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.

Happy 5 month birthday Knightley! A review of our time together

5 months old

So, Knightley is 5 months old today. Time has gone so very quickly!! He has gone from a tiny fluffy thing to a quite large boisterous but promising teenager.

The first photo is of Knightley the first time we ever saw him. We had a very long drive up to where his breeder lives, about 7 hours from us, and did the trip over a weekend. We were there to temperament test the puppies of his litter, a big litter of 11, 8 of which were male - and I wanted a male for the extra size and strength. There was one other promising male, but he struggled quite a lot when picked up, whereas Knightley was curious and affectionate - although he didn't actually settle down either! It is only now he is able to jump onto the couch that he is discovering the snuggle! In all other aspects Knightley's temperament test went excellently (see my blog post from then titled I HAVE A PUPPY!!!!!!!). My husband and I were absolutely thrilled as we had been through the disappointment of a failed temperament testing on a small litter nearly four weeks earlier. The puppies in that litter were absolutely unsuitable as assistance/service dog candidates and it had been upsetting (read post Temperament testing over, a bit sad). However, we were overjoyed with Knightley and returned to Canberra in high spirits and in a frenzy to prepare for our furry whirlwind.


This next photo is of bringing Knightley home 5 days later. Thankfully we only had to travel about 3 hours to pick him up, and 3 back. The photo is of him asleep in the little crate we used for the first several weeks of his time with us. He had already traveled for three hours that morning, so was pretty much exhausted and barring a couple of toilet breaks, slept the whole way home. It was the lull before the storm! Those first couple of weeks were intense!! Taking him out every 45 minutes during the day, every 2 hours at night, feeding 4 times a day and trying to keep him from taking the house to bits and from taking the flesh on our hands to bits!! But oh my was he gorgeous. Looking back, it did pass too fast. (Read Knightley is home).


This was our first trip outside the home, he'd been with us three days at this point of time. What a tiny gorgeous fuzzball he was - now he has lost 99% of that fuzz - all that remains is a touch on is ears. Back then he was like a luxurious rug or something lol! We took him to the vet that first weekend too, and he was a good little puppy, and admired very very much. We have got used to having our 'rockstar' puppy - I suppose most attractive Golden Retriever puppies get the same treatment.... people just can't stay away from him. I expect it will start to lessen soon as he is looking less and less puppy-ish now.

This shows a very big jump in time to a week ago or so. He's promising to be quite a big dog - he was a slightly above average puppy when we got him, and a bit overly plump. I have tried to make sure he has stayed lean during his fast growing period in order to ensure good joint growth. This is extra important for Golden Retrievers.who do get quite a bit of hip dysplasia (read previous post My last dog and preventative healthcare for the coming one). Late de-sexing will also help with his joint development.


This next photo shows Knightley in a rather proud sit making good eye contact. His training has come a huge way in the slightly over three months we've had him in our lives (brought him home on the 22nd of September when he was 8 weeks old). At first I was quite worried at his lack of interest in food, but as he settles down into life and *things* become less exciting, food becomes more exciting. I am sure once he gets de-sexed - which won't happen until he is 18 months old or so - that will if anything complete the cure, if we are still having any issues. I give a lot of credit to how far Knightley has come in these three months to Sue Ailsby and her Training Levels (follow the so named link in the bar below the title banner). Also some credit must go to the clicker training community in general.  I love how clicker work teaches your dog to really *think* and I love that moment when the dog just gets it! We were doing something new today where Knightley has to make eye contact no matter which way I turn, as part of his "watch me" command, and he was as pleased as punch when he figured it out. I love the fact that you don't just push your dog into a sit, but leave it to him to work it out! There are just so many more possibilities with clicker training.

