A busy weekend, some rough days, shaping, and a new vest for Knightley!

10 months 4 weeks 2 days old

Last weekend was pretty busy! We had winter solstice celebrations and art markets at our Art Centre, and I volunteered there for five long hours. Got a bit chilled too. Ended up doing a pretty full on (for me) 11 hour week there, as there was so much to get done. However, it all came together and was a great success.

I was really tired on Sunday though, after the stress of the obstetrician appointment on Friday, then the long day on Saturday. I guess it wasn't much of a surprise that by early Tuesday morning, my body was in serious pain - too painful to even stay in bed as contact with the mattress was just too much. So I got up super early and went and spent time with Dr Knightley, who did help with his furry happy enthusiasm and long adoring looks. He was a really really good boy actually, and was very gentle and spent a good part of the day on my lap keeping me warm. It's kind of odd how much of a lap dog he has become recently! We weighed him just a few days ago and he is a whopping 34.2kg (75lbs)! Pretty heavy for very nearly 11 months, and particularly heavy for a lap dog!  I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up 36kg (80lbs). He is pretty slim right now too, so it isn't from being too plump although he is a solidly built Golden.

I woke up this morning once again very sore but was able to get back to sleep despite the pain. I have skin rashes on my face, neck and chest too, mostly just really dry tight flaky skin, but some puffy red as well. Just not going through a good patch I guess, and like usual there is absolutely nothing I can do about it. I hate feeling so powerless. My skin got so bad about 18 months ago I would only go out with a hat pulled well down over my face. Thankfully it only tends to last for a week or two at most. I had some scans fairly early in my illness that suggested that my heart and lungs were affected too as I had fluid buildup around them, so I suppose during these bad periods that could be some of the pain I am feeling.

Anyway, Knightley and I did some free shaping the other day. I have a little shower stool that ended up being too short for me, but I use it often as a useful little stool, especially as something to sit on during training. This time I used it for some training practice for Knightley. As we started getting into our shaping I made the decision to train him to put one paw up on the stool and started clicking for any interaction with the stool, looking at it and nosing it. He liked being clicked for nosing it and started putting his chin down on it, I clicked that but probably shouldn't have.... because it wasn't really any closer to what I wanted and he then developed an obsession with putting his chin down. I couldn't help myself because it was so cute and clicked it again, and then decided to move on and ask for more interaction. Of course he put his chin down again and when I didn't click straight away he got annoyed with me! Barking at first, then just sitting looking at me sulking. Then he started looking at the stool again and we were away. He nosed and prodded it, and I just kept on clicking, trying to tell him that yes it was something with the stool. Eventually he prodded it with his foot and instead of just one treat after the click, I gave him like five and a bunch of pats. He got that message! After then it was all about trying to extend the amount of time he kept his paw on the object. He did well. Even though my description sounds like it went on for a while it was pretty quick and he did well. I've thought about turning it into a trick where he pats things on command, and actually lifts his paw up and down. I reckon that'd be pretty cute. Training tricks will really improve your skills as a trainer, especially if you use techniques such as shaping which relies on timing, and an understanding of basic clicker theory and canine body language.

Knightley's new mobility vest, which is 99.5% finished.
I am very happy with it and think it could be a very good
seller. I'm thinking of making a few of them and putting them
on eBay just to get a bit of income coming in!

Before I went into this flare I managed to finish - more or less at least, before I ran out of thread, again - Knightley's new Y chest mobility vest. I am very happy with it! I can think of an improvement, but only one and I need some new hardware for it - which I have ordered but it's coming from Canada!

Knightley seems to find it really comfortable which was the main aim really. He just didn't like his old one from Active Dogs, especially when it came to relaxing under a table. This vest is by far the most complex I have made so far and has got me thinking about making a full on mobility harness with solid handle. That will really be the challenge. The wadding I am using is reasonable for what I am using it for, but for the stiffness of a small stable saddle that needs to take part of a person's weight I will need to source something else. The thing is, many of the mobility harnesses around are made of leather, so the leather itself gives it much of its stiffness.

Seeing the vest spread out on the floor. I made the chest pad
just a bit too big, but I will know for next time.

When Knightley is fully mature I will myself be wanting a mobility harness so it's worth developing something! I'm thinking some thin plastic cut into strips, something like PET, may stiffen the saddle... at least where I won't be sewing - because while my sewing machine is managing pretty well so far, it couldn't cope with several layers of webbing, cordura and plastic! Anyway, feel free to suggest ideas people.

I have been thinking a lot about my obstetrician appointment quite a bit since last Friday.  He really was quite negative about the idea of me having a baby but we really are going to try. I have also been thinking about Knightley and our training, in terms of when we are going to try for kids. I would really like to get Knightley to a really helpful point, AND to a really reliable point in six months if at all possible, as that is when we are aiming for, for baby try time. If I've lost enough weight by then, in the obstetrician's opinion! I put on quite a bit when I was on steroids, lost a bit of it, then gained it back when I was put on another medication. I'm also lacking in appetite a lot of the time, probably because the most exercise I get these days is my slow walks with Knightley. So I eat nothing, then probably make up for it too much - not so much the wrong sort of foods, just eating at the wrong times and not often enough. Add in my medications and it is so easy to put on weight. :( So I want Knightley to be able to really help by the time I will possibly becoming pregnant because it would be a difficult, painful and potentially risky time for me - so anything he could do to help would be really great. Realistically it won't happen when we start trying, but I'd like Knightley's training to get more serious soon. He does turn 11 months old tomorrow afterall! (and it's my Dad's birthday). I just need to make sure Knightley learns to walk REALLY politely on the leash before that time so I don't risk getting pulled over. Staying pregnant is going to be a huge challenge.

So that's what has been going on with the gorgeous muttley mutt and myself, and why I haven't been doing many posts! Hope everyone is well out in internet land.

Knightley needs practice working outside, nice walk, new (used) car and NEED A WEEKEND AWAY!

