Running A-Frame

You know that moment when you realize you might actually be insane? Well mine wasn't when I decided I was going to purposely buy a greyhound puppy for agility, or even when I decided to get a SECOND greyhound puppy for agility... it was a few months ago when I said to my agility trainer: "You know, I think I want to retrain my A-frame from stopped to running." That, my friends, is the definition of insanity. Trading in a 100% stopped contact behaviour that gives you a place to catch up with your dog, for a running contact which even at its most reliable is probably only 95% and makes you have to run so much more.

Not only are we talking about retraining a solid, well understood behaviour, but a running contact also requires the handler to retrain themselves in how to handle.

We had a private lesson on December 13, 2018 on how to convert to a running frame. 3 weeks later we had our first trial. It's still a journey in progress, but I thought I'd share our progress to this point. I had very bravely filled our January with trials, so we'll see how those go before we start signing up for February!

This was the first session we had after our lesson. We started by back-chaining... just putting her on the down ramp of the frame and asking her to step into the yellow and off. After a few repetitions of that we started doing the entire frame. I'm also using her release word to let her know she doesn't have to stop, and she's still not totally confident so there's a bit of hesitation. The bar or "stride regulator" gives her a target that her second stride needs to be below. Basically she needs to put in 2 strides.

This is the second week of training. I've been noticing that on many of the attempts without the stride regulator her stride is quite short and so even though she's put in the second stride, she's only just barely hitting the top of the yellow. The goal is for us to get all 4 feet in the yellow - 2 front feet followed by 2 back feet. When she hits high she's often only hitting with 2 feet. To try to help with this I've been adding in a wicket at the base of the frame. Typically you train a running frame with one method - people either subscribe to the wicket or the stride method. But heck, I'm already doing insane things like training greyhounds in agility, so why stop there? When training an unconventional dog in an unconventional sport use unconventional methods! Like using BOTH a wicket AND a stride regulator!

The stride method basically teaches the dog to put in a certain number of strides in order to hit the yellow. For large dogs that's 2 strides, for smaller dogs it may be more (don't ask me how many more because I don't have any small dogs!). The wicket method is different in that the striding doesn't really matter. What the wicket does is forces the dog to drop its head, which in turn forces the dog to run lower on the frame.

For the most part I do like the striding method, but since she is hitting a bit high, I'm hoping that getting her to drop her head a bit will force her to lengthen that stride a bit. Right now I'm using the wicket for the first couple attempts, then ditching it for just the stride regulator, and then finally removing everything (or using the stride regulator on one side and nothing on the other).

It's a work in progress, but here was Kenna today debuting her new running frame at a trial. I had run her FEO in the run before this and just had her do the frame a few times and rewarded with a toy, just to remind her and see what she would do in a trial environment. She was hitting high but doing her job. The frame in the Standard run was by far her best one of the day.

First Agility Seminar in the Books

Our first agility seminar is in the books! We had so much fun, and judging from the photos so did the hounds!

We had a whole range of sighthounds join us for this inaugural event, braving some really awful April snow conditions. From a little Italian Greyhound all the way up to a huge Irish Wolfhound! In between we had several Greyhounds, a Lurcher, and some Whippets!

I was so impressed with all the dogs and owners. What a talented bunch! We also had a couple of very brave hounds who worked really hard to conquer their fears. And we had some sort of unique challenges to work through!

I hope that the smiles say it all and that everyone enjoyed themselves and this sport!

Kenna enjoyed herself as the demo dog, though she thinks I need to come up with more demos so she can show her awesome self off a little more!

Thanks to everyone who came out to have fun with us!

We hope to see some of you in Calgary in a few months!

All the photos from the seminar can be found here.

Handling: Threadles

There is always so much to learn (and teach to your dogs) in agility. It is truly never ending!

My most recent project has been threadles. Threadles have many forms, but the classic (and the simplest to explain) is two parallel jumps, where you want the dog to take both jumps from the same side. In the really classic example, you want them to take both jumps from the side you are on, which means the dog has to come back to the handler before she can take the second jump (hard to explain in words, I've set up the "classic" in the video below).

Kili can sometimes struggle with threadles, particularly when she's fresh and lacking a bit in impulse control, as she tends to be carried far out by her long stride, and when she turns she's got a jump sitting right in front of her... why bother to take the long way around? However, even when she's listening well we still have an issue. Currently our threadle involves me calling Kili in to me, and then sending her out over the second jump. In other words, she looks at me, she comes to me, and then I have to show her the next obstacle. When you watch some of the best teams running, you will see that the dog instinctively seems to know what to do. The handler gives them the threadle cue, and the dog cuts close around the wing of the jump and takes it... seemingly without actually being told. Well, it's not instinctive... it's training! And I decided I want my dogs to have that skill.

