaking out, but while not struggling (remember the fish on a line struggles of yesteryear?) he spoke his mind and would have charged if he had not been on leash.

As the hound continues on we head back to the house and as we approach I see behind us a GSD.  I can't pass this one up, so we cross the street and find a place to set up.  I choose one of my neighbor's who had some retreat distance (around 20') and we stopped..  Our routine used to be just feed him continuously when a dog passes by, but I want him to advance to the next level (whatever that may be.)

I've been talking more to him of late and that seems to help along with the treats at a measured pace.  I was concerned how he would be about seeming the GSD right after the Foxhound but he seems GSD's more often than hounds.  Not sure if that's a factor.

I let him see the dog and he looks and looks back at me, good boy have a goodie.  While he's chewing is usually a flash point so I keep talking to him and he chooses to look back at me (!!).  I really wish I had it on camera as it's hard to see and remember the array of subtle things happening.  Suffice to say the GSD passes by without incident even with only getting earned treats instead of continuous, but he's right at the edge of his tolerance.  Being off the sidewalk but with good sightlines seemed to help.  The fact that the dog wasn't reactive and was moving slow was a huge help (the Foxhound was much faster.)  I need to work that into my snap assessment.  How fast is the dog moving?  Will Yoshi think they need to be controlled.

Think about the goats where he was excited (bark bark bark), but controllable (he would stop) and the sheep where he was excited, but not listening and stopping only under duress.  When is he most likely to stop?  When the sheep stop?  On the PT course we need to have a stop.  I think we'll do it in a corner when the sheep naturally stop - that's actually a little optimistic with a mad Corgi at their heels.

I paced off the distance.  23 of my paces which around around 2.5' so around 50+ feet.  Cool that's way better than he's been in the past and also smaller that a street + house width that he's been able to do.  On the other hand his tolerance of the Foxhound after he'd barked at the dog, was more along the lines of one residental street width (~30') and 3 house widths (around  40-50' each), though we are talking about the distance from us to the dog being more along a hypotenuse so it's actually a bit shorter.
.
Sun Jan 31
Maniacal house cleaning for a book club that we're hosting monday.  The dogs are being kind and are staying out of the way.  Fortunately they just leave the room when the vacuum is on.  Other Corgi's attack the vac and their owners actually have to crate their dogs in the car (!!)

Trek walk - uneventful say for meeting Mady's new dog Sky who is part Spitz and thinks Trek is a toy.  Trek doesn't want anything to do with her as long as she thinks this.

Sat Jan 30
Yoshi Herding
He did well with the goats.  He stops when I asked him to and stayed under control.  I did ok too though the footing was iffy and it's tricky to stay on your feet when you have a small herd of little goats swarming around your feet.  (But oh how endearing - they're carefully chosen - the snotty ones get left behind.)

The sheep were another matter.  He wouldn't stop when asked which was supremely irritating.  He did stay at the beginning mostly which was nice but the not stopping was very disappointing after doing so well with the slower goats.

This makes me worry about the L.A. corgi trial which in an AKC PT run on sheep.

It's tempting to wait a bit to see if the trial fills, but that seems like wussing out. It's really an ideal trial as it's corgi only and a lot of well known corgi people will be there to help out and there's a two day practice beforehand which is invaluable.  I spoke to Marian about whether I should just make him a goat dog and she said that since the upcoming trial in on sheep that we should continue alternating between goats and sheep.  I will send in the entry tomorrow or Monday.  I said I'd go and I should at least try.  This is my dog's chosen sport.  Nevermind that he doesn't care under what circumstances, but I selfishly want the credit for all this hassle. :)

Though "hassle" is a hilarious word in this concept.  Oh poor me I have to go to the beach to do herding on a completely gorgeous day in Pescadero.  We walked further out into the field allegedly to check out what the Advanced goat course entails (there's a bridge that you all have to cross), but it was so lovely that we totally forgot to stop and climbed up on the hill where we could look down on the ranch and the surrounding area.  My, my this would do.  Wonder how many million dollars this place costs?

We then found a place in a sheep pen to just sit down and get used to simply being around sheep without having to do anything since he tends to lose his mind around sheep.  We had a lovely time though he tells me that he now wants to be a Guardian Dog  (He had started alerting to people/dogs approaching HIS pen).  Poor guy.  Herding is one thing but guarding against predators is a whole 'nuther thing.  I need to have a sign that I can point to that says: you have to be at least as tall as this sheep (or more) to be a Guardian Dog.  So he can spend time calmly (on leash) with sheep in the pen.  I think the trigger is when they run, and his enthusiasm makes them run.  Catch-22.

Fri Jan 29
Yoshi walk.  Saw one medium sized reddish fur dog.  He did very well.  The dog went by on the other side of the street (actually we cross ed the street - it was our street and we were nearly done with our walk.  I walked a very short distance down my neighbors walk up side way and feel him a big treat (the kind I hang on to).  He did great as the dog passed by.  We crossed back to my house and two houses down the dog stopped so I let Yoshi get a little bit closer to within two house widths and let the dogs make eye contact.  No reaction beyond just looking.  I think we were at the edge of a reaction so I told him he was a very good boy and retreated by to the house.

Trek's agility class was rained out, so we just went on a walk.  She's similar to Cali in that she will go through puddles but unlike Cali she doesn't appear to seek them out.

Yoshi has herding tomorrow for the first time in weeks.  So we did nails tonight.  Wonder how it's going to go, I don't have the greatest confidence right now and I hope it doesn't show or interfere.

I printed out Yoshi's entry form and need to fill it out.  He's going in PT.  I almost hope it will fill so we can chicken out but that would be the wuss approach.  I do have till March to get it in so there's no rush hopefully.  We're going down regardless so I should stop being a chicken and just go ahead and send it in.

Thu Jan 28
Yoshi walk.  Mostly uneventful.  Couple of times we stopped to eat treats while ignoring a barking dog.  Usually when I do this the barking dog stops.  Worked with Cisco, didn't work with Annie across the street.  I keep thinking I should spend more time with Annie, but haven't done so.  I don't like that she's kept outside, but she does get attention and walks and she was a rescued stray.

Trek walk pretty average.

Wed Jan 27
Yoshi walk.  Two fairly stationary squirrels were on the ground (digging up burried food I think) and I talked to him (Yoshi) and asked him to heel and he walked right by them with out much of a glace - though he did see them.  Wow.  I guess squirrels on the ground don't look anything like those things that face around in the trees.
Saw one dog that we were slightly beind.  We mostly caught up to them, but I kept us behind a little and while he watched carefully he didn't react and was happy to eat treats.

Trek walk - uneventful

[off at avalanche class]
Dog's did well with Terri while I was gone. 
While I was gone Terri had arranged with a coworker to feed them one evening while she was out auditioning for the Ethnic Dance Festival.  This coworker while a dog person, had never met the dogs and I was worried how Yoshi might be with a stranger.  I was describing the dog bite avoidance technique they teach kids when they encounter strange dogs (Yoshi has never, ever bitten a person, but I still worry about a stranger coming over to HIS house).  If you want to crack up an entire carful of people while you're talking on a cell phone, say the words "Be a tree."

Turns out Terri wound up having Jan go over who they know.  I asked her if the dogs were nice to her and they said they invited her in and over for dinner and were very happy to see her.

Thu Jan 21
Leaving for Tahoe for a 4 day avalanche class.  Dogs are stressing because I am.  I have to drive up in a storm.  I'm well prepared but the rushing around is making Trek very uncomfortable.  Fortunately Terri will be here.

