Week 2 with Hannah, the deaf and blind dog

I just love how easy it is to capture a moment on my cell phone!
  Below you will find two very short videos of Hannah in class. My only wish is that I recorded Hannah  just as soon as I saw her walking in the parking lot on the way in.   Hannah was just like most young dogs. She totally   recognized where she was and she was excited to be there.  She wagged and sniffed and was clearly happy.  Hannah  totally seemed to know me and gave me a sweet howdy.   On the way in, she aced the three steps down and then the three steps up.
I was impressed.

This is no lie.  We are making stuff up as we go along. We continued to introduce her to people by stamping our feet twice the treating, and that is going really well.

She learned no mugging, just like I teach dogs with sight and hearing.  We held out  our fist with food inside and if she didn't back off and stop trying to get the treat  with her mouth and paws then she wasn't rewarded. We are still using a scratch behind the ears as a marker that she did good and a treat is coming.

In class this week she learned that two taps on her butt mean sit.  Check her out. She learned this in minutes.

And then we taught her the beginnings of automatic  sit.  When I go, you go and when I stop you sit.
I continue to be impressed.

She did so well in class in fact that her owner who has another dog at home, and has fostered quite a few dogs mentioned that in some ways working with Hannah is easier than with other dogs.   Hannah's world is all about him and his wife.  She has no other competing reinforcers.  She is not distracted by other  dogs, or toys, and pretty much is there with them all the time.  She is content to just be around them and while I think they have challenges to face, there is truth in that statement.

We have no class next week because of the Fourth of July, but I can't wait to see her the following week. I will try to get more video.  

Useful Dog Trick - Fetch me the toilet paper!

New Training space on Forest Ave in Portland and other cool news!

Hello out there!

Goose and Finn love the new Forest Ave  space

The big news around here is that I secured a new training space at Forest Ave Veterinary Hospital in Portland on Forest Ave.  I share the space with another trainer and the staff at the clinic.  It is my hopes to be able to help more dogs and their families by cutting down on my travel time .  In the last month I have turned away quite a few dogs who live too far out of area, but would have been willing to come to me if I had a suitable place to see them.
I am hopeful that this will be a great thing!
My first clients at the new space start  this next week and most of the time slots that I allotted are filled!

Puppy class starts at Forest Ave starts Thursday, and I will be offering Therapy Dog Prep, Puppy Play and Learn, and Freestyle on Saturdays starting in June.

I have been writing lots for a new site Petcha.com . Currently I have 6 articles posted, but another 5 or more should be up soon.  You can view all my Petcha articles here.
Petcha has been  amazing to work for.  The biggest news is that they paid me a really good amount of money to write a puppy article for their new venture Petcha Puppies, which is a glossy magazine.  Nice to see that print isn't dead.  Don't think that it will be available until winter, but I am looking forward to sharing that with my parents who send me clippings of dog articles pretty much weekly by snail mail. They are adorable my parents, and I am very fortunate to still have them with me.

I have been working hard to try to make my web site easier to navigate, but so far it is not going that well. I created a page listing all group classes.  My web site is confusing to navigate because I am training at Mainely Agility, Poetic Gold Farm,two  Pet Quarters and now Forest Ave.  Have you ever seen that movie If this is Tuesday it must be Belgium? That is pretty much how I feel about life every day.  Here is the link to my new At a glance page.


I have been super busy, but I have pledged to blog twice a week because I have been told by multiple sources that Google is penalizing me in web searches for www.GooddogzTraining.com for having a blog that I do not update. For the past few years, I have focused energy on my Gooddogz Training Facebook, but moving forward I will be sharing my time between both.
If you haven't already, please visit and like my Facebook page.
Happy Training! 

Do you know the subtle cues you are giving your dogs?

The photo of Finnegan looking at me was taken while I was walking off leash. One minute the dog was running with the other dogs, the next minute he was glued to my side in a near perfect heel.  What I did to get my dog to me at heel was totally unintentional.  Can you guess what  it may have been?
I will give you a moment to think it over.


Lets go on to  Beck for a second.  Last weekend Beck met my parents for the first time.  They both put him through his paces.
"Sit." Sure no problem.
"Paw".  Nope I am saving that for when he is a little older and wiser. Although I have taught him to paw an object like the Easy Button.  Give paw can be a really obnoxious default behavior, so I often stay away from it with immature dogs.
"Beck lay down".  Nothing. They both then  pointed  to the ground, then dropped their hand all the way to the ground.  I stopped them before they lured him with a cookie.
They both gave me the I thought you were a dog trainer look.  Dropping their hand  to the ground got Beck's nose on their hand. They told him to hand target!


