Fido Day 7

Hello Kaye,

Was great to talk to you yesterday arvo. Particularly helpful were your
feelings about an over emphasis on the crate and that it tends to be an
excuse not to train the dog! So, I'll need to study up on 'go to your mat'.
With Pepper about, the sleeping arrangements have been very plastic. They
play musical spots.

Also important from our conversation was the idea of getting the fetch ball
placed in my hand or held until I want it. I played a bit with getting it
into my hand this morning with some success. Takes a bit of timing and a bit
of luck. Pep is staring to want to get into the fun so last night we had a
big tennis ball lounge room rugby game. I was concerned might interfere with
Fido's fragile 'retrieve'. We'd had near perfect retrieve scores for  a few
days. Fido wasn't quite as clear (70%) retrieving this morning but he's 'got
it' no doubt and it'll refine back very quickly I think.

I'm also onto the Sit-Lie Down-Stand options. That looks like it will be
pretty easy and will lead  beautifully into crawling which he does often in
play. The interplay in that small sequence will be very fun.

Here we are at Day 7, one quarter of the way through Fido's trial period. So
far he has taught me he has top shelf treat taste. Dried liver is preferred.
'A Pocket Full of Liver' is a good name for a book if ever I'm driven to
write up our adventures more formally. I'm also feeding his normal meals as
treats. Cheese and dry food don't cut it too often.

Toilet training leads me to pointing out that 'it is never as they say' and
my responsibility as a trainer is to accept that. 'As soon as your puppy has
eaten he will want to eliminate so take him to his toilet spot' I'm quoting
'popular wisdom'! I've noticed he normally does his business 20min or so
after he's eaten. Visits to the toilet when he is not ready are not good
reinforcement so last night I played and hung about for twenty minutes or so
and took him out. No action! So we went for a walk and a romp down in the
paddock. Half an hour passed, lots of exercise and still no action. When I'd
has enough I tried getting him interested in a little stick again, and it
worked. He picked it up and bought it all the way to the house again in his
mouth, looking for all the world like his retriever ancestors. No poo but a
nice stick to treasure along with his tennis ball, plastic bag, plastic
drink bottle and an assortment of bones and wood chips. He is definitely
against the excessive commercialism of the pet industry.

We took him out a few more times scoring bullseyes with the peeing- nothing
more. I resolved to get up at the the first sign of movement but missed it
and he left a parcel of incredulous proportions which I detected as soon as
I woke up. That was our second toilet accident. The first was one day 5. He
has done his business dutifully and predictably after breakfast copy book
style and then left a tiny offering by the door we go out, half an hour
later. Pity it wasn't open.

He is generally not too fond of being patted. I have often ruined a
wonderful training moment by failing to curb my enthusiasm to pat and
scratch. Many German horse trainers give almighty slaps on the neck when
they are pleased. It can scare a sensitive horse half to death until they
learn it means 'the boss is pleased'! I'm hoping Fido will learn to love
being patted so I can reward without food or play. Indeed if he is settled
enough, going to sleep on my lap, he does love to be scratched and patted.

That is so far the only thing, apart form the colour he'll turn, I don't
like about this little guy. He is a very brave, strong minded, independent,
energetic little spirit who is entering into his training with nice
enthusiasm. He often comes and asks to be trained. Well really he's asking
for liver, but he knows he'll have to work for it. He comes and sits in from
of me and looks up very regularly. That started on day three once he found
out 'sitting is good' and it has been getting increasingly frequent. He even
sat and looked up at me a few times on Station Street (Fairfield) if he'd
get a bit concerned about something.

Karen Pryor's book is on it's way from Amazon.

I've been pretty crook for the past few days so I'll have a quiet one today
and hopeful come and see you in the middle of the week. 5.30 -6 is his
normal 'happy hour'. If Wednesday works for you we could aim for that.

Cheers,

Richard