Days 81-87 (11/26/17-12/02/17): visiting friends, CVS, trial, mystery injury

11/27/17:
Terra's weight was 82 pounds.

I took her into the CVS next door to the vet's. She did very well walking around and showed only minimal interest in sniffing merchandise. We even went down a junk food aisle, with me holding the leash very short just in case, but she followed me lead and just walked straight ahead. We worked particularly on "wait," which is difficult for her because she has a lot of momentum to stop! I sat down by the pharmacy to practice settling in public. I cued her to sit and then lured her down. At first she fussed but, as usual for her, she then gave up and just watched the world go by.

On our way out we stopped to let a couple of ladies pass by. They stopped in front of us and one asked if Terra was "friendly." I put my hand out in a "stop" signal and replied, "She's in training and I need her to focus right now." The lady nodded by stared at Terra and then started to make kissy noises. I quelled my rage - I HATE it when people call out to my dog or otherwise try to get its attention without permission - and stuffed a treat into Terra's face. I then side-stepped to my right and gave a leash cue, Terra did a beautiful side-step to join me, and we walked out with the treats continuing.

A friend commented that in the future I should directly address the person's behavior rather than the dog's needs, ie, "don't interact with her." That's a good suggestion. I fell into the trap of using language that is understood by dog nerds but not by ignorant non-dog people. But I am also, clearly, training my dog to ignore people doing that, as some bullies will intentionally try to distract a dog just to be mean.


11/30/17:
We drove down to visit Sherry and act as decoys for a leash reactive client of hers. Terra got excited and pulled toward the other dog when it was just 10 feet away. Otherwise she happily walked around and sniffed as usual.

I wish this photo hadn't been washed out by the sun because her face is so cute!

Taking a break in the bushes.

Om nom nom.

In the evening we visited Rachel for another craft party. Terra pooped (actually had diarrhea) in the back yard shortly after our arrival, but had to stay on the tether for nearly two hours until she finally peed outside. Then she got to be in the house off leash, but was so tired that she just slept on a dog bed until we left.

I had Rachel help me with a short training session. First I put on Terra's "in training" harness and cued her to wait at my side. I rewarded her for staying as Rachel approached, as Rachel said hello, and then as she used the lilting "talking to a dog" voice. It was hard for Terra because she loves Rachel! We need to practice this a lot more with a variety of people so that she will be able to confidently ignore the public.

Then I had Rachel hold a small handful of treats and I practiced hand stacking Terra. It's one way to make a positive association with a conformation "judge" approaching.


12/01/17:
Chimera has his first AKC agility trial today. Since it was on a Friday, the entries were small. I let Terra sleep in the car all morning. She would be in a different position every time I checked on her, but was always sleeping soundly. Finally, after Cai's second run, which was the last run of the day, I brought her out. She wanted to sniff every tree and post we walked by to get information about the other dogs. She wanted to say hello to almost every other dog that passed within 10 feet. I was happy to see her so curious. A loud noise dampened her enthusiasm for a few minutes, but she recovered enough to practice touch, chin, stand-stay, and IYC.

Sometime today Terra hurt herself, probably while playing with her Malinois friend. I think it's something around her back, hips, or hind legs but she didn't respond negatively to me handling her. She's been a little slower to get up and occasionally whining as she does so. At one point she stood up and then hunched over. She still wanted to play with the Malinois but would sometimes get pissed off if the other dog jumped on her back. The Malinois went home so I no longer have to deal with puppies who are desperate to play but have to be kept apart. I'll keep an eye on Terra tomorrow and see how she recovers.

Days 70-77 (11/15/17-11/22/17): socialization trips

11/15/17:
Hiked off leash on the Homestead Trail along with a boarding dog. It was a weekday morning and raining, so we only saw one other person. (Terra was scared of him.) We had to pass a very shallow creek and she was reluctant. Perhaps she remembered the previous two times she'd gone into water with abandon and then regretted. However after I had crossed and was standing on the other side, she had no choice but to follow.

