Sunday, June 22, 2014

21 Months: Training - Days 337 - 341

Emma loves playing outside.
Monday - Friday

I love dogs and I love working with them.  I especially enjoy watching them solve a problem, be it one I give them or one they create for themselves.  I love the pure joy of a puppy just discovering it's world and exploring everything with reckless abandon as they paw, taste and poke something new.  I find a dog whose brain is engaged and desires to try something truly energizing; I also find a dog who needs emotional and mental energy from me to get them engaged extremely exhausting.

Chevy had returned prior to Emma's arrival on Monday and I had already trained Malcolm his morning lesson.  Malcolm energizes me.  He engages, tries, explores and makes me laugh.  He gives more than he takes in any lesson and I find myself walking away with a lightness that makes me feel great.

Chevy is not like that.  He actually reminds me of my son Walter, who is autistic, and I would spend the entire week yet again trying to get Chevy engaged.  He was a huge energy drain.  I had to watch him closely to ensure I rewarded the stuff I liked and redirected from the stuff I didn't want him doing.  I find that the constant monitoring stage of a dog who doesn't have all of the basic skills needed for good communication highly draining.

Emma is an energy drain of a different sort.  She is engaged, explores and desires to join the game, but finds it scary sometimes and is highly needy of emotional support.  Emma can tire me out fast when she's in the nose nudge, chin on leg, eyes pleading, jump in lap stage.  Even though I have given her lots of praise and rewards and comfort during Chevy's stay, Emma was strained and showing a lot of her high stress signs.  During the course of the week she would destroy no less than four toys, go into constant rounds of rolling barks and be extremely hyper and needy all at the same time.

She worked fantastic on her first day on her mat behaviors and got up to 8 out of 10 times of laying on the mat and beginning to relax by rolling her hip and putting her chin down.  We even got up to knocking on the cabinets.  She was enjoying the lesson and really working it, but she's never been 100% into the training game and I can see that caution that says "if I get this wrong my world will crash" in her body movements.  I have to force myself to smile when I train her (I am not a smiley person by nature) and make sure she's dead solid on on part of a skill before advancing it to keep her up and engaged.  It is exhausting.

I would spend the rest of the week working on practical application of her skills.  She's near completion and needs to begin "working" daily in my home to build confidence and proficiency on her skills.  She is bringing me my socks (even diving under my bed to get them if needed) and helping turn down my bed and make it in the mornings.  She's retrieving things around the house as needed and practicing her deep pressure task daily.  She's "working" for me at this point and doing a very fine job of it.

The Deep Pressure task, which I have yet to get a good cue for, is simply putting her legs and chest across my legs and letting me rub her back, neck and shoulders.  She's up to standing and holding that position for up to 15 minutes now and has that happy content smile I like to see on her face.  I have been training it all along, just haven't really spoken of it.  She loves to get attention, but had a bad habit in her youth (still does) of simply leaping into someones lap for the attention.  I converted that to "asking" for permission by placing her feet on my legs and then further directed it to her laying across my lap and then built duration up.  She's been practicing and building up duration now for months and is now ready to begin applying it to her handler when home.

This task has two benefits.  When her handler becomes upset it's a way for her to be with him and calm him.  He can rub his hands in her fur and she'll stay there as long as he needs to calm down.  She can also lay across his legs in a way that doesn't add pointy bits, but even pressure with warmth seeping into his muscles to relieve pain.  I am teaching Malcolm the same task (for pain in my case) and he's up to 2 minutes across my lap already.

Some weeks I use practical application of known skills to cement them in her mind and see if any of them need tweaking to make them better.  She's solid on the tasks she knows now and can do for her handler.  On Friday, when I sent her home, I asked that they have her begin her job in the home.

She is to retrieve for him if needed, take things to him if asked for (such as the remote control or clothing), turn down and make his bed, help him undress and practice and proof her "Go Get Help" task in the home.  She is to pick up his items and put them away, pick up her toys and put them away and help put his laundry in the basket for him.  If he becomes upset or is in pain and needs deep pressure she's to provide it.

While doing all of this he's to cue her and if she seems to not understand (after a pause) the family is to direct her and help her understand his verbal cues.  After about 20 or 30 times of cuing her himself with them cuing a second or two later they are to wait longer and see if she understands his cue; if not, they are to continue pairing the cues until she's following his direction.

Chevy is not returning next week, so we'll be able to work more on the door task and begin work on the light switch task for her.  I have some minor research to do to see what else she can to to help him, but at this point we are proofing, cleaning up and making her tasks as solid as possible for him.

We will continue to work on door manners and self calming techniques.

