PUPPY RAISING THEN AND NOW!

AREN'T THEY CUTE?



Morganne http://urbanborders.blogspot.com/ asked if I am raising Cricket differently from the other dogs. It is funny because if I had another puppy right now I would do things differently even though Cricket is not a year yet, but luckily I do keep learning more.

Breeze will turn 4 this month and Liz is 4, so it was not that long ago that they were the puppies. I got those dogs when I was taking classes mainly at a place that does agility that is not that competitive so I was never exposed to a lot of the skills I wish I had had for foundation with Liz and Breeze.

Liz and Breeze were my first border collies and I had been really freaked out by reading all the cautions about border collies and how difficult they were and not for everyone. I was not sure I would measure up to owning a border collie I was a bit intimidated. I think I worried a lot more about heading off problems because I had heard so many horror stories about BC behaviors. I was rushing around to lots of classes, which were not always the best classes for my dogs-some just are too slow a pace and very boring for an energetic little puppy. Do not get me wrong, I had a blast with Liz and Breeze but I did worry more...sort of like having your first kid where you worry more about everything-you enjoy but you worry more then you need to.


LIZ AND BREEZE ARE SUCH GOOD BUDDIES!



The other big difference was that I had two BC puppies about six months apart. What was I thinking with that??? Liz s a super challenging dog, LOL, and I really saw that I needed to get a handle on some of that...so Breeze who was really a perfect dog got pushed to the side more then I would have liked. She is a good dog because she was a good dog. I really see today some of my lack of foundation, which because she is so good has not been that much of an issue...but I really see what I would have liked to do differently and I am lucky she just had such a good nature.

So fast forward to Cricket. I think I have a mix of way more strict rules and guidelines-but I am way more playful, and I finally know how to add more play into training---I want to learn a lot more about that but I think I have come a long way from where I was. I have a lot more rules but they are just part of life, not any rules that I really even think about, they are just a natural part of life now. I think I reward only for average or better performance/ behavior now and I do not feel as compelled to try to make Cricket be right all the time (meaning I do a lot of shaping and try not to do any luring)-- with easy things I let her figure out things more or be wrong sometimes which I think helps her handle stressful things a lot better-hopefully she will not be upset by making wrong choices sometimes-I learned that from mistakes I made with Lizzie! I still try to break things down so the dog can understand and start with little things, but I just don't jump in as quickly.

I do a lot of tricks with Cricket but way less fun trick that are fun to show.. and I have focused a lot more on the things I really want to see in a couple of years. We do a lot more foundation behaviors that might look like nothing and might be pretty boring for others to watch.

I quit worrying so much by the time Cricket came around-I think I just feel more confident, so that just adds even more to how much I have enjoyed her. I have only done one class with Cricket and that was a four session recall class. Everyone at our training club seems very freaked out that we are not doing classes.. but I take her around other agility classes and trials, but most of the classes go to slow for me to keep a puppy really engaged and use too much luring for what I want to do with Cricket. Cricket is just one of those once in a life time dogs I think that is very easy to train, and has so much drive to boot....so all those things have made being with her sooo much fun. The great thing is that all this new foundation work I have done for Cricket is that it has helped me fill in the holes that I had in my older girls foundation training.


CHECK OUT WHO LOVES CRATE GAMES. LOL! LIZ AND BREEZE WERE IN THE CRATES AND CRICKET HAD ALREADY GOTTEN OUT OF THE CAR BUT SHE LOVES THE CRATE SO MUCH SINCE WE HAVE REALLY WORKED THE CRATE GAMES THAT SHE JUMPED INTO THE CRATE WHEN I WAS TRYING TO LET LIZ OUT, GOOFY GIRL!

WEEKLY CHALLENGE

As far as the challenge, we took our agility things to the park on Monday. We had a great time doing that! There were a lot of kids playing but the were pretty far away, so just a bit of a distraction. We really could have moved closer but I wanted to work on the agility so I left the distractions out of things.

On Wednesday we worked around the soccer team practicing, the big focus of that day was with Breeze and using enough distance that she could work and think with all those super cool soccer balls around. I sure have found what is the top of her distraction list, and her favorite reward.

On Tuesday and Thursday I took the dogs to a cool outdoor eating area while my daughter was at swimming team. It was really nice because I just spread out a blanket on the floor and worked on shaping some tricks and doing some recall games. There were no diners...so I did not worry about bothering them but there were teenagers on bikes and roller skates going around and the little court yard is on the corner of the street with the cars going slowly on two sides. Go figure Liz did terrific. Cricket was pulling and wanted to see the kids, but I made her stop and do something to earn the visit, when I released her so was afraid of the kids, LOL. It was not the most exciting work but we were able to get some nice work with distractions.

