Back to work!

With the combination of attending Ferretpalooza and Chimera being "flat" on our last attempt at a Rally-FrEe leg, I am recommitted to improving our focus and engagement. I decided to take an FDSA class at Gold level this coming session. I met up with Dr Amy Cook a few days ago to get an assessment and help picking which class - we settled on Denise Fenzi's Engagement class, with the extra homework of revisiting Heeling Games (which I signed up for at Bronze long ago but didn't really work through) as well as finally doubling down and counter-conditioning Cai's reactive response to the sound of dog tags.

We've been working hard since the Tuesday meeting with Amy. On Wednesday Cai stayed at home, but we did many more play sessions than usual. I'm experimenting with how I play with him and trying to improve our personal play. I'm also continuing to build his willingness to bring a tug toy back to me after "winning," which we got help on from Shade Whitesel at Ferretpalooza.

On Thursday I took Cai with me to two consults, and after each one we hung out by the car for 15 minutes. I let Cai look around and sniff within the boundary of the six foot leash, and then did as much personal play, tug, treats, and tricks as he would happily do. The goal was not to get nice work, but to build his willingness to engage in a new environment. Let's have fun together!

This morning I took Cai to the front yard just to play tug in a place where we don't usually do work. There were workers walking around the neighbor's house, but Cai played anyway.

Later I met up with a Rally-FrEe student so that we could introduce our dogs to each other, and be able to train together in the future. We started far away and walked around, slowly getting closer to the other dog, an Aussie named Heidi. Cai gave a bark or two during the first few passes. As we got closer and he had more opportunities to see her and catch her scent, he calmed down. His body language switched from stiff and alert to loose and with a softly wagging tail. At that point he didn't actually care about meeting her; we continued to walk around and sniff. Finally the dogs did meet. Heidi was a little too big and fast for Cai to feel comfortable playing with her. However they were totally comfortable being next to each other and working for their owners. Again we did little sessions of play and tricks, with a bit of heeling thrown in. It felt good!

Now I just need to keep up the momentum!!

Improved dog reactivity, and swimming

I am so happy to report that there has been a significant improvement in Chimera's dog reactivity since Clicker Expo. I'm guessing that it was a combination of tons of practice plus flooding that helped. Since then he's been better able to notice a dog without barking, and is quicker to calm down. That said, it only applies to the sight of the dog. He still reacts with the same intensity to hearing dogs barking or tags jangling.

I'm now more relaxed when we're walking and I'm enjoying our outings more. We've been going on leash walks in areas where I expect to see other people walking dogs.


Sandy Rogers told me that if you act like your dog is trained, he will behave like he is trained. If you act like your dog is untrained, he will behave that way. I needed to hear this - I needed to increase my expectations of Cai's various behaviors, including recall as well as various tricks.


Last Friday we went to an open house at The Rex Center in Pacifica. There were delicious cupcakes for the humans, and the dogs were welcome to try a free swim in their therapy/conditioning pool. I've always wanted a water dog and I've been encouraging Cai to play in water since he was a pup. He does like to play in shallow water, but he doesn't like swimming. Still, I couldn't resist sticking him in the pool. At the very least, it's good exercise and practice in case he ends up in deeper water than expected. He's a natural swimmer - he can even change direction easily. I cooed at him and took lots of pictures (coming soon) while he swam around with wide eyes and unhappy ears.

First agility fun match

On Sunday Chimera attended his first agility fun match! I expected him to be distracted by smells on the new floor and the presence of strange dogs and people. My goal for the day was simply to work on focus in a new setting. To help Cai be less reactive, I dosed him with two drops of Rescue Remedy on a calming treat from Pet Naturals of Vermont.

First up, let me say that there was definitely an improvement in his reactivity thanks to the supplements. He was still dog reactive, but it his growling and barking were noticeably less intense, especially at the beginning. He got lots of treats every time we heard dog tags jingling or there was a dog near his crate. I will be using the same supplments in the future when we go to agility class, hiking, or on any other outings.

We had three runs, lasting 90 seconds each. The jumps were set at 12 inches and I had copious amounts of beef hot dogs on me.

