Tag: dog training

Trick training: fetch anything to hand (part 4/4)

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January 25, 2024: woohooo!

I got the fridge-temperature beer can delivered to hand in between two rice-can reps, but off screen – so not sharing that video.

January 28, 2024: phone success and another fridge-temperature can video

I got the phone 3 times in a row! Woohooo! I didn’t add any easy objects; just did 3 spontaneous phone reps. Phone – check! Crossing it off the object-goals list!

I also repeated the fridge temperature can, this time on video – no easy objects. Chai dropped it a few times, but did well enough for me to decide it is ready to be crossed off my object goals list as well. Definitely not using this can again; we have dropped it too often for it to still be safe. Will occasionally repeat with new cans or new rice-filled cans.

Our updated object goals list:

Wallet, credit card, keys, phone, beer can, bank bill, full plastic bottles, coin, porcelain mug, thermos mug, leash handle, retractable leash, keys, silverware.

Easy-objects list:

  • 20-peso bill (Jan. 9, 2024)
  • Spoon (Jan. 10, 2024)
  • Fork (Jan. 24, 2024)
  • Coin (Jan. 12, 2024)
  • Keys (Jan. 11 & January 14, 2024)
  • Poop bag roll (Jan. 24, 2024)
  • Wallet (Jan. 17 & Jan. 18, 2024)
  • Rice-filled can (Jan. 21, & Jan. 22 & Jan 23 & Jan. 24, 2024)
  • Porcelain mug
  • Highlighter
  • Phone
  • (Rice-filled) can

February 5, 2024: thermos mug success!

Today, I used the familiar porcelain mug in combination with the second mug – a new one for Chai: the thermos mug (thank you, Chris). I thought the familiar mug might make a good introduction to the new one. Turns out the thermos mug was much easier for Chai than the porcelain mug! I’ll remove the porcelain mug from the easy-objects list (I don’t want it to break if Chai keeps tossing it around like this) and replace it with the thermos one instead. That’s the one I use (and drop) more often anyways.

Updated object goals list:

Wallet, credit card, keys, phone, beer can, bank bill, full plastic bottles, coin, porcelain mug, thermos mug, leash handle, retractable leash, keys, silverware.

Easy objects list:

  • 20-peso bill (Jan. 9, 2024)
  • Spoon (Jan. 10, 2024)
  • Fork (Jan. 24, 2024)
  • Coin (Jan. 12, 2024)
  • Keys (Jan. 11 & January 14, 2024)
  • Poop bag roll (Jan. 24, 2024)
  • Wallet (Jan. 17 & Jan. 18, 2024)
  • Rice-filled can (Jan. 21, & Jan. 22 & Jan 23 & Jan. 24, 2024)
  • Thermos mug
  • Highlighter
  • Phone
  • (Rice-filled) can

February 6, 2023: retractable leash success and thermos mug struggles

I’ve been slowing down a bit since I’ve gotten a little tired of this trick – I’m ready to switch to another one! – but I am determined to make it through my fetchable objects list first! So here we are again, using the thermos mug as an easy object to get more reps in and the retractable leash as a new object. Turns out the thermos mug was harder today than yesterday! Chai did it though, but good thing we kept it in the rotation. The retractable leash turned out to be surprisingly easy. I’ll bold the thermos mug in my easy objects list to remember to use it again soon. The retractable leash has another session to look forward to as well – next time playing the part of the easy object.

Updated object goals list:

Wallet, credit card, keys, phone, beer can, bank bill, full plastic bottles, coin, porcelain mug, thermos mug, leash handle, retractable leash, keys, silverware.

Easy-objects list:

  • 20-peso bill (Jan. 9, 2024)
  • Spoon (Jan. 10, 2024)
  • Fork (Jan. 24, 2024)
  • Coin (Jan. 12, 2024)
  • Keys (Jan. 11 & January 14, 2024)
  • Poop bag roll (Jan. 24, 2024)
  • Wallet (Jan. 17 & Jan. 18, 2024)
  • Rice-filled can (Jan. 21 & Jan. 22 & Jan 23 & Jan. 24, 2024)
  • Thermos mug (Feb. 6, 2024 & Feb. 20, 2024)
  • Highlighter (Feb. 20, 2024)
  • Phone
  • (Rice-filled) can
  • Retractable leash (Feb. 8, 2024)

Next session(s):

  • Do a mug game with yogurt on the handle before using the thermos mug again.

February 8, 2024: checking off the credit card goal!

Today, I took a break from mugs and used the retractable leash as an easy object. Go Chai! I also did a few more credit card rounds. I set myself a goal that would allow me to check credit cards off my fetchable objects list: pick up the bent/chewed-on card from the floor, whichever side is up, and pick up a new flat card (no tape, no raised numbers) from the puzzle mats. This was my compromise for actual credit cards on the floor (the only useless plastic card I had didn’t only not have raised numbers but was only half as “tall” as a credit card). I would have loved to try an un-chewed credit card with the numbers facing the floor on the floor itself, but I only have the one I still use and don’t want it to potentially die between the teeth of a Border Collie. I’ll just have to wait until it expires; in the meantime, the other card was a good compromise. Chai did great with these three tasks. Which means I get to check off credit cards! Go (not so) puppy!

Also, random note: I wish the flag on the wall behind me was Valentino Vecchetti’s updated one. I’ll give it away this year or swap it for the new one. It bothers me every time I see it on video. That said, as by my rule that I only keep things I use, it’ll stay up for now.

We now only have one new object left: a leather leash. I’ll swap in the thermos mug for this one, but only after giving Chai a chance to lick yogurt off its handle.

Updated object-goals list:

Wallet, credit card, keys, phone, beer can, bank bill, full plastic bottles, coin, porcelain mug, thermos mug, leash handle, retractable leash, keys, silverware.

February 10, 2024: licking yogurt and granola of the thermos mug handle and giving the leather leash a try!

My goal with this food toy is to make it more likely Chai will pick up the mug by the handle in our fetch anything sessions.

Unfortunately, the session we had after – thermos mug and leash handle – didn’t go as I had hoped: Chai didn’t target the handle of the mug and continued struggling to pick it up. The leash handle did not appear pick-up-able to her at all. Before having another leash handle session, I’ll try dipping it in something delicious. The other route would be to cut off the handle and teach Chai to pick up just that part – but I don’t want to ruin my leash unless I have to.

February 11, 2024: licking sweet cream off the leash handle

Again, my goal here is to make the handle of the leash the most appealing part to be picked up. The last time we tried, Chai didn’t pick up the leash at all. This time, I dipped it in sweet cream and turnd it into a food toy: I hoped she would carry it to the couch after (as she likes to do with most found treasures) if I just left it on the floor, but Chai wasn’t interested once she had finished her sweet cream feast.

February 20, 2024: highlighter, thermos mug, cut-off leash handle … and leash handle attached to a leash on a dog! Go Chai!