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

21 Months: Training - Days 332 - 336

Emma spends a lot of time watching the neighborhood.
Monday - Friday

A service dog lives in an ever changing world.  In a single shopping trip the dog may be bumped, touched or startled several times.  I have had Max, my personal service dog, hugged suddenly by small children, his faced grabbed by a pre-teen who then pushed her face quickly into his, a pre-teen roll by on those shoes with wheels in them and slap his rump as he went by, a child run up a bus aisle and trip over him (she kicked his face when she did) and more.  He's been attacked by several dogs, had strangers pet him without permission and at least once a trip to the local Winco had a child put out their hand and run it along his back as they walked past us going the other direction.  He's been barked at by other dogs, screamed at by children, stepped on by people and had boxes dropped less than a foot behind him, fallen on when someone lost their footing and landed on both of us (I was in my power chair), stepped on when sleeping in a movie theater, was pressed into a wall when the elevator we were in filled beyond capacity and yet more.  If you think it's easy being a service dog, it's not.  We ask these dogs to live in a world in which anything can come around the next corner or something unexpected and frightening may happen and we expect them to handle it without barking, freezing or attacking.  It takes an unflappable dog to work in public.

Emma is not unflappable.  I have taken her out on different types of public access training and she's never slept quietly at my feet nor has she relaxed once.  She can't just put her head down and tune out the world and focus on her job.  She does this thing with her head where she looks like a little bird glancing about.  It's cute until you realize it's her trying to take in every aspect of her world because she doesn't feel safe.  She either walks with her head up, her body stiff, her tail rigid and high while making these bird like movements as she tries to take in all points of the compass or head low, tail down, body arched and steps slow as she starts to shutdown and withdrawal from the stimulus overload.  In either presentation her mouth is closed.  If she didn't have the top knot she does, I would see knitted brows.  I see ears that are either flared so far forward she's in high alert or set back as she tries to make herself small.

These body postures go away when we go on regular walks, though I still see the quick glances and hyper alertness when walking.  She enjoys a good trot with the power chair, but the moment something changes in her environment, such as a dog or person appearing unexpectedly, she's on high alert and the happy Labradoodle smile (open mouth, tail slightly higher than her back or even and waving gently, body relaxed and fluid) leaves and the tense worried Emma returns.  She's fearful of strangers in general and startles without good recovery from sudden frights.  On the days she can go out to work toward public access she would, to someone who doesn't recognize the stress signs, appear to be doing fine, but once home the internal struggle she fought between her training and her fear shows.  She refuses to eat, begins hiding behind furniture, begins destructive chewing and startles even with the slightest movement on anyone's part.  She also becomes highly demanding for attention.  I refuse to take her out if I see overt fear signs in the home, which include classic body posture of ears back,  head low, body low and tail tucked.  I can't see adding to her stress for the sake of training; it's not fair to her.

She did extremely well on a quiet day in Riverfront Park, but still had stress signs.  She spent most of it with an open mouth, loose body and good ear and tail position.  I had occasions where she'd startle and curl into herself and I'd have to take the time to give her reassurance she was still safe.  She had times she became so alert she couldn't hear me or respond to known cues, but in a quiet park setting she had 95% good and 5% high stress as compared to when she goes to a store where it's turned the other way.

But it's more than that.  A service dog needs to handle stress in all aspects in their lives.  The ever changing life of living with humans, including visiting dogs and people, requires an ability to handle that stress and not have emotional fallout later.  Emma internalizes her stress.  She is super excited to see my friends and family she's grown to know as her extended family over the past 2 years.  She's madly in love with my mother and Ronda and truly enjoys a good cuddle with my friend John.  It's taken several visits with John and his dog Yoda before Emma was able to handle the stress of Yoda coming into the home - John commented on that.  My Mom has commented she's doing better, but she too has noted how easily Emma can shy away from something or go off and hide away when we are busy with a project around the yard.  Where my dogs and other trainees see the visits as a fun way to meet new people, become involved in what we are doing to the point of being a pest and then eat without issue later in the day, Emma does not. She stays away from the projects we work on, dashes to find a new spot to watch us from a distance when we move close to where she is and it's hit or miss if she'll eat later.  She only joins us when we are done with the project and are sitting quietly talking about the next project.  Emma is not secure in her world and asking her to enter into an even bigger, scarier world outside of home is not right.

I have taken her to the local smoke shop and even there, when it's me and the employee only, she cannot relax.  She's still looking around rapidly, unable to hold a position unless heavily paid for it and never just relaxes and puts her head down.  She simply can't relax when away from home.

