“Oh, honey. […] The world is over. Who cares how fast you go!” (Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin)
June 28, 2023: Fresa Parque off leash distraction recalls and skipping 10 steps
I confidently went to Fresa Parque in order to tackle level 3 (off leash) distraction recalls. Yep, you read that right: I haven’t worked on level 3 recalls either in the house or on the roof – Chai’s easy and difficult environments. I haven’t even worked on a protected difficult distraction on the roof yet! Future me made a table showing the 10 steps I am about to skip and the 3 most difficult steps I am about to tackle (check mark: achievement unlocked; strike-through text: skipped; green arrow: about to take a stab at in this post):
This first video shows the easiest distraction – our good old empty plate. Chai was a good sport and recalled away from it. I did two recalls rather than just one because she didn’t look like she knew the plate was even there … and then we danced! (Because what else are you gonna do when Gretchen Felker-Martin informs you that the world is over!)
Empty plate, off leash, park
Paper bag, off leash, park
Next, we tackled distraction #2: the intermediate one, our paper bag. This time, Chai clearly saw it. She beelined towards it and came right back when I called. Good puppy!
As confident as can be, I did the next obvious thing: set up distraction #3. KIBBLE! Our most difficult distraction! For the very first time, a completely unprotected edible distraction – several distractin protocol steps before it was time for a challenge of this magnitude.
Kibble, off leash, park
What do you think happened?
Chai knows this is an edible distraction, and she knows it is unprotected. She does the sensible thing and eats it. What else would one smart, pragmatic Border Collie do?!
Silver lining: you see her hesitate ever-so-slightly when I call. The recall response is almost on auto-pilot, that’s why. Then, her conscious decision to of course eat what is right in front of her wins and she goes for the kibble.
Kibble – second attempt
What would gone-rogue me do next?
I decided it would be a good idea to repeat the distraction – this surely was a one-off error! I’d just call earlier next time and all would be well.
You are seeing me have an extinction burst here: Chai has given me SO much confidence in her distraction recalls that I trust my reinforcer (Chai coming back) is going to happen again. Of course it is!
(Or is it? Let’s find out!)
Kibble – third attempt
The conclusion extinction-burst me draws in the video above is not one I would draw if I was looking at my tracker, away from the park and back at the drawing board. But I was still surfing the wave of extinction and trusted that I’d get a beautiful recall if I only reinforced once before releasing Chai to the kibble. She had simply let me know that found food was better than “Get it” chicken. Who knew I am such an optimist! (I had enough brain cells switched on to realize that ignoring my marker cue (Get it) and going for the distraction instead did not count as success even though Chai responded to the original recall.)
Third time’s a charm? Let’s find out …
Surprise: third time’s NOT a charm. What I believe happened here is that the second repetition reminded Chai that there was unprotected food available – so she went for it again in the third one. Clever Border Collie, outsmarting your human like this after building up his confidence!
One NICE thing the video above shows is that it’s no big deal if your dog gets the distraction. I know that, so I don’t worry about it. Laugh it off if something doesn’t go as planned and go back to the drawing board! It’s a game! We’ll just keep playing.
Tip for my Calling All Dogs students: do what I say, not what I do! Print out your distraction trackers, have them somewhere you can see them, check off squares and, most importantly, have a look at them every time before you do a recall training session! It might have been able to resist my cunning puppy’s master plan if I had followed my own advice!
Urban art clue #7: You should, if you want to, have found the blue fence and know which side of it the art piece is on. You now have two options: either you keep looking on that side until you find the art piece … or you make finding it a bit easier and scroll down for your last-but-one clue: . . . . . . the art piece is at (my) shoulder hight at the outside wall of the building.
Also, I verified something: this piece of urban art has got to be by the same artist as the original one I posted (without the blue spraypaint behind), but it is not, in fact, the same piece. The first picture I shared is very close and on the same building, but has been boarded off. Urban art is ephemeral!
I’ll be doing weekly digests and specialty topics (toy play, recalls, tricks …) going forwards – this will give me a chance to catch up to the present day eventually! As you may have noticed, I video almost everything. I’m only putting an occasional video directly into the weekly digests. To see the others, click the links in my digest text and then scroll down to the respective day you’ve been reading about in the digest. (For example, when a digest post says we played with toys, there will be a link to my toy play post if there’s a video for the respective day.)
Monday, June 19, 2023 (day 74 with me)
Activity level: low (less than I do with a Border Collie on a typical day)
Today is Chai’s (fake) half-birthday! I added a date of birth to her carnet de vacunas which came without one. Based on what her previous human told me about her age, she must have been born around December 19, 2022.
What do puppies get when they are 6 months old? A rabies shot! Whee! After a brief walk at Fresa Parque, we went to a pet store/vet around the corner. Chai was mostly being very brave. Here she is waiting her turn in the pet supply part of the store and then after, waiting at the counter to pay:
Brave vet girl pre and post vaccine!
Chai was surprisingly wiped out after the vaccine, so we didn’t do a whole lot except for play a little for Shade’s class, hang out with our friend and take an evening walk with Game to Fresa Parque.
Hanging out with Zane.
Tuesday, June 20, 2023 (day 75): just a good old average day.
Activity level: average
Toy play
Today, Chai is back to normal! We started the day with a 2-ball game on the roof.
Adventuring and park-officing
Then I headed to my park office to work from there for two hours. Chai ran around, met a bunch of dogs and came back regularly to check in at my work station and collect a treat. Meanwhile, Game was dozing next to me at my feet. She really has grown up!
Right as I was done with work, Alan, who I’d been meaning to write, showed up with Kiba and our girls got to play for a while.
Staying home alone
We then headed back home – Chai stayed in the bathroom and Game in the sala while I went off for 6 hours of tatooing with Kuks. Chai has been really good about staying home alone – I’m proud of her!
Evening walk
As soon as I got back home, I took Game and Chai for a brief evening walk around the block.
Eye contact for food game
We rounded out the evening by practicing eye contact for food.
Wednesday, June 21, 2023
Activity level: low average
Morning walk
We kicked off the day with our usual short morning walk with Game.
Eye contact!
Next, Chai got to play with 2 balls on the roof and I added eye contact as a criterion for tossing the second ball. Chai said, no problem!
We then experimented with eye contact for food in my closed fist, which would open to present the treat to Chai after a click when she made eye contact. We haven’t played this game since April and needed to re-learn it! Some angles turned out to be more difficult than others.
