Travel Log: Lexington, KY ClickerExpo

Last weekend, Lowell, Maebe, Cadence and I loaded up the car and headed to Lexington, KY for Karen Pryor's ClickerExpo, a three-day conference on clicker training. Since the weekend was filled with so many wonderful experiences, I am going to have to recap a day at a time.

Thursday: Hitting the Road

Thursday morning we packed up, and made the always sad trip to drop the dogs who were not coming with us off at our friend's house for the weekend. Jade has stayed there many times and pretty much forgets about us immediately, though he did watch us through the fence as we drove off which was a little heart-rending. Tristan just takes things as they come, but Django was a bit clingy at first. Nevertheless, I know they are cared for well there, and do just fine.

We hit the road and made the 5 1/2 hour trip to Lexington in the afternoon. It was a fairly entertaining car ride as Lowell, who usually falls asleep immediately when a passenger in a car, forgot that he had taken a No-Doze and drank a large Red Bull, then wondered why he felt like he was on speed or something. He made for a much more animated road buddy as a result.

We rolled in to the Lexington Marriott around 4:00, checked in, unpacked the car, and took Cade and Maebe out for a stroll. Honestly, I was quite anxious about what I had gotten into by bringing a not-yet 12-month-old pup to a training conference with 400+ people and hundreds of well-trained dogs. There would be hours of lecture, busy training workshops, lots of distractions - I wondered how he would handle it all. He's a very even-tempered guy who tries so hard to be good, but is still a distractable adolescent with a lot of energy. I figured worst case scenario would be me hanging out at the park across the street a lot while Lowell told me what I was missing in the seminars.

We picked up our registration materials and cruised quickly through the store with the dogs. They handled all the crowd and commotion in stride, though they were really excited and interested in everything.

In the hotel room, they wrestled a little bit, but were quiet and on their best behavior. We looked over the agenda for the next day, and all got to bed early.

Dog Games

Cadence got an early birthday present last night. We kept hearing about these Nina Ottosson dog games and how fun and great they are. Since we have more dog toys than we know what to do with, we decided Noodle's birthday was a good excuse to splurge and try one of them out. After watching the many videos on-line, we decided to try the Dog Finder game, which has a series of plastic bones in tracks. You hide treats under them, and the bones need to be moved to the end of the track before they can be lifted out and the treat revealed. To make it harder, you can also put a second bone in the track, so they need to remove the first one, then slide and remove the second.

It arrived last night, so we decided to give it a try. It proved to be an entertaining evening and it was fascinating to watch all their minds at work. You learn a lot about how each of them thinks and how they solve problems.

Cadence surprised me the most. He is a fast learner, and very "operant" in that he has been trained almost exclusively using shaping so offers behaviors pretty readily. However, he isn't quite the intellectual that Tristan is - not really a "thinker". I wasn't sure how good his problem-solving abilities would be, or how long his little noodle-brain would stick to the task. So, I was delighted to see him figuring the puzzle out, thinking about it, not getting distracted, and he did quite well uncovering the treats.

Jade tried next, and as predicted, he was the most successful at getting the treats, but primarily because Jade, with his way-high prey drive, tends to resort to violence fast. A couple violent whacks with his paw did a lot to dislodge the bones, and fortunately, prove the manufacturer's claim correct that these things are very durable. Next time I might try to not allow so much paw use, and see if he can think it through, but I was curious to see how he would initially approach it.

Tristan was next. We expected he would be the best at it, and so were not surprised to watch him problem solve his way through the puzzle. He was the first one who I think was comprehending the pattern and starting to figure it out.

Surprisingly though, Django was at least equally good as Tristan, if not better. He also figured out the pattern and a fairly systematic approach to getting the bones out. Tristan, like Jade, did resort to some paw use to help further his efforts, but Django slid and removed the bones almost exclusively with his mouth, which I think took more thinking and patience. Django is the only one we've really taught a formal retrieve to, and I have trained him to hold and fetch a lot of strange objects for fun, so I think he tends to use that as a tool more often. In fact, the first few times he removed the bone, he sat and held it for us waiting for praise, rather than pouncing on the treat revealed in the track.

Maebe was last, and I think we finally found something that she doesn't just excel at. She dislodged a few, worked at a few more, than tried to resort to her usually-effective Princess problem-solving method which involves batting her eyes at her daddy waiting for him to just give her what she wants.

