We haven't made very good (ahem, any) progress with loose leash walking on the plain collar since this summer, so I've come up with a new strategy. We're working on just getting out the gate and down the driveway, not even thinking about leaving the property yet. She has the yard to exercise in, so 'short' is the name of this game.
She is very reliable about sitting to go through gates once she 'got it' so I'm hoping we'll have a similar break through here.
We start at the gate, I have her sit, and put the leash on. Open the gate, tell her to go ahead through and close it. By that time, she's generally at the end of the leash, pulling a little, and not paying attention to me. So I ask her to touch my hand. Right now I will wait a bit and if she glances back at me I will repeat it and give her a second chance. Sometimes I'll even walk up (but not give her any more leash) and put my hand next to her face so she just has to turn her head. I'm thinking I have to make doing the right thing really easy for her now or she's not going to catch on that it has good consequences.
So anyway, once she touches, we start walking until she hits the end of the leash again, then I ask for another touch. I offer her a treat when she touches too, but at least half the time she doesn't take it - she'd much rather get going.
I make the first touch really really easy to be sure she gets it, but I 'cheat' less and less as she does more. Generally, we get through about three before she spaces out and won't look back at me. Then we just walk back to the gate and are done.
Here is what makes me think this might work:
For one, she really does like going places - and down the driveway apparently counts as 'going someplace'. Obviously, trips have to end sometime anyway, and I'm hoping that 'if you ignore me and stare into the distance, then we go home' is a sufficient deterrent. Since just standing and watching things seems to already be such a huge positive for her, we haven't made much progress getting her to stop doing it by offering other positive things. But associating it with a negative (brushing) was successful in the case of sitting at the door. I'm hoping by using really short sessions here I can associate staring into space while on a leash with the negative of having to go home.
Also, really short sessions keep me from getting cranky about standing out in the cold with a dog that's ignoring me.
I'm also hoping that using 'touch' instead of teaching the loose leash directly will work more immediately on attention, which is the 'mother problem' you could say. 'Touch' really requires her to redirect all her attention back at me. Not just glance at me and think about it, but really mean it.
Previously, when we tried treating for being in the right place, or correcting for getting too far ahead you could tell that she absolutely didn't get it. She really has very little awareness of where she is in relation to you to begin with - she's much more outward focused. Working on 'you need to pay attention to what I want' and 'you need to know where you are in relation to me' at the same time as 'this place is good and that place is not' was just too much.
So, my immediate goal is to get in her head that she has to drop what she's doing and pay attention whenever I say or we go home. (did I mention she doesn't like going home?)
My secondary goal is that once I have her attention, she'll start noticing that I'm a crazy jerk lady who keeps making her touch my hand all the time, and she'll cut her losses and stay next to me so she can get the 'touch' thing over with quickly when I ask for it.
But I like the idea that I'm directly training the first, more important goal. Once that is working better, I'll have more tools to work with on the second one.
She was completely cool with the new commands again. Maybe it was just a morning grumpy thing.
One of the things they required in the class was a pouch or apron to put the treats in. It works pretty well, but I'm beginning to wonder if the dog would associate context that she only has to listen when you're wearing the pouch. Similar I guess to not having food in your hand. It's like a catch-22. How to reward without having a a reward on you.
Also, I cooked the chicken, so that will be ready for next week.
Finally, I'm pretty sure she ate some squash from the compost that I dumped there after it went bad. I guess I'm either hoping it was a raccoon, or going on the premise that it didn't actually look really bad yet - I just knew how long it had been in there. She seems to be suffering no ill effects.
Maybe I should try summer squash as treats...
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Class was a mixed bag.
We started out all sorts of wrong, with Kumi running and pulling like never before all around the yard. The actual class was in a soft dirt arena, and she completely has better traction than me in there. For a moment, I was all but waterskiing behind her.
But, she did calm down, and was pretty impressive for most of the training. We worked on look at me, and touch my hand, and she was very quick to pick them both up. Model pupil level of quick.
