Lots of loose leash, zen, and eye contact

7 months 3 weeks 1 day old

So the hubby got off to England as planned, and made it safely many many many hours later. It has been very quiet since then, and I've done a lot of resting which was very much necessary. I'm still overly tired, just not my normal self.

However, with no hubby to distract me, I've been getting some more training done. We're concentrating on loose leash. A couple of weeks ago I wrote an article (link above near the title banner) about head halters and how I was feeling about using one on Knightley. I had done a lot of counter conditioning to try to get him to accept it, but he just really doesn't like halters. In high distraction areas he doesn't notice it too much, but in lower ones it really changes his behaviour for the worse. He becomes less enthusiastic, almost sullen, and not the normal happy Knightley. I think it is likely due to the quite widely known psychological effect of putting something across the muzzle, which for a dog puts them in a submissive position.... and if they can't get it off, it can be quite disturbing. Some dogs are ok, some are not. Knightley is not. So getting a really solid loose leash is becoming a high priority. The Freedom Harness is getting too tight - Knightley's chest size has really expanded in the last couple of months.... and he can't wear a no pull harness at the same time as wearing his training vest. He needs the loose leash anyway, I don't believe you can call a dog trained unless it is able to walk loosely by your side on a flat collar. So we are doing lots of work, especially at night when the distractions are less. I wish my physical limitations didn't impact the training, but they do - a lot. I asked for advice on one of the lists I participate in and have some ideas to make it easier but it isn't going to be simple.

We continue to work on door zen, but I am going to have to up the ante somehow - to teach him to never ever go out an open door without being released. Throwing sticks might be a good way, Knightley looooves his sticks. Ideally I would work with people, first from a fair distance and then slowly coming closer to the door...... but I don't exactly have any volunteers.

We're also doing a fair bit of eye contact work, getting him to keep eye contact with me for long periods of time outside, and keeping eye contact with me when I'm not watching his eyes both inside and outside. Outside is hard for him in the last one, he finds it harder to do what is asked without me 'joining in' the eye game.

We're starting to get back into some basic retrieve training too, just working on getting him to hold objects. He does it really well outside - it seems to make sense for him there - so I think I'll do more on that outside to solidify it. Getting a really good hold is the first step in teaching an assistance retrieve. I started teaching it a couple of months ago, but stopped in order to concentrate on finishing Level 2. His holds are pretty varied, some are weak and last for a second, some are strong and last for 6 seconds (this is inside). Before I stopped before we had got up to 10-15 seconds, but I am not going to push it. Door zen and eye contact are my priorities for now, as they are the beginning of Level 3 and *this* time I'm doing the level in order!

Knightley has been sleeping on my bed since hubby left, and he is a wonderful comfort. He's a heavy boy though, when he decides to lie only on my feet.

Raw feeding is going really well. He had a bunch of liver today, as well as a quarter of a quicken and two lamb hearts. Some dogs really don't like raw liver, but Knightley doesn't have a problem with it at all! It's usually the first thing to disappear actually. He's a much healthier dog on raw, and I'm about to order some more interesting items at my local butcher as he needs some organ variety now he's had the opportunity to get used to eating raw.

Anyway, it's really late here, so time to sleep!

Rain, rain and more rain, lump going down, and not very well

7 months 3 days old

This is a post to say I haven't died! Not sure how long it will be....

Since the show we have had days and days of rain, to the point yesterday the nearby storm water drains were flooding their banks and going over the footbridges. It was an impressive amount of water!

Poor Knightley hasn't really been for any walks since the show, so he has had a lot of time to digest the experience! Every time he comes back inside he needs toweling off, even if I put his rain jacket on him. I hope he doesn't get any hotspots (caused by a fungus from having damp fur) because its almost impossible to get him dry at the moment.

