Tibby's Hips

I have been working with Tibby on 'beg' for a few weeks now. She still keeps falling over. Sit up or beg is part of our homework for the 2nd lesson of ST puppy class.



This is what Silvia said: "you definitely don’t want her to fall! First, make sure she sits correctly before asking her to sit up. For now, also help with something behind her back (a sofa?) that would allow her to lean against if necessary and put your paw target so that she can get some support from it when putting front feet on. Click and reward when you feel she is well balanced. It definitely takes practice to find balance and build muscle to be able to hold this position, that’s why you want to offer some support at first, as you definitely don’t want her to be falling over!"

This is what another classmate Mary said: "Scout, my TT, does “sit pretty” very well, but it took a long time for him to build up the core muscles to be able to hold the position. I found that working against a wall or other stationary object with his back to it helped him a lot in the beginning stages. The wall added support so we could concentrate on getting those front feet off the ground without him falling over. There was a lot of falling over before we came up with this solution."

So TT owners can your dog sit up? Is this a TT thing?

Wordless Wednesday

Everlasting?

I finally gave in and bought Tibby an Everlasting Treat Ball a few weeks ago.

They are so expensive!

At first Tibby was like, "I am NOT touching that thing.  No!  Way!"

After I rubbed a little peanut butter on it she changed her mind,  "Hmmm, this isn't so bad."

This is the one pawed treat ball attack pose.

There was a definite honeymoon period when Tibby LOVED the treat ball.  It frustrated her and she would make cute little grunts and angry sighs.  She was saying, "Get out of the blue thingy treat!  I want to eat you!"

The top of the treat ball developed nicks and cuts.

It lasted a week.

The treat is still in the ball, but Tibby isn't interested in trying to get it out.

Technically that would make it everlasting, but that wasn't what I had in mind when I bought it.

I guess Tibby understands the saying, 'Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

Week 2 Silvia Trkman Puppy Class

I said:"Wow we have learned a lot in this week. I’m obviously the weakest link on our team. Reading that article on the main page about playing with your dog helped me a lot. It’s amazing how easily I can forget why we are training -- to have fun!
So now I am trying to play, throw treats, hold treats in my hand. Tibby is giving me her attention now! And we are having fun.
Plate -- seems ok. I tried to use a cue for the one paw vs. two paw, but Tibby doesn’t get it get. More work needed.
Box/bowl -- work in progress. I tried to go too fast, so we are going back to the beginning. I cut down the sides of our boxes. I think that helped some, but this needs more work. She keeps walking through the smaller box. When I wait for her to offer 4 feet in she gets frustrated and offers other tricks away from the box.
Recalls -- we have been having a lot of fun with this! I didn’t think Tibby would ever choose to follow me if she had the choice. Well, she chose to follow me! In the video there is a loose dog running around in the park and Tibby doesn’t even care. And other dogs are her favorite thing.
Frog -- I don’t think Tibby gets this. She doesn’t know what I’m clicking for. What do you think? We tried it with the pillow, but that just confused Tibby.
Impulse control -- Work in progress. I tried it with Tibby’s favorite toy and steak. She eventually got it."

Silvia said:

"Well yes, she is definitely offering more action! That’s a great start! Those bowls for 4 in were somewhat too optimistic, I think it’s better to stick to that second box you had after the bowls some more, until she is really getting in with all 4 feet as soon as she sees it. It’s no hurry with this trick, we don’t need it for the next homework, so just take the time, use that box and then add something at the side, maybe rather a newspaper or something as the bottles, she didn’t seem to like those in her box
Same with frog: it is hard for the dogs to understand you might be clicking for hind legs if they weren’t clicked for hind legs before, so just take the time and let her figure it out: some other tricks for hind feet awareness that we’ll be working on in this class will help with it too. If you want to try on a pillow, you can tell her to lie down on a pillow, you don’t need to shape the down again if she knows it already – that will allow you to focus on frog legs instead.
For paw touches, it’s normal it takes some time for them to learn the verbal cues, but she is definitely offering the behaviors nicely, that’s the important thing! Recalls from a stay look great, try to slowly add difficulty by recalling also from sniffing etc. – not when it would be too difficult, first when you see she has nothing else to do, then also from more&more distractions."

