Day 7: Working Hard, Having Fun

Margaret's performance last night alongside the Presidential candidates was quite intense - she played constantly with toys for as long as I would let her, getting more insistent on chewing anything and everything (I felt a bit the same way!). Eventually, I decided it was time to put her in her kennel to help her settle - and sure enough, she conked out in about 5 minutes. We both slept for 9 hours straight and woke up ready for a brand new day of focused training and fun.

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Breakfast School was preceded by some Chuck It ball fetching, to be sure Margaret had worked off some morning energy before being asked to pay attention.  She loves to race across the open meadow after the ball and stays connected to me - she shows no interest in wandering off, and comes when I call her - so she has earned the freedom to play off leash.

Margaret is working on the speed and reliability of her basic commands  - she understands them but in distracting situations she is less likely to be able to perform them correctly. She does Sit well except when she is excited, but her response to Lay Down is slow, even in a calm setting. So we are brushing up on that. We also worked on name response (which is good but could be better), Touch (nose to hand target), and Bed. Today she was coming to her mat (on the cue "Bed"), sitting and then lying down to earn her kibble - she is making good progress there.

Now that Down is coming along better, we have begun to work on Stay - adding distance gradually. She doesn't like to be left behind or left out of fun stuff so she has a tendency to follow me, which is useful for training Stay. That way we are working with a real situation where she is not inclined to stay and needs practice.

We also did a lot of recall practice (Drop It and Run game,  Hide and Seek) all around the house, using freeze dried chicken as rewards. She loves these games - they are speeding up her response to the recall signal "Come" so it becomes more automatic, instead of something she thinks about before making a decision about whether to come or not.  Practicing inside is critical for building this auto response. (This is sometimes a step that people miss  because they tend to train where they will eventually need the response, not where it is easiest for a dog to learn.)    

Lastly, before we took a break,  Debbie arrived and we practiced polite greetings at the front door and hallway. Margaret gets very excited about visitors - first she is on high alert to intruders and barks her Big Bark to let them and me know someone is here, and then when she gets to greet them she is over excited.

To help her be successful, I put her on leash and brought her downstairs to the front  door, making her wait at each landing to reinforce self control. Then I put her behind the french doors near the front door so she couldn't jump all over Debbie when she came in.

Next we practiced controlled greetings. In her first attempt, Margaret lunged and scrabbled crazily to get to Debbie. So I held firm and walked Margaret away, and then we tried again. I used high value rewards (freeze dried chicken), a short leash and asked very little of her each time we walked towards Debbie. We didn't get too close and Margaret got chicken for staying close to me. If she pulled ahead, I would turn and walk her off and give her another piece of chicken.

Once that routine was established, I allowed brief contact with Debbie, immediately followed by a Come away (U turn away from Debbie); this was repeated about 10 times and each time she was able to handle a bit more contact with Debbie. Touch, eye contact and petting make her wildly happy and excited, so she needs lots of practice in small stages to learn how to manage these.

By the end of the session I could tell her "Say Hi", and she would walk up to Debbie, touch her nose to Debbie's hand politely,  and then return without further instruction from me - no jumping or rushing, just calm polite behavior.

Next - nap time while I blogged. Margaret lay down beside me and snoozed happily

After playing Chuck It in the meadow to release any pent up energy, Margaret's next lesson was combined with an excursion to check on the chickens. I like to work with real life rewards instead of treats whenever I can.  Anything that Margaret is keen on in a given moment can be a reward -- it doesn't have to be anything to do with live chickens.

But in this case it was. In the garden, I tied Margaret to a post,  tethering her with her leash to back up a Sit-Stay, so she could wait for me successfully while I collected eggs. Then when I came back to untie her, I used a sniff of an egg to reward her for staying seated and not jumping on me. We repeated this a few times and she did well.

Next we practiced leash walking, using her flat collar and 6 ft leash, and with me carrying the chicken's water container from the garden to the house and back, with Margaret  beside me. If she pulled ahead we simply stopped and and walked backwards a few steps until she was by my side, then she got a sniff of an egg as a reward for staying with me as we moved forward. I also used lots of praise to keep her with me.

After filling the water container (Margaret pretended to be a chicken and drank from it!) we repeated the process in reverse - walking back to the chicken house with a full water container, with Margaret heeling nicely (most of the way - she needed just a a few reminders).

I swept out their outdoor coop with Margaret's nose going a mile a minute - chicken poop offers plenty of good opportunities for Leave It practice! Then while I collected feathers from the coop, Margaret waited off leash in a Sit Stay outside the chicken fence, watching with interest and looking totally adorable.

Next - time for more napping - Margaret by my side, panting and chilling out.

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Margaret's afternoon exercise involved lots of running, swimming, and dog-dog play. On our way to and from the river, Margaret tried to pull hard on the leash so we took a lot of time to stop whenever she tried that, turn and walk back a little way and then go forward.   Margaret is a determined soul, so we had to do this over and over, but she did improve as we went along.

At the river, Margaret swam her heart out, played with the boys, Tyler and Moose, and fetched sticks.

Back in the meadow, more play - and Chuck it games.

This was also a chance to practice calling her to me in the middle of exciting play.

   Sometimes Margaret gets wound up and finds it hard to settle so we did some calming Down-Settle practice in the sun. Margaret happily rolled on her back in the grass and relaxed

In her enthusiasm, she somehow kicked me in the chest and rolled me backwards!

 I got her back though!

Time to end playtime and go inside for some crate rest

 I gave Margaret her green toy with  peanut butter in it, and waited out 5 minutes of barking protest. She needs help to settle, control impulsivity and deal with separation, so getting used to being crated when she doesn't feel like it is important. I just ignored her barking until she stopped- and because she was tired, she was then able to nap for a couple of hours.