During our first run, I kept him on his short leash and simply waited for him to turn toward me, and then I would mark and reward. He stopped looking around and was ready to work much more quickly than I had anticipated! So I started cuing just a few steps of heeling (either side) and rewarding that, then releasing him to look around if he wanted. At the end I dropped his leash and had him run through a tunnel, and then back in the other direction. As we left the ring, one of the instructors for classes at this training center commented, "I love it when I can tell what the handler is trying to do!"

For the second run, I started off just rewarding attention again, and quickly increased criteria to short bursts of heeling, coming to front, pivoting, a tunnel, or 1-2 jumps. Once he was in work mode, Cai only got distracted by a stray scent once or twice, and would quickly return to work when I called him.

For the third run, I asked him to do more work -- up to four jumps, mixed with tunnels and lying down on the table, plus a bit of heeling.

After the match was over and I was letting him potty, a different member of the hosting club came out to tell me that she was so happy to see me using a high rate of reinforcement and working on our focus foundation. That was great positive reinforcement for me!

I was so pleased with how well Cai did. It was a perfect setting for his first match, since it was indoors and there were only six or so dogs signed up for the afternoon session. (Apparently there were around twenty during the morning session.) Now my job is to continue to sign up for matches! And if there aren't any, take time to linger around the edges of trials and work on his ability to focus via obedience/freestyle/tricks.

Hiking is fun again!

I had stopped hiking with Cai almost entirely between leaving my dog walking job and this past week. When we did the occassional trail, he would always explode when he saw dogs coming, and it was too stressful to put up with.

Somehow, though, in the meantime, Cai's reactivity toward other dogs has decreased enough that both of us can enjoy the trails again! He still does some frustrated barking at the first few dogs he sees. After that, he settles down and does nothing more than pull against the leash to get to the dogs faster. (He has to stay on leash or he would just run from one dog to another, completely ignoring me.) If the dog is staying on the other side of the wide path, clearly wanting to avoid us, I tell Cai "let's go!" (our BAT cue), and it is getting much easier for him to stop staring and pulling and start walking forward again. I am also working on interrupting long greetings and getting him moving again, because he's always been an invasive sniffer.

I am so proud of his progress, and happy to be able to start jogging the trails again!

Agility obstacles update

I managed to switch classes to a better time (afternoon rather than 7:30 am), and we've attended the new time slot twice. All the new dogs meant that Cai spent a lot of time barking during the first class. I stayed close to his crate and gave lots of treats when the other dogs were in his field of vision. During the second class he was much better, but he's still quite reactive to the other small dogs, because he really wants to play with them.

Updates on obstacle training progress:

About a month ago he suddenly developed a fear of climbing up the contact obstacles. I have no idea what caused it. I switched to rewarding him for climbing up however high he felt comfortable, and then cuing him to go back down and do his contact (lie down on mat on floor). Last class, he finally was back to normal on the dog walk and a-frame. I was even able to take away the mat and cue the down verbally (and by turning toward him), and he confidently lay down. We didn't do the teeter that day, and we still have to finish up his basic training for it. I really wish that they let students rent the space for private practice.

Speaking of contact obstacles, I'd trained Cai to do a table at home but we hadn't used it in eight months of classes, until last week. No problem hopping onto it and lying down. I trained the down to be consistent with other obstacles, and make sure that he really stays on it during fast, exciting runs. I don't know yet which venues we'll be competing in.

Other obstacles that are new for us: last class Cai saw the chute for the second time ever. The first time, the instructor had held the end of the fabric open and lowered it with each pass. This time, she held it slightly open for one pass, then left it on the ground. Cai went in, backed out, and ran around. She showed him a high value treat on the ground right at the end of the fabric, and I picked him up and put him back at the entrance. This time he went all the way through, though he slowed down and was moving his head in confusion in the middle. I gave him a jackpot - a steady stream of high value treats with lots of praise. The third time he didn't slow down as much, got another jackpot, and then after that he was happily running through. Yay!

The tire is still new and we haven't had enough practice with it for me to properly "explain" to him not to go under the tire/chains. We got around this problem in class by lowering it all the way to the ground, and then he would consistently jump through the tire. However, once again I need extra time to practice on the obstacles on my own so that I can make sure he understands the criteria.

He's only seen the broad jump a handful of times and is still figuring out that it's a jump. Other jumps are almost never a problem. He's just under 12 inches tall and jumping 8 inches, so he soars over the bars. Doubles and triples are not a problem because of that.


