Obedience Class for Will and Jim

We have enrolled the puppies in beginner Obendience class. This time, Jim is working with Will, and I take Emma to class. We are all benefitting, even though the puppies really know how to do all of the basics, like sit, down, stand, sit-stay, down-stay, and leave it. The best thing about the class is that they are being introduced to distractions while we work with them. They are getting used to being approached by other people, but still want to jump up to greet anyone that comes near. This is such the opposite of Tobie, who was leary of most people who came close. These puppies are overly friendly, which means we did a good job introducing them to lots of people and pups when they were young enough to get accustomed to it. Now we have the challenge of getting them to be mannerly when they meet folks.

The other issue is that Jim was having a difficult time controlling Will, and we felt that he should get more involved with his training. So taking him to class and doing the work in between classes has been beneficial. Jim has more control now, but still has more to go. We are also dealing with the 'terrible teens' and the rebellious nature that goes along with it. More about that later.

A few milestones met

Here’s just an update on some milestones that Will and Emma have met. We are happy to report that Will is doing much better with his house training, and hardly has any ‘accidents’ in the house anymore. Very few dribbles while waiting to go out, once in a blue moon does he just squat on the spot, and he now will either ring the bells in the family room to let me know that he needs to go out, or will go to the front door to let me know. At one point it seemed like this would never happen, but for the most part, I would say he is house trained. I’m sure there will continue to be accidents in the house, but we are pretty happy to be at this point.

Will no longer makes a move to chase cars;
They both have learned to move to the side of the road (‘on the grass’) when a car passes by on our walks;
Will and Emma both ‘stay’ pretty well;
Neither one is a mop chaser, and they lay down nicely when the vacuum cleaner is going;
They don’t react to noises made by masking tape being pulled out
or to the electric beater
When I’m working in the kitchen, they lay down and watch quietly
They lay nicely while I get my hair dry and make-up on in the morning
They both sleep pretty well through the night, with the exception of a couple of 4 a.m. wake-up calls from Emma, mainly when we were in Burlington (a strange place for her, with all night noise and lights)
They both coming when called
They both wait at the top of the stairs when told to, so I can walk down without being run down
They travel very well in their crate in the van

Still needs work:
Walking on leash (pulling is the name of the game right now)
Coming directly to us when called to come, and sitting in front (Will tends to run like crazy all around, after he comes in the general direction)
Waiting to be told OK to get out of the crate in the car (it’s a mad dash when the door opens,
even if they are good at sitting, the wait command is a foreign word)

Update on post-surgery status

The puppies were neutered and spayed on Tuesday and went through the surgery quite well. We had strict post-op instructions to keep them quiet, with only 5 minutes outdoor bathroom times, no walks and no playtimes together for ten days. They have had their pain medication daily, which we’ve given them for the past five days, even though they don’t seem to have pain.

They seem to have their usual energy level, and it is quite difficult to keep them from playing with each other when they are together. We've been pretty good at keeping them in separate places. When they are in the same room, we have them lie down with or without a chew toy, and this seems to help them focus on something else rather than on each other. We are actually using their crates to keep them confined and less active, and to prevent them from wanting to jump up like they do when they are in their playpens.

It’s actually Emma that still jumps up on us although we are trying to break her of this. It is a long process, and perhaps we need to try something else. The method we’ve been using is to ignore her, walk out of the room, or stand with our arms crossed not looking at her until she sits. Then we praise her for settling down. The problem is, she still goes through the stage of jumping up, we go through the ignoring routine and then we get the behaviour we want. We’re not sure how long this will take to just get to the desired behaviour without the rest of the routine! Hopefully not too much longer.

Anyway, they seem to be healing quite well from their surgery and we have a post-op check-up on Tuesday to make sure all is well. They will receive another booster (DHVP) as well at that
time.

Puppy Kindergarten graduation

Leash-walking with the group

Emma meets Karen, the trainer (Look! no jumping!)

Emma gets her certificate!

A bit of after-class play

With all this excitement going on, it seems like their graduation from Puppy Kindergarten went unnoticed. The last class was Monday evening (the day before their surgery). They both passed with flying colors! Both Will and Emma performed the entire list of requirements and are now ‘AKC Star Puppies’. The key thing is that they get socialized with other puppies and people and learn some basic good manners. They still need to continue practicing their good manners, and general good behavior, and Emma especially needs to learn how to greet people without jumping up on them. She is a little acrobat and loves to show what she can do! But this is not good when it comes to meeting people or even with us. I’ve had more than one bloody lip caused by her leaping up at my face! It seems that one cut just heals and I get another one. Not a pretty sight.