Loose leash walking in Manners Context
We worked on our LLW skills on a collar in a new, relatively quiet street. After our acclimation walk on a harness, we walked the same 2 blocks up and down several times in 20-step treat mode. Go Chai! She was being a superstar!
A not-so-great experience
On the way back home, we passed a small grooming and pet supply shop I hadn’t noticed before. It had pride sweaters for dogs on display so I couldn’t help but go inside. I’ve been thinking about bringing Chai to Pride on Saturday, and if I do, a rainbowy outfit would be fun.1
Anyways, so I walked in, pointed at the largest one of the small sweaters and asked if it might fit Chai. The person working the store said, “Let’s measure,” I nodded (assuming they meant they were going to measure the sweater) – but before I knew it, they were stuffing the sweater over Chai’s head! The poor girl, of course, was not amused and tried backing away. I stopped the sweater-stuffer (which took a significant amount of verbal force!) as Chai bolted out the door, pulling into her leash, tail tucked under her belly. I fled together with her and walked down the road until she seemed relatively calm again.
Then I went back, stopped at the sidewalk in front of the store and asked the store person friendly-ly if they’d allow me to help Chai get over her fear. I explained that she was scared of people touching her and used to be scared of going indoors. Would they be so kind and allow me to walk into and out of the store a few times while just standing where they were? They said yes and from that moment on were a perfect helper. No more sweater-attacks on unsuspecting Border Collies!
I did what I also do in the magic hands context: I walked into the store one step, and Chai followed me up to the threshold and stopped. I cued “Get it,” tossed a treat away from the door out on the sidewalk and retreated together with Chai, who chased her treat.
After she had eaten, I approached the door a second time, again walking until Chai stopped. This time, she went just over the threshold and inside. I marked “Get it” when she stopped and tossed a treat outside. Little by little, we made our way into the small rectangular store and past our helper to the back wall (the store part that wasn’t grooming related was just about 3 by 6 meters). The further in we got, the more fun I made our exits and we ran together after each “Get it.” Once we had bravely made it all the way to the back wall, Chai could even do a hand touch. One last celebratory “Get it!”, thank you to our helper and we left – without a sweater and feeling much better.
Vet/pet store
Our next stop was the vet/pet store where Chai got her rabies vaccine the other day. I wanted to get a second black Kong ball. The store was crowded with dogs and customers and Chai did fantastic. And most importantly: we got our ball!
Chilling at the vet/pet supply store
Waiting outside a store
Chai then briefly waited outside a corner convenience store and then we headed home from our afternoon adventure.
More treats for eye contact!
We played another round of eye contact for treats in my fist: the mechanism to open my fist is to not touch it and make eye contact. Some angles, especially my left arm stretched to the side, were still harder than others.
Test-driving our new Kong ball
Once it had (finally!) cooled down a bit, we played with two Kong balls on the roof. I had used tennis balls and topmatic balls before, but they were too fun to chew on on the roof. At the park where I can throw further, bouncier and fun-er (without the danger of the balls bouncing off the roof), Chai doesn’t tend to lie down and chew … but there are a lot of dog distractions. Eye contact brought ball #2 to life on the roof.
Home alone
Chai stayed home alone during Game’s evening walk, and then …
Even more treats for eye contact
… we rounded off the day with two more rounds of eye contact for food:
Thursday, June 22, 2023 (day 77)
Morning walk
On today’s morning walk, we saw two Saint Bernards in a dog park. I couldn’t help but let Chai go in – I don’t think she has met dogs this big before!
Who is scared of big dogs? Not I, says Chai.
Home alone
Game and Chai stayed home alone, free in the apartment while I went to the bakery and again a little later when I ran another quick errand. I kept her in her luxury kennel (aka the bathroom) when Game and I ran a longer errand later.
Solo adventure at the park
Chai had a solo adventure (i.e. an adventure without Game): we went to one of the parks we like and worked on the 2-ball game with eye contact, obstacle recalls and positions (down and stand).
Below: an obstacle recall game!
Then we met up with Alan and Kiba and walked to the market and back together.
Beauty everywhere on a walk.
Kiba and Chai found a stick to share.
On our walk home, I switched Chai to manners context (leash on collar) and we toggled between 5 and 20 steps between treats. She was being a great leash walker!
More treats for eye contact
We repeated our eye-contact-for-treats game with what was left of Chai’s meal. Today, I asked for her to hold eye contact a little longer before the click.
Distraction recalls – round #1 (of many – foreshadowing by future C!)
After having played recall games for quite a bit (hide and seek recalls, ALL the obstacle recalls, running-away recalls, flying cookie recalls, ping-pong recalls, double-dog recalls, ditch-the-dog recalls …), we started our journey into distraction recall training today! Go Chai!
Friday, June 23, 2023 (day 78)
Activity level: high (I don’t have the time to do this much with my dogs every day)
Morning walk
We started the day out with our usual morning walk with Game. Chai practiced walking off-leash on a sidewalk without a barrier of shrubbery – just a barrier of parked cars in a quiet street along the park! Chai was a superstar and stayed on the sidewalk!
It’s a little like a CU set-up with ring gates: you start with covered (non-see through) ring gates. Our equivalent: shrubbery AND a row of parked cars along a park. Second, just a line of parked cars (see-through/uncovered ring gates). Third (and that’s what you see in the image below): empty spaces between the parked cars (openings in the ring gates)!
Chai and Game also got to run around the park for a few minutes and then we walked home where Zane was waiting for us with coffee!
The most exciting event of the morning: we waited to cross a street with 3 other dogs – a leashed Beagle and a small leashed dog with one person and an off-leash mix with another person. Just like Game, Chai did a fantastic job waiting at the curb, getting her occasional “good” room service treat and then crossing with all the other dogs when released. Only the Beagle got a brief greeting before the wait started. I’m not only proud of Chai’s ability to chill for brief times with other dogs around without engaging, but also with her increasing understanding of the “wait” cue I use at curbs. Just like with Game, I have not actively trained this behavior but simply named it by saying the cue and then stopping the dog with the leash. More and more often, Chai stops on the verbal alone! It’s not solid yet – but I can see her improving!
Toy play at Fresa Parque
After reading Shade’s response to our last toy class video, Chai and I headed out to Fresa Parque while it wasn’t unbearably hot yet. Shade encouraged us to play fetch in spaces other than the roof so I can make toys fly further and bounce without worrying about losing them (and potentially having my dog jump off a building). That’s a fair point, of course. The only disadvantage: the roof is the only low-distraction space available to me. At the park, there are always other off-leash dogs. But Chai did really well – until we got interrupted by one of them and I ended the game. I can’t yet expect a 6 months old puppy to keep playing with me when approached by a strange dog! I am, however, VERY happy with her ability to play in this environment!
