Great public training but things to learn, Knightley full of beans!

9 months 2 weeks 1 day old

Knightley's current vest. I don't like the fact it has a strap
parallel across his chest as that has been proven to restrict
the shoulder joints of dogs. I want one with a Y shape. Overall
 he just acts like he is a  bit uncomfortable and is starting to be a
 little 'equipment shy', in that when the vest comes out, he goes
away, which is definitely not what I want.

So today we had a great trip to our local shopping mall. This was the third time we have gone in. The first time was about 5 minutes, the second time was maybe 10 minutes, but today was probably 40 minutes. It's important to ramp up times in big new places with lots of varied experiences, or the dog can get overwhelmed by the experience. We also went to the food court area to give him practice lying under tables. He did get up twice but I put him straight back into a down. We also need to work on getting him to curl, rather than just go into a down. I have a feeling the reason he was getting up is he finds his vest rather uncomfortable to lie in. It is starting to get a bit small for him in the girth department, and while I could just get a girth extender I would rather get a vest-harness that is more comfortable for him in terms of the style, and less constricting of his maturing joints. I found one I really liked but it would have needed a small adjustment to make it useable, and the people selling it wouldn't do it and were quite rude in their reply too. I have since found a vest/harness at http://www.servicedoghouse.com that I like, but once again I would like an adjustment. However, as they make all their vests from scratch I hope that they will be amenable to it. So far at least, I have received very good customer service from them in comparison to the first place I tried.

Overall his behaviour was very good. The food court was very noisy, we even walked past a toddler having a pretty full on tantrum, and Knightley was completely sanguine. So the distraction part of a PAT would have got a big tick! The only trouble came in one of those $2 type stores, with a feather boa, which Knightley thought looked like the perfect toy for him, and started going for. He definitely longed to plunge his mouth into all those feathers, and I had to tell him 'leave it' repeatedly, and give him a bit of a pull away from them. Oh, he really wanted those feathers! It would actually be a good place to practice in, lots of tiny bits of rubbish on the floor, some narrow isles to practice close heeling next to me turning this way and that.... it was a good experience for him, but once again.... sigh... shows how much work there is to do.

Another thing I really truly must do is teach a tail tuck, but I think it can wait for another month or two, until we start really trying to train for his permit. When he sits next to me, his tail streams out behind him often into the path of traffic walking past. And Knightley has *quite* the tail these days, let me tell you! You can see what I mean in the photo I posted above. I know some people manually move it out of the way with their stick or crutch, but Knightley always gets up from the sit if I do that. I suppose I could just teach him not to move if I do it, but I would rather teach him to move his own tail. That can be harder for some dogs than for others, but Knightley has great back end awareness, so I hope it won't be too hard.

The last several days he has really been full of beans.... galloping everywhere instead of trotting, and wanting to play, play, play. It's like he has lost his puppy sleepiness and has suddenly discovered the boundless energy of late adolescence. I'll play a long game of fetch and he'll go lie down for a bit, but then 20 minutes later he'll be pressing another soggy toy into my hand! Or we'll go for a walk, and I'll make sure he does lots of running around and then we come back, he has a short snooze and then he starts barking at a speck on the wall. Crazy dog. He hasn't been going to the dog park anywhere near as much of late because it is getting dark so much earlier here as winter is coming, and I think that is contributing to the amount of energy he has. Unfortunately the dog park doesn't have floodlights, so if you don't get there by about 5:30pm then it's just too dark. So if you're working until 5, it's pretty much impossible, even taking into account we live close to both our works and the dog park. He got a good romp there this weekend, but that will likely be it until next weekend.

Knightley's raw feeding continues to go well, but I have swapped him over to nightly (!!!) mealtimes only, as he wasn't all that interested in eating in the morning and would just hold the chunk of meat in his mouth for half an hour doing nothing, until I eventually managed to take it away somehow. So it was obvious he was ready to eat once a day. That seems to be working out well, and if he seems particularly hungry during the day I'll either do a training session or give him a raw egg. I tell you what, he really loves beef heart. He could eat that every meal and be a happy dog! Too bad it wouldn't be balanced though.

Going to have some chilly nights this week, all below freezing. Knightley seems to be enjoying the nip in the air, but I'm not! Anyway, that's all from us here downunder. I hope everyone in internetland is well.

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!

What an amazing dog I have!

6 months 4 weeks 2 days old

I am so very impressed with this gorgeous dog. The visit to the show went ahead despite some very humid/occasionally drizzly weather. It didn't seem to affect the crowds much, there were still a lot of people there! So, this is how the day went.

We got there and were able to park in disabled parking nice and close to the entrance, but it involved walking through 'sideshow alley' to get in, which was full of very loud amusement rides, blaring music, people on microphones trying to sell tickets to various rides and games and so on.... intimidating for some people when they are just coming in, let alone a 7 month old puppy. We could have walked around and gone to another entrance, but we decided to see how Knightley would go. I hadn't fed him the previous night and morning so as to reduce the likelihood of him leaving little presents throughout the show for me to pick up, and to also give me the opportunity to give him heaps of treats throughout the day to help him overcome whatever scary and strange things he may come across. I had got a bunch of stir fry beef from our wonderful local butcher and had slightly cooked it (didn't want to handle raw beef all day). I wanted a very high value treat for whatever we were dealing with was particularly strange or stressful. I also took several handfuls of his old Canidae kibble I still use a bit for training and the like.

