We live in a flat

Quite some time back, after I taught Donna the high-five, I started to teach Donna to wave left and wave right.

But I stopped working on that after a while, so she lost the memory for that I think. At least, in this video, it’s either she can’t differentiate left or right anymore so she tries both. Or she’s just too excited to focus. To give her credit, at least one of those paws would be the right one, right? Haha.

How she was Waving Left and Right weekend before last

I can’t tell left or right, human! So I’ll just wave both… sure to get it right, right?????

In any case, she wasn’t in the right frame of mind anyway being too excited and probably close to frustration, so we stopped after this video clip that night. No point pushing it and setting her up for a sense of failure, right?

That video above was from the weekend before the last. Subsequently, we have worked on waving on and off.

This is the result after two weeks. Both videos taken today, during short 1-2 minute sessions that’s maybe an hour or two apart.

Note: In both these videos below, Donna is taking commands at about a metre away from me, so that I can fit as much of her on the camera as possible. One man show here and no tripod! :P Sorry! Anyway, she does much better when she sits right by me. She is responding to my hand gestures more than my words actually. One metre away is a new distance , which is interesting because the hand commands seem to be less clear to her. So her response to the left and right are even more muddled than if she were nearer. 

How Donna did her Wave Left, Wave Right trick today – session 1

Subtitles don’t synch very well, apologies! But I find it cute when she nom nom nom and continue to stare at you with those eyes that scream – treat, treat! 

Since it’s during the daytime, she is sleepier. She typically can sleep the afternoon away. :P But she starts the session with a smile so I think she is anticipating it.

I was throwing the treats for her to catch to make it more exciting for her because I know waving is not her favourite thing compared to other actions that she can do better.

It’s not the first time I notice her shuffling her two paws a lot before lifting one. I’m not sure if:
(1) it’s a habit she has just developed
(2) the floor is slippery so she needs to right herself for balance before lifting a paw
(3) she is hedging while trying to decide which paw to raise :P

Hopefully as she gets better at waving, this shuffling will decrease.

How Donna did her Wave Left, Wave Right trick today – session 2

Not so patient or just bored with wave left, wave right?

Waving is not her favourite thing yet because she needs to decide which paw is left and which is right, so I think that really works her brains! :P She is visibly less patient for this session compared to the previous, I think.

Two things we’ll continue to work on for wave left, wave right:

1) Having the confidence to raise the correct paw to the correct cue
– Right now we can still see her getting it right sometimes, but at other times still unsure. So she tests by lifting one paw then the other, so she may observe which turns out to be the correct one in the end, for which she gets a click and treat.
– In her case, it is important for me not to say “no” or make other sounds or actions that she may perceive as negative. This is because Donna is a really cautious, safety-first type of dog. By this I mean, she’ll rather not try at all than get it wrong. So these sort of reactions from me will impede her progress.

2) Rising the paw higher to imitate a wave
– A few months back when I first tried to teach her to wave, I tried to extend the association of wave to high five so that she may wave high. But somehow, she still ended up with a slight lift of her paw and wriggling it (pictured below 1st picture left).
– So in these videos, she is already waving higher than she used to. But I hope she can lift her paws higher still so it will look like a real wave eventually. :D

A few months back, when I was teaching Donna to wave in response to the cue “Who is a good dog?”

Does your dog know Wave left, wave right? Any tips to share? :)

While I was away, I bought Donna a pair of Doggles or doggie goggles. It was an impulse buy. :P
So now poor Donna has to start to learn to like wearing her new doggles :P

She doesn’t wear the goggles at home, only when she is out for walks when she is happiest, to build that positive association with the goggles. And since she is mostly busy walking and sniffing, she is too preoccupied to think about scratching the goggles off with her paws :P

Donna discovers the garden of lost toys, all staked to the ground. Brutal, isn’t it?

Zombie Kitty keeps an eye out for Donna while she does her business behind the erm, potted shrubs.

Business done, it’s time to get out of the sun and visit the bakery next door!

