July 2012 -- Day Seventeen

Mollie loves her friends but she's been nice and attentive even when she's in the middle of play with them. But, of course, she's now use to being around them. If it were a brand new dog or group of dogs, it might be a little challenging. New things are always going to add an element of excitement to the air. Practicing with familiar dogs is going to help though. It helps her to learn how to do what you are asking in an environment where she can handle it so she has success but also starts to learn to listen even when there is a lot going on.

We got caught off guard yesterday when someone new came into the play area unexpectedly. Oops, she jumped a couple of times. Normally I would have had her on leash and helped her through that greeting but we didn't have a chance. I quickly got next to her and reminded her to sit and she did fine after that. So, today we practiced doing greetings when I was really excited. It's not going to offer the same level of excitement as someone new coming into the environment but it will help her to practice with success.

She was ready to go for our training walks today and knew she needed to sit for me to leash her up and let her out the gate. Nice start to our training session!

Sometimes she does really well on our walks and other times she's pretty distracted. Today was a distracted day.

But spending a few minutes getting her attention usually gets ready to go. Even so, I know I'm probably going to work harder than normal on this walk. That's ok, it's all part of the learning process.

All her friends were excited to see her when she returned from her training walk. It's nice to have such a big fan base.

They all love her...we're just trying to get them to not love her ears quite so much.

July 2012 -- Day Sixteen

Dogs can get easily distracted and Mollie is no exception. Like most dogs, she can be very attentive at home but out in the real world with real world distractions, it's a whole other story. We help dogs to be more attentive in the face of distractions by slowly introducing various distraction levels while we are working on skills like attention, basic obedience, leashing walking, etc. There are a lot of things out in the world that can distract your dog but luckily we have some tools in our toolbox to help her through those distractions.

You can use the acronym M.O.S.T. to remember things that can distract Mollie but also things you can use to your advantage to get her attention back on you. M.O.S.T. stands for Movement, Odor, Sound, and Touch.

 Movement of objects or living things can be very distracting to a dog. It can be as simple as a leaf blowing around or as much as a cat running past.

 Things that are moving can feed into their desire to play and to chase.

If I've lost Mollie's attention or I might lose her attention, I can use movement to get her focused on me. I can use wiggling my fingers, moving backwards, waving a tug toy, or walking faster to keep her attention on me.

Dogs have very powerful noses and take in a lot of the world around them through their nose. Smells (odors) every where can distract a dog...especially food or other animal smells.

I can use odor to get her attention back on me by waving a treat under her nose and luring her back to me. Sometimes it even works if you have just the smell of treats on your hands.

There are a wide variety of sounds that can distract Mollie from people talking or dogs barking to traffic sounds.

I can use sounds like a whistle or clapping my hands or making clicking noises with my mouth to regain her attention.

Things touching her like a person bumping into her or a dog licking her face can distract Mollie but I can regain her attention with a light tap on her hip or by goosing her a bit. I usually use a combination of these to get her attention depending on the situation. I might wiggle a treat under her nose while I'm backing up and encouraging her with my voice.

Primarily, though, I'm going to scan the environment to see what might distract her and get her attention before she is fully distracted. I might increase my rate of reinforcement (give her treats more often for paying attention to me), increase the value of the reinforcement (break out the cheese or the chicken), and get as much distance from the distraction as possible. For instance, if I see a group of dogs playing at the park and I know she will be distracted by that, I'm going to stay at a distance where I can still get her attention by saying her name.

As she improves with time and practice, she'll be able to handle distractions at a closer distance. But for now, it just takes a little more work on our part.

July 2012 -- Day Fifteen

Mollie had a good time getting dirty from head to toe today.

She was happy to roll in the dirt and wear half of it in her coat and in her mouth.

And, of course, a little tug with Rhett.

It was one of those times where we thought it was the appropriate amount of exercise but it, instead, got her a little wound up.

We headed out for our usual loose leash drills. She started out great, sitting and waiting at the gate before we headed out.

But she struggled more than normal on our drills. Normally she walks right with me but she was definitely not keyed into me tonight. I waited her out when she got a head of me. She's not pulling as much but I still want her to know that she needs to walk beside. me.

It took her a little while but she finally figured out we weren't going to move forward until she returned to me. And what a good girl...she not only returned to me but she came and sat perfectly by my side.

We went back to some basics to help her out. While walking past some distractions, we just used a lure. We don't have to do this often as she figures out really quickly that it pays off to walk next to me instead of going to see the distraction. This is a nice technique to use if walking past something really distracting like a new dog that she doesn't know or a crowd of people.

We also practiced some of her off leash drills which she did very well at. She gave me a look like, "I already know this." Of course she does, but it's not uncommon for dogs to have "off" days and reviewing known skills just helps us all stay sharp.

That's what you get when you wear a girl out.

July 2012 -- Day Fourteen

It was a beautiful Saturday so we spent most of the day outside. That made us all happy...especially Mollie.

It's always nice to be out with friends. Mollie has been doing quite well with being really responsive even when there is a lot going on around her.

