ROSANNE ROSANNADANNA: Busy Day

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2010

We had a very busy day today!

Rosanne and I traveled to the Gym this morning to teach a one-person class and, as it turned out, that student could not attend class. So we were on our own. I had the camera with me and the crate pieces so we did crate training on video. I did remember to do somewhat shorter sessions; however, she did need to remind me a couple of times. We made great progress - got intentional behavior, added a cue, added in release cue training and worked on pair of opposites training (into the crate and release from the crate).



We also started target stick work using her pink fairy wand target stick. After a few reps, it was clear I was getting open-mouthed touches to the target stick and that I needed to spend some time thinking of how to extinguish the open-mouthed touches. I was capturing her nose touch to the target and one of the ways I thought of to help with this would be to use the "Shedd way" for teaching targets, i.e. the trainer touches the dog's nose with the target. After some reinforcement history has been generated, the trainer then puts the target very near to the nose and lets the animal seek out that reinforcing target contact.



I had a long conversation with someone in the office while Rosanne stayed in her puppy play pen in the main space of the Gym, a good 60 ft or so away. Niiiicccce . . . Quiet puppy, able to be left to her own devices alone in a new place. Thank you, Granma Mary! :)

Later in the day, I returned to the Gym to evaluate a dog for Control Unleashed class. Rosanne and Joey both came with me. For the first time, Rosanne was *not* the dog going into the training center! She stayed in her crate in the van while Joey went to work and she handled it very well.

After the evaluation, I walked her around the parking lot all the way up to the icky stuff along the chain link fence which she very much wanted to visit. She visited the fence line and its debris, then checked out some piles of shop waste material and we called it good. A nice scent-hound experience! We returned to the van and did a round of Name Game before loading up and going home. It's really important to slip in as much Name Game as you can during the course of whatever you do with your puppy.

When we arrived home, there was a little daylight left so I put Joey and Rosanne off leash into the big back yard, again hoping their might be dog play happening. It was quite hilarious. Joey ran big circles enjoying himself, Rosanne ran after him but it was not at all mutual or interactive. Joey did give her quite a work-out.

We did lots of Name Game calls back to me (for both dogs) with nice rounds of mutual treats. Joey responds to "RosANNE!" - hah, no issues there, ha ha! There was a great deal of running and as a result Rosanne totally crashed in her play pen when we came inside. Nothing like a tired puppy to end a day on a really good note. :)

For evening TV time, we did a lot of Eye Contact work with my hand holding the treat on the back of the couch (Doggie Zen - Attention). She figured it out right away that looking at my hand produced nothing while whipping her eyes back to mine produced /treat. She's sooooo smart! :)

I also did a few nose touches to my digital recorder which were not met with open-mouthed touches.

One really cool thing happened in couch time: Marcus (9 year old Havanese, low confidence) was on the back of the couch and Rosanne was pestering him to play by jumping up at him with both feet landing on him. Marcus gave her ONE HECK OF A GOOD CORRECTION! It was loud, intense, assertive, quick and over with. This, for Marcus, is a miracle because, in his lack of confidence, he would normally "attack" the offender and not let up. This time it was perfectly appropriate adult dog communication. I praised Marcus like crazy. He looked at me as if he thought I was nuts. I don't think he was expecting to be praised for that!

ROSANNE ROSANNADANNA: Crate Training Pt. 1

TUESDAY, OCT. 19, 2010
Finally, I am back home for a while - home with my boys and my puppy! She had another rousing great time with Auntie Lynn and Big Cousin Ziva. There was a five-month-old WireHaired Pointing Griffon at Auntie Lynn's (named Mia) but Mia would not play with little Rosanne Rosannadanna.

This morning was her first Sit-for-Food session. I had her bowl of puppy food in my hand. Rosanne offered a sit, I lowered the bowl. If she got up from the sit, the bowl stopped right where it was while I waited for her to resume a sit. The bowl stopped 3 or 4 times until she caught on and held her little sit for a count of 3. I then rushed the bowl to the floor and cued "OK" (to release her from the sit - this is the start of release cue training).

We went to Auntie Lynn's house today to do video work, have a play fest and to let Rosanne know that she doesn't get left at Lynn's every time we go there. Rosanne did some official shaping to go into a crate (bottom only) which I videoed. I did have to (re-) learn that five-treat sessions are best and especially best for young puppies. In my zeal to do video, my sessions were just a tad too long and Rosanne kindly informed me of that clause in her contract. I also had an opportunity to see what happens when she gets no-click - she took off. I like to teach concepts more than behaviors at first. Understanding click/no-click is more important to me than shaping her into the crate right away.



Rosanne did video with Lynn shaping her to go to a mat. This is for a video project to catalog the behaviors I teach at the Gym in the Start Right program so that students have a video reference for what they work on in class.

We then had a big play fest with Joey and Ziva - hoping that Joey's love for play with Ziva might carry over to play-interest in Rosanne. It didn't. Ziva and Joey ran fast and hard and Rosanne hauled her little butt as fast as she could to keep up with them. But alas, Joey did not develop any interest in Rosanne as a potential playmate. *sigh*

Rosanne then had a big nap at home in her play pen while I worked in my office. We had a car ride for some errands today too. Nice getting back to a routine!

ROSANNE ROSANNADANNA: Just Hanging Out

THURSDAY, OCT 14, 2010
Today Rosanne and her littermates are 13 weeks old! And today her mum is working all day to prepare for a workshop and fiercely packing to travel to California. It's going to be a long and not very active day for Rosanne I'm afraid.

