2012: What will my dogs learn before the world ends?

At the request of a friend, I am writing this post about goals for Oliver and Ela. This also means that I sat down and thought about what goals they should have. I’m not a New Year’s Resolution person (maybe it is obvious, since this post is not on January 1^st), but I’ll admit that it might even be fun to have training goals – then we can celebrate the accomplishments! What a great reason to make dog treats and drink mimosas!

Monthly Skills

Each month the dogs will have skills that they are working on, to remind myself to actually finish a skill before getting bored and moving on. “Finished” will mean reliable response to either an aural or visual cue. I’ll post those each month, perhaps with video. (But the video part is not one of the goals.) 

Ela

 Ela’s Year Plan

Ela is working on reactivity and resource guarding issues. Although she attends dog daycare, I cannot bring her to the dog park or otherwise handle her around new dogs – she guards me with complete dedication. The absence or presence of food on my body makes no difference. Ela is currently in a Level 2 obedience class, simply for the exposure to other dogs. She is usually working in her corner, with barriers, although we sometimes venture out. We did about 4 weeks with the Gentle Leader on, and now I am transitioning to her martingale. The first week without the GL was a little tougher, I’m not sure if it was due to calming from the GL or simply being more aroused since we worked on CC/LAT in the car for 15 minutes before class (she did great at this task).

I want to focus very strongly on AT and/or BAT for a few months to tackle the reactivity. I think both could work very well, but I need to be diligent about arranging set-ups. I can build treatment for resource guarding into these, so I am excited about seriously working these methods (and collecting data).

After that, I want to incorporate Pattern Games (from Leslie McDevitt’s new DVD) into our daily work and a class situation, so we can continue with obedience. I’d like to get into a Rally-O class with her, and possibly agility. I’d love to take her to a Rally comp to observe or compete, but that might realistically be a next-year sort of thing.

Our first benchmark goal is to earn the CLASS BA – maybe in January, but hopefully by the end of spring.

The CLASS MS requires walking past dogs (10 ft away) without reacting, so that is our goal for the end of the year.

We’re also focusing on building the tug drive, so we have two goals there: 1) to be motivated to tug as a reward for training with me one-on-one, and 2)  to be able to tug in the presence of other dogs without worrying about them.

As a subjective goal, I’d like for her to walk around the lakes being relaxed. I think that we can achieve that in one year of work.

Our final goal is confidence building. Ela is very worried about objects falling from the sky, so I have been working on DS to that. At first I was asking (free-shaping) her to touch objects of which she is fearful. She seems to gain confidence when asked to respond operantly to situations. However, this may have backfired – when Becca was getting the kibble out, Ela bumped into a door we have propped up against the wall (long story), and the door fell. This may have been Ela seeking to touch the ‘scary thing’ to earn the kibble. A better default behavior is needed. I’d prefer for her to be by my side (instead of approaching or lunging) when she is frightened or startled by something. I could ask her to come to me and finish at my side, and reward. I’m also thinking that introducing falling objects while working pattern games may help. My other strategy is to drop items and then immediately scatter kibble on the floor. The problem is that accidents happen, and I really can’t control if something accidentally falls. I’m also hoping that she simply gains confidence as a result of training and learning coordination. 

Oliver

 Oliver’s Year Plan

Oliver has blown me away with his progress around people and dogs. I have been so proud of his happy, loose greetings with new people. I want to continue to work on this with him, by having him meet and work with new people at our open ring session, parties, and setups. One new person a week is a good goal, but actually difficult, since I tend to not work him around novice dogs/handlers, i.e. “My dog is friendly” people. If I qualify this as receiving a treat from the pet store or hardware store clerk, we can probably accomplish that. I’ve found that the larger stores (like Petsmart) give us enough maneuvering space, and if I may say so myself, I’ve gotten pretty darn good at observational analysis and defensive handling so that Oliver can stay relaxed and not worry about the other dogs. 

I want to work AT and/or BAT with Oliver as well. I’m not sure if AT would affect him or not, but definitely curious. Ultimately, BAT will be his ticket, because from my observation he simply has no idea how to communicate with new dogs, and I’d like to teach him to show more calming signals.

We’ve been doing some CC work by hanging out at the lakes, and when dogs pass we play disc, when they are gone we just do obedience work. I’d like to continue this once a week when the weather is nicer. I also want to do long-line setups where we play disc in a field with another dog.

Oliver will hopefully earn his CLASS BA in January. I’d love to test his MS by the end of the year. BAT should help him with the passing-by-dogs portion. I think he’s nearly there, but I want to be confident. Heck, I want Oliver to be confident.

I also want to get Oliver in a class. Nosework might be an easy start, and then move on to advanced classes where I don’t need to worry about novice handlers. I’d love to compete with him in Rally Obedience. Maybe we can this fall? I’m not sure what to expect with him, but I know he is ready to handle classes.

Another of Oliver’s goals is to get better at free-shaping. I’m currently shaping him to stand, simply because his default is sit or down and wait. After the stand, I want a simple head turn. Then we can shape spins, paw lifts, the sky is the limit! I’m trying to start every free-shaping exercise with the phrase “Do you want to play a game?” so that he can easily tell when to sit-and-wait and when to offer behavior.

My Goals

I’ve always focused on (and loved) behavior modification. I also enjoy teaching simple pet manners to foster dogs and client dogs. I’ve never had a dog that could compete in sports, but now that I do, I’m actually thinking that maybe obedience looks fun. Maybe. At any rate, it is time for me to learn some more formal maneuvers with my dogs. Whether it is bit by bit, or by taking a formal class, I’ll continue my education in that realm.

Do more leash walking. Moving out of my slightly-scary-after-dark neighborhood will help with this goal.

I also need to remember to release my dogs. I don’t do this consistently, and I need to. Plain and simple. Say “okay”. Okay? Okay.

And, there you have it. I think I got as concrete as I can be, given two dogs that need behavior modification. But I am excited about the possibilities, and I love working with them. Maybe I didn’t quite get The Dogs I Wanted, but I sure got The Dogs I Needed and most definitely The Dogs I Love. Now isn’t that cute?

Oliver and Ela