The games are pricey, but I think well worth it if you want to have a fun, indoor activity for your dog. It was fascinating comparing their various methods and seeing how their minds work when they have to figure something out on their own. We learned a lot about all of the dogs and laughed a lot.

Of course, the batteries on the video camera were dead, but we'll have to tape our next game night.

Taking the Pressure Off

Eight years ago, we got our first puppy, Tristan. At the time I was working as veterinary assistant. Part of my job involved trimming clients' pets' nails. Consequently, I spent a lot of time rolling around on the floor with thrashing, stressed out dogs who hated nothing more than the nail clippers. I was actually quite good at it. I never had a dog come in that I couldn't trim along with the help of another canine wrangler, and I knew how to give close trims without hitting the quick. I never ever made the dogs bleed.

Still, I disliked the whole wrestling match scene and the stress it caused on the dogs, so I was determined to raise my puppy right. I handled and restrained Tristan from the time he came home. I played with his toes while rewarding him, and gave his little puppy nails mini-trims at least weekly. By the time he was a few months old, he would stand still as I lifted each paw and trimmed his nails. He was perfect.

Until he was about a year old.

One day he just took one look at the clippers and basically said, "You know what? Not without a fight." And the wrestling matches began.

Granted, it is easier emotionally to subdue somebody else's dog than it is your own, but I had tangled with the worst of them. Yet nail trims with Tristan were like endurance events and strength competitions rolled into one. Both Lowell and I would struggle with him and ultimately would be lucky to get two paws done. We tried a Dremel tool to see if that was better, but with Tristan's sensitivity to sound, it was much worse. We dragged out the tastiest treats, but he would refuse food. It was ugly and discouraging, and T's nails progressively got longer and longer. (I must add that Tristan is fine with handling and restraint in other situations, like vet exams, but toe nail trimming is particularly horrifying for him for some reason).

I felt like a puppy training failure. Meanwhile during this time, I brought an adult street dog, Django, into the house who we have no idea of his background, training, idiosyncracies, fears, etc. The first time I went to cut his nails, he obligingly lied on his back, feet up, and happily watched as I peacefully cut each nail. Where had I gone wrong with T that I had such a trimming nightmare with him?

Tristan's long-standing physical and structural problems also made the nail trimming sessions worse. I hated the mental stress the wrestling put on Tristan, but even more I was afraid of hurting him during the struggle. I knew I could pay groomers or vets to trim him, but I worried they too might use too much force with him. I pretty much gave up, and decided that his nails would just get worn down as much as possible by our frequent walks, and hoped that would be enough.

The other night I was cuddling on the couch with a very sleepy T, and was playing with his paws and noticed a couple offensively long nails that were driving me nuts. I asked Lowell to sneakily get me the trimmers, and hoped I could get one clipped before T noticed what was happening. I succeeded, and let a now-slightly-disturbed T get up and scurry away. We commented that maybe that is what we should do - sneak up on him and do a nail a day. But then T walked back up to me. I petted him, and because I couldn't resist the opportunity, picked his paw up and clipped a second one. Then I let go again, let him scurry around the living room again, and got an idea.

A few months ago, I went to a seminar with a highly-regarded positive trainer, who discussed the use of negative reinforcement in training. Basically, this means removing something in order to reinforce a behavior continuing. The most commonly used example of this is the famous ear-pinch method of retreive training, where the handler stops pinching the dog's ear if the dog picks up the dumbbell. Which is certainly not a method I, or the people I have learned from, would ever condone. But, her point was negative reinforcement does not have to be aversive and painful or cruel. Her description of it was "pressure on/pressure off."

Shortly afterwards, I read a great article agreeing with this. It is true that punishment temporarily may alter a behavior, but reinforcement, both positive and negative, builds it. The article suggested training new agility dogs the teeter by having them put a paw on, then immediately allowing them to get off. Then build to putting two paws on, getting off, three paws on, getting off, etc. She found with dogs that were nervous about the teeter that this worked much faster than even luring with yummy treats. The dog was in control of the situation, and if they offered the behavior that was wanted, they got the reward of having the pressure released.

