Last night I worked with Bruce on sitting, his name, and learning that the kitchen is a "cool place" to be. I want him to be OK with being alone in it during the day. Right now he makes whale-wookie like noises that 1- break my heart and 2- I am sure drive my neighbors crazy.

Trials:

I clicked Bruce for hanging out in the kitchen with me, doing nothing. Then I stepped out of the kitchen. I only clicked him when he walked back in. Eventually he was in the middle of the carpet and tile.. trying to cheat and get a treat. Once he was stayin reliably in the kitchen I put the gate up and clicked him a few times when he did not jump up and was just looking around. I didn't want to push him.. so I gave him some love and moved on.

I am hoping to do a little of this each day, so I can eventually get him in the kitchen with the gate up.

The steps I am hoping to follow are:

1- click him for staying in the kitchen with me

2- click him for staying in the kitchen when I step out

^^ get him to recognize its a cool place to be.

3- click him for not jumping up on the gate but just standing calmly with the gate up

4- walking away for a brief second and clicking him for being quiet

5- walking away and then coming back.. and walking around.. for him being quiet.

Not sure how fast this will go.. but I am going to continue to try.

Sitting trial**

Horrible Horrible video quality but... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUVIZ3Wn62g

(I was a little off with my praise and click for the first one.. but thats okay)

I had a treat in my hand and would raise it up to have him sit. When he did I clicked! Once he was doing that reliably and offering up the behavior I gave it a command.

After a 5 minute session he was sitting on command! I am going to keep working on him with this until it is second nature.

Knowing his name**

I will say Bruce! and the minute he makes eye contact- I'll click.

He looks at me about 70% of the time when I say Bruce. He knows it means something, but he is still unsure WHAT it means.

Yesterday was the first day of me going off to work and leaving my little Ewok at home.

I can't lie- it was hard. Luckily, my man had Monday and Tuesday off of this week, so he has been able to be home with the little guy. I got a few pictures sent to me during the day to keep me smiling. This one- he looks like he took the picture himself. Look at him and his little diva self.

Alex tried to put him in his kitchen space, so he felt comfortable. Apparently all he did was whine- cry- and make whale noises. (Well, I call them whale noises... Alex thinks they are wookie noises.)

I feel bad for our neighbors, because for a little guy he can be LOUD. Tomorrow is the first full day of him being alone in the house while we are at work. I feel outrageously guilty. Honestly, it's ridiculous that I do feel guilty, though. I can't not go to work... so little Brucey is going to need to get used to being alone.

I have this video from the wondrous Kikopup on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGxhcb-itO4) on how to teach your pup to be alone in the puppy pen. With Bruce- its the kitchen, but it works the same way.

The vet suggested we put him in the space for short amounts of time during the day we are home, varying from one minute to 5 minutes to an hour.. so he never knows how long he really will be in there. I am going to combine these two training techniques and try to get him comfortable.

This is the main thing I want to work on with him this weekend. I do not want him feeling alone or abandoned while we are at work.

Bruce is almost there in being confident in the clicker. He is responding to his name 80% of the time.

Trials conducted for Bruce's clicker training:

1- click + treat... (charging the clicker)

Bruce gets this. I have been using part of his dinner to train, as well as a few training treats for puppy's that he likes. Also, Bruce is kind of in love with the freezed dried chicken.

2- saying BRUCE and when he looks up at me click + treat. (getting to know his name)

Like I said, he is about 80% there. Last night after I felt I gave him enough treats- I used playing as a positive reinforcer. He was having the zoomies and wanted me to throw his toy. I would say BRUCE and when he looked at me I would say GOOD! and pet him/ throw the toy. After the game- he would look at me for the majority of the time when I said BRUCE! I am going to continue to work on this with him.

3- Having a treat in the fist but only giving it to him when he stops trying to lick/bite/get into my fist (teaching him to pay attention to me and not the treat).

The steps with this are as follows:

1- have him back off from licking/ biting the fist and click him

2- Once he is showing he will not go the fist, have him look up at me and click.

Like kikopup says, he is learning that if he shows no interest in the treat but interest in me- then he will get the treat. Right now, I am on step one. He was doing pretty well with not biting or licking my fist after awhile. I haven't asked for eye contact because- well.. he is a puppy and has ADD! I didnt want to push all this training at once!

Those are my goals right now.

