So yesterday I did nothing with Juneau outside of regular day-to-day activities. But at least there is still training in that. She has to "say please" before going outside, getting out of her kennel, getting to eat, getting out of the car, anything that she needs to know the humans provide for her only when she is good.
One funny thing happened this morning though. My husband was waiting for her to "say please" before going outside (he had Lucy on a leash at the door and I was behind with Juneau on a leash) and she sat and looked at me for permission to go outside. I would prefer she asked the wrong human to go out rather than just go crazy until someone opens the door.
Tomorrow we set off on a mini-vacation for the New Year holiday, and Juneau and Lucy are going to their local kennel. While they stay there Juneau gets play time with other dogs and Lucy gets a kong stuffed with goodies, so they both come home happy. So you won't hear from me until next week. Happy New Year!
To everyone who has told me they are inspired to work with their own dogs; great! I set out to fix my own behavior, but if I can improve the lives of other dog owners too, awesome!
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Indoor Basic Training
Tuesday it was raining. As motivated as I am to train my dog, that does not involve walking in the rain while stopping every 10 feet. So we did some living room exercises.
My living room, kitchen, dining room and front hallway are all connected together in a big square (my kitchen is a hallway with cabinets on the walls, in case you can't picture that layout.) So we did heel and come mixed in with target, down and sit. Dr. Yin also suggests seeing if your dog actually knows any of the words you say or if they just look for hand signals and body language. It turns out that when I don't move anything except my mouth, Juneau understands "down" and "come". "Sit" on the other hand is a complete mystery.
We also started learning "watch me". In this exercise, Juneau has to stop what she is doing and sit and look at my face for a few seconds. Right now it means "look away from sniffing the carpet and look at my face for 3 seconds" but I plan for it to mean "look away from that dog and look at my face as we walk by". We'll see.
As a happy side note: I haven't been bitten in one whole week!
My living room, kitchen, dining room and front hallway are all connected together in a big square (my kitchen is a hallway with cabinets on the walls, in case you can't picture that layout.) So we did heel and come mixed in with target, down and sit. Dr. Yin also suggests seeing if your dog actually knows any of the words you say or if they just look for hand signals and body language. It turns out that when I don't move anything except my mouth, Juneau understands "down" and "come". "Sit" on the other hand is a complete mystery.
We also started learning "watch me". In this exercise, Juneau has to stop what she is doing and sit and look at my face for a few seconds. Right now it means "look away from sniffing the carpet and look at my face for 3 seconds" but I plan for it to mean "look away from that dog and look at my face as we walk by". We'll see.
As a happy side note: I haven't been bitten in one whole week!
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Mobile Device Comments and Fear Training
So I would like to point out that I changed the settings to allow my readers to comment with their mobile devices. So hopefully you can all make more suggestions. Obviously if the spam comments get out of control, I will have to turn it back on. But we are good for now.
In my last post Aubin had asked about training for fear. My plan revolves around Juneau being able to pay attention to me whenever I ask her to. That way, when we see another dog she can look at me and know that I will get us past the other dog. But before that can happen I need her to be able to focus on me when nothing else is happening. That training is all based on the book "Feisty Fido: Help for the Leash Reactive Dog" by Dr. Patricia McConnell. I read it a while ago and it sounded great, but because I don't even gain a fraction of Juneau's interest when we are outside, I can't even do step one.
I do agree that perhaps I should bring it into the forefront of training though. I will begin the "watch me" focus lessons in a quiet indoor room and see if we can't start working that into the heeling practice. Then maybe by the time it is nice outside, my friends with stable dogs (Sue) can help me to practice at a far away distance.
In my last post Aubin had asked about training for fear. My plan revolves around Juneau being able to pay attention to me whenever I ask her to. That way, when we see another dog she can look at me and know that I will get us past the other dog. But before that can happen I need her to be able to focus on me when nothing else is happening. That training is all based on the book "Feisty Fido: Help for the Leash Reactive Dog" by Dr. Patricia McConnell. I read it a while ago and it sounded great, but because I don't even gain a fraction of Juneau's interest when we are outside, I can't even do step one.