We had a bit of a break because our training time was spent videoing new demo videos – both Game and Chai got to play!

Now we’re back for more “Gimme” and taking another stab at the last object on our fetchable object goals list: the elusive leash handle!

I admitted defeat: having Chai lick tasty stuff off the handle of my old leash didn’t transfer to picking it up. So I cut the handle off my current leather leash (sniff), bought an identical one, taught Chai to hand me the cut-off handle and then the handle on the actual (new) leash.

This is the session with just the leash handle piece I’ve cut off. I’ve already added Game to the picture because in the final scenario I imagine using this skill, there will be a dog on the other end of the leash I drop:

After a break, I had another session – the break-through one! We can now retrieve leashes and will pick them up by their handle!

Wallet, credit card, keys, phone, beer can, bank bill, full plastic bottles, coin, porcelain mug, thermos mug, leash handle, retractable leash, keys, silverware!

I get to cross off my last object on the retrievable objects list. Wohoo! Mission accomplished! Before generalizing the behavior to new environments, we’ll take a break from this trick. Time to work on something else for a while – I’m ready for a change!

Acclimation … and everything that follows! An introduction.

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Acclimation (by my definition – different trainers have different definitions!) means allowing your dog to satiate on the environment you want to play, train, work or trial in. Students often say their dog never satiates on the world, and that is likely true. But the environment you’ll be working in is much smaller than the whole world – so it’s not really a problem. Let’s imagine you live near the beach (because that’s what I found a royalty-free image of):

Royalty free image by “pexels” from Pixabay – thank you!

Let’s further imagine you want to practice recall games in the red oval that I put on the image. In the oval, there are 4 palm trees and a bunch of sand. This is not the whole world – it isn’t even the whole part of the beach that is in the image. It’s 10 to 20m2 (about 100 to 150ft2).

Acclimation phase

In our example, acclimation would mean:

  • Keep your dog on a leash.
  • Walk the perimeter of the area you want to work in (walk along the border of the red oval in the picture above), stopping to let your dog sniff however much they want.
  • Repeat if there’s a lot to sniff until they walk with you looking bored, not sniffing anymore.
  • Go into the red oval and let them sniff every spot they want to check out. Let them pee on the palm trees. Let them pick up a shell if they feel like it. Let them roll in the sand or dig a hole. Zig-zag and walk, following their lead, around the surface area of the red oval until they have had a chance to investigate every square foot of it.
  • If they want to leave the oval, gently stop them with the leash: no need to acclimate outside the oval because that’s not where you’ll be training.
  • Walk around the small area you have defined for training, play or work until your dog is bored of it.

Engagement phase

  • ENGAGEMENT is started by your dog – not by you. As the human part of the team, your job is to let the dog investigate for as long as they need to. Don’t try to distract them from smells or other interesting stimuli and activities. As long as they sniff, pee or dig, they are not done acclimating.
  • Being done looks different for individual dogs. It might look like offering to walk next to you rather than looking/sniffing around, and maintaining eye contact. In the case of my Mals, it could either be an offered sit with 5 seconds of duration eye contact, offered heeling or personal play initiated by the dog.
  • Go with whatever engagement behavior your dog naturally offers!

    Let’s imagine the behavior your dog offers is walking next to you and not paying attention to the environment. Define a specific duration they need to keep up this behavior for it to count as letting you know they are done acclimating. For example, you could say: when my dog walks next to me on a loose leash, occasionally glancing up at me, for at least 10 seconds, I get to start playing, training or working.

Warm-up/are you ready? phase

Before you go into more difficult work, training or play, gauge how your dog is feeling. A good way to ask this question is to invite them to play a simple marker cue game, like tossing 4 treats back and forth for your dog to chase. Observe them: do they stay engaged throughtout those 4 treats (not distracted by the environment), eat every treat at once and turn on a dime for the next one? Great! Your dog is ready to start working/training/play!

Do they hesitate, get distracted or not eat a treat? Go back to acclimation!

Note that some dogs don’t need the warm up/are you ready? phase – they can go right from engagement into work/training/play. It is still useful to practice because a dog who doesn’t need a warm up in familiar environments may still benefit from it at a new, difficult or trial environment. Having practiced it means you can just pull it out your pocket, ready to use.

Work/training/play

Use the surface area of your oval to train or play whatever you were planning to for however long you were planning to … but make sure YOU are the one who ends the fun. We want our dog to stay engaged from the first step (e.g. first treat/first marker cue) of the warm up phase until you finish your session with an “all done” cue and end-of-session ritual.

Try this the next time before you train, play or work out and about! Observe your dog’s distraction level! Do they have an easier time staying engaged throughout the session? Perfect! This strategy is a winner! Do they still struggle? We’ll dig deeper and try something else!1

All done announcement and end-of-session ritual

Don’t just stop out of nowhere and go from full-on engagement to ignoring your dog – that’s rude! It’s as if someone walked away in the middle of a conversation with you and just left you hanging, or got up in the middle of a two-person meal in a restaurant without an explanation and walked out the door.

Instead, you’ll verbally announce to your dog that the session is over (I use “All done!” for this), and then follow it up with a transition behavior that helps your dog move from a working state of mind back into a just-being-a-dog state of mind. An easy option is doing a treat scatter after your all done cue (scatters are calming). Another option is personal play or calm petting.

  1. Trying something else would, at this point, usually mean one of two things: giving the acclimation ritual itself more structure (for example with CU games or start buttons), or adding a longer and more structured “ready to work” routine after acclimation. Shade Whitesel shares a great example of a ready to work routine on this blog post. ↩︎

Trick dog training: fetch anything to hand (part 3)

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January 18, 2024: wallet, phone and rice-filled beer/soda cans

We started today playing another round of 2-toy fetch with the rice filled cans. As before, I just picked one of those up in the street – I’m not even sure what kind of drink used to be in the dark one; I don’t think I’ve seen it in stores. It’s pretty though and it has a cool name: París de Noche. Anyways, this is to say: the streets are filled with food and toys. What a life for a dog (and their human)!

Since this went so well, I then added a rice-filled can to our fetch-anything-to-hand game! I’ll use the rice-filled can for practice (no danger of exploding) and eventually swap it out for a “real” can. That one’s gotta have beer in it just because.

For today’s fetch session, I used my wallet, the phone and one of the rice-filled cans. I love how in the first rep, Chai is so fast that I don’t even have time to put the wallet on the floor! Loving that confidence!

Starting at 00:54, you can see that the 2-toy session has worked its magic: Chai is now confidently picking up the rice-filled can! The wallet is the easiest to pick up and the phone is the most difficult. I keep interspersing easy objects to keep Chai’s confidence high.

Now let me transfer over our lists of easy objects and goals from the last post … I’ll modify; I’m happy with the keys as they are for now.

Fetchable-object goals:

Wallet, credit card (D), keys, phone, beer can, bank bill, full plastic bottles, coin, 2 types of mugs (D), leash handle (D), retractable leash (D), keys, silverware.

