+ Chai went into heat on November 1st, at 9.5 months of age. Unlike Game, Chai keeps herself very clean – no need for diapers at all. She did very well only walking around on leash and not going to the park pre- and -post her meros días, since I’m still figuring those out for her. Several calm days in a row and she aced it!
Weekends were, of course, spent out and about in the middle of nowhere, hiking for hours, partly with dog friends. Fun fact: Chai and Kiba went into heat the same week. Gotta do everything together with your best puppy buddy I guess! I wonder if the two of them will outgrow each other or not. They don’t play as much as they used to because both of them have become less playful as they’ve matured, but they still seem like close friends when they’re together – just not two puppies anymore.
+ Ever since Chai’s heat, her interest in socializing with dogs who aren’t close friends has gone even further down. She’ll almost exclusively play with her friends and ignore other dogs. Little Border Collie, you have grown up so fast!
In other news …
+ Chai has now, through weekendly outings and strategic scatters (counterconditioning) learned that lone hikers are no more creepy than city crowds! No more barking when a person suddenly appears out of nowhere on a hike!
+ We have progressed from dragging a leash to being off leash on the sidewalks! Chai is being a superstar!
+ We’ve stuck to leaving the city for a day at least every second week … and are tempted to bump this up to weekly. It feels SO good to be in green spaces! Here’s Salazar (Mexico State) on a route Daniel and Dina showed us:
… and here’s goofing around with the phone camera:
Right as I am getting the hang of really using my phone’s camera … I‘m about to drown it in the ocean.
A road trip and Chai’s first time at the beach!
Chai went on her second-ever road trip, had her first hotel stay and saw the beach for the first time. Every one of these elements was a win:
+ No more throwing up in the car, even on long rides! No peeing or pooping in the car crate!
Lush, hot and humid: stops along the way, somewhere in Puebla state.
+ She generalized/I helped her generalize by strategically placing a pee pad the use-shower-as-toilet behavior to our hotel room! YAY!!!
+ Chai loves running along the ocean together with Game and took to it as if she’d done it all her life.
+ Chai off-leashed it in a mid-sized and a tiny Veracruz town and did VERY well seeing (but not chasing) cats, chickens and sheep and being neutral about every free-roaming dog we met. Superchai! There are not a lot of pictures because I drowned my phone in the Gulf of Mexico, but here’s two more:
Left: Nautla, Veracruz. Right: La Vigueta, Veracruz. We had A TON of fun at the beach in La Vigueta, but I drowned my phone the first time we went – sadly, no beach pictures or videos. We’ll just have to go back!
If you’ve been following Chai’s diary entries, you’ll know that my original plan was to document everything until I adopted her out and then, once I decided to keep her, until she hit 1 year of age. Well … that turned out to be WAY too much video editing! So I went to weekly digests for a while … and we will finish up the year with three monthly digests: October, November and December.
Today: the October highlights … October Chailights?
+ Chai got introduced to the off-leash city life by walking the sidewalks with a long line dragging (my reward for sticking with the distraction recall game – that’s what was in the treasure chest!)
+ I intensified working on real-life leave it by upping my reward value to liver. We’ve also racheted up stop-at-curbs practice and have been generalizing “leave it” to stepping off the sidewalk: less tricks, more life skills!
+ We kept working on tricks too (but I’ve allowed myself to video less because I was getting some serious editing fatigue). See the tricks-specific posts for our October progress:
+ Our weekly one-or-two-days off paid off: I got sick and was too exhausted to provide the usual entertainment – and Chai handled things like a pro, not bouncing off the walls but being a most excellent snuggle-me-better companion throughout a week of little physical and mental stimulation!
+ I’ve kept up our weekly husbandry practice: brushing (“Brush!”), baths (anytime my dear girl found something stinky to roll in), “Scissors!” (clipping fur around her toes, ears and butt) and “Claws!” (pedicures). She’s doing well but occasionally has a week where she feels sensitive about her front toe nails. Back toes are usually very easy.
+ We’re building a new habit of getting out of the city at least every second weekend. Daniel and his whippety-fast pup Dina have been excellent adventure companions and shown us some great new hiking spots.
+ Chai is approaching a year of age, and her adult personality is starting to show: the morning dog friends she used to play with lots are less of a draw for her now. She is more interested in either running to check for snacks under the trash cans and steal other dogs’ toys to trade me for food. She’d mostly rather play or work with me than play with other dogs. It has been lovely to observe this development of her personality while always being able to give her the opportunity to socially satiate!
She knows all the dogs in the video above (Doodle puppy Pipa, the big mix Pablo, Doberman Samantha, Bernese Mountain Dog Django, the white dog in the pink harness, the black whippety mix, the herdy mix). Like me, they and their people are morning regulars at the park. I’ve been making sure we get there when they are there as well so Chai could see her friends – but she is becoming less and less playful every week. Her best friends are Daniel’s 3-year old mix Dina and Alan’s same-age Border Collie Kiba. Just like most adult humans, Chai is becoming socially selective! The video above is one of the last times she showed interest in playing with Samantha, the Doberman.
+ I’ve kept up “home alone” practice, having Chai stay home alone by herself for at least 15 minutes when Game gets solo walks several times a week and together with Game for at least an hour at least once a week.
Game on a long solo walk! She says it’s nice to be an only dog sometimes!
I’ve foreshadowed another art scavenger hunt a while back, but haven’t gotten enough responses yet to be motivated to start a second round. That said, I have ideas! The more of you reach out to me after playing the first one, the more likely it is that there will be a second round sometime. My motivation runs on engagement! (Link to the post containing the first clue.)
Today was perfect for a calm day: while Chai would have been happy to have another active day, I feel fried. I am clearly not used to hours of uphill hiking anymore!
This morning, we just looped around the block. Chai struggled quite a bit not to pull – either because she had been locked into her luxury kennel earlier last night and let out later than usual this morning OR because yesterday, she got to pull on her front-attachment harness. We’re back to the back-clip harness today, but I can’t tell whether yesterday’s pulling experience carried over to today’s first walk or if she had simply fully recharged and missed her morning off-leash park time.
In the afternoon, Chai, Game and I walked to the Toy Play Plaza and I let the two run around, chase squirrels, drink from the fountains and just be dogs for 15 or 20 minutes and then did one rep of our current barrier recall challenge (kibble container #3 – the live mouse trap). Chai was a superstar and recalled right away! Her back-clip harness leash walking looked a lot better on the way home than it had on the way out, too – getting to run around must have helped!
Husbandry
+ “Brush!” Chai looks very fancy after yesterday’s shower and today’s brushing! + “Claws” (all claws on her left back paw; it was easy for her today).
Mini solo adventure
Chai got to come to the bakery with me and practice “lie down when my foot is on your leash” while I paid. She did well and her back-clip harness leash walking was almost perfect again. I suspect her harness-mode success is multifactorial: not having an off-leash Game around AND having had time to run at the park already, even if it wasn’t for a long time.
“Home alone”
Both dogs stayed free in the living room while I went up to the roof to put my freshly washed towels on the clothesline. No apartments were destroyed in the course of hanging laundry!
Frog!
After a late-afternoon pee loop, I lured a frog … on the mattress and NOT off a cliff!
Thoughts on the calm day
Chai is very active! She is NOT in the mood for as calm a day as we had today (calmer than we usually would because I’m exhausted from yesterday).
House training
The streak continues!
My next brownie is only one more (successful) day away …!
August 7, 2023
Activity level: average
The AM
Chai and Game got 35 minutes of running around at the park to start the day. Chai played with Maya, the fun little Corgi, Border Collies Eva and Maki and a mixy-mix friend, but was mostly interested in finding ALL the food scraps.
During a work break, I took both dogs on their short leashes on an errand. Chai did really well not pulling even though Game was around: morning runs really are a must for her!
Home alone
Both dogs stayed free in the living room when I went to get the brownie I earned when Chai pooped outside this morning. (Outside poops immediately spawn a check mark in my streak game.)
Then they stayed home alone again when I ran a slightly longer bike errand.
A new person doing unusual things …
I had asked a plumber/painter/electrician to help me with a shower piping issue. Chai gave the briefest snarl-bark when they first came in, I scattered kibble and then she proceeded to observe from a comfy spot on the couch and eventually join us in the bathroom to sniff all the tools. Brave girl!
Solo adventure
After some more work and two shaping sessions – 4 in, one with only bowl #5, one with bowl #6 in bowl #5 – Chai and I headed out on a solo adventure. She waited in line with my foot on the leash for quesadillas. I used one of my randomization strategies: reward every time a red car drives by. Since the quesadilla stand is located on a medium-busy street and Mexico City’s rate of red cars is just right, this makes for a perfect rate of reinforcement.Have you found creative ways to randomize reinforcement? Let me know in the comments!