In the evening we visited Rachel. Haley and Frankie crowded Terra as we walked in. I was just telling Rachel that I needed to take her through to the back yard ASAP when I saw that she had done a little submissive tinkling... and then she let her whole bladder loose. So embarrassing. I let her play with the other two for about an hour, and then put her on leash and tethered her to the table where I was knitting. I took her out every 20-30 minutes and on the third trip, she finally peed in the back yard. Then she got to play again for an hour, and then back on the tether until it was time to go.

11/17/17:
We took a trip to PetSmart. I challenged her to walk slightly closer to people than before. She's improving, but slowly.
 
11/19/17:
We've aged out of puppy class, but Nancy transferred our credit to the adolescent level. The classes are in a new location, as well. We practiced going to her mat, hand touches, IYC, and stripping her ears. We wrestled and played tug and ran around. We didn't participate in any of the training exercises the rest of the class did, since they were focused on self-control and practicing polite greetings with strangers. We skipped the play time because I have a dog boarding who plays hard with Terra and I didn't want her to have any extra roughhousing to tax her body.
 
11/20/17:
Weight at vet's is 76.5 lbs.

I needed to buy special cookies at Trader Joe's. This was a new location for her. We walked around the front of the store (away from the stream of people going in and out) and sat on a bench. She fussed at first as she didn't want to wait around, but then she gave up and sat, then laid down.

There is a Babies R Us next door, and I could see that there were very few people inside. We took 2 trips through the store. The first one was in through the entrance and out through the nearby exit right away. The second time, we went down a couple of aisles before leaving. Terra was mildly curious about the merchandise and spots on the floor that she thought might be edible. I kept her moving.

11/22/17:
Today's field trip was to Michael's. She did very well and walking around. She wanted to sniff merchandise here and there, but wasn't obtrusive. (I do let her sniff briefly as I want her to feel comfortable, but I call her to continue onward after a few seconds.) We stopped in the yarn section for a few minutes, as this is a realistic thing for me to do when shopping. She fussed and wanted to keep exploring. I got her to sit (which was great as we, uh, don't practice this ever) and after a minute she inevitably sunk to the floor. It takes so much effort to hold that giant body up!

She tends to pause (and sometimes back up slightly) when people come into her line of sight. I always give a treat immediately. I can see that she is slowly transitioning to worrying less and being more grateful for the treat.

We need more practice with stopping on cue ("wait"). Her attention and leash walking were good though, especially after I switched from the Bark Pouch to beef liver. She seems to like variety in her treats.

Unrelated, I finished stripping her ears today. Now I wait for the rest of the puppy coat to be ready to come out.

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.

Recap Days 35-46 (10/15/17 - 10/26/17): food, socialization with dogs, people, & places

It's been a while since I updated Terra's blog because I've been in a depressive episode and couldn't keep up. Some of her training has fallen behind, but I've continued to take her out and about. She has more energy now and needs more play and training and exercise to settle easily at bedtime.

Her weight as of yesterday is 61.5 lbs. She's small for her age, but she's growing and looks and acts healthy. She's lost a bunch of teeth and her adult molars are coming in. She's having trouble chewing and I've been grinding up all of her raw meat. I stopped giving her meaty bones because she was chewing them up the bare minimum needed to be able to swallow giant chunks, and then wasn't digesting them properly. I hope to add them back in once more of her adult teeth come back in. In the meantime she's getting bone meal mixed into her meat and organs and other supplements. I also mix in chicken broth or a small amount of bacon grease with warm water to encourage her to eat it all. Otherwise she doesn't want to eat when there's a change of protein source.

Here are the highlights of our adventures for the past 12 days:
My pushy Belgian Malinois client stayed for five days. When Terra was younger and less confident, I had been very worried about having this dog stay with me again. But this was good timing - the girls loved each other and Terra was just as pushy to play with her. At first I had to hover and referee to make sure the Malinois wasn't knocking Terra around. The more I intervened and prevented her from punching and jumping on Terra, the calmer the play was and I could relax somewhat. I'm looking forward to having them together when Terra is larger and less vulnerable. They'll be good playmates.

We visited Miki and her two little kids again. Once again Terra kept wanting to approach and lick their faces. They were not as into it. I'd love to get her around some kids who are older and dog-savvy.

Her vaccinations are all done other than rabies, which I didn't want to give at the same time. The tech was great - massaged her shoulders and slipped the needle in quickly. I play-wrestled with Terra's head while she did it, and the pup didn't even notice.

