14 Months: Training - Days 215 - 218

Emma at 14 weeks of age.

Tuesday

Emma came into my life when she was 14 weeks old.  She was a bit shell shocked and frightened the first night.  She didn't know me or my son and she certainly didn't know the dogs in the house.  She was starting a journey she didn't understand and it took the first few days she was with me before she even felt safe enough to take food from my hand.

Emma is still shy and easily withdraws when stressed.  She's required gentle care and confidence building to get her where she is.  The last time I started to see a bit of shyness manifest into minor fear reactions I didn't take heed of her gentle nature and special need for care and accidentally pushed her too far to fast and she shutdown on me.  It was at the top of her fear period and we spent months rebuilding from that point - I was not about to let that happen to her again.

When I saw those beginning signs again last week, recognized I was part of the problem with my frustration levels too high and her triggering off of my holding my breath, I took the end of the week off and just gave her the attention and affection she needed to recover her confidence.  So, when she arrived excited and happy to return to my home I was happy for the effort I put in keeping her mood up.

We had a great start on our morning with training for Left and Right and working mat behaviors with the other dogs.  She ate well and was in a happy and confident mood.  It was fantastic to see.  When I let her and Jack out to play and run off some energy I wasn't expecting our day to end with a visit to the vet.

She went racing at 110 miles an hour along the length of the property, went to run around the end of my house like she's done a thousand times and lost her footing.  I didn't see her, but I heard her hit.  I was standing on my porch when I heard the impact followed by a scream.  It wasn't a yowl, howl or yelp, but a scream of pain.

By the time I came down the ramp Jack was slowly escorting her around the front of the house and she was hobbling with the leg she'd injured previously and looking like her world had ended.  I felt sick.

I rubbed her leg out and asked her to walk.  She put her foot down, but didn't bear weight on it and then she limped away.  My sick went to fear she'd re-injured her leg.  I called the vet and confirmed they wanted her in that night and packed her up after a call to her owner.

It turns out it wasn't a tear, break or dislocation, but a serious strain.  When I got her home, on medication for the strain, I massaged out her back and hip.  She was clearly swollen from the ribs to the knee.  Poor baby.

But the strain also meant she was to be restricted on her activity.  I had to leash relieve her and not let her run through the yard for the rest of the week.  I feared that with just getting her confidence built up we'd loose it again with forced inactivity.

What I didn't expect was her having forgotten all of her leash relieving skills.  She refused to potty on leash the rest of that day and ended up peeing on (yes, on) my power chair during the night.  Emma is one of those female dogs who raises her leg to pee on things - I've seen her do it on my fence and on plants when she's marking behind the boy dogs.  I keep telling people she's been at a disadvantage being the only girl dog in the family since April - she started lifting her leg during the summer after Attitude died.

I know it was her by two factors - the pee hit higher than Dieter can ever imagine to aim and was lower than Max aims - Malcolm is not peeing on things yet and is crated at night.  There was more pee than Dieter produces and the wrong color and less than Max produces.

Wednesday

Emma at 5 months of age.

She held out on peeing on leash until noon.  After that she did both jobs without hesitation.  She was convinced she'd wear me down and let her off lead, but learned I am more than willing to take her out every 30 minutes until she pees and/or poops.

As the day progressed she became more excitable, which is a fallback to restricted activity.  She tried a few times to start a game in the house, but quickly stopped when I said her name and came to me for a massage instead.

We worked on her Left and Right skills again and mat behavior with the other dogs.  She's enjoying this type of training and getting very good at it.  I had to do some research to find a better way to train the behavior, but she's getting it slowly.

I did a lot of emotional support with her to keep her mood up.  I didn't want this injury to set her back emotionally and massages and reassurance she was doing good by being quiet helped her.  She was in a good mood most of the day, though she was getting more and more wound up without being able to release her energy.  She's a high energy dog, though she can and does settle nicely in the house, she needs time to just run off the energy she builds up to be in balance.

One thing that has been a consistent problem with her is her jumping.  She gets excited about anything and she's bouncing off the walls like she's eaten a pound of sugar.  Touching her personnel leash from her home sends her into spasms of excitement.  Each time I seem to defuse it we loose ground and she is back at zero with her leash.  This week I was using her leash to take her out and simply would pick it up and sit and watch TV until she was past jumping, past spasms of excitement and past vibrating in place trying to keep her butt on the floor.  The first time it took fifteen minutes.

We spent a majority of the day on calm getting her leash on, calm going to the door, calm going out the door, calm going to the grass to pee, calm coming into the house and calm once off leash in the house.  It's a hard lesson she's been working on all her life.  A high pitched voice, directly looking in her eye, or even a new person sends her into bouts of jumping and barking with excitement.  It's a major issue for Emma.

I was very tired by the end of the day waiting for Emma to calm enough to take her outside and potty her, running Malcolm out every 20 to 40 minutes when he asked out and taking Jack out.  I was also in extreme pain by dinner time for the dogs and Emma was more than ready to rough house if I took my concentration off of her and Malcolm.  It's busy here during the week.

Thursday

Emma at 9 months of age.

Emma moved from 15 minutes to 10 minutes before she could calm enough to be taken out the first time in the morning.  No pee in the house, since she was once again emptying her bladder before bed, but she was even easier to hype up than the day before.  Poor girl is full of energy and no outlet.

We worked again on Left and Right - the beginning of her being directed to pick up something for her handler when he cues her.  She understood the lesson better this time, but was so excited about training her head looked like it was on a swivel.  I spent more time waiting for her to look at me than I did getting her to indicate the hand I wanted her too.

She was willing to engage the training and not showing fear signs, so I was managing to keep her mood up with the regular massages and lots of reassurance she was okay.  She was playful, her head up, her tail up and her body tall.  It was good to see that confident girl back after the week of slinking around my house just before this one.