We then went to a nearby park where I had my quesadillas while Chai got to run around. She is developing juvenile independence, so she kept me on my toes when wandering to the other edge of the park! (She found dry fish treats on the ground and feasted on them.) We did two recalls with kibble container #3 – in real time, I got the impression that the first one was a double take at the distraction, so I added another one in a different part of the park after a break. Then we headed home and Chai waited outside a corner store and joined me at a pet supply store to pick up – you guessed it! – fish treats.
On my evening pee loop pre-class with Khaleesi, the new Husky client, I used magic hands on a large bag a person was getting plants out of in front of our building.
More home alone time
While I worked with Nancy and the wonderful Khaleesi (¡Le gusta hacer travesuras!), Game and Chai stayed home alone again. Meet Khalessi with the most beautiful eyes:
Young and full of energy! We made an exercise and enrichment plan for her that should take care of most issues.
And more shaping!
We had two more shaping sessions of one object in another: first the baseball toy in a small crate, and then switching from the baseball toy to a paper cup mid-session. Chai did great!
As for the liver treats, small amounts for training seem to be fine. I’m a little suspicious because she teetered on the verge of diarrhea several times since I’ve been using them (relatively sparingly) in recall training. I’ll make sure to keep the amount low. Chicken, so far, is our best bet for high-value treats she can have a lot of. I also prefer it because it isn’t as crunchy. Liver makes a good back up to just have at home though!
Diarrhea
Chai has – once again – diarrhea. I suspect it’s the fish treats and other stuff she found to eat in the park today while I was busy with my quesadillas de flor de calabaza y queso myself and just let her wander. We’ll test out the fish treats soon enough. Other treats I want to test are bread and tortillas – first plain tortillas and then friend ones (two things she finds in the street a lot). If her stomach tolerates them, they’ll be all hers.
House training
If it weren’t for the magic outside poop rule (outside poops immediately earn me a check mark for the day, whatever happens pee-wise), I wouldn’t have been able to finish the week’s streak but would havehad to start over on the last day of the week. Yay for setting myself up for success!
August 8, 2023
Activity level: average
The AM
Both dogs enjoyed their 35 be-a-dog minutes in the morning. Chai went straight from the car to the fish treats she had found yesterday and had some more, sharing with Game this time. Then, both of them played with Eva (chocolate BC) and Maki (red merle BC puppy), two of their park friends.
Park friends.
Lots of running and even Game played and let the others chase her!
Chai gave me a diarrhea-y outdoors poop. Diarrhea’s gotta be good for something, and if it’s teaching Chai to poop outside because she simply has to go – I’ll take it.
Home alone
Both dogs were loose in the living room while I ran a 5-minute errand. When I got back, one of them had stolen a kibble container from my desk, opened it and eaten everything in it. We learn: no untethered home-alone time for Game and no unsupervised living room time for Chai!
They stayed home alone again when my friend Kayla, who is visiting for a few days, and I went out for dinner – this time, Chai safely tucked away in the bathroom!
Shaping
I was going to start out with a session of 4 in with bowl #6 in bowl #5 – but Chai let me know it was too difficult today by lying down. So we ditched bowl #6 and just had a few reps with #5.
Our second shaping session was one object in another. We started with the baseball, then did the paper cup, then a shoe and finally a roll of tape. Chai is acing this trick!
Husbandry
+ “Claws”: all nails on her right back paw. She didn’t even flinch! I’m curious if her front paws will continue to be more difficult – we’ll find out soon!
Solo adventure
We walked to the Dead Paultry Park, got pambasos (and treats for being in a down position with my foot on the leash anytime a red car drove past) and park-officed briefly. Since the pup-pup-pup informal recall seems to have lost its power, Chai is dragging her 5m line today. Selective deafness is a common symptom of being a juvenile dog! Sadly, being a selectively deaf juvenile dog today means having to be tied to a tree in my park office. Sorry, Chai. Can’t have it all!
Chai was suspicious of the warm, loud sound/air coming from a vent we passed. We walked past several times, each time marking with my cookie toss marker and tossing the cookie away from the entry once we had passed the vent. Chai did well with that, and I’ll keep coming back to practice more. I’m calling this the treat toss/R- game (until I think of a sexier name). It is R- because being past the entrance was, given Chai’s body language, a relief. Of course I made sure the leash stayed loose the entire time and let Chai decide with how much distance she wanted to move past the vent. The sidewalk next to the building with the vent is very wide and Chai’s comfort curves allowed her to stay on it. If things go as planned, she’ll curve less and less out into the sidewalk with every time we practice.
Friends and frenemies
The mightyNorbert.
I put Game in her car crate for our first evening with Kayla, Barley, Niffler and Norbert in the apartment. (Game isn’t Barley’s biggest fan, and while Game and I worked on the Norbert project during our time in Cuernavaca, neither Kayla nor I were in the mood for a training session tonight. We wanted to work on our respective work things and then just hang out and enjoy nerdy dog trainer talk and friends-catching-up time.)
Chai was fascinated by Norbert and respected the boundaries he set. She played with Niffler (keeping an eye on Norbert at all times, just in case) and enjoyed Kayla’s snuggles.
House training
Week 2 starts today!
August 9, 2023
Activity level: average
The AM and noon
We started the morning with 20 park minutes. Chai’s Corgi friend Maya was around and they played a little, but she was clearly more tired than usual and didn’t feel like running as much.
On our noon loop, Chai was pullier than usual. All rested up and ready for some shaping, little Border Collie?
Home alone
Chai stayed home alone WITHOUT Game (finally! It has been too long!) while Game accompanied me to get a haircut. Game enjoyed her solo outing greatly – and the rawhide she got to chew while hanging out!
Shaping
I did a quick “four” session: 2 “get it” treats with only bowl #5 and then 2 “get it” treats with bowl #6 in #5. Chai rocked it! We’re building back up! (No video of this session.)
The second session after (starting with bowl #6 in bowl #5), Chai considered too hard.
The dogs got a 30 minute outing at the toy play plaza. Chai was pully and peppy! After some work and a quick “Frog” session for Chai (on the couch but not feeding off the “cliff,” my two girls and Niffler stayed home while Kyla, Barley and I went out for dinner.
Lucky Barley got his own taco with extra meat!
Later that night, Chai had a blast playing with Niffler and spying on Norbert while Kayla and I recorded a podcast … and then, she slept VERY well!
The podcast episode we recorded:
The only downside of today:
House training
We broke our streak. The excitement of having guests and me wanting to focus on our conversation rather than constantly interrupting to take out Chai are likely culprits. But that’s okay and totally worth it. Tomorrow, we’ll be back on track. In any case, the good news: no accidents in the living room!
August 10, 2023
Activity level: calm
The AM
We went to the park and the dogs had 30 minutes of fun with Eva and Maki.
I went back home to work and take a nap. It’s probably time to slow down on both the socializing and the inventing-new-projects-for-myself fronts!
Home alone
Because I had taken a nap rather than shaped Chai, the dogs just got a quick outing before I handed them over to Kayla who worked from my place while I headed out to see another friend. Kayla worked for about 2 hours before heading out herself and I got back home 2 more hours later, so Game and Chai had both good company and then two more hours alone.
House training
… and we are back on track!
August 11, 2023
The AM
We went to the park for a full hour this morning to make up for the very quiet Thursday. Chai played with Eva and Maki, found lots of tortilla scraps meant for birds and shared them with Game (tortillas should be next on my food testing spree!) and we trained a bit, using the bench as a start button and working downs and stands until I ran out of treats. No video, no pictures – but we are up and running!
The PM
After working, I did our usual 4 daily shaping sessions1: 3 to work on the “one object in another” behavior and one “4 in” one. Chai did well!
Solo adventure
Chai and I walked to the Toy Play Plaza in one of my work breaks. I had meant to walk there in Chai’s back attachment harness and back in collar mode, but forgot the collar. So instead, we practiced “With me” for crossing streets IN her harness (high rate of reinforcement for the win!), I named squirrel chasing (“Birds!”) at the park and did a single fun obstacle-run-away-recall game with Chai’s formal recall cue at the empty playground.
Home alone
Chai stayed home alone while Game and I went for a walk.
House training
A close call, but we did it again! Go puppy (and go me!)
August 12, 2023
Activity level: average
We spent 25 minutes at Fresa Parque and left earlier than planned because there wasn’t a lot going on except for ALL the food scraps Chai kept being drawn to.
In the afternoon, we had two 4-in sessions and one object-in-another session, went to a different park for about an hour and explored, worked positions (stand and down) and did one distraction recall (container #1 with liver in location #1); liver from my hand and opening the box as reward – Chai did phenomenal! – as well as an easy “Schnee” recall when she was already running in my direction.
Both dogs waited in front of a store and then I walked Chai home in collar mode from there. She had a hard time (Game was off leash and I’ve not worked on Chai’s collar mode with Game off leash much!) We did 3, 5 and 10 steps between treats with most of the reps being 5 steps between treats. If things are hard for my dog, I’ll up the rate of reinforcement accordingly!
While Chai didn’t get a solo adventure today, she got to stay home alone all by herself while Game and I ran an errand.