Took a second trip into Lowe's and two into PetSmart. She's more confident every time. The last trip to PetSmart, we were able to do rapid-fire training on hand touch, chin target, eye contact, stand-stay, and walking at my side. We also took a break to sit/lie on the floor and look around.

Chimera had a Fast CAT trial and of course I took Terra along for socialization. She had some brief moments of being overwhelmed but really settled in. She wanted treats and play and pulled toward people standing nearby to get petting (particularly women, but also a few men). Met an adult female Wolfhound and they sniffed each other's privates but were not as excited to see each other as I'd expected.

We've had some negative experiences around men, when they approached too close too quickly. Sometimes it's hard to stop people in time. I need to get faster; my natural reticence to engage with strangers gets in the way.

Had another session of puppy class. We were able to participate in an exercise in which we paired up and practicing approaching and walking past other owners and puppies. I had string cheese, which seems to be her highest value treat so far. We skipped the play time at the end because I'm worried about Terra playing too rough and scaring another puppy, and harming its socialization. She gets plenty of social time with other dogs at home and when visiting friends, and currently her social skills are just right for her age.

Went to Cai's Agility class and hung out in a heavy duty x pen I brought. She wasn't worried about being there but got upset when I would walk away (whining, demand-barking, and pawing at the pen). She also dug holes in the gravel. Next time I need to bring a thick mat and fresh chew, and a separate crate for Cai so he doesn't steal it.

She loves to dig - she's also tried to dig holes in the wood chips in the yard (doesn't get far because there is landscape fabric over the ground) and in dirt while we were on a walk.

When she's bored or wants something she sometimes raises her paws and scratches at the wall. Noooooo bad puppy!

Visited Auntie Agnes yesterday and played nicely with little Frankie and was much more comfortable walking along busy Mission St. Peed three times in the condo and didn't pee when we took her outside to a quiet area. She's banned from visiting again until she's potty trained/more comfortable peeing in public. She does get agitated and pace just before peeing indoors but it's hard to recognize because she also walks all around the place because she's excited and wants to check things out and play. I can tell when she's about to poop because she raises her tail up a few paces beforehand.

Day 23 (10/03/17): nose work, grocery store, playing with Cai

Terra was still tired out all morning and afternoon from her long play session with Beedo yesterday.

I added a half portion of chicken liver and pork kidney to her breakfast. I had to mince it and mix well with the ground chicken meat to get her to eat them. She left a few pieces at the bottom of the bowl once she had eaten all the chicken meat. Cai didn't want the organs either.

I took her to the grocery store. First we walked around the sidewalk at the perimeter of the shopping center. She was happy to explore but was slightly overwhelmed by all the new - she would sometimes walk in a circle around me to look at everything. She did not react at all to the cars driving by at 45 mph. (She has never reacted to traffic.) Then we sat down at a table a little ways from the entrance to the grocery store. We watched people going back and forth for an hour. (Okay, I was on the phone for much of that.) She mostly laid at my feet. Once a man walked by very close, and she didn't react as she hadn't noticed him coming. Later a woman passed at the same distance, but Terra saw her approach and the woman made eye contact. Terra stood up and hid behind my chair.

Two young women approached and asked to say hello. I held up the "stop" signal, then said that she's shy and if they stood over there (about ten feet away) and called her, she might choose to come over. They did, and she went up to them almost immediately! She went right into the personal space of the woman standing a tad closer, and licked her face and turned herself sideways to her. When the second woman leaned in closer, Terra sniffed her hand and then backed toward the first woman. I think the combination of two new people was too much for her, and she had already identified the first woman as friendly and safe. After a little more petting from the first one, she returned to me with a happy wag. Yay!

After dinner, I left her and Cai in the kitchen as I took the boarding dog out to potty. I heard Cai's play sounds coming through the window and was very confused. I walked in to find them both making happy faces. I put the boarding dog away, and turned around to find this!!

I had not seen that coming! Cai had been making a few affiliative gestures toward Terra, like doing a slow hip check when she was lying down, but I didn't expect to see full on play so soon.

