Wow! Things are going very well. Paris came over and E was MUCH more comfortable around her today, approached her more willingly, let her pet him, etc. The treats were flowing. See the photos in the links area on the right. Exciting!
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Day 5: Evening
Wow! Things are going very well. Paris came over and E was MUCH more comfortable around her today, approached her more willingly, let her pet him, etc. The treats were flowing. See the photos in the links area on the right. Exciting!
Day 5: morning
We went on a short walk this morning, hoping to encounter some distractions in the environment that are just a "step up" from what we've encountered before. But the very noisy trash trucks were coming! I decided that even I was afraid of THAT much noise, so when they were about 5 houses away we turned back and walked home. He loves to take walks, and does not pull. So far we have not walked him with my other dogs, I want more control over being ready to give him treats as we encounter challenging/scary things in the environment.
I put the dogs in the yard and was getting dressed to get out the door for work when I heard them running and playing in the yard. E was playing with the other dogs. It was great to see.
I put the dogs in the yard and was getting dressed to get out the door for work when I heard them running and playing in the yard. E was playing with the other dogs. It was great to see.
Day 4 continued... evening
I've been walking around doing the "umbilical cord" with E tethered to me. He loves it. He sits next to my computer, and comes up and nudges me gently asking for attention.
The words I would use to describe him at this point are: willing to please, hesitant, tentative, curious, very sweet, and GENTLE.
His toileting habits are very good-- no accidents at all.
He is visibly warming up to Dennis, who feeds him his meals (his meals are tiny since he gets so many treats during training). Dennis has not tried to hold him yet, but I think we're almost ready for that. E loves to be held.
The words I would use to describe him at this point are: willing to please, hesitant, tentative, curious, very sweet, and GENTLE.
His toileting habits are very good-- no accidents at all.
He is visibly warming up to Dennis, who feeds him his meals (his meals are tiny since he gets so many treats during training). Dennis has not tried to hold him yet, but I think we're almost ready for that. E loves to be held.
Panic!
We've had 2 mysterious episodes since E got here where he suddenly panicked and bolted. The first time, his 2nd day here, he was in his crate with the door open, and he had a longline attached (2 very thin light leashes connected together). The longline was secured to a heavy chair next to the crate. The idea was that he could come out of the crate and be in the room with us, but could not have full freedom.
The door to the back was open and was visible from his crate, but was out of reach. He suddenly bolted so fast and hard out of his crate that it bent the ring on his choke chain and the choke chain fell right off. He ran outside. We were stunned. It takes a LOT of force for that to happen. There was nothing obvious that triggered the episode. No noise, etc. Since he was so new here, we thought he wanted to get outside and made a mad dash for it. He came back to me with a treat, and I checked him- no injury. We repaired the choke chain.
Yesterday (day 4) I started to clicker train him and we were in the living room, the longline was on, again secured to a heavy chair. I was standing. He seemed less comfortable with me standing (it's a much more dominating position from his perspective). Suddenly he panicked, ran from me, got snapped back by the leash, cried out in terror and dashed into his crate (which was really NOT in reach, so he was being pulled hard on the buckle collar). I quickly released the longline to relieve the pressure on the collar, and sat in front of his crate and kind of talked to him. He settled down in the back of the crate, not wanting to come out. I didn't want a training session to end like this, it's important that they end on a very upbeat note. So I talked softly to him for few moments and then gave him a treat and gently took the leash and led him out of the crate. He came, but reluctantly. I started C/T-ing for short eye contact, and he brightened visibly, as though getting back into the game helped him forget his moment of terror. Boy, I wish I had a dog psychic who could tell me what was going on in E's mind.
The door to the back was open and was visible from his crate, but was out of reach. He suddenly bolted so fast and hard out of his crate that it bent the ring on his choke chain and the choke chain fell right off. He ran outside. We were stunned. It takes a LOT of force for that to happen. There was nothing obvious that triggered the episode. No noise, etc. Since he was so new here, we thought he wanted to get outside and made a mad dash for it. He came back to me with a treat, and I checked him- no injury. We repaired the choke chain.