Finally, after a semi-successful one-object-in-another session where I tried to get Chai to pick up a coin, we played the “2 balls” game with two 10-peso coins to teach Chai to pick them up. She did great and had fun once it turned into a game and she realized picking up coins was possible!
House training
I’ve noticed that if there is a tie before noon (like today), I usually can’t turn things around and the best case scenario is to keep the tie a tie (like today) rather than breaking my streak. It’s as interesting to collect data as it is to watch my own game-fueled behavior!
I’m not saying that every single day for the rest of her life, Chai will get 4 shaping sessions – that’s just how things have worked out over the last couple weeks. There will be many days in her life that have zero training sessions in them. ↩︎
We started out with half an hour of park time for Game and Chai. There was some playing with old and new friends for Chai, but mostly it was a quiet morning of walking.
Back home, Chai wasn’t tired but wanted to interact. That is excellent: training wasn’t available, but snuggles were and I made sure she got to enjoy them!
Both dogs slept while I worked, and then Chai did her first frog in a different location – Silvia had suggested we try somewhere other than the couch. Below is my video and the text I submitted with it:
“I chose another place where I had a “cliff” to prevent crawling off (the mattress). I’m not sure she’d be able to do this without crawling if there was no precipice … What do you think?“
Noon and beyond
I got a nerdy single-paw shaping session in (see this older post I just updated with more detailed geekery if interested), and then we went for an …
Afternoon walk and a little more shaping
After the shaping session, Chai had some inner pressure to get rid of! She wrestled with Game and then we went for a walk – just Chai and me to check off her daily solo adventure.
We visited two parks and did some collar walking in between. The first time we went back and forth between 5 and 15 steps between treats, the second time between 5 and 25. Good puppy!
We ended the day with a final single-paw target shaping session.
House training
The streak continues!
July 31, 2023
Activity level: average
The AM
We went to one of the parks in our area and Chai had fun with Border Collie Eva and her new 5-months old sister Maki. Their folks Esteban and Viri will take classes with me if Maki gets to stay – I’m excited; she is very cute! (Still on a trial period though.) Today, we also saw a leaf blower at the park (Chai’s first or second one ever) and she didn’t care. Yay!
I’m aiming to mostly use our AM park time for “just being dogs” stuff for both dogs (and of course cueing/paying pees, paying voluntary check-ins as well as recalls and leave it-s).
Chai’s second adventure of the day is a solo one whenever possible and I’ll train in addition to having her run and play and do her own thing.
A frog
After getting home and working a bit, I tried another frog with Chai after reading Silvia’s feedback:
“I think you can try no cliff as well – should be fine at this stage.”
In this video, I kept the “cliff” (fed off the mattress) but tried for more extension. This led to more leg movement. Going forwards, I’ll try to get more extension without (or with less) leg movement on the mattress and, once I have that, without a “cliff.”
Husbandry
+ Brush
Solo adventure
At noon, Chai and I went on her solo adventure. We took a decently long back-attachment-harness walk – hardly any pulling, i.e. this morning’s run and play time must have been just right – and went to the indoors market. This was Chai’s second time there without Kiba. There was more going on today and she was a little weirded out by people playing the trumpet and the drums. That said, she was a trooper and stuck with me through all my purchasing and laid down anytime I stopped at a stand and stood on her leash!
Waiting in all the places!
AND! On our way out, Chai PEED without Game nearby – actually peed, not just marking! – in the spot Game usually pees! Party for the puppy!!!
AND and! Almost home, we ran into two people with 3 dogs and Chai walked up to them on a loose leash! AND to the water bowl in front of the café she likes to drink out of, again on a loose leash!
Shaping!
We started shaping picking up a spoon, but I got lots of paw touches (no surprise there; we’ve been working on so much paw stuff lately!)
After a pee and corner store walk for both dogs, I tried holding the spoon and then switched to a toy. NOW I’m getting mouth action!
Evening fun
Since I’m planning to make tomorrow this week’s calm day, Chai went out for another 45 off-leash park minutes. None of her friends were there but I found a new client with a 2-year old Husky and Chai played with her as well as a 4-months old little Doodle. (I haven’t seen a single Doodle in any of the other parts of Mexico City I’ve stayed/lived for a month or more. This place is clearly more fresa: there are Doodles everywhere.)
I’ve decided that the Mexico City Doodle index goes from -5 to 10. 10 Doodles means a place is very fresa, and I currently live in a 5-Doodle neighborhood. The neighborhoods I like best are 0-3-Doodle places.
House training
Sadly, tonight’s a tie.
The tie between indoors and outdoors pees means we reset week 1 of challenge #2 tomorrow, starting our counter over with day 1 of week 1. (While frustrating, it works out well: tomorrow is the first day of my gamification class. Just like my students and colleagues, I’ll be starting from zero.)
“Do not judge me by my successes – judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again” (as Nelson Mandela supposedly said.)
August 1, 2023
Activity level: low
The AM
35 minutes of play and park loops. Chai met her friend Dina and I got a spontaneous hug from her human – a good way to start the day!
Home alone
Chai and Game stayed home alone for a little over 3 hours.
Cape ONNN!
Since it’s our quiet day, I had and appointment AND it’s the first day of both FDSA classes and my gamification group, we just did a little bit of fun stuff: a rep of “Cape (the service dog vest) ONNN,” chasing treats and hand touches while wearing it and then “Cape OFFF!” Chai is doing great – no body sensitivity with wearing capes or harnesses at all! I wanted to do the Pride sweater I had bought her as well – but turns out she has outgrown it already. That was fast! I’ll have to find someone with a slightly smaller dog to gift it to!
Husbandry
+ “Claws”: I clipped the nails on Chai’s right front paw. She was not happy about it this time so we called it a day after the one paw. I’ll do the next one tomorrow.
She’s a young dog – feelings change. She may just be having a paw-touchy day or she may be growing up to be a dog who doesn’t like her nails clipped after all. We’ll just have to see and find out. In the former case, things should be getting easy again soon. In the latter case, it’s a good thing we started working on nail clipping early!
Frog
Another calm day behavior is the frog. We did two rounds on the mattress without videoing. The first one went well but Chai didn’t fully extend and was a bit wiggly in the second one. Note to self: this stretch may become physically harder the older Chai gets. Make sure to take a longer break between frog sessions in the future!
Park fun
I used a rain break to let the dogs run around the park for 20 minutes (I set an alarm to make sure my planned “low activity” day really stayed low activity. This, together with this morning’s outing, is the max amount of off leash fun I want Chai at 7.5 months to have on a calm day. It was 20 minutes well spent: Game got to go naked (I usually have a bandana or a collar with an ID on her and so I have something to grab if necessary.) But Game sometimes feels itchy when wearing any kind of equipment. Her favorite style is naked, and since it was drizzling and muddy and we had the park to ourselves, she got to be naked today. She zoomed around the puddles and slid through the mud and had the best time. Game and Chai also found a baseball toy they managed to play tug with (even though it was really small!) and did well with a few Leave it-s from various food items. Chai got paid for check-ins and leave-its.
House training
Like yesterday, we ended up with a tie: Chai peed in the shower as often as she peed outside. I promised myself that if I couldn’t get more outside pees two days in a row, I’d lower criteria from more pees outside than inside toat least as many outside as inside pees. So while we’re starting again from 1 today, I’m giving myself that check mark!
The reason it is so hard to get the outside pees isn’t that I don’t know when to take Chai. I almost always know exactly when she needs to go. The reason is that at this point, most of the time – say 90% of the time – Chai needs two things to be in place in order to pee outside:
She needs Game or her friend Kiba to pee or poop first; this inspires marking.
She cannot be distracted. This part is difficult: for every inside pee I got today and yesterday, I had just taken Chai outside – and she was distracted when Game peed. This just happens to be a distracting city and I don’t have a yard, so luck (distraction-free moments) is a big factor in our success.
Anyways, a tie seems to be doable even on distracting days – so I’ll play with these modified rules! When success feels out of reach, games stop being fun. I want the challenge but I don’t want to keep failing more than one day in between successes due to factors out of my control. So check mark #1 – here we go!
No more resets for ties. Let’s set ourselves up for success!
August 2, 2023
Activity level: average
The AM
I set up a park office to work from and also did recalls away from closed container #2, implementing the latest version of my Chai-specific distraction recall strategy! Chai aced it!
We spent about 2.5 hours outside. Park offices are the best!
Husbandry
+ “Claws!” – left front paw. Chai wasn’t exactly happy about it, but significantly calmer than yesterday!
Shaping!
We had three sessions of “4 in” with the cue attached in the last two sessions! Chai is getting better at balancing in our current bowl! Go superpuppy!
We did two shaping sessions of our latest trick with the toy we found at the park yesterday! I love how much she loves to work!
House training
The streak continues and we are on a roll today!
August 3, 2023
Activity level: average
+ Off leash container 2 at location 2: formal recall success!
+ Solo adventure: indoors market, including waiting outside the bathrooms by herself.
+ I park-officed and the dogs were outside for about 3 hours. We also met Kiba and Alan and I got a perfect “Schnee” recall off leash away from Kiba! (Pictures only.)