I said:
"Yes I don’t think she likes the bottles. I thought of using newspaper, but she LOVES to tear up newspaper and cardboard. I might try a rolled up blanket.
Can’t wait for next week"

They're Baaack

I just found a tick on top of Tibby's head.  It wasn't attached very well, so I'm hoping it had just latched on.  Where do they come from?!?!  The snow is barely, hardly, still in shady spots melted away and the ticks are back?  We have only walked on paved city roads, sidewalks and the mowed city park/soccer fields in the last few days.  Creepy ticks.

Tibby Recalls and A Stray Dog

Tibby and I have been practicing more recalls. I love the light 25 foot line that I bought when we had our private lesson. Tibby chooses to follow me. Me! She doesn't run away!
I try to go once a day and walk around on the 2 soccer fields by my house with Tibby on the long line. Some times it doesn't work, because there are people using the soccer fields. Also, there is a school across the street from the field/park and the kids are too much of a distraction for Tibby.
Yesterday, we finally found a good spot in the park to practice and I could film for our puppy/tricks class. Then a stray dog ran into our practice spot!!!
Ugh. It's not a real stray dog. The dog's owners live in one of the houses next to the park. They let it out to 'run' every day. It runs around every where. Annoying. Tibby didn't seem to care about the dog. Even though dogs are her favorite thing. I guess cheese is more powerful.

Wordless Wednesday

Muttsy

I have three toys from my childhood - Herbert the hedgehog, Starr the hobby horse and Muttsy.

Muttsy is very special.  I rescued him after all!

I'm not sure how old I was when I found Muttsy, but I must have been around 6 or 7.  My parents and I were shopping in Sam's Club.  We found Muttsy sitting on a display of paprika.  Paprika was my secret ingredient at the time (click here if you want to see the whole 'secret ingredient' story), so I knew that Muttsy had to come home with us.  He was lost.  After all, dogs don't hang around the spice aisles in stores.

I really 100% thought Muttsy was real.  I believed that I had rescued him from the store.

Also, I thought he was the only Muttsy in the world.  Imagine how surprised I was when we went back to the store a year (in kid time) later and found a whole display of Muttsys. 

What!?! 

My Mom told me that this was Muttsy's family and wasn't it nice they could see him again and meet his new family.  Of course, Muttsy was happy to see his family again, but I always worried, "What if I hadn't found the right Muttsy?  What if I had taken home one of these other Muttsys?"  It just wouldn't have been the same.

It's crazy but I still think of him as having his own personality.

I think Tibby and Muttsy look similar.

Only Tibby is better, because she has a personality.

Uh oh!  Muttsy learned a new trick from Tibby!

The classic Tibetan sleeping position.

More Box Work With Catty's Help

Another video of box work. Will I ever get it right?



What I said, "Well, we went all day without training. Tonight Tibby started jumping in and out of her box, so I guess she was bored!
This is a video of me being calm. We had to go back a few steps. Just doing the smaller box and bowl. It’s a pretty boring video. Tibby was happy and she is still trying to get at her training toys, so that’s good. And a little feline competition doesn’t hurt."

What Silvia said, "Oh, you don’t need to be THAT calm and serious! I mean, try to not be pushy in order to get her attention, wait for her to offer the attention herself. Once she does, you can be more fun, especially for big steps forward, like for 4in! Reward that by also marking it with a voice, maybe getting up and do some playing or something. But yes, she is definitely offering things on her own now, very good!"

What a classmate, Laura, said, "Suggestion: Put the food in your hands, or at least in a container that you don’t have to look away from Tibby. You disconnect to get the cookies. Also, you need to give the reward quicker. There is alot of lag between the offering, click and treat. The cat is awesome!"

What Silvia said, "Good point! It’s important to be quick, especially if you are trying to get more action from the dog."

*sigh* I'm feeling like I will never get it right - frustrated and a little bit bored with the box.

First Time At the Dog Park: Part III

I forgot to post the final part of our dog park trip.

After going to the park we watched a movie.  Zoe had to take a time out in her Mom's car, because she and Tibby started to play too roughly.  Even though Zoe is only a couple months older than Tibby she acts like an old dog sometimes.  I'm not sure if this is the difference between Tibetans and other dogs or just a Tibby vs. Zoe thing.

