Chai anticipated my recall and turned towards me right as I called! Superstar puppy: few experiences feel as good as seeing a distraction turn into a cue before your very eyes!
Now the sensible thing would, of course, be to take a break and move on to distraction number #3 – the most difficult one: kibble! For whatever reason, we did not do the sensitive thing: we stopped here and declared the roof stage a success. Distraction #3 just skipped my mind and we headed back down to start a day of coworking. No roof kibble recalls for Chai. (Mark my words: print out your distraction tracker if you’re a student working with it! I came up with this protocol and not even I seem to be able to keep it straight!)
Urban art clue #7: you already have enough information to narrow down the possible streets and go looking. This clue will let you find the correct street triangle: the building and accompanying terrain the art piece is on is fenced off in blue on all sides. Narrow down the streets it could be on and find the blue fence.
I haven’t gone off the rails yet – still sticking to the distraction recall tracker (apart from the fact that the leash tightened for distraction #1 at the park and I did not repeat that session). So for the most part – good dog trainer, C! Click and treat!
Yesterday, we tested out of level 1 and are now at level 2 of my distraction protocol – the barrier/helper stage: the dog will be off leash and the 3 distractions in their 3 environments either behind a barrier or being protected by a helper who is ready to cover or pick them up. Zane agreed to be the guardian of my distractions. Sunday morning, we tackled Chai’s easy distraction – the empty plate – in our first (easiest) environment: the living room.
We took a brief break and moved on to distraction #2 – the paper bag:
This session looked even better than the previous one where Chai had every-so-briefly hesitated (which I ever-so-nonchalantly ignored): now she was sure I had chicken, and nothing (she knew of) beat chicken!
Upwards and onwards – distraction #3, the most difficult one! Kibble! What do you think is about to happen? Take a guess; then let’s find out:
Did you think I would crash and burn? Not at all! The master of puppyteers is lulling me in a false sense of security all the while concocting The Master Plan below her dark sunglasses deceptively big ears. She’s a poker player drawing me in with puppy dog eyes: she is letting me win and win again. She is pushing stacks of chips neurotransmitters, hormones and endorphines of proud dogtrainerness across the table: “I am anticipating your every wish! You can trust me, C. Would a creature as cute and perfectly eared as I ever eat your kibble? We are a team. You are my ride or die. Sunsets! And something about stealing horses in your native language! Raise the stakes, C! GO ALL IN! It is going to be a glorious day.”
Urban art clue #6: our art piece is located on one of the sides of a triangle formed by two major highway-ish streets (the a and b sides of the triangle) that appear yellow in the “map” or “terrain” view of Google Maps, and by one smaller street (the c side of the triangle). My triangle sides may not be properly named, but I’m the one naming them, so you’ll all just have to live with it. Triangle anarchy! 🏴☠️
June 24, 2024 – first things first: happy CDMX pride day!1
… and now on to our regularly scheduled dog training programming!
Level 1 (Chai on a long line), distraction #1 (empty plate – easy), environment #3 (difficult)
In an ideal world, I would have recognized that the long line tightened in the moment or reviewed the video before moving on and noticed it then and there. I’d then have repeated the same recall, taken a break and repeated it again. Single-rep (first rep of a session) success on a long line? Only then would I have moved on to distraction #2. It’s not an ideal world though and I was in a hurry to meet my friends. So we took our break and then soldiered on:
Level 1 (Chai on a long line), distraction #2 (paper bag – intermediate), environment #3 (difficult)
I got lucky! Chai’s long line did not tighten this time! In retrospect, I can’t believe what she let me get away with after tightening the line with the easy distraction! (Also in retrospect, it does make sense because she had already figured out that the long line would stop her, including in this environment, and that she was on a long line.)
We looped around the park for a while to give Chai a break, and then set back up for our most difficult distraction:
Level 1 (Chai on a long line), distraction #2 (paper bag – intermediate), environment #3 (difficult)
The reason I put the kibble on the plate is that otherwise, it wouldn’t have been visible against the ground.
