PE For Wally 6 - Working Through Zoomies

Like probably every dog, Wally gets those seeming sudden, out-of-nowhere bursts of energy we sometimes call "zoomies". When this happens for Wally, he blazes around, just running and running.

So I thought - maybe there's some way we can use this time for something other than him just doing...whatever it is dogs do when they get zoomies.

When he gets like this, I tell him something to do. For example, he's having zoomies, I throw his ball somewhere and tell him "Find your ball! Donde esta pelota?!"

Once it gets through to him, he's running around trying to find his ball (it looks crazy too. You'd think he'd slow down. Ha! No.) So he's darting around, and I'm repeating the task. Eventually, he does find it and then he shakes the heck out of the ball and charges back to me.

So I start him going running around again. I pull his hair a little and stuff and he's charging around again. Then I throw the ball and repeat the instruction.

Then I mix it up. I might ask for a recall while moving in a different spot. So he has to find me and follow my voice. I'll mix up a go-around the pole of the basketball hoop or a tree trunk. Then maybe finding the ball again. And so on.

After about five minutes of that, he's slowing down, but I'm keeping it going. Then maybe 5-10 minutes later, he's moving decidedly slower and then it's time to call it.

The look on his face is like he just had tons of fun, almost like a look of relief maybe. One more thing we can do outside, and now at least when these zoomies happen, there's something we can do with them.

Wally's First Look At New House

With our house now re-built and all new, I took Wally over to start getting him acclimated. Turns out, though, he didn't need any acclimation at all. he was waggy-tailed and wide-eyed about the new house, looking like he just won a million raw steak bones!

He was excited from the start, remembering the neighborhood and probably picking up the familiar scents from the dogs there. He remembered instantly where his spots where and all that. Then once inside the house, he went from room to room (even though they are empty right now) as if he was also looking over his newly built house.

He remembered the basement. He knew where his crate was (he looked for it) and remembered the layout of everything, and with it familiar, he was very happy. He remembered how to open and close the doors, doing so with enthusiasm.

The only thing he didn't like at first was the new carpet. The smell of it was probably very different and that concerned him a little. But with just a little coaxing, he started exploring upstairs and walking around just as happily as he did before once he realized it, too, was the same as before.

He even remembered to sit on the porch like before, even though we haven't done that in months since we haven't been living there all this time.

The "dividers" on the floor are gone so that's one thing he didn't see and remember - staying out of the kitchen. He didn't have has landmark for that so that's one thing we'll have to work on. Probably will use some throw rugs to help give him a spot he can refer to for where the boundary line is.

It was so fun to see him acting like this. I took him for a walk in our usual route before we left. If I had more time, I would have run and played with him.

The grand adventure wore him out. Once he settled down, he was knocked out cold in his crate, snoring loudly and probably dreaming.

Object Immersion 2: Fielding Groundballs With Pelota

Another day of object immersion, this time with the ball. Still in an effort to teach him the names of these objects and still using Spanish for the cues.

The usual grabbing and giving took place and making getting the object part of his "work day", but the highlight was the outdoor play, since it wasn't as oppressively hot today.

The game was a spin off from retrieving with a little controlled excitement taking place. I made sure to get him wound up and excited about the ball and in general and would "throw" the ball along the ground, making it roll and sometimes bounce and saying "Pelota!" to get him to go after it. I used the object name instead of "go get it" to make it part of the object immersion.

This was a lot of fun for him, and I think he could feel it's been a while since he got to bounce and run like that. As the game went on, he started play growling and getting really intense, especially when I "attacked" him with the ball and pulled on his hair a bit. Each time he came back, he jumped against me, getting pretty high off the ground, and was more than ready for the next throw.

At that point, I had him lie down and wait. I'd then give him another "ground ball" and called out "Pelota!" and he took off after it. Of course, one time, he got distracted and he didn't see where it went. I kept saying "Pelota!" as he looked around for the ball. When he found it, I made a big deal of it and got him charging back to me, and then we'd do it all over again.

Once I saw his tongue hanging out of the side of his mouth, I figured it was time to stop as he was getting fatigued and it was still a pretty hot day out. We went back inside, and, once he got back to my room, he immediately went for his water bowl and lied down on his blue carpet. Once he cooled off, he took a bit of a nap before dinner.

A nice rousing day for him, and a chance to burn up some physical energy for once!

"All-Positive Monday 8" - Serving Up A Main Course Of Stop And Go With A Sprinkling Of Objects

We devoted much of today towards drilling "pare" in his head - meaning "stop". And we went about it taking one step at a time.

While at the same time, "vámonos" (let's go) was formally worked on as the "let's move" cue. I figured this would be good synergy in training.

To start this off, I first began with "vámonos" to get him moving as he was sitting on the porch. As soon as he stood up and began moving, he got marked and rewarded. Then I cued "pare" and gave the hand signal, and once he stopped, he got another mark and reward.

This alternation between "vámonos" and "pare" literally went step-by-step. The frequency of rewards and the completely different "walk" we were on totally captured his interest. He didn't know what kind of game this was, but he wanted to keep playing and win his prizes (this time, a left over failure of what was supposed to be a belgium waffle).