Afghan Hounds and obstacles
We then went into the dog park since the only dog in there was a very fluffy and oldish looking Afghan Hound. They were calm, with a friendly wag, when Chai sniffed them through the fence, and I wanted to see if Chai had gotten over her Afghan Houndscares for good. And yes, she had! No sign of fear, just curiosity and confidence around the mellow fellow.
We then used the agility-ish obstacles in the dog park to work on two new ones: one a kind of staircase leading up to a metal platform and down the other side, and the very beginnings of the teeter. The teeter is made of metal and very slippery, but we had an excellent start with Chai getting 4 feet on the lowest part of the ramp. We’ve been here before and worked on two of the other obstacles: another longer, but less steep staircase with a longer platform in the middle and a short tunnel. We repeated the tunnel today and what had taken her a moment the last time (“Do I really want to go in there?”) was easy today!
Wait outside by herself
I picked up breakfast while Chai waited patiently leashed up outside on a busy street corner, and then again in front of a busy pet store where I got another leash and a bottle of Nature’s Miracle.
Left: fancy neighborhoods sell fancy chapulines (grasshoppers) for fancy prices! Right: Chai waiting outside the store.
Loose leash walking (manners context)
Now that Chai had gotten in her morning fun, I used the walk home for LLW practice. We were walking familiar streets, but without acclimating. Street 1 was easier than street 3 aka the third arrow from the top (street 3 has barky dogs Chai gets excited by). In the image below, you can see that Chai does really well when we first start the manners context (switch from harness aka sleddog context to collar; green arrow): several reps of 20 steps in a familar street without acclimation (we’ve never LLWed in this street before). The second green (collar) street is more difficult because Chai knows we are getting closer to the barking dogs she finds exciting! We then start the third green street with high-rate-of-reinforcement collar walking just to practice staying behind the invisible line while excited and, after about 30 meters, switch back to sleddog context for the most difficult stretch of the walk (harness; final blue arrow).
More fun at yet another park … including a dog park
We did 2-ball fetch reps and recall games at and played with a small dog and a Chai-sized dog in the dog park in the afternoon.
In the video below, you’ll see a few things:
+ Dog parks. Yes, professional dog trainers like to call them the source of all evils. Are they though? Not necessarily. It depends on your dog, your observation skills and the local dog culture. I only go into dog parks when they are eather empty or there is a small number of appropriate play partners for my dog inside. How can I tell? I observe from the outside. With Chai, I’ll mostly only go in if she asks to and the dogs inside seem appropriate.
+ I use the opportunity for a recall test: Chai is moving away from me and I call her. Will she come? She does! Yay! Treat and send off to play more! When you can – always send your dog back to the distraction you called them away from! I use my informal recall here because my formal one isn’t yet ready for use in the wild. With the informal one, I don’t mind if my success rate drops. This one is not the actual recall I will eventually use anyways.
+ I praise (the first one) and mark/treat all other voluntary check-ins in the clip below. While I do not want to call more than once in a single play session (I don’t want to nag my dog – recalls only get used when I need them), I make sure my dog knows I appreciate their decisions to check in with me! That’s how you shape a dog to keep an eye on you and not lose you.
More distraction recalls!
We took our level 1 (long line) distraction recalls to location #2!
Pizza!
Zane and I met for Pizza and apartmental strategizing at the corner of my favorite park in the next neighborhood over, and Chai stayed on her mat at my feet for about 20 minutes. Then she got to greet another dog who, unlike her, was off leash and went to sit down at their people’s table next to us. Chai gave a single frustration bark because she couldn’t go over and I aborted the session and put her in the car for the rest of dinner.
Being a good puppy under the pizza table … for 20 minutes anyways!
Further notes
In other good news: the looking out the window/thinking about barking behavior seems to have disappeared as fast as it appeared!
Saturday, June 24, 2023 (day 79)
Activity level: low (less than I do with a Border Collie on a typical day)
It would have been fun to take Chai to Pride … but I wouldn’t have been able to stay as long as I did, and in the end, a calm day will have served her better than the Pride experience would have. She can always dress up some other day!
All we did today, training and outing-wise, was take our level 1 distraction recall (Chai on a long line) to our third (most difficult) location: the park!
The rest of the day was a quiet one for the dogs while I met my friends. Here’s two of the many pride dogs I saw and our little crew taking a pizza break:
Sunday, June 25, 2023 (day 80)
Activity level: average
Chai started the day with our usual weekend morning walk around the block with Game.
Barrier recalls inside
Before I started work, Zane helped me with recall level 2 indoors: he was my human barrier (the helper who’d pick up the distraction if Chai did not respond). She nailed all 3 distractions on her first attempt!
Husbandry
Brushing
Stay home alone
… for about 45 minutes while Game and I went on a bike ride.
Busy-street walk, mercado and indoors mall
Once a week, I head to a pet friendly indoors mall to practice being in large, busy indoors spaces. On the way there, I used magic hands on a broken wild bird egg with a partially developed chick inside. When I picked up the egg and held it on my flat hand, Chai was ready to curiously sniff it. Magic hands for the win! The construction site we had encountered (and felt unsure about) last week was already gone. The bucket spilling over with poop bags still sat in its old spot. Chai sniffed it briefly while walking past unimpressed – a very different response from last week:
Overall, today I realized that the Week Of Insecurities seems to be over: no more window barking and less fear-inspiring objects for little Border Collies! Woohooo!
We haven’t walked to the mall on a Sunday before – so I hadn’t known that Sunday was also street market day in the area! Chai got to walk through a brief stretch of a new-to-both-of-us market. She did, of course, love the food section! On the way back from the mall, she experimented with lying down for treats while I waited for my pambazo (wheat bread sandwich fried in guajillo pepper sauce with a filling of your choice). When I wait for something or stand still somewhere for a while, I step on a relatively short leash. Dogs who stand, sit, pull or use their leash radius for walking are being ignored. Dogs who lie down receive a slow drip of low-value, low-rate of reinforcement. Chai is great at this at ATMs already. Surrounded by meat smells, it was more difficult – but she worked hard on figuring it out!
It was hard, but Chai managed to lie down while I waited for my pambazo!
