Category: FDSA

Chaiary – week 13 digest (June 26 – July 2, 2023)

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Monday, June 26 2023 (day 81)

Activity level: low

Not a lot going on today. We started off with an attempt at playing tug reinforced by fetch with two balls on a rope at Fresa Parque. Shade had suggested we move to a place where Chai can really run and I can throw the ball further than on the roof. While our last session went well, today we had some pretty intense dog interruptions – but Chai was able to fetch despite being body-blocked by a Whippety dog! Go puppy!

After toy play, Chai got to run around a bit with the other dogs at the park and then had her morning walk with Game. The rest of the day was lazy.

Chai stayed home alone while Game and I walked errands for about an hour – good puppy! And then a not-so-great puppy when I took a shower: I closed the door to the bathroom and Chai had an accident on my bed. Note to self: always lock Chai into the bathroom with me when the door isn’t open!

It has finally started raining this week, so Game and I walked around the block during a rain break and Chai got to practice staying home alone again. When I got back, I found that she had even worse diarrhea than she had this morning. Pobrecita! I hope it passes soon and we’ll be able to go back to eating and training!

Tuesday, June 27 2023 (day 82)

Activity level: average

Good news of the day: no more diarrhea! Chai gets to train and eat again!

Morning walk

Chai started her day with the usual 2-dog morning walk.

Staying home alone x3

She stayed home alone 3 times during the course of the day: when Game and I went to drop off laundry, when we went to pick up our laundry again and for Game’s evening walk.

Toy play

We played two rounds – the first one rudely interrupted by an entire manada of dogs – at a park Chai hadn’t been to before. I like it for training: it tends to have less food on the ground than some of my other favorite parks. Chai did well tugging and getting reinforced with fetch!

We used my Magic Hands1 strategy on a circle of stones. Magic Hands worked fast AND I got video of it:

Magic Hands

Loose leash walking – Manners Context

Heading home from the park, we practiced loose leash walking in collar mode. Chai was a superstar! 5, 15 and then 20, 20, 20 … steps for the win! Two of her 20-step treats were replaced by a “good” treat for waiting at the curb and one by a”get it” to reinforce a “leave it.”

Fun at the park with Alan and Kiba

Chai spent two hours playing with Kiba, Loki and a new pup. We then walked to the market, went inside and practiced lying down and chilling at the pet supply stand and the chicken stand.

A different kind of doing nothing: waiting patiently in a down in the presence of delicious chicken smells!

At the market with Alan and Kiba.

After another round of running and playing at the park, we walked Alan home and then worked on our LLW on a collar some more! Played-out puppies are successful loose-leash walkers!

Manners-context loose-leash walking back home

Chai’s collar walking is really starting to look good! More and more, I am able to swap the twenty-step treat for naturally occurring reinforcers: a cued wait at a curb followed by “good” and a room service treat, or a “leave it” followed by a treat toss behind me. These treats (wich I would be giving Chai anyways; Game also still gets them for stopping/waiting and “leaving” things) are starting to replace LLW treats. I have faded most hand touch treats and soon, I’ll add environmental rewards to the game! The biggest success of the day: we curved out into a quiet street past two leashed dogs while keeping up the 20-step treat rate! Go Chai!

“Floor” protocol

You’ll notice the dark blue arrow in my image above. “Floor” is a marker cue that means I will place a treat at the heel of my foot on the dog’s side. Placing it on the ground is arousal-lowering because the dog can’t sniff for it/eat it and bounce up and down at the same time. It is similar to what I’m doing when passing the Pitbull in this post (May 31; first video in the post), with the only difference being that the marker cue is “Floor” and the treat is being placed at my heel. When I use one “Floor” treat after the other – every step or every other step – I call it the “floor protocol.” When walking past new dogs for the first or second time, I will often use this approach with Chai and then change to feeding from my hand once she knows the dogs are there.

Wednesday, June 28 2023 (day 83)

Activity level: high average

Adventures in house training

After Chai’s and Game’s usual morning walk, Chai sadly had a pee accident on the bed when taking a moment’s break from wrestling with Game. I had everything washed after the accident yesterday, but it is possible that something got into the mattress and it still smells like pee … I also wonder if Chai is like one of these puppy mill puppies who have spent a sensitive period of their puppyhood in a crate and need to poop and pee where they sleep, and if therefore, she will never be fully house trained. Puppies don’t usually pee where they sleep (and start showing this behavior at 3 weeks old already, according to a student’s breeder!). Chai sleeps on the bed during the day, so if she had read the manual, she should technically not pee on it. Good thing I love Chai too much to particularly care about the occasional accident.

At night, she had another pee accident – next to rather than on the mattress, woohoo! We are making progress here! (This is me being sarcastic in case you couldn’t tell.)

Eye contact

Chai got treats for making eye contact and I added a cue to the behavior for the first time: “Watch me!” We played while Zane was having breakfast and learned to offer me eye contact rather than beg for his danish.

Relax while people are eating

When I stopped the eye contact game, Chai offered lying down. I fed a treat between her front paws any time she was not looking at me. Zane was still eating and she stayed relaxed – that is precisely the behavior I want around people having food. I don’t want Chai to focus on me either, so I am waiting for looking away to feed.

Dog fun and recalls at Fresa Parque

After my morning work, we went to Fresa Parque. On the walk there, we passed someone working with an angle grinder. Chai was neither impressed by the noise nor by the flying sparks!

My plan was to work on distraction recalls at the park. Before we got started, Chai got to play with two dogs her size who enjoyed running games and confidently met her first Irish Wolfhound.

Then I set up my camera and the first distraction (see this post) and casually skipped 10 entire steps of my distraction tracking protocol without even noticing. The protocol I have taught others for years! THIS, my dear students, is why I want you to print out your distraction tracker and look at it before every session.

I completely forgot that I hadn’t done the barrier stage “in real life” yet and jumped from barrier recalls in locations 1 and 2 straight to off-leash recalls at the park. Chai passed distractions 1 and 2 in flying colors but failed distraction #3 (kibble). Only then did I realize how many steps I had skipped! Note to self: practice what you preach! Print out Chai’s distraction tracker (I tend to only look at stuff I print).

I was going to get us quesadillas for lunch and passed the dog park on the way there. Since the dogs in in it seemed calm and there was a Great Dane, I decided to let Chai inside briefly so she could meet another large dog. She did phenomenal just like she had with the Irish Wolf.

Adventures at Fresa Parque and a Great Dane in the dog park. Yep, she’s a dog park puppy!

We got water, looped the park again, did some personal play and then headed to the quesadilla stand. Chai did a fantastic job lying down when I stepped on her leash! It is becoming a pretty solid cue, and like in the morning, I am treating – without marking, thanks to Matthias‘ post in the Canine Paradigm discussion group the other day – when she looks away: shaping relaxation in the face of distractions.

Standing on the leash as a cue to lie down and shaping relaxation at the quesadilla stand.

We got back home after about an hour and 20 minutes, having trained up almost all of Chai’s daily kibble meal. Chai was a fantastic (aka sleepy) coworking pup for the next several hours.

Being a good coworking puppy.

Positions

We worked on positions in the kitchen when I took a work break. Messy but fun!

Squirrels, toys, magic hands and sits!

I took Chai and Game to the plaza around the corner that we discovered for toy play yesterday – I want to get our daily toy practice session in there!

