Week Eight: Anti-depressant update

Facility Description
The new facility sits on a large piece of rural property between Boulder and Longmont. It’s private land, and Gigi rents the building from the owners who originally planned to move their doggie daycare into it, but decided against it. It has two garage-sized rooms, an L-shaped hallway at the back to what was going to be the lobby and then back to a bathroom and storage room. The big rooms have that spongy flooring. The rest is tile. The acoustics are pretty bad because the ceilings are so low, so that may be a challenge for Lilly down the road. Each big room opens to the outside via typical garage doors.

Outside, there’s a large, round, paved parking area that’s completely fenced in. There are geese and chickens running around on the other side of the fence, which can be a challenge for some dogs. But, I’m happy to say Lilly just looked at them sweetly and didn’t react.

The Private Lesson (all off leash)
I let Lilly settle in and take in her surroundings from the safety of her crate in the back of my car. She shook in fear at first, so I did not force anything. I massaged her. I gave her treats, etc. I put down the tailgate, opened her crate door and let her look around. I click/treated her for any interest. While we waited to settle in, I also tried clicking for an open-relaxed mouth and for blinking — both things we’re working on shaping.

Rather than push Lilly’s limits, Gigi and I walked around outside and eventually called Lilly out. Surprisingly, she came out of her crate to us, so I fed her a bunch for following us around outside for about 30 seconds, then I sent her back to her crate. (It’s kind of like using the Premack Principle and the Give me a Break concept as suggested in “Control Unleashed.” She really wanted to be in her crate AND needed a stimulus break, so we gave it to her in exchange for working a little.)

We called her out, rewarded her and sent her back several times. Sometimes she came more easily than others. What Gigi noticed is that Lilly whines in a specific way when she wants to be brave but can’t quite work up the courage. The only other place I see that pattern is when she’s swimming in the pond. Sometimes I throw the ball in the deep end, and she’ll whine until she works up the courage to swim out and get it. She did that same whine when we called her out, but she was having second thoughts about coming.

Then, Gigi opened one of the garage doors into a regular training room. We left the other door closed because that’s where the agility equipment is, and often Lilly will totally shut down when she sees it.

I tried a quick heel with attention to get Lilly into the now-open room, but it was a no-go. She froze in her tracks about 10 feet from the door, so we turned and worked back from that threshold for a while.

Then, I put her in a reluctant sit-stay on the tailgate of my car and told her to watch as I put a jackpot cup (a small, covered plastic-ware bowl with cereal in it) inside the room. I walked back to her and told her to “Get it.” Then, we ran together into the room, where I opened the cup and let her eat everything inside.

I know that some people use high-value treats as jackpots, but I’ve had really good luck with letting her gorge (sort of) on cheerios or trix cereal. Gigi thought it was pretty funny that Lilly will work for such low-value food.

We did that jackpot trick a couple times, then gave her a break in her crate.

Next, I sprinkled cereal all over the floor and told Lilly to “Snoop,” which is really her look down command, but I trained it using food on the ground, so she knows to look for food too. So, for quite a while, she just ran around and ate off the floor. I threw in a few easy commands like sit, down, rollover, then I’d release her to eat more off the floor.

I also got her to walk with me into the hall, the lobby, the bathroom, the storeroom — clicking the whole way for any brave actions. I also let her look into the agility room. And, all that went fine.

Then, we gave Lilly some time off and just let her do what she wanted to inside or out. I clicked for any confident actions, like exploring the hall alone or going outside to look at the ducks. I tried getting her to play ball a little, but she would not do it.

Once she seemed relaxed and wiggly again, we let her into the other room with the agility equipment. I didn’t want to push it, so I only asked her to do the tunnel twice, then we cheered like crazy and left the room.

As our final work outside, Gigi and I did some restrained recalls back and forth, and Lilly did great.

Since the weather is starting to get bad, our Sunday class will often be at the new indoor facility rather than outside at the training field near the dog park. I do not think Lilly is ready for classes indoors with lots of other dogs both because of the tighter space and acoustics, so I’m a little stuck.

Gigi, however, gave me a list of times when she’ll be at the facility cleaning up after her other classes. She said that Lilly and I could come work on our own while she closes up for the day — even if it’s just for 15 minutes. So, we might try that for a while … despite the hour-long drive each way.

When I ordered my copy of “Control Unleashed,” Gigi asked me to get her one too, so we brought her copy to our lesson. I’ve already read it once, and now I’m going back through again in more detail.

The chances of getting a real class like that here are slim, I think, but I’ll do as much of the work on my own (or with others I can bribe to help) and see how it goes. Next week, I’ll write more about my thoughts (and emotions) after reading the book.

Gigi is getting ready to go to the Association of Pet Dog Trainers Conference next week, so maybe she’ll have some new ideas from that too.

Until then, I’m working on shaping Lilly to look at something and look back at me. I’m also working on clicking for blinking. So far, the results are pretty funny on both counts. I’ll write more about that next week too.

We’re also working on the “Go to Place” thing. We call it “Nest,” but I need to find a good nest/mat that I can easily take with us when we’re training or working in public. I’m open to ideas, if you have them.

So, that’s this week’s update. Thanks (as always) for your interest and support.