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