In the below video I'm working with Kili and Kenna in the beginning stages of learning what the threadle cue actually means. It doesn't just mean "come over this way", it means "come and take this side of the next jump" so that they find the next obstacle independently. I can't take credit for the training on this, as one of my trainers told me what to do! But it's perfect. This video is of our second session. The girls are doing great with just the single jump, but are still learning to collect after the first jump. However, when they do it right you can see that they aren't even really looking at me for direction. They glance at me, they see the cue, and they immediately look for the appropriate side of the jump and take it. Now it's just practice, practice, practice... and that's how you get a greyhound to run like a border collie... sort of. ;)

Training Time!

Every once in awhile I'll come across someone with the weird opinion that training an animal to do tricks is unnecessary, or even cruel. Something like "they're not a circus pony" in mentality. Most people are okay with the idea of training basic obedience... that this is somehow necessary and does not deface the dog of his basic dignity, but somehow training him to do "unnecessary" things (tricks) does.

Now, I think watching my dogs work and train speaks volumes in and of itself. I'm not sure how anyone can watch Kili training and think she is being made to do it against her will, or that she doesn't like it, or that she somehow finds it degrading... but I also thought it would be fun to share a slightly different video that shows that joy from a slightly different perspective.

Winter in Canada (and especially in Edmonton) is cold and snowy and dark. It is unpleasant, and often impossible, to train outside, and so we spend a lot of time training in the house. Our upstairs is not particularly spacious and is also entirely hardwood (read: slippery) so it does not make a great training location, and I rarely do anything up there. In the basement we have one larger room that I have turned into my "dog room" (I will have to take photos to post some day) where we do almost all of our training in the winter months. The only time the dogs are in the basement is to train. They don't have access to it otherwise, and there is nothing else down there that concerns them (we have a storage room, laundry, and Jarrett has a music room down there). They do not have to be convinced or bribed to go down there. They rush to get there and I think their (particularly Kili's) enthusiasm and excitement are pretty obvious. They love their training room.

In the video, if you listen carefully, you can hear the clicking of nails on the hardwood upstairs and Kili crying because I am downstairs in her training room (probably training my secret other dog) and she is upstairs. Summit is a little more dignified than she is, but no matter where he is in the house (in this case he was fast asleep on his living room dog bed) he jumps up and comes downstairs the second he sees Kili and I headed towards the stairs.

Agility ladder

Recently I bought an agility ladder. An agility ladder is basically a PVC ladder that you lay flat on the ground to practice footwork. A lot of human athletes use agility ladders to improve footwork, precision, and conditioning, and you can use it similarly for your dog.

The look of concentration

 For an agility dog the ladder helps by improving foot awareness, especially in the hind end. Dogs naturally have poor hind end awareness, and the longer the dog the worse it seems to be. My experience with the greyhounds is that they have absolutely no concept of where their rear is in space unless they are taught. Hind end awareness is really important for agility dogs, particularly on obstacles like the dogwalk and teeter. If they are confident in their hind foot placement they will be more confident on these narrow obstacles, resulting in faster transit time and fewer accidents.

Going forward was easy peasy with Kili. I just walked along beside her the first few times and now I can just send her to it. Going backwards was a lot harder because it requires a lot more hind end awareness. I'm really pleased with how she has done though and now we'll just work on increasing speed!

We have indoor training!

End of October in Canada and winter is on the horizon. We've already had our first snowfall. Windshields have to be scraped and defrosted. Dogs need to wear coats when going out for walks. And the dark! We walk in the dark in the morning and at night. The only chance we have for training now is at lunch.

In light of the colder, shorter days arriving I have started getting the dogs accustomed to working at our new indoor location. A friend works at a barn and they've been nice enough to allow me to use their indoor arena several times a week so we can work inside. It will still be cold in there when the dead of winter sets in, but at least there are lights and shelter from the wind.