Walter came over to do my floors in the afternoon.  Emma has learned that Walter will not pay attention to her until she's sitting and she immediately planted beside him vibrating like a toy when I told him we were working on the next level of calm.  Max greets Walter by turning sideways and leaning on him with his head down, but not so over the threshold of excitement he is out of control - it's a good greeting.  Emma needs to learn to greet in a nice soft body and then leave the guest alone - so I asked Walter to ignore her until she was calm.  I love my son, he did just that.

Poor Emma nearly exploded moving and sitting beside him vibrating in place for almost 30 minutes before she gave up and went into her normal calm behavior in the house.  He then gave her attention and when she wound into the ceiling again, he withdrew attention until she calmed.  This time it took only 5 minutes.  Much better.

She is okay with the vacuum and steamer, but also checked in with me off and on when she was a bit worried about it.  With a pat on the ribs and reassurance she was safe she went and watched Walter do the floors.

I had to go to a job interview in the afternoon and Walter watched the dogs.  I had informed him of her injuring herself and the need to take her out on lead.  What I forgot to do was inform Ronda, who knew of the interview, that Walter would be there and the dogs would not be crated when she arrived to get Jack.  She let herself in and accidentally let Emma loose.  Thankfully she did not set her recovery back, both Walter and Ronda rounded her up after a couple of round around the house.

Friday

Emma at 13 months of age.

Emma was in a fantastic mood on Friday.  She was down to 5 minutes before calming enough to be leashed and walking out of house and was walking nicely by my side and promptly doing her business.  Nice job.

She was ready for her "think on this" lesson for the weekend, so I introduced to her the idea of taking her bowl in her mouth.  We started with a bit of target and waited for her to offer mouthing it.  I didn't care if she took it and held it, I just wanted her to think that she could maybe pick up her bowl herself.  I'll revisit the idea during next week and see if I can't get her to pick up and hand me her bowl when she's done eating.

By the end of the day were were down to 2 minutes before calming enough to leash her and walking without launching out of the door.  I went out the gate with her to check the mail and she immediately put her nose to the ground.  I just shorted the leash so her nose couldn't reach and waited for her to bring her attention back to me before taking her back in the yard.  It worked and I will suggest that to her owner, who struggles on Monday's when delivering her to the house with her sniffing and lack of focus.  Her owner struggles with this weekly and I had to think of how to explain to her what to do without frustrating both her and the dog.  I think this will work best for both.

Near the end of the day she was pinging off of my bladder when I touched her leash.  We had gotten so good with the leash and she escalated.  I wasn't surprised, so I just wrapped her leash over my neck and wore it for the last hour and half she was with me.  When I saw the caretaker pull up outside I just clipped it on her and walked her out.

That was when she lost it.  The caretaker is fantastic about waiting quietly at the base of the ramp for Emma and giving me time to work her calmly to her.  Emma on the other hand, due to the shadows and it being nearly dark, was in bark and escalate mode and it took a bit to calm her down.  I did a lot of laps with her before she got to the caretaker and I could pass her off.

I need to think of a better way of explaining calm greeting behaviors with people with Emma.  Off to research some more!

Emma is progressing nicely but I want to take it slowly when doing her final public access training.  Until now she's been on more of a socialization run when out in public, but now she's ready to begin working in public and practicing her skills as she has them.  This needs to be taken slow with her because of her soft nature and tenancy to become fearful and shutdown when she's uncertain of her role.  I need to define her role clearly and build her confidence and lower her excitability when working in public to build her into a solid public access dog.

Next week will be pet friendly only locations so our expectations can be lower without her appearing untrained when learning her role as a public access dog working with a wheelchair.  I want to start with one or two outings a week and work up to daily outings by the time she graduates.  This slow build up to more outings and longer periods out in public should give her the foundation introduction to public access work will keep her from becoming overwhelmed and allow her to process and learn instead of being flooded.

We'll finish up polishing her basic skills in public and her retrieve skills before adding many more tasks.  Once she can take direction by body or eye movement and she can do a full wheelchair retrieve I'll build on it to give her a wide range of retrieve skills and then build her other basic task skills for helping her handler.  This is an exciting time for Emma.


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

11 Months: Training - Day 171

Emma is learning working position when walking.

Back feet.  You would think if you had four feet you would be aware you have them, but apparently that was not part of the design of a dog.  Though their feet follow them, they are, for the most part, totally clueless they own back feet.  The funniest moment when training a dog is the moment they look back at those two follow alongs and realize they are there in the first place.  That happened today with Emma.

I am working on the next step of her leash work, which is full wheelchair skills, and thus am working on her knowing she had back feet.  It is important for a dog working with a wheelchair to realize they can pivot with it, can back up with it and can keep all four feet out of danger of the wheels.  To do this I am working with my desk chair and playing "Find My Face" and clicking for any back foot movement and then finally only for side to side back foot movement.  Right now I don't care it is right or left.  I don't care if she swings into position on my Heel or Side, what I do care is she can and will move her back end independent of her front end and thus be able to turn with a chair.

The trick is to convince Emma that finding my face is the goal of the game.  I managed that with letting her do all kinds of wiggles and woggles and spins and what not and every time she looked up into my face I clicked and then every time she was in some form alignment with my body and facing me I clicked.  It didn't take long; I could turn 180 degrees and she'd walk around and look up.  No speed, no excitement yet - just that testing mode of "is this right" in her body language.  A few more of these games and she'll know the game and come into it with confidence.

I then started clicking her back feet as she aligned with me (yes, that was the reason for the alignment) and then I clicked for sideways movement of her feet.  That's when it happened.  She turned and looked at her back foot and then looked at me.  Yep, little one, that is it.  I am clicking for THOSE feet moving.  It was both an Aha moment and a "where did those come from" moment.

We'll keep working on her pivoting with me, which is the most important part of wheelchair safety I can teach her and then transfer the lessons to the wheelchair in the house and then take it out on the road once I am comfortable with her working beside the chair and turning nicely with it.