Other trainers are making money by teaching running contacts in special seminars.  Since I've been avocating them long before they were ever doing them I don't quite know what to think.  I mean, after all, they teach it to other dogs.  I just teach it to my dogs.  But still.  There's nothing that stops me from doing it too but I'm choosing not to.  What if it doesn't work?  And I really can't be making money off of dog training tempting as it is.

Yoshi just barked at the LR window and came back all on his own.  Maybe we're making progress...

Wed Jan 20
Yoshi Walk uneventful.
Trek walk.  Got to see a parked idling firetruck which was great but as we were leaving the paramedics came (shudda known that was going to happen).  Let her chomp on a large treat to get through it and she did surprisingly well and didn't drag me away (ok a little).

Tue Jan 19
Yoshi Walk.  Break between rain storms.  Starting to get something that's resembling a methodology and that's really encouraging.  Having such a structure helps me think and reduces my tension (and thus his)

2 dog sightings.
We saw a stocky, kinda low slung medium size dark dog across Court St. that a neighbor dog was nice enough to point out to us before we saw them.  That dog was moving slow so we had a long time to ponder what to do.  We sort of did this systematic slow retreating.  I let the dog get until Yoshi was uncomfortable and then we'd back up about a house distance and then eat while the other dog got closer.  Did a couple of these and then I decided to stop tortuuring him and retreat one house width down a side street and eat while the other dog came back into view (chomp chomp, look, blow out cheeks, chomp - I kept the treat in front of him.  Just as the dog retreated, I put a hand on his side and let him look at the dog without the treat.  He watched intently but did not react.  Since he's watching he's not noticing the treat unless it's under his nose.  If he did notice, that would mean he was willing to take his eyes off the dog and I would likely jackpot him.

The second dog was right after we turned the corner on Central.  Boxer in the distance across the street 3 houses down.  I again debate what to do and this time since Central is a wide street, we just hijack someone's driveway and I hold a treat for him to munch on.  This boxer is right on the edge of reacting so I just keep letting him munch on the treat.  It's sort of the opposite of agility where you want fast easy to eat treats.  Here you want slow and hanging on to it really slows things down, and gives you a lot of control and it's simpler that having to carry a squeeze tube of peanut butter or cream cheese.

So the methodology is basically find a way to maintain a distance you're dog is comfortable with and use food and maybe touch and talking to shrink that distance.  Someone watching must have been a little puzzled or fascinated as I was telling Yoshi the steps.  I guess a way to generalize it for Yoshi for the moment is one street width and one or two house widths. and the house widths can be either perpendicular to you or parallel. 

(This needs a diagram.)

Mon Jan 18
Squeezed in a walk at noon when it wasn't raining much.

Saw two different dogs, a yellow lab and a medium size black dog.

Both times I let them "chase" us.
The yellow lab was about 4-5 houses away, we then stopped and let them get closer while he ate a treat that I hung on to.  He kept chomping on the treat (and my fingers) as the dog got closer.  Went they got 3 houses or so we then turned around and walked away and they turned off the street.  Then we turned around and saw the black dog coming at us, we turned around and we walked for a while with me debating when to let him see the dog.  i decided to go down a side street but only went 1/2 a house length (like a house width) and let the dog pass while he ate a treat.  He did it!  Some gutteral chewing sounds, but was ok - except for my fingers - need to get larger treats.  Somehow wound up chasing the lab a little bit, but never got that close but Yoshi is getting to the point where he can routinely see dogs at a distance and be ok.

He does seem to be trusting me more about keeping him a distance from other dogs.  Distance may be the more powerful reward but treats shrink that distance esp relatively continuous ones.  I would like him to have more space between treats to make a decision to choose the treat but it's nice to be able to show him he can be closer.  Decisions decisions.

Hope Trek doesn't get rained out tonight for her walk.

She got her walk and did fine - even stopped to munch treats right at the spot where scary skateboard was yesterday.  She thought it was weird that one of the cars stopped to talk to me for a second (It was Cathy), but she coped fine though it chomping on me more than I care for when eating treats while a little stressed.

Sun Jan 17
Dogs were tragically ignored so we could build a step for them to make it easier for them to get up and (probably more importantly) off of the new bed.  They sulked, but eventually approved, and had little to no trouble adjusting to the new step.

Photos here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2044349&l=7f16396b00&id=1013097814

Sat Jan 16
Yoshi walk.
Two changes in tactics - for the better I think.
One is to have a larger dry treat and have him nibble on it when he's in an edge of threshold situation.  The other is to maximize our use of Central Ave. by going up and then turning around and back down.  Central is a wide street and now that just turning around and walking away works I don't feel penned in even if there are serveral cars on it and can't race across the street.  If we get penned by dogs coming from each side on the same block (rare) I can always pick him up and walk into the street on the other side of parked cars, but still not in traffic (there's a bike lane to give me some space.)  Eventually I'm hoping I can just use a driveway but that's still pretty close, and we are masters at turning around and going down a side street far enough away to let the dog pass (usually 2+ house widths).

So today we rounded the corner of Court and Central and saw two dogs getting out of their car.  They were just over 2 houses away.  We stopped first at the corner and then worked a little closer to 2 house widths away.  Yoshi is keep an eye on things but holding it together as I offer a larger treat for him to munch on and other other dogs (one small one medium) are just standing there watching back.  They then go into their house/yard and then they start barking (dogs are so funny sometimes).  Yoshi is happy to keep eating his treat and after things calm down we continue down the Central - of course the dogs bark when we pass by but no worries.

Then when we turned around on Central and headed back and pretty much on the block with the two dogs another dog and his people came out of his house  on a walk.  They're not going that fast so we turned around again.  We're about 4 houses ahead and while Yoshi is doing a mild "it's a monster" over the shoulder swivel head he's doing ok, so we slow down to get them closer.  They follow at a 2-3 house distance before turning.  Yoshi did great and I'm very happy about that.

I'm still experimenting with whether touch helps calm Yoshi - current answer is "some."  I have two competing different bits of data on this.  One is Patricia McConnell's photos in For the Love of a Dog that shows a slightly horrified, whale eyed, lab being hugged by a deliriously happy young girl, and there's Temple Grandon's data that shows that cattle being squeezed in a wooden contraption designed to hold them while getting medical attention do settle down.  A hand firmly on Yoshi's side does seem to make a difference but when he's freaking out he's struggling to get free so it's probably more effective at keeping him from hitting the panic button same with picking him up which, unlike a lot of dogs, he does like.

Trek walk.
Went down High Street (the busier one) and she was doing ok, but there was a teenager and a scary skateboard near the small store at High and Santa Clara.  She coped and didn't freak, but really wanted to get away so I let us go down Santa Clara instead of going further down High street like we usually do.  She recovered in a block or so. She gets much calmer as soon as 1/4 block away as the noise drops off considerably.

Fri Jan 15
Trek Agility class
Well I was going to be talking with Rachelle about getting Trek into a more advanced class but she wasn't running well at all and now I don't know.  She's leary of the table since last week she tried to jump up on a 20" table and wacked herself in the gut when she was too low.  Now she doesn't want to go on it even when it's set low.

Then she hurt her front left foot after one very nice run and wouldn't run anymore.  The surface at Sharon's is dirt and when it rains it can get really so-so.  It's either that or jumping down off our new bed - there is a step and the dogs don't always think to use it going down.  So I crated her in the car to let her rest and just watched the rest of class - ran Missle once, which is always fun.

