"All-Positive Monday 11" - Introduction To The Square, Memorial Day Dinner

Training today was cut short/interrupted by Memorial Day stuff and whatnot, but we did get some time in to introduce the square (cuadrado) - with the square being a white square pillow.

At first, he had a few problems figuring things out, probably because I might have been saying the word the same way as it's a little "tongue twisting" but I did get it down, and it helped him, though I think he was still having some issues figuring out what exactly it was he was supposed to touch. I wonder if this is another color issue.

What started getting some success was standing up the pillow against the bed, maybe a change in the background or perhaps better able for him to see it. What ever the case, I was getting the trademark charging at the object and his usual enthusiasm. We got into a rhythm after that, doing the usual moving it around to make him find it in different places. Again, there was some initial difficulty with this (much like with the circle), but he started looking around for the object and then finding and touching it.

Further work was cut short by the holiday festivities - and one area Wally is still apprehensive is when strangers want to interact with him. With all the scents of the food around, though, he was more "friendly" (mostly curious, if not outright nosy, about the scents/food) so at least he wasn't as uptight as usual. I sneaked him some bits of food to reward him when he did show interest in someone (or their food), hopefully taking some advantage of the situation.

He spent a lot of time sniffing around and looking at me (as if I was going to make them give him food or something!), and he was getting all excited, so I took him out and played around with him and had some fun.

For dinner, he got some shreds of barbecue ribs and some pasta salad. He devoured it in no time and was rubbing around on the floor like he does when he loves his food (or his super happy to get it, like when he's super hungry), and then started sniffing at my food, but being good - he didn't try to get it or anything of that sort, he just sat and stared at me, then lied down and kept staring.

And now, he's already sleep. All the activity of the day must have worn him out!

Re-Training Stand

Stand has always been one of those things that's given him trouble to get exact. He'll stand up, but then he'll continue to come towards me, or proceed to sit back down once I mark and reward him. Standing from a sit also gives him problems for some reason and sometimes when I want him to stand or when I ask him to stand after sitting down on his own (i.e. I want him to stand back up), he'll act as though he doesn't know how to do it.

As such, I've tried to think of ways to "explain" this to him again.


From A Sit:

One thing that's helped was teaching him walk backwards, especially doing so from a sit. This required him to "pop up" his rear in order to move backwards. Repeating this got him in the habit of "popping up" when asked to stand from the sit position. Doing this also prevented him from moving forward as his front paws don't need to move at all, except maybe to slightly re-balance his weight a bit. This is much better than the old way where he would take a step forward in order to stand from a sit.

Sometimes, throwing a "stay" right after would help. The idea would be to get him to anticipate the stay right after standing, causing him to freeze. However, this gave mixed results because sometimes, he'd be going into a walk right as he stands. This might do nothing be stop him after taking a step, when I want no steps at all.


From A Down:

Standing from a down is much easier for him, especially once he learned the fold-back method of going down. The stand is just the reverse of this, making it easy for him to get some muscle memory for getting into position.

The big problem here is again the moving forward, and it's even worse here because the reverse of the fold-back has his body's weight moving forward, making it natural for him to start walking forward. To help counter this, I asked for the stand while being very close to him, giving him no room to move forward. Hopefully, this starts to teach his body how to control the weight shift and "unfold" while staying put, except again to shift his paws to maintain more comfortable balance.

For now, I still have to work close to him doing this, but I have begun moving back from him to start generalizing the distance so that he doesn't think he stays put only when I'm right up on him. The last time we did this, I was maybe three or four feet away from him and he didn't move forward when he stood up. Looks like we're making some early progress in this regard, but there's more work to do.

Also, for now, there's no Spanish cue for this. Sit, Stand, Speak, and Drop (lie down) don't have a Spanish cue connected to them yet. For stand, I want to work on the behavior more, for the others...well...I don't know why not!

Happy Birthday, Wally! ¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Wally!

Wally barking as I tell him happy birthday. Happy Birthday, Wally!

 

 

 

 

 

Today is Wally's 4th Birthday!

We didn't do any training or anything so far today, and probably won't so it can be an easy, fun day for him. I also will get him some kind of present. Not sure what to get him but I'll think of something that will be easy to afford and that he'll enjoy playing with.

For lunch, we had pizza with pepperoni and sausage toppings (his favorite!) and he had two slices, which he thoroughly devoured. Not even the smallest of crumbs or any bits of meat left. He'll get another piece or two for dinner later on tonight as well.

When I take him out for his evening and nighttime walks, I'll make sure to play some of his favorite games and let him run around and have tons of fun. Of course, we'll chase and probably will do the station-to-station game as well since he loves to play that one. Taking a toy out will be fun for him, too. He'll get a big kick out of that.

