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.

Day 6: Fun in the Sun

Today Margaret's training was woven into two fun events: a trip to the beach, and a "chicnic".

Before that, we did our usual morning training, today with focus on indoor recalls, using leftover baked chicken as an exciting reward. If Margaret is occupied with something (especially something naughty  - like heading for a toilet roll) she may not respond to being called. This becomes even more pronounced outside where higher level distractions are common. Foundation training for this involves multiple simple repetitions in a low distraction settings, with very high value rewards.  

This morning I called Margaret from all over the house, always giving her chicken and lots of praise as rewards for coming promptly.  She is getting much more responsive, and has fun while she is learning.

As a young Golden Retriever, Margaret has a typically strong tendency to put things in her mouth. She loves to dive into grass and rip it up by the roots, or try to eat dirt, or chew on sticks, for example.

I always watch her closely, and do not leave her alone and unconfined. And we practice Leave It - a lot! If she goes to grab something she shouldn't  have, I will either interrupt her with UH UH or Hey! (if she really must not grab it and i want to be firm about it), or I will say "Leave It" if there is room for error and I think we can practice successfully with more repetition.  Whenever she is successful, I make sure to reward her with something she likes.

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Our trip to the beach in the middle of the day was another exercise in coming when called, and Leave It  (crab shells, sand dollars, stones - we weren't taking chances!)

More exciting from Margaret's point of view - this was her first experience of the beach, and she loved it!

It was something of a temperament assessment too - it was interesting to see how Margaret reacted to something her first experience of the ocean.  She was confident, thoughtful and took her time to figure things out. She explored sand, waves, sea foam, crab shells, with methodical interest. She didn't show any interest in chasing seagulls, and ignored other people and dogs,  but threw herself into swimming in the estuary, and loved trying to catch the handfuls of sand I tossed into the water.  She never lost connection with me, and although she ran ahead once she got used to the beach, she checked back in with me and was willing to come when I called her.  All in all she was a wonderful beach companion!

First crab shell

First view of the ocean 

First sea foam

Sand diving!

 Once I was sure Margaret would come when I called her, I took off her long line and gave her some free running time, just for a little while.

 Back home it was time for another fun training opportunity - a chicnic (picnic lunch with the chickens).

Again "Leave It" was the focus of our training, as there were quite a few things we could use to practice this with.

Who gets the corn chip? Margaret practices self restraint while Lola approaches. 

Rufous, Sophie and Lola check out their furry picnic partner.

Practicing Leave It with chicken poop in straw

Rufous and sunflower

See how good I am?!

Sophie and Rufous run for a corn chip

Margaret holds a Down-Stay while curious chickens approach 

Rufous and Margaret go nose to beak 

Leave it? Sure I can! 

Even with chickens at my back, I can leave that corn chip!

Gorgeous Margaret.

End of the chicnic. 

 Fast forward to the end of the day - Dinner School training in basics, a nap and then an evening of still energetic dog trying to find things to do! Time to break out the toy box.

That kept Margaret happy for quite some time, particularly trying to chew through the top of a Wobbler toy (not how it is supposed to work, but never mind! That was Margaret's solution, and it's made of tough plastic!)

I am having fun, hope you are too!

Day 5: Training on the Fly

Margaret was tired after her big day yesterday so this morning we took it easier.  Training was woven into whatever we were doing -  morning chores, walking in the meadow, etc. We practiced all the basics as usual at Breakfast School - this is a time when we are both mentally fresh and food is interesting to Margaret, so it is a good time for training.

The difference today was that we couldn't do as many repetitions before Margaret lost interest as she was a bit tired - so I switched to training on the fly. For example, we practiced Fetch and Drop It with a stolen boot.    

I have found that praising Margaret lavishly for stealing has a wonderful reverse effect - instead of running away and keeping her booty (sorry, no pun intended!), Margaret can't help wagging her tail when she hears happy praise, and comes back to me for her anticipated reward.

She gets praise, treats, petting, a toy, another boot, anything I have on hand, for bringing me the stolen object and giving it to me.

This strategy is literally a game changer - it changes the game from stealing and keep away to Fetch and Drop.   She loves it and gets really proud of herself!

Margaret returning the stolen boot

Another counter-intuitive training strategy concerns "alert barking." Margaret has a loud and serious bark that she uses as an alert -  to sounds outside, potential intruders, people coming to the door, etc.

It doesn't do much good to tell her to be quiet - she may pause, but goes back to barking again. I am finding it works much better to praise her lavishly (as soon as she starts barking - so I am effectively rewarding her for a few barks instead of hundreds of them.) I thank her for a job well done, and reward her with treats as well.  This makes her stop barking and come to me, so I can then redirect her to a more acceptable (to me) job - like lying down next to me and being quiet.  This strategy is hard for humans to use at first because it seems as though we are rewarding a behavior we don't like - but it makes sense to dogs, and Margaret is catching on quickly.

Later in the morning Margaret came with me to Sy's house, for a visit to a new house and a small play date with Sy and The Moose.

After that it was time for a big romp with Moose back home in the meadow, before the most boring part of the day - a long nap in her crate in the van, while I taught a class for reactive dogs.

Margaret doesn't really like being confined in her crate in the day time so this was good practice for her. She barked when she heard someone close by and thought there was a chance to be let out, but otherwise accepted her fate and rested quietly or chewed on her green treat-toy.

Eventually the class ended and she was allowed out to play - with The Moose and her new friend Olive, a Border Collie /Jack Russell mix, who is older and rather sensible. Margaret was polite and respectful to her - and almost got her to play once or twice.  She also enjoyed playing Drop it with crinkle bottles and chasing  the Moose when he teased her with them.

Another impromptu training session happened when I came back from the chicken coop with 3 eggs.

Margaret really wanted to get her mouth around those eggs so I used them as rewards for training - just being allowed to sniff them made her work her heart out!

We practiced  all of her basics:

Name recognition/attention

Heel - off leash

Sit in Heel position

Down

Sit Stay

Down 

Down Stay 

Sit Stay (front) 

Sit Stay 

Rewarding Sit Stay with a sniff of an egg 

Leave it (one egg)

 Leave It with hand signal (one egg) 

Leave It  with twice the temptation (2 eggs)

2 egg sniff reward!

Isn't Margaret amazing! Such a smart girl!

Margaret got to sniff and lick all three eggs as her big reward at the end of the session. 

After another nap, while I worked on her blog it was time for dinner, a little play and more napping before bedtime.

We had another wonderful day together  and I am most definitely falling for Margaret in a big way. She is smart, fun, brave,  a fast learner, sweet-natured, and great with other dogs - an all-round great companion - and beautiful to look at too. I love to watch her prance and run in the meadow and along the trails, with a big smile on her face and her big feathery tail swishing. I hope you and Ringer aren't missing her too much! She sends lots of Margaret-love your way!