I am really not liking these two back-to-back trips. I just got back from leaving her and now I have to leave her again tomorrow morning. *sigh*

We had a lot of cuddle time on the couch this evening. Joey (Beardie) was draped across my lap with Rosanne then tucked into the little triangle between his back and the back of the couch. We did a lot of eye contact training while watching TV.

When I ended the training session, Rosanne settled into Joey, laying across his back. She was there for a few minutes before started to move around. Joey totally ignored her. She wiggled and dug a bit into his coat but he never moved a muscle nor did he leave my lap (no way is that twerp going to usurp him from The Lap Position!).

ROSANNE ROSANNADANNA: Bits and Pieces of Training

WEDNESDAY, OCT 13, 2010 Today we went to the Gym to teach our morning class. No students signed up for this session so Rosanne did a little greeting training with one of the other volunteers. I gave Brooke three things to do:

1. Click/treat proactively for feet on the floor.
2. Ignore Rosanne if she jumped up on her, then click/treat when her feet were back on the floor.
3. Cue "sit" proactively before Rosanne had a chance to jump up. Brooke did pretty well with her training task. Here is the video:

After that two of the conformation people came in with their dogs. The dogs were out at the end of tight leashes and Rosanne reacted to them. I gracefully moved her off to a sufficient distance and did some desensitization work. She doesn't yet know Look At That which would have been a good thing to do (must get that trained!). We were able to gradually move closer to the other dogs successfully. Suddenly another person came bursting through the door yelling "NO ... NO ... NO!!" at her dog in a loud voice. This really caused Rosanne to go off reactively. *sigh* These are people for a conformation class, *not* our clicker training clients. I picked her up and took her to the car. I need to set her up with handlers with good leash handling skills with dogs on leash and desensitize her to that before ever again having her on leash near anyone with poor leash handling skills. NOTE TO SELF: No more Rosanne on leash when conformation practice is about to occur.

Later in the evening, we were in my office at home. While I worked she was sequestered with me via X-pen. There is a small soft crate under the knee space in the other desk which she discovered. She now takes any chewies into her "lair" to chew and even chewed on a short piece of bully stick for quite a while for the first time.

On a break I worked on targeting her through a left spin. I faded my target hand quite a bit, down to just a small motion of my hand as the cue. The reinforcement system was click/tug and this was her first opportunity to work with a game of tug following the click. She took to it fantastically! It's important to me that my dogs can switch from toys to food and from food to toys in the same training session and she has no problems in that area.

I like to teach training *concepts* to my new dogs as a priority over specific behaviors and this concept, as I said, is an important one. We had a blast working on left spins, adding the cue left while she was moving through the spin, and reinforcing with click/tug. She's great at being clicked to release the toy too. I click, she opens her mouth, I give her the treat while picking up the dropped toy. Wooooo hoooo!

I also did a little bit of shaping her to go into the soft crate under the desk. I got her voluntarily going in and turning around. I think Rosanne likes shaping games!

After all of that training and playing, Rosanne circled about, laid down and fell asleep for her first nap not in a crate or play pen but just where she happened to be when she became tired. Very cool!

She's such an easy keeper - so relaxed, able to be left in a crate or play pen without fussing, able to fall asleep when there is no activity, yet able to play and train any time. Auntie Lynn says the same things about her - so easy to manage as a puppy. I'm thinking that Granma Mary had a lot to do with this - the Early Neurological Stimulation, the puppy enrichment and socialization of the litter, the early crate training. Hats off to you, Mary, for such an *excellent* job!

ROSANNE ROSANNADANNA: Oh My! She's Bigger!

MONDAY, OCT 11, 2010
I picked her up late Monday afternoon on the way home. She grew! I can't believe Auntie Lynn let her get bigger. Her legs are longer and she looks to my eye to be really nicely proportioned. She's more active - as if that could be possible - but maybe the better way to say it is she's more active in a more focused way.

After I got the other dogs and got everyone settled in, I laid on the couch to watch TV with Rosanne on my lap. I was flat on my back with her in between my legs laying up on my stomach. In that position we did **45 minutes** of captured eye contact!! Wow! I was using little cubes of Rollover and breaking them into fourths.

Once I ran out of treats, she stayed with me on the couch for an hour and 15 minutes more - two hours total. She wasn't totally exhausted but just very relaxed. She changed positions - sometimes on the ottoman, sometimes on me, sometimes at my feet. What is particularly nice about this is that it's very important for me to be able to crash on the couch when in pain or exhausted and know that my dogs can "find a hole" and just settle in themselves. And there was Rosanne - fitting right into her own manner of settling. One of these days I should put a cue to that - though I think my physical condition is probably noted as a cue. Marcus and Joey have always been distinctly different when I am exhausted and need to not move for a couple of hours.

TUESDAY, OCT 12, 2010
This morning I took Rosanne out to potty on leash. I went out the door ahead of her, looked back and she was sitting in the doorway. Lynn had told me how the weekend's rainfall had been a shock to her as far as "what? me go outside to pee - it's wet out there!" But she wasn't sitting there as if resisting going out. She was sitting there with that special way that clicker dogs do things - as if they are dead certain this is the right thing to be doing.

I hadn't taught her to sit at doorways and it didn't appear that Mary had either. I released her with "OK" and she trotted right on out. Later I asked Auntie Lynn if she taught her to sit at doorways. Lynn had - in a way. Her four dogs have to sit before going out so Rosanne just joined in and sat with them. Isn't that precious!? She generalized this to our house.