Easy-objects list:

  • 20-peso bill (Jan. 9, 2024)
  • Spoon (Jan. 10, 2024)
  • Fork
  • Knife
  • Coin (Jan. 12, 2024)
  • Keys (Jan. 11, 2024 & January 14, 2024)
  • Glue stick
  • Empty spray bottle
  • Wallet (Jan. 17, 2024 & Jan. 18, 2024)
  • Rice-filled can (Jan. 21, 2024 & Jan. 22, 2024 & Jan 23, 2024)

Next session(s):

  • Lickable stuff in porcellain mug and on its handle.
  • Use rice-filled can as easy object to build confidence and get practice – just in case the actual beer can explodes!
  • Keep the phone in the game; alternate between floor and puzzle mats.
  • “Gimme” cue!

January 21, 2024: woohooooo for porcelain mugs!

I played a third cup game today. I didn’t have peanut butter, so I used something a little less sticky: yogurt. After I had stopped filming, Chai eventually picked up the cup (I just left it on the floor) and carried it to the couch. Over the course of about 15 minutes, she dropped it off the couch four times, it made noise falling on the floor or on the treadmill, and Chai jumped after and picked it back up, taking it up on the couch again. No footage of the couch action, but here is a snippet of Chai enjoing her yogurt cup:

Because I had observed her like this and saw her interact with it on the couch (trying to chew and lick it some more), I decided to put it into today’s object fetch session … and it was a huge success!

Notes on this session: I’m interspersing an easy object – always the first one on my check list (see above) – with difficult and/or new ones. Because I know the mug is difficult, I go back to the rice-filled can after the first successful rep (00:06). There was a little hesitation about first picking it up. After the rice-filled can rep, we are ready to take another stab at the mug (01:12). Chai is more confident about it this time! I probably could have done more than the one mug rep here but I wanted to reinforce with an easy object and switched back to the can again after a beautiful single mug rep (01:19). The mug rep at 01:24 is difficult – but look at Chai working confidently at finding a way to pick it up! Superpuppy!

Next session(s):

  • Maybe another cup game before the next session?
  • Two-toy game with credit cards.
  • Keep using the rice-filled cans as an easy object to build lots of confidence (in case later the real beer can explodes). No liquid-filled cans yet!
  • Get some more phone reps under Chai’s collar.

January 22, 2024: credit card, rice-filled can, phone and porcelain mug!

Today, I repeated the first two cup games (no video). Then, I played the two-toy game with an expired credit card and some other plastic card I don’t need. Chai did great picking them up off the bed (easiest surface) and the puzzle mat. She could only pick the credit card up from the floor – and that may be because at that point, it had been chewed and bent in such a way that it wasn’t flat against the floor anymore. The other plastic card still was, and Chai didn’t manage to grip it until I added a piece of heavy tape to its sides (the tape is about 1mm thick). Chai was then able to grab it off the floor.

I then did a session of 3 difficult objects interspersed by a single easy one – the beer can. I couldn’t resist the temptation to try the card right away, and Chai was SO good! Only problem: I forgot to hit record. I did a second session, and that one got recorded:

January 23, 2024: no video, but a great session

Chai did really well on 3 reps with the rice-filled can (easy object) followed by 3 reps of the mug (twice lying down, once standing up), followed by one more rep of the can. I used the “Gimme!” cue every time, and for the first time, I didn’t set up the puzzle mats (the training picture Chai is used to) but just the floor. I’ve lowered the amount of food Chai gets for each successful rep in this session as well.

I’ll do one more session like this where I’ll include one porcelain mug rep with the mug turned upside down – this is the most difficult position because Chai needs to topple it over (almost impossible on the slippery floor without puzzle mats) or pick it up by the handle. Note to self: have some more sessions of mug game #1 on the floor (not on the puzzle mats) before asking Chai to “gimme” an upside down mug!

I also want to do a similar session with the phone, getting it from the floor 3 times in a row, and then I’ll cross phones as well as porcelain mugs off the “fetchable-object goals” list and move them to the “easy objects” section.

In terms of the can: I plan on doing one more session with the rice-filled cans, and then I’ll intersperse the “real” can at room temperature once. In a subsequent session, I’ll intersperse the real can at fridge temperature once. For now, I won’t use the same “real” (bubbly-liquid-filled) can more than twice to keep the danger of exploding cans low.

Next session(s): re-read today’s notes; focus on mug, phone and can(s).

January 24, 2024: porcelain mug in all positions – check!

We started the day with mug game #1. Chai did really well, picking the mug up at the handle every time! Then, we did a session of “Gimme!” Since the session below went so well, I’ll move the mug to the “easy objects” list!

The next session involving cans will have a REAL can at room temperature interspersed! Woohooo! Let’s do it!

I wanted to finish the phone challenge so I could move phones to the easy object list too. However … no luck. Not yet. I want 3 pick-ups in a row without Chai or me dropping the phone, and she dropped it one time. The good news: we got a fun easy-object rep in with the fork!

The lists – updated

Fetchable-object goals:

Wallet, credit card, keys, phone, beer can, bank bill, full plastic bottles, coin, porcelain mug, thermos mug, leash handle, retractable leash, keys, silverware.

I’ve crossed off the porcelain mug (and split out the two mugs) and removed my “E” (easy), “M” (intermediate) and “D” (difficult) predictions – they have turned out to be wrong more often than not!

Easy-objects list:

  • 20-peso bill (Jan. 9, 2024)
  • Spoon (Jan. 10, 2024)
  • Fork (Jan. 24, 2024)
  • Coin (Jan. 12, 2024)
  • Keys (Jan. 11 & January 14, 2024)
  • Poop bag roll (Jan. 24, 2024)
  • Wallet (Jan. 17 & Jan. 18, 2024)
  • Rice-filled can (Jan. 21, & Jan. 22 & Jan 23 & Jan. 24, 2024)
  • Porcelain mug
  • Highlighter

The porcelain mug has been added to the easy-objects list, and I also put the highlighter back on now that it’s been a while since I’ve used it. The easy objects I want to rotate through next are bolded.

Next session(s): repeat phone session with butter knife as the easy object (no need to video) OR do a 3-rep can session: rice can, real can at room temperature, rice can. Definitely video the latter one!

We went with the cans session next! The dark can is the rice-filled one and the Modelo (the white can) is a “real” beer can at room temperature. It’ll now go in the fridge so I can do a fridge-temperature session next! Superchai!

I wonder if the reason Chai dropped the rice can twice in the video above is that I’ve used cans SO much lately (to build resiliency in case the beer can explodes) that she isn’t being careful about it anymore.

Next sessions:

  • 3x butter knife – 3x phone – butter knife
  • Rice can – fridge temperature beer can – rice can (if successful, take a can break!)