His weave poles have gotten worse. For a while he was reliable on six poles if I didn't move too quickly, and I was working on proofing them. Lately he's been skipping the middle poles in class. It's not always the same poles, and I think that it's a problem with getting his stride and concentrating on his job. We're working on it at home as well as we can.

His focus is very good when we're running -- he enjoys the game! It's rare for him to stop running and sniff something or look around, unless there's a sudden big distraction. He does want to sniff and look around while I'm setting him up at the start line, though.

He is now quiet in his crate even if I walk out of sight, aside from the dog reactivity. That makes me very happy!

Focus and field trips update

I have been taking lots of quick trips with Chimera to either take a walk (and work on polite leash walking, of course), or to work on focus in a new environment. We've gone to different grocery stores, a couple of parks, and some residential streets. I used to do this a lot when he was a puppy, but stopped almost completely when his reactivity became full-blown Monster.

I have been pleasantly surprised by how well he is able to focus and think. I only ask him to "work" if there isn't any activity going on, but even so, I was expecting him to be too distracted by smelling everything and looking all around. Instead, when I ask him if he wants to work, he happily answers that yes, he does. At this point I ask him to do one or maybe two behaviors he knows well, give him a treat, and then release him to "be a dog" until he tells me he is ready to work again. It goes quite quickly.

I think this improvement is due to a) our reactivity work making him less worried about the environment, b) some impulse control and distraction games we've been playing at home carrying over, and c) as always, the dog simply maturing and settling down is a factor.

I'm now able to look forward to our continuing focus and ring prep work, since it doesn't feel like it will be such a struggle anymore.

BATting with a Hovawart

Today was our first formal BAT session since April. I had stopped setting them up because Cai was starting to recognize the set ups. Even with that, it's helpful for the dog to get lots of practice rehearsing "good" behavior, but I had decided to switch to just "stealth BAT" instead. That means doing BAT without the other person knowing, such as when you come across someone else walking their dog, or going to a dog park and staying outside to work. Chimera has really improved since that time!

We met up with the owner of a Hovawart (big black dog), in a mall parking lot. Along with BAT and the functional reward of increasing distance, I used treats, Look At That, hand touches, and kneeling down and rubbing his butt as rewards. Grisha would probably frown on that, but I prefer the more active engagement. Cai was relaxed (though curious about the dog and environment) for most of the session. I was most proud when he first saw the dog, air-scented and watched for a while, and then turned back to me. The initial sighting is usually the hardest part for him. On the second rep he got excited and barked some, and I interrupted him by stepping in front of him. After that he calmed down and we were able to quickly close distance. When the dogs were about twenty feet away, the Hovawart was also watching him with interest (she was young and friendly). When the eye contact lasted too long, Cai went over threshold again -- but again he recovered quickly.

During our second session, I was able to close distance again very quickly. I reached the point at which Cai would glance at the other dog for a couple of seconds, then look back at me, and I would ask him to do one easy behavior before getting his treat. (As one small part of prepping him to work around dogs.) This was a form of the CU Give Me A Break game. He was free to examine the environment, and looking back at me was his signal that he was ready to work. After his one easy behavior and treat, I used a release cue to let him know that he was free to examine again. It's all coming together -- learning to work around other dogs in agility class, straight up reactivity work outside, and distraction training set ups at home. What great reinforcement for me!

I had asked the other owner to get her dog more active for this session, since distance itself was no longer a big factor for Cai. Soon she pulled out a squeaky toy, and Cai became more distracted by the toy than the dog! So I switched to rewarding focus on me in the presence of the squeaky toy and the other dog playing. At the end the dogs ended up about ten feet from each other and facing head on, and then I did a few repetitions of just BAT. Cai was curious about her and wanted to watch her, but was able to calmly turn back to me without any prompting other than my praise.

And the icing on top of this delicious BAT cake was that Cai's leash walking was pretty spot on, even though we were in a brand new place!

Getting out of the house

I've been saying for months that I'd like to get out and have more adventures with Chimera, but I was honestly too busy and tired to do it. My schedule has settled down now and I realized that I can finally do it! I've taken him for a couple of walks in our new neighborhood. (I'm not in the habit of daily walks for my dogs, as for years they used to go to my daycare job or on my daily hikes, and that provided exercise and stimulation.) Today we went to Petco to train. We mostly worked on heeling, stays, and position changes at my side. He did quite well, even when we were close to employees. There were no other dogs in the store.