Rosanne had some yard time with just Joey this morning - not any real change in their activity together. She had some puppy play time with me followed by a nap. After her nap, I took her out to the sideyard to have a run-about while I picked up poop. Next on the agenda was time in her Puppy Palace in the kitchen while I went back outside to mow some of the yards.

She is definitely chowing down her food much more now. She's also chomping on chewies that had previously been too tough for her. She still isn't into the rabbit feet though - the ears go quickly but the feet, not at all.

Rosanne has had several brushings while relaxed on the couch with me at night. It's much easier to start brushing when the puppy is in a naturally relaxed state. I do need to do her nails. I totally forgot all about that in the first week or so I had her!

It is so good to be back home with my dogs. Rosanne and I have finally arrived at a rhythm for work, naps, potty breaks and such. She's such a good little girl. :) My current system is for Joey to go out by himself and Marcus and Rosanne to go out together. That is just enough complexity for me to be successful. :) For work time, she's in my office with an X-pen blocking part of the area. That allows the other dogs to be in the office without being closed in. Joey's happy with this arrangement now. He comes in and lies down on his side of the X-pen which is much better than standing in the middle of the room looking miserable.

Today we worked on re-orienting to me after going through doorways as a captured behavior - just the bare beginnings but cute nonetheless. I discovered something she will chew for an extended period of time - one of the chew bars that comes with the Occupi toy! Finally something to keep her busy for a while - a miracle!

We did a little bit of work on a left spin. I have been targeting her through the spin and fading back on the target. Today we used just a bit of target, she completed the spin on her own, click/tug with a raggie. This was our first use of the game of tug following the click while working on a trained behavior. VERY cool! It's a big deal with me that my dogs can work for food or toys following a click and for them to be able to switch from one to the other. So here we are: Rosanne's first experience at click/tug - and very successful!

We again had a nice couch/TV time - another bunch of click/treats for eye contact while on my lap (captured eye contact). I then switched to capturing her chin resting on me. That was becoming an intentionally offered behavior. I gave her a chewie and she switched to laying on the ottoman which gave Joey an opportunity to resume his normal place draped across my lap. A very nice evening!

ROSANNE ROSANNADA: Her First Sleep-Over

THURSDAY, OCT 7, 2010
I spent today really hustling around getting ready to go to Modesto to present a seminar with Megan Cruz (Go For It! Relaxed and Ready) - the whole time dreading being away from my puppy for the first time. She's only been with me for a week and a half and now I have to leave her.

She's 12 weeks old today!

We did a little training this morning while I took a break from computer work. We did 10 click/treats for standing and another for a cued sit. I am working on teaching her to wait for the sit cue rather than offer sits in a training session. She offered a down and I cued her to down 8 or 9 times using my fist on the floor as a cue. She's very itchy and it messes up the flow of training when she has to stop and scratch so much. No fleas though!

We then did 8 reps of check-in - captured head turns in my direction. She then wandered out the sliding glass door onto the deck. I didn't know where she was and so called her name. She came *barreling* back into the house, leaping over the sill of the door. She got a full 30 seconds of treat-treat-treat for flying back to me so quickly. She is sooooo funny how sometimes she'll just have a super burst of energy.

Marcus was in the office with us. Rosanne kept trying to get him to play with her by play-bowing and barking at him. I click/treated any downs she did as I am valiantly wanting to build the down behavior. Well, Marcus had it - couldn't take being pestered to play so he jumped her and yelled at her, leaving her squealing her head off. That all took place in a tiny space under my desk. She hasn't pestered him since I must say. I kind of think Marcus was a bit extreme in his correction. On the other hand, she's not traumatized and she did learn from it to leave him alone.

On our next computer break, I did quite a few captured check-ins and I put the treat only a short distance away. That made it easier for her to check in again (head turn in my direction) and it also helped her to get less distracted by things around her. This was a great training session!

VET VISIT:
Rosanne had her third set of shots today and she got worm meds too. A small scrape on the top of her back was discovered - possibly from the fracas with Marcus. It has a very purplish edge to it, almost looks like she ran into a purple magic marker. She weighs 9.0 lbs today. The vet wanted me to put flea preventative on her even though no fleas were found. I am declining to do so. I'll wait for a while and see how it goes. It could be a response to the climate change. The Willamette Valley has a lot of allergy-inducing grasses and such.

We had a really nice time on the couch tonight. She laid on my chest for a long time while I did massages ('sagees I call them), T-Touch, stroking. She had very modest chewing on my shirt or my ear. This was an hour of calmness, pretty amazing! She usually has a great need to be constantly busy so being able to relax for an hour was quite an accomplishment.

Later on she had trouble going to bed. I put her to bed at 10 pm, went to bed myself to watch TV. She was kind of agitated, playing with the crate bars, just fussing about. It seemed like a puppy version of insomnia. Could be related to her vaccination earlier in the day. She finally went to sleep around midnight.

FRIDAY, OCT 8, 2010
Off to Auntie Lynn's for almost four full days! I forgot to bring her plastic play pen to Lynn's house but she made do. She put a large dog crate in her office and Rosanne spent down time in that while Lynn did computer things.

Rosanne had big run-abouts with Cousin Ziva (Hungarian Wire-Haired Vizsla) and spent time on the doggie futon playing with Ziva. Lynn said that Rosanne could often be found in the same dog bed, cuddled up with her very elderly Border Collie, Liam. Liam is deaf in his old age and sleeps rather soundly. He never noticed that Rosanne was snuggling with him!