… turns out I don’t have a butter knife (that’s the knife I’d have Chai pick up). So our silverware will be limited to forks and spoons (I could have sworn there were knives and I had trained with them, but oh well). Instead of the knife I had planned to use as an easy object, I used the glue stick together with the phone. I didn’t get the phone 3 times in a row – it is still difficult. I won’t cross it off my list just yet. However, I’ll take the knife off the list and replace the glue stick with a poop bag roll. (Let’s be honest: how often do I use glue sticks? Almost never. How often do I use poop bags? Every day. Having Chai pick them up when I drop them is going to be much more useful.) She already loves carrying these rolls around, so it was easy to just plug them in with the similarly-shaped glue stick. I’ll also take the empty spray bottle off my list above because the spray bottle that used to be empty is in use now and no longer empty.

While Chai ended up handing me the phone successfully, I’ll only cross it off once I get it three times in a row without either of us dropping it during the hand-over. (I don’t mind earlier drops, but I want Chai to target my hand well with all the objects.)

Next sessions:

  • Rice can – fridge-temperature beer can – rice can (record and, if successful, take a can break!)
  • 3x Highlighter or poop bag roll – 3x phone – highlighter or poop bag roll

Trick dog training: fetch anything to hand (part 2)

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January 6, 2024: highlighter, keys and bill

I’m layering easy objects in between new or difficult ones to keep Chai’s confidence high. Today’s easy object: a highlighter.

Chai found the 20-peso-bill VERY easy and did okay with the apartment keys + car keys. I’ll keep them in the rotation and play with them between rotations; they are more difficult than either key by itself.

Here’s our longer list of fetchable object goals:

Wallet (M), credit card (D), keys, phone (D), beer can (M), bank bill, full plastic bottles (D), coin, 2 types of mugs, leash handle (D), retractable leash (D), keys with new (yet to be acquired) key chain (D), silverware.

Next session(s):

Repeat keys (still difficult) and change the highlighter for another easy object!

January 9, 2024: exploding beer cans and a bit of fetch

I got two bottles of juice and decided to first play with them and then, if that went well, use them as the new object in today’s session. Since I was already at the store, I also picked up two cans of beer. I couldn’t find anything non-sparkly in a can, so beer it was from the beginning – even though I know about the dangers of exploding cans when playing with dogs. Well – we had fun with the juice. Chai also started out really well with the beer cans … until …

For the actual fetch session, I decided to leave the beer can be, but integrate a juice bottle. I didn’t realize how hard the juice bottle would be – the exploding can definitely had some bleed-over into Chai’s juice bottle feelings! She was being brave though after I made the juice bottle fun again. I ended on a successful rep and will add the bottle again next time to build more confidence. Lots of improvement on the keys though! I’ll add them in one more time before checking them off – basically, the next session will be a repeat of this one.

Next session(s):

+ Play with EMPTY cans.
+ Repeat today’s fetch session with keys and the juice bottle. Switch the easy object for a different easy object.

January 10, 2024: spoon, car keys, juice bottle

Chai did REALLY well today! I’ll keep the juice bottle for one more session – I want to catch it 3 times in a row before calling it done. That said, me dropping it in the first rep of today’s video is all me. The keys are turning into an EASY object! Wow!

I’ll keep my lists here, copy/pasting and adding new stuff when I think of it:

Fetchable object goals:

Wallet (M), credit card (D), keys, phone (D), beer can (M), bank bill, full plastic bottles, coin, 2 types of mugs, leash handle (D), retractable leash (D), keys with new (yet to be acquired) key chain, silverware.

Easy objects to rotate through and use “Gimme” cue on. The one(s) I want to do next are bolded:

  • Highlighter (Jan. 6, 2024)
  • 20-peso bill (Jan. 9, 2024)
  • Spoon (Jan. 10, 2024)
  • Fork
  • Knife
  • Coin
  • Keys
  • Glue stick
  • Empty spray bottle

I’ve also found a rule structure for this trick that I plan on sticking to:

  1. Start with 3 cued reps of an easy object. (More and more objects will move into this category and I will rotate through them to keep picking them up well oiled).
  2. Do a familiar, but not-yet-perfect object, aiming for 3 great times in a row.
  3. Do one easy-object rep if (2) was easy or 3 easy-object reps if (2) was difficult.
  4. Use a new or difficult object.
  5. If (4) went well, end after (4). If (4) was hard, do between 1 and 3 reps of the easy object and then end.
  • Every object should be picked up both from the puzzle mats and the floor.
  • New for future sessions: cue “Gimme” for the easy object of the day!

Next sessions:

  • Use the juice bottle again; new easy object with “Gimme!” cue (keys or coin).
  • Play with empty cans.

January 11, 2024: keys, juice bottle, wallet

I used the keys as today’s easy object … but they weren’t all that easy today! I’ll make sure to keep them in the easy-object rotation. The juice bottle was difficult as well; I will add it again in our next session. Where Chai knocked it out of the park was with the entirely new object: my wallet! She retrieved it to my hand 3 times as if it was the easiest thing in the universe! The wallet gets added to my easy-object list! I may take off the highlighter instead since Chai has been REALLY good with that one and done lots of reps with it already.

And, yep – I forgot to say the “Gimme” cue with the keys. That’s okay – next time!

Fetchable object goals:

Wallet, credit card (D), keys, phone (D), beer can (M), bank bill, full plastic bottles, coin, 2 types of mugs, leash handle (D), retractable leash (D), keys with new (yet to be acquired) key chain, silverware.

Easy-objects list:

  • 20-peso bill (Jan. 9, 2024)
  • Spoon (Jan. 10, 2024)
  • Fork
  • Knife
  • Coin
  • Keys (Jan. 11, 2024)
  • Glue stick
  • Empty spray bottle
  • Wallet

Next session(s):

  • Use juice bottle again
  • Play with empty beer cans
  • Remember to use “Gimme!” cue for easy objects!

June 12, 2024: coin, juice bottle … and definitely no mug (“How about some rawhide instead?”)

Today’s easy object was the coin. The juice bottle went well … I’m declaring it done for now! Go Chai! The mug, on the other hand, was a no go. I’ll have to think some more about how to introduce picking it up. Porcellain doesn’t seem to feel good on dog teeth! I found it very funny, smart and cute that Chai went and looked for something else to fetch, and ended up bringing me a piece of rawhide (something I’ve never asked her to fetch)! Also a win: I remembered to say, “Gimme!” when I meant to!

Fetchable object goals:

Wallet, credit card (D), keys, phone, beer can (M), bank bill, full plastic bottles, coin, 2 types of mugs (D), leash handle (D), retractable leash (D), keys with new (yet to be acquired) key chain, silverware.

Easy-objects list:

  • 20-peso bill (Jan. 9, 2024)
  • Spoon (Jan. 10, 2024)
  • Fork
  • Knife
  • Coin (Jan. 12, 2024)
  • Keys (Jan. 11, 2024 & January 14, 2024)
  • Glue stick
  • Empty spray bottle
  • Wallet (January 17, 2024)
  • Juice bottle (plastic) (Jan. 14, 2024; Jan. 16, 2024)

January 13, 2024: can and cup games for confidence

Today, we didn’t train-train (I was tired after our hike). So first, I left two empty cans out on the floor for the dogs to convert into toys – they did so quickly!

