dogs don't pretend

This morning Penny completed a set of six training sessions with Jill at A Perfect Spot (great fun and we're going to enrol for the next six sessions). Penny, like the other dogs, was a 'winner' in the last activity and she was allowed to choose a toy from the box.

Well, she took so long selecting that I kind of pushed her in the direction of one I thought she would like. I waved it around a bit and of course she thought it was the most exciting one.

When we got home I put it in her toy box, wondering if she really liked it. If she'd been a human she might have pretended to prefer it, just to make me happy. But dogs aren't into pretence.

But she does like it and here's the evidence. I've picked it up and put it away in the box three times this afternoon and every time I see Penny she has it once more. Here she is guarding the house from possible intruders,  her toy at her side.

a dog waits for the command to eat

Penny has always waited for a release command before starting her food, and she will also allow us to take the bowl away during her meal - probably because that only happens when we are adding to her meal, because we've forgotten something that was supposed to be in the bowl.

But she sure gives us those 'puppy eyes' to tell us to get on with the job if we make her wait too long.

I can't usually get such candid shots of her, because she doesn't like the big 'eye' of the camera pointing at her, and usually turns her head away. I got this clear shot by using a phone instead of a camera.

I've mentioned previously that I really like this new bowl, which I bought from The Cup & Mug, because it's solidly made, and easy to keep clean. 

You can see how it didn't move shift on the floor when Penny changed position to clean up those pesky little bits of food that escaped down the side of the bowl.

a great dog training post

Jaana, the winner of Honey's Dancing With the Doggy Stars competition, is presenting a series of posts about her training methods. I recommend that you head over there for a look if you're at all interested in dog training.

I must admit there's such a lot in the latest post that I have saved it to my computer so I can re-read it at my leisure.

using food as rewards in training

I've just read a very useful summary of the pros and cons of using food as the reward in training dogs. I followed a link that Honey the Great Dane sent me. (Well, her human, Hsin-Yi actually sent it to me, but I'm sure Honey was behind it all.)

It's one of the best summaries of the issue I've ever seen.

What I particularly liked was the point that the human has to follow up with the teaching throughout the dog's life. So, if you like jerking on a chain and releasing it, you'll be doing it right through the dog's life. (Definitely not my choice.)

Or, if you reward with food, you are committed to doing that indefinitely. Not all the time, but indefinitely.

And you have to remember that the more treats you give, the less food there will be at mealtimes, or you'll end up with an overfed dog.

dogs CAN think!

I tried some free shaping the other day. I've read about it on other blogs and wondered what Penny would do if I sat down with a clicker and a pile of treats and placed an empty cardboard box on the floor near her.

Well, it was fascinating to see!

She pawed me (she never paws, but she's been taught to touch me with her left and right paw as a preliminary to learning to march);
she backed away (ditto knows how to back on command);
she looked at the box;
she sat;
she dropped;
she touched the box with her nose - click! treat!
she touched the box a couple more times and was rewarded, but then I stopped rewarding.

So she put one foot into the box - click! treat!
A few more of the same.

Then I raised the bar again.
So she put two feet into the box - click! treat!

As far as I'm concerned, that's thinking.

I was glad to see a philosopher, Dr. Michael LaBossiere from Florida A&M University, writing a blog post about canine cognition. We 'dog people' recognise the obvious truth that dogs think - and feel, but that's another story - so it's good to see this truth acknowledged in the wider world.

He writes about Descartes, famous for saying 'I think, therefore I am'. It was Descartes who did animals a terrible disservice when he argued that animals do not have true minds because they do not use true language.

the final day of K9 Kompany

Tonight Penny and I went to the get-together to celebrate all the good times we have had at K9 Kompany in Lilydale. I won't put a link to it this time, as I've done so often...because it no longer exists!

K9 Kompany, the wonderful place where we learned so much, and laughed and relaxed together, has been closed because the parent organisation, Coldstream Animal Aid, can't afford to maintain it. They spent so much time and money on helping animals in the February bushfires that they can no longer afford to subsidise the K9 Kompany.

I feel sad at the closing of this uniquely special training venue, where we have done canine freestyle, agility, flyball practice, tricks and even some basic film work. It was simply fantastic.