Lynn reported the Rosanne developed quite an appetite while at her house - wolfing down her food and still have stomach space left for training treats. Oh good! that's been a bit of a conflict for me till now.

Lynn also says repeatedly that I got a really, really good puppy. She goes into any crate, settles down and goes to sleep with no fussing. Her house-training is great. She has good dog skills, loves to play - only negative thing she had to say was her face-licking has advanced to face-biting. This is kind of good news for me as I have been unable to get her to play bitey-bitey games with me so I can work on bite inhibition so maybe now I'll be able to get that started.

ROSANNE ROSANNADANNA: Closing in on the Down

We are getting a lot more offered downs today! Woooo hooo! This morning she went with me to the Gym to teach class. It was a one-person class with a young dog who is almost hysterical with his excitement over another dog. Therefore I could not use Rosanne very much as a demo dog. She did get a lot of practice getting attention for having four-on-the-floor and ignored when feet were up on Judi (bless you, Judi, for not reinforcing feet on you!)

We did a long errand on the way home which meant she had quite a long stretch of sleep in the van. We got home, did a potty break for all the dogs, and then I crashed on the couch. I was beat! So again, Rosanne had a long nap in her Puppy Palace. She's a real trooper, able to be on her own, quiet and fall asleep when mum needs to have a nap.

After nap time, we had all dogs in the side yard and Rosanne had a big run around the yard. She is sooooo cute when she's running flat out! I'm going to have to get the whip toy going with her and teach her to change gaits as I did with Joey. In the course of her running, Joey became very interested in running after her just a little bit. However, he started barking at the same time. He does have a cut-off cue for barking and I had to use it several times in a row (not something I like to do but I can't have him force-barking at the puppy). He caught on and held back on the barking. For brief moments he was interested in her as a possible play buddy, *very* brief moments. There were two times when Rosanne dropped to a down (cut-off signal) and Joey responded appropriately. I praised him like crazy and he broke off and came to me for treats. He's now more willing to act normal re: me in the presence of Rosanne.

We had work time in the office with my not able to get much done because Rosanne is all over the place. She has now discovered the tiny space under the drawers of my desk (old-fashioned desk with individual legs) is a perfect Rosanne cave for exploring. She then gets stuck and has to grunt and groan her way out backwards. It's very funny!

She's had occasion a couple of times today to bark at dogs that are new to her. I distracted her away. Both times were in a situation were I could not do proper desensitization. Next time we go somewhere I am going to be prepared for this. I'm also going to quit feeding her meals in a bowl as that is really messing with my ability to train her (she's too full to train). If I'm going to run into dogs who startle her, I need the power of food!

We had a lot of good work on clicking with a high rate of reinforcement for standing, occasional cued sits, and offered downs. Her downs are adorable. She will suddenly stop what she's doing, freeze and then fling herself into a down - as if she suddenly remembered to try down.

We had a really nice half-hour on the couch ostensibly watching the season premiere of South Park but really doing training with all dogs. Joey, having been the youngest for a long time, is used to being the dog in training while the older dogs watch. Now that Joey is more interested in being around when Rosanne is present, he's now come face to face with not being the dog in training. I tried to cue "touch" for Rosanne's hand target and Joey would leap up out of his down and touch my hand!

So it was treats for Marcus and Joey in downs with Rosanne on the couch. We did a whole lot of "Rosanne"/click/treat followed by a lovely bunch of offered downs. I discovered the my closed fist placed in front of her on the surface of the couch is a cue for her to lay down. Nice of her to explain that to me! :)

Many, many downs cued with the fist and many offered too. Woooo hooo! We had a couple good rounds of bitey-bitey games with my hand - all with the boys watching and being treated for staying in their downs. A very nice family training session!

ROSANNE ROSANNADANNA: Demo Dog in Class

Last night Rosanne accompanied me to the Gym for my Start Right class. There were three young dogs in class, all girls. Rosanne was an excellent teacher's dog: she demonstrated Name Game, Following the Mum (prelude to loose leash walking), how to play tug and click/treat for a good pull on the toy. We had a great class with everyone being very active! The puppies and young dogs were all distracted and all over the map at the start of class, then totally focused and engaged by the end of class. Rosanne was not quite all there, a little less "all there" than she usually is. Maybe she was still sleepy from the car ride.

I found a really good occupier/chewie for her - a little piece of bully stick stuck in the end of a small Squirrel Dude.

MYSTERY FOR THE DAY: Why do other trainers reinforce one's puppy for having feet up on them? This is becoming a regular thing when we go to the Gym and I need to find a nice way to explain the Rules for Puppies - FEET ON A PERSON GETS YOU NOTHING, FEET ON FLOOR GETS YOU EVERYTHING.

After last night (two different people were petting her while she was standing up on them), she's up all over me this morning - a situation I have not had since she arrived. Do I put a sign on her X-pen? I really really do not want this reinforced and NOW is the time to stop it, not later when these same trainers decide it's now annoying to have her jumping on them.

Jumping on people is so easy to extinguish if you set the rule in place and *always* follow it. It's so much easier to never let it get started than to fix it later as a teenager.

LITTLE TIME WITH JOEY:
Rosanne had a little yard time with only Joey this morning. Here's a video of where they are so far. If Joey only knew how much fun Ziva gets from playing with Rosanne, he would probably want that same fun. But right now, she's a pain in the tuchas for him.