Yesterday (day 4) I started to clicker train him and we were in the living room, the longline was on, again secured to a heavy chair. I was standing. He seemed less comfortable with me standing (it's a much more dominating position from his perspective). Suddenly he panicked, ran from me, got snapped back by the leash, cried out in terror and dashed into his crate (which was really NOT in reach, so he was being pulled hard on the buckle collar). I quickly released the longline to relieve the pressure on the collar, and sat in front of his crate and kind of talked to him. He settled down in the back of the crate, not wanting to come out. I didn't want a training session to end like this, it's important that they end on a very upbeat note. So I talked softly to him for few moments and then gave him a treat and gently took the leash and led him out of the crate. He came, but reluctantly. I started C/T-ing for short eye contact, and he brightened visibly, as though getting back into the game helped him forget his moment of terror. Boy, I wish I had a dog psychic who could tell me what was going on in E's mind.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Day 3 continued: Introducing the target stick
This is a photo of Kathy and Einstein the day she brought him over to us. You can see how bright and confident he is around her.
Last evening I introduced E to the target stick. It's a simple thin dowel, about 4 feet long. At the end, I taped a square of blue painter's tape, just to give something very definitive visually at the end of it.
The point of this silly stick is to teach the dog that if you touch this stick, you'll get a treat. We then use the stick as a tool to shape a bunch of other behaviors (jump up onto this table, heel, etc).
Karen Pryor can explain the training of a target better than I can. Click here for a great article from her.
E was definately performing the behavior in its first phase-- standing near the stick, looking at it, and occasionally touching it with his nose. All very good.
Later, my friend Paris (9 years old) who is really great with dogs came over to help me socialize E. He was very uncomfortable around her. She sat perfectly still, avoiding direct eye contact. He wanted to run. I would never pull him over to her and force the issue, that can permanently ruin a dog. For about 30 minutes she worked with him, holding cheddar cheese on her hand on the ground, staying perfectly still. He'd gingerly tiptoe up and take the cheese but was still very nervous. We had success but also realized that he needs a lot more work in this area. Whoever adopts him will need to be willing to rewind and probably repeat some of this process. My experience has been that once a Sheltie bonds to its owner, it grows in confidence and all of this comes faster. When K brought E over to our house the first time, and when he met me, was visibly better at meeting me (because of his bond with Kathy) than he was this time, meeting Paris. He stayed on my side (away from Paris), looked the other way, tried to pull away, and when he realized I wouldn't give him more leash, he asked to be held. That seemed to comfort him a lot. When I was holding him, he was actually closer to Paris than he was before (she and I were sitting on the ground right next to each other).
Paris's mother, Janet (also my friend), came over to help. Again, he was very scared. J sat quietly next to Paris. I took E behind them and held him and encouraged him to smell their backs and hair. We made a bit of progress. He was more willing to take a treat from Janet than from Paris-- this was probably due to his traumatic interactions with the child in his original home. Janet left. My friend Sandy came over, and we were all talking a bit and the talking and lack of focus on E seemed to actually relax him a bit. I held him a lot, too.
All in all, this kind of slow socialization is going to be very important for him. The problem is that the progress will "stick" more when it's done with his final owner, but I hope to at least establish some positive history with him while he's here.
So far, E has spent most of his time either in his crate, or out for short periods of training, exercise, and bodily functions. Now we'll work on having him spend more time out and about in the house with us.
We don't have a doggie door here, and we treat E as though he were a dog who was not housetrained-- though I firmly believe that if he can get outside he'll go in the right place. The problem comes when a dog doesn't know how to communicate to you that he needs to go. We have not established this yet with him. In our house, we hang a ribbon of jingle bells on the door to the backyard. Our dogs have been taught to bump it with their nose and jingle the bells when they want us to open that door for them. (This is something you teach using targeting. See article above).