One of my challenges and the thing I have been focusing on this week has been trying to make sure that when we work distractions to not rely on the leash as much as possible, meaning that I pay attention enough and try to act proactively enough, manipulate what we are doing and the rewards enough that I am not using the leash to keep the dogs with me, but help them so they make good choices ;-). We actually are doing pretty well, I have been pleased. Susan Garrett had a video on her web site of her dogs on a walk, loose when they see a deer and she does not say anything but the dogs look at the deer, and look back to her and do not try to chase it. YIKES! That is something to aspire too!! LOL, if Lizzie ever gets to be that good.....you all should nominate me for the trainer hall of fame....LOL, no needs to worry about that for awhile though!!!

I sort of feel like I am cheating on the challenge though because with my daughter having swim team practice almost every night... that means I have an hour and a half to kill, or I just have to keep driving back and forth. It is almost like I have an enforced time, although, gosh it is so hot during that part of the day that that makes it a bit hard with the dogs and rotating them around. It has turned out to be the perfect time of the year to be doing the recall course and all this homework.

Shaping Liz to tug with DISTRACTIONS

One thing I have figured out from our recall course is that over time Missy Liz has figured out that she likes food the best so will refuse to tug or play if she knows food is around,....she really is the smartest dog!! Usually food is a good reward for her anyway because it helps her calm and think, and she is one of the dogs that spends way too much time way too excited. ;-).

I did decide to work with her on learning to tug with the distraction of her breakfast. We have a lot of training to do with distractions so this is a good start!

I am so sorry for Crickets barking, when I did this again this morning I left Cricket and Breeze sitting next to us in a down stay and they minded their manners much better, but I wanted to capture the beginnings of shaping Liz to tug.

I was suprised at how fast Lizzie got the idea that we had changed some things and she needed to focus and play to get her breakfast! Poor Liz being forced to play, LOL!

Progress Report on our Recall training

So far I have found Susan Garretts recall course to be excellent and I am so glad I signed up for it. So you want to know how our recall training is going? ...well, let me tell you anyway! hahahaha!

We of course started off strong, and all three of the dogs were just little super stars. They all had their strengths and weaknesses, and some things were easier for one dog, and some things were easier for the other dogs, but overall...to be truthful, sweet little Breeze actually was a little behind the others.

The last week though.....the games are using a lot more distractions and doing some testing of the skills we have been working, and poor Lizzie....well, she is once again looking like a special needs girl,...sigh...she simply is not ready for such things. I think Liz and I will be staying at the basic foundation steps for a LONG time. It makes me feel so good too (NOT!) when SG said that your dog is a reflection of your skills as a trainer. YEP, I realize that...at this point I just want to know what I am missing with the Lizard. Maybe as we keep working and Liz gets to the point she can do the higher level games and we work through our distraction list it will all become clearer.

This is where I really feel it is hard to work with three dogs....I have the other dogs working around their highest level distractions and they are doing great with that, and poor Liz is really doing well...considering... if I was only working with Liz and had no one to compare her to...then it would be easier to just concentrate on how many great strides she has made, but the other dogs make it hard to not see how far we still have to go.

Tonight Susan Garrett had her Distraction Webinar which she has said she plans on packaging and selling. I have totally loved almost everything else I have bought from Susan and I have bought it all!!! Not so sure about the webinar, unless the second one has a lot more info and some more helpful ideas, not sure I found it helpful enough to consider buying.

The first two coaching calls were great and left me feeling like I had learned so much and gave me some great things to think about that have really helped our training, and I always love listening to Susan- she is a great speaker but with this webinar tonight after it was over I just felt frustrated and it all seemed like the same things you hear from everyone about dog training over and over and over, really good sound principles, but if I really knew how to apply it we would have fixed her issues long ago. Maybe the webinar will seem much better when it is edited and I can sit down and listen to it without it disconnecting or the sound cutting off every few minutes.

Maybe I am looking for more concrete answers, or maybe I just am not getting it yet.. or maybe it was the fact that the webinar which was over the Internet kept freezing and disconnecting, so I missed a lot of it.

One thing that really made me think and I would recommend checking out is an article that was in the last Teamwork Ebook SG released and it was in Clean Run March '06, called "But it is Not a Border Collie" I found that really interesting talking about how if a dog is under aroused they are way more prone to worrying about the environment, or they won't work in the heat, or they won't want to work if other dogs are barking and if they are overstimulated they can not think or work and how you can help your dog to find a more comfortable middle zone where they are excited enough to work at a high level.