I let them play for a few minutes, then removed Cai when he seemed to be tiring out. Mostly Terra toned down her play when he would correct her, but she clearly still wanted to continue when he was ready to chill. I gave her a new toy from Auntie Sherry, then she alternated chewing on a bully stick, smoked beef bone, dental chew, and the ladder to my loft bed.

We got some good training time in today. We did 3 short nose work sessions, still doing IYC with treats in one hand and the hot tin in the other, and rewarding the dog for putting their nose near the tin. She definitely gets the idea, though she still sometimes gets distracted by the treats. At first I was using itty bitty pieces of chicken so that she wouldn't spend a lot of time chewing - she thoroughly chews even the tiniest treats, like Tiny Zukes or even pea-sized bits of cooked chicken. But a lot of them were dropping onto the floor, so I switched to the Bark Pouch. She was much more motivated then! Also made more mistakes due to the allure of "berrylicious peanut butter." The downside was that I got some licking of the tin, since she would put her nose to it before she had finished licking and swallowing the goop on her tongue. We'll do a few more sessions at least of step 1 before we progress.

We practiced with the mat, and while she is going straight to the mat after every reset toss, she will keep walking rather than stopping on top of it. She then loops and goes to it again. I'll continue with putting multiple treats down on the mat and see if it clicks... Maybe a raised platform would be better, but I don't have one big enough!

We had a nice session of nose touch to target fingers and tossing the reward away. I need to focus on creating clean loops and short sessions to build a good work ethic, as her tendency to do a loop around the room every few reps slows everything down.

So sleepy.

She often sleeps with her eyes slightly open and the third eyelid showing. Creepy.

Day 22 (10/02/17): playing at park, new people and dog, nose work

Terra weighed in at 49.5 lbs on the vet's scale. She said hello to a couple new staff members. She happily walked up to one standing but was wary of the two sitting in big black rolling chairs.

We drove to Cooper School Park. We arrived at 2:15. Terra walked and sniffed around under her own initiative. She hid between my legs when a man walked by 15 feet away, and retreated farther behind me when he called out "hello doggy." She resumed exploring. She laid down on the grass.

At 2:30 the elementary school next door ended their day. I hadn't known that was coming and was worried, but Terra handled it better than I'd expected. She watched the kids walking by from her shady spot in the middle of the park, and sniffed the breeze. She didn't show any overt stress signals, just curiosity. At 2:37 she stood up and resumed sniffing around. She even wanted to approach three kids playing nearby (I didn't let her as it was not a controlled enough situation).

At 2:45 we started playing, switching up between jaw and paw wrestling, running, cuddling, and resting. We both had a grand time. Twice more she tried to approach the three kids, with her tail wagging higher and faster each time. But I don't want to let her interact with kids I don't know at this point in time.

At 3 pm we returned to the car. Terra spooked when a girl came around a corner and turned right toward us. She tried to run directly away but I used the leash to steer her off the side instead.

She went into her crate for a nap. More demand barking put through extinction. Ugh.

I had invited a couple clients to come over with their six month old Dalmatian, Beedo. I particularly wanted Terra to meet the boyfriend, and then the pup. We were outside when they arrived, which gave Terra a good sightline and plenty of warning that new people were approaching. She quickly went up to the fence to say hello to the girlfriend. She backed away for a moment when the boyfriend came up, but he talked sweetly to her and put his fingers through the fence, and she tentatively came up to sniff his hand. When they came into the yard, again she approached the woman but retreated briefly from the man. As the minutes went by, she was willing to get closer to him, and at the 25 minute mark she came all the way up and pushed into him for a cuddle.

Soon after that, I had them bring Beedo over. Terra came right up to the fence to sniff him. As he came through the gate, she let him sniff her but tensed and slightly tucked her tail, and then walked away for about 30 seconds. She came back and they sniffed each other again. Beedo wanted to sniff all around and wasn't pushy with her. After a couple of minutes she wandered off and found a big wood chip to chew on. Then Beedo did the same.

It wasn't until Terra went all the way up to the boyfriend, and then placed her paws on his shoulders, that Beedo thought about playing with her - she had been too quiet before. Now he pawed at her head and shoulders. Terra responded in kind - "oh, we're playing now?" And they were off to the races! They ran around and around the yard, and wrestled. They played for an hour (with self-imposed breaks).

