Brick walls aren't real

Fizz has been enjoying her tracking work, and is progressing nicely.   We are training her in a component fashion.   There's no reason you need a multi-hundred pace track, aged for long periods, in order to teach a dog how to work challenges, and so, most of her tracks are short (60-80 paces) and aged roughly 15-20 minutes....basically enough time for me to lay it, walk back to the car, log it in my book, get the camera set up and running, and then go back to the car again and get Fizz.

Today's challenge was visual barriers.  The first portion was working through a narrow pass, with high grass on one side, and a rope running overhead on the other.  After coming through the passage, Fizz's track had a big curve in it, turning us around to head right back into the tall grass/wildflowers, head-on.    The point of heading straight into tall stuff was to teach her that "brick walls aren't."  While it may seem that the track should end b/c there's something in the way, today she learned that one should instead forge through the tall stuff and find big rewards.

I was very pleased with how she handled this.  Neither the narrow passage or the tall grass bothered her, nor did she show any hesitation or confusion.    She did get onto some sort of a scent just after the passageway, and I still have no idea what she found....but it was apparently quite yummy.

Here's a side view, from Fizz's level, of the difference in cover, of her 'brick wall' that she went confidently into.

Today's track:

Back to the db

Fizz hasn't seen or touched her dumbell since March 17th.  I decided tonight to re-present it to her, and see where we were.   We're following Sue Sternberg's Inducive retrieve method. 

As soon as she saw the db, she grabbed it hard.  Big praise, and reward.  We went through 4 reps of that, and then I put it down to the floor.  She immediately grabbed it, and I praised/fed her.  I was sitting on the floor, and only looking for her to grab it.

Since all seemed to be well settled in her head, I decided to move forward to the next step: lifting from the floor to my hand.  I wondered if she'd balk at this sudden increase in criteria and was pleasently surprised at the answer:  nope!    She picked it up and held it long enough that I was able to bend down and get it (from a standing position).   Huge praise and a small jackpot of food.

We worked through quite a few reps, took a balance break of tug inbetween to keep arousal level high, and returned to grabbing from the floor.   There were two failures, in which she dropped the db before I could bend down to take it.   Nothing from me, and she immediately picked it up again and held it til I got it.  GOOD girl!! :)

Final rep was one in which she picked it up (while she was standing), and then held it long enough to put herself into a sit (I have no clue why she sat, and at this point, it matters not).   I was thrilled with the progress that we'd made and ended it there with a huge jackpot.

Plan to work on this some more tomorrow, with the goal of her bringing it up to my hand, without me bending over at all.  We finished our evening with a good game of tug, and she retired to her crate with a bit of pig's ear.

2 May 2012:    Worked a bit more with this today, here's some footage from our work this afternoon.  :)

Monday night's class

Fizz was brilliant tonight at class!   She gets exercised before class, and as soon as she's done, she turns tail and beelines HARD for the building, drags me through the door, past the owner (who wonders why my obedience dog is dragging me about willy nilly) and straight into the ring.   I have enjoyed seeing her enthusiasm for class build and have not done anything about it.

Our new rules are "no leash dragging, ever."   I expected an extended attempt to get into the building.  Took all my stuff in, set James up with the iPad, and went to go get Fizz.  I had made a special baggie of diced chicken breast specifically for the pre-class work.   Fizz and I are blessed with an amazing trainer who takes a genuine interest in her students.   No sooner was I in the building, than she asked if she could come outside and help me.   That really meant a lot to me, and I was slow to answer.   Esther, THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!  :)

As soon as I got Fizz out to potty, she was next to me, and had only one tight leash (at a stop and sniff spot).  I was fully expecting our usual drag, and it never appeared.  Even after she finished, she didn't bolt, but stayed with me.  At that point, Esther was out talking with another student, and Fizz was fully aware of her presence.....but she CHOSE to stay with me! :)  What a puppy!!!!!!!   We made a few passes back and forth past Esther, and there was one particularly noticable "I look at her, but I look right back to you, and don't bobble from it" moment.   Her choice was clear and concise.  click and treat, oh yeah!