Puppies play, puppies chew, puppies love to learn new things. Sometimes I wish puppies would sleep a little more so I could get some things done!

Puppy growth

They are growing like weeds and as you can see from the photo, we need to get a new bed! This is Tobie's bed and they used to be able to share it, but even in a couple of short weeks, they have outgrown it. Time to find a new one for Emma, since Will seems to have taken this one over. We are letting them stay out of their crates for periods of time now, when we are in the room, and this is a good place for them to lay. We have them lie down on the bed, for instance, while we are eating. This is good practice staying in one place.

Emma and Will love to chew their chewbones, especially after they eat the peanut butter out of the inside.

Training progresses

Last week, Jim was away for business and I was determined to continue training and practicing with the two pups. It is always easier if we each take one and practice individually, but that was impossible. I began working with the two pups together, doing sits, downs, down-stay, sit-stay, stands, and even taught them both to shake-a-paw. It is so cute to see them both go in unison.

I also taught them to 'wait' at the gate, the door and at the top or bottom of the stairs while I walked up or down. They are getting bigger and it is more dangerous to have them bounding down the stairs together with me, so it seems a lot safer if they wait for me to do the trip, then I invite them to follow when I'm safely in place. This was a tip from Rosemary, and I'm thankful she mentioned it!

I started to teach them to do the high-five this morning. It will take a little while to get this, (they looked pretty confused) but they will do it! I also put them in the empty bath tub this morning, to see what they would think. I read that it's a good idea to get them used to the tub so they are familiar with it and not scared when the time comes to have a real bath. Emma didn't seem to mind, and wanted to play with the drain, the faucet and anything else that wasn't smooth surface! Will, on the other hand, didn't like it at all, and jumped out only to watch Emma's antics. As usual, Emma is the brave one and willing to try new things, while Will is more cautious. He usually follows her lead. Next time, I'll try him alone and maybe sit down with him in there with a toy.

Obsessive-compulsive border collies

If you know anything about border collies, you know that they can be quite obsessive-compulsive about things. They are herders, and herding dogs can get quite focused on the task at hand, whether it is herding sheep, chasing geese from parks and golf courses, or even ‘herding’ little children. Our first border collie, Tobie, had a terrible habit of wanting to herd anything that moved, and since we didn’t have any sheep or geese, or even young children, she would ‘herd’ the vacuum cleaner, the lawn mower, the wheel barrow, or just about anything that had wheels on it and moved!

We have witnessed this behaviour starting to exhibit itself in Will, but not Emma. She seems to be more cautious and moves away from moving things, like the vacuum cleaner. I think it’s more that she doesn’t like the loud noise and feels safer running away from it rather than at it. Will, on the other hand, wants to bark at the vacuum cleaner, and follows its movement. He doesn’t nip at it like Tobie used to, but it’s probably only a matter of time before he would.

After having lived with a dog whose behavior we were unable to control, we are determined to be better owners this time. We didn’t know how to break Tobie of these habits that had become so entrenched. We hope we can learn how to prevent this from happening in our two new puppies.

Conditioning

Jim noticed that Will seems to be better with the vacuum when he is not confined in his pen or crate. He was vacuuming out the pellet stove last weekend (his weekly chore) and had Will lie down, just a few feet away from him, while he did his vacuuming. Will was well-behaved and just lay there and watched, not barking.

We have learned that dogs learn best from repetition and conditioning. The more recent method of teaching dogs is known as the ‘lure and reward’ method, described very well in a book by Dr. Ian Dunbar, Before and After You Get A Puppy. I thought I would draw from this method to train Will to accept being near the noisy vacuum cleaner without barking at it or biting it.

