Settling Down Some

Well, we're finally out of the hotel and into our temporary housing and got internet back.

Things are trying to settle back in to something resembling normal finally. That will be good for everyone involved, including Wally.

The first few days with Wally saw him do a lot of whining and being scared to be alone. It must have been yet another sudden change and being in a house again with so much empty space and its all new. I tried to give him a room that we weren't going to use so he could have it, but he would have none of that. Whimpering and whining like a kid scared of the dark. It was a bit heartbreaking to see him regress a bit like this.

I let him stay in my room for those nights and that helped him out. I was able to buy him some things to use for his little area in another room like he used to have - a place that was his in the room/house and he could go lay on it and such. Made him another spot on the lower level. He became much more settled after that. It was like he didn't know where he fit in with this new place and it made him uncomfortable and anxious.

Now that he's calmed down, we're getting back into some of the training groove. A lot of it is revisiting walking off-leash, since he was on-leash the whole time he was out in the hotel. He sort of got used to it again and lost his own keeping up with me. It's starting to come back to him. :)

So at least we're looking back up. It's not home, but at least it's more like home with a neighborhood and being in a house and GRASS for him to walk on and sniff.

Displaced By a Fire. Much Is Lost But Wally Stays Strong

There hasn't been much training going on of any kind lately, thanks to a recent house fire that has forced us out of our home. Many of Wally's and mine things are gone, as are many of the notes and articles we were using to train with.

So much of what we were doing is stopped since things like the blue rug and such are no longer around. As such, we've been just going through the basics and mostly trying to keep Wally as stable a possible so he can make an adjustment as well.

To his credit, Wally has been quite stable and adaptable through it all. He had some nervousness, as can be expected, and the first couple days were a challenge of sorts, especially in the case of using the bathroom in this strange place he's never seen before and not seeing his home and familiar sights and scents.

Now, he's adapted to the hotel we're currently staying at quite well. He's pretty much taken to it like home. He's sleeping peacefully, enjoying walks again, and getting to go in the car a lot more than usual since I don't want him in the way of the housekeepers when they come by to service the rooms.

This is quite an achievement for him, given the way he used to be. At first, there looked like it would be something of a regression, but it was mostly initial anxiety and confusion. Of course, we'll be moving on from the hotel eventually, and on to a temporary housing while our home is being repaired. That may well create another adjustment for him, but I think he'll be just fine after how he took this.

All-Positive Monday 26 - Quest of The Blue Rug

The blue rug remains the focus of our training so far, and we're still working on a making it a place he will want to go on and thus make it a very attractive place for him to go to.

We worked more on shaping and then just getting the spot being a trigger for a reward even when not making it an explicit target of training. If he walks on it during the day, he gets a click and treat. If he walks on it while playing, I'll praise and give him a treat. If he lays on it, sits on it, plays on it, whatever, he gets rewarded.

I think doing that - getting him rewarded for being on, or stepping on, the rug is a good first step to getting him to offer it on his own during shaping. I've done something similar before - teach him a behavior outside of shaping, then have him refine, master, and fully reinforce the behavior during shaping and games.

Also found the Spanish word that I'll link to the rug, 'tapete'. Then I'll use "¿Dònde està tapete?" to tell him to find the rug.

That is the first "formal" game we'll play with the rug.

The other side effect of this is he'll get more "mat work" as well. The things learned here could carry over to that exercise as well, since the concept is the same idea: get to the spot where the "mat" is.

So that's where we are with the rug and our continuing practice in working with it.

The Square Blue Rug

I'm trying to think of things to do with the blue rug I had bought for him some time earlier. At first, he was
using it as part of where he laid in my room, but now that his new bed is there and the rug moved to the floor in front of his crate, I'm trying to think of new things to do with it.

Right now, I'm shaping him to sit and lay on it, and he got the idea pretty fast. But I wonder if that's all we can do with it. Perhaps I should see what else he comes up with. Maybe leave something he can pick up near by and see if he thinks of anything.

Or perhaps take what he's doing now and playing some sort of game where he needs to get on the rug to win. Things like that have always helped him. I think first I need to teach him what that's called (put a name to the behavior we've shaped), and then start to use that to play the game, helping him learn both the new cue as well as make the rug more important and rewarding for him to be on and get on.

Sounds like a good idea for next Monday, actually. Certainly can do that in an all-positive way.

Spanish for Wally: Adentro y Afuera 2

Wally is starting to get the idea of the words, and mostly I use them when I would use "inside" and "outside", respectively. 

One thing that is interesting is that when I said "Afuera", at first he hesitated. The reason was because I didn't say "outside". I was under the impression that he did not understand "inside" and "outside", and perhaps he doesn't, but he knew it was one of those two words. Pretty interesting. 

Still, he is getting "afuera" pretty quickly. He trots outside like no problem. "Adentro", though, still seems to be confusing him sometimes. He hesitated, and still does once in a while, but only on "adentro". 

I am not sure why that is. I have to use a hand signal to gesture him inside when I say the word. Perhaps he can't hear the word too well, or perhaps I'm not saying it consistently (entirely possible, not a native Spanish speaker and just learned the words myself). 

One day I will need to practice sending him in and out, and perhaps even use the clicker to mark the correct behavior to help him really understand. 

Then after that, it will be time to give a "test" to see where he is in understanding and where more practice is needed. 

So far, I think he's learning pretty well overall. Seems like using Spanish is still a good way to expand his "vocabulary", and introduce new concepts or reteach old ones.