I mentioned in the last post that Cura's next training session was going to take place on Rick and Heather's property and we were going to be putting her no-jump harness to a serious test by letting her frolic, 'be a dog', and do some off-lead work. With play-dates suspended until warmer weather prevails, it had been awhile since Cura had been given the opportunity to have some free-play. She gets physical and mental exercise almost daily, but it is structured and controlled rather than time that she can just do what she wants. Now, because of her weather reactions and jumping ability, she had only had short periods of time off-lead during play-dates in the past, but at least she was spending time outside. Even though she was on an extend-a-lead, she was the one who got to decide what she did -- if she wanted to dig . . . she could dig, if she wanted to sniff . . . she could sniff. On top of that, she got to interact with other dogs in a safe environment.
Having said all that, last Thursday was the first REAL play session she has had since coming home. For all but the introduction/reunion period in the beginning of the session and the refocusing period at the end, Cura was off-lead. The no-jump harness worked well -- though she never even made a move to jump the fence. It is possible that she just didn't have any desire to jump, but until I see otherwise, I am content that the harness is doing its job. For almost two hours, Cura had the run of the arena. Of course, she did A LOT of sniffing! She also dug for China! I wish I had brought my camera! There were some pretty hilarious moments when all you saw was Cura's backside sticking up from the hole with dirt being flung out behind her -- tail wagging. A couple of Rick and Heather's dogs ended up getting dirt showers courtesy of Cura's enthusiastic excavation. Next time I will bring my camera even if I DO think we will be working. If nothing else, maybe I can get Rick or Heather to take some pics/video of us working as a team.
My 'job' during the training session this last time was to get more comfortable having Cura off-lead (building on the whole 'trust' thing with positive experiences), keeping track of her while carrying on a lively conversation, and working on her recall when she was either out of my sight or messing about in an area that was not a doggie free-play area, like the wood or compost piles. For the most part, I did pretty well. I really enjoyed seeing Cura having fun -- she obviously needed it.
When we got home Cura crashed! Zonked out immediately . . . we had to really work to get her to rouse long enough to eat her dinner -- after which she went right back to sleep. Once we headed off to bed that night, I don't think she moved at all until the morning. When I got up on Friday, I got this bleary eyed look before she dropped back off to sleep. Seriously, the only things that moved were her eyelids! We did go for a run, but she was not as enthusiastic about it as she normally is and had slowed down and was ready to come home much earlier than normal. When we got home, she went straight upstairs to lay on her soft cushy bed -- didn't even wait for breakfast! After calling her back down several times, I finally brought her bed downstairs so that she wouldn't have to lay on the (carpeted) floor, since she obviously wanted some comfort. She ended up sleeping most of the day! I don't mean dozing . . . I mean hard core, snoring, dead to the world, sleeping.
I think she used muscles she didn't know she had! Even with all the exercise she gets, Thursday was not only a day of fun and freedom, it was a great workout! Here is hoping we can do it again when time permits.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Quiet Week -- sort of . . .
Well, usually after a week there is at least one or two things that REALLY stick out as topics to blog on . . . not so much this week. It was a rather uneventful week, at least a far as big things go. But there have been a lot of little successes that could very easily be overlooked on those weeks where something exceptional happens. So, this week will be about the minor goal posts . . .
The weather has gotten colder and Cura has been ravenous. She just can't seem to get enough food. It must be the cold so, as an experiment, I have upped her food a bit instead of supplementing her diet with various treats. The treats (think doggie junk food -- even if I DO go for the healthier options) combined with a couple of days where she didn't get her run, and Heather noticed that she was looking a little heavier than normal -- still within the healthy range, but not her normal svelte self. We decided that giving her a bit more kibble, returning to a 'normal' treat schedule, and putting her coat on when she was out working might solve the problem. It seems to be working, she isn't looking at me like she is starving so I am back to, at most, one treat per day and she is not looking around for more food. She actually likes her coat when she is out and about.
I am working with Cura off-lead more now -- though always in a fairly controlled environment. She has been working off-lead for some time at the doctor's office and now we are doing the same during evening classes. The building is pretty secure so she is not going to get outside, but she could certainly run me a very merry chase if she chose to -- so far, so good. Also, at Rick's suggestion, I purchased a no-jump harness (the person who invented those things must have a sense of humor -- it is just one big puzzle until you get the hang of how it works -- I would show you a picture, but it is downstairs and I just don't feel like digging out the camera). It allows her freedom of movement but prevents her from jumping by stopping her from fully extending her legs. I have started taking her in the back yard after her run in the morning and letting her spend a bit of time off-lead back there with the harness. Again, so far, so good -- she has not even tried to jump the wall again. At our next training session, we are going to test the true freedom of the harness and work with Cura on Rick and Heather's property. Hopefully, she will want to let go and run full out for a bit so we can verify that the harness does really give her complete freedom except for the jumping. We will also be working off-lead.