So we'll keep Trek at this level for the moment (one class cycle probably) and then I'll decide.  Rachelle tells me that we are running Sharon's courses already and that this is her most advanced class for now.  I think we'll keep going to the PP class as much as we can.  Can't do it next week (that's the BiFriendly meeting day), but can the week after.  Looks like they're going to get rained out next week anyway.  One possibility is to switch Trek to being a Friday drop-in or ask if when Trek comes could I pay for two classes in a row and get more mileage that way.

Mon Jan 13
Yoshi Walk.- using a clicker.  I need to find the louder box clicker (I usually use the easier to use iClick).  If something gets his attention (no dogs this time but there was a woman walking fast right behind him which was making him a bit of a swivel head) one click doesn't always work, two usually does, but sometimes it will even take 3.  Clicking more than once is usually considered a mistake, but this is my experiment and I want to see if multiple clicks make a difference or if he just tunes them out (he's not tuning them out right now.)

I'm wondering if the louder clicker will make a difference.  Certainly the clicker gets a faster response than a "yes" when he's under stress. 

I also want to have a clicker and a treat dispenser combined into one unit.  Have to think about that.

Tue Jan 12
Finally separated out the past few months of this diary into their separate pages.  Despite working out a pretty safe methadology, it's still pretty risky as it's easy to overwrite something and wipe out a month or more of writing.  I need to start doing ftp downloads which is a bit ironic since I backup to the web site also.

Noon Yoshi Walk.  No dogs, but all sorts of people including a man with a rake right beside him - he all took it in stride, even in the first 1/2 mile where he's often a little strange.  The only thing he reacted to was a man moving the garbage carts right beisde him - can't say I blame him.

Trek's Power Paws agility class was cancelled due to weather.  Bummer, I was looking forward to it.
Instead she and I went on a longer walk and I deliberately went down an extra block of High Street.  I was going to do another block but there some kids piling out of cars down the block (with no bouncing balls) and I wanted to see how she'd do.  While this wasn't her preferred activity, she wasn't trying to drag me down the street to get away and would instead sit and eat treats which is a marked change.  She's come so far in the 3 years we've had her after spending 2 years in her own Private Idaho (Yes, it's even more fun to say that when it's actually true).

The real test came when we were near the school.  In the far corner of the playground were people, a dog barking and A Bouncing Ball - fortunatley not constant.  fortunately we were nearly a block away from them since we were on the other side of the playground so we stopped and ate treats and started back towards the house but seeing that she seemed pretty relaxed I turned around and went a little closer.  She wasn't happy about it but would eat treats without chomping on me and after a minute of so we turned around and then she wanted to run home.  I stopped her every so often to eat and she obliged.  Such a Corgi.

the Turlock trial premium for Feb is out and I probably shouldn't delay in getting it in.  Turlock is in the Central Valley and can get quite cold in the winter (for Calif - and esp for sleeping in a van like vehicle) so instead of camping I'm thinking hotel - how luxurious.

Just got email that Grisha Stewart is coming to the Bay Area (or course when I'm gone - ah well - someone else will go)  This is just me passing the word to CU_Dogs_SF.

Greetings Bay Area Control Unleashed folks,

This just in - short notice.

Grisha Stewart is a dog trainer in Seattle who has come up with a
methodology that she calls BAT (Behavioral Adjustment Training) which is
a less stressful variation of Jesus Rosales-Ruiz's CAT (Constructive
Aggression Treatment).

The page where she demonstrates it is here:
http://ahimsadogtraining.com/blog/bat/

and it looks very intriguing.  Unfortunately, I'm not seeing it on the
Marin Humane Society web site so maybe someone from there can fill us in.

It would be interesting for us all to work out a way to effectively
combine CU and BAT principles.  I'm hoping to hear more about this as I
will be out of town learning how to evaluate [snow] avalanches (no dogs
along).

Ellen
and CU Corgi Yoshi
Training Diary: http://frap.org/Yoshi/yoshi_training_diary.html
(which someone tells me they're working on how to get it on their Kindle - eek)


-------- Original Message --------
Subject:     [functionalrewards] Bay Area seminar Correct date: Jan 23
Date:     Wed, 13 Jan 2010 04:37:16 -0000
From:     ahimsadog <grisha@doggiezen.com>
Reply-To:     functionalrewards@yahoogroups.com

Bay area folks -

I just scheduled a 90-minute seminar for next week on BAT for fear and
aggression with the Marin Humane Society. It will fit (time-wise) with
another seminar that weekend in Novato, CA with Trish King and Veronica
Boutelle.  It's the same topic as the seminar I just finished in
Seattle. The description of that is at
http://ahimsadogtraining.com/class/bat.php (But that's NOT the
registration. More info on that later).

Exact address for the seminar:
Marin Humane Society
171 Bel Marin Keys Blvd.
Novato, California 94949

I'll have registration details soon, but I wanted to let you know about
this so you could save the date. It's a week from Saturday, on January
23rd, 6-7:30.

Only good things,
Grisha
________________________________
Grisha Stewart, M.A., CPDT, CTP
Ahimsa Dog Training
902 NW 49th Street, Seattle, WA 98107
Phone: 206-364-4072 Fax: 206-524-6039

http://DoggieZen.com
Follow us on Twitter: @doggiezen

Mon Jan 11
I was totally set on Yoshi going as far as he could in herding, but the levels beyond Started seem so much harder and you don't get to participate in the process nearly so much as the handler is more and more required to stay stationary, and I'm growing fond of the Let's go on a Journey / Over the River and Through the Woods aspect of beginner herding.  Maybe this will change as we get more involved, but right now I'm not really in a hurry to get out of the test level - even if I find PT maddening with all of the fence work.  We'll keep working on Started, but I think now that the premium is already out for the S. Calif Corgi herding trial that we'll definitely do PT.

There's also going to be an AHBA trial at Pescadero and there will be an Herding Ranch Dog (HRD) Goats which looks fun (and HRD is totally Let's Go on a Tour of the Ranch)  but it's above our skill level right now.  He's only been on goats once and would need a lot more practice.

It really kinda doesn't matter beyond keeping us motivated to work and keep training.  He's happy that he gets to work stock.  I'm happy that he's learning more self control (Like Stop and Stay - which is actually pretty miraculous to watch.)

Yoshi walk
During which he demonstrated a really bad lack of control.  Two pedestrians, who he's seen a couple of days before, were walking down the opposite side of Santa Clara and he was sitting on the corner.  I had just fed him a treat and was thinking about feeding him another one when something about them talking excitedly or something that looked wrong to him, (no pith helmets however) made him break and start to charge across the street.  I yanked him back and gave him a pretty hard scruff shake and a lecture.

Then we crossed the street and he was fine.  Didn't seem stressed at all which is totally different that when he's seen a dog and I get on his case.  So does what I do simply not matter?  Is he going to feel the way he does regardless of reprimand?  Reprimand (or retreat) ends the behavior, but i don't know if it has any effect on his attitude.  What would have happened if a properly timed click had sounded?  That might have interrupted the behavior as well.  And clicks seem to get through his brain faster that words which i can totally see fall into "I can't hear you." sometimes. 

I may have to try the louder clicker as the iClick may no be loud enough.  But I don't know as in my clicker video showing how we play Look At That, I have a point where he's not responding to the click and backing up is the solution as he was over threshold (past the point to where he could respond appropriately.)  Personally I think two people walking down the opposite side of a wide street should be ok, but something may have hit him weird, but it's still not ok and he needs to know that.