I do not like Emma's leash personally.  I never have.  It's too wide and too long for my liking and I tend to put it aside when she arrives and use Max's old working leash.  I love that leash.  I used that leash for four years of our partnership and feel comfortable with that leash.  It's nothing special - just a straight six foot leather leash that is half an inch in width.  At first I thought I was just upset with the width of Emma's leash, but I also do not like Jack's leash.  It is narrow, like Max's, but far too long.  There is something to be said about a six foot leash.

I only need to loop Max's leash once to have it at the right length for Emma and I when walking.  It is the right width to hold comfortably for hours on end.  The leather makes it nice on the hands too.  A cloth leash, like Emma's and Jack's, over time make my hands feel dry and chafed, but Max's leash I could hold for an entire day and not feel that way.  The final advantage of Max's leash over the other two is when the dog does jerk the leash it doesn't tear or burn my hand.

I tell all my clients in my lecture that basic gear for a working dog is a six foot leash, flat collar and current tags at a minimum.  Emma's leash is at least 7 feet if not 8 feet in length and is simply too long for working a service dog.

Today I filmed Emma and I working in front of my home.  I worked on leash manners and did a bit of the circling I was talking about.  I also worked with both Max's leash and her leash.  You'll note that I need to wrap a great deal more of her leash up to work with her and keep her from tripping over it than I do his leash.

I want to explain what you are seeing in the video.  In this video I want Emma to remain by my left side as she works with me.  I want her to not pull forward more than her shoulder and not so far out that she's more than a foot away from my side.  When she lags I am not stopping, it is her job to keep up and pay attention to me and she's now old enough to take over that job.  If she lags I keep going and make her come with me without jerking or correcting her more than her hitting the end of the lead.  She is not to sniff the ground while we are walking.  Pulling to far forward or to far to the side will result in my turning sharply and walking a few steps the direction I was going and then circling back and going forward again - if she pulls too far forward again I rinse and repeat.  Sniffing the ground gets the same result.  Lagging means I keep going and if she hits the end of the lead so be it, she'll learn to pay attention.

You'll see that at first she was very excited and we did a lot of circles - we had not focal point this time, but that is okay.  This is a demo on the technique and not an actual exercise on a focal point.  She'll be doing that this weekend.  As she realized the rules still apply from last night she settled in and we started to work as a team. I am not talking to her for a reason - she needs to think and problem solve the problem; my talking will break her ability to do that.  I am removing treats as she improves on the straight and narrow, but adding them as we weave and do figure eights (she needs a ton of these too....just over and over and over until she can turn both directions fluidly with people) and as she improves on them the treats fade.  We are eventually fading treats for walking and sitting and doing downs - it's happening.  She's about to begin using these skills in real life.  During an actual training session a few treats for a very good turn and a very good, in alignment, sit and quality walking next to you is important.  She needs only good, top quality, performances rewarded once she knows the rules.  If she is struggling add more treats, if she isn't start fading them.

I am giving treats for calm behavior when cars pass - the same for people, dogs, cats and whatever she encounters.  I also set her up for it by clicking when she looks and rewarding when she looks back.  I have her sit or stand by me and I am watching her to ensure I am rewarding what I want.  This too is important.  Over time she'll have those treats faded and will be just working at your side like she'd done it all her life.

Until then, she needs practice.  This weekend and every weekend from now on she needs to be taken out and walked toward an exciting focal point.  Family is very exciting and working in silence and working this way until she can approach and pass her humans or approach and greet her humans is important.  Think of other things that excite her and work to walk her calmly to them.  Start far enough back she can work with you - 20, 30, 40 feet if need be until she can walk the distance and succeed at the goal.

It won't be long before she can and will be able to walk to people she loves and anywhere calmly.  The below video is boring, but shows me working with Emma in the moment.  Note that I do a lot of direction changes to keep her attention - when her tail goes still it does not mean she is unhappy, but focused.  When she goes into "work mode" she holds her head and tail like that and it barely moves - she's focused when that happens.  Note, once it did, she was working smoothly with me.  That is the goal we are working towards - working smoothly together.

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	1	2
	Jump	Relax	Handling	Tricks	Communication
Step	1	1	Completed	Completed	1

Level 3

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

Level 4

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

11 Months: Training - Day 170

Today Emma passed her leash work in Levels - now she just need
practice!

My mother came over today and Emma was able to stay in a sit until she stepped into the house.  She stood, but didn't move to my Mom until I told her to go say hi, but then all control seemed to go out the window and she jumped up against Mom.  I asked Mom to cross her arms and look away from Emma, something I had been practicing with her, and low and behold Emma controlled herself and put her feet on the floor.  It took three or four times of doing so, but in the end Emma kept her feet down and was rewarded with affection from my Mom; the highest reward possible at that point.

It's still a work in progress, but I do have Emma sitting behind me when I answer the door, waiting for me to give the all clear to say Hi as a release to greet and meet the guests.  It's part of the Levels Training program - dog waits while handler talks to a person at the door.  It's in its infancy and a lot of management and focus on my part is happening and the final piece of the chain (don't freak out and jump on the guests) is coming into the picture, but I am about to put a whole behavior chain together.

This chain consists of:

• Let me know someone is at the door (bark and come to me)
• Go to the door with me and Sit away from the door
• Stay seated while I open the door and talk to the person
• If the person comes in then wait until released to say hi
• If person doesn't want to be greeted, go elsewhere
• If person doesn't come in wait to be released when door is shut and conversation is over
• If person comes in and released to say hi, do so with all four feet on floor and briefly
• Find toy or spot to lay quietly and let people visit.

It takes not only training the dog but the people.  I need to convince the people to not look her in the eye, no push away with their hand, cross their arms and ignore her until she gains self control and she has her feet on the ground and to STOP petting her and re-cross her arms and look away when she jumps up again and rinse and repeat until success is reached.

It takes time and consistency and practice for the dog to get it right and people who are willing to put up with the unruly until the dog learns.

