Seismic Shift

Maddie is 19 months old now and is still very puppy like. Reagan was much more mature at this age. Training ebbs and flows. It has been and continues to be a grand learning experience for me. I learn something from all of my hounds, but only a few really tear down your walls and make you rethink everything. Jessie set the course to my current foundation (introducing me to clicker training) and it worked very well with Katie, Travis, Riley, and Seven. I think Maddie is going to cause another seismic shift.

One issue I had with Maddie a couple of months ago was with her recalls. My other hounds are/were so food motivated that food tended to override whatever had their attention (except chasing prey).  On a 10 Scale, food rated a 15 with Katie, Travis, Riley, and Seven. But that is not the case with Maddie. And if my others ignored me, I can/could verbally scold them into coming and then treats made everything awesome again.

You cannot be stern with Maddie. Even if I am upset about something completely unrelated to Maddie (like a bad day at work), it is best not to work with her that day because she will soak it in. Or just recently, we were practicing some jumping and during the process we collided. Well, you would have thought I had just smacked her on purpose. When something like that happens with Riley or Seven, I just tell them how cool that was and give them five treats and all is well in the world again. Not the case with Maddie... she will not eat treats or play with toys when something like that happens. It can ruin her whole day, but I am pleased to say that it took a few minutes, but I finally did get her to reconnect that day.

It all comes down to relationship. Maddie is not going to do obedience, agility, or come when called because I have good treats or a fun toy.... it has to be because she cares what I think and she is only going to care if we have a good relationship. So I am wo

rking hard to grow a personality. Ha!

So in the last month or two, I have been mostly agenda free. I do not think I have planned a single training session for Maddie. I prepare courses or exercises for Seven and Riley and then I just play with Maddie. And while we are out there, we might try this.  And if that this goes well, we might try that. Normally, I am a heavy planner and goal focused... some might say I am Type A (okay those that know me in real life are laughing out loud right now), but it is just too much pressure for Maddie and I to follow a plan right now... and I think it is working.

Today, I finally turned on the video camera for a little obedience and a lot of play. I trimmed some of the play, but this is what most of our sessions look like.  We play, we doodle with training, and we play. Somewhere along the way her off leash heeling has started looking gorgeous!

Still a silly, lovable goober though!

Obedience Training

Here is Maddie and I working on obedience on a rainy morning. Other than the occasional dumbbell retrieve, we are trying to narrow our focus to just the Novice exercises.

Maddie is still a long way from competing in obedience. Our heeling still needs a lot of work and I do not have any reinforcement that she would just kill for. I probably struggle the most with her food motivation. It ebbs and flows. For example, she can be very eager for homemade pot roast one day and then spit it out the next. Right now it is ebbing more than it is flowing.

At agility trials or other social outings, I use the Premack Principle a lot which is using highly probable behaviors to reinforce less probable behaviors.  For example, Maddie loves to socialize with people and dogs (highly probable behavior), but heeling, fronts, and finishes are neither good or bad (less probable behavior).  So I bring her into such a situation and block her access to what she wants to do, but if she engages and starts asking for me to give her things to do... then she is rewarded with the high probable behavior. It works really well in some situations.

She is definitely making me earn everything she gives me, but I am learning a lot and curious to see how it all turns out.

And thank you to everyone that sponsored Stephen on his bike ride for Road Trip Home.  We raised almost $2,900 and the entire event raised over $13,000!  Very exciting!  We are working on thank you notes and receipts.  They will be in the mail soon.  I am pretty sure that Stephen was the only cyclist with sponsors from the other side of the world. Amazing!

As you know, we fostered a lab for a few weeks and then he was transported to Northeast Animal Shelter, a private, no-kill shelter in Massachusetts.  He was then adopted a few days later to a family with a Dad, stay-at-home Mom, 11 year old child, and 2 cats.  We hope he is doing great there.

And here is our newest foster.

She is a very rare Brissel Cattlehoulamation Sparrier.... or at least that is what we have determined from all of the guesses.  I think she is about 5 years old and weighs 30 pounds. She will be transporting to the Animal Welfare Society, a private, no-kill shelter in Maine at the end of next week.  She is a busy little dog. The terrier in her definitely dominates, but we are working to get some of the calmer breeds buried inside of her to come out.  All in all, she will be a good companion for someone who wants a cuddle bug and likes to walk around the neighborhood.

46 Weeks - Training

Here is a video of Maddie doing some obedience training.  Someone tell the trainer not to wear black next time.  Black dog, black mats, and black clothes really make for an awesome video.  Sorry.

Week 34 - Scenting

I am quite impressed with Maddie's work on the Scent-A-Whirl. This is just a fun way to teach Maddie to find something with my scent on it.  Later she will have to do this with leather and metal dumbbells, but for now we use toys.  Maddie has worked up to having a toy sealed in each container and she has to find the one that has the toy we were playing with in it.

I have little symbol on each arm so I can remember which container has the correct toy. However, I do have to actually make an effort to remember.  In the first round, I thought it was a different arm.  Maddie insisted so I decided I better have a look.  Better for her to be wrong than for me to be wrong and hold out on her.  Well she was right!  In fact, she never gets it wrong.

And I love that she retrieves the toy to me!

You can thank Seven for the background noise. She cries and chews on crate bars when it is not her turn.  She sometimes has It-Is-Not-My-Turn Anxiety.

27 Weeks - Obedience Training

It is definitely easiest to work on obedience (versus agility) since most obedience training is low impact.