The dogs have been there twice now. As most of you know, Kili has major issues with environmental distraction. You will notice this immediately in the video. That said, I was really pleased with her. I worked each dog individually for 3-5 minutes each and then rotated and each dog received about 3 or 4 turns to work. The video of Kili is from her third session. Although not the level of attention and tugging that I get at home in our backyard the quickness of her improvement impressed me. The first turn she had she did not engage with me in tug and had a lot of focus issues (horse poop! yay!). The second she was much more focused with food and was able to engage in tug just a little bit. Then the third time, as you can see, she did really well and had a pretty decent tug session.

Kili is learning some "goofy" behaviours to be used for revving her up to work. In the video I'm only working with her on "turn" (circle clockwise) but we are also working on "spin" (circle counter clockwise) and "through" (go between my legs).

I am thinking that I might try doing some heelwork to music (dog dancing) with Summit. It's lighthearted and fun and that's all I really want for him. He'll be 9 in May and he's not getting any younger. Heelwork is easy on his joints, works his brain, and is great fun! He already knows "spin" so here we're working on "turn" and "through".

9 months - Using Pivots

You may remember somewhere in the past that I was teaching Kili to put her paws up on an overturned stainless steel dog bowl. I cannot remember now if I posted a video on teaching her to pivot on that bowl, however that is what I did. I basically lured her around in a circle with her front feet remaining on the bowl and her back feet making a circle around it. What was the point of that? As it turns out, the point of that was to aid in teaching her some of the signs used in Rally Obedience.

In Rally-O there is a course set up consisting of a series of signs on the ground. Each sign has an action/command that must be performed with your dog. Examples are "Sit-Down-Sit" (pretty self explanatory), "Sit-Walk Around" (ask your dog to sit and wait, then walk a circle around your dog and return to heel position), and "Weave Once" (weave through a set of pylons with your dog in heel position). Some signs are easy in one direction but infinitely more difficult in the other. 270 or 360 degree right is easy enough. You pivot around to your right the appropriate number of degrees while your dog heels beside you. Easy peasy. Now, I dare you to get up off the couch and try that... to the LEFT. Going to the left you are stepping INTO your dog. I guarantee that your dog isn't going to know where to go to stay out of your way. He may sit to let you walk around him. He may walk right out in front of you. He may stand up on his hind legs. But I am almost positive that he will not stay in heel position and swing his bum around... which is the only way to really stay out of your way and, more importantly, the only way to perform the sign correctly.

This is where that stainless steel bowl comes in. I had already taught Kili to pivot and keep her front feet on the bowl. I hadn't cared much about where she was in relation to me at the time. Now though, I asked her to put her front feet up on the bowl. I then used food to lure her head away from me, which made her step her hind feet TOWARD me into heel position. I then clicked and treated her for being in the appropriate position. I apologize that there is no video of this. The idea came to me while I was at Rally class. I grabbed a dog bowl and started luring. After only a couple of repetitions she had the idea. So no video because she's too smart. Once the dog has the idea further repetitions involve simply waiting for the dog to adjust her position and clicking and treating when she reaches the right place, as you see in the video.

Once Kili knew where I expected her to be it was time to start moving to see if she could transfer the idea. I did this by taking a tiny step away from her. I then waited for her to correct her position. If your dog is unable to make this leap then lure her back into position and C/T. Then take another tiny step over, lure her, etc. After a couple of attempts using the lure see if she can figure it out on her own. I had a smart cookie so I just started taking bigger and bigger steps until I was making her do quarter or half turns.

The dog has it in her head now to always pivot back to heel position. To achieve a 270 or 360 left pivot just slowly but continually move. Make sure you move slowly enough at first so that your dog can keep pace. As she gets better you'll be able to pivot faster and faster.

Eventually you will want to remove the bowl. I started by phasing it out. I replaced the bowl with a frisbee which is not as tall. Next I will probably try removing it completely, but if Kili can't make that jump then I will find something smaller and flatter than the frisbee... maybe just a small piece of paper.

I also showed a few other signs in the video, but they all use the left pivot to teach the dog a left finish.

7 months - Go to place

Kili is 7 months old tomorrow. She weighs in at 22 kg (48 lbs).

Something we have been working on at obedience class is a "go to place" command. This is an easy one for most greyhounds as they automatically assume anything soft on the ground is for them to lay on. Summit rarely even lets me get a blanket laid out properly before he's trying to step onto it.