These were some of Knightley's most recent adventures on Christmas day (see A great Christmas Day for Knightley, barking beginning to stop!) and I was thrilled by how confident my boy was. He is not a dog who worries about anything, or cowers away in a corner! He's always out there in the thick of things, charging ahead to meet the new people. I have seen him scared maybe twice in his three months with us - once when a big very noisy group of children all ran up to him, half on bikes, some on go-carts. He even hid behind me for a second! But once I asked them to speak more quietly and stop running, he recovered quickly and I have tried to ensure since then that his children encounters are all positive - and he does loooove the kids! The other time was fairly soon after he had got his last shots and we were starting to go for lots of walks. We met two rather large pointer type dogs who were rather exuberant and happy to just bowl into poor Knightley. That was the first time I saw his hackles come up, his tail was clamped between his legs and once again he turned to me for protection. But that's it, other than that, no more scared. Whenever he sees something he's hesitant about on his walks (rare, but has happened a couple of times), I get him to paw or nose touch the object after a few treats to get him closer, and then he always completely ignores it. I do hope he stays like this.

So, that was the beginning of our time together, and this is now. What a whirlwind. I can't wait to see what happens next. Each day brings further changes and I love seeing him mature. We've picked a truly lovely dog here.

Targeting breakthroughs, a BBQ and big storms

My clever boy... looking distinctly un-clever,
with his mouth full of leaves, or dirt, or
twigs.... or something even less savory......

4 months 2 days old

Knightley really impressed me a couple of days ago. Over the last week I have started training a "shake" as well as more paw targeting, and I've finally 'shaken' (get it?! terrible, I know) his expectation of doing all paw targeting from a down. Anyway, I'd been using a small tupperware lid for his paw target training (with enough height that treats could just fit under it to encourage him to start the pawing process), but once he had got the idea, had changed to a big white sticker for the "shake". The next day I thought to myself that we hadn't done anything 'new' for a while so decided for the next session I'd try to get him targeting my leg with his paw instead. At first I had the sticker half on my hand half on my leg, and he adapted immediately to pawing a vertical surface instead of horizontal. Then I took it off my hand completely and he kept on pawing the sticker on my leg on cue. What a clever dog! I moved it around on different places on my leg, and he followed it around with his paw, albeit slightly inaccurately. I was as proud as punch and felt like giving him the entire can of wet dog food I had been treating him with during our training session!

So, later in our afternoon I decided to push my luck a bit. He enjoys his nose targeting, but so far all we have done is touching my hand, and touching the end of a purpose made wand. As soon as he saw the sticker on my hand the second time, he tried to paw it. Quite a few times! Not getting a click/treat made him rather annoyed!! Anyway, I cued a hand touch, several times, had him running back and forward in front of me. At least he had stopped trying to paw the sticker. Then I did what I did before, put it half on my hand, half on my leg. He tried pawing again. Obviously we don't have it entirely under impulse control yet!! I pulled it off and did a few more nose targets. Then put it on half/half and immediately cued a touch. He got that, and received a joyful jackpot. Then it must have clicked. He pretty much got it right from then on, although he did eat the sticker a bit when I cued touch. I was able to ask for "paw" or "touch" and mostly get the right one, although occasionally he tried the other one first before getting it right. So much learnt for one day!! I was very very impressed and proud of my puppy.

I'm thrilled to have this photo of Knightley standing still,
I have so few photos of him actually standing because
he tends to move too much! Too bad his harness is pulling
him out of shape a bit, but it is thanks to my Dad I have this
photo at all. Knightley is growing up so fast!

Last weekend my husband and my parents and brother went to a nearby park for a BBQ.... and we took Knightley. It was a great opportunity for him to socialise some more, and I was hopeful that he might be able to at least get his paws wet in the lake. However, it was a rather windy day and the lake was full of dust and everyone had pretty much moved away from the lake into the trees to get some shelter. He did however demonstrate his ongoing barking problem, although it could have been worse I suppose. I had taken a freeze dried kangaroo bone with lots of meat on it for him, but he spent half his time getting filthy eating dirt and leaves. SIGH!

Knightley in his usual 'rug' position with his legs splayed
out either side. You might notice the squashed tennis ball
in front of him he managed to find on a little walk. He often
carries things with him for minutes on end, and seems to
really enjoy doing it. I hope that means he will be good
at retrieving stuff for me!

