Just because I haven’t written in her blog, it doesn’t mean that I haven’t worked with the dog. I just haven’t shared. We’re not where I want to be, considering it’s been a year, but then there’s life that gets in the way. So it did, and does.

If I look at Joon’s Checklist, we’ve made progress. One thing I’ve learned when working with dogs, especially difficult dogs, is that it’s insanity to do anything but evaluate their progress over the long term. It can be quite frustrating to see improvement when you look at a week, or even a month, but given 3 or 6 months it’s far more obvious that the mountains are moving; the only way to move one of these canine mountains is slowly and deliberately. So over the past year we’ve made huge progress.

Down to details (’fess-up time): Joon is still not housebroken. I don’t think she has a clue. Any success we have is totally a result of our being watchful, and any failures we have are because she has access to the house and we’re not watching. So be it. We’ll keep working on that.

She tugs and retrieves, though she’d still rather chase her ball than do anything else (except chase sheep or a dog with the ball). She brings it back and will futz around getting it close to my feet, but she’s all ready for the chase. So that’s another work in progress.

She comes when called, lies down when told to, and stays in the context of agility. Still working on that. And she owns many of the behaviors in the pre-agility list, though not all.

She’s hugely reactive to dogs running, and if we never compete in agility this will be the reason why. She’s just determined to run with them and get them under control. Ha!

She jumps quite well though turning in combination with a jump is difficult. She can do 4-5 agility obstacles (jumps and tunnels) in a sequence quite well, understands pinwheels, is learning front crosses, has wonderful distance but doesn’t particularly like to work close. Her teeter is very nice. A-frame and dogwalk are absolutely works in progress - very slow progress. She’s so fast she has no patience for those pieces of equipment since they slow down her forward motion. And she’s all about moving. Fast. She understands her bottom position and I’m just back-chaining the obstacles. Unfortunately, I need a human training partner to get this done, and it’s hard to organize that.

She’s been herding. She’s very driven, but will try to leave when pressure on her to behave becomes overwhelming. She’s able to handle more pressure as she learns. Her fondest desire is to bring one of those babies down. I see visions of lamb chops percolating in her brain. Wink Mason has been most patient with her - and me. Bless him.

For 2008:
1. Back to Joon’s list to check off the areas that are still lacking.
2. More herding.
3. Work on behavior around performing (agility) dogs.
4. Teach dogwalk and A-frame.

Let’s see, first of all I caught a cold - had no voice, a head full of stuff, and then it segued into an ear infection, and now I can’t hear. It’s been cold. Or hot. Or raining. There was a bunch of holidays in there too, disrupting any semblance of a “normal” life around here. Though with 10 dogs I’d sure like to know what’s normal. OK, normal for us. Meaning crazy. And then, just to be sure she could just live a slothful life, Joon came in season. So no running in the agility area - might make things a tad distracting for the paying students, ya know - and no training up in the barn - for the same reason.

We do play ball in the dog yard, either with other ball-crazy dogs or alone. We play the Two-Balls game (stop it!!) to encourage retrieving. You know the drill: throw one ball, dog runs off to get it, wanders back and tries to play keep-away, but off goes the second ball, dog drops ball #1 and races off to get the second one. Human grabs ball #1 and the game proceeds. Tires dog out really quickly, but the true purpose of the exercise is to teach the dog to bring the ball back - and the second ball/chase is the reward. Over time, anticipation of the second throw causes the dog to drop the ball before the second one is sent away - and with encouragement perhaps to bring the ball closer to the human. Joon has progressed to bringing the ball to my feet, drops it, and is ready to go. The game can then be played with one ball from this point, but two’s funner.

We also combine this game with sits and downs. She brings the ball, has to sit (or down). Gets released to chase the ball. Exercises in self-control.

But we’re coming back. She’s almost out of season. I really don’t have to hear to train her. Breathing helps, of course, but for now that’s working. Of course, the next interruption will be in a month or so, when the sweet gurl gets spayed.

But stay tuned…

Anyway, our big session today consisted of working her on leash using handfuls of Red Barn applied as appropriate for desired behaviors. Clicker too, just for the heck of it. She was AMAZING.

Leaving her to wander and explore is obviously a loser at this time. Far more rewarding than she finds me - for now. But with the leash and frequent clicks and treats for the least good behavior, she was really ON. She finally realized I like her to get on the teeter (which is flat on the ground) and stay on the board. She received an entire lunch on that thing!

We had just taught an intro agility class, so there were two short tunnels available to us, and she willingly rushed in and out of both of them on cue. She’s been less than 100% on curved tunnels, and I haven’t pushed because I really need two people to work that - or lots of good experience with straight moving to curved tunnels. So this is good progress too.