… and believe it or not: the long line actually did stay loose again! Chai is building my confidence! She’s got this! I‘ve got this! We are invincible! (Or are we?)
Urban art clue #5: It sits on a border street between two colonias. The colonia the art piece belongs to has more than one part (as established yesterday). The colonia it borders only has a single part. Also: updated picture! The original piece seems to be gone or have been altered, but we have a new one in its place! Urban art is alive!
I am critical of the commercialization of pride events and aware of the fact that especially trans women are being shown the door – and much, much worse – in Zona Rosa on a regular basis. Trans women are being disappeared and murdered right where Pride is celebrated quite literally all the time. I see the announcements of missing people and murders on my news feed, and there are a lot of them. It was still the first time that I was in CDMX in June and I wanted to see the biggest Pride event I’d ever had a chance to attend (this is the biggest city I’ve been to this time of year). So that’s what I did – this year. Next year, I’ll go to the protest marcha de la Tianguis Disidente instead. Gotta remain true to my values, and pretending that every queer person is treated equally and we’re all one big happy family is most certainly not one of them. This year, I was happy to be in my city though, buy a pride flag to wear as a cape and jump into the rainbowy river of people with my friends. ↩︎
Next stop: the roof of our apartment building! We’re off to a strong start with the empty plate. (The reason no one here is running full speed is the fact that it is HOT!)
Upwards and onwards: intermediate distraction on the roof – the paper bag!
This went so well – after a break, we head back for our third and most difficult challenge in the intermediate environment: kibble!
At first sight, the video above looks great: Chai recalled, didn’t she? Well – yes and no. Watch again! At 00:11, she does a double take. I should not count this as a win, but repeat the session. I saw the double take in real time and again when reviewing the video. And then I said to myself: you know what, she is doing SO well – nevermind that little hesitation. Oh, past C, my friend! Future C smiles at you and shakes his head. You lowered your guard! You don’t know it yet, past C – but nothing escapes the twentythird sense of The Border Collie. She won’t let that one slide …
Urban art clue #4: it IS in one of the neighborhoods that have more than one part (when I say parts, I mean the equivalent of Upper, Lower and Midtown Manhattan.)
Since the person writing this post is future C, I can tell you: this is the start of a very long strategy game between puppy Chai and me!
In this first round of distraction recalls, I planned on using my distraction protocol (the way I teach it in Calling All Dogs1 at FDSA). We’d work our way through it – should be a breeze! – and move on to more interesting training projects! (Future C laughs out loud. Oh, past C! You are too cute when you underestimate The Border Collie!)
3 distractions:
Empty plate (easy)
Crumpled-up bag that used to have food in it (intermediate)
Kibble (difficult)
3 locations:
Living room (easy)
Roof (intermediate)
Park (difficult)
3 levels of distraction protection:
Long line
Off leash, distraction behind barrier (helpers and fences)
Off leash, no distraction
I have a distraction training tracker I ask my students to fill in because I know how easy it is to accidentally skip steps. I filled it in for Chai as well. This is what it looked like. The mistake I made was that I didn’t print it … so I soon stopped looking at it and eventually went rogue. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves! Like the good protocol-following dog trainer I am, I started with my empty plate in my living room and with my puppy on her long line:
June 22, 2023
After successful completion of the easy distraction, we moved on to intermediate:
Seeing how well this had gone, we took a break and then upped the ante: our most difficult distraction in location #1 on a long line!
What a superstar! We got to check off the first three boxes on the distraction tracker! (Or we would get to check them off, physically, if we had printed the tracker. Since I don’t own a printer, printing stuff involves exporting my Google doc to a PDF, transferring the PDF to a USB stick, walking to a print shop that may or may not be open … You get the picture. It’s easy to start out with good intentions and not follow through when printing is more than just clicking a button!) But hey – I shouldn’t be making excuses for myself. Truth be told, I thought I had taught and used this protocol SO many times that I knew it by heart anyways. Who needs a print-out! Not past C! (Future C cracks up. Oh, dear past C! You’re in for a surprise!)
