First 24 hours of Luke

SUMMARY: Yikes.

Added more at the end June 9, 9:45 a.m.
Just trying to capture some notes–an inventory of where he is–while there’s a brief peaceful interlude. In general, I’d say that he has the training that one might expect of maybe a 4-month old puppy, but he’s maybe 12 months old (waiting for confirmation on age).

… hmmm, I wonder why it’s so peaceful and where he is and what he’s doing? … Oh, he just came downstairs from my bedroom and isn’t carrying anything, so I guess that’s good.

He’s mostly good enough in the house that I’m letting him wander around on his own.
Big problem with that is getting up on kitchen chairs to find things on the table, paws on counters, etc. I’ve been trying to keep things clean because of Chip anyway, but things feel so chaotic all of a sudden that I’ll set something on the table and go quickly into the other room and forget.
He was supposed to know how to use a doggie door, but seemed completely unclear on the concept for the first couple or three hours yesterday. But if I lifted one corner about half an inch, he’d come through. So I finally figured out that he was distracted by it being in a sliding glass door that he could see through (vs a solid door or wall). So i covered the glass alongside the door and voila, he started getting it. Then I uncovered the glass again and we’re fine.
The only trouble with that is that, if Luke isn’t under my close supervision or in his crate, he’s happy to run out when Chip starts barking at the dog next door and join in. Just NOT what I need, 2 of them. Which means I also need to do something about Chip, sigh.
He grabs grabs grabs grabs my hands and wrists and even arms and toes and sometimes at my face. As in, with his teeth. Not hard, but OMG what a challenge that is proving to be. Working out how to approach this. Interestingly, it seems to be better if I reach under to rub his chest sometimes, but mostly not. Have been told that it’s because he wants to be close to you and/or affectionate and/or play. But, jeez, needs work.
And completely unconcerned about jumping right up into or at my face. Or, since I’m lying on the couch and using the computer, just right on top of me. Ouch and ouch and ouch, getting bumped and thumped and whapped.
He’s learning very quickly to sit before being released from the crate or to get his meal. Dogs find these things to be highly motivating for learning, yes indeedy.
He has had his meals in a Leo Genius toy and the other big red egg-shaped thing. Figuring them out very quickly. However, he left some of his meal behind in the Leo for dinner this evening.
Worked a little on not grabbing at food in my hands. Has had some background in that previously but needs a big refresher.
Worked a little on nose touches to my hand. Getting a lot of tongue and mouth, too, but I think starting to focus in on the nose touch with little effort, so he might have had some background on that.
After a little griping, he does seem to settle down OK in a crate.
He does not like going into the crate, probably because he gets shut into them often. I need to spend time on some crate games, and ASAP, because I don’t want to be fighting with this, and I still need to be able to crate him for some peace or when I’m out of the house. I tried just a little last night, and it was a battle just to try to get him positioned in front of the crate!
He’s housebroken, definitely. At least that’s OK! There was one accident while he was still figuring out the doggie door, so that’s why I made sure that he could use the door correctly (although I swear he’d been out less than half an hour before).
He generally seems to understand what are dog toys. Except that the pile of toys he’d accrued this afternoon included one of the shoes that I’d kicked off before hitting my couch office. And the cell phone that fell out of my pocket while trying to do something with him on the floor. And my computer mouse when I raised my arm (leaving it on the couch) to fend him off.
He throws water all over the floor from the water dish! I think because he just leaves in such a hurry (he’s a busy guy). But his rescue person did point out that he’s a water dog, with his feet in the ranch water bucket. And sure enough, once this morning I found him with both front feet in the water dish in the kitchen.
No good name recognition (he came to rescue as Luther and she changed it to Luke–which I completely agree with, but that means that he hasn’t had much time to understand it). I get virtually no response when I say his name unless he’s right in front of me and there are no other distractions.
Doesn’t really bring toys back when thrown. Maybe. Eventually.
Does love to play by himself, which is nice, too.
Is clicker trained, so responds well to it. I’m using “Yes!” along with it to get him used to that alternative sound.

He and Chip are figuring out how to play with each other. I think. Yesterday Chip wanted to hump him and climb on him and lie on him and I kept removing Chip, and sometimes Luke would come back at him to play, but more often not. Today Chip’s not being quite as pushy and they did run around together a bit and play a bit.

