Good trip to shopping centre, annoying people, retrieve training great!

8 months 2 weeks 3 days old

So today Knightley, husband and I had a short trip to our local big shopping centre. I just wanted to buy some socks, and have permission to take Knightley in, so we made it a training visit.

As I was about to cross the road to enter the building, for the second time now someone thought I was blind and was worried I was about to walk into some cars. I had Knightley in his vest so I guess they just assumed he was a guide dog. Assistance dogs here in Australia are still pretty few and far between compared to places like the US and Canada. Anyway, so we crossed the road after arranging to meet my husband inside (so I wouldn't have to walk in from the parking lot, even though I have a disabled parking pass, it would have meant a significantly longer walk). Knightley and I walked in nice and smoothly through the sliding doors. I know some dogs have problems with sliding doors, but when Knightley was a baby puppy I spent a lot of time hanging around some sliding doors near our small local shops, so he got really really used to them. Now he just doesn't seem to notice. So he walked through smoothly. I do notice though, when we change surfaces from outside to inside (eg concrete to polished floors or carpet), he sometimes tries to start pulling. I don't know why this is - maybe it's partly coming into an area with lots of interesting people. What I need to do is find some sliding doors with a surface change underfoot that aren't used very much, and go in and out and in and out, rewarding him when he sticks with me, and backing up if he tries to rush ahead.

Anyway, we got inside and there were quite a few people around, it being a Saturday morning. So I stuck to the outskirts and walked slowly around with him. As he settled down to his usual assistance dog plod we started to walk more in crowded areas. I stopped several times and asked for sits and the occasional eye contact. I also got him to hold my sunglasses several times, which he did nicely. We then went into the shop I wanted to go to, which is where the hubby joined me. He did sniff a bit at some clothes as we went past, which wasn't great. I think I may need to train a 'no sniff' cue, as he tends to be a 'nosey' dog. I found the socks I was looking for and hubby went to buy them so I could concentrate on Knightley. We did a nice smooth exit out of the shop and continued our slow walk around the area. He is great on polished floors, doesn't mind them one bit.

I do however have problems with him when people reach for his head (despite a no touch, in training patch on his vest). He will ignore touches on any part of his body except for his head. I tend to fairly sharply say 'leave it!' and that stops not only Knightley but also the people who were about to touch him. It isn't exactly tactful, but I am really talking to Knightley, and that is his cue! However, I need to get him to the point where the cue isn't needed and he won't respond to people reaching for him. It makes me really annoyed that people do it despite three patches saying no touching. Also kids that aren't under control of their parents, and who just come over and start touching him... that drives me mad too. Knightley is a young dog and just starting this type of training. He is certainly not un-distractable at this stage, and I wish parents would heed the patches on his vest because Knightley has a lot to learn still and having kids like that just doesn't help at all. I guess sometimes they figure that 'special' dogs are never going to hurt their children, and it won't hurt the dog to be patted by a child. Knightley isn't doing much for me now obviously, but over time I hope he will do more and more. Having him distracted will impact upon that work, and having him distracted now will mean he doesn't get the practice focusing in public like I want him to.

We then walked back to the car, through the shopping centre. He walked very nicely with his plod plod plod wag wag wag. It's nice when I see him in a reflection and can see how much he enjoys being out with me in public places by his general body language. Judging by how he is at this young age he is going to deal wonderfully well with the stress of public access work, although he isn't doing much at the moment obviously, compared to what I would see as ideal for our future together. Still, the reason a lot of assistance dogs don't make it to the end of their training is because they can't cope with public access stress, and Knightley just loves it at the moment. He is also the most bombproof dog I have ever seen, he's literally afraid of nothing. We took him through a carwash with us today and he just lay next to me panting gently eating the treats I offered. He was absolutely fine, not a moment of worry.

We continue our retrieve training. I'm getting him to hold things in public. A couple of days ago outside the shops we did some work with the dumbell. Just holds, with and without me. I'm not asking him to pick up anything yet as I am re-teaching it from the beginning, as you should whenever you significantly change a behaviour. He is doing good holds though. I am trying to get him to pick up my crutches at home - not entirely, but just raise one end so that I can snag it. However, he really is quite wary of them for some reason. I am focusing on nose bops for now, to get him used to touching the crutches, as well as some more standard classical conditioning (eg scattering food around the crutches, holding a crutch behind my back, bringing it into view and feeding him treats, hiding it away and the treats stop). He is certainly improving, but as soon as the crutches move suddenly he becomes a little more shy. I can't remember ever accidentally hitting him or putting one down on a foot or anything, so I am not sure why he is so wary. Anyway, I'll work at it.