Which happens to be running this term in case you want to hop in! I’m giving away a free Bronze spot on Facebook – go grab it! ↩︎
Before it got too, too hot, I experimented with Shade’s ideas of using either two targets or no target to encourage Chai to come back to me when tugging. The link above shows our two attempts. We’re not there yet and may have to keep experimenting – but we are having fun! What better morning exercise than a good game of tug?
Solo adventure
Friday is indoors mall adventure day! For the time being, every Friday, Chai and I walk there and then adventure our way through the mall.
Magic hands and R-
On the way there, we came across a scary construction site. Magic hands and negative reinforcement (distance) for the win!
Next stop: the elevator!
Chai did so well on the elevator today! A little bit insecure (maybe because we went on it soon after the construction corridor which had already used up some of her bravery – but once again, she entered voluntarily and stayed quiet throughout the ride (there are some signs of nervousness in her body language, but nothing big). If things are no harder than this, I will just go with repetition: once a week, we’ll ride this elevator until it’s a total walk in the park for Chai!
I also carried Chai up and down an escalator – her very first escalator experience!
On the way home, she waited patiently as I ordered and waited for tortas to go and then again outside a corner convenience store.
Left: waiting at an electronics store; right: foot-on-leash down cue as I’m ordering tortas.
On the way to the mall, I used the magic hands trick twice: once to walk across a manhole cover with holes in it and through a construction site, and once to walk past a trash can full of dog poop bags that were flapping in the wind a little. On the way back, she walked past the poop bags can without issues. The construction site had changed – there was no heavy machinery going – so we looped around it on the other side of the street. It was getting WAY too hot (over 30°C) to keep training.
I thought I’d use the heat to my advantage and work on the manners context in a new street, but Chai’s brain was as heat fried as my own and we went back to sleddog context after a futile attempt.
Tip: if something doesn’t work – don’t force it. Take a break and come back to it another time. (Especially if your city/country is experiencing a heat wave.)
Chai thinks Zane’s empty Corona can makes an excellent toy: yumm, metal!
June 17, 2023: Chapultepec fun and some hands-near-toy practice!
Alan, his girlfriend Vane and I took Kiba and Chai to Chapultepec today. They had a blast (and so did we, the humans!) Here’s a video, set to a song that is sad, but REALLY good – and it happened to be just the right length!
Left: spikey plants! Right: Alan is carrying a tired Kiba! I’m still working on this trick (Chai allowing me to pick her up this way). Thanks for the idea, Alan!
Chai at the busy swimming spot.May and June are the warmest – and June is really kicking our asses this year! Needless to say, the dog swimming spot is busy on the weekends!
Our beautiful girls: left – looking regal, right – being themselves!
We also took a two-ball video for Shade!
And here is Chai … trying to swim-fetch in the cutest way imaginable!
Because we are overachievers these days, we also played another round of the hands-near-toy game with a new element: let go of the toy upon food marker. (I already knew Chai could do that part, but I believe it was in Shade’s lectures.) Mostly, we went back to hands-near-toys.
June 18, 2023: be careful what you optimize for and a second bout of adolescence!
I’ve already told you that the other day, Chai started paying more attention to her environment – such as the goings-on outside the window. I’ve interrupted window-looking with scatters so far. However, I accidentally taught my dog to race to the window to look out in order to get more scatters (of course!) She’d keep putting her paws up on the window and then looking at me: “Treat me already!” Not the behavior chain I was going for!
So as of today, I’m implementing a more nuanced training plan.
