Crashing Class

As an instructor, I can drop in on any class at the kennel club. So last night, I loaded Pilot up and we headed over to the Beginning class taught by my original puppy instructor. I couldn't help but notice that she started with a few more students than I had in my class but that she had less than half the class left. It's really a shame. She's a lovely person, but she just doesn't expect enough of the people and the dogs. Because of it, they don't work.

I digress. So Pilot and I jumped into the class and I was pretty pleased. It's weird having him in lead out position and not looking at me, but he wasn't pulling me around and was in control for the most part. Every once in awhile he would try to get to a class dog whose owner really didn't have it under control. Then I gave him a good leash correction. Debbie, Barb, and I decided that Pilot needs the occasional pop because he's almost 50 pounds now and is just going to keep getting stronger. He really listens after a pop and better yet, his tail never stops wagging and he never stops prancing. Several people in class talked about how lively and happy he is. I have noticed it too. I see other Leader Dogs and they are all calm as they plod along. Pilot could be turned into an OTCH. He's all enthusiastic and loving life. But he's learning and making progress. I can envision him always being the clown as he leads his blind person by doing little things like smiling at people and prancing along.

The club is a great place to go for working on the special Leader Dog activities. I enlisted the help of the wife of one of the owners in class. She patiently worked with Pilot and me as we practiced our "Meet and Greets". It was fun to watch how quickly he learned not to get up from his position at my side. And when he finally held and she got to pet him, he practically crawled into her lap...so cute!

I had several other people help with Meet and Greets and then we did sits and downs. He is making great progress in all areas but the boredom barking. His barks just come out of the blue. I think they are coming less and less, but it's hard to tell.

My Superstar

Dreamer is a superstar. We had a great lesson with Karen on Sunday, where we fixed a few problems on downs and dumbbell holds and also blew Karen away with the progress on our recalls.

Since Sunday, I've trained Dreamer only once this week (tonight, in the kitchen). I suck, but at least my dog doesn't! She's such a smarty. Since I had started Dreamer on dumbbell holds in a sit position, she didn't know how to hold the stupid thing in any other position, so we worked on her taking it on a stand, down, and heel. She learned quickly. I didn't intend for her to take the dumbbell only while sitting in training, but I guess she just picked up on that habit and thought it was the right way to do things. And she was right because, of course, I was wrong. I feel sorry for her due to my handler errors. But she recovers quickly and relearns the things I teach incorrectly.

We had similar problems on downs. Dreamer couldn't seem to go down on her own when I was standing in front of her because that's not the position in which I originally started teaching her. She picked up on the various positions pretty quickly tonight. I will try to be a better Tacara Trainer this weekend and next week. In the meantime, the superstar makes me look like I've been training her ever since our last lesson. (What Karen doesn't know won't hurt her.)

And Finally, We Train

Dreamer and I have not trained much lately due to the weather, my ankle injury, and my general wintertime laziness.

But today is beautifully mild and springlike, around 60 degrees -- and though we trained in a little bit of drizzle, it was totally bearable and doable. Dreamer brought her A game to our training session today. Between obedience and conformation, we practiced for about 30 minutes. We had fantastic recalls again, as though we've been practicing them since the last time I blogged (which I think is the last time we trained!).

We worked a little bit on the conformation tricks I learned from Peggy, but I think our training spot wasn't distracting enough because I had trouble getting Dreamer to make the mistakes I need to correct. We'll pick a busier spot for our next training session.

I hope our lesson with Karen doesn't get rained out tomorrow. But if it does, we'll just keep working on heeling, recalls, finishes, dumbbell holds, and more. Dreamer is very consistent and attentive, definitely moving past her 100% baby phase. It is nice to work with her for longer periods of time and know that I won't lose her attention. I'm so lucky that she loves to work. Remind me how much fun she is to train when I am unmotivated. Her enthusiasm is contagious!