At first Kili is just getting a click and treat for stepping onto the blanket. Then she gets a click and treat if she sits. And then when she lays down. Moving forward she only gets the click and treat once she offers the correct behaviour on the blanket. In our case that is a down. I basically cut out a whole step. Depending on your dog you may not be able to. The step I more or less skipped was clicking and treating for stepping onto the blanket and automatically sitting. And THEN clicking and treating when she lays down. I just waited her out for the down and now when she goes to her blanket she automatically lays down. I then reward her as long as she stays in her down (often edited out because that's long and boring!). If she gets off her blanket I don't correct her, I just stop rewarding and wait for her to go back and lay down again. If she offers to lay on it for a long time and I decide I'm done I just throw a boring piece of kibble on the ground as I give my release command ("okay").

In the last segment of the video we start working on adding the verbal cue ("on your bed") and adding distance. The point is for the dog to get to the point where you give the verbal command and the dog can run across the room (or into another room, or up the stairs) to go lay on her bed. This is a handy command for a dog who has a penchant for begging at the dinner table. You can then simply tell the dog to go to its place.

28 weeks - Head games

If you've been reading my blog for awhile you know how important I think it is to train your dog. You have probably heard me say something about mental stimulation and exercise being the keys to successfully training a dog to be a civilized member of the household.

What exactly does mental stimulation mean? Do you have to take your dog to obedience class every day for the rest of his life? Well, I think you'd both enjoy that but there are certainly other options for those days when you're too busy or tired. Life catches up with all of us sometimes. I've had days when I get home and I'm too exhausted to drag my butt off the couch for very long. And most of us work full time so there is anywhere from 7-10 hours a day where our dogs are at home without us trying to kill time while still being good dogs.

Treat dispensing toys are probably my favourite products available for dogs. There are so many different ones in order to provide your dog with lots of variety and challenge. A staple for every dog owner is, of course, the Kong. My favourite recipes involve your dog's kibble mixed with wet dog food, peanut butter, cottage cheese, plain yogurt, apple sauce, or baby food. I freeze all my Kongs to make them last longer.

And then you get into some of the really fun ones. I've provided a video of Kili playing with a couple of favourites, but this isn't even the tip of the iceberg of her treat dispensing toys. Whenever I see a new one I buy it. Right now we probably have about 8 different toys. She gets these at all different times of the day, but I always leave 1 or 2 with her during the day when I'm at work. She's a smart cookie. Summit never did figure out the tug-a-jug but Kili has it down to an art.

Next I would really like to buy some of the Nina Ottosson toys. Dogs need to be supervised with these toys but they are great.

16 weeks - Upping the Ante

I wanted to start with a video of Kili's hind foot placement. I used a bunch of bricks from the backyard for this because they don't move around as much as the stainless steel bowl and they also allow me to make a larger target. This video shows where she's at after about a week and a half since introducing this. She is not nearly so quick with the hind foot placement as she was with the front. I also tried to get her to move from brick to brick. I regret that the best didn't quite get caught on camera. I forgot that I was recording and was just trying something new, so part of it ended up off screen. Then when I set the camera up for it she didn't do it nearly as well... though it does emphasize how much more difficulty she has with her hind foot placement.

This week with no puppy school and only show handling class to look forward to I decided I was bored of just working on the same old things with Kili. Sit, stand, down, wait, touch a target. Boring. I get bored easily. So what else to do but start working on things that are actually relevant to agility?

I am not lucky enough to have any agility equipment of my own or have access to any. But I am nothing if not creative and resourceful. Pile of bricks laying around the backyard? Awesome. Two-by-four that my BF isn't using sitting in the shed? Awesome. What can you do with bricks and a two-by-four you wonder? Well, you can make a dog walk and a teeter for one thing. Now, it did end up being too narrow for Kili to manage getting all four feet on it, but she was able to get three on. And I was mostly interested in just having her get used to putting her feet on things and having something move underneath her. She did great!

But then my wonderful boyfriend helped me build this:

It's a home-made baby dog walk and teeter! If I set it on a couple of bricks I have a dog walk. If I just put it on the floor I have a teeter. As you can see the one side is weighted heavier than the other, so it even resets itself just like a real agility teeter. I was thinking I should spray paint it yellow and blue sometime.

The key was getting her to realize she could get all four of her paws onto it. Once she figured that out we were away to the races! We started with the dog walk and once she was comfortable getting all four feet on it and was making her away across at a pretty good clip we moved on to the teeter. We started with two bricks underneath so that there was barely any drop and only once she was comfortable I started making the drop greater and greater. I didn't take a video but by the next evening she was more than comfortable with the full drop. In fact, she is so comfortable that my bigger challenge now is slowing her down!

Go fetch!