Oops, bakery doesn’t allow dogs, so Donna has to sit-stay outside. That’s why I took her out with me, finding opportunities to consistently reinforce her sit-stay in more distracting environments than at home :P

We don’t do this very long, just enough time for me to hop in, ask about the bakes for the day, transact and hop out again. No pictures of the bakery since photography wasn’t allowed but I was in full view of her the whole time.

She doesn’t meddle with her doggles while she sit-stays. Perfect!

Back home, googles off! Here’s what the human bought from the new bakery…

Donna: What do you mean “leave it“, I don’t even care *looks away pointedly*
And then sneaks glances as I took pictures :P

What’s on the plate? A cream cheese souffle and chocolate muffin.

She can’t eat human baked goods, so here’s a piece of freeze-dried lamb tripe for her. You can’t see it but she does. :P And she is very focused on it. :P

Yet another failed attempt of an action shot of her catching the treat in her mouth, so this photo of her looking at the treat is the only one you’ll get today :P

1 Day 1 World Project: Donna at 2:00pm – 3:00pm Thursday

Sometimes I do silly things.

I called the groomer down the street wanting to book an appointment to cut Donna’s nails. Which basically means that I’ve been procrastinating cutting her nails ever since I accidentally cut her to the quick and drops of blood formed on the floor. D: I don’t like to cut her nails.

The groomer was of course happy enough to take a booking but no, we do not allow customers into the grooming station to give the dog treats while she gets her nails cut.

I explained that Donna didn’t like her nails cut, and the groomer’s immediate reaction was we’ll use a muzzle if she is likely to bite.

I explained that Donna doesn’t bite but she’ll likely be trembling like a leaf… and I’ll like to make the experience a positive one by treating her while the groomer cuts her nails. It was still a no go.

I remembered the other shivering dog I saw standing by itself on the grooming table when I walked past the other day. And I decided, no, I’m not going to make the appointment. I think the groomer was just as happy not to take on a difficult customer.

There were enough dogs gracing their store, lions at the door turned snivelling worms on the table. One less didn’t matter.

Piqued, I immediately marched to the kitchen to cut up bits of chicken. Because I was positively going to get her nails cut that day!!

Chicken!!!

I only cut a small amount of chicken because that prevents me from overdoing things which starts making it a bad experience for Donna. She gets treated a piece for every small sliver of nail I cut. I intended to repeat this process three times that day.

The following images are highly positive because I try not to take pictures of Donna when she is stressed. She doesn’t like me pointing the camera at her so no point making her more uncomfortable when she was already nervous about cutting her nails.

I only started taking pictures when she was more relaxed.

Donna’s long black nails.

Eyes on the chicken

I try to get her to lie down so that it’s easier for me to work with her nails, especially those on her hind legs. But when she gets nervous, she insists on sitting.

So I didn’t really get to cut the nails much on her hind legs.

So this is not the before and after photo. Haha.

She doesn’t resist the cutting tool touching her foot.

She only really starts getting more nervous when the nail is between the blades and I take a long time because I’m trying to see and reassure myself that I’m not going to hurt her again when I force the blades together. That’s the reason why I thought it might be more effective to get a groomer to cut her nails for now, while I feed her treats.

Towards the end she got more relaxed. That realisation hit me. She was not as adverse to the experience as I was. She used to be worse but with the previous counter conditioning work she was better. That one bloody clip did not dent her as much as it had dented me!

That was one good thing that came out of this hated exercise of nail cutting.

With the bits of chicken now in her tummy, I started packing up and she gives me this look.

What do you mean there’s no more chicken?!!!

For 24 weeks, weliveinaflat will post photos taken for a specific hour in that week.
We will cover 24 hours in 24 weeks. (I’ve no idea how we will do the sleeping hours, lol!)
More about the 1 Day 1 World Project here.

That’s an interesting title of Dunbar’s Ted video because it means that there is training that is not friendly to dogs.