The two girls got to run around and chase squirrels for a bit and Game got brushed, and then I put her on her mat and played – interruption-free! – a brief game of 2 balls on a rope tug reinforced by fetch with Chai. She did awesome! I’m keeping things short and fun to build her stamina and joy for both games. (No video.)

Game, meanwhile, also did amazing and held her stay on the mat even though Chai and I were tugging and tossing balls right next to her.

Chai has started imitating Game’s tree jumps after squirrels. She’s going to like critter-chasing quite a bit with this role model!

Example of a trademark Game tree jump/climb.

We ended the field trip by playing in the fountain. Next to it, there is a suspicious metal lid with holes covering the loudly whirring water pump. We did Magic Hands and I added Game’s Magic Sit on the metal cover, and after a few reps with “Get it” treats tossed away from the fountain, Chai put two paws on the concrete rim around the metal cover! Brave puppy!

Chai also found a piece of chocolate today. Here’s to hoping it won’t mess up her stomach for the second time in a week!

Husbandry

+ Brushing

Thursday, June 29, 2023 (day 84)

Activity level: average

The AM

We started the day with our usual morning walk. Chai confidently met three new dogs of different ages and morphologies. On the way back home, I got lots of check-ins on the retractable leash while Game was off leash. Chai needed and hardly any circles! She realized when she was nearing the 5-meter mark and stopped on her own! Good girl!

Plaza work and another stab at real-world distraction recalls

Chai and I walked to a nearby plaza on her harness. After looping the park and greeting a few dogs (and eating grain someone had put out for the birds), we started over with barrier recalls in the real world: time to take another stab at those distractions! Chai struggled with distraction #2 (paper bag that used to have food in it) the first time, but tested out of all 3 barrier distractions over the course of the AM. After each session, we took a break and another loop and occasionally met another dog. I am proud to report: barrier recalls in the real world: achievement unlocked! Our next step will – or should anyways! – be off leash in the house.

Real world informal “pup-pup-pup” recalls have also been working well: I had two or three opportunities to use them when Chai was trotting towards a leashed unfamiliar dog and she nailed it every time. It’s only her friend Kiba who is difficult to recall away from!

We then had a toy play session: 2 balls on ropes; tug reinforced by fetch. I added the “Tug” cue and Chai did great – even when a young husky showed up! She kept tugging!

After another off-leash park loop, we played magic hands with the pump at the fountain again:

We walked the entire way back home in mostly 20-step collar mode. Real-world reinforcers have started becoming “a thing”: stopping behind me to sniff something? Absolutely! I will wait for you to be done! “Leave it”? Bring it on; another non-leash-related reinforcer! This route is also convenient in that it has several crosswalks to practice “Wait” at the curb reinforced by “Good” (room service), replacing another LLW click. We even dismissed and then walked behind a group of 5 dogs for about 30 seconds before they veered off in another direction.

Once home, we went up on the leash and took a video for a new Out and About (FDSA) bonus lecture: walking towards a distraction on a loose leash! Now, Chai is passed out on the couch next to Zane, being a most excellent coworking puppy again.

Chai then stayed home (in the bathroom – her “crate”) – with Zane while Game and I went to the market at Fresa Parque to get lunch. Thrusday is market day here – and the market doesn’t feel fresa at all. It was great! My favorite day at that park so far!

More loose leash walking challenges!

In the afternoon, we were going to film invisible-line challenge #2 on the roof … but right as I was starting to set up, it started raining. We worked on it in the house instead. This is significantly harder in small spaces but Chai was being a superstar and soon understood! This time, we did not walk towards, but past the distraction (2 pieces of kibble on a plate). Not only did we practice the manners context – we also practiced our “Leave it!” cue in the same session. In the end, Chai got to eat the distraction, of course!

Housetraining gamified!

We have not had any accidents in the living room so far! Go Chai! And go me: I have successfully kept full puppies in the bathroom and only let empty puppies into the living space. And I’ve turned my mattress into a Murphy bed to give the puppy less inconvenient (for me) surfaces to pee on. But – let’s not count our ostriches before they hedge. It’s only 16:45 and there is still plenty of time for accidents.

Final accidents-in-the-living-room count for today, right before going to sleep: 0! Woohoo!

I’m starting a streak game and aiming for 4 weeks with zero living room accidents! After 7 days without a living room accident, I get a fancy brownie. After 4 weeks, I get a deep tissue massage. If there is an accident, it only resets the current week. Once a 7-day streak is completed, it is locked in and cannot be lost (i.e. at the very must, I will loose 6 days.)

Wrestling and intelligence

I have been interrupting Chai and Game wrestling on the bed when Game starts barking. I announce to Chai that I will pick her up – and inadvertantly, I’ve been saying, “Let’s take a break!” before doing so. Chai has now picked up on this and stops playing and lies down when I say a sentence with “break.” As a result, Game stops barking and I won’t pick up Chai to put her away for a few minutes. I love observing this puppy learn!

Evening fun with the rest of Chai’s daily meal

We used up the remaining kibble of the day with positions in two sessions: one was sit and stand and one was down and stand. I need to get clear about when I want to room-service mark (good) and when I want to click. Chai, for her part, did great and she is FAST!

Friday, June 30, 2023 (day 85)

Activity level: average

After our usual morning walk, we walked in manners context from my house to the Plaza and back. Chai practiced 20 steps between treats, sniff reinforcers, waiting at curbs, dismissing dogs and “leave it”s and was a very good puppy. It was a little harder today than yesterday because she hadn’t had much of a chance to get rid of all her puppy energy beforehand!2

After a work break (work: me, break: Chai), we walked to Fresa Parque on Chai’s back clip harness and Chai got to run around there off leash and meet and greet several dogs. We also repeated the teeter and stairs exercises in the dog park we had done last week. It was only a 30 minute outing because I didn’t want to be late for a lunch date with friends.

Home alone

Chai then stayed home with Zane for 2.5 while Game and I biked to Condesa to meet friends and give Game her much-deserved only-dog time.

Two 20-minute Ecobici rides and a coffee outing later, Chai was ready to attack-play with Game!

Positions

I cut the crazy short by doing a single longer session of sits, stands and downs. Stand and down are going really well! We’ll focus our next session on sit versus down.

2 dogs on short leashes

After resting, wrestling with Game, drinking A LOT and more resting while I worked, I took both dogs on a short loop around two blocks to get milk. This is the second time I’ve walked them both together on short (2 m) leashes; Chai on her back attachment harness.

Usually, Game is either off leash or one dog is on a long line or the retractable leash while the other one is on a short leash. Like the first time, they did well! Chai’s initial excitement wore off soon and after some circling, she was able to sniff the world and not rush to the end of her leash. The reason I brought both of them out was that I wanted Chai to pee … and I knew she’d follow Game’s example. She did, and now the empty puppy and the empty Game are passed out in the living room without the danger of furniture being peed on. Plus they got to practice waiting outside the mini market together while I went in for milk!

Recalls!

We practiced off-leash recalls away from unprotected distractions #1 (empty plate) and #2 (plastic bag that used to have food in it because I couldn’t find a paper bag) in the house and got a single rep success on each of them. Go Chai!

For distraction #3 – the kibble – I wanted to go back a step due to my faux pas the other day where I skipped a few steps and she got the kibble. My helper was still working and I don’t have a barrier in my house, so I went back to a long line. And indeed: she hit the end two (or was it three?) times before we could end on a success: recall on a loose long line, chicken from my hand and release to eat the kibble. (No video.)

