Just some video of training in the basic position followed by some play. Not terribly interesting, but I want to review what I’m doing so I can figure out what needs to change (Hold/Buy/Sell). Upon review I think I went to long…need to shorten it up.

Here is the play after working, upon review of this there is one point where he loses the ball and I tease him with it….looks like I went a little to long before letting him get it (he was just about to give up, need to let him win).

We were playing in the open field and Isaac decided to go investigate the pond. I tossed some sticks in and he walked in up to his chest. I tried to coax him in for about 20 minutes, even stepped in. He is getting closer, but he definitely isn’t a water dog.

He then got a bath in the driveway, though he wasn’t 100% compliant he did stand nicely and didn’t vocalize like he’s been known to do. When he was a lot younger I’m sure the neighbors thought I was poking him with an ice pick.

The two hose game is getting very very solid, Isaac brings them in fairly close before dropping them and seems to have made the connection that I need to be involved for it to be fun. He’ll retrieve them, jump and grab for them when he comes back in if I hold it out to the side, he will also play tug with them. We’ve been working on this daily for weeks and it is paying off. I still want to continue the play with the hoses as I know it will make positive reinforcement that much easier when he’s willing to work as hard for toys as he is for food.

His favorite game seems to be being restrained while Noah runs 100 yards out in the field and then Isaac runs out to him balls to the walls.

The two ‘hose’ game, bringing the soccer ball back, and play with the two handed tug are really progressing. He is beginning to really want to play (actually looking for the toys since they are stored away) which is quite nice if he can continue to work for food as well (without Diarrhea).

Yesterday I received the two fur-saver collars I ordered from Hallmark K9 on Friday (standard shipping…nice and fast). Jim Hill, the owner, even dropped me a call to clarify a question I had sent him via email since the order was different than what I was asking (Chrome verses Stainless Steel). Second order I’ve placed with Hallmark K9 and would recommend them for your ‘dog’ needs.

Isaac is 6 months old and weighs 62 lbs so I ordered the 21″ and 23″ fur-saver collars. The 21″ fits (maybe a fuzz loose). Once he’s done growing and I know what size I’ll need I’ll purchase the Stainless Steel version. If you’re ordering one keep in mind that Herm Sprenger collars are measured from outside of ring to outside of ring. Keep in mind NO COLLARS in Kennel or Crate or when your beast isn’t supervised!

(more…)

Isaac has been tracking really really fast in anticipation of the jackpot! I’ve also always been tracking him hungry, his meal spread across the track.

Tonight I fed him dinner at 5:30 and then just tracked him at 8:15 in hopes of slowing him down a little, less frantic. I also put a lot smaller jackpot at the end of the track. It went fairly well and I think I’ll try this approach for a week or so.

Still not doing any OB work with the pooch other than hay don’t kill the little dog or the kids. His broken K9 fell out and the new one is coming in so he’s playing with a soft freaky silicone ball. The two ball is coming along nicely (IMHO) so the playing is paying off huge. Still doesn’t drive him like food does, but it’s getting close.

Not sure if we’ll make the trip to the Schutzhund club in the AM or not.

Isaac has turned a corner with regards to ‘playing’ with the rag, KONG on a strap, and anything else he sees as ‘prey’. The weeks of playing with him have paid off, he barks, snaps, jumps, chases, and generally works for the item consistently. He stays engaged for 10 or more minutes.

Yesterday I did a litmus test to see if he’d ‘work’ for it, he will (not focusing on this yet). Rather than have him ‘work’ for it I’m going to see if I can get the retrieve down. i.e., this morning I got him going with the puppy rag and then would toss the KONG, when he picked it up I would praise him, start the puppy rag moving again to bring him back, and would let him begin chasing it and grab it as soon as he dropped the KONG. We’ll get some two ball out of him at some point.

May have to take a break as his chipped puppy K9 is very close to falling out and I don’t want to give him cause to not hold/engage because of teething pain. Doesn’t seem to bother him, but it is way way loose and is bleeding a touch.

Haven’t been updating photos so I’m going to try and get some pictures posted something in the next couple of day.

Sat

Took Isaac and Bethany out in the morning. Bethany got to call Isaac, click, and reward him for awhile. She got a bunch of Platz out of him. He ran one track (footstep about 100′). Played with the Kong in the front yard. Most of all I think Bethany felt more comfortable around him and Isaac was responsive to her.

