*sigh*
Well I guess it had to happen eventually. We've made such amazing progress this week, but today I've realised that either I've moved too quickly or Bran has got a bit bored.
As he really knows "on the mat" well now, I've been placing the mat in different places and sending him off to it with the cue and a pointed finger in the direction of the mat.
He is doing 1 of 3 things:
1. heading over to the mat at the pace of a very slow snail and then sitting there looking miserable;
2. bouncing over to the mat, bouncing into a very quick sit, then bouncing back to me for a treat;
3. bouncing over to the mat, tapping it with a paw and then coming back for a treat!
Although, to be fair, on 2 occasions he offered "downs", which was lovely :o)
It's sooooooooooo frustrating! He clearly knows what he's supposed to be doing, but I don't really know why he's coming back to me for a treat. He is only being fed treats from my hand if he is offering the position I want whilst remaining on the mat and I step towards him to give these if the mat is at a distance from me. Even then he only gets 3, then the next one is tossed away to the side so that he HAS to move off of the mat.
Maybe he's just bored with this one now. Perhaps I'll start doing something new tomorrow and come back to the mat in a few days. If that doesn't work, then I'll try taking a few steps back and re-doing things again.
Friday 29 July 2011
Thursday 28 July 2011
"On the Mat"
So today was the idea that I introduced the cue and pushed Bran's little brain a bit harder.
This morning, I placed the mat several steps away from me and introduced "on the mat" as he settled himself into a sit - which he did with no bother because he is now Super Bran who is not phased by the fact that the mat is in a different place, that he has an audience, or anything! Each time he settled, I clicked and treated several times with him in place, then threw the treat away to get him to move. Each time he headed straight back, with a big waggy tail and a big smiley face, and went straight into a sit on the mat :o)
Later this morning, we went out into the garden and I placed the mat even further away from me. This time there were a few hesitations and a few rather cheeky moments like this one.....
......but he quickly remembered what he was supposed to be doing.....
NB. Although Bran's demeanour isn't that of a happy, excited dog in the videos, please trust me when I say that this is purely because the camera is out and not because I am wielding a very large stick and forcing him to perform ;o)
All in all, I am absolutely thrilled with the progress that we have made in a few short days and to have Bran trying to force interaction and being so keen a participant in his short learning sessions is just amazing.
Morag - I don't know how I'll ever thank you!! It feels like a whole new world of possibilities has opened up.
This morning, I placed the mat several steps away from me and introduced "on the mat" as he settled himself into a sit - which he did with no bother because he is now Super Bran who is not phased by the fact that the mat is in a different place, that he has an audience, or anything! Each time he settled, I clicked and treated several times with him in place, then threw the treat away to get him to move. Each time he headed straight back, with a big waggy tail and a big smiley face, and went straight into a sit on the mat :o)
Later this morning, we went out into the garden and I placed the mat even further away from me. This time there were a few hesitations and a few rather cheeky moments like this one.....
......but he quickly remembered what he was supposed to be doing.....
NB. Although Bran's demeanour isn't that of a happy, excited dog in the videos, please trust me when I say that this is purely because the camera is out and not because I am wielding a very large stick and forcing him to perform ;o)
All in all, I am absolutely thrilled with the progress that we have made in a few short days and to have Bran trying to force interaction and being so keen a participant in his short learning sessions is just amazing.
Morag - I don't know how I'll ever thank you!! It feels like a whole new world of possibilities has opened up.
The rusty learning lever creaks!
Monday 25th July
Bright and early on Monday morning, the lovely Morag of Well Connected Canine buzzes me on Facebook and asks if I'm free for a chat as she wants to talk to me about Bran and clicker training. So of course I say yes.
We had a really lovely long chat about Bran and his personality, how he responds to "normal" training, how he responds to clicker training, how he responds in different situations, etc and we eventually concluded that Bran is probably not a very confident dog and has never had to think for himself, hence why he finds clicker training so painful. Well, that and I've managed to teach him that when the clicker comes out if he sits still for long enough I'll tell him what to do, give him a treat and leave him alone!
