Things are so hectic we hardly even have time to
chew on sticks
I find that I'm having difficulty fitting in all the things I want to be doing right now. I'll be glad for school holidays that start on Friday and go for 2 weeks, but of course I'll be back to square 1 as soon as they finish.
At the moment we: Wake up at 6. Check emails, etc. Get up, shower, get dressed, breakfast, feed cats.
Then, if Lumen is coming to school with me, I usually squeeze in some trick training before heading off early so she can have a run at the park, chase a ball, whatever.
If she's not, I squeeze in some trick training, then take both the dogs for a 20-30 minute walk with some running and playing packed into the middle.
At work till 4.30, get home at 5ish.
Then, I need to either:
Go for a run
Walk Mal & Lu
Train Lu in agility stuff at the park
Trick train Lu
Take Lu to the dog park
Or a combination of all of the above (eg tonight will hopefully be - go for a run, with Mal, do some trick training and get to the park for either some collar resistance/running or just playing with dogs.
And eat dinner, write blog posts, feed cats, etc... now that it's getting darker earlier and earlier I'm feeling more and more frantic to fit it in, and Lu has 'training windows' where she works best, and times where she's just useless and I might as well not bother, so I have to fit it all in around that, too.
I know it's a bit of a first-world problems post, and I'm sure things will (maybe?) get worse as we pick up more training clubs to go to, but for now my head feels like ARRRRR!!! SO MANY THINGS!!
I like this section- it's sort of a nice reminder for me, anyway, of what we were training at a given time. So, we're still trying to do lots of playing. I find it difficult with Lumen because sometimes she just isn't into playing. She enjoys fetch and chasing balls, which is good, so I can get some good collar restraints with a thrown ball. I've also found she's really into cooked sausages and this gross dog meat and gets quite alert when I have either of these, and so I've been trying to get her to drive into a cik/cap around the bollard or a stool or something by showing her the food, restraining her, letting her drive into the wrap, and throwing the food out of it. I've actually experienced a bit more success with this than I have other times, and hopefully it'll just be a bridge into getting a drivey, fast, tight wrap to a thrown toy, and not having to rely on the food forever. So we're just working on driving forward. Most people I've spoken to with Aussies suggest that this forward drive will come more with age and maturity, and Lumen did such an amazing job of wraps at foundation training the other night that I'm not -super- worried about it, I just now have to be careful not to overdo it. I'm also aiming to do some more tunnel work this week, with a focus on adding a slight bend while maintaining fast forward drive. I want to play the 'two ball game' with the tunnel, as she's quite good at this now and I think it will increase her speed and 'gung-ho' into the tunnel. In less agility-related things, I'm noticing she's starting to get a little teenager-y (nearly 7 months old now), eg. chasing swallows at the park the other day and giving me a huge proverbial middle finger when I told her to cut it out, so I'm just focusing a bit more on recalls from all situations and making a huge fuss when she comes (and usually, she's really great and comes running full speed, which is adorable)... I also want to take some sausages to that same park with me, make sure she knows I've got it, and see if she chases the swallows... and see if I can call her off. Oh boy is she going to have a puppy party if I can. ;) Of course, if she doesn't, I won't push it (and teach her to ignore me calling her!) but since she's good at most things (even chasing/playing with other dogs) I can't really 'work up to' this distraction level - we're already there. She's also starting to find weird things scary, so plenty more socialisation to be done, and I can't forget about constantly exposing her to traffic (she's a bit anxious about traffic noise, especially loud trucks or motorbikes).. I've let that fall by the wayside a bit lately, so I'll have to add that to my to-do list! Good thing I'm on school holidays for 2 weeks from Thursday!! It'll be lovely to have 2 weeks to play and cuddle and fuss over them, and especially with Silvia Trkman's foundation class starting on the 8th of April, I want to be prepared, and then we get to start while I still have time off! What are you up to with your dogs at the moment?
She's probably just eaten a dead thing or some horse-poo or a worm or something. Seriously, she once ate a dried up worm. Gross.