Following Game’s lead, Chai quickly picked up the empty cans carried them to the couch to chew on them. The Tecate is an empty can I found in the street. I don’t drink enough beer for this trick!

At night we played two cup games for the dogs’ dinner. You can see that Game is more confident toppling the cups in the first food game, but Chai is starting to pick them up in the second one! What a superstar! (Game had her kibble-in-a-cup while stationing on the couch while Chai was working on hers on the puzzle mats.)

Next session(s):

  • Play with beer cans filled with rice
  • Say “Gimme” on the second rep of easy objects (first rep is to test the waters)
  • Mug games: smear peanut butter on handle.

Sunday, January 14, 2024: cellphone success!

Wheeee! Today, Chai REALLY impressed me! I hesitated about simply adding the phone, but she was able to pick it up!!!! Go (not-so) puppy (anymore)!!! So proud!

Next session(s):

  • Play with cans filled with rice (for weight).
  • Use “Gimme” cue when I know she’ll fetch it!
  • Repeat phone with two easy objects! I’m not putting it on the easy list or checking it off my goals list yet – I want to see a few more fetches first; I can’t quite believe how well she did picking up such a difficult object!

January 16, 2024: I’m impressed by Chai’s phone skills!

I am tired today, so I just did a quick session, sliding the phone (which, in my mind but not in Chai’s, is still a difficult object) between two rounds of the plastic juice bottle. I wanted to use that bottle one more time before drinking it. Once again, Chai did amazing with the phone!

Next session(s):

  • Play with beer cans! (I filled them with rice last night; they are ready to go!)
  • If playing with them goes well, do a session of phone and cans and (if I feel like it) one other object: the wallet! If we get 3 phone reps in a row without dropping it, at least one of which from the floor rather than the puzzle mats, I will check it off my list!
  • Remember to use “Gimme!” when I’m sure Chai will fetch.

Note: instead of continuing to copy/paste my lists, I’ll be editing the previous one as we go.

January 17, 2024: wallet, phone and beer can play

We played with the two rice-filled beer cans. At first, Chai hesitated about picking them up even though she had chewed on the empty ones the other day. After making them seem special by juggling them and trying to “hide” them from her, she was ready to pick them up when rolling on the puzzle mat or being thrown on the bed. She’d carry them back to chew on the sofa, so I had to be quick to get them back to avoid rice-sized holes in the cans. No good video. I feel like we’re not quite ready to fetch them yet – I’ll do another round of this game tomorrow.

Our “Gimme” session went really well – I played with the phone and my wallet. For the first time, I put the phone on the floor (not the puzzle mats) as well. It was clearly harder to pick up there, but Chai rocked it! Go (not-so) puppy (anymore)!

I want to do another session with the phone on the floor before checking it off my list – I’d like to build a little more pick-up skills. And then … I get to sell that phone! I also wouldn’t mind a few more wallet fetches. While this is easy for Chai, we haven’t done a lot of repetitions yet. Our next session might look just like this one.

Next session(s):

  • More beer can 2-toy game.
  • Cup games: yummy stuff to lick off porcelain!
  • Repeat phone on floor.

CHAIARY – TRICK TRAINING: GETTING A fetch TO HAND VIA THE ONE OBJECT IN ANOTHER TRICK (part 1)

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Once Chai knows how to place objects into different containers, my hand will become just another container! Let’s see how we get from A to B.

October 12, 2023: first session of adding my hand to a familiar container

Nice start! In our next session, I’ll start with my hand in the bowl and then only offer my hand.

October 13, 2023: a lovely coin session!

I’m happy with today’s session!

October 17, 2023: Hand me a coin, continued!

Next time, I’ll vary the object!

October 26, 2023: I sit in a chair and Chai hands me a coin, tape, toy and toothbrush! Go puppy!

This is looking better and better! Some more generalizing of my body position, the location and the objects (this should also refine Chai’s targeting skills), and then the trick will be ready for a cue! (I’m thinking “Gimme!” or “Gimme, gimme, gimme!” – that ABBA song.)

October 29, 2023: different objects; no bowl to start with!

Chai did great today and understood what I wanted even though I didn’t start with a bowl! First object: the familiar baseball toy. No problem for her!

Second object: a squishy spiky ball. More fun to chew than hand to me!

Third object: the rubber thing that’s on my kitchen faucet. Tempting to chew at first but can then be handed over!

Fourth object: metal spoon. A little difficult to pick up the first time, but once she had figured it out, she did great!

I’ll keep working on this trick once or twice a week. I already have a couple winner objects I’ll keep mixing in: baseball toy, spoon, nail clippers, coin, glue stick. When using any of these, I’ll start using the “Gimme!” cue in the future.

I have a semi-new object (I used it but at an point in our training journey) I want to also use – no cue yet: an onion.

I also want to add the following new objects – maybe not every single one, but these come to mind: nail polish bottle (easy – I think), lime (easy – I think), plastic bottle lid (easy), beer can (medium – I think), mug (difficult to pick up), credit card (difficult), cellphone (difficult), wallet (medium), bill (difficult to not destroy?), keys (medium). No cue yet on any of these for sure.

I want to add a cue to all of the above and then try and get the same result when I’m standing up. Later on, I’d like to teach Chai to hand me objects I drop with the dropping itself being the cue.

October 21, 2023: adding the “Gimme” cue and standing up

Today, we worked with the glue stick, a 10-peso-coin and a spoon:

November 11, 2023

The keys on the keychain were too difficult … I’ll either take off the chain or use a different novel object next time!

January 3, 2023: Picking the fetch-anything-to-hand trick back up after a break!

I only used objects I thought would be easy and didn’t use a verbal cue in this session. I wanted to see how much Chai remembered!

Nice job, little Border Collie! She did really well and remembers the idea!

Notes for the next session:

I’ll use different objects next time – maybe start with the highlighter because it’s easy – and generalize a bit more before adding the “Gimme!” cue again and moving on to more difficult objects. I won’t use the DEET spray again because it probably tasted disgusting and may create aversion to this trick.

January 4, 2024: new objects!

Today, I tried some new objects and the keys Chai had struggled with when they had the chain attached … turns out they are still hard without a chain, as is a full water bottle:

Notes for the next session(s):

  • Keep up the 3-successful-reps-in-a-row strategy before switching objects!
  • Water bottle strategy: start with an empty one and work up to bottles containing more and more liquid (add weight) OR buy two full bottles and play a 2-toy game with them (like I did with the coins) to teach Chai she can pick them up.
  • Keys strategy: turn it into a game to teach her she can pick them up. Maybe 2 sets of keys for a game of 2-toy fetch?
  • Objects I want to eventually work up to (no rush): wallet (probably medium), credit card (probably difficult), keys (difficult), phone (probably difficult), beer can (probably medium after I’ve taught heavy, i.e. full, plastic bottles), bill (easy except for the danger of being ripped to shreds).