His raw feeding is going excellently. He is loving eating chunks of meat for his meals. I recently got some turkey drumsticks for him - absolutely massive things - and wondered how he was going to handle them. However, it only took a couple of minutes of chomping and grinding (the noise as he breaks up all the bones is amazing!) and the whole thing disappears! He has been on raw for a couple of weeks now, so according to the schedule he can start to branch out to more adventurous meats. I'd like to get some interesting organs for him. I did get some chicken hearts for him last week but they are counted as meat, not organ. I need to find something like spleen, tripe, trachea etc. A raw diet is complete with the ratios of 80% muscle meat 10% bone and 10% organs (of which half must be liver and the other half whatever you like). I am looking forward to finding more interesting foods for him to eat now he is over the first couple of weeks.

His lump is definitely reducing, even though his antibiotics have finished - I guess they have done their job. I won't be happy until it completely disappears however. It seems to have been an infection of some kind though. We were lucky!

I haven't been well since the show. I'd had a sore throat leading up to it, and since then I've been down with a virus of some kind. I've also had a bit of a lupus flare as regards my skin... I get rashes when my immune system is struggling with myself. It's a sign I need to take it easier. I couldn't go into work this week, which I was sad about.

We're working on Sue Ailsby's Training Levels, Level 3 at the moment, even though I'm not very well. I'm working on getting Knightley to watch my eyes for 15 seconds even when I am not maintaining eye contact with him. We can now *just* do 15 seconds, but only in low distraction environments.

We're also doing lots of door zen, so that in the future I'll be able to have the front door open and he will know it's a boundary he can't cross. I already have it down with some other doors.... for instance I don't want him following me into the garage from the house, as the garage might have potentially toxic spiders in corners where Knightley could find them, and now Knightley knows that door is not to be crossed. He also waits to be invited through the front door when we are going out or in, although it isn't quite as solid when we are going out. The problem comes along when someone is outside and he wants to join them. Door zen just disappears. It makes taking deliveries difficult!

The last thing we are doing is recall with higher levels of distraction. He is good now in the house responding to my "come!", but at the dog park for instance, he is .... well... hit and miss! So I am throwing his favourite toys and then calling him back to me in mid run towards them. Stuff like that, just to increase the distraction level a bit. He is doing well.

We have also received our Comfort Trainer halter, so have swapped to that instead of using the Gentle Leader we got temporarily. I'll let you all know in a future post what I think of it.

Anyway, that's all for now. Time to get warm again and stop feeling like death warmed up!

The benefits of raw feeding and a 1 minute down stay!!

6 months 2 weeks 4 days old

So after working on a 1 minute down stay for months today we got there! I really think I can credit the Manners Minder with helping to break the 1 minute mark. Whilst a minute isn't very impressive for an adult dog (my previous dog had to do a 5 minute down stay in his training exam - surrounded with dogs on either side), for a 6 month old puppy I am VERY happy with it!! Puppies just don't have the powers of concentration an adult has, which is why task training for assistance dogs in training only starts when they are at least a year old - when they are more likely to pick up the training quickly and make sensible choices. For Knightley's age, he's doing just fine. Now I need to work on getting it up to 1 minute outside with distractions, which will  be much harder! We can do a 20 second down stay outside comfortably with distractions, we just need to work on increasing that slowly up to the minute mark. Now the fact that the Manners Minder (MM) is battery powered comes into its own, because I can easily take it outside with us, and use it to build his attention span in the face of all sorts of distractions. On the subject of the MMs portability, I am very happy with it for someone who isn't able to move heavy or difficult objects without repercussions on my health. I don't have to reach right down to floor level in order to pick it up, and it is actually lighter than it looks, which would make taking it outside fairly easy for me. It really is a well thought out tool.

Our sit stay actually went backwards today but never mind that, I am sure that was just a bit of a blip......!     It is very rare that Knightley actually breaks a stay, I take stay training very very slowly in order to have him less likely to develop the bad habit of thinking it's ok to break a stay if he's bored. If you increase the time of a stay in leaps and bounds then the chance that the dog will break in one of those those longer periods. If you treat really regularly and don't keep the dog waiting for you to return to him for long, then the dog is getting more feedback that it is doing the right thing and is more likely to continue doing what it is doing because it is getting treats.

Knightley with some chicken thighs.  He
must always wait for release ("go eat!")
before touching his food. It takes quite a
bit of self control to stay away from a bowl
of raw chicken. He's a good puppy.