Did many sits. Had her do two hand touches. First time. (C&T) Tomorrow there will be more. I hate to push hand touches first time, because many dogs offer them willingly (curiosity) and then quit since they apparently don’t make the connection between touching the hand, getting clicked and receiving a treat from the other hand. I think it’s just too much to ask for more immediately. So I’m going to see if we can get more tomorrow. Latent learning? Or just a dog who’s learning what works? What do I care? For now, what works, but it sure would be good to keep records on what really does work for most dogs.

She absolutely adored her new tug toy. No leash with this activity. She did not visit the barrel that contains her monkey on a lunge whip (which is a bear to manage) and the other tug toy we’ve been playing with - which is somewhat fragile and therefore not a great plaything. I flopped the thing on the ground, dragged it about a bit, and she fell for it. Great, serious tugging, so committed that I felt safe to ask her to “out” with my hand on her collar and a slack toy. She “outed” immediately, and was rewarded immediately - with the toy. When I allowed her to take the toy off on her own, it took me a bit to get it back, had to wait for her to leave the toy on some other pursuit of her own. She plays a cute game with that — pretends to leave, and if I so much as look at the toy she grabs it — so leaving her toy isn’t really losing attention most of the time. Sometimes I’m pretty quick - or she’s allowing me to get in there and get it because it’s part of her game - and I don’t care, as long as her game aligns with my game - the goal being that our games coincide. My goal is to get her totally hooked on playing with her tug toy with me.

Unfortunately (or not), the Staples truck arrived with a shipment of stuff I bought online on “Black Friday” and I had to cut our session short. Probably not a bad thing, since it was all good. Later all the dogs got bones (her first bones here, and oboy was she happy). Life is good.

Tomorrow we go to a fellow dog trainer’s place to work/play with our dogs. I’m looking forward to feedback from others with this girl. I’m also interested to see if she’ll be able to focus on her new wonderful toy and major Red Barn and other treats in a brand new situation.

We’ve been blessed with some lovely weather for November (except for two days of solid rain last week, but we won’t count them): sunny days in the 60s with cool (well, cold) nights. For the most part I cannot use crappy weather as an excuse not to train my dog(s). So I’ve been training them.

My training sessions with Joon consist mainly of taking her to our agility area, which is a totally fenced area where I can take her leash off and allow her the opportunity to interact with me or with the environment. At this point I’m at about 60%, which ain’t bad. I have to work to get that: yummy food and fun toys, in addition to my scintillating conversation and charming personality.

Joon will work for food, as expected, but only to a point. She likes it, but still worries when asked to work for it. We work in short bursts on static behaviors like sit, and are able to work on moving behaviors for longer periods, since movement is her natural state. She’s continuing to work on low jumps and tunnels, as well as the tire.

She’s still not choosing to work, i.e., she’s not “offering behaviors,” which is what we’re always looking for with clicker training - though she does offer the sit. I haven’t been using the clicker extensively, since I like it best for static behaviors and we’re not doing a lot of them. 101 things to do with a box coming up soon, however.

She tore the heck out of Ernie’s tiger so its remains hang on the whip, below which I have attached a lovely monkey, which Joon adores to tug and mangle and would love to steal. When Ernie was given the opportunity to play with his toy, he chose the 4″ strip of tiger tail that remains, ignoring the chunky monkey with long, floppy arms. Dogs are funny. They probably don’t like change as much as we don’t like change.

Changes to Joon’s Checklist this week have included the following accomplishments:

• a sit,
• she comes to her name,
• and she’s doing some serious tugging.

I’m psyched about all of that!

All who meet her agree that she’s extremely sweet. She loves to jump up on everyone, very gently, for hugs and pats. And she’s so gentle about it that no one complains, but is suckered into the hugs and pats. In a group of people she’s constantly trying to catch someone’s eye so she can entrance them, like everyone else she’s captivated.

She’s a complex mixture of go go go go go and oh no I can’t go. She lacks confidence, so that’s an item to add to her goals list. Obviously, it’s not something we can just apply to her (”voila! you’re confident! - where did I put my magic wand?!) - it’ll come with gentle, patient training and exposure to new places, people and experiences.

She’s mighty crazy in the house, probably because this is the first house she’s been in. Comfortable in her crate, but when she’s loose she dashes from here to there, scurrying on the slippery floors. Her favorite place is the kitchen, and of course she has launched herself, from a standstill, onto the counter to check out what’s up there. Twice. Thus, she’s not allowed to scurry about without me a very close companion.