For the first part of our walk towards the mall on Chai’s harness2, I reinforced check-ins in addition to circling when Chai pulled. It was the kind of day and environment where I reinforced every third check-in and reset (started counting check-ins with one) anytime I did a circle. Pretty good! The last stretch of the walk there, I only did the occasional (rare) circle. Inside the mall, we only circled 2 or 3 times!
Anytime we are at this mall, we ride the glass elevator up and down. Chai now confidently walks into the elevator as soon as it arrives and does not try and get out when the doors close. On the ride up, she even remained standing rather than lying down (ducking) like she has done in the past! On the ride down, she laid down but seemed otherwise confident.
Left: “Bring it on, elevator!” Right: being a good girl lying down at the ATM (cue: my foot on her leash).
Last week, this mall inspired me to carry Chai up and down an escalator – so I did it again this time, only that today, we went first down and then up again. This is subjective and may not be factual, but Chai felt more relaxed in my arms than last week (her first escalator ride).
Once outside, we walked parts of the busy street in manners context (green) and Chai took a break waiting outside a store (the X on the map):
Human-barrier recalls on the roof
After a nice sleepy break, we practiced our level-2 recalls with Zane’s help up on the roof. The two easier distractions were an immediate success. As for the third one … click the link above to find out!
Fresa Parque for 2-balls with eye contact and loose leash walking
After a lazy afternoon the dogs partially spent home alone, Chai and I went to Fresa Parque for our late-afternoon/evening outing to work on adding duration eye contact (for a count of 3) to our 2-ball game. I had Chai on her harness walking there. She was being a superstar; we only needed the occasional circle and no food reinforcers. She even stopped at a curb on my “wait” cue on a loose leash and then very clearly understood “okay” as my release to carry on! At the next curb, she offered stopping herself and looked back at me.
Once at the park, we saw that it was Canfest: lots of little booths with dog stuff for sale, a small adoption booth, music and a few random booths selling things unrelated to dogs. Chai did a great job walking through the corridor of dog-related booths off leash and playing a short round of 2-balls. I made sure to keep it to 5 or 6 throws in order for Chai to stay focused despite all the distractions. She then met Jakob, a Border Collie, and promptly stole his ball to proudly deliver to me and exchange for a scatter – twice. She has become a crafty ladrona!
We also ran into several little electrical cars kids can drive around Fresa Parque and Chai didn’t even give them a second look: “Whaaatever. Seen these, dismissed these, got the t-shirt collar!”
On the way back, I stopped at one booth to ask for a business card and take a picture of a skull bandana I was interested in getting for Chai3 – but I hadn’t brought money so wanted to know where they were located. As I was doing so, my crafty sidekick discovered a bowl full of kibble at the next stand over and managed to wolf down most of it before I realized what she was up to. Here’s to hoping it agrees with her stomach! She has been doing fine with my chicken reinforcers so far – but that bowl was a BIG dinner of unknown ingredients!
The skull bandana I was thinking of getting for Chai.
We manners-context walked back home from the park4, only needing to increase the rate of reinforcement when passing bread that had been put out for birds and two dogs. She was being a superstar! With a high rate of reinforcement (every 1 to 2 steps), she is already able to recognize, dismiss and casually pass strange dogs and tempting food on the ground!
Chai’s evening was spent taking turns sleeping on the bed, wrestling with Game and getting pets from Zane.
Yes, I know. Would I have thought of rainbowy dog outfits if I didn’t consider Chai to be my dog already? Probably not. ↩︎
See this post for a brief explanation about my leash walking contexts (harness and collar). ↩︎
Who am I kidding! Let’s make it official already. This is my dog! I wouldn’t have bought a new leash the other day, tried getting Chai a pride outfit and want to spend money on fancy bandanas if she wasn’t. She is mine alright (and I seem to have turned into someone who likes dressing up their Border Collie). I can tell Chai is a dog I’ll have an extraordinary relationship with because she feels like an extraordinarily good fit for the human I am. She’s quite different from the other two Border Collies, Hadley and Mick, I’ve had in my life. And while she is nothing like Grit, I suspect we may end up having a relationship of similar depth. How lucky am I to potentially get not one, but two “once in a lifetime” dogs! ↩︎
For more leash walking context and to teach your own dog, check out the leash walking lectures from Out and About in your FDSA library or look here for my December class and a micro e-book on LLW. The December class is probably going to entirely focus on loose leash walking and different R+ ways of getting there. ↩︎
Chai anticipated my recall and turned towards me right as I called! Superstar puppy: few experiences feel as good as seeing a distraction turn into a cue before your very eyes!
Now the sensible thing would, of course, be to take a break and move on to distraction number #3 – the most difficult one: kibble! For whatever reason, we did not do the sensitive thing: we stopped here and declared the roof stage a success. Distraction #3 just skipped my mind and we headed back down to start a day of coworking. No roof kibble recalls for Chai. (Mark my words: print out your distraction tracker if you’re a student working with it! I came up with this protocol and not even I seem to be able to keep it straight!)
Urban art clue #7: you already have enough information to narrow down the possible streets and go looking. This clue will let you find the correct street triangle: the building and accompanying terrain the art piece is on is fenced off in blue on all sides. Narrow down the streets it could be on and find the blue fence.
I haven’t gone off the rails yet – still sticking to the distraction recall tracker (apart from the fact that the leash tightened for distraction #1 at the park and I did not repeat that session). So for the most part – good dog trainer, C! Click and treat!
Yesterday, we tested out of level 1 and are now at level 2 of my distraction protocol – the barrier/helper stage: the dog will be off leash and the 3 distractions in their 3 environments either behind a barrier or being protected by a helper who is ready to cover or pick them up. Zane agreed to be the guardian of my distractions. Sunday morning, we tackled Chai’s easy distraction – the empty plate – in our first (easiest) environment: the living room.
We took a brief break and moved on to distraction #2 – the paper bag:
This session looked even better than the previous one where Chai had every-so-briefly hesitated (which I ever-so-nonchalantly ignored): now she was sure I had chicken, and nothing (she knew of) beat chicken!
Upwards and onwards – distraction #3, the most difficult one! Kibble! What do you think is about to happen? Take a guess; then let’s find out:
Did you think I would crash and burn? Not at all! The master of puppyteers is lulling me in a false sense of security all the while concocting The Master Plan below her dark sunglasses deceptively big ears. She’s a poker player drawing me in with puppy dog eyes: she is letting me win and win again. She is pushing stacks of chips neurotransmitters, hormones and endorphines of proud dogtrainerness across the table: “I am anticipating your every wish! You can trust me, C. Would a creature as cute and perfectly eared as I ever eat your kibble? We are a team. You are my ride or die. Sunsets! And something about stealing horses in your native language! Raise the stakes, C! GO ALL IN! It is going to be a glorious day.”