I have a friend whose dog was much the same and in hindsight realized the alert, quiet dog that she worked was really a stressed dog who was holding all of that stress inside.  The dog showed many of the same issues Emma does.  He didn't eat well or at all if he was stressed by public access training and at times wouldn't join the training game because of stress.  He knew his cues, performed them flawlessly and worked for his handler out of love, but he never relaxed when in public.  He had been taught how to put his chin down and appear relaxed in public, but when touched the tense muscles could be felt.  He is no longer with us.  He had a breakdown at 3 years of age and went into full Additions Disease.  He had passed his public access training at 16 months, worked from 16 months until just prior to his 3rd birthday and was a solid working dog until then, but he was internalizing all of that stress and it resulted in the ultimate price - he had to be euthanized because he couldn't control his bowels, shook when a leash was touched, even if it wasn't for him, and had lost 15 pounds because he refused to eat most of the time.  He was under constant medical care at the time, but his crisis was so serious that no medication helped him.  The first signs of his breakdown was his starting to refuse to walk more than a block from his home; six months later he was gone.  He was a Standard Poodle.

Poodles tend toward Additions Disease as a breed.  Emma is part Poodle and thus at higher risk.  I do not want to push her into a job she's not suited for, though she is trained for, just to raise the number of graduates in my program.  Her health, mental and emotional wellbeing is far more important to me.  I have spent most of her life building up her confidence and we've built it up, but not enough.  Emma simply is never going to be confident enough to deal with the challenges of public access.

I have worried for her, had her sleep next to me, fed her, cared for her medically, physically and emotionally and loved her since she was 14 weeks old. I have sat back and felt great sadness when she's shied between one click and the next.  I have felt frustrated when she's sniffed her food and given overt fear signs and walked away, though she's eating in a different area from the other dogs and there is nothing to be afraid of between one feeding and the next - she simply has days that focusing enough to eat is too hard.  I have cuddled, reassured, reinforced and rode the roller coaster with her from one day and sometimes one minute to the next.

Don't get me wrong, she doesn't live in a constant state of fear.  I would say most of the time she is a happy dog who loves breathing and enjoys life, but there are things in this world that frighten her badly and those things will be faced daily in public.  Tight spaces, people standing over her, people bending toward her, strangers touching her, sharp sudden sounds, rattling sounds, strange dogs, odd surfaces and quick movements all frighten her.  She loves to play, she lives to run, she enjoys a good bone and truly enjoys contact with the people she loves.  She's willing to try, even if she is fearful, to make her people happy.

When she was six to twelve months old she found learning to retrieve horrifying.  She withdrew, fear peed and spent an enormous amount of time behind my recliner.  It took lots of consults with lots of trainers to split her lessons thin enough to make them reinforcing and not adversive and once she learned the task she loved it.  Today she finds great joy in retrieving objects, but some objects still frighten her.  When she was younger a metal bowl was the most horrifying thing on the planet and it took me 8 months of fine splits and lots of DS/CC work to make metal bowls okay for her.  It took a year to make her comfortable with traffic and walking by it.

She just doesn't do change well.  I run a business in which I must take in board and train dogs to work with.  Max, Dieter and Malcolm all welcome the new guest and continue to train, eat and play well.  I see Malcolm join the new guest in play and eagerly work on his lessons without issue.  He's young and sometimes the new guest will bang on the x-pen I use to block off my training area and give my trainees space to train and think and he'll tell me by his ears and his leaning away that it makes him uncomfortable, but when I redirect the noisy guest he returns to training without concern.  Emma cannot do that.  She can't focus on the training with the new guest outside of the x-pen for a day or two and needs confidence building lessons again to bring her back on task and if the guest bangs on the x-pen she's done with the lesson, unable to take treats and needs physical reassurance she's safe.

Buddy threw her for a total loop when he was boarded for 7 days.  She and I worked on confidence building skills and by the end of Buddy's stay she was able to return to task training with a bit more confidence, but I could still see she was worried about Buddy.  Chevy wasn't as bad of a disruption for her.  She continued to eat, unlike when Buddy visited, but I did have to add moist food to make her eat.  She did train, since Chevy is crate trained and thus was out of sight during her lessons.  She returned to over reacting to changes in her environment again - barking without being able to stop at small changes outside of the fence line, destructive chewing (she destuffed my chair and killed 3 stuffed toys) and spent a lot of time either demanding attention or staying a distance from the group of dogs.  I continued to give her the physical, mental and emotional support she's always gotten from me, but that simple change of a new dog was enough to disrupt her.  Malcolm, Max and Dieter shrugged off Chevy and Buddy's arrivals, continued their training and eating and normal behaviors like they hadn't arrived.  Malcolm even engaged both Chevy and Buddy in long games of tug-o-dog, Catch Me If You Can, Keep Away, Tag and for Buddy wrestling and Chevy laying quietly watching the neighborhood and communing - all of this while still doing excellent public access training, in home training and acting like himself without stress fallout.