Sun

Trip to the Schutzhund Club. Isaac spent the majority of the time in the crate, the only work he did was actually playing. Jen schooled me on how to play with my dog, I know you’d think it would be easy. Noah made the trip out with us and caught frogs and critiqued barking (I think Buster made him Shart).

Tracked Isaac in the early evening (was beyond wet this AM). Was about 78 degrees, no breeze, and the ground was was kind of sticky from the humidity. I believe the ground was warmer than the air temperature.

Once he gets to the third track he is settled in nicely, the first one is a rushed free for all, and the second is not much better. Part of that could be focus part of it could be that he is hungry, need to find the balance between wanting food and his attitude of ‘needing’ food. He tends to skip almost all the bait in the first two tracks and only concerns himself with the jackpot. On the third track he tends to spend more time searching out the bait.

Today I ran a straight trenched for the first track. The second track was a trenched arc right from the scent pad. Third and final track was a just a straight footstep (bait in each footstep). He looked the nicest on the third track. Here a diagram a tossed together so you can see what today’s tracks looked like.

Isaac ran three tracks this AM (check here for why 3 tracks). It is quite entertaining that he knows as soon as he goes in his Kennel without breakfast and then comes out on a leash we’re going to sniff the ground for some food.

First two tracks were laid like all previous tracks, this time the third had a curve in it (not a corner). I didn’t bait before or after the corner any different than normal since it was a gentle radius. As he entered the curve he overshot by maybe 3 inches, but recovered quickly and stayed in the groove then until the end.

Again because of the stomach issues I just used the kibble that he normally would get for breakfast. Since he skips a lot along the way it doesn’t seem to cause him to pause/slowdown to chew (it’s kind of hard), plus the majority of his breakfast in spread across the jackpots at the end of 3 tracks. He also doesn’t seem to be moving to quickly (IMO), we’ll see what the experts say. Again I was able to stay out of the way, essentially if I could trust him to walk to the field by himself I think he’d do fine, well except for the backtracking he likes to do when he’s finished.

OB followed with the remainder of the kibble in the driveway. He’s learning but the kibble isn’t the best motivator for this activity. Last night I worked with the tug and that seemed to work better than the Kongs.

Isaac worked for his 2 cups of kibble this morning. He ran three tracks (short, double the short, triple the short) and he new what was going down as soon as he saw the flag(s). Kept his nose down and moved forward. Was very very eager to track….

For my part I kept the lead loose and gave him a click when he got to the jackpot at the end. Other than those two things I wasn’t part of the equation (which is progress for me).

I had .5 cup of kibble left over so we did some OB in the driveway, tossed in a couple of KONGS for good measure. He worked well for the kibble, just slowed things down a little because of required chewing time.

I am beginning to wonder if Isaac and I will ever get down to the business of Schutzhund training. Now that the stomach seems to be cooperating (fingers crossed) I am a little hesitant to introduce summer sausage back into the equation until I get a week of regular stool out of the pooch. (I’ve never figured out what the issue was)

Though we haven’t done any tracking or official obedience training in quite some time, Isaac has had the opportunity to develop his prey drive (since the only reward is just more fun for him). I’m still not sure that ‘prey drive’ alone will be enough for obedience work though I may have to give it a go until this time next week (July 8, 2008). I’ve thought about mixing in some food with some two ball or tug for a reward. He’s not as ‘on’ for play as he is for food.

With regards to tracking I think the amount of bait required (minus any normally used during OB) might be an acceptable risk. Though I have to admit I’m a little gun shy.

It’s not all bad, he’s had tons of just plain down time bonding with the wife and kids and getting more socialization time (which is good). When I got home from work today he was laying on the floor of my room next to Bethany which is a plus because for awhile she wasn’t too keen on him (that’s changed). Plus he had the wonderful smell of big dog in the sun and she didn’t seem to mind!

Fingers crossed may try a little tracking in the AM, the OB doesn’t concern me too much since I figure he can always be taught that if he’s got the drive (food or prey)…tracking I’d rather have gotten a better foundation laid before having to take a break.

–As I typed a note to someone who knows more than me, I came to the realization that maybe he’ll work for his kibble (maybe not as much drive as ham, but more than the ball). She will remain nameless so that she doesn’t get anymore insane email than she already does…..(OK I gave her some credit)

This is a good article about Kids and Dogs that the United Schutzhund Clubs of America has on posted on their blog.

