Still Here

Hi Pont Fans!

Sorry we haven't been posting much lately.  Our Minnesota summer was AWESOME and fall is behaving as well so we are outside more than we are online!

DuPont is still here with us and still awaiting his perfect forever home!

He's wondering why nobody has scooped him up yet. Pont has come such a long ways in the year that I've known him. He's always up for whatever we throw at him! He's really been enjoying our fall hikes through the woods, and recently we started him on nose work!

That's all for now, I just wanted to check in and let you know he's still available! You know you want to give this boy a home for Christmas!   He'll keep your life interesting, promise!

DuPont Camping - Part Dos

DuPont Camping - Part Uno

When some friends and I made plans to go camping a few weeks ago, I opted to leave the rest of my pack at home with the hubby and bring DuPont along instead.  There were several reasons for this, but mostly it was simply to give him some experience in this area.  Camping or travelling in some way is a part of life for most folks and if I were going to be able to promote DuPont as a dog with camping or travelling potential, then I needed to make dang certain that it was true.

Plus, my friends are dog people and they support my rescue mission, so I knew that if Pont's behavior got a little wild that the people we were with would understand and give us the space and patience we might need to work through it. 

As soon as we arrived, I began to have my doubts.  Pont was crated in the back of my SUV and when I opened the back hatch window to unpack, he saw people milling around and FREAKED OUT.  Barking and squawking and spinning. 

Shit.

I got his crate set up in the cabin and pottied him, then quickly ushered him into the cabin to calm him down.  I left him crated in the air conditioned cabin for a few hours to chill out, then we came back to get him out for a walk and introduce him to our chariot for the weekend.  The golf cart.  We camp at this one campground because there are golf cart trails everywhere. 

We made sure DuPont was good and tired before taking him out that first time. 

For the rest of the weekend, the obnoxious, crazy dog disappeared and was replaced with a fun, excited, happy, still a little wild, golf cart dog.  DuPont is obsessed with the golf cart!

He likes riding on it, he likes running next to it, he will even just hang out on it by himself.

He met several other dog friends on the trip as well, and all of them were small dogs. But of course, he did fantastically.

Videos are next, so stay tuned for part dos!

A Glimpse

You don't have to say it.  I've been neglecting this blog a lot lately.  And I'm sorry for it!  However with the weather being so amazing this summer, I see no other choice but to spend the time outside with the red dog.

I have a lot to share and will do so before the weekend.  But until I can get to posting the entirety of it, here is a quick glimpse of what it entails.

DuPont went camping. And you are going to want to hear about it.

I promise!

Door Dashing

I don't like it when dogs 'door dash'.  Trying to beat everybody, including you the human, both to the door and through it.  It's rude and it's irritating and it really ticks me off, especially when some red headed brute is stepping on and/or pushing off my bare feet to get ahead of me.  That shit hurts!

DuPont has always had a little problem with impulse control.  Door dashing can be tidily categorized in the impulse control slot.  So we work on it.  Every day. 

Pont has been with me for well over a month now, and I've loved every rude, frustrating minute of it.  And after several weeks of working on this daily, we're finally solid enough for me to be able to get it on video.  (I didn't attempt to video it prior to this because I didn't feel like breaking my phone when Pont ultimately pulls me through the door)

So without further adieu, here is DuPont, working on his door dashing impulses!



I should point out, so you don't have to, that we actually failed here. Both of us. 'Yes' is not his release cue, so breaking his sit/stay at the reinforcement word is incorrect.

Sometimes you just have to look at the big pictures though. He sat quietly and gave me eye contact in front of an open door. An open door that he really wanted to bolt through.

We're working on it.
Happy Friday, friends!

Nothing

A couple of Fridays ago, the hubby and I decided to have a bonfire in the backyard.  We love having the dogs outside with us when we can, so we brought the whole troop out to join us. 

DuPont is not known for being calm out of doors.  In fact, he'd probably be remembered by any passing onlooker as a bucking wild child pulling me all over the place.  I mean I can actually hear them thinking to themselves 'Man, I'm glad that's not my dog!' 

Earlier on this particular Friday, I'd watched this video by the amazing Suzanne Clothier.  If you want to know what it's about, go and watch it.  My aha moment was when Sue touches on the value of doing absolutely nothing.  Of actively training your dog by literally sitting your ass down and doing...nothing.  She goes on to talk about how many trainers these days are constantly 'doing'.  Even with Pont I'm guilty of that; I'm constantly trying to teach him something in order to bring him under control.

Armed with this new theory, I put DuPont in his gear and took him outside.  He did the usual song and dance of whining, pulling, spinning, etc.  I went to my camp chair by the fire (DuPont is comfortable near fire) and sat down holding onto the end of Pont's six foot leash.  He would whine and chatter once and a while.  For almost the first hour, he was in a pretty high state of alert anxiety.  Any passing car, squirrel in a tree, rabbit peeking out from a bush was enough to completely overwhelm him.  It's like he's got to take everything in.  There are so many distractions even in a quiet backyard. 