I bought him a floatation vest. I'm hoping that it will help him enjoy swimming more. He's a good swimmer -- from the first time he accidentally waded into "deep" water, he's been able to swim to wherever he wanted to go, even turning around in the water -- but he just doesn't enjoy it. One of my housemate's dogs loves swimming, so we're planning a trip to Lake Anza soon. Maybe the other dog will entice him to follow.

I just have to remind myself that if I don't get him out to work on his dog reactivity, he'll never get better. He's already SO much better than he used to be, but it's exhausting, as every reactive dog owner can attest. Plus, if I want him to successfully trial in any sport, he needs to be able to handle a variety of environments and distractions. So new goal is one adventure a week!

Reactivity update

I'm happy to report that both my parents generally get along well with Chimera, provided he's not barking or jumping all over the furniture. My mom often volunteers to take him out for a walk when I'm busy or tired. As is true of most dogs with leash reactivity, he is calmer with her than when I walk him, even though we're constantly working on it!

Yesterday we watched Up on the big screen tv, and when the cartoon dogs showed up with panting and paw-thudding sound effects, Cai barked at the tv. Even cartoon dogs are a threat!

Did a 2x2 session with a tennis ball, working from 4 to 5 o'clock. He's doing great!

Donner State Park, 2x2 weaves

We're in Tahoe for the weekend again. Chimera peed indoors once, which was my fault for not taking him out again sooner. Other than that he's been well-behaved. He spent much of the day obsessively moving his cow ear chewie from one hiding spot to another (ie, behind the couch, in the bathroom).

The whole family went for a two hour walk at Donner State Park. It was a beautiful warm day, and the park was filled with people and dogs. I put on my happy face and said to myself, "This presents many opportunities to work on Cai's dog reactivity!" And it went better than I expected! There were a few outburst of growling and barking, and some frustrated yelping, but he also managed to pass a number of dogs with no more reaction than pulling in their direction. We did BAT (though not uncued, I had to really encourage him to "let's go!" because the distances were too close) and LAT. Two or three times I did have to just pull him along to escape the situation, because he was too worked up to be redirected. Still, it was clear progress from his level of reactivity before we started BAT setups a few months ago. He passed out in the middle of the living room when we got home.

Oh also, he played in the water and barked at it a lot. He now pulls toward the sound or sight of water, which makes me very happy. I've always wanted to have a dog who enjoys swimming. (Although he still ignores puddles of water/mud, which is the best of both worlds!)

I brought two jumps and one set of 2x2 weave poles to practice at the condo. We did two weaving sessions today. It was clear from the start that he already aims himself to go between the poles and then toward his right (12 o'clock). I was excited that our last session finally instilled some enthusiasm to move forward without my body language being a giant cue. Our agility instructor had recommended I use a collar grab to start him going. I had done enough collar grab work that Cai doesn't mind me taking hold, and expects that I will toss forward a toy or his treat bottle (small medicine bottle wrapped in duct tape to make it easy to grasp). However I just hadn't bothered to continue working it to he point that I could let go and he would drive forward in his own. I didn't see the need, since Dragon had had great drive toward obstacles without it. But I heeded her advice. I found that Cai would tense up and move forward a little after I let go of his collar if I said, "Ready?!" I've conditioned that to mean "Let's do some fun play/training!" So that got him going to the weave poles and stopping right between them, argh. So then I switched to tossing the toy immediately after he started forward. 

Today, by accident, I pulled upwards on his collar as I said, "Ready?!" and his front feet lifted into the air. Opposition reflex made him shift forward, and lo and behold, as I let go of his collar, he zoomed forward and all the way through the poles. I've seen other people do this with the collar (such as Susan Garrett, I think, and my instructor), but I wouldn't have intentionally done it with my tiny Papillon. However he really responded to it with more energy, faster running, and was actually MORE willing to come back to my side for the next rep. We did about eight reps, moving from 3 to 4 o'clock, and I stopped while he was still fully engaged in the game. Of course his success made me more excited and animated, which fed his energy. Weaves were probably my favorite obstacle to teach Dragon, since I felt comfortable with the shaping process and we played it as a modified game of fetch. I'm looking forward to continuing with Chimera.