The first thing we came across as we went through the gates was a ride with little cars swinging around pretty quickly. Not too crazy but not too sedate. I stopped quite a way back and just let Knightley look at it. He looked pretty relaxed, considering he had never seen brightly coloured flying spinning cars, but I fed him a few pieces of beef to reinforce that loud fast moving things = good. Things were going well, so we took a couple of steps closer, stopped and l fed him a piece of beef. He was quite relaxed still, looking around himself with interest, watching the people go past him into the show... so I started walking towards the ride, keeping up constant praise and giving him a piece of beef every several steps. He was fine! We kept on going until we were past that ride and fully inside the amusement part of the show. I kept up the constant praise with beef, but was slowly winding the beef back as he was doing ok. I watched his body language very carefully, just in case we needed to try to find a less chaotic place, but his tail was up  (even wagging some of the time!), ears were forward not pinned back, his gait was free and easy and he wasn't crouching at all and his eyes were interested, bright, curious... not rolled to the side as a scared dogs eyes are. He looked very good. He just walked steadily beside me.

We did have a couple of issues in this rather crowded section with people patting him without reading the RATHER VISIBLE sign on his new vest, but they were pretty much gone before I could say anything. However later in our time there, there was more patting which I addressed - I will obviously need to come up with a default response to that because I didn't really know what to say to ward them off.

Knightley with the handle attached to his vest looking all
official. What a lovely looking dog he is if I say so myself.

As we had planned we headed for the arena which was much quieter and I was able to sit down.. There were horses in the arena getting presented with ribbons and Knightley watched them curiously but he was ok with them from a distance. However, with the various livestock that had been in the arena there were a lot of flies around and Knightley really hates flies - he can't stop himself from snapping at them, and I'm going to have to try to desensitise Knightley to them because Australia has a lot of flies and getting agitated from snapping at them is no good for an assistance dog.... I'm just not sure how to go about it because you can't just magic up flies when you want them! So as Knightley couldn't settle down there we decided to keep moving. However, because of the problems we had been having with him getting random pats by people, we decided to attach the handle to his harness so I could just hold it very loosely (he isn't allowed to take any of my weight until he is 18 months old) and we hoped it would make him look more 'official' as Australia doesn't have many assistance dogs and the harness handle makes him look a bit more like a guide dog and would make people think twice.

Knightley sitting happily beside me. He was extremely good
at his sit stays, I was so very impressed considering all the
distractions. 

We moved into again a more crowded part, moving through food stalls and lots of stalls selling things and Knightley was doing amazingly well, I just couldn't believe it. He walked patiently and happily by my side, even helping me through the crowd by going for gaps when they appeared.

There was a collection of fire fighting equipment - a modern truck, some older vintage trucks and cars and a smashed up car with those car cutting and separating hydraulics. There was a fireman there in uniform so I asked if I could introduce Knightley to him, as assistance dogs need to be great with people in uniform. You never know when you may be sick or could hurt yourself when you are out somewhere with your dog and need the care of paramedics. Also a working dog is more likely to come across policemen and women so it helps if they are happy with being around them. Some dogs take a particular dislike to people in uniform so I just need to make sure that Knightley's interactions with people in uniform are positive. Later in the day he got to say hello to a policeman, and he was very friendly with him.

We headed into the art exhibition - last year I had two paintings in it - where my dad has won a 1st prize and a 2nd prize. I allowed Knightley to meet the coordinator of the exhibition who was a dog lover and Knightley rolled over for a tummy rub (must stop him doing that!). He was a little more excited in the exhibition for some reason, maybe because it was quieter, was inside and was carpeted. We moved on through a bunch of stalls, bought a few things and Knightley remained so amazingly good. It was like being with a rockstar... so many people pointed at him or commented how cute he was, or said something about 'assistance dog in training'. Knightley didn't even try to get pats - I think there were just so many people he wouldn't have known where to start! Every half an hour or so I allowed him to meet someone - only at my invitation though.

Knightley just before he had his snooze. He spent most of the
day panting, but we gave him water every 20 minutes or so
to keep him as hydrated as possible, and the beef I was giving
him also helped keep him hydrated.

We then went into the cake/flower pavilion which also had some food stalls  - we bought some awesome spices and had some of these rather tasty honey puffs we found at a local festival recently and were pleased to see again.  We sat at a table and I had Knightley go underneath and rest. I took his halter off while he snoozed for a while under the table. I was impressed at how he was able to settle down - I think it was partly because all the noise and crowds had taken quite a bit of his focus and he needed some time out. We stayed there for maybe 20 minutes and he was asleep or half asleep most of the time. When we got moving he was definitely more perky.

There was a lot food on the ground as we walked around, and while I have been doing a fair bit of food zen training, it obviously wasn't enough because he did manage to sneak a bite of a potato chip/fry on the ground, and I had to be on the look out for food from then on. Sometimes he responded well to my leave it cue but if there was half a bucket of chips on the ground around us I had to tighten the leash to prevent him him from scoffing them all up. It was too much to expect him to do perfect zen in a place like that, it was too big a test for him at this stage. Still, he did quite well, but there is a long way to go before he could be professional in a place like that. It will be interesting to see how he behaves there next year, assuming we go.