I mentioned before that Zoe has serious resource guarding issues.  Whenever she comes over to our house she steals all the toys and bones and hordes them.  She won't let Tibby have any.  Zoe growls and snaps at Tibby.

At first I thought that if I gave them more bones and toys there would be enough for both of them, but that didn't solve the problem.

So finally I took all the bones and toys away.

Still didn't solve the problem.  Zoe started guarding the couch and wouldn't let Tibby get up on it.

It's Tibby's house!

Finally Zoe went to the car for a time out.  And Zoe's Mom blamed Tibby for 'mauling my dog'.  Yes, Tibby wanted to play, but she wasn't the one snapping.  Zoe was even snapping/growling at me when I took the bones away.

When she came back inside the girls played nicely and there weren't any toys or bones to fight over.

After Zoe left Tibby was tired.

So sleepy.

So, so, so sleepy!

The girls playing at the dog park. Tibby never even gets close to fetching the ball. It's not her thing.

Motivation

I have been having a hard time getting Tibby to work with me.

This is what I asked Silvia and her reply

"How can I keep Tibby interested in working with me?
After one click/treat she will walk away. I took a private lesson this week and our instructor said when that happens I should turn my back and wait for her to find me and make eye contact.
I know Tibby is hungry, because she only eats what I hand feed her (doing tricks, recalls and exercises). It doesn’t seem to matter if she hasn’t eaten all day long and we are working in the boringest place (bathroom) she will look at the wall or sniff the floor and ignore me.
She’s 11 months old, so she should have some attention span.
What am I doing wrong?"




Silvia said, "

Often, the problem is people try too hard to get the dog’s attention. They will bring the best treats, make funny noises, trying really hard to keep the dog’s attention. I think many dogs will understand that as a pressure, as a request to work with you. To this request, they can say yes or no, depending on how good treats one has, how hard one tries and how they feel at that moment. That’s why I prefer to not even ask questions. I will wait for the puppy to come to me herself, asking for attention. If I feel like saying yes, I will do a little something with her. If her focus waders off, that’s perfectly o.k., no hard feelings, no pressure, but the option to interact with me and earn treats is over, sorry, but I have other things to do as wait for the dog to notice I exist. – About what your instructor said, only that I usually give them even longer break (impossible in normal class situation, but definitely possible in our class!), if just coming to you for eye contact is enough, then she can still choose to first check out something and then come back to work some more. As I always say: don’t ask the dog to work with you. Let the dog ask to work with you. Don’t push for more. Let the dog push for more."

Snake!

You may want to skip this post if you don't like snakes or dead things.
We seem to have adventures all the time! Today at the dog park Tibby found a 'dead' snake. Ewwwww! I haven't worked on 'leave it' with her very much, but Tibby thought the snake was gross too. Gross or not dead enough? I'm not sure. Really it was nasty.



When I was about 10 years old I found a dead snake about the same size as the one in the video. I curled it up on the end of the handrail post on our porch. I wanted to save it. Then I forgot about it. Later that week......the UPS man came to the door. As he left he grabbed the post. Yuck! Squished snake!
I don't know why he kept delivering packages to our house. There was also the time a bird nesting above our porch light attacked him......more than once.

Train Fan?

At the dog park today we saw a train. Yes a real train! Right next to the dog park. Tibby was a little surprised, but she ate some treats. She didn't like the loud noise. It was also a very long train.

Restrained Recalls With A Tree

I took Tibby to the dog park again today. We tried some restrained one person recalls using a tree. The first 2 sessions were OK. Then a train went by the park - like 10 feet from us and Tibby was a little scared. I think next time I will take Tibby's harness, so she has something to pull against.

Shopping Advice Needed

So I'm trying to decide what to order from Clean Run.  I need a DVD or 2 that will help with recalls and drive building.  These are the ones I'm trying to decide between, but I'm open to other ideas.   Crate Games, Really Reliable Recall, Making Reinforcement Fun or The Control Unleashed Games.  I can't decide!  I'm thinking the Crate Games and some of the Control Unleashed videos on demand. 

Also, toys.  I want to get one of those chasing toys on a rope.  Michelle suggested it at our lesson yesterday.  And I want to get a couple other toys - suggestions?  Something that Tibby would go crazy for.  She does't like anything hard.  Soft, squeaker, good for tugging and strong.  Something that I can use for a recall jackpot.