I kind of groaned after reviewing my post for last month’s Positive Pet Training Hop; I felt like we had accomplished nothing new since then! What was I going to write about this month? All of the things Luke and I had been working on over this last month were basically the same, and had we made much progress? I felt like we’d been all over the place with training; and I wasn’t sure who had the shorter attention span, me or Luke.
We’re still working on leg weaves and muzzle training. Last month getting Luke to not bark at the contractors working on our house was a focus, but construction has quieted down (though should be starting up again soon), so we did switch to a couple different things.
Before sitting down to write this, I got out his treats to work with him and see where we’re really at.
We had decided the muzzle could be a great tool to help us with getting our cat Samantha integrated back into the complete household, along with other things. I’ve been working with Luke, taking him into Sam’s room on leash and telling him to “leave it” if he started to tense up towards her or lunge at her (which I still think is just play lunging, but not a chance we can take). Every time I’d think we were getting there, he’d lunge at her again. But he’s learning to be calm, and will often just lie down on the floor or in the dog bed that’s in there. I’VE learned to watch for his tenseness and stop him before he goes into the lunge.
I realized we are making progress with the muzzle too! We’ve gotten to where I now smear peanut butter inside it, he sticks his nose in to lick it off, and I can put the buckle around his neck without that bothering him. I have to take this VERY slowly because he can be sensitive to noises (jingling of the buckle) and touching. I blew it with the gentle leader I tried on him by trying to go too fast. But I feel like we’re getting close to actually buckling it.
Leg weaves had been going slowly. He seemed to have trouble focusing when we worked on these. At the old house, we had a quiet place to work on tricks; here at the new home we’re always near a window that can distract him. I wondered if he just didn’t like this trick; though I also think it might be going slower because we’re not using a clicker. He would do the weaves when lured with a treat, but if I didn’t have a treat, he wasn’t interested. Finally, when we worked on them this time, I was able to lure him through with just my hand gestures! We do that about every other time at this point, and as we continue to work on it I’ll use the treats as a lure less and less.
It’s not smooth and still needs work and refining, but maybe by next month the Dadz can help us with some video to share. I want to get him to sit before and after the weave. He does the cutest thing sometimes though….if he screws up the weave and he knows it, he goes into his spin! He’s a smart boy, and knows that he’s going to do something that gets him a treat! So maybe we’ll integrate that in later!
We’re still taking advantage of the everyday opportunities we get to work on things. I got the idea for my sponsored post this week that I wanted to have him sitting in a chair at the computer. We had worked on “up up” for getting up on things, but hadn’t tried chairs yet. Of course, I didn’t start this far enough ahead of time to be able to use it, but I did get his front paws up on the chair with a “stay” so I could get photos. As it turned out, it almost looks like he is sitting in the chair.
I decided to try some photos with him on the couch and the computer on the table there….someplace he’s far more comfortable. That gave me a great opportunity to work on his “stay”. I had an incident a couple of weeks ago when both Luke and Sheba got out of the fenced yard and went running; because I opened the gate and Luke didn’t “stay”. So I knew we needed work on this; along with their “come here” because they romped around for a bit before finally coming back. As we worked on this, Luke did great staying on the couch while I backed further and further away with the camera, using the zoom to take the photos.
As I’ve sat down and written about all of this, I’m feeling better. I feel like we ARE making progress, and even though I know I could be more consistent with what we work on, at least we are doing something. But I still wonder: does it keep it more interesting to be working on a few things at a time; or would we make more progress by only focusing on one or two things instead of many? What do you think – do you train many things with your dog or dogs or just focus on one or two at a time?
We are joining the Positive Pet Reinforcement hop this week. It begins on the first Monday of every month and runs all week long. The hop is hosted by Cascadian Nomads, Tenacious Little Terrier, and Rubicon Days. Please visit them as well as other blogs through the links below for more positive pet training tips.
I tend to work on several things at one time, although I generally focus on only one or two new things in one single training session. I always have new tricks I’m working on, and I can work on those and then go back to refining some of the older tricks that Rugby already knows and does well. He’s very smart and gets bored easily if I work too long in one training session on new, harder tricks. I just try to keep some things balanced, and that seems to work out pretty well for us!
I think that all makes sense, Sally. Luke and I might work on a couple things in a training session, and sometimes only one. If he doesn’t seem to be getting something, we will revert back to something he knows well. Then we can end on a confident note, and we’re getting in some practice on the old stuff to keep it fresh too!
