Day 98 (12/13/17): Pet Food Express, Office Max, conformation class

Terra has been stuck indoors the past couple of days, so today I gave her a few outings. First we went to Pet Food Express in Davis. I had the leash clipped to the back of her Freedom harness, signalling that she was free to wander this way and that. She's big enough now that I sometimes have to brace myself to bring her to a stop. It's not that she actively pulls against the leash; the problem is that she has so much momentum that it takes a solid effort to halt her. I may need to switch to using the front clip or using collar only. I'm still working on desensitizing her to a head halter, so that I have that as an option, but we don't practice it every day and it's slow going.

Terra is always perfectly behaved around the bins of treats and chews because she's too inhibited to grab something. She wagged her tail at the women we passed and gave a wary stare at a man. We spent some time cuddling in the aisles. She was impatient at the register, as usual, but she was more willing to stand between me and the counter. I like that position because I can still keep an eye on her and no one can sneak up on us.

I dropped off our shopping in the car, switched Terra to her "service dog in training" harness, and clipped the leash to her collar. She is already walking and acting differently between the two types of equipment, however I have the feeling that she's cuing off the short leash on her collar more than the harnesses. We went to Office Max. This was her second time in this store and she strolled through it without a problem. We had to wait in line and this time, instead of trying to wander around me in a circle, she sat down and leaned against my left side. Perfect. She was still antsy at the register but decided to sit down, got up, and sat down again.

In the evening we went to a conformation drop in class at Solano DTC. Only two other people came, and one of them was Grace, the Wolfhound we'd met at a Fast CAT event in October. Her owner was happy to see us again and gave me information about some upcoming Wolfhound Club gatherings.

Terra did well at the class. It was a great example of using a structured protocol to ease her into the new activity and give her confidence.

1. I put her mat in a corner of the room and paid for class before I got her out of the car.
2. Terra balked at the doorway, but I let her take as much time as she needed, and even back out of the building if she wanted to (twice).
3. We went straight to the mat and I kneeled next to her as she looked around. I didn't let anyone come closer than she could handle. The other two dog owners got started with gaiting around the ring.
4. When I saw that Terra had relaxed and was interested in what the other dogs were doing, we joined in the gaiting, though I let her look and sniff around rather than worrying about how she moved or whether she was on the correct side.
5. We went back to the mat after one round to give her time to process.
6. When she wanted to return, we did another round of gaiting, this time keeping her on my left side and on a shorter leash. I was still using her regular walking leash and collar.
7. I talked to the judge but she didn't touch Terra. She let Terra sniff her hand.
8. On our second turn in front of the judge, Terra wanted to say hello. On each turn, she was more affiliative, and was leaning against the judge by the end. Terra was comfortable with petting around her head, neck, and back. No real exam.
9. After the third trip around the room, I switched to our show slip lead.
10. At the end of class, when Terra was totally relaxed and comfortable, I practiced hand stacking her.

This was the last class the club is holding for 2017. We'll be back in the new year.

Day 90 (12/05/17): vet visit

Terra stopped favoring her back right leg by Sunday morning, but I kept our Tuesday afternoon appointment. She shied away from the ear thermometer but allowed Dr Diedrich to bend her back legs this way and that. The doctor couldn't feel anything wrong with her back right leg. Surprisingly, her back left leg was more tight and she didn't want to stretch it as far back, but no sign of pain per se. So at this point, we're assuming that the problem was probably just normal boisterous puppy play.

I wish I had taken a photo of the tech trying to listen to Terra's heartbeat and getting licked all over her face and hair.

Her weight was 83.5 lbs. She's continuing to grow but is a bit slimmer since she's been having diarrhea for multiple days again. I think it was set off by eating a bunch of cat poop in the yard, and it seems to always take her a long time to normalize once her GI tract is inflamed.

Day 89 (12/04/17): training with Sherry and at home, outgrowing her gear

We drove down to Auntie Sherry's again, to record Rally-FrEe with Chimera. Terra had to wait in a side yard while we trained and you can hear her whining loudly on the video. What a sad dog.

Terra got training time, too. I put on her "in training" vest, asked her to wait at my side, and rewarded her for ignoring Sherry. Separately, I pulled her collar up her neck and held my hand at the top to cue her conformation stay, and rewarded her for ignoring Sherry reaching out with her hand. Finally we did a ring gate exercise - I cued "let's go," we walked through the gates, and then she got a treat! This helps establish a positive association with entering a training ring.

