7 Months, 3 Weeks: Training - Day 81

It was good to see this Emma back today!

Yesterday I did the best thing I could for Emma, I gave her a day off.  I didn't train, I didn't ask more of her than what I did everyday and I didn't worry about her just chewing on bones or sleeping behind my recliner or playing with Jack in the yard.  Why?  Emma was so stressed that she was shutting down.  In the morning when I started this she was slinking about the house, her head low, her body low, her tail low and her mood low - it was clear that Emma simply was overwhelmed with everything happening lately and needed time to be a puppy; so I gave it to her.

By mid-morning she was relaxing and starting to play a bit with Jack, but any movement of other dogs or myself sent her rushing for the safety behind my recliner.  I just spoke to her quietly and offered affection when she came to me for it.  By mid-day she was less jumpy, but her mood was still low and worried.  I just let her play and took her out to run in the yard while talking her to her in a happy voice. By early afternoon her tail was mid-way and waving and she wasn't jumping for cover when I got up and went about my business in the house.  She was even showing some curiosity in Jack's training - so I would slip her a treat off and on while Jack worked.  By late-afternoon she was rough housing with Jack, her tail was high and she was bounding about the house looking for trouble.  She was also seeking my attention more and really getting into chewing on her toys.  By early-evening she was relaxed and clearly happy and having a good time.  The outings outside where filled again with her running through the yard and playing, not the sedate "go out and potty and return to the door" events I had early that day and she was clearly playful.  By evening she was curled on her back in my arms and completely relaxed - thankfully.

This morning she greeted the day with the same bouncy and happy personality I am used too.  She raced about the house and played with the dogs and found toys to chew on and was relaxed and ready to tackle the day; I wasn't ready to add stress back into her life just yet.  I wanted easy to work on, happy to do, already known and therefore low stress behaviors to re-introduce training.

I started with Level 1 behaviors and worked on a round of happy go lucky Puppy Push Ups.  She was 100% in the game and loved every moment of our training and showed zero stress signs - I then decided to look at her Finishing School homework and see what we could do there that would be easy enough and not overly stressful - those were her lessons today.

Today's Lessons:

Lazy Leash

Emma is working on Level 2: Step 2 Lazy Leash.  In this step Emma is asked to walk in the zone beside me while off leash.  Emma and I have done this several times and today I crated Max and tethered Jack and told Attitude that she wasn't allowed to follow and worked Emma.  She was wagging her tail and happy to get her clicks for half of her breakfast over three sessions.  It was a good re-introduction to her lessons officially and worked on the part of her lesson plan for class which asks that the dog work in the correct position beside the handler when walking.

Stand/Stay

This is not a Levels Lesson, but I saw it as an extension of what Emma has already learned and therefore a good "low" stress lesson to work on.  In this lesson Emma is asked to stand and not move her feet while I walk up to 20 feet away from her.  Since she's done distance with both and Sit and a Down it shouldn't be hard to teach her distance with a Stand - or so you would think.  Emma didn't know at first that was what I was asking and when I saw her start to automatically follow me I knew where I needed to start - clear back to leaning with a shoulder and working up to taking steps - it is simply a matter of building this concept in the same slices as for the other lessons she's done with distance.

I worked slowly with her over the course of six sessions and got up to 5 feet away from her and able to do a circle around her from right to front without her feet moving.  The rapid fire clicks and treats and the fact she quickly caught on it was a "stay" lead to happy tail waves and complete interest in the lesson.  It was an excellent lesson and I was happy we had something new but the same to work on for her to add "low" levels of stress into her training again without overloading her.

Observations

One may not think it, but Emma has a very soft nature.  She is easily frightened and her method of handling it is throwing appeasement behaviors first, then dragging her feet or trying to hide and finally a full shutdown where she can't function any longer.  Time, experience and age will help with this softness and turn it into a strength as long as we understand and don't push her to the point of shutting down or becoming ill by internalizing her stress.

I am glad this break helped her - Walter, my son, who saw her yesterday and then again today said today that she was looking so much better and relaxed and he was glad to see her being a puppy again.  I am also glad to see her being a puppy again.