As a puppy, Bran always had Flora taking care of everything for him and he followed her lead in everything - hence why he learned so many things as a pup. As he grew, I would tell him what to do because I knew that he knew how to do them. As he was such a lovely, laidback companion who knew his obedience basics there was no real need to teach him anything else. It was only when we started at training classes for a bit of fun that it started to come to light that Bran was having problems with learning new things.
Morag suggested having the clicker and treat bag always to hand for a while and just click and treating Bran for looking for attention or laying quietly or anything really so that he could see that there was no pressure even though the clicker was being used. She also suggested teaching him something such as going to a mat but doing it in a stealthy, ninja manner so that Bran wasn't the centre of attention and didn't feel any pressure to perform.
By some coincidence, I'd bought a cheap bathroom mat just the day before for this very purpose!
A short while after speaking to Morag I took the clicker, the treat bag, the mat, a cup of tea and a magazine out into the garden and left the back door open so that the dogs could join me if they wanted to.
I popped the mat on the floor right beside me and got on with reading my magazine, as far as Bran was concerned. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched him and if he looked at the mat I clicked and treated. As he progressed to sniffing the mat, I clicked and treated again. Then he got clicked and treated if he had any combination of paws on the mat, but now the treat was tossed far enough away from the mat that he had to remove his paws from it and consciously go back to it.
Still I was busy drinking my cup of tea and reading my magazine and giving Bran no eye contact or indication that I was in the slightest bit bothered about what he was doing.
Then he sat on the mat so I clicked and treated 3 times and fed him the treats from my hand, still not looking at him, then tossed the 4th treat off to the side. He came straight back and sat on the mat! After 3 more repetitions of tossing the treat away from the mat and Bran offering a sit straight away, I told him what a very good boy he was, packed up and came back into the house.
A little later, the puppies were still in their crates having just had tea so I grabbed a few more minutes with Bran and put the mat beside my desk. After a couple of stands on the mat, he was offering sits again.
Not only that but he was manoeuvering his body whilst sitting on the mat to try and force me into making eye contact with him! This was a massive breakthrough and I really felt like having a good cry!
Once again I was raving on Facebook, but this time it was about how proud and excited I was that Bran finally seemed to be getting it :o)
Tuesday 26th July
Morning session of mat training progressed quickly to offering the sit again, whilst being able to give him my full attention, so I just did a few of those with him so that everything was very positive and exciting!
For the afternoon session, I decided to try and have a few more distractions in place so I allowed the children to remain in the garden whilst working with Bran, although they were doing other things and not just focussing on me and Bran. Amazingly, he still did everything quickly and beautifully! I tried moving the mat to the opposite side of me and it didn't phase him at all! He just headed straight to the mat and sat with his face looking alert and his ears up.
What an incredible difference!
The other big thing that happened on Tuesday was that Bran pushed in. We'd picked up a pop up tunnel for the puppies to play with. It is far too small for Bran to comfortably fit through and usually when this sort of thing is going on, he'll hang back and watch from a distance. The puppies had a few runs through the tunnel, then Bran barged me out of the way and went through himself!! Ok, so the tunnel is rather mis-shapen now but it was SO lovely to see him demanding his go at the fun. When I fetched the camera to take him out later on his own to get some photos of him with the tunnel, I also grabbed my treat bag and no more was it miserable dog, because his ears went up, his tail was wagging and he was clearly saying "ooh what are we going to do now??" and it was lovely to have him interacting so keenly :o)
Bright and early on Monday morning, the lovely Morag of Well Connected Canine buzzes me on Facebook and asks if I'm free for a chat as she wants to talk to me about Bran and clicker training. So of course I say yes.
We had a really lovely long chat about Bran and his personality, how he responds to "normal" training, how he responds to clicker training, how he responds in different situations, etc and we eventually concluded that Bran is probably not a very confident dog and has never had to think for himself, hence why he finds clicker training so painful. Well, that and I've managed to teach him that when the clicker comes out if he sits still for long enough I'll tell him what to do, give him a treat and leave him alone!