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LISTERINE RINSE:
A friend of mine suggested rinsing Rosanne in Listerine to help with the itchies. She's a breeder and says that puppies often have bacteria on their skin and the Listerine will knock that out. So, OK, I did it. I made up a pitcher of 1/3 listerine and the rest water and drenched her in it while outside on the grooming table. We'll see if that works or not!

VISIT TO AUNTIE LYNN:
We had a visit with Auntie Lynn today. Rosanne had eaten a full breakfast this morning and, as a result, was not much in the mood for training. She fell asleep (as usual) during the car ride to Lynn's. She was NOT in the mood for any training when we got there. She was either:

a) not interested in me because of the Listerine dip
b) not hungry because she ate a bowl of food for breakfast
c) still sleepy from the nap in the car

She was just rather not herself. We hung out for a bit - she saw the goats in Lynn's pasture and barked at them, but would not take treats in order to do some goats = good things. When I picked her up, she wouldn't lick my face like crazy. I could be a big giant poisoned cue now - representing the evils of Listerine.

She played with Ziva for a bit. She had her leash on and Ziva got really into hauling her around by the leash (it's attached to a front-attachment harness). It was extremely hard to video as they kept dashing about pretty quickly.

Rosanne met Lynn's other dogs, Liam and Jake, so as to be ready for her coming 3 1/2 days staying with Lynn and company. She started to loosen up a bit and was eventually back to her licky, snuggly self. She enjoyed the Trader Joe's meatballs for some Mine! training with Lynn. She also laid on my lap for a long time, just relaxed and snuggly which is the first time for that.

After we got home, I did not feed her lunch. She had a nice long nap. After she woke up, she had about 20 minutes of chewing while I was on the computer. This seemed to get her fully awake as she was *ready* for some training!

We did a bunch of tugging with the pink octopus, working tug into left and right circles. We did a big bunch of rapid click/treats for standing. I even paused for a count of 2 seconds, then cued "sit" while she was still on her feet - twice! Wooo hoooo! Learning stimulus control!

After that I went back to the computer, looked down and discovered her first ever offered down. Wow! Click/treat! We then worked on offered downs for a bit with her giving me several. Some were a sit first. When nothing happened as a result of a sit, she pounced into a down. I accepted those this time but next time we will work on only downs w/o a sit first. For now, it was important that she understood belly-on-floor as a possible opportunity for click/treat.

I guess it's fair to say I learned two things today:

1. Rosanne needs to wake up slowly from naps.

2. Rosanne isn't likely to want to train if she's eaten a meal in a bowl. I'm going back to putting her meals in a bait bag and using it as reinforcement for desired behaviors.

ROSANNE ROSANNADANNA: First Measured Training

This morning we did four training sessions in a row during our morning office time. For these training sessions I used the Access database I created, logged her sessions, then created a report of the training sessions so far today. Here are the details of those training sessions:
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Start Right : SIT LEVEL 2
SESSION GOAL: Cue sits and get response
SESSION SETUP: I am sitting at my computer. Using puppy kibble.
I WILL CLICK FOR: Butt starting to lower to ground.
SESSION DATA: 10/10 successful. Cues were given before she could offer a sit.
SESSION NOTES: She often sat immediately but a few times she moved a step or two beefore sitting. Response to cue was excellent. I believe she's had this on cue prior to coming to me.
NEXT TIME I WILL: Give the cue when she is standing still and vary my position.


Start Right : SIT LEVEL 2
SESSION GOAL: To vary my position when cueing sit and to click for standing.
SESSION SETUP: In office, sitting, standing, bending over, 2 different places in the space. Using puppy kibble.
I WILL CLICK FOR: Butt hitting ground when cued and standing when not cued.
SESSION DATA: 10/10 with good response, one offered sit. Twice added in a hand touch (cued). CTd several times in a row for standing.
SESSION NOTES: she is very quick to offer sits. I did manage to cue several times while she was standing for a nano-second. The use of hand target gave her something to do and stay on her feet which helped. We need a LOT more work on this!

Start Right : DOWN LEVEL 1
SESSION GOAL: Capture downs while playing with the pink octopus toy. When I release the toy for her to have, she tends to lie down with it. I am offering the toy to play with her only when she is on her feet (i.e. not sitting).
SESSION SETUP: Sitting in office chair. Using puppy kibble.
I WILL CLICK FOR: lying down.
SESSION DATA: 10 treats counted out. 7 times she laid down with the toy after I let go of it. 3 she didn't, she eventually sat.

Start Right : NAME GAME LEVEL 2
SESSION GOAL: To reinforce turn when she hears her name.
SESSION SETUP: Sitting in my office chair. I am placing the treat 2 or 3 feet away so she is turned away from me to eat it. Using puppy kibble.
I WILL CLICK FOR: Head turn
SESSION DATA: 10/10 responses to cue "Rosanne"
SESSION NOTES: She had awesome head-whips some times and not so awesome other times.
NEXT TIME I WILL: Use higher value food for this. Try to click first part of head turn.

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I have to find an easier way to get information from the report! I had a lot of re-formatting to do in order to post the above in a blog. Will work on that! That was four good little training sessions in a row I must say.

One of the important things to note here is the importance of stating out loud or on paper *ahead of time* what you will click for. Too many times we tend to get sloppy with our criteria in a training session and end up confusing the animal. State the criterion and then follow through by clicking ONLY for that criterion. If it turns out that your animal is getting it wrong three times in a row, abort, make a new plan, state a new criterion (split behavior into a small chunk) and start anew.