Level 1

	Zen	Target	Come	Sit	Down
Step	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed

Level 2

	Zen	Come	Sit	Down	Target
Step	5	2	5	5	Completed
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	3	2	2	1	1
	Jump	Relax	Handling	Tricks	Communication
Step	1	1	1	Completed	1

Level 3

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

Level 4

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

7 Months, 3 Weeks: Training - Day 80

Emma has yet to recover from the stress she showed yesterday - she refused to eat any food I offered her and is curled up in the space behind my chair and not playing much.  She's happy enough when I call her out, but she's showing classic stress signs.  She's shutdown for right now and I need to just back up and give her a chance to regain her balance and let her recover.

This is what I had feared.  Emma is still so young and needs gentle and positive experiences to help her toughen up her soft and gentle nature when working in a new situation and with a long outing where she was asked to do more than she could give she's now decompressing and tuning out while she does.

I have been asking her to do basic math, 1 + 1 = 2 and when she's asked to spend 2 hours in a location such as Walmart on a weekend she's being asked to do Calculus when she's barely gotten addition down.

It wasn't until almost 2 PM before Emma would even consider eating a treat and we decided to play the Come Game with her since it's not as stressful as Focus or other duration training.  She gets lots of rewards and running and praise from the people she's working with.  She knows Walter, so he's not stressful to her and she enjoys being able to race around the house.

She did great in the beginning of the game, but as it continued it was clear she was starting to feel stress and worry about it even.  This game was too much for Emma and so, I ended out training for the day and just fed it.  Emma needs a break, a big one, to recover from the stress she's feeling and it may be two or three days before I can start training her more than one session a day.

Today's Lesson:

Come

Emma is working on Level 2: Step 2 Come.  In this step Emma is asked to Come 10 feet to have me put her leash on.  That is not the lesson we worked on today though.  We took it back to a well known and loved round of The Come Game and worked with her in the living room.  At first Emma was all wags and happy trots back and forth, but as we did repeated calls to bring her to us, she started to slow and lower herself to the ground and slink along and even start the early appeasement behaviors that state she's having high stress.

These behaviors are turning her head slightly, lowering it and her body and wagging her tail low to the ground.  This is not a happy dog approaching, but a stressed and slightly fearful dog approaching.  In the middle of these behaviors she'll start to turn and spin to go in another direction, sniff the ground and even go to duck behind furniture or people.  For Emma, this is her clear sign she's had enough and needs a break - which is exactly what we gave her.

It may look like she's being cute and silly when she does this, but she's screaming with her body that she's feeling overwhelmed and needs reassurance.  When she's at my feet she does the same thing, lowered body, hyper behavior and more - I decided to film Emma giving appeasement behaviors to show so her family can recognize this is not her being cute, but needing distance and a chance to decompress when dealing with stress.

Observations

Emma is experiencing an overload during a fear period and I need to tread lightly if I am to help her recover and come out of this a bold and confident dog.  She has a soft personality and can easily be overwhelmed, especially when tired, and needs frequent reassurance she's doing right and that she's made the right choices.

I will take this week to help Emma recover from her stress and see if next week she can't come back stronger and more confident.

Level 1

	Zen	Target	Come	Sit	Down
Step	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed

Level 2

	Zen	Come	Sit	Down	Target
Step	5	2	5	5	Completed
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	3	2	2	1	1
	Jump	Relax	Handling	Tricks	Communication
Step	1	1	1	Completed	1

Level 3

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

Level 4

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

7 Months, 3 Weeks: Training - Day 79

Emma during a high stress moment.

Today Emma has homework to turn in for her class.  That home work is listed below, but first, I want to address something that came to my attention this morning.

This morning when Emma's owner called to tell me she was close by and would I meet her at the gate, she told me that they had taken Emma to Walmart on Sunday for 2 hours.  I know I was short with her, mainly because I can see all the hard work on the outings I have taken Emma on being undone with such long outings on the weekends, and I do apologize.

I had written up on Emma's blog previously the importance of taking her public access training slow and with the intent to train, not to go shopping or run errands.  This is a vital point - taking Emma to Walmart on the weekends when the family is shopping and spending up to 2 hours or more in a store can overload and ruin Emma as a future public assess service dog.

She may run across a person or object that outright frightens her and leaves a lifelong fear imprint on her.  She will also learn behaviors that we don't want.  There is not way a person who is scanning a shelf at eye level and/or reading a label can be watching a dog who is sniffing and exploring the bottom two shelves in a store.  Emma will learn that if a person is pre-occupied while shopping she can do something she's normally not allowed.  When worrying about the shopping cart, her son's wheelchair and where her husband and daughter are and maybe even talking on the phone, Emma cannot be monitored while she's walking by people.  Emma may seek unsolicited attention by stepping out a little and touching people as she passes them, something that can become a habit.  She cannot be taught to properly walk within a given footprint next to the wheelchair if no-one is paying attention to her and will develop the habit of walking 2 to 4 feet away from the side, front or back of the chair instead of staying in position beside it.  And she may be learning her spot to walk is not with her soon to be handler, but with the father, daughter or mother instead and thus won't work properly with the son when it's time for him to work with her.