After a few passes, we tried a sit and greet.  Got as far as hand shake and a brief few words when Fizz couldn't contain herself.  She broke to see Esther. I immediately stepped back, and re-set up.   I asked her for a sit, but as I was saying "sit," she offered a down.   This was quite interesting to me, b/c of the three basic positions (sit, stand, down), down has *always* been our weakest, and very rarely can I think of times that she's offered it up.   Either sit or down is acceptable to me for greeting, as long as she stays at my side and does not self-invite.   She held her position through another handshake, chatting, and all without any rewards from me.  I finally gave her the ultimate reward:  permission to go say hi.   When it was time to move on, she came right with me, and again, click/treat.

Following that big success, we were able to easily loose-leash it all the way inside.  I didn't have to back up once.   She also offered a down outside of the ring, and I asked her to hold that  a bit before proceeding in.  We worked and played while others came in.  No darting off to greet.  And at the very end of class, I was even able to walk right up to another student, whose Border Terrier was out on leash (vs being in her crate), and Fizz did not make ONE attempt to greet either dog or owner.   YAY!!!!!!

I was truly amazed at the success we had tonight.  I feel that her pattern of behavior at class (dragging me about) is fairly ingrained, and figured I had a long road ahead of me re: fixing it.  We will continue to work around stronger distractions, including a local dog park (don't worry, I would never consider to enter one......but it will be an awesome 'bad dog behavior' distraction from outside the fence!), the bus when Emilie gets off (this is HUGE excitement for Fizz!), and work up to visiting Home Depot on a crazy Saturday morning.  :)

Loose leash and non-greeting training

Since I failed our CGC on Saturday, we've been working on two things:  loose-leash walking and not rushing to greet people.   Fizz's leash pulling has never bothered me before, that's why I didn't fix it previously.  However, it is required for the CGC.   Also, she may not greet anyone until she's held a sit or down, and is given permission to go say hi.   This includes family members upon our return home from any outings.

For most of her training, I have not used a clicker, and am not even judicious about using a verbal marker.  I focus mainly on placement and timing of reward.  I do tend to use a verbal marker, but not consciously so....more because I'm a chatterbox.    For this work, I felt the clicker was a more noticeable mark of "yes, that's correct" and so it now comes with us for all on-leash work.   I hold the clicker and leash in my left hand, food is in my right pocket, and delivered with my right hand.

We started on Saturday afternoon with simply being able to go down the driveway.   That probably took us 10-15min.  I she pulled, I backed up.  Pulling = no forward, or a complete direction change by me.    We were able to work down to the street, and maybe go 20-30 yards from the driveway.   I ended the session when my food was out, and we went back to the house.  Later that afternoon, we went out again.  Her understanding of the new idea was showing nicely and we made it easily down the driveway (about 125ft) and out into the street.  

As soon as I said "let's go for a walk," Fizz would surge ahead.  I backed up, or circled around, and clicked/treated when she was back in place and we were moving forward properly.  Simply coming back to me only was rewarded maybe 4 or 5 times because that was not the final behavior, and I upped the criteria.   On our 6th attempt at "let's go for a walk!", she stuck to me like glue, hard staring at me and demanding her meatball for good behavior.   She got three! :)

Yesterday, we were able to progress not only to the block, but about 1/3rd of the way around it.  There we met up with several strong distractions that used up a lot of direction change and reward for choosing correct position.  A robin running along the side of the street (and she is an AVID robin chaser in our backyard!), a man who came out of a house, using a very LOUD and seemingly somewhat agitated voice to yell back to his buddy inside, and a group of children playing in a yard where they were obscured from vision by scrub and trees.   Fizz loves kids and pulled real hard at this one. 

Today, we took our show on the road.  I wanted to track her, and then head to the store for bones and food.   I had hoped to work with her outside the park while James played on the playground, but no dogs allowed anywhere on the property, so that plan was scrapped.  I explained to the staff at the store about our failure, and how we were working on it, while I paid for my food.  Then, went back to the car and got Fizz and went back in.  