After the last one, she was way too intent on chewing up the throw rug in my office so she had to go back to the Puppy Palace. I'll have to change out the throw rug to one without fringe. Plus get better chewies for the office. Or put her on the waist leash tether.

VET LOBBY VISIT

We had a second puppy visit to the vet's lobby today. Rosanne got to meet (and be held by and cuddled by) two more vet techs. My other two dogs board at the vet's when I travel. The two today know my other dogs quite well and were very disappointed that Rosanne would not be boarding there this weekend.

She now weighs 8.8 lbs so apparently I am feeding her enough. I have been wondering about that because I use her food for training. I try to religiously measure it out and get her puppy kibble into a separate bait bag. But the reality is that a lot of other training treats get mixed into the bait bag or get fed to her. Plus I grab whatever I can reach for the other two dogs. Thus, I end up not really sure if she's getting her full 1/4 cup three times a day.

Today I counted out a 1/4 of her puppy kibble - approximately 100 pieces. That will help somewhat. When I do measured training sessions, I'll know how much I have used. It's the "on the fly" training that takes place all day long that I really don't have a handle on as far as quantity.

Friday, I am leaving for Modesto for a seminar and will be back on Monday. It really pains me to think of leaving her so soon. I will have barely had her for 10 days by that time. She will be in *good* hands, though - she'll be with Auntie Lynn and Big Cousin Ziva. Lynn better send me video clips! :) Lynn does board-and-train and sends the owners of the BNT dogs video clips of their progress so surely a worried puppy mum will get a couple, right?

ROSANNE ROSANNADANNA: PBGV Visitor

This afternoon we had a visit from Jane Sinclair and her 6.5-year-old PBGV, Maizy. Jane and Maizy were students of mine a few years ago. And it was Jane who tweaked me about the announcement of Rosanne's litter on the PBGV performance list. I saw the notice but thought, no, I can't do a puppy now. A week or so later, Jane forwarded the announcement to me asking if I had seen it and wouldn't this be a good thing for me? Eh, I gave it a second look and, well, you know the rest - little Rosanne Rosannadanna is here! Rosanne has really blossomed into full feistiness today. Suddenly she's more grabby, more squirmy, more active. Ha! she must have been resting up for the last three days and is now ready to take on the world. Here's a video clip of Jane trying to have a cuddle with Rosanne who is having none of it.



Rosanne and Maizy had some running about the yard. Mostly Maizy was off investigating stuff at the edges of the yard while Rosanne was practicing 50-foot recalls back to me. Boy! I love seeing that little dog running full tilt towards me! Rosanne followed Maizy around a bit and, much like with Joey, could not quite get full play going. There is a real cute scene in this video of the two of them doing tandem behavior ("I'll be your best friend" as Sue Sternberg calls this).



Jane brought us prezzies which was so nice of her - a food enrichment toy (Treat Stick) for Rosanne and a big glass slab photo holder with a photo of Rosanne in it for me. Jane, thank you so much - that was really thoughtful of you. Jane and I have tentative plans to meet up at the local lure coursing practice later on this month and see what the two PBGV girls make of chasing a plastic bag. I'll probably take Joey too. He's done it once before and I know he would love a good outing and a good chase.

Rosanne busied herself in the yard, when Maizy wouldn't give her attention, by attempting to bring me my cane. Perhaps she's a future assistance dog!



Well, all of that was very tiring so we came inside and Rosanne had a big long nap in the Puppy Palace. The Puppy Palace has a 36" wire crate on one end of it (Joey's crate). She took some toys in there and feel asleep in the cushy cuddler that I put in there for her. Yay! she can take a nap where she is rather than having to be put in her crate.

ROSANNE ROSANNADANNA: Developing Routines

We are settling into some version of routine in our days. We have stayed home most of the last three days. Rosanne sleeps through the night just wonderfully. She pees immediately each time we go outside for a potty break (always on leash - POTTY FIRST, PARTY SECOND) and I have learned that she likes to do poopies in a far corner of the yard. After the pee, I then walk her to a corner so she can wear back and forth a bit while I stand in one spot and then she poops. Good girl!!

I have learned that, any time she is put into a crate, she falls asleep. I am making use of that information to put her down for nap times rather than expecting her to fall asleep wherever she happens to be. She has learned to play quietly in the Puppy Palace when I need her to be stashed there and I have learned that sudden intense whining signals an urgent need to pee.

We are both learning as we go along each day! I **love** this process. She teaches me; I teach her.

After morning potty time, we have office time. The office is set up so she can't hurt anything nor can she get hurt by anything. With the baby gate at the door closed, she can meander about while I work on the computer. She has a variety of chewies and toys. I can reach down, grab a toy and have a play/training session periodically.

Marcus has always been the office dog with me. Joey prefers not to be closed into this room with us. And so far, Marcus has been a wonderful office companion for Rosanne. He does his adorable sphinx down and just watches her constantly. Sometimes she'll approach him reaching for his chin and he'll raise his lip at her. This is soooo wonderfully appropriate on Marcus' part and, of course, Rosanne listens to that signal. And this is a wonderful thing for Marcus because, with other dogs, his signals are "wimpy" and not listened to. To have an opportunity to practice communicating with a dog who listens to him is a really good thing for Marcus.