Since the BBQ his barking has been improving quite a bit, although he will still bark if he thinks it will help matters - although it never does he seems to live in hope! He no longer barks whilst my husband and I eat in the evening, and that was his worst time by far. I have worked hard at showing him that his barking is unacceptable. Perhaps I will do a blog entry on how I am tackling his barking. It is a four pronged approach combining a 'quiet' cue and treats and 'good quiet' praise for continued good behaviour, with depriving him of my company when he barks (negative punishment) which also interupts the barking, and also slowly conditioning him to my departures so that he doesn't bark when I leave the room but he can't follow which has been one of his major problems.

Also since the BBQ we have had some pretty severe thunderstorms. We often do get some bad ones during Summer - and it is just going into the beginning of Summer now. Whenever we have got even mild thunder since we got Knightley I have made sure that it is a time for fun and treats. The storm we had not last night but the previous was severe enough that we lost power twice, the gutters overflowed to the point we had flooding in the house, and there were several crashes that made *me* jump. Knightley got a little mopey as the night went on, but there was absolutely no shaking, no trying to hide or anything like that.

Frankly, there has only once been anything Knightley has been scared of, and that is the kids who live on our street. There was a group of about 8 of them, half on bikes, a couple on go-carts and the rest running... and they all came towards him at once to meet him. That is just about the only time I *ever* seen his tail between his legs, ears back slightly, and crouching a bit. He even tried to take shelter behind me. I told them to pat him one at a time, to talk quietly, and to stop running... and within a minute he was on his back grinning his doggy grin. This was less than a week ago though, so next time he meets kids I will make sure it isn't threatening so it will be 100% successful and he won't develop a thing about kids. Anyway, I was very happy to see him unafraid of a pretty severe storm, although I know it often develops later in life in dogs. Still, so long as I continue doing what I'm doing with him, he should be just fine with thunder and lightening. I mean, he has struck up a friendship with the postman, who rides his motorbike right up to Knightley and I, and then Knightley jumps up (a bit naughty but he gets off when I tell him to) to say hello to a helmeted funny dressed man on a hot piece of metal that roars into life without warning. All this without a skerrik of fear. I'm definitely proud of my puppy dog.

He's looking less and less like a puppy, speaking of 'puppy'. He's got quite a lot of his adult coat, and every time I brush him I get huge handfuls of his puppy coat coming out. He's definitely no longer that fluffball we had in those early weeks. His back is a full 65cm long (26 inches) from neck to tail, he's about 45cm tall (18 inches), and he is 60cm around his chest (24 inches). Despite that his neck hasn't grown much at a rather pitiful 34cm (13.5 inches), and he has a LOT more weight and bulk to put on - at a guess he is about 16.5kg (36lbs). He turned 18 weeks old today, has eight big adult teeth and has another two coming in. It is truly amazing how fast these dogs grow up - and he's been on a slow growth plan! Crazy.

Knightley's final puppy shots, LLW and learning new skills and tricks

15 weeks old

So this week Knightley had his last puppy shots, which should now make him safe from parvo. While I have been socialising him that has been the big one I have been scared of, but now this shot is done, and give it a few more days to work completely.... then I can relax about it. A friends dog was very close to dying from parvo when he was a pup, I was pretty scared that it would happy to Knightley. The memories of my previous dog, Clipsy, are still surprisingly fresh. He died in 2000 from a long and protracted battle with a progressive heart murmur like so many poor Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. By the end of his life he was taking almost as much medication as I do!! So I guess I am just scared of having a very sick dog on my hands again.

Knightley's coat, having lost the majority of his cute puppy
fluff, now has a stripe of coarser fur down his back which is
the beginning of his adult Golden Retriever coat. Golden's
have a double coat, his existing puppy coat will be the
undercoat, and this new coarser fur coming in will be the
protective overcoat.

Parvo is one of those illnesses in dogs that scares me. As does the prevalence of cancer in Golden Retrievers, but it does tend to be less in the English type of Golden Retrievers than the American type. Here in Australia we generally have the English type - they tend to be a bit larger, heavier set, often of lighter coat. The American type looks like it comes greatly from 'field lines' by and large - often quite slight in build, a great deal of energy and drive, less feathering (coat), and the coat is often darker... even red in colour. Knightley is definitely starting to get his adult coat, so far it isn't going any darker (usually it darkens a bit to match the colour of the dogs ears), but I guess we'll just see. You can see here in the photo to the right that most of his 'puppy fluff' has gone, and he has this stripe of coarser fur down his back, that is the beginning of his adult coat. I was open to him being a more golden coloured golden, but I would be rather pleased if he stayed cream too! Anyway, it is a great relief to have Knightley fully vaccinated. One thing to worry about less. I am such a champion worrier.