We are getting there and I cannot thank my family and friends enough for all of their patience in this training.

Today Jack is not here because Ronda is on vacation and thus we have more time to work on "calm yourself" games.  Emma is enjoying them.  We are also working on relaxation exercises where she's asked to default to a relaxed position nearby and wait while I work.  She's doing great!

I do want to mention that Emma is already on a solid foundation with her basic skills and now I am taking them on the road and building them up even stronger, but can't go much further until I have good leash manners.  So, for as long as Emma needs it, we'll be working on leash manners.  Unless she is out on a harness she is to be calm and walking politely beside her handler.  This is to be achieved with patience and taking time to give her success.  If, for whatever reason, the person handling her does not have the time to keep her calm and on a loose lead, then don't take her or don't walk her on her flat collar.  I want a leash clipped to that collar to mean calm behavior - period.

What an amazing evening.  I had planned on a big outing with Emma tonight and at 3:30 PM we set out and went to Petsmart.  Once there I gave Emma the time she needed to stop whiplash looking about and calm down before we ever left the side of the van.  At first I just clicked for looking at cars, people, blowing leaves and anything in sight and switched to clicking for checking back with me.  Once she was calmed enough to start moving (five minutes) we spent the next three minutes walking up and down beside the van until she could walk calmly beside me.

We crossed to Petsmart doorstep and I had her sit and stay calm while people (children, adults, old, young, carts) all passed us.  She did great and managed to relax and handle the moderate traffic jam that happened.  Then we walked for five minutes up and down in front of Petsmart until she was totally calm and the went into the store.

Once in the store I started working her on lazy weaves through the displays.  At first I was clicking and treating for position and then switched to clicking and treating for sits or downs.  It was at the point I put her in a sit and walked around her I came to realize how far we'd come.  She then did a down and I walked around her in the other direction.  She didn't even blink on this.  I did a sit/stay and walked ten feet away and back and then did a sit/stay and called her to me.  She did it all without issue!

We then put the clicker up and started walking the store for the next ten minutes (now we'd been there for almost 15 minutes) and weaved through displays and all the cues she got were directional and praise for particularly hard areas, such as leaving the displays alone as we passed with her shoulder practically touching them.  She did something amazing then - when I said Left as a cue she looked left and turned left on the cue, the same with Right.  I was truly pleased!

We went into the groomers and she got worried.  We did sit and down and target and shake and played a little and left.  She was happy by the time we left and now knew she could go into a place like that and NOT be left behind, like has been happening EVERY TIME I take her to the groomers.

We then worked for a couple more minutes outside (total 20 minutes in the store, 15 minutes outside store) and I saw the next amazing thing!  She was glancing back to see where she was in relation to me!  This is advanced work on leash.  She's now aware of what the zone is and is checking to keep herself in it and not depending on my telling her when she's out!  Then she did a check, realized she was slightly too far ahead and did a gait change to reset herself back in the proper working zone for walking with me!  AMAZING!

I offered her a chance to pee and she did it too!  Woohoo!

We then went to Safeway and Rite Aid.  I did Rite Aid first and she was much calmer (it took less than 15 seconds to get her mind in gear) and walked in the zone, on a loose leash, to Rite Aid while passing Safeway.  When the automatic doors opened she tried to enter, but quickly learned I am setting the direction because I just kept going and she had to follow, not try to set our direction herself.

In Rite Aid we weaved through the displays (by now I am not using treats, just walking with her and only giving her a treat when I ask for a Sit or a Down) and worked two full aisles in Rite Aid on calm leash manners.  She was spot on the entire time and doing checks for placement and gaiting with me perfectly.

We went to work another section and ran across the demon scarecrow.  As we came around one aisle there it was - a scarecrow girl that was right in the height range of the children that most often send her scurrying for cover.  She didn't bark or freak out, but instead switched sides and kept walking.

I took her back and touched it, rewarded her for looking at it and worked her until she was able to sniff it and find it wasn't scary at all.  We walked around it, did sits and downs and targets by it and worked until she could walk beside me and by it without changing sides and avoiding it.  It took us about 10 minutes, but the confidence I saw when she finally overcame her worry about the scary scarecrow child was wonderful.

I then took her down the aisle with a whole bunch more of them, at first with me between her and them and then with her between me and them and she didn't even blink.  Mission accomplished.  She figured out they were not scary and went back into work mode - which I am starting to see more and more often when working with me in public.  We spent 15 minutes in RiteAid.

We then left Rite Aid and sniffed the grass outside of Safeway for a couple of minutes and then entered Safeway.  By this time she was no longer getting treats for walking with me, was working like a champ at my side and only occasionally getting treats for sits or downs when asked.  She was also starting to pay close enough attention to me to stop when I stopped and look up at me for direction!

We weaved through the produce section, worked the back aisles and weaved through all of the other aisles while she stayed in perfect work position at my side and was 100% loose leash the entire time.  I rarely had to circle to reset (only if she sniffed the floor or reached out to touch a passing person) and she was clearly relaxed and calm.

After that we went calmly back to the car and returned home.

Folks, she spent an hour training loose leash work with rare treats offered for walking with me and was spot on 90% of the time we were out.  Emma is well on her way to her final leash work and its like walking with air when she's in the zone leash wise!  Amazing!

Emma now needs practice, practice, practice for leash work - but she's passed all of the Levels lessons regarding leash work and is simply in the process of making it habit.  We well rework leash work for the wheelchair next.

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	1	2
	Jump	Relax	Handling	Tricks	Communication
Step	1	1	Completed	Completed	1

Level 3

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

Level 4

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

11 Months: Training - Day 169

No, I don't expect her to watch my every step, but I do expect
her to be aware of her leash and me and be calm when
walking with me or anyone.