Therefore, I am linking the blog post which talked about the importance of taking it slow with Emma and why and insist that the family accept Emma is a service dog in training and is not ready for long outings where she is not the goal of the outing.

Please read this! http://emmaintraining.blogspot.com/2013/03/7-months-training-day-65.html

It is important that we don't stress Emma now that she's getting old enough to try new public outings.  Taking her for extended outings, like the ones she's had with her owners, can allow her to learn bad habits in public work or give her a fright which will eventually lead to an emotional breakdown and high stress when working in public - thus causing her to become a home helper only and not a public access dog for their son.

It is also important that they have their son involved in her training.  Using his speech devise to cue her, having her come to him when he uses it to call her and working with her on doing all of her known behaviors for him when he's asked for them will make her his service dog.  The goal is to give him independence, something he's never had, and bolster his personal esteem - this cannot be accomplished if she's not taught to listen to him when they have her on the weekends.

At this point, I will be asking they check during the week on the ComeAfters for Level 1 and Level 2 Sit and Level 1 and Level 2 Down and work on them this coming weekend with Emma.   Each Monday I'll lay out the homework assignment under a heading "Homework" on her blog and in her Facebook page so they can spend the week reading and planning how they'll approach that weekends homework with Emma.

Today's Lessons:

Focus

Emma is working on Level 2: Step 3 Focus.  In this step Emma is asked to hold eye contact for six seconds.  Last week I had worked Emma up to 5 seconds once, but she generally hovered around 2 and 3 seconds with solid eye contact without her eyes darting to the side.  Today I worked again from an eye flick to a full solid 3 second eye contact and slowly worked up and down the ladder on eye contact.  I worked with her for 5 sessions and by the fifth she was holding a solid 4 second eye contact with occasional 5 and 6 second eye contact.  Once Emma has a strong 5 second eye contact I will tell her what we are doing.

Retrieve

Emma is working on Level 3: Step 2 Retrieve. In this step Emma is asked to hold an object while I hold it with her for 5 seconds.  I started with Emma offering taking the object in her mouth and slowly built up time by resting my hands under her chin as we held the object together.  Emma finds this stressful at this time, but stayed in the game because I only asked her to hold the object a bit longer every 5th or 6th time she took it into her mouth.  We got up to a solid 1 second shared hold and had a couple of 2 and 3 second shared holds.  I worked with Emma on this lesson for 5 sessions.

Finishing School

Emma had her second class for Finishing School tonight.  We sat in a brand new spot in the classroom and I put a mat down for her to work with.  Emma laid on the mat and watched me intently with the other dogs the classroom at her back.  They were not close, but she was not watching them.  She was very relaxed and focused and even one student commented on how closely she was watching me.

During class tonight I offered Emma's leash as a retrieve object and rewarded her each time she took it into her mouth.  She did extremely well and didn't resist or have issues taking a new object into her mouth.  I was very pleased with her ability to work on retrieving with distractions.

We also did a Zen lesson with food on a plate on the floor.  I placed several treats on the floor less than one foot away from Emma and she looked at it, didn't try to sniff or take it and then turned and made eye contact with me.  I have her stand and sit next to the plate and even do distance around the plate.  She was uncomfortable with distance around the plate, but she gained confidence as she realized all I wanted was her to walk around it and not touch it.

We did this exercise for 3 minutes and Emma never touched the food on the exposed and unprotected plate.  The instructors and students were impressed.  We also did a relaxation game and Emma learned to ignore activity behind us while I worked with her both sitting and standing.

At 15 minutes before the end of class the next class came to the door and Emma spotted them.  She started to bark, but with a lot of Look At That and rapid rewards Emma stayed alert but quiet by the end of class as puppies and people milled about outside the building.

Emma also won the "number of known cues, both taught and context" and won a new toy!  She was curious about the toy, but didn't play with it until we got home.