Chip is also being a bit grumpy at times even when Luke isn’t doing anything.

But Chip seems exhausted for the 2nd day in a row (well, 3rd, with visit at our overnight spot’s dog house), and So. Am. I.

Haven’t had time to do more than glance at the photos that I took on our trip and afterwards. Ack ack ack.

Chip Day 7 – Evening

SUMMARY: Dog door accomplished; more Leo; Home Alone.

With Chip succeeding at the doggie door this morning, I took the risk and left him unconfined today while I went off for several hours. Came home to three happy dogs at the door.

He’s definitely letting himself out as needed; saw him go out on his own to potty this evening. So that takes care of that.

I crunched up a 15-foot tunnel into a straight 4-foot tunnel to see what he’d do. I lined him up in front of it, tossed a toy through, and he ran happily after it all the way through–then suddenly realized that something odd had just happened, turned around, and walked back through, inspecting the whole thing carefully. Soooo we won’t have any trouble with tunnels.

Gave the dogs Leos again tonight, and Chip is already doing all the things–pawing it, nudging it, picking it up to dump food out–although I think that he’s not quite sure yet that most of the food is coming out of the small end. Photos for fun.

Licking at the X opening in the more difficult end. His preferred starting strategy:

Pawing it to make it roll:

Pressing with paw to make it come upright:

Lifting from the fat end; stuff rolls out the small end:

Dog Door Success!

SUMMARY: He did it!

Thinking about it last night while brushing my teeth (yes, a great time to be creative), I knew that Chip was already doing everything that he needed to do to get through the door except that initial tiny push. And it occurred to me: As long as I’m doing that for him over and over, he has no reason to do it himself.

So, Operation Doggie Door Tough Love.

This morning, after I let the dogs out and set up the dog door, that was it. If he wanted to come in, he’d have to do it himself.

At 7:15, when Boost and I stepped out the front door for her to get the paper, I heard the flap open and shut lightly, and sure enough, Chip was standing there. But then he just stared at me through the sliding door. I knew that I was on the right track.

I tried to make it worthwhile for him to come through.Made sure both dogs were inside with me. I gave them treats and praise and used the clicker when he was watching. I played tug and fetch with Boost while he was watching. He’d watch a bit, sometimes just barely shove the door, and then go off into the yard again. I missed photos of his first 3 or 4 attempts, but then I was ready.

8:05 – Quick poke and turned away

8:12 – Poked nose in and wandered off again

8:18 – Looked at it for a bit, poked at it a couple of times, then left again

8:26:59 – He decided that this was the time to do it!

8:27:27 – Ta-da!

Now–will he do it again?

Chip Trial Day 6, evening

SUMMARY: Doggie doors, Genius toys, and getting on with life. (Another long dull post with my training notes and all.)

A few years back, I discovered these Quiet Spot neoprene tag silencers and suddenly realized how much I’d like it if I didn’t have dog tags jingling all through my life. They’ve worked very well, but Boost’s gave up the ghost two or three weeks ago and I hadn’t gotten around to getting a replacement. When I bought a nice red heart tag with my phone number on it for Chip while he’s here, he started jingling, too. So I ordered a new blue one for Boost, to match her blue collar, and a new red one for Chip, to match his red collar. They arrived today and now I once again have peace. (I ordered them from a place that benefits greyhound rescue, which is pretty cool.)

Chip, checking out my camera up close and personal. Cracks me up.

The big story yesterday and today is the doggie door. I thought I was making quick progress yesterday, until I let the flap touch Chip a little too early and he freaked out and we were back at square minus one when he didn’t even want to come near the door, even with me offering tiny pieces of hot dog.

(Side note: He seems to like Zukes minis, but he chews each one contemplatively and carefully! I’ve never seen a dog chew Zukes minis before, other than maybe a quick squish or two between the molars. Mostly they just go right down. So I’m not sure that I can use those for him for training; they take too much time. Tiny hot dog morsels go down much quicker for him.)

I thought about it a bit more. The other dogs have figured it out on their own, first by sniffing around where the other dogs go through the flap, then pushing a little with their noses, finally sticking their heads through, then clambering cautiously all the way through, and then that’s it. Chip, however, startled when the flap flapped back behind the other dogs and has never put his nose anywhere near it.

