Yoshi Training Diary - July 2004

By Ellen Clary
(reverse date order)

Feedback is welcome, but due to spam there is no mail link on this page.  Emails addressed to yoshi or ellen at this domain (frap dot org) will reach me.
(I'll get a graphic on here with it displayed eventually.)


Sat July 31
Luring still works better than traditional (for lack of a better term) clicker training, but maybe I'm just being impatient.
Got a mouse pad out (the target I'm working with) and worked with Cali and the clicker while Yoshi watched.  Cali seemed to catch on fast though she still wants to pick up the target.  Then worked with Yoshi on it.  He still doesn't really get it and when I started to lure instead, but continue to use the clicker as a reward marker, he seemed to catch on a lot faster.  I think that a dog has to get used to playing the guessing game that clicker training is.  In other words a dog has to know that they are supposed to start offering behaviors.  It's a great game, but slow.

Worked also on close and side.  Not surprisingly he's better on my left (close) than right.  So we need to overwork the right side.  Regarding if those words mean sit or stand, I think what I'm going to do is have them mean come stand by my side and if I want him to sit I'll say sit.  I was doing this today and it seemed to work well.  Also worked on left, right, through, come, and, of course, sit , stay, and down.  I need to start extending the amount of time on the stays now that he's maturing and has some attention span.  Maybe we'll start doing TV stays (more like TV commercial stays at first) and some stays while I'm working at the computer.

Did doggy toenails.

Fri July 30
My brave boy who will break out of x-pens to chase dogs passing by is afraid of the water jug.  We have a pet waterer that is like an office water cooler in that it has a small bottle on top of is that refills the water dish when it's low.  When it does this refilling it gurgles.  Terrifying, just terrifying, and Cali could not possibly care any less.  But Yoshi is more alarmist.  So he's now avoiding the water dish and woke me up at 1am not because he had to go out but because he was thirsty.  So at that late hour we did water drinking lessons (I have so much fun sometimes.)  He will drink out of my hand near the waterer, and will drink when my hand is in the water, but let it gurgle and he clears off and it takes a while to get him back to drinking.  This should be fun.  Of course later he woke me up to go outside to pee all that water.

[noon] I just got a metal detector to help me dig up the old garbage pile in the back (there are a lot of nails).  So now brave boy has to contend with me waving a stick around that beeps.  Oh the trauma.  To add to the trauma, we did some more work with the water bowl but I'm not seeing any improvement yet.

Gave them their heartguard and advantage.

Thur July 29
He ate breakfast and is consistently eating his meals.  They may let him keep his corgi card yet.  He's still afraid of the Bistro waterer but will drink out of it when I'm there.  We took the other water bowl away in hopes that he'd learn but he's now licking the sprinklers when we go out, so some more encouragement is in order.

The people next door were outside talking and he was alarm barking at this.  I'm trying to not say much but instead put him a leash and give him a gentle, non verbal yank when he barks.  (Since Shhhh only works some of the time.)

Wed July 28
HAPPY BIRTHDAY YOSHI!
 Took Yoshi to let Jim have a look at him.  Jim says he's coming along and that what we should work on next is coming to my side (either side) so that he's essentially in a ready position.  I need to clarify with him whether he means for him to be sitting or standing.  If it's sitting it's like Cali's "Tuck In" which is sit on my left.

I also need to start working on targeting and what contact behavior I want.  I want to do running contacts, but I need to have some behavior that assures that he's going to go to the bottom as opposed to jumping off.  I have an idea for a contact trainer that's a bit different from the one that Jim and Nancy had designed.  I'll have to get with an engineering friend to see what's possible.

After doing really well for a while the angel meter expired and he took off running at an Aussie on the course in Nancy's class (we were also on the field be at the other end of it).  Nancy chased him off and I got ahold of him.  Later in my class, Arlene made some comment about corgi's not having high prey drive which made Jim and I laugh.  So I get to keep reinforcing that recall. ;)

I've noticed that he doesn't tug as much at Power Paws instead preferring food.  Though he will chase a thrown toy.

Cali did great in class.  I've taken to running a lot with her (as opposed to doing some fancy cross) except that I do lead out and I do cross behind her a lot.  I'm basically giving her every chance to be faster than me and not to worry so much about where I am.

Tues July 27
He has discovered that my socks are fun to chew on so I may have to change where I store them.