Background details that will help you understand why I am choosing this particular plan for this particular dog:
+ I don’t mind window shopping. Unless a dog is clearly hyper-stressed by it (most dogs are not), that is the one advantage an apartment life has over a yard life: you get to see things going on outside anytime you get bored. The reason I’m adding this is that some trainers do not want their dogs to look out windows at all, assuming that window shopping by itself necessarily triggers stress.
However, I do not want to teach Chai to bark at everything she sees – quite the opposite. That’s again because I live in an apartment and I don’t want my neighbors to be disturbed by my barking dog.
The plan: + Randomize praise (and the occasional scatter) throughout the day when I’m home and Chai is NOT looking out the window but doing anything else I like – for example chill on the couch. + If I spot precursor behaviors to barking (e.g. lips or ears tensing up while looking out the window or staring at the door) – cue a scatter to prevent barking. + If I miss precursor behaviors and Chai barks, pick her up and give her a 2-minute time-out in her luxury kennel aka the bathroom.
I didn’t get to video any instances of barking, but in the first video below, you’ll see how fast window-lookingturned into a strong behavior because I had reinforced it with scatters. To soften the blow of extinction, I’ll still praise/pet/engage when she comes over after looking out the window – I just don’t treat. (Yes, Chai likes praise and attention – but I highly doubt that they are strong enough to maintain the looking-out-of-windows behavior).
What I accidentally optimized for was more looking-out-the-window rather than less barking. That’s the tricky part about gamifying or training anything: you don’t necessarily get exactly what you want by pushing a certain lever!
Stop on a regular basis, take a step back, look at the changes you’ve seen and ask yourself: if I was an observer and didn’t know the goal behavior – what would I believe was being optimized here? Sometimes, you’ll find that what you are optimizing for is exactly what you planned. Other times – not so much! That’s okay as long as you keep an eye on it. It doesn’t mean your training plan was “bad” if the results are unexpected: dogs are individuals, and sometimes, what we want to happen … doesn’t! Even if it might have worked with a different dog!
In the video below, you see the result of my original strategy (pre-emptive scatters during nightly window-shopping incidents): I have created a window-shopping addict who will look out the window and then ask to be paid all day long! This is in the morning. Chai went from only-at-night to all-the-time in 2 days. In the video, I talk to her now and then, but don’t give her more attention than that. If she came over, I’d pet her. No treats since in this video, Chai is not concerned about the environment – she simply wants scatters!
The video below shows when I DO feed: this is a compilation of moments I recognized precursor behaviors or precursor stimuli to barking. (Yes, I agree – Game looks extremely annoyed at the state of the world in this video! She can’t even be bothered to get up and collect her part of the scatters.)
… and our goal, of course: rest and relaxation inside while I work; occasionally wandering around or looking out the window without feeling barky or otherwise overly aroused!
Home alone practice: don’t let it slide!
Chai stayed home all by herself while Zane, Game and I all went out to Mexico City’s bike Sunday.
Hello again, adolescence!
I took Chai to Casa Bruna with me for some do-nothing practice. She was able to chill out beautifully for 45 minutes, but then a Border Collie she knows (tricolor puppy Juana) showed up at the next table over, and that was too much: Chai wanted to greet and started barking when I didn’t let her.
We are definitely having another bout of adolescence! Hanging out at Fresa Parque after Casa Bruna, Chai finally got to play with Juanita and an adolescent ACD. She was having a harder time responding to her informal pup-pup-pup recalls today than usual – another sign that both calm days and listening skills overall are getting more difficult in our second wave of adolescence!
After some tug on the roof of our apartment building for Shade’s class, we headed out in order to work on loose leash walking. I usually walk the street once in the “sleddog context” (on a harness) and then switch over to the collar (manners context). However, on the way out we ran into A SCARY WEASEL TAIL attached to a bicycle and A SCARY WEED WACKER. The objects of horror happened to lean (the bike) and lie (the weed wacker) on two sides of the sidewalk, creating a CORRIDOR OF TERROR.
