Men in hats

I was going to title this post "We gave Fizz away today" and head it up with the photo of Fizz and Jeff...........it was sooo tempting!  :)  But that wouldn't have been very nice.   :P

We ran errands this a.m. and came home to find a tree cutting crew, including a large crane, right outside the house.   This was VERY exciting for the kids, and it soon dawned on me that this was a great training opportunity.   Loud things, unexpected crashes as limbs fell, odd smells, BIG huge trucks moving about, men in hats, gloves, goggles, etc.    Why miss out on a training opportunity????

Got Fizz out and worked a bit of short heeling, focus on me, and then sits and downs.   Downs became VERY difficult as the kids ate PB&J sandwhiches (this cool event rated a 'bottom of the driveway' picnic!).  All of my dogs are peanut butter junkies, to the Nth degree.  

After our 'work,' Fizz just hung out with the kids, relaxing and enjoying the show, despite our blazing heat.   And of course, who could pass up the opportunity to have a good stick chew when bits of tree are flying about??   

I was able to spend some time talking to the officer working the detail, and it turns out he used to train K9's in the nearby town.  He knows the Billings, Kenny Ballinger, and a host of other people from my former life in Working dogs.   We had a great time chatting.......had to laugh about Jagermeister in the live blind....ah the memories! :)

Fizz was not bothered at all by any of the men, wiggled and wagged to meet everyone of them, no matter what they had on their heads, eyes or hands.   I was very thankful that she didn't think Jeff's beautiful white gloves meant "game on!"  :) :) 

Every day presents us with new training opportunities, ability to socialize and just add yet another thing to the list of "oh yeah, that's just life."   I'm so thankful to the trainers in my life who have opened my eyes to this way of thinking, and encouraged me to seize such opportunities.   THANK YOU! :)    

Working at the Wrentham Outlets

We needed to fight the crowds down at the Wrentham outlets today, so I brought Fizz with me to do some work, and some socializing.   It wasn't as busy as I was hoping for socializing, but we did get to meet 20 or 30 new people.   She had a grand time charming groups of ladies, couples, a gaggle of teen age boys, and various other passers-by. 

Fizz was VERY busy trying to find chewed gum in the cracks of the sidewalk.  I was rather disturbed with the volume that she did manage to find (and then would start chewing on if I didn't catch her fast enough).  Ew!

My goal for work was building duration in sits and downs.  Her sit is on a bench for no other reason than I was hoping for a better photo.  But....I was working with my P&S, and I just don't like it.   MUCH prefer shooting SLR, but you work with what you have.  :)

I was approximately 15ft back to take this.   People were FASCINATED that a puppy would stay in a sit.  Amazing what training does, eh?   ;)

Fizz was VERY interested in the people walking by, they are a VERY high level distraction for her.  But she was an awesome girlie and held her position.  :)

Fizz has been taught to sit at doors in order to get them to open.  I was quite impressed with how well she generalized this behavior to doors she's never entered (into stores with no inherent value to her, like Bebe and Coach).    She sat at 4 consecutive shop doors on our way out to the car.   People found her quite cute, I had to make sure they didn't let her in!!

Fizz goes tailgating

So we have Patriots' season tickets, and today was the 2nd to last home game of the regular season.  Decided that since my parents were watching the kids, I'd bring Fizz to the pre-game tailgate in order to get her out of their hair.   For two hours we walked about meeting people in all stages of sobriety (and non....), dodging grills with yummy smelling sausages and hamburgers and of course, working on some of our training games.

The parking lot we use is not that far from the stadium, so thousands of people walk past on their way up to the game.   Fizz and I hung out at the entrance, she easily met 200 new people today and was a doll for all of it.   Many people told us of their current or former Rottweilers.   And I will admit, I heard one of the most unique comments to date, in owning this breed.   "You can tell she's fullblooded by her eyebrows!  Just look at those eyebrows!"   Smile and nod yes.   :)    (The only statement that tops that was made about 10yrs ago, when someone asked me if Bort, at about 18mos, was a Beagle.    Ummm..............)