Once home Emma did something she's never done before and I'll need to chat with my trainer and other friends and figure out why.  She threw up all of the food I fed her.  She had three bouts of vomiting when we got home and emptied her stomach.  Thankfully, my son Walter was visiting and he cleaned it up, but it worries me that maybe she became so stressed by this outing today that it made her sick.  It is possible that after a 2 hour visit to Walmart Emma was so stressed by being out for her class that it made her sick.  I will have to watch to see if she vomits again and if so I will take her to the vet to see is she may have a bug or something.

Below is her list of cues that won her the prize.

Sit	Put my butt on the floor
Down	Put my elbows and belly on the floor
Stand	Stand on all four feet
Wait	Don't go past this point/a new command may happen
Stay	Remain here until handler returns and/or releases me gives a new command
Leave It	Don't ever get that.
Touch	Touch something with my nose.
Come	Go to handler when called.
Around	Go around something
Let's Go	Start walking with handler.
Crate	Enter my crate
Hit the Rack	Go to a mat and lay on it
Go In	Go into something
Take It	Take something from the handler's hand
Off	Get off of something
Go Potty	Pee and poop if I need to.
Go Over	Go over something.
Close It	Push a door closed.
Shake	Give my paw and shake the person's hand.
Load Up	Get into or onto something.
Paw	Use my paw to touch something.
Sit	For Leash to be put on. (context cue)
Sit	For Door door to be opened. (context cue)
Sit	At open door until released. (context cue)
Lay down	When other dogs are training and don't try to take their treats. (context cue)
Wait	For release to eat my food in my bowl. (context cue)
Hit the Rack	In office lay on mat and relax.  (context cue)
wait	In car until released. (context cue)

What I forgot was a handful of other context cues that she knows. She knows she's to sit when I am offering treats or for petting. Here are a few of the cues I didn't think of.

House	Go into the house.
Push	Something with my nose.
Sit	For petting. (context cue)
Sit	For special treat like a bone or biscuit. (context cue)
Zen	for other dogs getting a treat. (context cue)
Zen	Pills dropping. (context cue)

There are others I am certain - but the truth is, Emma has learned to live within a home and not destroy it and has learned to communicate with us silly humans to get the things she wants.  It's all very important to realize that some things never need cuing because the reward she values happens when certain situations happen.  If I go into the office and start to work, she lays quietly on the mat in the office because that is where toys and bones happen.  If she hears a pill drop she knows to scatter and wait for me to retrieve it myself, because for a long time a mini milkbone or a bit of hot dog happened afterward.  She learned to lay quietly out of the way when I worked another dog because food would fly to her and she would get a reward for giving me space.  I didn't cue the behaviors, I rewarded the ones I wanted and thus she learned when certain things happen (context) other certain rewards follow.  As she became good at them, I simply faded the number of rewards until I was able to reward randomly every 10 to 30 times it happens and she keeps the skill strong.

Observations

I am concerned with Emma vomiting after class; if this is a stress reaction it may mean I have to start all of her public access training over to help her cope better with stress and even then I may not be able to help her if she's been so badly stressed that she's always vomiting after an outing.

I will keep her home with me until the end of the week and then take her to a known public access location this week that she's done before for a five minute outing and start her over again.  I don't want to have her stressed to the point of vomiting again and setup a pattern with her.

Here's hoping it was a fluke and not a sign she did too much too soon.

Level 1

	Zen	Target	Come	Sit	Down
Step	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed

Level 2

	Zen	Come	Sit	Down	Target
Step	5	2	5	5	Completed
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	3	2	2	1	1
	Jump	Relax	Handling	Tricks	Communication
Step	1	1	1	Completed	1

Level 3

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

Level 4

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

7 Months, 2 Weeks: Training - Day 78

Jack and Emma play in the yard.

Friday's at my house are review days with a lot of play and relaxation.  It's been a long week of learning and testing on behaviors and Emma and Jack are mentally exhausted by the time we get to Friday.  She wants to let her hair down and polish her nails and hang out with the girls.  Friday is a day in which she gets to be a dog more and a service dog in training less.

For Emma this includes long play sessions in the yard and chewing and play session in the house.  It means blowing off steam and being goofy.  For Emma it's an important part of her learning curve, because on Friday's she gets to work on the "easy" stuff and process what she learned for the week.

She loves to play with Jack and the included video shows just that.  They tell the same jokes and play the same games and truly enjoy each other's company.  By Friday in my house Jack and Emma as close to each other all day long  and touching or playing together the entire time.

