Wallaby in General

Just a progress report, but I wanted to keep my *Sunshine and Unicorns* post simply about how much I love Mr. B.

He is eating a lot more beef heart, almost daily, and gaining weight whilst requiring less food and less exercise. He is down to about a pound a day, from 1.4-1.8 on average. And he only goes on a short, 45-minute-ish walk about 5 times a week. Days that he doesn't walk, we play in the yard or I take him to run with his pooch friends. We do training on almost every walk we go on. That is, I take a clicker and my treat pouch and click him for things like being by me [but not looking at me for treats], or walking calmly with the leash loose, or stopping at corners, etc etc.

He is also needing a lot less bone in his diet. Which is great, just wonderful, really.

Yes. [Wallaby training #3]

I have the greatest dog ever. He is so smart and wonderful, and sometimes he can be frustrating. But not today. I love this boy.

Wallaby used to be very good at being a crazy nutjob. He's like so many rescue dogs out there, who just have not had proper training, exercise, attention, or all three. Some days he's lucky he's so cute and snuggly. But not today. Today I saw a glimpse of what lies ahead for Wallaby and I.

I saw a dog who was faithfully by my side, but not because I forced that idea into his little dog brain. And not just because I had yummy treats [beef heart and venison, aka dinner]. We went for a walk and he didn't yank me along. He didn't obsess over every.little. thing. He didn't spend the majority of walk in a constant cycle of getting to the end of the leash [16ft], sniiiiiiiiiffffffffing something or fixating on something, and then, because I was still in motion, feeling a tug on the leash and rocketing past me out to the end of the leash again, without so much as a sniff in my direction.

I now have a dog who can walk on a leash politely. I have a dog who can be in my house and not be bouncing off the walls,or getting into things he shouldn't [still working on some impulse control when it comes to low coffee tables...], or whining every time I go somewhere without him. I have a dog who does not jump up when he meets people, instead he sits or in the case of kids, he downs, and thus gets FAR more attention because "omg this dog did not assault my face as a greeting!" and the behavior is reinforced.

And not once, never have I had to yell at, pinch, choke, yank, kick, shock, or otherwise abuse my dog in order to get this out of him. All I had to do was trust him a little, and show him what I did want from him.

I love my dog.

Wallaby's Training Journal #1

I should've started this a while ago... like, when I started training Wallaby. Months ago. But oh well. We don't usually do things in the correct order..

So here's a list of cues Wallaby has been introduced to so far, and the percentage is how reliable the behavior is. Unless otherwise noted it is an average--meaning that the behavior is likely more reliable the lower the distraction/stress level.

The list is only of practical cues that I use, not parlor tricks [which he knows a few]

Sit 85%

Down 70%

Come* 60%

Ladies First 90% - This means, "let me go through the doorway first, please!" I use this instead of Wait.

Wait 60% - I use mostly at street corners.

Go To Bed 70%

Off 30% - just introduced this week

Leave It* 80%

Take It 40%

Back Up 70% - used on walks, we work on this a lot. It means "Come back to me!" I use it whenhe hits the end of the retractable leash. He self-corrects[without being cued] probably 40% of the time.

*These behaviors need a lot of work in moderate to high distraction/stress levels.

I wanted to take a couple of days and look at everything Wallaby does well along with what he needs to work on, and what hasn't even been introduced to him yet.

The main things I want to work on in the next couple of weeks are:

-loose leash [explained below]

-doing sit/down in the car

-stay [we have worked on this a bit but not much]

-recall

I have done loose-leash training with Wallaby but I haven't enforced it much and he's gotten pretty sloppy. I walk him on a retractable leash because he is able to get a lot more exercise that way. So lately I haven't been asking him to walk "by me" [the cue I use instead of heel], I just let him do his thing.

I think mostly I just need to train more often. We used to train every day but now it's only about twice a week. I always notice that he is much more reliable with certain behaviors after we have worked on them.