Puppy Pranks

One of my best friends is also a retired teacher. We take each other out for breakfast to celebrate birthdays. Our favorite place to eat is an omlette shop in Midland. They have a great oatmeal combo with a homemade carrot muffin....yummy.
I went early to walk Pilot around downtown Midland. He did quite well although he still tries to snatch trash as we walk.
I had called ahead to get permission to take Pilot into the restaurant. They were all excited to see him. They gave me a booth. This is the first time I have tried a booth with Pilot and I thought he would like the den-like atmosphere, and he did until the food came! Then he kept scootching past us to come out and stare longingly at the table. He also wouldn't allow us to keep our napkins in our laps. More to work on...
When he started in with his short barks, I decided to give up and put him in the car. I made the mistake of bringing a bully stick. I thought he would just go wild for it like he does at home. Live and learn. He would have done much better with part of his breakfast in a Kong. Next time I'll go back to that.
After breakfast, I took him to the mall. He did a great job in the store where I picked up my Clinique make-up and free gifts. Everyone there was so impressed with how he lay down and settled while I paid. His loose leash walking is coming along very nicely, but instead of forging ahead (which he knows will get him nowhere), he decided to puppy flop. We would be walking along and he would just flop down on the ground. I couldn't help but laugh!
I don't know if other puppy raisers have more success with their 4 and 1/2 month old pups, but I think about what a baby he is and I can't help but know that he is doing fine. We have 7 and 1/2 more months together to perfect things.
In the meantime, I have to appreciate how far he has come and just how cute his puppy pranks are.

This and That

Pilot's Leader Dog class was very interesting this week. Our regular trainer was not there; but I liked the sub better. She's one of the 4 puppy developers. I just liked the fact that she spent more time working with us and less time lecturing. I'm an on-the-move type of person; don't like sitting around. I found it interesting that we started working on something that I had found on the internet and was teaching Pilot as well as my students. It's called, "Go To Your Mat" and is a way to get the dog away from the door when visitors come over. It's very positive and constructive.
We also worked on proper greetings from strangers and I loved the method. If the dog gets too excited, the stranger walks away. I wish I had used this with Remy. He loved people so much that he was often jumping on them or lunging forward to greet.
We worked more on "leave it" with food on the floor. Talk about clumsy trainers! As the instructor came over to see how we were doing, I looked up briefly to look at her and Pilot snatched the forbidden treat! Oh well. Back to square one with Leave It.
His loose leash heeling was much improved and that made me happy since we truly do put in the time.
Finally, we learned the "around". When you come to a door with hinges on the left, the dog must go around behind you and end up on your right side. You then go through the doorway, tell the dog to "heel" and he goes back around you to get back in heel position on your left. Luckily, our front door has the hinges on the left, so we will get a chance to practice this everyday.
Pilot visited the vet for his last shot: rabies. He now weighs 42 pounds. He feels much heavier than Remy did even though he weighs less, but it's because of the concentrated weight. He's a tank:)
After his vet visit, I stopped by the Tennis Center to walk among the crowds watching the qualifiers play their matches. He got a lot of work with stranger greetings. He absolutely crashed when we got home. I think he reacted a bit to the shot because the rest of the day he slept. We took a great nap on the bed together:)

A Different Perspective

Dreamer and I met with Peggy for the first time this morning. After banging my head against a wall in conformation, and finding that Karen's tips just weren't translating for me in the ring, I got Peggy's information from a friend who trains with both Peggy and Karen.

Peggy is an obedience judge but also runs her own board-and-train business. She's become known in the Doberman world as a trainer that handlers respect and admire. When handlers get Dobes that Peggy has trained, they ask the owners who trained the dog. From what I've heard, owners bring dogs to Peggy that aren't winning -- and once Peggy works with the dogs, they start winning. I found that information to be compelling and, despite knowing that Peggy idolizes Julie Hill, I wanted to see how she could help me.

Dreamer and I spent an hour with Peggy, and I got an earful. Peggy is not shy about telling you just what's wrong and what you need to fix. She isn't quite as stern as I'd anticipated. She seems to have a really good approach with the dogs and will tell you, over and over, what to do until you get it right in your head. We worked on basics today -- free stacks and hand stacks.

One of my biggest problems with Dreamer has been getting her to just stand still and straight in front of me when so much is going on around us. Peggy's no-nonsense approach helped me with that. She's very unlike Karen in that she believes in pops (she's not pop crazy, but she demands respect from the dog). She used a dowel to experiment with Dreamer's persistent body turns -- she turns her body toward the heel position when she's distracted (maybe it makes her feel secure to be at my left side?). We worked on associating the word "Even" with straightening her out, raising the dowel on my left side and saying, "Yes" and rewarding with a treat just as soon as Dreamer made the effort to straighten up. We had to get her over the hump of the dowel being scary first, of course, so it took a long time to make some progress...but I think we did.

We also worked on when to pop versus use the voice. I know one of my biggest problems is that I don't talk to Dreamer enough. It's as hard for me to get things right when there's a lot going on as it is for Dreamer. I'm not a coordinated dog trainer (which is why I suck at agility), so my biggest challenge is remembering what to do when and being sure that I reward Dreamer instantly. I'm often too late in my corrections and/or rewards with training that is new to me, like conformation. It's something I need to work on.