So we put our LLW plans on hold and worked on confidence around new weird things instead. I used th Magic Hands trick again, pretend-touching the scary things: “If my human can touch the thing without getting swallowed whole by it, maybe I can sniff it!” (is how the logic goes in my anthropomorphizing mind).
I then walked through the corridor of terror and back to Chai (whose leash I had draped on a tree stump at the point she indicated she wanted to stop). Indeed, magic hands worked once more: getting back to Chai, she wanted to walk a little closer and air-scent the weasel tail. Not too too close though. (I suspect this was an actual weasel tail, not a fake one – and it may have smelled weird). I let Chai investigate up to the point she was comfortable and then turned around, walking about 10 meters back the other way, still in sleddog context but without pulling. Then we turned around again, walked up to the tree stump again, and I repeated Magic Hands near the weasel tail and the weed wacker and walking through the corridor of terror while letting Chai watch.
Chai was ready to walk and air-scent from up closer this time. Then we saw another dog walk through the corridor of terror unfazed, which helped as well. We walked past to our 10-meter starting distance and approached one more time. This time, Chai veered off the sidewalk and walked past near the weasel tail on the parking spots, but far from the weed wacker. We kept walking on the other side (brave, brave puppy!) and then turned around after about 10 meters once more.
This is where we met a second dog. Chai wanted to say hi and had a lovely experience; she wished she could play on leash and was able to follow the dog through the corridor of terror. We followed the dog until the next street corner and got some on-leash zoomies, expelling all that pent-up excitement.
We then turned around to switch to manners context, walking towards the corridor of terror from a bigger distance this time. I started Chai out on 2x 15 steps between treats to ease her back into the exercise and then upped the ante to 20 steps between treats. Chai was able to walk through the corridor of terror like this, staying behind the invisible line the entire time! That’s when we called it a day (and a very brave puppy!)
After a break at home, Zane, Chai and I headed out again to get video, starting with 20 steps on our usual practice street right away! While the weed whacker was gone, the weasel tail on the bycicle was still here and Chai walked past it like a boss.
This was followed by Chai staying home alone while Game got her noon walk and Zane got us lunch.
Now Chai is passed out on the living room floor, being an excellent coworking puppy, neither eating Apple products nor pestering Game, Zane or me.
We’ll stay at the 20-step treat stage a little longer – we didn’t get 10 reps without hand touches in a row yet – but we’ll soon be there and then fade the treat for the hand touch as our next step.
In the late afternoon (when it, sadly, still hadn’t cooled down), the dogs and I went to Fresa Parque. Chai got to play with 2 balls for a few reps in a distracting environment – I’m keeping things short and sweet here and slowly build criteria and duration over time. The video below doesn’t have a great angle. Chai turned around with her ball to come back right away every single time, but you’ll have to take my word for it because it happens out of frame. It’s also hard to impossible to hear my cues, hence the subtitles. Next time, I’ll record play with the wide angle lens!
Chai also met a lovely whippet at the park and then waited in front of the Santa Clara ice cream store together with Game. We got galleta and yogur con frutas rojas!
Later, Chai stayed home with Zane for Game’s evening walk.
I’ve noted an uptick in Chai’s attention to noises in the environment. Especially at night, she will pay attention to noises in the hallway or stand up and look out the window (no problem – window shopping is okay as long as we don’t bark). When I see her body language change, I’ll cue a preemptive scatter. So far, we’ve avoided all except for one single bark. Chai is half a year old now – it is perfectly normal that her sensitivies and what she pays attention to is shifting in various directions. This will likely keep going for another little while before Chai settles into her adult self.
Urban art clue #2: if you connect all of the outermost Ecobici stations of the city with lines, it is somewhere within the resulting “circle.”
Of course, we got in a bunch of morning wrestling fun as well:
Around noon, I took both dogs on a walk around the block before leaving them home alone to head over to a friend’s place to co-work.