As a puppy, Bran always had Flora taking care of everything for him and he followed her lead in everything - hence why he learned so many things as a pup. As he grew, I would tell him what to do because I knew that he knew how to do them. As he was such a lovely, laidback companion who knew his obedience basics there was no real need to teach him anything else. It was only when we started at training classes for a bit of fun that it started to come to light that Bran was having problems with learning new things.
Morag suggested having the clicker and treat bag always to hand for a while and just click and treating Bran for looking for attention or laying quietly or anything really so that he could see that there was no pressure even though the clicker was being used. She also suggested teaching him something such as going to a mat but doing it in a stealthy, ninja manner so that Bran wasn't the centre of attention and didn't feel any pressure to perform.
By some coincidence, I'd bought a cheap bathroom mat just the day before for this very purpose!
A short while after speaking to Morag I took the clicker, the treat bag, the mat, a cup of tea and a magazine out into the garden and left the back door open so that the dogs could join me if they wanted to.
I popped the mat on the floor right beside me and got on with reading my magazine, as far as Bran was concerned. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched him and if he looked at the mat I clicked and treated. As he progressed to sniffing the mat, I clicked and treated again. Then he got clicked and treated if he had any combination of paws on the mat, but now the treat was tossed far enough away from the mat that he had to remove his paws from it and consciously go back to it.
Still I was busy drinking my cup of tea and reading my magazine and giving Bran no eye contact or indication that I was in the slightest bit bothered about what he was doing.
Then he sat on the mat so I clicked and treated 3 times and fed him the treats from my hand, still not looking at him, then tossed the 4th treat off to the side. He came straight back and sat on the mat! After 3 more repetitions of tossing the treat away from the mat and Bran offering a sit straight away, I told him what a very good boy he was, packed up and came back into the house.
A little later, the puppies were still in their crates having just had tea so I grabbed a few more minutes with Bran and put the mat beside my desk. After a couple of stands on the mat, he was offering sits again.
Not only that but he was manoeuvering his body whilst sitting on the mat to try and force me into making eye contact with him! This was a massive breakthrough and I really felt like having a good cry!
Once again I was raving on Facebook, but this time it was about how proud and excited I was that Bran finally seemed to be getting it :o)
Tuesday 26th July
Morning session of mat training progressed quickly to offering the sit again, whilst being able to give him my full attention, so I just did a few of those with him so that everything was very positive and exciting!
For the afternoon session, I decided to try and have a few more distractions in place so I allowed the children to remain in the garden whilst working with Bran, although they were doing other things and not just focussing on me and Bran. Amazingly, he still did everything quickly and beautifully! I tried moving the mat to the opposite side of me and it didn't phase him at all! He just headed straight to the mat and sat with his face looking alert and his ears up.
What an incredible difference!
The other big thing that happened on Tuesday was that Bran pushed in. We'd picked up a pop up tunnel for the puppies to play with. It is far too small for Bran to comfortably fit through and usually when this sort of thing is going on, he'll hang back and watch from a distance. The puppies had a few runs through the tunnel, then Bran barged me out of the way and went through himself!! Ok, so the tunnel is rather mis-shapen now but it was SO lovely to see him demanding his go at the fun. When I fetched the camera to take him out later on his own to get some photos of him with the tunnel, I also grabbed my treat bag and no more was it miserable dog, because his ears went up, his tail was wagging and he was clearly saying "ooh what are we going to do now??" and it was lovely to have him interacting so keenly :o)
Wednesday 27 July 2011
Bran's canned history
I adopted Bran from Lizzies Barn Sanctuary when he was just 12 weeks old.
He started his life in a puppy farm and was advertised in the free ads as the owner of the farm was going on holiday and his sitter couldn't care for a puppy. Fortunately, a supporter of Trallwm Farm Sanctuary spotted the ad and secured Bran and his companion a space with Lizzies Barn. When he was collected, he was found sitting in a large empty crate all alone in a large empty barn.
