Relax Class is working!!!

As Inara and I were taking our evening constitutional tonight, we had the pleasure of encountering an off-leash dog. Looked like a little Norwich Terrier thing. Unfortunately I didn’t notice it until it was about 10′ away since it was dark out. I saw it making a beeline for us, hollered an un-lady-like word while grabbing Inara’s flat collar (she was on her prong and I didn’t want her to associate getting pinched with the dog) but then very calmly told Inara to sit. She kind of crouched halfway into a sit while I held onto her collar. The dog came charging up and shoved his nose into Inara’s butt. She froze while I maintained my deathgrip on her collar. I used my mad ninja skillz and kicked at the dog (intentionally missing – I just wanted to scare it, not hurt it) and growled at it to go home. It skittered away about 10′ and started barking at us. I calmly told Inara to sit again and she actually did so, though every muscle in her body was tensed and quivering. As soon as her butt hit the ground I cheerfully said “let’s go!” and gently tugged her away from the dog. She had a great deal of trouble with this and kept looking back, but she didn’t bark or whine or anything. As soon as she managed to take a few steps without looking back, she did a great big shake-off and we had a party. I cheered and jumped around and told her what a fantastically smart dog she was. It was awesome. 

My dog didn’t react to another dog (a small one, at that!) charging up and shoving his nose into her butt! Holy crap! I mean seriously, HOLY CRAP!!!

The genius dog herself!

Miscellaneous Updates

Hello to any who might still be checking this blog!  I know I’ve been quite lax in posting new blogs, and I apologize for that.  This posting is going to be a hodge-podge of random updates, so bear with me!

First of all, I’d like to say that the Bumi toy I posted about in my last update is still very much alive and kicking.  There is not a blemish on it and Inara still loves playing with it.  That toy is going to remain a definite recommendation for people with destructive dogs.  Thank you West Paw Design for making such a great toy!

Secondly, Brad of ST Leathercraft once again hooked up me with another quality piece of equipment.  You all remember Inara’s oxblood leather collar I posted about ( http://inaradog.wordpress.com/2009/06/20/new-collar-time/ ), well, I finally got around to ordering a matching leash and backup connector for safety (had little hardware malfunction at a VERY inopportune time – fortunately I have ninja-like skills and disaster was averted).  Being who he is (a perfectionist when it comes to his work), Brad did a lovely job.  The leash is supple yet strong, with a smaller handle than “normal” leashes to fit my smaller hands.  He special-ordered a locking clasp for me.  And the connector is small yet strong, basic yet very pretty.  He shaped the leather a bit to round the edges some so it had some style.  And of course it was all dyed to match Inara’s collar perfectly.  Here’s a pic of the leash and backup connector:

Lovely oxblood equipment!!!

Nice, right?  I can’t stress it enough – if you need/want strong yet stylish leather equipment for your dog, please consider ST Leathercraft.

Inara and I have started a new class.  It’s called “Relax Class” and it’s for dogs that have a tendency to over-react to other dogs, whether it’s aggression or hypermotivation to meet the other dog.  There are only 4 dogs permitted in the class, which is awesome.  Tomorrow will be our 3rd week and I’m pretty excited.  The first class was pretty rough, with Inara acting like a total ass with no manners whatsoever.  The second class she had vastly improved – still a little barking but much better able to focus on me.  We’re working a lot on getting Inara to stop being so hypervigilant, and she’s on a new supplement called l-theanine that is supposed to help her with that, along with the behavior mod.  She’s only been on it for a week though, and it takes 2-4 to kick in so no results yet!  We’re attending class at a local place called Fortunate Fido.  The instructor, Ginger, is phenomenal and I just wish I’d found her sooner.

I’ve begun volunteering at a local animal shelter.  I think it’s the only one in the county that actually adopts out pit bulls, so that’s why I chose it.  It’s small, but very clean and the animals are well-cared for.  All the volunteer staff I’ve met so far are fantastic.  I really like it there.  :-)

I think that’s about it.  Thanks for sticking around if you’ve been here before, and thanks for stopping by if this is your first visit!  And to end on a good note, Inara:

Ahhh, the rough life she leads!

Boom Boom Bumi!