She also demonstrated her jumping (vaulting?) skills yesterday while she was in the ex-pen, observing my 9 AM agility class. About 3/4 of the way through class, she’d had enough, and, using one toenail to grab hold of the wire, vaulted out of the four-foot high ex-pen to come straighten out the silly golden retriever who was running. I guess she defined “over the top” for us.

She recognizes the click sound and looks for food. I’m moving pretty slowly with clicker training so far, because repetition worries her. After a few repeats she starts to lose interest in the food, so I’m still at the luring phase with the sit, and working other behaviors without the clicker, just using verbal praise, stroking, and food rewards. With these methods, she’s jumping a 12-inch jump pretty reliably on “hup,” and going through our 6-foot tunnel willingly, gets on the 16-inch and 24-inch agility tables on cue, and even sometimes sits when there.

Her favorite activity to date is chasing “Ernie’s tiger,” which is a fuzzy tiger tail attached with a long rope to a lunge whip, which Joon chases around in circles, does switches, back and forth, leaps over jumps, goes around stuff, and attacks. It’s a great way to give her some aerobic exercise, since she’s on a long line and can’t run like she needs to. Walking is good for her, but it won’t give her the exercise she needs. The tiger has also helped her get worked up enough that I can now play tug with her with me actually holding the tiger - progressing from tugging, with me holding the end of the whip and her pulling the tiger tail, i.e., approximately 12 feet away. Previously any proximity would cause her to drop the tiger tail. I think someone taught her some manners - enough of that manners stuff! I want her raving mad for the tug, and we’re making progress.

Averill: I plan to; want to get it going a bit more before I do.

Linda: Which means you need to write in it.

Averill: Yep, but first I have to do something with Joon besides walk her and feed her Red Barn.

Linda: I bet she’s loving that. That is doing something with her. You’re teaching her that you are the origin of all good things, that you should be listened to because there may be something in it for her, etc.

Linda: And that you are the one w/the opposable thumbs that can open the Red Barn.

Averill: She’s pretty cool. She’s very attentive (even without the Red Barn). She’s very soft, though. Food in face for longer than 10 seconds (not forthcoming because she doesn’t sit or whatever I’m luring her to do) - and she goes away. Comes right back when I invite her, but she’s not crazy crazy crazy for the food.

Linda: Or she just has a low frustration level

Linda: If her first guess doesn’t make food happen, give up.

Averill: I was impressed at her intelligence yesterday when she wrapped the long line around a tree (one turn) and then unwound herself. Then I recalled that she was chained a bunch. Learned from it, I guess.

Linda: She hasn’t learned 101 Things to Do w/a Box.

Linda: She hasn’t learned to offer behaviors.

Averill: She probably doesn’t even know one thing to do with a box, or anything. Except my slippers.

Linda: I’m going to try buying a new pair of slippers this year. I hope Libby has forgotten about chewing them. Last year I wore the duct tape ones.

Averill: I was thinking of buying Joon her own pair of slippers.

Averill: and keeping mine in a safe place.

Averill: I’m not in any hurry. She’s kinda had a major life change, sudden-like.

Linda: Dogs don’t generalize EXCEPT when it comes to slippers. All slippers are edible.

All of our dogs live in the house. Our house is far too large for Ken and me, but of course we’ve filled it up with all our junk, which is scattered from here to there… and in the spaces, and on all the couches and chairs are THE DOGS. Joon is in a crate. Poor kid.

I started this blog months ago and just let it hang, since I had nothing earthshaking to impart. Well, Joon has inspired me to get this thing going, so already I’m grateful to her.

I hope to use this blog as a training diary, since I’m the world’s worst documenter of anything. Not sure how this will work, but stay with me. Everyone wants to know what I’ve done with my two BCs that are now competing in agility.

Our #1 BC, Jolt, was one of those rare “add a frisbee and stir” BCs that turn on to agility immediately and teach their lucky handler how to do the job. So everything I know about handling a Border collie (and lots of other dogs) I owe to him. What a grand teacher!

Jig, in the sad #2 place, is a budding agility dog. He came to us at 7 months of age, had lived in a boarding kennel his whole life, and had no idea how to learn, how to play with humans, and just wanted to run away and play with his ball. He taught me a lot about how to train a dog. He’s now 2 1/2 years old, and still has a long way to go but he’s well motivated to work with me and loves his agility.

How could I possibly feel equal to taking on a new “project” - a one-year-older with no house training, no play training (”we don’t let them play with balls because we want all their ‘fun’ to come from working with the cows,” I was told. Well, that didn’t work.) I dunno. But she’s cute, and friendly, and mighty thin. She’s hungry. So I know we can motivate her. Let’s see how this works.