In theory I’m waiting for daylight savings before I do any contact training outside on planks. But well … last weekend my scungiest rotten 20+-year-old crossover plank made its way into my living room.
Able does not really fit in Rik’s bed any more. And yes, that’s an ancient crossover plank in my living room.
Able’s contact behaviour isn’t quite ready to transfer to a plank yet, but I’ve decided I also want to do some body awareness work with him on a low plank that’s parallel with the ground. He is much bigger than any of my previous dogs, and I think he may need some practice to actually learn how to walk along a 300mm wide plank and keep all of his feet on it.
Learning to Walk the Plank
I’ve been racking my brain for the last couple of weeks, trying to figure out what I have round the house that I can use to elevate both ends of the plank to around hock height. I only have one amazing perfectly sized mop bucket/kitty litter tray (although it came from The Warehouse so I could buy another) and none of my other dog training props will support a 25kg puppy and a ramp.
And then I had the brilliant idea to use couch cushions.
Last weekend we went to an agility show in Dunedin. It was surreal after three weeks of lockdown to be able to go to another town and hang out with all my agility friends. The actual agility side of things didn’t go so well – Rik and I are both a bit rusty as I haven’t been doing very much with her over the winter – but we had fun anyway.
During lockdown, Able made the exciting discovery that he could lift his leg and pee on things, instead of just standing in the middle of the lawn and lifting it on nothing. As with any cool new trick, he’s eager to try out his ninja peeing-on-things ability whenever he gets the chance. Until this point bushes and lampposts were his go-tos … but at the agility show he decided to add cars to his repertoire.
I count nine dog toys in this photo (some in multiple pieces) but my Beaver puppy still likes to bring sticks inside to chew…
I do not want my puppy to pee on cars. While I don’t really mind other dogs peeing on my car, other people do mind so for the sake of courtesy he needs to leave cars alone. I also don’t want him peeing on jump wings, deck chairs, call steward boards, or myriad other vertical surfaces in the agility environment. And I don’t want him to pee on buildings either – the outside but especially when he’s inside an indoor agility venue.
This means that I need to be proactive about interrupting him before he pees on something inappropriate. For the next few months I’ll need to pay close attention to my puppy whenever I have him out at an agility show, and move him away from things that he appears to be lining himself up with. And I may need to keep him on a shorter lead in car parks …
Never Saying “No” …
I suppose Able’s leg-lifting predilection is a good introduction to the topic of whether one should or should not use the word “No” to their dog.
Well, we’re back in Level 2, and my puppy is allowed to run off-lead again. He is very pleased about this. He’s still bouncing off the walls but Rik and I hope that he will settle down soon.
There’s a park at the end of my street where dogs are allowed to run off-lead. It’s fairly small but there’s a lot packed into it – a scout hall, netball courts (abandoned since the indoor arena was built), a velodrome/athletics field, a camping ground, a little fenced-off area with captive wallabies, and an aviary where the council keeps an incestuous flock of white pigeons, among other stray or confiscated birds.
This park also houses my town’s attempt at a botanic gardens, which looks nice and colourful at the right time of year. This is not the right time of year, but the botanic gardens also houses one of my regular daily dog training challenges … The Corridor of Doom.
I was very excited about going to Level 3, as my puppy has not been doing enough hooning around and he is getting on my nerves. Well, we enjoyed one little walk with some off-lead playtime, and then I found out that we aren’t supposed to walk off-lead until Level 2. Back to our boring on-lead walks it is then!
From a young age, Able has had a habit of bringing a stick in from the garden every day to chew up. I tolerated this at first because I was just so relieved he was taking a break from trying to eat my house. I guess I’ve been assuming he would outgrow it after a few weeks, but he turned eight months this week and it’s worse. Since lockdown the daily stick has become three daily sticks, and the spot on the bedroom floor where he chews them up is beginning to resemble a forest floor.
“Just ten more minutes” … the classic response of all kids and puppies (and some adults) when it’s time to put down the toys and go to bed.
Over the last month I’ve been working on Able’s basic stopped contact behaviour several times a week. Most people train this by getting the dog to touch a contact on the ground, either with their nose or their paws. I trained my second dog Toad with a paw target and had great success, so I’ve continued to use the same method with all my other dogs. I think the nose target method is more popular these days, but a lot of the training is very similar. I’ll make notes of how I would use a nose target where relevant.
Front Feet On the Grass
To help my puppy position his front feet, I taught him to target his front feet onto an ice cream lid. Large plastic lids like this are ideal for contact training because they are so cheap and easy to get hold of, and easy to cut up later when you want a smaller target.
One of the hard parts of stopped contact training is to make sure that the behaviour is really independent of where you are, relative to your dog. As trainers we naturally form a habit of shaping skills with our dog in front of us, where we can see him easiest. And then our dogs naturally form a habit of working right in front of us and facing us, so that their heads are as close as possible to the bikkies…