Shaping
+ 2 “one object in another” sessions. In the first session, the baseball ended up in the bowl in the last rep!
+ 2 “Four” sessions. Today went well! Next time, I’ll be moving my home position back behind my back!
Home alone
Chai and Game stayed home alone for about 3 hours when I went to see friends in the evening.
House training
5 pees outside, 3 pees inside. Go Chai!
August 4, 2023
Activity level: average
The dogs got 30 minutes of off-leash time at the park in the morning. There weren’t any friends to play with but a lot of running around for Chai who also happened to find A LOT of random food, including a fried tortilla-something. (Fingers crossed tomorrow won’t be a diarrhea day!)
Morning shaping
I got home and worked, then did two rounds of shaping one object in another with box #2 I had used for the 4-in game. It’s bigger than the water bowl and the results showed! Good puppy!
Solo adventure
Chai and I walked to and through the indoors market for a while. We came across 2 scary balloons on the floor and conquered them with magic hands, both inside the market and later outside (they had clearly been thrown out so I took them with me). I purchased container #3 at the market: a live mouse trap (I wanted a wire-cagey thing and this was perfect.)
Foot-on-leash cue at the market.
We went into the dog park near the market because Chai let me know she would like to greet the only dog inside – an older Vizsla. They played briefly and then Chai, unprompted, peed in the dog park! Lots of treats for the best girl!
We then set up and did a long-line recall away from kibble in the mouse trap – Chai didn’t even get close before she checked in and I took it as a cue to call her. We looped around the park a bit and then did a second recall set-up in a different corner off leash. She aced it again! Even though the mouse trap looks nothing like containers #1 and #2, Chai patiently waited for me to get out the food for her. Good girl!
As of today, we are working with dried liver as the high value reward – we ran out of chicken. However, if tomorrow is a diarrhea day, I can’t necessarily blame the liver … the lucky girl found even more street food on her outing.
We walked part of the way home in collar mode with 5-20 steps between treats. It was hard for Chai today though and we switched back to back-clip harness mode after a short stretch.1 I stopped at a corner store to pick up toilet paper and Chai waited outside, and then we made it home where the little one is now passed out on the floor while I’m working and Game is relaxing on the couch.
Afternoon shaping
Two rounds of four in – one with home position on my thigh, one with home position behind my back. She worked hard and did well with bowl #5!
Home alone
Both dogs stayed home alone for a little over 3 hours.
House training
Today was another tie of inside and outside pees. I’m glad I’ve changed the rules for ties to count! Otherwise, this would be my third streak break in a week, which would be highly demotivating. Maybe after getting my 4-week streak, I’ll do another round of 4 weeks where ties don’t count? A ver.
Have you ever gamified your dog training (or something else in life)? What game did you play and did you find it helpful? Let me know in the comments!
August 5, 2023
Activity level: high (VERY high physical, low mental)
Rachel, Miriam, Ari and I spent all day at Los Dinamos with the dogs, including 4 hours of relatively strenuous (for a young dog) climby hiking. With the exciting drives (being held on laps), four hours of off-leash, steep climby hiking, playing in elbow-deep mud and getting cleaned off twice (once with a hose at a restaurant and once in the shower at home), both dogs are the good kind of tired today.
Some of the highlights:
+ Meeting a new person (Ari). Chai warmed up to them much faster even though Ari pet her entire body right away. Very little avoidance behavior! She rocked it and then chose to take turns sitting in Miriam’s and Ari’s lap in the back seat on the way to Los Dinamos.
People – as important as dogs!
+ Meeting random hikers – one or two at a time – in the woods. As a Mexico City puppy, Chai hasn’t really had this experience before, except for the one time I took her and Game out to a different section of that same nature preserve. She did phenomenal: I scattered to the side of the road anytime strangers passed us and Chai only gave a single bark of insecurity the very first time someone showed up out of nowhere. Then, the counterconditioning effect kicked in full force and she was no longer worried at all. Game modeling indifference probably helped as well.
+ Getting to run and climb and jump over obstacles. All puppies I’ve previously raised have grown up with natural obstacles – only Chai hasn’t really because the city center doesn’t have these kinds of obstacles. And yet, she was fantastically coordinated and made it across fallen trees, climbed rocks and ran and jumped with Game over rocky, root-y steep trails as well as walking them more slowly on leash. The only obstacle she needed help with was a deep artificial canal she was afraid to jump across (I picked her up and jumped with her).
This is very interesting, especially when I compare Chai to Mick. I got Mick as an adult. He probably had a lot of time running off leash as a puppy, but no obstacle practice – and when I got him at age 2, he was VERY clumsy. So was Fanta who I also got as an adult, and who most definitely did a lot of running as a young dog – but likely never met an obstacle in his life before me.
I wonder how much of a difference body awareness tricks like 4 in, paw targets and the frog are making for Chai and how much is just getting to run and play with other dogs in general. Or maybe it’s mostly genetic – who knows! In any case, it was really fun to observe how well she dealt with her new environment.
+ She settled with Game on a mat (my hoodie) when we took a hiking break at La Boca del Cielo.
+ Game and her settled outside the car while we had lunch: waiting and relaxing outside for quite a while in a new place – check!
+ We did one fun and easy “Schnee” recall when Chai was trotting away from me but not towards anything in particular. (Gotta make sure I balance our formal recalls out with fun and easy ones!)
+ She wore her pulling-allowed (front clip) harness for the second time because I didn’t want to slow the others down with my dog training.
+ No throwing up on the way there and back when she rode in people’s laps!
Here’s a compilation:
And the best news:
House training
As far as I can tell, ALL pees and two poops happened outside today! (Except for a third poop in the crate on the car ride home. The crate may happen to be a place Chai has learned to go anytime she has to in her previous home (she may not have had the opportunity to leave). In any case – happy to report that as of now (9:30pm), we had zero pees inside and two poops in addition to her pees outside!
Proud of a check mark that’s not a tie but a crystal clear win!
Inching closer to the next brownie!
Husbandry
+ An unwelcome shower! Game got one as well, and I got two. We were all covered in delicious mud! Not anymore though!
Speaking of loose leash walking: I’ll be running an intense 4-week group for anyone who wants to work on this. You get to pick one of 6.5 R+ based approaches for your dog, are welcome to work together with housemates or partners, your dogsitter or other co-dog-caregivers and will get time-stamped video feedback. E-mail me for details or to sign up! ↩︎
I could tell the fact that we didn’t do much yesterday afternoon affected Chai: for the first time, she gave a single bark before I let her out of her luxury kennel (aka the bathroom). She was SO ready to move (and eat)!
The AM …
We had our usual morning walk. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a lot going on at the park – only a Golden to repeatedly steal a ball from. We ended up leaving earlier than planned and came across an empty small dog park under the highway. It was empty, so instead of one of the usual parks, the girls got to check out this space and all the dog smells in there. Then we headed home, and after Game had breakfast, there was a bit of morning wrestling. Now they’re both snoozing on the couch – perfect for me to start working before heading out again to play with toys or shape Chai!
Toy play
We headed to our toy play plaza for a session – the first one we were going to add a cued behavior to! The only behavior that isn’t a recall and might be on a strong enough verbal cue to hold up under higher-arousal conditions is “touch,” so that’s what I went with. I’m getting positions (sit, down, stand) on verbals, but we are still working on these inside and I don’t trust them to hold out under toy play arousal.
Before we played, Chai got to loop through the park that had A LOT of dogs today. She met and greeted almost every one of them and then was able to fully focus on our toy game.
Walking there and back, we went with harness mode.
The PM …
Chai stayed home alone for Game’s noon walk and got to come on her pre-rain afternoon walk to empty out the puppy and ensure that it was safe to give her living room privileges.
Paw targets!
We worked on ALL the single-paw targets for Silvia Trkman‘s class. I named the behavior, took the name off again some of the time … our sessions were a little messy and a lot of fun! Here’s a compilation of our best reps!
Informal toy play
I’d love to shape, shape, shape more stuff, but because I already used up a day’s worth of food, I am going to take it slow. I will train some more with food – I want to get started on Silvia’s “frog” behavior1 – but for now, we’ll do informal toy play fun as by Silvia’s second To Do List: other dogs around and using always-out toys! When it started thundering outside, Game stopped playing and Chai and I went from tugging three ways on the octopus Chris got us (thank you! It’s being well loved!) to taking turns fetching the dolphin, Game’s shark (again thank you, Chris!) and the octopus. We played for a while until Chai was tired, and then I snuggled her all over to desensitize her some more to being handled. When a puppy is riled up from playing is a perfect desensitization time.
“All the toys are mine!”
Getting started on luring the “Frog” behavior!
After playing and resting a little, Chai was in the right state of mind – a little tired and floppy and lazy – to be lured into the beginning of Silvia’s “Frog” behavior! I’ll be sending them a video to get their feedback since this is the first time teaching this behavior and I suspect there is a way of luring that eliminates some of the crawling I’m getting … maybe it’s as simple as not luring over the crack in the couch she uses to push with her paws … We’ll see!