With the continued reinforcement, Wally was eagerly going into the movements, making it harder for him to stop promptly on "pare". Seeing this, I slowed down the whole process in terms of calling out the cues. Adding in this twist also added in a little work on controlling his excitement. He couldn't start shooting forward on "vámonos" because the "pare" would be coming right behind.

Once he was getting the "pare" down nicely ("vámonos" was no problem for him!), I stopped using the hand signal. Once I did that, he had only listening to tell him when to stop. Harder, as expected, but he didn't do all that badly with it.

From there, we went to more random "pare" cuing. At first the stops came kind of late (but once he did, he still got rewarded), but he must have got in the back of his mind that I'll call for a stop at any time, making him stop more promptly. All the while, he kept getting excited and was watching me intently.

Each walk we went on today went like this, giving plenty of chances for him to see what the two cues mean. The walk before dinner went without treats, as it I didn't want to spoil his appetite, earning him verbal praise and some hearty pats on the side. He got just as excited, maybe because he thought that was the invite to a game. While this wasn't a game, it did give me an idea for one to play with him sometime.


Don't Forget Your Rabbit And Ball

After his dinner and post-dinner name, but before going to bed, I had him work some more with the rabbit and ball, mostly a run through of what "conejo" and "pelota" are, his rabbit and ball, respectively.

Nothing really fancy, mostly the same beginning lessons as before. Mostly it was a review of what the objects are called, but there was more distance between him and the object to get him used to looking in the distance for the object and going to it from farther away.

No real problems here, but there shouldn't have been! Still, this must have been some challenge for him as he promptly went to sleep right after we were done. I mean he went straight to the "dead dog" position!

Maybe it was harder than it looked, or perhaps he made it look easy because he still had to really, really focus and concentrate to remember what the object looked like. I was surprised to say the least to see him that worn out, as if I had taught something completely new.

I had thought maybe it was just the time of day, his body winding down, but he was very active and alert during the actual exercise. Go figure!

Muy bien, Wally. Another good Monday for us both!

Excitement Training and More Spanish

Earlier today, we did some more work on following cues while wound up and super excited. We had started working on this earlier and today we did more with it.

It's easy to get him excited, and adding to it was some more kids running around. While he doesn't particular care about kids doing their own thing, it did add more stimulation to the environment. I also brought out food that wasn't just his beloved bread balls. This time, I brought out meatball pieces I had broken up. I was making some for lunch, so I sacrificed a couple for training purposes.

Once he was sufficiently psyched up (read: play growling while chasing me and with that wide-eyed wild look on his face), we started the training. At first, we worked on drops (lying down) and he still took quite a lot of time to get focused on my cue. I got the zoomies going on again, but then he went down. Gave him a treat and started running around again.

While chasing me, I threw in a stay cue. He froze and when I walked around him, he was zoned in on me and the more I walked around him, I could see him trying hard not to move. I saw those paws lifting up like he was just itching to move. I walked in to him to give him a meatball piece and then started the chase again. If he would have moved, I would have just stopped and not looked at him, totally disengaging, for a little while.

Time to up it some more and to put more intensity into things, I started batting at him playfully and "bouncing" to him which made him take evasive action and come back at me. Getting him even more agitated. I gave another stay cue. He froze (after some steps), and then I threw another twist. I gave a drop cue. This was completely the last thing on his mind! He took off running. Then he was like, "wait...what did you say?" and he froze and look at me again. I gave the cue again, and he almost took off again, but lied down. I called him too me, give him a lot of meatball pieces and that was that.

Later on today, I worked on more Spanish with him. We had worked on these words before in addition to "abres" and "cierras". These two words were for going up and down the stairs.

For going upstairs, I used "arriba" and for downstairs, I used "abajo". One interesting thing I had no idea I was doing at the time is using a lot of words that start with "a-" (azul, amariilo, arriba, abajo) so it will be interesting if he can keep these sounds straight going forward. So far, it looks like there won't be a problem.

I noticed the same effect with "abres" and "cierras" - a very rapid connection to the behavior and the sound with no confusion. This was especially noticeable with going upstairs. Before, he would hesitate or do something else (usually barking for some reason) when I tried to get him to go upstairs. With using "arriba", he quickly put things together and now he shoots up the stairs! Once again, Spanish helped him make a connection (and it was again words form Dora the Explorer! Wally's fetish strikes again. I wonder if it wasn't the Spanish that got him into it..I wonder why he's making connections this fast - what is it about the sounds of Spanish?)

For "abajo", there was a little initial hesitation because he was waiting to hear "downstairs" as I used to say. (To his credit, he knew I didn't say it and he would "false start" - make a move to go down but then stop like "hey! you said something different!") It took a little bit to get over that hesitation, but now, no problem.

So now Wally knows four Spanish words. Abres, cierras, arriba, and abajo. He's learning two more, the colors azul and amarillo. Certainly keeps the training interesting for us both if nothing else!

Give Me The Dumbbell Anyway: A Wet Wally Moves Fast.

Well, as expected, rain rain rain. Rain. More rain. And chilly too - feels more like March than April.