I figured that this meant that we had possibly three challenges: He doesn’t like things on his head or back. He doesn’t like the flap’s flapping. And because he’s so gentle and cautious, he doesn’t want to push hard enough with his nose to open the flap.

Things on his head/back: Actually not a problem, it turns out. I draped things on him, dropped things on him, pulled things across his face and head and back, and he just acted like this happens to him every day. Whew.
Flap flapping: I took an entire hot dog in my fist with barely enough of one end exposed that he could lick it and try to chew molecules off of it. I just held it in front of him and, with the other hand, hit the flap open and let it flap back and forth like happens when the dogs go through. I did that dozens of times, gradually moving the hot dog closer and closer to it, until he didn’t startle any more. Then we moved to the outside of the door and repeated the process. Gave it a break for an hour or so, then repeated–and it’s a good thing because he startled again when we restarted, although not as much. I must’ve hit that door a hundred times or more. Pretty much success.
Getting him to go through the door comfortably, working down to where he’d push it on his own. Started back with holding it wide open for him time after time. (I and the dogs would go to the other side so that he’d want to come through, then when he was through, reverse, etc. So we did a LOT of inning and outing yesterday and today.) Then gradually–more gradually than I did originally yesterday, letting the flap rest on his butt, then his lower back, middle back, shoulders as he came through. Then holding it not so far open and repeated, then holding it lower and lower. This evening after I got home, I noted progress in two ways:
* Previously, he’d go through the door only if I pulled it open from the opposite side of where he was. Now I can open it by pushing from the same side he’s on, and he’ll go through, which he’d have none of before.
* I can get away with just lifting a corner of the flap a few inches and he’s pushing through that without any signs of discomfort. We are SO close to him initiating the flap lifting. Not sure whether I’ll have to devise some other clever approach, because the initial push to detach it from he force of the magnets is much more than just sticking your nose through the already opened flap.
Anyway, pleased with this, because we’ll both be much more free in our lives if he can get himself in and out for pottying.

Chip and Boost wondering what I’m going to give them for holding still while I take a photo.

I took a risk this afternoon before leaving for about 6 hours and left him loose in the house with the other dogs, no crate this time. (Secret weapon was that the Renter was coming home after about 4-5 hours and let him out briefly.) I didn’t notice any destruction or messes in the house, although I didn’t go crawling around looking for possible leg-lifting spots. I think it went well.

The other big step for him was having dinner from the Leo Genius food dispenser for the first time ever. I hung out near him and praised him whenever he did something clever, but they really have to figure it out on their own. I wanted to see how determined he was to figure it out, whether he has that stick-to-it-iveness or gives up when it’s not easy. He did finally quit when there were only a half dozen pieces of kibble left in it, but he did very well and by the end was not only rolling it with his paw, but also starting to pick it up from one end or the other to get food to fall out. It’s good mental and physical exercise for the dogs, and my dogs get the Leo toy for meals typically 2 or 3 times a week, sometimes more. Next time, I’ll try to take photos. Here are photos from last year of Tika and Boost dumping food from their Leos in various ways.

The only other really dedicated training I did today was a bit of work on touching his nose to a clear target, with clicker training. He was starting to tentatively touch the target when we were done with maybe 3 minutes of training, so I think he’ll get it. Whether I can get him to aggressively move in and shove it with his nose… yeah, I think that’ll be a challenge for him.

Token Boost photo because she’s cute.

Meanwhile, Tika’s having a bad couple of days again. Lots more coughing, lots less energy, so I didn’t do a walk with the dogs. She did do her Leo toy for dinner, so she had the energy for that, and we played some laid-back tug for a while. But she’d doing a lot of lying around like this again, poor old girl. I hope that, once again, this is just a temporary down period and she’ll be back to being happy and perky in a day or three.

She’s such a good old girl, really pretty good most of the time about Chip trying to be friends with her, and I think Chip is trying to be solicitous when she goes into her coughing fits, walking alongside her and just nosing gently towards her cheek.

I’m just giving her a lot of snuggling and rubbing.