I'm also getting him to pick up the handle of my handbag, and that is going a lot better than with the crutches. We do sometimes have problems as he stands on the handle strap and then finds he can only pick up it a few cm off the ground! I could shape him to pick it up elsewhere on the handle, near the bag itself, but then when he picked it up he would have to take quite a bit of weight of the handbag itself, which isn't good for a dog. So I'm not sure! We'll work at it. Maybe I can teach him not to stand on the handle strap.I'm also starting a wallet/purse retrieve, but we're starting with a nose bop. I'd like to actually use a cheapie replacement to train with so that Knightley doesn't ruin mine! I think his mouth is quite soft (he is a golden retriever, after all!) but I haven't actually tested it with an object. The classic test is with a raw egg, but if he breaks it he may decide he likes that test and break them deliberately if I try it again. He gets a raw egg 4-5 times a week afterall. I could do a boiled egg I guess, but there must be other ways to test how gentle his mouth is.

I am actually using him to pick up stuff for me as a reasonable matter of routine now. I am motioning with my feet to what I want him to pick up (assuming I didn't just drop it, in which case it's obvious to him). I'd like to start training a laser pointer retrieve, but that's certainly not going to be child's (or puppy's!) play. It would be very useful though, especially if I were in a wheelchair and couldn't use my feet.

So things are going well, except I am very very tired at the moment and sleeping very poorly. It's lovely to have the husband back here though, life is so much fuller and easier with company and a helper. Although I still miss not having Knightley on the bed!

101 Things to Do with a Box, a lovely walk and progress with Levels

5 months 1 week 2 days old

So today Knightley and I had a lovely cool very early morning walk - about 5:30am. It has been rather warm here of late, as you would know if you have been reading my blog regularly... so getting out in the morning means you experience the nicest temperatures. It was indeed lovely this morning, pearly light, a gentle breeze, parrots squawking from the trees and most of all, rather cool - so much so I had to go back for a jacket. Such a relief from the last couple of days. I took Knightley out on his long line down to the local sporting oval and we practiced recalls as I let him run around like a crazy thing. It's a very long long line - 10m (33feet), so he gets a good run, and the recalls are a very good test. I am pleased to say that he was probably 95% accurate on his responses to me, which is pretty good. I still wouldn't trust him off leash, as if a bird comes along, his brain flies out his ears... but it's a good start. Sometimes when he is transfixed on something in the house, and won't respond to his name - even appears to not hear me, he WILL respond to the cue 'come'. I have been very careful to not poison the cue (give it a potentially negative meaning, eg by putting him in his crate straight after he responds to the cue, or taking away something from him after he has responded), and to only use it when it is extremely likely he will indeed obey. It seems to have paid off. I will continue to proof it, with more and more distractions... but it is a good start for a 5 month old pup.

Knightley performing his 'under' cue shortly after he learnt it.
Since then I have proofed it with anything it is possible for
him to get under - even my camera tripod!

We did something new today, Knightley and I. We finally tried out the classic clicker game "101 Things to Do with a Box" (Karen Pryor's instructions for the game). Until fairly recently Knightley and I have been pretty awful at shaping, and I do truly think it was primarily Knightley with a mental block. Of course I have a lot to learn as I am a crossover trainer, but once Knightley understood the process, his progress has been extremely rapid. I actually have training the "under" cue to thank for helping him understand. It was a fairly tough ask, shaping wise, and over several sessions he was obviously asking himself "what the hell is this woman clicking for???:"... but eventually he understood and the whole shaping world was open to us.

Anyway, so I got out a box for him to experiment with (very easy as we have tens if a hundred of the things throughout the house at the moment due to my brother moving out) and sat down to see what would happen. What you do with this game is decide every session upon something different you want your dog to do with the box - such as stand in it, drag it, bump it with its nose, thwack it with its paw, two front paws in it, two back paws, turn it over.... and so on. The more creative the dog the better. You can just let the dog experiment and when you see something you like, start clicking it. Knightley was impressively creative, considering it was his first time. He got the idea pretty much straight away, and after he pawed it a couple of times, I decided I'd try getting him standing with his two front paws in the box. 5 minutes later or so, done!