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas, and much joy in 2012!!

Fizz with hubby, our friend Peter, and his friend from Switzerland, Marc.

2 layers of pants, 1 turtleneck, 2 fleeces....ah yes, that's how we stay warm! :)

Fizz wearing my season ticket.

Fizz's fans include Santa!

Visit to Home Depot - 14wks

This morning we headed to Home Depot, hubby needed a few plumbing parts (eventually it was easier to just buy a whole new toilet!) and I decided that Fizz was going to have a great socialization outing.  I hadn't planned any real training, just a chance for a new environment and lots of new people.

Fizz entered like she owned the place, and within  a minute, I had her playing games with me and earning treats.   We started with simple nose touches, and progressed to calling off distractions (new people are about a Level 14 on a scale of 10 for Fizz)....including new people, dust bunnies in corners, and cords hanging down from poles.   I was amazed to see her leave a new person, and thrilled to see that she put the value in me over the new person, as I know how much she adores meeting new people.

After making our way to the back cross-store aisle, we worked some RZ, first in one-step forward increments, and then several 180 turns.   She nailed it, and was pushing me hard with her eyes to keep working, to keep earning reward.   LOVED seeing this from her.   No luring, no begging on my part.   Just a simple response to her awesome choices.    She was totally focused and wanting to work.   I released her from work to go say hi to at least 10 different staff members, and several customers.   Each time, she came back ready to work again!

We worked in aisles on Its Yer Choice.   I forgot the rule of "it's a new environment, be sure to set up for success" and just started working on the level of distraction that we work at home.  I asked for a sit, tossed her most favorite tug over her head (from behind), squiggled it along the floor in front of her, and tossing hot dog pieces onto the floor so that they bounced right towards her toes.   Not a flinch.   Yep, old hat for this old soul.   A truly brilliant puppy!   BIG reward and party for such awesome work.   Lots of tugging, and I had a mother/son team watching from the end of the aisle, with Mom narrating the puppy's training session (I think my enthusiasm was not very quiet!).

We had several hard fast recalls, raced the length of empty aisles, and worked more Its Yer choice with the tug.   When it was finally time to select our new toilet, I put Fizz in a down (this is not on verbal cue yet) and fed a few times to build duration, and then just waited.    She put her chin down and completely relaxed.   Released her to greet some new people, then back into her down.   Finally, got her up on the flatbed cart with the toilet box and asked for a sit while the cart rocked forward onto the fore set of wheels.

I think what amazed the most was the intensity with which she worked with me, despite this new, exciting, and highly distracting environment.  I felt like the training sessions we've been doing for the past many weeks were suddenly coming together and I had a puppy who was happy and willing and eager to work, starting to really generalize behaviors and pushing me for more.  Absolute JOY! :)

A trip to Bass Pro shops

Anyone who is blessed to live in the vincinity of one of these shops knows what an incredibly fun place they are!!  And, better yet, they are extremely dog friendly.   I can think of few better places to socialize a puppy!   Being geared to the outdoor crowd, most who go there are also dog lovers.   PERFECT! :)

Visiting Bass Pro has been on my Insane Puppy Plan since I first put it together.   Couldn't wait to get there with Miss Fizz, and today was finally the day.  We spent 2 hours walking around and greeting people, easily met over 100 people.   Kids, squealing kids, kids in fur, kids in bells, and adults in every flavor you can imagine.   I think the sales staff swarmed her almost more than the general public did. :)  

If you've never been, here's our local store.  Click on the link to see a slideshow and all the amazing stuff there is to see/experience, especially as a curious puppy.   We climbed up and down the long flights of stairs several times, and also had multiple glass elevator rides.   Shopping carts were VERY exciting because they have wheels (oh for the love of wheels!).  A flat delivery cart got in the elevator with us on one trip, and she got right up on it and had a ride around.   The giant fish pond, with a very tall glass wall, was great excitement.  I pointed out a huge fish (easily larger than Fizz!) swimming slowly by and she was enraptured.   Thankfully, she did NOT try to swim in the trout stream.   While meeting a stuffed bear, she managed to steal some moss (I think I did a nice job replacing it!), and the fake snow near Santa....well, I mean it does look like Stuffie-toy fluff!