I know that growth plates are something to be mindful of when teaching weave poles and jumping. I've been jumping Cai at 8 inches for a few weeks because a dog his size matures much sooner than big dogs, and eight inches is about his elbow height, which Chris Zink said should be okay for a dog his age (forgot the exact age parameters she gave -- maybe it was six to fourteen months? Fourteen months being the estimated time of growth plate closure.) I found one resource online that suggested that Papillons are full grown at nine months. For weave poles, we'll be spending a while working on entrances, and he'll be 11-12 months before he's doing any serious bending. I'm not worried. I'd delay training if he were a bigger, and therefore slower to mature breed.

Playtime, reactivity, and developmental update.

Yesterday I took Chimera with me to the Puppy Playtime I host in Dublin. He's not a puppy anymore, but it seemed like he would get along well with the puppies who were there. He was a hit. He LOVES running as fast as he can, and getting chased by the other dogs (so long as they're not catching up and nipping him).

The Small Dog Playtime followed the puppies, and one dog came. It was a seven month old that had not been around other dogs since the family brought him home from the breeder's. Cai did so well. (Thank goodness he'd just been playing and running and had gotten most of his energy out!) The other dog was excited to see him, but didn't know how to interact normally. He just barked and barked and bounced forwards and backwards. I rewarded Cai for looking at me, and he quickly stopped paying attention to the "weird" dog and did LAT, some fronts, and heeling on both sides. I was very proud of how calm he was!! After forty-five minutes, the other dog was slightly calmer and braver, but it'll be a long road for him to gain social skills.

This morning we went on a trail hike, and encountered three dogs. Again I was proud of my little guy! He was still immediately reactive when he saw them, but I was able to redirect him 80% of the time, and he ate treats. I'm always happy when he eats treats while outside, especially in the presence of new dogs, because his interest in food fell dramatically at the same time that his reactivity started. We are making progress!

In the afternoon I put him in his crate and left for six and a half hours, the longest I've ever left him. He was happy to see me when I returned, but it was the same level of excitement as when I've been gone for just one hour. After greeting me, he settled down to chew on a bully stick. Even though he's with me nearly all the time, he's able to handle staying home in his crate so well. That had been a worry of mine! He didn't pee the first time I made him go outside, and waited for a second trip. So his bladder control is quite good. We're still working on poops, though.

He bounced around and play-attacked the cat, but settled right back to sleep when I put him back in his crate less than an hour after getting home. What a good dog! He is nine months old now.

Good BAT and failed BAT

Had a wonderful session with Rebecca and her mastiff mix, Luke, whom we did one session with before. We discussed beforehand that we would act like strangers on a walk, and not talk to each other, and Rebecca would randomly come toward us, cross our path, or hide and walk/jog out into our path. Cai of course barked a couple of times the first time he saw Luke, but then he quickly settled down and was able to give me good attention. I was so proud of how he did!

He did so well, in fact, that I decided to try taking him into PetCo a couple of hours later. A pair of westies came in, and he saw them as they were moving in our direction, and he lost it. Lots of barking and straining at the end of the leash (and slipping on the smooth floor). I walked him around and he calmed down a bit, but then he caught sight of a pair of toy poodles (why all in pairs today?) and growled and lunged, so we left the store. That was disappointing. It's too hard in the store to get a sightline on another dog, from far away, and make sure they're not coming toward us.

I guess the next step is to try BAT in a store with a friend who will stay on the far side, while avoiding other customers as best I can. I will also continue our work at the local trailhead where I want to hike with him someday.

Two great BAT sessions!

This morning I took Chimera to a popular trailhead, and we positioned ourselves on the side that is less used. We were in luck -- there were a few owners and big dogs milling about, waiting for another person to arrive with her dogs. Cai was AWESOME. I cued him to look, and he would look, gather some information, and then look back at me, and we'd jog away, and I'd reward him with dehydrated duck liver, another super duper favorite treat. This lasted about ten minutes. Then we were ambushed by a lady coming right toward us with two big, excited dogs pulling on their leashes. With a bit of a leash tug, I managed to get Cai turned around with just one bark in protest. I think it was solely because of our head-on work with Iroc yesterday morning that he was able to do that. However it still rattled him, and he went over threshold and barked mindlessly at the next two dogs he saw, even though they were farther away. We left after that. Despite the poor ending, I'm happy the session, and I think he'll do even better next time. I just need to keep sessions super short if we're working on sudden appearances.