At the beginning he started barking a bit, as he does quite often when I am shaping... but I had a little brain wave, and decided to use the ideas of something called 'micro-shaping', where even a nose twitch or eye flicker can be clicked if it shows the correct intent. I didn't go quite that far, but I did start clicking a lot more for smaller things, thereby giving Knightley more feedback than he had been getting. I thought I was increasing criteria too quickly, or making the criteria too big... but I think the reason he has been barking is not enough clicking and fast treating!! Wow, revelation! So I'm going to focus on fast treat delivery, and not just for shaping.

Sitting in front of an open door. One of the comeafters
for sit. Handy for when you are busy with shopping and
keys etc, to have a dog who will wait quietly until told. I
have him do it when going out also.

As a Christmas Gift Sue Ailsby produced a checklist of the New Training Levels as contained in her books - the ones I got a few weeks back. It has more accurately shown me where we are up to in our training, and we are going very well indeed. We're probably about 3/4 of the way through Level 2, although we have more of what are called the "Comeafters" to do, which are sort of extra bonus proofing to make sure your dog has really truly learnt the new skills. Despite those, we are making fine progress. I have been thinking about retraining down however. His down has always been slow and is probably about 75% accurate at the moment. Not really acceptable. I did too much luring in its training I think, and didn't fade the lure fast enough, which is why I have ended up with an unreliable cue. So I'll see. Maybe even a new cue would help.

I asked for help on the traininglevels yahoo list several days back about Knightley's barking and excitement issues when we're practicing the start of the retrieve training - which is just getting him to quietly hold objects for longer and longer, and is a level 3 skill. I got quite a  few replies basically telling me to go back to where I came from, and that Knightley couldn't do it because that was simply how the levels worked, and if I followed it all in order then by the time I actually *got* to the retrieve training, then he would have been made ready for it by all the other skills he had learnt.

The items I am practicing retrieve holds with Knightley. A traditional
plastic dumbell, a light canvas bumper-like bone, a box clicker, a carabiner
a spoon and a pencil. Enough variation to get him used to all sorts of
things in his mouth, although we do the most work with the dumbell and
canvas bone.

So I eventually became convinced by the argument, including comments from Sue herself... but decided to just give it one last go before I said goodbye to it for however long it would be. Unfortunately or fortunately..... suddenly it had clicked in Knightley's head and he was doing quiet calm holds..... SIGH. Now what do I do?!?! I have continued to train the hold since then, and he is doing even better!! He can nearly do 5 second holds consistently, which is the next step nearly done. GAH!! So tempting to keep on going................ People who read this, what should I do? Be a good little girl and do the levels in order? Or continue training what Knightley can obviously do and is definitely enjoying! The thing is, if he can start to pick up things earlier than the rest of his assistance dog function comes 'online', then that would make my life quite a bit easier. I know I should be taking it slowly, as my role of assistance dog client and trainer do clash and could be influencing me to Knightley's detriment on this... but he has suddenly started to do really well here. Big big sigh. Aaaanyway.

Outward Hound Quick Access Treat Bag. It has been
just great and has really sped up my treat delivery,
which in turn improves the quality of my training
overall. You see it in this photo with the opening
snapped open.

I ordered a new treat pouch about ten days ago or so, from the US, and a couple of days ago it arrived. One of my problems of late has been a delay in between the click and treat, leading to slower training and poorer learning. Part of the reason for that has been my treat pouches, or when I use my pocket, or even having the treats in my lap when I train sitting down. None of them really encourage fast treating. Kikopup on Youtube has a fantastic treat pouch that I have always been taken with because it would facilitate such fast treating. So I set out to look for something similar. I found the "Outward Hound Quick Access Treat Bag" on eBay and absolutely love it. It snaps open to a permanently open position, or can snap back closed, keeping your treats safe. There is a fair range of quick access treat bags out there, so I recommend if you're clicker training and don't have a fast way of grabbing your treats, look at getting something like this one.

Anyway, that's all from me today. You may have noticed I am blogging more often. It is a conscious effort as I think it makes me a better trainer. I notice more what I am doing from day to day, and think about it more. I also get more traffic! So please, if you enjoy reading this blog, do follow it and show me that I have some regular readers. Also, if you would like to hear about a particular part of Knightley's training at this puppy stage, please ask and I would be happy to blog about it!