Toy play a la Silvia Trkman

Since I’m currently watching Silvia’s Puppy Diary (10/10 would recommend to sports and especially agility folks), I decided to play with their approach to toy play: create some sibling rivalry by playing with more than one dog – and more than one toy – at once. Game and Chai and I had fun with three always-out toys on the bed (decent grip for playing partly on the slippery floor!)

Husbandry and a lazy evening

Chai stayed home with Zane while Game and I ran errands and Game got some well-deserved only-dog time again. Chai was still sleepy when I got home, so after dinner, she got Zane snuggles, got brushed and then fell asleep on the couch until I transfrred her over to her luxury crate aka the bathroom for the night.

I said her potty cue right before she peed on her pee pad in the shower cabin – this is the second or third time I’ve named the behavior.

Housetraining

0 accidents in the living space! Streak counter:

Saturday, July 1, 2023 (day 86)

Activity level: average

The AM …

We were going to go on a hike today, but my friends couldn’t make it and I woke up REALLY tired this morning … So I decided to take it easy instead. We started with a longer morning walk with Game. Chai got to play with lots of different dogs at Fresa Parque and I recalled her running towards different new playmates two or three times successfully, rewarding with chicken and sending her right back. She was being a superstar and had lots of fun, again meeting dogs of new sizes, ages and morphologies.

Meanwhile, Game practiced being calm and getting fed for holding sits and just watching the craziness around her unfold. (Game is neutral with others but can tip over into bullying mode if dogs she doesn’t know very well are running like crazy, so I won’t let her participate.)

Chai continues being much better (hitting the end less often) on a 5 meter leash even when Game is off leash ahead of her. I let them play when one of them is wearing a long line or retractable leash but enforce a no-play policy when both are on short (2 meter) leashes. So far so good! At the park, Chai is off leash and Game, depending on how much dog traffic there is, on leash or off leash. In the streets, Game is off leash and Chai on a long line/retractable leash or they are both on short leashes.

After getting home and some morning wrestling, they are both contently sleeping on the living room floor.

Formal recalls revisited!

Since I fucked up my distraction plan and Chai got to the kibble in the park (what with me skipping a few steps), we worked back up slowly. After yesterday’s long-line stage, Zane agreed to be my helper next to kibble in the house with Chai off leash. She nailed it on her first attempt! Single-rep success: check!

We headed up to the roof after a little break. Here, Chai kept going after “Schnee” (my formal recall cue) the first time and then recalled in the second break of this session.

Since my criterion for moving on is a single-rep success session, we took a little “just be a dog” and ping pong recalls break on the roof and then tried again. This time, she succeeded right away, got her chicken and a release to the kibble … good girl! Achievement unlocked! (No video.)

Now Chai is in the bathroom with a chew to relax and unload. I’ve learned my lesson: only empty puppies get to be in the living room. The strategy has given us two days sans accidents. We’ll see how things continue …

Skipping recall steps again – and Chai knows how to exploit my absent-mindedness!

For some reason, I thought it would be a good idea to go from kibble protected by my helper to unprotected kibble at the park we already failed at. Click here to find out what happened …

Human barriers out and about

Chai, Zane and I returned to Fresa Parque in the afternoon – the park where Chai has failed distraction #3 in the past. I didn’t want to repeat the barrier stage for the easier distractions, but thought it would be a good idea to give them another try with kibble and my friend’s help. I was right: Chai went for the kibble on the first approach, and my helper picked up the plate. Keep reading here to see the plot thicken!

2-ball tug

Zane went to get pastries while Chai and I switched gears: our homework for Shade’s class is to get a good strike.

“When you are about to let her strike, make sure the ball is still.
So, good “misses” look like:
ball is still, dog locks on to target, ball is whisked away, repeat.
Try that in your misses, so we can start teaching her to have a good strike. When she gets a good successful strike, she’ll like it more!”

(Shade Whitesel)

Post-recall dog socializing

We then headed home, needing almost no circles at all: I believe I have never seen Chai this tired before! Part of it must have been the sheer amount of food she got at the park and part of it the warm day.

Another short outing with Game

Since Chai hadn’t peed at the park, I took her out on Game’s pee walk. At this point, we entered the sleep-deprived toddler stage, needed lots of circles and threw ourselves at Game on the way down the stairs. Game peed right around the corner and Chai – good girl! – followed suit. We headed right back home and Chai fell asleep right away. No accidents so far today – the third day in a row!

Husbandry

+ “Claws!” (This is how I announce nail clipping and then just do it.) I try to do all paws once a week. Chai was great today – 3ish hours after our outing, she was still zonked and didn’t mind me clipping nails.

+ The last thing we did today – after a break after “claws” – I spent some time cutting the fur between Chai’s toes. She likes this less than nail clipping. Today, I introduced the announcement “clippers.”

+ Brush.

Home alone

Chai stayed home alone for Game’s evening walk. That’s the first time in 3 days she has truly been alone: for the last three days, Zane and I co-worked from my house and there was always someone there when I left with Game. After visiting for a month, Zane went back to Chiapas in the afternoon today. It’s going to feel lonely here without his company! I’ve been in this apartment for only two more nights than he has!

Sunday, July 2 2023 (day 87)

Activity level: high

We started the da with a short morning walk, a wrestling session on the couch (the dogs) and coffee (me).

I’m planning on working partly from Chapultepec today, so after coffee #2 and two FDSA forum responses, I’ll change locations before the parking at Chapultepec fills up.

Chapultepec and Chai’s first real swim!

Chai recalled away from strange dogs she was moving towards … and then swam (retrieved balls from Lago Mayor) for the first time! Go Chai!

And then – unprompted! – she pooped outside! Praise and treats! We take house training success wherever we can get it!

Chai met a younger puppy who had a blast playing with her, and then discovered she is a Border Collie: here she is bordercollying and then forgets what she’s doing, which I use as a recall opportunity.

2 toy fetch and tug

We played tugging reinforced with fetch – and I had the idea to hold the ball as if it was a tug toy! This may be our ticket to good strikes!

I settled down under a tree to continue working after about half an hour of water-and-dogs fun. Chai, wet and zoomy, is playing with Game around me and about to start inviting a younger puppy to play. Can’t imagine where I’d rather work from!

Water fetch as a recall reinforcer!

We had another swim, and for the first time, I used “chase” as a recall reward for “Schnee” two or three times. Turns out this Border Collie loves the water – it makes a perfect reinforcer! There was a lot going on the second time we were there. It reminded me of Silvia Trkman’s “all the toys and all the dogs are out” philosophy that teaches their puppies to not let anyone steal their toy – better bring it all the way back to your person! I created a similar scenario even though I hadn’t planned on it.

The video below shows Chai meeting a bunch of new dogs, Sunday chaos at the swimming spot, water fetch fun and formal recalls for Chai (recalling away from dogs other than Kiba is easy):

We then walked around the lake, followed by another brief water fetch session (I want to keep them short for the puppy to be sure they stay special and fun! I bet swimming uses muscles she isn’t used to using yet.)