1- to get him comfortable being alone.

2- to get him to confidently know his name

3- to recognize that he needs to leave the toy and give me eye contact instead.

Then from there my goals are:

-Sit

-Stay

Also, when we first got him he was religiously going on the puppy pad (he has only been home with us for a few days). YESTERDAY HE HAD ACCIDENTS OUT THE WAZOO! For the most part we'd catch him and lift him quickly to the pad. Now that he knows the clicker- I am going to click him for going on the pad... so hopefully we can reinforce that behavior. I'm not sure why he is not deciding to go elsewhere!!

Thats all for now. I will post a few of my clicker sessions with him soon.

I haven't posted in about a week in a half- as I was really busy with work. My mom came into town to do some last minute wedding stuff.

So lets start from the beginning. 6:00 on Saturday morning (the 20th) I woke up, got myself dressed and in the car. Off to my friend Jeff's house to scoop him. It was a 2 hour drive, so I was thankful someone was willing to come with me. My fiance sadly had to work, and couldn't get out of it.

I was bribed, however. Jeff made me promise a diner breakfast. We live in Northern VA, so it is not the "Virginia" everyone knows. It is an offshoot of DC, and way too expensive to live here. There are no farms.. and we DO have all of our teeth. ;)

We were driving 2 hours south- so it was a guarantee to find a "country" diner. We did so successfully. It was delish, and extremely inexpensive.

So we get him- bring him back... and he is already attached to me like you won't believe! I had

some friends over to meet him... but he didn't care. He just was following me and wanting to play with me. Yesterday I got to spend the whole day with him. We spent it watching TV, napping.. playing ball.. cleaning the apartment. ha.

And believe it or not- he ACTUALLY has only had one accident- and that was my fault. He went poopie, so I lifted the puppy pad to clean up the area and apparently he also had to go potty!

Well he looked at me, and thought- okay.. no pad, but i'll still go in the same spot.

He is amazing. I started doing some clicker training- with charging the clicker. He is starting to

get the association between the clicker and food. Hopefully with a few more trials he will "get it" and we can move on to other things.

He is easily redirected though, and is very calm for a puppy. He has his zoom zoom moments but overall he has a very chill personality.

I am so blessed and happy with my ewok.

Psychology 101: "CLICKER" lesson

During a discussion I had yesterday- a co-worker asked me how clicker training worked. She also wanted to know if it helped to increase the amount of time it takes to trai a pup.

I decided to do a Psychology 101: "CLICKER" lesson. I even drew a picture. Be in awe of my artistic talent.

As you can see- the dog is sitting.

This is the behavior the trainer is looking for.

He sits- the trainer clicks and gives him a treat.

What is the primary and secondary reinforcer?

1- The primary reinforcer is something (in this scenerio) that a trainer gives to the dog that has some value. This could be a toy, some attention, or food. For starters most people us food as a training treat. Down the road, when the behavior is more cemented- food is weaned and attention and praise is used.

2- The secondary reinforcer is something that shows the dog that a treat is coming! If you use a cue word; such as "good!" or "yes", and follow it with a treat the dog will recognize that cue. In clicker training, the trainer uses a "click" instead of a word, but the dog recognizes that as a sign that the food is coming. This is also helpful if you have to delay the food a few seconds- but want the dog to recognize the behavior they JUST DID was the desired action. If he sits, and the owner grabs a piece of food for him a minute later- he may be pawing at his face.. or doing

another behavior. When the owner gives him his food he may think.. "Well, I sat.. but THEN I pawed at my face. She rewarded me for pawing at my face!" and will continue on with that behavior expecting a reward.

Here is the scenerio again.

Dog sits.

Trainer hits clicker.

Dog recognizes: Okay- I sat and I got a treat. She must be looking for this behavior.

Trainer gives treat.

Dog tries to sit again to receive another click and treat.

In order for the dog to recognize what the clicker MEANS.. however... the clicker needs to be "charged".

To charge the clicker, the trainer needs to repeat this procedure until the dog recognizes the connection between the primary reinforcer and the secondary.

Step 1: CLICK the clicker

Step 2: give treat to the dog

*rinse and repeat* (minus the rinse)

Eventually the dog will recognize the pattern and expect a treat for a click.

