This weekend Ruby went to her first ever agility show. Her favourite part was the belly rubs. And the nest of sparrow chicks under the verandah. And meeting new four-legged friends – except for 14-week-old Zeffer Walker, who tried to hump her, twice.
She did spend some time actually watching agility – but not a lot, because she found it quite exciting and I don’t want her to get in the habit of tuning me out so she can watch agility TV. She also got her official measure done, thanks to some help from Reece and Sallie, and she stood pretty much perfectly! I knew she was going to be 500 but she has come in a bit taller than expected at 510mm.
She still looks very little next to Able…
It’s Yer Choice
This week Ruby joined in our club’s new foundation agility class intake. She is not really ready for this, but there was one spot left in the class and I figured we could at least do the first few weeks.
One of the exercises was a little introductory level version of It’s Yer Choice, with me standing up and the treats in my hand just above her head height. She tried to pinch them a couple of times, but soon figured out that it was better to wait for me to bring the cookies to her.
I haven’t actually done much IYC with her yet, because I wanted to see more “offering” of behaviour and less sitting and staring at me in our training sessions first. We’ve made good progress there now so I think the timing is right for us to do some.
I started IYC with Rik and Able the way I’d seen it done in videos – me sitting on the floor holding a fistful of cookies below their nose level, and waiting patiently for them to back off. It took a long time and my hands got covered in slobber! Ruby’s introduction has been quite different, and we’ve had less failure as a result. Our first IYC-style games have been:
- Sit and wait while I open the crate/ex-pen door. If she moves, I shut the door and wait for her to sit again. If she doesn’t, I feed her 2 or 3 times in position and release her. We’ve been doing this with internal doors since she came home, and we are working on the front door – at this stage I get her to sit, feed her, release her, and then open the door. I’m building the automatic sit when I touch the door knob, but I know she isn’t going to hold that stay until I do a lot more work on proofing!
- Do a nose target on my hand, while my other hand (with treats in a closed fist) is right next to it. I did this in a training session a couple of weeks ago when I briefly forgot which dog I was training – but the clear distinction between the “yes” hand and the other hand being right next to each other actually seemed to help her get the idea of offering a deliberate hand target rather than sniffing my hand.
- IYC with treats on an open hand above her head level, in our foundation agility class. She figured this out pretty quickly!
- IYC holding a sit stay in her crate while I brought treats towards her on an open hand (Saturday night) or threw treats on the ground a metre or so beyond the crate door (Sunday night). Just a couple of quick and easy things to do after a long day at the agility show. I was really impressed that I only had to shut the door once on Sunday when I was throwing treats around!
Next week I want to make some progress on IYC with the treats close to ground level. As she’s not that into toys just yet, I am using a food bowl on the ground as a reward for some of our training – and it would be nice if I could refill it without having to clip a lead onto her first so that I can move her back to the starting position.
Hedgehogs and House Manners
Ruby is very fond of hunting nocturnal critters in the garden, so I have been bringing her inside before dark every night. One night this week I forgot, and suddenly realised that I hadn’t seen her in a while. I found her outside on the deck, playing with the latest treasure that she had added to her horde – a hedgehog! The steps onto the deck are pretty high so I am dubious that her new friend found his way there under his/her own steam. Fortunately it appeared to be unharmed and had made its departure before I got up in the morning.
Ruby also killed her first squeaky toy this week. I left it on the top shelf of the bookshelf after a training session, and I guess it looked pretty tempting, and the chair was close enough to help her reach… I heard the squeaking noise coming from her lair while I was working, and when I went outside to investigate it was snowing stuffing everywhere.
These two incidents aside, I’m actually really pleased with how well Ruby has settled into being a house dog. She’s good at snoozing through meetings, she’s had zero toilet training accidents, and she’s learned to pop herself into her crate and wait there whenever I’m preparing the dogs’ meals. This week I started teaching her some kitchen manners, the positive reinforcement way – I say “out”, walk to where I want the dog to be, and drop yummy stuff there. Ruby has quickly figured out that the doorway to the kitchen is the place to be when I’m cooking, and I make sure to deliver some snacks to her there once or twice each night to make that habit stronger.