Confidence Building, Shaping and Self-Control

My puppy is 3 months old.  Wow, has a month really passed us by??  This is why I'm writing this blog, because they change so quickly and in a blink of an eye, they are full adults and puppyhood is just a memory. 

We kicked off the end of July/beginning of August meeting "The Punch" - Omaha will never be the same with these two in cahoots.  She outweighed him by 5lbs of woman, but it wasn't too much for The Punch.  She was very gentle with him, and appropriate.  They were fast friends.



Enter....'The Punch'

We made a decision to take her to USDAA North Central Regionals knowing that having a puppy would be a distraction for us, but we did a pretty good job tag teaming to make sure she got her time out and that we took full advantage of the atmosphere.  This was definitely intense for her.  Day one she was scrambling fearfully through doors, shying away from people, and leery of other dogs - especially big ones.  However, I didn't make a big deal about it, in fact, I just stayed the course and we worked through everything she presented to me.  By the afternoon, she was trotting through the doors to the potty area like she owned the joint and was a little more outgoing with the people she was encountering.  She got to meet some other puppies that were there was well, a couple shelties, BCS and a golden just her age.  What I found was that, other than the golden(shocker), the shelties were just as reserved - so this experience was very good for them too.  I was happy to see her really adapt quickly, however and she could play with the best of them.

Brief moment of chilling out at the agility trial, most of her waking hours in the kennel were her being covered up with the blanket because she was barking for us to let her out.  But, when she had stuff to do - a kong filled with peanut butter, or cream cheese, she was content.

At one point on Sunday, I was holding her and trying to video tape my friend's run, when a stranger came over and said, "Give me that wiggly puppy, I want to reward my dog!"  She took Pix out of my arms, and immediately put her on the ground with her little aussie who had just got done running a starters course.  Her dog was in puppy heaven, and this lady basically had used my puppy to reward her dog for running the course.  Pixel was also ecstatic.  By Sunday, every dog was her friend (which I'll have to watch).  Still, I thought it was hilarious that this gal grabbed my dog to reward her dog.  So funny.  Later on, my teammie, Melissa, told me that some random stranger approached our crating area and asked of she could get a picture taken with Pixel.  I guess she wants her next dog to be a mini, and wanted a pic of Pixel because she's such a fan.  Wow...odd...but ok!  :)

To say she met a lot of people would be an understatement.  I think going forward, she's not going to be a Treo who pretty much loves anyone with cookies, she's going to be more reserved in this arena, but we've made huge strides on her shyness, and she warms up very, very quickly.  I like seeing that progress.

With the dogs, now she thinks that the border collies are the sun and the moon.  She loves them.  We met many that were good with puppies, and she had an absolutely blast jumping on their heads.  In fact, the more they ignore her, the more she tries to engage them.  But, not every dog is friendly, so she needs to be watched closely in her engagement of dogs passing around us.

Chewing on a straw, which wasn't chewing on me, which is a rare and special moment.

Things we've worked on the past couple weeks - sits, downs, crate games, shaping stuff, retrieving, impulse control, traveling long distances in a kennel, meeting people, walking on a loose leash (need work here), meeting lots of dogs, toy play in a VERY distracting environment, hotel room manners, pottying in strange places, plus pottying on leash and restrained recalls in a VERY distracting environment.  When I think about training a future performance dog, the list above is so critical to both your sanity and theirs.  Think about dogs who can't walk on a leash, but have to be on a leash most of the time.  Yikes.  Think dogs who can't potty on leash, but are expected to be on leash when not running?  Think of dogs who have terrible hotel manners, and the complaints from the front desk.  All these things are life skills that really need to be worked immediately, and not as an after thought.

By Sunday, she was over the excitement and could sleep, uncovered...well, kinda...she covered herself.

As I watched her work through all these areas I'm seeing were we've got some training gaps and goals to set.  For example, if she gets too high, the biting monster comes out and she is out of control.  So, we need to work on nearly getting to that point, but still able to function.  We'll do that through toy play and Susan Garrett's (SG) "It's yer choice" games.  Biting my hand while tugging, for example, when she does that, I just freeze and say nothing, and when she puts teeth back on the tug I start playing again and get animated and fun.  If she lunges and obviously bites with no intent of playing with a toy, I take her collar and give her a mini time out.  (believe me, I put many deposits of take her collar, earn a cookie to enable me to take her collar as a time out and NOT have her dodge me).  Any biting frenzies (of which we only had one this whole weekend) wins her the kennel.  Same goes for nipping my clothing while we're walking...yes, she does that when she's in "that mood".  I take her collar and give her another shot at walking with me and not trying to bite at my clothing.  (can't wait for her to be on a Gentle Leader!)  So far, it's working rather well because she gives me "that look" and bites the air, but is definitely choosing not to bite me and would rather earn the food instead.

She's showing me that she's motion sensitive.  Right now, she mesmerized by what she sees.  She'll stare at the ring, and watch the dog and owner run around.  I say "right now" because I can clearly see that being just a gateway to being full on motion activated like Treo.  Because, the second the run stops, and everyone claps, she goes nuts - barking and trying to get away from me and into the ring to party.  So, the motion memorizes her, the excitement and clapping takes that motion sensitivity and turns it into her putting that trigger into action.  So, more watching agility this weekend, asking for behaviors and working on her not getting so activated by the commotion at the end of a run.  I'll move back from the ring a bit and see what that threshold is, and I think we'll be good.  She was able to play with other puppies close to ring side, and tug with the momma, but when it was just watching the ring, it was much harder.

A little TOO friendly with every dog that passes us in the hallways of the show site.  After just 24hrs in this environment, she nearly tried to greet every one with "Hi!!  I'm Pixel!!  What's your favorite color??!!!"  Not good when there are dogs who are not good with other dogs, much less a puppy in their grill.  So, walking needs to be more Momma focused to avoid an unpleasant experience, plus it's putting deposits in our "reinforcement zone" which is basically the sides of my body.  Good for Agility and flyball, getting dogs to drive to reinforcement zone is huge.

This weekend is USDAA Central Regionals in Blue Springs, MO.  Very excited to do it all again with Pixel.  But do it better.  My goal is to finish training her gentle leader this week so she can be wearing it sometimes this weekend.  We'll see.  That's a tall order.  Right now she's got decent value in putting her face in the loop and holding the loop on her face without me helping her.  Next we will start to clip it on and have her eat with it on and work our way up to playing with it on.  She needs it, though.  She needs the feedback that the GL can give very quickly.  Worthy goal.



Time to reinforce rules, all those shoes around her and because she put them there.