I do agree that perhaps I should bring it into the forefront of training though. I will begin the "watch me" focus lessons in a quiet indoor room and see if we can't start working that into the heeling practice. Then maybe by the time it is nice outside, my friends with stable dogs (Sue) can help me to practice at a far away distance.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Boxing Day Walk
So the focus of today (besides cleaning up the mess from Christmas) was to tweak the walk. When we set out, Juneau really remembered what she was supposed to do. Today you could really see it click that when I stopped walking she was supposed to sit next to me an look at me. By the end of our walk that happened every single time and lots of treats were had. (Today I just used dog food and it wasn't good enough "value"-wise. I think I'm going to try hot dog bits, those are pretty tasty and cheap.) Now she just needs to figure out that I stop walking because she is walking faster than me. :-)
A new family moved into the house at the end of our street and they have a very territorial pitty who barks like a fierce monster. I didn't know it until we were next to his chain link fence, but he was outside today and he charged us while barking (behind the fence.) Juneau panicked and started flipping out so I made her leash as short as possible and walked away as quickly as I could. When we were far enough away for her to calm down I gave her treats for relaxing. (It seemed like the right thing to do.) If I wasn't certain already, today I saw that fear of other dogs is her aggression trigger. Later, when the other dog went inside, it was very difficult to get her to walk past their yard again. She kept looking around and sniffing the air to see if he was going to charge us again. Then every click or bang we heard on the walk made her jump and look around.
Tomorrow I'm back to work, so we will probably try some indoor type training. Maybe targeting or something fun.
A new family moved into the house at the end of our street and they have a very territorial pitty who barks like a fierce monster. I didn't know it until we were next to his chain link fence, but he was outside today and he charged us while barking (behind the fence.) Juneau panicked and started flipping out so I made her leash as short as possible and walked away as quickly as I could. When we were far enough away for her to calm down I gave her treats for relaxing. (It seemed like the right thing to do.) If I wasn't certain already, today I saw that fear of other dogs is her aggression trigger. Later, when the other dog went inside, it was very difficult to get her to walk past their yard again. She kept looking around and sniffing the air to see if he was going to charge us again. Then every click or bang we heard on the walk made her jump and look around.
Tomorrow I'm back to work, so we will probably try some indoor type training. Maybe targeting or something fun.
Christmas with Juneau
Except for potty breaks and playing catch outside, we really didn't leave the house. No formal training happened yesterday (It's Christmas!) but we did pay attention to the everyday stuff.
Mike played catch with Juneau before my family arrived to take the edge off her craziness. When she came back inside, my family was standing in the living room. She walked around and sniffed them all. She didn't try to jump up on anyone. All of the humans ignored her util she laid down on her bed. Then she got love and petting from my dog inclined family members (not my dad). The petting stopped when she stood up, and happened again when she laid back down. I am proud of my family for following the rules!
Other than really wanting to sniff every single present before and after unwrapping, and wanting to get as close as possible to the food, she was really good. My dad even said Juneau was quite well behaved. Another positive day! (Crazy, I know.)
For Boxing Day, more walking practice!
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Friday I'm in Love
Yesterday went smoothly over all. I had the day off so we got to spend a lot of time together, but I had to clean for Christmas so it wasn't very structured learning-wise. My mum came over and Juneau jumped around a bit but calmed down when she wasn't getting any attention. Over-all well behaved.
Later, when Mike came home, we went for a walk. On the way home we passed a dog we hadn't seen before on the other side of the road. Juneau went bat-shit crazy. I have never seen her react that badly to a dog she knows and hates let alone a strange dog that (at least from my perspective) didn't do anything wrong. It didn't even bark. Juneau dragged me and I had to use all of my strength to control her. I made her lay down, since I wasn't prepared to deal with a psycho breakdown. I think when we get to the "dealing with other dogs" part, I'll need some calm dogs to practice with. (If my friends can help with that, it would rock.)
I'm counting Friday as a positive day, but a glimpse of what lies ahead. (I'm not good at optimism, so I'm trying hard here!) Saturday can have more dog-to-owner quality time.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
First Heeling
Day #2 was a very positive one! First off, I got home a little early so Juneau was't ready to attack me. She was still a little sleepy when I let her out of her kennel and she didn't even jump on me once!
Today's project was walking to the park about half a mile from my house. I have a hands free leash, and Juneau wore a front clip harness. Whenever she walked past my legs I stopped dead. She caught on really quickly that she had to be next to me before we would move. What took a long while to figure out was the STAYING next to me. We would take two steps, stop, and she would back up. Two steps, stop, back up. over and over. Then I started to feed a couple of treats when she did it right one after the other and we got 3 steps in before she ran ahead.