There's a ball diamond not too far from our house where I've been taking Summit to let him run. A few months back I had seen Chuck It's! on sale and bought one, uncertain when I would actually have the location or dog to use it. Summit's problem up until recently was that he retrieved perfectly in the house but out in the yard he had a tendency to get too excited. He'd run after the toy and pick it up, but then get this look in his eye and go absolutely crazy running around doing zoomies... usually without the toy.

I'm not really sure when the light switch flipped but it did recently and so now I take him to the diamond and play fetch with him. I usually get him started with a stuffy so he can tear around like a crazy greyhound for a bit. Once he starts repeatedly bringing the toy back to me I break out the Chuck It. I'm still not using it to its full distance potential, but I want to make sure he brings it back so I don't have to go trekking after it. I got the whistling balls (you can hear them in the video over the wind) but even so he sometimes loses track of the ball if it's thrown too far.

And this was the dog who a year ago wouldn't even put a toy in his mouth. I had to teach him how to fetch from square one (Part I, Part II).

Older dog, newer tricks

I've always wondered where that saying comes from... you know the one: You can't teach an old dog new tricks. And just what qualifies has an "old dog"? Clearly this is a false statement, though I suppose it is true that any animal becomes less adaptable and therefore makes it more difficult to learn if they don't keep up with constantly learning new things. I remember a few years ago I tried to teach an elderly family friend how to use his new cell phone. To the younger generations this is such a simple thing it's almost impossible to actually explain how to do it. You turn it on, you dial a number, you hit send... and voila. It's not that different from any cordless landline phone one might already have in their home. But to the older generation, particularly those who have not kept up with new technologies, a cell phone is nothing like a cordless phone. You have to turn it on for one thing. You have to plug it in to charge it. You have to hit a button to make it dial after you key in the phone number. That is NOTHING like a cordless phone. Anyway, it was just something I was thinking about the other day. Regardless, here's a quick video of Summit doing a few of his newer tricks (and a few older tricks that we had kind of let slip by the wayside).

Please excuse the disaster that is our apartment and my hair... I took the video after rolling out of bed and going for our morning walk. That's his breakfast he's working for so the first few tricks he's a little excited about. And when he gets excited he tends to just throw all his tricks at once and then barks at me like "why aren't you giving me food, I did all my tricks!"

Spin and crawl ("be stealthy") are the newest of all the tricks which is why there's still a big lure and lots of mistakes. It kills me to watch the video of him trying to crawl because he's just so awkward at it!

Freedom is sweet

Summit and I haven't been up to much. I'm getting ready to write the biggest exam of my life... my veterinary licensing exam. To say time is a little scarce would be an understatement. But we have been going for some great hikes. It's absolutely fantastic that Summit's recall is now at a point where I trust him off leash in "safe" (i.e. not near roads) places. The dog park by our house is perfect. There's a gravel trail that most people and their dogs stay on, but there is a HUGE expanse of wooded trails that most people don't venture onto. Summit could also care less about squirrels or rabbits. I love not having to wait for him to sniff every bush and tree that strikes his fancy (he's a huge marker) but still be able to give him that freedom to do so like a "normal" dog. Here's a short video of a couple of recalls from our hike today. I am not going to go into an off leash discussion. My opinion is that it is a personal choice depending on you, your dog, and your comfort level. However, personally, I wouldn't off leash my dog (of any breed) unless his/her recall looked something like this....

And the other fantastic thing about hiking with Summit off leash is that he is free to bomb around a bit like a crazy greyhound, so that when he comes home he looks a little something like this....

Total recall

I must toot my own horn just a little bit by saying that Summit's recall is really quite good. Being my first dog and being a greyhound no less, I am quite impressed with how far we have come in such a short time. Summit has only been with us for 10 months and I would say that with no distractions his recall is 99%. I don't think any dog's recall can be described as 100%... I don't think you can ever know that for sure. But 99% is pretty darn good. With certain distractions I would give his recall about 95%. Distractions like people, calm dogs, unfamiliar places, food. His one big pit fall is running dogs.

Why do I care to call him when he's running with other dogs? Because he's a jerk. I said it. He runs well with other greyhounds, but something about non-greys running works him up into an excited fervour. And I'm not talking about small fluffies exciting a prey drive (of which he has none). He loves running with small dogs but he's much more polite with them. It's dogs his own size that are a problem. He gets overstimulated and turns nasty. I think he doesn't like how they body slam and try to wrestle. But then that begs the question... knowing that other breeds do this why does he so desperately want to run with them? My hypothesis is that he knows he can easily beat them and he's competitive. I'm not sure how much of that is just imagination and how much is fact. But the teeth come out, he'll bat with his front feet and he will quite literally be on the verge of starting a fight. Go figure. And he will not come when called. I refuse to chase him around because that is not appropriate, and yet I can't just stand there and do nothing when he's being a total ass-face.