But life goes on. One great thing is that Cindy, our teacher, is setting up her own business. At the moment she's concentrating on dog training, pet minding and dog walking, but I've got my fingers crossed that she might set up her own agility and tricks training classes in the future. She intends to set up her own site, so I'd suggest local dog owners might want to check it out regularly to see whether she has it up and running.

We are going to join her social walks group in the meantime.

Penny was quite surprised, when we arrived at Lilydale tonight, to see all the rules had been relaxed and she could roam around the area freely. However, she stayed close to me most of the time, so it was easy to keep an eye on her.

food motivation for dog training

Penny always checks out any bags I bring into the house - I think she reckons I'm a wonderful hunter-gatherer, because I so often come in with dog-friendly goodies. Today she was especially interested in the big bag of dog biscuits I had bought at Murphy Brothers in Hawthorn. They were in a sealed plastic bag, but that didn't seem to interfere with the wonderful smell.

When I took a biscuit out, Penny began offering all sorts of behaviours in an attempt to coax me into giving it to her.



It's not like her to be so quick in her behaviours, so we couldn't resist making a short video clip. First she stood up on her hind legs and then she tried some backing, but when I didn't react she figured out she should wait for a hand signal.

I've never seen her so quick! These biscuits must taste wonderful.

interesting new blog by a veterinarian

Penny has generally been trained by rewards for good behaviour. ( I won't claim never to have been annoyed enough to tell her off!) I love reading about research that backs up my belief that our dogs are NOT wolves and don't need to be trained by methods that involve dominating them.

So I'm very happy to have come across the new blog of Dr Sophia Yin, a veterinarian and applied animal behaviorist in San Francisco. I think it is a great find. She has a site that offers lots of articles, podcasts and also the blog.

I found this new site by following a link from one of the most interesting veterinary sites on the Net, Dr. Patricia Khuly's Dolittler I was reading her discussion of the latest scientific evidence that reward-based training produces dogs that are less aggressive than those trained through harsher methods.

dog trainer Ian Dunbar

Slavenka has posted a link to an interesting talk by Ian Dunbar on dog training. An article in the San Francisco chronicle compares Dunbar's methods with those of Cesar Milan.

I admire Dunbar and I don't like Milan's creed that dogs are like wolves and need to be dominated. Dogs aren't wolves. Many thousands of years ago they diverged in their evolution and have lived alongside humans since then, adapting to our lifestyle.

Nina Ottosson toys for intelligent dogs to play with

Hooray! The toys from Clean Run arrived last Friday.

The one toy I am really waiting for is the super duper Dog Tornado that my friend is bringing from New York. I didn't think I could afford the postage, so she said she'd bring it in her luggage. She arrives tomorrow!

And then Johann told me there was to be a free postage offer from Clean Run for a short while, so I ordered the Spinny, the Brick and Dog Magic. I ordered them through Johann's site. (Now that I know the toys are lighter than I thought, and come so quickly, I'd be keen to order more things in the future.)

I ordered them on the 4th of December, so it took them only eight days to come to Australia. I'm amazed. And excited.

The first one Penny and I played with was quite easy - The Dog Spinny.



When Penny was confident with it - which took about three minutes! - I added a plastic bone that makes the task harder. She had to figure out how to get the bone out before she could turn the Spinny and get the treats.





















Today we advanced to the second game, The Brick. We've only played the simplest version, so far.



When she is confident, I'll place more of the plastic bones in the middle spaces, to make it hard.

I can't wait for the Tornado - it looks like the hardest of them all.

toys to enhance a dog's intelligence

I've been talking to Johann's mum about her post regarding Nina Ottosson's toys for intelligent play and I've finally figured out a way to get one - a friend is going to bring me the Dog Tornado from Clean Run in the US when she comes over here for Christmas.

Fingers crossed that it gets to her before she leaves and that it's not too heavy!

In the meantime, Penny's still extending herself to solve the puzzle of the balls that disappear into a game I made out of pvc pipes in December last year. Because we're experiencing a drought here, we've had water tanks put in and there were some old pipes left over, so I've extended the pipe game. Here's Penny trying unsuccessfully to use the techniques that worked with the shorter version.I had to put it on YouTube because I couldn't get it uploaded to Blogger.



She thought we were going to help her, but we weren't, so she tried again - this time she gets it right. I love the way her tail is wagging throughout.

dogs train for film work

Today the K9 Kompany presented a series of demonstrations for the public at the Lilydale show.

