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!
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!
+ 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.)
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:
at home + low arousal + low distraction + no freedom
at home + moderate arousal + low distraction + no freedom
at home + high arousal + low distraction + no freedom
at home + low arousal + intermediate distraction + no freedom
at home + low arousal + difficult distraction + no freedom
at home + low arousal + low distraction + some freedom
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!
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. ↩︎
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).
If you’ve been following Chai’s diary, you probably know that she was not house trained when I got her as a foster and hasn’t learned to only go outside since then either. I suspect there is a sensitive period for learning not to pee and poop where you sleep, and Chai was confined to a small space during that time (i.e. she had no other option but to go right where she was). That’s just my best guess. I don’t know what parts of her backstory check out. I only know that some of it does not (she did not have the chip number she supposedly had, for example). The story I got was that Chai originally came from the state of Guerrero, was bred on a farm from a sheep-working sire and a pet dam, and her previous owner had gotten her for themselves but needed a foster or rehome fast due to a tragic family incident.
Assuming there actually is a sensitive period for learning not to pee/poop where you sleep would imply she did not grow up the way she supposedly did – growing up in a family/farm environment and then moving to a different family environment would not cause the pee/poop response to be repressed because there would be plenty of space to leave your sleeping spot to pee. Unless, of course, the sensitive period only happens after 8 weeks (when the previous owner supposedly got her) and she was then confined to a crate. She was in a crate when I picked her up – so maybe. I suspect it happens earlier though. I know folks who do not put effort into housetraining at all and still end up with a house trained dog – just a little later than the folks who do put in effort. That data, of course, is entirely anecdotal and my sample size is small.
Another anecdotal data point was shared with me by one of my wonderful students. Their breeder shared a video where 3 week old puppies would crawl away from the “puppy pile” when needing to go. To me, this suggests a sense of cleanliness kicking in when the puppies barely open their eyes. But again – this is a single anecdotal data point.
A second hypothesis about Chai’s past (I do not know how likely it is and it doesn’t matter) is that her previous owner told me the truth about their job: they procure puppies for pet stores. It is possible that Chai was a pet store puppy (I’ve seen these puppies; they are usually kept in the tiniest cages and definitely cannot pee/poop somewhere they don’t sleep) who aged out of the pet store without being purchased. I know pet stores sell Border Collies around here because I’ve seen them. The most popular Border Collie color in Mexico City is blue merle – not Chai’s color. She may simply not have been purchased while being tiny and cute enough to be put on sale and have gone back to the person procuring puppies after – who did not want to keep her. In that case, things would add up and this would explain why Chai still pees and poops in a crate, too, anytime the thought crosses her mind and she happens to be in her car crate. She may either have been in the pet store cage (resembling a terrarium around here) from an early age on and/or come from a puppy mill type situation, growing up confined to a space she and her mom and littermates barely fit into even before she got to a pet store. (This is not necessarily the case for pet store puppies here. Pet stores also purchase puppies from private folks whose pure-bred looking dogs happen to have puppies.)
I’m aware that I’m just telling myself these stories. I prefer to assume that people tell the truth, but there are 4 things that make me wonder in Chai’s case:
1. Chai’s chip number didn’t check out. 2. The previous owner stopped responding right after I picked her up. 3. They didn’t answer my question about Chai’s birth date (they may not have known). 4. The strange peeing behavior. 5. Her sociability (if she was a pet store puppy and got handled by folks, this would make more sense than if she hadn’t seen anyone but the previous owner between the age of 8 weeks and 4.5 months).
Is there a sensitive/critical period for no house soiling?
I’ve tried to pinpoint the elusive sensitive period of no house soiling but can’t pin it down. I have found a number of sources and meta analyses that found dogs from commercial breeding operations (“puppy mills”) and pet stores have significantly higher incidents of house soiling as adults. However, none of the studies I found went into the details in terms of whether/when there is a sensitive/critical period. I also came across an article (not a peer-reviewed study) claiming dogs who are not house trained by 1 year of age are unlikely to ever become so. Chai’s fake first birthday is in 2 days, and there’s no house training on the horizon.