9 months 4 weeks 1 day old


Well it has been quite a busy weekend and I am terribly tired. Hubby and I went to the shopping mall yesterday and took Knightley. We needed a few bits and pieces, and hubby needed to swap a bracelet he'd got for me for our anniversary for a smaller size (obviously he thinks I have fat wrists!). Knightley did very nicely and got lots of attention as usual. We practiced our new 'flat' - the new cue for down. It was great, no delay, obeyed on every cue with no problems after starting with a bit of shaping. It's looking like I am going to have a solid down, hopefully for Knightley's whole life. Now time to start proofing it with even more distractions.

We then went and looked at some used cars. Our current car is getting pretty old and needs replacing but our finances aren't yet at the stage where we can buy a brand new car. So we looked around, found a possibility or two, but decided that there were some more cars across town we wanted to look at. I was absolutely exhausted after walking around a shopping mall and then a bunch of car lots. Knightley had been pretty well behaved up until then but as my attention was going and I was walking slower and slower he started misbehaving a bit. Of course that is the time I want him to step up and become a solid unmovable object! So he really did the opposite unfortunately and lost his focus. Last weekend when he helped me through my migraine he did great and focused despite me completely off in la-la pain land. However this time was outside, and Knightley doesn't focus well outside at all. So while it was very unfortunate he couldn't help me when I needed it, it shows me what I need to focus on. He can obviously be trusted a little to keep it together inside when I am not able to focus myself, but outside is another matter entirely.

Knightley meeting a lovely older female Golden on our walk
today. Knightley pretty much loses his mind when he meets
other dogs - he just loves them so much!

He woke up with a bit of a bad tummy this morning, so hubby and I took him for a good wandering walk where he could empty his poor tummy if need be. After the horrible weather earlier this week there was a good stream of water flowing in the storm water drain that runs by our house, and it's pretty good and clean so I let Knightley romp in it. We met another Golden Retriever on our walk today, a 12 year old female. Knightley ran around her like an idiot, trying to get her to play with him... trying and failing really. It made me realise that Knightley really is just about fully grown in size, although he has an awful lot of coat growing to go!!

My very happy rather wet Knightley.

He absolutely loves these walks. Since winter has come along it gets dark too quickly to get to the dog park more than once or twice a week. So I bought a flexi type leash (a leash that retracts and goes up to 5 metres in length) so that we could have walks along grassy areas and he could run around sniffing and just generally having a ball. Unfortunately I can't yet trust his recall there as it's a place where lots of other people walk their dogs, cycle, and so on.... and Knightley just loves people and dogs far too much. One day we'll get there. I don't approve of flexi leashes anywhere but where they will cause no possibility of harm to people when extending or retracting. As the lines even for a big dog are quite thin, they can even cut flesh when extending or retracting. If you only ever use the retractable/extending aspect of the leash when there are no people around you, and keep the leash locked in a fixed position of 180cm (6 foot) or less at all other times I think they can be useful. It certainly gives him the chance to get a bit of exercise but I can still walk very slowly. They can be especially valuable tools for those with service dogs who are permanently in a wheelchair, as they need many different lengths of leash throughout the course of a day.

Dashing through storm water at a breakneck pace. He's definitely
a water dog!

Speaking of wheelchairs, I have hip injections tomorrow that are supposedly meant to help my poor hip but past experience leads me to expect a week of virtual immobility. Whether after the tissue damage has healed there will be some temporary improvement is anyone's guess really. I'll be relying on Knightley's retrieve a whole bunch. I also don't want to skip my work on Thursday/Friday but certainly by Thursday I don't expect to be all that mobile. I could use my walker I guess but I am inclined to take my wheelchair. It's a heavy steel cheap thing I got when I first got sick but it's comfortable at least. I've been wanting to get a good quality lightweight wheelchair for a while now, but to get funding assistance from the government I need to see an occupational therapist, and I know to see the hospital ones the waiting list is pretty long. I've been thinking about another option so I may look into it. Whenever I am flaring and hubby and I need to go out, we take the chair.... but it is so heavy I can barely push it myself, especially if I am particularly sick. I'd also like the option of having Knightley help me with the movement of a wheelchair, in which case I should be minimising weight and resistance as much as possible.

A rather blurry photo of what we hope is our new car as of
tomorrow. LOTS of room for our big boy in the back!

Anyway, after our walk today Knightley's tummy seemed better, so we decided to take him with us to check out the cars over the other side of town. The big news is we think we have found ourselves a new (used) car! We took it for a test drive, and there were a couple of electrical problems, but if they are fixed to our satisfaction then we will go ahead with it. It's a stationwagon for a couple of different reasons, one of which that Knightley can go in the boot/wagon bit and get lots of room. It is pretty much exactly what we want, so we're going back tomorrow with a couple of other people to make a final decision. Unfortunately it will be after the local anesthetic injection from injecting my hips wears off and I'll be in a bad way... but it's just the way the world works out!

I've been wanting a holiday for a while now, but the state of our current car (not great, needs a lot of maintenance to be completely sound) has put me off a bit. However I think a new (used) car needs to bond with us and have a trip down to the coast! There's a pet friendly farm (with four very friendly border collies apparently) that has cabins and rooms, which I've been wanting to visit for many months that looks wonderful. I really need to get away - I haven't left Canberra since we travelled around temperament testing puppies in order to find Knightley. I wouldn't really call that a holiday though, and before that I left Canberra for my wedding a whole year ago in England........ it's definitely time for a weekend away!!

So, a very long very tiring weekend with several painful days to come. I need to get a semi-early night, so I'll be off now. *waves byebye*

A wonderful day, a horrible migraine and a very good dog!

