Day 7 -- Wrapping up

Sophia met another new friend today. It's good for dogs to get used to other dogs throughout their life. No exposure to other dogs can sometimes lead to less than socially appropriate interactions. Sophia is a little uneasy meeting new dogs so it's important to introduce her to just the right dog.

In not too long she warms up to her new friends and plays well with them.

And it gives us another opportunity to practice recalls with distractions. She's doing really well!

Another thing I do to keep her recalls sharp is to reward her for random check-ins. Meaning, if she comes up to you and checks in with you (sits in front of you or looks up at you), reward her for that behavior. This not only helps with the recalls but it also helps with paying attention when there are a lot of distracting things going on. It's always nice to have a dog that wants to check in with you even when there are a lot exciting and fun things happening all around them.

It's hard to believe Sophia is already heading home tomorrow. She's been so nice to have around and all the dogs really enjoy her. But I know she will really be excited to see her family!

But we'll sure miss her....

Day 6 -- Polishing up

We had to wait for a break in the weather to practice our recalls outside from a distance. I continually practice recalls throughout the dog's life. It's something you don't want to get rusty because it might get your dog out of a bad situation. We don't always have to do our recalls outside though. We still practice inside and make fun games out of it. I can hide in another room and call Sophia. If I hear her nearby, I'll keep talking to her and encouraging her to find me. When she does find me, it's a big party of treats and praise and pets.

Sophia continues to improve on sitting for things she would like. Even with something as enticing as her breakfast, I no longer have to ask her for a sit, instead she offers the behavior.

And the reward for her behavior in this case is her breakfast. She does like to go check out what Healey and Sinbad have in their bowls but she quickly returns to hers and eats her meal right up. Normally I would not let another dog approach a dog who was eating, especially a little dog. But, in this case, Healey and Sinbad have been conditioned to be comfortable with people, children, dogs or even the cat getting near their bowls.

And, of course, after breakfast we have to brush our teeth. Up to this point, I had not used an actual toothbrush with her. I used a finger brush with dog toothpaste (never human toothpaste) and allowed Sophia to approach and lick the toothpaste. As she got more comfortable with that, I started to put the finger brush in her mouth. Now I am slowly introducing her to the toothbrush in the same manner and she's doing quite well.

She even let me brush her teeth some. People might think it's strange to brush a dogs teeth but I do it for a number of reasons. First, it is more healthy for the dog. Second, it cuts down a lot on the cost of dentals for dogs which require full anaesthesia (especially for little dogs who tend to have worse dental health than larger dogs). Lastly, it is a good way to get a dog comfortable with handling her mouth which makes it easier for you and her veterinarian in the long run.

She is doing well with her jumping. I am now changing the criteria for what I expect from her. If she jumps up I give her a chance to correct herself. I will say "Ah" and turn my back. If she corrects herself and sits, I pet her and give her praise (I pet her with my thumbs in her collar so she can't jump up once I've started petting her). If she does not correct herself, I say "too bad" in a very even tone and put her in a short timeout (in a crate or behind a barrier and for no longer than a minute). If she jumps towards my face (if I am bent over) she doesn't get a chance to correct herself and goes straight into a time out. The criteria is different for this because I want her to know that it is never ok to nip at people. If she does not need to correct herself at all and starts out with a sit, I give her a treat (if I have one on me) and pets and praise. For our normal interactions she almost always starts out with a sit. When she hasn't seen me for a short while, she usually gets one jump in and then corrects herself. Every day she gets better and better!

Day 5 -- It all comes together

My favorite day in training...when everything starts to come together for the dog. Sophia did GREAT today! She made wonderful progress on her jumping. She still makes an occasional mistake, but quickly pulls herself back together if I say "Ah" and turn my back on her. Then she gets a nice pet and praise for sitting. She's even remembering to sit when she's really excited to see me (for Sophia, this might be when I return after I am out of the room for 30 seconds...she REALLY likes people).

Sophia is really getting the idea to sit for things she wants, like going out into the yard to play. She is quick to offer a sit and I am quick to reward her for it. Rewards can be anything in her environment like opening a door, playtime, a meal, and more. It just takes a little thought and figuring out what she wants and using that as a reward for the behavior you like.

Today we combined impulse control around fast movement (i.e. not jumping or nipping) with improving her response time when I call her to come. This picture made me laugh because she was coming so fast when I called her today, all I could get were blury pictures. Her recalls were fast and, if I moved quickly, no jumping! YEA!!! She even came when I called her in the middle of wrestling with Sinbad. She almost tripped over him trying to get to me.