Urban art clue #6: our art piece is located on one of the sides of a triangle formed by two major highway-ish streets (the a and b sides of the triangle) that appear yellow in the “map” or “terrain” view of Google Maps, and by one smaller street (the c side of the triangle). My triangle sides may not be properly named, but I’m the one naming them, so you’ll all just have to live with it. Triangle anarchy! 🏴☠️
Since the person writing this post is future C, I can tell you: this is the start of a very long strategy game between puppy Chai and me!
In this first round of distraction recalls, I planned on using my distraction protocol (the way I teach it in Calling All Dogs1 at FDSA). We’d work our way through it – should be a breeze! – and move on to more interesting training projects! (Future C laughs out loud. Oh, past C! You are too cute when you underestimate The Border Collie!)
3 distractions:
Empty plate (easy)
Crumpled-up bag that used to have food in it (intermediate)
Kibble (difficult)
3 locations:
Living room (easy)
Roof (intermediate)
Park (difficult)
3 levels of distraction protection:
Long line
Off leash, distraction behind barrier (helpers and fences)
Off leash, no distraction
I have a distraction training tracker I ask my students to fill in because I know how easy it is to accidentally skip steps. I filled it in for Chai as well. This is what it looked like. The mistake I made was that I didn’t print it … so I soon stopped looking at it and eventually went rogue. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves! Like the good protocol-following dog trainer I am, I started with my empty plate in my living room and with my puppy on her long line:
June 22, 2023
After successful completion of the easy distraction, we moved on to intermediate:
Seeing how well this had gone, we took a break and then upped the ante: our most difficult distraction in location #1 on a long line!
What a superstar! We got to check off the first three boxes on the distraction tracker! (Or we would get to check them off, physically, if we had printed the tracker. Since I don’t own a printer, printing stuff involves exporting my Google doc to a PDF, transferring the PDF to a USB stick, walking to a print shop that may or may not be open … You get the picture. It’s easy to start out with good intentions and not follow through when printing is more than just clicking a button!) But hey – I shouldn’t be making excuses for myself. Truth be told, I thought I had taught and used this protocol SO many times that I knew it by heart anyways. Who needs a print-out! Not past C! (Future C cracks up. Oh, dear past C! You’re in for a surprise!)
Which happens to be running this term in case you want to hop in! I’m giving away a free Bronze spot on Facebook – go grab it! ↩︎
Before it got too, too hot, I experimented with Shade’s ideas of using either two targets or no target to encourage Chai to come back to me when tugging. The link above shows our two attempts. We’re not there yet and may have to keep experimenting – but we are having fun! What better morning exercise than a good game of tug?
Solo adventure
Friday is indoors mall adventure day! For the time being, every Friday, Chai and I walk there and then adventure our way through the mall.
Magic hands and R-
On the way there, we came across a scary construction site. Magic hands and negative reinforcement (distance) for the win!
Next stop: the elevator!
Chai did so well on the elevator today! A little bit insecure (maybe because we went on it soon after the construction corridor which had already used up some of her bravery – but once again, she entered voluntarily and stayed quiet throughout the ride (there are some signs of nervousness in her body language, but nothing big). If things are no harder than this, I will just go with repetition: once a week, we’ll ride this elevator until it’s a total walk in the park for Chai!
I also carried Chai up and down an escalator – her very first escalator experience!
On the way home, she waited patiently as I ordered and waited for tortas to go and then again outside a corner convenience store.
Left: waiting at an electronics store; right: foot-on-leash down cue as I’m ordering tortas.
On the way to the mall, I used the magic hands trick twice: once to walk across a manhole cover with holes in it and through a construction site, and once to walk past a trash can full of dog poop bags that were flapping in the wind a little. On the way back, she walked past the poop bags can without issues. The construction site had changed – there was no heavy machinery going – so we looped around it on the other side of the street. It was getting WAY too hot (over 30°C) to keep training.
I thought I’d use the heat to my advantage and work on the manners context in a new street, but Chai’s brain was as heat fried as my own and we went back to sleddog context after a futile attempt.
Tip: if something doesn’t work – don’t force it. Take a break and come back to it another time. (Especially if your city/country is experiencing a heat wave.)
Chai thinks Zane’s empty Corona can makes an excellent toy: yumm, metal!
June 17, 2023: Chapultepec fun and some hands-near-toy practice!
Alan, his girlfriend Vane and I took Kiba and Chai to Chapultepec today. They had a blast (and so did we, the humans!) Here’s a video, set to a song that is sad, but REALLY good – and it happened to be just the right length!
Left: spikey plants! Right: Alan is carrying a tired Kiba! I’m still working on this trick (Chai allowing me to pick her up this way). Thanks for the idea, Alan!
Chai at the busy swimming spot.May and June are the warmest – and June is really kicking our asses this year! Needless to say, the dog swimming spot is busy on the weekends!
Our beautiful girls: left – looking regal, right – being themselves!
We also took a two-ball video for Shade!
And here is Chai … trying to swim-fetch in the cutest way imaginable!
Because we are overachievers these days, we also played another round of the hands-near-toy game with a new element: let go of the toy upon food marker. (I already knew Chai could do that part, but I believe it was in Shade’s lectures.) Mostly, we went back to hands-near-toys.
June 18, 2023: be careful what you optimize for and a second bout of adolescence!
I’ve already told you that the other day, Chai started paying more attention to her environment – such as the goings-on outside the window. I’ve interrupted window-looking with scatters so far. However, I accidentally taught my dog to race to the window to look out in order to get more scatters (of course!) She’d keep putting her paws up on the window and then looking at me: “Treat me already!” Not the behavior chain I was going for!
So as of today, I’m implementing a more nuanced training plan.
Background details that will help you understand why I am choosing this particular plan for this particular dog:
+ I don’t mind window shopping. Unless a dog is clearly hyper-stressed by it (most dogs are not), that is the one advantage an apartment life has over a yard life: you get to see things going on outside anytime you get bored. The reason I’m adding this is that some trainers do not want their dogs to look out windows at all, assuming that window shopping by itself necessarily triggers stress.