Gamification
Anyways, so Chai and I have been working on this ever since I got her. I ran a gamification course – partly because I love gamification hacks and partly because I wanted to gamify the house training challenge for myself to stay on top of it – and playing is more fun in good company! So I created a 4-week peer-support course around the topic. While cheering on others, I also set myself a specific goal: I was going to play a streak game for 4 weeks.
I divided the four weeks into four 7-day streaks and came up with the following rules:
During waking hours, I wanted Chai to pee more often outside than inside. Any day I accomplished this goal, I would add one turquois check mark to my weekly streak.
If I got as many or less inside pees as outside pees, my weekly streak would reset and I would start over with check mark 1 of 7. Previously completed (entirely turquois) 7-day streaks would remain – only current weeks could reset.
Anytime I got an outside poop (still a rare occurrance), I would automatically color the check mark for the respective day, independently of Chai’s peeing behavior.
After any 7 day streak, I’d get a brownie. (Very tasty and sold for the most ridiculous price I have encountered, so it’s not something I’d usually purchase.)
After four 7-day streaks (no need for them to be uninterrupted by resets), I’d treat myself to a large house plant.
Example of week 4/4.
I played in a closed group together with my amazing students. Everyone gamified one challenge or another – some of them life related, some of them dog related. The creativity of folks was truly inspiring and I LOVED how our little community cheered each other on and how our virtual group became a confidential and vulnerable space of trust, sharing and compassion. I ended up adding a second more complex life-related quest game for myself as well because playing with this group of people was so much fun. Thank you to all who participated!
Curated peeing patterns
I was aware that I influenced Chai’s peeing behavior heavily by means of taking her out as much as I’d take out an 8 week old puppy. I also always brought Game and encouraged Chai to pee (mark) over Game’s pee and then reinforced. Chai did that pretty reliably, but often only a drop or two. I put peeing on cue with the help of Game peeing first, but would occasionally only get a dry squat from Chai: turns out I had put squatting rather than peeing on cue!
Because I caused peeing outside with the help of antecedent arrangement (Game pees first) and consequences (reinforcement), I ended up with a much higher number of total pees (more pees I ended up counting were single-drop marking instances rather than actual bladder-emptying pees which still mostly happen indoors).
Anyways, I became aware of this since I counted the pees every day and realized Chai peed a lot more often than an average dog her age. So I decided to chart the 4 weeks of the game. In this chart, the inside pee number is higher than it was in the game because I added all nightly (inside) pees to it too.
Pees during the gamified month of August 2023. The number of shower pees is higher in the chart than in the game because I added the nightly pees (which I didn’t count in the game).
What does the data look like if I stop consciously influencing the numbers (playing the game)?
I suspected if I influenced Chai’s peeing behavior less (if I didn’t take her out quite as often and stopped encouraging her to mark), I’d get less daily outside pees than inside pees and a lower number of total daily pees. To test this hypothesis, I kept counting for 17 days after the game had ended. I didn’t play to win brownies anymore but just lived my life. I was right:
The reason I counted for only 17 days is that I traveled and boarded Chai starting September 18.
Finally, I wanted to visualize how the total number of daily pees was higher in the gamified condition than in the no-game condition. (Apparently, once C-s learn to graph things in spreadshits, they can’t stop.)
I used the first 17 days of August 2023 because I only had data for 17 days in September.
I was right again: clearly, more total pees in the gamified condition!
What do we learn from all this?
Nothing in particular (except how to make graphs – thank you, Zane, for helping me work out the last kink!) I still plan on ruling out medical stuff, but I suspect the reason that Chai pees smaller amounts more often while Game pees bigger amounts less often is simply that Game holds her pee until we go outside while Chai has no motivation to hold her pee inside. (She can hold her pee and will for many hours if we go exciting places, but she won’t hold it at home – she’ll go right away.)
