Tag Archives: Training

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A Little Setback…

Looks like it might be one of those days. That is, if so far is any indication.

I’ve got the spare room so that there shouldn’t be anything that Hilda can get into (umm…yeah, good luck with that, right?) So we may do some stuff in there without a leash and see how it goes. That may, however, be tempting fate. Last night at about 12:30, I woke up to loud Hilda complaints. I thought, well…she didn’t go much on our last trip, maybe she’s got to go. Well, turns out she done went, and the crate contained the contents of a pretty full puppy bladder. I’m not sure from where, since she hadn’t had water for quite a while. So out we went, we got another park, crate got cleaned up, back to bed we went.

We went out in the morning, she didn’t seem to want to do much. Got another park eventually, but she didn’t want breakfast. OK, I’ve heard of this, so we’ll just eat later. All good. After futile attempts to chase the cats, back into the downstairs crate so I could take care of Leno and feed the cats, and of course the whole time keeping an eye on Alena as she got herself together for school. Off to let her out, and again, the contents of a puppy bladder. Now she’s waiting upstairs, since I just cleaned the downstairs crate and now need to take care of my breakfast.

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First week down, Slow Learner

Me, not Hilda. I’m a slow learner. Mark the following lesson well:

If you’re walking, and the puppy stops for no reason, there’s a reason.

OK. Pretty obvious, right? Well, like I said.

Today I got leashes and the training collar from Handcraft Collars. All made out of black tubular nylon, which isn’t tubular at all, so I’m not sure why they call it that…someone explained it but I still don’t understand. Anyway, Debbie at Handcraft tells me that this is the stuff the mountain climbers use, and it doesn’t burn your hands the way standard nylon webbing can do. The training collar is an adjustable Snaparound Training Collar, the so-called (but not really) Volhard collar, popularized by the Volhards, who have used it in training for ages. While it’s true she’s still young for a training collar, and this one’s a little too big for her, it won’t be too big for her for long. I really want to know what the snap they use to close the collar is called, as I think it might be the perfect thing for a removable harness handle, provided it can be welded to the ends of a harness handle to keep movement to a minimum. The shortcoming in most commercially available guide dog gear I’ve seen, or seen descriptions of, appears to be the handle and its attachment points, in my opinion. With traditional bolt snaps the way they’re often used, there are way too many spots where something moves…but I digress. The leashes are the exciting thing. The short leash, I got them to make up like a standard guide dog leash, meaning it can be folded in half to make a short leash for working, and then unclipped to make the leash longer for parking or what have you. However, instead of using two rings, I just had Debbie use one ring for the short leash position, then put the handle through a second bolt snap, so making a long leash involves only unclipping the bolt snap. One step instead of two. She’d never made one like this before, but it’s exactly right. The other leash is a standard 15-foot long leash, which will be nice to give Hilda a bit more freedom but still have some control or at least knowledge of where she is.

The long leash may help address my next challenge: getting (and keeping) Hilda’s attention. The stuff I’ve read suggests that getting your dog to come to you can be easily accomplished by running (or anyway, moving) backwards, away from your dog, which will theoretically make your dog follow and come towards you. This isn’t exactly easy to do with just four feet of leash. Still, getting her attention when she’s fixated on, say, a cat, or pretty much whatever isn’t me, is my next challenge to overcome.

Besides “Sit” and “Down”, and she’s really getting “Sit” nicely, being that she is expected to sit before I put her meals down, I’m teaching her to touch my hand with her nose. I figure this is maybe good substitute for people who have a command to have their dogs look at them. Clearly that won’t work for me, so I have to figure out some other thing.

Panic, twice, both today. Once, I had Leno out, and I had Hilda out at the same time. This was because I had to take Leno out, but I didn’t really want to put Hilda in the crate yet, because I figured she’d have plenty of time there. Anyway. Dropped her leash by accident and had an OMG you idiot moment, but she didn’t go far. A similar thing at the crate later. Took the collar off, let go of her, she walked off, I called her, and she came running back. Whew…can’t count on that just yet though!

Crate yowling is calming down a lot. Now, it’s a lot more periods of quiet, some loud protests, but mostly just a little whining. Just as y’all said 🙂

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Progress Continues

The first full week is almost up, and we’ve come a long way.

The big thing we’re working on is chewing on toys, not on me. She still really, really wants to chew on me, but she’s starting to get that I’d rather she didn’t. She’s also stopped trying as hard to chew on the leash.

I’m also seeing lots more quiet periods in the crate. It could be that those are happening while she naps, but at least she’s comfortable enough to fall asleep instead of just expressing her displeasure full time.

She’s also sitting for meals, which is great!