9 months 3 weeks 2 days old

Yesterday was my 1st wedding anniversary. It was a beautiful stunning day and my husband and I had an absolutely wonderful day from the beginning of the day to the end. We started out with wicked but gorgeous pancakes at a restaurant in the inner city for brunch, then took the pup to the dogpark, then off to a fancy dinner and finally ended the day with a movie snuggled on the couch (with Knightley bizarrely watching the movie too!). I hope all our anniversaries are as lovely as yesterday was! Of course today I am completely and absolutely exhausted beyond measure, but it was completely worth it.

Anyway, I am still trying to get rid of a migraine I got on Saturday - as well as a autoimmune/autoinflammatory rash I've had on my face for five or six days now (when biopsied they came up with 10 possibilities, most likely was something rare called lupus tumidus.... but who knows really, sigh). Hubby and I had some shopping to do and I have been sticking to the once a week public outing rule with Knightley until he is a little older and ready for more intensive training, so we took Knightley with us as his weekly trip. The migraine reared its ugly head virtually as soon as we got to the shopping mall (maybe the lighting?) as hubby and I split up to do our separate shopping. By the time we met back up I could barely open my eyes and I was using some of Knightley's natural guiding instincts (going around things or people, or stopping when there was an obstruction) because I was in such a bad shape. Thankfully after hubby rejoined us, Knightley followed hubby and I was virtually able to close my eyes and let the pup lead me through the mall.

The migraines that hit suddenly virtually blind me with photosensitivity, and sometimes, like in the case of this one, give me auras too.... which makes my vision even worse. I really hoped that Knightley was going to be a natural alerter, and tell me when I was going to get one of my sudden migraines, but so far, he isn't giving me any signs I can see. I am thinking that it may be worth training Knightley to do some basic guiding techniques so if I do get a very severe migraine while out I can rely on him to help me to safety. I don't know much about guiding though, in comparison to the research I have done about mobility assistance dog training... so I guess I have a lot of research to do. Mainly the biggest concern is that I don't want him to guide all the time - only when I am such a bad way. Ideally he would just know when to do it, but if not, I would just give him a cue. I just don't know if you can turn guiding on and off like that?? Anyway, he was a very very good boy, and I really don't know if I could have got through the mall alone without him. Even when I was with my hubby, it meant Knightley could lead me and not hubby, who went off to bring the car closer. I was proud of my boy, who is nearly 10 months old, wow!

Where Knightley and I walked this morning. It's a fantastic area
to walk your dog... lots of paths, lots of open grass areas, and
the storm water drain which runs with clear water after rain
(which we haven't had for weeks...) that Knightley gets to splash
around in and run up and down the sides of the drain. We
meet heaps of dogs on our walks too. The weather has been just
stunning over the last couple of weeks as we get to the end of
autumn. The bluest skies you could ever imagine, but some
cold nights well below zero already - and it isn't winter yet!

So, I took a lot of breakthrough medication and much more on Sunday to be able to enjoy my anniversary, but without the breakthrough the migraine is still quite fiercely hanging around. No where near as painful as when it first hit, so perhaps my migraine abortive partially worked, but I am pretty immobile for the moment. Although I did manage to take Knightley for a little walk this morning before it just got too painful to move much, and yesterday's running around doing things caught up with me. I think a doctor appointment may be in order. I refuse to go to the hospital, because I am just too complicated for them.... and I then always end up getting admitted which I **HATE**!! Then comes then scans just in case it's my immune system attacking my brain and so on and so on.... arrggh... I more or less swore to myself after spending my 29th birthday in ICU that I would not be admitted to a hospital unless I was almost literally dying. Thankfully I have been less sick since then anyway, so it hasn't been all that hard to stick to.

Oh, and I've found my perfect training treat! Easy to rip up and free! Knightley tends to eat a fairly lean diet - lots of beef heart, some pork which sometimes is fatty, turkey and occasionally chicken which sometimes has skin, sometimes doesn't... and ox tongue which is very lean. Consequently I supplement with fat from the butcher which he gives to me free as unwanted trimmings. Good fat just pulls apart in your hands easily, so instead of just adding it to his meals, I feed his fat as treats now. He loves it, and it is higher value than his regular meals - which I have a hard time topping these days. His 'flat' is going well now, but I don't use it yet as every day usage - I want to make sure it is absolutely great in every single situation I can think of using shaping and basic operant conditioning, and then slowly fade the treats when it is learnt so I end up with a 100% reliable down. Unlike our last one which slowly grew less reliable and slower over time because I lured too much and faded too fast.

Speaking of raw food, Knightley now only eats one meal a day, and that is working a lot better for us than morning and night. While I was planning on keeping him on two meals a day until 1 year old, he just became uninterested in his morning meal, whilst he will happy eat the whole day's worth at night. Today it was an entire turkey leg which he efficiently cracked and chewed and basically completely devoured. Flesh and skin are natures way of flossing an animals teeth! You should see Knightley's beautiful glowing teeth - he often gets comments at the dog park.

Anyway time to sleep and hope this silly head settles down. *waves*

A good day for Knightley, something new!

Knightley, all happy again. Very happy to see it. Love that doggy grin. He'd
just been doing door closing practice, very successfully I might add, and was
very pleased with himself!

5 months 2 weeks 2 days old

So I think the pup is back to his normal dynamic self. He has his frustrated bark back, he is slightly less food obsessed, and is very quick in the grey matter upstairs - which is nice to see.

We did all sorts of training throughout the day, and he was totally In The Game.

His cupboard door closing skills are GREAT now! Two days ago, when he started recovering, we started working on him closing other cupboard doors, and he was fine closing other doors that opened in the same direction that the door I taught him on. Any doors that opened in the opposite direction he just barked in frustration. So I just him to paw my hand whilst standing next to the open cupboard door I wanted him to close, then my leg (good dog! that's it! rake my leg with those nails! excellent! do it again!!) in order to get him pawing a vertical surface right next to where I wanted him to target a slightly different vertical surface, then my hand again, and again, and again..... as I slowly moved my hand closer to the door. Then I had my hand resting on the cupboard door whilst he was pawing it, of course I was click/treating every time he was doing this right. Then the next time he pawed my hand, I pushed the cupboard door closed with the back of my palm and made a HUGE fuss of Knightley with a jackpot of treats and lots of praise. That was all it took. I risked a 'paw' cue without my hand there, and SLAM, the door closed first time. We then went around the kitchen and he closed every door... although one of the cupboard doors is significantly bigger than all the rest, and it took a bit of extra training to get him through his frustration of being unable to close it easily.