One of the main reasons I wanted to take him to the show was to get him to see some animals as I had read a story somewhere of a fully trained service dog going nuts at a horse in the course of its job. I really don't want Knightley to run into a police horse or something (or even just one of the cows we have near here as Canberra is scattered with grazing land) and have Knightley freak out. So we headed towards some cows, and I didn't really anticipate that much trouble with them. At first Knightley was ok and then one moved and turned its head towards us and Knightley started barking, so I turned him around quick smart and we retreated. I tried several times more, giving him pieces of beef with every couple of steps he didn't bark, but we really didn't make any headway. The cows we had been approaching were in a shed, so I decided to try with some outside instead. I tried the same technique, slow approach with treats every couple of steps, then about turn when he barked.... but it just wasn't working. So I tried a more BAT technique (behavioural adjustment training) by simply pushing him into actual stress by approaching until he is just about to barking and then turning around and walking the other way, relieving the stress. Then doing it again and getting just a bit closer. It didn't seem to be working though, we couldn't get much closer and we were getting barks. So instead I moved ahead of him and called him to me. That worked a lot better. He would come to me, then dance back and look like he wanted to bark but then come back to me. We did that for a while until he was quite a bit closer, and then went back to the shed. My husband helped there by calling Knightley to him. We got close to the entrance of the shed, much closer than before... and decided to leave it there. We are hoping to go away for a weekend down to a farm which will give us more of a chance to meet animals. This was a good first step though and was good experience for me doing trial and error training.

Knightley looking completely gorgeous but very
tired at the end of the day. I was so so proud of
him for all he did.

By this time Knightley was starting to get tired so we started to head back to the entrance, but stopped to buy a couple of show bags of chocolate (Knightley also had some treats bought for him!). He was rapidly losing his remaining energy at this point and kept on lying down whenever we stopped, and wouldn't get up despite encouragement. My husband had to pull on the handle of the vest to get him to stand. Once he was standing he was happy enough to keep going, but once he got settled he was reluctant to move. We walked back through the amusement park part of the show to get out, and while walking past I talked my husband into playing a lucky number game where getting a lucky number got you a choice of a rather large stuffed animal. He completely failed on the first card with four numbers, but on the second card he won. There was this cute huge dog he could have chosen, but instead chose this 4 foot tall banana with dreadlocks and an evil grin (will try to get a photo of it later). Couldn't believe it when it was MY idea for him to play the lucky number game.... the banana was ridiculous!!!!

We got back to the carpark and got home and both Knightley and I were absolutely exhausted from our day. We collapsed into our respective beds and slept the rest of the afternoon away. Now it's the following day and Knightley seems completely recovered but I've finally come down with some sort of virus after a few days of a sore throat. Nevermind, yesterday was worth it!

Show tomorrow, lots of training and compliments!

6 months 4 weeks old

In the last three days Knightley and I have had three compliments about how good his behaviour is; the most recent being today when we were up at the shops getting him used to his new halter, and two dogs tied at the pub started barking at him very reactively. I am teaching him to ignore distractions like that, so that every time he looked away from the dogs (and he spent most of his time not looking at the dogs and only glanced at them occasionally) I c/ted him. A couple were walking towards the shops, so they could see what we were doing, and called out to me "that's very impressive!", so I went over to talk to them. They thought Knightley's behaviour was great. It really makes me feel good to hear that.

We took Knightley to one of the pet shops near here to use their dog wash today, and he was pretty good there too. I have been training him so that if I stop and stand still for around 5+ minutes he can go into a down and just settle down to wait for me. He did that today while we were talking to one of the shop attendants, and she was sooo impressed. It was there that we actually went for our puppy training, and they remembered Knightley from when he was an 11 week old tiny little fluffy baby. What a difference to now, when he is very close to being 7 months old.

On Friday I picked up his first padded assistance dog vest from the post office. I ordered it from Activedogs from the US, as well as a couple of other items, and it looks really great! I am completely happy with it. The management at the show we are going to tomorrow are letting us take Knightley on the condition that he is clearly marked as not a normal young pet dog, but as an assistance dog to be (hopefully!), so that is the main reason I have this vest a little ahead of the usual time scale.

I think we're going to have to go earlyish in the day because it looks like it will be a warm day, and I don't want Knightley overheating. He will quite likely be stressed enough from all the strange things already there, and that increases the likelihood of overheating, so going early is a good idea - if I can drag the hubby out that early!!!!!

We've been doing more work on his zen, lots of food zen and animal zen - bird and dog mostly. I know he will be seeing all sorts of animals at the show... I meant, they even have pig races! But I hope the work we have done on zen carries over to the other animals, mostly horses and cows, because there are are definitely a lot of those there. They are one of the main reasons I wanted to take him. I've heard of mature working dogs bumping into a horse for the first time and totally flipping out. I really want Knightley to see some bigger animals before he gets any further in his socialisation and training to prevent that type of reaction later down the line.

The Comfort Training halter is in the country and should be arriving imminently but hasn't got here yet. However, I decided that I really wanted a halter for our day tomorrow, so I ended up buying a Gentle Leader for tomorrow. We've done a bunch of counter conditioning today to get Knightley used to it, to the point he happily puts his muzzle in the loop now, whilst wagging his tail expectantly. I will take it off regularly tomorrow as he won't have ever worn it as long as I'll be asking him to.