Then it got long and boring, and she wanted to look at the other dogs, or, you know, somewhere other than me. We tried walking it off out in the yard again, but that just triggered the same crazies as when we arrived. Never really got focus back after than.
Also, she completely got sick of the treats. Sniff it on my finger and walk away sick of them. We were going to cook up an extra chicken breast and cut that up for treats, but dinner plans changed and so all we had was cheese and hot dogs. Honestly, it seemed like her stomach was a little off in general - she was much more hesitant with her dinner when we got home than usual. I've already saved some hamburger for next week, and we should have chicken too.
Then, this morning, it was like she'd never heard of this 'touch' thing before. 'why the heck is your hand in front of my face'. At the time, I figured it was just because it wasn't part of the morning routine and she was grouchy about having to come in from the yard. Thinking about it now, it might have helped to do a few rounds of the charging thing before asking her to work for it, since that's how we started the class. Make my hands smell like cheese and all. She did manage to do sits and downs, which is what we'd previously been asking for when she gets fed, so maybe it is the routine thing after all.
So, there's that. I'm hoping we do some work on leash manners sooner rather than later, because she's embarrassing in their yard, and I'm not sure how to stop it. She gets completely uninterested in treats. She'll sometimes check back in with me a little (flicking her ears, or sometimes glancing back) when I ask, but I don't know how to reinforce it. Even if I toss a treat up to her, she almost never looks down and eats it.
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I may have mentioned that Kumi is a somewhat fluffy dog. Thankfully, she tolerates brushing, because it would need to get done one way or another, but it is not her most favorite thing by any stretch. I recently came up with a way to make some lemonade out of the situation.
One of the things we are trying to teach her is to sit and wait until told to go through a door. This was proving a bit hard, as all our doors have windows, and she was quite content to stand there and look out the window for a *long* time. Going through the door was a good reward when you got to it, but looking out the window was fun enough that she didn't see any need to do what you said in the meantime. She could just wait.
So we put a brush by the door. She has the choice between standing there looking out the window and *being brushed*, or doing as told and getting to go outside. This is speeding the learning process significantly. She now offers a sit as soon as you walk up next to her, and is getting better on the stay.
I want to reiterate that this isn't retributive brushing, or anything intentionally uncomfortable. It's just getting the tangles out, which would have to be done at some point anyway. We just timed it strategically.
Other training issues are she seems to have learned 'sit' as 'come over next to you and sit' I'm not sure how to re-generalize it to 'sit wherever you are' but for now there are other fish to fry.
We've gotten lazy about the leash walks since we got the fence, preferring games of catch and chase. Her leash manners are regressing. Particularly on the regular collar. It sucks.
On the positive side, well, the door manners are good, but she's also got a pretty good grasp on down now. She knows it a lot better from M than from me, and mostly only knows it in the kitchen (and not, for instance, when she's standing in front of the tv), but still, good progress from 'I have no idea what that means'.
Also, we have our first (no dogs) session of training class this evening. I am inordinately nervous.
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But first: remember the list from yesterday? Add to that gnawing up one of my flip-flops (don't worry, I fixed it, it's not like they were presentable to wear outside the house before hand)
Also, ripping off the 'illegal to remove' tags from some of those pillows she moved. I'm not sure *how* she ripped the tags off; they're completely intact, but detached. Maybe she grabbed them and shook the pillow? That is one of her favorite ways to play with things, but I would not have thought she would be able to get a good enough grip on the tag. Again, no harm - I probably should have pulled the things off before anyway. We have classy decor here, van you tell? Though it does amuse me the tags said 'it is illegal .... except for by the final consumer' see, Kumi, you were supposed to *eat* the pillows if you take the tags off.
The fence is done, and she enjoys it. No, she is not fast enough to catch a rabbit. It was a little weird not going for a full walk, but between tossing toys for her and just general wandering, she seemed to tire herself out more than she did on the walks even. We'll have to be careful not to let the heeling slip though. It will be good to practice doing things off-leash though.
