Jake's Progress

Last weekend I spent all of Saturday and Sunday at a Turid Rugaas seminar. It was the most awful gusty windy icy weather all last weekend, so my fellow domestic mammals barely gave me a backward glance from the sofa as I set off to find out more about how dogs communicate.

I first came across Turid Rugaas's short book on canine calming signals at a point when I really badly needed to understand more about how dogs communicate. So I had to go to a weekend seminar in my home town. People had travelled from far and wide - from Yorkshire to the north of Scotland. Me, I had a short bus ride through the Edinburgh suburbs to a space-age lecture theatre at Napier University.

TR says her philosophy is "use your brain and use your heart," and that it's unethical to make dogs afraid of us. She also talked a lot about general principles for being with your dog(s). A lot of it seemed like common sense to me, but I know from reading and from watching various TV programmes here in the UK that not all dog handlers agree. She was completely down on the idea of dominance (alpha) pack dynamics - she said that current research into wolf packs in the wild was starting to show that wolves naturally live in small family units, and there is no alpha-dominance behaviour there; she went so far as to say that a lot of observations of wolf behaviour is based on wolves in captivity, where behaviour is as distorted as human behaviour is when in captivity. With all that said, she then talked through some of the 30-or-so calming signals, and how they are used, with some great images to illustrate. If you've never read Turid's books, they are the best place to start. She believes that these signals are so ingrained that they will always re-emerge given time and enough space - and if necessary, a socially skilled dog to help. She gave a lot a practical advice on how to do this - which was all about reducing (if not actually removing) the possibility of negative experiences during the rehabilitation. We also got a lot of information about barking, and what that means. (TR has published a book about that, as well). I was able to translate the barking types pretty precisely into Jake's "singing" - he's never been much of a barker, he prefers to vocalise in a rich tenor. Like Anthony Hegarty, but without words. (Imagine Anthony and the Johnsons singing movingly about how it's surely time for tea, and how they are never fed, and you're pretty close to how Jake sounds.)

I have pages of notes ... but what really stuck in my mind were some of the things I need to bear in mind when I'm out and about with Jake, particularly in the small spaces between rings at agility shows, or in the queue at a show when I'm on edge myself! For example - Jake is sometime faced between the dilemma of being "obedient" to me and to calming down an interaction with another dog. I do try to be aware of where other dogs are and what's going on at knee-level, and I do already walk away from situations where I can see we might be too close to other dogs. Humans often scold the dogs for reacting to other dogs or situations when the reaction is a quite natural response to something that makes the dog fearful. "Try to think yourself into the animal's position," was TR's advice. I thought with shame of how I've sometimes walked Jake through a narrow passage of gee'd up agility dogs, all in his face - and then told him off because he growled at another dog. TR would say that the growl is a healthy communication signal to back off. To be fair to myself, I avoid those situations now unless it's completely unavoidable. And there usually is a way out of "those situations."

The take home point for me would be - watch out for when the dog becomes ALERT - and then act on this information - move away from the stressor, give the dog a signal that you'll handle it and so on. It all seems so obvious ... but as we know, in reality ...



TR says, like Lesley McDevitt and others I've read, that it's more helpful long term to teach your dog strategies for coping with stressful situations than to teach them to look at you while you go past them. For example, Jake has been wary of boxers for a while, we think it dates back to a time when he saw one have an epileptic fit. I keep him close to me when boxers are around, on lead if we're in a close situation - and I've been following Lesley McDevitt's plan and click-treating Jake for playing the "look at that boxer" game. TR agrees that dogs need to learn to cope with being near others and acknowledging their presence (not ignoring them by constant focus on their owner). If I understood TR correctly, she wouldn't reward Jake for a calming signal, as some dog trainers advocate. She advocates slow, relaxed parallel walking of dogs, moving gradually closer and closer until the dogs are calm together. In my own life, I'd say time spent with other dogs in a controlled environment works - all that hanging round at agility club on lead round other dogs (including boxers!) has worked wonders for Jake.

There was a heated debate with obedience competitors about her recommendations for frequency of training. TR advised once or twice a week as plenty; and several people took issue with her. Later we were given some very detailed information about scientific research about the effects of stress on the body. She drew an analogy with Olympians, saying "did you ever see so many sick and injured people?" The two sessions about stress were fascinating and I'm still processing the information, to be honest.

One of the things I love about dogs and dog training is that nothing is static. There is always something new to observe and learn. Turid Rugaas was a very stimulating speaker, and I for one learned a lot, even if I won't put it all into practice! Cheers to Action 4 Dogs, who organised the seminar.

Labels: Training

It's September ... and for me that always means back to school. We're starting a new training class - always exciting - particularly this year because it's online!