Then when we were almost to the park, we had about 30 steps where I kept pumping her full of treats and she stayed next to me. It was a glimpse of the future and I loved it!
Then we saw the park (big fenced grassy area) and it was very difficult to get her in there while heeling. She was very excited. When she sat and looked at me (what Dr. Yin calls "saying please") I took her harness off. She tore around the park going crazy for 10 mins.
When she seemed done I got her harness back on and we started to heel home. It was flawless! Now I know, tire her out a little bit and the heeling is MUCH easier. On the way home I stopped only twice for her going too fast.
Tomorrow is my day off, so we will try so much more!
Today's project was walking to the park about half a mile from my house. I have a hands free leash, and Juneau wore a front clip harness. Whenever she walked past my legs I stopped dead. She caught on really quickly that she had to be next to me before we would move. What took a long while to figure out was the STAYING next to me. We would take two steps, stop, and she would back up. Two steps, stop, back up. over and over. Then I started to feed a couple of treats when she did it right one after the other and we got 3 steps in before she ran ahead.
Then when we were almost to the park, we had about 30 steps where I kept pumping her full of treats and she stayed next to me. It was a glimpse of the future and I loved it!
Then we saw the park (big fenced grassy area) and it was very difficult to get her in there while heeling. She was very excited. When she sat and looked at me (what Dr. Yin calls "saying please") I took her harness off. She tore around the park going crazy for 10 mins.
When she seemed done I got her harness back on and we started to heel home. It was flawless! Now I know, tire her out a little bit and the heeling is MUCH easier. On the way home I stopped only twice for her going too fast.
Tomorrow is my day off, so we will try so much more!
Day One Training
The for the rest of the afternoon I carried a pocket full of her food and gave her "treats" whenever she was good. She lay down on the rug when we ate dinner, so I gave her a kibble. She sat and asked for petting, so I gave her a kibble (and petting). We did the foundations for "target" and how to take treats without biting my hand. It went very smoothly for a first day.
Then at 8pm I was sitting on the couch and Juneau was nosing my hand to try and get the piece of food out of it when Lucy came over. Juneau jumped on her and started a viscous dog fight. If it was a dog her own age, it would have been a nasty spat, but for Lucy, who is ancient and half her size, that was just bad. We got her off of Lucy who wasn't hurt but was scared and shaking. Juneau had a "time-out" in her kennel and everyone calmed down for ten minutes. Then I took Juneau for a long walk where she heeled perfectly and looked to me for guidance. Who knows, maybe I'm gaining her respect back.
Day two starts today!
New Year New Dog
I would like to share my plan with you. I want to train my dog, Juneau, to be the lovable family pet I know she is on the inside. I have always found that writing things down encourages me to actually complete them. I have a to-do list at work, and without it, I am hopeless. I also hope for encouragement from the crowd. (And hints and tips.)
Juneau will be 3 years old in the spring. She is a Mastiff and German Shepard mix and my first dog. I have wanted a dog for as long as I can remember and I was finally in a position to get a puppy. (We also have a 12 year old black lab-mix named Lucy who came from my husband's childhood home 3 years ago.)
House breaking Juneau went fairly smoothly. We didn't pay as much attention to her when she was in the house as we probably should, so it went a little bit slowly. But in the end, flawless house-broken-ness. At that same time, Lucy developed Cushing's Disease and started to destroy the house. But if you get home and your house is destroyed and you have a 3 month old puppy, statistically who's fault is it? So the dogs got crate trained at this point. (Super easy for baby Juneau, super hard for old-lady Lucy.)
The biggest mistake I made in Juneau's life has to have been her poor socialization. This is the key for any puppy's young life and I totally blew it. We don't have children and our friends at the time didn't have dogs or children. She didn't see many strange people or places and now she is scared of everything. She isn't (luckily) scared of thunder or anything like that, but hats, kids, poofy hair, strollers, rakes, balloons, all freak her out. And as as Shepard/Mastiff her fear outlet of choice is . . . . Aggression!