So for the next few days, we'll have E out of his crate more, and we'll tether him to us. That simply means that he's on leash in the house, attached to me or Dennis at all times. This is known as the "umbilical cord" technique, and it serves two purposes. It accelerates the bonding between you and the dog, and it restricts his freedom such that he can't sneak behind the couch and have an accident. So it sets him up for success. And in our case, it forces him to interact more.
In K's household, he was out and about in the house all the time. So he's definitely used to that, it's not like he wants to stay in his crate all the time (though he does love his crate.) We're just rewinding to establish success in this new environment.
If you're not familiar with the value of crate training your dog, read this article here.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
The clicker-lightbulb isn't on yet
When dogs are trained using clicker training, there comes a beautiful moment when the lightbulb goes on and they really understand that their behavior can control whether or not I click.
E doesn't get this yet (and that's OK, it's not unusual for a dog who has not been trained this way from the start to be a bit slower to "get it"). E came from an environment where he was constantly yelled at, and was not trained, and was afraid to make a mistake. He didn't know what to do, but chances are if he did something, he'd get yelled at.
In clicker training, we want a dog who is confident in offering you behaviors. He doesn't have to worry about getting yelled at or jerked with a choke chain or a prong collar, because if he doesn't get it right, the only consequence is that a reward fails to appear.
The reason we want it that way is that we want the dog to try new variations of the behavior in order to move it along to its final version. Example.... my dog Piper does a cute trick called "Bang". I make a gun with my hands, and point it at her and say "Bang". She lays down on her side, and covers her eyes with her paws. It's adorable. It also took an entire month to shape the whole chain of behaviors!
At one point, she understood that she was supposed to lay down on her side. Good. Now I needed her to take both paws up to cover her eyes. So even though I had been C/T-ing for the laying down part, now I was going to raise the bar and ask her to give me something slightly different so I could give her feedback (either a click, or the absence of a click) about whether that variation was in the right direction. Get it? It's like the game we used to play of hot and cold. Hot means you get a click and a treat. Cold means you don't get a click and a treat. Cold means try again, do something else. In Piper's case I would C/T for any tiny movement of her front paws toward her nose, or of her nose toward her paws (while she was down on her side). Then I required a slightly larger movement in order to C/T. The first time she got the paws up to the nose, she got a big jackpot! "Oh!", she seemed to think, "Is that what you wanted?"
At this point, E understands that the click means a treat is coming (which is great). My job now is to help him understand that his behavior can cause the click. I'll know this is happening when he proactively starts offering me behaviors that have resulted in clicks. He's giving me eye contact, so we're on the right road. I want to start working on something else too (sit) so I can see if he is really getting it. My sense is that right now, it's not a solid understanding.
Once a dog does get it, they progress very quickly and are able to understand that this game applies to a whole toolkit of behaviors.
E doesn't get this yet (and that's OK, it's not unusual for a dog who has not been trained this way from the start to be a bit slower to "get it"). E came from an environment where he was constantly yelled at, and was not trained, and was afraid to make a mistake. He didn't know what to do, but chances are if he did something, he'd get yelled at.
In clicker training, we want a dog who is confident in offering you behaviors. He doesn't have to worry about getting yelled at or jerked with a choke chain or a prong collar, because if he doesn't get it right, the only consequence is that a reward fails to appear.
The reason we want it that way is that we want the dog to try new variations of the behavior in order to move it along to its final version. Example.... my dog Piper does a cute trick called "Bang". I make a gun with my hands, and point it at her and say "Bang". She lays down on her side, and covers her eyes with her paws. It's adorable. It also took an entire month to shape the whole chain of behaviors!