January 5, 2024: solving the key chain mystery!

I decided to play with the keys to see if I could encourage Chai to pick them up this way. My original suspicion, after trying with the full-length key chain attached, was that it was the keychain (the size of the object) that made it too hard to pick up. When I unclipped the chain (except for its little end piece) yesterday and Chai still couldn’t pick up the keys, I thought it was most likely the car key (the electronic key; maybe something inside of it smells weird or vibrates in some scary way you bite down on it). I tested this by first only using the keys, and then the keys with the keychain, and then only the car keys … turns out Chai is happy to play with both the keys and the car keys – but NOT with the little end piece of the key chain! Fascinating! I don’t know what it is about that piece, but I’m just going to have her let a say in this and will get a new keychain!

Without further ado – here’s our play session:

And the subsequent fetch session:

Here is a list of the overall fetch-to-hand objects that matter to me and the ones that I’ve already accomplished. Some of them are for fun; some of them are potentially useful service dog tasks if I drop stuff. This list is longer than yesterday’s list. E stands for “I believe it will be easy,” M for “medium difficulty” and D for “difficult.” This is just my suspicion; she may surprise me!

Wallet (M), credit card (D), keys, phone (D), beer can (M), bank bill (easy except for the danger of being ripped to shreds), full plastic bottles (D), coin, 2 types of mugs, leash handle (D), retractable leash (D), keys with new (yet to be acquired) key chain (D).

I’ll put at least one of the above we haven’t yet conquered into each new rotation! Eventually, I want “dropping the thing” to be the cue for Chai to pick it up and hand it to me. Same goes for pointing and “Gimme” if I haven’t dropped the thing. Only the beer cans may go into a more complex trick if I feel like it (open fridge, get beer, close fridge, bring beer …). The phone may be put on a “find my phone” cue if I feel like it – I am very talented at displacing my phone, so this may be neat and more useful (though less fun) than teaching Chai to fetch it when it rings.

Chaiary: December 2023 digest

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Getting out of the city

We’re getting into the new habit of leaving the city every week! Below: Game and Grit at a nature park with one of my current favorite songs. The trash truck crew was blasting it full volume in the morning and it made me smile. I asked them what it was called … and I’ve been listening to it on repeat ever since!

… and below is a video I took on December 31st, 2023, for my free-roaming dogs Youtube channel:


On the same outing, we also met free-roaming horses. Chai is curious and neither afraid nor does she see them as prey – perfect!

Like Game, Chai has turned into a dog who LOVES to swim:

New skill: running on a treadmill!

She hasn’t found her gate yet (she is pacing here and ideally, she’d be trotting), but once I let her go a little longer and fade the distracting treats, she’ll naturally fall into a trot at this speed. 

My hand stays in the same place to teach her where she needs to be if she doesn’t want to fall off behind or jump off in front. The cardboard on the side helps her stay straight. She can both “fall off” in the back (she lets herself drift there when I say “All done”) and jump out in front without issues. She could also just push the cardboard on the side over. No trapping Chais on treadmills – it’s a game for her, a confidence-building skill and a good exercise for dogs who may navigate airports (moving walkways, escalators) in their future.

Back to positions …

Chai used to be quite good at this as a puppy, but juvenile brain (and lack of working on it) caused her to backslide. So we’re building back up!

… and toy play!

Chai has turned into a great tugger! The video below is not a “perfect” session – but it shows really well how much fun and how fast Chai is! Also, isn’t she beautiful in her shiny coat? Not the fluffy kind of teddy bear show coat Border Collie but lean, slim, slick and shiny! She’s perfect for me in every way.

Dog Friends

After they were both in heat, Chai and Kiba let us know: no more puppy-like play for them! They were two señoras now and ready to do Adult Border Collie Things together.

It’s both sad and nice: I personally really like worky dogs who’ll choose to work with me over dog play and have an easy time ignoring others. On the other hand, it’s been a lot of fun to meet up at parks and watch our dogs play like there was no tomorrow.

Of all the dogs I’ve raised, Phoebe was the only one who stayed playful well into her adult age. Every other one got dog neutral once they “felt” grown up and dog-selective about their friends.

This is perfect for training and competition (no competition goals for Chai at this point, but you never know), but when living in Mexico City, it also takes away one of the biggest morning motivations of getting to the parks early in the morning: the joy of watching your dog play with every dog who’ll have them before their humans head into work!

Keeping up home-alone time

I’ve been following my own recommendations in terms of Chai’s home-alone time: she has stayed home alone without Game for 5-15 minutes almost every day, and home alone mostly with, but sometimes without Game for 1-5 hours about once a week.

It’s not the 1-year mark, but the fact that she is behaving like an adult dog that lets me know that going forwards, it’s okay to just let the home-alone times fluctuate naturally rather than ensuring she practices them almost daily.

I recommend that an adult dog stay home alone for 1-5 hours at least once every month indefinitely. This is easy for me to do because I live alone, but I recommend this for every dog, even if there are multiple household dogs and multiple human family members. Some dogs unlearn staying home alone in adulthood because they never have to. And there will be a day when you have to leave them home alone – there always is. Practice regularly and you’ll be prepared.

Chai completely outgrew her sensitive stomach!

I’m so happy that Chai, by now, can eat big quantities of almost anything and won’t get sick. Whatever caused her stomach to be sensitive as a puppy is gone. Yay for all the scavenging and creative reinforcing that lies ahead! We don’t even have to confine ourselves to tiny amounts anymore!

I did it: a year of Chaiaries!

I posted myself through a year of Chaiaries! The birthday I invented for Chai is December 19, 2022. So with this post, I’ll allow myself to stop posting as much as I used to. I’ve got some serious editing fatigue by now.

Now that Chai is a year old, I’ll probably only post and comment every now and then in bouts, like I do with Game, when I want to share how we progress through a particular skill. I still want to turn my “year of Chai” into a puppy raising video – documenting as much as I did was part of my motivation system to help me generate the video material I’d need. That said, who knows when I’ll get around to that. No rush!

Also, no worries – your regular dose of Chai isn’t going anywhere quite yet: there’s still some tricks posts to come!

Chaiary: November 2023 Digest

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Growing up …

+ 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!

Chaiary: October 2023 digest

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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?

+ We finished Chai’s distraction recall training plan!

+ 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.)

One wild and precious, E35: once I’ve trained a behavior, how can I increase its difficulty?

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This post goes with today’s podcast episode:

Imagine 4 slider controllers you can manipulate once your dog has learned the basics of a behavior: environment, arousal, distraction and freedom. Whether all 4 are relevant for a certain behavior will depend on the behavior in question and on your goals.