Below our walk around the lake. There’s lots of people, animals and things for a puppy to see: bikes, people of all ages, rollerblades, kid cars, strollers, all the dogs, fish, birds, runners, music, street vendors, toys, giant soap bubbles, boats …

We ended with another walk the other direction, through the sculpture gardens where I took a few recall videos away from dogs Chai was approaching because I want to show them to a student:

After 3 hours at the park, we all piled back into the hot, hot car and headed home. Both dogs are passed out and content, and so am I. Content, that is, not passed out … yet.

Loose leash walking on the collar

After Game’s solo evening walk, I remembered I wanted to go to the bank. It’s just around the corner, so this time, I took Chai while Game stayed home. We walked on her collar there and back, practiced waiting at several curbs and passed a leashed barking, lunging dog up close (with one click-and-treat right after the other). In the ATM cabin, Chai got to work on her foot-on-leash-means-lie-down cue. She did amazing on this evening outing!

An interesting observation: Chai’s hand touches are already getting sloppier now that I don’t feed them anymore. (I only feed the first one that gets her in position before I attach the leash to the collar.) Of course, in other contexts, I still feed all hand touches – but they get used most often during LLW. I’ve started feeding some of them again. Today, I fed two and enforced some other slow responses with Chai’s leash pressure cue. It’s a balancing act between creating a behavior chain of pull – touch – feed (I don’t want that) and pull – don’t touch, or take your time responding – no food (I don’t want that either). See my June 30 leash walking video in this post to get a glimpse at hand touches not being reinforced.

As always, every dog is different and not every dog will create a behavior chain at all. I know Chai will, so in her case, it is important to keep an eye on her hand touches and their reinforcement history. If I get more pulling and beautiful hand touches, I am clearly reinforcing too many. If I get slow responses to “touch” and lackadaisical touches, I haven’t been reinforcing enough. We’re still looking for that perfect balance – and it will likely keep shifting since Chai is a juvenile dog who grows and changes every day!

Take-away of the day: observe and train the puppy you have today and stay aware of the fact that tomorrow, things may look different! Whatever the training project – never stop observing your puppy!

Husbandry

+ Brushing

Housetraining

0 accidents in the house and an unprompted poop at Chapultepec! Peed twice on cue in the shower cabin and got rewarded with a treat and the opportunity to join Game and me in the living room! Go Chai!

  1. There’s a brief explanation of how Magic Hands works in this post, under the Magic Hands heading (June 13). ↩︎
  2. Wanna learn how to do what I do in the video below? I’ll teach a class on this in December; mail me to learn more or sign up! ↩︎

CHAI’S DISTRACTION RECALL TRAINING – going rouge again! ROUND 2.3: level 3 (off leash), unprotected kibble at the park … followed by a (genius, I know) helper-fading training plan!

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(Still) July 1, 2023

Well, well, well. No, I have still not printed my distraction tracker. No, I do not practice what I preach and keep my 3 environments the same at all 3 levels (level 1: long line; level 2: barrier/helper; level 3: off leash). I was aware of the latter but thought Chai could do it anyways. I was NOT aware of skipping yet another 6 steps, which is both wild and wildly amusing.

Future me chiming in from bird eye’s view:

Check marks are for the achievements Chai has unlocked, strike-through text for the steps I am skipping and the green arrow for what I’m trying on July 1st’s first park session below:

I’m about to skip 6 steps!

July 1, 2023 – off leash unprotected kibble distraction at the first park we already failed at.

Our most difficult distraction, and I just go for it! Watch me crash and burn entertain you and Chai, smart and pragmatic as always, enjoy her pre-recall kibble snack! Who knows where my brain cells are off to. Well, I know where they are off to but seriously – I’d expect to be able to keep all things recall straight anyways! Instead, I’m being hilarious these days. (Nobody’s perfect, dog trainers are just as human as everyone else etc. – I’m sharing this because some students are intimidated by professional trainers when really, there’s no reason to. If your trainer only shows you perfect sessions, that’s not because they only have perfect sessions but because they only show you those. I promise! Our humanness never goes away, no matter how long we’ve been in the field. We all have days where other things are at the forefront of our minds – no matter how much we love our dogs and their training! Personally, I think that’s a good thing. It keeps us humble and it makes for good laughs! So here you go!)

What do you think my rogue self did next? Nope, I didn’t go back to practice unprotected distractions in the house and on the roof. Instead, I got my helper to help and stuck with this very same distraction in this very same location:

Off leash kibble recalls at the park with a human helper (level 2 – barrier/helper)

Here are the next few sessions/reps Zane and I did. In the video below, Chai does exactly what I expected her to do: because she got the kibble in the previous session, she tries again:

We repeat the same set-up. I thought Chai would try again – but no: this puppy learns FAST and has already made the connection that Zane’s presence means there is no point in trying to get the kibble right away! Smart and pragmatic is a dangerous (and dangerously fun) combination!

Chai does well when Zane squats near the kibble plate

This gives me an idea about how to proceed: what if I gradually faded my helper rather than going from recalls with a helper right to recalls without one?

Fading my distraction recall helper at the off-leash kibble stage at the park: 1st step

NICE! Next, I’ll ask Zane to squat just a little further from the kibble …

Fading my helper: 2nd step

Superpuppy! Now I’ll ask Zane to stay at the same distance, but stand up rather than squatting. Gradually changing the picture for Chai …

Fading my helper: Zane stands up

Go Chai! Upwards and onwards: let’s ask Zane to move further back still …

Fading my helper: Zane moves further away from the kibble

Most excellent puppy! (See what Chai is doing here? She is building my trust back up at the same rate that I’m fading my helper. “Patience, grasshopper,” she tells herself. “You’ve got this. You’ll be eating out of your human’s hand again in no time!” This puppy has a master plan!)1

Fading the helper: Zane moves back EVEN further!

Unfortunately, Chai running towards the distraction is out of frame … but you can see her response! Go puppy!

Zane moves further back still – and we need to end the session due to an incessantly barking Dachshund

It’s a shame we had to end here – I would have loved to fade Zane all the way off the stage space and then try again without a helper in this location. Alas – not today! Zane was relieved from his helper duties and I, riding the wave of success, kept going in a bark-free spot of the same park against better knowledge.

No helper – empty plate. Same park, different spot.

Zane headed back to the apartment and I went to a different spot in the park, far from the barky Dachshund. My goal was still to work up to unprotected kibble recalls. I rounded up enough brain cells to start over with an empty plate in the new location: I didn’t want to make both criteria harder at once (new location AND no helper who might pick up the plate). Even though Chai had worked hard to re-build my trust, I wasn’t quite there yet … and as it turns out, that was wise:

Have I mentioned this puppy is whip smart? She knew Zane was gone, saw a plate and would have gone for it. A moment after my recall she realized the plate was empty and turned around to come back to me. I repeated the empty-plate recall in this second location one more time:

After this rep, I made the smart decision to end for the day. Back to the drawing board! I need to think about how to outsmart my puppy … And it’s finally dawning on me that I skipped steps! (It’s humbling to be a student of your own recall protocol and realize that you, too, very much need to print it out or become a person who checks things off digitally.)

Chai had shown me that she was not going to recall away from unprotected kibble in the park at this point! Her motto: “If you see something you might be able to eat – eat it!”

Back to the drawing board I go … let’s see what I’ll cook up next!

  1. I know, of course, that dogs don’t have master plans. If you know me, you’ll know that. But in case you just stumbled across my blog and started reading here, I’m pointing out that this is a joke. ↩︎

CHAI’S DISTRACTION RECALL TRAINING – ROUND 2.3: level 3 (off leash) in the house and level 2 (barrier/helper) revisited

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June 30, 2023: I follow the plan! Woohooo!

