Shyla's Winter Training Plans

In the winter, our agility course is swamped by snow. It never melts until April so I am thinking about my training goals for Shyla this winter. I love training her, and she loves it too. That's the main reason why I plan to continue some training this winter.

I've been mulling over the socialization issue and discussing it with experts. At one point in the fall, I posted about an incredible trip to town when she was afraid of no one and excited to try new things - it seemed as if she'd been "transformed". Unfortunately, it didn't last - within 2 weeks after that, we'd had a string of trips to town during which various little things spooked her. She's still leaps and bounds ahead of where she was a year ago but I've decided to modify my approach.

Over the first year that she lived with us, I tried to take Shyla to town multiple times per week - in an attempt to overcome her lack of socialization as a puppy. It worked to a huge extent. Remember that, on the first occasion that I tried to take her into town, she collapsed onto a sidewalk, paralyzed by fear, and lost control of her bladder. Now, her signs of fear are far more subtle, and I know them well so I can help her when the fear starts to creep up on her.

She can get spooked by the most mundane things - and she remembers the places where she was scared with great precision. If she gets scared on one street corner in town, she will cower past that corner for a long time thereafter. So, I've learned to stay away from the "spooky" spots for months afterwards - and then she seems to forget.

After much thought, I've decided that I'm going to accept Shyla's socialization where it is right now - with the knowledge that she'll probably continue to slowly improve just from everyday life experiences. She's generally a very happy dog. She's a mountain dog at heart - but all of our hard work has made her capable of going to town when needed without it being traumatic. I'm happy with that situation. After all, I don't love going to town either!

So, for the winter, I'm planning to work on Shyla's greetings when we see people on our mountain trails. She still sometimes gets scared of people on the trails - and I simply encourage her to "go around" those people without greeting them. However, the opposite extreme happens too - she decides that someone seems very sweet and she jumps on them! To deal with that, I've been trying to closely supervise her interactions with people who she appears to like, requiring "four on the floor" for her to be petted. I think we're making some progress. It's a tricky issue because I don't want to discourage Shyla from being outgoing, given her history, but I think it's doable.

For the winter, I want to teach her some more tricks plus a few things that will be useful in agility. The next photo shows a trick that I taught her last winter, and she adores doing it! I don't even have to ask her to do it... she just "offers" it.

This is another trick from last winter - taking and holding an object.

So, what shall we do this winter? Hmm...

We'll definitely keep practicing recalls every single day. They are so important around the wildlife in our world. We'll also keep working on her "stay". She now will "stay" with me out of sight for extended periods (without any people to distract her). I plan to add more distractions to her extended stays.

This winter, I've already starting teaching her two new tricks: balancing a treat on her nose and spinning. She's not ready to show either of them for a camera yet!

I'm also thinking of teaching her to heel on either side, and to switch sides either in front of me or behind me, depending on which I ask for. That's something that will help us when we play on our home agility course. She already knows how to heel on one side but the rest of it will be new.

Do you have any suggestions for other fun tricks?

It looks like Shyla is getting tired just thinking about all this training. But, the truth is that she loves it as much as I do!

Tricks and training

We've done lots and lots of training since my last update. I see our training in two parts: socialization and skills. Socialization involves going new places, seeing a variety of things, and meeting all sorts of people and dogs. Skills are things like "heel", "down", and tricks like taking a bow.

This week, we had a roller-coaster ride in terms of socialization. One outing was to attend an advanced dog-training class that meets in a different outdoor location every week. Last week, it was in a town park that Shyla has enjoyed in the past. So, I arrived at class full of confidence.

Unfortunately, the park was bustling with a lot of crazy activity, and a couple of things scared Shyla within the initial 5 minutes of class. The first scary thing was kids on scooters. The scooters were quiet but they zoomed in a way that scared Shyla. We walked away to observe them from a nearby hillside, and it seemed like Shyla was going to recover. However, to my chagrin, the scooters were followed by skateboards a few minutes later. We were still up on the hillside, pretty far away from the skateboards, but Shyla never recovered from the terror of the skateboards.

As class went on after those scary things, Shyla spent most of the time scanning 360° around herself and obsessing over anything even vaguely unfamiliar. It was a huge flat park (at least 200 acres of flat field) so she could see people doing recreational activities in every direction and then worry incessantly about them. In technical terms, except for a few respites during class, Shyla was "over threshold". In retrospect, I should have bailed out partway through class but my teacher and I kept thinking that Shyla was just about to recover.

In contrast, later in the week, we had an awesome socialization outing. We went to a busy shopping area, and Shyla was outgoing and relaxed. She even seemed to be getting used to the loud sounds of city buses, trucks, and push-carts loaded with boxes. Moreover, she went into a shop that was teeming with people, and she wagged at them as we weaved in and out of the people! We both had a fun day - and Shyla shined.

In the coming week, we plan to return to that scary park with our trainer at a quiet time of day to help Shyla relax there. We'll also visit a more urban setting - with traffic and city noises - with a focus on helping Shyla adapt to unexpected noises. Trying to socialize a teenage dog requires incredible patience - but I think that we're very gradually moving forward.

We've been continuing our clicker training of basic skills (our main focus was/is an off-leash heel but we work on the full repertoire regularly) and fun tricks. About 2 weeks ago, I taught Shyla to raise a paw off the ground. I've now shaped that into three different tricks: a handshake, a high five, and a wave. She adores waving and does it without me asking! I think it's very cute.

On Hug Hill...

 

At sunrise...

Another skill we've worked on is retrieving. Shyla has gone from being apathetic about retrieving to being over-the-moon happy about it! I've shaped it into two different games. In one game, she takes an object and holds it while sitting. She doesn't release it until I put my hand on it and say "out".

She held a rope toy...

A rubber stick...

In the more traditional form of a retrieve, I throw objects, and Shyla brings them back to me. She is great at this now (except if she gets too excited and starts zooming), including returning the object to my hand at the end of the retrieve.

Today, we played a modified retrieving game on Hug Hill. Usually, I throw the object away from both of us and then I send her to get it. Today, we did it differently, and Shyla had to think hard to figure out that it was just another form of a retrieve. I put the object between the two of us, and she started in a sit-stay. You can see from her face that she's thinking hard about what she's supposed to do.

I told her to "take it".

And then I asked her to "bring", which she was starting to do in the photo below.

I've purposely used fun toys for all retrieving games because Shyla seemed to actively dislike retrieving when I started teaching her - and the toys made her much more happy to play the game.

In the coming week, I plan to start teaching her to retrieve a variety of objects - like a piece of PVC pipe, handwarmers in a package, a hat, and all sorts of other random things. If she's okay with those things, we'll move toward the toughest things to retrieve - metal objects like keys. My goal is that Shyla will eventually pick up anything up off the ground if I ask her to. With my spinal problems, that can be a huge help to me.

While we were on Hug Hill earlier this week, she practiced her "relax" cue. She's known this one for a while... but, if we don't practice, she'll forget it.

Shyla will relax on either her left or right side. This week, I plan to teach her to lie on her back with her paws in the air, for a funny trick. I also plan to teach her a controlled roll, from the relax on her right side to relax on her left side. That should be fun!

I also hope to start teaching the "be shy" cue, which means that she covers her nose/eyes with a paw.

But, most of all, I hope to keep building her confidence this week. Working on tricks helps with building confidence and trust. We also have a couple of town outings planned... and I'm hoping that the happy and relaxed spirit that I know inhabits her body shines through.