I tried this concept first with my puppy, Cadence. One of our favorite walks around our neighborhood involves a pedestrian crossing over a dam on the river. The dam has metal grating and the rushing of the water is rather loud underneath. Cade wasn't sure what to think the first time we encountered it, so I lured him across with cookies at his nose. Still, the second time we took the route, he was wary. So, if he stepped a paw on, I praised, turned around, and ran back off the dam with him. The next time he took a couple steps, and we turned around and celebrated off of the dam. With about four repititions over a few seconds, he marched across the whole dam like it was no big deal. Pressure on/pressure off: When he offered the behavior I wanted (stepping on the dam) it caused a small bit of stress due to his uncertainty. He was rewarded for his behavior though by having that stress relieved (getting off the dam). He figured out he was in control of the situation, and quickly overcame his hesitation after that.

So, yesterday I attempted a toe nail trimming session with Tristan in a new way. We weren't going to power through, hold him down and just get it over with. Instead, I took his paw, trimmed a nail, let go immediately while praising him and let him run his victory lap of the living room. He came right back to me and allowed another nail clip. I let go, and repeated the process. After finishing the first paw, I went about my business and let him be for a while. Later on, we did the second paw. I rapidly was able to build up doing multiple toes before he needed his "de-stress run" until the last paw where he stood calmly and let me trim each nail with no fuss whatsoever. Using the pressure on/pressure off method, I was able for the first time in seven years to trim his nails by myself, with no cursing or fighting whatsoever.

The whole experience made me think about being flexible in our training and paying attention to what the dog is telling you. I knew Tristan hated these wrestling matches, but it didn't occur to me that I possibly could have done it without restraint. It turned out the solution just involved me to re-think the problem and be creative in how I approached it. I wish I could claim that I had made a big training breakthrough, but once again I think it is a better example of Tristan shaping me. He has us all seriously outranked.

Squirrel Patrol

I'm stealing this photo (and the title) from my husband's daily photo blog, because I love it so much. This is what we imagined the conversation between these two was on Sunday morning as they gazed out into the backyard:

"See any squirrels yet?"
"No. You?"
"No. How about now?"
"None here. Hey, do you see any squirrels over there?"
"Not yet. . . Are there any squirrels on your side?"

And so on.

These two share a brain, I swear, which is truly scary. At least being a Border Collie, Cadence has slightly more concern for my opinions on various matters than Jade does. Being the puppy and the old-timer, the two don't really play or interact with each other all that much. The others entertain Cadence while Jade just makes sure no one bothers him on his couch. I think they found something to bond over here though.

Another Comeback

Had another fun weekend of playing agility with the dogs. Everybody did well and came home with several Q's and placements. It was a weekend for me though of not worrying about the desired Q, or finishing another level, and just enjoying the dogs and their talents. On our only NQ of the weekend, Django and I did a few truly ugly things, but at the same time, we successfully negotiated sections of the course that I had thought would be challenging for us, so I forgot about the few seconds of sloppiness. Django also made me proud on his last run of the weekend, when he suddenly got the heebie-jeebies rights as we went into the ring and tried to bolt and leave at first. Apparently he got freaked out by a motorized wheelchair (which, he has seen a million times as it is owned by a friend and co-agility competitor, but for some reason it spooked him at that moment - I can't explain him; he's a sensitive little guy at times). Nevertheless, he summoned his courage, and ran a decent course and stuck with me. That's what I love most about working with Django. He isn't particularly high drive or tough, but he wants to be right and always does whatever I ask of him happily.

Maebe has done a complete 180-degree turn on her contact performance. Amazingly. After about a year of NEVER hitting a contact in competition, she has become our most reliable contact performer, and is almost rock-solid in her dependability. She turned in some blazing fast, brilliant performances with Lowell which were a delight to watch.

The best part of the weekend though was seeing Tristan run three courses on Sunday. Back in September, we came home (from my grandmother's funeral, no less) to find T looking stiff and gimpy again for the first time in almost a year. We rested him, took him to his acupuncturist, but everything that had ever worked was not working any more. He looked and moved like crap. I bought a Rally Obedience training book, pretty much figuring agility was over for him but maybe we could find something else to occupy his mind.

Last week though I decided to give chiropracty another chance for him before completely giving up on agility. He had previously had a very bad experience with a much-too-rough practitioner, but I had since gotten a referral from a very trusted friend for a new vet to try. He had a nice appointment on Friday, and so we decided to see how he was moving.