That means Friday's lessons are short and sweet and the rest of the day is used for play and relaxation - a much needed part of being a service dog.  Remember, no matter how well trained Emma is now or in the future, she's a dog.  Right now she's a baby dog and needs more play time and more socialization with other dogs; Friday's gives her that much needed outlet.

Today's Lessons:

Focus

Emma is working on Level 2: Step 3 Focus.  In this step Emma is asked to hold eye contact for 6 seconds.  Emma was able to hold eye contact with me for a 2 second period up to 90% of the time, even with Jack nearby and other dogs milling about the house.  Because of this development, I decided to begin work on Step 3, which is for her to continue to extend her eye contact.  By the end of the day (10 sessions for 1 to 3 minutes at a time) we had worked up to 5 seconds of eye contact once, 4 seconds of eye contact 10 times and 3 seconds of eye contact as often as 2 seconds of eye contact.  What a great development for Emma.

I am working hard on eye contact right now because she's so disjointed on our outings.  Her head is snapping around, she's bouncing on and off her front feet and hitting the end of the lead repeatedly for several minutes before I can get her focus and continue with our outing.  Working on a cue I can give which will bring her focus to me and get her working on Level 1 Behaviors before leaving the side of the car will making her understand she's there to work and not play by the time we complete her training.

Observations

Emma is entering a new fear period.  I am seeing the beginning signs of it again.  When she enters a fear period she will start to refuse to work for treats and even go into an appeasement dance instead of working on a behavior when training.

Since I know this one will be short lived and not as serious as the previous fear period I will use this one to help build her confidence by taking her to new locations and giving her new experiences which will challenge her and she can succeed at.

Next week we have our second class and I look forward to her continued progress.

Level 1

	Zen	Target	Come	Sit	Down
Step	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed

Level 2

	Zen	Come	Sit	Down	Target
Step	5	2	5	5	Completed
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	3	2	2	1	1
	Jump	Relax	Handling	Tricks	Communication
Step	1	1	1	Completed	1

Level 3

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

Level 4

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

7 Months, 2 Weeks: Training - Day 77

Jack and Emma Play

What a day!  Today I felt like the Pied Piper of Dogs with six of them in my house.  Jack's German Shepherd sister Deva came to stay with us today.  She is very sick and needed some extra TLC while her Mom was at work.  She has Pancreatitis and hasn't eaten anything since Sunday when it started.  Ronda, her Mom, took her to the vet Monday to be diagnosed and she was placed on medication for it and given a special diet to eat, but Deva has had no appetite since it started.  Ronda and I talked the night before and I offered to watch her today and try to get her to eat.  I spent the day offering her food every 30 minutes, but Deva would either turn her head or get up and walk away.  She's not feeling well and spent most of the day laying behind my glide rocker sleeping.

Each time I took all of the dogs out I was surrounded by six dogs who all wanted my attention and when I called for them to come in I had six dogs trailing me like a string of ducklings into the house.  It was really quite odd to have such a trail of dog behind me.

Hall Monitor Max

Jack and Emma today had a few rousing games of catch me if you can and bitey face.  I filmed a couple of their indoor games - note in one video we have Hall Monitor Max pitching in and stopping all of the fun.  Between Max having fun playing with Emma and Jack and Emma playing and all the dogs barking at Josh, who came to work on my yard, whenever he entered the house it was a noisy, stressful and tiring day.

Emma was not up to training much today, but when she did join my games she was focused and ready to participate.  It wasn't the new dog that dropped her out of the game, but Josh pounding on the cement he's removing so I can build a better dog yard for the pups - she's not comfortable with sledge hammer and chisel sounds just yet.  Instead of pushing training, I decided to let her build positive associations with the sounds by playing with Jack.  It worked, by the end of the day she was back in the game and ready to participate in training.

Today's Lessons:

Target

Emma is working on Level 3: Step 1 Target.  In this step Emma is asked to target a flat surface with her feet - in this case a horizontal surface.  Today I brought out the stool Max uses to turn on and off the light in my bedroom for Emma to target.  She has been doing this type of targeting on a book, if you remember, for her pivot lessons, but today I decided to shape her front feet onto the stool.  Once I can get non-skid rubber feet for it I'll shape her to sitting on the stool.

At first Emma just nosed and pawed at the stool.  She went quickly from nose targeting to paw targeting now that she knows she can use her feet to get clicks also.  She was soon putting on foot gently on the stool and looking up to ask if I wanted her to step on it.  I would click and wait for her to do a little bit more.  In short order Emma stood on the stood with her front feet.