I suspect this is just going to be what life will look like: shower pees for Chai. That’s okay. Of all the issues a dog could possibly have, this is probably the one that bothers me the least – especially as long as she keeps peeing and pooping in the shower rather than elsewhere. It just means I’ll clean the shower more often than I would otherwise. That’s not a big deal for me.
What we optimize for
A random observation here is that gamification and reinforcers cause us to optimize performance (no surprise there). The data for August shows this well. However, I did not end up optimizing what I intended (Chai’s peeing behavior outside) but my own behavior (the number of times I took her out in a day). I became aware of this quickly, but did NOT stop playing because I wanted to keep collecting brownies. So this is really interesting too (to me anyways): even if we are aware we haven’t optimized for our actual goal, we may keep our rule structure as is because we want the pay-off (in my case the brownie) and don’t see a simple way to change things around and get brownies just as easily. Brownies I would not otherwise treat myself to are a strong motivator for me, as was the visual representation of seeing my streak grow! Human behavior is fun!
Note to self (and anyone else with a human brain): cafeful what you optimize for (if you actually care about your goal!)
Afterthought
Just in case it isn’t clear: I love this dog and couldn’t love her more. I don’t care where she does her business, and I don’t care what her backstory is. I just found it interesting to think about my house training adventures and share them with you here!
Distraction recall, iteration 6L3: 1/2.0/3.C: 6th training plan adaptation, 3rd location (L3), levels 1 (hand-held long line), 2.0 (tether) and 3 (off leash) with distraction C (liver; difficult).
October 25, 2023: upwards and onwards to our third and last real-world location!
Tacos de canasta! Chai prefers them filled with chicharrón. My favorites are de papas y frijol.
We restocked on delicious tacos de canasta de chicharrón (¡5 por $MX40!) and did an easy taco recall at the Urban Enrichment Jungle yesterday. Today, it is time for the next step on our game board: recalling away from the liver distraction on a long line!
I had hoped I’d get away with Chai not knowing it was a set-up, but she did, resulting in a funny video: after my release, she went straight to the tripod (that wasn’t hidden this time) and looked for the distraction there before finding it under the trash cans (where I had put it because she keeps finding food around there in off-leash park contexts). Her long line toppled my tripod, but the phone kept recording and I picked it back up just in time to show you Chai actually finding and enjoying her liver. Achievement unlocked!
… and here’s our progress on the board:
Jumping back into the ocean where an easy taco recall awaits to recharge for the swim!
October 27, 2023: the little Border Collie keeps moving towards the treasure!
After yesterday’s easy taco recall at the Urban Enrichment Jungle, we did the tether (front-clip alternative to back tie) session in park #3 today. Chai nailed it once again! She knew it was a set-up. In the video below, you can see her check in with me twice – knowing there is a distraction has become a cue for her to ask me to call her! I wanted to let her get closer today and didn’t call in either of these instances. When I finally called, I got a turn on a dime. And then an amusing search for the distraction Chai knew was there … it just wasn’t where she thought (right by the tripod).
Plan for the next session
For our most difficult and final recall session – off leash in location #3 – I will call Chai earlier again – the first time she looks at me or at the latest when she’s at the spot she looked back the second time today. I’ll also place the camera right with the distraction next time. Chai knows these are set-ups, so why not give away the location. If we still get a single-rep success … we get to open the treasure chest!!
But first things first: let’s not forget that the very next formal recall needs to be an easy taco one. We need to charge back up for that last big challenge of the Tacos & Border Collies game!
Tacos & Border Collies: the game I didn’t know I needed but clearly did!
I better not get too cocky just because we can already see the shore! If Chai doesn’t nail a recall, her avatar will have to go back to the free taco behind the closest LL field behind and work back up from there!
October 29, 2023: wooohooooooo!
After yesterday’s easy taco recall at Los Dinamos, today, we DID it! Easy, says Chai: recalling away from a slice of dehydrated liver – a difficult distraction – at our third location is a walk in the park! She got a taco de canasta de chicharrón and an immediate “Okay” release to go find her distraction as a double-reinforcer.
