Things have been crazy busy with one thing after another going on here
the past two months, so I haven't had a lot of time to sit and write
much of anything in detail. Just to make notes here or there of things I
wanted to write about.
Training is going real well. This post
will include a recap on how Journey did during 6 months of age and
during 7 months of age.
6 Months
Journey is too smart
for his own good, and he's in the age range of testing boundaries. I
imagine it is something like what the "terrible twos and threes" must be
like for toddlers combined with independence of teenagers, where in
both cases a sort of "selective hearing" develops.
When
responding to commands he knows ( sit, down, etc. ) there is a brief
delay. It's probably less than 10sec worth, like his brain skipped a
beat on processing as he's deciding if he wants to do it or not. It's
amusing to me because I have seen it in client's dogs, but with Ember
she is so biddable and eager to please, plus she oftentimes tries to
anticipate what I want next, she's already doing something before I have
the word fully out of mouth, or with my hand signals.
Journey is
an intelligent little Alsatian, so I have to mix up training to keep it
interesting for him so he doesn't get bored with it. He's highly food
motivated, but not as strongly toy motivated at the moment. That could
be because I don't tend to keep a lot of toys with squeakers because
Ember used to destroy them too fast and the squeaking can drive you
nuts. When Journey joined the family, I did purchase various toys that
have squeakers to help with training.
At first I wanted to use
them for proofing distractions, figuring he'd be enticed by the
squeaking. My worry was while working with him in public until he is
more solid on everything, I didn't want people thinking it was "funny"
to try and purposefully distract him with squeak toys or things making
similar noise...... which yes, I have had happen with Ember when she was
in working service dog gear, both at pet stores, and at Walmart. People
are thoughtless sometimes.
Much to my delight, he isn't too
interested simply by hearing the sound, though he will acknowledge it.
He isn't overly eager to interact with it unless you get right up to him
with it and encourage him to play. We'll see how well that continues as
I use various toys with squeakers while trying to encourage certain
prey drive qualities.
Another amusement is his lack of traction
on most slick surfaces. We have all tile at my aunt's house with only a
handful of rugs. Since Journey first started to grow larger, its a
challenge for him to keep his legs under him. It turned into a joke with
training because getting him into the "down" position was the easiest
thing ever, and he tends to prefer it. Which made it easier with some
training because he was less likely to break position from a down than
he would have from a sit.
He's been so lanky and growing so fast,
I think that is partly why his traction is off. So we practice sitting a
lot more than he probably likes, trying to get him to that point of not
slipping on smooth floors, since most stores have... smooth floors!
It's a work in progress.
We have been working with shaping
behaviors he'll use for service work since we first started training
with the basics. Learning the foundations for fetching objects, holding
them, giving them when asked, or taking them from me when I offer, to
help build when we move on to objects that are not dog toys or chew
things. He's already gotten used to lots of different textures from the
beginning, so I don't think it will be too difficult. With his puppy
teeth gone I just need to teach him to handle these things with a soft
mouth. We have also been working on balance and bracing positions,
teaching him how to stand and hold a certain position when I ask and
point or make a hand signal.
The final highlight is that he
finally lifted his leg! At the end of 5 months he had started to
develop his marking bladder and his testicles were dropping, and soon
after when he went to do his business instead of the typical full squat,
one leg lifted a few inches. He doesn't do it all the time, but he's
started doing it more and more frequently.
= = =
7 Months
So
many exciting things happened. The first time Journey took the
intermittent class in it was a really small class, and both the dogs
were small dogs and were over a year old, so he didn't get as much in
the sense of socialization as I was hoping for. They let us retake the
class, and we did so with a different trainer. By waiting a little
longer we got lucky with a much larger class full of various sized dogs
with various temperaments, including one that ended up being
fear-reactive. It made things very interesting! And it was an amazing
learning experience for Journey.
In the previous class the weeks
prior, he'd been more inclined to be a puppy and would get excited and
playful on leash, and if a strange dog barked and pulled toward him,
he'd attempt to do the same, which is normal. Thankfully I could get him
to refocus on me and with a lot of "leave it" work, he grew out of that
phase.
We got more practice in with the new class, him learning
to ignore the distractions of the other dogs pulling at leash, sniffing
at him while I asked him to focus on me and ignore them, and ignoring
the barking of one and some reactive outbursts from the other. I was so
proud of how well he took to it. After the initial group meetup for the
first class being so exciting with strange new people and dogs, by the
end of the second class he was doing remarkably well with keeping his
attention on me when I asked him to ignore whatever was happening at any
given time with the other dogs.
The class trainer tried to demo
with him because he was more advanced than the other dogs in class,
since he had already taken it, and for the fact I have been training
with him since he was a tiny pup, and he wanted to keep his focus on me
and at first tried to ignore her. Which is brilliant, because I don't
want him to listen to just anyone trying to come up and give him a
command unless I give him permission or turn him over to someone else to
handle.
My reason for this goes back to the whole problem I have
had at points while out working with Ember and Journey both for public
access stuff, and people trying to distract them by calling to them,
making barking noises at them, and even trying to tell them to "come
here" or "sit" and other stuff. Most of the time it is kids or teens who
have done it, but I have caught adults in the act as well. What makes
it worse is when they try, and the dog ignores them... so they try
harder! Really people?
I normally turn and address them and give
them a polite but stern talking to about why they shouldn't do that
ever again if a dog is working. They could risk getting the dog or
handler injured by distracting them, and be liable for it. When they
are old enough to know better, most of them are embarrassed and
apologize. I'd rather educate them than yell at them, but some people
really try ever last ounce of patience I have on a given day.
We
practiced more with distance and duration. He's pretty solid with it at
home, and is getting better about it in public. We have been working on
heel work from the base form you learn when you first take the class. He
still gets ahead of himself at points but does well on loose leash for
the most part without pulling. It's like with most dogs, they move
faster than we do and he gets impatient and walks a little faster. So I
simply stop or turn about and reposition him before continuing. I am
hoping to start building on skills for much more advanced heeling
techniques.
