First Practice of the Season

Abbey has finally gotten to see agility equipment again!! About time too, she almost forgot about DW and teeter performance.

We had a nice training session today, lots of fun. Got a super fast DW out of her (1.45 seconds to be exact) and beautiful jump wraps. I have decided, next time, to keep our session shorter as she got tired after running and training for an hour.

I am going to try and work more on Abbey's toy and tugging drive. She is VERY food driven and although she LIKES her toys, I think it's necessary to continue to build a higher toy drive so that I have more than one trick in my arsenal during training.

Hopefully soon I will have a job to be able to support the need that have to go and train more often. I have my fingers crossed, keep sending positivity our way.

~All American Team

Tricks and Training

Abbey and I are honing and working on some new tricks. Though I have always taught tricks to Abbey I have never bothered honing or generalizing any of them. I was more of a, we will do them in the house and practice them in the house and then when guests come over we will show off. I have come to realize, though, that generalizing tricks and behaviours consequently builds a more well rounded canine companion. A few things that I have noticed is that Abbey is uncomfortable in certain settings. For instance, PetSmart. Since this isn't something I like (i.e. my dog being fearful or uncomfortable in certain environments) I aim to change it. How? Well, first off Abbey and I will be taking more frequent visits to Pet Superstores in our neighbourhood. I will also bring high value treats like chicken, beef dogs, or cheese. On one of our few...scarce...trips to PetSmart Abbey was above threshold to accept pieces of kibble for about 10-20 minutes, but after extended time would accept kibble as a reward form. I figure if I use something of higher value in the beginning it will not only build a better and stronger POSITIVE association, but I will have her attention throughout the experience.

Right now, I am working on tricks like cleaning up toys, handing me objects, and the "where's your nose" trick to get me started on my technique for teaching Abbey how to generalize. Abbey's verbal cuing isn't that strong so she relies heavily on my hand signals to tell her what trick to do. I want to improve on this so I am teaching the tricks in a variety of situations and ONLY rewarding the tricks that I have cued. Abbey also has an intense prey drive...especially for cat chasing. Since I am really not that crazy about THAT behaviour either I am going to try and adjust/fix it. Unfortunately this will take some thinking on my part as I am unsure how to approach it. If anyone has any ideas, it would be very much appreciated.

So far, your bed NOT mine is going quite well, unless Abbey feels that I have been sleeping too long and need to rise and shine because it's a beautiful day. Reactive training needs to get back on track. She was doing extremely well and then somewhere in there mommy made a booboo. Of course it was mommy's fault, it always is.

For now those are the things we are working on, comments and encouragement are always welcome here. We love to hear from others.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Abbey has decided that she would like to go green with the rest of the family and start recycling the extra water bottles that we sometimes have in the house. Well, Abbey, looks like you are off to a grrreat start ;-).

Your Bed Not Mine

Yesterday I spent a good portion of the morning cleaning and organizing my room. Among one of the things I did was strip my bed down to its bare bones and add new bedding. For a very long time I never had a problem with dogs in the bed, but since my dog sheds and it was getting into my linens, I decided to go with a new approach. My bed is my bed and your bed is your bed. So I put some pillows and blankets together and made a makeshift dog bed. Last night I reinforced sleeping in the "dog bed" to Abbey. Now, for most people this may actually take a couple weeks to retrain...not me. On night #1 (which was last night) Abbey slept in her bed the entire time not even thinking once to come into bed with me. I woke up and praised her for sleeping in her bed and this morning built a high value to her bed as she sometimes wants to jump into mine. When I leave the house, so as not to encourage self-reinforcing or rewarding, I close the room door. The dogs sleep on the couches while I am gone as I don't mind them on the furniture in our living area (plus it's leather, it can easily be wiped down). I have resorted also to FURminating Abbey every day to reduce the shedding hair that's in the house.

I am trying to start better, "cleaner", habits with my dogs since I was diagnosed allergic last year. There's no way that I want to go through the agony that was giving up a dog again. So even if it means extra vaccuming, grooming, and the purchase of an air purifier...my dogs are staying with me. NO EXCEPTIONS. My first major step was getting them out of my bed and into their own. Abbey seems quite comfortable though a little confused, but I'm sure after a few more weeks of reinforcing the behaviour she will be totally fine with not having access to my bed. She still has plenty of added liberties around the house that she can indulge in.