Despite the rather shaky start which could have traumatised many a dog, Bran's fabulous temperament and personality quickly endeared him to our family (myself and my children - Jacob (now 15) and Sophie (now 13). At the time of his arrival, we also had a gorgeous American Bulldog girl, Flora. She was just over 2 when Bran landed in our lives.
This was our family's first experience of life with a puppy as our other dogs had been adopted as older pups or adults and we vowed to give Bran everything he needed to become a well-rounded canine member of society.
We quickly came up against the now common bias of "you'll never train a chocolate labrador - they're all as mad as a box of frogs!" but Bran was a dream puppy - nothing like the horror I'd been expecting! He followed Flora's well trained example and, despite a few of the typical mischiefs you'd expect from a puppy, he quickly learned his basic commands.
When Bran hit 6 months, I decided to try clicker training with him for the first time. It didn't go well. He would sit and grin at me with his tongue lolling out of his mouth - offering no behaviours at all - until I gave in and asked him to "sit" or "down" so that I could reward him and end the session on a positive note. After 2 days of repeating this, I put the clicker away.
Just before Bran hit 12 months, Sophie took on a permanent foster in the shape of a 4 month old jack russell with chronic heart problems called Hugo. Watching the chaos that followed Hugo wherever he went made me realise how much steadier Bran had become. So I tried the clicker training again. I was transported back 6 months as he sat, grinned and lolled until asked to do something he knew and the clicker was put away. I started to wonder if he was "all there" ;o)
As Bran turned 18 months, we still had Hugo and also had a visitor in the shape of Fionna's (from Lizzies Barn) chocolate labrador pup, Orca, staying with us for a few months. Again, I was amazed at how his behaviours showed how brilliantly Bran was doing, so I tried the clicker again. This time, I got an offered "sit" then a gaze off into the distance with occasional eye flicking to check whether I had noticed that he was unhappy. The clicker went away again.
As Bran turned 2 years of age, Hugo had very sadly passed away, Flora had had a total hip replacement, we had discovered that Bran has severe bi-lateral elbow dysplasia and is expected to develop bi-lateral hip dysplasia, but my "crazy" chocolate boy was even steadier. I blew the dust off the clicker and headed out to the garden. Bran sat and again gazed off into the distance, but this time his ears were also down and he didn't look happy. The session was cut short and the clicker put away. Somehow, I didn't see the pattern developing!!
As Bran turned 3, we had lost Flora just a few months before and also had 2 x 6 month old yorkshire terrier x chihuahua pups causing mayhem. Bran was rather lost without Flora who had been his "mum", his "sister", his "playmate" and his "comfort" and underwent a big personality change. He craved attention more and spent more time with me. However, I also noted some rather clever moves that I didn't think him capable of. One such move was identified whilst walking in the meadow where the grass had grown too long for him to sight or hear his beloved ball landing, so he switched his nose on and sniffed it out! The first time I saw him do it, I was gobsmacked! Also, it flicked a little light on in my head as I realised that I had been grossly underestimating my choccie boy.
We started attending training classes, with Go Fetch It, with Sophie and Moss for company, and Bran thoroughly enjoyed himself. There is no pressure for him to perform, but perform he does as he is rarely asked to do anything that he doesn't already know well. We should be starting to train to prepare for the Kennel Club Bronze Award when classes start back in September :o)
I was inspired by how well he was doing and also by several friends who have done/are doing various doggy activities and training.
And so, on Sunday 24th July, I blew the dust off of the trusty old clicker once again.
It was actually physically painful to watch Bran hang his head, his ears, his tail and follow me slowly out to the garden where he sat, refused - then blatantly avoided - any physical or eye contact and waited until I asked him to do something that he knew :o(
I was disappointed, frustrated and rather sad and worried as I ranted on Facebook about why clicker training with him was so mind numbingly difficult. A few friends replied to say that their dogs were the same and maybe it was just how he was and I'd have to find another way, but my lovely friend Morag was watching and waiting......
He started his life in a puppy farm and was advertised in the free ads as the owner of the farm was going on holiday and his sitter couldn't care for a puppy. Fortunately, a supporter of Trallwm Farm Sanctuary spotted the ad and secured Bran and his companion a space with Lizzies Barn. When he was collected, he was found sitting in a large empty crate all alone in a large empty barn.
