Well today’s a day of highs and lows. For the last three weeks I have been pouring over a lot of training advice on the ole witch box, collectively trying to get as much advice and tips for teaching my “borrowed” friends (AKA Moms dogs) some manners. My Mom has five dogs all unique in their personalities and breeds. I’ll be posting information on them under “My Borrowed Friends” in the menu. Cocos (who this post is about) was just posted today. Anyway, I have been working with Coco to get her comfort levels with me boosted since she is so shy. It started off and continued to be a challenge finding treats that she likes as she seems pretty uninterested in anything I had offer, from chicken gizzards, cheese, summer sausage, chicken, chops, then BAM, beef jerky and hot dogs seemed to work pretty good. Now we can get started!
“Comfort” training as I like to call it has been going GREAT! ! I was having some hang ups about how to approach this but found a technique that FINALLY worked for me and Coco! I started off training her inside and realized that Coco actually does MUCH better outside. She was so much more at ease with me and interested since she really loves to be outdoors more than being inside. Once I realized this and took her out for training, progress really took off. I would just sit next to her, about 3-5 ft away, clicker and treats in hand and just wait her out. It started slow. I gave her some treats as a warm up and moved away and tried my hardest to seem “uninterested”. I sat with my back to her and waited…. waited… waited… waited…I waited so long I started singing just to kill time. Poor Coco, I cant decide if she just wanted me to shut up or thought I was dying (yup, I sing THAT bad), she crawled up to me, very slowly and put her nose in my open hand as if saying “are you okay?!!” It took every inch of effort to not jump up and down and start hootin and hollerin! If we would have been inside you would have been scraping me off the ceiling! I calmly clicked, treated and repeated. Fast forward a few days and insert problem one: Coco started coming to me while I would sit there signing and waiting, put her little nose in my target hand, I would click, treat, and Coco just snatches the treat and tucks tail and moves away from me, no reward pets allowed or wanted from her. She seemed afraid of my hands again, out of nowhere. I still run into problems with Coco taking a treat and tucking tail. It only happens from time to time now and I have no idea how to help her stop. When this starts happening I stop training her and try again later.
Since Coco started getting comfortable with me over the last few days (it’s only taken the better part of three weeks) I wanted to start introducing a command. Come. Cocos siblings all know come pretty well. So I’m surprised that she hasn’t picked up on it’s meaning at all. She hears the word and sees her sisters and brother come several times a day. I thought that most dogs learned some simple commands from watching their “sibs”. I know our dogs ALL learned “sic em” (bark like crazy at whatever I’m pointing at) and several other tricks from watching our weenie dog Abby. When Maggie, Annie and Jetta were adopted they all learned a lot from Abby. Their personal favorite was sic em! Annie, Maggie and Abby are all waiting for us just past rainbow bridge now. So with Coco, come could mean lay there and look at me like I’ve lost my marbles. On day one Coco really seemed to get the hang of it! I stood in our yard and would wait for her to come, C&T. She was doing so good I introduced the command after our second, short session. Day two was today. She started off strong, then all of the sudden she is tucking tail and squirming away as soon as I treat, okay break time. Three hours later we try again and she wanted NOTHING to do with me. I tried running with her, playing and petting to get her pumped up and sitting and waiting calmly, eventually she just walked away and pretended like I didn’t exist and when I called to her she got nervous and tucked tail. I was heated. Why the heck does she not like me today? Why are we taking ten steps back? Why are we right back to square one. As I was walking out the gate here she comes! Following me she runs up and sticks her little nose in my hand. OH NO YOU DONT. You see what it feels like to be ignored, hurt and just plain bummed! I didn’t acknowledge her little touch as I normally would, I just kept moping my way to the house leaving her there staring after me. Now as I write this I feel like an ass. I told my mom about today’s progress in a heated, what for tone and how it ended and my mom said something that made me feel stupid. Mom said something along the lines that Coco had no clue I was mad, hurt and upset. She can’t associate feelings like I can and being ignored as a “dose of her own medicine”. This is the first time since I started training I really felt defeated. Only took a month. It scared me a little and that’s why I was so mad. Sitting there with Coco today made me question everything I have been planning for my future and I started thinking I’m not cut out for this, what if I’m not going to be good enough?
Chin up. Tomorrow is going to be better. Baby steps, Ten forward, five back. I know this is how it’s going to be with Coco while we BOTH learn together. Hiccups will happen and I cannot let today, one hard day make me question everything. I told Coco I was sorry and gave her lots of kisses and told her how great she is doing and how proud I am of her, no matter what. We will try again tomorrow, and the day after that and the weeks ahead. I’m not giving up on her.
Collar Scholar 