STITCH

the weBlog of a Service Dog In Training

Her teeth are driving us both crazy. I took away her Humpy Dumpy doll, which was using up some of her energy. She's now focused her mouth on her dogbed. More socially acceptable, but damper. She's doing that sucky-mouth thing where she holds it in her mouth and moves her tongue. She kneads with her paws like a kitten while she's doing this. When I'm reading, she sits on the couch beside me and I massage her swollen gums and her tiny little teeth.

We work on her paw target. She remembers it right away and runs to it anywhere in the room - up to 12' away. I've run the gamut on voice cues - Hit? Too close to Sit and Stitch. Punch? Also too close to Stitch, and I'm using ChCh to get her attention. Stomp, I guess. I start using it, and move back until I'm up two stairs in the dining room while she's running into the parlour to Stomp.

Next I try holding it vertically. She tries to bite it twice, then starts punching it. I move it around, this side of her, that side. I toss the kibbles here and there so her angles are different when she approaches it. X30. Next I put her down the steps and put the target on the first step. This is a no-brainer. X30. If I pass Radio Shack today, I think I'll look for a doorbell device that I can put on a board for her to ring. Then someday in the distant future when she can actually reach it, she can push a door button.

Then we work the Get Lost game again. Much better today. First I click simple contact X30. Then I start turning. When I turn, she looks down, follows, stops, looks back up 50% of the time. The rest of the time, she drops her head and beetles around to meet me on the other side as she did yesterday. OK, I need to explain this better.

When she starts to go around me clockwise, I turn counterclockwise and always stop with her standing bewildered off my right shoulder. Huh? What happened there? I was supposed to be staring at mom's face?! Then she started correcting herself again, stepping counterclockwise to find my face. CLICK! We do that X100 - clockwise turn, click for finding my face; clockwise turn oops counterclockwise, click for correcting and finding my face; counterclockwise turn, click for following and finding my face. At the end of the hundred, she's walked and watched (which is the point I'm trying to make) maybe 8 times. And she's much more confident that she needs to find my face, and find it from the front. Good session.

Supper takes 24 minutes. I was so astonished when Scuba, my first from-scratch clicker dog, could work for 20 minutes at this age. Now I take it for granted. She was totally In The Game the whole time, and not ready to quit when the food ran out.

When I was cleaning up this afternoon, I found the container with her retrieving objects. 23 objects. Pen, marking pen, harness ring, clickers, head of a dead stuffed toy, VetWrap, FlexiLead, toothbrush, book of matches, roll of dimes, bracelet. Well, let's see what she's made of. I dump the whole bucket out 8' away from my chair. It takes 10 clicks to convince her I'm not paying for Stomping. Suddenly she remembers. Wow! Something - maturity? thinking about it? duration work in other behaviours? - has made her vastly better at retrieving! She carries the objects much further before dropping them, and when she drops them, she knows what her mistake was. 39 clicks get all 23 objects back in my bucket (don't get hysterical, *I* am putting them in the bucket when she drops them close enough for me to reach them). Then I take out the wooden dumbell and we work X30 on hold. It usually takes her two spits before she holds, but then the hold is at least 3 seconds, and quiet. Brilliant.

Then I dump the bucket again. 23 items retrieved in 34 clicks this time. The harness ring, which was very difficult for her to pick up and to hold last time, presents no difficulty this time. I've left about 3" of line sticking out on the Flexi. She's picking the Flexi up by the line, and it's swinging back and forth so hard it makes her head swing, but that doesn't bother her either. Good puppy!

I've got 50 kibbles left. Remembering the trouble she had thinking I wanted the retrieve articles stomped, I bring out her pink spot again. 2 tries at taking it out of my hand, then she starts Stomping it. Soon I'm hiding it on the floor anywhere I can reach - a circle of about 6'. When she eats her treat and looks up, the spot is gone. She has to look for it. When she finds it, she gallops to it and whomps it with both front paws, just to be sure.

Why would anybody train any other way?

ShaZAM! I have to go into town to run errands, so I take Stitch. I put her in a crate that fit her a month ago, with a handful of kibble. There's a little fussing, and I'm hoping I will be able to carry her around in a pet store a bit without her having a heart attack.