This will be extra fun for him since it's been a while since we've done these things (too hot on some days, too much rain the rest of the time). I'll probably get the brunt end of a lot of built up energy all released in sheer excitement!

I can't believe he's four already. Been that long since he's arrived (almost three years). They say time flies when you're having fun!

Grooming "Lesson" Cut Short By Broken Comb

Wally still has a few fears left, and one of them is getting combed. I've been trying to help him feel more comfortable during being groomed (since he has no behavior problem with being groomed, either for me or when I take him in, but he seems so scared, I hate to see it), and was giving him some pieces of those veggie straws he loves every so often while grooming him, especially if I have to pull out tangles.

We were getting into it (and into some mats due to him changing his coat still to accommodate the warmer weather), and he was getting rewarded and I could see the signs of him getting a bit more relaxed. The shaking in his back legs slowed, he didn't pant as hard, and when I gave the verbal marker, he was quickly looking towards the treats on the floor and ate them readily.

But the comb could take no more. It's been getting stressed near the handle for a couple weeks now, but it was holding on.

Tonight, though, was the end. My faithful ally against all things matted-coat finally used the last of its strength.

Alas, here lies a faithful and capable Untangler comb.

Fortunately, they are not expensive at all (if I get it from Amazon anyway, when I looked at one other site, they wanted to charge me a minimum order fee. Seriously? A fee for not ordering so much? No, really, seriously?!), so a new Untangler comb is on the way.

Meanwhile, I'll have to go back to the greyhound comb I suppose. I liked the Untangler because the teeth rotate so it pulls less on the coat, even when taking out mats. It's either that or cramping my hand trying to hold half of a half-a-comb...

Hopefully, his coat will "behave" until then so that can be a scenario we can avoid, both for his comfort and my hands.

"All-Positive Monday 10" - Introduction To The Circle, Practicing the Mat

Today on the 10th "All-Positive Monday" (can't believe it's that many), I introduced Wally to the first of the two shapes I'll best seeing if he can identify down the road and we also worked on going to a "mat" (really, a rectangular towel on the floor), something we've done here and there, but haven't done a quite a while.

Also a new reward for him this time, some "veggie straws" that he loves.

The Circle, El Círculo

For the circle, I'm using a round blue pillow right now. The pillow is a decent size and is something he is familiar with and very comfortable with.

Much like with the other objects and the attempts with colors, the first step was teaching him the name of the object and rewarding him for going to it. This time, though, I started him about four or five feet away, hopefully to let him get a better view of things, so to speak. The distance didn't bother him at all and things were going smoothly.

Of course, I didn't want him to just walk a path and remember that, so I moved the pillow when he wasn't looking. I think, already, he was having a clue on what the target was because this totally confused him. It didn't help I put it in a "hidden-in-plain-sight" place, but he looked everywhere. All I did was keep saying "círculo" when it looked he was "stopping to think". He did find it, and after the first four or five go's with that, he started finding it quickly.

Now, something a little unusual happened. I put the pillow on the bed. When I called out the shape, he charged to the bed and jumped up, bit the pillow, and jumped off the bed so forcefully that he nearly made it back to me on the fly! What's up with that?

Wasn't just that one time. Each time, he kept doing it. In fact, if I kept calling for it, he'd keep biting the pillow and trying to carry it back to me. It's too big, though, but it didn't stop him from trying! When I put the pillow out of the room, he started to bark and whine a bit as he looked around until he saw it as he was passing the door and then he went to it. I think it's safe to say he at least has an idea!

Practicing the Mat

This always has him starting by trying to look under the towel since he's thinking I hid some food under it. This isn't a new problem, and I was expecting it. I picked the towel up, put it down, and pointed at it. He got on it and laid down, which got him the reward, which I called him off the "mat" to get (so he could go back on it).

He must have remembered what this was since after a few pokes on the towel, he laid on it consistently and quickly. If his paws weren't on it all the way, I would say "go mat" and he adjusted how he laid on the towel. When all the paws were on it, he got the reward.

I was hoping he'd start to adjust his paws if I delayed the marker a bit, and he did start doing that, but not quite like I'd hope (he most adjusted how he was laying down, not so much his paws on the "mat", but since he was on the "mat" and getting the idea, I gave him the reward anyway. Refining things can come later. I figured he was getting tired at this point, since this is usually when he has his nap (we worked on this after dinner, so he likely would want his "post-dinner nap"). We went a few more times, and ended while he was still eagerly going to the mat.

Another good and fun Monday for us both. He's sleeping happily as I typed this post.