We're looking forward to our next adventure there, including walking the cranberry bog trail out back.  BPS will be an awesome place to work on heeling with distraction, scent work in the future, etc.   LOVE our new training grounds!!

Chillin' out after a few hours of meeting people, waiting in line to see Santa.

Maybe Santa will bring me a giant fish to chase!

Completely zonked after shopping (can't blame her, I despise shopping!)

At the end of a month......

Fizz was 12wks on Sunday, and has been here a month now.   I'm just amazed to see how far she's come.   Its been tiring at times, this new journey we're on.   No verbal or physical corrections.   Logging all of my training, which is typically 6-8 mini sessions per day.   Some days, I go to bed so exhausted I can't even remember what I did (thus a new system of tracking my training has emerged).   I don't ever remember a puppy tiring me so much, but I don't think I ever put this level of detail/effort into a puppy either (meanwhile, keeping up with my 3.5 & 6yr olds!).  :)

I keep a 3-ring binder with all of my training notes.   Each day contains details of each training session, including:  time, location, treats used, games played, and then an assessment of how it went.  At the end of the day, I look to see how much of each thing was accomplished, and based on that, and my weekly plan/goal, decide what to move forward with for the next day.   If I've missed something for a few days, or not gotten enough reps of it in, then it goes on high priority for the upcoming day.

Being a scientist by training, keeping notebooks is not foreign.  However, I was not finding the time to NEATLY enter the level of detail that I wanted.   So....now I have a scribblebook (composition notebook) and my decorated 3 ring binder.   The scribblebook is used through-out the day, to quickly enter notes about what happened when.   Just before bed, I sit down to re-write it, putting into detail what went on.  

At the end of our first month, I have a puppy who is tightly bonded to me, yet confident to go meet any one new who crosses her path, and self-confident enough to hang out with someone if I choose to hand the leash off and walk away.   Today, we walked down the street, around the corner, and met a "tree dude."   Two HUGE diesel trucks were running, one of which was also hauling a monster-sized chipper.   The other 'tree dude' was using the chain saw and cutting the remainder of a fore-shortened tree into manageable sized logs.   None of this bothered her one whit.    She was so excited to meet someone new:  a big thick man, wearing an eye-bleeding yellow jacket (you know, that new safety color that so many have), thick blue rubber gloves, and his bright orange hard hat - hearing protector contraption.    He was QUITE the sight, and certainly not like anyone else we've met.   But he was excited to see her, and she just calmly went right up to him, and nestled in for pets.    The trainer in me was VERY happy with her confidence.   If we ever meet an obed judge in tree gear, at a very loud trial........we're down with that.  :)

Fizz travels beautifully in the car, and has since Day 1.  She just goes to sleep and does not try to crate surf, nor bobble around as I'm driving.   No car sickness, no barking at anything.....just lovely!   In a similar vein, when we're at our competition obedience class, she lies quietly in her crate until it's time to come out and work.   Fizz ADORES other dogs and people, I would rate them as an A++ level distraction at times.   However, when it's our turn to watch, she is wonderfully quiet and sedate.   I sure hope that continues as she matures.