So now for a little self-control we implemented a sit when she arrives after I've called her to come. Love that little tongue sticking out.

Sophia rang the bells at the door today! She still doesn't understand that she can use that when she goes outside but with practice that will come.

She's doing well with her housetraining. I've changed her feeding schedule so she eats twice a day so I can predict when she will need to toilet. I know that every morning about midway through her breakfast we have to go out for a bathroom break. And again, about an hour after her dinner. So, I keep a close eye on her during those times so I can interrupt her if she tries to go to the bathroom inside the house. After I know she has gone to the bathroom, I can give her a little more freedom in the house. But not too much, she's still young and I want to make sure I am interrupting behavior I don't like.

I forgot to mention that we started working on drop. She absconded with my headband yesterday and tried to run off with it. I resisted the temptation to chase after her because I didn't want her to think we were playing a game. Instead, I said "drop" in a normal tone of voice and put a treat to her nose. When she dropped the headband, I said "yes" and gave her the treat. Now I am regularly doing the same exercise but with her toys. But I am also adding giving her the toy back after I give her the treat. I'm trying to teach her that it REALLY pays off if I ask her to drop something. She loves these exercises!

She likes when I blog. She gets to hear what a good girl she is when she is sitting beside me. And cute, she gets to hear how cute she is too.

Day 4 -- Friends are so distracting...

We worked a lot on distractions today. Sophia loves playing with Sinbad and loves playing ball (even balls that are bigger than she is). She's still taking a lot of encouragement to come off of distractions but with a little more practice, she'll be as quick anything.

She even had more of a distraction today when a new friend, Omi, who came to visit. This is a perfect opportunity for me to teach her to come when there are new distractions. She's in a small enough area where I know, if she doesn't come when I call her, I can get to her quickly and help her follow through by putting a treat to her nose, wiggling the treat, and moving backwards.

But she's so good, she comes even when there is a big distraction like Omi right next to her. Good girl!

We've been working on some grooming and handling as well. A lot of dogs do not like to have their feet handled and don't care for some grooming. It's good to get them used to it early on to make future grooming sessions and vet visits go more smoothly. I am slowly getting her use to having her teeth brushed. She's not so found of having her ears brushed but she's getting better. I trimmed up her nails a little bit and she did excellent! This is usually one of the harder things for a dog to accept but Sophia was a gem! I gave her lots of praise and an occasional treat for being such a good girl during her nail trim.

Today she touched the bells on the door with her nose. Good girl! She still hasn't quite associated that with going outside but I put her leash on and took her out anyway. I'm going to be sure to only take her out to toilet when she rings the bells so she doesn't learn to ring them when she wants to go out to play. She is doing great toileting on the parking strips. If she gets distracted, I lightly tug on her leash and remind her of the task at hand by saying "go potty." I again caught her starting to go to the bathroom in the house and was able to stop her and take her outside where she was praised when she toileted appropriately. She's getting nice clear messages about what is appropriate and what is not.

More tomorrow....

Day 3 - Coming When Called

Yesterday we started the basics of coming when called. Today we continued on with that lesson adding some mild distractions in.

I start out by getting Sophia's attention. I do this by saying her name. We're in a fairly low distraction environment right now so I have a lot of success with this but, if she didn't respond when I said her name, I would have not have called her to come. I would have gone up to her and either put a treat to her nose to lure her away, made some noise (clapping sounds, encouragement, etc.), or tapped her on the back to get her attention. Once I have her attention, I can call her to come ("Sophia, come!") in a happy, enthusiastic voice.

I'm to the point where I'm adding a little bit more distance with her but I'm still moving away from her as she is coming towards me. That adds a little bit of excitement for the dog and they tend to want to follow you.

As she is running towards me, I am encouraging her the whole way ("That a girl, you're doing it! Good girl!! That's it!"). When she gets to me, I reward her multiple times, one treat after the other, while I'm praising her. These are really small treats...her normals treats cut into 8 tiny pieces. She just needs to be able to taste the treat and she thinks she's getting paid off really well for coming when she gets multiple treats. I want her to think coming when called is much more rewarding than anything else going on in the world. I am also praising her and petting her on the chest (I avoid the head because a lot of dogs don't think this is very pleasant). Occasionally I will also grab her collar and give her a treat too. This gets her use to someone quickly moving towards her and grabbing her in an emergency.