Emma did not remember her calm behavior over the weekend.  I am uncertain what the break is between home and here, but there is one and I need to figure out what it is and build it up some more.  I have already asked that they not attach her leash unless she is sitting and not jumping around, building on calm behavior will take time (I am now waiting until she's not hyper vibrating, but in a slow rumble of vibration before I attach the leash) and that they pick up and carry the leash around and set it down, ignoring her bouncing excitement whenever they do.  Basically, I am asking that the charge in the leash (leashes mean good things happen in Emma's mind) is removed and it's just another object we pick up.

I have asked that they work on calmly getting to point A to point B and that they ask for calm when dealing with her.  I do know I speak with a lower pitch in my voice with less animation to keep her calm than they do and I am less animated when I am working with her.  C, her owner, is a very animated person and for Emma its like biofeedback when dealing with that level of animation.  I suspect it's time we start planning on a visit once or twice a month in their home to watch how they are working with her and communicating in both verbal and body language to help them keep her calm until Emma has developed her own internal self control.

Whatever it is, Emma was back at square one, which makes each week a repeat of the week before with little forward progress.  I was to the point of touching her leash last week and not getting more than a four on the floor body wave as she followed me about the house while I carried it.  Tuesday I touched the leash and she went into bucking, rearing and barking fits of excitement while she bounced off of my bladder again - which for me is extremely painful and I suspect for her handler, B, such bouncing, even as light as she does it, is painful also.  My goal is to have a dog who can work with a fragile and highly disabled handler without causing him pain or fear and if I couldn't use my arms or move myself out of her way I would find such behavior upsetting and even frightening, even though it is clear she has no intent to harm.

I have been a private contractor for the past two years, working from home as a web developer.  Since that job put food on my table and in the dog's bowls, kept the power on, heat or cooling going, internet/TV/Phone running and provided the treats and bones the dogs have been enjoying I have had to devote a portion of each day to working in the office.  It's a great lesson for Emma.  She learned quickly to curl up in the office behind my chair or under my desk and sleep while I work.  The same as Dieter and Max while I go into the office.  It was a modeled behavior that was well established since I have been working from home since 2008.

Originally it was an 8  to 5 job though one company that kept me hoping for 8+ hours a day.  I trained Max during my breaks and my evenings.  In 2010 that job came to an end when the contract that paid my wages was lost in a bidding war and a new company got it.  In 2011 the company that got the bid hired me to work on the projects that they'd aquired and I was familiar with.  I have been on part time work with them since then, working from home on keeping the servers running and the applications humming as a private contractor.  That contract has once again come to an end and at the end of this month the money that makes living possible comes to an end.  As a result, I put out more job applications - but it means my working from home will end.

On Tuesday I had a second job interview with a company that I really hope I get hired into.  As a result I spent the morning grooming myself and Max for the interview.  I am so glad I have built up Emma's ability to be alone long enough to let me shower without her finding trouble.  I am not a slow person in the shower.  In and out is my rule of thumb.  I am maybe out of her line of sight for a good 10 minutes at the maximum and Emma has learned to curl up on my bed and wait for me while I am.  Max curls up by the shower itself and Dieter curls up on Max's bed.  The examples they both set for her has made the transition from being crated while I shower to being gated in the room to being left unattended easier.

She's calm and relaxed when I exit the shower and can now handle my going outside of the house for five to ten minutes without getting into trouble - though I am certain I don't leave temptation laying in wait for her when I do.  I am about to buy her an x-pen to start transitioning her from being crated when I leave to being in the x-pen and eventually left to her own devices - once she's gained the self confidence and self control to not find trouble when left alone.

I then pulled out my ironing board and deployed the legs.  Emma was near me when I did this and she ducked for cover when it happened.  I laughed at her and asked her if I scared her.  Yes, I laughed.  I have done this with all of my dogs for years and it becomes the cue for "nothing is falling from the sky to crush you" for them.  The moment I laughed she moved in and checked the ironing board and then went to her spot behind my recliner (it's her "crate" when loose in the house and where she feels safest) and laid down and went to sleep while I ironed my clothes.

After that I groomed Max.  Emma, who at first hated grooming, has started to come to me the moment I sit on the floor with a brush and move in to be groomed.  She still hates her face being groomed (lots of fussing while I do), but with constant treats, kisses and praise, she's grown better about it each time we groom.  I told her it was Max's turn and laughed at her and kissed her nose.

After that I picked up her leash and boing, off my bladder she bounced.  Sigh.  It took almost five minutes, but she calmed enough for me to leash her and then it took another ten to walk on loose leash to the car.  Thankfully, that morning Robin, my friend who helps me problem solve, had called and we'd talked about the difference between loose leash and leash manners.  Emma has loose leash, but no leash manners.  We came up with a solution to solve this problem and I spent the ten minutes not so much working on keeping the leash loose, but her focused and with proper manners between the house and the car.

We spent three minutes at our destination doing the same thing.  Ronda, who owns Jack, is on vacation and agreed to watch Emma while I was out so I wouldn't have to crate her.  I dropped her off to spend the afternoon with Ronda and then headed off to do my business.

Ronda reported on my return that Emma was sedate and spent most of her time at the gate waiting for me.  She's at an age that she's noticing when people she knows well and is bonded with leave her.  Though she didn't whine or show undue separation anxiety, she did show an awareness of my departure.  Emma was curled in Ronda's lap when I arrived and the moment she heard my voice she shot out of her lap and bound to me.  I guess the little one loves me.

After letting her get past her excitement I was back, she promptly began looking for sticks and leaves to chew and was back to her confident little self playing throughout the yard.  This is not the fist time she's been to Ronda's home without me, but it is the first time I have dropped her off and left.  Normally Ronda picks her up and takes her over to her home.  This time she was shy about going out and doing her normal behaviors of exploring or chewing on things.

I let her play for a while before Ronda and I took her and Jack out to work on leash manners.  Jack is a high value reward for Emma.  She loves him, loves to play with him and walking up to him in a controlled manner is difficult for her.  We stood 20 feet apart while I worked on her walking in a calm and controlled manner to Jack and Jack worked on remaining in a stay by Ronda and staying focused.