You can download a free version of 'After You Get Your Puppy' here: http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/after-you-get-your-puppy

and you can also download a free version of 'Before You Get Your Puppy' here:

http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/you-get-your-puppy

I got the vacuum out to clean up the furry mess in the family room, and had Will stay in the room with me. As usual, his first reaction was to bark at the noisy contraption. For his reward, I used one of the really tasty chicken-flavoured treats that he loves (a Newman’s Own product that my thoughtful friend, Rosemary, gave me). I left the vacuum running in the room, and coaxed him closer to it, praising him for not barking, while telling him to 'leave it' and giving him one of the tasty treats. I repeated this a couple of times, until he seemed pretty comfortable with it running noisily beside him. I then got up and started to move it, slowly at first, not too close, but close enough for him to see it and react if he was going to. He moved around, and away, watching it all the time, but not barking at it, and not chasing it. Each time it came close to him, I told him to 'leave it', praised him and gave him a generous portion of the tasty treat. He was great with it! He still did not take his eyes off it, but did not bark and did not chase it. We will try this again, and next time I will have him lay down while it moves around him.

I feel like I made a major break-through today! This behavior is definitely not cured yet, but he has started on the road to being able to live with moving, noisy objects. We will have to repeat this again and again, and with patience, we may have a dog that does not behave in such an obsessive-compulsive manner. We can only hope!

Playtime at puppy class


Emma meets Frank, a chocolate Lab puppy

Last night was Puppy Class #3, and it went considerably better than last week. Will and Emma both did well on most of the things they were to do. They both respond really well to their names now, even though we are to continue practicing this every day so there is no doubt about it. It’s all tied to the recall command. You have to be sure they not only know their name but respond to it each and every time you use it. The key is to not use it in anger or as a reprimand, which is very, very difficult!

They were also both good with the sit-stay and down-stay, even when distracted by Karen, the teacher. However, when it came to walking a straight line beside us, well, this was a different story. Will did not want to walk, look at me or pay any attention to me whatsoever. All he wanted to do was look around the room and watch what the other puppies were doing. It was all I could do to get him to the end of the 10 foot line of cones without dragging him. Emma was better, but not too much better. Most of the pups were about the same, until we got to Otis, the blond labradoodle. We were all impressed with Otis, the blond labradoodle, and his mom, Gina. She had him prancing right along beside her the whole way, with her confident and encouraging voice calling out ‘Walk with me’ the whole way. She didn’t even really need to coax with a treat, but did hold it in her left hand down by her side to attract the usually shy and fluffy Otis. They were so good they really deserved applause!

Needless to say, we will be practicing walking properly this week, and using the command ‘walk with me’, which sounds a lot better than ‘let’s go’. It’s worth a try!

Will and Emma are 3 months (13 weeks) old today. They are coming along quite nicely with their training, especially considering that they are just 3 months old. We’ve been practicing the things we learned at class last Monday, even though the class was a bit frustrating, especially for Will. Both pups had their first visit to the vet that afternoon, and were definitely not feeling their best afterwards. I wish I had known there would be side effects of the shots, for I would have scheduled their vet visit for a non-class day.

They had a whole series of shots, including their first rabies shot, boosters of leptospira, parvovirus, distemper and a deworming pill. It is interesting to note that the first rabies vaccine is given here at 12 weeks, while in Canada it is not done until 16 weeks of age. Poor little Emma didn’t even make it home before she vomitted up her lunch, and big Will had the unfortunate experience of doing it in the middle of the puppy class. I didn’t even realize it was him at first, thinking it was one of the other pups that was closeby. Poor Will couldn’t keep anything down, and had to suffer through the rest of the class, mostly watching but did try to do a some of the lessons. There were no treats for rewards, though, since he had no interest at all in food, and he would not have kept them down anyway.

They actually quite liked the vet, Dr. Goldman, and his assistant, though. The ride to the office went well, and they didn’t seem to mind the crate quite as much as before. According to the advice we have had, I made separate appointments and took each one separately. We are determined to have these pups become as independent as two sibling pups raised together can be. I think Dr. Goldman thought I was a little eccentric, but I am going to do this since I have the time right now. Maybe when they are older it will be different, but for now, I will make this effort to separate them whenever possible.

Homework exercises for the class have included practicing sit and down, sit-stays, leave it (with food), and even a down-stay. Jim has been working with Emma on a down-stay and she is doing quite well. He walks around the room, leaves the room and returns and she is still waiting in her ‘stay’ position. I have not been practicing this quite as much with Will, but he is really getting the hang of it too.

A little fresh air and play

We took the pups to the golf course again both yesterday and today for a good run outdoors. It was tricky with the two of them, but we practiced the recall with them and they both loved to run to my call ‘come’. It is amazing that the old school of thought was that a puppy could not learn these things until about six months of age, but these two are just like sponges for any new challenge. They love to learn new things, and of course, this breed loves to have a job to do. Right now, their job is to learn.

