Foolish doesn’t even begin to cover it, but I’ve decided to take another shot at NaBloPoMo and post something every day in April. I’ve got a lot going on this month, and I hope that will translate into “lots of things to write about” rather than “not having time to write.” So you can look forward to reading about the Rottweiler Klub of North America, Total Rottweiler Magazine (and if you are a Rottweiler owner, I’d like to think that you are not only reading about TTRM, but that you are reading it), Susan Garrett’s 5 Minute Formula to a Brilliant Recall, and Kent Weakley’s Photography eClasses.
I’ve mentioned in a few prior posts that we’re doing Susan Garrett’s “The Five Minute Formula to a Brilliant Recall.” I’ve mentioned before that Freya and Axel seem to have different learning styles as well.
One thing in particular that surprises me is that Freya is still reluctant to do anything to my right, even when rewarded for being there. Freya will be seven and Axel will be four in November, so I definitely expected both of them to be more accustomed to being on my left in the usual heel position. That’s quite a few years of being on the left, including casual walking, basic classes, show training, showing in American and German-style shows, obedience classes, and rally obedience classes and trials.
Axel was a little confused at first, but with the possibility of a food treat or toy reward on my right, he decided pretty quickly that he would go with the program. I can now call or signal him to either heel or right, which is more useful than I thought it would be.
Freya still thinks it has to be a trick. She isn’t sure why I’d try to trick her after over six years, but she makes it clear that she is not going to be the one to fall for it. We’re still working on it. I still can’t get her to willingly come to my right side unless I create a barrier to my left side with a wall or fence.
I am sure we’ll get past it, as we have almost everything else. It’s just interesting how different Freya and Axel can be sometimes.
As we work through the games and lessons for Susan Garrett’s “Brilliant Recall” course, I’m learning other things not directly related to recalls, brilliant or otherwise.
First, I have been reminded daily as to why I’ve generally avoided using tugging as a training reward (other than not being an agility person and feeling forced into it, that is). Freya doesn’t like to play tug with me unless I spend a lot of time convincing her it will be fun. By that time, it doesn’t seem like big fun to me and it’s still less motivating to her than cheese. Continue reading
I had to think about whether I wanted to tell this story or not, because it is full of dog handler FAILs. Those would be my fails. So here it is, because the training WINs and dog WINs outweigh my fails.
As you know from somepreviousposts, I’m trying to improve both dogs’ recalls by taking Susan Garrett’s online “Brilliant Recall” course.
On Saturday morning, Axel and I were playing one of the pre-course recall games in the back yard. He did very well, especially considering that he’d just finished breakfast about an hour before. Handler FAIL: Since this game involved food rewards, we should have played before breakfast. After we were done, I released him to run around the back yard and “help” me pick up dog toys before the lawn maintenance crew arrived.
Unfortunately, while he was “helping” by grabbing a Jolly Ball and not bringing it to me, Axe spotted a jogger running past the front of the house and went to charge the gate. Handler FAIL: I know I shouldn’t let him do this, but I am always torn between wanting the dogs to ignore passers-by, or letting them go off on strangers in hopes that bad people will then bypass our property for one with no Rottweilers. I am right behind him, but a step too slow. He hit the gate, which shouldn’t have popped open, but it did. Homeowner FAIL: My husband and I try to remember to check the gates at least once a week to make sure the latches are closing and holding properly. Apparently neither of us did that recently enough.
Axe didn’t expect that either, but given the opportunity for freedom, he starts to go through the open gate. I call his name. He stops halfway through the gate and turns his head towards me. Just like he did for the game we’d just got done playing. Just like he was supposed to do.
I was not confident enough to wait to see if he’d keep coming back to me; I called “Axel, HIER” to make sure of it. And just like that, he was back where I could grab his collar, tell him he was a good boy, close the gate, and give him some play and love for not chasing the jogger and not turning into roadkill on the busy street we live on. Dog WIN. Susan Garrett recall course WIN. I honestly believe the reason he came back so quickly is because of the recall games we had just finished playing, and the games we had worked on during the week before.