I had to do several circles to reset her to my side the first time and second time we approached and walked away, but by the third she was ignoring the dogs looking through the fence beside us and ignoring Jack.  Jack was ignoring the dogs behind the fence and ignoring Emma.  It was a beautiful dance.

By the fourth time I went toward them I was able to walk around them and make a our way back toward my van.  We did this for five minutes getting closer in and maintaining focus on me and calm on the leash with it loose as we walked to and from a focal point.  She was on the outside from Jack for this exercise, so next time I will have her on the inside by Jack and work on even more focus as we circle them.

We then reversed it and had Emma keep focus on me and ignore Ronda and Jack while they worked on calm leash behavior.  Jack was able to go around us by the third approach and Emma did a fantastic job of staying focused on me.  Both she and Jack defaulted into a down to keep themselves under control.  We worked on this behavior for five minutes.

We then had Jack with me and Emma with Ronda and repeated the exercise for another 3 minutes each dog.  They did a fantastic job and by the time we finished both were calm, under control on the leash, and focused on their handler - no matter who the handler was.  I will repeat this exercise with Emma solo in a parking lot again this week and see if I can't get her to walk calmly to a store door from the van to the door and back with full leash manners in place.

This exercise also needs to be done by the family, so I will film what I want them to do and have them work on it this weekend with Emma to improve her self control.

This was a wonderful training session and Emma was happy and tired when we finished.


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	4	2	1	2
	Jump	Relax	Handling	Tricks	Communication
Step	1	1	Completed	Completed	1

Level 3

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

Level 4

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

10 Months, 2 Weeks: Training - Day 146

It's been a long haul to get back to daily focused training since Emma injured her knee.  She was already showing signs of training stress and burnout before the injury, but afterwards she just fell apart for a while.  Slinking, sulking, urinating and hiding became the fare for the day as she became more anxious and stressed by lack of play and exercise outside and limited play inside (she was unable to play with Jack in the house because of her knee).  For her, with her in a growth period that is normally hard on young dogs and tends to send them into tailspins anyway, it was best to stop forcing a training session on her and let her relax and work out her stress in the only method available to her - chewing.

After the recovery from the injury she still couldn't take stress well and it was a slow and plodding progress to bring the joy to learning again.  I don't want a dog who trains because I want too, but because they want too.  She didn't want too.  She wasn't In The Game and so I spent precious time getting her back into the game and consulting with friends who also train using not only the Levels method, but simply Positive Re-Enforcement to find what makes Emma tick.

Emma is not Jack.  Emma is not Max.  Emma is not Attitude or Dieter either.  Emma is unique to herself and what worked for the others, their ability to handle stress and one on one focus was much different than her.  Emma is a soft dog.  Jack is a soft dog also, but in so many different ways than Emma is.  Jack has confidence in himself and the people around him, but he's still working out his environment some days and needs extra help there.  Emma is soft with people, but the environment doesn't seem to affect her.

It's like watching Dieter and Attitude for the years they shared a life together - Attitude loved people and saw no strangers.  Attitude loved dogs and saw no strangers.  Attitude was afraid of floor changes, wet pavement, rain pattering on the roof, loud sounds, thunder, wind and much everything in her environment.  It sent her into a tailspin and rushing into my or another persons arms shivering with fear - but the moment she met a person or another dog she was all wiggles and soft body happy and couldn't believe she hadn't known they were her friends before they met.

Dieter is afraid of strangers.  Dieter is worried about new dogs.  Dieter is not afraid of floor changes, wet pavement, rain pattering on the roof, loud sounds, thunder, wind or much in his environment.  He was her polar opposite and what scared one didn't the other.  They found great strength in that and did well as a pair as a result.  Dieter took his cues from Attitude about other dogs and people, she off him about the world in general.

It is easy to make Jack shrink into himself if he thinks your mad.  It took a lot of work to keep him from thinking my raising my voice to call Max or another dog was NOT yelling at him and he's learned that.  Max loves hearty rib thumps and it took months to convince Jack, by starting light and giving ever increasing pressure, that a good rib thump was this GSD Mom's way of saying "I love you" and have him lean into it and wag his tail.  Jack is older and thus has more confidence than Emma and what shuts her down simply slows him - but both are considered soft dogs.

Emma, unlike Jack, will go into her own personal shell the moment she thinks she's wrong.  She shrinks and sulks and pees and hides if she thinks she's wrong and it doesn't take much to make her think that.  I have had one very very soft GSD who all I had to do was frown to send her skulking for cover. She was the easiest dog to correct because I never had to raise my voice or touch or do anything but frown.  I had to be careful that I smiled as she came to me, which was easy because she made me smile and when I was playing with her to not frown or she'd be gone in a heart beat.  Emma is more sensitive than that!

Leaning!  LEANING over Emma makes her feel she's in trouble, even if all I am doing is putting her food dish down.  She is an expert at reading facial expressions and anything outside of a happy, soft gaze makes her start to worry she is in trouble, even if all I am doing is reading a book on my iPad!  Changes in my body posture sets her off.  Emma has been trained using only positive re-enforcement, but she's such a soft natured dog that it takes very little to make her worry about her world.  What to do with such a personality?

Well, first stop and give her lots of positive, low pressure experience with lots of facial expressions, body postures, voice changes and anything else that may make her worried.  Praise her or ask her if she's being silly when hiding behind my recliner.  Play frown games with her where she's wound up in a frenzy of excitement and flash a frown while playing her favorite grabby games.  Lean over her when giving her loving, gentle, non-threatening praise or affection.  But stop training anything that adds stress and starts to associate negative feelings with something that should be fun.  Basically, change her emotional response to frowns or neutral facial expressions and changes in body position so she's not worried, but engaged with the person she's working with.