Emma loves doing her tasks.  She lights up when she gets it right.  She LOVES to pick up items I have dropped, closing cabinets, playing the Go Get Help game and Turn Down/Make Bed game, Nudge Arm game, helping with pulling off socks, pants and jackets/shirts and showing off her advanced basic training.  She has a fantastic sit, down and stay.  She has an exceptional recall and truly loves playing Touch as a game.  She is willing to try learning something new, but each time we approach a new task or an advancement of a task she becomes worried, shy and withdrawn for a bit until she solves the puzzle.  Each task I have listed has been carefully crafted while working with a dog who approaches learning with both joy and fear.  She loves the attention training gives her, but when she thinks she may be wrong she stresses herself into shutdown.

This means Emma has been career changed to an In Home Only Service Dog.  She can go on trips with her family to hotels as long as she isn't taken out for public access work in the stores and restaurants.  She doesn't do restaurants well.  When I had taken her she growled and barked softly under her breath when new people were seated nearby.  She was fearful of being under the table and never did relax and go to sleep during the meal.  She will be fine in a hotel room where she's not pressured by sudden changes and can perform her tasks in a controlled environment.  She'll enjoy her walks with her family, be a huge help to her handler in the home and provide unending love and laughter with her silly, sweet, soft and bouncy personality.   Emma is not a failure, but a young girl who just needs a soft hand and predictable world in which to thrive.

Emma worked this week on her confidence building skills by working on Go To Mat (shaping it) to begin some work on self calming behaviors and finalize her door greeting manners.  She also worked on her tug task for opening doors for her handler so she can either go get help or even help him leave his room or a room when working in the home.  She had to return to basics and relearned the task with the cabinet and has started again at working it on the door to my bathroom.  Once she's comfortable with the door on the bathroom I'll have her family work with her in her home to learn how to work those doors when cued.

She has light switch tasks, finalizing her Turn Down and Make Bed tasks and deep pressure task to finish.  The deep pressure will be used to calm her handler when he becomes upset and helping to relieve pain on bad days.  The light switch task will be to help with turning on and off lights as he needs.  She needs polishing on Clean Up and Laundry (which is taking his clothes and putting them into a basket for him) and final polishing on greeting guests in a controlled manner.  I will look to see if there are any other in home tasks she can do to make her handler's life more independent in the home and work on them.

Emma has learned to learn and so as her handler discovers new things he'd like her to do for him, she is fully able now to learn those things and add them to her list of tasks.  She will become stronger at her job and they will become a team once she's graduated at the end of summer and they've spent six months on being a team together.

Please remember, Emma didn't fail.  Emma worked through strong fears, built confidence and learned a lot of amazing things to get where she is and where she's going.  She's a remarkable, loving, sweet girl who simply needs a more predictable world than public access was able to give her.  Emma's story has not ended, but is just beginning as we learn what all she can do to make her handler's life fuller.

21 Months: Training - Days 327 - 331

She loves her outside time.
Monday - Friday

After a long hard push to catch up the blogs, get new material into my business site and input media so the blogs could be published (meaning, I spent my entire weekend doing nothing but working on blogs) I ended up so exhausted I forgot to set the alarm for the morning.  It was Emma's arrival on Monday that brought me around from the land of the dead.  She arrived at 8:25 AM and I was groggy and exhausted.  After a quick shower, meal and coffee on board I set out to train Ms. Emma.

Each day I go to train her it's a gamble if today she will work for her food or not.  She took the first kibble I offered, though was worried by my inviting her into the bedroom to work on her Turn Down task and start to train her Make Bed task.  She kept jumping on the bed and then rushing off to stand by the door and I finally called her onto the bed and we got into a rousing game of bitey hand and pawing me.  After that she was up to try her training.  It took about 2 minutes to calm her enough to get her focused to work on her task training.

She is doing well on her Turn Down task.  She takes the blanket and walks it back to about halfway down my king sized bed and pulls it almost far enough back for me to climb in.  She clearly thinks this is a funny game and gets all kinds of playful when she does it.  It is clearly a task she enjoys and I am glad to see that.  I really don't want her to hate her job and I try to train the joy into the task each time I train a new one; sometimes training that joy can take longer than training the task.  If my approach to a task when training it saps the joy out of the task itself, I stop the training, evaluate and retrain until she finds the joy.  It's important that any working dog enjoy the work they do.

I then reversed it and had her take the blanket and carry it back to the head of the bed.  She's not very good at making a bed, but it's at least a great effort and should give her handler a level of joy.  He can, for the first time, turn down and make his own bed with simple cues.