We get to the store, and I carry her in. She has a tiny quiver. I find an empty aisle and put her down. She turns to look at me, c/t. She looks harder, c/t. Hey, wait a second here, my puppy is WORKING. I ask her to Sit, she does. Down, she does. Princess Paw, yes. Sore Paw, yes. We start walking. I didn't think it was possible to be totally excited about looking at new things and totally keeping the leash loose at the same time, but that's what I'm getting. LOTS of clicks, lots of exploring. We walk from aisle to aisle, she's checking in, getting clicks. We stop every now and then and do more Sit and Down. The only time the leash tightens is when she goes ripping off after a person BUT the tightening is light and very brief - more an "oops, I thought YOU'd like to chase those kids too!" rather than any attempt to make me go in that direction. She DOES get to meet some people, and likes that very much. She has one moment with them when she thinks maybe it would be more fun to go off down the... oh, we're staying? How about I give you a Sit way over here? So she gets clicked for a couple more Sits and Downs, then she decides they're OK again and goes visiting. We walk on a loose lead out of the store. Wow! WAY more than I expected. Ee hah!

We get out of the car once more in a huge parking lot and go for a loose leash walk, very nice, and do some more Sit and Down. Tiny crate whining on the way home.

Wow, what a much better idea to find a behaviour glitch and work on overcoming it than my usual - sit around alternately ignoring it and grumbling about it for weeks, months or years until I'm thoroughly upset about it. Scuba, Stitch and I go for a walk. Scuba chases cats, grackles, ducks, smells hare trail, gallops hither and yon. Stitch does too... or not. It takes hitting the end of the leash three times before she whaps herself in the forehead and remembers Loose Leash Walking. In the beginning I hand her a dozen kibbles at once for keeping it loose. She thinks this is swell. Maybe this is puppy's idea of self-control Heaven - she gets to explore, run, trot, sniff, jump on Scuba, and get kibble by the handful all at the same time, and all she has to for it is remember to be within 4 or 5 feet of me. Pretty quickly she's trotting brilliantly along, attacking Scuba whenever she gets close enough, attacking me when she can't stand it anymore, and generally looking really good. I have a hard time remembering to Yes her when the leash is loose rather than when the leash is loose and she's looking at me, but I eventually get it.

She looks very good. I don't know how a puppy with hocks and feet bigger than my car can trot smoothly. A small miracle.

You're not seriously going to leave me in here, are you? Excuse me, it's the middle of the morning. Prime play time. Are you stupid? I want out of here. ARE YOU INSANE? ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME? LET ME OUT OF THIS CRATE! THIS IS AN OUTRAGE! THERE ARE 800 NUMBERS FOR THIS SORT OF ABUSE! I DEMAND A LAWYE

**SHADDAP!**

No fair. *sigh*

Communication. Isn't it a wonderful thing?!

Very good breakfast. First we go to the grooming table and practise Sit and Paws Up X10. No problem. When I grab her elbows to lift her up, she stays standing calmly with her paws on my knees. On the table we practise Stand, Sit, Down, Sore Paw, Princess Paw, and show stacking. She can't quite remember the cues for the tricks, but everything else is excellent.

Then I lay her down on her side. I do this manually. Up to now, she's been fussing a bit before she realizes I'm trying to lay her down, but this time she just rolls down and stays down. X10 for Head Down, great. Then I pick up the nail clippers and do her nails. 16 nails, 16 clicks. Ee hah I can cut her nails! I know, I did it before, but this is without a lot of puppy fussing, talking her into it, etc, I just lay her down and cut her nails. I'm thrilled.

Then we go to the parlour and I dump out her retrieve bucket. I add one more thing - a gardening kneepad. She brings everything back, the kneepad last. I start something new - it still takes two or three clicks before any particular item gets from the pile to me but now, when I pick the item up, I put it back in the bucket and give her a kibble. After the third one, she watches me put each thing in the bucket and waits for the kibble. I think it helps. Her holds are getting longer and longer, the items are getting back to me more smoothly. Another new thing - I only click if she's facing me with the item in her mouth. Next time, I hope I can click only if the item is in her mouth and she's walking toward me.

