Little steps at a time

Yesterday I took a different approach to training. Even though I know I've read that people fall into the trap of moving too far too quickly when lead training goes. Somehow that doesn't sink in when you're concentrating on trying to get from A to B. Or trying to get it to work quicker so you can get from A to B. The brief glimpses of Grey walking by my side that I've had, have been so pleasant, I clung onto the thought of it thinking he could do it again. Just the next step if not this one. But that is what's called running before one can walk aka in training terms, lumping. Moving too big a step forward before the dog is ready and proofed, able to perform at a lower level. Grey can walk nicely in the house and round the back yard, but not on the street in front of my house or on walks.

One of the problems is where I live. I live on a hugely busy corner. It's one of the main pedestrian walks into town. On the direct route to the park where lots of dogs go. A main cross roads for cars cutting through the town. My house has raised steps and is right on the corner. When we come out the front door, Grey is confronted by busy traffic and people that have stopped to cross a confusing junction. The atmosphere is quite tense with people scrabbling to get their kids under control to make a dash for it across the road and cars revving to get their slot to cross.

Yesterday morning I went out in the sunshine for an offlead walk by Botany Bay. Grey had good interactions with other dogs. Brief hellos and move ons if a little bouncy. When we were down on the beach investigating a cave, out of nowhere bounded a young male vizsla. He was much leaner and ganglier than Grey a very different shape altogether. They had a short teenage romp together until the owner caught up.

On the way back to the car we did lead training on the quiet footpath. But Grey was never really settled into it. It seemed really endless the number of stops I had to make. He would go round the end of the lead like a compass and string. Over and over. But no matter, we continued this until we got back to the car.

In the afternoon I decided to leave the 6ft wide solid gate to the back yard open to the street. I then got Grey out and started walking him round the yard as I normally would have done with the gate closed. He was slightly distracted but not really. I was using the ham and cheese primula cheese in a tube as one thing I'd noticed is that he gets snatchy on the street and often treats fall to the floor which in turn raises the excitement of hunting for them. The cheese delivery helps save my fingers and also he's looking at my face when he's eating.

So we worked the backyard and slowly edged toward the open gate and the pavement. We managed to get out on the pavement and worked while cars, vans and people with prams and walking sticks passed. Everytime he drifted out of focus with me I would gently edge back into the yard. By the end of the short session we managed to walk up and down 20ft each side of the entrance at rush hour. Hopefully something to build on.

Later we ran through some 'up up' and 'off' training getting on and off the sofa. I was reminded to sort this out by a friend as part of dealing with his humping behaviour. We did about 100 reps. Can't believe I had forgotten to get this solid.

Visitors

Looks like we need to do more work with visitors coming to the house. He had a bark at friends on Friday eve who came in while he was behind the baby gate. He didn't know them and one had a hat on. It was handled quite badly by me as I forgot to brief them before they came.

Then we had visitors on Saturday who he has met before. The problem here was the opposite. Grey was very keen. He's over enthusiastic with his crotch sniffing, especially with girls. I've been struggling the last month with his humping and sniffing. Perhaps it's just a phase.

Aside from the sniffing we had a lovely time together and we all went out for a walk in Bekesbourne. It got late and the walk back to the car was almost in the dark. I think I should get Grey a luminous harness or something.

Here are some pics from the last few days.




Enjoying his free gift for ordering tonnes of snacks from Zooplus

training / nails

Started clicker training Grey to accept his nails clipping. Today we worked for about 10 mins on him offering me a paw, allowing me to hold it, then touching his nails and applying pressure. He pulled his paw back a few times and mouthed, so I had probably moved ahead too fast, so I backed up and went back a stage. In the end he was lying on his side relaxed as I handled his nails with my fingers. Next step will be to touch his nails with an object.

It's a bit difficult to juggle the clicker, holding his paw and then touching his nails. I might try mounting the clicker onto the floor somehow so I can operate it with my foot.