My next mistake was not teaching her to heel on a leash when she was a baby. Shortly after we got her I was walking both dogs at once and Lucy chased a cat. My left hand got tangled up in the leash and my ring finger snapped. (Married for 2 months and I had to get my rings cut off in the ER!) For some reason, even that didn't wake me up. It did, however, slow down my ability to train. You try working the leash, treats and clicker with one hand! So I mostly gave up. Two months later, my finger is healed and Juneau headbutts my hand and re-breaks the finger. So another 2 months of basically no training. *ugh*
After I was healed, I took her to the training classes at our local pet store. Which were totally adequate. I wanted to learn clicker training, but they didn't offer it, so I went with the standard food-based operant conditioning class. We did level 1-3 and she learned basic obedience with no issues. The next mistake I made was not working those skills into day-to-day life and not training more outside of class. She was PERFECT in class but out of class . . . Also, whenever a strange dog would walk by the window of the training room, she would go psycho and try and kill it through the glass. The trainer's reaction: "Ok, lets move on to the next activity."
So some time passes and Juneau grows to 75lbs and is very strong and unruly. One of my largest character flaws is my ability to get so frustrated I shut down. (Look up "learned helplessness".) That's where I was with Juneau. She is so big and I'm so lazy and I've ruined her. Then I find e-collars. (Now don't get upset, I see the light later in the story.)
I convince my husband that we need to try e-collars. They are the way of the future. I watched you-tube videos of teaching an insane dog to heel and be nice in 3 hours. Watching a rottweiler learn to come when called; away from hot dog pieces on the ground. Amazing things. The problem: those things are freaking expensive. So I buy a cheap, crappy version. It only has 10 levels. Level 4 she can't feel and level 5 scares the crap out of her. So I work with that for awhile and she learns to recall like a bullet. It was amazing.
Well that works so well, what if I got a real trainer to help me learn how to properly use the e-collar!? So I found a local trainer that is a certified pet dog trainer who uses e-collars. We have a meeting with her and I want to start right away. (I'm gung-ho all of a sudden.) Mike isn't sure, and it is really expensive but I talk him into it. (Sorry sweetie.) The classes come with a nice e-collar with 100 levels, she explains how it works and makes us do it on ourselves so we can see that it isn't painful. (It really isn't.) Juneau and I do 6 months of training and her obedience skills get amazing. Down on the first try, recall can get her away from chasing a rabbit. However, the fear of other dogs gets much worse. Now she she sees another dog and she wants to attack it, now that dog brings with it electric shocks. Her dog aggression also skyrockets. Now walks are impossible. My trainer's response "Try it on a higher level". *sigh*
Around the end of the six months with the e-collar my dad sends me a copy of John Bradsaw's "Dog Sense". Which if you haven't read, buy it today. Basically it is a book of dog behavior written about what we ACTUALLY know about dogs by studying dogs. Not what we have learned about wolves by watching them in zoos (which isn't how real wolves act in family groups by the way.) Basically everything my trainer says and some famous TV dog trainers are based on watching zoo wolves, not dogs. Dogs are not pack animals! Wolves are, but dogs and wolves evolved from a common ancestor, they are not the same thing. You don't deal with your cat based on what David Attenborough told you about lions! Bradshaw talks all about e-collars and how positive punishment (adding shocks to decrease a behavior) doesn't work for fear. If your dog is afraid and you shock them to be less afraid they are now MORE scared because shocks have been added. So I gave up. (Again.)
So here I am. My dog is as big as me and much stronger than me and I cannot control her most of the time. I have Dr. Sophia Yin's book "How to Behave So Your Dog Behaves". I started the official training and behavior modification (for me) last night and I plan to make Juneau's life my project for 2012. She is smart, I am smart, together we should be able to get somewhere. Also, now that I have stopped the e-collar, I have my husband on my side too. So we will make a great team. I want you to make me have credibility.
Juneau will be 3 years old in the spring. She is a Mastiff and German Shepard mix and my first dog. I have wanted a dog for as long as I can remember and I was finally in a position to get a puppy. (We also have a 12 year old black lab-mix named Lucy who came from my husband's childhood home 3 years ago.)
House breaking Juneau went fairly smoothly. We didn't pay as much attention to her when she was in the house as we probably should, so it went a little bit slowly. But in the end, flawless house-broken-ness. At that same time, Lucy developed Cushing's Disease and started to destroy the house. But if you get home and your house is destroyed and you have a 3 month old puppy, statistically who's fault is it? So the dogs got crate trained at this point. (Super easy for baby Juneau, super hard for old-lady Lucy.)