For the most part he isn't allowed off-leash time with non-greys for this very reason. However, every once in awhile it is unavoidable. This morning, for example, we were in the tennis court while other dogs ran off leash in the park. They came over and were running the fence line together. This is great because they can't make contact, Summit is less of a jerk, and therefore more receptive to listening. However, someone then let their dog into the tennis court with him. He was actually fairly well behaved, to my surprise, but of course had no listening skills. The problem is that even with all the dogs on the other side of the fence... he will start to respond to a command and then someone takes off running and he forgets he was coming and takes off. It's really something we need to work on. Unfortunately there aren't many opportunities for us to do this, and with him being worked up and running off leash there's no way to force him to come back to me. I had thought about putting a long line on him so I can call him while he's running and then carefully reel him in. However, I don't want to risk him tripping on the line and falling on the asphalt (let's face it that would be stitches for sure!).

So this is the conundrum and I haven't quite figured out what I'm going to do about it. He comes when called at greyhound runs... but he's not a jerk and he's just so much less stimulated. I have no idea what it is about non-greys that riles him up so much. I will post more about this as we continue to work on it.

Socialization isn't just for social butterflies

I took Summit for his second blood donation yesterday and it reminded me of the importance of socialization. When I say socialization I don't just mean people and dogs, I also mean environments.

I had taught Summit the roll because it would be helpful for blood donations and other medical procedures where he has to be flat on his side. Unfortunately he shuts down at the clinic during these medical procedures because they're so strange and different. Which means he won't respond to commands. This is about more than the fact that dogs don't generalize. He doesn't refuse his commands because he doesn't understand that "down" at the clinic means the same thing as "down" at home. He does know that. We've worked on these basic commands in many different places, and we have worked on them in the clinic when we're just standing around or when I would bring him to class with me. The key here is that he doesn't want to take treats. It's the famous greyhound statue.

We made some good progress yesterday, however. We had to sit in the blood collection room for about 20 minutes while we waited for the emla cream to work. The emla cream, for those not familiar with it, is a local anesthetic used to numb the area of the neck over the jugular vein where the giant blood collection needle will be introduced. So while we waited I fed him choice treats (he would only take his very favourites) and praised him heavily for just eating a treat. Eventually he began to feel more comfortable and would take most of his treats as well as respond to simple commands like "watch me". I also gave treats any time he offered a behaviour on his own (looking at me or laying down on his blanket and relaxing), and at all times gave lavish, enthusiastic praise. By the end he would even sit for me and was wagging his tail. I did manage to slowly, manually roll him onto his side, but we weren't quite there with rolling on his own so we didn't push it.


Summit's "concerned" look.

The blood collection itself went really well. It was very quick and smooth. But the whole experience made me think about how valuable it is to expose your dog to as many different places, sounds, people, and situations as possible so that they can be relaxed, unconcerned, and happy wherever they go. We're not quite there with Summit obviously, but I do my best to take him anywhere that dogs are allowed to go.

Rolling over and yielding to pressure

After having Summit at the clinic twice for radiographs and then for his blood donation, all of which had components which required him to be flat out on his side (in lateral as we say), I decided it was time to teach him a command to roll onto his side from a down. He dislikes being picked up and rolled onto his side. He allows you to do it and is good once you get him flat, but he flails a little and then gets really stiff while he's being handled. So the other great thing about this exercise is that it teaches your dog to yield to pressure instead of tensing up and resisting.

I used the clicker again for this (see, it's a very useful training tool!). First I started out by pulling on his front legs, click and treat. Then I pulled the leg that I wanted to be "up" toward me and used the other hand to push on his neck/shoulder. I only pushed him to lean as far as I could get him before he would start moving his legs or fighting to right himself. You'll get a lot of resistance and have to push fairly hard to get them to lean just a little bit, but that's okay, it'll get easier. Click and treat each time and as he becomes more comfortable try to push him farther before you click and treat.

