Day 47 (10/27/17): PetCo, downtown, formal training update

We went into PetCo for about 15 minutes. This was Terra's first time in this location. We ran through some of her skills: eye contact/IYC, stand-stay, chin target, hand target. We did some walking around, including into a pen that they use for training, which has a narrow entrance (intimidating!). I am impressed with how responsive Terra is to small amounts of leash pressure, which I still haven't gotten around to actually training at home with no distractions. I am adding the cue "wait" when I want her to stop forward movement. She often, of her own accord, then backs up so that she is closer to me and lined up at my left side. OMG looooove

In the evening we went downtown, for the last street fair of the year. We mostly stayed in the park adjacent to the fair, watching people come and go and listening to the noises. There were a few times she experienced trigger stacking (ie, someone coming toward us plus a loud noise plus barking dog in distance) but overall she did well, as usual. Practiced eye contact and chin target.

Curling up with her snuggle buddy in the car.

Considering chasing her tail.

Our formal training stalled out while I was down, so let's figure out where we are:
IYC/eye contact: fairly solid when I have a closed fist with treats inside at eye level. Can contrast with hand target (two fingers sticking out and cue "touch"). Progressing to placing fist closer to her head and making contact, a la Sue Ailsby's "no hand" for conformation. (Teaches dog to hold still while you handle them even if you are holding food in your hand.)

Touch: fairly solid nose touch to two fingers pointing out. Cue is "touch." Mostly using this to gauge her ability to focus among distractions.

Stand-stay: Goes into solid stand reliably. Cue is the two finger "touch" leading quickly away from her nose and up. Will hold for about 5 seconds unless around distractions. Working on being able to step in front of her as if assessing her stack while she holds focus on the hand. (After that I'll add more of my own movement, then handling.)

Chin target: fairly solid on placing her chin in my hand, and because she enjoys the contact, she often rests her head heavily on it. Awww. Adding duration, currently at 2 seconds. Working from both stand and sit.

Paw target: using a plastic coaster. Reliable in placing her paw on it when I hold it on the floor. If my hand is not touching it, she does a swipe instead of a place. I'm backing up to get more reinforcement for deliberate placement rather than swiping. (After that I will move on to using the paw target for body awareness exercises.)

Mat: usually places all four feet on her new, large mat. When I add duration she naturally sits and then lies down (because she is lazy) and I reward that.

Hand stripping: doesn't seem to mind stripping her ears. I keep it short and use high value treats after every tug. I need to introduce her to the bucket game.


I want to teach her to bark on cue, but I don't want to reinforce barking when she currently does it (when she wants out of her crate or when she's on the other side of the baby gate and wants attention). So I'm experimenting with having her with us while I practice barking with Chimera.