Leapin’ Labs

Tonight was Mason’s second class. I called awhile beforehand to make sure that it was still on since the weather and the roads were getting bad. It was, so Eric let me drive the truck and I headed out a little early. The roads were indeed slippery.

We got there to find a full parking lot, there was something going on in the regular office part. Walked into the training room part and I’m the only one in there. While I was talking to the instructor she got two phone calls from people not coming. Finally, 15 minutes late, one other person showed up.

So, we got a LOT of one-on-one training, which was absolutely terrific. Mason is doing SO good!! It seriously makes my day every time we go there and he is so enthusiastic and he tries so hard. We had a little bit of a rough start though. He didn’t get dinner tonight before class and was a little over-eager to chomp on my fingers. We had to take a time-out and work on taking the treat gently and then start up again.

We worked mainly on heeling and sitting in the proper position. The proper position is right next to my leg and straight with my body. He has a tendency for his rear-end to swing out and then to sit perpendicular to me, like an “L”. This wouldn’t normally be a problem but our instructor thinks that, with time and patience, Mason would excel at Rally!! Which is pretty freaking awesome! She said judges like to see happiness, enthusiasm, quick responses and proper positioning. He’s got all of those but the proper positioning so we practiced that a lot.

At this point, I have to say that he is walking better on a leash in some aspects, than Midas. He looks at me WAY more often and is a lot more observant of turns and where I’m going. But, he’s very motivated by treats so I’m waiting to see what will happen when I start weaning him off. The instructor thinks that he’s borderline being too treat-motivated but not quite there so that’s workable. I’m having such a great time working with my cute little dude!

Since no one else came to class, this was like a bonus for us. She is adding another week on for everyone so we get to have one extra class!

Tonight was Mason’s first Intermediate Obedience class. It is through The Humane Society of Kent County just like his other obedience class. Although, this class was significantly smaller, only 5 of us total, and way more structured.

The objectives for this week:

Refresher on eye contact, sit and down. The difference is that the goal was to not use food or leash correction as a prompt for the behavior and instead use it as a reward. And to avoid multiple cues.

Our homework for this week:

To practice identified areas to be improved and use treats only when increased distractions are present or randomly for established behaviors and to use praise only for good behaviors.

Areas Mason excelled at:

Sit, stay, lay down, focus.

Areas to work on:

Loose-leash walking. He did really well for how infrequently we practice. Really well. I was very proud of him. His worse distraction is not the other dogs, like one might expect, but the treats those other dogs leave behind lol. We even had one of the volunteers that work there come up after watching us for a bit and compliment not only my training style and timing, but Mason’s attention and willingness to please. He also mentioned that Mason looked like a Chesapeake Bay Retriever lol. We get that a lot.

We also need to work on gently taking treats. He is a horrible snapper but class actually went a lot better this time than any time in the past. There’s hope yet!

Tonight was our “extra” obedience class session for Mason’s first obedience class he was pretty good. Just like all the rest of the classes, she started off with the look which he has been a master at since before we started the class. There were lots of newbies in the class so she spent a bit more time on that than usual. I started messing around with down and stay before she moved on. When the instructor finally got to the down and stay, Mason didn’t want anything to do with it. Down was fine. I’d say ’stay’ and step back and he’d pop up. Doh! She came around and looked kind of disappointed because at this point he seemed like he had regressed to a previous state. She got him to do it a bit better than I did but still not to the point he was at. I was trying to back away too fast and he was just following me. She backed up slower and said ok at a distance that was much closer than I was trying. Like normal, I was trying to give him too much credit. I tried a bit more and then a helper (who I’d never seen before) came around to see how things were. He still wasn’t doing too hot for me so she tried. And the same thing happened (backed awhile slower and released him sooner).

I just love how everyone loves Mason even if he can’t do the “tricks” that he is supposed to be learning. He did manage to lay down and stay for about 5 minutes while she wrapped up. Half of that 5 minutes there was a treat I dropped and he didn’t get it until I said ok. I think all the other dogs moving around really confuses him.

On the way out, the instructor gave me a certificate for passing the class. Since Falon had registered but I took over going to class, she changed the name on the certificate to mine. I was kind of geeked about it but Falon was a bit annoyed because she was doing the reinforcement training at home that I normally slack on.

Level II? Maybe… We’ll see.