I KNEW it would be challenging to balance 3 dogs again with affection and training for all, but at least it’s going much smoother than it did with Jake when I brought Boost home, 9 years ago! Hard to believe she’s already that old. Oh my.

Chip Trial Day 5 – morning

SUMMARY: Things are going well

Letter to Owner who’s asking about him (I love it when my emails can turn into blog posts: Double duty!)

Everything’s going very well. He’s really a very good dog. He and Boost have played/wrestled together at least once every day, and Tika tolerates him. In my experience, it actually takes a few weeks before all the dogs in the household have settled into their normal personalities and routines, and things look like they’re going very nicely in the right direction.

He’s paying more and more attention to me, accepting that I’m here and in charge :-). He’s not done any marking in the house (that I’ve seen, anyway, but I think the other dogs would point it out); he’s eating happily; I’ve seen no recurrence of that one time when you were here and he put his paws up on the stove to check it out.

You’ve done a very nice job with him, really. He’s sweet and is doing his best to be friends with all the other dogs. Personality and attitude are the most important things, followed by basic good behavior; training details are so easy to add when the other things are in place.

I’ve arranged for a crate for him to travel in with me this weekend. We’ll probably be sleeping in a hotel unless it gets a lot warmer, in which case we might sleep in my van at the trial site (agility competition); this is how I’ve always done it with all my dogs, and I see that he’s often taking his cues from my dogs, which is very helpful, so I expect that he’ll settle down well at night and hopefully get a chance to run around with some other dogs this weekend.

I thank you for letting me have the chance to have him here, and I’d be glad to keep him. Let me know what you’re thinking long-term. If he does stay here, you know of course that you and your son are welcome to come see him or take him out for a run or a weekend visit any time; he would love that.

-ellen

Back to training notes. What we worked on this morning:

Fetch

Well, not yet making a concerted effort on bringing toys back. Taking it easy and trying the coaxing thing. Sometimes it works, but not from most of the way across the yard. He’ll come to me but leave the toy behind.

Toy Play

We continue to play tug, practice “Give,” give it back to him, play tug, etc. He likes tug but is still a little timid with me, I think. He has no problem with me pressing my thumb into his mouth to get him to let go when he doesn’t do it immediately.

“Down”

I’m starting over with this command. First is to get him to go directly to down from a standing position. I’m doing this as Rachel Sanders taught. Hold some really good treats in my fist, fingers down, on the ground between his front feet. Eventually the dog drops to same position as a play bow, and then because that’s not completely comfortable, the butt goes down.

I’ve modified that a bit, after almost 5 minutes where he continually licked my fist (hot dogs, yum!) but didn’t go down. Added my short braided leather training leash to his collar and stepped on it so that his head was held partway down to put a little pressure on him. That got him to lower his front end even though it still took a couple of minutes–at least he didn’t give up trying to get the hot dogs, so I think those are a winner; I gave a big jackpot and praise and let him up. Repeated, and he was a bit faster going down in the front. But his butt stayed in the air, so the 3rd time I just pressed lightly on his lower back after a minute or so, and down he went. The next time, pretty fast front end down but after a bit I touched his butt lightly again. The next time, he went down fairly quickly on his own, first front, then back. Final jackpot and crazy praise and that was enough of that for this morning!

I suppose if I’d had more patience that eventually he’d have gone down completely on his own, but I think that he’s still essentially making the decision himself, which is what I want: “Oh, this is a good thing for me to do, how clever of me to have figured out how to get hot dogs!”

We’ll do that until he’s doing it reliably and much faster (I hope–I’d like him to just drop like Boost does rather than settle into it like Tika does), then I’ll add the command as he’s doing it. [It’s important to have a plan in any training, yeh? I don’t always do that. I’m happier when I know where I’m going, makes it easier to get there]

Dog door/crate

The dog door is the key to *my* freedom. He obviously has a lot of experience being in his crate for long hours, but i’d rather not do that if I don’t have to. Yesterday I was gone for a bit under 4 hours. Tossed some treats into his crate before I left, and he hadn’t eaten them when I got him; I’m not sure exactly what that means, but would be better if I could leave him loose like the other dogs.