Sat/Sun
Dogs didn't get much of a weekend beside harrassing Terri when i was out hiking and then sulking while we built a new IKEA bed.

Fri Jan 8
Bummer, Joyce is booked for herding on Sunday.

Yoshi Walk.
A couple of years back I had posted on the main CU_Dogs list about doing a slow walk and how it seemed to help some with Yoshi's stress level.  Because I use walks for exercise I really don't do this much, but this time I took a cell phone call from Terri.  We had stopped 1/2 a block from Central and while I was talking 2 dogs went by plus a group of walking people.  Yoshi watched carefully, but didn't react beyond boofing (the sound dog's make when exhaling sharply enough to inflate their cheeks - a loud sigh.)

Now I set out on this walk with treats and with the idea that the strongest reinforcer I have is the ability to create distance.  It's not always easy to do that on Alameda streets, but it's often possible and in a pinch I can create artificial distance by covering his eyes or picking him up.  For whatever reason, knowing that distance is so effective, really helps me to relax and not worry about dogs appearing.  It's possible that the only operative thing was the good distance from the other dogs, but as we walked if he started to get jacked up (about nothing in particular) then just stopping and not doing anything seemed to relax him and them he started to look to me for a treat.  So having the occasional meditative walk, might be helpful.

One funny exchange was that three women were walking behind us and since we were going slower this time they were catching up.  We stopped in a driveway to let them pass and I didn't ask Yoshi to do anything but rewarded him for attention and sit.  Right as they were passing he jumped up on my leg for a treat which I gave him as this is a behavior that I really do want him to do.  The women were amused at his interest in the treats and I said "My best friend." (because he was my best friend as long as I had treats.).  They laughed and one of them said "Sometimes that's the best thing there is."

As we got back to the house, there was a Tibetian Terrier sized dog across the street.  Yoshi hadn't seen the dog and I debated what to do while we hid behind my rosemary shrub (that dog was pausing too poop).  I wanted to end the walk on a good note but didn't want to pass up a training opportunity.  So after some internal debate I carried Yoshi back down the driveway further away from the dog.  He saw the dog and vibrated a little but he relaxed the further away we moved.  I then turned around and let him see the dog at that distance.  Again some very low level growling and muttering but no outburst.  As the dog started to move on, I walked him a bit closer to the sidewalk and then turned back around and went inside.  Just a little dancing on the threshold edge.  Good thing he likes to be picked up.  The nice thing about holding him is that I instantly know his stress level.

Trek has agility class tonight at our usual place (Freilance Dog Sports).  Should be fun and interesting to see how she does on dirt after a couple of times on grass.

[Later] It went fine with the big exception that we ran a course with a 20" table and she jumped too low and kinda centerpunched herself (corner hit her tummy) and knocked the wind out some.  She's a bit worried about that table.

Thu Jan 7
Yoshi walk.  One dog and it was perfect once we finally caught up to them.  Slower moving dog w/senior person (they were way ahead of us).  When we caught up we stayed across the street and ambled along (they never really saw us I think).  Yoshi kept a careful eye on the dog but never reacted, while not calm, he wasn't a basket case either.  It helps that we stayed across the street and a house width down.  We haven't been doing much of follow that dog recently as that's when he's at his best but he's not really relaxed when we're following - he's just not being an idiot.  I want him to relax more in the presence of other dogs and sheep.

Asking Joyce if we can come say hello on Sunday to work on outruns and walk up.  I'm also hoping we can just walk in a field with sheep without working them - just to commune with the sheep.

Trek walk.  A fire truck went down Johnson (one block away as we were leaving.)  Not a major emergency so we went on our walk.  I later asked if she wanted to walk down Johnson.  Got about 1/2 a house before getting stressed by the noise, so we called it a victory and turned around.  The truck was about 5 houses down.

The worked on right turns with throwing a toy.  Then worked in throwing a toy over a jump.

Pulled out a different rabbit fur toy and played a brief fun game of tug with Yoshi.  Key for him is to not tug hard and keep the toy in the game.

I want to have a big agillity goal for my dog Trek, but I fear pushing her too much (though she doesn't exactly know this she just knows if I'm stressed).  A reasonable goal is to be in Master's by the end of the year.  I'd also like to be in AKC Excellent, but I have to actually enter a trial for that.  She can do it without blowing through a ton of money so I should plan on starting that - after ski season.  first order of business is to actually get a PI title - she lacks 2 standard legs.  Be nice to do that before we wind up in Master's Gamblers (The Wastonian Curse).

Need to enter the VAST USDAA trial in Turlock for Feb 13-14 - not under a cover - hooray.  The premium isn't on their website (http://govast.org) yet.  It's only 5 weeks away, so that's worrisome.

Wed Jan 6
Corrected several typos from last entry - hazards of posting late at night.

Yoshi walk.  Right out the door he's stressing about people walking by and the mail carrier coming on HIS property.  Pulling on the leash and way up on his toes.  Pulling back on the leash was getting no where are he was just absent so out of frustration I gave him a leash pop.  Now doing that gives me compliance but does not relax him.  Sometimes it does function as a reset button but not usually.  Trek was barking at something (she was in the house) so I took the opportunity to turn around and go see (there was a squirrel in the tree that she could see from the house.)

Walking back out to the side walk he's still stressed and amped and I wanted to see if there was a different way to calm him down.  I just kneeled down and fed him and petted him which took the edge off, but actually the most effective thing was to actually do the walk and get some exercise,  Usually after about 1/4 to a 1/2 mile he settles down.  I'm reading about Corgi's that get 2 45 min walks a day.  Yeesh that's over 4 miles.  My dogs walk 1 mile a day briskly. I suppose I could try to walk him again but time is short as it is since I walk them separately.

Yoshi actually didn't see any dogs.  On the contrary Trek who was walked right after, saw 3 dogs including one sitting on his driveway carefully (but nicely) watching us walk by.  Yoshi and I would have had to cross the street.

I need to go back to a place with good lateral retreat distance where we can watch dogs walking on leash.  Watching dogs at the dog park running and having fun seems like it's asking a lot though I guess I can take him by the small dog park where they're not usually running much.  Though the big dog park is right there.  The problem is that inside the park the lateral retreat distance isn't that great, but he can then feel more a part of the action - don't know if that's good or back.  Wonder if there's a way to run with him in the park so he gets exercise and also has to work on his focus.  It may be asking too much but he has surprised me before.

Still pondering what our Agility goals should be.  Yoshi's herding goals shifted right when I heard the premium was out.  Eek, PT sounds lovely this time of year.  We'll keep working on Started but we haven't done any work with lighter sheep and we're going to need to do a lot of that.


I have another idea for a CU gathering.  A Relaxation Party, but one with planned SECs.  Have a small number of dogs relaxing on mats with their people.  Then have another dog/handler appear moving very slowly pausing occasionally with the goal of them joining the party with their mat.  Then after a bit a different d/h leaves and a bit later a completely different d/h comes in, and just keep cycling through.  The one that leaves can go get a refill on their drink or munchies.  I'm envisioning this happening in a backyard that is somewhat sheltered, but allows for comings and goings.  Ideal group size maybe 5-6?  3-4 relaxing and 1 or 2 up.

Tue Jan 5
I may be the last one to know this but Cleanrun Course Designer is now available on the Mac!  I'm playing with a demo version and it's dead easy to use and I'm definitely going to buy it.

Trek. Power Paws class.
I was 10 minutes late due to work distractions, but still got a fair bit out of it.