My husband was talking about listening to our late night training sessions whilst he is getting ready for bed... and said they sound like "twitter twitter twitter" at the beginning, which is me talking.... then "bark bark" then "bang! click! bang! click! bang! click! twitter twitter twitter! bang! click! bang! click! twitter! bark! bark! bang! click! TWITTER TWITTER!!!!". So that's a cupboard door closing session for me and Knightley heard from half a house away! I found it amusing at least, if somewhat insulting to have my voice described as a twitter.

A 'come' cue in action, doggy on a mission.
Just a bit dream like I thought. The best I
could do whilst actually training without
setting up my tripod and waiting until
 daylight....

We did a HEAP of recalls (come) during the day, often calling him away from things he didn't want to leave, which was great practice. Still need a lot more practice of course, but it was a good start to my come focus from now on.

We also started something completely NEW! I've always been interested in the idea of doing a little nose work with him. Nose work is basically a new dog sport based around scenting games. It has brought the ideas behind drug, quarantine and bomb detection to the average dog owner interested in training their dog to use their nose on command. So we started a few scenting games, mostly just relying upon his sight on this early stage, only a tiny bit on scent. The idea is trying to get the idea in his head that I have hidden something for him and he needs to use his nose to find it - something we haven't done before. We'll do more of it later.

The website I was getting my inspiration from (although I did modify their directions when I saw fit) told you to put a cue/command to the searching behaviour immediately, and I tell you what, Knightley understood that part right away! lol ... Firstly you just throw some treats on the floor and tell him "find it!" and repeat that step several times.... and then have him avert his eyes while you do it and again you say "find it!", repeat step.... and then you start putting the treats in funny spots and avert his eyes and tell him "find it!" and so on until you have treats wrapped up in clothing, under magazines, in boxes and so on. At that stage I would probably teach an alert 'I've found it!' behaviour and plug it into the sequence to make a behaviour chain. Every time I said 'find it' Knightley absolutely raced off to find the treats he knew were somewhere to be found. He really enjoyed that part, it was great to see. Intensive nose work is very tiring to a dog, owners report after 20 minutes of structured scenting they are often as tired out as they would be from an hour long walk. It is a good idea to give your dog mental stimulation like this, physical is great of course, but both keeps your dog balanced and not bored! Which in turn leads to a satisfied dog who is less likely to indulge in problem behaviours.

Knightley following a 'relax' cue. He is pretty good with this
one, will follow it promptly, but gets bored on his side
easily. He is happier to stay in a down where he can see what
is going on, than a relax where he can't see a thing. I am going
to focus on really making him sleepy every time I get him into
a relax, with music, massage, and shaping.

We also did more of our normal training today. We focused a lot on Relax, as I would like that one on cue for when I start taking him out more to cafes and anywhere that allows dogs. I can't believe he isn't much off 6 months! His relax is pretty good, he does fully relax, we just need to work on duration now. I plan to use Through A Dogs Ear, a CD of classical music arranged in order to calm and relax dogs, and in the past has worked on Knightley. So whenever we do a relax session, I'll put that on. I'll also do a little doggy massage when Knightley is in his relax position. I would really love the DVD and books for the TTouch method by Linda Tellington Jones, but until then I massage Knightley as best I know how - down his sides in circles, his ears, the sides of his muzzle which can carry a lot of tension. I am not talking about stroking either.... I am talking about a deliberate more clinical touch. Knightley definitely enjoys it, and when I get it right, he almost drops off to sleep then and there.

In addition to the music and massage, I will also quietly say 'yes' and give him treats when his eyes blink/droop, when he yawns, when his breathing slows, when he does that big sudden dog sigh release of tension we all love..... and so on. Shaping can be very effective at deepening the relaxation of a dog, and thereby increasing the likelihood of duration. I will also train duration the normal way, first clicking and treating after 10 seconds of relax (about where we are up to), then 11, 12, 13 and so on. If he breaks, I go back to 10 because he is very solid at 10 at the moment. If he breaks at 10! Well, I can go back to 1 second if I have to. When I start getting up to 30 seconds, I can try increasing by 2 seconds at a time. When increasing from 1 minute, I could increase by 5 seconds at a time. So that will be my multi-pronged approach on relax.

There is so much material in Level 2 of the Training Levels, it is almost wearying to make sure we pass it all before moving on!

Improving rapidly with food, back into training with a hungry dog!

5 months 2 weeks old

So far Knightley has eaten two small meals, both chicken and rice, with a little kibble. He was going NUTS when I started preparing the first meal - he hadn't seen that dog bowl come out for about 30 hours, and for a growing puppy who'd been losing his meals via diarrhea for a couple of days previous anyway, he must have been absolutely and completely famished. I didn't even try to stop him barking at it, I knew it would be futile. He often barks just a little when I am preparing his food... I have worked on it, but I need to do more concentrated work obviously - because this time he was barking loud enough to wake the dead! Definitely more spark there!!

The first meal I just hand fed without training much, just a bit of zen. I hand fed to stop him gobbling it quickly, so his stomach would have time to get used to eating again, and he'd be less likely to get an upset stomach from it. After no bad reaction to that meal, I gave him another one later, but this one we did a little training with it, as his previous meal had almost taken him back to himself in terms of energy. 