I have had several types of training sessions with her:
* sessions where I click/treat anything I like
* sessions where I pretend to ignore her and capture her lying down with a click and treat placed off to the side so she has to get up
* sessions where we play with a toy and I capture downs or cue her to turn when I say her name

Rosanne had the experience of her first bully stick. Though she doesn't make much of a dent in chewing it, she does enjoy the attempts. I refer to bully sticks as "cigars" and Rosanne really has the concept of "cigar" down pat (see video). I really enjoy group cigar sessions as everyone is busy chewing and enjoying themselves. Joey, recovering from dental surgery, made short work of his bully stick - Yay! nice to see him enjoying these again!

Notice when Rosanne freezes for a second in the second scene of the cigar video. Joey took a small step towards her and she did a freeze for a second. Joey very much wants to have that bully stick but he moved in incredible slow motion towards her. She finally got up and moved further away. Also watch for the scene where she wiggles the bully stick just like a cigar. It's hilarious! :)




Joey is warming up to Rosanne. They have had nose-to-nose sniffies a few times and yesterday Joey got to running with her a bit - for about 2 seconds. Later, they had a bit more running with Rosanne really want to be in the lead. Joey force-barks at her less now so she's less put off and is confident in making play overtures to him - little play bows and downs, little run-bys. She's winning him over! :) He's now getting a bit bouncy and chasey with her.

Our video sessions for captured downs are not going well. Despite trying to limit the distractions, there is only one place I can video - on the deck. Every tiny little leaf or dried grass becomes very interesting when I am trying to wait her out for a captured down. Play sessions for capturing downs work much better with a puppy!



Friday night I taught a class at the Gym which had only one attendee - a new student, first time in class, and her four-month-old Schipperke (Mickie). I took both Marcus and Rosanne with me to class; Rosanne to be in her play pen to watch and Marcus to be the demo dog. Once I realized we had a young puppy in class, Rosanne became the demo dog. Wow! her first class working gig!

My intent for all of my dogs is that they assist me in earning a living, i.e. be teacher's class dogs, demo dogs, play rehabilitators or whatever skill I discover the individual dog has. Rosanne, at her young tender age of 11 weeks, is already on the payroll. I love it! :)

In class we did a little bit of puppy following with lots of click/treats (prelude to loose leash walking) based on a Clicker Solutions article by my friend, Heather Christenson (who was Lindsay Neuman at that time) - Loose Leash Walking.

We also did Check-Ins (capturing head turns in the handler's direction) followed by adding a cue to those head turns, the dog's name (Name Game). Both puppies were stellar at these behaviors AS LONG AS there was sufficient distance between them so that they were not in each other's Attraction Zone. The Attraction Zone is a big imaginary circle around your puppy. Stuff outside the zone isnt' close enough to be interesting. Stuff just inside the zone is too attractive to resist.

And we got both puppies started on hand targeting - always a fun and usefull skill!

Not caught on video was Rosanne having a round of chasing her tail - and catching it too! I hope she does that again when I can grab the camera. I am sure loving those video snapshots!

I also learned that we can not have group potty breaks for a while. The stimulus from my next door neighbors' yard is often too much for Marcus to handle. While I can work with Marcus, calling him away, treating his response, I can't do it with Rosanne in tow. And, horror of all horrors, on this particular potty break, big stuff happened over there, Marcus got hysterical and frantic at the fence, Joey ran about and barked excitedly and then Rosanne started to bark too. ACK! I cannot have that! So back to big dogs out to potty separately from Rosanne's potty times (and better watchfulness on my part that, if big stuff is going on in that yard, we stay in until it's over). The fence is just lattice panels that I put up and so the noises, motions, barking dogs, people dragging stuff about is very salient.

Saturday I put Rosanne in her Puppy Palace while I took a phone call from Auntie Megan. Rosanne was quiet the whole time while in there. This is a huge leap forward for her! I occasionally came back in and gave her a rabbit ear or some treats. She has come a long way in being able to be calm and engaged when not having all of my attention.

Today, while playing with her, she gave me a big open mouth chomp on my hand. Ah ha! NOW we can get bitey-bitey games going! I think she's become more rested from her trip. We had a nice round of bitey-bitey with me working on extinguishing the really intense bites. We are now in full bite inhibition training!

Yesterday Auntie Lynn reminded me that I have a trip coming up this week. ACK! I didn't really think about it being so soon. I soooo hate to leave her already. Friday she'll go stay with Auntie Lynn and Big Cousin Ziva for *four* days. I come home for a few days and go away for the very next weekend (for four days) again. I am going to miss this munchkin so much.

ROSANNE ROSANNADANNA: Quiet Day at Home

We finally had a quiet day at home and are now developing some routine. Rosanne sleeps through the night very nicely - for which I am very grateful! This morning she started whimpering around 6 am. I ignored this and went back to sleep as the whimpering was not of the intense "I need to pee right now" type of whimpering.

Yesterday morning I did pill time for the older dogs (pills wrapped in raw turkey burger) and started Rosanne on the important lifetime skill of taking pills. She got a piece of kibble wrapped in turkey burger. How fun to be doing Pill Time will all three dogs!

We then retired to my office for morning computer work. This was an especially nice time for me as I was able to get a lot of work done. The sliding glass door was open to the closed off deck. Marcus was in the office with Rosanne and me so he and Rosanne had a couple of hours together in close quarters. The baby gate was closed on the office doorway. Joey chooses not to be in the office when the baby gate is closed.