After having succeeded outdoors, I stuck to the plan this time – hence the title: round 2 (the 2nd stab at distraction recalls) .3 (level 3: off leash) in our first location with our first distraction.

FUTURE ME CHIMING IN HERE FROM A BIRD’S EYE VIEW:

Steps we have already tested out of are indicated by a check mark, past steps I skipped are crossed out and the steps I am tackling in this post have a green arrow in front of them. Future steps have a square:

Off leash recall away from an empty plate in the house

Reinforcer: a piece of cooked chicken from my hand and “okay” release to check out the distraction.

Extracalifragilisticexpialidocious! Upwards and onwards: distraction #2 – the bag. I didn’t have the paper bag anymore and used a plastic bag that used to have pastries in it instead:

Off leash recall away from empty plastic bag in the house

Chai nailed this distraction as well! Go puppy!

According to my notes, I did not trust that Chai would recall away from kibble off leash. I did not take video, but this is what my notes say:

Long line recall away from kibble in the house

I wanted to go back a step due to my faux pas the other day where I skipped a few steps and she got the kibble. My helper was still working and I don’t have a barrier other than him, so I went back to a long line. And indeed: she hit the end two (or was it three?) times before we could end on a success: recall on a loose long line, chicken from my hand and release to eat the kibble.

So we did end on a success … but not at the off leash (level 3) stage.

July 1, 2023: revisiting the barrier/helper level (level 2)

I had my helper back and revisited the barrier stage with Chai off leash and Zane protecting the most difficult distraction – kibble – in the house. She nailed it on her first attempt! (No video.)

Next, we went up to the roof for an off-leash kibble recall with Zane ready to pick up the kibble plate: by now, I had realized I hadn’t done the barrier level for kibble on the roof the last time.

It took two sessions with a break in between: Zane had to lift the kibble plate in the first rep of the first session. In rep #2, Chai nailed it. We took a recall games break and then had another helper session, getting a single-rep success on the roof (no video).

At this point, future me with his bird eye’s view can proudly show you the following table:

Yay – no more skipped steps! But will I remember that I haven’t yet worked on off-leash kibble in the living room? Stay tuned to find out …

TAKING SHADE’S TOY CLASS WITH CHAI – PART 3

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Shade Whitesel runs a great toy play class over at Fenzi Dog Sports Academy. I’ve taken it twice at Gold now simply because it’s SO good and highly motivating for me, too! This is the third part of Chai and my class journey! Click here for part 1 and here for part 2 (each containing 10 videos).

June 27, 2023: tugging at the park and dog interruptions

Here’s the text I shared in class along with today’s video:

I left a little of our dog interruption in because it‘ it‘s hilarious: they just keep coming! (Disclaimer: explicit language!)

The second short session at the same park was interruption free! My 50% estimate (half the time, we don’t get interrupted) seems pretty accurate!

I liked the last rep of tugging I did. What do you [Shade] think about that one? More or keep it this short and gentle for now? Should I name tug already? Should I let her have the ball I’m getting out for tugging without having her chase it around my body first? Or maybe keep doing a few more reps like the (better) ones in this clip?

June 29, 2023: nice tugging reinforced by fetch!

My proud-of-Chai comments to go with this video:

Look at that tug despite the interruption! Definitely getting stronger! To be fair, that dog wasn’t body blocking her – but still, how cool! Have I mentioned that I love this puppy?

July 1, 2023: trying to get a better strike

Shade’s comments on my last video:

“So, let’s start concentrating on her strike. […] When you are about to let her strike, make sure the ball is still. So, good “misses” look like: ball is still, dog locks on to target, ball is whisked away, repeat. Try that in your misses, so we can start teaching her to have a good strike. When she gets a good successful strike, she’ll like it more!“

Me:

I know exactly what you mean about “good misses” and then getting a decent strike after. It’s easy with tug toys and a dog who is into them! Turns out it is VERY hard for me to do the same thing with balls on a rope! Help please! Which one of the ones below – if any – resembles our goal? Watching the video I feel like I never really got the kind of still-ball-and-then-miss that I’ve gotten quite easily with other dogs and tug toys. We’re having fun though! And no interruptions today!

July 2, 2023: trying out different ways to get that decent strike

Shade’s comments on my last video:

“[Y]ou are moving the toy in slow motion when you make her miss so that you don’t have enough time when she is far away to set the target.“

Me:

“The tricky part is that when I move it faster, the ball starts swining and I don’t have a still target anymore. Hmm. I need to experiment some more with this!“

The video below is me experimenting. I don’t think I submitted this particular video to class, but here are my thoughts on it:

I had the idea to hold the ball as if it was a tug toy! This may be our ticket to good strikes!

July 3, 2023: Shade’s advice

Below is the next video I submitted to Shade after reading their response to my comment about experimenting:

“Whisk it away quickly diagonal to a spot about 18 inches from your hip (if facing the still ball). Dog goes flying by you, which allows you time to turn and set the target again 2 feet from your belly button. You’ve got the good still target, but faster on the misses and away from her and diagonal to her path, not up.”

My response, going with the video submission below:

This is really helpful! Thank you! I was planning on this after reading your response this morning but ended up moving it to the side (or up again) rather than forwards for some reason.

July 4, 2023: more tug reinforced with “Chase” and some misses

Shade:

“[S]he’s going to get the string […], but I don’t know that it matters? […] Ask her if she needs the misses before the actual tugging.“

Me:

Okay, let’s decide it doesn’t matter! […] I’ve still got an upwards tendency on the misses, but am staying more parallel to the ground than before. The video shows the first of 3 tugging reps in this session. The first one sans misses, right as we started the session. Her tugging on that first one felt less energetic/weaker than usual (even though I’m not sure you can tell from the video).

After the session, I realized that I changed two variables on her at once: I’ve started these sessions with “Chase” rather than “Tug” up until now, and today I started with “Tug.” So there’s no way of knowing whether the tugging in the first rep felt less enthusiastic because I didn’t make her miss or because she didn’t get a chase before. I’m thinking I should do a chase first and see if her non-miss tugging looks any different tomorrow. What do you think?

Otherwise, I really like her tugging here. She’s MUCH more into it then when we first started! Still dropping her toy right away after because she knows that every tug rep will be reinforced with at least one “Chase,” and Chase is still her favorite toy game. But it feels like she’s having a good time tugging as well!

July 5, 2023: Cueiung “Chase!” while tugging

Shade:

“A couple chases, then ask for the tugging immediately after the drop of the ball and see if you can get the strike and the carry over of the chasing. Maybe alternate? One with misses, one just strike, that sort of thing.“

Me:

I experimented with this today and got stronger tugging without misses! I like the plan of alternating between tug with and without misses and will keep starting the session with “chase” for now.

Shade:

“It’s also worth noting that the dropping is getting reinforced by the chase, not necessarily the tugging itself. What you could start to do is cue chase when she is tugging the best she can tug. Then, when she lets go, throw the toy that she was tugging with. That way the tugging is directly reinforced.”

Me:

Did you mean cue chase while tugging and then I let go of the toy we are tugging with and wait for her to let go too? Or did you mean cue chase while tugging and I hold on to the toy we are tugging with until she lets go first and then I throw it?