Back at home, we practiced nose work. Our intro class at FDSA finished up a couple of weeks ago. We were progressing through the material quite slowly, and were still on week 2's lectures. So I signed up for another gold spot in this term's 101 class. I really want her to be a nose work superstar!

We practiced hand stacking. It's time for me to learn how to properly stack her instead of just practicing moving her legs around. I need to set up a mirror so that I can see how she looks from the judge's perspective.

We did the bucket game, and she's pretty much got the idea that she should ignore me touching her and just look at the bucket. I'm just doing touches on her back.

We did chin targets, and again she's learning to just hold the target while I very lightly touch her head. Having a hand move right in front of her is still a challenge.

Put on a head halter for a few seconds between treats. Right now I can control her with a back clip harness 90% of the time, but I might as well train it as another cooperative care exercise just in case.

Terra was on the cusp of outgrowing the training vest, so I ordered a new one with labels that say specifically "service dog in training." We'll see how comfortable I can get her to be in crowds and around noises. It's a big "if" right now, but we'll take it one day at a time.

She's outgrown her puppy collars, but I already had three adult sized collars on hand, purchased before I even brought her home. She's also outgrown the medium sized Balance Harness. I don't have a large one on hand, so I switched her to an extra-large Freedom Harness. (Funny how different sizing is between brands.) I'm still using the back clip since she usually doesn't pull hard.

Conformation lesson with Vicki (11/03/17)

This is a belated post! I had a private conformation lesson with Vicki Ronchette on 11/03/17. We met at a park in San Leandro. There was an overly friendly cat there who walked right up to me and Terra. She went up to sniff him, then backed away and moved off to the side. Later she felt braver and made play invitations at it. It was very distracting.

Vicki had us start training on a very thick slip lead. That would allow me to position the lead high on her neck, as is done in conformation to guide the head, but the thickness would make it less of a choking hazard if Terra pulled. I'm not sure yet what I'll use for showing. I don't want to use a choke chain on principle, so I'll probably use a thin nylon/leather slip or martingale collar/leash combo. I have plenty of time to decide.

Vicki uses food placed on a chair (or other eye-level object) to give the dog a focus point when training stacking. It also allows the handler to have both their hands free but still reach for food quickly. (Same set up as bucket game, but the dog is required to hold a stand-stay instead of being free to change position.) I practiced leading her toward the chair but stopping a couple feet away. Then I practiced positioning her front and then rear legs. Terra was confused about this during the lesson, but she's fairly relaxed about it now that we've been practicing at home.

I want to use clicker training and body awareness to teach her to step forward and back as needed, but hand stacking is a necessary back up. Vicki said that with giant breeds, they really conserve their movement, and it makes more sense to hand stack than to play around with having them adjust themselves.

We also practiced gaiting, which is simple. I just need to click Terra for trotting rather than speeding up into a run when I move forward briskly.

The plan is to practice on my own, focusing on stacking and handling, until she's totally confident. Then bring in friends Terra knows to play the judge. Then we'll worry about new people approaching her to judge - that will be the hardest part by far. Along the way, I'll take more lessons to refine my understanding of how to place her legs, hold her head, etc. I'm guessing it will be a few months at least before we're reading for the show ring.

Day 65 (11/10/17): vet visit, Sherry's, training

Terra is 5 months old today!

I expected her to be tired out from yesterday's eventful day, but she was full of energy.

She came along to Chimera's monthly chiropractic appointment. She loved on everyone there. Very happy girl.

We stopped by Sherry's and she got to play with a few other dogs in the rain.

Worked on getting barking on cue. She started getting excited/playful as soon as I started jumping around with Cai and having him bark, and demand barked or "talked" at him 5 times. I'm confident now that I'll get the barking on some sort of cue. The question is, how long will it take to get rid of it when I no longer want it offered?

In the evening we did training and saw a break through with the mat: she consistently went directly to the mat and sat down immediately. She's also quicker to get up when I say and then signal "free."

Chin target: clicking for holding still while I move my free hand around in front of her head.

Paw target: very consistent, quick response now. Starting to raise the target into the air, which requires extra coordination and body awareness, so is a challenge.

Bucket game: just started. The beginning is just like her stand-stay training with a visual target so she picked it up quickly. Lowering the bucket to the ground will be a challenge.