Enter more and more snow and a slow-up to training. Recently, I wound up waiting in a doctor's waiting room for over a hour-- with Manitou. More time than I expected to work on resettling a dog, and reading his body language. This part is tedious, especially with a green dog who is still learning the rules, but it gave me time to settle him into the place and obey. I am proud he allowed the nurse and doctor to examine me without interference or breaking his down-stay. That was the best part.
I did note his downstay was best when strange people were near me, not as good when they were distant or leaving (Lookie them! Which is what I want, as long as he can relax once I've noticed them.)
I willl have to work him on that distraction more and build his confidence in being able to alert me to my environment while lying down. This takes work for both of us: him to relax and alert, me, to pay attention.
Today made me optimistic he may actually pass his Canine Good Citizen test as scheduled.
He is a long way from rehearsed in public access, but the foundations are being laid: 1) getting obedience in novel places. 2) using obedience commands to coach him on what to do in a given situation.
This dog is also a retriever by tendency, which means he has surprised us with spontaneous retrieves to hand from the floor. The other day, he handed my dad a pair of tweezers from the floor. This morning he picked up a wadded kleenex from the floor and gave to me, dry mouth, no chewing. Oh, that was nice..
And he WILL chew kleenex, so, definitely extra-sugary of him.
Yet-- for weeks, directed retrieve work has been absolutely maddening to work on. He will take familiar toys from hand and give to hand, but pick-ups from floors are hit or miss even with toys. I have been gradually working on his retrieve drive, including delaying his lunge after the toy hits the floor. Also, working on required give-mes on objects he is chewing and tugging on-- in exchange for another game of fetch or other reward. But picking anything non-toy, no luck. The more I try to get him to retrieve what he has decided is not to be retrieved, the more he shuts down. This is really baffling because he is otherwise obliging. I remembered I did fuss with him on cloth retrieves earlier, enough to inhibit him. Perhaps that was it?
But it wasn't just cloth. If I pointed to an object, he'd go to it, nose, paw it, but he wouldn't mouth it. It could have been bad timing on my part to get him focused on "point means touch, not chew", but if so, he'd recorrect easier than that, right?
This evening, we were working on play retrieve (reinforcing take, give to hand, building drive) and a bit of tug, with "give it"-- a cloth frisbee. I saw a piece of paper needed picking up, and I pointed
Gridlock happened. :
"Get serious. That? No. Not fun at all. Oh, you're kicking it around, but it's still not what I want. Yo, I want THAT toy. You're not listening to me here. We both know what's really cool.... THAT toy. I see what you're making me look at, what does that have to do with anything?"
Once I put away distractions, sat down in a chair, took a few long breaths and forced myself to relax. I talked to him about what I was doing. I named the paper. I pointed to the paper. I signed give me. I tried commanding him in different word order.
I jiggled the paper with my foot to make it chaseworthy-- the only thing that occasionally worked, but I stayed put in my chair. He got bored.
The paper, by his nose. "Oh. well, maybe I'll touch it. A nibble-- oh, no she's watching, better not."
Another jiggle.
"Yeah, I see the toy potential there. I'll grab it, maybe wrap my paws around it so I can chew it better."
Then just as he was gripping it to chew--
I said, "hey, give it to me!" Whoa. He did. He actually did.
He got a treat immediately for the retrieve, like I do when he spontaneously retrieves a non-toy object without chewing it up. This is key, of course-- for a dog to be praised and rewarded on not chewing an object in his mouth, not just scolded for chewing.
I've been highly frustrated by the fact the minute I point at an object on the floor, he notes it. If I insist, he noses or paws it, then and loses interest. He will not put his teeth on it at all.
Since I don't know his full background, it could be that he has been scolded at fingerpoint, and so associates that point with "don't chew that." Some people believe rubbing a dog's nose in his mess is the way to housebreak them- or to stop them chewing? This might explain the level of his inhibition.
I may never know for sure, but this breakthrough has released a lot of tension for me. Relaxation was the key, as well as reducing the 5 D's
* Distance-- from me and the paper.;
* Distraction: no other toys.
*Duration-- only needed him to do it just once and he got rewarded.
*Difference-- minimal. I put it in the context of the same familiar environment where he always plays with me, and I in the position where I have been asking him to retrieve toys for me.
*Difficulty-- as simple as possible-- move object to chase and pick up.
-- breaking down the verbal command into its components to clarify the whole of it.
If you don't try hard at playing, don't try hard at training. The dog will pick up on the difference in tone. Unfortunately. Now, this breakthrough doesn't mean he won't have the same problems tomorrow, but now I see my way to solving the barriers, and building a positive connotation to a directed retrieve, and thus strengthening that skill. Eventually.
And now I can sleep just this much happier about our future together.