Rainday, Trick and Train Day

Walks happen 365 days a year, rain, shine, sleet, snow, even during tornado watches. A dog's gotta pee.  And run.  But you know, on a dark drenched October day, I'm not going out for anything more than what's necessary, so it's Trick and train day.

It's still early days, so it's not much, and includes some pretty boring stuff (aka practical), but when I write everything down, it accumulates.  It's not as impressive as it sounds, as I have a short attention span so nothing is really set. I really need to work on getting these on verbal cue, some of them are in the baby stages of works in progress are still getting lured or shaped & heavilly coached (translation, me bobbing, weaving, pointing and generally acting like a spaz), but:
Here's the list, in no particular order:

Place- dog from front goes round handler and between the legs, stops.

Tall- dog stands on two legs (Sonic does this naturally (to get a better view) but on-cue is another thing

Back- backing up, Sonic's favourite leash walk move, but now working on getting it on cue.

Side stepping- another natural, happens on walks, sort of getting this on cue.

Pogo- Sonic's invention, springing straight up in the air, on leash. Just starting to get this on cue and only happens if he's excited

Bring it- dog brings toy and drops it in my hand. I'm using a tug-n-treat frisbee to help teach Sonic structured play, goes along with fetch & tug

Tuggees-  tug the toy, see above

Get it- fetch if he needs a reminder

Target- touch a ball or plastic lid, he's mastered touching a ball, fallout from my failed attempts to teach him fetch & retrieve a tennis ball...put ball on stick and I have a great target stick

Spin-clockwise

Twist-counterclockwise

8's - figure 8 weave through legs

Weave - me walking forward, Sonic weaves through legs

Go! - go out ahead of me

Over- jump over my arm (me kneeling, he's not super dog-yet). I used this video by Kristin Crestejo as my guide.  Had him already doing the whole thing, and then today, not so much, but still jumping. Yay! Indoor exercises.

Sonic's Progress Report in Leaps & Bounds

Sonic's Progress Report in Leaps & Bounds

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Can't think of a better way to test a dogs training & temperament than taking them on along on holiday. He joined us at the beach, in the tent, motel, hotel, the wilds of the north, the city streets of Kingston, and even came along to watch military exercises (that was a surprise to all of us).

For background, Sonics from the Caribbean Islands, a street bred dog, free-range 'pet'.
He came to us shy, skittish, did not know how to play. Had to teach him how to play with a human (tug & frisbee). He was afraid of lots thing, including treats and hands and flappy things.

But now he has survived and thrived camping out at windy, stormy, Agawa Bay, did not show undue fear when a thunderstorm boomed and raged overhead (amazing, because Lake Superior throws some scary weather), settled in to sleep at a campsite (oastler lake) that was WAY too close to a busy railway, and did just fine when we walked into the Royal Military College Reunion Games day (running, screaming people).

Well, here he is playing tug at the beach--a milestone! First time playing outside of our front yard.

Sonic plays tug at the beach
https://youtu.be/nEKpCNs7lXU

Sonic & the big wave


Sonic, beach bum


Sonic on the rocks


Wolfe Tango (military games-war-paint, costumes, yelling, screaming barbarian hordes--& fun)


Sonic still going strong after seven hours of a city walking tour, traffic, people, dogs, geese, & a fighter jet taking off directly overhead

__________________
SONIC Street Dog Extraordinaire 

Sonic's Pre-Agilty/Video Wobble board

Sonic's Pre-Agilty/Video Wobble board

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Here he is.
The board is a plywood board placed on top of plywood, so it spins, wobbles and bangs. Hoping it prepares him for the obstacles; at any rate, it should give him more confidence on hiking trail structures, etc...

I'm freeshaping/rewarding any engagement with the board, and changes.

https://youtu.be/rybizecQtxk

PS, some serious cat bombing going on in the background

Tug, frisbee & target--critique welcome

Tug, frisbee & target--critique welcome

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Two videos.
Sonic playing tug with tug-n-treat frisbee.
I'm teaching him to play tug & frisbee. He had zero interest when we got him. I'm hoping to use tug & frisbee as a reward some day--but so far, food is involved, which is fine.
Thoughts on timing? When to let him win, when to pull harder? When to reward with food?
https://youtu.be/F4Z8_uob8cQ

The other is me hapless doing some targetting--he looks happy, but not fully engaged. It's hot, and he just did the tugging above. Should I have ended sooner, not done it at all, tried something else that he's more confident with (sit, down,)

https://youtu.be/SHBomymUfbg

Short history--free-range tropical dog for 1.5 yrs, I have him 7 months, he's only shown this level of engagement in the past month. For the 2nd, & 3rd month, he was afraid of treats indoors, and could not be consistently trained.