My friend and I walked back to my place after, rope-and-facade climbing an abandoned building along the way:
Nature taking back the city – the view from the abandoned building we climbed. There’s a colony of cats living there but – strangely – no humans.
Beauty in strange places: the little things you find on a walk if you know how to see! This hidden piece of art is not much bigger than the palm of my hand. It’s close to the ground (where you may not usually look). Finding it made my day.CDMX readers: I’ll hide location clues in my the next posts! Find it and send me a picture and I’ll buy you tacos!
Then Chai got to see my friend who is her friend as well, too. She got snuggles and attention, and then all four of us went on another walk. Chai saw the same Afghan hound she had found a little creepy just the other day but showed no fear this time. Go puppy!
We also came across a large donut-shaped pillow someone had left by the side of the road. Chai thought it was suspicious. I used the Magic Hands trick to show her it wasn’t out to get her.
Magic Hands
Magic Hands is what I (and probably some other trainers; I don’t think it was me who came up with that name) call it when we use our hands to touch an object our dog is scared of. This doesn’t work with all dogs (and all objects), but for the dogs it sometimes works for, it can be an easy solution.
Chai is one of these dogs. I tend to use magic hands in combination with increasing distance (negative reinforcement) for her. I never drag or lure a dog closer to an object – it’s up to them how close they are ready to come.
With the donut-shaped pillow, my Magic Hands alone did the trick: I let her stand back on a looose leash, walked up and touched the donut pillow. Seconds after, Chai walked up to sniff and investigate it herself. Brave puppy!
At night, Chai stayed home alone again for Game’s evening loop. Good, good puppy!
Zane and I co-worked from my house today, so Chai got an opportunity to stay home with Zane during Game’s noon and evening walks and both dogs hung with him in the afternoon while I went to the bakery.
Loose leash walking
We worked on collar mode up and down our street and made it up to 15 and then 20 steps between treats!1 Go puppy!
Fresa Parque freedom and games and LLW success
Chai got to run around Fresa Parque briefly, and then we played a brief 2-ball fetch game at the calm and hot park.
On the way back home, Chai waited for me in front of a store – and then we went right back to do more LLW practice on her collar! She went from zero to 20 steps between treats right away and did amazing all the way back home – even passing a Shih-Tzu along the way without breaking her 20-step streak!1
Our walk was only interrupted by a scary balloon blowing in the street. I used Magic Hands for it and then picked it up and carried it home to have it blow around the apartment as well for some more balloon demystification.
As on most evenings both Zane and I are home, Chai got some social time and human-friend snuggles at night to round out the day.
(1) For more leash walking context, check out the leash walking lectures from Out and About in your FDSA library or look here for my December class and a micro e-book on LLW.
June 11, 2023: introducing the concept of weekly calm days
Activity level: low
Calm days
We had a physically calm day today. I have decided to keep Chai – and that means I’ll want a bit more structure in our weeks. Once a week, I’ll go for a below-average calm day. This is important because I live by myself and sometimes I get sick or busy and can’t provide the usual amount of entertainment or enrichment. My puppies learn from the very beginning that some days are calmer than others.
I haven’t always done that, so I’ve learned the hard way that we create expectations in our dogs’ first year of life or so. If every single day is filled with action, this is what your future athlete is going to expect as an adult as well. If you normalize downtime from the beginning, they will have a much easier time just chilling on the couch every now and then.
I’ll track calm, active and average days under “activity level” right under the respective date.
Morning walk and a tiny little bit of off-leash time!
Chai went on a morning walk with Game – and I briefly let her off leash in a very quiet area!
Toy play
We worked on tug on the roof, but Chai’ wasn’t as good at returning the toy as she has been in the last few days’s toy return behavior seemed to backslide. It may already have been too warm when we played this morning (it’s only shady up there in the late afternoon and very early in the morning).