So, I did.  I stopped and talked and thought and worked with her in a variety of ways to make her feel confident and safe, no matter which way my mouth was turned or my eyebrows where set.  On Friday I sat on the floor and groomed her while she relaxed and slept in my lap and on Sunday after her bath I carefully groomed her while she was in my lap and chatted to her the entire time using a variety of voice changes.  Mom and I both saw improved confidence while we worked on the patio, even if I was gazing off in the distance with a frown while I tried to remember where I put something - she no longer slunk away or wilted when she saw me frown.  Leaning no longer meant training, but kisses on the nose or gentle strokes on the face and reading didn't mean I forgot her, but she could curl against me and relax.  Having something in her mouth, which she was convinced meant trouble, was greeted with a happier voice than before (I sound like a chipmunk somedays) and a bigger smile that I try hard to push into my eyes to reassure her she's okay to be chewing on a ball or stick or bone.

And chewing is where all this fell apart for both of us.  Emma is a destructive chewer, which can be handled by monitoring her when she has toys or giving her toys that are hers and not another dogs to ruin.  Except she's not just a destructive chewer, I suspect she has a bit of Pica also.  She EATS everything she can find.  Lily bulbs (long day after inducing vomit), brick-a-brac from the grass, dirt pile and gravel area of my old driveway, stuffed toys, bits of paper, leaves; it doesn't matter, she'll eat a portion of whatever she's chewing on.

All of the toys in my home are my personal dogs toys.  The toys I purchased for Emma she's already destroyed.  Max enjoys playing with Stuffies and I used to let them lay about for his pleasure.  I cannot do that.  Most of Max's stuffies were Attitude's old toys from her puppyhood.

I had at one point 2 stuffless toys - a fox and a skunk.  I cannot watch Emma 100% of the time and in the short periods I was occupied with something else she managed to rip them in two and at one point I lost track of half of the fox.  It showed up the following day in Emma's poop.  She must of slurped it down like a string of Spaghetti because it was intact when it came out.  Two other toys, her own, she chewed into pieces ranging from the size of my thumbnail to smaller than my pinky nail and ate over half of the toy.  She is at risk of impacting her bowels if she's allowed to play with stuffed toys.

She was, for a short time allowed ropes, but when she found one and rendered it to pieces smaller than a pin head and ate half of that, I discontinued them in the fare of toys available.  No cloth, stuffed or rope toys for Emma in my home.  I am not made of money, cannot replace all of the toys she'd destroy and am not emotionally ready to see Attitude's toys destroyed.

Then she got a hold of a puppy Kong and broke it into 20 separate pieces I could find.  To say that Emma's poop is colorful if I am not careful is an understatement.  That means I must monitor what toys she plays with closely.  She cannot have Kongs unsupervised unless they are black or blue, red Kongs are still too soft for her careful destructive work on the openings.  She cannot have Max's Chuck It balls which have holes for the same reason - she has tried and started to break pieces off of them.  She cannot have a regular tennis ball because she eats them.  She must be monitor with the rubber orange with a blue stripe Chuck It balls because she works the seams and begins to tear them apart.

This leaves her being monitored with Chuck It balls, red Kong toys and the occasional tennis ball.  She has the freedom to chew on bones and sticks.  She loves sticks.  I must carefully walk my yard every morning when I let her out because I have small white mushrooms growing in my backyard I must pluck out before she eats them.  I found her one day eating the giant white mushroom that snuck under my fence from next door and tore the thing out to protect her from poisoning herself.

What happened is this:  Every time I turned my back on her she put SOMETHING in her mouth in my yard.  A plant or some find in the grass and ATE it.  In the house I had to finally put up and take away from Max his stuffed toys (he hasn't had them for 3 months now) so Emma wouldn't get them and destroy them.  This means Max only gets them on the weekends if I remember to pull one or two out.  The result was my disheartened sigh of, "What are you eating now?"  I think she may believe that's her name.  Emma is convinced anytime she hands me something she's in trouble, which she isn't, but I am trying very hard to keep a puppy with puppy Pica from poisoning herself!

I set this up - retrieve is very very very stressful for her because I have said, "NOW what are you eating?" so many times she's convinced she needs to sneak off to eat her prize.  I am now to a point that most everything in my yard is safe for her and I can joyfully stay, "What ya got?" instead.  I am repairing a history of frustration with a dog who can't seem to not eat everything she shouldn't when playing.

So, after talking for a long time with a friend and fellow trainer I started shaping her retrieve and today she was fully involved in the game with the pen until she picked it up, handed it to me and suddenly shrunk into herself.  I had her do some easy behaviors (sit, down, target, shake) and then reshaped the pen.  She recovered fine and picked it up a second time and seemed prouder and more confident.

Later I worked with a new item.  This time a washcloth and darn it she's learned her mat behavior too well and was targeting it as a mat!  Good for her.  After I convinced her with clicks for nose targets on the floor she started the process of picking it up and we ended there.  On the next round with the washcloth I helped her think of the final outcome by having her take it from my hand, low to the ground and hand it up.  Again, the "oh no, in trouble again" behavior started and we went back to easy behaviors.  We ended with her taking it from my hand and giving it to me in with more confidence.

This will be a slower process, but I want her to ENJOY the most important aspect of her career and find joy in helping.  To do this I need her to know that picking up items and handing them to people makes them happy!

I also got to talk to Robin again today and we compared some of Emma's behaviors with soft natured dogs that Robin has trained and believe I am on a nice balanced approach to resolving this part of her training.  She's responding well in all other training behaviors, just retrieve is our problem child now and with patience I'll get that resolved.

For now, we'll continue to play the "What ya got?" games with items I know I can give back and build her confidence.

The video attached (poorly framed, sorry!) is Emma and I working our 5th session for the day.  I started shaping, but she is tired in the video and so I gave her a bit of a headsup on what I was asking.  You can see her confidence is increasing by her not shutting down when she hands me the pen, but she's still showing some signs she's confused and not sure what I am asking.  These signs are the paw up and the nearly inanimate way she's behaving.  During the day I had tethered Jack and crated Max so she had less pressure on her when I trained her, but in this video Max (who figured out I wanted him away from us when I train this behavior) is laying quietly in the background.  She is working for Cherios today because she likes them and they are a new treat she's never had before.