In the afternoon, I did a BAT session with a client, during which I was holding the decoy dog. The client's dog is, overall, more reactive, but he too has learned to recognize the setup (and me) and quickly habituated to our decoy. So I put the decoy back into the car and got Cai out, and we did a mutual BAT session -- like an improvised dance, constantly moving towards and away from each other, at different angles. Cai did amazingly well at first. Again, I cued him to look at the dog, and he was able to look at him and then back at me, amazingly calmly. After a handful of reps, the client accidentally got way too close, both the dogs started barking, and then Cai was on edge for a few minutes. After four or five successful reps from much farther away, he settled back into the rhythm, and was again doing very well. We ended on opposite sides of the street, passing each other, which was difficult for Cai but he held it together. The duck liver really helped.

This time he did not seem to recognize that it was a BAT setup, as he did yesterday. I think this was because it was less controlled, and the client and I didn't talk to each other. I will keep that in mind for our next session.

BAT with Lea and Iroc

We had a morning BAT session with Lea and her Doberman, Iroc. Chimera had either never met Iroc or had met her when he was a wee puppy; can't remember which it is. We worked in a residential neighborhood which Cai had never been to before, although we did arrive early and walk around for 30 minutes before the session started.

At first I asked Lea to slowly walk around with Iroc as if they were out for a walk. Chimera stiffened and stared the first time he saw them. The decoys stopped, facing us, and we waited. Cai let out one frustration bark but then turned toward me and we jogged away. I also rewarded him with freeze-dried salmon, a particular high-value treat, and one he'll eat in most situations. On the next rep he again stiffened and stared, but no more barking. After a few more reps he stopped becoming so stiff and only delayed looking back at me if he was air-scenting to get more information about Iroc.

We progressed to having Lea hide and then walk out with Iroc in front of our path. That barely changed Cai's reaction. Then we did passes, which made him strain toward her, but in a friendly, wanting-to-greet way. We moved to a different block and did more surprise appearances, which made Cai stiffen the first time, but he responded quickly to "let's go!" At the end we even had Lea and Iroc jog right toward us, and I had to use a little bit of leash pressure to get Cai to move out of the way the first couple of times, but then he started moving out of the way with me.

It looks like Cai now recognizes that when we're doing repeated approaches, he can relax -- he's safe, and he won't get to interact with the dog, but he'll get engagement and treats from me. We have another session scheduled for Saturday, and I'll start with sudden appearances of the decoy heading toward us, since that's what gives us the most trouble when we're out for a regular walk.

I was very proud of how well he did!

Horses

We went to a local riding arena to practice being calm around horses. I brought Chimera there once when he was a puppy, and soon after he saw a horse on the trail, and both times he was unconcerned and even did tricks training quiet close to the riding practice. As I expected, this time he was reactive to the horses. We did BAT and LAT and eventually were able to hang out about 10 feet from the paddock fence while the horses were trotted along it. When they trotted in our direction, Cai would go still and stare but not go over threshold. We should go back at least once in the near future.

I'd never before seen other dogs at the arena, but this time there were three loose dogs walking around and sunning themselves. This was a problem for Cai, but fortunately they were out of sight most of the time.

I am sad that I have to limit where Cai goes and what we do so much. I usually hike my dogs in Redwood at least once a week, and I'd like to be able to walk him around downtown shopping areas. I can't even take him to the pet supply store. He has so much energy and lives to run but I have to keep him cooped up. Pt Isabel is the one dog place we can go, because there are too many dogs to be reactive, but he has to stay on a long line because his recall is nonexistant around other dogs.

Quick summary

You know you're in trouble when your Malinois-owning friend comes over and comments that your dog is "busy" and has "trouble settling".

There hasn't been much to report here. We're taking a three week class called Strength, Balance, and Body Awareness from Braveheart Dog Training. We do some stretching, cavalettis, and peanut and pilates disc work. Not anything that new for Chimera, but fun and always good to practice.