Rosanne played with her chewies, found a sticky note to play with, came and sat soliciting attention from me. She had a lot of cookies for coming towards me, lifting her head off the ground, choosing not to put feet up on me and so on. I am feeding all of her meals via on-the-fly reinforcement. Marcus, of course, got plenty of treats for maintaining calmness with Rosanne present.

After feeding the big dogs and then having a group potty break, Rosanne and I went for a ride. She immediately fell asleep in her crate in the van. We didn't go very far - just to the vet's office (River's Edge Pet Medical) to have a puppy visit to the lobby.

I love my vets and their staff. They are so good to my dogs, so supportive and caring. I couldn't ask for a better vets' office. Rosanne and I were greeted by one of the vet techs and, as it turned out, they were on lunch break. The whole office was very quiet and only one tech was available for puppy greetings. The tech played with her a bit and took her onto the scale for a weight (7.6 lbs). Rosanne was entered into the computer as a new patient. The software actually had Petit Basset Griffon Vendeen in the list of breeds! Rosanne is the first PBGV in their practice. :)Rosanne was a little less than her outgoing self at the vet's. Her nap time (which is serious business) had been interrupted and she was a bit sleepy.



She fell asleep on the way home. It's only a short drive so again her nap was interrupted. We returned to work in the office. She immediately discovered (for the first time) the open soft crate tucked in under one of the desks, crawled in and took her nap there. Whew! I was glad to learn that naps did not have to be in the van.

We had a big long play session for the first time in the big back yard. Joey was very much into fetching frisbees. He did not even care about stealing Marcus' frisbees (very unusual). Joey is a bit off since Rosanne's arrival. He's clingy to me and mostly looks quite uncertain about what he should be doing. Right now we're in the office and he's actually in here with us but standing in the middle of the space looking miserable. I have asked him to do the occasional hand-touch and verbally mark him and reinforce with at treat.

In yesterday's play session, Marcus (who is my supreme master of fetching) was not all that interested in running after his little frisbees. He preferred to stay very close to the Symbol for Treats (i.e. Rosanne) in case treats should be forthcoming. Marcus did, however, fulfill his usual role of bringing Joey's dropped Frisbee on home to me. He's the man for clean up duty!

Marcus and Rosanne had a lovely Ba Boom! session in the grass. This is a game where I call out "Ba Boom!" and drop a big handful of treats and kibble for the dogs to forage in close proximity to each other. It's a very good exercise on several levels - keeps the dogs actively engaged in natural acquisition of food, allows the dogs to learn to eat near each other, helps the young dog learn communication signals from the older dogs and helps "inocculate" against resource-guarding.

When playing group foraging, it's hugely educational for all concerned - humans and dogs. How do they decide which dog goes for which treat? It's all very subtle but it's all choreographed between the dogs. This is what makes this game so good for teaching puppies to read signals.



Joey was not interested in the Ba Boom! game. I think he's still sorting out his place in the scheme of things now. If I were to anthropomophize: perhaps he's not sure about stepping up to the puppy raising task. At this stage of Joey's puppyhood, BJ had taken over completely. And, for BJ, it was reflexive, as if he couldn't help himself, he simply HAD to make sure the puppy had proper schooling. All of that was a complete shock to me as I had never seen anything like that from BJ prior to the day I brought Joey home.

BJ was junior to two Beardie bitches (Brady and Maggie) and both of those girls had left for the Bridge only three months before. Knowing BJ's nature for the rest of his life (a very good peace-keeper, play group monitor, communicator, teacher dog), it is no surprise his talents were not revealed while Brady and Maggie were alive. It was not his place to take a leadership role. But boy! did he ever step up!

Joey being in the office with us right now (though he's still just standing next to me) is a big step for him. He occasionally reaches is nose down to sniff the puppy but that's all so far.

After the big back yard session, we all had an afternoon nap. I put Rosanne into her night-time crate and she was out like a light. Good! Now she has three ways to take a nap - in the van, in a crate or finding a crate on her own to go to sleep in.


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TRAINING: I did a video session of training with Rosanne - capturing downs. I sat in a chair on the deck with Rosanne's leash under my legs. She had enough leash to move around a bit. We were out on the deck and I pretended to read a book ignoring her. However, I was watching her surreptitiously. :) Each time she laid down, I clicked and set a treat down for her just far enough away so she had to get up. I set the treats down instead of tossing them because she's not yet able to track the motion of a tossed treat very well.

The downs were very far between. Sometimes she sat and rolled over into a sort-of-down in order to scratch herself. I clicked those but only after she had finished scratching and settled into the down. There were a couple of times that two downs happened relatively close together but not enough that I can yet claim she's doing downs intentionally to get a click.

It's the intentionality that I am watching for as I want her to learn that her behavior causes good things to happen. This is why I mark/treat her for all of the good things I see her do that I want repeated.
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We have worked out group potty sessions, group foraging sessions, group nap sessions. We have even worked out group TV watching. Rosanne is on my lap, Joey curled up on the floor next to the couch, Marcus at my feet. I do so love it when all of my dogs are within two or three feet of me! Later the dogs rotated a bit with Marcus up on the back of the couch, Joey at my feet and Rosanne in my lap. After I put Rosanne to bed in her night-time crate, we had adult time. Joey got to take up his usual place draped across my body as I watch TV (really as I fall asleep watching TV).

We had a lovely restful day at home with everyone learning new ways to get along and to get to know each other. Will add video clips later today.