The Game of Chai
Chai and Game spent a lot of time wrestling and playing on the bed. It is hot out – perfect for an indoors day! – but if you’re not an only dog, all that need to move has to go somewhere! That’s what big sisters are for!
Home alone
I took Game to the Paseo Dominical Muévete en Bici for the first time. That’s Mexico City’s Sunday street closure where a number of large streets are closed to motorized vehicles and taken over by cyclists, inline skaters, skateboarders, runners … It’s fun because you don’t need to worry about cars, and you can go quite far:
Random Mexico City fact
In addition to the Paseo Dominical, Mexico City happens to be a very bikeable city in general. In 2022, there were over 200 km of bike lanes (a lot of which are protected bike lanes wide enough for a human and a dog).
Green: bike lanes in Mexico City in 2022.
The goal is to have 400 km by 2024 (source). (I did not google extensively so I don’t know how likely it seems that Mexico City will be meeting this goal. But it’s a great one!)
Anyways, so while Game and I went on a bike ride, Chai stayed home by herself.
Later on, she stayed home with Zane while Game and I went on an evening walk – another important skill: I don’t want her to only be able to stay home alone-alone, but also with friends in my house!
Leash walking – manners mode (collar)
Afterwards, we practiced count-to-15 LLW1 in our street and Chai waited in front of a corner convenience store by herself. Staying next to me behind the invisible line was hard for Chai today – so we went back to feeding after 1 and then after 5 steps before building back up to 15. This is a good reminder to always train the dog in front of you today (who may not be the same dog you had in front of you yesterday or are going to have in front of you tomorrow!)
Husbandry
+ “Claws!” (clip back dew claws). + “Brush!”
Positions
We rounded out the day with a brief round of positions (sit/down/stand) practice with Chai’s remaining dinner!
Calm day of the week – check!
June 12, 2023: fun with toys, friends and training
Activity level: average
Toy play
Today, we went to tug on the roof first thing in the morning, right after getting up: no running, playing with Game or walking and no hot and sunny roof (yet)! From there, we went right back to the apartment and tried some more tugging on the bed. Video evidence here!
Morning walk with Game
Both dogs went on a morning walk – nothing exciting; just two good girls and their human vagando through the neighborhood(s).
Home alone – free in the apartment for the first time!
Chai got another chance to stay home alone by herself while Game and I went to pick up laundry. A little later, I left her home and free in the apartment (rather than in her indestructable luxury kennel, the bathroom) when Game and I went to the bakery, and then again at night – totally free in the apartment – during Game’s solo evening walk.
Today was the first time I gave Chai unsupervised apartment freedom. For now, she is doing well and not getting into stuff. I’ll keep an eye on her of course – she’s still a young dog, and if/when she starts getting up to mischief in my absence, she’ll go back into her luxury kennel when home alone.
Dog friends
We spent 45 minutes with Alan and Kiba at the park. Chai practiced a recall away from Kiba and then our pups got to play and socialize.
Friends.
We also practiced “Paws up!” on a bench. Chai showed me that she wasn’t ready to start right with the cue and you see me chute back down and build up again. You may have to watch this video more than once to catch all the marker cues – I’m too far from the camera for decent audio – but it’s an excellent example of how different marker cues can be used to build duration and setting the dog up for the next rep.
“All done” is my “end of session” announcement.
Leash walking
We practiced going from 5 to 10 to 15 steps of LLW on Chai’s collar out in the street.(1)
(1) Once again, the usual spiel in a footnote: for more leash walking context, check out the leash walking lectures from Out and About in your FDSA library or look here for my December class and a micro e-book on LLW.
Chai has a good recall away from dogs, even out of full-on play. Only Kiba is different: Kiba is Chai’s best friend. She is only a month older and they have the same play style.
Chai is able to recall … But only once they have played and Chai has satiated on Kiba. When she first sees her and hasn’t yet had an opportunity to play, she cannot currently respond when I call.