Owner had said that Chip had gotten out of their yard a couple of times when he was left alone and loose when he was younger, so he didn’t give Chip the chance again. Ideally I’d leave for 15 minutes, then half an hour, etc., to see how things go. I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that he’s liking being part of the dog family here and that that will keep him here. He is also microchipped (I hope to Owner’s current phone number), plus I bought a tag for his collar that has my home and cell numbers.

So I started working on training how to use the dog door, rather than waiting for him to figure it out. He has seemed completely disinclined to put his nose on or near the actual flap and seems intimidated by the flap flapping back as the dogs go through. I started by going to the other side of the door, the other dogs came thru the dog door, and I held the flap wide open. It took a lot of coaxing for him to even come near, and if my hand moved at all, he jumped back. We did that about 6 times over the morning before he wouldn’t jump back, but still very cautious approaching the door and going through it. Then I was able to lower it gently onto his backside as he went through so that he’d get used to that feeling.

In total, we’ve done about 14 trips through the dog door and he’s still not showing an inclination to approach it on his own. So it’ll be the crate again today; inconvenient because I want to go north to do an evening hike with Sierra Club after work, but I should come back south to let him out again for a bit.

Hmm.

I wonder whether I can work a deal with my contractor friend (Boost’s breeder, actually) who’s here painting the kitchen and stuff.
Hmmm hmmmm.

Chip Trial Day 2 evening

SUMMARY: More Chip notes

Fixed my pocket camera. Whew! (Just a bent cover piece that affected the lens cover opening. Thank you, WWW, for having all the answers!)

Fetch. He almost fetches. Sometimes brings it back partway, sometimes all the way, sometimes not at all. Wants us to chase him, at which point he’ll scoop it up (if we take a step towards it). Neither Boost nor I will play that game, however.
Catching. Doesn’t seem to have the idea of catching things–toys, food, whatever. Seems startled that things would actually land on him. More experiments needed. Easy-peasy to teach a dog to catch if he doesn’t already do it (in my experience so far).
Bone. He found an old bone that the dogs had lost interest in. Has been carrying it around and chewing on it delicately off and on. Nice that he’s got that. Of course, now that he thinks it’s cool, so does Boost (who has paid no attention to it for months).
Dog door. He so far hasn’t shown a clue about how to use the doggie door. I am happy with that at the moment; means that I can keep tabs on him more easily during the times when I let him off leash. I seem to recall thinking that about Tika and Boost, too, but then after 2 or 3 days, poom!, they figured it out on their own. He watches with amazement as the Merle Girls bip through a solid wall! And is a bit offput by the flap flapping back behind them. I think he’ll figure it out eventually.
Zoomies. Chip got the Zoomies in the yard in a big way after dinner, and I encouraged him by saying go go go! and giving the Play Fingers as he went by. Would be nice to have a dog who could be exercised that way if needed.
Mouth. He has some mouthiness that I’m not keen on. Grabbed my hand a little more firmly when cleaning his paws this evening. I held his collar and told him firmly No. Later, we were playing with a toy, practicing having him Give it to me and I give it back. Doing pretty good. Then he grabbed my hand once as I took the toy. He got a collar grab and No on that one, too. He’s not biting, but it is him trying to get the upper hand. Or mouth, whatever. Something to watch. It’s true that he barely knows who I am yet, but that’s not something he should do even so.
Relaxing. After another walk, some playing in the yard, dinner, and a bit more general wandering around, I suddenly realized that all 3 dogs were sacked out on the floor around me, snoozing. Chip is starting to relax, trying out the various dog beds, even closing his eyes for a while.
Tired Human Mom. I am so, so tired. Other than moving a bunch of things around (including his huge and heavy crate), also standing and sitting and inning and outing and managing 3 dogs on leash for *two* walks today and a whole lot more bending over than usual… emotionally, mentally, physically worn out, and my back is aggravated. I feel that it was all worthwhile, though. I bought hot dogs this evening but ran out of energy to do more treat-based training. At this point, everything I do with him I’m evaluating or training even if it’s play. It’s important that he have fun and enjoy doing things with me. And it’s important for him to learn a lot of things that i need him to know. I *do* try to make training = play almost all the time. But it’s a higher level of intensity than I’ve really put out for a while the the dogs. Well, certainly I don’t have to train everything all at once.