I bought Inara a Bumi for her birthday and I am SUPER impressed with its durability! I’m not sure which size hers is – I’m assuming the large. It’s fantastic for tug o’ war or even fetch as it bounces strangely when it lands. It’s soft on my hands for tugging so I can tug longer with her. I’ve picked her up with her hanging off it, and she often enjoys gnawing on it for a few minutes after tug, but there isn’t one single tooth mark in it. I would never go so far as to say it’s indestructible, but it’s pretty damned close! Definitely two thumbs up!

http://www.westpawdesign.com/catalog/do … ducts/bumi

Adventures in Shaping

I met with a new trainer (who I absolutely ADORE!!!) and she taught me how to put a relax cue on command. So I’ve been working with Inara, trying to teach her that she gets a click/treat when she sprawls flat on her side. It was a long process because I didn’t use luring at all, just shaping.

I decided she would start earning every piece of her kibble for dinner. I started with clicking her for a down, then waited until she shifted onto one hip while down. This didn’t take too too long. Then I hit an impasse – she wouldn’t scootch any more onto her side unless she was completely throwing herself onto her back and then jumping back up to see if that earned a click. It was very hectic and not at all what I wanted. I was getting super frustrated and very close to emailing my trainer – “WTF am I doing wrong???”

So I changed tactics. I noticed that before she threw herself onto her back, her head went down towards the ground sideways (cheek-first). So I ignored her hips and started clicking when her cheek turned towards the floor. She caught on pretty quickly, so I raised the standards and waited until her cheek was facing down and close to the ground. Then I waited until her cheek was on the ground. This was an amusing stage as she was doing her best to lay straight but with her head all twisted so her cheek was on the ground and she could still watch me. Very funny.

So I clicked/treated the cheek on the ground several times, and then one time she just calmly rolled flat onto her side. Click and treat treat treat treat treat, a whole bunch in a row, while she was on her side. Then I tossed a treat away from her to get her up and moving, and when she came back, I said, “Inara, relax” and she paused for a minute…and then gently laid flat on her side. I clicked and dumped out the treat bag for her as a jackpot and we ended.

Tonight we practiced it in different areas of the living room, and alternating between me sitting and standing. Sheesh, what a difference each change made! Regardless, she was figuring it out quickly. Each of our sessions is approximately 30 minutes long, which I know is long, but she’s earning her dinner and staying engaged so I think it’s okay.

I’m pretty excited. Once she gets this solid inside, I’ll take it outside and to pet stores. My trainer even said she’d be willing to let us come practice it outside her classes, which would be fantastic. Eventually I’ll combine it with a mat and hopefully she’ll learn to associate the mat with relaxing. Very neat stuff, this shaping.

 

Me & Inara in front of a bronze bison

 

 

“Pit Bull” Tasered in Lakewood, Ohio

Lakewood is a town by me that fairly recently banned pit bulls.  It was extremely controversial, with animal control “randomly” showing up at the house of people who spoke out against it, checking to make sure any pit bulls were insured, properly contained, etc.  Randomly, of course.  *rolling eyes*

So this weekend, Lakewood PD was called out to deal with a loose dog, Otis – why the police showed up instead of animal control, I’m not sure.  The dog was supposedly a pit bull, and supposedly acting aggressively.  The dog ended up getting tasered (twice), before being snared and hauled across the concrete into a vehicle.  There is a camera on the taser so you can see and hear what happened.  I am posting a link to the video, but please be forewarned – it is graphic in that you hear the dog screaming and see it twitching.

http://www.fox8.com/wjw-policetaserpitbull,0,5335872.story

I have some major problems with this video.  First of all, the dog is acting defensive and frightened, not aggressive.  If the officers had any idea how to approach a frightened dog, they would have angled sideways a bit, not made direct eye contact, and spoken in a soothing voice.  Not rocket science.  This dog is very clearly a Boxer.  Not that the breed of dog should have anything to do with being tasered (though we all know it did), but why label it a pit bull?  Now the owner is being charged with having a banned dog, so Otis is sitting in the pound until that charge gets cleared up.  I’ll be surprised if Otis isn’t euthanized.  I understand that the officer had to use a two-handed grip to hold the taser, but I find it “convenient” that the camera on the taser is covered up so we can’t see what the dog is doing right before he gets tasered.  If you really look at the video (I know, it’s painful to watch), you can see that whoever is handling the catch-pole doesn’t have enough of a loop formed to get over Otis’ head, so the officer tasers him again, “because he’s still moving.”

The officer said that, “at least he didn’t shoot him,” he chose to use the taser.  Granted, that’s a good thing.  However, just because you used a taser instead of a gun doesn’t justify it.  In my job, I can’t pepper spray somebody and then say, “well, I could have shot him but chose not to.”  Doesn’t work that way.

It just breaks my heart that Otis is sitting at the dog pound, terrified, because his owner was too irresponsible to keep him safely contained, and because Lakewood police have such a vendetta against pit bulls.  Otis isn’t at fault here.  Once again, the humans are the only ones you can blame.