I love a good challenge, so I’m going to work up to recalls away from Kiba before Chai has had a chance to say hi!
June 12, 2023
Here, I’m trying an informal recall on leash: I will use the leash to stop Chai if she doesn’t respond. I will wait her out if she doesn’t respond and then “okay” release and drop the leash. Only once I get her to recall on “Pup-pup-pup” alone do I want to try and use her formal recall cue. That’s the plan for now anyways!
There were a two or three more recalls between June 12 and July 22 that I didn’t record and didn’t take notes on … And sadly, all I remember is that I did not get Chai to respond on Pup-pup-pup on the pink long line. Picking back up with a video on July 22:
July 22, 2023
Today, I decided to try a shaping approach: I would simply wait Chai out, release with “Okay!” and drop the leash as soon as she reoriented, weight-shifted or moved an ear back towards me. Well – I did, and Chai said, “Now what?”
Next time, I’ll either run up to Kiba together with Chai or call her when she checks in rather than releasing her right away: check in – recall – tongue click – chicken – “Okay!”
I don’t want to introduce that “Now what?” confusion into our recall!
Is one of the above options better or worse than the other one? No, they are simply different. Go with your gut if working on a similar challenge with your own dog!
July 24, 2023
I botched today’s training plan even though I went over it in my head before getting to the park: Alan and Kiba were late, so Chai and I worked on positions and personal play first. When our friends suddenly came around around the corner, I barely had time to hit record on my phone … And I ended up repeating yesterday’s session rather than doing what I actually wanted to do, which was call Chai when she reoriented. Anyways, here’s the video! Looking a bit better than yesterday, so we’ll take it as a win either way! And next time, I will call her!
My challenge: I only get a single recall to practice this because once the two Border Collies have had a chance to greet each other, I can call Chai without problems. The challenge is before they’ve said hi to each other! We’ll try again Wednesday.
July 26, 2023
I stuck to the training plan today, called “Schnee” as soon as Chai reoriented, got THE most enthusiastic response and ran back to Kiba together with her. I had planned on using my informal recall cue but the formal one came out of my mouth instead. It worked though – so all good!
Finally, things went (almost) according to plan … and I did not record it. Sad face. I’ll repeat the same step another time to get a video.
Today’s single salvageable picture of a great session isn’t very helpful!
August 3, 2023
Off leash Kiba and off leash Chai met at the park today. We hadn’t planned for it, but I felt optimistic, had chicken ready because we had just practice a food distraction recall, and just went with it! I used my formal recall cue (“Schnee!”) since it had worked so well the last time and Chai spun right around from running up to greet her friend, came back for her handful of chicken and then enjoyed a good play session. WE DID IT! I’ll repeat the exercise to get video proof. But oh-SO-proud of my girl!
Some pics from after the recall and after they played – by now, I had had time to get out my phone!Happy pups!
August 23, 2023 (the date in the video thumbnail is wrong)
FINALLY, I got my formal recall away from Kiba on video! Chai saw Kiba – checked in with me – looked at Kiba again – recalled on “Schnee” and got a piece of liver before being “okay”-released to play with her friend! SO proud of my puppy! (And SO grateful for these two friends – this human and his dog – and the fact that I can count on them unconditionally and for much more than just training dogs. Thank you, Alan.)
September 8, 2023: using the opportunity for another formal off-leash recall before saying hi to Kiba
I used today’s play-and-training-and-catching-up meet up for another recall away from Kiba before the dogs had a chance to say hi. I reinforced with liver and okay-released Chai to play.
You’ll see in this clip that recalling away from Kiba has become easy for Chai: as she’s growing up, she’s getting less playful which makes Kiba less of a difficult distraction than she used to be. Good girl, Chai. Sooner or later, I’ll have to stop calling you a puppy!
This video concludes the Kiba recall series! Recalling away from her bestie has turned into a walk in the – literal – park for Chai!