When I have something like a dowel in one hand, and a leash and bait in the other, it's hard for me to remember what to do next. I think that's why I like the dorky belt in obedience. It takes some of the steps away so that I can concentrate and have more success. It's just something that works well for me. But all in all, I think meeting with Peggy today was just what I needed. Having a different perspective can help -- whether it's learning something new or recognizing how/why something is working with Karen's method. I feel hopeful that I can get a handle on my issues with Dreamer. I will definitely meet up with Peggy again. I'll probably work with Dreamer for a few weeks on what we learned today and then give Peggy a call to schedule another lesson. In the meantime, I'll practice what we've learned one-on-one with Dreamer as well as in drop-in class. Next stop: Winners Bitch. :)

Up and Coming

Dreamer's recalls were excellent today. Great stays, attentive watching, speedy takeoffs, and straight fronts! I feel like a dork wearing the belt out in public places, but it works. I know we have lots of proofing and polishing to do, but I'm really happy that we got out and trained with a lot of positive results today. Great session but especially great recalls. We are up and coming.

Get Off My Back!

Dreamer and I didn't train tonight. I'm not feeling well. But I managed to play with her from the comfort of the sofa. She regularly brings her toys to me, bashes them against my leg, and then leaves them in my lap as a gift. She'll just bring me a toy and be on her merry way. Sometimes I don't even notice that she's left me a gift. I'll just look down and notice that there's a toy in my lap. It's cute.

I think it's fun to take the toy when Dreamer isn't looking and place it on her back -- because she can't stand that! She'll immediately whip her head around and snatch that annoying thing off her back. It's funny. I'm not sure why it provides so much entertainment for me. I like the look of surprise on Dreamer's face, like, "How dare you put that thing on my back?!" I like to think that these little rituals and games help us bond, even though I should be training my Tacara Terv tonight.

Pilot's Big Day

Pilot had a huge day today. We started out with a walk and although he was great on the way out, he was like a horse heading back to the barn on the way back. Frustrating.
I tied him to a tree in the front yard while I shoveled and waited for the bus to pick us up. He was wonderful! He watched the world go by, played with a frozen tennis ball, and watched me shovel. When the bus came, he eagerly climbed aboard and began to dust the floor. He barked several times during the trip, but since we were the only passengers, I didn't obsess.
He quietly rode on the passenger side floor of our now clean and sweet smelling van. We stopped for a visit with Grandma and Grandpa Brissette. This was very exciting for him. He promptly greeted them and then checked out all the wastebaskets.
He pooped and peed in preparation for the trip to the restaurant. My plan worked like a charm. I treated him like a toddler and came armed and ready. I had filled 2 large natural bones and one Kong with his food and peanut butter. He was in 7th Heaven! He busily worked at the 3 treats until he was finished and then took a nap under my chair. I had a wonderful, worry-free visit with my friend. We had time before my hair appointment, so we went to downtown Bay City. He was very much improved with his loose leash walking on the streets. He still wouldn't climb the fire escape stairs, but came down them confidently after I carried him up. I took him to Mark's office to visit everyone. At one point, Mark came out of his office. If I would have had Remy, he would have torn the leash out of my hand to get to Mark. Pilot never even noticed Mark! When I took him over by Mark, he didn't recognize him! I cannot figure that out. Is he that dumb or was he just too interested in finding wastebaskets? Mark's feelings were very hurt and he is still sulking. I'm secretly glad because he needs to realize how much better it will be once we get our new Tervlet. And in the long run, it will be better for Mark not to get too attached to Pilot. I'm sure it will change Mark's opinion that we shouldn't get a new puppy until after Pilot is gone. I've explained to him that I can't just choose the time I want the puppy and it will magically appear!
After I left downtown Bay City, I took Pilot to our Essexville home and put him in a crate in the basement while I got my hair done. And then was the best part of the day: Pilot got to play with John and Jess' dog Maizie. They had a blast. Needless to say, Pilot has now crashed for the night.

Topsy Tervy

Topsy Tervy and I had an electrifying training session tonight! I think I'm on a high today as I detox on my latest diet because I had as much energy to burn as Dreamer. I was winding her up like a top and watching her spin! It was fun to use enthusiasm and excitement in my voice to get Dreamer really engaged and bouncy. I try to do that regularly, but I can't always pull it off. Work sucks the life out of me, and Dreamer is smart enough to know when I'm faking it.