It is important that obedience stay fun.  Obedience is very detail oriented so it can get tedious especially for a hound and even more so for a hound puppy.

So I might ask Maddie to do something once or twice and then I will take off running so she can chase me.  I want to make sure that running around is MY idea and not hers.

We also play with toys and do some tugging.  These chase and toy interruptions are cut out of the video in order to keep the video short and interesting... but I just do not want you to think I am drilling her over and over again.

In this video, we do go outs outside with the neighbor's barking dog as a distraction.  And then dumbbell holds.  I just think it is so cute to see her holding a dumbbell.  So grown up looking.  And then I am always working on recalls.  I have started interrupting her when she is running and I am still jackpotting such recalls with canned dog food.  I cannot stress the importance of creating high value for recalls especially with breeds typically less motivated or not geared to follow the instructions of humans.

And all of this is so Maddie comes home and goes to sleep. 

Maddie is just growing up too fast!  The girls were all wet from a hike in the rain.

25 Weeks - Training

It was especially cold this week (not for Canadians, but for southerners) so we did a lot of training indoors.  Five months has been a really fun age.  Maddie really enjoys training and working with me.  It is fun to see her figure things out.  Her food motivation has grown as well and she is less polite and pushier now which I like.

I have started introducing Maddie to some of the advanced obedience exercises.  With such an awesome sit, I hope to compete Maddie through Utility level (highest level) obedience.  Two very difficult Utility exercises are the the "go outs" and scent articles. "Go outs" are actually a piece of an exercise called directed jumping. The dog is sent to the other side of the ring and has to turn around and sit and then you send the dog over a jump on your left or right.  So I have started Maddie on "go outs".

I have also started her on some scent work.  This is called a Scent-A-Whirl.  I learned about it at an obedience seminar for puppies.  You start with toys.  You and the puppy play with a toy, then you place the toy in one of the containers, and give it a whirl.  The puppy then uses her nose to find the toy.  Eventually you add lids and switch to metal and leather articles.  What really intrigued me about this idea is that it removes the visual cue. When I taught Katie scent articles, I initially put her in a down stay and blind folded her.  I would hold up the right article and when I saw her nostrils flicker, I would mark and reward. Then I would hold up a wrong article and give a gentle non-reward mark. It worked, but I like the looks of this game better.

I have also started Maddie on dumbbell retrieves.  At this stage, I just want her to take the dumbbell.  I will want to quickly move to holding the dumbbell so you see me put my other hand under her chin which will help me insist that she hold the dumbbell in the near future.

Lastly, we did some rear end awareness with the balance disc.  Later on agility contact obstacles, I will want her to do two feet on and two feet off.  It is one way to ensure the dog moves through the contact zone.  So we practice a little of that on the balance disc.  I also work on her finding and placing her rear feet on things. 

Maddie ended the week at 44.5 pounds.  She has lingered at that weight for about two weeks now.  I hope that means her growth is slowing down.  I cannot believe she is almost the size of Seven and Riley at nearly 6 months.

Although keep in mind that Riley and Seven are tiny greyhounds at only 50 pounds each.  Maddie has always been destined to be bigger than both of them.... most greyhounds are.

Who stole my tiny puppy?

11 Weeks

18 Weeks - Training

Brown Noser

I have really enjoyed Maddie turning four months.  The last week or so, she has been a lot more fun in training.  Her food motivation (the most important trait to me) has really improved.  She has gotten much pushier and eager about the treats.

I normally use very high value treats because I like for my hounds to feel well rewarded and to give them a reason to work harder.  But Maddie seems to see no difference between steak and dog food... so I have been training with dog food.  And she is training great for dog food and is very pushy!  I've also manipulated her meals so they are not so predictable and regular.  She eats a chicken neck or two when the big guys eat and then the bulk of her calories come in training and/or away from the house.  It has made a huge difference.  Maddie is so much more engaging and interested in what I want to do now.

I took a lot more video of Maddie training this week.  Here is a video of her doing all sorts of things. Targets, pivots on balance disc and on the flat, and basic obedience.

And if you are not bored yet of watching Maddie train, here is another one.  Utility is the highest level of obedience with go outs (dog is sent to the other end of the ring and has to sit and then is directed over a jump and back to the handler) and scent articles (dog has to find the article in a pile of articles with the handler's scent on it) being very difficult exercises.  I really hope to do Utility with Maddie in a few years so it never hurts to start introducing them to these two difficult exercises.

12 Weeks - Training

Brown Noser

I had an epiphany this week.  I realized I use the clicker to mark positions too much rather than movement.  As a result, my greyhounds tend to default into sits, downs, and even stand stays when they are confused or do not know what they should offer.  It drives me crazy because it makes them get stuck.

I am not sure why this jumped out at me with Maddie, but I felt like she was stuck and needed to be unstuck.  So this week, I did not use the clicker for any obedience work.

Instead, we worked on free shaping.  I would give her an object such as a lid, a block, box, or a balance disc and I would click and treat her interactions with the object.  Anything to get her to offer movement.  Here is some of that.

We also worked a lot with toys.  I want her to go after "dead" toys or toys that are not moving.  I want her to let go when I ask.  And I want her to tug when I offer.

It will be interesting to see if I am able to use the toys in training and as a reward at times in the future.  Here is a video of some of her toy work.  She is tugging really well and reluctant to give it up which I think is a good sign.

All in all, I think Maddie is doing great at 12 weeks.