Week 3 of Clicker Class

Rosa was absent this week. Reggie was in the room instead of behind the door. Occasionally Tessie shared her opinions, but not often.
We seem to start with our teacher walking around checking our attention, sit, and stand. Attention is still pretty much non-existent. Our teacher said to click and treat whenever we "catch" her looking at us. This is really hard to do. When she's looking at me, I tend to not have the clicker or treats. (So start wearing the clicker and treats. Yup.)
This week we introduced "down." From a sit we slide our treat hand away and down on the floor in an L shape, and they're supposed to go down. If I put my hand in a fist and put my hand on the floor, Emma hops onto the floor. It's cute. It was really fun to watch her try and figure out what we wanted. She sat, she stood, she sat again ... it was awhile before she would lie down. But we got it.
Walking on a loose leash is hilarious. She wants to stay close to her poppa so "in class" it works with Curtis, but as soon as we're outside of the classroom, she pulls. In class when I tried the loose leash walking, Emma insisted on putting me between her and everyone else. I want her on the left because I'm right handed (reasonable, ya think?). Emma kept moving to my right, so I would try to be in the way ... and we would end up on the wall. I just ended up laughing. Curtis was shaking his head.
We have had success with loose leash walking during the week.
The recalls work, and we practiced outside, that works too. We introduced the "run away recall" where you call your dog, and when they approach you take a few steps away, and when they catch up to you you get all excited and click and reward. Emma likes this, too.
Reggie pranced over to his parents. It was really cute. He was all "aw shucks, I'm coming."
Emma loves "settle" in class, and when Alfie came over the other day, I used it, and she eventually did figure out I wanted her in her bed. I noticed that she stopped barking quicker when I tried the settle. So I'll keep using that.
We don't have class next week because of Memorial Day.
Curtis has no time to practice with her. He really needs to make time.
On a side note. I have to reset my password each and every time I post. I contacted blogger and they haven't been helpful. This is a real pain in the neck.

Week 2 of Clicker Class: Add dogs and stir

This was the first week dogs were allowed in class. Curtis, Emma, and I were the last ones to arrive. Doxies were on one side, the big dogs on the other. We were spread out in a wide circle to give each other room. People had chairs, dogs had their beds.
Emma stuck close, but didn't whimper and try to climb up our legs. Emma is basically afraid of other dogs.
We practiced the sit and stand; our teacher walked around checking our progress and giving tips. The dogs settled down pretty quickly, I thought anyway, after the initial arrival. They all had to look at each other. Rosa told everyone she was there, and generally announced her opinions. The boxer, Reggie, had to go behind the door, because he wanted Leo's attention. But they all settled down.
Rosa will occasionally tell everyone what's what. Randomly it seems.
Tessie is wiggly. She wanted to play with everyone taking Rob for a ride a few times. It was really cute at one point where Tessie saw Curtis with treats: Tessie looked at him, "Ok, I'll do tricks for you now!"
We can say "sit" and "stand" now. But only once.
Then we did "recall" and "restrained recall" where one of us holds Emma while the other calls her name. This worked really well, except she went back to Curtis without him calling her because she loves him best.
Then we practiced walking on a loose leash. This was difficult because the room was small and Emma wanted to be near Curtis. So if Curtis was close to us she didn't pull on the leash. Basically when Emma pulls on the leash, we're supposed to stop and walk back to that point and click and treat when she turns to come back.
We also worked on attention which we had before we started clicker class, because now she looks at the clicker or the treat hand. We're supposed to click and treat when we catch her looking at us. Hopefully, this will improve.
We all practiced "settle." Emma liked "settle" in class because she was protected from the other dogs between her humans.
Next we're to work on handling her: touching her toes, ears, etc, to get her used to be handled. She doesn't mind being handled.
The teacher demonstrated how to modify behavior with the clicker. She had the poodle, Frazier, touch the stick with her nose. Frazier sat and then lied down thinking that's what was wanted. But if Frazier even accidently touched the stick, the teacher clicked and rewarded.
So we have homework, we'll see how that loose leash walking goes ...

Emma takes clicker classes

We've decided to enroll Emma in a clicker obedience class. Afterall, I need her to behave when I take her to work, and Emma is a typical doxie -- she thinks she's the boss, and we live for her.

We signed up at Blue Prints Dog Studio in Nottingham Plaza. The first night was 'parent night' -- no dogs. There are two other doxies besides Emma - Tessie and Rosa. Next week should be fun and probably quite chaotic. The other dogs are a boxer, poodle, and shepherd type. Rosa and the poodle have already been to Doggie Day Care so the teacher knew their dogs.

The first night was an overview of what we would be learning (sit, down, stay, settle, recall), and how to use the clicker. The clicker startled me, it was so loud, but the room has no carpeting and sounds bounce around. Curtis got a clicker, too, and the teacher said it was a good idea to have two people reinforcing the behavior.

The hardest part of the clicker is clicking at the right moment -- timing is everything. So we practiced with the teacher throwing a stuffed animal into the air, and then we "shaped" a classmate's behavior. I think we caught on pretty quick, of course, there were no real consequences.

The teacher demonstrated our homework -- we can only use a verbal command for recall, and it's just their name, no "come." Guinness is the teacher's dog, and Guinness proudly demonstrated all behaviors. Guinness is a big, shepherd/collie type mix with a gray muzzle.

We each got folders going over the homework and some rules. I know I felt like I was going to sneeze or something by the end of class, but that feeling eventually went away.

Back from Chicago

We're back from Chicago and now Emma is happy to have her family back together. She was sure happy to sleep in bed with us. Today we had the noreaster so momma stayed home. Emma had a bad day. She pooped on the floor at grammies, peed in cousin Maggie's bed (a shitzu?), and then threw up on the floor! Grammie said Emma never has accidents when the parents' aren't home.

Emma's sad

Emma knows that we are leaving for a trip. She's very worried, following us everywhere, right at our feet. Then she looks at us with those sad eyes. She KNOWS we're leaving, and she's not coming with us.