We’re also always training lots of things!
For Nala, I like to tell myself that this is a good choice. She gets bored or worried or frustrated if I drill the same thing over and over, and while she needs training time to occupy her busy brain every day, she often makes big leaps in understanding if I let her sleep on a concept for a few days. So we usually rotate through several things every few days to keep both of us interested and keep me from overdoing any single thing with her! Although I also tend to abandon half finished tricks in favor of new shiny things. :/
Still, Luke seems to love what you do together, so I don’t see any reason to change. 🙂
Thank you!
I think that Luke might be a lot like Nala. I think he does better when we leave things alone for a few days and then come back to them.
Certainly I give up on things more quickly than Luke does; if he doesn’t seem to be getting something, I often move on to something else! 🙂
Training plan? Uhm what’s that? Actually like you mom is trying to make me “stay” better when posing for photos. Does that count? Love Dolly
That definitely does count, Dolly! 🙂
Sounds like you’re working on a lot to me! I’ve really dropped the ball with training new tricks lately, perhaps I’ll try leg weaves with Teddy. Also, I love the peanut butter idea for muzzle training, I shall keep that in my memory bank – thank you!
We’re in the always working on a ton of different things camp. We might make more progress if I was more organized lol. Right now among other things, we’re working on wagging his tail on cue and licking his nose on cue. I swear we will get back to weaves at some point! Thanks for joining the hop.
I’m so glad to find someone in the same camp as us! I am SO disorganized (I don’t know what happened, I used to be super organized!). I love what you’re working on, those sound like fun!
Thanks for having the hop, it really helps keep me motivated, and a little more focused!
We tell the clients at work to if they are going to use a muzzle to use a basket muzzle and do like you did and put peanut butter in it to get them used to it. Great job!
Thank you, JoAnn, I’m so glad to hear that I’m doing it the right way (and the right type of muzzle).
Sometimes training seems like it is stalled, but it really isn’t. One day you realize how far you have come.
It sure seems to me Luke’s come a long way! I think you’re doing a great job. Rita’s so mellow and *mostly* so good, that I get really lazy with training her. But we met with a trainer today because of her reactivity to certain other dogs/strange men coming in the house. Being part German Shepherd, I just don’t really know if she’ll ever totally relax when strange men come in the house, but hopefully I can help her be less spazzed out about it. And she did great on the walk with the trainer (although we didn’t see any other dogs out walking, but we did see some fence-fighters and she did pretty good with those). I have a lot to remember and start to incorporate!! It’s mostly training for me, not her!
Thank you! I hope things go well for Rita with the trainer, please let me know how she makes out (and if it works, what the secret is 🙂
I keep saying that I am going to work on Pierre’s training. Hopefully, we will get some work in this summer.
I’m glad you realized how much progress you’ve made. It sounds like Luke’s doing great. Barley and I don’t train a lot of new behaviors since we spend so much time reinforcing the ones we need to survive day-to-day life. We pretty much have one training goal each month: that nobody ends up in Barley’s mouth. If we can get through each class and each walk and each interaction with her kitty brother and achieve that, we consider it a successful month 🙂
Good job, Luke! Seems like everyone is in a bit of a blog slump this month! Thanks for posting!
Those are some good ideas you gave mom. Especially diverting our attention elsewhere
Lily & Edward
Mom isn’t big on training, so we don’t work on much stuff around here. We work on our sports and that is about all we train for. We have some new sports coming up and if we like them, it will mean more training for sports.
I think your sports is great training. I am planning to do an online nosework course with Luke this summer. We’ll only be doing it for fun, so I think it might be a good place to start while we work on his other issues as well.
I can’t wait to hear what your new sports are!
Sometimes I find it takes looking back to actually realize the forward progress we’ve made. Good job!
I am reminded by this that I need to work with Sampson on the nail grinder (I can’t spell dremel) see? Anyway, he is so sensitive with his nails that my vet’s office suggested the dremmel (see? How the hell do you spell it?) I did try it once or twice, but then I forget. This has been a great reminder!
Now you have me wondering how to spell dremel! Nails….ugh….those are another whole issue and something I need to work on with Luke. He doesn’t like having his paws handled so I’m not sure it matters what we try to use. I was always afraid the noise of a dremmel (now you have me doing it) would bother him. Let me know how you make out when you try it again.