We're puttering around in our training; trying to keep up with agility class and dabbling in obedience and tricks and handling work. I'm in a super busy period and don't have as much time to play with Cai or take him on as many trips as I would like.

We did a BAT session on Saturday and it was the best one so far. Cai was willing to eat chicken for most of the session, and he only barked a few times. When we were about twenty feet away he seemed to think, "Oh, forget about it", and was still watching the decoy dog curiously and intently, but wasn't reactive anymore. We ended with parallel walking and even crossing each other in opposite directions, about twenty feet apart.

This is Luke the mastiff mix, Saturday's BAT decoy:

Later this week, Jacques the Papillon will be staying with us for a few days while his momma is in the hospital for surgery. Prepare for shenanigans.

Agility class 1.6, leash walking, making friends with Owen

Lots of review of skills we've been working on for the past few weeks: collar grab and releasing forward to a toy when the dog leans or pulls forward, lining up at our side, circle work, and stays. I barely did any training with Chimera over the past week because I was super duper busy, and that will probably continue for a couple more weeks.

At the end of class, we did the It's Yer Choice throwdown. Since we hadn't been practicing and Cai tends to move his paws a bit, I didn't think we'd last long. However we ended up holding our stand-stay longer than all the other students! I did lots of distracting things -- jump up and down, get down on the ground, twirl in a circle, shake out my jacket -- but I made sure to only do the things that I thought Cai could handle, and it worked. What a good boy. We won a new toy and a back issue of Clean Run.


Loose leash walking has greatly improved. Last week, something clicked in Cai's head and he started to come back to my side on his own after he would reach the end of the leash and I'd stop. Sometimes he does it quickly, and sometimes I have to wait a little bit, but he consistently comes back on his own. This definitely makes the walks more pleasant for me. If we're covering new ground, he still gets to the end of the leash frequently. However if we walk back home along the same route, he'll spend much more time walking nicely at my side.


Last Friday we met up with Sarah and her Cardigan Welsh Corgi, Owen, to do BAT. She picked a perfect spot -- wide open, grassy park, with very few people around. Cai started off doing very well. He got stiff and stared at Owen, but was calming down quickly when we would run away from him and sniff new patches of grass as a reward for looking away. After about ten minutes, he stopped to poop, and as I was tying off the poop bag, he lunged in Owen's direction and the leash slipped out of my hand! He made a beeline for Owen. I yelled and Sarah had time to pick Owen up. Cai started circling her and jumping up on her legs to say hello to Owen. He was not aggressive or reactive at this point at all; he was doing his usual over-exuberant greeting. However, the "damage" had been done -- even after this limited greeting, he no longer cared about being on leash with Owen nearby, so my "decoy" was ruined for BAT.

I was quite disappointed at first, but things took a turn for the better. Owen has a history of not liking intact puppies getting in his face, but he showed curious and friendly body language toward Chimera. We let them greet properly, and they became fast friends, zooming around and around the park.

Zoooom!

Playbows

Even though we'd intended to spend the hour doing reactivity work rather than a play session, in the end we had happy, tired dogs, and I can't be sad about that!

Visit to the car dealership

I got into the habit of taking Dragon with me to the dealership every time I had to get maintenance work on the car. I've been to four different dealerships now, and none of them have ever said anything negative about having a dog with me. Dragon would always stay in his crate or on his mat during the wait. I decided that it was Chimera's turn to do the same.

Before asking him to settle down in a new place, we took a long walk around the dealership area. Of course we worked on loose leash walking. I noticed right away that if Cai went ahead and reached the end of his leash, and I stopped and waited, he would eventually self-correct and come back to my side and look up at me. That was great! However for the first twenty minutes, it was slow going, because as soon as I took one or two steps forward, he was already at the end of the leash again. It also took him a while to finish sniffing and looking around and come back to me. We were in a brand new place, so I understood his need to explore the environment, and I let this ping pong game play itself out. It was more important to me that he get lots of rehearsals of putting himself back at my side rather than trying to force him to pay attention.

Finally, after twenty minutes, his pace started to slow down, and the walking improved. After thirty minutes we were able to actually walk together for a few yards at a time. There was one magical moment, right at the end of the walk, when he went ahead of me, and I stutter-stepped as he reached the end of the leash, and he immediately turned to look at me and then came back to my side. I guess that's what we're working toward (along with keeping pace in the first place).