I then took her into the living room to work on her tug task.  I put Malcolm up in the crate and we worked on tugging open the bathroom door.  She can now stand between me and the wall on the other side, but she's still a bit worried by my blocking her that way.  She had been flying high after a second rousing game of bitey hand and pawing at me and doing rollovers on the bed, but now wilted a bit and refused her kibble, which she'd just been eating with relish a minute before.

I worked with her for a few more seconds and she finally, after the third offered kibble, ate one and then got into the tug game.  There is a reluctance I don't like seeing.  She's waving her tail at me, but she's not as into this game as she was with the last one.  I think I need to take her back further and rebuild the joy in tugging open doors.  This could easily become a task that results in fear and shutdown if I don't step back and build the joy in the task.

In the afternoon I had a long client consult.  I had to run to Elk to evaluate if Chevy, a silver sable German Shepherd, could come and stay for a few days to begin training for becoming a service dog.  He is a seven month old pup who has a very ill and disabled handler who has been unable to maintain his training like she'd planned when she first adopted him.  She'd been stronger when I saw her last, but due to major health changes, she's in a state that she needs serious help with Chevy's training.  I spent two hours doing the intake consult and then returned to pick up a new collar, food and other items I would need for his stay.  In total I was gone for 6 hours (2 spent in travel, 2 spent on the consult and 2 spent on getting required items for Chevy and the household).  Emma did well with the prolonged stay out of the crate, but I could tell she really needed some attention and spent the rest of the night giving her affection and playing with her.

Tuesday brought Chevy into the household.  Since I knew he was arriving and suspected the adjustment period to a new dog in the house would throw Emma for a bit of a loop, we trained prior to 7:30 AM.  I worked on Turn Down and Make Bed again and Door (for working a door).  She loves the bed tasks, but is still struggling with the door task.  She is targeting the cord and was more willing to work with the door, but isn't really pulling hard enough to open it yet.

When Chevy arrived I introduced him to each dog separately and spent the first 2 hours after his arrival just getting the household adjusted to the new family member.  Malcolm and Chevy had way to much fun learning how to play together and running around the house.  Max and Dieter made it clear they were fine with him as long as he left them alone and Emma was spending a lot of time with me because Chevy really liked her and kept pressing his chin on her back or hips and trying to hump her.  I kept directing him away and protecting her until he lost interest and went about his business.

Emma really didn't like the special attention Chevy gave her and I don't blame her.  She doesn't know him from Adam and he was being way to friendly.  I could tell she appreciated my protection and after Chevy finally settled in she spent time laying in my lap soaking up pets while the house spent the day playing.  I needed the break as it was.  I had a migraine and needed some downtime to recover before Spirit's consult.

Chevy is crate trained, so when it came time to leave I crated him and headed out.  Emma was happy to see me when I returned 2 hours later and happily ran in the yard and then settled to chew on toys.  It was a quiet day with the dogs playing.

Wednesday was play day.  I plan one play day a week for the household.  I find they all do better with a single day off during the week and can really focus on lessons if they have a full 24 hour period to think over what we worked on.  Emma enjoyed playing with bones, doing some wrestling with Malcolm and barking at everything in sight.

It was a good choice, since Emma ate only half her breakfast, even with the moist food in it and no other dog invading her space.  She was wired for sound and almost everything she saw not only sent her into barks, but so over threshold she couldn't stop barking even though she clearly was trying.  She was in higher need of physical affection, more skittish with movement and overall showing high stress signs.

I ran with Malcolm to pick up dog food with the help of my son Wayne.  In the short time I was gone she destuffed my recliner.  She hasn't been destructive like this in a while, so I noted the stress she was feeling and spent the rest of my time with her while the boys played.  That evening I had a client consult, so I left her loose again while Max and I went on the consult.  We had no further incidents with the recliner, but I had to hand feed her dinner because she was unwilling to eat from her bowl.  The extra attention helped and she started to relax by bedtime.

On Thursday we worked on confidence building skills using Level 1 behaviors and play.  I fed her her breakfast as a whole and spent the time training using praise and affection and play as her rewards.  She did very well, but was unable to do a down, even with Chevy crated and the training area blocked, so I knew trying to ask for anything requiring concentration would be out.  Instead we worked on her strongest behaviors and build up her happy feelings to improve her confidence and sense of safety.

That evening we went over to Auntie Ronda's house for a play date.  Emma loves to visit Ronda's house and spent a lot of time sniffing and exploring and then played a bit of Catch Me If You Can with Malcolm and Jack.  After another long exploration she came and curled up in Ronda's lap and then when Ronda got up to work on dinner she came to my lap and napped for a bit.  She spent a lot of time enjoying good sniffs, barking at people passing and off and on just running to run.  She was tired, but happy when we left.