This is helpful when you want to identify a behavior. He laid down.. you click.. he gets food. The dog goes "oo! the click told me I did something right.. it must be to lay down. Let's do it again and I'll get food!"

Psychology studies- such as Pavlov dogs and the Skinner box- were really the pioneers in this thinking.

Here's the story. Pavlov had a few dogs in his lab. He noticed that when he would walk into his lab the dog would start drooling knowing it was food time! He wanted to see if he could condition a dog to drool at the sound of a bell.

Scenario goes as follows:

*Bell rings

*Food given.

It is as easy as that! The sight of the food would cause Pavlov's dog to drool. So based on what I said before....

Primary reinforcer in this scenario is... *drum roll* THE

FOOD!!

What is the secondary? The Bell!

Now, there were no behaviors that the dog needed to accomplish to get these treats. This experiment was just to see if an UCR (unconditioned response, such as salivating) could be turned into a conditioned response to the bell!

However, you could see how you could identify the primary and secondary reinforcers in this example.

See if you can make Pavlov's dog drool! Remember what I said!!!

Pavlov's dog

Now, for the Skinner box

A rat is in a box with a level and lights. The rat hits the level, food comes out. Lever = food.

Then the rat starts pressing the lever.. and NO

FOOD! WHAT? HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE.

Wait.. 3 lever presses gives me food. Cool, okay now I'll press three times. *continues to press 3 times*

OH NO! IT WON'T WORK ANYMORE! Lets try some more. Okay now its 5...

You see how the behavior is shaped? The rat is expected to do more and more lever touches as the time goes on. First he needs to recognize that connection.

That is all this is- allowing the pup to recognize the connection between the click and food- then the click and behavior.

Soon trainers can put a verbal cue on the behavior, and

the dog can recognize that when the owner says "EWOK" he is meant to sit and a click, then a treat- will come.

Now... onto the other question. Does clicker training help to increase the amount of time it takes to train a dog.

According to the study by Smith and Davis (2008), it does not.

In this study 35 basenjis were taught to nose touch a cone. There was a control group that was taught without a clicker, and the study group- where a clicker was used.

Then.. they stopped rewarding the dog for the behavior.

The control and study group learned the behavior within the same amount of trials (on average). (A side note to this- the study mentions that the younger dogs learned quicker, no matter what group they are in. HOWEVER- all dogs successfully learned it.. so you CAN teach a old dog new tricks, it just may take awhile)

HOWEVER- it took LONGER for the dogs who were taught by clicker to FORGET the behavior (experience extinction) than the ones who were not.

So, it seems that although it does not increase the speed of training- it allows for the longevity of a trick/ behavior/ etc.

(citing article here:

Smith, S. M & Davis, E. (2008) Clicker increases resistance to extinction but does not

decrease training time of a simpler operant task in domestic dogs (Canis familiaris). Applied

Animal Behaviour Science, 100, 318-329)

TADA!!

And to end, here is a picture of Bruce sleeping on his mommy the first day we met him.

Seriously- it is like Christmas for me. Every day I come home and I have more awesomeness.

Today Bruce's custom collar and

leash were delivered, as was

his bed for the crate. According to the UPS tracker, I also have his bed out for delivery. It is 6:30- so I am getting antsy!

WHERE ARE YOU UPS MAN!?!

So, some updates. I signed Bruce up for Puppy Kindergarten at Wylie Wag. For those of you who do not live in my area, Wylie Wagg is a store that has a few locations in NOVA. It is awesome. They focus on good quality items at lower prices. They forever have my business.

Keri Putonen is the teacher for these classes. This is her website.

She is actually going to come to the house September 2nd and do a "Puppy 101" class with me. I already have researched and studied... but I think it would be beneficial. According to said website- here is the description of the Puppy 101 class:

Got a new puppy? First time or been a long time?
Let me help your family get started on the right foot!
All your questions answered...feeding, housebreaking, crate training, teething and more!
Survival strategies for common puppy behaviors.

It's easier to prevent behavior problems now, than it is to correct them

later.

90 minutes

SCORE!! As I was writing this the UPS guy came. Hoorrayy. Now for pictures (bare with me, I know its silly). The carrier, pet bed. and the bed for his crate arrived! Hooraayy! My phone has a terrible camera, apparently.

I have a bunch of new items that are "in transit" so I will post as I get them.

Like I said, I am having serious puppy nesting. Even my fiancee just said "I can't wait until we pick him up."