Tonight was our “extra” obedience class session for Mason’s first obedience class he was pretty good. Just like all the rest of the classes, she started off with the look which he has been a master at since before we started the class. There were lots of newbies in the class so she spent a bit more time on that than usual. I started messing around with down and stay before she moved on. When the instructor finally got to the down and stay, Mason didn’t want anything to do with it. Down was fine. I’d say ’stay’ and step back and he’d pop up. Doh! She came around and looked kind of disappointed because at this point he seemed like he had regressed to a previous state. She got him to do it a bit better than I did but still not to the point he was at. I was trying to back away too fast and he was just following me. She backed up slower and said ok at a distance that was much closer than I was trying. Like normal, I was trying to give him too much credit. I tried a bit more and then a helper (who I’d never seen before) came around to see how things were. He still wasn’t doing too hot for me so she tried. And the same thing happened (backed awhile slower and released him sooner).

I just love how everyone loves Mason even if he can’t do the “tricks” that he is supposed to be learning. He did manage to lay down and stay for about 5 minutes while she wrapped up. Half of that 5 minutes there was a treat I dropped and he didn’t get it until I said ok. I think all the other dogs moving around really confuses him.

On the way out, the instructor gave me a certificate for passing the class. Since Falon had registered but I took over going to class, she changed the name on the certificate to mine. I was kind of geeked about it but Falon was a bit annoyed because she was doing the reinforcement training at home that I normally slack on.

Level II? Maybe… We’ll see.

Another class has come and gone for Mr. Mason…

I am not entirely sure that he is learning much. Today was fairly busy at class and I was more excited about that since last time was quite thin. I really like the socialization that he is getting.

Last night’s class started with some heeling lessons that weren’t going so well. I was just attempting straight lines and his nose wasn’t helping his situation at all. I decided that I wanted to take a step backwards and work with sit, down, and stay since he has those. I talked to the instructor and explained how he was still having problems with ‘down’ but it never fails that when she tries, it works fine. After she did it, he would do it for me multiple times.

I then went back to the heeling and one of the assistants helped me. She showed me how to turn corners when he veered off to the side. She took the lead for a bit and he actually did decent. Pick of the pace and make turns when he isn’t paying attention. Ok I think… I can do this. I try and… kinda. That’s about all I got. Kinda. Maybe next time.

I was just about to leave thinking it was the last time but the instructor swears that we have only been to 5 classes. Oh well. Probably won’t go back until after the holidays because I need to shop next week Monday.

After an incident with Mason and Falon’s camera case, I took Mason to his class tonight by myself. I have had great intentions of being more involved in his training anyway so now is the time. I think… :-/

We got to the Humane Society and the parking lot seems a bit bare with only like 4-5 cars in it. I had serious thoughts of turning around and going home because of the major things that I wanted to get from this class was exposure to other dogs. He plays with Midas all the time but besides that he rarely gets to see other dogs.

I decided to stay and we “snuck” in while the instructor was already talking to the group. There were two dogs that were on the last (of six) sessions, two new dogs and two dogs in the middle (including Mason). She talked about the basics which Mason normally understands.

We went through the list of different activities we’ve “learned” so far as she explained to the newbies what the two graduating dogs had learned. The four of us that had already done some of these things tried to walk around the room and show off the skills. Mason… tried. Sit, stay, and eye contact are no problem. Down and heel are quite the opposite story.

After briefly trying the heel that we started last week, I decided that I would just work on down a bit more so that I did not get overly frustrated. He seems to get it after a few times every week but I am not sure the definition of “few” is getting shorter. And he definitely does not know the word “down” as the key word for the action he is supposed to perform. Basically, we still have work to do in this area.

One thing that she did teach me was a valuable tip in helping him become a bit gentler with his mouth. During the first few classes, Falon/I would both leave with raw fingers because he chomps on them a bit while taking the treat. The instructor showed me a method by which you hold the treat and quickly shut it if he tries to snap at it. Only let him have the treat if you can completely open it, get the eye contact, and release him to eat it.

While she was talking some more overview and answering a few questions, I successfully got him to learn this technique and sometimes even down then stay then release for treat.

On that good note, we ended the class. No class next week as the instructor has prior plans.

We skipped obedience class last week again, I don’t know what’s wrong with me but I haven’t been feeling good for a really long time. Maybe I’m burnt out from school…

This week’s objectives was to practice controlled walking to the point where Mason would recognize and listen to the word “heel” and then to progress to walking nicely on the leash, actually heeling on command.