Even though we have carpet in the bedroom I discovered that Summit was more compliant if he was on his bed (because it's softer is my guess) so I started to have him lie down on his bed before starting this exercise. In this video I finally get him all the way over into lateral and make a big fuss and give lots of treats. If at any point the dog starts to fight going all the way over, just back up a step and click and treat for getting him as far as you can. You don't want to go too long between click and treats or it's no fun for the dog. This is demonstrated well in the second video. You will note that by the end of the video I barely have to push him and he rolls right over. We're getting close to being able to introduce a command, but he has also learned a valuable lesson about yielding to pressure. Hopefully what he takes from this exercise is that giving in to being handled gets him treats, and he will be more inclined to do so.

This exercise is much easier if they will offer a down with their legs tucked under them and not a sphinx. That was another reason for the bed. Summit always does a sphinx down, except occasionally on his bed. I've been struggling with how to teach him a different command for a down that is not a sphinx, but finally figured out a lure method to teach him to settle (see here). So now I ask for the settle before asking for the roll.

From here all you need to do is consistently use the verbal command until your dog learns to associate it with the action. Don't forget to practice rolling both sides. Dogs don't generalize.

"Settle"

I decided to teach Summit to do a different kind of down. His usual down is a sphinx. Which is great for being out and about, for obedience and agility, so he's ready to pop back up quickly, but it's no good for when I want him to go lay down on his bed and stay out of trouble. It's also awkward if I want him on his side for any reason (usually medical). So I'm teaching him to settle. I wasn't really sure how I was going to lure him such that he would tuck his legs under him, but I finally decided to try an experiment. He always turns in circles before he lays down himself, so I just used a treat lure to make him spin, and with each pass the treat got lower down... and voila, he settled. I haven't added the command yet, but once I do that the settle will be complete!

This is a great start to the "roll" (not really a roll at all), so stay tuned for that. I'm still working on that with him and will make the post once I have the complete set of videos!

Clicker training and targetting

I got a question about clickers following my retrieving posts (part 1, part 2), so I decided to address it here.

For those that don't know, a clicker is a small plastic and metal hand held device that makes a "click" noise. When the dog offers you the behaviour you want you click and give a treat. Why not just give the treat? Because dog training is all about timing, and if your timing is off you will reward the dog for the wrong thing. What the clicker allows you to do is be slow or clumsy with the treats. The dog learns that the click means "yes, THAT is what I want" so even if you have to rummage around for a couple of seconds to find the treat in your pocket the dog knows which behaviour it was that got him the treat. Therefore, in order to begin using clicker training you must teach your dog the simple equation, click = treat. The following video demonstrates how to teach your dog this. I apologize because Summit had already learned the clicker before I took this video so he catches on really quick. In the beginning you may need to put a treat on the object and click as the dog takes the treat himself. After doing this a couple of times he should go back to look for a treat, and when he does you click and treat. When your dog looks for his treat when he hears the click you know he's put two and two together.

Targetting is also very useful, and it's a good and easy way to continue with clicker training. Pick something you'd like your dog to target. In my case it was a toy to try to teach Summit to retrieve. In this video I ask him to target my hand to show you the steps because he now retrieves toys instead of targetting them. I started by putting a treat in my hand. When he sniffs my hand to look for the treat I click and give it to him. After doing that a couple of times I stop putting the treat in my hand, but he still comes looking for it. Click and treat.

Finally, once you see the light is on you can start introducing a verbal command. When do you know the "light is on"? Notice how he touches my hand and immediately looks to my other hand where he knows the treat is coming from. He gets it.

EDIT: I wrote this entry in a bit of a rush. I should also mention that you can teach your dog a "verbal click". What this does is allows you to clicker train even if you forget your clicker. Pick a crisp, short word. Most people use "Yes!", for whatever reason I started using "Good" so that's what I continue to use. You will often hear me saying this whether I am using a clicker or not. The problem initially with using a word is that it doesn't sound identical every time. The great merit of the clicker is that the sound is always the same. You will note in my videos when I am "clicking" using my word, that my intonation is different, pitch is different, etc. Summit knows this well enough now that he looks for his treat when he hears me say "good", but in the beginning the clicker is more consistent.

It is also important to note that if you click you MUST treat. I think in the last video the very first time I ask him I make a mistake and click even though he did it wrong. I still gave him a treat. Sometimes you click too early because you're excited, or because you've got a clicker and treats in one hand and a leash in the other you're not too coordinated and you click by accident. If you clicked you have to give a treat, even if it was an accident and the dog didn't give you the behaviour you wanted. By extension it also means don't click if you have no treats! I always carry a treat bag so I've always got treats, but if you don't then you shouldn't click.