I’ve reposted (lifted/stole) it here. I’ve given credit where credit is due, but was just afraid if they changed their permalinks it would be lost. So in no way is this to be considered my work.

Isaac attended Kerry’s year end picnic with the kids from her class (and Noah & Bethnay). Kerry reported that he behaved himself with all the other little creatures.

To date Isaac has been socialized or exposed to many many different things. He’s seen semi old people, kids, toddlers, babies, bikes, scooters, soccer players, lots of friendly dogs, water, sewer grates, cars, motorcycles, lawn equipment, shotgun discharge, stairs (open back), grates on park equipment, slides, bouncy bridges, car rides, his outside kennel, crate, beds (thx Kerry), Gas Grill and the grease drippings that dripped out, frogs……the only thing he still doesn’t particularly care for is the lawnmower up close.

I’ve seen checklists considerably longer than this, but I think we’re doing pretty well.

I have been struggling trying to develop Isaac’s prey drive over the past few weeks. When he came home at 7.5 weeks I began imprinting which included him chasing a little rubber ball around his room. Isaac definitely liked the ball! The challenge came when I tried to transition the ball to the back yard after he had transitioned from his room to the basement. He just wasn’t too interested in chasing the ball (I wasn’t tossing huge distances).

In an effort to focus on prey drive (ball) for the past two and a half weeks Isaac has had NO tracking or obedience training. Just PLAY, food and walks. Progress was slow but I think we are moving in a positive direction with the ball drive. I say ball drive because pure prey drive seems to be fine not over the top, but it’s there.

Here is an example of his prey drive but not necessarily ball drive. Just this Friday I went to pick Noah up from goalie camp; I took Isaac, a lead, and a couple balls. Once he got the sniffing out of the way in this new location I teased him with the ball and he wanted it (chomp chomp). I tossed the ball and he looked in the direction of the ball and then back a me. Poor ball drive in my opinion.

I then noticed a chunk of concrete (that’s really a picture of it) in the grass and grabbed it before Isaac saw it (he has rock drive). Then when he was busy sniffing and looking around I tossed the chunk of concrete (what I thought was out of his range). He spotted me tossing it, saw it land, and was off like I had just thrown an entire log of summer sausage. He grabbed it and brought it back to me. I tossed it again with the same result, I even think flames shot out of his ass after he went after it. After about five throws I stuck the rock in my pocket in an effort to save his teeth. I then saw an empty Gatorade bottle and tossed it with the same results I had with the rock. Balls nothing, rocks and Gatorade bottles “prey drive”. Was it the way they roll, bounce, or the noise they make when they hit the ground. Maybe he’s just homophobic and won’t chase ‘balls’!

Two and a half weeks ago I started with a dish towel hooked to a string on a broken fishing pole. Isaac chased, pounced, and jumped for the rag. He would pull, tug and hold the dish rag in his mouth until I held it still and gave him an ‘Aus’.

After about a week of that I put a Gappay ball on a long string and repeated the process in the front yard and garage with similar results to the puppy rag.

On occasion I would work in a two handed tug or the leather puppy tug I have.

This past Friday I started tossing two Kongs for him. The Kongs didn’t get the same level of response as the rock or the Gatorade bottle, but produced a little more drive than the plain balls.

Currently I am working with two Kongs with webbing handles and I seem to be holding his attention and keeping him in drive. We’ll see how it goes…I tried the kongs without the webbing and I just couldn’t get him into it without being able to drag it in front of him bouncing around. The webbing isn’t optimal, but it seems to be more of a help than a hindrance.

This is currently on HOLD (not sure what I’ll do).

Here is what I’m thinking about doing to end the Rabbit poop obsession. Currently if I say “leave it” Isaac will generally eat only one turd and will sneak on to the next treasure trove of poo. I need to get him to the point where he doesn’t need me to constantly say “leave it”.

I know this will be controversial with a lot of people and am still evaluating it’s usefulness. Haven’t implemented it yet.

The plan is to use something like a combination throw chain shaker bottle to discourage this behavior with a click and treat as soon as he stops. Currently the method of teaching ‘leave it’ with rabbit poop has been say leave it, pull away with collar or leash. This seems to simply be teaching him to eat rabbit poop in locales out of my direct reach.

