Raw feeding

...looks like it will be a reality for my pup sooner than later. Details on a species-appropriate diet for my dog will be coming in the next couple of weeks. :) I'll try to get it up asap.

Keiko's First Thunderstorm

Yesterday I went down to the World Series of Dog Shows in Houston, the last BIG dog show before Westminster. I had a great time! I was going to bring the puppy (usually you can't bring personal pets to dog shows) as this show made an exception but was told at the last minute that they weren't allowing personal pets. That bit of information turned out to be false so I was a little bummed that I hadn't brought the puppy along but by the same token I was kind of glad that I got to experience the show without having to worry about what my puppy was doing. I bought some more Zuke's Natural Minis (this time the peanut butter flavor) and a tan british slip lead (like this: http://leerburg.com/mendota.htm#883) I like the tan color...it's perfect for my little red stockdog. :) I also got some sample packets of THK (The Honest Kitchen Dog Food) which means I will probably start feeding that in the next month or so. /grin/ I'm not sure if I've mentioned it in a previous post, but I'm considering the prospect of moving to feeding a raw diet along with the natural kibble Keiko is on or feeding THK along with a raw diet. While feeding raw is comparable to what I pay for Innova, I think as a college student there may be times when I forget or run out of time to always have the proper ingredients stocked in the fridge. So for now I will feed a combination that offers me a little more flexibility. I'll update with the research as I get on with it.

So I originally started this post to talk about the progress Keiko is made and to point out how pleased I am with her. But then a thunderstorm started (whoop for the first serious rain in this area all summer!!) as I began typing so I got distracted. It is raining pretty hard and thundering fairly loud too. Herding breeds (like the Collie, BC, and Aussie) tend to be a little more sensitive to loud noises than your average dog. I don't think Aussies are as bad as BCs but I think they are a little more sensitive than others. Keiko looked a little bewildered but I ignored her behavior (as opposed to petting and "comforting" her which would actually enable the fear) and made her wire crate more "den-like". I covered the side of it with a thick, large bathroom rug which she usually lays on and put the box it came in over the top of it. That will help it seem more enclosed and also helps block some of the sound. However, I didn't lock her inside of it. I left the door open for her to retreat and come out as she pleases. I also set up a little comfort spot in the closet for her to check out in case that made her feel more comfortable. Right now she is laying down on the floor in front of my bed, checking out her rawhide bone. She seems to be a bit more at ease. Looks like all is going well during our first thunderstorm. :)

Update: Keiko is now laying down on the floor beside my bed (now next to me) and is not looking up when the thunder sounds. Yay!

Jotting down some training ideas

I'm supposed to be typing up lab reports for organic lab which are due tomorrow so naturally I decided to blog about some ideas of what I want to begin tackling in my training this week.

1. Stand

- I think I will start this by capturing the stand when I groom Keiko, which I do twice a day

(after her morning walk and after our last outdoor activity of the night). I make her stand still when I do that so I will start marking for her just standing still while grooming. Making the transition from this to standing from a sit/down I haven't quite planned out yet but that's something for me to ponder.

2. Down

- I want to put a command to this by the end of the week, but I want her to do it from a standing position as opposed to having to sit first. I think I will first teach it by luring, because I am aiming for a competition obedience style down, not a down with her hips flopped to one side or the other. (The obedience style is with all four legs facing forward)

3. Hand touch

- I want to clean up the hand touch. By next Sunday, I hope to be getting real nose punches out of the hand touch which means I will have to work fairly intensively with her #1 reward (which to date is a lick out of a frozen can of baby food). This reward sends her fairly high into drive so I'm looking forward to making the hand touch concrete with her.

4. Come

- Up until now I've only worked on an "informal" recall. I say "c'mere" and Keiko has to come back to me. At some point in the next few weeks, I want to teach a more formal "Come" where she is required to actually come TO ME.

5. Here

- Here means come to me and sit right in front of me, looking up at me. I will work on here after I have the recall come down, as I think here is a bit more specific and difficult a task.

I also have seen a lot more toy drive out of Keiko lately. She has always been more interested in her soft/fuzzy toys so I'm considering purchasing another "Lambiedoodle" for the purpose of drive building...we'll see. Maybe I'll get something smaller but still soft and attach it to some sort of line to do some drive building with.