Friday was grooming day.  I just fed her breakfast and we worked on play for fun and used her Level 1 behaviors to improve her mood.  She happily played with the x-pen down and Chevy crated.  She was able to do a down finally and was truly enjoying the playful games I asked of her.  She even offered to target cabinet doors and cords on the doors as part of the games.

I find leaving her at the groomers hard.  I know her groomers are good to her and take very good care of her, but she finds the place frightening, despite how well loved she is there.  Please understand, she has one of the best groomers in town and they are very good to her at all times, but the noise and racket which is standard with a grooming shop is unsettling to her and every time I take her in she's happy to trot in with me and then suddenly is trying to pull me to the front door to leave.  She is subdued when she visits my groomers on the times I have taken her in for a day of hanging out while Max and Malcolm get groomed and I work with Pi.  The difference at my groomers and hers is, my groomer has never done more than let me put her on the table to brush her coat or trim her nails if they need to be done.  No bath.  No blow dry.  No long clippings and trimmings.  My groomer is a location she gets nothing but treats, while her groomer is where she gets a bath, dried, clipped and trimmed without me or her family present.  She finds her groomers a scary place, not because they do anything bad to her by our standards, but they do groom her and she is not happy with how much care must go into her coat.  Poor baby makes me sad whenever I see her trying to leave and I must hand her leash over to her groomer and she's walked into the back room.  I wish she felt better about the place, but I know the people there take the best possible care of her they can.

It's been a long week, but one that have given me a lot to think about.  I have Chevy for another seven days and see I need to find a better way of building up Emma's confidence so she feels more secure in the home when she's with me.  Poor girl just doesn't do change well.

Level 1
Zen Target Come Sit Down
Step Completed Completed Completed Completed Completed

Level 2
Zen Come Sit Down Target
Step Completed Completed Completed Completed Completed
Focus Lazy Leash Go To Mat Crate Distance
Step 3 Completed 2 Completed 2
Jump Relax Handling Tricks Communication
Step 1 3 Completed Completed Completed

Level 3
Zen Come Sit Down Target
Step 3 Completed 2 1 1
Focus Lazy Leash Go To Mat Crate Distance
Step 0 Completed 0 4 0
Jump Relax Handling Retrieve Communication
Step Completed 2 Completed Completed 1

Level 4
Zen Come Retrieve Target Relax
Step Completed 0 Completed 0 0
Focus Lazy Leash Go To Mat Crate Distance
Step 0 Completed 0 5 0
Handling Communication


Step Completed 0


Monday, June 2, 2014

20 Months: Training - Days 323 - 326

Nice to see her looking into the camera.
Tuesday - Friday

Emma arrived at 8:09 AM on Tuesday and was in a happy mood when she sauntered into the house.  She didn't set the house off like the did the week before, which was good, but the moment she jumped into my lap for snuggles I had to ask her down to keep her out of my face.  She took it well and we spent several minutes with me rubbing her body and talking to her while she smiled at me.

I was sore and not feeling well on Tuesday, so we spent the morning with Emma and Malcolm playing in the yard while I tried to get the napalm burning in my joints under control.  The pain was bad enough I was on the verge of tears and knew if I tried to push through and train it would only result in a poor training session.  Instead, the dogs enjoyed their playday for the week.

On Wednesday Yoda came for his training and I saved off her training kibble for the visit.  Once Malcolm and Yoda were done with their training John and I worked on Emma's "Go Get Help" task.  It is hard to train it without someone to help.  I have a bringsel for her to use and after the months of teaching her to take items from me, hold them until asked to release it and carry it where I want her to.  It had a reason for that long process of training a solid hold and this task was just one part of it.

I had her take it when John was a foot away from us and had her take it to him.  We've played the "Go Give" game with her in the past, now it was turning into a new task.  She took it to John and he thaked her for it and gave her a kibble.  She lit up.  We played it as I increased the distance between us and soon I was in the bedroom and John the living room and she was doing an out of sight delivery.  Once she was stable on that leg of the chain I then had John ask her to "Show Me" and have her lead him back to me and reward her when she did.

By the end, though the task was shaky and we'd taken many breaks, she was doing the entire behavior chain.  It was a fantastic training session and Emma was overjoyed playing the game with us.

On Thursday Vanessa came over and we played the game again.  It took no time for me to get into the bedroom again and Vanessa, like John had the day before, changed where she was standing when Emma was out of sight and Emma had to "find" her.  Once she was, again, solid on the first part, taking the bringsel to Vanessa, she asked Emma to "Show Me" and Emma raced back to me and spun for her reward from Vanessa!