In all my reading and research when I got Lumen, I quickly latched on to one idea that really resonated with me, and it's something I try and stand by in my training, especially in day-to-day life with the dogs. Noticing the positives. I think sometimes it's really easy to latch on to what our dogs' faults are, what they do wrong (chase the cat, stand up on the counter, eat dead things off the ground, don't let us trim their nails) and we forget to latch on to the things they're doing right, all the time, particularly when we don't have to tell them to do/not do those things. And this is extremely hard when the behaviour is not doing something. For example, Lumen is absolutely fascinated by Mia - our tortoiseshell cat. For whatever reason, Mia is much more interesting to her than Darcy (who is boring and doesn't play) and occasionally will roughhouse with Lu, and when the roughhousing gets too rough, Mia runs away. This is, as you can imagine, an even better game. So I've done plenty of 'leave it!' work, and she's pretty good with this, but I noticed sometimes I was getting yelly in my frustration - stop chasing the damn cat!!! I decided to turn it around a bit. I've made a conscious effort to tell Lumen how good she is every time she ignores the cat - not when it's running (too hard at this point, though if she does ignore the cat while it's running, bonanza!!!), just in passing. This is showing Lumen that she doesn't need to rely on commands from me to make her own decisions - the right decisions, and get praise for it. I've begun to notice sometimes she'll wander nonchalantly into the kitchen where Mia is milling around, and think: "Ooo! Cat!!... Wait... .... ... what... cat...? I don't see any cat..." I turn on the praise. And look, sometimes I'm still having to tell her 'leave it' because this puppy has one hell of a prey-drive, and so at 6 months old, with cats who don't fight back, I can't expect her to be perfect, but we certainly seem to have a puppy much less on edge about needing to chase the cats, and cats who are much less on edge about being chased... Now, if only I can get her to stop barking when the cats are fighting each other in the middle of the night (yes, I know you need them to stop fighting but can you let me handle it?) we'll be onto a winner! (And just as I finish writing this, Lumen chases Mia across the kitchen. Looks like we still have a ways to go!!!) Do you remember to focus on the positives, even if you're not in 'training' mode? Do you praise your dog's decision to not sniff the dead thing while out on a walk when it's just expected that he or she won't sniff it? How often do we miss the decisions our dogs make just because they're expected to make those decisions?
I've had a couple of people ask me about this trick. If you are playing along at home, please let me know how you're going with your tricks, if you're having any problems (maybe I can help!?) if you're succeeding, if I'm giving you too many assignments too quickly. This trick was one of the early ones I taught to Lumen- I think she had a natural tendency to barge between my legs though anyway so it was a pretty natural progression from there. For this trick, I think it would be helpful if your dog it used to playing with its feet- eg, experimenting while shaping by using its feet to touch things, climb on things, etc. It's only front feet this time and most dogs seem to have a better understanding of their front feet over their rear feet. So, here's what you do. edited: in case you feel lazy, you can just watch a video instead!!!
Stand on my feet (and walk)
You'll need:
Clicker or marker word (eg. yes!)
Hungry dog
Maybe some toys for jackpots.
First, start by luring your dog with a bit of food to go around your leg (this can be a trick in itself) toward your back. You might want a bit of food in both hands to stop your dog turning to look back at the first hand to get the food.
With open legs, reward your dog through the legs. You'll want to work on this lure and reward bit so the dog gets used to being between your legs. I can imagine some dogs wouldn't like it so you have to make it a fairly valuable place to be with plenty of treats. You can make the circling around and coming through a trick in itself, or if you wanted to skip it you could just step over your dog, I guess, but it's more fun if they get into position themselves.
So, say you want them to come around on your right side because you're right handed like me so that makes sense (or switch this around), you'd have a bit of food in your right and left hands. You'd lure them from in front of you, around the right side of your body, as far as you can before they are bending weird from trying to get the food in your right hand... then you need to get their attention with the food in your left hand, and feed them for coming through your legs. I think it's less complicated than it sounds, give it a try.
Ok, that's part 1 to set your dog up.
Now that it's happy to be between your legs, you'll want to curl your toes up to make your feet nice and flat. I suggest also wearing shoes as socks and bare feet are very slippy and even Lu has trouble staying on. You'll also want to start being a little pigeon toed.. means your feet are closer without you having to crush your dog with your legs.
Now comes the shaping. You can lure a little here too but not in great amounts- I find Lumen does some of her best thinking while gnawing on my hand that has food in it, and will naturally shuffle around and try different things with her feet while she's doing this- your dog may or may not, but you need to find a way to get those feet moving without necessarily encouraging the dog to leave the leg zone.