Personally, I like imagining 3 settings on each controller for most (not all) behaviors. For example, an environment can be easy, intermediate or difficult, arousal can be low, moderate or high, distractions can be absent, mild or strong, and in terms of freedom, a dog can be on leash, drag a leash or off leash; a dog can be in a small enclosed space, in a larger enclosed space or out in the real world …

You do, of course, not need to think in terms of 3 levels of difficulty for any of the slider controllers: you can have 2 or more than 3 settings; whatever makes sense for a certain behavior and for a certain slider.

A good rule of thumb is to only manipulate one setting at a time. This gives you, depending on what you are working on, a specific number of possible training conditions. Once your dog has successfully trained through all of them, your behavior should be VERY well proofed and generalized!

I am not a math person, but I wanted to think through an example (because why not).

Let’s assume that technically, our four sliders have 3 possible difficulty settings each. Let’s further assume we are working on a sit and want it to be generalized anywhere and everywhere.

Environment: we’ll choose at home (easy), on the sidewalk (intermediate) and at the mall (difficult).

Arousal level: we’ll choose a lazy dog after dinner (low), our dog after a brief afternoon walk (moderate) and our dog when looking forward to toy play (high – our dog is a ball junky mixy mix).

In terms of distractions, we’ll work without any distractions present (none), with food items on the ground (intermediate – our dog likes food but is crazier about toys) and with toys on the ground (our dog’s most difficult distraction).

In terms of freedom, we will hold on to the leash close to the collar (no freedom), hold on to the end of the leash (a little freedom) and then try off leash (full freedom).

I guessed that the number of possible unique training conditions would definitely be higher than 20 but likely lower than 100. I Googled aand found a formula that gave me an answer that was far higher than my frame (way above 100) and therefore likely wrong. My math PhD friend Jana came to my rescue and helped me determine that the correct answer is 81. Thank you, Jana!

If we wanted our dog to perform their sit (without duration or distance, which are not on my sliders) in all kinds of environments and with all kinds of distractions present and in different states of arousal, we could ask for it in 81 different ways and then I bet you that that sit (again, not a great example because it’s a behavior we probably want duration and distance on) can be carried out VERY well.

This is not impossible to solve without being a math person. If I hadn’t been lazy, I could have brute-force-thought my way through this problem by writing out the options. I’d have started like this:

  1. at home + low arousal + low distraction + no freedom
  2. at home + moderate arousal + low distraction + no freedom
  3. at home + high arousal + low distraction + no freedom
  4. at home + low arousal + intermediate distraction + no freedom
  5. at home + low arousal + difficult distraction + no freedom
  6. at home + low arousal + low distraction + some freedom
  7. at home + low arousal + low distraction + complete freedom

… and I would have ended up with 81 different training conditions that way. It’s doable; it just takes a bit of time.

If we added more sliders or more than 3 difficulty settings each, things would rapidly become un-brute-force-think-able (unless you have A LOT of time or are a lot faster than I)!

Update: Jana just made this amazing visualization (which feels as meditative as like looking at an aquarium to me) because … I don’t know, the dog people I know are amazing and also really good at this stuff?1 THANK YOU! I didn’t figure out how to embed the original interactive Python visual, so I screen-recorded it instead. Enjoy!

Thank you, Jana Fuchsberger, for being awesome and making this for me!
  1. Let me use this as an opportunity to thank the wonderful folks who have offered to help me with stuff like this just over the course of the last year! People have made awesome graphics for me (Chris Cernac), done math and made this visualization (Jana Fuchsberger), helped me figure out how to run online classes without knowing about programming (Zane Selvans) and offered to help me build an online learning platform if I wanted to have my own (Sukrita Sundar). THANK YOU to all of you!

    Also, a big thank you to the amazing students and colleagues who have brainstormed with me, inspired me and agreed to be my guinea pigs as I try out new things … even when these things start out janky because I’m learning how to do them as I’m doing them! Thank you for sticking with me and concincing me that my time and my way of engaging with dogs and humans are valuable, and for sharing your dogs and your thoughts with me, inspiring me, surprising me and making me laugh and cry and everything in between!

    Since I’m apparently writing a whole paragraph about who I’m grateful for, let me not forget the most important ones: MY PEOPLE on all the continents who I can rely on and reach out to anytime, no matter what and unconditionally. Moni, Helmut, Pablx, Rachel, Chris H. – know that I feel lucky to have you in my life. Hugs to you all except for Chris H. who doesn’t like hugs – a bottle of Veracruz sun and warm weather for you instead! You are a big part of what makes my life good, and you have unfalteringly been there when it wasn’t good and allowed me to be there for you. I love you all lots. ↩︎

Chaiary: being a brave puppy in a scary world

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Soap box tangent: how I approach bravery in client dogs

Different trainers have different views. That’s exactly the way it should be because different dogs and different owners need different solutions. What I do has worked well for myself, my dogs and my clients. Maybe it will work for you too. Maybe it won’t. If it doesn’t, I am sure there is a trainer out there whose approach is just right for YOU and your dog! And if you don’t find that trainer, you’ll just come up with your very own approach!

Being a lifelong learner is important to me, and my approach to fear and insecurity has evolved over the years I’ve worked as a professional trainer. Initially, I was very methodical: counterconditioning and desensitization, please! Then I discovered more nuanced and seemingly less stressful protocols like BAT and a lot of CU ideas. I tried using them with as many client dogs as possible (they are great, especially – if you ask me – CU).

Today, I look at the dog in front of me, their human and their environment. First, we make sure the dog’s baseline needs are being met (exercise, mental stimulation, social needs etc). Baseline needs differ from dog to dog – some need a lot of mental stimulation, some need a lot of exercise, some need a lot of social contact, some need a little bit of all, not much of any or something completely different such as a job (herding, hunting, obedience, bite work …).

Once we have met the baseline needs for 3-4 weeks, we take another look at the challenge. Is it even still a challenge or has it disappeared all on its own once we started meeting previously unmet needs? (Textbook example: a client with a young husky upped their dog’s daily exercise and offered frozen Kongs while they were at work rather than a bowl of food after they got home. We sprinkled a little management on top of it – and the dog stopped destroying the apartment, no further training needed!)

If the challenge is still present, the approach I choose will be the one that is …

  • easiest to implement and
  • most likely to succeed and
  • takes up the least amount of time and resources for whoever I am working with.

This means wildly different things depending on the owner’s resources (financial, time-wise, access to helper dogs and human support systems), where they live (urban, suburban, rural), what kind of dog keeping culture surrounds them, how they think (do you want fast solutions? Does authoritarian dog training appeal to you? Do you want to give your dog all the time in the world? Would you like to be a permissive handler? Somewhere in the middle, a different combination, something else entirely?) How experienced are you training dogs? How mobile are you (are you ablebodied? Do you have a car?) And of course it also depends on your dog: who is your dog and what is their baseline behavior in the face of the stimulus we are concerned with?

Depending on all of the above, no two training plans will look exactly the same. I may send you to consult with a veterinary behaviorist, with a general vet or I may even refer you out to a different trainer I believe will be a better fit. Or I’ll work with you in any number of different ways!