His reaction times were great (sharpened by hunger and the fact he loved the food), and we went back over old ground of Sue Ailsby's Training Levels, refreshing cues, doing a little bit of shaping, closing the cupboard doors, doing some 'go around' with a soda bottle, then with absolutely nothing there, with was new for us (look up 'distance' in the glossary to find out which behaviour I am talking about). We did some more zen too. His zen is getting really good these days, we are getting closer to passing L2 zen, he just has to stay off a treat on the floor for 1 minute just using his willpower now. He has gone 30 seconds. We need to take it outside also, as like I've mentioned before, his brains fly out his ears outside. I'd rather he ate less random garbage, dirt, sticks, grass etc when we are out together, I will work on zen in an outdoor setting for specifically that reason. 

We also did a bit of relax, working on putting to the cue to the behaviour. I can cheat a bit here because I've already trained 'bang', which is the trick where the dog is meant to fall over and act dead in response to being shot. While I want more duration from relax, and want him to let go of his bodily tension some more, I do like the position he goes in for bang - lying on his side, legs all out to the side, head on the ground. This is what I want for relax, so I am using the hand cue for bang, whilst telling him relax as he does it. I tested it once or twice, and he reacted to just the verbal cue! Yay. Next session I will start putting a new 'relax' hand cue to the behaviour, and then we'll start working on truly completely relaxing and duration, but it's a good start.

Knightley in a sit stay giving good eye contact nearly two weeks
ago during our day down at the lake where he had such a wonderful
time. I am a bit biased but... isn't he just the most gorgeous puppy?!

We also worked on stays a bit during the afternoon with a bit of plain kibble. His stay is getting really good, but I am very careful to increase it by a second or two at a time only. To pass Level 2 he needs to do a 1 minute stay at 3 metres (10 feet) from me for a sit, 6 metres (20 feet) for a down. He can do 30 seconds at a distance of 3 metres whilst at home (with no distractions) for the both of them. It shouldn't be too hard to increase that. 

Duration behaviours are meant to be the one thing that is 'harder' with clicker training, rather than traditional training, but I have to say, I haven't found that at all. Even when he was a little puppy he could do 10 second stays. We haven't worked on them a great deal because they were never a trouble spot, or I think he'd be up to that 1 minute mark already. We also use the 'wait' cue, as well as 'stay' - although 'wait' is not in the Levels. I use wait in a situation where I am not going to return to Knightley to release him. Stay means stay where you are, always just stay don't move don't do anything until I return to you and say you can. Wait means don't move until I give you my next cue or release you to move. I find wait a VERY useful cue, and an easy one to train. 

I use it every time I feed him - I usually use his meals to train, but leave him a small amount to eat from his bowl to ensure we keep his bowl manners. I ask him to get in his crate and he goes into a down (a requirement in Level 2). I tell him to wait, then put the bowl in the crate with him but slightly out of reach. I wait 10 seconds or so, then tell him 'Go eat'. I also use wait in sitatuions like when I am going through the baby gate and he obviously wants to come with me. I'll put him in a wait, then go through the gate, and release him once I have gone through (I plan to train this with a better solution, using the concepts of zen, just haven't got around to it yet... so much to train!!). It's just a very useful cue. As is stay of course, but I like having both.

Anyway, it's great getting back to our training. Hopefully tomorrow he will nearly be back to his normal smarty pants self. Late this evening outside he picked up a big branch, tried to carry it inside with him, and was generally very proud of himself, tail wagging happily like a flag.... That's more the Knightley we all know and love. Had to disappoint him with the branch though.

Worried about Knightley

5 months 1 week 6 days old

So I was woken this morning by loud whining from Knightley, and as he has never done that before, I quickly came to the conclusion that it was his stomach playing up. The poor baby just about ran outside and had some bad diarrhea. I am starting to get quite worried now. The chicken and rice diet hasn't helped. SIGH. So, I started him back on kibble for his breakfast this morning - and nothing but kibble, no special treats or anything. However, we haven't had a good beginning, as after I fed him about half of the breakfast (keeping the other half to use for training throughout the day), I hear whining again, so out we go again... and yes, more diarrhea. My poor baby.

I think it may be getting close to vet time now. He is definitely not his normal 'wreak havoc on the world' self, is just lying on the couch watching me now. It's times like this that you realise in 3.5 months how much you can become attached to an animal. He's not even really an animal, more like a doggy person. For those people who think animals don't feel, they should watch me doing a shaping session with Knightley. He goes through a huge variety of emotions. I don't like it when my emotional doggy person isn't well!!

Knightley and cupboards, loose leash, back to work

5 months 1 week 5 days old

So the pup still has a bad stomach, although it seems to be a little better. He is sure enjoying his rice and chicken meals.... they smell so good I wouldn't mind eating them!! I am using them for his training, and he will do just about anything to get his greedy maw on them, so that is useful.

We're doing more work on his cupboard closing skills. 

Paw there Mr Knightley!

Bullseye!

Yes!

Yes!!

Have some yummy chicken and rice
for being such a very good boy.

Big whack incoming!! This one closed
the door.

Our next challenge, which wasn't in the original levels, but is in the new books, is to teach Knightley to target my feet. This would be an especially useful first step if you had serious mobility problems and wanted to teach your dog to take off your socks in the future. So maybe later today we'll try doing the foot targeting. I don't anticipate much trouble, he has always enjoyed nose targeting on my hand and on wands and other objects. I actually enjoy teaching brand new things, now that he *gets* shaping watching him learn is just fascinating and really addictive. 

We've been doing more LLW practice, as is in the Training Level books by Sue Ailsby. Firstly I put him in a sit/down and then pulling gently on a flat/martingale collar until he moves into the pressure, then immediately c/t. Then the second exercise is slowly walking around with him on a leash inside, and change directions suddenly so that there is some pressure on the leash. When he moves into the pressure and the tightness stops, I quickly c/t and give him lots of praise. If I am giving him lots of leash space, then when I give the treat I drop it at my feet to encourage him to hang around me despite the relative freedom. He is a long way away from staying loose on his flat/martingale collar. 