Eventually though, he began to level out.  We spent four hours sitting outside and near the end of the evening, Pont was even laying under my chair!  It was a pretty huge accomplishment.  I would even swear that over the next few days, anytime I took him outside to potty or anything he was noticeably more relaxed.  Alert, but relaxed.  Interesting.

So, that's about all we've been up to lately!  Anytime he can safely join me outside, I bring him.  Unfortunately in a case like DuPont's, where he can become embarrassing and unmanageable in certain situations, a person's natural reaction is to avoid the situation altogether. But avoidance doesn't solve anything. Taking the dog into the situation repeatedly (as long as it's a safe one) is the only way to actively work on correcting the behavior. I think wild and crazy DuPont has been a shining example of that these past few weeks. He's doing phenominal! It's actually been a pleasure to have him with me lately. 

DuPont practicing the art of doing nothing

For inquiring minds, that thing on his face is called a Halti. It does not constrict him in any way, he is free to open his mouth (as long as he's not pulling) and he can eat/drink with it on, etc.  The Halti's function is to prevent pulling and aid in control. When he pulls, it turns his head to the side. It's an effective, safe, painless tool that I totally heart. You may read more about it HERE if you wish. 

Work Work Work

I put DuPont to work last night.  Over the span of about four hours, I did four 5-minute training sessions with him on varying subjects. 

Session 1: The first was eye contact and attention.  I go into this game in detail here, if you're interested.  He forgot how to play this game in the 6 months that he's been gone, but that's okay, he picked it up again pretty quickly.  I wish I had a Go Pro cam so I could show you what it looks like from my angle!  It's so cool to watch when they finally 'get' it.

He will play this with me inside for just about any type of food reward. 

Session 2:  I took Pont outside to try and recreate the eye contact game.  I even upped the ante by warming smelly cut up hotdogs.  *FAIL*   Pont's attention span outdoors has never been great, but in the time since he last left here, it's gotten much, much worse.  In the back yard on a regular leash and nylon collar, he will not acknowledge my presence in the least, and even hotdogs in front of his face are not enough to take his attention off of the leaf across the yard that may or may not be a squirrel or bird or rabbit.  If I pull on him and raise my voice, I'll get through to him enough to get him to sit, but he will be facing away from me, refusing to take his eyes off the prize. 

What kind of dog won't take hotdogs?!?!  The DuPont kind, apparently.

Session 3:  After feeling the complete failure of the last training session (which was really just him pulling me around the back yard) I took it back inside.  All of the impulse work I'd put on Pont last winter was gone, so we worked on 'Leave It'.  With a dog like DuPont, 'Leave It' is an important tool to have in your bag of tricks. 

'Leave It' is taught like this:  You set up the dog in front of you, treats in both hands.  I was sitting cross-legged on the floor.  I put a piece of hotdog from my right hand on my knee.  As soon as he went for it, I snatched it back up.  After several attempts like this, he's like 'WTF' and the next time I put it down, he pauses.  'YES!'  I take the piece back up with my right hand and give him a treat from the left hand.  **Never allow the dog to have what you are asking him to 'leave'.  In the future if there is something that you actually need him to leave alone with this command you can't let him think that he can eventually have it.  This is why I'm using two hands so he sees the difference.  He never actually gets to have the piece that I am putting down for him to reject**
Once he is pausing with some duration, I begin to add the command 'Leave It' so he begins to associate.

Session 4:  I brought out the tug toy.  DuPont's most beloved toy in the world. 

He won't give it up, so it was time to try working on some sort of toy release.   I made him sit and wait before he could have it, then told him to 'Take'.  He jumped and we got a good game of tug going.  Then I stood up strait and relaxed and waited for him.  I made myself and the game as boring as possible, I put hands on either side of his face on the rope and took more and more.  Eventually, (it's a loooong eventually) he let's go.  'YES!' then I present the toy immediately and tell him to 'Take'.  His reward for letting go of the toy is to get the toy right back.  After a while, I'll require more duration between the release and the take, but for now, it's a huge thing for him to give that up.  He sucks at giving up his stuff.

As an after thought, when I took the dogs outside to potty one last time last night, I grabbed the tug toy and hung it around my neck.  I have never wanted to use the tug to train him because of how jazzed and over threshold he gets about it.  But after watching him reject some of the best food rewards I could come up with in an outdoor situation (hotdogs, steak pieces, chicken pieces) it became pretty clear. 

Sure enough, standing outside with Pont pulling me towards yet another potential bird/squirrel/rabbit I call his name and get nothing, then I swing the toy in front of his face.  He launches himself at it.  I can get him to respond to his name with it, I can get him to sit with it, he'll sit AND give me eye contact with it... It's a good thing.  I finally found 'the thing' that will aid me in turning Pont into a regular dog.  My hesitation comes in knowing there is a fine line in which I can't cross when using DuPont's prey drive to kill his prey drive.