I can't wait until tomorrow, it should be a fantastic learning experience for Knightley. I'll just have to be careful to watch him carefully for signs of stress and give him lots of breaks from the crowds. It should be fun for me and the hubby too! Be prepared for lots of photos!

Worried about a lump on Knightley and more socialisation

6 months 3 weeks 1 day old

Knightley has had what looks like a little hot spot (a fungal infection that develops after a dog gets wet and doesn't dry quickly enough to stop the fungus from forming - Golden Retrievers are particularly susceptible to it) on one side of his muzzle for the last couple of days, and I have tried hard to keep it as dry as possible, although there was little else I could do. The common household remedy suggested for hotspots online isn't available in Australia (Gold Bond Medicated Foot Powder - the stuff used for athletes foot, the powder keeps it dry and also treats the fungus), but it seemed to be slowly getting better, and it was tiny anyway. I had noticed a very small mark on the other side of his muzzle, it just looked like the fur was slightly thin there, but had paid it no heed because the hot spot (or whatever it was) was so much more obvious. Anyway, today the pinkish spot looked a bit worse, so I actually felt it. Imagine my surprise when it was actually quite a firm large lump - about the size of a baby pea. This has pretty much freaked us out. Golden's get a LOT of cancer (hubby is calling this the 'c' word) and I have to say, this is what I thought when I finally actually *saw* this lump properly. He is surely too young though? I have heard of a year old, but 7 odd months? The lump is pink and shiny and the hair has fallen out on top of it. I am going to phone the vet as soon as they open tomorrow, and get an appointment. Cross your fingers for us, let's really really just hope it's a simple benign lump that won't even need any intervention.

Before the hubby and I started getting stressed about the lump I first took Knightley up to the local shops for some socialisation and training (they are very close, so it's an ideal socialisation trip). It is like a mini mall, a complex of shops built into one building, so we took a walk around the whole building. We stopped at the entrances in order to just sit and watch people going in and out with a nice loose leash, and also get even more used to automatic doors (we've done this quite a bit already). We did some nice heeling, and I asked for a range of cues in a quieter place in the shade. It was pretty hot! It makes me aware how hard it would be for him to work at this time of the year for a good chunk of the day, unless he was inside. There's a sports bar that has tables outside and serves alcoholic beverages I go past on my way to and from the shops, and today there were two dogs tied up outside it and they go quite aggressive as Knightley and I went past. On the way there Knightley found it hard to focus on me, despite repeated 'leave it' cues that only worked for a couple of seconds..... the dogs really looked and sounded legitimately aggressive and Knightley doesn't have much experience with that, so I wasn't surprised he had trouble focusing. However, on the way back, the dogs did the same thing, but Knightley virtually took it in his stride. He did turn to look at them once as we were leaving, but a 'leave it!' go him back to heeling nicely. I was impressed! If he can have one new experience on every socialisation trip then I am happy.

He actually had two, as the party I mentioned in my last blog entry was a birthday party, and there was a big shiny banner blowing around in the road this morning when I was walking him up to the shops. Knightley was very suspicious of it, I think mainly because with the wind moving it, it looked potentially alive. So we backed up to where he wasn't acting spooked, and every time he looked at it I said yes! and gave him a treat, then took a couple of steps forward. Before we knew it, he was happily standing in front of it. Then a big gust of wind blew it around and he danced back several steps in surprise. So I picked up the banner, and cued 'touch!' and suddenly he forgot his issue with it and came forward and touched it with his nose. I gave him a whole handful of treats, and he completely relaxed. When we returned it was still blowing around (the hungover party-ers did surface and clean up eventually), but Knightley completely ignored it. Success!

Anyway, Knightley and I had a hour or so to recover from the heat, and then he, hubby and I went out to the local fresh foot markets, which we have been taking Knightley to since he got all his shots at 14.5 weeks old. It has been a while since we last went though, so I was interested to see what would happen, especially in light of yesterday's cafe practice. We went to have coffee at one of the cafes there, and after sitting down, Knightley immediately went into a down of his own accord. I was really really happy and impressed with him! I guess he remembered the down jackpot from yesterday.... either that or he was still tired from the walk to the shops. Either way, he got another jackpot. He did get up several times - there was a potato chip (fry to you North Americans) that I kept having to remind him to 'leave it' as it was within reach of his down and really must have been quite torturous to lie next to - but it was good practice and he always went back into a down, usually of his own accord. I had his 'please pat me' patches pinned to his harness, and he had some good attention, and he was nicely polite - although he rolled over for tummy rubs to one of the people sigh. I have to work on him remaining in a sitting position. We walked along the length of the markets, past people eating and having coffee, and Knightley didn't try to jump up on them or bother them - although he was pulling a little, sometimes suddenly. This is the situation I need the Comfort Trainer for, just until he learns that not pulling is a universal requirement.

A short time later we were walking past a particular book shop at the markets that I know to be a friendly shop, and I asked if I could come in briefly with Knightley. The young guy at the register said sure, so Knightley and I walked around the shelves. He was really great! The leash was nice and loose and he was very polite and didn't overtly sniff anything. I got him to sit and down - the down took two repeats of the cue but not too surprising in such a new place. Overall it was a great visit to the markets. It was at the end of the markets that we realised that the mark on his muzzle was actually quite a significant lump and started stressing, so it ruined a good outing a little. Nevertheless, it has been a productive weekend in Knightley's socialisation, and he is doing great!                                                                  

A successful public outing, and training to prepare us for the show!