Knightley's paws compared to my palm. They are so huge,
and even bigger when he is standing on them, then they truly
are the same size as my palm. Doing paw targeting with such
big paws on still what is only just a medium sized dog is kind
of odd!

So after a bit of a hiatus in learning new skills, apart from a bit of paw targeting, we are learning a few new things. We also have a bit of fixing to do... I've mucked up some behaviours just a bit by accidentally creating some unwanted behaviour chains and expectations. For instance, Knightley is getting good at paw targeting - but because he seemed better at doing it in a down position, I let him do it from a down about 2/3 of the time. Now as soon as the lid I use for him to tap with his paw comes out, he automatically goes into a down. To get him to paw target it in anything but a down, I have to keep him moving back and forth with nose targeting (touch), then paw, then nose, paw etc. Otherwise he just lies down and uses his paw that way. Speaking of paws, his are pretty massive - in the photo here you can see they are nearly as big as my palm, especially when he's standing up on it, not lying down as he is here. Another problem I had but have mostly fixed, is for a while I was practicing a lot of 'puppy pushups' where you ask for a sit, down, sit, down, sit, down and so on. He got so used to it he used to pre-empt the cue. Grrrr. So I started being as random as I could be, sit, touch, zen, down, touch, sit, down, sit, touch, down, zen etc. That seems to have *mostly* fixed it, although Knightley seems to slide into a down if I leave him in a sit for a short while. Sit stays are not going to come easily!!

I have started to teach the "bang you're dead" trick, where when you say "bang!" with the fake 'gun' hand movement, and the dog flops into a down on its side with its head on the ground. Knightley is getting the on the side bit, but only sometimes manages to put him head right down. Also the speed isn't quite what I would expect from something getting shot.... more like a stoned turtle....... Still it's a start, and it's very cute when he gets it right. I throw a party and he gets a treat jackpot.

We are doing lots of Loose/Lazy Leash Walking (LLW) training, but damn it is going slowly. Barely perceptively moving, one might say. Instead of taking Knightley out the back to do his business, I take him out the front on a leash, so that he doesn't get as excited by going out the front anyone. I'm also handfeeding him his meals occasionally out the front, and making them extra yummy so that he can't resist. So he is definitely taking food better in close proximity to the house, and there has been some improvement on walks too I think, which will help with the ability to train outdoors and eventually master LLW.

This is the Freedom Harness, by
Wiggles. Wags and Whiskers. It is
considered the best harness in terms
of letting the shoulder move freely.

The vet and vet nurse expressed concern the other day that Knightley may pull me over with an excited lunge, as he is now getting to that size and strength. They also referred me to a trainer who does sessions on Saturdays, who gave me a call as soon as I got home from the vet. Both vet AND trainer tried to push a halti on me. I think they were a bit surprised at the vehemence of my reaction, and a bit baffled when I explained it by saying that how it sat on the muzzle had psychological effects on the dog. I have looked into getting the Freedom Harness by Wiggles Wags and Whiskers, but will have to pay an obscene cost in postage from the US it seems. It is a no pull harness that doesn't constrict the shoulder joint, as unfortunately many no pull harnesses do. The plan would be to use that for a month or two as a tool to *train* Knightley, in conjuction with further clicker training, and training on the flat collar. It would just help make me be safe on our walks.

Anyway, I had a great chat to the trainer about all sorts of dog trainer type stuff. She had done the dog training course I am interested in, so that was good for some insights. She says that I should feel free to 'use and abuse her' for the training of Knightley, eg if he needs some distraction training that week, come and use her class as the distraction. Or if I just want him to have some socialisation, I can bring him along for that. Her class is being held in a field, so I don't think I would find walking around in it, doing heel work etc all that easy or good for me, but she said I could sit that out. Apparently they let the dogs off to just run around, so that sounds great for Knightley. I am volunteering today, so won't be able to go to this session - but maybe next weekend. I look forward to it. From my rather lengthy chat to the trainer, we are on the same page on quite a few things - although not haltis - and it was good to talk to someone who knew her stuff. The previous guy at puppy class was just a little clueless and stuck in his ways.