We've established, through games, that treats on the floor are NOT fair game, just for the taking.  Neither are treats in my hand, or on the counter..........and funny enough, neither are toys.   She will hold a sit while I drop a favorite tug to the floor within a foot of her.  I can take that same tug and snake it around, and even whack the ground with it.   She just looks like "what, you think I'm gonna fall for that?!"   She explodes into it on release, and we have wonderful games of tug and puppy bounce. :)    Her ability to maintain a down is similar, even though we've not worked on it much at all (maybe twice in the past month?).    She's generalizing the "Its Yer Choice" (Susan Garrett) game very nicely.  

Retrieve work is started.  She races out to whatever I throw out, quickly picks it up, turns, and comes straight back to me.   Currently, I kneel on the floor when we play this game, and her default behavior is to dive between my legs.   No growling when I pet her, and if I put out a hand as she comes in, she'll bring it to my hand.   I have not worked that behavior yet, and its on our list to solidify over the next month.   When I was visiting the litter, Fizz brought a few toys near me, but often seemed to want to get off away from her littermates and enjoy whatever prize she'd shopped.   I don't care about puppy tests, PAT, or otherwise.   I didn't need to see what she'd do with a crinkled paper ball, or if she'd bring it back.   I wanted to see her natural carrying behavior (calm, not mouthy), and her natural interest level in people in general throughout the day (high).   I knew that with solid calm carrying and an interest in people, simply building a strong, positive relationship would generate a good retrieve in the early stages........and that is playing out!   I have never done a forced retrieve of any kind on any dog, and I don't plan to ever change that.   In 5 trials, Froli never lost points on her retrieves (3x SchH1, 2x ScHH2).  

Needless to say, I absolutely adore this puppy and am having a blast training with her.   :)

A night out

For months before Fizz arrived, I worked on putting together (and revising!) my "Insane Puppy Socialization Plan."   Fizz is to be my obedience partner, among other things, and I don't want to worry about ANYTHING that may come our way in a trial.  I don't care if the judge is on stilts, with a toy train running about her wide brimmed hat and her wig falls off.   That's fine, we'll still be working.   I want Fizz to think that's an every-day occurrence, and not worthy of note.

So....we're going out everywhere that we can, finding anything and everything to experience, and basically trying to see the whole world and all its oddities.    Tonight, we went out to a local Catholic facility who has a few acres of walking paths, and an amazing light display at Christmas time, complete with beautiful Christmas hymns.   I had hoped that on such a warm night (65F), there would be a lot of people out.   However, it's early in the season, and I wondered tonight if not many people realize that the shrine is open for lights.

Fizz had a grand time wandering about, met a few people including 2 young girls (sisters) who have an 8mos Boxer pup at home.  Because we were so busy sniffing things, hubby and the kids got ahead of us.   At one point, she put her nose to the ground, and I could hear those deep inhale/exhale sounds of a dog working a track.   She pulled me right up a steep hill (in the dark), and around to where the kids were.   Big praise for that!

As we were finishing our tour, the rain started, at a fairly steady pace.   Fizz's nose shot straight up in the air, and she started biting at the rain, I haven't laughed so hard in ages.   Never have I seen a puppy "attack" the rain....but I tell you, this girl's prey drive.............she's a dream!    Again, the kids and hubby got well ahead of us, and this time, she tracked solidly on a hard surface (paved sidewalk).   The focus and intensity were awesome to see.   The tracking history behind Fizz is amazingly strong, and I look forward to having her out one day on the TD/TDX/VST fields.

So tonight's experience brought us:  new people to meet, scent work, new environment at night, areas of loud music, lit/moving things (taller than me), and some simple work (hand targets, name game) in a very new and different environment.   There is no such thing as too much socialization!!

A busy week or so

Prep for the Thanksgiving holiday (and the 5k that I ran that morning) has kept me quite busy, and a little slower in Fizz's formal work.  We're still doing a lot of things for socialization, and sneaking in 4-5 short training sessions per day, but none has been recorded.

Fizz has visited friends at church after the service, met people and dogs at the pet supply shop, hung outside of a grocery store the night before Thanksgiving, meeting lots of last minute shoppers.   While there we checked out both the squeaky-wheeled shopping carts, and the auto-open doors.