Things are really looking up in the past month.

And about those metal fingers--badly sprained my hand 2 months ago on that blue long-line you see in the video--which caused more hiccups in training, not to mention serious difficulties in holding a leash and treat delivery--some delays there too. In other words, we're still taking baby steps, beginners. My goals right now are engagement & building toy-drive.

You've Come a long way, Sonic

You've Come a long way, Sonic

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All the way from the streets of the Dominican Republic,
all the way from being a scared abandoned puppy (actually young dog 1 1/2 yrs in this pic),

To this confident, shiny happy beautiful guy.

all the way to Canada, and in these two pics, Killarney Provincial Park.

and this one,

and from literally being afraid of treats and treat training, to 'operant/offering behaviours'
from being passive to 'pushy' in training.
to liking to play,
and from waking up growling (nightmares? ptsd?) to lounging in joy on this couch,

Herding Cats, session two, egads, the howling, the howling,

Siamese cats are vocal (ie. they howl), which is cute, until it's not....

Batman, Session II
Picked him out of the cat pile and deposited him in the bedroom. This did not go unnoticed. Simba at the door, howling in his high pitched "strangled kitten" voice.
Batman is distracted, somewhat. I c&t and then gets his liver bits and searches form more, wait for him to stop searching, and wait for him to stop staring at the door (from which the howling is emanating). I try not to be distracted myself. Session okay, I mean, it's obvious he's got the association between a whispered bbb & the treat, good boy, off you go.

enter Simba, Session II
Batman is howling at the door, he has a deeper voice and delivers with gusto. Simba is slightly distracted, I, more so.
He's well on his way to spins, but then he gets all lovey dove and starts rubbing and purring. Do I ignore that? Do I pet him? I ignored and continued. Next time I'll just pet him, because I think he was just saying 'I really like this, it's a fun game' and I should have responded in a proper catly way.

Conclusion: Ugh.  I feel mean.  I need to find a way to make it better, or just give up.  If I try, I will work on 'place' or 'mat' training so I can train them both together. But I'm not sure if I can stand the interim howling.
Getting them both in the same room now would be disaster, here's what happens if I give Batman a treat--Simba gets it. If I give Simba and Batman a treat at the same time, Simba gets Batman's treat, and then Simba gets Simba's treat, so 'place' training would need to be rock solid before I can deal with double-dog training (in this case 'cat').

Herding Cats--just practice dudes

The Dudes are my two young siamese cats (technically Simba is a colour-point shorthair and Batman is an oriental shorthair).

So I'm going to practice on them in the next month while I wait for Nino.  They should enjoy it, mmmm....liver bits, yum.

First, loading the clicker....but, I'm not using a clicker because I don't want to drive the non-trainee nuts, so the first experiment is "can a whispered marker sound" be loaded clicker styles.

Simba gets sss, Batman gets bbb (so I don't fry my brain). Future Dog (see, I've stopped calling him Nino, incase the home visit fails, don't really want to set myself up for really feeling bummed if things don't work out).

Session 1: Simba.
Easy peasy,  I'm waiting for looks, click & treat (except my click is 'sss'), then movement, and while I'm loading the the click I'm shaping turning.  Cool, we are on our way to shaping a spin.
Which tells me two things.  Simba is respond to sss and a brief clicker session I did with him many months ago left an impression, even if the marker sound and behaviour marked is changed. (last time I loaded and then began target shaping).
Fun.

Session 1: Batman
Bring Batman into the room, say bbb too loud, Simba's crying at the door, Batman leaves to find Simba (Simba is locked out). I leave my little cubby and find Batman, resume. I start out marking eye contact, but he can't find the treat (I'm dropping liver crumbs), then I realize I'm skipping steps (because Simba was such a good student and had a head start) so I c&t rapidly (duh, that's where it's supposed to start) a bunch of times. I think he gets it, but I'm not sure. Either the bbb is just not cutting through, or he was too distracted by Simba's cries, I was training too much at once (skipping a step), or he did just great for a complete newbie. Obviously, I need to be sneaky next time or train Batman first.

Everybody got a wet catfood party afterwards, in a different room.