Later, we reviewed closing a cabinet door, which Emma had down and did with gusto!

Focus

Emma is working on Level 2: Step 2 Focus.  In this step Emma is asked to hold eye contact for two seconds.  Today Emma found the lesson hard to do and couldn't get up to 2 seconds.  With a new dog in the house she was too busy looking about herself and trying to figure out what the dog was doing.  I kept at eye flicks and finally solid eye contact, but didn't build up any duration.  Emma was able to finally give me solid eye contact repeatedly, even with Deva exploring my house.

Crate

Like Jack, I am working on building Emma's positive associations with her Crate.  I was exhausted after Jack and Deva left, so I didn't train with her dinner.  Instead, I put it in the crate and put her in the crate with it.  I am using Jack's crate, which is a solid plastic crate and bigger than her plastic crate at her home, and shut the door while she ate.  When she finished I let her out after she gave me a sit.  I will continue to feet Emma from her bowl in the crate at least once a day when she's here to build up positive associations with her crate.

Observations

Emma can get this wild, almost evil look on her face when she gets wound up with Jack.  She snaps her jaws at him with such force I hear teeth click and she gets so bitey with him he has to put his feet on her and pin her to the floor to stop her.  Sometimes he gets up and walks away.  She's growing into a young dog and soon will loose her puppy license with him - he's been very patient with her, but I expect him to tell her she's being overly rude in a clearer manner soon.

She does not play this way with Max.  She doesn't tug or snap in his face like she does Jack, but instead paws a bit at him and rolls onto her back.  Her relationship with Jack is much different and I suspect she's able to get away with much more with Jack because he spent so much time living with his mother before coming to Ronda.  He's got a very gentle and soft nature about him and is tolerant of a lot more than any dog I have ever seen before.  When he becomes overloaded by her behavior he'll come to me and place his face against me and just rest there for several minutes.

I hope soon Jack clearly tells her what is and isn't okay play - otherwise, I will have to teach Emma that the snapping she's doing is not okay myself so she doesn't do it to the wrong dog and get hurt.

Level 1

	Zen	Target	Come	Sit	Down
Step	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed

Level 2

	Zen	Come	Sit	Down	Target
Step	5	2	5	5	Completed
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	2	2	2	1	1
	Jump	Relax	Handling	Tricks	Communication
Step	1	1	1	Completed	1

Level 3

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

Level 4

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

7 Months, 2 Weeks: Training - Day 76

Emma did a 1 minute down today!

As I mentioned in Jack's blog, I woke to a flare of whatever is happening to me.  My balance was shot, my pain levels were at an all time high and I was so worn out mentally and emotionally that I couldn't think of training any dogs.  I also had an appointment in the afternoon, so I decided to just feed the dogs first thing in the morning and try to take it easy so I could get some training in during the afternoon.

Emma, like Jack, enters her crate now without a fuss, but once left alone puts up a howl that can be heard in all 48 contiguous states.  This means I will need to begin serious work on Emma's crate training to make the days I have to crate her for an errand or appointment easier on her.

I'll begin serious crate training next week to build up her appreciation of the crate and give it a large and rich reward history to make her crate a good place to be.  This week I am still working on her ability to pivot with me, which is progressing, but going slowly at this time.

Today's Lessons:

Focus

Emma is working on Level 2: Step 2 Focus.  In this step Emma is asked to keep eye contact for 2 seconds.  This is continuous eye contact without tiny flickers or glances away.  Emma is having problems with this again, which is expected, so I am building up from the brief eye contact to more solid and purposeful eye contact and then adding duration.  Each time I do this we spend less time working up to the meaningful eye contact and stay stabilized at 1 and 2 second eye contact with bouts of 3 and 4 second eye contact thrown in.  Emma is progressing nicely and we'll continue to work on eye contact.

Down

Emma is working on Level 2: Step 5 Down.  Yes folks, she passed Level 2: Step 4 Down.  I timed her for 1 minute in a down at 20 feet from me with 4 dogs milling about her in the living room.  Great job little girl.  We'll start the next segment next week - she's worked hard on down this week and needs a bit of a break on it so she can process what she learned.