Training / retrieve

We've done a couple of indoor sessions on training a retrieve from Helen Phillips' Clicker Gundog book. The object is placed in a basket at my feet. He's CT for increasing contact with the object, in this case his Orbee bone. By the end of session one he was making contact with his teeth. And by session two he'd got to lifting the bone up and back down into the basket. Now starting to shape his paws out of the basket and will move towards having the object on the outside of the basket for it to be replaced into it to get paid.

At last, I think I can manage a walk

I tried out the front fastening halti harness today for a short walk to town with L. It was really nice, as although not a training tool that will teach him to walk nicely, he was much more relaxed than he has been on these type of family none lead training outings on his head collar (Gencon or the Halti). I'm still going to carry the Gencon with me in case of situations where I need tight control of him though. But his body language was much more relaxed and he wasn't trying to rub it off or crying like he still does on the head collar. The best thing was that it was relaxing for all of us. No grinding of teeth, funny burping noises and struggled breathing. So it was much easier to get him to focus on getting used to traffic and the high street again. I was also happy in the knowledge that when I got him back from free running on the beach that I wouldn't have to whip out the head collar which I was worried might muck up his recall and put a downer on the trip out.

So far so good. I've been here before though where I've said I think I found a good solution. But this time it comes off the back of a load of lead training and he's a little older. So perhaps he'll be easier to manage on it.

This morning we ran through some of Helen Phillips training for the lead. Just standing still. Putting my foot on the lead with enough slack and standing in a relaxed position on one hip and just taking the scenery in. CT rewarding him for being calm. I have to work on getting him used to being relaxed and switched off outside before expecting him to be nice on the lead.

Later tonight we went to a cafe and Grey had a cow's ear to keep him busy. Was a bit of a noisy chewer, but he was really good and the cafe people like him.

Big Grey, Little Grey

Training / Down - shaping day 3

Woohoo! He's now connected the cue to the action. He goes into a neat little down now. It's quite different to his previous down. He's really careful about it. Good boy, Grey!

Grey's teeth update

His acrylic plate came out on Tues. I was a bit shocked to pick him up and grooves had had to be cut into the upper gum to make way for the lower canines. I'd hoped the plate would have been enough. It looked pretty sore. But by the next day he was fine and eating everything as normal. The vet said that the teeth are only halfway through and that he doesn't think they will grow the rest of the way. I'll try to remember to get photos done of the progress. Should be Tuesday. A small portion of the upper palette was ulcerated but not much for how long he's had the plate on. Hopefully this will be the last of the dental work.

Target mat video

Nice video of Helen Phillips clicker training target mat with a vizsla.

Shaping is coooool!

I have started reteaching Grey 'down' but this time by shaping. He was previously taught it by luring and clicker but it was clear he was not getting the vocal cue and more often than not, since he was 6 months old I had to crouch and coax him into a down. I obviously hadn't faded the lure correctly and he was dependent on it. So last night I started shaping him. Purely standing really still, and CT for the littlest movement down of his head and then more and more until he was all the way down. He was so cute and clearly got it. He was so perfectly in the same position each time and I didn;t request this of him. I would have been happy to just reward his down, but he wanted to be in the exact same movement. To me this showed me how much he was thinking about it rather than just going for the treat under his nose. We did a couple of 3 min sessions. By today's I had just started adding the vocal cue. I tried it outside in the courtyard and he didn't get it. So we started again from the beginning and he quickly got to giving full downs. Will try and firm it up tomorrow.

Other than that we did more lead training up on the top at Botany Bay. I had hoped he would find it less distracting on the footpath, but I think it was too close to the field he goes off lead on. I really need to find a boring bit of road, but I don't have one near my house. It's really busy here and everytime I go anywhere in the car it gets him hyped up.

Misty morning walk

Headed out to Botany Bay the last couple of days. The barking has thankfully stopped and we're now just back to excited whining. I always sit and wait for him to stop before I open the door. He's getting much better at waiting before he comes out. He sits and has his lead put on and comes out when he's given the 'ok' release. This morning it was simply stunning on the beach. The weather was much warmer and the mist hung heavy. The beach was more or less deserted. He followed me close today, tracking my footsteps. If I stopped he would arrive at my feet and begin to dig beneath. We ran through the usual series of recalls to whistle which were good. He also did a nice little sit stay in the field up the top to about 5 paces. I didn't want to push it as I didn't have time to really train this if he broke the stay. So left it at that.