Raw feeding is going really well....Knightley is definitely loving it! I've fed Knightley a range of chicken cuts now, depending on how much bone he needs for a given meal - trying to keep up the 80% meat, 10% bone and 10% organ (5% any organ and 5% liver) ratios. I gave him a chicken maryland last night, his largest cut so far, which is the thigh and drumstick with bone in, and it was pretty amazing watching him eat it. When you are raw feeding you give the food in as large a piece as you can, you shouldn't cut it up. Dogs have a limited ability to tear off bits if they need to, using their feet to hold the food down and using their molars to cut the food off. Mostly though, the dog will give the piece of food a really good chew, breaking up all the bones inside (amazing to hear their jaw strength) and then if the piece fits, it disappears down the hatch. Amazing stuff. That's more of less what Knightley did with the chicken maryland. He chewed off a small piece first, as obviously he thought it was a bit big for him to swallow straight off, and then systematically gave the whole cut a good chew, breaking down all the bones into little pieces inside the chicken and putting lots of holes in the chicken itself so it became a lot more pliable. Then.... with a swallow, the whole thing just disappears. Raw feeding has several great benefits:

• If the pieces are properly sized, it can give the dog some good exercise
• Managing large and unusual cuts is a good mental workout
• Dealing with bone, meat and organ instead of kibble or wet dog food keeps teeth in top notch condition
• It avoids all the horrible 'fillers' dog food companies put in their dog foods, such as corn by-products, beet pulp, and anything else that the dog doesn't actually digest but could be possibly sensitive to, and is cheap to bulk it out and reduce the cost of manufacture
• It gives the dog some quality meat instead of the worst offcuts the *vast* majority of dog food manufacturers use in their food. Not only that, it is unprocessed, without the need for stabilisers and preservatives.
• You know what your dog is eating, instead of a list of ingredients that you may or may not understand.
• If the ratios of 8:1:1 are properly managed then your dog will be going to the toilet a lot less, with a LOT less volume (as nearly everything you feed is able to be digested), and with a great consistency.

The only drawback at the moment is cost, and that is something that tends to come don over time as you find the cheapest places to buy. Australia has much more expensive chicken than the US/UK etc unfortunately, and you are always meant to start raw feeding with chicken because it is a meat most dogs like but few react badly to, and one that is easy to get in many different cuts. Also, the bones are soft for beginner raw dogs. I have started looking around for alternative sources - abattoirs, farms etc and the like, but it can apparently take many months to get good sources. Once that is achieved, the cost is meant to be quite similar to that of a top quality kibble, and I am already feeding a very good kibble.

Other than our adventures into raw feeding and working on stays, we are doing lots of loose leash as per usual, polishing our 'back up' cue which is looking lovely, and working on door zen a lot too - trying to make it automatic so that he won't go through any recently opened door without waiting for permission. He is doing really well and it is a very nice handy behaviour. The only problem is when someone comes to the front door, it all goes out the window. Door zen???! But this is a NEW PERSON!!!!!!

We'll get there, like we will on everything. :)

A week alone, another migraine, Manners Minder and Loose leash breakthroughs

6 months 2 weeks old

Knightley being a good boy and keeping me company
in our bedroom. He definitely enjoys sleeping on a bed!!
But it was only for while the hubby was away, so I hope he
doesn't get unhappy  sleeping away from me now.

I am sorry to those who come back to read my blog from time to time and have found it empty for a while now. My husband went away for the whole week on a work trip, and left just me and Knightley to get on with things - and then I got a migraine. We had a really close time actually, I gave into temptation and gave him the chance of sleeping on our bed with me - although if he hadn't settled quickly it would have been straight out to his pen with him. He was actually extremely well behaved, and slept very nicely - no trying to lick my face or anything, and it meant I knew when I had to get up to take him out, and when I could sleep in until. It meant I wasn't anywhere near as lonely as I could have been, to have a warm furry puppy happy to cuddle up with me during the night. On the second night he was in a hyper mood, so I did some 'relax' with massage until he was calm. I have tried to establish the bed as a calm only place. He has done well, I am proud of him.