Cura is responding well to the recall using the whistle -- provided that she is on the extend-a-lead and distracted. We think we may have worked out why she is not having the same response when off-lead or inside -- only time will tell if our strategy to solve this glitch will work. But, the main reason for the whistle recall is to get her to come back if she is distracted -- and that seems to be pretty solid -- most of the time she is even enthusiastic about returning (thanks to that 'special' spot she LOVES to have scratched).
Mondays are going to be another 'official' training session -- at least on those days that we can make it. The class is smaller and the venue is larger and more varied with additional challenges. Cura is so comfortable at the usual class location that even the noisy heater cycling on for the first time didn't really phase her. She looked up and tilted her head, then went back to sleep! Yes, she is finding the whole thing VERY challenging -- not (at least not until another dog is allowed to get withing a couple of feet -- then she is not happy)! So, it is time to give her other environments to practice in -- though the Sunday classes have more dogs in a smaller place so they are still very good for getting her used to working with other dogs around.
We had a bit of a surprise this morning -- and Cura did great! We were out for her morning walk/run and while we were in the field, a jack rabbit bolted from cover about 20 feet in front of us. Cura's initial reaction was to take a few bounds after the rabbit (she is on the extend-a-lead for this portion of her morning activities). But she immediately stopped moving forward at my command, pranced in place, and came right back to my side when I called. Despite the fact that she clearly wanted to 'play' with the bunny, she stuck with me. She may have been a bit bouncy and barked a couple of times -- but she did what I told her. When she was released to continue walking, she was obviously working hard at ignoring the direction that the jack rabbit had gone. Excellent self-restraint -- well done!
Sometimes, I think that the little successes are the best successes!
The weather has gotten colder and Cura has been ravenous. She just can't seem to get enough food. It must be the cold so, as an experiment, I have upped her food a bit instead of supplementing her diet with various treats. The treats (think doggie junk food -- even if I DO go for the healthier options) combined with a couple of days where she didn't get her run, and Heather noticed that she was looking a little heavier than normal -- still within the healthy range, but not her normal svelte self. We decided that giving her a bit more kibble, returning to a 'normal' treat schedule, and putting her coat on when she was out working might solve the problem. It seems to be working, she isn't looking at me like she is starving so I am back to, at most, one treat per day and she is not looking around for more food. She actually likes her coat when she is out and about.
I am working with Cura off-lead more now -- though always in a fairly controlled environment. She has been working off-lead for some time at the doctor's office and now we are doing the same during evening classes. The building is pretty secure so she is not going to get outside, but she could certainly run me a very merry chase if she chose to -- so far, so good. Also, at Rick's suggestion, I purchased a no-jump harness (the person who invented those things must have a sense of humor -- it is just one big puzzle until you get the hang of how it works -- I would show you a picture, but it is downstairs and I just don't feel like digging out the camera). It allows her freedom of movement but prevents her from jumping by stopping her from fully extending her legs. I have started taking her in the back yard after her run in the morning and letting her spend a bit of time off-lead back there with the harness. Again, so far, so good -- she has not even tried to jump the wall again. At our next training session, we are going to test the true freedom of the harness and work with Cura on Rick and Heather's property. Hopefully, she will want to let go and run full out for a bit so we can verify that the harness does really give her complete freedom except for the jumping. We will also be working off-lead.
Cura is responding well to the recall using the whistle -- provided that she is on the extend-a-lead and distracted. We think we may have worked out why she is not having the same response when off-lead or inside -- only time will tell if our strategy to solve this glitch will work. But, the main reason for the whistle recall is to get her to come back if she is distracted -- and that seems to be pretty solid -- most of the time she is even enthusiastic about returning (thanks to that 'special' spot she LOVES to have scratched).
Mondays are going to be another 'official' training session -- at least on those days that we can make it. The class is smaller and the venue is larger and more varied with additional challenges. Cura is so comfortable at the usual class location that even the noisy heater cycling on for the first time didn't really phase her. She looked up and tilted her head, then went back to sleep! Yes, she is finding the whole thing VERY challenging -- not (at least not until another dog is allowed to get withing a couple of feet -- then she is not happy)! So, it is time to give her other environments to practice in -- though the Sunday classes have more dogs in a smaller place so they are still very good for getting her used to working with other dogs around.