I went a bit nuts and took a huge series of photos with my new camera yesterday, so here is one of the best of them after tiring him out playing with the flirt pole. My Knightley a touch over 15 weeks, 13.5kg (29.7lbs) and a full 43cm (17 inches) at the withers. He has also lost several teeth now, possibly helped by the amount of tug he loves to play!

Knightley, chewing on the ball attached to the flirt pole. His accuracy
in chasing and speed has improved hugely over the last couple of weeks.
Gone is that baby puppy clumsiness, he is on his way to becoming an
adolescent dog.

Changing how I train Knightley

13 weeks 2 days old

Since the first days of training Knightley, he hasn't been particularly switched on by training sessions. I have already talked on here at some length about the difficultly in finding a treat that Knightley could really like and now I look back upon my techniques, in a way I used that difficulty as an excuse for his slight passiveness - and didn't really try to change anything about the way I was actually doing the training sessions.

In a way, I don't blame myself much. Those first couple of weeks with Knightley were very exhausting, and I don't think I could have mustered up the extra energy for the approach I am using now. I had been thinking a lot about Knightley and I, and made a post on the yahoo list for those who are following Sue Ailsby's Training Levels. It helped further challenge my expectations of myself, of Knightley and also after some thought, gave me some ideas for changing our training sessions in order to get him "in the game".

These are the major changes I've put in place:

• I now stop sessions while he is wanting more (before I sometimes continued until he was reluctant)
• I now stand to train him, and keep moving around (before I used to train sitting, as I know many other trainers do)
• I now talk a LOT, and make lots of fuss over right things, especially any breakthroughs. This is to keep him engaged and keep his enthusiasm. Talking is generally considered a no no for clicker training (before I generally trained in semi silence except for effusive praise when he had done something really good)
• I am temporarily using the marker "yes" more often than clicking, as it seems to be more effective. I think this may be because the clickers I have are of the "i-click" type and so are rather quiet. Knightley is completely sound proof and I think they are just a bit wishy washy for him. I have ordered two clickers of the loud type. (Clickers are considered a better marker of desireable behaviour than your voice, because your voice changes, and reflects your mood, and possibly your frustration with your dog! A consistent marker is the cornerstone of this type of training, called operant conditioning)
• I try to keep the behaviours varied, when not learning something new. In the past we might review zen by doing three in a row. Now I will do one zen, then a touch while moving my hand so he has to chase after it which he loves, then a down, then another zen..... I have realised he much prefers the active behaviours, so I mix them all up.
• I have made his main mealtime food more boring in the hope that he will see treats as exactly that - treats!! His meals were (on breeders advice) kibble, soaked well in warm water, with a bit of puppy milk, and a couple of tea spoons of wet dog food. I slowly weaned him off the puppy milk bit by bit (he didn't appreciate that change!), and then slowly reduced the amount of wet dog food I was giving him. Last night was his first kibble only meal, which he ate happily. Previously he had refused kibble point blank. We'll see if it helps.

These changes have already made some big differences. Before the changes, there was very little wagging and doggy grinning during our sessions. Now the tail rarely stops, and that is something really important to me. I think clicker training can give that happy tail wagging 'this is a fun game' feel to a dog, unlike any other training method. My previous dog was trained fairly traditionally (with some luring), and I can tell you, he didn't particularly enjoy being pushed and prodded and jerked into various behaviours. Once he had learnt them, he could enjoy more, but the process can be so much more fun for both partners!

The approach kind of proved itself when I started teaching the beginning of paw targeting. Knightley didn't get it on our first day, but second day, bam bam bam, his rather large paws were hitting the lid I was using again and again and his tail was going happily. In the past new behaviours took longer and were something that didn't make him happy.... they tended to turn him off and make him a little unwilling to continue. So that was exciting. I made some videos of Knightley doing the OL1 (Old Level 1) behaviours the other day, but I need to actually make them into a proper movie before posting them.