Plan I’m evaluating:

1. Isaac roams around looking for rabbit poop
2. Isaac finds the poo mother load
3. LEAVE IT
4. If he doesn’t lick up a poo he gets a click and a reward
5. If he continues in his resolve to find a snack the throw chain is released in his direction
* First he probably won’t realize it’s me doing it since he’s in Rabbit Poo Drive mode
* This is not a heat seeking missle, it’s an attention getter (not going to hit him)
6. He should be startled enough to look up and respond to a command like come or look
7. Once he responds to the command he gets a click and a reward

Here is what I’m using. In the past I’ve used chains but they are hard to find after tossing and don’t make enough noise to break Isaac out of Rabbit Poo Drive.

I just filled two used Skoal cans with used primers from old .45 ACP cartridges and duct taped them shut.

Someone asked in a comment if I was familiar with the books/videos by the Monks of New Skete so I decided to list some of the material I have found most useful. I have read the books by the monks but I did’t find them particularly useful.

There isn’t just one book that teaches you ALL the skills you need to train a dog. All beasts are a little different and handlers all have different amounts of experience. You’ve got soft dogs, hard dogs, low drive dogs, high drive dogs, timid handlers, loud obnoxious (me) handlers……..so there is no one size fits all book. Needless to say I’ve enjoyed reading the following and gleaned some amount of knowledge from each one (may or may not have been worth the price of admission). These are in no particular order….and all the links are safe (I’m not making money directing you anywhere).

The Dog’s Mind by Bruce Fogle

Just got this one in the mail, but I skimmed it one night at the bookstore and it looks promising.

Cesar’s Way: The Natural, Everyday Guide to Understanding and Correcting Common Dog Problems by Cesar Millan

Decent info if you’re a new dog owner or tend to apply human emotions to animals. Plus I like it because I was surprised to find out he’s not a 100% positive trainer (dorks). Doesn’t relate to dog sports like Schutzhund, but I like the fact that he mentions it as a viable option for dogs (few current mainstream authors do this). I’ve never seen his show so all I know of him is from this book.

Getting Started: Clicker Training for Dogs (Getting Started) By: Karen Pryor

If you’ve got a puppy and don’t know anything about markers this will get you going. Markers are nothing more than what people have been doing forever with puppies (lure -> Good Dog -> treat), just a little easier for humans to pin point the behavior they want. Replace the good dog with a click and it’s seems to be easier for humans to not forget the good dog and also be more precise in using it. (way high level).

Advanced Schutzhund By: Ivan Balabanov

Decent read if you’re into Schutzhund, nothing terribly new, but stuff that is hard to find in print.

Schutzhund: Theory and Training Methods by Susan Barwig and Stewart Hilliard

This is the standard Schutzhund book that everyone in the sport has at least looked at. Not a lot of current state of the art training methods, but gives a very good overview of the sport.

TRAINING THE BEHAVIOR by Gary Patterson

I’ve read the entire book, but bought it just for the tracking piece which I really really like and seems to be working well for Isaac.

Obedience without Conflict DVD 1: Clear Communication by Ivan Balabonov

Obedience without Conflict DVD 2: The Game by Ivan Balabonov

These videos are a little pricey but I think they are worth it. They are interesting and have good information in them. They fit between the Clicker training books and the document on Bridge and Target Training by Kayce Cover.

Introduction to Bridge and Target Training by Kayce Cover

I’m not currently using Kayce’s methods, but this is an amazing read and very interesting. Think clicker training to the power of a million. Here’s and example….teach your dog to touch any given part of his body to your hand through the use of a tertiary bridge.

Isaac hasn’t had any formal Obedience or Tracking work since Sunday. He got a couple more sessions today chasing the towel around the yard.

I think the rabbit poop eating has reached critical mass. He has had issues with Diarrhea and hasn’t gotten into anything out of the ordinary (except rabbit poop). Rice and ground beef in the AM and nothing for dinner, he had solid stool by the end of the day.

Found the following links related to dogs and rabbit poop (nothing to exciting)

• Coccidia (Coccidiosis): A Cause of Diarrhea
• www.oes.org
• www.nextdaypets.com

Working on getting him to stop eating the poo…..”leave it’ seems to be becoming more effective for other things like dogs, stuff on the floor, wood chips, rocks, and lots of other misc stuff. “Leave it” for rabbit poop is about as effective as telling Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to leave Israel alone (by the way that’s his real BLOG).