… and in my own dogs!

I will work with the dog in front of me and I am pretty relaxed these days. (I used to have a dog who wanted to murder other dogs. Once you’ve had that dog, everything else seems pretty minor in comparison.)

If my dog’s level of insecurity (my word for low-intensity distance-increasing behaviors) does NOT tip into fear (my word for mid-intensitiy distance-increasing behaviors) or even panic (my word for high-intensity distance-increasing behaviors), I will approach the challenge as organically as possible.

Space permitting and with the concerning stimulus being stationary and evoking insecurity, I may simply walk past a few times with my off leash dog. The May 27 video below (“Marching band madness”) is an example of this.

I may also apply the magic hands trick, bring the mildly insecurity provoking object into a safe environment (see the balloon in the June 14 video) or let my dog watch a confident dog interact with an object (magic paws if you will) – again, see June 14 video).

Faced with fear, I will be more systematic and likely use either CU or classical CC/DS with my dogs.

Faced with panic, I would put my dog on anti-anxiety meds until I got down to “fear” level intensity and then use CU or classical CC/DS.

How about human animals?

For myself, I gamify specific life challenges whenever possible. It is the approach of my choice and it works amazingly well for me, especially when there is a clear start and end date for a particular challenge.

Trusted friends I can safely share my challenges, vent to and celebrate successes with are a crucial element as well.

(Again – just me. It’s not for everyone and that’s totally okay – there are countless ways of dealing with challenges, and what works for one person doesn’t necessarily work for the next.)

Just like for our dogs, meds may be part of the training (or life) plan, and so may be therapy – the human version of seeing a dog trainer/behavior specialist!

Video examples (dog, not human training!)

May 26, 2023: Recreating scary situations in safe environments: tarps blowing in the wind become curtains blowing in a fan

On today’s adventure loop, we saw a tarp blowing in the wind and Chai got a little spooked. After watching it for a while, she was able to cautiously walk past it. This is the second time I have seen this reaction to something blowing in the wind – that’s my cue that tarp feelings aren’t a one-off thing and we need to work on things blowing in the wind! When we got home, I set up the fan and pointed it at the curtains:

May 27, 2023 (Chai’s 51st day with me) – mastering marching band madness

June 9, 2023: braving the glass elevator at the mall without big sister Game

You might remember that Chai had a scary encounter with an elevator door (it closed on her tail) and ended up being suspicious of that particular elevator. The video below is from her second time riding a different elevator – the first time without Game and the second time overall. We rode it several times. Brave puppy!

June 14, 2023: bringing previously (mildly) suspicious objects into a safe and familiar environment; having a confident dog model interaction with a suspicious object; organic counterconditioning through play

Another way to help dogs get used to weird things is to bring them into an environment that is already charged with feelings of safety. This is what I did with a balloon Chai thought was suspicious when it was blowing around in the street. While we were out on a walk, I used the Magic Hands trick on it. Then, since Chai seemed fine with it, I took it home to let it blow around the air stream of the fan some more. Chai wasn’t fazed by its movement anymore at this point. Together with Game, she destroyed it (it took about 30 seconds and is sadly not on the video because the camera was facing the wrong way), and then the dogs went into dog/dog play. This is excellent because play is a wonderful way to reset, recover and have fun. By playing after interacting with a not-entirely-neutral object, we are counterconditioning the feelings about that object. (I don’t think we need to be doing much counterconditioning anymore at this point – Chai fearlessly approaches the balloon in the beginning of the video – but I’m showing it to you to give you yet another idea for how to help your (mildly concerned) dog accept a novel object. Both its presence in a safe environment and a confident dog modeling interaction with the object can be a game changer.

Caveat: do not introduce something your dog is utterly panicked about into their safe space! This could backfire and make the safe space feel less safe!

June 16, 2023: Magic hands in combination with negative reinforcement (distance) in a difficult situation.

Chai mastered the construction corridor right as I was ready to leave and find another way past!

June 27, 2023: magic hands and negative reinforcement off leash

June 29, 2023: braving the fountain pump with magic hands and R- (second time)

The treat toss relief game

Real life examples: in August, 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.

I’m calling this the treat toss/relief game (until I think of a sexier name). It is R- because having moved past the entrance is 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. Chai’s comfort curves allowed her to have agency and be brave. Every time we passed, her curve was less pronounced and she was able to pass closer to the vent.

She still kept a little distance when we ended that first session, but has since – we’ve gone back to practice a few times – lost all fear of the vent.

In December, Chai encountered a suspicious tree stump on a sidewalk in our neighborhood and we applied the same strategy. After walking past several times and getting treat-toss relief on either side, she bravely walked up to the tree stump and sniffed it!

Here’s an example of what this looks like with a pretend suspicious object – on and off leash:

Puppies/juvenile dogs and fear responses

Young dogs are still learning about the world. Their brains are under construction, and occasionally, they will respond in unexpected ways to things that, to our human eyes/minds, are perfectly normal. Sometimes, they’ll even have a day where they will respond with suspicion to something they have previously been fine with such as your trash can.

If you take your dog out into the world on a regular basis and these incidents are few and far between – no need to worry at all. Chances are you’ve just encountered an object while the part of the brain that considers this object normal is closed for business. (I imagine puppies and juvenile dogs with cartoon brains, and one part of the cartoon brain, for example, says, “Trash cans are okay.” As your dog grows up, there may be days when that part of the brain is taking a vacation and not accessible to the rest of your dog. Don’t panic – just come back another day or use one of the organic strategies to remind your dog of that part of their brain.

Royalty-free Pixabay image by GDJ – thank you!

When to take further measures

If a particular fear persists for more than a week – think about training that may help; organic or structured. Example of a more structured session: Control Unleashed games or Shaping Confidence!

Shaping Confidence

Hadley demoes what Shaping Confidence looks like when encountering a rude penguin in the outskirts of Vienna, where penguins are an invasive species and not supposed to hang around doorways:

The clip above is an older video (ca. 2015; hence the less than great quality). Look at the video description to read my thoughts on this session at the time!

CU games

In the video below, Windsprite Winnie and her wonderful human Chantal play LAT and TAB:

LAT is hands down my favorite CU game for environmentally sensitive dogs! I LOVE working on it because I’ve seen the most amazing results. Winnie is an environmentally sensitive dog, but Chantal has helped her grow her comfort zone and relax in more and more spaces by first playing CU games (like Look At That and Take A Breath) and then shifting to chewing on Toppls while watching the world go by.

If fears gets worse or if your dog responds fearfully to many different stimuli in many different environments all the time, see a veterinary behaviorist (if you live in a country where behavior is a veterinary specialty) or consult with a trainer specializing in behavior who has a basic knowledge of medications and connections to vets (if there are no veterinary behaviorists in your country).

One US-based team of vets and trainers (who also offer virtual services) I recommend is Behavior Vets (New York, Colorado, virtual).