I tried the latter version today; she didn’t let go on “chase” when I held on to the toy so I waited a second and then threw the second toy for her. I wonder whether throwing the second toy while she’s still tugging is even better than waiting for her to drop her toy anyways because this way, I really am directly reinforcing the tugging (rather than a drop)? Let me know what you think. Below is what I tried today!

Otherwise, I bet if I cue “chase” and let go of the toy I am tugging with, she will let go as well. She is used to letting go right after I let her win.

July 6, 2023: More tug reinforced by “Chase,” cued while tugging

Shade:

“Keep holding onto the toy you are tugging with while cuing chase. If she doesn’t let go, still hold on to it. Show her the other toy you have, wait until she lets go then, and then throw that second toy. The second toy in sight should prompt her to let go, but the marker cue happens when she is tugging. She’ll get faster and faster!”

C:

Let me make sure this is what you had in mind before I keep practicing! Hold the toy Chai is tugging on still after the “chase” cue and make the other one interesting?

July 8, 2023: … and even more tug reinforced by cueing “Chase!” while tugging!

Shade:

“Remember how we held the ball out to the side to get the drop? Do that immediately after cuing chase. That way she’ll remember the signal and likely think more dropping thoughts. Try to hold the one you are tugging with as still as possible-not an easy feat with the balls on ropes I know.”

C:

Is this what you had in mind? I put a “Chase” subtitle starting right when I say the cue in case you can’t hear it over the background noise.

I find it interesting that in this video, it looks like the game Chai would have chosen as I was holding out the second toy after marking “chase” was switching to a second tug toy rather than chasing!

July 9, 2023: the second chase/tug session of the day

I’ve been keeping sessions short and only doing one a day – I want it to be special, and Chai is not as pushy as my Mals (yet?). Today, I did two brief sessions before and after coffee-shop relax practice. Both were chases interspersed with 2 tug sessions. In the first session (not on video), she needed the visual cue of the second toy to let go for the first post-tug chase. In the second tug-to-chase rep, she let go on the verbal “chase” and predicted a chase, not a tug!

The second session (see video) also was chases with 2 short tug sessions in between – that’s in the video below. Both times, she let go on the verbal alone without seeing the second toy, and did not confuse it with “switch” (which is not yet a game she knows)! This is making me so happy! She’s also needing less misses in order to be exicted to tug!

July 10, 2023: adding behaviors to toy play

Shade suggested I start adding behaviors to Chai’s toy play to introduce this concept early. I only have one behavior that is relatively reliable on a verbal cue outdoors, and it’s a hand touch. Here is me giving it a try:

Our conversation preceding the video and my thoughts as I handed it in:

Shade:

“We don’t have bring to hand for more tugging-but… we don’t actually need it.”

C:

Help me see the big picture, please! If I eventually want to use tugging as a reinforcer for obedience … would I just not let go of the toy/always combine tug with chase? I’m used to having the dog push back into me for more tugging when I let go of the toy we are tugging with – and then we continue.

Is this something you believe Chai will offer with time, or do you assume this just isn’t a behavior she is going to go with? In the latter case, how would you (in the future, way down the line) use tug as a reinforcer for other behaviors? Or would you stick to chase or a chase/tug hybrid game for good? Paint me a session picture, say, one year down the line, please!

Shade:

“So, our next step would be adding some simple behaviors in there after an offered drop, and reinforcing with chase or tug. I’d like to try that!”

C:

Sounds good! I just tried this. I only have one behavior I believe is fluent and generalized enough on a verbal to work under toy play arousal (I have positions on cue, but only reinforced with food and so far, I’ve only worked on them in the house – I don’t think they’re ready for toy reinforcers quite yet). So my one behavior, and the one I went with, is a hand touch.

I started with chase-es as usual – you see the last one in the beginning of the clip. Then at 00:04/05, my touch cue (I cue without my hand present, then bring out the hand). Chai does it but with her mouth open and a jump – I suspect that she expected me to whip out a tug toy from behind my back. That catches me off guard so my first “Chase” marker is super late. Ooops.

00:13-00:17, she is being goofier with the ball she just fetched than she usually is. I wonder if that’s a tell that the touch just before was HARD. What do you think?

00:30 The second time she returns the chase toy, she is back to normal: bring it back, drop, offer eye contact right away.

So I try another touch cue. She does not actually touch my hand at 00:32 but stops half an inch short of it, so I don’t reinforce that one.

00:36, I get the touch that I’ve trained: mouth closed, strong touch.

00:37 I marked a little late, but better than before. Trying to reinforce with tug this time and not presenting the toy as a good target to strike – I’ve got some practicing to do myself here! I’ll do some of this with Game to get my mechanics figured out and then go back to Chai. (So convenient to have an adult dog who knows all the toy games and will let me focus on my own mechanics!)

00:47 I cue “Chase” to reinforce good tugging, but I don’t get the immediate out on the “chase” cue. Again, I wonder if that’s a tell that this is difficult!

After the video ends, I did two chase-es, then a tug, then another chase. For that one, she was able to let go on the verbal alone again: I went back to just tug and chase and things got easier; she could do it again (is my interpretation).

I’m looking forward to reading your thoughts!

I suspect that the touch is a harder behavior here than a sit would be because my hand motion will remind Chai of the toy being whipped out from behind my back. On the other hand – it’s a great verbal discrimination exercise! Maybe just one touch per session to keep it fun? She’s good at verbal discrimination; I do think she’d figure out when I want a touch and when I want a tug within a few sessions. (Oh! Writing this down, I just realized “touch” sounds an awful lot like “tug”! Argh! Is that too much verbal discrimination to expect under toy arousal conditions? Should I try for it anyways? So many questions! Happy questions, of course. I love a good challenge! I apologize for today’s novel-length post!)

I didn’t save Shade’s response but remember the jist of it. Shade recommended I get positions on solid verbals out in the world and then use them in toy play, and suggested changing my hand touch cue to make it more different from my tug cue. (I’ve since done the latter – it used to be “touch” but is now “bump.”) I’ll practice and if/when I get stuck reach out for a 1-on-1 to keep going.

We haven’t practiced as much as I’d like since the class ended – but we do and are slowly but certainly progressing!

This video concludes the toy class series. Hope you had fun!

If you enjoy the series, take the class at the Gold level yourself! Shade does a truly fantastic job of tailering advice to the dog/student team in front of them – whether you have a drivey dog or a reluctant player!

Urban art clue #8: this is your last clue. Our art piece is 66 steps from A (the corner of the building), walking down b. If you are taller than me, you’ll probably need less steps. If you are shorter, you might need more. Found it and want tacos? Mail me a picture of the art piece you took and I’ll pay!

CHAI’S DISTRACTION RECALL TRAINING – ROUND 1.3: LEVEL 3 (off leash) IN A difficult ENVIRONMENT, aka C goes rogue and skips 10 steps, the world is over, the water is wet and all the pizzazz.

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“Oh, honey. […] The world is over. Who cares how fast you go!”
(Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin)

June 28, 2023: Fresa Parque off leash distraction recalls and skipping 10 steps

I confidently went to Fresa Parque in order to tackle level 3 (off leash) distraction recalls. Yep, you read that right: I haven’t worked on level 3 recalls either in the house or on the roof – Chai’s easy and difficult environments. I haven’t even worked on a protected difficult distraction on the roof yet! Future me made a table showing the 10 steps I am about to skip and the 3 most difficult steps I am about to tackle (check mark: achievement unlocked; strike-through text: skipped; green arrow: about to take a stab at in this post):

This first video shows the easiest distraction – our good old empty plate. Chai was a good sport and recalled away from it. I did two recalls rather than just one because she didn’t look like she knew the plate was even there … and then we danced! (Because what else are you gonna do when Gretchen Felker-Martin informs you that the world is over!)