That night I took the dogs over to Ronda's for play time and found a toy a lot like a bringsel in the yard.  I handed it to her and sent her out to Ronda at a distance of about 50 or more feet.  Emma happily took it to her and when Ronda said, "Show Me" Emma raced back to me like a lightening bolt.  It was lovely to see!  She truly enjoys the "Go Get Help" and "Show Me" tasks!

On Friday I sat on the patio with Emma and rewarded her anytime she looked away from what was happening around her to me and she was doing great when we started.  She was, in the very beginning reluctant to eat, but picked up on it quickly and was really offering nice focus when between one and the next kibble she just shutdown and quit.  I accepted that she hit a stressor somehow and put the game aside and groomed her.

It was a short week, but we got a very nicely proofed task.  I am hoping by next week to build up her tug tasks a bit more and start on her light switch task.  Emma has another short week next week with her grooming appointment ending our week, but I think it'll be good for her so she regains her balance fully.


Level 1
Zen Target Come Sit Down
Step Completed Completed Completed Completed Completed

Level 2
Zen Come Sit Down Target
Step Completed Completed Completed Completed Completed
Focus Lazy Leash Go To Mat Crate Distance
Step 3 Completed 2 Completed 2
Jump Relax Handling Tricks Communication
Step 1 3 Completed Completed Completed

Level 3
Zen Come Sit Down Target
Step 3 Completed 2 1 1
Focus Lazy Leash Go To Mat Crate Distance
Step 0 Completed 0 4 0
Jump Relax Handling Retrieve Communication
Step Completed 2 Completed Completed 1

Level 4
Zen Come Retrieve Target Relax
Step Completed 0 Completed 0 0
Focus Lazy Leash Go To Mat Crate Distance
Step 0 Completed 0 5 0
Handling Communication


Step Completed 0


20 Months: Training - Days 318 - 322

Emma loves her Auntie Ronda.
Monday - Friday

Poor soft Emma.  She arrived a bit late on Monday, but it was expected.  Her owner called and told me that an unexpected issue with the schedule happened and wanted to let me know she'd drop off Emma as soon as she could.  I was happy to get the phone call early in the morning telling me of this change in plans - it helps me to figure out my daily routine.

Emma had ended last week wound up and stressed with the arrival of Buddy.  She was beginning to display her stress signs - increased barking, need for attention and hyperactivity.  I had expected the same when she arrived.  Though the morning had started with both boys (Buddy and Malcolm) a bit off and grouchy with each other, by the time Emma arrived we were back into our normal happy routine.  Malcolm was okay with my playing with Mr. Wiggles (the Labrador wiggle is too silly) and was getting his attention.  Poor Max has to push in to get my attention and I have been taking extra time to give it to him - he's been on the back burner for a long time and needed me to tell him he's my favorite again.

Emma was like a lightening strike in the house.  All of a sudden the whole house was out of balance again.  It was amazing to see.  Her stress bled off so much that the whole house wouldn't really settle down for the remainder of the day.  Yoda would drop by for a training session and would feed off of it also and not really focus on his lessons.  Buddy and Malcolm would be off balance in their play for hours and it would just be one of those days for all of us.  It wouldn't be until I took her and the family over to Ronda's house to play that Emma would relax and the house would settle in and not be a catalyst for chaos.

She was eager to join training on Monday.  I had her come up to me and work her Level 1 behaviors with the other dogs near.  Her problem is working as a member of the family, as a part of a group, and I need to show her she's stronger than she thinks.  She did very well and it looked like we'd have a good week together.  I had planned a day off on Tuesday, since it was Buddy's last day and he didn't have a play day to just be a puppy yet.

We ended our day at Ronda's with Emma happily exploring, trying to join in the games of Catch Me If You Can and getting cuddles.  Ronda commented on how tied in knots she was and agreed she needed to get her legs stretched out and just play.  She was giving us the happy Labradoodle smile by the end of the night and being her silly self.  Her muscles had relaxed and she was clearly doing better.

Tuesday she played in the yard, but I could see it again.  She was barking at everything outside of the fence, something she has learned not to do most of the time, but she was back to the high pitched, over the top, can't stop alert barking and rearing up on her hind legs while doing it.  She was chewing hard, rendering sticks and other items she could to small bits of debris.  She was shooting out of the door and hiding more when I stood, even though I was giving her lots of loves and telling her how good she was.  I have been wearing a treat pouch on my hip for over a week so I could reward Buddy and all the other dogs for anything I really liked seeing.  Emma has been getting rewards for quietly watching the world outside of my fence, recalls, laying quietly near me and more.  She has been rewarded constantly for all of the good things she does, but it's just not enough to keep her feeling safe and secure.  It's maddening some days to have her suddenly crumble when she was doing so well.