Housebreaking is just super. Each accident was very definitely my fault, and those have been very, very rare. One poo in the crate yesterday, and pee today, but! With the pee today, she was very definitely trying to rush outside. It was I who was slow. She was seriously trying very, very hard to get to the door. Proud of her! And it wasn’t very much she got out either.

We’re still exposing to “sit” and “down”, and adding “Off” to the mix, because she’s started jumping onto the food buckets. And the chairs. And jumping at me and Alena sometimes.

For a first week, she’s sure learned a lot and made a lot of huge adjustments. This dog is just full of potential, I can already tell that!

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Vet Visit

Well, off to the vet we went. She got a clean bill of health, her nine week shots (a few days early), scheduled for her three month shots. We talked about spaying, and Dr. P. agrees that spaying at closer to a year old is probably best. So that’s my plan.

As for weight, Sharon estimated around 8 pounds. I thought that seemed a bit light, and thought more like 10. It turns out we were both light. She’s 13 pounds, 12 ounces.

She’s also beautiful. I got several unsolicited compliments on her. As well as someone asking about certifying a service dog. I was sure to stress that there was no such thing, but that the dog had to be trained to specifically do tasks to mitigate a disability. No, its mere calming presence to help your agoraphobia is not enough. And, sorry, I have no clue what task you can teach a three pound (at maturity) dog. Can you even call that a dog?

She’s got brains and beauty. She really is starting to pick up on sit, and maybe even down. she walks on leash, and when we’re out in the back, she pulls to get back in. Steps right out in front. I think guiding isn’t going to be a problem when the time comes.

Today, along with the vet people, she met someone who came to finish up with getting Alena on a county program. I had to run across the room for something, dropped her leash as she was just lying there, and walked off. And do you know, she followed me? All on her own.

I’ve also never met a more cooperative pup. Seriously, I can do anything with this dog. Tickle her toes, wiggle her ears, stick my fingers in her mouth, whatever, she doesn’t care. Also not at all possessive of food or toys. No problem with loud, sudden noises either. Dropped a metal feed pan on the floor, not a peep. There was, I forget what it was, but it was a sound, while she was asleep, there was this sound, she startled a bit, then recovered as if nothing had happened. Yep. I think this dog has, and will have, nerves of steel.

We’ve also had nice long quiet spells in the crate, after initial yowling. And lots of parks outside. All good.

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Yesterday and this morning

In case you were wondering, the answer to “How long can a puppy bark and howl?” is “Half the bloody freakin’ night”.

At least I think she’s starting to relax and figure out she lives here, anyway. She’s now following along with me on leash with only little encouragement.

Anyway, putting all three of the dogs in the crate together yesterday morning seems to have helped with Hilda’s barking a little, but that was because Leno and Fiona were barking instead. Yes, Leno. Mr. Barks Once a month whether he needs to or not is now barking at the puppy. Even more this morning. I think he’s telling her, “Back off, junior.”

Anyway, I tried something with the crate, both downstairs and the second half of the night after I moved the crate to next to my bed. As I slipped on some ice yesterday and was a little sore from that, I didn’t really think lying on the floor again would be a good idea. Anyway, string cheese. I didn’t have proper training treats, I will have tomorrow, so I used tiny pieces of string cheese. When she was quiet, or remained quiet for a while, i fed her tiny pieces of string cheese through the closed crate door. Now, she seems to be mostly fine if I’m within string cheese distance. I reckon this is progress. BTW, it isn’t just the crate. It’s also tie down. I had to put her on tie down to clean up when she peed in the big communal crate this morning. At least that’s easy to clean, but she peed in there yesterday while I was feeding and parking Leno, and Alena cleaned but did not spray the crate floor. So this morning, she walked in and peed before I could stop her. So had to put her on a tie down to go get paper towels and clean it up, and she made her usual ruckus. It might be that she doesn’t like me getting too far away. It might be she doesn’t like being confined, although I think it’s more the former than the latter, since she only barks and howls like that when confined *and* she perceives I’m somehow out of reach. If she’s frustrated at not being able to go further than the end of the leash, she whines and grumbles a bit, but that’s it.

I also yesterday made the mistake of letting her off leash to play with a ball. I think she wasn’t quite comfortable getting it into her mouth, because she ran after it, then ran back to me without it. Then when I threw it again, she ran off and took a dump in a couple places. Which got cleaned up of course.

Yesterday and this morning, we started to introduce “sit” and “down”. Just with a lure of a toy. Down got at least introduced this morning, when she just plopped down to get the toy as I moved it. I think she’ll pick up on both just fine.

We also started to introduce lying down by my chair at the table, just by putting her on a short leash and stepping on the leash. No big deal there, except maybe this morning she’s a bit more wound up.