Doing Loose Leash Walking (LLW) practice, so that if Knightley
feels any pressure on the leash he is to slow down  and turn
 into me.  Dogs, and indeed all animals, have the instinct to push 
   *into* the pressure in order to escape, which is why they tend
 to pull so much. To reverse that  instinct every time the dog actually
    moves *towards*  the pressure you must make it a pleasurable
experience, so that the dog will start doing it every time it feels the
 leash pressure. It does take a long time, but it is very much worth it.

We need to do a lot more practice with this, although he is pretty good at it inside. Take the treats away, go outside where there are lots of big parrots and exciting people and dogs, and what he has learnt flies out the window. So lots more practice inside until it's completely perfect, including keeping it lose around treats on the floor, then practice in the backyard, then back and forward in the street.... THEN we will start venturing afield. They say keeping a loose leash is perhaps the hardest thing to teach. I would have to agree. Teaching Knightley to close the kitchen cupboard door was so simple compared to keeping his leash loose on a flat collar. He's pretty good on his front buckle harness, but sigh. We'll get there!

We also do heel training inside the house, without the leash. This is a more formal heel, with his spine aligned at right angles to the direction I am facing. I keep up the clicking when he is in good alignment, and do things like put him in a wait, turn at right angles, and then ask him to heel and watch him turn the corner so he will sit at my left again. We also practice finishes, although it is 'just' the traditional behind finish, where the dog goes from in front of you, walks to your right side, still facing you, then goes behind you, heading for your left side.... and ends up in a sit at your left side. 

We haven't done much work on the swing finish (only a little pivot work), which is much more difficult. The dogs front paws move just a little to where they will be in their final position by your side, then the dog swings on the spot - the front paws almost glued to the spot and the back legs doing all the walking around for 180 degrees until the dog has turned all the way around, and then the dog sits. As I said, much harder!

My husband and I both go back to work this week. Hubby already went back this morning, I am not back until Thursday. He wasn't looking forward to it after our couple of weeks off over Christmas, could have done with a couple more weeks off I think. However, I am looking forward to it a lot. I am finally starting my paid position there in a couple of weeks. I have been a volunteer up until now, just working on getting my stamina for paid work up, and finally I am at that point where a small amount of paid work is possible for me. It has been more than three years since I have been well enough to commit to paid work, so this is a big step for me. They seem to like me so much there that they have chosen me for a paid contract position for a project that has come up with some government funding. I will stay as a volunteer for events and some extra hours that they may need me for, but it will be great to be actually working again. I look forward to a future where having a canine companion may help me do longer hours at places further out of the way. Not to mention the independence to actually shop on my own! Which I haven't done for over three years. 

I think those small things are what I miss the most. I truly hope Knightley brings me some of that independence I long for so very much. He is turning out to be such a lovely dog, and a smart one as well! Just thinking of him always brings a smile to my face. I think he has a good chance of making it as an assistance dog. But you never know how dogs will change over their lifetimes. Keep it slow and try not to expect too much, Lyssa!

WOW!! Closing a cupboard door, and confidence building

5 months 1 week 4 days old

My Knightley, starting to look more grown up. These
adventures really help me realise he is definitely growing up
mentally. I am lucky I have such a quick smart dog.

Wow, like seriously..... wow. I am in shock. Knightley is one seriously smart puppy. I wish I had recorded the training session that we just had because it was very serious testament to how far Knightley has come. We were working on paw targeting, and as I mentioned in my last post, a checklist for the new Training Levels have recently become available which has shown any gaps I may have as for a long time I was training from the free levels online, not the books. The behaviour I had to catch up on was to get Knightley to close a cupboard door with his paw. Pretty advanced really, and I hadn't even transitioned him from paw targeting my hand, or a lid on the floor, to a vertical surface. So last night I did a short session, recapping what I did with him about a month ago - and he got that very quickly.

Update 5 April 2012: Just wanted to say that While I trained Knightley to close cupboards and doors with his paw first, I then trained him to close them with his nose. The nose close is actually more useful because it doesn't have the potential to mark furniture, but both are good to have the dog know. If a public door is not moving because it is particularly heavy, a paw swipe may get it moving, and then it can be closed by nose the rest of the way. I am not sure which way around it was better to have trained it, but I was happy with training it this way. I just had to do LOTS of nose targeting and no rewarding for closing with paw for the nose to stick as a cue after I had taught paw first. Now if nose isn't working after several goes he will automatically swap to giving it a single whack with his paw to get it moving, and I am happy with that. Nose targeting technique is quite similar. Send me a msg on my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/DownunderAssistanceDog if you want more details on training a nose cupboard/door/drawer close.

I'm just going to quickly go through the training prerequisites if you want to go ahead and train the cupboard close as it assumes that your dog can paw target an object. Something like a yogurt or tupperware lid is perfect, if it's clear that is better still, but make sure the lid is tall enough from the ground so that you can fit a treat under it. To start give your dog several treats, either clicking a clicker first or saying 'yes!', so that he knows when you click (you can even use the click of a ball point pen), or say 'yes' that he will get a treat. 


You then show him a treat, and very obviously put it under the lid on the floor. Make sure your dog can't flip over the lid, you may have to hold it down. He'll try to lick it, bite it, but most of all, he will try to paw it. The *instant*! he paws it, or his paw even moves towards it, click/say yes, lift up the lid so he can get the treat from under the lid and then give him a second treat from your hand. Some dogs will get the idea very quickly, even if new to this type of training. Sometime it will take some persistence. After a while, stop lifting up the lid for the treat, and simply hand him the treat from your hand only. Then remove the treat from under the lid entirely. 