The biggest mistake I made in Juneau's life has to have been her poor socialization. This is the key for any puppy's young life and I totally blew it. We don't have children and our friends at the time didn't have dogs or children. She didn't see many strange people or places and now she is scared of everything. She isn't (luckily) scared of thunder or anything like that, but hats, kids, poofy hair, strollers, rakes, balloons, all freak her out. And as as Shepard/Mastiff her fear outlet of choice is . . . . Aggression!
My next mistake was not teaching her to heel on a leash when she was a baby. Shortly after we got her I was walking both dogs at once and Lucy chased a cat. My left hand got tangled up in the leash and my ring finger snapped. (Married for 2 months and I had to get my rings cut off in the ER!) For some reason, even that didn't wake me up. It did, however, slow down my ability to train. You try working the leash, treats and clicker with one hand! So I mostly gave up. Two months later, my finger is healed and Juneau headbutts my hand and re-breaks the finger. So another 2 months of basically no training. *ugh*
After I was healed, I took her to the training classes at our local pet store. Which were totally adequate. I wanted to learn clicker training, but they didn't offer it, so I went with the standard food-based operant conditioning class. We did level 1-3 and she learned basic obedience with no issues. The next mistake I made was not working those skills into day-to-day life and not training more outside of class. She was PERFECT in class but out of class . . . Also, whenever a strange dog would walk by the window of the training room, she would go psycho and try and kill it through the glass. The trainer's reaction: "Ok, lets move on to the next activity."
So some time passes and Juneau grows to 75lbs and is very strong and unruly. One of my largest character flaws is my ability to get so frustrated I shut down. (Look up "learned helplessness".) That's where I was with Juneau. She is so big and I'm so lazy and I've ruined her. Then I find e-collars. (Now don't get upset, I see the light later in the story.)
I convince my husband that we need to try e-collars. They are the way of the future. I watched you-tube videos of teaching an insane dog to heel and be nice in 3 hours. Watching a rottweiler learn to come when called; away from hot dog pieces on the ground. Amazing things. The problem: those things are freaking expensive. So I buy a cheap, crappy version. It only has 10 levels. Level 4 she can't feel and level 5 scares the crap out of her. So I work with that for awhile and she learns to recall like a bullet. It was amazing.
Well that works so well, what if I got a real trainer to help me learn how to properly use the e-collar!? So I found a local trainer that is a certified pet dog trainer who uses e-collars. We have a meeting with her and I want to start right away. (I'm gung-ho all of a sudden.) Mike isn't sure, and it is really expensive but I talk him into it. (Sorry sweetie.) The classes come with a nice e-collar with 100 levels, she explains how it works and makes us do it on ourselves so we can see that it isn't painful. (It really isn't.) Juneau and I do 6 months of training and her obedience skills get amazing. Down on the first try, recall can get her away from chasing a rabbit. However, the fear of other dogs gets much worse. Now she she sees another dog and she wants to attack it, now that dog brings with it electric shocks. Her dog aggression also skyrockets. Now walks are impossible. My trainer's response "Try it on a higher level". *sigh*
Around the end of the six months with the e-collar my dad sends me a copy of John Bradsaw's "Dog Sense". Which if you haven't read, buy it today. Basically it is a book of dog behavior written about what we ACTUALLY know about dogs by studying dogs. Not what we have learned about wolves by watching them in zoos (which isn't how real wolves act in family groups by the way.) Basically everything my trainer says and some famous TV dog trainers are based on watching zoo wolves, not dogs. Dogs are not pack animals! Wolves are, but dogs and wolves evolved from a common ancestor, they are not the same thing. You don't deal with your cat based on what David Attenborough told you about lions! Bradshaw talks all about e-collars and how positive punishment (adding shocks to decrease a behavior) doesn't work for fear. If your dog is afraid and you shock them to be less afraid they are now MORE scared because shocks have been added. So I gave up. (Again.)
So here I am. My dog is as big as me and much stronger than me and I cannot control her most of the time. I have Dr. Sophia Yin's book "How to Behave So Your Dog Behaves". I started the official training and behavior modification (for me) last night and I plan to make Juneau's life my project for 2012. She is smart, I am smart, together we should be able to get somewhere. Also, now that I have stopped the e-collar, I have my husband on my side too. So we will make a great team. I want you to make me have credibility.
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