However, I do not want to teach Chai to bark at everything she sees – quite the opposite. That’s again because I live in an apartment and I don’t want my neighbors to be disturbed by my barking dog.
The plan: + Randomize praise (and the occasional scatter) throughout the day when I’m home and Chai is NOT looking out the window but doing anything else I like – for example chill on the couch. + If I spot precursor behaviors to barking (e.g. lips or ears tensing up while looking out the window or staring at the door) – cue a scatter to prevent barking. + If I miss precursor behaviors and Chai barks, pick her up and give her a 2-minute time-out in her luxury kennel aka the bathroom.
I didn’t get to video any instances of barking, but in the first video below, you’ll see how fast window-lookingturned into a strong behavior because I had reinforced it with scatters. To soften the blow of extinction, I’ll still praise/pet/engage when she comes over after looking out the window – I just don’t treat. (Yes, Chai likes praise and attention – but I highly doubt that they are strong enough to maintain the looking-out-of-windows behavior).
What I accidentally optimized for was more looking-out-the-window rather than less barking. That’s the tricky part about gamifying or training anything: you don’t necessarily get exactly what you want by pushing a certain lever!
Stop on a regular basis, take a step back, look at the changes you’ve seen and ask yourself: if I was an observer and didn’t know the goal behavior – what would I believe was being optimized here? Sometimes, you’ll find that what you are optimizing for is exactly what you planned. Other times – not so much! That’s okay as long as you keep an eye on it. It doesn’t mean your training plan was “bad” if the results are unexpected: dogs are individuals, and sometimes, what we want to happen … doesn’t! Even if it might have worked with a different dog!
In the video below, you see the result of my original strategy (pre-emptive scatters during nightly window-shopping incidents): I have created a window-shopping addict who will look out the window and then ask to be paid all day long! This is in the morning. Chai went from only-at-night to all-the-time in 2 days. In the video, I talk to her now and then, but don’t give her more attention than that. If she came over, I’d pet her. No treats since in this video, Chai is not concerned about the environment – she simply wants scatters!
The video below shows when I DO feed: this is a compilation of moments I recognized precursor behaviors or precursor stimuli to barking. (Yes, I agree – Game looks extremely annoyed at the state of the world in this video! She can’t even be bothered to get up and collect her part of the scatters.)
… and our goal, of course: rest and relaxation inside while I work; occasionally wandering around or looking out the window without feeling barky or otherwise overly aroused!
Home alone practice: don’t let it slide!
Chai stayed home all by herself while Zane, Game and I all went out to Mexico City’s bike Sunday.
Hello again, adolescence!
I took Chai to Casa Bruna with me for some do-nothing practice. She was able to chill out beautifully for 45 minutes, but then a Border Collie she knows (tricolor puppy Juana) showed up at the next table over, and that was too much: Chai wanted to greet and started barking when I didn’t let her.
We are definitely having another bout of adolescence! Hanging out at Fresa Parque after Casa Bruna, Chai finally got to play with Juanita and an adolescent ACD. She was having a harder time responding to her informal pup-pup-pup recalls today than usual – another sign that both calm days and listening skills overall are getting more difficult in our second wave of adolescence!
Shade Whitesel runs a great toy play class over at Fenzi Dog Sports Academy. I’ve taken it twice at Gold now simply because it’s SO good and highly motivating for me, too! This is the second part of Chai and my class journey! Here’s part 1 and here’s part 3, each containing 10 videos.
June 16, 2023: TWO targets and ZERO targets on the roof!
It turned out that one target was better than the other! Oh well! The litte Border Collie knows what she wants!
June 17, 2023: hands near toys
Shade then asked to see me work on their “hands near tug toys” lecture indoors. This is a great exercise: when I say “toy,” it means I’ll hand the toy to Chai (this is not a cue she is familiar with but one I made up on the fly). Her eye contact is a start button for my hands moving closer to the toy. If she moves closer to it in return, I retreat my hand. The click communicates either that a treat is coming or marks Chai dropping the toy. I love this conversation because not only does it teach the dog you are not interested in stealing their toy – it’s also great for practicing going back and forth between food and toys!
June 18, 2023: two balls in the real world
Shade suggested we pivot away from teaching tug with the fleece toy as an independent game, but use “chase” (the 2-ball game Chai already knows) to reinforce tugging. That’s what I would have tried at this point as well if I worked on this independently. It’s fun to see how what different dog trainers will do and when is like criss-crossing paths: sometimes overlapping, sometimes briefly moving away from each other and then merging again …!
I always watch my video before submitting and think about what I would suggest next if the person and dog in the video wasn’t me, but a student team of mine. Sometimes it’s the same thing Shade suggests and sometimes it’s different. It’s a fun exercise – give it a go yourself if you’re taking online classes!
I believe I first showed Shade a 2-ball video baseline inside and then one in the real world – they wanted to see how Chai did in a place I was better able to throw and bounce balls (no risk of throwing them off the roof and having my dog leap after them!)
Below is the first video I showed Shade of our two-ball game in the real world. I say an “out” cue in this video right before Chai lets go – that’s how I teach an out cue if the dog would let go of the toy anyways: I just name the behavior, and voilà, I’ve got it on cue (German “Aus!” in my video).
The reason I’ve been playing on the roof rather than outdoors is that Mexico City parks are VERY distracting environments and I don’t have access to a calmer large space … except for days like the one in the video. (Which is a bit of a drive away, so not an everyday place.)
This is what I added with the video I submitted to class:
“Here is a 2-ball play snippet in a calmer space. My balls don’t squeak – the squeaking you hear in the video is my friend’s toy (the owner of the chocolate BC puppy who makes a brief appearance.) I’ve named the “out” once I knew she was about to spit the ball out reliably; this is how we currently play 2 balls. So far, tennis balls are the only toy that I’ve used “chase” with and the 2 ball game is the only context I’ve used “Aus” (out) in.”
Just for your entertainment – below is Chai playing with 2 balls in a busier environment that comes closer to what we have access to on a daily basis! She’s being a rockstar even though a lot is going on around her! I don’t think I submitted the video below to class, only the above one. The one below is from June 23; just Chai and I having fun with 2 balls and me throwing in my “out” cue:
Shade (I am writing this from memory so don’t quote me on my exact words!) suggested I drop my out cue for the purpose of this class. This isn’t what I would have done, but that’s okay – when I take someone’s class, one of the best parts is doing things a little bit different than you would without their input!