Is his little bed not the cutest thing you've ever seen? AHH! I could die from the cuteness.

*Random change of topic*

I was talking to my boss today who asked about my dog. She asked if I was thinking of training Bruce. I got all excited and started talking about clicker training, and positive reinforcement, etc. etc. She just laughed at me and said she didn't know why I would bother. There's no way that would work (granted- shes a psychology major... so she could remember operant conditioning, Skinner, Pavlov, etc)

To add to that, I asked a friend of mine where she brought their dog to puppy kindergarten/ training classes. She also laughed and said she didn't believe any of that was necessary.

I don't get it. I can't IMAGINE not training a dog. I have been thinking about this for awhile. I am convinced that people just don't "get it" when it comes to owning an animal. I feel like the respectful and responsible thing is to train the dog. You don't identify the positive behaviors and so the dog will do whatever he wants- and in turn the owner gets frustrated. This is why so many animals are in the shelters.

Don't get me started on that.

On another note, I was reading this very interesting blog entry about positive reinforcement and not using punishment with training dogs. I actually found the link through a forum I visit: chazhound.com/forum

Here is the blog post.

I need to go make dinner, but I shall write more about it later. :)

A moment of psychology awesomeness...

I was doing some reading and found this article online. It discusses if a dog feels what we define as "guilt" after performinga "naughty behavior"

The article quotes a study (yay studies!!) where a researcher observed 'some' (this article doesn't state how many) dogs and owners to further expand knowledge of anthropomorphism ( wiki definition: any attribution of human characteristics to non human animals) and how humans place their "emotions" onto the animal.

Experiment set up:

• Dog + owner + researcher all in room.
• Owner puts a piece of food on the floor in front of dog and says "leave it".
• Owner leaves.
• Owner returns. Researcher tells owner if the dog ate it or did not. The dogs of the owners who were told their dog DID NOT eat the treat showed innocent behavior. The dogs of the owners who were told their dog DID eat the treat displayed "guilty" behaviors. These include rolling on side, lack of eye contact, head down. etc.

The kicker?!?! The researcher lied about the behaviors to some of the owners. If a dog ate the treat- the researcher would say they didn't and vice versa.

The study states (and I concur- since I am such an expert in this subject. heh ) that the behaviors displayed were not due to the ACTUAL outcome of the treat-eating-ness (I created a word!) but due to the way the owner behaved.

Great excerpt from the article:

She was demonstrating her full repertoire of “appeasement” behaviors in response to her owner’s behavior toward her. Appeasement behaviors are used to convey non-threatening intentions to others. In dog land, they work really well to turn off aggressive displays: “Don’t hurt me!” “I’m a lowly meek little harmless thing!” “Back off, you’re acting weird!”

Dogs display them when feeling threatened, to attempt to ward off aggression directed at them. Some dogs turn on these behaviors more readily than others. Denver seems to be able to turn on her appeasement repertoire pretty readily. Her owner’s admonition, “Did you do this?” was fairly mild, yet prompted a very dramatic submissive grin and tons of appeasement. Other dogs only show this behavior if being really chewed out by their owners.

For further information on the study I googled "2009 Barnard College Dog Guilty" and came up with an article that gave a few more details about the study:

The study involved 14 dogs and their 14 owners. The six male dogs and eight female dogs included six mongrels and eight purebreds — a Brussels griffon, two dachshunds, a Tibetan terrier, a cockapoo, a shi-tzu, a wheaten terrier and a Labrador retriever.

This study sheds new light on anthropomorphism — the natural human tendency to interpret animal behavior in human terms, Horowitz said. Anthropomorphism involves comparing animal behavior to human behavior, and if there is some superficial similarity, then the animal behavior will be interpreted in the same terms as superficially similar human actions. This can include the attribution of higher-order emotions, such as guilt or remorse, to the animal.