Today was great! I misplaced (let's be frank...... lost!) my sunglasses recently and I am very very picky about sunglasses. I get migraines very easily, and one of my triggers is very bright light, so I never ever leave the house without my sunnies on. They also have to fit really well... if they press on the wrong place then they will actually trigger a migraine, sigh! So for the last two days, every time I have been outside the house I've had my eyes half closed! I am sure they have just fallen down the side of something, but that doesn't help me now. So, the hubby and I had planned to go out to our local fresh food markets today and take Knightley, and do some public access type training in advance for next weekend... but because of the missing sun glasses we went out to a nearby small casual shopping district - a site that used to be one of the regions earliest farms when this area was settled by Europeans. Anyway, there is a great shop there that sells everything to do with the sun - and being sun sensitive because of the lupus I have bought a lot of there over the last couple of years. There is also a great restaurant that has generous servings, the food is very tasty and has a bunch of outside tables. Hubby and I wondered if they would let us have Knightley at those tables, as a socialisation/training exercise - even though he isn't officially a Assistance Dog in training and won't be for another 5 or so months. Hubby checked as soon as we arrived and they said yes, but we went to get the sunnies first as Knightley was pretty excited at being in a brand new place. It was definitely the right thing to do, by the time I had chosen a pair of sunnies and we got back to the restaurant, Knightley was heeling quite nicely and had calmed down a lot.

It was a little hard to find the right table for us to sit at, and they were small cafe tables - very hard for Knightley to lie under one because it had one support in the middle that then branched out into multiple legs. Lying under the table is what is expected of an assistance dog, and I have taught him an 'under' cue, but GAH sometimes the table makes it hard! Not only that, there were heaps and heaps of flies, kids running around and playing on the nearby playing equipment, flocks of tiny little sparrows going after leftover crumbs and larger Australian magpies stealing big chunks of the leftovers. Of course for a nearly 7 month old puppy this was all shouting 'COME CHASE ME!!!!' and at first he did get pretty restless. I had been asking for downs, but it just wasn't going to happen... mostly because there seemed to be more flies down there for some reason and they were driving Knightley kind of mad. He couldn't keep from snapping and driving at them, although my zen 'leave it' cue stopped him for a short time, but not for long. Knightley has always been a fly snapper. Then there was two quiet-ish barks in protest at the whle situations - mostly at the flies and the sparrows, which was hopping around only a couple of metres away (6-7 feet or so) and rather driving Knightley mad who had never been that close to birds before. However, no matter the reason, it was unacceptable and I quickly took Knightley away from the table (thankfully our food hadn't yet arrived!). We went to a slightly quieter area and I asked for a sit and eye contact in order to re-establish our connection a bit and calm him down. Once away from the pesky flies and the frustrating sparrows, Knight calmed quickly, and we went back to the table. This time I decided I would be happy with a sit if it was a calm sit, and was right by my side, partly under the table (out of the way of waiters etc) and so that's how we preceded, much more successfully too. Our food came and we were able to eat without worrying about him. He started relaxing more and more, and then suddenly went into a down under the table. I had some treats with me, and quickly jackpotted (lots of treats in a row) him for this... to do it of his own choice was really great! He stayed in a down for the rest of the meal. What a good puppy. For a puppy to overcome the distractions and to have ended up nigh on perfect is more impressive than an adult dog that does it all the time IMO. I was very happy with Knightley, and it gave him great experience coping with distractions - there certainly will be a few next weekend!

Practicing 'on your mat' with the Manners Minder. He is actually 
mid treat in this photo - the little red light on the Manners Minder   
comes on when the mechanism is working to deliver a treat...
which is why Knightley has his hungry maw in the treat bowl part.

This afternoon and evening we practiced training behaviours I want polished for our outing next weekend. We did a bunch of 'on your mat', both with the Manners Minder (MM) and without. The MM is so very very good at extending behaviours like Knightley's 'on your mat'. I'd really like to get this very very good in the next week, and be able to take a mat with us next weekend and have him rest on the mat whenever I want him to just have some time out from everything and have a bit of a snooze. I know he will find it tiring, so a extra portable bed would be great. We'll do a lot of work on this, although I am not really happy with any of the mat options I have, so I'll be looking out for a new harder wearing no slip mat.

We also did a bunch of zen exercises with a left over cooked chicken bone (which seemed to smell nearly irresistable!) and with a large disposable cup lying on the road (there is a big party at a house in our street and someone left the cup on the road) which had the benefit of being a complete unknown. The chicken bone was sooo tempting. He was fine when it was in my hand, and was able to stay away from it with no problems, but as soon as it went on the floor........ We used the MM again for this. At first I had to pull him away from where the bone was, and I stopped using the cue because it just wasn't working as the stimulus of the bone was too much to overcome. When he stopped fighting the leash and trying to get to the bone (loose leash work still to do!) I would turn away with him towards the MM and press the remote in all one movement - so really he was being rewarded when he stopped trying to get to the chicken bone. 