I approached Scuba from the other direction - a little bit of how-to-bring-it and a lot of how-to-hold-it. That was a totally successful way to teach the retrieve. I'm just doing Stitch another way to see if it's as successful. So far, I'm happy with it.

Finally, I get out her touch spot. She's really into it. We work it X20, she's thoroughly stomping both front feet onto it no matter where I put it. So I get some duct tape (the Trainer's Friend) and tape it to the upright part of the couch about 3" off the floor. She can't find it. I have to get the second spot and lead her across the floor and up to it. This is a little tougher than I anticipated. X30 to get her from the floor to the vertical surface and offering to hit it without me drawing her attention to it each time.

Her retrieve pile - collar; dumbells in wood, leather, metal; nail clippers, 4 clickers and a bug clicker, pen, felt pen, hairbrush, roll of dimes, toothbrush, scissors, Flexi, book of matches, bracelet, harness ring, tennis ball, roll of VetWrap, toy head, knee pad.

Above, her vertical paw target.

This morning I add a 5' stock whip to her pile of retrieve articles. She leaves it until last, then brings it back with no trouble - well, she makes the decision with no trouble. She quickly decides to pick it up (x3 to let her know), then tries to bring it, trips over it, lands on her nose, goes back, picks it up with it trailing out between her legs, tries to lift it and herself, etc. The point being, she immediately tries to bring it to me. And eventually it lands at my feet. I don't really believe in jackpotting, but I confess I'm jackpotting if I can grab something before it hits the ground - since I'm not holding items in hand and having her hold them with me, every time I move my hand toward her, she thinks she's being rewarded, so she drops the item. I caught 6 of them this round, and gave her all the kibble I had in my other hand each time. Her lifts are getting more secure, and her carries are getting longer. I'm not sure it's going to work, but after breakfast she brought me two things I didn't want her taking outside. Usually when I call her she drops what she's carrying. I love to watch her lift the FlexiLead. I've left the cord out several inches. She lifts it by the snap, and it swings so hard her head rocks with it, but that doesn't seem to bother her. Sometimes I wait too long to click for a carry and she decides that the article she was carrying isn't paying off so she searches for another one.

Then I put out her target spot on the floor. Wee hah, she doesn't even THINK of retrieving it, just whomps it thoroughly with both front feet. X20 around the room, then I pick it up and show her the upright one on the couch. She's busy playing with my hand. Hmmm. I lure her around until she's facing it, ask for a Sit Stay, then tap the target. Oh! Whomp! X20, then I raise it to 6", no problem.

I spend the rest of the day training llamas for a jump-off. The day seems to be holding its breath waiting for snow, so for supper we go outside and play on agility equipment. Stitch doesn't run right for the contact trainer, but holds Eye Contact as I get the clicker and kibble ready (ee hah!). As soon as she realizes I'm walking toward the trainer, she gallops up it. I barely get some kibble on the top in time, then drop a few at the bottom of the ramp for the contact. X10 with great speed and enthusiasm.

I have the two dogwalk ramps flat on the ground (they were forming a backup chute for llamas - lots of work to do this month!). I start clicking her for stepping on them. At first she thinks I'm paying for stomping them with her front feet. After each click I put that kibble a few inches further down the length of the board, and take her back over to the contact trainer a few times until she figures out I'm paying for walking the boards. X30. I think there's not enough difference between the board and the ground, especially with the grass being fairly long.

I attach the ramps back on the dogwalk at about 24" off the ground and start clicking and luring her up them that way. She gets halfway up and bails a dozen times. Finally I straddle the horizontal part of the dogwalk facing down the ramp. That does it, she keeps coming all the way up. I skoosh backwards the length of the board and get off in time to lure her down to the ground. To my surprise, at that point she turns right around and runs the dogwalk! I have to really hustle to get the kibble on the down contact. Holy cow! And again. Now I'm out of food and I go back toward the house to get some more. Twinkie runs the dogwalk parallel with me. I wasn't expecting this, I had called her away from it before I started for the house. I don't realize she's on it until she's in the middle of it. She catches me looking at her, looks back at me, and falls off onto her back on the lawn. Oh garf, the end of an agility career, woe is me, alack, alas. I give her a cuddle and make sure she's OK, after which she runs back to the beginning and runs the dogwalk again. Tough little bird! This time when I'm done, I make sure she's with me when I head back.