Empty plate, off leash, park

Paper bag, off leash, park

Next, we tackled distraction #2: the intermediate one, our paper bag. This time, Chai clearly saw it. She beelined towards it and came right back when I called. Good puppy!

As confident as can be, I did the next obvious thing: set up distraction #3. KIBBLE! Our most difficult distraction! For the very first time, a completely unprotected edible distraction – several distractin protocol steps before it was time for a challenge of this magnitude.

Kibble, off leash, park

What do you think happened?

Chai knows this is an edible distraction, and she knows it is unprotected. She does the sensible thing and eats it. What else would one smart, pragmatic Border Collie do?!

Silver lining: you see her hesitate ever-so-slightly when I call. The recall response is almost on auto-pilot, that’s why. Then, her conscious decision to of course eat what is right in front of her wins and she goes for the kibble.

Kibble – second attempt

What would gone-rogue me do next?

I decided it would be a good idea to repeat the distraction – this surely was a one-off error! I’d just call earlier next time and all would be well.

You are seeing me have an extinction burst here: Chai has given me SO much confidence in her distraction recalls that I trust my reinforcer (Chai coming back) is going to happen again. Of course it is!

(Or is it? Let’s find out!)

Kibble – third attempt

The conclusion extinction-burst me draws in the video above is not one I would draw if I was looking at my tracker, away from the park and back at the drawing board. But I was still surfing the wave of extinction and trusted that I’d get a beautiful recall if I only reinforced once before releasing Chai to the kibble. She had simply let me know that found food was better than “Get it” chicken. Who knew I am such an optimist! (I had enough brain cells switched on to realize that ignoring my marker cue (Get it) and going for the distraction instead did not count as success even though Chai responded to the original recall.)

Third time’s a charm? Let’s find out …

Surprise: third time’s NOT a charm. What I believe happened here is that the second repetition reminded Chai that there was unprotected food available – so she went for it again in the third one. Clever Border Collie, outsmarting your human like this after building up his confidence!

One NICE thing the video above shows is that it’s no big deal if your dog gets the distraction. I know that, so I don’t worry about it. Laugh it off if something doesn’t go as planned and go back to the drawing board! It’s a game! We’ll just keep playing.

Tip for my Calling All Dogs students: do what I say, not what I do! Print out your distraction trackers, have them somewhere you can see them, check off squares and, most importantly, have a look at them every time before you do a recall training session! It might have been able to resist my cunning puppy’s master plan if I had followed my own advice!

Urban art clue #7: You should, if you want to, have found the blue fence and know which side of it the art piece is on. You now have two options: either you keep looking on that side until you find the art piece …
or you make finding it a bit easier and scroll down for your last-but-one clue:
.
.
.
.
.
.
the art piece is at (my) shoulder hight at the outside wall of the building.

Also, I verified something: this piece of urban art has got to be by the same artist as the original one I posted (without the blue spraypaint behind), but it is not, in fact, the same piece. The first picture I shared is very close and on the same building, but has been boarded off. Urban art is ephemeral!

Chai’s distraction recall training – round #1.1 (of many!) Today: level 1 in an easy environment!

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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:

  1. Empty plate (easy)
  2. Crumpled-up bag that used to have food in it (intermediate)
  3. Kibble (difficult)

3 locations:

  1. Living room (easy)
  2. Roof (intermediate)
  3. Park (difficult)

3 levels of distraction protection:

  1. Long line
  2. Off leash, distraction behind barrier (helpers and fences)
  3. 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!)

  1. 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! ↩︎

Chaiary, day 70 (June 15, 2023): toy play, LLW (manners context) and environmental sensitivity

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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.”

TAKING SHADE’S TOY CLASS WITH CHAI – PART 2

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Shade Whitesel runs a great toy play class over at Fenzi Dog Sports Academy. I’ve taken it twice at Gold now simply because it’s SO good and highly motivating for me, too! This is the second part of Chai and my class journey! Here’s part 1 and here’s part 3, each containing 10 videos.

June 16, 2023: TWO targets and ZERO targets on the roof!

It turned out that one target was better than the other! Oh well! The litte Border Collie knows what she wants!

June 17, 2023: hands near toys

Shade then asked to see me work on their “hands near tug toys” lecture indoors. This is a great exercise: when I say “toy,” it means I’ll hand the toy to Chai (this is not a cue she is familiar with but one I made up on the fly). Her eye contact is a start button for my hands moving closer to the toy. If she moves closer to it in return, I retreat my hand. The click communicates either that a treat is coming or marks Chai dropping the toy. I love this conversation because not only does it teach the dog you are not interested in stealing their toy – it’s also great for practicing going back and forth between food and toys!

June 18, 2023: two balls in the real world

Shade suggested we pivot away from teaching tug with the fleece toy as an independent game, but use “chase” (the 2-ball game Chai already knows) to reinforce tugging. That’s what I would have tried at this point as well if I worked on this independently. It’s fun to see how what different dog trainers will do and when is like criss-crossing paths: sometimes overlapping, sometimes briefly moving away from each other and then merging again …!

I always watch my video before submitting and think about what I would suggest next if the person and dog in the video wasn’t me, but a student team of mine. Sometimes it’s the same thing Shade suggests and sometimes it’s different. It’s a fun exercise – give it a go yourself if you’re taking online classes!

I believe I first showed Shade a 2-ball video baseline inside and then one in the real world – they wanted to see how Chai did in a place I was better able to throw and bounce balls (no risk of throwing them off the roof and having my dog leap after them!)

Below is the first video I showed Shade of our two-ball game in the real world. I say an “out” cue in this video right before Chai lets go – that’s how I teach an out cue if the dog would let go of the toy anyways: I just name the behavior, and voilà, I’ve got it on cue (German “Aus!” in my video).

The reason I’ve been playing on the roof rather than outdoors is that Mexico City parks are VERY distracting environments and I don’t have access to a calmer large space … except for days like the one in the video. (Which is a bit of a drive away, so not an everyday place.)

This is what I added with the video I submitted to class:

“Here is a 2-ball play snippet in a calmer space. My balls don’t squeak – the squeaking you hear in the video is my friend’s toy (the owner of the chocolate BC puppy who makes a brief appearance.) I’ve named the “out” once I knew she was about to spit the ball out reliably; this is how we currently play 2 balls. So far, tennis balls are the only toy that I’ve used “chase” with and the 2 ball game is the only context I’ve used “Aus” (out) in.”

Just for your entertainment – below is Chai playing with 2 balls in a busier environment that comes closer to what we have access to on a daily basis! She’s being a rockstar even though a lot is going on around her! I don’t think I submitted the video below to class, only the above one. The one below is from June 23; just Chai and I having fun with 2 balls and me throwing in my “out” cue:

Shade (I am writing this from memory so don’t quote me on my exact words!) suggested I drop my out cue for the purpose of this class. This isn’t what I would have done, but that’s okay – when I take someone’s class, one of the best parts is doing things a little bit different than you would without their input!