Here's a portion of the course obstacle arrangement (completely vague, half-hearted recall - no accuracy is intended) that I'd like to talk about as it shows some things she does well and other she doesn't.




I didn't number things as we did several courses with this arrangement. 

The first issue is that she like several dogs has trouble weaving into a wall which in this case was a hedge.  She stops or pops pretty much in the position that I've indicated - sometimes on the other side.  I think this is a mileage issue as I'm pretty good about keeping my shoulders turned in and not anticipating the next obstacle (which is really hard to do.

One thing she did very well right at the beginning is that we needed to do the jumps on the left side of the diagram in a serpentine right past that tunnel opening and she aced it.  Jim empasized that being ahead of your dog will ensure that they won't take the tunnel.  Debbie and I both said "Don't look at the tunnel" (instead look at the next obstacle) and I think that's important too.  Pay no attention to the Giant Elephant - it's not there - just yet.


Much comedy ensued attempting this and I had a dog zooming through the tunnel in every which way, which earned me the "Use the dog's name" to position the dog before telling them the obstacle lecture (aim before firing.)

I'm still kinda dazzled by being back at Power Paws that I tend to lose concentration at critical points, or Jim makes some horrible pun which reminds me how much I miss him.  I hope I don't have to choose between Trek's classes anytime soon as I like both settings a lot, but this class is able to cover a lot more material in the same amount of time, because the skill level is higher.

This diagram shows what should have happened.  Everything else happened instead, first entered the tunnel on the right side then back through the other way which nicely reset us to do it correctly.  Idealy the handler hangs back and sends the dog over the jump and moves to the end of the right hand side of the tunnel while calling the dog into the tunnel.  It looked very smooth - for other dogs.


They also worked on a semi-hard gamble which we don't have the skills for though I like that I can send her out 20 feet and stay reasonably lateral, but we haven't working on right and left on a large scale yet and this gamble required this.  Actually no one got that gamble but they came much closer.

I have to plan out the agility year for Trek.  It's hard because USDAA nationals are going to be on the East Coast this year, so that may not happen.  Perhaps AKC or CPE. but my heart is with USDAA really.  Right now we need mileage and that's more easily attained with USDAA or CPE (especially CPE).

Mon Jan 4
Uneventful dog walks, but I had time during them to ponder whether food or distance is the more primary reinforcer.  The operate in such different ways.  But food is much shorter term as it only take a second to eat a treat unless we're talking peanut butter or cream cheese.  Distance lasts much longer and the trigger lessens.  Don't know.

Sun Jan 3
Still a bit under the weather so a pretty low key day, but very instructive dog-wise.
Yoshi walk in the evening (they both were).  I always assume he can see better than me but I nearly walked us into a pair of dogs on a walk and I saw them first   They were in the shadows and had just crossed Gibbons moving along Central.  We were within a house width, when I saw then and turned around and headed back. Yoshi realizing what is going on is doing some of his "Monster!" over the shoulder look, but he's not really stressing much - just keeping an eye on things which is way different than he used to be.  We round the corner and we go down a house length and wait for the dogs to appear.  I am armed with a penny jar though I do have a treat too but worry about dropping the glass jar.  He sees the dogs, exhales, and looks back at me!  I give him a treat and we head off.  A nice surprise and he's much less stressed if I work to maintain distance and he realizes that's what I'm doing.  this is similar to BAT (mostly by accident.)

Trek walk.  Ordinary, until we get up to the house across from the school that has the incredible bouncing dog whose head appears over a 6' fence.  The dog wasn't around but their kids were having a party.  Lots of kids voices and metal on metal sounds.  We're across the street and I stop to feed Trek,  she's wary but eating and essentially ok.  Then suddenly she tries to leave the scene.  I try to feed her and she chomps on me I say "ouch" and she then stares off into the distance not even trying for the treat anymore.  I try to get her to take it nicely but I have a piranha who then stares off far away.  I stop to note what's changed.  A basketball is bouncing.  Time to punt (sorry for the mixed metaphor).  I pick her up and she's shaking though gets better as I hold her and walk away from the sound.  Across the street and 1/4 of the way down the block she's ok and can walk without dragging me.

So it appears that ball bouncing is much more stressful than children's voices or metal on metal.  It's the percussiveness, but for whatever reasons fireworks or thunder (our milder and rare thunder) don't bother her.  The cool thing is that a ball bounce is easy to recreate, but it's going to take some time to come up with a distance and I'm going to need Terri's help.


Sat Jan 2
Thread on Perf Corgis about what contacts to use that I contributed to:

Running Contacts!

People probably get tired of me saying this, but 2 on 2 off is a hack. 
A necessary one for many big dogs, but still a hack.

I'm with Roger Coor (Moso the Pap's Dad), who says few (he says "no," I
say "few") small dogs should stop on a contact (save for the teeter) as
it's too much time to give up.  I have video of Cali beating a faster
Corgi when I switched her to running contacts.

Both Trek and Yoshi have been taught running contacts from the beginning.

Some people use hoops and stride regulators.  I use a clicker or a
marker word (yes!) for when they hit the contact (and I can take the
marker word into the ring).  Bonnie (who I hope chimes in) figured out
that if you keep the A-Frame low for an extended period of time then the
muscle memory of not leaping off early sets in.  This must have happened
inadvertently for Trek as she's missed only one contact in her life.


Found a small jar and made a penny shaker out of it.  It's small enough that maybe it won't clatter on walks.


Fri Jan 1
Happy New Year.
Uneventual dog walks.

Thu Dec 31
Back to walking them regularly.  I'm going a bit slow but they're tolerating it.  Not seeing many dogs.  Wound up walking them in the evening but before any new year's celebrations got going.  I usually don't walk Yoshi at night since he sees better than I do and that sometimes erases my advantage of seeing the dog first (because I know where to look).  This time I saw the dog first and it was nice because that dog was moving slowly across the street.  they were at a corner that we were approaching on the other side. I stopped about a house width away as I didn't know which way they were going first.  When we stop, then Yoshi sees the dog (his vision must be a bit less too as he's not reacting and it took him a moment to see the dog.)

Yoshi is just watching the dog but a bit on edge considering.  The dog and his people turn the corner and start moving slowly away.  I walk us a few steps closer and that motion seems to trigger Yoshi as he wants to charge up.  I leash pop him.  He engages back with me and then goes right back to wanting to charge (he's not barking interestingly enough just growling.  Curious to see what happens I pop him back.  when he stops trying to charge, we then cross the street (dog has moved some distance away but still kinda close).  For the rest of the walk (not far) he's up on his toes on alert and stressed, but not quite out of his mind but if he had seen another dog he no doubt would have reacted possibly stronger.

What I wish I could do is repeat the situation then using Click to Calm, or CU, or CAT or Classical Conditioning techniques, or "leave it" and "watch" just restraint techniques.  They all work, but I don't know what is going to help with that first impulse issue.  I get a reaction and then a "oh yeah this is what I'm supposed to do."  I haven't been able to replace that first response which is why I can't take him off leash outside of a sheep pen.  The first response should be to turn to me for a reward.  What I'm getting is a reaction, then a correction or a reminder, then a turn to me for a reward.  The CU approach is to teach sub-threshold and avoid the reaction entirely and do Relaxation Protocol calming exercises that help a dog get used to ignoring stimuli and create a safe space on a matt that can travel.  the idea is: it's a dog, can I have a cookie? 

For Yoshi a more formal CAT technique where the reward is the dog disappears is intriguing.  I've been doing something similar to another trainer's variation where you take your dog away as a reward (she calls this BAT), early on we were doing some work like this with Toni who went through the SF-SPCA academy.

