dog training

Total recall

August 2, 2010 by kathi

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 some previous posts, 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.

(NaBloPoMo | August ’10: 2 of 31)

The journey is the reward

August 1, 2010 by kathi

I should say the journey is the reward for me. The dogs probably don’t see it that way.

A couple of months ago, when Freya and I first started having our training difficulties, one of the suggestions I got was to switch off more between food, toy, activity, and praise rewards. It’s good that I looked into having more reward options in my toolbox, since I also need to know what both dogs consider to be high-value rewards for Susan Garrett’s “The Five Minute Formula to a Brilliant Recall” online course that we’ve just started.

Freya is very food-motivated, so admittedly I was getting stuck in a rut with food rewards. I really hadn’t put much time into experimenting with toy, activity, and praise rewards until then. I found out that Freya’s favorite toy to play with by herself is not her favorite toy for playing with me. And neither of those toys is the one she’ll bring to Dan to play with him. I expected her to enjoy tugging more; maybe it’s just me she doesn’t like to tug with.

Axel is also very food-motivated. He likes a larger variety of toys than Freya does, and definitely responds to them. The problem with Axel and toys is that he is very interested in taking them away from the human, especially if the human is me. If the toy doesn’t have a handle or rope attached, I have no prayer of holding onto it. So I have never used toys much for training Axel.

This reminds me of a Heidi story. Heidi was ball crazy, a great catcher, and a natural retriever. Dan taught her all kinds of catch and chase games. “Heidi Go Long” was always cute. He’d tell her to “go long” and she’d lead out, he’d throw her a mini football, and she’d catch it over her shoulder. We’ve never gotten any of the Rottweilers who came after her to do that.

But as ball crazy as she was, Heidi would not play ball with me. I throw like a girl, and Heidi just did not like that. Even if I threw the ball, she’d bring it back to Dan. If he wasn’t there, she’d go and play with it by herself. If he was not home, or didn’t come outside after a while, she’d eventually bring it back to me. The look on her face made it very clear that I was a last resort. I miss her and that disdainful look so much.

The reward of choice at the moment for both dogs seems to be SPAM, with cheddar and mozzarella string cheese following close behind.

(NaBloPoMo | August ’10: 1 of 31)

Almost an actual dog training post

July 8, 2010 by kathi

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.

(NaBloPoMo | July ’10: 8 of 31)

Hitting a rough stretch of road

June 1, 2010 by kathi

The last couple of months of our adventures in rally obedience have been like riding a motorcycle on a loose gravel road: rough, bumpy, and not very enjoyable. Although we did manage to get a few qualifying scores, Freya’s overall performance has been well below what she’s capable of. Obvious physical problems have been ruled out by her vet, and she usually enjoys her training classes.

Despite some good suggestions from trainers and friends, it still seems like we’re not making much progress. She doesn’t have specific exercises that she’s having trouble with; sometimes it’s an exercise she usually does well that has NQ’d us.

I’m debating whether to take a break and just let Freya be a plain old dog for a few weeks, or suck it up and work through it. I could really use one of those translator collars like in “Up” — it would make it a lot easier for Freya to tell me what’s really going on with her.

(NaBloPoMo | June ’10: 1 of 30)