Wednesday morning she was so shutdown she refused to eat.  I accepted this.  Buddy had gone home the night before and even with her curled up with either Ronda and I while we watched a movie at the end of the night at my home, she woke this morning still feeling strained by Buddy's visit.  I normally give her 1/4 cup of her food when I feed all the dogs.  Max, Malcolm and Dieter all eat in the living room and Emma eats in the kitchen with me blocking the others from bugging her while she eats.  She sniffed her kibble, turned and walked out of the room.  I picked up her bowl and called it for the day.  She was clearly in need of one more day of downtime to regain her balance.

She played in the yard all morning while I worked on getting ready for an afternoon client consult.  I had found the plastic poison dart frog she'd taken off of my TV entertainment center and chewed the legs off of.  I found the legs, neatly dissected from the body and laying on the blanket by her.  It's missing both back legs (found and can be glued back on), a front foot, a knee and has a tooth mark in it's butt.  She hasn't taken something off of my tables or entertainment center and chewed it in a long time, so I was correct in my assessment of her stress.

I watched her through the front door as she lay on the dog bed on the patio and really went to town on a bone.  She was back to the high pitched alert barking and she was back to not being able to stop herself once she started and a few times I couldn't figure out what she was barking at.  She was still feeling that way when I left for a client consult at 1:30 PM.  I returned at 4:00 PM to find she and the house were in good shape.

She calmed this evening.  It's Wednesday at 10:25 PM and I saw the first calm, quiet behavior I have been cultivating for months now.  She sat on the ramp and watched the neighborhood with her normal intensity.  She did bark a few times, but her brain was back in gear and she came readily for her rewards when I cued her to come to me.  She laid down and chewed on a bone like any other dog on the planet, wasn't shooting out the door or hyperactive any longer.  The day off was good for her.

When I fed her she ate with gusto.  I gave her 1 1/4 cup of food for dinner and she ate every bite and licked the bowl.  She didn't even hesitate to eat when I set her food down and I didn't have to coax her to come and check her bowl this evening.  She readily came in before I called her name and had her head in the bowl before I had stood back up.  It was good to see.

I am hoping we can return to some task training to end our week.  DJ, who Emma knows, comes to stay tomorrow.  Emma has always been comfortable with DJ and DJ is only staying until Memorial Day, so won't be here when Emma returns next Tuesday.

Right now, Emma is stretched out on her side in my recliner and is sleeping soundly.  It's nice to see her out and in view after this period of insecurity.  I will continue to build her confidence and make her life in an ever changing world easier to handle.  The best thing for Emma will be giving her the coping skills to deal with change.  She's taught me a lot in patience, how to deal with a soft and fearful dog and how to build confidence in a dog who easily retreats and hides when she's stressed.  Emma has a sweet soul and lovely personality and with a bit of shoring up on her confidence, I do believe she'll have a very happy life when she graduates this coming fall.

On Thursday Emma worked on her "Clean Up" task in the yard.  She did great.  I used the bone bucket, which is a planter I use for holding their bones to keep my yard and patio cleaner, and a pair of socks for her to work with.  She was very good at it and really showed she had the idea of what I am asking.  She needs to practice "Clean Up" at home and build the behavior into a solid proofed task.

On Friday Vanessa came.  Emma was showing stress signs all week with hyper active behavior, constant high pitched barking and shooting out of the house like a bullet.  I knew Vanessa was bringing a full sized vacuum, so decided to work on Emma feeling comfortable with the sound of a vacuum that size and did Level 1 behaviors with her while Vanessa cleaned the house.  Emma did very well and really shined.  It was a high note to end on for the week and I was glad to see it.


Level 1
Zen Target Come Sit Down
Step Completed Completed Completed Completed Completed

Level 2
Zen Come Sit Down Target
Step Completed Completed Completed Completed Completed
Focus Lazy Leash Go To Mat Crate Distance
Step 3 Completed 2 Completed 2
Jump Relax Handling Tricks Communication
Step 1 3 Completed Completed Completed

Level 3
Zen Come Sit Down Target
Step 3 Completed 2 1 1
Focus Lazy Leash Go To Mat Crate Distance
Step 0 Completed 0 4 0
Jump Relax Handling Retrieve Communication
Step Completed 2 Completed Completed 1

Level 4
Zen Come Retrieve Target Relax
Step Completed 0 Completed 0 0
Focus Lazy Leash Go To Mat Crate Distance
Step 0 Completed 0 5 0
Handling Communication


Step Completed 0