Now – post frog and post play – Chai is passed out on the floor and Game (now that the thunder has stopped) is asleep on the couch. A peaceful afternoon!
Staying home
Chai stayed home alone for Game’s evening walk. Good puppy!
Housetraining
Getting closer to that brownie!
July 11, 2023 (Day 96)
Activity level: low average
The AM …
We had a short morning walk pre-work – I am planning on taking both dogs out for a good long run before they have to stay home alone for a few hours this afternoon; so I kept our morning outing short. It is clearly harder for Chai to not pull on her harness on a short leash when Game is off leash and Chai hasn’t had a chance to run around freely yet!
Boxes, boxes and more boxes! “Four” shaping
I made sure I got the box behavior from all angles and then named it “Four!” Then, I added a slightly smaller box to the bigger box and named it again after Chai could do “4 in” the smaller box. I took box #2 out of box #3, and she could still do it. Go Chai! I put an even smaller box – box #3, a puzzle box – into box #2. Once Chai could give me 4 paws in box #3, I removed box #2 and we’re now working on getting 4 into just box #2. The reason this is harder for Chai is that the rim of box #3 is only about half as tall as the rim of boxes #1 and #2. Once we’ve mastered box #3 by itself and put the cue back on, I’ll switch to a large plastic bowl (which will, over time, get smaller and smaller in the same way the boxes did). No video today, but next time again!
Fun at the park!
Chai, Game and I went to Fresa Parque and got quite a bit done in 1.5 hours:
Recall fun: one of the items on Silvia’s first To-Do List is to do 10 fun and easy recalls a day. There are lots of fun recalls in Chai’s life anyways. Since I’m following my own recall protocol, I changed this task for Chai: over the next few weeks, I want to consciously do 10 fun and easy, well-rewarded formal (“Schnee!”) recalls that I wouldn’t do otherwise. Today, I crossed off the first two: one for coming back to have the leash taken off and park freedom, and one I snuck in when Chai was happy-zooming in my direction already, reinforced by a treat toss that kept her going along her projectory.
Dog time
Chai and Game got to sniff and explore to their heart’s content. Chai also enjoyed socializing and playing with a few other dogs.
Dog park obstacles just for us and positions
The dog park was muddy and empty, so I used the opportunity to play with both dogs on the “agility” obstacles that Mexican dog parks often come with. Then I sat them both on a “throne” each and worked on sit-stand-sit-stand-sit-stands. This was harder for Chai, but I believe both seeing Game’s example and my hand signals or treat lures helped. She’ll be a pro at this in new environments soon!
Quesadilla stand and foot-on-leash training
I got quesadillas before I headed home, and as we were waiting, Chai got to practice her foot-on-leash-means-down cue. She immediately lied down this time! Superstar! Game got to practice holding a cued down next to Chai.
Foot-on-leash down (Chai) and obedience down (Game) at the quesadilla stand!
Harness fun
We’ve been walking in harness mode. I notice that this has recently gotten harder for Chai. One explanation is something Chris Cernac pointed out to me (thank you; this makes so much sense and I had not thought of it before): as puppies grow, their strides get longer. So they may be practicing the same movement that used to keep the leash loose – but all of a sudden, they are faster than you!
Home alone and the evening
Both dogs stayed home without me for 4 hours. Then I took them out in the pouring rain and thunderstorm to make sure the puppy would be “empty” before having her in the living room. It was an excellent experience: I’ve never been out with her during SUCH a downpour, and not only did she experience getting soaked through from above but also saw all kinds of people wearing different rain coats and holding umbrellas. She took it all in a stride AND did really well lying down on foot-on-leash cue as I waited for ice cream.
Unfortunately, Game was too worried about the thunder sounds to pee. So Chai (who was too stimulated by the new wet environment), having no one to imitate, didn’t either and had to go back into her luxury crate (aka the bathroom) when we got home.
When it had almost stopped raining, I took both dogs out again, and this time, Game peed and Chai followed suit, earning her the right to spend the rest of the evening free in the living room.
Because of these two unforeseen walks, I’ll bump Chai’s activity level up to “average” even though she stayed home alone (well, with Game) for almost 6 hours.
Housetraining
If Chai makes it one more day without accidents in the living space, I get a brownie!
July 12, 2023 (Day 97)
Activity level: average
The AM …
We started our walk with the usual stroll through a park in the area – Chai got to run around a bit and briefly play with another juvenile dog – and then walking home, Game off leash and Chai on the retractable leash (it is growing on me!)
Adding a leg tap to getting dressed
I have started adding a leg tap on the respective leg I am about to lift for Chai’s harness to go on before I lift it.2 She’s already weight-sifting away from the right leg when I tap it! I suspect that she’ll soon lift it for me (like a horse who has been trained to lift the leg you tap for cleaning the hoof)! The order of events is now: “Harness OOONNNN!” – leg tap – lift leg, put leg through respective opening in harness – tap other leg, put through respective opening in harness – clip the harness buckle on Chai’s back.
Just like “Harness OOONNN” and “Harness OOOFFF,” the leg tap is an announcement of what is going to happen – not a cue. However, it may turn into a cue over time: if and when she starts lifting her leg(s) herself when I tap them, it will have become a cue (by my definition of cues and announcements).
A box and a frog
In my first work break, it was time for more shaping! I set up the shaping environment, opened the bathroom door and used Chai’s formal recall to call her out. Her reinforcer: a get-it treat and shaping – her favorite game! 3/10 of Silvia’s adapted “fun recalls!”
We then continued working on shaping 4 in with the puzzle box – sans bigger boxes. This is hard for Chai! We kept the session a bit shorter than usual and will probably stay at this stage for a while.
When Chai was tired from trying to fit into the box, I gave her a break and then tried luring her into frog position again, keeping in mind Silvia’s advice to feed in position (and not keep moving my hand) as soon as she stretched her legs. I tried on the bed with two pillows, on the floor (slippery surface for sliding hind legs) and on the couch with a single pillow folded over. She did the best on the couch! This, I believe, is going to stay our frog training space.
Home alone
Both dogs stayed home alone when I went to get streetfood. Chai stayed home alone for Game’s later walk as well!
Chai’s afternoon walk and the park
Chai and I walked a new route in harness mode. She did great and I used a 4-check-ins-treat approach with resets (starting the counter with 1) after circles. She mostly kept the leash perfectly and beautifully loose – this is clearly a lot easier for her when Game isn’t around! She did some lovely leave-it-s and a beautiful wait at the curb and even offered eye contact (for constant treats) when passing 2 dogs. She approached a third one on a loose leash and got to say hi. Go puppy!
She did great lying down on my foot-on-leash cue in a store.
On the way …
We were then going to walk to Fresa Parque in collar mode. We haven’t practiced in a while and it shows – we had to start over with 3 steps between treats (to be fair, the environment was busy and new to Chai) and had made it all the way up to 8 steps between treats by the time we reached the park. We did a few loops, found a pile of kibble (I hope Chai didn’t eat too much of it – tomorrow’s diarrhea or lack thereof will tell!) and greeted (but were too warm and tired to play with) a very cute 7-months-old ACD. Otherwise, there wasn’t a lot going on in terms of dogs. We stopped at the water bowl outside a nearby café for a drink and then walked with 8 steps between treats in collar mode to another little store. Chai did great waiting outside for me.
After the store break, we volleyed between 5 and 15 steps between treats in a familiar street in collar mode.
Note to self: keep working on collar mode!
People socializing …
A friend stopped by and Chai got some social time in the late afternoon.
Evening shaping: more puzzle box fun!
We did two puzzle box shaping sessions. Chai’s got it! She still tends to sit down rather than stand when first making it into the box, but she’s going right to 4 in from all angles! I’ll get rid of the sit and re-attach the cue (“Four!”) tomorrow – and then we’ll move from boxes to ever-shrinking bowls!
I have again fed more than Chai’s daily meal in training. This is why I LOVE dogs who will work for kibble! Otherwise, all my dogs would eat is hotdogs! With Chai, I’m not concerned about her eating “too much”: she inevitably has stomach issues after finding food in the street that will give her two days of diarrhea, so eating more than her share on most good stomach days is just fine for her – it probably balances out nicely.
Evening walk
Chai went on Game’s evening walk to make sure I’d have an empty puppy who could spend the evening with us in the living room. Game was off leash and Chai in harness mode. Yep, definitely still harder for her to keep the leash loose when Game is way ahead of her! Hopefully she’ll soon get to join the off-leash fun herself.
House training
Woohooo! Tomorrow I’ll get my brownie!
July 13, 2023 (Day 98)
Activity level: average (low cognitive, high physical)
Early this morning, we had a very brief loop including a few minutes at the empty dog park under the highway because Game felt zoomy and I didn’t want her to zoom into the street.
Later in the morning, Chai went on a brief empty-out-the-puppy walk around the block with Game, waited outside a bakery and briefly stayed home alone while Game and I ran another errand.