I’ve had very mixed results in my attempts at independent distance learning over the years. Most of those attempts were independent study projects, some for school and some not, and those were the ones that didn’t go very well. I’m not disciplined enough nor organized enough to keep things moving on a realistic schedule. I have a tendency to push things off until there is major deadline pressure, and then the results aren’t of the highest quality. I need to find something to motivate me that doesn’t involve being under the gun, but I’ve had this problem for so long I think a physical reaction to the adrenaline rush might be involved. Sort of like my caffeine headaches. Yeah, I know I should cut back on caffeine, too.
I’m giving distance learning another shot, though. I’ve enrolled in Susan Garrett’s online course “The Five Minute Formula to a Brilliant Recall.” During the years that I was a listowner and forum moderator for dog-related discussion venues, I probably made hundreds of posts saying something like “you cannot train a dog over the internet.” While I still believe that there are many training situations and behavior problems where you need to see the dog and owner in person to be of real help, I now believe that there are other training situations where the internet can help a great deal. I am about to find out if this is one of them.
Many of us use books and videos as part of our dog training education, and I can already see one benefit of an online course over books and videos: interaction with the course giver. Although this course doesn’t officially start until August 1, there have been a few “bonus” lessons to start us off. Participants can post questions in response to each lesson, and Ms. Garrett and other trainers on her staff will answer, and other course participants can share their thoughts as well. So far, questions from other participants and the trainers’ and other participants’ answers have been very helpful to me. In fact, I have not posted my own questions yet, as someone had already asked them by the time I got there!
I’m looking forward to completing this course. I will consider it successful even if I don’t get perfect recalls from both dogs, as long as they both show progress and improvement from where they are now.
My computer bookmarks are not always well-organized. This means that sometimes I can’t put my finger on something I need right away. But it can also mean that something might surface right when I need it most.
Like this post, Behaving Gratitudinaeously, from Susan Garrett’s agility training blog. She suggests going through this exercise (and no, it is not a training exercise) with each one of your dogs, and if you are struggling with a particular dog’s training, to start with that one. Right now, that would definitely be Freya.
I want to share a couple of the “gratitudinaeous” moments I thought about as I went through the exercise.
See him at home on the first day, how curious he was, how crazy you are about him.
This was the evening of Freya’s first day home. She’s getting the lowdown on how to be a vom Viersen Rottweiler from our grand old man Oscar.
Next visualize that dog the last time you saw him sleeping in his favourite place around the house, where is he? What position is he in?
This is one of her favorite sleeping positions. She will often be found upside down on the floor, and even in her crate.
Think about how much you love that dog and how grateful you are to have him in your life.
I haven’t done this often enough lately, so today I am also grateful to Susan Garrett for writing her post, and to whatever powers of the universe brought it back into my sights when I needed to see it.
Now put this question out there for your “higher power” or just throw it on out there into the universe. “How can I help this dog to live with more joy and be more connected to me?”
This one I’m still working on, and while I don’t yet have the answer, I’m much more confident of finding the right one after thinking of all of the things that make me grateful to have Freya in my heart and my home.
You’ll remember that training hasn’t been going so well for Freya and me. We haven’t been doing very much training except for our minimum daily requirements of sit, down, stand or some combo thereof before meals. This is partly because I was debating about doing a thyroid panel, then doing it and waiting for the results. Also, partly because we both need a break from anything negative, and training and trialing were definitely becoming pretty negative.
I still try to keep up daily with the various dog training blogs in my feed reader. I read several agility blogs. Even though I have almost no interest in ever participating in agility myself, I have a lot of interest in some of the training methods discussed.
The last several posts on Susan Garrett’s agility training blog have been about recalls. Now there is something that the dogs and I definitely need work on. In fact, that is something that most people would (or should) admit needing to work on with their dogs. I’m still working through them, but the posts themselves as well as everyone’s insightful comments and questions are giving me a lot of food for thought.
Check it out if you want to see what I’m reading! Start out with Relationship Truce and go from there.