Now that she is doing really well at coming, I can start to add in more distractions like the barking dog next door. I'm only going to call her when I think I will get her to come (I don't want her to practice ignoring me) but, just in case, I'm prepared to get a treat to her nose and lure her away from the distraction. As usual, when you prepare you don't need it. She's doing great! I think tomorrow we'll add in some more distractions...maybe even playing ball with Sinbad.

We're still working hard on the jumping. It's still really hard for her when she first greets me. I've now started to say "ah ah ah," and turn away from her when she greets me with a jump. If she doesn't stop, I say "Oops, try again." and put her in the crate for about 30 seconds. If she is sitting quietly in the crate, I let her out and try again. She is learning fast and will quickly offer a sit after being released from the crate. What a good girl! I have to read her body language a lot when giving her praise so I don't over do it. If I'm too excited or too high pitched, she starts to jump. She likes it a lot when I tell her what a good girl she is and slowly rub the sides of her face. She is a girl who just about melts for praise.

I am starting to be able to walk with her beside me with no jumping. Yea Sophia! When her greetings are a little more calm, I will add walking fast with a lot of hand movement.

Her house training is going well. She tried to tell me earlier that she needed to go out but I was busy working on the computer. I caught her just as she was starting to squat. Perfect! She's been getting a lot of praise for toileting in the appropriate locations but this was a perfect opportunity to tell her what was inappropriate. I interrupted her by saying "ah, ah, ah" (not so loud to scare her but just enough to get her to stop) and picked her up and took her outside. When she toileted outside she got a lot of praise and a chance to run around and play. If she had been in another room and toileted, I would have missed the opportunity to teach her.

We're working on toileting in the parking strip so she gets use to different areas for when she's at the school. She does pretty well but sometimes gets distracted by noises in the neighborhood. If she does get distracted, I move farther away from the distraction so she can focus on the task at hand.

All in all another very productive day! She is such a nice girl...

Day 1 & 2 -- Getting to Know You

Sophia is here for the week and she is as cute as a bug!

She is getting to know the crew here. She was a little nervous when she first got to the house so I kept the other dogs crated while she explored her temporary digs. When she start to show a little more confidence, I let Sinbad out of his kennel. Sinbad is very gentle and doesn't overwhelm other dogs at all. They were perfect together and got along right from the start.

Healey is more reserved around other dogs but she actually initiated play with Sophia by doing a play bow (where the dog's front end is low to the ground and stretched out and their rear end is still up in the air). At Sophia's age, it's still ok for her to put her paws on older dogs but she is at the point where they will start to tell her that is impolite behavior. But what we are really working hard on is keeping her feet off of people. She's learning to automatically sit for just about everything; pets, food, walks, play, going outside, etc. It's her way of saying "Please." She's doing really well. She's still jumping during times that she is really excited, like if I've been away for a short while. But if she makes a mistake, we use that as a teaching opportunity. In the next day or two I think she will be ready for me to add a lot more movement to my actions (simulating a child moving fast).

We're also working on her house training. Right now, I take her out when she first wakes up, if she's just eaten, if she has been playing and running a lot, or if it's been a couple of hours since she's been out. She also lets me know it's time to go out when she comes up to me and stares at me. At times I also notice if she is sniffing around a lot, it's time for her to go outside. We've been going out on leash to toilet in the grass. She's doing really well. She is relieving herself within 30 seconds after we go out. She gets lots of praise when she does this and then I let her off leash to play in the yard. If she doesn't toilet, I bring her back in the house and put her in a kennel for about 10 minutes. This is not punishment and I still make the kennel a pleasant place for her by putting toys and treats in the kennel but it is used to confine her so she doesn't have an accident in the house. After 10 minutes, I take her out again. The two times that I have done this she relieves herself as soon as we get outside on the second visit. Good girl Sophia! I am also starting to jingle bells at the door just before we go out. Tomorrow I will teach her to ring the bells and get her to start associating that with going outside to toilet. We will also be branching out tomorrow to get her use to toileting around the neighborhood.

But don't think that it's all been hard work. We've also been playing a lot which is a very important part of training. I can use a wide variety of things to reward Sophia for good behavior and one of her favorites is to be rewarded with play. She loves tugging with this toy.

Sophia loves playing ball and this is a great way to get some of her energy out. She is a girl on the move and she needs fun activities to keep her on the straight and narrow.

And, of course, playing with her friends. She and Sinbad love to play ball together.

Looking forward to another day where we will expand on our lessons and move a little farther along on coming when called. Sophia is out cold at my feet as I type getting rested up for our new adventures tomorrow.