About a week ago, Fizz had her first bath.  I usually try to bathe puppies in their first week home, but timing just did not lend to that.  She was fine with the water, being scrubbed and being rinsed off.   After she was out, I definitely saw the beginnings of the characteristic "Rottweiler run amuck" behavior that seems to occur after all baths.   You know.......when the still wet dog runs itself across every piece of furniture, cabinets, and anything else upright that it can find, leaving a trail of fur and "wet dog" smell.    Yeah, we saw the beginnings of that in the bathoom (rubbing into the rug, snorting..........all very cute.........but!).

Last weekend, Fizz had her first weekend away, out in the Berkshires.  She's a wonderful car traveller, just goes right to sleep and doesn't make a peep.  She got to enjoy some trail walks with Vikka around the old Christmas tree farm, and had a blast visiting the S. Egremont library.  In addition to adventures, we worked on some known behaviors and also dremmeled her nails.......something I do about every 2-3 days.  

 Being called in by James and Emilie

 Meeting Cathy, the Asst Librarian

Getting treats from the Librarian, who is known to my kids as their Mimi.  :)

Fizz is getting very pushy in her chin heeling, which I love.   Her tuck sits are getting fast, and she's already showing anticipation in the set-up behavior, trying to turn around into a sit as fast as she can.   Its fun to watch the brain work and figure out how to make me reward her.  She sits for crate door opening now, and is also sitting for doors to open on a regular basis.   Games such as "play with MY toy" are going well, she's very willing to switch from one toy to another, even if she has the more favored toy. 

On Thanksgiving, Fizz came with me to the city of Providence in Rhode Island.  I ran a 5k race, and then brought her out to socialize afterwards.   We had parked in a parking garage, and lots of people were leaving to get home to cook.  All the noise and echoing went unnoticed.   Every person we saw, she happily greeted and the look on her face regarding those who passed us by.......well, how could the miss such a cute puppy???   We met the camera man for the local ABC station.  Thankfully she did NOT eat the spaghetti pile of cords sticking out of his bag.  Before we headed back to the car, we found a circle of chairs with see-through wire mesh seats.   She was completely unbothered by being able to see through this odd footing, as I asked her to walk the circle of chairs.

After downtown, we stopped in at a friend's house to see one of my C litter boys, and to catch up.  Had a wonderful visit, and Fizz even got to play with Calvin (who is now 6).  She had a blast playing with someone that looked like her (and was very tolerant of her puppy antics).  As we were leaving, their son was out front playing with bubbles, and oh BOY was that fun!   Almost as much fun as the winter moths we saw and chased about tonight.

Today Fizz finally met her 'cousin,' Spencer.  Spencer is an almost-2yr old yellow Lab.  He likes to play and can be quite rambunctious, so they only met on leash, and then went for a nice walk together.  While out for our walk, we worked set-ups (getting into heel position) in a totally strange environment, I rewarded for all heads-up eye contact (while in RZ)......boy can this girlie move out at a trot and give awesome eye contact! :) :)    I worked recalls off some fairly high-distraction scents (including dead vole), and she came promptly with good attitude each time.  Thank you Susan Garrett!!!   Can't wait for Recallers 3.0!  :)  

Final trick of the day was hand targets, haven't worked them much recently.   Started with basic ones, and then decided to put it above her head, a la Susan G.'s new method of teaching stand (and with the intent of maybe teaching 'sit pretty' from it too).   I was really impressed with her willingness to pop up to my hand and touch.   Bet we can get that fun stand figured out in the next session or two!   Will try to video tape.

I know you need some puppy cuteness, so I share with you some of Fizz's funny sleeping choices.  This puppy never just sleeps on her side.  She's either upside on her back, sometimes with her neck at a horrendous angle, often with face mashed against the crate, or she's burrowed under the bed.   Enjoy!