There are 2 doors to go in, and she sat at both automatically, and waited for me to invite her through.   This is not something I've worked on in a long time, so it was rewarded both times.  Her reward was leftover cheeseburger, chopped into bits.  I also had a tug with me, covered in real rabbit fur.   There was initially a good bit of pulling because we entered near the elk antlers and various other kinds of natural chews.   I simply backed up each time the leash tightened.   She was rewarded for coming back to me.   Initially, she was rewarded for simply looking away from high value treats when I called her name.

Fizz has been in this store many times.  She enjoys it, and they enjoy her.  Today, the slick floor bothered her.  And as she stressed about it, she knuckled up her feet, making her footing worse.   At that point, I learned that food has higher value to her than tug.   I am still learning about Fizz, and she is still maturing, so I recognize that preferences are in a state of flux.   I know for Xcel, ALL toys always trumped food.  For young Banja, all food trumped toys, but as she got older, some toys (cuz!) trumped most food except for the very rarest of beef.    She put her mouth on the tug and gave me a half-hearted grip, but it was not a real tugging session, and was not able to release her stress about the floor.

However, she did work well through the stress and settled down.   We worked on a down stay, return, leave again and recall (as was done in Saturday's test).   We worked on sitting and not greeting while several customers came in and walked near by.   And we worked simply on loose leash walking, which she was giving very nicely after the initial "I must see all treats."    Finally, I was able to ask a staff member to help us, by coming to say hi to me, but not to her.  Fizz broke on the first time after we were shaking hands and talking.  I replaced her (she was in a down), and tried again, this time she held it and got a handful of cheeseburger.

We then had loose leash walking all the way back to the car.   I am VERY happy with how she is doing.  Our BIG challenge will be class this afternoon.  She loves class, she loves Esther, and she drags me hard to get in there every Monday.   We may spend the first 20min of class just trying to get inside in n appropriate manner, and if that is the case, so be it.   That is what we need to work on right now, and so we shall. :)

Today I failed our CGC

I took Fizz for a CGC test today, knowing full well that we have greeting issues.   She LOVES to greet.  People, other dogs, you name it.   She is a very socially outgoing puppy.   I am very thankful for her open and upbeat temperament, her lack of suspicion and her love of people/dogs.   In this breed, with its PR crisis, I'll take it.   We can fix this! :)

This is the first time in 16yrs that I've failed a CGC.   Why did I fail?  Because I didn't train my dog.  Gee, rocket science, eh??  <rolling eyes here>.   Because I have allowed her to pull on leash on walks.  Because I've allowed her to drag me into training every Monday night.   Because I haven't trained my dog.  Period.   Our failure points?   Greeting people.   Not maintaining a loose leash while walking to meet a stranger and their dog.  Not waiting to 'go say hi' to the friendly stranger (but instead, self-inviting herself to say hi).

Failure does not bother me, and it is only true failure if you can not learn from it.   In 16yrs of titling 3 bitches in Agility to Top 10 rankings, of putting BH/AD on two dogs, and taking one of those dogs through SchH2 & BST.........I've had plenty of failure.   In the past, it did bother me.  I worried too much about "what *they* would say."   What "they" would think, the rumors that would fly, etc.   For the Rottweiler world loves nothing more than to see people fail, and then trash-talk the dog, the breeding/breeder and of course, the idiot handler.    Agility taught me to accept failure as information from my dog, and to also look at a performance and see the good in it.   Excellent A has a VERY high rate of failure.   At times, it can seem the norm almost.   To walk out with genuine happiness and say "did you SEE that weave entry?!?!?"   and not care that a contact was blown, or a bar dropped.  It was one of the most valuable lessons of my dog training career.   