June 19, 2023: dropping the “out” cue
Here is Chai – back on the roof – without the “out” cue (showing that she’ll still drop the ball reliably):
June 20, 2023: holding the ball in 3 different positions and always getting a lovely return
Shade has a lecture on the 2-ball game where the toy the handler has is held in three different positions and the dog learns to return their ball seamlessly either way. Chai already knows this game, so here we’re showing off! The three positions are ball behind the handler’s back, ball next to the handler, e.g. on a shelf, and ball in handler’s pocket.
Brief notes I submitted with this video:
“3 hand positions, no “Aus” cue! We’ve also kept practicing the hands near toy exercise both on the couch and on the floor.“
June 22, 2023: eye contact and an attempt at the two-ball game with rope toys
Next, Shade suggested playing the two-ball game with toys we could also tug with. I used two rope toys, hoping they would be less fun to chew than the softer fleece tugs. Here’s what I wrote with my video submission:
“I shaped up to (a little) longer eye contact for food! Aaaaaand we had a non-ball fail on the roof: I used 2 rope toys and they were fun to chew on. (I got eye contact, but no returns …) I suspect if I used my fleece tugs, it would be even harder for her to return them because they’d be even more fun to chew … Hrm …”
(The eye contact part is because we are using eye contact as a start button.)
Shade suggested that things might be easier for Chai if we played in the real world where I didn’t have to worry about the toys falling off the roof – despite the distractions. This is what we do in our next session, and it turned out Shade was right!
June 23, 2023: 3 sets of two toys in the real world
My comments with the video below:
“I started out with easy balls (plastic – not fun to chew on), progressed to more difficult ones (tennis ball – one might want to lie down and chew off the fuzz) and progressed to rope toys (definitely something to chew on!) I lowered my eye contact criterion to just a single quick look when I saw her struggle with more than this in a more distracting environment.“
I’m proud of how well Chai is able to deal with dog distractions!
Shade suggested to stick to balls on strings – they would be both bouncy and could be used for tugging. In the afternoon of the same day, we played with them in a different park and I waited for a tiny little bit of eye contact between throws.
June 26, 2023: 3 seconds of eye contact duration, and Mexico City park life for everyone’s amusement
“We worked on 3 seconds of duration for her eye contact (no problem for Chai) yesterday for a simple 2-ball chase game. We got lucky and had no interruptions (and no video) of our session at the park!1
Today, I tried adding tugging. This time, we did NOT get lucky in terms of avoiding dog distractions. This is what our normal looks like about 50% of the time (and the reason I’ve been playing on the roof!) The first half of this video is just for everyone’s amusement: enjoy some Mexico City park life! And no, this is not a dog park. It is just a park (any park will be like this).
I am impressed how well Chai did – the reason I even started the game was that all the other dogs were off again and Chai was giving me beautiful engagement when I got started. If the dogs had still been around, I wouldn’t have started because that is clearly not a fair level of distraction for a dog who is only just learning a game. The tugging I get (when the whippety dog comes back) is weak, but I am impressed that I get it at all, and I really do want to reward it with chase, so we get 2 messy whippet-disrupted chases there as well. (And then I am smart enough to end. Barking whippety dogs? Chai’s body language tells me that she can work through whippets who body-block her when she tries to return a toy to me, but being barked at does not feel good.)
00:38-00:42 In the first rep of returning the ball she drops it off camera: right at the tripod and my bagwhere I’ve been standing for a few minutes when setting up and waiting out the other dogs, and when Chai asked me to work. I suspect my history of standing there is what makes her gravitate to this spot. I don’t think she’s purposefully running past me/dropping the ball far from me.”
Keep reading here for part 3 of the toy class series (our next 10 toy videos)!
(1) If you take online classes with video submissions, I suggest you do this as well: take the occasional day or two to just practice rather than submitting videos. Also, only move to the next step after you have gotten feedback on the previous one. In order to get the most out of a video-submission class, quality beats quantity. It’s not about using every last one of your weekly video minutes, but about working at your dog’s pace, taking your time and not skipping steps. This looks a little different for every team – but the most important take-home message for you, the handler, is: don’t worry about submitting videos every single day or using up every single second of your time. That’s secondary – you and your dog training is what comes first!
In yesterday’s post, I promised CDMX readers who happen to be into scavenger hunts a daily clue that may get you closer to finding this piece of street art:
Here’s your first clue: it is right next to the abandoned building we climbed in yesterday’s post.
Of course, we got in a bunch of morning wrestling fun as well:
Around noon, I took both dogs on a walk around the block before leaving them home alone to head over to a friend’s place to co-work.
My friend and I walked back to my place after, rope-and-facade climbing an abandoned building along the way:
Nature taking back the city – the view from the abandoned building we climbed. There’s a colony of cats living there but – strangely – no humans.
Beauty in strange places: the little things you find on a walk if you know how to see! This hidden piece of art is not much bigger than the palm of my hand. It’s close to the ground (where you may not usually look). Finding it made my day.CDMX readers: I’ll hide location clues in my the next posts! Find it and send me a picture and I’ll buy you tacos!
Then Chai got to see my friend who is her friend as well, too. She got snuggles and attention, and then all four of us went on another walk. Chai saw the same Afghan hound she had found a little creepy just the other day but showed no fear this time. Go puppy!
We also came across a large donut-shaped pillow someone had left by the side of the road. Chai thought it was suspicious. I used the Magic Hands trick to show her it wasn’t out to get her.
Magic Hands
Magic Hands is what I (and probably some other trainers; I don’t think it was me who came up with that name) call it when we use our hands to touch an object our dog is scared of. This doesn’t work with all dogs (and all objects), but for the dogs it sometimes works for, it can be an easy solution.
Chai is one of these dogs. I tend to use magic hands in combination with increasing distance (negative reinforcement) for her. I never drag or lure a dog closer to an object – it’s up to them how close they are ready to come.
With the donut-shaped pillow, my Magic Hands alone did the trick: I let her stand back on a looose leash, walked up and touched the donut pillow. Seconds after, Chai walked up to sniff and investigate it herself. Brave puppy!
At night, Chai stayed home alone again for Game’s evening loop. Good, good puppy!
Zane and I co-worked from my house today, so Chai got an opportunity to stay home with Zane during Game’s noon and evening walks and both dogs hung with him in the afternoon while I went to the bakery.
Loose leash walking
We worked on collar mode up and down our street and made it up to 15 and then 20 steps between treats!1 Go puppy!
Fresa Parque freedom and games and LLW success
Chai got to run around Fresa Parque briefly, and then we played a brief 2-ball fetch game at the calm and hot park.