Man, if this dog hadn't been built so terribly, he would have been a superstar. He ran courses on Sunday that only Maebe beat him on in time. I believe he had the highest points for his Full House run, and that was without asking him to perform the 5-point A-Frame obstacle at all. His timing on his jumps is not great and he is really thinking, but he was running smoothly and safely, and was SO happy. It was like a half-day of agility put his overactive mind at ease again finally. Every time I watch Lowell and him run now, I prepare myself that there is the possibility that will be the last, but for now he looks like he might have a few more Q's in him still before retirement.

A funny "T" story from the weekend: T is our smartest dog - he is just operating on a different level than the others, I swear. He's also a touch compulsive and crazy, so on Saturday night at about 3 AM when we heard him whining in his crate and heard some rustling of the crate bars, we assumed he had drank too much water, again (he is a compulsive drinker, if given the chance), so Lowell got up and took him out. Three times. He would not go, but continued to whine when crated.

Frustrated and exhausted, we decided to try letting him sleep with us, figuring something was upsetting him that we had no chance of figuring out and we just wanted to get some more sleep somehow. He got up on the edge of the bed looking rather confused and perplexed. He laid calmly, but didn't relax and didn't curl up with us. Then we heard crate bars rattling again and realized that Django was the one fussing. Django bolted for the door when Lowell opened the crate, and apparently was having some digestive distress and was very grateful to get outside. Of course, Django is never wanting to make a scene, but was obviously sitting there uncomfortable and upset. Thankfully, Tristan notified us of the matter. We realized then that Tristan's confused look was really his continued disbelief at how hopelessly stupid we are, and he could not figure out why he was being invited into bed while we refused to attend to Django's needs. Sorry T. Thanks for helping the red dog out - glad you're looking out for the rest of the pack.

Pop Quiz

So, let's say that you are the owner of a young, high-energy sporting breed dog, and you decide to try out an intro agility class for fun. Let's also say that you kind of view class as a glorified dog park with playground equipment, and regularly let your dog run amuk around the arena and on the equipment.

Let's say that also in your class is a high-energy, adolescent Border Collie pup with a whole lot of herding drive, whose parents are working hard to improve off leash control. The pup has a tendency a couple times a week to do a brief "victory lap" of the class after an exercise - a practice that the owners are very much trying to prevent and stop. The pup is getting better, though is still not 100% perfect. The owners acknowledge the issue, made everyone in the class aware of this tendency, confirmed that it wouldn't be a problem with anyone before taking this pup off leash, etc.

Let's say that with 15 minutes remaining in a class session where the pup has exercised much more impulse control and had much improved focus and recalls, the BC suddenly decides to make a break for it and do a lap of the class. The BC notices your dog, and they start play-bowing at each other. Do you:

A) Stand calmly holding your dog and wait for the owners who are hustling over to scoop up their dog?
B) Reach down and hold the pup's collar and hand him back to the apologetic owners? or
C) Say, "well, she's been wanting to play all night" and proceed to drop your dog's leash, so that the two dogs can engage in a wildly fun, protracted game of chase all around the training center, while the BC's owners wonder how the hell they are ever going to catch their young dog whose brain has now gone into full-blown, ecstatic herding mode and is oblivious to anything else in the world?

Three guesses how last night's class ended.

Yes, my fault for not having this training issue solved yet. But it was improving every week as he learned that the fun happens when you do the exercises with mom, and that going and looking for your own fun isn't very successful. Of course, now that he had about the best reinforcement he could have for running off, I fear we may be back a few more rungs on that training ladder. A bit frustrating and I was not a happy camper after that. I suppose I did stupid things as a first-time trainer also, but that was one of the damnedest decisions I've ever seen a classmate make, no matter how novice.

After a well-timed, lucky pounce enabled me to retrieve my Noodle, we went to the back of the room and did Crate Games for the remainder of class, in order to do some impulse control work. Tonight we are headed to the park with a long line and lots of freeze dried liver and his favorite tug toy (well, second favorite - his loofah dog toy was unrecognizable after last night's class and so had to go to the dog toy graveyard like so many before it).

He does try so hard to be right. We'll get there.

My Two Biggest Challenges (By Cadence):

1) Supressing my incredible herding-drive urge to run large circles around the agility class filled with moving dogs and people.

2) Being the only adolescent boy in a class filled with pretty girl-dogs.

It's hard out there for a Noodle, but I still managed to hold it together for 90-95% of the time last night. Mom has to admit that I sure try awfully hard to do the right thing despite my biology.