Her recall has been excellent! She can be underneath a pile of dogs and she'll jump to her feet and run to me when I call her.

She's happy to hang out with people even when her friends are around and having a good time. That's a very nice trait to have in a dog!

Tug seemed to be the theme for the day. Mollie does great sharing toys with the other dogs and she does really well with the young puppies.

Maybe she thought if she occupied this puppy she wouldn't have to have her mats combed out of her ears. Good move, Mollie, there were no new mats today.

Tug is a great way to exercise her and it can be done with other dogs (saves your arms a bit) or with people (great interactive form of play and good "drop" practice).

Just to make sure everyone is still doing ok with their tugs, we practice "drop" periodically with multiple dogs attached to the tug. This is certainly a challenge for a lot of dogs because they have the fear that the other dog will then take the toy.

But it was no problem for Mollie. She was happy to comply!

We could practice "wait" at a new doorway to help her generalize the command. She can sit, stand, lay down, or walk around on her side of the threshold...just so long as she doesn't cross over. All this practice has really helped her exits from crates so she's not bolting out any more.
No one seem to mind sharing toys and they certainly didn't have any problem sharing the water bowl on such a warm day.

We headed into the air conditioning on occasion to rest and take a break from the sun.

It never seemed to last though...she just really wanted to play outside.

July 2012 -- Day Thirteen

We worked on some grooming today. This was a familiar look to me. Seems like we just went through this with the combs and now she sees the nail trimmers and heads for the door. I'm again going to let her approach the clippers.

This may take a while...

Eventually we got to the point where I could trim her nails. So much drama...she was really good about letting me trim her nails. I only trimmed the front ones and will save the back ones for another day. No need to stress her out and there is nothing saying I have to trim all her nails in one sitting. Lots of treats for her nice, compliant behavior when I trimmed her nails. What a day...after the nails and the ear cleaning, I found two new mats on her ear. At least I could finish our grooming session with brushing her teeth. That she LOVES!

Plus you need your teeth brushed so you can look as ferocious as possible. Someone might buy it, Mollie. Maybe...

It doesn't look like Billings took you too seriously.

We were heading out for an outing tonight which I suspected we might have to call a little short because Mollie has been a little nervous around new people. She was a bit nervous today with Rhett came home with an E-Collar on after his neuter. She thought that was pretty weird but she eventually got over it.

We made it to our outing and she made it through the entire evening. We went to a restaurant that allows dogs in their outdoor seating area. It was a pretty busy restaurant so we sat off the side so she could get use to everything. She did great! She relaxed right away and slept through most of the meal. The wait staff were very complimentary of her behavior.

Her manners were excellent and she did some really nice greetings. She was happy to snuggle up with people she didn't know and she seemed pretty comfortable with all the people around. I still gave her periodic rewards for maintaining a nice stay and to help her get even more comfortable with all the strangers all around her. She might have got one or two treats for being extremely cute too.

Outings like that will wear a girl out. It takes a lot of energy to be doing new things -- which can be a helpful bit of information on days where you need her to burn off some energy.

July 2012 -- Day Twelve

Mollie has been having a good time with her friends but one of them, and she shall remain nameless, has been chewing on her ears which is causing mats behind her ears. We've spent time every night combing out the mats because it can be uncomfortable for dogs and, if they are left in too long, they may get to the point where they have to be shaved.

We really don't want to shave mats out. I mean, really, her ears are so cute. But, with all the brushing I have been doing, she started to get to where she would avoid me if she saw me with the grooming tools. That's not the response I want so we set out to change that today.

I'm not going to force her to approach the combs. Instead I'm going to wait her out and see if she will approach on her own.

When she did check them out, I gave her a treat. I want to expose her to these tools when I'm not combing her ears and I'm going to work on changing her association with the tools. Instead of "Oh yuck, the combs are out, time to get my ears brushed," I want to change her association to "Oh yea! The combs are out and I get a treat."

It did not take long before she was happily approaching the combs on her own...with a little help from her nameless friend.

We're working on our leash skills in a variety of locations so she can start to generalize the skills we're working on. Her biggest struggle right now is that she's a little nervous about people she sees when we are out and about. She's been barking at almost everyone she sees. Because this is fear based, I want to make sure I'm not doing anything to add to the fear. I very lightly say, "ah ah" and we move away from the person and start to work on attention. I want her to be in a position where she can still see the person but she's not reacting. Then I can play with her or work on attention or recalls so she can start to change her association with the stranger. Instead of "Uh oh, scary stranger" I want, "Stranger = happy event." It's very similar to what we were doing with the combs.

Once we have worked through that we can get back to the task at hand. Now she's a little more alert so it takes a little bit more time to get her checked in but then all her skills start to fall into place.

When we are walking, I like the dogs to occasionally check in with me. They don't have to do this constantly but, every once in a while, I want her to look to me for further direction and to make sure she's on the right track. Mollie does a great job of periocially checking in with me while we are walking.

Back at my place we can get a little more play in before the day is done.

And one last snuggle at the end of the day.