After a little more research I found the abstract of the research paper from the actual lab - Dog Cognition Lab at Barnard, that conducted the experiment:

Anthropomorphisms are regularly used by owners in describing their dogs. Of interest is whether attributions of understanding and emotions to dogs are sound, or are unwarranted applications of human psychological terms to non-humans. One attribution commonly made to dogs is that the "guilty look" shows that dogs feel guilt at doing a disallowed action. In the current study, this anthropomorphism is empirically tested. The behaviors of fourteen domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) were videotaped over a series of trials and analyzed for elements that correspond to an owner-identified "guilty look." Trials varied the opportunity for dogs to disobey an owner's command not to eat a desirable treat while the owner was out of the room, and varied the owners' knowledge of what their dogs did in their absence. The results revealed no difference in behaviors associated with the guilty look. By contrast, more such behaviors were seen in trials when owners scolded their dogs. The effect of scolding was more pronounced when the dogs were obedient, not disobedient. These results indicate that a better description of the so-called guilty look is that it is a response to owner cues, rather than that it shows an appreciation of a misdeed.

Also, I found the proper citation to reference all this information. Phew.

Horowitz, A. (2009). Disambiguating the "guilty look": Salient prompts to a familiar dog behaviour. Behavioural Processes, 81, 447-452

Does that mean that when we see our dog smiling and think they are happy- they aren't? Is raising the lips in an upward motion just a behavior that we attribute to a smile? I don't know honestly.

I want to believe that a lot of the emotions we see in our dogs are genuinely there and not us putting out feelings onto the animal.

However- in many situations I DO feel we put our emotions out there and the dog is behaving based on what his environment and instincts dictate him to do.

Anyways, I thought that was an interesting read. I thought I would share.

To end this, enjoy a cute video of a Brussels I found on youtube!

"I thought you said you were getting a dog... that's an Ewok!"

Happy Sunday everyone!

I am super excited because the Breeder sent a new picture of Bruce. I showed it to a friend of

mine via text who said: "I thought you were getting a dog! That's an Ewok." Yes. Yes it is. It's

an Ewok dog. Don't judge or be jealous ;). ha.

The post prior to this I made a list of "things I want Bruce to do at first." I was watching a video this am and was told that in order to be successful, you need to write out all the tricks and behaviors you want to work on with the dog- so you don't get lost in the middle of training.

SO, here we go. For my own sake- and those of people reading- I am going to link the clicker training video for reference.

Here we go!:

CLICKER TRAINING TO DOS (not in order..)

1. Charge the clicker- make him understand that clicker = treat.
2. Teaching him to "leave it" Video # 2(GREAT video! The person who does the kikopup training is awesome)
3. Teaching him to like his little room- so he doesn't get upset when we leave.(Again, a kikopup video)
4. Teaching Bruce his name Link # 2 Link #3
5. Teaching him sit/ lay down
6. Teaching Bruce not to bite
7. Teaching Bruce not to jump up
8. Attention games
9. Counter surfing = It's a no no!
10. Sit stay
11. Teaching him to come

TRICKS TO TEACH BRUCE:

1. Teaching Bruce to jump up in my arms (kikopup ftw!)
2. Puppy putting feet on mine!
3. Getting Bruce to like being in his purse!
4. Teaching head shake
5. Teaching how to skate board

So there we have it. Once I get Bruce I am going to record my sessions and post them- and try to analyze what I did wrong and what I did right.

It occurred to me that I should share why I am interested in documenting Bruce's training and my successes/failures during sessions.

I am currently working on my Masters in Community Agency Counseling. In the long run, my goal is to work with at-risk youth in a therapeutic environment. Ive always been interested in integrating pet and play therapy in with sessions.

Also, as an undergrad I was very interested in behavioral psychology. I got a BS in Psych, and enjoyed very much learning about operant conditioning (positive reinforcement, etc.)

I think this will give me a different perspective when training Bruce. Plus- I get to enjoy the bonding time and seeing him succeed (hopefully!)

Fingers crossed.

On a more silly note... look what I ordered for Bruce.

Backstory: Bruce is named after Bruce Wayne of Batman. I love Batman, so it fits. We were trying to figure out how to name him after Jonathan Crane (The Scarecrow) but it didn't work.. so Bruce stuck.

I bought this ID tag for Bruce on Etsy.com (Link to the etsy page)

She has some REALLY cute tags as well- that I may get down the road. Obviously it will s

ay Bruce instead of Batdog- but how awesome is that?!?!

I agree. Very awesome.

Here is his collar (and the woman who made it also created a leash for him.) She sells cat collars, but made a dog collar for Bruce. I am excited!

Do you see the theme here? That is the extent of how nerdy I will be, but I felt it was necessary.

My goal of today? To find the right trainer for puppy kindergarten and on....