But none of these things really address what to do when the dog is off leash.  Remote training tools are like the time honored shaker can (which might work for us when I grow another hand or get my technique down, or various collars that beep, spray or shock.  The problem with the collars is that they always fail at the wrong time (I've only used citronella or beeping ones) and you have to hit the correct button at the right time.  This is an argument for the lo tek shaker can if I can figure out how to carry it quietly.  It's like there has to be something that keeps the shaker item (pennies or pebbles) quiet unless you hold it in a certain way that retracts whatever is holding the shaker down.  Similar things exist I'll have to took to see what's out there that can be adapted.


Mon-Wed
Been sick and only sort of walking the dogs and not doing much else.  They've been entertaining them selves with a lot of wrestling and tearing around the yard.

Sun Dec 27
Yoshi in the LR window.  Two dogs (on leash) walked right in front of HIS house and he objected mightily.  I was right there and let him start to react but called his name and shook a penny jar.  He would pause then start barking again and I'd call his name and shake the jar.  It was really hard for him but after 3 repetitions he fully disengaged and I told him he was a good boy.  He was still revved but seemed able to focus.

What was really interesting is that Trek was with me on the sofa and while she didn't particularly like the jar she didn't run screaming from the room either but stayed beside me.  She knew she wasn't in trouble.

Sat Dec 26
Back from visiting Terri's brother's family.  Dogs came along and were terrific, save for some barking at the cat.  I was very happy to see that I could call Yoshi away from fence barking with the Lab next door.  And he had just started to work him self into a nice tizzy too so he's able to thing while "in drive" now.

Tue Dec 22
So I did take her to the PP class.

We started with a rear cross drill.  Dog goes into the tunnel and the handler is standing right at the end (forgot to draw that part).  Then both handler and dog run at the inside jump   Dog goes over jump and handler crosses behind and brings doggy over the outside jump and in the tunnel and then do the same thing on the other side.  And repeat.

Trek drove over the jump ok but was a bit of a scatterbrain once past the jump and started to race off to parts unknown.  This is exactly what she does at a trial and doesn't do in her regular class so I was thrilled that we finally could work on it.  Jim thinks the classic: lots of on-course rewards should help and it no doubt will but that's what we do at her usual class and I get her good behavior at class and not at trials.  This could mean lots of environment changing which is not surprising given that changing locations is one of the last things you add in a dog's training.  In fact, in Susan Garrerr's training methodology it's the H of DASH (Desire, Accuracy, Speed, Habitat).

Then the drill became a front cross drill by just going to the outside jump first.  Then he angled the outer most jump which turned it into a 270 turn.  Trek was having a hard time carrying out on this.  Jim's not thrilled that I use Out to mean move a little laterally - he wants it to mean larger amounts.  Given that what she's doing is exactly what I've taught her, I am not inclined to change it but add another word ("Big Out"?? or just keep adding "outs")

Then after the tunnel did a serpentine down the jumps.

Then we moved on to longer courses  Trek did a great send out to the weaves, but still sometimes pops when weaving on my right.  Jim said to stay completely committed to her staying in the poles, and don't pull away.

Half the fun of being in a class w/ long time peers and experienced competitors is the additional free advice.  The primary one being "Don't bend over."  There is a claim that I'm bending over in a video so I need to go see it.
  Actually in places bending over isn't that bad and I do it deliberately in the weaves but they tell me that as Trek speeds up that it will be an issue which is true and a probably that would be cool to have.  Already going down the dogwalk, I have to beat feet to keep up which I love.

I'll have to see where else I'm being over.  Likely in the front and rear cross drills.

One thing specifically to work in is the turn away esp at a distance.  You can teach that as a "turn" but I prefer left and right since Trek knows the basics and just needs to add distance to it.

This is relevant to a gamble we were working on



You need to treat this gamble as a rear cross.  Send the dog over (2) and use your left had crossing the front of you body as you pivot right.  Before fully pivoting, support the dog's carry out to (3) with that arm extended.

On another course, tried the faster lead out that we discussed in her private lesson and she broke.  Reset her and did a slightly slower lead out and she held it and did a great run complete with a nice send out to the weaves.

Now I need to decide how often to come.  I'm thinking 2-3 times a month.  No class next week so this would be for next year.

Sun Dec 20
Trek Private lesson with Jim.
The purpose of the lesson today was to let Jim have a look at her and tell me what I still need to work on.  It went very well, and while I'm going to list what we have to work on I am very honored that he offered her a class spot if she wants it.  The obvious class for her would be the small dog class on Tues at 6pm.  The class is listed as an Advanced class, but all the dogs he listed off are Master's level dogs (and I knew them all).  Trek currently is the best in her class besides the instructor's dog so she really needs to be challenged more even though course-wise she is challenged.  But the real driving thing beside my missing Cali's connection to Power Paws is that they have a lovely grass field and Sharon's is dirt.  Given that both are really good opportunities I'm going to keep both for a while and then decide.  I also need to negotiate with my work so see if I can get off early on Tues so I can make it down.  The only bummer is that I have a schedule conflict on the 3rd Tues so I either eat that or just always pay the drop-in rate.

The obvious advantages of the class are
 - small dog class
 - grassy field
 - she would not be the best dog in the class - dogs are pretty accomplished so would get more runs in
 - and of course Jim
 - my agility small dog friends
 - could we recreate the PP Corgi Dynasty? :)

Things that look good are
 - the fact that she was able to work in a new environment without having to run off to sniff
 - contacts - all of them even the teeter -  yahoo!
 - jump style
 - toy drive
 - likes that the natural balance treats don't crumble
 - she's driving well for rear crosses as long as I'm not running her over or into her path

Things that need more work
 - right hand side weaves (popping at 10th pole)
 - lateral lead outs (discussed this at length) and tightening the standing front crosses
 - keep her engaged at the start line - develop a start line routine
   do the side positioning thing I do and then have her touch my hand one last time (and try to keep her from moving to do it.)
 - do faster leadouts.  Jog out or walk fast.  No "green mile" walk
 - when she commits then run to new position
 - when a change of direction is coming up tell her right as she's committed to the current obstacle
 - he thinks her focus would be better if I didn't let her wander
 

Sat Dec 19
Yoshi herding
Our first time on goats.  The ranch has new management and doesn't want sheep run all over the place so Marian was putting the greener or pushier dogs (that would be Yoshi on down) on goats as they're not as picky about the goats.  I had one brief experience where Yoshi chased a small goat so I was a bit concerned, but I knew that wasn't their reputation and that was correct.  I shouldn't of worried except for one of the snottier goats taking a head butt swing at Yoshi so we just left that one to sulk.

The fun thing was that the goats wouldn't move off they hay they were standing on and classic Border Collie "eye" doesn't really work.  BC lays down and stares at the goats and they happily stare right back.  The BCs have to learn to work in a more standing position and the "upright" breeds actually do better according to Marian when it comes to goats (and cows).  So we brought Yoshi in and let him charge right in there are they moved.

Everything is slower with the goats almost like we're moving through mud.  This means it's much easier on the handler as you have more time to think and react.  We ran the AKC A course twice until the goats went on strike and started listening to their more recalcitrant members.  His Stop actually worked reasonably often.  I can see we're going to need to do a lot more of this.

I'd like to, off stock, teach Yoshi how to take one step.  Right now we have Stop Walk Stop... which works mostly, but it would be cool to have more precision though if I can fine tune his reaction time that actually might be enough.  Using the standing stop that we already have is actually best and you should use a stand or a sit instead of a lie down.

