Video: Bo Working in Staples

These videos were taken a couple of weeks ago when I was training Bo at our local Staples office supply store. I'm using a hands-free leash and I'm rewarding Bo for eye contact.

Public Access Training

The other night, after exercising Bo, we took him to Fresh Market for public access training. It was late in the evening and there weren't many people shopping, which made it perfect for his first time in the space. He worked through the flowers and produce with ease, so we headed to the butcher shop. His nose was sniffing in the direction of the prepared meats but he responded well to my commands to 'leave' --each time turning his head away from the food and toward me. He kept his nose out of the food case and off the bread and muffins tables, however he did get distracted by everything on the floor. It didn't matter if it was a piece of food or a piece of paper, if it was on the floor he wanted to sniff it. We encountered a grape and it was almost as if he knew it was bad for him. I told him 'leave' and he stopped walking and looked at me. I gave him a nice food reward for his listening.

He walked at my side with one exception when I was turning right and he wanted to turn left. When I looked in the dairy case, he stopped and stood waiting for me to continue walking. He went into a down stay when I dropped his leash to take a pictures of him in the aisles. He appeared to be comfortable working in the space not showing any signs of stress. It was a short yet successful session.

We've Got an AKC Canine Good Citizen

We did it! We passed the CGC test.

Bo passed the American Kennel Association's Canine Good Citizen test this afternoon. We have been training Bo in preparation for this test since we started our first level II class late last year. I was anxious as we drove to the test. My anxiety had more to do with my worry that I would mess up handling him and less to do with my confidence in his ability to pass the ten test items.

We were the first ones to arrive at the testing site -- a city park sprinkled with adults and children enjoying the beautiful day. Once another dog and handler team arrived, we got started with the first test -- accepting a friendly stranger. Bo sat comfortably as our instructor's assistant walked up to me and said hello and then walked away, only to walk back and ask to pet Bo. The test moved swiftly from that point on and I praised Bo generously each time he completed an item. The last test was a supervised separation. I had to leave Bo with a friendly stranger, walk away and stay out of Bo's sight for three minutes. This was the hardest part of the test for me. I couldn't see what he was doing and the three minutes felt like ten. When I got the okay to return to Bo, the instructor told me he had passed.

I felt a great sense of pride with the news that he had successfully passed. This feeling of success and accomplishment wasn't because the CGC is a really hard or prestigious test that only select teams can take and pass. To the contrary, the test is available to any dog and handler team and the test items represent pretty basic obedience skills. What really fueled my pride was knowing the time, energy and work we both had put in to get us to this point. 

For us, the CGC is the first of three tests we are pursuing as part of Bo's public access training. The other two are the AKC Community Canine, the advanced level of the CGC Program, and the Assistance Dog International Public Access Certification Test. We will continue our daily training, group training and one-on-one instructor guided training, as part of our goal to take and pass these advanced level tests. 

Downward Dog: Bo on His Yoga Mat




Bo's Yoga mat is portable and easy to clean.

Now 12-weeks-old, Bo is consistently demonstrating his understanding of the commands sit, down and go to your mat and is also chaining these commands. In other words, when I give the go to your mat command, he not only goes to the mat but he sits, goes down and stays without me asking him to do any of these things. He then stays on the mat and waits for his reward and for me to release him. Following our session with Helen on Friday, I've been gradually increasing the distance I've been placing between the two of us.  I've also been been increasing the duration of time between the stay and reward/release. This week we will work toward me leaving his sight for a few seconds and him holding his stay on the mat.



Happy boy, happy pup!

We practiced the go to your mat command with some significant distractions Saturday at Austin's football game. Bo did well staying on his mat beside me as people walked in front of us cheering, clapping, running and looking at him. (Oh the attention he gets when we are out in public. I could dedicate an entire post just to this topic.) I rewarded and praised him generously for being calm and staying next to me on the mat. (When Bo is alerting and ready to work in public. His mat will be where he rests when in a restaurant or in class with Austin.)

There were several times when the distractions were too much and Bo left his mat. During those learning opportunities, I lured him back with a treat and we tried again. I didn't pack enough kibble to treat him through the full game, so once I ran out we changed our focus to sitting with a Busy Buddy chew toy.  I stabilized the toy while he worked to eat the gnaw hide discs.

  



This week, I'll be adding loose leash walking to our training activities. I learned the mechanics of how to train Bo on this type of walking during our recent session with Helen. Given her experience and skill, Helen's demonstrations are incredibly graceful and fluid. It takes choreography to get the correct body posture, hand positioning, and marker and reward timing. It wasn't easy for me. What was really nice however, is how Helen uses positive praise with her humans too! It's helpful to hear when I've gotten it right!

 

Diabetes Alert

As part of diabetes alert training, we've been playing 101 Things to Do with A Box. This game is an exercise in thinking creatively for dogs. The idea being for every interaction the dog has with the box, he hears a marker (click from a click or verbal marker 'yes') which is followed by a food reward and verbal praise. I have enjoyed watching Bo find new ways to interact with a plastic storage box in return for a reward. I can see how this game helps to raise a thinking dog.  A trait that will be critical to Bo's success as a D.A.D. for Austin.

We have also been playing a game of find it with kibble. I throw the kibble in the air with the command "find it."  Then I hide the kibble with Bo watching me and I give the command to find it. The goal is to work up to hiding the kibble without Bo seeing where it's hidden and for him to find it.

We continue to collect Austin's low blood sugar scent samples and to use them in conjunction with feeding Bo pieces of kibble out of a set of paper bowls modified to hold  both the sample and kibble. We want Bo to associate the low blood sugar with a food reward. The idea is to condition him to equate the low scent with a food reward. 

Bo's Growth

• 12-weeks-old
• 21 lbs