If they lift a foot, click and reward- I think Lu crept forward a bit while learning this, so I'd push her back with food to the nose. Essentially, you start clicking front feet movement, jackpotting and going crazy if their foot even accidentally touches yours. It's a bit of trial and error to get to the standing on your feet bit, but once they get it you'll be right... Eventually your dog should get one foot one, and then it's a matter of getting them to put the other on... as most dogs are left or right-paw dominant, one will be easier than the other. I wouldn't necessarily worry about having two paws on at once at first if you need to work on the non-dominant paw... I'd probably want them to understand that either/or paw can go on, particularly the non-dominant paw, and from there start waiting it out once one paw is on your foot to see if they move the other one. For the walking, you just start small, even just shifting your weight and clicking them for staying on your feet. Then a little step, click for staying on your feet. Keep doing this, step by step, until you can take a few steps in a row before rewarding. I didn't name this trick, apart from the circling around and through my legs bit- she knows if she goes through, she should probably stand on my feet next. I suppose you could name it if you want. Troubleshooting My dog isn't moving its feet or doing anything.
So I'd probably recommend other tricks to get your dog thinking about its feet, eg. paw touches/targets, standing on shoes (not on your feet), climbing on a saucepan, etc. I also helped get Lumen's attention sometimes by wiggling my toes if I had my shoes off. The movement helped her focus on my feet and she figured she probably needed to do something with them. Like I said, you can use food a bit to help shift your dog's weight to encourage them to move their feet, too. My dog hops off whenever I move forward. Work on just staying still but shifting your weight like you're about to take a step but don't really take a step. Get the dog to understand that their job is to keep its feet on yours. Let me know if you have any other problems and I'll post the questions up here, and happy training!
I was trying to think of a post to have for Friday... being the studious blogger I've become, I have posts scheduled to appear for the next couple of weeks, but nothing for today... I was reading a friend's blog the other day, and he mentioned Oscar's Law, and how this is a campaign to say it's unacceptable to factory farm companion animals. I know his is a blog about dogs, as is mine, however it was the specification of companion animals that got me thinking. I also think that as people who love dogs, we must be aware of the fact that we are continuing to enforce the 'norm' that some species are more worthy of our protection than others. By giving blogs to dogs, or cats, we are saying again and again: 'these animals are a part of our family, we will not mention the others - they are the invisible ones'. So, to be clear, I'm all for Oscar's Law. Puppy farms are horrific, pet shops shouldn't sell animals unless they're from rescues or rehoming organisations.
I've only mentioned it once on my blog so far, but I am a vegan. I've been a vegan for less than a year, but it's something that makes sense. And look, I'm not the best vegan in the world- my pets aren't vegan, and I think I'm going to have one hell of a time finding boots for winter that aren't leather, since finding boots pre-vegan was impossible enough (ask Husband about the 4-hour walk around NYC trying to find a pair of boots and still coming away empty handed). But what I wonder is, why is it unacceptable to factory farm companion animals, but acceptable to farm pigs and chickens? Why is it unacceptable to kick a kitten, but ok to kick a lamb, or a calf? If I say "I love animals!" why does that only mean dogs and cats (and maybe horses - consider the latest horsemeat scandal. Is there something more horrific about eating the meat of a horse than eating the meat of a cow??). If I am ashamed and horrified by suffering inflicted on a dog, how could I not be horrified and ashamed by suffering inflicted on a broiler chicken just so I could eat it? With more and more evidence coming to light that it is healthier to eat a plant-based diet, that cutting out meat helps the environment, and not to mention the moral and ethical benefits you gain (clean conscience, anyone?)... surely it can only make sense, if we call ourselves 'people who love animals', that we cannot eat them or cause them suffering (because I don't eat eggs or dairy either, even though this isn't directly consuming an animal, it certainly causes a bucketload of suffering along the way). I'm not trying to be preachy, it's the truth. If you eat a part of an animal, you are eating part of an animal that has been bred and killed for you to eat. Depending on the type of animal you are eating, the suffering it would have lived through in its short life would have been immense. If you're frightened by the v-word, don't be (I'm not a scary radical, I promise). Husband and I cut out red meat first, then went vegetarian, and after lots of consideration, went vegan. There's heaps of resources out there, recipes and support. And look, it is hard sometimes- we loved nothing more than eating all the free samples at Costco on a weekend, and most of them are off-limits now... but honestly? That's a small price to pay, knowing that I don't contribute to the suffering of animals anymore. (And probably better for my waistline, too!!) Check out this website, for a 30 day vegan challenge, with recipes, info and more. And feel free to contact me or comment here for a lively debate.
Click it to see full size..! (This is what happens when the Husband is not home and I have some spare time on my hands... Does this count as 'relaxing'?... Probably not.)