Mon July 26
He seems to be getting less picky about food.  He skipped breakfast on Sunday, but ate some during the day and then ate dinner that night and both meals today quite promptly.  He seems to be getting a little less barky.  He'll bark at the squirrels and then chill out some - maybe he's noticing finally that none of us (Cali included) take much notice.

Sat/Sun July 24-25
Agility weekend.  Yoshi came along.  He was pretty good with some notable exceptions, the worst being when he broke out of the x-pen and charged up to a dog barking.  I was on a walk though but my ring was close by so I could run over.  Fortunately all he did when he got to the dog is say hello and the other dog was gracious enough not to give him the trashing that he so richly deserved.
An aussie also objected to him barking at her as she walked past.  Good for her.

Cali ran well though we had a missed contact and one screwup of mine and one table refusal that I'll have to look at the video to see what happened.  So all in all, we got one jumpers Q (a really nice run).

Thur July 22
Class was fun.  Yoshi was very good and didn't get freaky until the class end when a pack of coyotes started yipping in the distance (we then left).  He was very attentive probably because he got hungry and realized I had liver (Great Bait).  While the class did walk throughs I would take him along just to get him used to walking around the equipment.  Put him on the dog walk a couple of times.  Let him on the teeter but it banged different than the one at his house and he bailed the second time.  I and others decided to let it go as he was starting to get stressed by it.  (Dog's generalize so poorly - never mind that he has one at home - this one's different.)

Set a jump at 4" and put him in a sit-stay (on leash) and was able to call him over it.  Also was able to run with him by my side and have him go over it.  Worked on come, sit, down, stay, through, left (still iffy on this one), right, close, and side, all with the distraction of class going on (which is something I can't do at home).  He did quite well, though he wants his dinner to be Great Bait. (Sorry kid.)

The only downside is that he was ambivalent about toy playing, I think probably because he was hungry.  I want to keep that toy drive as it's really easy for corgi's to decide that food is so much better.

Debbie spent some time playing with him and is threatening to steal him.  (I think Reno would object).

Wed July 21
Power Paws class is tonight.  Because Cali's foot is still somewhat swollen (though it looks good and is clearly healing), she gets to spend the evening with Terri.

Tues July 20
Cali was licking her paw and I took a closer look.  Dern, there's a cut and I bet it's from the glass in the yard.  I think I'll have to put some turf down at least on the section that I'm not currently digging up (I'm sure I've mentioned the historical trash burn pile in the backyard that I'm slowly digging out because the glass keeps working its way to the surface.)  That sprinkler system still hasn't come in yet <sigh>.  So it's to the vet and the vet said that the wound looks good and she's now on some antibiotics and I'll keep an eye on it.

He wasn't very interested in dinner so I harrassed him into eating a few kibble and then picked it up.

[some things missing here]

Sun July 11
Spent a weekend doing agility.  Had both dogs with me.  Cali got 2 jumpers Q's and was on the judge entertainment committee for the standard runs.Yoshi did quite well.  Had some issues with barking at passing dogs, but generally was good.  He met lots of folks and some dogs (played with Pic for a while and a Sheltie puppy.)  He seems to enjoy the environment.  Unlike at home, he doesn't bark every time another dog barks which is nice.

Didn't eat his breakfast.  Finally took somone elses's advice and poured it out on the crate floor when we got back from agility.  He ate it.

Did training when we got back home.  Got the weave poles back out and he would run through those ("through") while chasing his thrown rope toy as a reward.  After a while, he got bored with that and I switched to treats.  Worked on sit, stay, down, come, close, side, some through, left, right,.  For left and right he'll do it while playing tug (Greg Derrett style) or chasing a treat.  He's offering sit to people now, realizing that they're likely to give him a treat for it.  Worked on calling him through the tire (ring), but his stay is shakey though he's getting it.  Worked on teeter (plank).  My boy is growing up.

Thur July 8
Getting back into the swing of things.
Yoshi is still apathetic about his meals.  I find I can get him more interested in it if i make it a reward for doing tricks.  Then eventually he'll eat the rest.
He goes through phases of being a really good and attentive dog.  Leslie noticed this too.  Then the next moment he's back to testing.
He'll chase the stuffed lambswool toy(s) in the shape of a human. I think I'll call it a hangman as that's what it resembles to me (Terri calls it a "bear" so I may go with that).
The dust in the yard is really awful so I've order a sprinkler system.




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Yoshi Training Diary - June  2004
Yoshi Training Diary - M ay  2004
Yoshi Training Diary - April 2004
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