I bought a second extra taco – I’ve decided that the key to the treasure chest is one last easy taco recall. Then, finally, we get my BIG reward: giving Chai off-leash freedom in the streets. I haven’t opened the treasure chest, but I know that off-leash street freedom is what’s in there!
Off-leash freedom in an urban area
If I hadn’t needed off-leash freedom as a motivator to keep me working on the formal recall, I’d have let Chai off leash on the sidewalks several months ago already. But a while ago, I said my criteria for off-leash freedom included finishing my distraction recall protocol – thinking I’d get there much faster!
When I didn’t get there as fast as expected AND decided to make my distraction recall training goal harder (not just kibble, but also liver), I also decided to wait on the off-leash freedom: I wanted something to keep me working through the protocol!
It would have been easy to allow Chai that kind of freedom sooner: she is a friendly/shy-in-the-face-of-startles dog in an off-leash world where not having a great recall on your off leash dog is culturally okay.
But no: I wanted to show my students that I could modify my protocol to teach Chai to come when called away from a VERY difficult distraction – not just kibble – with positive reinforcement. And today, I did: I met my goal!
One more easy taco recall to unlock the treasure chest, and Chai is FINALLY going to go on REAL off-leash city walks!Go puppy! Go me! Here’s to the power of the taco!
Distraction recall, iteration 6L2: 1/2.0/3.C: 6th training plan adaptation, 2nd location (L2), levels 1 (holding on to long line), 2.0 (back tie) and 3 (off leash) with distraction C (liver; difficult).
October 18, 2023: on to our second location!
New location – new post! Yesterday, Chai got an easy taco recall at the Urban Enrichment Jungle: I called her when she was already looking at me, tongue-clicked as she came running and ran away to make it more fun. She got a taco de canasta and lots of praise when catching up with me!
Today, recharged and ready for the next step in our game, we found ourselves a new location – the second one I want to proof the difficult distraction in. In this first round, Chai does not know it’s a set-up. The tripod is hidden in a hedge and I sneakily placed the liver slice when she was ahead of me; then caught up with her, long-lined her and meandered back towards the distraction. I wanted a spot that wouldn’t need a visual target this time, so we played on mowed grass. You can see Chai find the distraction by means of following her nose after recalling. I suspect it was the smell of the distraction that prompted her to check in when she did (which I used as a start button; calling her earlier than I had planned on).
(She knew to take the gap in the hedge on her way up the hill because that’s where we had come down as well.)
Difficult distraction – long line – location #3: success!
October 20, 2023: tether success (and SQUIRREL success!)
Yesterday, Chai got an easy taco recall at Urban Enrichment Jungle (no video). Today, we tackled our next distraction stage!
After our tether success – I would call it a back tie but it is actually a front tie because Chai is wearing her front-attachment harness! – we looped through the park off leash. As we were nearing the exit, I called her back informally and she didn’t come – I didn’t see the distraction that held her interest, and for some reason, my formal recall came out of my mouth. Chai turned on a dime and shot back to me; I saw she was turning away from A SQUIRREL! and emptied out the kibble left in my treat pouch for her (since I was all out of tacos) and then cued “Birds!” (the release to chase critters) and went looking for the squirrel together with her. It took us 30 seconds, but we found it and Chai had a good chase.
I wasn’t planning on using her formal recall in this kind of situation and without a taco reinforcer – but she rocked it! However, I will definitely do an easy taco recall next! Recharge, recharge, recharge!
October 21, 2023: easy taco recall in a new location
I bought tacos de pechuga de pollo con frijol y nopales at a subway stop and played at a park nearby that we’ve never been to – not the very best of ideas, it turned out, since Chai’s inital reaction told me that the meat may still have been hot when she took her reward.
I decided to make up for the potentially hot taco with another easy taco recall tomorrow before going back to our last distraction stage at location 2/3: off leash, unprotected liver!
October 22, 2021: another easy taco recall
I did another easy taco recall in the house – just calling Chai from the couch to the kitchen and surprising her with a delicious, chicken-breast-stuffed taco (no video). NOW we are ready to tackle our next challenge!
