Uncrating Training in Progress

From the first week I brought Porter home he has gone to my dog training classes with me and stayed in an ex-pen. Right off the bat he was great at relaxing in there and not being upset there were other puppies nearby who were being played with and fed yummy treats. He did the same at an agility trial we went to.

Then I changed jobs and stopped teaching those puppy classes. For two months Porter was required to be in an ex-pen near other dogs. Somewhere around this time I also began training him for K9 Nose Work. And for the first time, Porter started making a fuss in his ex-pen. Ugh. He was enjoying the hunt so much he was not happy to be put away again while other dogs ran.

When I started teaching Nose Work classes last week I brought Porter along. Unfortunately the other dogs are a bit vocal while waiting their turn as well (one is a scent hound with a mournful bay) and now Porter is making a huge fuss while it's not his turn. The sad part of this for me is that means I won't be bringing him to class anymore. I don't want him continuing that behavior and I can't work on it while I'm busy teaching class. Instead I'll need to find time to bring him to the training center outside of class and just work on him remaining happy and quiet in his crate.

Thankfully it has not disrupted his crate behavior at home or in the car. I think if I didn't do something to address it and just let him continue this behavior that it would bleed over to his other crate times and I would kick myself.

Found Another Lop in his Side

I've lamented a few times on Porter's lopsidedness. He heels much better on my left than my right due to the fact that I work that side a lot more often.

Today I discovered that in one situation his success flip flops and he's much better on the right than left.

This week in agility I noticed (again) that sometimes Porter will do everything he can to be glued to my side. This means that when we approach a jump standard he will squeeze his big gangly body between me and the standard instead of just running through the jump. He has to slow himself down and almost cut behind me (ack, no side changes behind my back!) in order to make it.

So today I brought out my jump and worked him at home. Hmmm, he was doing just fine and had no problem running right though the middle of the jump, not even hugging the standard closest to me. Maybe it's the change in location?

But then he finally did it again and glued himself to my side. I realized that when he's on my left he's trying to heel like we practice for rally and therefore he stays very close. On the right he feels more comfortable being a slight distance away if necessary. Any time we approached the jump with him on my right he was fine. On the left he crammed in next to me.

Now that I know more specifically what the issue is I can work on fixing it.

I'm wondering if I should refrain from rally practice until he understands the difference. I know that dogs can learn to discriminate and know when they are at agility, or rally, or obedience and change their behavior accordingly. I have no doubt that Porter will eventually be able to do this. But that's going to take some time and in the meantime it's slowly down our agility progress. Since agility is my priority I'd rather not hamper our efforts with the work I'm doing for other sports.

I'll need to think about this some more. In the meantime, I am going to get different collars and leads for each sport to help him discrimination the required tasks more easily.

Lopsided Pup

Porter had a great start to the week. He was able to attend the K9 Nose Work class I taught on Monday and thoroughly enjoyed himself. He already has a lot of drive for the boxes despite only doing this 4 times. Tuesday morning was his agility class, which he equally loves. He's very enthusiastic about the ladder, wobble board, and ramps. Although his favorite thing...the one he pulls to the most of all any time we are within 10 feet...his crate. lol It's awesome, and a little annoying at times but it's a good thing to be annoyed at. So much better than a dog who hates the crate.

There are a few things we really need to work on though. I guess Porter can't be the star all the time. For one, he's lopsided, but I already knew this. I have worked him mostly on my left in preparation for rally and I knew this would make him being on the right weaker. There's a big difference in sides when we do our flatwork. It's nothing that cannot be overcome with just a tiny bit of work though.

His other issue is swinging his hips so his back feet come off the contact. This is my fault as well. I need to learn how to help position him better, with my own body stance and with the treat delivery and I can help him keep those back legs up there. He has no problem walking down the plank at least. All feet stay on, it's just when he's doing his 2 on 2 off and eating from the target plate that he rotates his head towards me and off come those gangly legs. We have a plank at home to wok with. I just need to lock Indi away so we can work without a distracting terrier.

I finally found a toy he will play with at agility. It's a glow in the dark whistle ball. A tad smaller than a tennis ball and a bit smushy. Maybe he loves it since it's not out with his other toys and he rarely sees it, but I'm just glad I have something that works besides food. He'll happily chase after it when he exits the tunnel or goes through the tire.

I don't know what it is about this field but Porter forages like nobody's business while we are there.  I've decided that this behavior is probably made worse by the ladder and how we drop treats on the ground between the rungs as they walk through. This makes that whole area of the grass smell amazing and I think he often finds leftover treats from other dogs. So I've decided that instead of rewarding this way I will click him for what I want but feed out of my hand. I might even go last and move the ladder to a new area of the grass or go first to avoid leftovers distracting him.

I am Thankful for...

...Porter's first trip to grandma and grandpa's house going so well.

Even though the car ride was a little longer than he's used to, Porter stayed relaxed and down the entire ride. I wish I could say the same for Indigo. She hates the car but tolerates it. I think it's the noise most of all but sudden movements freak her out as well. If it's a smooth ride she will lie down and try to rest but  that was shattered when someone swerved into our lane and we had to jerk our car out of the way. Indi uses a doggie seat belt so she didn't go anywhere, but her bed went flying out from under her (darn leather seats) and she refused to lie down the rest of the trip.

Here she is before the incident...not 100% happy, but if she's down that's a huge step for her.

This is what she looked like on the ride back home. She does not forgot scary events and refused to lie down even though she was tired. She tried her best to sleep with her neck craned up the entire time.

Since Porter is still young and mischievous and grandma is not a dog lover, Porter was mostly kept on leash. I was impressed how well he did when I tethered him in different parts of the house.