However, Wally was still eager for his outdoor training, which isn't entirely unexpected. And of course being wet, he's hyper. So I sucked it up and did some retrieving outside. He was certainly in high spirits, charging after it and bringing it back, perhaps TOO fast! He was going so fast he had a hard time coming to the front position (he would sit, but come in on the side of me or once he went all the way around me) and that was mostly where things got a bit sloppy. It was because of the energy - and not even the rain, which is what I thought would be the biggest distraction, causing him to shake a lot, etc.

It was good to see him charging back and forth, though, because for a while, he was hesitating on the retrieves, like he had to remember what to do. Perhaps, being this wound up will help him remember what it was like and make him more excited again for retrieves. I know being excited and having fun helps dogs remember things, so I think it was good I decided to man up and brave the "hostile" elements for some outdoor training. 

Another positive was that it was another exercise in staying (somewhat) under control to perform a task while excited, this time with the rain "giving" him the excitement. He carried his dumbbell back from the playground with no problem, so he did some 'working' as well.

Of course, him going at about triple the speed is no big surprise. Wally always gets hyper and fast moving in the rain or even when he's just wet like from a bath. I don't understand it, and have seen just one explanation of it that I don't know would apply too much, or at least I can't envision how it works in my mind at least. All day, he was moving at super speed like someone gave him too much caffeine. He wouldn't settle down as easily, was super alert to anything, and played hard even indoors.

I was going to introduce the yellow flashcard to him, but he was too much in "gotta move" mode that it wouldn't have gone over too well. So instead, we just played some indoor games like hide-and-seek, find it, and worked on opening and closing doors some more.

Perhaps tomorrow will be a calmer day and we'll resume working on the colors again. He's actually and finally sleeping after his dinner (let your food digest, Wally!). It only took two hours longer than usual!

Getting More Excitement Out Of Him

Since I'm endeavoring to improve his responsiveness and awareness while wound up, I want to be able to get him hyped up and keep it going and going and going until he's pretty much as wound up as he's going to possibly be. Of course, running around and playing chase will do it, but maybe I want to get him psyched up inside too. After all, more time he's hyper, the more time I can work on this.

So what does he love more than play? Food. Why not combine the two, make him "fight for his treat" so to speak? So I tried it and the results were very good! Wally got super alert already from the smell of the food, and then making him chase and pounce and claw at my hand (I need to find a way to protect my hands I think!) will gets him into it. Then when I start "fighting back" by pulling a bit on his hair, his paws, trying to get at his underside, putting my hand on his back and pulling - all of this gets him really going and some mix of agitated and playful. Getting play growls and lots of dodging and twisting and him grabbing at my arm with his paws, and just a good time all the way around.

Then when he's in super psycho mode, I pull the food away and give a cue (like "drop") and when he does it, we start it up again. I repeat this a few times of varying lengths of time of play and lengths of time of where he has to wait for the cue. After a few times, we go again, but this time I like him get the food at the end. Then, when he's focused on me with those wide, shiny eyes, and wagging tail, I give another cue and then we start the whole thing all over again.

Wally is loving it! He's getting all into everything and he starts moving fast with the cues and starting to bark and whine when I make him wait. One advantage (and which will be something of an issue outside) is that there's not a lot of room for him to get "zoomies" and just release all that energy. While we go out and walk/play after we're done with one of these sessions, outside, he'll be able to just charge around in a circle around me or hop or dart in and out at me, etc. This will put a new challenge for both of us in play, me in getting his focus again and controlling that energy and how high it rises and on him to try to keep it at that level while he's getting to play and eat and praise and fun interaction from me.

It's going to be fun, though, and he'll be getting out a lot of physical energy, which is good for him (so much mental work lately, can't forget about the physical side of him either).

Training Wally To Stay Focused While Excited

One thing we haven't worked on in a long while is Wally staying aware of my instructions even though he's super wound up and excited. It's been a LONG time since we've had some good running and chasing and that probably was part of why I ended up getting more zoomies and less focus.

After a while, I did start to get some measure of focus, probably once he realized I was actually make a sound that wasn't a bark or a growl! I think if we start working on this more, we'll be able to get some more control and awareness together even while he's about as amped up as possible. I will also try to include this during indoor play, especially during our "morning play ritual" now that he's super into it and even whining at my door to get in so the fun can start.

What I'm going to start doing is using a lot of stationary cues or controlled movements (including the "go arounds") which is probably the LAST thing he's going to want to do, which means he'll have to get himself under control. I'll probably throw in the "rapid cues" game we play, which will make him have his mind (and ears) open and being aware to what behaviors I'm calling out.

Increasing the excitement even further will be the fact I'll be giving out bread balls for correct responses. The rewards will be things he loves (running and food), and he'll likely get both (give him a bread ball, wait until he swallows it, then start running around) after each correct response, and we'll keep it up as long as I can actually keep running and have the breath to talk, and maybe even when I don't by using what few hand signals we have.

This should be a lot of fun for us both, and the weather may well cooperate (sunny, not too hot) and with the kids in school, no interference from them either.

I can't wait to get this going! We might can expand on this even more over time.