Not today. I can't remember the last time we had this much fun! The weather allowed us to work outside, which was great, and we practiced a bunch of downs, some heeling with the belt, stays, recalls, finishes, and more.

While on a stay, Dreamer barked at the sound of a neighbor opening his gate and emptying the trash. She broke the stay twice, and that was in the comfort of our own back yard, so we still have plenty of proofing to do. She can't learn if she doesn't make mistakes, but it does disappoint me when I realize that we have a long way to go. I'm not too disappointed, though. I'm smiling about the fun we had tonight. Novice can be so monotonous. It's encouraging when things get fun and spiral out of control. And that sums up my training session with Topsy.

Magic Bus Ride

I drove the smelly van to Midland with Pilot on the floor of the passenger seat. Can he really be only 4 months old? He even waited patiently there while I fueled up the van and got a coffee at Speedway. Sure, he's tethered to the headrest, but he wasn't fighting it.
We dropped off the van at the car place and waited for the bus to arrive. We practiced our loose leash heeling outside the shop. The one way traffic in front of the shop was busy and fast. It didn't faze him in the least bit. When the bus arrived, I was pleased to see that the steps were low to the ground, so he happily climbed on board. I had envisioned having to carry him! He's over 35 pounds of dead weight now, so I wasn't looking forward to that! We started out and traveled over a bridge that was very bumpy due to winter potholes. I could see the fear beginning to work up, so I started treating Pilot to ward it off. Sure enough, within minutes he was settled and trying to vacuum the floors of the bus. The ride was about 35 minutes long with one stop to drop off a handicapped woman, her daughter, and grandson. He got bored a few different times and let out a puppy bark. These are coming less and less often, but it's still something we are working on. The bus dropped us off in our driveway. Not bad for $3! I have appointments in Bay City tomorrow, so I am planning to ride the bus with Pilot, pick up the van, and be 1/3 of the way to Bay City. It should work well. The only problem is that I am meeting a friend for lunch. If he should act up, I won't have a crate for the car. I'm thinking I will bribe him by saving some of his breakfast for lunch. Then I'll feed him at the restaurant. That should make him sleepy and satisfied and maybe he'll settle and won't bark. We'll see.

Fantastic Fours

Pilot turned four months old on January 27th. It's hard to believe that a four month old puppy can do some of the things he does. He now knows the word, "settle" which means when he is given the down command, followed by the settle command, he puts his head on the floor and rests. He did this at Target several times while I shopped and then again at the register while I paid. He did it again today at the grocery store. What I cannot get him to do is to settle when there is food involved! Yesterday at Starbuck's he wouldn't hold the settle as I drank my coffee and chatted with John and Jess. He literally dive bombs food on the floor of stores or at the mall's food court. I don't care how much we have worked on this, the poor baby is starving and he looks at this as a source of added calories. The Leader Dog Manual currently states that he should receive a maximum of 4 cups per day. That's where he is at, but it doesn't touch his hunger. Mark and I often wonder how much he would eat if he were allowed. We both decided that he would eat the whole bag of dog food like Marley!
Today, he blew me away with what he learned. We have a 3rd vehicle, a Honda Odyssey van. We had a 2000 Odyssey that we used to haul my tennis team, help our kids move, keep the mileage on my leased CRV down, etc. We sold it to our son who took it out to CO. Mark found a great deal on an '05, but whoever owned it was a PIG. I can barely stand to drive it because it stinks and all the handles are dirty, etc. So I am having it detailed tomorrow. Being the type A person that I am, I am killing 2 birds with one stone. I am dropping it off and riding a County bus home. Pilot needs to learn how to ride a bus, so he is going also. The problem is the crate. I don't want to leave the crate in the van. So today I practiced another thing Pilot needs to learn: to ride on the floor of the passenger seat. I was impressed that he climbed into the van on the floor. I rigged up his leash to the headrest and told him to down and settle. He did. I closed the car door and went around to the driver's side. Lo and behold, he was still holding and settling! I drove to the local grocery store (about 5 miles) and took him in for a quick one. He was dive bombing, but I had the pleasant image in my head of his success in the van.
After shopping, we walked on the nearby rail trail and that was very pleasant (other than the freezing cold wind). It wore him out. He was so cute on the ride home! He fell asleep on the floor of the van:)
I am looking forward to tomorrow's bus ride; hopefully Pilot won't freak.