Monday, January 5, 2015

ZoePhee's Training Goals for 2015 Positive Pet Training Blog Hop


Hey everyone! I hope your day is going well!

I've actually never sat down and written out training goals for my dogs. I always have stuff in my head that I want to accomplish but I've done most of their training just randomly sort of on the fly. I will just decide what we are going to work on, think about it for a few minutes and then get to work. Or I will take opportunities to train when we are out and about in real life situations without really giving it much thought. Or I will see someone do a trick and decide that I want to teach that and then I do. Or something will happen and I will go, I need to work on that and then I do. We work on training every single day, even though I don't really have a structured plan for it. I mostly go, "I want to work on this today" and then we do. If that makes sense.




This blog hop give me the perfect opportunity to change that. So for this year the training goals are as follows:

Zoe
Zoe is pretty well behaved, she knows over 50 different cues. She is good with other dogs and people. I would like to work with her on proofing some of her more advanced behaviors/tricks this year. I would also like to teach her some new tricks but I'm not sure which ones yet. She is getting pretty bored with her regular ones.

I would also like to work on getting more attention from her around prey animals and when she's in hunting mode at the big park where the moles are. So we will be doing more premack and recalls out there.

I would really like to work on her noise phobia and general anxiety issues and reducing stress when she's not allowed to hunt. I'm planning on doing some impulse control work with her as well.


Phoenix
Phoenix knows about 30 different cues. I would like to teach her more tricks this year and proof the behaviors she already knows. 

I would really like to get her more comfortable with other dogs this year and work on her being less socially awkward. I also want to do some impulse control work with her around other dogs and as always more counter conditioning with the dog breeds she doesn't like. I would love it if she made some new dog friends this year.

I've also been thinking about starting a relaxation protocol with her. She gets really "hyped" up over some very random things. Like my husband taking a shower. She will bark at him and follow him around grumbling (not aggressively) as he gets ready to shower. I think this is more of a game then anything else because we did some counter conditioning work around the bath tub and now she thinks she gets treats whenever the water comes on. The behavior definitely annoys my husband so I want to work on it and get her to be more chill about stuff. She just gets really hyped up and emotional about the most random stuff and I want to work on calming her down. I think a relaxation protocol might be really helpful.

She's also pretty fearful of strangers approaching her. I've done some previous counter conditioning exercises for this. I've sat outside the grocery store on many occasions and fed her every time people pass by and/or approach us. I would like to work on this more. I'm under no allusion that she will ever fully trust random people but I would like to get her more comfortable around them. She is good with our friends and family that she sees on a regular basis but not strangers that come up to us. She is generally not reactive to people, she only tries to get away from them. There has never been any growling or lunging, though she has barked at a few people when they were exhibiting threatening body language or she got startled but this has only happened a couple of times in over two years. She will generally give the strangers "whale eye", look scared and will hit the end of the leash to avoid them touching her. If the person doesn't attempt to pet her and isn't overly forward with her she will go up to them and sniff them and is generally okay.

 Phoenix was not hiding under my legs, she was cued to do "cop cop" when these people came over to say hi. 
I was very surprised that she didn't break from her trick to get away.

So those are my training goals for 2015 and that's what we are going to be doing! I'm excited to get this year's stuff going! 

Do you have any training goals for your dogs this year? 

Today I'm joining Cascadian Nomads, Rubicon Days and Tenacious Little Terrier for the Positive Pet Training Blog Hop! This months theme is "Training Goals for 2015" but they welcome any positive reinforcement posts. 

16 comments:

  1. You are so amazing with your dogs. I have a hard enough time trying to keep up the training with one dog I couldn't imagine two. We've done some relaxation protocol and it worked awesomely - until I got lazy and stopped keeping up with it. Sounds like Phoenix has the same "hyped" behavior Laika exhibits sometimes. It's hard to find triggers with Laika - like when she gets all barky when my boyfriend sits in our office. Don't know why, but the relaxation protocol helped, as well as some counter conditioning. I almost wonder if it's because the chair he sits in makes squeaky noises occasionally; I really wish I knew. Sounds like you've got a lot planned this year, and I have no doubt you'll accomplish your training goals.

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    1. Awe thanks!! It's actually not so hard with the two girls, they each have their own issues and they are completely opposite. So it's not too bad. If they were both basket cases over the same things, I think it would be harder because they would feed off of each other and make it worse. Sometimes, I have a hard time figuring out Phoenix's triggers, too! Like she's always had a thing about not liking large black dogs then about a week ago she met a black standard poodle and they had a great time and played really well. She keeps me on my toes for sure. LOL

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  2. I have breathed a huge sigh of relief knowing I am not the only random "let's just do this today" trainer! It sounds like you have a lot of socialization type work to do and may be watching a lot of training on YouTube to find some new tricks to teach. I honestly can't think of a more fun way to spend time! And I look forward to reading all about how reaching these goals progresses.

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    1. LOL! I thought I was the only one, too! :D You're right, it's a total relief! I love watching dog trick videos on YT!!

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  3. I am not good at sticking to training goals - I think I can be as distracted as Ruby sometimes! I need to think up some new tricks for Ruby - she's nailed all the simpler ones and it's time for some more complex behaviors. Like Phoenix, Boca has an issue with barking at my dad when he's cooking in the kitchen and I need to find a solution. Thanks for joining the hop!

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    1. I haven't been very good at sticking with mine, either. I would just train randomly and I'm really wanting to change that this year!

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  4. If you figure out how to reduce stress when the dog is not allowed to hunt, let me know. We struggle with this. When you have a driven dog, sometimes you just have to wait until they mature out of it. We hope to get Freighter's senior title on him this year. He can do the work and more, but he can't seem to sit and not break when there is a bird and gunfire involved. :)

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    1. I will let you know!! :D Zoe just gets so obsessed sometimes, it's hard, but we'll work on it. I'm finding that premack does work pretty well for her hunting obsession. Working with her versus against her to stop her. Most of the time if she's in a safe area, I will just let her do it, as long as she keeps up with me on my walk and continues to pay attention to where I am. Which she usually does. :) I've also spent some time playing targeting games with her in the presence of prey and keeping her attention that way has also helped a lot.

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  5. I keep meaning to be more organized about training too. Have you looked at the trick titles? That way you get a checklist of ideas to teach.

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  6. You sound very similar to me in your approach. Your "do what you feel like doing" attitude probably keeps your training FUN because you never feel obligated to do a certain thing.

    Phoenix sounds like she has similar people issues as my Shyla. Very similar. Isn't it interesting that they both relax around new people if the people stop paying attention to them? I find it fascinating.

    Your dogs know a lot of cues!!!! Way to go...

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  7. Hi Y'all,

    My Human used to work with a Schutzhund trainer. One of the first things she was taught was to ignore and turn your back on a shy dog and allow them to approach while you continued to ignore them.

    Y'all come on by,
    Hawk aka BrownDog

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  8. I definitely have some training goals as well. Mostly leash walking. No matter what I do, I can't seem to get them to stop pulling. *sigh*
    ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!

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  9. Flying doggie! What is going on in that second picture?

    That's funny about the shower. Sometimes when the water is running, Rob will say to Leo, "Come on, get in the shower with me," and make a move like he's going to grab him. Leo gets this really freaked out look on his face. We are so evil.

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    1. The second picture, Zoe is doing a vault off of me. :D We call it "rebound". :D LOL about your husband and Leo!!!

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  10. Nice and great blog! your blog content is all about being good enough to understand better. thanks for sharing this post.
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