Back at the dealership, he spent the next ninety minutes chilling in the soft crate. At first I gave him chicken through a little opening in the zippered door, and then he settled down with a bully stick, then he dozed off, then he whined just a little bit and tried to chew on the crate out of boredom (I interrupted that and he promptly stopped), and then he just lay around. All in all, the experience was exactly what I was hoping for -- just hanging out in the crate, not worked up about it. I sat next to the crate the entire time. He would have gotten very upset if I'd walked away.

His reactivity is slooowly getting better. Sometimes when he gets reactive I still have to drag him away from the stimulus, but other times he might give one bark but then turn away and willingly move with me away from the Danger. That's a major improvement. BAT is teaching him how to disengage and walk away with me. We have two more sessions already scheduled with friends, and I'm going to put out feelers to do some more.

Yesterday he freaked out when the neighbor kid came into the apartment with his hood up and walked directly at Cai. Today he freaked out when my roommate's kid came out of the shower and was wrapped in a towel. He has a phobia of people with bulky, shapeless silhouettes. It's not something that comes up as often, so I think I'll just work on it after we've got the dog reactivity more in check. One thing at a time...

BAT with Sarah and Owen

My friend Sarah drove over with her Cardigan Welsh Corgi, Owen, to be decoys for the Monster. We worked on our street since there are few other dogs in yards and we don't get a lot of foot traffic or car traffic. Chimera did quite well! We did two sessions of 30-40 minutes (the time really flies by), and Cai was under threshold about 90% of the time. We already scheduled another session in a couple of weeks, though we'll have to do it in a new place, because Owen was a bit overwhelmed by all the urban noises. (Fun fact: last night at 11 pm, there was a bird mimicing car alarm noises outside my window.)

Thanks Owen!

BAT work (finally!)

I've been doing a little BAT foundation here and there with Cai, by praising him when he looks away from something in the distance and then moving away and continuing praise. We've done a few more walks in our neighborhood, and his leash walking is improving and reactivity is decreasing. I've realized that BAT and Kay Laurence's "connected walking" gel very well together -- really, they're almost the same thing -- and I think that's why.

When he's gone over threshold, I either move him away as quickly as I can (either picking him up or using the leash), or (if it's a minor reaction to something far away) body blocking and giving a no reward marker. More and more, he's doing frustration barking rather than alarm barking at dogs (even big ones), and at the same time he's developing more emotional control. I've seen that when his reaction is minor and it's clearly frustration-based, the NRM works well to interrupt him and he's able to reengage with me. It's not something I planned to do in training, but it slipped out here and there, and it's working well for us.

On Thursday I met my friend Miki and we did a formal BAT session. I brought boiled chicken with me but I didn't even bring it out. We started off a block away from each other on the same side of the street. Immediately after we started, everyone in the neighborhood decided to take their own dogs out for a walk and we were assailed from every side!! Cai went over threshold many times because of dogs suddenly appearing. Because he was amped up and nervous, he also started alarm barking at the sound of people's voices and a couple of people wearing hats. Uuuugghh.

Once there was a break in the stream of dogs, we went back to approaching Miki and her dog. After a few reps from a block away, he switched over from tense body language to curious, and we covered the ground between us quickly. Because he was very interested in the sniffing the ground, that ended up being an alternate reward to moving away from her. When we did move away, I sometimes ran with him, which he liked. In fact, a few times when he ran away from the other dogs, he seemed relieved. He also liked it when I gave sincere praise -- he would perk up and give me a happy expression.

At the end, when he was hanging out six feet away from Miki's dog and totally ignoring her, we crossed the street to do parallel walking. Cai tensed up again when they started walking but didn't go over threshold, and seemed happy when he figured out that it was the same game.

His leash walking was terrible at first but not shabby by the end, again because I think the two methods are so complimentary. He's learning to disengage when alarmed/interested/frustrated. I've been teaching him a bit more rules and self control as well, so everything's slowly coming together.

I have the realistic Melissa and Doug Jack Russel Terrier, and I should practice with that on the street outside. Other than the structured practice sessions, it looks like I can just drive over to that neighborhood at the same time of day for lots of stealth BAT work, although I have to be very careful to keep him under threshold.