Working on zen with an ultra attractive chicken bone. My foot
 is ready to cover it if Knightley tries to go for it, but once he
gets to this stage he is pretty reliable. I love zen, I think it is
what makes the difference between a bratty uncontrollable puppy
and a nice dog to live with. Note our lovely loose leash!

Slowly he realised that a) he wasn't going to get to it even if he pulled b) stopping pulling often gets him treats in the past and this seemed to be the case here again and c) he was getting to eat something anyway, even if it wasn't the chicken bone, and it was much easier to get the treats, no pulling and choking. Eventually I put the 'leave it' cue back in, once he understood the exercise, and continued using the MM for the treats. I could have just done it myself of course, but I liked being about to walk in little circles and have the treat there immediately without fumbling for it or having to bend. It really is great for anyone with any mobility issues at all. I can't even imagine how wonderful it would be for trainers in wheelchairs! We finished the session off by doing a few 'leave its' with the bone in front of Knightley within his range - although I had my foot ready to cover it if absolutely necessary. 

Later we worked on the cup on the road, which was easier... although in that case we had curiosity to combat instead of greed! At first we started a good 4-5 metres away, and instead of using a 'leave it' cue, I made kissy noises to attract his attention, and he then got a treat when he focused on me instead of the cup. After doing that several times, I made the noise then said 'leave it' which worked very well! He got his treat and we moved on. After a few more repeats, I just used the cue. Every time we went past we got closer and   closer and he was able to 'leave it'. I figured disposable cups - or similar - are something he may have to deal with next weekend, so I will grab some out of the cupboard and continue to work with them.

So it was a good day for Knightley and I. Lots of new things experienced and learnt - he's going to need those skills in adaptability and flexibility next weekend! Really can't wait to see how he handles it.

Raw feeding, Manners Minder, socialisation and Comfort Trainer

Knightley on the new couch, having been allowed up. He's
looking less and less puppylike every day now!

6 months 2 weeks 2 days old

Our new couch has FINALLY been delivered after the furniture company messing us around for nearly a week. I am teaching Knightley not to get up on it unless he is invited - and to *never* bring a bone up on it. He is doing quite well actually. Most of the time it doesn't need reinforcing, but I've found the more people on the couch and the more excited he is, the less he remember the rule - or he just thinks it's an exceptional situation lol. He really does get very excited with people around, and if anything is going to be his undoing as a potential assistance dog, it will be his extreme friendliness and his assumption that everyone should want to meet him. For a while I was worried about his vocal-ness, and while he does still bark, it is much less than it used to be. He used to bark at everything, now it only when he's really really frustrated. Cross fingers as he learns more and more self control it will become still rarer.

Knightley has had a touchy tummy really for as long as we have had him, sometimes being fine, but sometimes having runny movements... and I have often wondered whether he is sensitive to anything specifically and if I can improve matters. I have always been interested in the idea of feeding a raw diet to him, but for his initial growth spurt I wanted to use a good quality kibble as I would be entirely new to raw feeding and it isn't something that is learnt overnight, so perhaps not a good idea to experiment on a growing puppy. However, since Knightley's stomach sickness that had him on antibiotics, he has been worse, and has had very erratic movements. So I've decided to either a) do a 1/3 kibble for training and 2/3 raw for the rest for the health benefits, or b) move to raw entirely which would more likely 'fix' his tummy trouble and create a wonderfully healthy dog.

Feeding a raw diet properly to a dog isn't as easy as just giving them a steak every night. Firstly, they need to receive about 2-3% in weight of their ideal adult weight. According to several slow growth plan statistics, Knightley is about 65% grown, which puts his final weight somewhere around 32kg (71lbs). I think he's likely to be a bit heavier than that, but it's a good guide anyway. Dogs on a raw only diet have to get a certain amount of muscle meat, bone and organs in order to stay healthy. The ideal percentage is 80% muscle, 10% edible bone and 10% organs. Of those organs, half of them (5% overall) should come from liver, as there are minerals in liver that a dog can't get from anywhere else. We've been feeding about 2/3 raw for the last three days now, and Knightley loves it. We are starting on chicken - that is the recommended starting meat, and all is going really well. If I can find a way to train with raw or very healthy treats, and find something to fit in the Manners Minder, we may well go to raw feeding entirely. It is amazing seeing him crunch up chicken bones in a very serious way before swallowing seriously large chunks whole (you should give the food in as large chunks as possible). I've been doing some reading online about this, but a great deal of my information is coming from the yahoo group "rawfeeding". The people there are extremely knowledgeable and you learn so very much just reading through the archives.

I had Knightley in a stay whilst taking these photos, after having
done a few Manners Minder stays on the couch to give him a
good idea of what I wanted. I am loving having such a powerful
training gadget to play with - and it has already improved the
length of Knightley's down stays.

The Manners Minder (remote control treat delivery system) arrived late last week as I mentioned before.... and I thought it was without the battery. On the weekend the hubby and I went for a tour around our part of Canberra trying like 5 shops to find a place to buy one. We finally found one that sounded similar! Same shape, voltage and only slightly different numbering.  I came home and it worked!! Yippee! A short time later I then happened to check my email which tells me if I have a blog comment... and saw someone had mentioned the batteries for the Manners Minders sometimes get taped in strange places on the styrofoam. With a slightly sinking heart I went to check the packing..... and sure enough...... on the underside between two bumps where I *NEVER* would have seen it...... The hubby wasn't too impressed lol. At least now I have a spare!! I have to say, I am loving using it. We are primarily using it for his separation anxiety at the moment (the ability to treat him while I am nowhere near him is such a powerful tool), but I've used it just for small things, like teaching a drop whilst playing fetch, and focusing on his stays and mat behaviours. I think it is going to be brilliant for stays and mat. I am very very happy with my purchase. I just wish I could put raw meat in there!