June 19, 2023: dropping the “out” cue

Here is Chai – back on the roof – without the “out” cue (showing that she’ll still drop the ball reliably):

June 20, 2023: holding the ball in 3 different positions and always getting a lovely return

Shade has a lecture on the 2-ball game where the toy the handler has is held in three different positions and the dog learns to return their ball seamlessly either way. Chai already knows this game, so here we’re showing off! The three positions are ball behind the handler’s back, ball next to the handler, e.g. on a shelf, and ball in handler’s pocket.

Brief notes I submitted with this video:

“3 hand positions, no “Aus” cue!
We’ve also kept practicing the hands near toy exercise both on the couch and on the floor.“

June 22, 2023: eye contact and an attempt at the two-ball game with rope toys

Next, Shade suggested playing the two-ball game with toys we could also tug with. I used two rope toys, hoping they would be less fun to chew than the softer fleece tugs. Here’s what I wrote with my video submission:

“I shaped up to (a little) longer eye contact for food! Aaaaaand we had a non-ball fail on the roof: I used 2 rope toys and they were fun to chew on. (I got eye contact, but no returns …) I suspect if I used my fleece tugs, it would be even harder for her to return them because they’d be even more fun to chew … Hrm …”

(The eye contact part is because we are using eye contact as a start button.)

Shade suggested that things might be easier for Chai if we played in the real world where I didn’t have to worry about the toys falling off the roof – despite the distractions. This is what we do in our next session, and it turned out Shade was right!

June 23, 2023: 3 sets of two toys in the real world

My comments with the video below:

“I started out with easy balls (plastic – not fun to chew on), progressed to more difficult ones (tennis ball – one might want to lie down and chew off the fuzz) and progressed to rope toys (definitely something to chew on!) I lowered my eye contact criterion to just a single quick look when I saw her struggle with more than this in a more distracting environment.“

I’m proud of how well Chai is able to deal with dog distractions!

Shade suggested to stick to balls on strings – they would be both bouncy and could be used for tugging. In the afternoon of the same day, we played with them in a different park and I waited for a tiny little bit of eye contact between throws.

June 26, 2023: 3 seconds of eye contact duration, and Mexico City park life for everyone’s amusement

“We worked on 3 seconds of duration for her eye contact (no problem for Chai) yesterday for a simple 2-ball chase game. We got lucky and had no interruptions (and no video) of our session at the park!1

Today, I tried adding tugging. This time, we did NOT get lucky in terms of avoiding dog distractions. This is what our normal looks like about 50% of the time (and the reason I’ve been playing on the roof!) The first half of this video is just for everyone’s amusement: enjoy some Mexico City park life! And no, this is not a dog park. It is just a park (any park will be like this).

I am impressed how well Chai did – the reason I even started the game was that all the other dogs were off again and Chai was giving me beautiful engagement when I got started. If the dogs had still been around, I wouldn’t have started because that is clearly not a fair level of distraction for a dog who is only just learning a game. The tugging I get (when the whippety dog comes back) is weak, but I am impressed that I get it at all, and I really do want to reward it with chase, so we get 2 messy whippet-disrupted chases there as well. (And then I am smart enough to end. Barking whippety dogs? Chai’s body language tells me that she can work through whippets who body-block her when she tries to return a toy to me, but being barked at does not feel good.)

00:38-00:42 In the first rep of returning the ball she drops it off camera: right at the tripod and my bag where I’ve been standing for a few minutes when setting up and waiting out the other dogs, and when Chai asked me to work. I suspect my history of standing there is what makes her gravitate to this spot. I don’t think she’s purposefully running past me/dropping the ball far from me.”

Keep reading here for part 3 of the toy class series (our next 10 toy videos)!

(1) If you take online classes with video submissions, I suggest you do this as well: take the occasional day or two to just practice rather than submitting videos. Also, only move to the next step after you have gotten feedback on the previous one. In order to get the most out of a video-submission class, quality beats quantity. It’s not about using every last one of your weekly video minutes, but about working at your dog’s pace, taking your time and not skipping steps. This looks a little different for every team – but the most important take-home message for you, the handler, is: don’t worry about submitting videos every single day or using up every single second of your time. That’s secondary – you and your dog training is what comes first!

In yesterday’s post, I promised CDMX readers who happen to be into scavenger hunts a daily clue that may get you closer to finding this piece of street art:

Here’s your first clue: it is right next to the abandoned building we climbed in yesterday’s post.

Chaiary: foundation behaviors for the invisible-line approach to loose leash walking – hand touch

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I need the hand touch as a foundation skill to later use to get Chai back into position (behind the invisible line)1 when she forges!

June 2, 2023 (day 57) – getting started on hand touches!

With a treat in the target hand …

… and then we fade the treat!

June 4, 2023 (day 59): no more luring and a cue!

Presenting an empty hand right away

Adding a verbal cue

Over the next few days, I’ll ask for the hand touch in low distraction outdoors environments … And if things look as good as they do indoors, we’re ready for the next step in our invisible line leash walking journey! (Aka explaining to Chai where the invisible line is located!)

(1) As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, if you’ve taken the class Out and About I used to teach at FDSA, you’ll know what I’m talking about in terms of the “invisible line.” If you’ve taken Out and About but not worked on leash walking, you can look up the broader context of this approach in the leash walking lectures in your FDSA library!

If you have NOT taken Out and About and want to know what the heck an invisible line is, you can find a micro e-book about this and other LLW approaches as well as info about the future home of “Out and About 2.0” here.

Chaiary: foundation behaviors for the invisible-line approach to loose leash walking – giving in to leash pressure

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Giving in to leash pressure is a loose leash walking foundation skill that will cue Chai to reorient when reaching the end of her leash and keep her from pulling sideways once we are working on collar mode.1

June 1, 2023 (day 56) – Chai’s first two leash pressure sessions on a collar!

I haven’t put a collar on Chai before her first session today – she doesn’t even have a collar of her own yet, so the one you’ll see in this video is a bit big. It’s one of Game’s collars that I rarely use. I’ve only walked Chai on a harness so far. Note: it is MUCH easier to teach leash skills to a dog who doesn’t have a history of pulling yet. If your dog does, it is completely normal for them to take longer than Chai. It is easiest to teach leash walking to a puppy.

Collar leash pressure session 1:

Session 2:

In her second collar leash pressure session, Chai gives in every time before I bring out the treat – that’s our cue to take things into a new environment in the next session after!

June 2, 2023 (day 57) – leash pressure in a new environment

We repeated the leash pressure behavior up on our roof – a low-distraction outdoors environment (no video). Chai did just as well as she had done inside. Leash pressure on a collar: check! We’ll be moving on to the next foundation behavior for our invisible line LLW behavior: the hand touch!

(1) In this post, I am specifically referring to the invisible line approach to loose leash walking. If you’ve taken the class Out and About I used to teach at FDSA, you’ll know what I’m talking about in terms of the “invisible line.” If you’ve taken Out and About but not worked on leash walking, you can look up the broader context of this approach in the leash walking lectures in your FDSA library!

If you have NOT taken Out and About and want to know what the heck I am talking about, you can get a micro e-book on my loose leash walking approaches here. It comes with all the training steps, larger concepts that are not a part of this blog post (WHY do we need these baseline behaviors in the first place and WTF is an invisible line?), more unlisted example videos and other fun training materials.