On the way back home, Chai waited for me in front of a store – and then we went right back to do more LLW practice on her collar! She went from zero to 20 steps between treats right away and did amazing all the way back home – even passing a Shih-Tzu along the way without breaking her 20-step streak!1
Our walk was only interrupted by a scary balloon blowing in the street. I used Magic Hands for it and then picked it up and carried it home to have it blow around the apartment as well for some more balloon demystification.
As on most evenings both Zane and I are home, Chai got some social time and human-friend snuggles at night to round out the day.
(1) For more leash walking context, check out the leash walking lectures from Out and About in your FDSA library or look here for my December class and a micro e-book on LLW.
June 11, 2023: introducing the concept of weekly calm days
Activity level: low
Calm days
We had a physically calm day today. I have decided to keep Chai – and that means I’ll want a bit more structure in our weeks. Once a week, I’ll go for a below-average calm day. This is important because I live by myself and sometimes I get sick or busy and can’t provide the usual amount of entertainment or enrichment. My puppies learn from the very beginning that some days are calmer than others.
I haven’t always done that, so I’ve learned the hard way that we create expectations in our dogs’ first year of life or so. If every single day is filled with action, this is what your future athlete is going to expect as an adult as well. If you normalize downtime from the beginning, they will have a much easier time just chilling on the couch every now and then.
I’ll track calm, active and average days under “activity level” right under the respective date.
Morning walk and a tiny little bit of off-leash time!
Chai went on a morning walk with Game – and I briefly let her off leash in a very quiet area!
Toy play
We worked on tug on the roof, but Chai’ wasn’t as good at returning the toy as she has been in the last few days’s toy return behavior seemed to backslide. It may already have been too warm when we played this morning (it’s only shady up there in the late afternoon and very early in the morning).
The Game of Chai
Chai and Game spent a lot of time wrestling and playing on the bed. It is hot out – perfect for an indoors day! – but if you’re not an only dog, all that need to move has to go somewhere! That’s what big sisters are for!
Home alone
I took Game to the Paseo Dominical Muévete en Bici for the first time. That’s Mexico City’s Sunday street closure where a number of large streets are closed to motorized vehicles and taken over by cyclists, inline skaters, skateboarders, runners … It’s fun because you don’t need to worry about cars, and you can go quite far:
Random Mexico City fact
In addition to the Paseo Dominical, Mexico City happens to be a very bikeable city in general. In 2022, there were over 200 km of bike lanes (a lot of which are protected bike lanes wide enough for a human and a dog).
Green: bike lanes in Mexico City in 2022.
The goal is to have 400 km by 2024 (source). (I did not google extensively so I don’t know how likely it seems that Mexico City will be meeting this goal. But it’s a great one!)
Anyways, so while Game and I went on a bike ride, Chai stayed home by herself.
Later on, she stayed home with Zane while Game and I went on an evening walk – another important skill: I don’t want her to only be able to stay home alone-alone, but also with friends in my house!
Leash walking – manners mode (collar)
Afterwards, we practiced count-to-15 LLW1 in our street and Chai waited in front of a corner convenience store by herself. Staying next to me behind the invisible line was hard for Chai today – so we went back to feeding after 1 and then after 5 steps before building back up to 15. This is a good reminder to always train the dog in front of you today (who may not be the same dog you had in front of you yesterday or are going to have in front of you tomorrow!)
Husbandry
+ “Claws!” (clip back dew claws). + “Brush!”
Positions
We rounded out the day with a brief round of positions (sit/down/stand) practice with Chai’s remaining dinner!
Calm day of the week – check!
June 12, 2023: fun with toys, friends and training
Activity level: average
Toy play
Today, we went to tug on the roof first thing in the morning, right after getting up: no running, playing with Game or walking and no hot and sunny roof (yet)! From there, we went right back to the apartment and tried some more tugging on the bed. Video evidence here!
Morning walk with Game
Both dogs went on a morning walk – nothing exciting; just two good girls and their human vagando through the neighborhood(s).
Home alone – free in the apartment for the first time!
Chai got another chance to stay home alone by herself while Game and I went to pick up laundry. A little later, I left her home and free in the apartment (rather than in her indestructable luxury kennel, the bathroom) when Game and I went to the bakery, and then again at night – totally free in the apartment – during Game’s solo evening walk.
Today was the first time I gave Chai unsupervised apartment freedom. For now, she is doing well and not getting into stuff. I’ll keep an eye on her of course – she’s still a young dog, and if/when she starts getting up to mischief in my absence, she’ll go back into her luxury kennel when home alone.
Dog friends
We spent 45 minutes with Alan and Kiba at the park. Chai practiced a recall away from Kiba and then our pups got to play and socialize.
Friends.
We also practiced “Paws up!” on a bench. Chai showed me that she wasn’t ready to start right with the cue and you see me chute back down and build up again. You may have to watch this video more than once to catch all the marker cues – I’m too far from the camera for decent audio – but it’s an excellent example of how different marker cues can be used to build duration and setting the dog up for the next rep.
“All done” is my “end of session” announcement.
Leash walking
We practiced going from 5 to 10 to 15 steps of LLW on Chai’s collar out in the street.(1)
(1) Once again, the usual spiel in a footnote: for more leash walking context, check out the leash walking lectures from Out and About in your FDSA library or look here for my December class and a micro e-book on LLW.
+ Chai and I started the day with a round of tugging on the bed and then had a tug-and-flirt-pole session on the roof. (See this post for a video.)
+ We had our first session explaining the imaginary line (LLW)1 to Chai!
+ I took Game and Chai to our favorite park and park-officed from there while the dogs enjoyed free time at the park. I love working outdoors and Mexico City’s free wifi is decent here!
Bougainvillea season. I love the color. Stop and take a moment to look up at a tree. Beauty lives in small moments like this.
For the first time e-ver, I used Chai’s informal pup-pup-pup recall cue to call her out of a social interaction with a new dog (at a moment she was about to take a break anyways), and sent her back to socialize some more as a reinforcer. She did GREAT! I’m so proud of her! I then tried her formal recall cue as well and she rocked that one too.
Husbandry
+ “Claws!” and + “Brush!”
Social time
Chai enjoyed Zane’s company in the evening. He is quickly turning into a human she is excited to see! I love seeing her circle of friends expand.
(1) If you’re not familiar with the invisible line concept – click here for info about my December class and a micro e-book on different LLW approaches.
