New Sue Ailsby books (yay!!!), and training on a roll

4 months 3 weeks 1 day old

So after many many months of impatiently waiting, I have finally received Sue Ailsby's Training Levels: Steps to Success and so far am very very happy with the two books. They come some 10 years after she wrote the original Training Levels (which are available free online here), and while in many respects they are similar to the originals, there are some big changes and improvements. One of the main changes is instead of the 7 levels of the original Levels, there are now only 4 in the new books. The books are divided into Level 1-2 and 3-4, and are quite small (would likely fit into my handbag which is nice) and are ringbound, which means they stay open when you want them to - great for referring to whilst training. The one trade off with the small size of the book is a slightly smaller font, about which there has been a small amount of complaint. I can just manage it, but I could see reading for hours would give me a headache. Sue is currently working on bringing it out on Kindle, which will help older eyes and those with visual impairments.

The first book of the two books by Sue Ailsby.
Her current dog Syn is on the cover, the photo
from when she was just a tiny puppy. I must admit,
despite the work involved, I miss those first couple
weeks of tiny fluffy puppy-ness.

I read my way carefully through all the introduction stuff - all quite different from the introduction into the original levels. There is so much important information on dog training there to remember, it's a goldmine. One of the most important things she says is...

"Train the dog that shows up", ie, don't waste time worrying that the dog is doing everything wrong, or is completely hyper, or isn't interested in the silly retrieving game you keep wanting to play with them..... just get on with accepting the dog that is in front of you at that very moment, and work with what they bring to the training sessions.

So I'm thrilled about the new books. I quickly went through Level 1 of the New Levels (NL), and apart from some of what are called the comeafters, which are kind of like bonus points and extra proofing, we passed it all fine - although we do have some occasional barking problems with zen. The books are written with such humor and understanding of the subject matter, I can understand now why they were such a huge job for Sue. She has poured her heart into those books. For anyone who wants to take their dogs into dogsports, or as a working dog, or just as a pleasant pet... the books are a truly excellent choice for an operant conditioning based training system.

I then moved ahead and trained what I had been intending to train next in the Original Levels (OL), a behaviour called 'distance'. This is where the dog goes out from your side, circles around some sort of post/pole/object, then comes back to you. I decided to add a traditional finish to it too, so I taught that myself, which was incredibly easy. Distance too was so very easy. After the much harder 'Under' cue we have been working on, this was taught in a matter of minutes. I was pretty thrilled, I have to say. Knightley is really starting to understand what I want from him, and is enjoying the training. Also, learning new things seems to really tire him out, so that's a good bonus!

The barking issues are continuing still, sigh, but I have decided to put him in his fabric crate in another room when he can't be quiet when my husband and I are eating in the same room as him. Hopefully he might learn. Either way, it means that it reduces his overall barking, and the less he barks, the less he will bark. He even barks when we are doing some shaping work, and I don't click when he expects a click. His barks are so often from frustration and a desire for attention. In the shaping situation he does stop barking fairly quickly and work out what he needs to do to get another click. I wish he shut up in the other situations, but he seems to get something out of barking. It definitely is true when they say most barking is self-reinforcing!

Still, despite the barking, some leash biting, and some rough mouthing when excited, he is doing very well and starting to learn like a sponge. I am proud of my puppy!

Shaping success, a heavy puppy!

4 months 3 weeks old

Well, we continue to have some great training sessions. This operant conditioning stuff (in this case, clicker training) really is a marvelous thing. For a long while now Knightley has NOT liked going into his crate. Our usual technique for the first two odd months we had him was to throw some food into the crate and hope that he follows it, them slam the door quickly behind him. Sometimes you'd be too slow and then a wrestling match would ensue. Not exactly ideal, and not something I would recommend! Not really positive training either. Not encouraging respect of his leaders either.... So I knew something had to be done.

Included in Sue Ailsby's Training Levels is a cue to get your dog to go into their crate happily. So I set about training Knightley, keeping in mind we had two months of bad 'getting in crate' memories to work through. It actually went fairly easily, although I guess I did cheat a bit, but will leave you to make your mind up on that! At first I started with traditional shaping, but Knightley and I have had little success with shaping without a fairly large amount of luring also thrown in. So I clicked for looking at it, walking towards it etc. Instead of 'trying to control the click', Knightley tends to be very wooden in these circumstances, but I persisted - making sure that in order to receive his treat he had to enter the crate and take it through the wire (this is the maybe cheating part!). I then threw another treat outside the crate, to 'reset' his position again. Treating at the corner at the very back turned very naturally into a hand signal of pointing directly at the back of the crate, and he slowly got used to that - he knew it meant 'put your head, then your feet, then your whole body in the crate and then suddenly a treat will appear at the place where she is pointing at!' When he was going fully inside before the c/t through the back bars, I added the 'crate' cue.

'Crate' is going well now. I am adding criteria again, working on it without the cue, asking for a down inside the crate before c/t... and I have stopped the treating through the bars. It has served its purpose. For several weeks now, I have Knightley wait until he is released when I open the crate, so at least I don't have to train that part of the crate behaviour. I always make sure I give him a really good pat before I release him, so that I help him see the crate as a good place. I am also feeding him the second half of his meals in there (the first half I use in a training session).