We had a bit of a surprise this morning -- and Cura did great! We were out for her morning walk/run and while we were in the field, a jack rabbit bolted from cover about 20 feet in front of us. Cura's initial reaction was to take a few bounds after the rabbit (she is on the extend-a-lead for this portion of her morning activities). But she immediately stopped moving forward at my command, pranced in place, and came right back to my side when I called. Despite the fact that she clearly wanted to 'play' with the bunny, she stuck with me. She may have been a bit bouncy and barked a couple of times -- but she did what I told her. When she was released to continue walking, she was obviously working hard at ignoring the direction that the jack rabbit had gone. Excellent self-restraint -- well done!
Sometimes, I think that the little successes are the best successes!
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Setting Boundaries
About two and a half months ago, Rick and Heather took me to Watermelon Mountain Ranch Kennels for a training session. It was a session that focused on training me rather than Cura. Now, if you have been following this blog, you may be thinking something along the lines of "Aren't ALL the training sessions about training you?" To some extent, you would be right. This whole process has been quite a learning curve, even for someone who has lived with dogs much of my life, been involved in the training of some of them, and 'in charge' and 'responsible' for several of them. But, this particular training session was very different since Cura was not involved at all. It was all about learning to control other dogs in my environment.
The whole thing started because Cura and I had gotten charged by two different dogs in a very short period of time and both Cura and I were not doing so well with the prospect of other dogs in our vicinity. I am sure that it was more me than Cura -- she was most likely responding more to my reaction than to the fact that another dog was near. Hey, what can I say, getting bitten, no matter how minor it turned out to be, is rather traumatic. I wasn't really afraid of getting bit again (well, I wasn't looking forward to it, either!), I was more concerned that, next time, I would not be able to stop Cura from getting hurt. I had been successful so far but, to me, it felt that I had managed to keep Cura safe more out of luck than any kind of real control over the situation. So, my lovely training team came up with a solution . . . go into the kennels and set boundaries for dogs that I had never met.
WHAT!!?? Don't worry, I didn't go in by myself. Rick and Heather were with me to give me pointers and to step in if things got dicey. Turns out I didn't really need it (quite possibly because I knew that they had my back) -- things never got out of hand at all. Sure, it took some time for me to get the hang of setting boundaries, but at the end of the session I had managed to create not only calm, but set a circle boundary around myself that the five dogs in the pod did not attempt to cross. Well, let me tell you, that was a serious confidence builder!
Since then I have been more or less successful at boundaries with other dogs. I am beginning to notice that my success (or lack thereof) is reflective of my mental/emotional state at the time. Big surprise! (she says in a voice dripping with sarcasm) I am also noticing that my mental/emotional state is frequently influenced by the actions and attitudes of those around me. I seem to have encountered a number of 'negative' people lately and it has taken its toll. Hmmm . . . boundaries may come in handy for more than just the uncontrolled dogs that I encounter -- I am going to have to try it on the next negative person that comes my way!
The whole thing started because Cura and I had gotten charged by two different dogs in a very short period of time and both Cura and I were not doing so well with the prospect of other dogs in our vicinity. I am sure that it was more me than Cura -- she was most likely responding more to my reaction than to the fact that another dog was near. Hey, what can I say, getting bitten, no matter how minor it turned out to be, is rather traumatic. I wasn't really afraid of getting bit again (well, I wasn't looking forward to it, either!), I was more concerned that, next time, I would not be able to stop Cura from getting hurt. I had been successful so far but, to me, it felt that I had managed to keep Cura safe more out of luck than any kind of real control over the situation. So, my lovely training team came up with a solution . . . go into the kennels and set boundaries for dogs that I had never met.
WHAT!!?? Don't worry, I didn't go in by myself. Rick and Heather were with me to give me pointers and to step in if things got dicey. Turns out I didn't really need it (quite possibly because I knew that they had my back) -- things never got out of hand at all. Sure, it took some time for me to get the hang of setting boundaries, but at the end of the session I had managed to create not only calm, but set a circle boundary around myself that the five dogs in the pod did not attempt to cross. Well, let me tell you, that was a serious confidence builder!
Since then I have been more or less successful at boundaries with other dogs. I am beginning to notice that my success (or lack thereof) is reflective of my mental/emotional state at the time. Big surprise! (she says in a voice dripping with sarcasm) I am also noticing that my mental/emotional state is frequently influenced by the actions and attitudes of those around me. I seem to have encountered a number of 'negative' people lately and it has taken its toll. Hmmm . . . boundaries may come in handy for more than just the uncontrolled dogs that I encounter -- I am going to have to try it on the next negative person that comes my way!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)