The One With the Earthquake
I felt my first earthquake today, almost exactly on my year anniversary of living in California. There was an earthquake in Palm Springs, and we had tremors out here in Long Beach, where I was driving to my dog seminar. I was stopped at a light and my car was shaking. I couldn't figure out what was wrong until I got to the seminar and everyone was buzzing about the earthquake. Ross didn't feel it in Redondo.
The dog seminar was excellent. I always learn so much at these things. Most of it isn't really new information to me -- though some of it is -- but each speaker has their own way of presenting it. Pia Silvani had an excellent presentation that really hit home with me. I ordered several of her dog class manuals to start incorporating a few of her class suggestions in my class, especially the quick luring of food treats. After my classes, we find some dogs won't work unless the owner has a treat in their hand. Several trainers had some great suggestions for this, including hiding treats throughout class that the students can grab without having to have their bait pouch on all the time. This stuff is excellent. I plan to use many of the things I learned in this seminar as resources, including the way I treat my own dogs in the home sometimes. This is why these things are always worth the price of admission. It's like college. You can learn a lot from reading books, but there's nothing like seeing videos and hearing the professor talk about the material. Fascinating.
Now, back to my own training project.
Muggsy's Training Diary, Days 26-27
June 11-12
I have been very encouraged by Muggsy's progress recently. I was disappointed last night because it's still taking a long time to put the muzzle on, but I talked to my boss about it and she seemed to think it was fine. So tonight, I got a little more forceful. He didn't show any of the pre-biting signs so I kept pushing. I got it on within a minute or so. I find it encouraging that he's not so stressed that he feels he has to resort to biting when I have the muzzle out. The first time I ever tried to put a muzzle on Muggsy, I almost lost a finger. :)
Door! is awesome. He will stand up as I poke him with a fork and not even flinch as Ross gives him treats. The next step is to do it with no treat, and I'm not sure how well that will go. But it seems that it's time to move to the next level since he's so successful at the current level.
I also taught him to stand, sort of. I hand-fed him dinner yesterday for an extra training opportunity and tried to teach stand. It's hard because most dogs, including my own, are over-treated for sit. So every time they hear a word, they just guess that it's sit. So when I say stand, even just to get him used to the word, he sits. What I did was when he sat, said, uh-uh and moved the treat in front of him a little to lure him into a stand. When he did that, I gave him a big handful of dinner, saying good stand, good stand. It will be awhile before he will be able to distinguish, down, stand, sit and look, his four main training commands, but he'll get there. At least he looks to me for things now. In fact, he's been so encouraged to look at me that many times, like right now, he just lies by me and stares at me.
I also played come game with the dogs today to get them some exercise. Ross stands at one end of the yard and me at the other and take turns calling. It's so funny to watch because Fenway doesn't get it at all at first, Muggsy just sits facing one of us without moving and Chubbs runs back and forth as fast as he can before either of us can either call. It's hilarious. They started to get it toward the end, and even one time, Fenway came hauling toward me before the other two did when I said come. I was so proud that I fed her several treats in a row. She's usually the last to learn something. Of course, I spend a lot more time working with the other two. That's partially because she's the most difficult and partially because I'm a terrible stepmom and focus more on my own dogs. Maybe if Ross took more of an interest, I would, too. But I'll keep working on all of them as often as I can.
I can't believe the weekend is over. I got no rest at all. Guess that's the way it goes when you're a manic Type A who just can't slow down!!
The dog seminar was excellent. I always learn so much at these things. Most of it isn't really new information to me -- though some of it is -- but each speaker has their own way of presenting it. Pia Silvani had an excellent presentation that really hit home with me. I ordered several of her dog class manuals to start incorporating a few of her class suggestions in my class, especially the quick luring of food treats. After my classes, we find some dogs won't work unless the owner has a treat in their hand. Several trainers had some great suggestions for this, including hiding treats throughout class that the students can grab without having to have their bait pouch on all the time. This stuff is excellent. I plan to use many of the things I learned in this seminar as resources, including the way I treat my own dogs in the home sometimes. This is why these things are always worth the price of admission. It's like college. You can learn a lot from reading books, but there's nothing like seeing videos and hearing the professor talk about the material. Fascinating.
Now, back to my own training project.
Muggsy's Training Diary, Days 26-27
June 11-12
I have been very encouraged by Muggsy's progress recently. I was disappointed last night because it's still taking a long time to put the muzzle on, but I talked to my boss about it and she seemed to think it was fine. So tonight, I got a little more forceful. He didn't show any of the pre-biting signs so I kept pushing. I got it on within a minute or so. I find it encouraging that he's not so stressed that he feels he has to resort to biting when I have the muzzle out. The first time I ever tried to put a muzzle on Muggsy, I almost lost a finger. :)
Door! is awesome. He will stand up as I poke him with a fork and not even flinch as Ross gives him treats. The next step is to do it with no treat, and I'm not sure how well that will go. But it seems that it's time to move to the next level since he's so successful at the current level.
I also taught him to stand, sort of. I hand-fed him dinner yesterday for an extra training opportunity and tried to teach stand. It's hard because most dogs, including my own, are over-treated for sit. So every time they hear a word, they just guess that it's sit. So when I say stand, even just to get him used to the word, he sits. What I did was when he sat, said, uh-uh and moved the treat in front of him a little to lure him into a stand. When he did that, I gave him a big handful of dinner, saying good stand, good stand. It will be awhile before he will be able to distinguish, down, stand, sit and look, his four main training commands, but he'll get there. At least he looks to me for things now. In fact, he's been so encouraged to look at me that many times, like right now, he just lies by me and stares at me.
I also played come game with the dogs today to get them some exercise. Ross stands at one end of the yard and me at the other and take turns calling. It's so funny to watch because Fenway doesn't get it at all at first, Muggsy just sits facing one of us without moving and Chubbs runs back and forth as fast as he can before either of us can either call. It's hilarious. They started to get it toward the end, and even one time, Fenway came hauling toward me before the other two did when I said come. I was so proud that I fed her several treats in a row. She's usually the last to learn something. Of course, I spend a lot more time working with the other two. That's partially because she's the most difficult and partially because I'm a terrible stepmom and focus more on my own dogs. Maybe if Ross took more of an interest, I would, too. But I'll keep working on all of them as often as I can.
I can't believe the weekend is over. I got no rest at all. Guess that's the way it goes when you're a manic Type A who just can't slow down!!
posted by Rachel at
8:05 PM
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