Today, for example, a man came to look at our heating system and I had Frodo in the living room with me. I didn't know he was going to be coming in the house until he was...in the house. He startled Frodo, but Frodo didn't react in any way though he was obviously a little anxious about the man, so I took him in the living room with me.
Over the next ten or so minutes the man walked in and out of the front door, never stopping to talk or pay any attention to Frodo. Yet every time he walked in the door Frodo lifted his head, barked once or twice, then laid his head right back down. No sign of stress or that he had any interest in meeting and/or interacting on any level with the man. Just the barking.
There are definitely times when he barks out of fear (other dogs that scare him) and out of frustration (when he can't get to something he wants to eat), but his barking at people who don't actually scare him and at every single thing that moves outside, I really think it's just because, well, he can.
In other news, I'm attempting more goals. As is quite evident by anyone who follows this blog, I suck at sticking to goals. I haven't actually stuck to a plan or goals yet with Frodo (at all!) that I can think of. Maybe you could say with his reactivity work, but I really think there was a lot of room for improvement even during much of that time. So I am going to try a slow and steady approach, attempt to update every day (even though it will be quite boring to read), and set pretty low goals.
Goals for November:
- Teach Frodo to bow. This is something we have been working on for a while, but I am at the point where I usually throw my hands up and walk away because he isn't progressing anymore. This is a tough one for him because I'm still not convinced he is aware of that back end yet. Right now he does it with a lure, but any fading of the lure, even just not having a treat in the hand, and it falls apart. My goal is to be able to stand up and have him bow with a hand signal and/or a verbal cue.
- Teach him a switch command. More than anything I think this will be useful when we are walking down the street and a person is walking toward us. I just feel better if he is on the side that the person is not, and I'd like him to move there himself instead of making a big production of physically moving him or moving around him to get us there. My goal is just for him to realize that "switch" means move behind my legs to my other side.
- Progress with retrieve. Right now Frodo will pick a ball out of my hand and drop it. I have been marking when it hits my hand, as I want him to retrieve to hand. I would like to see me be able to put it on the ground and have him pick it up and place it *intentionally* in my hand. He doesn't need to move anywhere to get it, just pick it up off the ground by my hand and place it in my hand. Small steps, you grasshopper :)
- Targeting to hand. This one is going to be harder since I tend to not want him to meet strange people unless I know them. I feel as though this is going to be important though as next month he is going to meet a lot of new people and I would like him to learn the target to hand as an intro. I plan on making my mom, little sister, etc help with this.
- Recall. This is another area where I have done a lot of damage by expecting too much. Frodo may never have a reliable recall, but I can at least put some effort into this and find out. I am completely starting over. New word, new...um, plan? Just new...new things! My initial goal is to play the "come and get it" game from Silke's puppy class. Throw a treat, say your come command and treat puppy again in between legs. I am going to use a high value treat for all the recall work and keep a higher rate or reinforcement than usual. I plan to progress beyond this simple game this month, but want to wait to play the game and see how good he is before I make a decision on the next step.
That is all I can think of at the moment. I feel like I need to hype this up for myself so that I stick to it. Like New Frodo November! Or something equally cheesy.
That's all for now, this starts tomorrow!
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