We go out to the agility equipment for lunch. As usual, she gallops up the contact trainer and looks for kibble at the bottom of the contact. X10. Then we move to the dogwalk that she fell off yesterday. She runs up it with no trouble. She's going so fast she frequently passes kibble I've left along the horizontal surface. X20. When I call her away from the dogwalk, she comes away nicely, but if I don't pay attention she gallops back over to the contact trainer.

I have to walk by the teeter on the way back into the house, so I stop there. I don't have any jumps set up to block the tilt. Hmm, what can I do that won't screw her up too badly? I get her to commit all four feet to walking up it, then call her back down. X10. That's five different ramps she'll commit to. Then I put a handful of kibble at the bottom of the tipped contact, pick her up, and hold her securely at the fulcrum with her paws just resting on the board. I let it tip very, very slowly, then release her and lure her down the board to the contact kibble. She's not exceptionally happy about this. By the third time, however, her paws are working while the board is tipping, trying to get away to run down the board to the contact. It occurs to me (better late than never) that I'm backchaining the teeter. First she learned the bottom contact (on the contact trainer, and practised it again on the dogwalk) and to run the board. Now she's learning the tilt. When she's got that, I can add the up contact that she already knows, put them together and have the entire teeter. Maybe. Not a way I've done it before, but we'll see how it goes.

We start supper by working her paw target up to 18". She gets a little sloppy, sometimes hitting the target, sometimes the couch, but she definitely knows the job and just needs some practise in getting her paw up that high. Target X30.

Then, after all that talk about not actively teaching her to hold rather than just bring, I chicken out. I take the leather dumbell. I hold it at muzzle-height and ask for some duration.

If this was my first clicker dog, if I didn't have a TON of faith in The Force, this would be a serious problem. This is a DO-SOMETHING dog. She doesn't like to sit and do nothing. Where I had a nice 2-second hold, I now get an iffy 1-second hold. She tries holding it in her lips instead of in her mouth. She tries chin-bumping. My, she's very good at chin-bumping. She can chin-bump the dumbell 12 times in between bites. She tries holding it by the end. She tries paw-targeting it. She whines. She lies down. She lies down and gives me Princess Paw. Finally I start sitting back, crossing my arms, and looking at the ceiling when she lies down. Three of those and she gets the message that I'm DEFINITELY not paying for lying down.

So, at the beginning we have a good 2-second hold every time I present the dumbell. After 20, we have a poor 1-second hold one in 5 times I present it. But I have faith. This is NOT my first clicker dog. We keep working. Suddenly she tries a good hold. I let it go for 3 seconds, click it. The light at the end of the tunnel. (My computer will say, in a dolorous voice, The light at the end of the tunnel is the headlight of a fast-approaching train.)

At the end of the meal, we have a good 3 second hold every 1.5 times I present the dumbell. I'm hard-pressed to define "a good hold". She takes it firmly in her mouth, locks eyes with me, and just seems to settle back into her body. When she does this, I can loosen my grip on the dumbell and let her hold the weight of it a bit. She certainly isn't ready for me to let go of it, but she felt the weight of it several times without letting go. A good session with a noticeable improvement.

LIFE BEHAVIOURS :

Don't beam up onto sitting people's chests.

Riding in crate in car.

Meeting people.

Loose leash walking.

Bring me stuff.

SKILL BEHAVIOURS :

Paw Target on floor.

Get Lost game.

Retrieving.

Level 1 elsewhere.

Paw Target on vertical surface.

Contacts, dogwalk & teeter.

17 Weeks Old

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15 Weeks Old

SKILLS THAT WERE USED:

She stays on the grooming table while I get a brush out of the tack box. Ooh, that was scary (for me, anyway)!

She walks on lead out to the car, tries to get in the car, waits while I put her collar on in the car.

I put her on the grooming table, lay her down on her side, and cut her toenails. 16 toenails, 16 kibbles. Head down, legs relaxed.

When she's busy playing, I ask her to Sit Stay so I can show her a target.