Being calm and gentle while I feel sick. Such a good puppy.

The house is still not completely clean and in order from my brother moving out (I hate the chaos moving creates!), so I took the hubby being away as an opportunity for getting some of it done. Unfortunately I think I may have over extended myself a touch. I went to work on Thursday, feeling like 'normal' and about 25 minutes later it felt like someone was trying to  hammer a nail into my left eye brow ridge. I went and lay down in a dark room for an hour, but it wasn't helping, so ended up going home (in extremely hard rain!). Then my skin rash started flaring up, which biopsies have suggested is a rather rare form of a lupus rash (Tumid lupus erythematosus) - I get it mostly on my chest as well as my face but only when things are just rock bottom with my body. So I guess my body is not in a good happy way at the moment. Although my skin is not looking as bad today, it still isn't right. It actually changes texture when I am struggling and becomes dry, thin, fragile and kind of crinkly, so I know when I need to really start to take things more easily. The day previously I had got several injections into my more troublesome hip, which had left me very sore.... so overall my body is just NOT thrilled with life lol. Thankfully Knightley was sweet and quite well behaved through the particularly bad day, and that always always helps when I'm in pain, especially as I had no one to look after me.

I had another frustration this week - we ordered a custom couch about 5 weeks ago, and last week it arrived in the warehouse. I arranged for delivery for this Monday, but it didn't come. Then I was promised it on Tuesday, and then Wednesday.... and by then I was getting very cranky indeed. I was spending far too much time on the phone with furniture people who told me my delivery was marked as 'complete' HAH! Anyway, finally it is set to arrive in a matter of hours, only 6 days late. Will seriously think before buying from these people again, problem is their prices are too good. I guess that's why their staff has no clue and their computers apparently cause all these problems. Aaaanyway, with a brand new couch, there is a new rule - puppies are allowed up only upon invitation, and never with anything in their mouth. Since my brother moved out we've had a small two seater couch we managed to get for free - as he took a good deal of the furniture with him. Before the hubby left for the week, he moved the small couch into another room to make room for the imminent (or not so imminent...) delivery. The couple of days previously the pup and I had worked on the new rules. He would start to jump up and I would give a quick "ah-ah" (yes, I know this is not pure positive training, but I am not using it as punishment, just as a quick light 'don't do this' noise aversion technique) followed by lots of praise and treats when he retreated. He'd try maybe 5 times to get up and then figured it just wasn't worth the hassle. The cue for jumping up is the normal jump cue - "hup!" He is good at this one everywhere except where it would actually be quite useful.... the car. Need to work on that somehow.

Knightley at my brother's new place. He loves exploring new
places. It's quite amazing watching their noses go, as they
check out every nook and cranny. I wonder what it's like to
be able to smell like that. Like living in a whole different world
I bet.                                                                                        

Last weekend we had a trip to my brother's new place, and Knightley had a ball exploring. He started digging a bit in the leaf litter under the cover of some thick bushes, so we decided to put him on his leash. He actually settled down really really nicely. I was very pleased with him. Usually he gets quite restless in a situation like that, lots of people around and he can't get to them, an environment begging to be smelt all over and he can't get to it.... in the past I wouldn't have been surprised if he had barked. But he was a good boy and eventually just lay down and had a snooze. This is what I would like as his 'I'm doing nothing' default, and I have started training that if I am sitting or standing with him on his leash for any period of time he should just lie down and settle. This was a good test and he did well.

Before I got the migraine and the other symptoms started flaring, we were doing well with the little bits of Level 3 we are having a go at. I am getting him used to door zen at ALL doors. Wherever he is, he needs to pause at a door before receiving a go ahead. It is a long way in the future that we can use it at the front door and he won't try to frantically welcome a mail delivery man or something, but I am trying to install an absolutely iron clad respect of doors. It is actually extremely handy if you are carrying something and can't see your feet and going through something like a baby/pet gate which is so narrow. I know that Knightley will be patiently waiting for me to go through, and if he is allowed through (rare!), he will be given the go ahead (OK!).