In the afternoon, the lucky dogs spent 3 hours running around and swimming at Chapultepec with a friend and me, ate lots of treats and practiced informal recalls.
I also saw/heard her growl for the first time ever when she saw someone rope-jumping while we were taking a break from walking and sat on a park bench. We played LAT with the rope jumper for a while. In an ideal world, there would have been no need for LAT – but it is nice to pick up training opportunities when they present themselves!
We talked and had fun and I forgot that cellphones existed, so today’s only picture is the aftermath:
I feel as sleepy as they look!
A new harness (creating a third leash-walking context)
Today was the first time I used the second harness I’ve been keeping ready for whenever I cannot train: a front attachment harness. I will use it if I board Chai or if for whatever reason I walk her and am not able to train-train either harness mode (circles) or collar mode. The goal is to make the front-attachment harness the one I will actually not care about pulling. This happens rarely, but it does when I walk with someone who requires my full attention or when I’m in a hurry or need someone else to walk her for me … It’ll be good to have it. I am not planning on using it in everyday life, but today, I wanted to be able to focus on the conversation with Scarlett even in the short parts of the walk where we needed leashes – so Chai wore her front-attachment harness for the first time.
I may at some point introduce a third harness if I decide to do any pulling sports with Chai. For now, I will focus on circles with the back-attachment (everyday) harness and casual heeling (“With me”) on the collar. The front attachment harness is for special occasions only.
House training
I had my brownie this morning! Time to start week 3/4 of the streak challenge!
July 14, 2022 (Day 99)
Activity level: low
I’m planning on a low-activity day today. As hard as it is for me to not train and train and train, I know there will be a time when I won’t be able to – and now is the developmental period that sets Chai’s needs and expectations for the future. One calm day a week – I can do this. I’ll allow myself just a liiiiiitle bit of shaping and not much else. No two days worth of food. No hours and hours of hiking and play. Calm days for Chai. Calm days for me! If I want to do more than that, Game will be ready!
Our usual morning walk included a brief stop to sniff-explore off leash at the highway dog park because our usual morning park had bread and other food for pigeons and squirrels all over the place, and I hadn’t brought anything that could trump that kind of distraction. Chai is a foody with a sensitive stomach. I don’t mind her scavenging a bit either way (it is a very dog thing to do and I don’t want to deny my dogs this pleasure), but the amounts of easily available food out today were just too to unclip Chai’s leash. So she and Game got to go into the highway park instead. While ugly to my human eyes, the dogs tend to enjoy sniffing that space. Some very interesting peers must be visiting it at other times of the day, leaving fascinating olfactory messages.
All other outings today will be only to empty out the puppy! I wrote it down – it’s going to happen!
What I learned from today’s shaping sessions
Today was a didactic session for me! I love what fantastic teachers my dogs are! Today, I learned two things:
For the “4 in” behavior, I was raising criteria too fast: I was adding the cue before the behavior was ready.
In the first session, you’ll see me add the “Four” cue back into the box game but Chai sometimes sits and sometimes only has 3 paws in (I only notice after clicking or feeding because of my angle of view). Good training decision: I took the cue off again!
The way I use the clicker is ambiguous. This is becoming even more obvious to me now that I’ve been using multiple marker systems for years. I practically only use a clicker in shaping sessions anymore. And unlike any other marker cue, its meaning changes: sometimes, it means “stay in position.” (Outside of a shaping session, this would be “Good.”) Sometimes, it means “chase the treat.” Outside of a shaping session, this would be “Get it.” Sometimes, it means come to my hand for a treat (outside a shaping session, this would be a tongue click). Sometimes, it is a terminal marker (it ends the behavior) and sometimes, it is not (I want the dog to keep performing the behavior after the click because I’m shaping duration). None of this ambiguity exists in my marker cue system. You’ll see me adapt the way I feed in the second 4-in session today to avoid this ambiguity and not have to withhold treats or lure after the click.
Session #1:
Session #2:
This brings up an interesting philosophical question for me: do I want to start shaping with multiple marker cues? It would certainly add clarity to the process AND increase understanding of the marker cues WHILE teaching a new behavior. On the other hand, it is really fun to use a clicker in shaping. I like seeing the dog figure out what I want in any given session. Maybe I even like a little ambiguity and that they have to always discover what the click means from scratch when we work on a new behavior. I like the flexibility it requires of my dog and the adaptability it requires of me.
The two shaping sessions above are all the Chai-training I’ll do today. Note to self: remember calm days! I wanted to get to the bowl AND to the naming phase, but it will have to wait for tomorrow. Tomorrow, I’ll allow myself ALL the shaping fun again! I may also see Alan and Kiba – I’ll have to try and keep the pups’ playtime to an hour or so to avoid a “high” activity day which would require yet another “low activity” day this week! I don’t think I have another low activity day in me!
I also need to make sure not to stop working on life skills these days! I’m having so much fun with our tricks that our life skills are in danger of being put on the back burner.
Chilling in frog position
Some more of Chai’s meal was spent on luring her into and chilling in frong position. This feels like a very low-key behavior for a calm day, especially after Silvia pointed out to me that they eventually want the dog to be perfectly relaxed in this position (it’s a stretching exercise for active dogs). I added “good” as a (room service) marker this time.
I am proud to report that I haven’t yet used up all of Chai’s food AND am not planning on doing any more “formal” training today. The rest will just be eaten on empty-out-the-dog around-the-block walks or as a simple scatter.
Home alone
Both dogs stayed home while I dropped off laundary, and Chai stayed home when Game and I went to the supermarket, the bakery and to brush her outside. And then again for Game’s longer-than-usual evening walk. Home alone training is something else that goes perfectly well with calm days! So is …
… husbandry!
+ “Claws,” all four paws. Unfortunately, I cut into the quick on one of Chai’s back right nails on the second paw I worked on. She didn’t seem particularly fazed at the time, but was unhappy with me doing her front right paw two paws later. We got through it: claws announcement – procedure happens. She has been doing very well with this so far, so I expect her to bounce back next week. I may back up to one paw/day again though since the paw she struggled with today was the last one I worked on (two paws after the quick, so more likely related to duration of handling than fear of pain).
Game got her nails done as well (I did too). Chai was fascinated by Game’s Dremel and repeatedly tried to dremel her own nose by shoving it into my Dremel hand. Maybe the Dremel is Chai’s hot stove equivalent. (You know how some kids just HAVE TO touch the hot stove or iron to believe the adults? I was one of those kids.)
Calm days
We had afternoon snuggles on the couch, chewed up an empty bottle, shredded cardboard rolls and the dogs slept (are sleeping now) while I worked (am working). Good puppy; good big girl Game!
Fun-and-easy recall #4/10
Chai got her fourth Silvia-inspired recall that combined a (potential) negative reinforcer with two positive ones: I recalled Chai out of the bathroom into the living room (potentially a negative reinforcer: the door between her and Game and me gets removed), clicked and gave her a piece of chicken (very special and usually reserved for difficult recalls or distraction recalls!) and then cued a scatter and fed the rest of her daily kibble. Yay for calm days – I’ve got a BIG reward left in the end of the day!
House training
I don’t think Chai’d be doing this well if I hadn’t gamified this challenge for myself! Wanting my weekly brownie keeps me vigilant and on top of (otherwise boring) house training things!
July 15, 2023 (Day 100)
Activity level: average
Home alone
3 times without Game, less than an hour each.
LLW (loose leash walking) in collar mode
5-35 steps between treats in the second half of our morning loop. You go Chai!
Easy fun recalls (“Schnee!”)
Twice, I did negative reinforcement (out of bathroom) combined with two kinds of positive reinforcement (“get it” kibble to the shaping station + shaping). We’re at 6/10 recalls!
2 days ago, I stopped taking Chai on midnight walks. She’s got a lot of practice under her collar and I now want her to focus on sleeping through the night without peeing instead.
House training
July 16, 2023 (Day 101)
Now that we’ve made it past Chai’s 100th day with me, I may scale back on my diary entries. I’ll keep them up at least a little longer though because blogging motivates my streak game … but we’ll probably take a break from documenting every single day in a few weeks. We’ll see!
Activity level: average
Noises
There were firecrackers at an intermediate distance this morning and Chai didn’t care! Yay! My tip: if you have a puppy who doesn’t seem to care – play when there are fireworks, or follow each loud noise up with a cookie. Preventative counterconditioning can go a long way since I’ve seen puppies be fine with firecrackers and develop fears as adults (example: Game). With Game, I didn’t do prophylactic counterconditioning because she didn’t seem to care as a puppy – but now she does. I’m hoping to set Chai up for more success by connecting loud noises with fun (play/food) rather than just keeping things neutral as I did with Game in puppyhood.
Chai also doesn’t mind the horribly loud (to me and Game) whistling sound of the camote vendor who was in our neighborhood tonight, clearly audible through the open windows! You go girl!
Home alone …
… with Game for 2:45 hrs, and by herself for Game’s brief evening walk.