Some cases of Cesar Millan’s approach to dogs can certainly be seen as not dog-friendly. But take a look at Google Search Trends and we find that Cesar Milan’s popularity is such that he has such an overwhelming mass of people searching for him it’s mind boggling. I’ve watched Cesar Milan on TV many times because TV is just so accessible a medium.

But when it comes to training Donna, I’ve gotten more effectiveness using positive training. So I think Ian Dunbar deserves some airtime on my humble blog. Some would even say Dunbar deserves a lot of airtime everywhere.

Dr. Patricia McConnell, author of “For the Love of a Dog: Understanding Emotion in Your Best Friend” and the animal behaviorist on Animal Planet’s “Petline,” goes as far as to say that Millan has put dog training back 20 years. “Dunbar is a world authority,” she says, “and he should be the one with the celebrity.” – SFGate

Unfortunately for Dunbar (not that he cares since he wouldn’t know I exist!), Kikopup has more influence on me since she has more specific positive dog training videos that are easily accessible on Youtube. (What can I say? I’m part of that demographic that surfs mindlessly and learn better visually and by doing it.) So I can understand why Dunbar isn’t the one with the celebrity. :P

But I just happened to see Dunbar’s Ted video and it summarises so succinctly the points about why a dog behaves the way it does and how that should inform our approach to training our dogs. The ideas certainly helped me make sense of Donna’s behaviour early on. So I thought it’s a good thing to share.

So let’s put a face and voice to Ian Dunbar on this blog because until today, I’ve never actually seen a single one of his videos despite being heavily influenced by his and others’ ideas of dog behaviour and positive training. OMG!

Who’s Ian Dunbar? 

(Vet, behaviourist and dog trainer – Dunbar) didn’t know it at the time, but Dunbar introduced a concept so revolutionary he’s credited with launching what is now commonly regarded as the modern era in dog training: Train puppies before six months of age–off leash (the way they live at home)–and use rewards rather than punishment to teach proper behavior.

Today, the notion that very young puppies can not only be trained, socialized, and handled, but that doing so actually prevents most problem behaviors from developing, is a founding truth of modern dog training. – dogtime

Here’s a humorous Ted talk from him.

Force-free training can be so easily integrated into your lifestyle. Give the dog treats or other rewards when the dog is doing behaviours you like and she will be encouraged to behave in ways which you have rewarded her for.

It gets harder to distract her from existing behaviours you don’t want to encourage. For example, how do I positively influence her to stop peeing on the kitchen floor during thunderstorms when she is already frightened out of her mind to even remember training?

That’s when it just seemed easier to vent frustrations by scolding her or telling her “no” or some other action that will deter her because it makes her uncertain, anxious or fearful and hopefully not dare to do it next time. But of course she does, because she was frightened out of her mind by the storm already. And then because she did on the kitchen floor, she becomes twice as horrified because she knows she’s not supposed to do that.

Honestly, I haven’t found the answer for that kitchen conundrum yet so what I can’t positively train, I manage. Put a baby gate at the kitchen entrance. Kitchen peeing stopped.

But that’s sort of where the fun lies in as well. It’s like a puzzle you work at, have to think about to discover what sort of rewards work for your dog and what doesn’t. What makes him learn faster and what slows down the learning.

Of course some things take time, we’re been working on her thunder phobia for a year and a half and it is still work in progress. Other things take a shorter time, like learning to shake paws or high-five or to follow my hand or weave through my legs.

But mostly, I just prefer this self-image of me as a dog human who doesn’t need to scold or use aversive actions on my dog. It makes me happy when Donna looks relaxed or happy rather than uncertain, nervous or fearful because she has done something wrong. She already spends too much of her time in fear from the frequent thunderstorms we experience.

Now, go see this smartest 10-week-old puppy perform amazing dog tricks trained using positive training! I’m sorry Donna knows peanuts compared to him : (    :P

References

– The effect of training method on stress levels in dogs
– The dog trainers’ trainer