We are working hard on LLW and also on keeping under threshold whilst outside. He certainly isn't great at taking treats outside, which is a good indication of being over threshold. Lots more work to do there.

He is definitely growing up, there is more maturity there. Not to say he is sometimes still a real devil... but he is generally less work than he was those first few weeks. We've had him 5 weeks now, which means he just turned 13 weeks old. He is growing so very fast it scares me! It is to the point I am really not a fan of picking him up anymore. They say on a slow growth plan he should be about half his adult weight at 4 months, and that should be about right - maybe a touch under.

Anyway, he is my adorable Knightley, and our bond is becoming very close already. I miss him whenever I leave the house and can't wait to see him again.

Puppy class, Knightley's new best friend, a very very tired pup

Knightley and Riot,  two playful male pups, only two days
apart in age, about the same size and fluffiness. Let the
games begin.

12 weeks 3 days old

So today was Knightley's second puppy class, and he got to romp with his best friend again, Riot the Australian Shepherd. He played and played until he completely flopped onto the floor and couldn't move. We did some training too, but the part I love Knightley to have is the opportunity to play. There were two other dogs there today, both "jugs", jack russell x pug. Cute little dogs, and both a bit older than Knightley and Riot. It was perfect though - the two bigger dogs played together, and the two smaller dogs (despite the fact Knightley being a Golden Retriever will make him bigger than Riot significantly, I think the slow growth plan has kept him smallish so he's about Riot's size, just with much bigger paws!).

Knightley and Riot going for it at my feet. Last week
Riot always won, this week Knightley more than
held his own - helped by the fact Riot had spent the
morning with other dogs.

All the puppies together. One of the "jugs" getting in
on the rough and tumble Knightley and Riot act. 

He wasn't particularly impressive in terms of following cues, once again, but in that atmosphere I am not all that surprised. Still, it is a shame the instructor doesn't see him at anything like his best, but perhaps I need to let go of that mindset a bit. I think there was some improvement today,  in terms of being under threshold, as he was able to take food some more, although just having the dogs around was such a huge distraction. We visited the training place yesterday to try to get him more used to it so that he would be able to focus on us. I am not sure if it helped..... He would sometimes sit, sometimes down. Everything else was seriously hit and miss, and I don't like using cues when they are likely to be ignored. By the time the instructor got around to 'teaching' us touch (which we obviously know), he was so tired, he could barely be bothered to move his head, although even then he would still play with Riot.

We learnt 'watch' (in the training levels, but not something I have done yet), but I didn't like the way the instructor taught it. Some of the things he does I agree with, other things I think he must be really good at these beginner puppy classes with really young puppies, but probably hasn't read much of the doggy literature out there. For instance, he was asking for a good 5 seconds, or maybe even 8 or so seconds of eye contact before treating the pups. In my opinion that is crazy for a puppy. I would treat at even 1 or 2 seconds, and then the puppy would understand what it was doing right. Then you could start increasing it. Of course Knightley is not used to jumping up suddenly to such a high time expectation, I do things like that slowly with my clicker. He couldn't concentrate on the instructor for more than a second or two, kept on looking away, and yet he was given a treat for it. Not reinforcing what is wanted clearly, in my opinion.

Lying immovable on the cool floor, completely exhausted,
whilst we were meant to be practicing touch and watch.
He wouldn't move, not even for roast chicken. Poor puppy.

Anyway, we did our touch with some white tape on the end of a ruler, instead of having to teach the basics, like the rest of the class. He was really getting tired at that stage, but he did a few good touches - enough to show he could do it, before totally collapsing. It was the hottest day so far of spring, a little over 29c (about 85f), not hot by Canberra standards but it has been a rapid increase in temperature and that contributed to Knightley feeling completely exhausted by the time we got home.

Next week is our last week of puppy class, and it has been a great experience, mostly for the socialisation as we have learnt relatively little. It certainly gives us a quiet Sunday when he comes home! Five hours after getting home, he is still sleeping soundly, I had to even wake him up for his lunch!