Penny and I took part in two types of demonstration - Ideal Dog of Australia and All Sports.

But we were onlookers at the highlight of the day, Animal Actors, because we're not in that class.

It was interesting to see how the tricks we're learning in All Sports could be developed into film work. Cindy and two students demonstrated that dogs need to learn to do tricks at a distance because the trainer can't be visible in the film.

A small piece of tape on the floor marked the nearest point the trainer was allowed to approach the dog during filming. I've taken a shot here from a different angle, showing the trainer's hand at right - you can see the dog watching her.



The story behind the filming was that Cindy was reading the paper and the dogs would try to get her attention. One of the dogs jumped up on the couch with her, barked and laid its head on her leg. When all this failed, it pushed a roller across in front of her.




In this shot the trainer is not in view - this is how the shot would appear in a film.

dog learns the hold it trick

Penny tried a new trick today at K9 Kompany - pulling along a cute little toy cart of toys. But we didn't have any luck.

The idea was that she would use her mouth to grab a ball on a string attached to the handle and as she pulled it the cart would move behind her. However, I realised she had forgotten the trick we practised last year called 'Hold'. If she doesn't get the idea that she has to 'hold' the ball as she comes towards me, then she'll let it go as soon as she feels the weight of the cart.

So, tonight it was back to basics in our 'kitchen training' schedule. I used a clicker as my marker instead of the more usual 'Yess!" because I found it difficult to mark the exact moment when she was still holding the object.

(By the way, the thing she was holding was a strong, flexible toy made by Aussie Dog - I think it's probably manufactured from fire hose, but I'm not sure. We've had ours for years and it's as good as the day I bought it.)

dogs and tracking

On Sunday morning Penny and I took part in our first tracking lesson, with Jenny and Gill from A Perfect Spot Dog Training. It was a crisp Sunday morning at 9 am. Pretty early for me, but Jenny made it seem like the middle of the day when she told us tracking is sometimes done at ... get ready for it... FIVE IN THE MORNING IN THE MIDDLE OF WINTER!! She said that the scent is clearer for the dogs at that time. (Or at least that's what I think she said. I was reeling in horror at the thought of getting up before dawn.)

Maybe we won't be going into this sport in a big way...

Penny loved the session, because it built on one of her special skills, ie pulling her human towards something interesting on the ground.

We've been training her not to pull on the lead and have had heaps of success. In fact, today we walked from Heidelberg to Ivanhoe along the back paths (about an hour) and she was almost perfect all the time she was on lead.

Anyway, back to the tracking...
Jenny said to attach the lead to Penny's harness at the start of the track and reattach it to her neck collar at the end, to distinguish between lead walking and tracking. I practised out in our back laneway today and that seemed to work well.

Generally, it's Penny's idea of heaven, to be asked to sniff around for food treats.

I thought as well as practising, I would have a look around the Net for more information. I found a site about general Schutzhund training, and it had lots of pages on tracking.

The first article was about initial tracking experiences. It said your bond with the dog will help you to notice the subtle signals she gives out when tracking, letting you know how well she understands the task.

A second page discusses the importance of being able to remember the track you have set out. Jenny is teaching us to set out little flags so we know the course, but this article warns that we need to be careful not to reward finding the flags rather than the articles. (We used socks that we had been carrying against our skin.)

So far Penny has ignored the markers, diving on the socks to search for the piece of food hidden under them. When I practised in the laneway behind our house, I didn’t have little flags, so I used bits of stick I found lying around in the lane.

Jenny has given us some scent discrimination games to play during the week. We're still working on the one where I hide a treat in one hand an Penny has to indicate which one has the treat. We'll go out to the park and try out another one where I unobtrusively drop an article as we walk along, and ask Penny to help me go back and find it.

There are more scent discrimination games at Dog Scout. I like the one called The Scent Articles Game. I've tried this one before, without much luck, but the explanation on this site is so clear I'm inspired to try again.

There is a local tracking club, Tracking Club of Victoria. I thought the Golden Retriever Club of Victoria had an especially clear overview of local tracking. They say trials are usually held between May and September, when it's not too hot and snakes are not so active. (Though I've seen snakes in our local city park in both September and May recently.) Because tracking takes up a big area, the events are in rural areas, such as Gippsland, Ballarat, Inverleigh, Broadford and the Mornington Peninsula.