The cat needed shaved

I know this is a blog about Inara, but I’m digressing today to post about her feline older sister, Niobe.  Little miss has (had?) quite the long coat, ridiculously long over her shoulder blades – she had wings.  Unfortunately, she was getting matted and refused to let me brush her or trim the mats out.  So I broke down and had her shaved yesterday morning.  I helped hold her during the process, throughout which she actually did very well – a lot of squirming, but no hissing or growling or serious bites.  So I don’t have any pics of the actual process, but I can do before and afters.  :-)

Before:

Check out that coat!

After:

You can see the pile of fur is bigger than she is!

She still has her furry tail, head and little booties!

She's actually a small cat, with very long legs - who knew?

Dogs Don’t Generalize

I’d heard this many times, and I understood it – dogs can’t generalize their training from one location to another, hence the reason you must start back at square one when you change locations.  Fair enough, I understand.  Holy criminey though, Inara REALLY doesn’t generalize.

I’m using the clicker to teach her to go to her mat on command.  I shaped the behavior with the clicker until she was going there reliably, then I added the cue, “mat.”  So I would then say “mat” as she was getting ready to step onto the mat.  When she laid down, I clicked/treated.  Awesome, I’m feeling like a genius trainer at this point.

So now I think, “gee, I need to shake things up a bit so I know she really knows it.” Yeah, she didn’t.  I stood up and moved about 2 feet away, she followed me.  I gave the cue “mat,” and she did everything but.  She sat, downed, tried to shake, played dead.  Rinse, repeat.  I ignored her and finally she went over to the mat – major click and treat.  So we do that a few times until I think she has it again.

I moved, she got confused.  I stood still but moved the mat, she got confused.  Both me and the mat stayed in the living room, but every time I moved or I moved the mat, confusion.  I was feeling less and less like a dog training genius by this point.  So we ended on a really good note and called it a night.

This clicker training stuff is hard.

Inara chewing on Mr. Piggy, a gift from her Secret Santa for Christmas in July. Sadly, Mr. Piggy is already a dismembered, empty carcass. But she's happy!

What a brave doogan!

So Inara does not like being unsteady on her feet. I think I made it worse a couple years ago when we took an agility class that didn’t really introduce obstacles, but just kind of said, “here they are, have at it.” I took her right up and over the see-saw and she was petrified when it moved under her feet. Refused to go back on it. Since then, she doesn’t like things moving under her feet, or being on unsteady/slippery surfaces.

We have a little playground across the street from us, so tonight we went over there. Just for fun, I sat partway up the slide and clicked/treated whenever she touched it with her nose. Then she progressed to putting one foot on there. Then she put both front feet on. I was pretty thrilled because it’s a stainless steel slide and very slick and noisy. So I was happy to leave it at that and got off the slide. That little crapper of a pupper jumped with all four feet onto the slide and tried to run up it! Her nails were making a horrible sound and she was scrabbling all over it trying to keep her balance. I couldn’t help it, I laughed. And as soon as I started laughing she paused and then did it again! She kept doing it, her tail just waving, until finally I called her off of it.

It was so funny, but also a really good breakthough for her. Like I said, she’s very weird about being off-balance so for her to do this all on her own is pretty cool.

Catch-22

Inara is a pain in the butt on walks, so we don’t walk as much as we should.  However, because we don’t walk as much as we should, she’s a pain in the butt on walks.

That is all.

Great start to the day

So I was ready for work a few minutes earlier than usual this morning so I decided to take Inara for a quick jaunt around my condo development. We make it to the end of the driveway and get bum-rushed by a barking and growling yellow Lab. These people recently moved in so Inara still gets worked up in general when she sees this dog, just because she’s not used to it yet. But to have it come running up growling? Not cool.

I holler at the lady, “Get your dog, mine’s not friendly!” And she’s doing the ineffective, “Truman, come! Truman, come here. Come, come here Truman!” I was straddling Inara to keep her back and Truman was circling us growling and barking. I snarled at him to “git!” and he backed up a bit. Finally he went back to his owner but he didn’t have a collar on (of course) so he immediately came rushing back to us. I’m just turning so I can keep facing him, while Inara is just itching for a piece of him but getting pissed ’cause I’m still straddling her and she can’t go anywhere. Finally Truman decided we weren’t worth it and went back to his owner.

I lit into her about the leash laws and she said, “there’s not normally anybody out at this hour.” I said it didn’t matter, that a law is a law no matter who is around. I was PISSED.