The ranch has AHBA courses with goats (Ranch Dog and also HTAD), so that might be a fun thing to work towards while we're in the process of our AKC trial training.

Once concern is that the goats are slow enough (and also happily flocked around me which was totally fun compared to being mobbed by sheep - which I'm used to now, but can be a bit daunting), I fear learning bad timing as I could see multiple times where I would have lost lighter sheep but the goats were quite happy to stay with me.  It totally felt like "over the hills and through the woods to grandmother's house we go" or "we're off to see the wizard..."  Yoshi did pick on the littlest goat and I had to every so often deflect his zeroing in (usually by getting the stock stick in between him and the little goat.

But regardless of the bad timing fears it's a great way to fine tune control.  Hopefully getting butted didn't dissuade him too much - I don't think it did.

He's so much better about dogs though he was saying hello to a female BC who was acting inviting and he was making a motion like he wanted to mount her (not really but sort of) and she snarked at him and he snarked back and I whisked him (nay, carried him off by the ruff) off to cool down a moment, but then we had them able to stand near each other again and they were fine and he wasn't stressed which was very nice.

Fri Dec 18
Yoshi walk.  Click to calm mostly works but he'll still lunge if he gets the chance.  I corrected him pretty hard for a lunge and he seemed to get the idea that I was pretty peeved.  Not sure what the best answer is as the calmer he is the better behaved he is.

Trek agility.
Running with intention is working well and I can now get her to drive ahead and take jumps.  It seems to work better to stay back a bit and not get into her path.  The only problem with this is that I'm more out of position and she drives ahead to the next obstacle regardless whether it's the next one.  Given how she took quite a while to get the idea of obstacle sequencing it's nice to have the opposite problem.  I just have to keep my voice calm as the more hyper I get the worse she gets.

One issue is that she's terrible about lead outs that are more than one obstacle.  Esp if it's the tire as the first obstacle.  She will just sit and stare at me.  The problem is that if she doesn't react they I call harder and the less she moves (maybe I've been working too hard on the obedience stays.)  Nancy G drilled into me that the release should always be verbal but I'm wondering if it should be different for Trek.  Right now I'll leave it as it is.

Wed Dec 16
Yoshi walk (I had a work commitment so no time for a Trek walk)
I saw a person across the street whose body language clearly said "I have a slow dog attached to me" and sure enough a Beagle appeared.  I had a clicker with me and was prepared but Yoshi so wanted to lunge that while I was clicking I really wasn't waiting  for him to disengage, but kept the treat in front of him to munch on till his attention shifted to me and then we could do Click to Calm stuff.  (The Beagle was still ambling along which was good.)

I asked CU_dogs_SF about something closely related:

Not long ago, I saw "Click to Calm Unleashed" listed as a Clicker Expo presentation topic and I'm wondering if Emma Parsons and Leslie McDevitt are collaborating.  Can anyone confirm?  Now that Yoshi is doing better I find I am having more luck with Click to Calm (before he was too stressed to pay attention to a click - unless I was a good distance away from the trigger.)

These days I can also use more portable, less appalling dry treats (like the Natural Balance ones).  They also take him longer to eat which puts a dent in the gulp and lunge method. Today he was fussing about a Beagle across the street until I clicked and put a large treat in his mouth.  Crunch crunch crunch. And then he was more than willing to get clicked and treated and completely ignore the Beagle. If he's really stressed I, can just hold the dry treat in front of his nose and hang on to it so he has to nibble on it which takes up more of his brain.  It does take a certain amount of bravery and I'd be a little hesitant to use it on a dog who could really do me some damage, but it works for him.

Tue Dec 15
Noon dog walks
Yoshi - brought both a clicker and a shake can with me.  We only say the mail carrier so I used the clicker and it worked great.  Should be interesting to see what happens when there's something he's concerned about it.  I wasn't using the clicker much for a while as it's a lot to manage but now that things are a little more predictable I can manage it and the click is a sharper more precise tone than a "yes" even though I am faster with "yes."  I also have my clicker on a retracting wire clip which helps a lot.  So we'll continue with this as it's a routine he likes and we might be able to push things further this way.

Trek - much the same but steadily improving.  Wasn't dragging me today which is nice.

Mon Dec 14
Noon dog walks
Yoshi - he's still barking at triggers and he's only partially listening to me.
I need to make my presence more known though he connects well with me but his default is to still worry and not focus back on me.
I have at least 2 choices.  carry an adversive (either a beeper or a shake can), or go back to clicking to calm.  Since he gives me one second warning I have a lot of choices.  Giving him the occasional leash pop doesn't really help that much if there's something he's concerned about (this time it was a Lab on his way with his person to the elementary school.)
Trek - still worried about High St, but coping. 


Sun Dec 13
Trek Bayteam Trial
Mission accomplished!  She was entered in just Advanced/PII Gambliers and Snooker.  My goal was simple.  See if she could do a course under the noisy covered horse arena without freaking out.  She did it!  And nearly qualified too.  She did more obstacles than we usually do in the Gamblers opening and I had to improvise a little, but she whizzed through the Gamble though skipped the 5th pole (unusual) - I don't care she was focused and listening to me and she's never seen a set of poles in a gamble though we do poles at a distance anyway.  And in Snooker I didn't rehearse the transition from the opening to the closing enough and wound up repeating a red instead of doing the closing - the course was pretty ridiculous and I don't know if we would have gotten through closing obstacle 5 (what you need to get through if you do 3 7's - otherwise you have to get through 6.

Being super low key work fabulously.  Just a speaking tone of voice, no tension as the more stressed I get the worse she gets.  Doing the weave poles facing her seemed to work, but I don't know if it had any effect on her, but it's something worth continuing for now.

Here's the video (click on the video to get a better full sized version):



But should I enter her at the same place in Jan?  After thinking about it I realized that while she coped she didn't enjoy it and if she hates it there's no point.  So I instead am going skiing on Sunday Jan 24.

Sat Dec 12
Worked on obedience with Trek (dumbbell) and Yoshi's moving stop
Since Trek doesn't like the dumbbell hitting the wood floor we worked on the bed which worked great.  At first I was just holding her mouth gently with the dumbbell in it to give her the idea of holding it - something she has limited patience with.  Then we moved on to her picking it up by herself and when she got bored of that I had her do little baby retrieves. She would hold it for a count of 5 or so which is an improvement.

Yoshi's stop got better when I stopped leaning over to intimidate him into stopping, but instead said stop, signaled and dropped a treat on the floor.  I'm missing a step so I added a brief pause in to the mix and he's getting it and that should be hopefully easy to fade.


Fri Dec 11
class canceled - it's pouring

Wed Dec 8
Yoshi's dental was today.  I always worry about his since he had a brother die from anesthesia - why do I end up with dogs with this kind of history?  Cali's had a grandmother pass away under circumstances where they concluded it was anesthesia - Fortunately Cali was fine but I always worried.  Yoshi been under multiple times (teeth cleaning and the incident of trying to inhale a cat on the other side of the fence and ending up with a souvenir plant stamen up his nose) but I still worry about him.

But they tell me he's waking up and he has all the teeth he started out with today and they're clean.

Now we get to save for the cancer screening ultrasound that I want him to have.
I started my own local cancer screening campaign and people are sending me thank yous that they had their dog's done already, so I really (really!) need to follow through on this.  (My vet said do the dental first.)