ANYWAY
The title is in reference to the newest dog book that came in. Again, this is an early review - I'm not done with the first chapter, but I likey. We may have to buy this. It's a great mix of conversational, funny, readable language with practical, immediately applicable ideas. It's not just a rote how-to training book though. It's theory, philosophy, principles that are generally applicable. Even in that first partial chapter, I have concrete things I want to change with how I'm doing things. I complained about 'Bones' having too much fluff between the useful bits, this may be the opposite. It isn't hard to read by any stretch, but I could do with a few more examples and explanations to crystallize the ideas. Though, I expect that may be found in later chapters.
I like how she doesn't focus on a clicker being the one true way. I really prefer a verbal signal - you don't have to carry it, it has adjustable volume, it's unique from everyone else... Anyway, points to work on - giving verbal correction before a physical one, so they have a chance to self-correct. All I can say to that is 'duh'. I also need to work on not using the verbal signal outside of enforcing behavior, on separating the 'continue' signal from the 'that's it' signal, and on varrying reward frequency. I love how the language in this is practical, rather than lovey-dovey too, I think my husband will actually be able to learn from it too.
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Remember that dog whose house manners I raved about? Yesterday she dragged the pillows to another room, ate the top off a tube of benadryl itch ointment (thankfully she didn't seem to chew the tube itself) and got the lid off a jar of salsa and took it into the office. I am glad we have wood floors. I'm also glad we decided to wait just a few more days before leaving her uncrated when we're gone. It could still be a heck of a lot worse, but I'm thinking the honeymoon may be over.
The cats behavior has been amusing too. Initially, Fuu was a jerk, and Mickey couldn't care less, then about a week and a half in, Fuu decided to get over herself, but Mickey apparently realized that she *wasn't leaving* and decided to register his opinions on that matter. i.e. yowling at her and hissing. He's still doing it.
On a better note, the walking continues to improve. She is almost to the point of a decent heel* without a constant stream of 'no' 'heel' 'no' 'heel' 'good' 'no' 'heel'... which is a darn good thing since I was starting to dread walks a bit.
I'm not sure if there's a way to go from this to even less formal loose leash walking since I don't really care if she's right next to me, or if she pauses to sniff something then catches up, but it seems so far this is the only way to keep her from going straight to the end of the leash and pulling. It's not a big deal to keep her at heel, but it seems something else might be more pleasant for all parties. Or maybe it wouldn't
She's starting to get the idea of stays and down. We need to come to firm up a decision on a release word. 'lets go' works for going out the door, or walking on leash, but doesn't make sense for regular old 'ok, you're done' I don't want to use 'ok' since that's soo common in conversation, I heard 'at ease' suggested and while it's amusing, it's awkward to actually use. Maybe I should try 'that'll do' like in Babe.
I need to call and check on the obedience classes the shelter mentioned. I thought I would have heard from them by now, and can't 100% remember the date among all the other things I was remembering then.
Fence should be done today, which will be good.
*not an obedience-style heel, but a 'walk next to me' style heel.
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You know how I said I hoped I would be able to make another post about the book saying it got better.
Yeah. This is that post.
It's not perfect. There's still a high fluff to meat ratio, but it's good meat.
It's a little depressing, actually, in a 'I will never be as good as I could be' sense, but hey, sometimes the truth hurts. It doesn't mean you can't still try to be better. What's that quote? 'Lord, let me be the person my dog thinks I am'?
Frustrating a bit too, some of her guidelines seem to contradict. It may be worth reading twice to try to resolve those conflicts from a better perspective.
So, I keep reading.
Incidentally, I've been doing a good bit of the reading in the dog crate. Kumi isn't bad about her crate, but she doesn't hang out there by choice, and seems to be catching on that we tend to leave after she goes in there, and won't run in unaccompanied even for a treat. So, I've been reading in there with the thought that if I think it's a cool place to hang out, maybe she will too. Or, you know, not. But I fit pretty well.
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