As a trainer, I should hope I have learned and evolved over time. Beck's down has been shaped.  I am thinking ahead to agility and being able to send him to the table and having him do a flying down stay.  Beck's cue for down is the cue  "down" said while looking at he ground. Parents were duly impressed I think.  With my new dog I am trying really hard to stay out of "Lurer's Anonymous." When we teach with lures and don't fade them  straight away, it is a hard fix. So much easier to teach it right from  the get go. We don't want to inadvertently teach our dogs to be "relurant" That is a sniglet I invented by the way. It means reliant on a lure.

When I taught Finney to lay down, it took me months of frustration. Dog would lay down fine at home and often it took quite a while to get a down in public.  I had it all wrong. At home I was saying "Finney, ready Down." In public, it turns out I was skipping the "ready" and he thought it was one big game of Nancy says. No "ready", no down for my Collie.  He doesn't like to be  wrong, and will choose a default watch me over taking risks.  Lesson learned for me.

I catch people in class giving subtle cues all the time without realizing it. Think your dog knows sit? Try asking while sitting down, or turned around, or from across a room using no hand gestures. Think your dog is downing just from your verbal cue?. Try your hands at your side, your eyes straight ahead and no bending at the waist.  Can you tell your dog to stay and pick something up off the floor, or will your dog think that is a cue for "come"?  I could go on, and I am sure you can think of a few that you have observed in yourself and in others.  \

Did you guess why Finney came to heel in the woods?  I was cold and I put my  hand in my pocket.  His heel cue is my left hand in my belly.

cartoon from   http://www.cafepress.co.uk/+lured_postcards_package_of_8,22286767

Teach your dog a quick trick -- Say Your Prayers

First you will need to teach your dog to put their "paws up" on something. I teach my dog to stand up on a horse feed bucket, which is very useful for teaching a myriad of tricks and behaviors

They cost 10 bucks at a feed store. Worth it. A local trainer tricks out a clementine box and makes it no slip, by gluing bits of rug on the bottom corners and remnants of rug on the top. You can also use a step stool, books, weighted five gallon bucket, and even the soon to be extinct phone book. Use your imagination.

I freeshape putting paws up with a clicker but you could also use your voice as a marker.
Remember whenever you use a food lure -food in front of the dog's nose, you need to fade it as quick as possible so the dog does not get reliant on the lure.


One day in class I had a slip and called it Relurant. Don't you love my new training word? Don't let your dog get relurant! Freeshaping is wonderful tool, plus it teaches your dog how to think and problem solve, and I think it makes for a more fun partnership.

After your dog is comfortable putting their paws on something, take it different places. If you are using a base that is not stable and it moves our from under your dog's feet, be sure to throw them a party. Lots of happy talk and lots of treat rewards. Things that wobble are good for building trust, brave dogs, and future agility dogs and skateboarders! But for some dogs, they will shut down if the base moves, so choose your base wisely. Base choice will also depend on the height of your dog for this trick. 



Now here is the key part. Put food in both of your hands. Feed the dog a treat, or just get him interested with your hand that is furthest away from the dog to keep him busy, while you slip your other hand with food up between his paws and lure the dog's head down between their legs. Feed feed feed with the dog's head lowered!! Remember behavior that is rewarded is likely to be repeated. This trick is a trickier than most to fade the lure. Start naming this trick just before the food appears between their paws and they will start looking for it in short time. You will click this, and soon will be clicking for increased durations of head between front legs. You may find your dog's front leg closest to you moves onto your hand. This is ok, only for the first  few times. 


You don't need to call this trick say your prayers if you don't want to. Where are you? Want to go to the Vet? Who wants a bath? Be creative. Some of my favorite tricks are simple behaviors with hilarious names.


________________

update 5/9
Here is Beck making progress. At this stage he has offering the behavior without a lure. I am rewarding him  between his front legs to strengthen the behavior. He pretty much has the trick on cue, now we are working towards longer durations.

Good dog Beck!




 
 
This post is dedicated to  Mel. Good luck teaching this trick to your clever dog walking client.