Trek walk at noon.  She still really dislikes the corner of High Street and Santa Clara esp when it's noisy which it sort of was today, so she got to eat lots of treats.  I may have to cut her food a little more as she's 24.5 pounds and should lose 1/2 a pound.  problem is she's such a pain when she'd hungry and won't concentrate.  I could add veggies to her food but carrots pass right through her undigested so I either have to teach her how to chew her food (good luck with that0 or cut them up or find something else.  I did buy some canned pumpkin so we can try that and I just need to get over my pumpkin aversion.

Thinking of taking Trek to obedience class tonight.  I just noticed her class certs have expired - bummer.

When picking up Yoshi, I spoke briefly to Dr. Applegate to find out what anesthesia drugs they used as obviously they work for him.

Inducing agents
  Valium - low dose
  Propofol - fast acting (and fast to wear off) drug
  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propofol)
Inhalation (via tube)
  Sevoflurane (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sevoflurane)

She said he did great.  There's a small swelling on the upper right side above the [look up the tooth name] that they are going to keep an eye on.  It's likely cased by gingivitis, but there's a teeny tiny risk of it being a tumor.

He's eaten and seems fine.  Treks beating up on him some an he's not quite up for it but is recovering.

I forgot to check with BAVS about what anesthesia they used for the plant stamen incident, but that was different.

[various dog walks nothing special]

Sat Dec 5
Yoshi herding.  Baby's first outrun lessons.  It went better than I expected.  I do need to get a longer version of my riding crop so I can wack the ground with it and not have to bend way over.  Doing a lot of running parallel with him around the sheep me on the inside him on the outside - keeping pressure on his shoulder to hip area while saying Out.  If he tries to dive in I'm supposed to wack the ground in front of him to keep him out.  It's very empowering being able to keep up with him (I get to cut corners).  He appears to be getting it but we have a long road.


Fri Dec 4
Yoshi walk and nails uneventful. Trek agility.  After not doing it for some time she did great.  Turning my body sideways as she weaves is working very well.  No popping and when she tried to I could right away indicate the correct direction.  Driving ahead still needs work as she worries when we are about to cross paths, but I'm thinking that if I slow down and empasize "GO" to drive ahead.  Of course at a trial she's all about way ahead of me so this may not be quite so relevant.

Thu Dec 3

Bummer.  The ranch is worried about animal rights people showing up at trials so I had to mark Yoshi's herding videos as private.  However I've made a special You Tube Account and shared the videos with just that login and I then just give the login out to whoever I want to see it.

With it dark in the evenings now, it didn't seem fair to always walk Trek at night, and neither dogs' training is as effective at night as I don't see what they see (they see much better than I do at night), so i can't anticipate problems.  So I've resolved to walk both dogs at noon which means eating at work and doing some serious hustle to get it done, but it's doable if i can plan ahead and always have food at work.

Yoshi walk.  At the corner of Court and Santa Clara he turned around and suddenly started barking back at the house on the corner.  i look over my shoulder looking for a dog near the front door.  Nope.  I look for a dog anywhere.  Nope.  A cat? A squirrel? A mail carrier in a pith helmet? No no and no.  He's looking right at a filled pink plastic bag left out for pickup by a charitable organization.  But Yoshi you can't even see pink. Bark bark bark.  Whatever, what a cool, safe training opportunity.  Sit.  He doesn't.  Sit.  He doesn't. I make him sit.  He's alternating glowering and barking at the evil bag (two actually).  We spend the next few minutes with me making him sit and him holding it for a bit and then popping up (and repeat).  We sort of get somewhere and i finally let him go sniff the bag thus ending the controversy.  After walking on some blocks i decide that I want to revisit the bag but it's already been picked up.  Bummer.  But cool that I now have another way to train though.  Evil filled plastic bags. Wonder if they have to be pink (wonder what color pink looks like if you only have 2 color cones in your eyes - there are some guesses, but I don't think we know of a way to be correct.)

He also grumbled a bit about the mail carrier carrying that big bag (even sans pith helmet).

Trek walk.  Our standard walk for her now includes High Street and she's getting better about not dragging me down it.

Wed Dec 2
Yoshi walk - mercifully uneventful as I'm still under the weather.
I've been pondering is it better to teach a dog how to think while excited or teach them to stay relaxed under varying circumstances? Things like CU and the Relaxation Protocol take the latter approach, herding and shaker/noisemaker cans take the former.  Both have been useful, but I think where Yoshi needs more work is the former.  How to control himself in situations where he would normally press the panic button.  Certainly more herding is one solution and we'll be doing that this month the 5th and the 19th.  Certainly one of the world's easiest training is to let him hang out in the window and me with the shaker bottle and treats for desisting so I'll probably do more of that this afternoon.

[later]
Didn't get a chance to do that, but inside the house he went into a barking frenzy at another dog barking outside and was racing up and down beside me so I was able to tell him to down, which he did after some "are you serious?" hesitation.  He held it too for 30 seconds or more (however long I asked for).  He did bark while laying down (the other dog was still barking) and that's totally fine as it's not something he's very good at so he gave up pretty soon.  Good boy.  I like that as it means that I can get compliance when he's in a frenzy in his house.  Having another dog magicall appear close by is another story entirely and I'm hoping that all this other work can influence that as that situation is hard to set up.  Especially the surprise factor.


Archive - Go to:

2009
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Nov 2009
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Oct 2009
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Sep 2009
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Aug 2009
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Jul 2009
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Jun 2009
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - May 2009
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Apr 2009
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Mar 2009
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Feb 2009
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Jan 2009

2008
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Dec 2008
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Nov 2008
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Oct 2008
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Sep 2008
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Aug 2008
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Jul 2008
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Jun 2008
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - May 2008
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Apr 2008
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Mar 2008
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Feb 2008
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Jan 2008

2007
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Dec 2007
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Nov 2007
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Oct 2007
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Sep 2007
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Aug 2007
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Jul 2007
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Jun 2007
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - May 2007
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Apr 2007
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Mar 2007
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Feb 2007
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Jan 2007

2006
Yoshi Training Diary - Dec 2006
Yoshi Training Diary - Nov 2006
Yoshi Training Diary - Oct 2006
Yoshi Training Diary - Sep 2006
Yoshi Training Diary - Aug 2006
Yoshi Training Diary - July 2006
Yoshi Training Diary - June 2006
Yoshi Training Diary - May 2006
Yoshi Training Diary - Apr 2006
Yoshi Training Diary - Mar 2006
Yoshi Training Diary - Feb 2006
Yoshi Training Diary - Jan 2006

2005
Yoshi Training Diary - Dec 2005
Yoshi Training Diary - Nov 2005
Yoshi Training Diary - Oct 2005
Yoshi Training Diary - Sept 2005
Yoshi Training Diary - Aug 2005
Yoshi Training Diary - Jul 2005
Yoshi Training Diary - Jun 2005
Yoshi Training Diary - May 2005
Yoshi Training Diary - Apr 2005
Yoshi Training Diary - Mar 2005
Yoshi Training Diary - Feb 2005
Yoshi Training Diary - Jan  2005

2004
Yoshi Training Diary - Dec 2004
Yoshi Training Diary - Nov 2004
Yoshi Training Diary - Oct 2004
Yoshi Training Diary - Sep 2004
Yoshi Training Diary - Aug 2004
Yoshi Training Diary - July 2004
Yoshi Training Diary - Jun 2004
Yoshi Training Diary - May 2004
Yoshi Training Diary - Apr 2004

Yoshi Main Page
Frap Home Page