Fizz is a new journey for me.  I am training her without correction, no "ah ah!" no harsh verbals of any kind, and not one leash correction.   I've been told that I can't do that with a Rottweiler.   I've received the "smile that is really an all-knowing-smirk" which says "yeeeahhhhh riiiiight!"    I know "they" are waiting for our failure.   Guess what?  I failed today, and the world has yet to cease rotating.   :)

The 'old me' knows how to fix our problem, I could probably clean this up in 3 or 4 sessions at Home Depot on a busy Saturday a.m. and some "appropriately timed corrections."    But that's not going to happen.   I will fix my lack of training, and it will be done without correction. :)   I started this afternoon with Fizz, snapping a leash on and heading down the driveway.  We didn't get very far, for leash walks are very exciting.   Lots of pulling.  Each time, I'd merely stop, and walk backwards.   Pulling = no forwards.   When she turned back to me, click and treat.   Rarely do I use a clicker, but for this issue, I think it is a very elegant solution, as she has no prediction of it's arrival (no intake of breath, no unconscious turn of my head to look at her before verbally marking.....nada).  

Quickly the critera was upped to be "next to my left side, leash loose."   We spent about 7-8min working on this, and got a bit out into the street, but no more than maybe 20-30 yards from my driveway.   Each pull = direction change from me, but no pops, no corrections, and no verbal NRMs.

After a few hours had passed, I took her out again.   Funny enough, this time, I had heads-up attention going all the way down the driveway.    I'm NOT looking for heads up attention, that's not natural on a walk.   I *do* want a loose leash, and no pulling.   I need to teach her a release to go sniff, and a 'lets get back to walking' command.    It will come.   I saw something quite interesting.....as soon as I said "let's go for a walk!", she surged ahead.   Direction change for Mommy.   It took maybe 5-6 or tries of this and suddenly, when I said "let's go for a walk"....my dog was hard-staring me.   "I am NOT forging.  I am where the click happens.  I WANT a meatball!"  :)

Hopefully we'll get some "before" video shot tomorrow, and then some "after" video in a few weeks.   There's another CGC in late June, and possibly one before that, I have to inquire.   I will have us ready for this, and without force or "have to."  It will be by Fizz's choice.   :)

Tracking begins

Fizz's pedigree is strong in tracking, many FH's and even an FH Championship lie close behind her.  I've seen behaviors in our yard that led me to believe she'd be not only a competent, happy tracking dog, but a focused one as well.

Fizz's breeder, Erika, lives on the other side of the country from us.  We're trying an experiment where I take Fizz out tracking, with a set of instructions and record our work.  Essentially, these videos are for her, so that she can see what we're doing, and give us our next guidance.   Its experimental for both of us, and I appreciate her patience in working with us in this way.

Below are videos of our first two tracks.  #1 was yesterday.   Its on grass, at a location that is a well known dog park area (read: off leash dogs abound).    I laid my track well away from where the loose dogs typically are, and was unbothered.    But of course, as soon as we get out to the track (about 50yds from our parking area), a father, teenage daughter and their over-sized, over-weight Cocker Spaniel show up and start playing with a golf ball.  Yay.   The dog was roughly 30yds from us.   Fizz is highly distracted by this dog, and each tim she stops working and her head comes up.........she's staring at the dog.    Emilie was my videographer, and it's a bit bumpy in places.  ;)

What I did see of her tracking in #1, I was happy with.  Calm, focused, not pulling hard into the line, nor trying to race down the track.   Food is in each step, we're using Natural balance.  It had a few ants on it, after 18min of aging the track.   Track is 35 paces long.

Track #2 was this morning.   We're in a moderate, almost severe, draught in this area, and the dirt is essentially dust.   The field looked like grass, until I walked out on it, and then realized that it had been turned probably 2 weeks ago, and is now full of weeds.   It's conservation land, but used for hay growth.
Track is again 35 paces, this is first thing in the a.m. (as opposed to yesterday's mid afternoon track).   Bait is the same.  I cut it a bit small, and it was falling down into the cracks in the dirt (it's about 3/4" deep in those big wide cracks.....laying the track was like walking on broken puzzle pieces).

Was very happy with her work.   She was calm, working from heel to toe of each step.  She stayed focused on her work.   Occasionally the cars driving by would cause her to lift her head, but she went right back to the track.    Around 2:55, she checks a car track crossing our path.   What I liked was that she came right back to her work, happily. :)

Tracking articles

So not only did Fizz come with an "auto sit to greet" feature, being the Deluxe model, she also came with "perfect article indications" for tracking.   I swear I almost looked at her last night an said "come on, that's not funny!"   Article between legs, in a gorgeous down.  Umm....  ????  Where did THIS come from?  Certainly it does not approximate any other behavior she's EVER been rewarded for.   And quite frankly, of the 3 static positions (sit, down, stand)......I would say our 'down' flat out sucks.    The whole episode was quite bizarre.