I am planning to take him to another puppy class that accepts puppies only after 16 weeks old, and that is run by my vet. I think they are mostly socialisation and help with problems though, with little training. I guess we'll see. We'll have several weeks to practice our stuff before going to a new class. We'll also start to widen our socialisation experiences. My husband suggested a cafe, and if we can find the right one I think that would be a good idea. Knightley is a star wherever he goes, he can't be resisted!

Progress with Knightley's basic training

9 weeks 3 days old

Well, I've found something that Knightley will work for - cooked chicken. He's almost keen for it! In the last couple of days I have been making some good progress with it. I'm trying to make sure I get his feeding right, as he was a bit pudgy when he came to us, and I want to feed him on a slow growth plan to maximise the chance his hips will grow well, without any signs of dysplasia. So, I am quite sure I am not feeding him too much. I am also doing my training sessions before his meals, to ensure that he is at least relatively hungry. It is quite amazing how little interested he is in the vast majority of foods. However, like I was just saying, chicken is somewhat of an exception. I can keep his attention with chicken for a reasonable time, maybe up to 10 minutes with a high level of reinforcement.

Being a bit sleepy and adorable.

Yesterday we worked on sit, which is coming along well, both with hand signal, and with cue. We also continued work on hand targeting, which is probably at about 6/10 at the moment. I have a feeling he doesn't quite *get it* yet, even though he often does the right thing. I don't know how he can do the right thing without understanding quite what is wanted, but I am sure he was frustrated. He barks at my hand sometimes when he clearly wants the chicken but forgets how to get it. We were also on our second day of working on down. I lured it at first, and then used a hand signal similar to the lure action. It was quite hit and miss yesterday. We've also started 'zen' (ie leave it cue) but despite him seeming to get it quickly at first we have a lot more work to do there. The only behaviour left from this level to train is the come, and I've been doing what I can solo. It's the weekend now, so I hope my husband and I can give the 'come game' a go. These behaviours are all from Sue Ailsby's Training Levels, Level 1 (Old Levels). We have a good way to go before we pass them and can go onto the much more interesting Level 2.

Asleep by my feet. Continuing his theme of being
cute whilst unconscious.

Today down was going much better, although he is not offering it how I would like him to, he pretty much needs the hand signal. Perhaps I will have to start some capturing. His sit is pretty good in certain rooms so I am starting to move it around. Hand target still frustrates him occasionally, he has gaps where he can't seem to remember what to do, and he loses interest in the 'chicken game'. Zen he isn't getting, he'll do it right on one session and then next he won't have a clue. He just fundamentally doesn't understand it. Still, he is doing a LOT better than how my previous dog was when he was 9 weeks old.

Showing his fluffy loveliness. I have a
feeling he is going to have an enormous
coat! I am putting some work into
getting him to accept being brushed happily
although he does quite like eating the
brushes at the moment!!

House training is going pretty well. His only occasional accidents continue to be our fault. There are a few stairs for me to go down to get out, so I sometimes put off going out, which can be my undoing! Stairs are not my friend!!! He is doing well with his sleeping, no whining when he goes into his little sleeping crate, but he doesn't much like his big crate in our living area when he really wants ATTENTION. Then the whines/howls come out. He really is a full on, demanding puppy. I am thrilled at his love of tug, and how he happily carries objects for a good 15 seconds. But it's going to be another couple of full on months before I stop being zombiefied at the end of each day. Cross fingers Knightley will make up for it in later years.

Today he had his first bath. It has been raining quite a bit in the last couple of days and he had got himself quite mucky. I fed him quite a bit of chicken so he would see the bath as a GOOD THING, but he stopped taking chicken half way through and was quite miserable (in doggy nerd speak, he was over threshold). I had wanted to get him used to his bath slowly, step by step, just wetting him paws one session, a bit of water on his back the next.... but he got too mucky! On the other hand, I used a wonderful smelling Australian Made shampoo called Champet (http://champet.com.au) - the Aromatics line. I shampooed and conditioned him and he both smells and feels so lovely. I ended up completely soaked and completely exhausted. But worth it for such a scrumptious smelling dog!

Those photos are all quite recent ones of Knightley - the last two or so days. He is definitely growing! He is nearly the size of my previous dog, Clipsy, who was a rather large Cavalier. I am looking forward to him being a little more grown up. I do love some of these puppy moments, and I do treasure them, but he would try the patience of a saint sometimes. I see him get more focus and simply become more trainable every day, and it's a lovely process to watch.