Despite the rather shaky start which could have traumatised many a dog, Bran's fabulous temperament and personality quickly endeared him to our family (myself and my children - Jacob (now 15) and Sophie (now 13). At the time of his arrival, we also had a gorgeous American Bulldog girl, Flora. She was just over 2 when Bran landed in our lives.
This was our family's first experience of life with a puppy as our other dogs had been adopted as older pups or adults and we vowed to give Bran everything he needed to become a well-rounded canine member of society.
We quickly came up against the now common bias of "you'll never train a chocolate labrador - they're all as mad as a box of frogs!" but Bran was a dream puppy - nothing like the horror I'd been expecting! He followed Flora's well trained example and, despite a few of the typical mischiefs you'd expect from a puppy, he quickly learned his basic commands.
When Bran hit 6 months, I decided to try clicker training with him for the first time. It didn't go well. He would sit and grin at me with his tongue lolling out of his mouth - offering no behaviours at all - until I gave in and asked him to "sit" or "down" so that I could reward him and end the session on a positive note. After 2 days of repeating this, I put the clicker away.
Just before Bran hit 12 months, Sophie took on a permanent foster in the shape of a 4 month old jack russell with chronic heart problems called Hugo. Watching the chaos that followed Hugo wherever he went made me realise how much steadier Bran had become. So I tried the clicker training again. I was transported back 6 months as he sat, grinned and lolled until asked to do something he knew and the clicker was put away. I started to wonder if he was "all there" ;o)
As Bran turned 18 months, we still had Hugo and also had a visitor in the shape of Fionna's (from Lizzies Barn) chocolate labrador pup, Orca, staying with us for a few months. Again, I was amazed at how his behaviours showed how brilliantly Bran was doing, so I tried the clicker again. This time, I got an offered "sit" then a gaze off into the distance with occasional eye flicking to check whether I had noticed that he was unhappy. The clicker went away again.
As Bran turned 2 years of age, Hugo had very sadly passed away, Flora had had a total hip replacement, we had discovered that Bran has severe bi-lateral elbow dysplasia and is expected to develop bi-lateral hip dysplasia, but my "crazy" chocolate boy was even steadier. I blew the dust off the clicker and headed out to the garden. Bran sat and again gazed off into the distance, but this time his ears were also down and he didn't look happy. The session was cut short and the clicker put away. Somehow, I didn't see the pattern developing!!
As Bran turned 3, we had lost Flora just a few months before and also had 2 x 6 month old yorkshire terrier x chihuahua pups causing mayhem. Bran was rather lost without Flora who had been his "mum", his "sister", his "playmate" and his "comfort" and underwent a big personality change. He craved attention more and spent more time with me. However, I also noted some rather clever moves that I didn't think him capable of. One such move was identified whilst walking in the meadow where the grass had grown too long for him to sight or hear his beloved ball landing, so he switched his nose on and sniffed it out! The first time I saw him do it, I was gobsmacked! Also, it flicked a little light on in my head as I realised that I had been grossly underestimating my choccie boy.
We started attending training classes, with Go Fetch It, with Sophie and Moss for company, and Bran thoroughly enjoyed himself. There is no pressure for him to perform, but perform he does as he is rarely asked to do anything that he doesn't already know well. We should be starting to train to prepare for the Kennel Club Bronze Award when classes start back in September :o)
I was inspired by how well he was doing and also by several friends who have done/are doing various doggy activities and training.
And so, on Sunday 24th July, I blew the dust off of the trusty old clicker once again.
It was actually physically painful to watch Bran hang his head, his ears, his tail and follow me slowly out to the garden where he sat, refused - then blatantly avoided - any physical or eye contact and waited until I asked him to do something that he knew :o(
I was disappointed, frustrated and rather sad and worried as I ranted on Facebook about why clicker training with him was so mind numbingly difficult. A few friends replied to say that their dogs were the same and maybe it was just how he was and I'd have to find another way, but my lovely friend Morag was watching and waiting......
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)