October 23, 2023: we DID it! Chai just nailed an off-leash liver recall at location 2/3!
Look how far ahead this puts us in the Tacos & Border Collies game! We’ve ventured across island #2!
Despite our detour (2 easy taco recalls before today’s off leash one), we are well on our way towards the treasure!
Our next recall will be an easy taco one – time to recharge at the shore before jumping into the ocean again! – and then we’ll tackle our third real-world location in the next post in this series!
Distraction recall, iteration 6L1: 1/2.0/3.C: 6th training plan adaptation, 1st location (L1), levels 1 (holding on to long line), 2.0 (back tie) and 3 (off leash) with distraction C (liver; difficult).
We’re ready to face down our nemesis – the most difficult food distraction – or so I hope! First things first though: our next session will be an easy taco recall, no distractions. We need to keep that response sharp and fun! And then … we’ll gamify!
Tacos and Border Collies, the game
Then, I will play with liver in 3 locations. I made a game board (thank you, Canva) to hopefully not skip any steps. From experience, I know that if I accidentally skip a step, Chai will outsmart me! Here’s our board: all of the steps below and we will have reached our distraction recall goal.
This is how we (plan to) beat our nemesis – the most difficult food distraction! The little Border Collie and I will hike and swim from island to island until we reach the treasure chest: it contains off-leash privileges out in the streets of Mexico City! Because hiking and swimming is hard on the body and mind, Chai needs to recharge with an easy taco recall after each distraction she masters!
October 11, 2023: rising to the first challenge on our the path!
Yesterday, we did an easy taco recall at Dead Poultry Park. Today, we went to location #1 for our third and most difficult distraction – liver – and had a successful recall on a long line!! Go Chai!!
On the path to recall success!
October 14, 2023: back tie success!
After another easy taco recall the other day, Game nailed her back tie recall in location #1/3 today! Go puppy!!!
October 16, 2023: off leash SUCCESS!
Yesterday, we went to Chapultepec and I brought my last taco de birria … unfortunately, I forgot all about it because I was there with friends. So instead of getting an easy taco recall out and about, Chai got an even easier one back home in the living room.
And today, we finally did it: our first off-leash recall success away from the most difficult distraction – liver – in our first of three real-world locations!
Go Chai, master of swimming across oceans! Tomorrow, you’ll get to recharge again:
The title of this iteration is 6L3: 1/2.0/3.B: 6th training plan adaptation, 3rd location (L3), levels 1 (holding on to long line), 2.0 (back tie) and 3 (off leash) with distraction B (kibble). Slow and steady wins the race!
The day before yesterday, Chai had an easy taco recall at the Urban Enrichment Jungle. Today, we are back to the first distraction session in our third location: Kiba’s Park!
October 5, 2023: first session in location 3
We’ll start out with holding the long line in my hands. I’ve got a taco de canasta con chicharrón ready and will release Chai to the intermediate distraction (kibble) by dropping the long line after a successful recall. Let’s see how things go today!
Success!
Our next recall will be an easy taco one, followed by one with the distraction in the exact same location at Kiba’s Park … and a backtie! Slowly and steadily, we are getting closer to our highest value distraction!
October 7, 2023: back-tie success!
After yesterday’s easy taco recall at Toy Play Plaza (no video), today, it was time for the back-tie distraction recall! Chai knew this was a set-up but she didn’t know exactly where it was:
You can’t see the back tie – but it stayed loose! Go puppy!
I should do the easy taco recall tomorrow in the same space since there will be no empty target session this time! And then … off leash!
October 9, 2023: intermediate distraction off leash in location 3/3 – success!!!
Chai got an easy taco recall at the Dead Poultry Park yesterday, and today, I picked up 3 freshly made tacos de canasta de chicharrón and we tackled our last stop in the intermediate distraction recall stage: off leash, unprotected intermediate distraction (kibble), location 3 with the first taco. She did it!!! Another easy taco recall next, and then we’ll be ready to start with – drumroll – DIFFICULT distractions!