We are working really hard on loose leash. We do quite a bit of it at night out on the street, which is almost completely dead at that time. I find it's a good medium, there are occasionally some distractions, a few good smells, but it isn't as hard as walking on grass  (irresistible smells), or trying to concentrate during daylight when there are lots of things happening.... but it isn't as easy as doing it inside or in the backyard. We briefly walk up onto lawns, and then off, testing his willingness to stay loose on stuff that smells more awesome than a road. I keep up a very quick rate of reinforcement, especially if the leash tightens, there will be a click/treat as soon as he responds to the leash. I am working on a better response - watching his feet as they are what moves first. Say he is trying pretty hard to get to something absolutely delicious smelling at the beginning of the session before he has remembered his leash manners, I will walk a step back, letting my body weight pull him back with me. It is natural for animals to fight pressure instead of giving into it, so most dogs will try pulling harder at this point. It is important when you have pressure on the leash that you are watching the dog's feet, because when they budge towards you, you should immediately release the leash pressure and click/treat simultaneously. Once the dog realises that by following the pressure it actually stops, you can keep up the pressure for longer if need be, but the dog is just more likely to follow the pressure instead of fighting it anyway. If that happens, click and LOTS of treats! I am working hard at watching those feet, so that I don't pull more than necessary.

The Comfort Trainer halter, what
seems to be one of the mildest
dog halters, and one which
comes with a tan noseband -
much better for light coloured
dogs as dark colours tend to
irritate their vision.

On the subject of his friendliness in public, I've made a few new purchases that are on their way from the US (we need a Service/Assistance dog shop online here in Aus, as well as a positive/clicker type shop!). One is the Comfort Trainer halter, which I think is the best halter for Knightley and I. It will help our public training specifically, and also help keep him calm by having the nose band and band behind the ears - both calming places to have pressure for dogs. Personally, I think halters very very often become crutches for the people that use them. They are intended as training aids, equipment that you use for a month or two, and then transition back to a flat collar. We are getting good on a flat collar without major distractions, but add the distractions and frankly I am physically in danger. I was very very very close to being pulled over on a walk the other day when a cat ran out a couple of metres in front of us. If Knightley had been in his Freedom Harness I would have been fine, but we were practicing loose leash, so it was just a flat collar. It was the suddenness of the event that was so dangerous, and it is that, and his public excitability that I wish to work on. He often pulls to try to go and say hello to people, and it is getting to the point where he needs to learn that he can't just go and say hello to people whenever *he* wants to.

With that in mind I have bought our first assistance dog vest in order to step up our socialisation, which also has the attachments to turn it into a lightweight harness (not the type that can take weight, as this will only be a training vest/harness for while he is a puppy, and he can't take any of my weight until he is much much older). I am going to buy a bunch of patches saying "In Training, Do Not Distract" and "Assistance Dog, STOP, Do Not Pat" and put them all over the harness so Knightley will stop getting all the attention he gets. It also comes with the patch "Working Dog - Do Not Pet". I anticipate starting to take him out in the next month or so, and getting more into it as he is around the 8-9 month mark. By the year old stage I want to have a dog with very nice public manners. At that age, some dogs are ready to be officially Assistance Dogs in training, where in some places they would start going into shops and everything. However, as an unqualified owner trainer, I will legally not have the ability to take him everywhere in public. Instead I will rely partially on taking him anywhere that is dog friendly, and also I will be hoping for the individual support of companies, especially in the local area. Once Knightley is adequately trained, then I have full access, but while he is in training, I don't. Makes it difficult. Owner trainers don't get it easy. We also don't get to take our dogs in the cabin on airplanes, in fact some of the airline companies take only a couple of programs, and if your dog isn't from that program, or if it's owner trained - bad luck. That part really makes me cranky. Apparently if you are a professional owner  trainer yourself, and have had years in the industry there is a chance of getting approval on *one* airline. Someone needs to challenge this at the Humans Rights Commission IMO.

I get all growly at the lack of support both at the government level and in the programs for owner trainers. I am sure there are people that call a pet dog an assistance dog so they can take the dog with them everywhere, and the dog may make them feel better - but may not actually *do* anything for them - the dog must perform trained tasks that alleviates the disability of its handler. However, that is not a reason to disadvantage the owner trainers that take their training responsibilities very very seriously. I am working very very hard at training Knightley. If he isn't up to scratch in the end I will be heartbroken, but I wouldn't work him. Those dogs who aren't properly trained give other owner trained dogs a bad name, and makes the road to complete equality longer. The biggest problem is the lack of any assessing structure across the country, so  that people who have trained their own dogs literally have nothing to show that they are indeed trained. I have some plans for proof, and do expect some sort of Public Access Test to be instituted during Knightley's working lifetime as the bureaucratic wheels are turning.