I always fancied attending one of the Wagmore Barn courses but Gloucestershire just isn't convenient for us. I've had to content myself with reading / working through Kay Laurence's books instead. So as soon as I saw Wagmore Barn has started online courses I signed up! We'll be working on our targeting skills. The course seems to be at a nice pace with lessons every two weeks run through a Moodle learning community.

Labels: Training

I was just looking through the little training notebook (Muji, stationery geeks) I keep for Jake. It's not very structured. Pages of little pencil sketches of things to practise from agility classes or shows. A list of things I want to try. A note when I start training something, which I then forget about as I have far more fun drawing our little agility practise routines. It would be oh-so-useful if I was the sort of organised person who maintains fulsome records of how many repetitions we did and what particular thing we shaped on a particular day, but it's all much more random (spontaneous!) than that. So I can see that a few months back I started teaching Jake a few new little things. And since then we've practised them when I'm at home, not particularly frequently, in odd moments here or there.

This week we had a Eureka moment - Jake looked for and then brought me both slippers on command. (This is an essential skill for the slipper-mislaying household that we are.) But all I have by way of records is that we started playing "where's slipper" in September, and that my plan was to back-chain a hunt-the-slipper game with his existing "bring it" routine. Then I say no more about it (though I see many pages of weave/jump layouts) but I know we've worked on various aspects of fetching slippers. Jake thinks it's one of the best games ever - he loves sniffing round the flat for stinky slippers. And we reward him for his troubles! Sometimes twice!

This is a very traditional dog-skill. I don't think I'll be following up by teaching him to carry the newspaper home from the shop for me. It would end in papier-mâché. The next training goal is to teach Jake another word for Rod's slippers and repeat, repeat, repeat.

Labels: Training

We're jumping on the tricks train. Woofs to Johann!

-------Copy and paste starting with this line and everything below----------

There are all kinds of fun tricks for us dogs, right? Well, let's make a list! And share it with the dog world!

Here's how it works:

1.) Copy and paste this post beginning with the "copy and paste" line at the top of the post to the "copy and paste" line at the end of the post, courtesy of Johann The Dog!

2.) Substitute the Host Tag (see below) and one of the vacant “Tricks” spots with the name of your dog trick and the URL of your blog, just like I did.

3.) When you find out that someone has added this link post to their blog and their trick isn't listed on your post, practice good paw and add their link in one of your “Tricks” slots, by copying his/her 'Host Tag’ and paste it over one of your “Tricks” slots below, and republish. This makes the list the same on everyone's blog!

5.) Encourage and invite your readers to do the same and soon this can grow fast. And if your not a dog, but you blog about dogs, or own a dog, you are also welcome to participate!

Host Tag: Push the door closed - Jake's Progress

1. Danger! (run and sit between your 2-leggers legs) - JohannTheDog
2. Rollover - Rescue Me

3. Beg - Raise a Green Dog
4. Bang! (play dead) - Fun Dog Tricks
5. Jump over 2-leggers' Back - Pacco de Mongrel
6. Cover Your Eyes - Tummy Scratch!

7. Push the door closed - Jake's Progress

8. Super chase dogs - Gus and Louie
9. Trick
10. Trick
11. Trick
12. Trick
13. Trick
14. Trick
15. Trick
16. Trick
17. Trick
18. Trick
19. Trick
20. Trick

There it is! It's as easy as that! I hope to make lots new friends with this project and learn about all kinds of new tricks I can learn! Please leave a comment here if you have added this project to your blog, so that I can add you to the list!

---------------Copy and paste this line and above------------------

Labels: Training

I sometimes think that Jake is training us, as well. He's certainly trained us to give him attention to certain cues. For example, he lies on his side and thumps his tail until we go "what a waggy tail!" and go and rub his tummy.

Labels: Training

I started this before reading various other recent clicker posts in the blogosphere, honest! A few days back I decided to finally teach Jake to open and close doors. Because we humans are so lazy we can’t be bothered to do it ourselves. I’m starting by teaching him to push the door closed because that’s the slightly easier move.

First I rewarded Jake to touch his nose to a fluorescent sticky note. We practiced that a few times. I think he couldn’t believe he was getting a click-treat for such an easy thing. So I stuck the note to the door at Jake’s nose-level.

There was an expectant pause. Jake looked at me. He tried a few other things we’re practicing at the moment – marching, sit up and beg… then he looked at the sticky note and touched his nose against it. I was over the moon! It’s amazing when he works something out!

Now we’re practising that till it’s firmly learned. And then I’ll start teaching him to apply pressure to the note so the door pushes shut.