There are a handful of superstitious behaviors shown.  She's laying on and next too the pen because her most recent training success was mat work.  She is raising her paw when she hands me the pen because of how my hand is held and her uncertainty of what I am asking of her.  She's laying down when I put the pen down and thinks she needs to be in a down position to start a retrieve.  All of this can be worked through, right now, feeling secure that taking and giving a pen or other object to me is okay is what I am asking and once she realizes that each time she does this she has succeeded she'll gain confidence.

Another factor in this video is she is tired.  It's close to our bedtime and the first video I took she dropped out of frame and I realized I quickly needed to make another.  As a result, I needed to gently encourage her to participate when what she really wanted to do was digest her dinner.  I am keeping my voice very soft and slightly animated because big overtures when she gives me a pen, an expression of my joy she succeeded, sends her for a tailspin right now.  I saw with the softer, quieter communication her tail waving and her willing to do ONE MORE TIME because I asked.  She's a trooper - she just needs gentle handling when working her to build her confidence and let her know she's on the right track and making her humans happy.


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	2	2	1	1
	Jump	Relax	Handling	Tricks	Communication
Step	1	1	1	Completed	1

Level 3

	Zen	Come	Sit	Down	Target
Step	3	2	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	Completed	0

Level 4

	Zen	Come	Retrieve	Target	Relax
Step	0	0	1	0	0
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	0	0	0	0	0
	Handling	Communication
Step	0	0

8 Months, 1 Week: Training - Day 98

Emma learned to lift her back feet to get into the box.

With my assessment of Emma's progress with loose leash walking and where we need to go in regards to working with a wheelchair I decided this morning to sit down and think of what would be the best approach to bring her bottom in and build up her ability to stay in alignment with me and the chair.

I decided that the best approach was to finish teaching her how to pivot into position beside me and think about where her rear end is located at.  This means I'll be doing a lot of hind-end awareness training, starting with getting her to think about using her back feet to change her position without moving her front feet.

I have done some of that awareness in the past with shaping her to back up and into a box, but there is much more I can do to make her aware of her back feet.  I can walk her through a ladder where she has to think about lifting her back feet to make her next step or shape her to back up a flight of stairs.  I can work on her doing a hand stand (which she's physically capable of) or going over jumps of increasing heights.  I can walk her on a board just off of the ground or have her target a spot on the floor with her back feet.  All of these will teach her that she has back feet and that she can use them to earn rewards when training.

But that is only part of it.  Knowing she has back feet and knowing they can move in different directions (forward, backward and sideways for example) is another.  I taught Max to pivot to my side by clicking for any movement with his back feet toward my goal.  My mistake with him was I only clicked for one direction in the beginning and he learned it so well he became a one-way Conway when pivoting.  For my purposes, this is okay, but for the purpose of training Emma, I want her to swing into position on both sides of me.  Having learned my mistake with Max, I will click for any sideways movement in either direction for a bit to convince her both directions will pay and then work her to finally swinging into position from the front position to either side of me.

Thus, we'll end our week working on swing positioning.

Today's Lessons:

Loose Leash Walking

Emma is taking Loose Leash Walking as a class and the goal is to teach her how to walk properly in the zone beside her handler.  Her handler is wheelchair bound, so my goal during the week is to build up her wheelchair skills so when she goes to class with him she can work beside his chair and not risk being run over by the wheels when he turns.

Part of that is building up her focus and alignment with the chair.  To build up her alignment I have taken her back into the house and begun working on teaching her that the rewards happen only when she's beside my swivel chair when facing the same direction as me and not at an angle to me with her back end.  This means I need to teach her she had a butt.

Today I began to shape her pivot position without a book.  Previously I had shaped a backup and taught her to move all four feet, thus getting out "unstuck" when working while I was sitting.  Today, when I started to click for foot movement Emma backed up several steps and kept offering the behavior.  Amazing how much she put together since our last lesson on foot movement.  It was nice to see her offer that behavior when she was uncertain what I wanted.

We worked in three session per meal today and with each session her busy "is it this?" movements became more purposeful as she realized I was clicking for sideways movement, either left or right, and she started to think about her back feet as the goal for our lesson.  She did a full pivot by accident once and got heavily rewarded for it.

I did get a lot of head twists and shoulder shifts and sits and other behaviors as she worked out what I was clicking for.  She was clearly working out what part of her body was being clicked and would try eliminating each part until she got to her back feet.  Wonderful work and clear interest in learning this new skill.

Once she has a good, on cue, pivot in the house in more than one room I will take it outside and redo it on the porch and then in the street with the power chair.  Once she has that we'll work on her stopping and staying in alignment with the chair.  With the pivot on cue, if she is out of alignment I can cue her into alignment and then click and reward until it becomes second nature.

Another goal for this is her turning with the chair without getting out alignment with the chair, thus keeping her foot print in public low as possible.

Observations

Emma is a thinking dog.  Today I saw the evidence when I started to click for behavior and she tried as many behaviors in her tool box as she thought might work and didn't get stuck, but kept offering a new one until she got the click.  This is fantastic because it means she's in the game and learning.

She will soon be working beside my power chair properly and I can add the next step, which is teaching her that traffic will not kill her when she's working beside the chair, and I can then take her on walks and expand her world and her ability to work with distractions.

Emma is progressing nicely.

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	2	2	1	1
	Jump	Relax	Handling	Tricks	Communication
Step	1	1	1	Completed	1

Level 3

	Zen	Come	Sit	Down	Target
Step	3	2	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	Completed	0

Level 4

	Zen	Come	Retrieve	Target	Relax
Step	0	0	1	0	0
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	0	0	0	0	0
	Handling	Communication
Step	0	0