Kangaroo-puppy!

I signed up for a gold spot in Nose Work 101: Introduction to Nose Work at the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy. Class officially started yesterday and my vials and scent q-tips arrived today. I had ordered a kit with the NACSW scents (birch, anise, clove). I hope that the AKC scent sport will take off locally and there will be more opportunities to trial, but for now I'm just assuming that we'll do NACSW.

The first homework assignment is an IYC-style targeting exercise: hold treats in one hand and a hot tin in the other, and reward the dog at source when they choose to check out the tin. Terra startled at the strong smell. She did quickly choose to move toward the tin rather than futilely nosing at my treat fist, however she's not at all "drivey." She will do a few reps of one behavior, then take a lap around the room and drink some water, then sniff the floor, then either return to work or just lie down. That's okay - her ability to focus and desire to stay in the game are slowly increasing over time. It just doesn't make for snappy video.

We also practiced stand-stays and we can sometimes get to 4-5 seconds. She is rarely manding in confusion. But she will walk off and sniff around every few treats. Gotta keep it short and sweet, and give breaks before she decides to take them on her own.

Day 2 (09/12/17): agility class, Welshie, vet, training, crate

Terra slept through most of the night. She woke up once early on and howled briefly. She was probably confused about where she was. She settled back down and was fine until morning.

Chimera has agility class on Tuesday mornings. Terra has been so mellow that I took her along and let her stay in the car during his turns. I can't fit a crate large enough for her in my Prius, so I just have to hope that she doesn't go through a bored adolescent phase and destroy my car one day. This time she shuffled around, got herself stuck underneath the back seat hammock, and then went to sleep.

I walked her around a bit and was happy to see that she wanted to wander and explore. She didn't notice the agility dogs running because I stayed far enough away that we wouldn't distract them.

Two clients came to drop off their adolescent Welsh Springer Spaniel for boarding. Terra was in the kitchen but when she saw them in the doorway, she trotted to the bedroom and lay down in the farthest corner, under my desk. I was upset that she was so upset. However it was a lot of triggers at once (sudden appearance, two new people, new dog). I will have to tease out what bothered her most, and do my best to desensitize her to all those triggers separately. I kept her separated via baby gate from the Welshie for most of the day.

Shortly after we had our first trip to my vet. She was nervous when walking in and clung to me when she heard dogs barking. No hesitation about getting on the scale when it was quiet - 42 lbs even. The vet was behind schedule and she fell asleep in the lobby. When we moved into the exam room she laid down at my feet and slept though most of the exam. She was still exhausted from since Sunday. Her heart and lungs sound fine. The tech cleaned some persistent dirt out of her ears.

She went into the crate for a couple of hours while I worked with the Welshie pup. After a quality nap, she was more energetic in the evening (though still overall very calm/subdued for a puppy). She played with toys here and there, and tried to chew on the cabinets (which in this case I considered a good thing).

Chimera gave her one single play invitation during the dogs' active evening time. She then barked and pawed at the floor and laid down while staring at him - all lovely play invitations, which Cai ignored. I let her briefly mingle with the Welshie, whom she mostly ignored. She gave some stress signals when the Welshie went up to sniff her, but she has good recall and would come back to me.

The mark of Zorro?!

I'm transitioning her to a raw diet (prey model) and gave her her first chicken wing. At first she licked at it over and over. I ended up cutting it into smaller pieces and then she chomped them down. No upset stomach later. For dinner she got her kibble with added kelp and fish/vitamin E oil, and she chowed down.

We did a few mini training sessions (5-10 treats each time). I'm capturing/shaping eye contact (mostly clicking for moving her head upwards and not staring at my hands) and shaping a nose to target stick (figured out the basic premise quickly but sometimes noses or mouths the stick instead of the ball at the end).

She had a little trouble settling in her crate for the night. She would whine, lay down, get up and bark a few times, lie down, nibble on a chew, etc. But within 10 minutes she was chewing consistently, and shortly after that she was asleep.

Her favorite corner of the kitchen.

Long tail can be hard to manage.

I'll try to recreate this picture regularly to show off her growth.

She likes her crate buddies!