In an effort to get Isaac to start playing with ‘things’ and not just me I decided to try and back tie him rather than have Noah try and be a fence post. I thought about using the swingset , handle on garage door, and a post on the deck to tie him up. Each one had it’s own issues and I figured it would be nice if I could move whatever I wanted to use to different locations and I didn’t want him to constantly getting tangled up in ’stuff’.

Here are the materials used

lid to a 5 gallon bucket

3 washers

spring clip

quick link

large nail

(had all this laying around the garage).

To fabricate

Put a hole in the lid, stuck 3 washers on the nail, stuck the nail through the bucked lid, put the spring clip on the quick clip and attached that to the nail between the the bottom and middle washers, stuck nail in the ground, and attached the leash to the clip. One thing to watch, make sure the washer nearest the top of the nail doesn’t slip over the head of the nail.

Here are some pictures of the final product (click to enlarge).

Keep in mind that this held a 13 week old puppy very securely, but I’m not sure it would hold a large mature dog (might need a bigger nail and something bigger than the 5 gallon bucket lid).

It worked quite well and helped Isaac focus on the ‘prey’ item and not my feet, legs, hands, and shorts.

Isaac went to the Schutzhund Club (Indian Creek Schutzhund Club) for the second time today. He had his first accident in the crate on the way to the club. WOW did he have an accident, a giant pile of crap. So the day was off to a rough start.

Tracking: Isaac did well on the track (I did well too, stayed out of his way). The track was a little shorter than he was used to, but because he crapped in the crate I was running late. He is still moving a touch fast and tends to not go side to side with his nose as much as he moves forward, but all an all it’s not bad. This is the one area where the work I’ve been doing with him seems to be paying off. I kind of slacked off on everything else in an effort to get his nose in the ground.

Obedience: Isaac did his obedience, I used summer sausage cubes instead of ham. The ham seems to send him into over the top food drive and the summer sausage tone it down a little (maybe a little too much). Had the two balls in my pocket, but I didn’t break them out. Two ball is working at home inside, but only on occasion outside. The Fuss, Platz, Sitz, and Look are coming along. I’m working the sitz in front, but haven’t associated a command with it.

Protection: Bill (kulladogs.com) had the two puppies in attendance come out together and he tried to get them to interact with the rag on a stick. They seemed more interested in each other and Bill than in the ‘toy’. It’s interesting because at home Isaac interacts with items like this, I think it is going to take him time to adjust to the club and interacting with a ‘helper’ other than Noah or myself.

Soccer: Straight from the club to soccer. When we arrived the lightening warning was sounded and everyone (100’s) headed to the pavilion. Isaac got some socialization with some good kids and some horrible kids. He also got some time with a two year old retriever. He kept his mouth to himself and took the torture in stride.

Noah took some video of Isaac tracking today, the video is a little sketchy as is my technique. Noah skills as a camera man appear to be improving faster than my abilities as a dog trainer. I seriously thought about editing out the ‘bad’ parts to put together a couple of minutes of ‘solid’ tracking, but figured I wouldn’t learn anything from that. Though I think I could have a spliced together a nice highlight reel.

The good news is that Isaac is moving forward while keeping his nose down. Now for the bad news! I still at times keep a tight leash, I stepped in and pointed a little, and in an effort to keep the tracks in the shade I had my scent pads to close together (yes I said scent pads plural).

All and all for a slacker handler I think the dog is pushing through and figuring it out regardless of my faults. He even kept his nose to the ground as Bethany ran up screaming “Mom, what are you doing?”

Why the three tracks? Well I’m sure this will be a controversial topic, but I am using the tracking program that is detailed by Gary Patterson in his book entitled Training the Behavior. The 10,000 foot view is that working with three tracks the dog is able to settle in and calm down and regain focus between each of the tracks with hopes that the third and longest track is the best. You only use 3 tracks during the early phases of tracking (it’s not a forever thing). Seems to be working (if I could just get out of the way and let the dog work we’d probably progress a little faster).

Here are the videos (Track 1 is about 10 feet, Track 2 is about 15 feet, and track 3 is about 20 feet). They are all baited with a Jackpot at the end, I made the jackpot a tad smaller than the ones I used on Monday. Isaac still heads back to the tracks from Monday when ever we pass by with the hopes that more meat fell from the sky while we were away.

Track 1

Track 2

Track 3