Jim was testing their ‘herding’ instinct a bit today at the golf course. He would run a little from one side to the other, and they both would run with him. Each time he turned a different way, they would immediately follow, back and forth, and back and forth. No nipping, either!

For a change, Jim took a turn with Will and I walked with Emma today. Will is very possessive of me already, so it’s a good idea for us to trade-off once in a while. He doesn’t like it if I am too close to Emma, so we will have to work on this before it gets out of control.

Will and Emma share a toy

We survived our first Puppy Kindergarten class with our two wild and crazy puppies! There were at least 10 other puppies there, all in the 10 to 16 week age group. Three chocolate labs, 2 standard poodles, 2 labradoodles, a vishla, .... and at least two humans for each puppy. There was also an adult dog, Maddie, the trainer’s ‘assistant’ and model for good behaviour. It was a room full of fun and puppiness.
Even before getting to the class, though, it was a real challenge to get the two of them into the crate in the back of the van. We didn’t realize that they were so afraid of it. They have not been in the van since we drove home to Connecticut from Burlington, Ontario, Canada, (where our families are and where we have a second home) shortly after Christmas. The all-day drive was probably more traumatic for them than we were aware. In the end, we managed to get Emma inside the crate, and I held Will in my arms to do the half-mile drive to the class. We realize that this means that car rides will now be added to our training agenda. They really need to be comfortable in a vehicle since we plan lots of short trips for hiking, training and visiting, as well as long trips to our second home.
The class began with puppy playtime. Will and Emma were happy to meet other puppies, and we were glad to see that they played with their new friends rather than each other. They were excited but did not play as aggressively with the new pups as they do with each other, which was a relief to see. After a few minutes of this playtime, we all sat in a circle to listen and watch the demonstrations. This might sound easy, but this was the biggest challenge of the whole evening! After a few minutes sitting side by side, I moved away from Jim and Emma to see if they would sit quietly to listen. Then began the second challenge, when all Will wanted to do was bark at the pups close by. Karen, the trainer, suggested using food to distract him, so I did this and it seemed to work somewhat. It was still a constant challenge and he eventually lost interest in the food. Thank goodness it was finally time to try some of the things she’d been demonstrating.
Karen used pups from the group to demonstrate the tasks for the evening. First,she showed how to teach the pups their name. It’s a simple process. You say the pup’s name, then when he looks at you in the eye, exclaim "yes" or "good boy" and reward immediately with a small tasty treat. It may take a few times to get him to look the first time, but then it is pretty reliable. I worked with Will to do this, and it took a few times to get his attention away from another pup, but I finally knew he had learned his name when he whipped his head around each time I said his name. More practice at home will help reinforce this.
The next thing we did was to learn how to teach sit and down with verbal commands as well as hand signals. Our puppies both know how to sit by verbal command, and to lie down with a treat, so this was something that we were anxious to learn more about. Again, using small treats as a reward, say sit and raise your hand straight up in front of them to get the pup to sit. This was easy. To get the pup to lie down, say down while moving your hand straight down in front of them. It was easier to do when I was down low to the ground, but I tried it with Will while standing up. This needs lots more practice.
There was also a guest speaker, a local veterinarian, who spoke about crate training for housetraining and to prevent destruction of the house even as they get older, what to use as treats to avoid weight problems and also how to teach the pups to be used to being handled by the vet or groomer. He recommended to hold the pup’s paws one at a time, spreading the toes in your fingers and handling each toe individually. This prepares them for grooming and also clipping their claws, which is something that each owner should be able to handle. Also, he showed how to open the mouth and rub the teeth so they are accustomed to getting their teeth brushed and checked at the vet. These things should be done daily until they are calm with it.
The class ended with more playtime. This time, Will and Emma seemed happy to watch what the other pups were doing, rather than getting really involved in playing. We tried to engage them in some of the play equipment. By throwing a ball through the long tunnel used in agility, I got Will to run through it a few times. He even walked up a long ramp, but was helped down carefully. Emma, who at home is the one that likes to explore small places, didn’t seem interested in the tunnel but really liked meeting new people. The puppies slowly filtered out with their owners, leaving the room much quieter than when we arrived. We have lots of homework to do before next week. On the top of the list: Take each puppy for a car ride!