Onto the rather more interesting shaping exercise. This is more an Assistance Dog behaviour, although it could be occasionally useful for pets, and I thought I may as well teach it while he is young as it is simple and behaviours learnt young tend to be retained particularly well. It's the 'under' skill, where you can point at an object such as a chair or table and tell the dog to get under it. I did this as almost purely a shaping exercise, and didn't use any help from books or online. Firstly I moved a chair into the middle of the room, so it was nicely obvious for Knightley. The seat of the chair was only slightly shorter than his back, not so much that he would have to crawl under.

I started by throwing 10 or so treats directly under the chair, so he would realise it was the chair we were going to be working with today. Then came for him the part we are struggling with in shaping. First he tried 'watch me', staring at me very hard trying to get a treat, but I just looked at the chair, then he waved his paw at me as we have been doing quite a lot of hand shakes and high-fives, then a down, staring at me..... then frustration set in as I was just looking at the chair. He started his silly barking problem. I cued quiet, and then move around in a half circle around the chair. I found this to be the key to keep him from getting overly frustrated in the early shaping stages. When he would glance away from me, and happen to glance at the chair, I quickly click/treated. After a while, I did another round of 10 treats under the chair, and then he was definitely looking at the chair, as I slowly moved around it to stop him going into downs etc. I got a few looks with the head really close, almost under the seat, and those got jackpotted (lots of treats), and we continued. Looking from far away became not good enough, and I was only clicking for his head under, or at least close to the chair. This upped his frustration again, just as he thought he had figured out the game!

He started sticking his whole head under the seat, so when I treated, I did a couple actually under the chair, using them to lure him in a bit. If he stayed under the chair after the treat, he got another c/t (click/treat). After about 4 in a row, I would throw the next treat out from the chair, and he would have to figure it out again. This technique really seemed to help. When he was under the chair, he seemed to know that this was exactly what I wanted, and even sometimes went into a down - which is what I want as a finished behaviour, for which he got a jackpot. We finished our first session here.

Second session I started with 10 treats under the chair to re-orient his attention on the chair. He remembered well though. His head under quickly became half his body under, the front half. Sometimes he'd go into a down but because they kind of move backwards when they go down, only his forelegs and head would end up under the chair. I c/t'd because it was fairly good, and threw the treat in front of him so he would crawl forward to get it and be more evenly spaced under the chair. Then when he started doing it of his own accord, jackpot. He was catching on quickly in this second session.... the overnight sleep had helped set the brain patterns. I then started introducing a cue. The instant he actually got under the chair, I said 'under!' in a upbeat voice, very quickly followed by c/t as usual. Rinse and repeat many times. Then I started saying 'under!' when it looked like he was on his way under the chair. By the end of the session I tried out the cue a couple of times, with moderate success.... I had to say it more than once. Still, a great session, showing great focus. I was very proud of my puppy.

Third session was working on getting a down every time, so I removed the 'under' cue from the equation as I worked on it. I lured the down, only clicking for the behaviour after I had done the luring. Then gave a jackpot. Did give a treat for an under with no down, but a very very small one. Big treats for every down. After it was looking good, I reintroduced the 'under' cue.... and that is where we are up to now!

Weighed Knightley yesterday, and he has put on a LOT of weight recently. He is very nearly 20kg (44lbs), possibly due to the fact I have been feeding him a bit more. He was really on the skinny side, and is still slim.... but did need his food increasing. He's put on quite a bit since his last weigh in, so I think it's time to ease back on the food. He's now on pure Canidae All Life Stages, after a long swap from Nutro Natural Choice Large Puppy. He really likes the Canidae, and I can use just his kibble meals to train with. He has come a long way from the puppy who would only eat roast chicken!!!

I'm putting down a deposit on my pup!

Wow! Well it seems like it might be happening!!! I am actually going to finally own my Golden Retriever! In some ways it isn't the best time in my life to be doing this, money is kinda low after the wedding, and my husband hasn't yet got himself a job here (partly because Canberra being the capital of Australia, being small-ish and very government focused, has mostly government jobs you need citizenship for, and he's British). We are also living in a rented house, which doesn't have the greatest back yard.

However, in other ways it is exactly the right time. For the first time in about three years I am starting some work, volunteering work, but still - work. Having an assistance dog would help me take that forward towards solid part time paid work, considering he won't be fully trained for 18-24 months or so. Also, despite my illness, I would like to think in three or so years I will be hopefully well enough to try to have a baby. I would have to come off a bunch of my medication and it would risk making it me sicker, but I really really want to try. So I would like to have my assistance dog fully functioning before then.

Calling all those with Owner Trained Assistance Dogs in Australia

So as the title says, if you're out there PLEASE comment. I'm a member of quite a few yahoo groups and forums to do with dog training and assistance/service dogs, and on one of them, there is a brave person trying to do something about the lack of recognition by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) of owner trained dogs. At the moment dogs that are program trained (at least, by the main big programs) can travel on any airline in Australia with basically no questions asked, but owner trained dogs have a much harder, and often impossible road to follow. Basically it's on a case by case basis, and you have no guarantee of being able to prove your dog is sufficiently trained, so they tend to not approve owner trained dogs on principal. If only they could institute like a trainer in each region of the country who could do a relatively brief test to make sure the dog is trained, then they could get a lifelong flight passport or something. I mean, there aren't a huge number of us - yet.