Once he is pawing well, hitting the lid every time and knows exactly what you want you can add the cue! I use the word 'paw!'. As his paw connects with the lid say 'paw' and click/say yes. You have to say it quite a few times for it to stick. Eventually he will wait to hear paw before he does it. Then you can start putting your hand underneath the lid, still very close to the floor, but slowly higher and higher. You can use this method to teach 'shake' and 'hi-five' very effectively. Then replace the yogurt lid with a large sticker. Then start reducing the size of the sticker slowly until he will simply target your hand - and it is all done! That should all take maybe 5-6 sessions for a fairly smart dog, although it will vary widely with attention span, prior training etc. Always end your sessions on a high and keep them short.

So, this is how I trained Knightley to close my kitchen cupboard door. First I got a big white sticker, stuck it to my palm, and had him paw target that. Then I put the palm with the sticker next to my leg and asked him to paw that. He seemed to think I was asking for a touch or something, or maybe he just wanted to eat it (he tries to eat most things in the world afterall!).... because I got some paws, but some 'eat the sticker'. So that didn't work quite right. So I did some sticker zen. I know I've talked about zen a lot, but I may not have been absolutely explicit as to what it means. Zen basically means 'calm down, centre yourself, leave it'. My cue for zen is 'leave it', for instance I will put a large treat in front of him - say, a nice warm sausage - and tell him 'leave it', and he will back up slightly, sit, and look right at me. No fuss, no upset...  just a calm dog accepting what I wish, with heaps of self control, which is why it is called zen. Anyway, so he had tried to eat the sticker, so I told him to leave it, and every time I flapped the sticker in front of his face, whilst telling him leave it, and he successfully did it, I gave him lots of treats. Once I had established it was not for his mouth/nose etc, we went back to paw targeting. This time we were good. He was pawing my hand rather painfully, well done! good pup! (lol)

So, then I took it another step forward and put the sticker on my leg, but left my hand next to it. Not very different, and after a few hiccups, he was targeting my leg. Very slowly I started pulling my hand away, and didn't pause with cues and treats, until he was confidently tearing my leg to pieces with his nasty little nails, lol! We stopped there that night. All that took maybe 5 minutes, and was a very successful recap.

Then this evening we did our very awesomely cool session. I had new treats, we had got some fresh 'all natural' pre-prepared dog food in chicken, rice and veggies to use as training treats because they came in little nuggets, and this was the first time I had tried it, and they were a HIT. I started with him targeting the sticker on my hand, then my leg, and then I stuck it on the bottom of the couch... low enough so his paw could get to it. This was the really big moment, the massive huge mental leap. What leap, says Knightley, whapping the couch with his paw!!! And again, and again, and again! Wowsers! I was sitting there grinning like an idiot!

Learning to close the cupboard door. That's my amazing
puppy!

So, keeping in mind the behaviour is to actually close a cupboard door, we then moved into the kitchen, where I briefly retaught what we had just done (dogs need to relearn new behaviours when they move rooms/places). He confidently pawed my leg on cue, so I stood closer and closer to the cupboard and then put a fresh sticker right on the cupboard at about the same height. He didn't see it at first, so as I cued paw, I tried pointing at it, and he tried to paw my pointing hand... sigh.... but I persisted... patting the sticker, showing it to him, and then cuing 'paw!' again. Finally there is a half hearted wave of his foreleg, and I treated him like he did the most wonderful thing in the world. I gave him tiny treats for any wave, big treats for contact with the door of the cupboard, then eventually only treats for contact. I was actually handing him the treats at first, but found that tossing the treats aside gave him a few steps to centre himself on the sticker/door and put some force behind the whack.

After that change he started doing some really good whacks, and I was thrilled. I then wondered whether he could actually close it, although the doors do need a reasonable push to close. So I open it a touch, and we start trying. Tiny treats for soft touches, big treats for solid hits. Eventually only c/t for solid hits, which frustrated him for a while and he started his annoyed barking. Then he realised when I had stopped giving him treats if he didn't hit it and started putting his effort into actually pawing it solidly. Suddenly, *bang!*, the cupboard door closed, and Knightley jumped a little - I think I did too.... and I absolutely stuffed that dog full of treats, told him he was the very best puppy in the world, and he started wagging madly!!! We worked at it more until he managed to close it another three times, then stopped on a high. I was completely thrilled and completely blown away. Moving from a horizontal paw target to a vertical is meant to be a big leap... let alone manipulating that object!!! It showed me once and for all what Knightley is capable of. I am still almost in shock. He isn't meant to learn that fast!!                                                                                                                                                          

Getting a wash with some nice new 2in1
very natural shampoo after his swim. He
still doesn't like it very much but he is
tolerating it. I should really put my skills
to actually making him actively like it.
Now THAT would be a challenge!

Anyway, onto other topics. Earlier that day I went over to my parents place with the specific mission to get him over his reluctance for getting into the pool. His first trip over there he had been so eager to get in he had conquered any misgivings and jumped in, but the second trip over there he only jumped in once as he was just not happy with launching himself. Once he was in he always really enjoyed himself, but he didn't like having to jump. So I fed him a very small breakfast and saved the rest up in order to lure him into the pool.

At first I just fed him for leaning over, using the marker word "yes!" instead of clicking, trying to help him feel that leaning towards the water wasn't something to be afraid of. There are some steps that he hadn't realised were there previously, so I started to lure him with food and his Wubba (which he adores) at the steps, giving him treats whenever he leaned over again. I also took off his life jacket so he would feel freer to move and less encumbered. He was obviously pretty hungry because he was leaning further and further out until eventually, suddenly, a foot went over the edge and there was one on the first step. I shovelled buckets of food into his mouth then used his Wubba to lure him off the step. He grabbed hold of the Wubba, had a bit of a tour of the pool, then eventually climbed out at the steps.

That was pretty much how the session went, with me trying to make him feel more confident about getting in the pool, giving him treats for getting his feet on the steps, sometimes treats for getting in too if his head was far enough out of the water. After a few dips in I put his life jacket back on to save him some energy and because I noticed his strokes weren't as smooth and calm without it. Eventually he started to tire, but I was very very pleased with his progress... he even jumped in once after a big palm leaf. I'll keep working on it the same way, and will put a cue to it when it's a solid behaviour. There is a deeper step on the other side of the pool, so my aim will be to have him getting in there eventually - and then back to just jumping in.