Really quick note: ABBEY CAN NOW DO A HANDSTAND WITHOUT THE AID OF A BOARD. She still resorts to the board of course from time to time for help/reassurance, but I don't find that to be a problem.

What's been Up?!

Abbey and I had to stop biking for the time being because it was just WAY too darn hot to do any type of exertion out doors. This totally trumps my idea to get her in shape before trial season hits. Well, until we went swimming at my friend's of course. That was a lot of fun and I'm considering doing dock diving next year over the summer. That way Abbey stays in good shape year round and keeps cool!! I am very excited about getting into it and I think Abbey is too. She has become extremely consistent with jumping off the edge of the pool and I no longer need to coax her. We will begin biking again once winter rolls along. We may not be participating in very many trials this year as I have lost my job and don't know when I'll be receiving another form of income just yet.

All in all, Abbey is doing really wonderful and continues to blow my mind. She has been doing really well with her drumming, has ALMOST learned to cross her paws and knows how to do some fancy leg exercises to keep those muscles strong.

WARNING, WARNING: we have a tick infestation and I need to call the exterminator ASAP. Not only that I need to call the pet friendly exterminator at Flea Busters. Who am I calling? FLEA BUSTERS (also kills ticks and mosquitos). Seriously, as if enough things weren't wrong with the world. The intense heat that leaves you cooped up inside all day unless you feel like frying your breakfast on the pavement...and now TICKS. These bloodsucking offenders get on my last nerve. After every soak, dip, spray, and preventative imaginable I have just thrown in the towel, people. These little devils just WON'T die!

So now that you are updated on our misfortunes and shortcomings, I ask you wish us luck. I will post pictures when all is well and right in our universe.

Until next time,
The All American Team

Biker Dog!

Abbey has officially started a new exercise regimen which allows her to build up endurance and speed while I get to work on my leg power. Give Up? Abbey now runs alongside the bike. If you are wondering how long it took to train or if it was a previous fear...NOPE! I just didn't have a bike until now. If you're wondering about Abbey...she took to it quite well. Only slight hesitations and she learned not to run in front of the big wheel real quick ;). (Got you on the butt didn't it, girly...OUCH mama, ya think?!). She then learned that she cannot stop to go sniff the flowers or else mommy takes a nasty spill. Apparently she had to test this theory 3 times. I honestly believe she though it was funny to watch me jerk up. Why? Because the second time she did it was to take a pee and she did it all too casually. But I digress. PICTURES...that's how you follow up a post like this...pictures.

Why Pinch when you can Click?

Yesterday I went to the dog park with Abbey and a couple of her canine buddies. We spent part of the afternoon there walking around the park...I let Abbey on some of the agility equipment and it was overall a really great time. As we were exiting the park, there was a training class in session instructed by a man I am unfamiliar with. Every last one of his students were in a prong collar. Now, I'm very much against prongs, choke, and shock collars because I think that the use of any one of them is taking the easy way out and that you aren't teaching your dog anything. At most, in my opinion, a dog is learning to react to a form of pain or discomfort...or performing a behaviour to try and avoid the pain or discomfort.

There are so many people who argue that positive reinforcement is not real training because we initially use a form of motivation (food or toys) to get our dogs to perform the desired behaviours. There are so many people that believe that if the treats are no longer there for the dog to receive then the dog will no longer perform the behaviours we want. This is completely false. In fact, I have encountered more negative reinforcement trainers that cannot walk their dogs on a normal collar than R+ trainers. I have never seen one person who started their dog on a prong collar, choke chain, or shock collar that goes out for a walk and doesn't still have to use the damn collar. The freaking training tool you started with DOES NOT get removed!! As an advocate for R+, if trained properly, I can proudly say that I don't walk around with cookies in my pockets! Abbey responds to sit, down, wait, come, EVERYTHING except for maybe complex tricks without a treat or cookie present. In R+ we teach, they learn, we live happily. No pinching necessary.

Everyone grab a clicker and actually have success training your dog. Interact with your dog. Learn from your dog. You should never have to continue using your training tool throughout your dog's life. So, more proof that using aversive methods are ineffective? They never go away.

Why Pinch when you can CLICK?!