I'm also still about 5% undecided about SAR. I have been going to the practices all summer and have become a little SAR sponge, but for some reason I can't say that I'm 100% sure I want to do SAR with my pup. In fact in some ways, I see all of the herding instinct she has (and she came from an old working line breeder, so if I didn't have her she would most likely be off on some ranch working) and I almost feel like I would be wasting it if I didn't trial her (or work her...which I can't do now because I don't have cattle, sheep, or ducks lol). We'll see...I've still got time to decide whether I want to work her in SAR for certain and I plan to get her instinct tested sometime in the next few months. I know things will work out for the best in the end though.

I had something else I wanted to jot here but I forgot what it was and I'm getting tired so I'm going to finish my lab reports and call it a night. I'll update later!

Taking the next step

I need to jot down these thoughts before I lose them in the swarm of organic chemistry reactions I'm currently trying to memorize for tomorrow's test.. /grin/

First, the sit - Keiko can perform it 8/10 times with a verbal command but I have found two flaws in it which I need to fix. The first and most simple is that she doesn't hold it sometimes; she'll immediately go into offering the down (which I have marked for but have not put a command to yet) if I don't reward quickly enough. So now I will mark for her HOLDING the sit after being told to do so. It will go like this.. "Sit... (pause one second, two seconds) Yes!" and reward. We will work our way up to five, then ten, but will start at two seconds.

The second thing about the sit is that I need to put a signal to it. A little backwards, I know, but since I have made her sit before going in/out of every door since the very first day I got her, she's heard enough repetitions of the word "sit" to know what it means without receiving a signal first.

Second, the down - she offers this readily in our training sessions. I need to do a few sessions where I select only for the down. Then I will put a signal to it, then a command. I imagine this should be complete (not with distractions) within the next couple of days. I need to be careful how I select for this. I would like for her to do an obedience style down (all four legs facing forward, not with her hips flopped over to one side) but am not sure if I want to teach that yet. I could have an alternate command (platz - german for down) but it may be confusing to allow her to do the more leisurely down now and then try to select for the more correct down (platz) later. I need to ponder on that before I start marking for it.

I also need to decide exactly what I want my hand signals to be. Never have I given this much thought to what hand signals I want to use for various commands...that's proof that newfound freedom goes to people's heads. Haha!

Training aside, a figured a little update on Keiko was due. I'm not sure how much she weighs but I estimate her being between 20 and 25 lbs now. I'd like to get her height measured as well. E seems to think she's small, but she is supposed to be at the smaller end of the standard so I imagine she's on track. I'll have to ask her about it tomorrow. She's also earned more "big girl responsibilities" and gets to sleep in her "big girl crate" (her 36" wire crate) now. :) I had no choice but to put her in the wire crate after she got sick last week (I was not about to clean out her plastic crate at 5:45 AM after she threw up in it) and she was well behaved so she has been sleeping and staying in it ever since.

She also gets more free time in the house. I used to confine her to the kitchen while I was there, but now I leave her 15' lead on with her collar and let her roam. I gave her a knuckle bone which she happily took into the living room and gnawed on while I made my dinner. I was able to keep an eye on her over the bar counter. She behaved well so she also stayed out while I ate and she left me completely alone. :) I was very proud of her today!

We went home for July 4th and she also got more free time there, including some of the time loose in my room there (no leash, no collar even). It's fun to see her mature but I'm also already missing the little red puppy she came to me as.

We went to a NADAC agility trial in town today and that went great. She was very alert when we went in (in case you've never been to an agility trial - they're very loud between the radio playing, the people there, and the dogs barking) but settled quickly and then just wanted attention from everyone. It reminded me that we need to work on not jumping on people, which needs to be done by that person telling her to sit before giving her any excited or happy attention...which is a real problem because everyone sees her and goes "ohh!! Hey there cutie!" which is enough to send her butt a'wigglin'. We'll have to be sure to take a few extra trips to PetSmart this next month or so as well as out to some of the kids sports games over the summer so we can work on all of this.

Another positive note, I think we're getting closer to the point where I can actually bring her to search & rescue practice. I'm about 90% sure that I'm going to go ahead and actually make the commitment to the team, thus submitting my taskbook for review. I really like the idea of it and think both I and Keiko are cut out for it. I just need to make sure that I can make the time commitment to the team. I also want to be sure that my mind will be in it as well. The good thing is that the team would rather have someone be honest and tell them they can't handle the load anymore than have someone keep showing up to practice but their heart and mind not really be there.

Wow, I rambled much more than I was expecting to! I really should get some sleep. I'll have more updates later this week though.