We’re also trying to get her to not bite on things. Mostly nothings like me. Mostly by yowling in pain and then giving her a bone or other chew. Or, in the case of the leash, carpet, whatever, taking it away and then giving her an appropriate thing to chew.

She actually rolled over for a belly rub this morning.

One thing they don’t tell you in the books is how you’re supposed to deal with the following two mutually exclusive things.

Thing #1: Always keep your puppy attached to you, in a confined small area, or in a crate.

Thing #2: While crate training, start with short sessions and work your way up to longer ones.

OK, I can do thing #2 I reckon. But during the times I can’t have her attached or with me, then what? Because you can’t just wait to stick her in the crate until you can have a nice controlled set of short sessions.

I’m glad, or at least hopeful, that puppies are resilient. Because I’m sure I’ll get something wrong and have to fix it later.

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First Day And Night

As arranged, Hilda did come on Friday morning. Sharon dropped her by around 11 in the morning. Instant love! Followed, of course, by the inevitable, “What have I done?!” Of course, I know what I’ve done, it’s likely total insanity, but it will be OK.

This is a huge adjustment for her. None of the other critters around here are too upset. Even Jasper came down to say hello. She barked at one or another of them a couple times, but no one seems to mind. Which is kind of amazing really, seeing how intimidated Jasper is by Fiona. I think maybe Hilda and Fiona will be buds. So long as Hilda leaves Fiona’s favorite ball alone maybe. Leno, of course, takes everything in stride.

We had a couple accidents already, though mostly, she’s parked outside. She did, however, pee right after I took her out late in the evening. I mean right after. I can’t exactly blame her for not wanting to go on all this cold snow and ice (it’s pretty much all there is around here at the moment). But i know this too shall pass. Both the ice and snow and the illegal parking.

She has had very little trouble with adjusting to having a collar and leash attached. She has scratched a bit at the collar, but nothing major. Only some attempted leash chewing, but again, nothing that she hasn’t been willing to give up on pretty quickly.

Our biggest problem is the crate. Unfortunately, the only crates we have that don’t belong to Fiona are huge, at least huge as far as she’s concerned. The problem appears to be that she just doesn’t like closed doors. She’ll bark and whine and raise a ruckus if the door closes for any length of time. I’m sure this is something we’ll have to build up to. The trouble is, I have to put her somewhere when, for example, I have to take Leno out or feed him or deal with our own meal preparations. And has she got a set of lungs on her! They probably heard her the next block over.

She is getting adjusted though. She likes to fall asleep in my lap. Right now she’s stretched out next to my chair, with her head just sort of barely under.

For sleeping, we had a bit of a compromise, but I really don’t think I can do that for awfully long. She was fine in the crate so long as the door was open. Close the door, howling, whining, and barking commences. So to preserve a bit of domestic tranquility, I left the crate door open and slept on the floor in front of the crate. That way, if she decided to go on walkabout, she’d have to walk over me, thus waking me up. That worked out OK, and she only left the crate twice. Once to go outside in the middle of the night when I took her, and once to snuggle up next to me. Then she got put back in after a while and quieted down. Because, you know, the door was open.

I’m sure she’ll be fine once things settle down and she figures out that she lives here now. Once that happens and she can focus on something other than whatever it is she’s thinking about now, I think we’ll be OK.

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Tomorrow, She Comes

The original plan was for Hilda to come on the 28th, but Sharon’s schedule changed a bit, and she says she can bring Hilda by tomorrow sometime instead. I’m terribly excited about this. None of the collars and leashes and what not i’ve ordered for her has showed up. OK, the name tag showed up, but that’s it so far. Really, it’s all right, I should be able to get something together in the way of a collar and leash until hers get here. I’m interested to see how much she’s grown in the past four weeks. I knew that at four weeks, they’d be tiny, and they were, but to see that in real life is a lot different from knowing intellectually that they’re going to be tiny. To think that a critter about the size of a small cat, seriously, 5 pounds or so, is going to grow up to be around 60-65 pounds, just amazes me.

So far, of the eight pups, two have gone on to their new homes. We’ve got a pretty good idea that all of those changes are at first confusing to them. New people, new smells, new sounds, no brothers and sisters, nothing familiar to them. But what about the pups that are left behind? you really have to wonder what they’re thinking as they see their brothers and sisters disappearing one by one. I’m sure they maybe don’t think about it like we would, but still, do they wonder? Where’d that brother of mine go? He hasn’t come back. How strange. What’s at the top of those stairs that go on forever and ever? (Well…if they go on forever and ever, is there a top? Those people who come to visit have to come from somewhere…?)

OK…there was no actual point to any of this, sorry.