Activities
+ Shaping 4 in with only bowl #2, and putting the “Four!” cue back on! I also finished the video compilation of our 4 in work and submitted it to Silvia.
+ A short noon walk with both dogs on short leashes (harness mode for Chai).
+ “Earn it” (Zen bowl; don’t take the food) – 4 sessions.
+ Late afternoon with Game and Chai at Fresa Parque.
+ Barrier (plastic container) recalls in the real world: single-rep success in the second session. (First session had 2 reps; then we took a break looping around the busy park for a while.) In our next session – not today though – I’ll up the reinforcement value by quantity: instead of a single piece of chicken, I’ll use a handful to make sure it’s worth Chai’s while!
House training
This evening, when I was in the bathroom, Chai came in to pee in the shower! Her designated spot! All by herself! Go Chai! I didn’t have food on me but a toy on the bathroom shelf, so that’s what we celebrated with!
I didn’t realize it was about time for her to go – otherwise, I would have put her in the bathroom – but she went herself, keeping my streak alive! Thank you, Chai!
A little later, she went back into the bathroom by herself to poop in her designated spot. This time, I was nowhere near the bathroom myself! Go Chai!!
We’re more than half way to this week’s brownie accomplishment! Just gotta keep it up!
The “frog” is a stretching exercise for canine athletes rather than a trick as such. The idea is that the dog, lying on their belly, stretches their hind legs out completely and holds this position. Puppies have an easier time doing this than adult dogs. If you start with a young dog and do it regularly, they will maintain the skill which, according to Silvia, helps with mobility, agility and injury-prevention. ↩︎
Future me popping in here to say: at the point I was writing this post, Chai was still wearing her puppy harness – a back-attachment one that could only be put on by lifting both front legs. She has since eaten that harness, which is why in the “announcements” video I link to above, you’ll see her current larger harnesses, non of which require legs to be lifted. Leg-taps were short-lived because harnesses are tasty. ↩︎
Activity level: average (low physical, high cognitive)
The AM …
We started the morning with our usual walk. Today we took our time, looped the park twice and greeted and dismissed several dogs – good puppy!
2-toy tug reinforced by fetch at Fresa Parque
We dropped Game off at home and Chai and I walked to Fresa Parque in harness mode. There, we had a lovely session of 2-toy fetch and then enjoyed the park some more before heading back home in collar mode. Chai did really well!
Later, we started shaping two tricks from Silvia Trkman‘s first to-do list: “Earn it!” in the apartment and a 2-front-paw target on the roof. Chai is a dog who is happy to keep working and shaping for a long time. She reminds me of the first time I took Sue Ailsby‘s shaping class with Phoebe: we could work and work and work and she wouldn’t tire; I could have spent all day shaping. Chai, at her current age, is like that too – SO much fun!
Staying home alone
She then stayed home alone for Game’s early-afternoon walks and while Game accompanied me for a hair cut.
During Game’s evening walk, Chai got to practice staying home alone a second time.
More shaping!
After coming home, I continued Chai’s 2-paw target shaping. We ended with a relatively consistent 1-paw on the target and will progress to 2 paws tomorrow … I’ve already fed her almost twice her meal in today’s shaping sessions so it’s probably time to stop.
Prepositions for announcements
Today, I started adding prepositions to the announcements I’ve been using for Chai. Is she going to learn and understand them? I don’t know but I assume that with time and context, she will. And even if she doesn’t – striving for the greatest possible clarity when communicating with our dogs (or anyone else) is a worthwhile pursuit in any case.
House training adventures
I am proud to report that our streak continues! Week one of the game couldn’t be going any better! If I make it two more days, I’ll treat myself to a fancy browny – and then we start week 2! Sadly, Chai’s diarrhea is back as well. Here’s to making the shower her default pooping spot! She went there by herself, too.
July 4, 2023 (Day 89)
Activity level: low
The AM …
Chai greeted a few dogs on our 2-dog morning loop and then did well on the retractable leash while Game was off leash – hardly any circles or food reinforcers needed!
Almost home, we found a creepy bouquet of artificial flowers on the ground. Magic hands and Game walking right up to investigate it for the win! If I had already had coffee, I would have turned the bouquet into a toy – but sans caffeine, I really wanted to get home and fuel up.
2 trips and one toy play session at the plaza
After a bit of work, I took Chai to our neighborhood plaza for a quick 2-toy game according to Shade‘s instructions. I’m planning to make today our “calm” day – it’s a good one because I’m meeting a friend and can leave her home. Plus I want to resist the temptation to keep shaping until the diarrhea is gone: my home remedy for diarrhea is 12-24 hours of fasting.
Chai did great walking to the plaza and back with the leash attached to her harness. I replaced most food reinforcers with brief spouts of personal play or running together and needed hardly any circles. At the park, Chai saw someone move a giant water-spouting hose – a new and interesting experience, but not a scary one! Brave puppy!
Play went well even though Chai answered the question whether she could tug without misses first with a “not really – I like my misses.” It may also have been that she expected the first play move to be a chase and was taken aback when I cued a tug.
First time off leash on the sidewalk during the day
Chai will be an off-leash Mexico City dog. When I first got her, I worked on this by means of exclusively walking her on a long line to simulate an off-leash experience (while keeping her safely on the sidewalk next to a busy car street). We’ve also been working on being an off leash city dog for about a month by taking off-leash urban walks between 2AM and 4AM when there are almost no cars in the street. (Furture me chiming in here: the nightly walks are a tradition I stopped a few days after writing this Chiary entry. It led to very tired days for me and after a month, I needed a break!) Other off-leash city dog elements:
Working towards a solid formal recall.
Practicing “Leave it” (and its generalization to stepping off the sidewalk) and …
“Wait” at the curb.
Being off leash when there is a barrier of shrubbery or parked cars between a park and the street.
My plan is to have her drag a long line – no Game present, just Chai – during the day as soon as we make it all the way through our distraction tracker for the formal recall (formal recalls are emergency breaks).
Yesterday, I made an exception to the rule of not having Chai off leash in the street during the day just yet: a neighbor’s dog came bounding down the sidewalk as we were on our way back from the plaza. Since the playful dog was running directly towards us, I unhooked Chai’s leash so she could play. They did for about a minute on the sidewalk and then I walked the last 30 meters home off leash as well. Chai didn’t leave the sidewalk. Good girl! Back to the original plan though as long as there are no playful pups around!
Staying home alone
Game and I are about to head out and meet a friend – time for Chai to be a good stay-home-alone puppy and for Game to get a bike run in!
Game, being a hipster dog for a day. We are street food people, but sometimes – usually when friends want to go OR when I want to dog-train – we head to a place like this one. And yes, of course: “somos lo que somos.
Chai did great staying home alone for 3.5 hours, and Game enjoyed a 20 minute bike ride, 2.5 hours of hanging out at a café and chewing her rawhide bone and 30 minutes of biking home on a different route.
Chai got to stay home again a second time during Game’s evening walk. We’ll count today as the calm day of the week! Our second calm day (the one to make up for last Sunday’s high activity day) might be Friday.
Housetraining
The streak continues! Wheee, it is fun to see my arrows turn green! We’ve almost made it through a week!
July 5, 2023 (Day 90)
Activity level: average (low physical, high cognitive)
The AM …
We had an uneventful morning walk.
Home alone
After work, both dogs stayed home while I bought supplies for trick training, and then Chai stayed home alone again while Game and I headed out for a bit.
Shaping, shaping, shaping!
I shaped away one day’s worth of Chai’s kibble for paw target experiments (we both love this game).
2-toy tug and fetch and waiting at the ice cream store
… then we walked in harness mode to Fresa Parque and played a short 2-toy game before being rudly interrupted by a tall barky stranger Mal mix. As by Shade’s suggestion, I tried cueing “chase” while Chai was tugging rather then after she dropped and offered eye contact to reinforce the tugging rather than the drop.
Chai then waited patiently for me as I got ice cream:
Her right ear has been in a floppy mood!
… and more shaping!
Back home, I shaped a second day’s worth of kibble away in 6 short sessions and then took Game on her evening walk while Chai stayed home alone a third time.
(And yes, there was work too in between all of this, cooking and a post-icecream nap for me.)
House training: the streek continues!
As of today, we’ve made it through an entire week without peeing in the living room! I’ve earned myself a browny! The week 1 streak in all its glory:
July 6, 2023 (Day 91)
Activity level: high average
The AM …
Our morning walk was shorter than usual because I wanted to get home and finish work before meeting Alan and Kiba for our train-and-play date. Work went fast and I had time to clicker up Chai’s daily food ration again. Shaping this dog is FUN! My way of not going overboard is only having the daily food ratio available and stopping once I’m through it (if I can help it). It’s also not one continuous session, of course – one session is either what fits in my hand or what fits in my hand plus another handful of food from my pocket. Then there’s a short break; then we might do another session.
Knowing how much and how fast juvenile dogs change, it is difficult for me not to get carried away with shaping and tricks while I have such an avid learner: there is no way of knowing whether Chai’s stamina and enthusiasm for training will be the same a week from now or once she’s an adult. (My own training stamina and enthusiasm is off the charts these days but will probably wear off a bit in the future.)