I gave him a wash with my new lovely 2in1 pet shampoo, which is very natural, biodegradable, a natural fleaicide and very very good for sensitive dogs. Not to mention perfect for easy washing after a swim. Then that night we had the amazing success with the cupboard door.

As the days go by I am more and more sure about my choice. His focus is well ahead of other puppies his age... I just need to work on it outside the house, because his brains fly out his ears when we go outside.... What a day though. One to remember.

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!

No puppy teeth left, training going well, a social season

4 months 3 weeks 4 days old

Poor Knightley has been losing so many teeth this week, and has been bleeding all over his toys.  From what I can see he now has none of his puppy teeth left - the last one came out last night... and his big adult teeth are coming in extremely quickly. He also has very very little puppy fluff left - just a tiny bit on his ears. The next photo here shows him lying down, doing one of his tricks that doubles as his relax command, and it shows how sleek his fur is now. His tail is beginning to feather, but apart from that he looks like a lab!

Doing his "bang" trick, where he goes into this position
when I say "bang!". He's getting better at it, but is sometimes
still reluctant to put his head fully down.

He's getting pretty big these days... when people meet him and I introduce him as "still little more than a baby" they say he doesn't look like one! It is fairly true, he's heading towards 21 inches at the shoulder, only another 3 to go at most to still remain inside the breed standard.

Training continues to be very good. We are working on a heel cue now - not a really formal heel, just a "walk at my left side" type heel. I will later train a "side" cue, which will get him walking at my right side. It is very useful for assistance dogs to be flexible in whichever side they walk on, as shops can sometimes be set out in strange

Another photo showing his coat without its fluff. He's
wearing his new Freedom Harness in this photo, which I
am really enjoying! He doesn't seem to mind it, although he
 isn't keen on it going on. I should train it really!

In a nice sit stay outside.

ways, and you may wish to look at isles without a dog in the way - so that the dog needs to walk comfortably on the other side. But I won't start training that for a good while yet. He is doing very well with the heel command inside, off the leash, with a medium level of distraction, but we haven't even taken it to the backyard, or added a leash.

We've also started retrieve training. You are meant to follow Sue Ailsby's New Levels (the books I just received) as they come.... but as a trained retrieve would really help me, I skipped ahead some. It starts in Level 3 (the second book)

Performing his "under" cue. Very helpful when out in cafes,
restaurants and the like. He has a firm grasp of the command
and will get under whatever it is possible to get under. I need
to start proofing outside now, and also asking for duration.

and has many little steps that teaches the formal retrieve - very much like an assistance retrieve. The first step gave a warning it may take a couple of days for the dog to get it - it took Knightley about 10 minutes!!! Wow he is sure getting this shaping and training thing now. For a while he was rather stuck on shaping, but definitely not now. His only problem is barking when he gets frustrated by me upping the criteria.

We are working on the second step now, where he has to be able to grab three different objects twice for one c/t. This is to increase the time he holds the object, so that in the end he doesn't bother to let go for long at all because he knows he has to hold on twice anyway for the click. Occasionally you need to click for one hold just to keep the dog in the game! Knightley found this pretty frustrating, that's for sure. But he definitely understood it. He just didn't like the change! What a silly clever puppy.

Socialising with one of the kids on the street. He gets along
so very well with children, it is great to see. It will be a
challenge, when the time comes, to stop him from wanting
to say hello to every single one when he is working.

He recently went to a big picnic I am not sure if I mentioned was happening in one of my previous posts, and behaved very well. There was even a noisy jumping castle, a face painter, a Santa, and quite a few kids. He showed no worry at any of these things. We took along his portable fabric crate with a nice freeze dried kangaroo tail to devour so we could get some time out from having to watch over him and actually eat and socialise. But he really was a pretty good boy. He did do some digging in the grass, and a little whining occasionally, but that was all. I was very happy with him. At one stage my husband and I left him in the portable crate under the watchful eye of one of my husband's colleges, and as we both walked away from him, he let out a huge loud upset howl/whine/bark, which continued until someone went over to comfort him. I found it very very hard to leave him when he was making those noises! Not surprisingly he was very happy to see us back minutes later. Poor puppy, you realise how attached he is to his 'family' when things like that happen.

Poor Knightley had a badly upset tummy yesterday and did a big gooey mess on the carpet. I had let him out of his crate after coming home from work, and he had gone to the front door and looked like he wanted to go out. I know he never needs to go immediately, so I was getting around to taking him out. But I should have looked at his insistence more closely, because next I knew he couldn't hold it in and half of it all came out on the carpet. It was his reaction that was most interesting. Shame is the closest I could describe it as. As soon as the poor thing had finished, he kind of slinked away, wouldn't meet my eye, tail was between his legs, his head was low to the ground. I hadn't scolded him or anything (I never did anyway of course), but he was obviously upset at his own behaviour. I asked my husband to take him outside while I started the cleanup, and he went again several times. I took him for a walk later and he went again and again. Poor little puppy. His first accident in many many weeks. Judging by his reaction to the unavoidable slip up, I think he can certainly be called house trained. He absolutely knew that he shouldn't be doing it there! He seems ok today though, and I've made sure he has had a lot to drink. I bet he ate something he shouldn't have.

Christmas Day is looking like it will be a fairly hot one... December so far has been a pretty unseasonably cool month but looks like Christmas Day may be one of its hottest days. We usually spend the day over at my parents house, and this year will be no exception. They have a nice pool, so I will take Knightley's quite newly arrived life jacket with us, and we may well go swimming together. Looking forward to it. Will get some photos if it happens! Leaving you with my cute Knightley photo for the week!

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!!!