But, the class was full of newbies with only a handful of people who had been there for several weeks so it was more of a review, but much more structured than any class we’ve been to thus far. We started from the beginning and worked on the basics and then we each went on to what our dogs specifically needed to work on. Mason excelled at sit, stay, come and look. But, laying down is still beyond him. He’s never been a fast learner so I’m hoping persistence over time will finally reach him and he’ll get it.

The instructor did show us how to practice heeling. We are to put a treat in our fist right beside our leg that we want him to walk next to and let him follow that hand around while repeating “heel” the whole time, so he begins to recognize and listen to the word. The only problem? Mason chews on your hand the whole time until it feels raw and sore. Hopefully this will be one he learns relatively quickly…

Yes it’s been two weeks since I last posted but I was feeling sickly for the last class so we didn’t go. Week three tasks are to sit and wait for toys, sit and wait for meals, and sit and wait to go outside. Luckily, Mason has mastered all of these for quite awhile now so we could continue to practice his atrocious “Down” command. The eye contact thing he has down really well. Looking ahead, next week is on controlled walking and walking nicely on a leash – something else he is really horrible at. So, this class after we got tired of practicing the Down command and the Look command, Eric practiced walking him around the room.

These were taken with our cell phone, so they aren’t very good, sorry.

They start off in the Sit position. Mason is looking to Eric for direction, that is really good.

Then they start the trek around the room. Mason is still looking attentatively at Eric, very, very good.

You might think with all the dogs/people Mason would be distracted…nope. BUT, if a dog left a bit of treat on the floor, he could NOT focus until he licked it up. He’s a porker haha.

Things went a tad downhill from here. This sit/walk/stop/sit is all in the form of Musical Chairs, they stopped/started with the music.

Here you can see Mason anticipating that he’s going to get a treat for stopping and sitting on cue (he’s looking at Eric’s hand):

He’s also breaking the sit as soon as the treat is presented, instead of waiting for the next cue to move:

Things we need to work on: weaning him off of treats because he’s starting to refuse to do behavior with only the reinforcement of praise – not good, making sure he stays in his sit regardless of if he’s being treated or not, and of course the Down command.

Tonight was Mason’s second obedience class. It was significantly more hectic with more dogs and more barking. Mason did admirably though. The tasks to work on this week were: eye contact, sit and down. He caught onto the eye contact thing after the first couple of tries. We showed the instructor how, no matter how far we back him up, he refuses to lay down now. She suggested moving forward, still applying pressure at his shoulder blades. It worked wonders, consistently too. Pretty soon as soon as we started bringing the treat to the ground he started to lay down, without flipping over onto his back! It was joyful. We got bored rather quickly though and so we went through his other tricks that he knows (sit, stay, look) and then just kind of observed the other people and dogs in our class. We are going to have to go buy more treats soon, Mason goes through a whole lot more than Midas did. She mentioned again that if we felt the class was moving too slowly, we could transfer to a more advanced level, which I am considering.

Tonight was Mason’s first obedience class. We decided to go through the Kent County Humane Society because it was cheaper and closer and hopefully just as beneficial. I am really looking forward to having this class with him. I’ve learned (and I’m still regretting) the mistakes of not properly socializing/training Midas from the beginning and I’m hoping to rectify this with Mason. He has some rough spots. Mainly, I can’t for the life of me figure out a way to get the pup to lay down without rolling over. But, overall he’s soooo eager to please that you can’t help but smile at his extremely enthusiastic responses.

When we walked in the door he was straining at his leash so badly he was gagging (similar to Midas unfortunately). I picked a quiet corner to sit down in so he could watch the action but we wouldn’t be infringing on other owners’ space.

This is a join-when-you-pay-and-are-available class. So, all the dogs in our class are at various levels of the program. This was our first week but for someone across the room, it was their last. This means that everyone is working on different things and at separate times. On one hand I feel like it’s more hectic and we don’t get as much one-on-one as we should. On the other though, I think it’s good to work with Mason with so many distractions.

Every single dog in the class had a head halter or a harness on their dogs. We were the only ones with just a plain flat buckle collar. I am content to stay with that though. Our week one tasks are to fill out the paperwork on what our goals are, work on laying down (even though that’s week two homework) and work on him focusing on our faces no matter what tasty tidbit we have in our hands. He is excelling at the focusing, or “look” command (as I taught Midas). We saw several people attempting the sit/stay and decided to give that a whirl with all the distractions – he was so excited to come on the release command that he “spun out” on the slick floor. Other people were laughing at us. The teacher called him “exuberant” . Laying down needs some serious work but she showed us a technique to hopefully help…I’ll tell all about it later if we can get it to work .