2nd to last 2nd L2 Class!

So we had class last nite. Orion did pretty well, only a few outbursts. He was pretty rough on heeling, the dogs that weren't heeling were too much of a distraction. On the upside, when the JRT we were heeling with broke her heel and came running over to him, he was perfect with her, wasn't a jerk, and almost gave me more attention it seemed, because of it. I rewarded him with many pieces of hotdog! :) He did allright with his sit stays, but refused to go from sit stay into a down. We've done it before, but he was having none of that last nite. He did offer me downs though when I didn't ask for them!? Crazy dog. I kind of feel like he's using his "let me bark at another dog and quickly turn and look at mom to get a reward!" as an excuse to bark. So, I was inconsistently rewarding that behavior and instead asked for things like "leave it" (when barking) or sit (after he had returned to me), and then clicked and rewarded. I'm thinking that it's a good thing to mix it up a little, so he doesn't get too used to a certain way of me doing things. We worked on targeting in the room, not in the hall, and he did excellent at the "touch" command, and okay when I asked for a touch and then a sit, while he was still at the target. I think most of the time though his non-compliance really has to do with him paying attention to everything but me, and not his actual knowledge. I think he really knows all the behaviors we do in class, sometimes he opts to do them, sometimes not. Obviously we need practice, and practice we will get. I plan on doing L2 with Orion until he has all the exercises down cold. Next week is our graduation, and the following Thurs. we start our CGC Prep class. We'll see how that goes! Hopefully in January I will have a dog with a CGC, but if not, we'll keep working until we get there. Hey, no one ever said a Chinese Crested Dog is supposed to be a good obedience dog. We'll just keep working, and we will get there! :) It's all just a matter of time. As long as we are making progress I feel like we are doing something right.

Places we have trained

I just wanted to make a list of the different locations in which we've trained. I was told that if your dog can do a behavior in 50 (approx. i'm sure) different locations, then they really know the behavior.

1) Oen's studion
2)M apt.
3)Current apt.
4)Mom's house
5)Gemini
6)Rest Stop in Montreal
7)Rest Stop in VT
8)W Tennis Courts
9)H Tennis Courts
10) Back Yard
11)Current Neighborhood
12)Playgroup
13)Petco
14)Shirley's House
15)Sandy's House

Smile

So for the past two days I've been working on smile with him, and he gets it pretty good. I've kinda been luring it most of the time, but he does offer it without the lure, after a few times. Someone suggested that dogs sometimes smile right before they take a piece of food. So I started with offering him small pieces of treats and clicking for the front lip lift. Now his smiles are a little bigger, I'm being choosier about rewarding only the bigger tooth displays, and I don't have to lure right in front of his face, I can do it for a much greater distance. He's doing well though, maybe I'll starting adding "smile" as a cue tomorrow. :)

Training Saturday

We went to a local tennis court Saturday night. It was only in the 40's!! Brrr!! Orion did very well considering how cold and dark it was out. We went about 5 PM. I was trying goat cheese as a treat, and he definitely likes hot dogs and cheese better. Oh well. :) We worked on stays first. And not thinking I was asking him for downs!! Yikes! Awful cold for him to being downs. He did the first couple, and then some sits, and then get more hesitant about lying down. That's when it dawned on me how cold it was! Of course he wouldn't want to down on the cold ground! I wouldn't either. His stays were decent, I would get almost 20 ft. away and walk back. He kept breaking right before I got back to him. I'm assuming this was happening mostly because he was cold. I wouldn't feed him until he returned to the position I had clicked him for. After our stays we played for while with a squeaky toy and practiced "drop it"'s. Then I worked briefly on choose to heel, before decided it was too cold to really accomplish anything, and we left. He did well on choosing to heel. We did a couple of recalls in the parking lot, and he did well with that too. :) Pretty good for freezing cold!

Orion had a great class tonite!

Orion was overall very good at class tonite! We started off with heeling, which he was okay with. He could've been better, but it did seem like the other two dogs/owners we were heeling with were exceptional crazy. Next we did stays, in a row, next to Sheila the standard poodle that Orion isn't crazy over, especially when she barks. But tonite!!! tonite!!!! he decided it was perfectly acceptable to sit and stay quietly next to her. Yeah! He did it at least half a dozen times. I was able to move back about 6-8 ft, 10 ft. on some. Woo-hoo! Staying in a doggie line-up! Wonderful job Orion! He also did well waiting in doorways. Then targeting went alright, we worked in the hall, cause he usually has outbursts with lots of moving dogs. His first two recalls weren't great, but his third was good. Overall very few outbursts! Yeah I would give him an 8 out of 10 for him! After class we went downstairs with Jan and he ran and ran and ran all around. A very nice night! :)

Funny

So I just took Orion for his last walk for the evening....

We were playing with his squeaky hamburger before I asked him if he wanted to go out. So I put his leash on, and he wouldn't drop his toy! So I debated about whether this was a battle I wanted to fight -- who really cares if he carries his toy? So we went out with the burger, and he did a nice long pee (with the toy in his mouth!) and immediately wanted to go back toward the house... I don't think so -- we're getting in a full walk! So I continued on with him dragging behind. He kept stopping to look back at the house. But we went a reasonable distance (no more pees though! he usually pees multiple times) and then returned home. He was much more eager on the way back! So we got back and he ran in with the toy still in his mouth... He never dropped it once!!! He's not usually so determined! He usually drops his toy as soon as I ask him if he wants to go for a walk!!!

Gemini 's Howl-O-Ween Festival Today

So I meant to take pics, and I forgot... oh well, Orion wasn't wearing a costume anyway. Overall the day went very well, we played silly dog games and Orion had the fastest down and the fastest recall!!! Yeah Orion!! way to go in a very distracting environment. I think in the 2 hrs we were there we probably saw around 35 dogs. Most large, and Orion was good with most of them. He didn't like the malamute, or the berner we met. Those two were the ones he was the worst with. When we were playing the dog games though, he decided it was okay to snap at anything that moved, but hey, overall he didnt do too badly. He had positive experiences with a couple of Berner puppies, which is awesome, because Bernese Mountain Dogs are his least favorite breed as far as i can tell. He also went outside with a few labs, and he interacted fine with them, too. All in all, a mostly positive experience, and definitely a tiring stimulating experience.

Training Update

So... let's see...

Orion had class again Wed. night. It started off very poorly, lots of barking and freaking out about everyone being too close. But I think I managed it pretty well. He seemed to come around. We stepped out into the hall a number of times during the night, but were in the training room for more of the class than last time. He heeled pretty well, and I gave him more of a choice about it than I usually do (more leash slack), and he did choose to heel, most of the time! He did very well, there were more frequent tense moments than last time, but overall I think we got in more behaviors. More responses I think is an improvement. Yeah! So all improvement is wonderful. I should've written more about the class right after it happened, but, I didn't get motivated enough until now.

Tonight I taught him to slap my hand with his foot in a quick clicker session, in which I rewarded him with his squeaky hamburger, his absolute favorite toy. Then we just played for a while and then he offered a new behavior of diggin on a pillow on the couch, which I was thrilled with, because he hardly ever offers new behaviors!!! So digging earned him the hamburger too. The next time he touched the pillow really hard with his nose and I rewarded that too. Again, new and different. I really want to see more creativity from him, and I'm glad for anything he offers. The next time he jumped into my lap, which is something he never does!! So that earned him the toy, too. I want him to eventually learn to jump up into my arms, but he has to learn to jump into my lap first!!! So yeah, I'll try to write again sooner next time... details slip my mind the longer I wait...

Orion pics from playgroup

Some pics from our playgroup today!!!