Anyway, as you can see training the pup continues to be busy! He's turning into such a lovely dog as he grows up.... I can almost see a working dog in there somewhere if I squint a little bit!

Level 2 Homework: 10 reasons why a dog may not obey a command

6 months 1 week 2 days old

This is part of Sue Ailsby's Training Levels. As part of each level you need to do homework, and for Level 2, you need to list 10 reasons why a dog might not obey a command. I've thought about this before and I knew finding 10 things would not be easy. This first couple come to you quickly, but after that..... Well, we'll see!

I have written comments after the reasons in italics, which spell out clearly what I can learn as a trainer from each reason.

1. You may not have your dogs attention when you give the cue

This is especially the case in high distraction environments, where your dog just won't hear you unless you focus him first. However it is applicable everywhere. It is worth saying your dog's name first and maybe doing a few seconds eye contact so you both reconnect before asking for what you want.

2. The connection between behaviour and cue may not have been made yet during training

It can take many repetitions of the cue word and hand signal whilst the dog does the behaviour to have the dog remember it. Some dogs learn cues quickly, others need a lot of repetition. If your dog is consistently not responding to a cue, consider this possibility.

3. You may have upped distractions too quickly in training so that a cue your dog could normally respond to becomes background noise

When teaching a cue, you go through a stage called proofing, where you expose the dog to more and more distractions as you continue to ask for the cue. It should be a gradual increase in distraction level - if you increased the level too quickly the dog will just become completely oblivious to you.

4. Your dog could be sick or just tired out and feel unable to respond

Sickness, heat, being thirsty or hungry, exhausted.... all these things will cause a dog to potentially 'misbehave' . You and your dog are a partnership, be aware of how it is feeling and its needs, and don't work it if it isn't feeling up to it. If it isn't responding to the most basic of cues, that in itself can tell you something about the dogs wellbeing.

5. Your training session may have gone too long and your dog may have lost interest

All dogs have a finite attention span. For puppies it is very short, sometimes only a couple of minutes. For a fully mature working breed it can be about an hour without a break. You should make sure that your dog isn't worked past the point that it still wants more. Once training becomes a chore it becomes either ineffective or actually can do harm to previous training.

6. If you are still at the stage you are training with treats, the treats may not be of high value enough for a difficult cue
                                                                                                                                                                 

When learning cues, treats are always used for reinforcement... but for some more difficult behaviours, more interesting treats must be used. If you are outside in a high distraction area trying to train loose leash and kibble just isn't cutting it, try exchanging it for real meat. Change the treat for every individual situation as necessary.

7. If you have faded treats for the particular cue, you may have done it too early while the cue was half learnt, or done it too suddenly leaving the dog unsure

When you stop using treats with a particular cue, it needs to be done slowly and systematically, not just suddenly cutting the treats off. The dog could become uninterested in working for you, or just confused because it isn't being rewarded for something it is usually - so thinks it is getting it wrong.

8. You yourself may not be feeling well, or may not be in the mood to train and your dog might be reacting to your lack of enthusiasm

Our dogs pick up on our moods and our wellbeing extremely sensitively. If you don't feel like training, don't train. If it's just a random 'sit' that your dog isn't responding to in the course of the day, remember that you being not yourself could have a great deal to do with it.

9. The dog might substitute another 'new' behaviour for the older cue you asked for, because you had been working a lot on the new behaviour and it is used to giving it so doesn't really think -

This happens quite often with a dog who knows sit and then learns down and starts thinking sit means down too and forgets about sit because of the shiny new down.  It is important when concentrating on a new cue that you don't train it to the exclusion of everything else. Continue to train your old behaviours as well as new, so that your dog doesn't start getting confused.

10. The dog could be actively 'rocking the boat', being cheeky, trying to get away with things it knows are pretty naughty

This is especially applicable during adolescence, as the perfect puppy disappears and the evil teenager from hell appears in its place. During training and during the day at any time, you must always act as leader in your house - not boss, but leader. I operate on a Nothing In Life Is Free (NILIF) policy, so that anything good that Knightley wants he has to do something to get it, even filling the water bowl he has to go in a nice polite sit stay until I have finished. This is about respect, which transfers into our training.

EXTRA ONES!!! WHEEE!!! (after racking my brains for days, I have more than 10!!!)

11. The dog could be scared - of the environment, the handler, other dogs... anything.

Some dogs have serious fear problems, and when the fear and shyness takes over, cues become a low priority. There are good techniques in clicker and positive training which can build confidence, like Look At That (from the book Control Unleashed) and BAT (Behaviour Adjustment Training, which I have mentioned before in another post). A good resource for dealing with a fearful dog is http://fearfuldogs.com/

12.  The dog might not be getting out for enough exercise, which can turn them into tightly wound springs - unable to concentrate on the task at hand

All dogs need exercise, as well as the mental stimulation of getting outside. An adult dog needs one good significant walk each day, and a smaller walk too. You can substitute something like time at a dog park for one of those walks, but dogs must get out - for both the exercise and the stimulation of sights and smells. If they don't get this, don't expect an obedient dog

...... and I think that will do. I've actually learnt from doing this, which was of course was rather the point! I am sure the more I thought about it, the more I could come up with, but this is certainly a good chunk of the the main ones. I will think more next time when Knightley doesn't do what I say.