I had planned to just show her articles and try to free shape an indication.  I put the first one on the ground, she ran to it, dropped in perfect position and indicated.   So of course, me being the brilliant trainer that I am, said "nuh uh!!!"   and got out article #2 (which looked entirely different from article #1), and threw it on the ground.  Bang....article indication.  WTF?!?!   Erika?????????????

For her dinner last night we worked 2 similar round leather articles (look like beer coasters), a small black rectangular leather piece, a wooden block and a carpet square (boy does THAT rate high in Fizz's world!!!).    Rotated through the various articles, and she was nailing her indications.   I was doing NOTHING but standing, and throwing articles on the floor.

Twice, she looked at the article, than came to me and laid down in front of me.  "I saw it, here I am!"  I did not a thing, and she quickly got up, ran back to the article and laid down with it between her front paws.   I NEVER ONCE lured this behavior.   The hand-lure to the article was something that Froli got stuck on, so I swore I would only free-shape Fizz's articles.   I hardly needed to do that.

Her only other bobble was lying down with it under her sternum.  I laughed quietly to myself (so as not to reinforce an incorrect indication).....remembering Froli's SchH1 track on a cold morning in NY with hard frost on the long grass.....and Frol had planted herself firmly on top of the article.   I kept pushing my hand further back under her, trying to grasp it, I swear I was almost to my elbow being at her elbows.   That Frol dawg was NOT about to budge!  HA!!!  :)

After several rounds of putting the article out on the floor, I then called her into the hallway and had her sit.  Returned to the room, put the article down, and then sent her into the room.   Again, picture perfect.   Worked through all the articles, and I even brought her into the room via a different entrance......no matter, lovely indication.  

This afternoon for lunch, I decided to burst this silly bubble and see where we really were.  Truly, what I had seen must have been a fluke.   We took our articles outside to the lawn and she worked for her lunch.   Sat her, tossed an article a few feet away, told her to find it.   Off she went, nose hit article, dog in down.  Seriously?!??   Two more, both gorgeous.   Ok, fine.   A line of 4 articles, about 6ft apart.   Find it!   Right to the first one perfectly.   Reward, pick up and hold high to show our pretend judge, release dog to find it.   thankfully, she didn't continue in a straight line to #2.  I think I would have lost my mind at that point (as we've done NO tracking work).   She went out on a current of wind, came back hard left and nailed #3.   Wow!   She worked #2 easily, so I set up 2 more in another area.  

This portion apparently had more ground wind.  She circled around a lot, and at one point, walked between two articles, each being about 12-14" from her.   The fact that she went right past them was a pleasing sight.....it told me she was using her nose, NOT her eyes.  YAY! :)   She probably worked for 2-3 minutes trying to find those 2 articles, and I had a good chance to observe her body posture, behavior, etc.   She was calm, focused, and when she was distracted by an 18-wheeler's loud horn, her head shot upright, she stopped, and then immediately went back to working the scent as if nothing had happened.    VERY happy with that.   Very happy with her work ethic in looking for the articles.  Big praise party when she found the first one (carpet) and a jackpot to reward the prolonged work.


Our final article was planted about 20ft away, in a tall tuft of grass, right near my agility table.   She almost bee-lined to it, found it quickly with some sniffing, and then kept nose touching it (vs. lying down).   I'm not sure if the proximity to the table (purposeful) bothered her in the need to lie down, but it was intersting to see.  I asked her "show me?" and she nose bobbed it hard and then looked back at me.  I waited her out, and suddenly the down appeared, and she got the bowl with her remaining lunch. :)

I think we're soon going to try some tracks, and she will have articles on them from a very early stage. :)   Just ADORE this puppy, she amazes me in almost every session we work.   So much fun ahead!!