We're doing watch (eye contact) at varying distances, up to about a metre and a half (5 foot or so), and he is great at it. We're working on the part where I start looking away and still have him looking at me. So he learns to maintain the eye contact whether I am giving him attention or not. This is extremely valuable for simply getting him used to being with me in mind at all times. watching eagerly for my next wish. It can also teach a beautiful formal heel, the dog looking right up at you as he trots along, as you look straight ahead. I know we need to do more proofing of our watch outside, we have done limited work of it outside and that is where it will come into its own. Once I recover some more, I will make that a priority.

Doing a nice sit stay for the camera at my brother's place. The
Manner's Minder is going to be so fantastic for increasing stay
times and distances because I don't have to return to the dog
treat him, but can keep the object clear it its mind and still give
treats to encourage him to keep on going and going. Just a
great gadget. Too bad it's made by Premier, because many
positive trainers are boycotting them now due to their takeover
and the changes that are unfortunately happening. I am happy
to boycott them for everything BUT the Manner's Minder!

My Manners Minder arrived earlier in the week, and I got VERY excited at first. Then I got less excited as I realised that it needed batteries. Amazingly I had the 4 D batteries that I needed, but I didn't have the 23AE battery for the remote - I'd never even heard of one. The local shops didn't have one, so I've been waiting all week for the hubby to get home so that we can go somewhere that is likely to have it, cross fingers (this is why I need an assistance dog - independence!!). I should have just ordered one online, sigh. I can completely understand not supplying the D batteries, but not supplying the 23AE for the remote......?! Very very very annoying considering that it is rare. I am quite annoyed as I can even turn it on and everything, but it just sits there useless without the remote. Grrrr. The hubby got back this evening, so hopefully this weekend I will obtain the battery I need. It is going to be so useful, I just can't wait to start using it. We are likely to stop making much headway on Level 3, but it will definitely help us get a solid 1 minute stay in any position we wish, as well as teach a lot of new stuff I have planned that aren't Levels related but are good manners.

We are really getting somewhere with our loose leash. We do a lot of heeling work inside the house, so he gets used to the cue and the position at my left. I make it tricky, varying my speed, quick sudden turns where he has to backtrack in order to get into heel position, and sometimes even walk backwards. We do our normal walks with both his Freedom Harness and a leash to his collar at the moment, so that he gets used to walking completely loose with a leash on his collar. I tell you what, it is a very nice walk too - until he sees a major distraction, when I start backing up. When he is loose at has walked to my left side, I c/t or yes!/treat and walk forward and try again with the distraction. I'll give it as many tries as I can so that Knightley can learn. If he starts going loose as we go past the distraction I go absolutely nuts with the c/ting, just shoving food into his mouth and praising him verbally like a crazy woman. I am sure my neighbours think I am absolutely mad. I am also doing a lot of c/ting for sitting or standing at my side with a leash loose with distractions around. Hopefully it will sink in - although I think the halter I plan on getting (the Comfort Trainer as suggested to me in my last post) will help with that.

I have also been letting the leash on the harness trail on the ground and just using the leash on the collar as the only one to hold onto. This has been nicely effective. He can feel that slight drag and that reminds him that he has the harness on, and yet if he pulls he feels only the collar pressure, and I do the step backwards thing to get him in place before c/ting and walking forward. I try to anticipate him and start walking backwards - tempting him with noises - *before* the leash is actually fully tight. If the leash gets tight without the presence of a very serious distraction, then you are not paying enough attention. Be proactive and don't ever let the leash get tight. Do what needs to be done to lure your dog back to your side with noises and even a hand target, then immediately reward it with your c/t and proceed again. If he walks nicely beside you for even a second or two (face it, there is almost always at least a half second of nice walking before they decide you are boring again, so no excuses), shower it with treats! You walk with me, you get treats. You start trying to forge ahead, I urge you gently back to my side where you get rewarded for doing so, and then I shower you with treats for walking with me again. It is pretty persuasive, especially for a hungry growing puppy.

Anyway, I think you are all caught up with the most important developments here downunder!