It's the middle of the night, and an update

8 weeks 5 days old

Well I've just been outside in the middle of a rather chilly spring night, having a nice "chew the leash, leaves, dirt, himself, me, and the whole world" time with Knightley - which was meant to be a relieving himself time. Well, he did do that, but then proceeded to wreak havoc. It's some dog we have here. It's amazing how fast he'll drop a good squeaky toy for a nice patch of dirt or even better.... a TWIG. As my husband pointed out earlier this evening when I was going on about how cute Knightley was while sleeping, he's very cute when unconscious.

That's not to say that he is always a terror. I am continuing to work on loading the clicker some more, and am starting Sue Ailsby's Training Levels (see link above in the tabs). We have just worked on the sit, and have just started to put a cue to it. He definitely offers sits a lot. He isn't all that thrilled with the treats I am using at the moment, and I have experimented too! I've tried a few commercial treats, tiny over nuked sausage bits, and tiny cheese squares. I'm going to order some new stuff online and try that. My previous dog would do virtually anything for cheese, but not Knightley it seems, unless it's a puppy thing. Shame. I really don't want a picky dog.

We have been going really really well with house training - no more accidents since our second day.... until last night. We thought he needed a 'number 2' and took the bone he had been chewing on away from him, took him out, but nothing was evident, so he came in to be fed. He wasn't interested in the food and **I** thought he seemed to be sniffing around looking for the bone we just took away. Ooops. I did catch him in the middle of it at least, and he did the majority of it outside. Go me for misreading his signals, although they were very similar.

Offering a very nice sit

We haven't really started working on down, although I do
reinforce it occasionally, enough that I've noticed him offering
it some more.

We took him over to my parents place a couple of days ago, and he had a great time exploring their big back yard, although we kept him on a long line, as their yard isn't puppy proof these days. He concentrated so much on *exploring*, it was very cute. He had to see every bit of their yard.

Nothing really bothered him, a few things looked odd, but he very soon overcame any hesitance. Until now we have been using a small portable crate in the car, but for the trip over there and back I decided to go without a crate and just clip his harness into the seatbelt. I wanted a chance to train good car manners.

Me having a hug with a very tired out puppy. Visiting is
tiring you know?

My previous dog, Clipsy, was always a over excited in the car, and I want to make sure Knightley can relax without being in a crate. It went pretty well. I used little cubes of cheese to distract him, although I made a silly training mistake on the way over, he was doing well and so I slowed my rate of reinforcement. I instantly lost his focus and he started whining and jumping around a bit. In a very high distraction situation like that, where what I am doing is working, I should have just kept it up! Silly me, but I learnt from it on the way back and we did well. He was asleep by the time we got back - partly because he was just exhausted!!

Speaking of exhausted, at the end of each day I am completely out of spoons (read "The Spoon Theory" to understand spoons). I am certainly sleeping well!! Better than I have for many many months. I am just so very tired. Knightley is taking every tiny skerrick of energy I have.

It's several hours later now, daylight time. We've done some work on sit this morning, as well as getting him happy with nail clippers, which came in the post this morning. First I treated him for having them near him, then touching his paws with them, then stroking his paws (all of them) with them, then opening and closing them in front of his face, and then again near his paws. In some later sessions I will clip some twigs near him and treat that before I go anywhere near his nails. I want to make sure he is happy with having his nails cut. Clipsy, my previous dog, didn't like it very much!

I also plan to do some work on hand targeting today. I'll get a tiny bit of peanut butter and click/treat when he sniffs/touches/licks my hand. Once we do that a few times he should get the idea that touching the palm of my hand gets a treat. Eventually during another session we'll add a cue but today we'll just concentrate on getting the idea.

Knightley has developed a love for the flirt pole (google it if you don't know what it is), although I just bought a lunge whip meant for horses, then tie one of his favourite stuffies onto the end. It's a good way to wear him out when he's being particularly obnoxious. I call it 'going fishing for a puppy'. He wags madly the whole time. Dear little pup, so cute sometimes and such a plotting little devil at other times!