Down, Keiko

Well I was going to post my training plan for teaching "down" but of course I got ahead of myself and started already. :) I started inside, with her wubba since I know she's got drive built up for it now. I took the toy out and got her going by asking "you want it?" which quickly gets her attention now. Then I ducked the toy behind my back and said her name "Keiko" to get her attention, at which point she made eye contact. I praised her (we're still reinforcing her name) then I produced the toy from behind my back. She was already sitting so I placed the toy down between her front paws and drew it towards myself. I said "down" in conjunction with drawing the toy towards myself. At first she just tried to pick up the toy with her mouth so I applied gentle pressure to her shoulders to get her to drop them. She did so quickly and as soon as her chest was on the ground, I praised her excitedly and played a little tug with her and the wubba. The second time I went through the same procedure, but had to reset a couple of times. Since I'd already reset a couple of times, I took her front legs (she was in a sitting position) and guided her into the down position. She plopped quickly on her own then so I praised her lavishly and again played tug. I stopped after a third try.

We worked on this during two more sessions today, keeping them at just three to four repetitions each. During her session tonight, before bedtime, she already got the jist of what she was supposed to do. I now hide the toy behind my back and put her in a sitting position. I make eye contact with her, then use a closed fist to guide her into the down position and saying "down". She quickly dropped down to the lying position the last three times I tried, at which point I produced the toy from behind my back and immediately tossed it onto her front legs for her to play a little tug with. On the last rep, I let her carry the toy back to my room before putting it away for the night. I don't remember how it was raising Rhasta, but I'm really excited to be teaching her down. It's nice to have another option of commands to give her, haha. We'll see how tomorrow's sessions go.

Keiko is really getting the point as far as this toy drive business is going. I think I will introduce another toy tomorrow, but I haven't decided which one yet. I've also resolved to think of an effective way to tie strings to the squeaky tennis balls I have. If that doesn't work, I'll go ahead and get small cuz balls this weekend and tie them to strings.

One of the SAR guys is making me a crate pad for Keiko's home crate...I'm super excited! :D Yay! No more lying on the plastic floor or the thin padding of a towel in the crate! I don't think Keiko actually cares (if anything, she prefers to ly on the plastic as she always bunches the towel up and just puts her head on it) but I will sleep better at night if I think she's sleeping on something comfortable. ;) I've decided that I will keep a simple bath rug in the crate she rides in, in the car so I also need to go buy one of those.

Alright, it's way past my bedtime and I have class in the morning. Goodnight!

Training plan

Today wasn't very special.  The best thing about today is that by Keiko's reaction when I say "you want it?" I can tell that the drive building is working.  She perks up when I say those three special words and goes consistently after the toy now.  I'm a little worried about being able to teach the retrieve as there is a small window you really have to work with when they're puppies and I'm afraid that by getting her at 4 months, I may be in the tail end of that window.  But we'll continue working and see how it goes.  I need to get another Wubba so that I can just trade her one for the other and I don't become the "bad guy" for taking the wubba way from her to throw it again. (For now anyway)

I have decided that I need a more concrete training plan as far as what I want to teach next and how I want to teach it.  I don't like to make training too regimented as far as this puppy stuff goes because I feel a lot of it should be integrated into play, as opposed to being structured teaching time...mostly because puppies at this age get bored FAST!  I will update this post after I've had a chance to jot down some notes regarding how I want to teach the "down", which I've decided is the next command I want to teach her.  I haven't fully deciphered the way Keiko's brain works; what makes her tick and what motivates her, so I'm going to wait until I have a better feel for her to teach "stay" and "come".  I am beginning to feel more bonded to her now though.  I was actually missing her while I was in class (first day of summer classes...ugh!) and at lunch with a friend today, and I felt a little more genuine when I loved on her when I first saw her today.  I think it's finally settling in that this is my dog that I bought with my money and I make all the rules concerning her!  Foreign concept, I know.

I wonder what they dream about...

As I write, there is a ridiculously adorable red pup in a crate beside my bed...growling and barking in her sleep.  She's quite an active sleeper, I wonder what she dreams about.

Since my earlier post, we've worked more on the sit.  It's going well.  The pup is 15 weeks old (almost 16) so she's definitely ready to begin working on some simple commands.  I just make sure I have her attention, then guide her gently into the sitting position.  She's gotten to the point where (if she's not sitting already) I only have to gently touch her back end with a couple of fingers and she plops it down.  She picked up the sitting thing REALLY quickly when it was dinner time (of course) haha.  I'm also working more on building positive associations with the crate during the day - of course she eats in there, and today I continued to leave treats inside at random and would toss her toys inside for her to retrieve.  Tonight, I met less resistance while getting her in there and though she "screamed" nearly the entire time I was in the shower, it was less intense and had more frequent and longer pauses in between fits than there were yesterday.  I just took my time, not opening the bathroom door until she'd paused and been quiet for a few seconds and then if the waterworks started up again, I waited for another pause and short bout of silence before stepping out of the bathroom. Overall, I think she's making good progress for only having been here for 48 hours.

I've been reading Leerburg's article on marker training and I'm considering using it to work with this puppy.  I won't be going the more well-known "clicker training" route, rather, I would use the word "yes" or something of that sort as my marker.  I'm not a big fan of clickers, mainly because I prefer to have the source of praise come from you.  For me that means that I would rather use my voice to mark a desired behavior (which is what you do when you praise, anyway) than a click.  The article is fairly long but I plan to get through it over the next day or so.  The prospect of having a few more mentally stimulating games to play and a way to redirect attention towards me when I need it is what has got my interest peaked at the moment.

Fresh ideas

The day draws near for the arrival of my pup and with it will come a change in the direction of this blog.  I will use this blog to record my training of said pup and other dogs I interact with, so that I may better understand just what my training philosophy is!  Of course I will also have some ramblings regarding bikes and my mountain biking adventures but I will center the focus of the blog around training and the development and progress of my puppy.  This will help me keep a record of what has and has not worked for me, and why.  I'm really excited about shaping my beliefs regarding dog training and behavior and I believe this blog will be great for facilitating just that!  I also feel this will help me move towards some personal goals I have for myself and I'm excited about getting this underway.  However, I have four finals between now and then so I will be absent for a period of time (a week or so).  Until then, goodbye!