Home alone
While Chai is on pee-standby in the bathroom, Game and I are about to head out. After practicing impulse control on her mat, it’s time to give her a little outdoors freedom before Chai gets all the action again!
I used the opportunity to get my week-long streak reinforcer:
Yumm! Game (nose at top left corner) thinks so too!
2-toy tug/fetch and dog/dog play time!
Alan had to cancel our training meeting because he got sick. Instead, I recorded Chai’s toys homework for Shade sans interruptions and then Chai got to play a little bit in the dog park. I decided to go in because there were only two dogs who looked calm. Chai got them to play, and we practiced two recalls out of play for chicken. I had planned on doing this with Kiba today, but since there was no Kiba, these two playmates would do! Chai was a star – however, I’m sure this was easier than Kiba would have been. Kiba is her best buddy and hard to disengage from while Chai has never met these two dogs before and generally recalls well from strange dogs. (Still: this is the very first time I recalled her in the middle of playing – and she came back right away! Go Chai! This may actually have been an excellent step before practicing with Kiba.)
The video below shows Chai’s dog park socializing and the two formal recalls we did – the second one out of full-on play.
More paw target shaping
Back home, we took a break and then shaped for (almost) an entire second day’s meal. We now have two mostly steady paws on 3 different targets: a plastic tupperware lid, a plant saucer and a porcellain plate!
Husbandry
+ “Brush” announcement and brushing!
Toy play Silvia Trkman style
It was thundering and rain-storming and Game was scared (of the thunder). I don’t want Chai to adopt Game’s fears, so we casually played with always-out toys on the couch. There’s also a TV show running in the background … distraction training AND play! I want her to chase and tug on any toy I offer and also learn more about her favorites and preferred play style in a casual context.
(The reason Chai and I can play in this video without Game joining in is that Game is too worried about the thunder to play.)
House training
… week 2 of 4! The streak continues! If Chai makes it another 7 days without accidents in the living room (only in the shower cabin or outdoors), I’ll get another browny. After a 4-week streak – which we may or may not get to on our first attempt – I’m going to treat myself to something bigger. In any case – if all I ever win in my streak game are brownies, that’ll work for me too!
July 7, 2023 (Day 92)
Activity level: low
The AM …
I let Game and Chai run around the park a little more than usual because I’m planning on a calm day today. Chai got to greet several dogs she knows and then we walked back home – Game off leash, Chai on the retractable leash.
Shaping!
After work, we started another project for Silvia’s class: 4 in a box!
A brief 2-short-leashes pee walk
later, I headed off to co-work with a friend at a favorite queer meet-up café while Game and Chai stayed home for about 4 hours.
More shaping!
We did one more 4-in session (Chai was a superstar!) and then called it a day.
I have succeeded in keeping today a light, calm day! AND I made up for all the kibble I fed over the last two days by feeding (i.e. training) less today! (Remember my rule: one day a week has to be calmer than average. If I do a high (rather than average) activity day, I will try to balance it out with a second calm day in that same week. Tomorrow will likely be high activity again – we’re planning on a trail hike. More keep-it-calm challenges for me to come! (Calm days are the hardest for me! Seeing friends helps because it takes up time I would otherwise spend training.)
Housetraining
Streak game week 2, day 2 – we earned another green check mark! Woohooo!
Empty puppies – and empty puppies only! – get to chill on the bed.
July 8, 2023 (Day 93)
Activity level:average
Los Dinamos – finalmente!
After the briefest of morning pee walks (the dogs) and coffee (me), we made our third attempt to head to Los Dinamos, a nature park in the south of Mexico City. And we did it! Finally, nothing got in the way of our plans.
This was Chai’s first “real” nature walk – not in a city park but jumping across fallen trees, scrambling up and down hills and rocks and exploring the slippery rocks and muddy ground of a shallow river. She had a blast – and so did Game. Game loves running in spaces like this and I can tell how much she’s missed it when we go again after a longer break.
I found out that Chai doesn’t yet know she has to keep an eye on me in this kind of environment in order not to accidentally lose me. So I played a lot of hide and seek (hiding behind a tree or rock when she wasn’t looking, letting her worry just a little bit and then waiting for her to find me and celebrating with social feedback:”Yay! Did you lose me? You found me! What a good puppy!”)
Here’s an excerpt of Game and Chai adventuring at Los Dinamos:
Chai also discovered she likes to eat horse poop and found several bone parts of deceased animals to nibble on. I could “Schnee” recall her away from horse poop and successfully traded all bones for chicken. Superpuppy!
In terms of structured sessions, after first getting there and peeing (Chai), I had a 2-toy session for Shade’s class. This space felt different to her than city parks – I could see it in her slightly lower-than-usual focus. Apart from that, she did really well!
We had fun in the shallow river and both dogs got to play with a (non-training) ball in the water.
Otherwise, I just let them be dogs and run around for an hour. We met a couple suddenly appearing people and dogs – very different from the constant buzz of the city! – but Chai, after looking at me questioningly the first time it happened, did well. Game knows the drill and just curves around strangers.
Before we left, we saw a horse – someone was cantering down the trail at full speed. Game barked and wanted to give chase (a “leave it” brought her right back to me – chicken for the big girl!) Chai, who has never met a horse, barked after Game did and scrambled back to me as if she had just seen the devil. I’m looking forward to an opportunity for her to meet more horses – quiet, steady ones who are not crashing down trails! – in the future to ensure she feels neutral about them.
We headed home after only about an hour. So there is still lots of kibble left for shaping in the afternoon, and since we weren’t out very long, I don’t have to worry about overdoing it!
Shaping 4 in!
I used up the remainder of Chai’s daily food ration in two medium-length shaping sessions in the afternoon. We ended with 4 in from all the angles! Good puppy!
Pee walk and bakery
In the late afternoon, Chai and Game got to join me on a mini pee walk to the bakery around the corner, wait outside and then help explain some dog training things to the good folks at the bakery who collected my phone number for a neighbor with two barky adolescent Xolos.
Game imitated Chai’s peeing, I got my “Potty” cue in and reinforced, and we went back upstairs: the empty puppy earned living room privileges again!
Thunder
It is thundering again tonight. Not only is Chai not concerned – Game is feeling way better than last time as well!
Housetraining
Happy to report that my second brownie is getting closer …!
July 9, 2023 (Day 94)
Activity level:low average
The AM …
Given that the AM starts at midnight, I am sad to report that our AM started in a less than relaxing way: someone right around the corner must have been celebrating something (it was Saturday night), and as we came back from our night walk at around 1:45 AM, there were LOUD cohetes.
Fireworks are new for Chai: she looks at me and Game to figure out the appropriate response. So I spent the next hour counterconditioning: big boom – scatter. Big boom – scatter. Chai was happy about her scatters, ate a lot of kibble and then, before I could assess whether she was already happy about hearing big booms, the booms stopped … and we could all go back to sleep. The only one who didn’t get a lot of sleep, I’m afraid, is Game. She looks very tired this morning.
Toy skills!
We did two sessions of tugging reinforced by chase today. Chai now needs less misses in order to enjoy her tug! Good girl!
In the first session, she needed the visual of my outstretched arm with the second toy after my “Chase” cue to let go in the first chase-past-tug rep. In the second rep, she let go of her toy on a verbal “Chase” alone.
In the second session, Chai responded differently to the verbal “Tug” than to the verbal “Chase,” and she let go on the verbal “Chase” alone both times and showed prediction behaviors for chasing, with the other ball still out of sight! Woohooo! Go puppy!!!
Dog socializing
Chai also got to run around a bit and play with a bunch of dogs before we went to a café to work (me) and practice chilling on her mat (Chai). I wanted to make sure she got her need to move and greet dogs out of the way first to set her up for success.
I made sure not to tire her out during our break – I don’t want a dog who lies calmly on her mat because she is exhausted, but a dog who lies calmly on her mat because her social needs and needs to move have been met and she’s ready to watch the world go by for a bit.
Café training
We stayed for about 40 minutes, and there was a lot going on! Chai did VERY well!
Left: waiting outside while I order at the coffee shop – next to another unfamiliar dog who is also waiting for their person!Right: chilling on her mat at the café.This is a fancier place than I like going, but it’s at an wonderfully busy corner – it’s great for training.
Then we left for another round of park play and socializing before Chai got too wound up. 40 minutes of sitting relatively still at a busy corner restaurant is a lot for a young dog! We then returned to the café and I finished up my workload for the morning with Chai being a superstar again.
Here’s a post about the art of doing nothing with a video of our practice session at the café.
Home alone
Chai stayed home alone during Game’s noon and afternoon (pre-rain) walks and during her evening walk.
Housetraining
Chai peed at the park without needing inspiration or a role model to follow! You go girl!
We’re past the halfway mark for the week! Yay! And no accidents of any kind in the living room!I can smell you already, yummy brownie!