Observations

What an amazing girl Emma is.  She's still a bit of a Wilting Willow at times, but overall she's becoming bolder and more confident as she works through the duration and distance behaviors.  She'a approaching another fear period and I believe we'll just take it slow and build her confidence during this fear period so she comes out the other end stronger and bolder than before.

Level 1

	Zen	Target	Come	Sit	Down
Step	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed

Level 2

	Zen	Come	Sit	Down	Target
Step	5	2	5	5	Completed
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	2	2	2	1	1
	Jump	Relax	Handling	Tricks	Communication
Step	1	1	1	Completed	1

Level 3

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

Level 4

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

7 Months, 2 Weeks: Training - Day 75

Emma had a busy day today!

Socialization.  Many people think that socialization means exposing the dog to a lot of people and other dogs, but that is not all that socializes a dog.  The dog also needs to explore many surfaces, sounds, smells and sights as well as meeting new dogs and people in a proper manner which doesn't foster aggression or fear.  Confidence is built within the dog as they discover what had once seemed frightening is just another way of earning rewards from the handler.  For Emma, socialization with people and dogs has been done and she's able to be around new dogs without fear or aggression and new people without loosing her mind and jumping on everyone.  She's also experienced new surfaces including carpets, wood floors and decks, gravel and pavement, grass and slick floors and shiny floors.

That is not the only type of surfaces she should explore; there are narrow walkways and high walkways (such as the mall) and even bridges she has not explored yet.  There are unstable footing such as teeters and loose rocks and logs.  There is areas where she's covered such as tunnels and narrow aisles.

Sounds are another thing she needs a wider exposure too.  Chickens, goats, horses and cows are common in our area, so hearing the sounds they make and not becoming highly distracted by them is important.  Other dogs barking in the distance she hears daily and a rooster lives in our area which crows at odd hours, but she hasn't heard a Morning Dove sing or other song birds until this spring.  Phones, car horns, loud trucks, motorcycles and more need to be sounds she hears and learns won't harm her.

She's seen her owners in funny hats and flowing clothes as well as some strangers wearing them.  Children on bicycles and scooters have become common sights in my neighborhood and even garbage trucks and UPS trucks are becoming common sights for her.  She's seen many common things, but the strange happens in public access and so I am exposing her to new sights such as a tunnel in my living room or geese in the park.  Each time I reward heavily for looking at and dealing with a new and somewhat frightening experience and with each she's become more confident as a result.

Today I brought out the tunnel for her to play with.  The story of the dog eating tunnel is below - but I must say her ability to overcome her fright and explore the tunnel was heart warming and a confidence booster for both of us.

Today's Lessons:

Focus

Emma is working on Level 2: Step 2 Focus.  In this step Emma is asked to keep eye contact with me or her handler for 2 seconds.  Emma is still not able to offer a steady 2 second eye contact cold.  Today I worked again from eye flicks to eye contact and built up to 4 seconds eye contact while hovering and paying heavily for 2 second eye contact.  I think taking Emma outside and working a bit on eye contact there and rewarding heavily for any form of eye contact will make indoor eye contact easier for her.

Last night in class I paid heavily for 1 and 2 second eye contact and got up to 4 second eye contact while in class.  This was still, technically, an indoor exercise, so I think re-explaining that I want her to look into my eyes outside will help her understand the overall concept.  I will begin working on that concept today when I take her out for her long line work.

Down

Emma is working on Level 2: Step 4 Down.  In this step Emma is asked to hold a down 1 minute while I stand 20 feet away from her.  Today Emma was able to do a 50 second down on her first session and a 55 second down on her second session.  I will continue to work this step until she can do a 1 minute down in the house and then take it outside to work again in the yard.

Follow The Leader

Emma is in Finishing School at Diamonds in the Ruff which means she has homework for the classes.  The homework happens to complement all the training she's had so far.  Today I did one of the homework assignments in front of the house.  I used the neighbors mailbox and my van at the two focal points and put Emma on a 15 foot long line.  I would walk toward one focal point and when she ran past me turn and start for the second.  In short order Emma was pacing me and not passing me as we worked up and down the street.  It was a great time outside and Emma did a fantastic job.

Evil Dog Eating Tunnel

Ronda gave me a tunnel to work the dogs with.  Max is my tunnel expert and the moment I cued him to go through it at Ronda's house he shot through the tunnel without hesitation.  Max has done many different sized and shaped (curved or straight) tunnels in the past and we were just checking to see if I could get Jack to do that tunnel eventually.