I went back out there after lunch. We came across two GSDs pups the same age as Grey. Quite a bit of roughish play. Grey was quite submissive in the beginning and then by the end he let himself down at the end by humping one of the GSDs. Oh dear! While I'm on the subject of humping, since the last two weeks he's taken to humping me and my ugg boots every evening at around teatime. No idea why, unless it's the cats. Funny he only does it at night.

Did quite a long stretch of LLW training all the way up from the beach to the car. I think there is some improvement. But still have a long way to go.

Walks / Bekesbourne to Patrixbourne

Went out looking for new walking routes today with my map in tow. The whining in the car on the way to walks has now escalated into barking all the way there! Very noisy. Set off from the vets on the walk and it was supposed to be part of the North Downs, but my map reading got a bit confused and Grey was a bit spooked when we had to do lead walking round Patrixbourne. Had a real bark at seeing some horses which he'd not done the day before. But then these were mounted so to him very different. I took him aside into the churchyard while they passed. He didn't calm down for ages after that though and was generally upset by traffic and having to have the gencon on. So I cut short the wandering in new territory and headed up to part of our regular walk where I where he can be off lead for a good while. Weighed him in at the vets and he's still steady at just under 30kg. Still did some lovely recalls though.

Training / sitstay session 2

I worked up to 8 big paces away from Grey in a sitstay. Releasing him on my return where he got a yummy mouthful of beef mince. Bit messy on the old fingers. I had it in my training pouch with a plastic bag in and had it fastened behind me so it wasn't so distracting for him. Started off working up to 30 secs in position with my right in front of him. Then added a pace back and started from 1 sec upwards to 10 secs before doing another pace back.

2nd fear period

It's been suggested that Grey might be going through his second fear period. I think they're right. He's started going a lot more nutso in the car. Also he's been lunging at passing trucks, 4x4s and lorries when on the lead. So back to basics for socialising for a while then. Either that or he's going to turn into a devil dog!

Today we went for a huge walk after heading out with an OS map. Was really nice, if a little flat terrain wise. There's only so much of fields you can get enthused by. Grey came back on all his recall whistles so that's still going well. He came back at speed from ages away. He met a few swans - didn't bark, just looked. A horse, again, just looked. Yay! He had to be put on the Gencon for the last leg of the walk which he hated because we had to go along a road and I was with L so no chance to LLW train.

Ran through some training when we got home. Lead training down the hallway to a plate of chicken. Tight lead we go backwards, loose lead forwards and if he carried on he got the chicken. he did really well. By the 9th and 10th times he loose lead walked all the way.

Then some sitstays. Me just standing in front of him and increasing the count by 1 sec at a time while he was in a sit. We got to 14 secs. Had to restart the count twice to 1 because he offered me a down twice at about 5 secs.

New year, new teeth

Today I took pictures of Grey's teeth for the dentist. You can see how well the lower canines have done in moving forwards and outwards. Hopefully this means the brace can come off soon. The dentist has done a brilliant job in working on correcting Grey's problem bite.






In other news, I think Grey seems to have matured somewhat. His recall is really good again (famous last words). He comes back now on the whistle from 100m away with distractions. Woohoo!

I've also started putting his 'sit' on the whistle on a single short 'peep'. He's not got it fully yet, but I've only been at it for a day. I've started trying to add a cue to his thing of lying down in a drop to wait to greet dogs when we're out. No idea how long that's going to take. He's never been too great at connecting cues to offered behaviours.

Last brag is that Grey seems to have passed Level 4 'leave it' of zen. Over two days running he left food on the floor when asked for 30secs.

Lead walking is also much much better. I've got a zero tolerance of any pulling now, so trips out are little dances of me stopping, moving backwards, to the side, encouraging to keep the lead loose and no pulling forward.

I was thinking in recent days how really good for me Grey has been. I have a daily outing where it's like meditation. I just enjoy being out with him rain or shine. Here's to a new year with the pup.