Bedtime went off without a hitch. He's so comfortable and familiar with his crate that I don't think he even noticed or cared it was in another house. He slept all night and woke up around the normal time.

Porter's favorite part of Thanksgiving was when his cousin Zeus, the Puggle, came over for the day. Zeus is a year old and the two got along swimmingly. Indi was not too thrilled to have Zeus around but it was manageable. If Zeus was off leash we put Indi behind a gate. When Zeus was held in someone's lap Indi was able to walk around freely. She didn't want any contact with him, much to his dismay, but it's all about babysteps.

Porter will get a reunion with Zeus at Christmas, during which time Indi will stay with her BFF Theo )the adorable Aussie) since another 1 year old cousin (Frenchie mix) will be there and two strange adolescent males will just be too much for Indi to handle. It wouldn't be fair to expect her to deal with that for several days. She'd be stressed and so would I.

What Puppy?

I have to confess that Porter is such a good puppy (most of the time) that on occasion I'll sit down at the computer to do something and suddenly 20 minutes have gone by and I realize that the thought of having a puppy completely skipped my mind. I look around only to find him either napping contently near me or else just chilling outside in the backyard. I am very spoiled by his awesomeness.

I love my pup.

Mat Work

Despite not working on it much, Porter is really excelling at his mat work. I think we've only have a handful of session but he's driving for the mat and downing pretty quickly. In our last session I worked on walking about 10-12 feet, including turning my back on him. That was a little bit of the stretch and he broke a few times, so I made it easier and quickly yo-yo'ed back to him so he can get his reward.

Next I decided to change things up again and moved the mat to the stairway landing. Porter had no problem figuring out what I wanted, but the tricky part for him was when I walked down the stairs. He was fine at first, but once I turned the corner into the living room he wanted to follow. I also practiced knocking on the door and quickly rewarding him, since he wanted to stand up.

It's hard working Porter when Indi is around. Not only is she a distraction but she gets in the way since she wants to work as well. She's not used to being excluded (only-dog syndrome) so if I put her outside or in another room she throws a fit, which is stressful for her and me and distracting for Porter.

This afternoon I worked them both on Nose Work for a few minutes. I placed them both outside while I set things up and worked on them staying seated while I opened the door and only released one of them. This part was very tricky and they need a lot of work. Another difficult part was once the dog working found the hide s/he didn't want to leave the room and go back outside but tried to keep searching. I ended up luring that dog outside and rewarding him/her so there wouldn't be hesitation in the future. Porter did well waiting his turn outside, but after 3 reps Indi started barking wanting her turn right then and there.

I finally heard Porter's big boy bark this evening. He's barked before plenty. Any time Indi has something he wants, he barks at her. But tonight when he saw the neighbor's wandering cat outside he had the deepest big dog bark I've heard out of him. He'll be a good deterrent to robbers. I'm more than miffed though at the cat. Porter has always been curious about cats, but in a friendly and playful way, but tonight's bark was different. I really don't want this to become a habit but with the cat entering our yard on a random but consistent basis it's going to be hard to fix. I'll need to remember to grab a bag of cookies if I suspect the cat is outside as well as really work his recalls.

Tired Pup

This week in agility we introduced the pups to the tire.

I had my instructor hold Porter since he doesn't have a wait in that context. He'll wait, and drool, to be released to go to his food bowl, but we've never tried it elsewhere. I like to torture him, I mean proof the behavior, by jumping around, singing, making sudden movements towards his bowl, and saying other words besides his release, which is "break". He does pretty well with most words, even if I use the same tone of voice, but other "b" words trick him sometimes . If I quick body block or make any sort of sound he will back off.

So my trainer was holding him, and he was struggling to get to me. This is great for restrained recalls but not so much for most other things. He was pushing forward right when she let him go and he stumbled and fell into the tire then shoved through the side to get to me. If this were Indi, she would write the tire off as her mortal enemy for attacking her unprovoked. But Porter didn't even notice and happily went through it properly right away. I love this goofy gun dog. Nothing phases him.

Case in point...my neighbor's are having their driveway ripped out and replaced. A small bobcat was tooling around the yard making a ton of racket while we were on a walk. Porter stopped to watch for for a few seconds but without any tension or nervousness and then he moved on and continued his walk. Again, Indi would have assumed the tractor was a hitman for hire to take her out and would have responded by launching a deadly counterattack.

Since he did so well with the tire I decided to try out hand at home. At first he went around it, but I set him up too far back. Within a few reps I was able to stand in a few different spots (right next to the tire, 2 feet in front, 5 feet in front) and change my speed (standing still or running forward with him). He also did amazing with his wait. A couple of time he broke his wait, so I just happily replaced him even if he did the tire beautifully. I do not want a horrible start line stay.

In class we also worked on walking the dogs down a length of plank. Porter only messed up when I dropped his treat and it rolled off the plank. To eat it out of the grass he turned his body and came off the plank. Otherwise he was in great control of his rear end. I have a 6 foot plank at home we'll start working on, in addition to his contact behavior.

This week he wasn't as focused as normal. For some reason at this new location he is obsessed with foraging on the ground. When it's time to work he does fine, but in the down times he's trying to yank me this way and that, and man, is he getting strong!!

I decided to try a new technique (taken from Denise Fenzi) and not let Porter interact with any dogs while in class. Denise doesn't let her pup meet or interact with other dogs while in a working environment so she will know it's times to focus on Denise. I'm not sure if I'm strong enough to hold to this, but I am going to give it a try. It makes a lot of sense. I want Porter to know that when we are at an agility trial it's about me and him. I don't want him searching for his BFFs and running out of the ring to play. I did let him play in the parking lot with two dogs though...that's probably a slippery slope.

Speaking of play, here are some goofy shots of the siblings.