I’ll keep you posted…

Labels: Training

This week there’s been a lot of coverage of a sweet cavalier king charles spaniel who can balance empty yoghurt pots on all four paws while lying on her back. Jake would never achieve such stillness. But he can do intense focus. For example...

Between runs at agility class, I was chatting to border collie Harvey’s handler while we distracted our dogs by practicing various little tricks. It started to get a bit competitive. Jake’s meercat (sit up on haunches) plays Harvey’s stand on two hind legs. Jake's weave between my legs as I walk along plays Harvey’s scoot backwards through his handler’s legs. Jake’s marching plays ...
... you get the idea. Harvey and Jake both have their turns.

One trick they both do is to balance a treat on their paws and wait until told to take it. What’s interesting is their different technique. With a treat on his paws, Harvey looks up, down, left right – anywhere but at it. If I can’t see it, it’s not there. Lalalalala. Jake does the exact opposite. He stares at it fixedly and his nose sinks closer and closer. I must not let this out of my sight. It will be MINE, MINE, ALL MINE. What made me laugh was when I gave Jake’s release command Harvey took that as a green light to snaffle his treat.

Here's Jake demonstrating his advanced hypnosis of biscuits.



As I took this pic, when the shutter clicked on my cameraphone, Jake promptly snaffled the biscuit. It took us a moment to twig that the shutter makes a click, and for a clicker-trained dog, that means yay, treat!

Suddenly I realise why Jake runs up to me and starts running through his repertoire whenever he sees me with my phone. He thinks the phone's a clicker.

Labels: Training, Whimsy

Well, as usual we’ve been sucked into the festive holiday time warp. On top of that, my camera-phone packed up and had to be sent away to be fixed, and that’s what I rely on for the impromptu pics of Jake’s adventures. And any shots from Rod’s fancy camera that might be used for next year’s cards are embargoed!

So how would Jake summarise the last two weeks?

1. All morning walks were carried out after sunrise and not at 7am in pitch black as is usually the case in midwinter. THIS IS GOOD.

2. Excellent to see elderly aunts, always rich pickings there. Particularly when Gus and Rod aren’t looking.

3. A trip to the beach while returning auntie to her usual residence. She lives a mere 200 metres from the beach. Sand is the new snow, you know.



4. Fantastic meat cabaret almost every day in a kitchen near you!

5. I love my honking duck.



6. NOT SO GOOD. My people were here almost all the time. They got on my nerves with all their noise. Huff. Sigh. Excuse me while I skulk under a nice warm radiator in another room. Zzzzzzzzz.

Labels: Training

Let me through, I'm a bronze Good Citizen

It's true, Jake passed his bronze and we have the certificate to prove it.

We're watching Jake for signs of trauma - he witnessed his best pal Molly impale herself on a rusty railing on Thursday. She was as OK as you would be after being rushed to the vet & stitched back together. We're waiting to hear how she got on over the weekend. Jake says: {head on knee}heavy sigh. Whale-like whine. {/head on knee}.

Labels: Training

Time to dust off the blog! Since our last post, I am happy to report that Jake has cracked the retrieve, and his recall is much stronger. I have become obsessed by clicker training. Jake just loves those click/treats.

Current training projects:
* spin, Jake, spin!
* scent games (not "who's farted," rather, "select scrap of fabric which smells like me." Yeah, thinks Jake, but who has farted?)
* roll over
* remote down (ha. ha.)
* weave between my legs as I walk (on command, not gratuitously)

Hell, if we can get a reliable retrieve, we can do ANYTHING.

Labels: Training

Such a busy life for a lurcher. Dozing in sunlight waiting for that afternoon walk...

Sleeping off the clicker training class...

You feel tired just thinking about it.

Labels: Training, Whimsy

I was playing with the boy's head today ... whenever he pulled on the lead I'd turn round & start walking home, then when he was good (usually immediately), head back out again. Sometimes when he pulled ahead we'd suddenly have to cross the road (& he'd have to sit first). A few goes of each & he was walking very nicely, even down towards squirrel alley, site of many a great tug-a-thon. I think he's getting the message. Plus it's quite amusing me. Bwah-ha-haaah.

Labels: Training

Jake’s last day at Dog School this year. No notable end of term delinquency, just endless thwarted play fighting with Ria the Staffie pup when not trotting between bollards. We’ll be back in January for the clicker training class.

And then on to the park, where Sam the black mongrel was as bouncy as ever. His owner got him on the lead… he did a runner after Jake & I … I got Sam to sit for me while his owner caught us up… Jake promptly grabbed his lead and tried to take Sam for a walk… Didn’t know whether to laugh or scold. Bring on the clicks.

Labels: Park life, Training