At one point, she understood that she was supposed to lay down on her side. Good. Now I needed her to take both paws up to cover her eyes. So even though I had been C/T-ing for the laying down part, now I was going to raise the bar and ask her to give me something slightly different so I could give her feedback (either a click, or the absence of a click) about whether that variation was in the right direction. Get it? It's like the game we used to play of hot and cold. Hot means you get a click and a treat. Cold means you don't get a click and a treat. Cold means try again, do something else. In Piper's case I would C/T for any tiny movement of her front paws toward her nose, or of her nose toward her paws (while she was down on her side). Then I required a slightly larger movement in order to C/T. The first time she got the paws up to the nose, she got a big jackpot! "Oh!", she seemed to think, "Is that what you wanted?"
At this point, E understands that the click means a treat is coming (which is great). My job now is to help him understand that his behavior can cause the click. I'll know this is happening when he proactively starts offering me behaviors that have resulted in clicks. He's giving me eye contact, so we're on the right road. I want to start working on something else too (sit) so I can see if he is really getting it. My sense is that right now, it's not a solid understanding.
Once a dog does get it, they progress very quickly and are able to understand that this game applies to a whole toolkit of behaviors.
Shelties circle a lot
Sheep herding breeds (Shelties, Aussies, German Shepherds, etc) really understand the value of a circle. Moving in a circle is something that has been bred into them pretty strongly.
I'm noticing that E likes to trot in a circle while he checks things out, while he thinks. I went home at lunch to put the dogs in. They were all sleeping by the gate, and E was in his crate (door open, also near the gate). They all jumped up to greet me, and E was happy and barking and was clearly greeting me. I went to the back yard to encourage everyone to eliminate. I sat on the patio and all my dogs came up to get pats and scratches and E circled the picnic table 5 feet away, assessing the situation, wanting to get near but not wanting to at the same time.
Once the other dogs stepped away from me, he came up and sniffed my back and hair, and stopped about 3 feet to my side. He let me reach out and scratch his chest. He stepped away again, circled the table a bit, and came back again. This time I encouraged him to come closer, he did, and he asked for more when I stopped scratching him. I pulled him into my lap which made him very happy.
We went into the house. I confined my dogs so I could train E. He was not on leash. As long as he was off leash, he trotted around, not coming too close, acting nervous toward me again. I was clicking and treating for eye contact but as long as he had this circling thing going on, the eye contact was too fleeting and I felt like I wanted to break this pattern. I got some good treats, lured him to me, and put the leash on him. I was sitting on the carpet. He layed down (C/T) and started giving me amazing eye contact. We're up to 5 seconds of sustained focused eye contact. Excellent.
So what I learned is that this is still a new situation, which makes him need the leash to be able to settle down and focus. Once that leash is on him, he's attentive. We'll take advantage of that during his sessions.
I'm noticing that E likes to trot in a circle while he checks things out, while he thinks. I went home at lunch to put the dogs in. They were all sleeping by the gate, and E was in his crate (door open, also near the gate). They all jumped up to greet me, and E was happy and barking and was clearly greeting me. I went to the back yard to encourage everyone to eliminate. I sat on the patio and all my dogs came up to get pats and scratches and E circled the picnic table 5 feet away, assessing the situation, wanting to get near but not wanting to at the same time.
Once the other dogs stepped away from me, he came up and sniffed my back and hair, and stopped about 3 feet to my side. He let me reach out and scratch his chest. He stepped away again, circled the table a bit, and came back again. This time I encouraged him to come closer, he did, and he asked for more when I stopped scratching him. I pulled him into my lap which made him very happy.
We went into the house. I confined my dogs so I could train E. He was not on leash. As long as he was off leash, he trotted around, not coming too close, acting nervous toward me again. I was clicking and treating for eye contact but as long as he had this circling thing going on, the eye contact was too fleeting and I felt like I wanted to break this pattern. I got some good treats, lured him to me, and put the leash on him. I was sitting on the carpet. He layed down (C/T) and started giving me amazing eye contact. We're up to 5 seconds of sustained focused eye contact. Excellent.
So what I learned is that this is still a new situation, which makes him need the leash to be able to settle down and focus. Once that leash is on him, he's attentive. We'll take advantage of that during his sessions.
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