Retrieving part 2

So here's the second installment of teaching Summit to retrieve. In the following video you can see how we're starting to get some distance (I started him with easy ones and then started making him get up to retrieve it). I should add a disclaimer that Summit was having a hissy fit when I filmed this. He refused to train for about 5 minutes before grudgingly deciding that he really did want that stinky dehydrated green tripe. Still, he was not really showing the enthusiasm in this film that he has when he is "on". Basically at this point I'm trying to get some distance so that he has to leave me to go and get the toy and walk back to me with it. A couple of times he drops it and I ask him to pick it up again and give it to me. He's starting to get the idea that he has to get it all the way to me.

Now it's time to change toys on him. I had intended to use this as an opportunity to explain how to teach a dog to target but apparently Summit can generalize. He offered a grab the very first try. He wasn't doing it consistently though so I was clicking/treating for grabs even if he didn't bring the toy all the way to me. I will continue working on him with this toy to get some distance and when it gets nicer out I will work on getting even more distance in the backyard. The hope is to eventually switch him over to a toy that we can get some real distance out of like a tennis ball or frisbee of some sort.

Hopefully everyone is thoroughly impressed with Summit's ability to learn to retrieve. I know I'm over the moon about it. If there was one thing I thought maybe I would never be able to teach him, it was to retrieve. I mean, really, he wouldn't put a toy in his mouth! I am so pleased with him. Once the nice weather shows up I'll get a video of a good distance retrieve just to prove that he can do it!

No prey drive, no problem!

I've been struggling with teaching Summit how to retrieve. I read the methods on Never Say Never Greyhounds and taught him to target a toy but after that I was stumped. He has about 8 toys all together. Every time I see a good sale or something not too expensive that is different I'll buy it hoping to find something that sparks his fancy. Nothing. I tried rubber toys with squeakers, plush toys with squeakers, stuffingless toys, frisbees, plush toys with those honking squeakers, nylabones... nothing. He wouldn't look at a toy never mind picking it up. He simply wouldn't put something in his mouth if it wasn't edible.

Finally I came up with an idea. He has a stuffingless toy that has a cavity for a water bottle. I removed the water bottle and filled it with beef pizzle pieces. Problem solved.

The toy now smelled like chewies and he was VERY interested in it. Any time he showed a lot of interest I would click and treat. It was only a matter of time before he would try to bite it. At first he was puzzled, so I actually unvelcroed the toy to let him get a good sniff so he understood the food was IN the toy. As soon as he made a grab for the toy I clicked, treated, and praised enthusiastically. Near the end of this video you can see he's starting to become obsessed. He started not really bothering with my treats but was trying to chew on the pizzle pieces through the toy, so I was pretty much stuffing treats into his mouth while he was still trying to chew the toy. At that point I called it a wrap.

You can tell that there was a lot of encouraging. Waving the toy in front of his nose. I cut out a lot of dull bits. The next step was to get him to grab it with less encouragement from me. I attached his leash to the tail of the toy and pulled it. This is should work all by itself as a first step for dogs with high prey drive. I still had the pizzle pieces in the toy at this point. Again, every time he grabbed it I clicked and treated and praised. The idea is to get to a point where you can have a motionless toy and still have the dog grab it. You can see a couple of times where I threw the toy away from him a little and he moves over to grab it even before I can begin to pull it.

At this point you're ready to move another step forward. I removed the pizzle pieces from the toy. Now it's flat and doesn't smell as good so it's less enticing and it's harder to grab. He was offering good grabs so I started trying to get him to lift his head with it, as up until this point he's been lying down and grabbing it on the floor. I just started trying to grab it from him any time the toy came off the ground. If he didn't make a full grab I didn't click/treat (unless he became stumped then I went back a step and just clicked/treated for grabbing at it again). Eventually he started making an effort to lift it up to me. I click and grab it as I treat. Once he's lifting his head consistently with it I started to wait until I had the toy in my hand before I click/treat. I had taken a video of this but unfortunately I didn't realize that my camera had fallen over about 10 seconds in, so that video was useless.

I've started being able to get a little distance with him. He gets a little TOO excited and starts throwing it up in the air to himself, so we need to work on that. He sometimes drops it before he gets to me, but he's making the effort to grab it again and bring it all the way to me. I will get a video of him doing that for a future blog. As well I will be trying to switch up toys on him because this floppy stuffingless toy doesn't go very far. Stay tuned!