Today I brought out the tunnel and let the dogs explore it.  Just as Emma was getting really curious about the tunnel Max shot through making a horrible noise and causing the tunnel to rock and move toward her.  She and Jack bolted for the hills, convinced the evil tunnel had eaten Max, but things only got worse as Max was ejected from the other end.  The next thing I knew Emma was behind my chair with that "Are you trying to kill me?" look on her face.

I called her to me and sat on the floor with her in my lap and let her watch the dogs explore and play with the tunnel.  She wouldn't take her kibble and was convinced I was about to feed her to the tunnel.  She bolted the moment I relaxed my hug and I had to call her back to me several times before she was convinced I wouldn't force her into the tunnel.

Since she would take kibble I figured it was time to pull out the big guns and got her treat pouch from the night before.  I tethered Jack and crated Max and let Attitude, who was wandering in and out of the tunnel (Attitude had never done a tunnel before in her life), explore with Emma and I working on Emma just engaging the tunnel.

Emma poked it with her nose and got a click and then she looked in at Attitude and got a click and then she put her head in the opening and got a click and then she explored with her feet and got a click.  I picked up Attitude and put her in the chair and tossed some treats in a line down the tunnel and Emma went in and followed the line of treats to the other end, where I was waiting with a big jackpot.

We kept this up and occasionally scooped up Attitude to get her out of the way for a few more minutes before Emma entered the tunnel without treats and went the length of it to me.  After that I started cuing her to "go in" and she would enter and run the tunnel for the rewards at the end.  At one point I was even on my belly on one end when she peered at me from the other and I called her to me through the tunnel and gave her a handful of treats.

Her tail was up, she was relaxed and calm and she was showing greater confidence that something which has frightened her so badly before this was not as bad as she had first thought.

In the end Emma went through the tunnel a good 12 times before I packed it up for the day and put it away.  What a great experience for Emma and what a brave girl for trying out new things when she'd been so worried about it to begin with.

Field Trip

Yes, Emma had a busy day today!  Today I took Emma to the Zips closest to my house.  When we arrived I waited for her to calm down in the parking lot before starting for the building.

Emma was very excited and distracted and this shows me she's not ready to try to make a purchase while in the building.  Across the street there is a truck stop and between it and the strong smells of the semi trucks and the strong smells of the restaurant, Emma had a very had time focusing on what we were doing.  It took us several back ups and refocus exercises to walk loose lead to the front door.

At the front door she entered politely into the area between the exterior and the interior door.  I had not intended to go further until she was focused because she suddenly lost her focus when we entered where the food smells were much stronger.  Unfortunately a man was exiting and held the door open for us and the only way, in that tiny tight space, for all of us to pass each other was for me to enter the building.

Emma was tense and worried inside and I worked her toward the bathrooms and away from the seating area to bring back her focus.  I kept her on a loose lead and was able to get a Sit, Down, Zen and Target out of her while working on keeping her focus.  She found it very hard to give me focus.  Emma is not ready to continue with moving to make a purchase at this time.  We'll return to work in the entrance a couple of more times before we can go further with her restaurant training.

I am hoping to take her to the truck stop on Thursday, given my energy level and how busy I am, and work with her outside on just exploring and viewing the busy location.

Observations

I am planning on finding ways to build Emma's confidence each week.  This week we are exploring tunnels in my home and will so explore tunnels in the yard.  Next week I hope to show her she can walk along a board a couple of inches off of the ground and not die and then work on funny sounding footing (hallow or crinkly) and build up her experience with new items in her world that she can conquer and earn rewards with.

She is a lot more confident now than 2 months ago.  Two Months ago she would never have recovered from the fright of the tunnel and tried to explore it - even for bits of hot dog.  She's willing to try uneven surfaces in my yard now that I have a cement slab that is broken up and piled up by the garage.  She's not as reactionary to new stimulus, such as people entering the training center last night at the end of class or seeing new people outside of my yard.  She's ready to try new things because a trust between us has developed and she believes I won't allow her to be hurt - thus she is willing to push that boundary of fear to learn about something new.

I am pleased with Emma's continued progress toward becoming a bold and confident adult dog.


Level 1

	Zen	Target	Come	Sit	Down
Step	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed

Level 2

	Zen	Come	Sit	Down	Target
Step	5	2	5	4	Completed
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	2	2	2	1	1
	Jump	Relax	Handling	Tricks	Communication
Step	1	1	1	Completed	1

Level 3

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

Level 4

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