I've been struggling with Jorah's drive being low. Hadn't realized it, but I'd gotten pretty darn serious.
The verdict is that guard-work is something that he can learn, but I was beginning to doubt if I had the will to try, because every time I went to play with his horsewhip, an accessory that I posted under the wrong blog! It felt like pulling teeth, exhausting to get even a little sustained interest.
I started taking balls and plushies with on our walks, to reward him for a sit or a short heel. They were dismissed!
Augh!
Said after a walk with some *grim progress:
"If this moped dog has 12 cylinders, and there is ANY way to get him to access them, please let me find it."
*Jorah would watch a toy's trajectory, mouth it just a tiny bit if I ran with him up to it. Still ignoring 3/4 of my reward attempts, and moving to something else within an instant. --At the very end I realized that he's more willing to chase a toy tossed just over his head than one thrown straight in front of him!
Well, Jorah's had this bout of diarrhea that was on for two days, replaced with 2 days of moderate constipation, and now back again. And I had a big project to work on! (Didn't give myself enough time... -.- but that's another theme.) So I checked with our femur supplier, they had whole ones again! Got half of one, and left it in the car with him while I saw a tutor on campus. (It is still cool out here.)
Then we walked to the green space by my parking lot, and tried out the horsewhip again. He was so bored from me studying yesterday, that we got 2 or 3 good minutes of "WEEE!" then he flat-lined. Well, not quite. He was twitching his ears and looking around. But no amount of bobbing the toy about worked. Just when I was going to try the "keep it just out of reach" maneuver, too!
Well, I sat down, pretty miffed, but doing my best to stay chill. And this sitting was just outside the radius of his 50' leash attached to a random subterranean stairwell in the field. I wasn't in the mood to give him free affection, and just stared, thinking. He was pretty content staring himself, though there were a few squeeks.
It occurred to me that he'd probably have fun running around with me, so I just had to get physical with the giraffe-dangly. Bam, that worked. But ugh, such tired. And I'd let him carry it off, smug as a cat. Huzzah!
He still wanted to explore the length of the field, so in reward I detatched him and off we went. More unhappy poo, but, eh. A little more chase-tug as well. It seems fool-proof! (Let's not bring any other dogs into the equation.)
Back to the schoolwork! On my way home I got a call from Glen-I was missing training?? I thought it had been cancelled!
Ugh. I dropped off this epic hunk of smoked ham I got on clearance (it was already sitting in the trunk for an hour.) and off we went again! It was "show obedience" time. Jorah was SOOO slow and uninterested! I don't blame him, I was poorly prepared. "treats" were VERY low value! Energy was the name of the game, and for our second try I grabbed his half-femur, still in the back seat. It put a jig to his step, but how can one reward with a massive bone? a toss would break his teeth! didn't work out so well. We put it away before a dog fight ensued. I might have a sub-nickname of "cave woman" now, but whatever.
I'm fairly sure that my grim horror about the project due at 5 was showing, but I didn't want to elaborate. My mood was pretty similar to how I felt after toy-only reward attempts, so it seemed fine to show sans explanation. I told him how I was trying to reward with toys instead of food "because why would he care about them if he gets food instead?" and for once Glen nodded, instead of castigating me for thinking first. (Might have been my mood, see? Plus he already got it out of his system for my thinking that he was in Cali. Repetitive isn't funny.)
Well, at this point it gets hazy. (Didn't get my solid 8 hours with poo-poo boy.) I think that Glen took Jorah, and with his magical praise voice, got the puppy leaping and wagging his tail, and was focusing his energy into "fus" (our weakest, I think,) He even would start to bound back towards me and get caught on the leash. "I know you wanna go to your momma, look here. Yes! Yeaaaaah!" etc. Surprisingly forgiving, so unexpected of the little guy.
"How come I can get him that excited, and I didn't have a treat or nothin'? And I wasn't running around like you were earlier." No clue. Personal thoughts: you're more novel and generally impassive than I am? You know just what you're doing and don't get worried about a mis-placed "yes" or doing something else wrong? in short: this is what you do, and I'm a mass of inadequate noobery? I'm not sure what I actually said. "You're better at it than me!" sounded too whiny to chance.
Glen had me try again. My high voice wasn't as magical, he was there, but also this cat on the other side of the street-then a puddle? I dunno, I was loosing him half the time. By the end I was exhausted. Supper peppy run-time for a sit out of motion/stay, recall, more "heeling" (gosh, we suck) and a plotz out of motion. I think I forgot like two steps. (horror.) Boy, was I tired. How am I supposed to keep this up for 15 minutes?
He had the most pro guy there say how he got his dog energized. "He was so boring, I was surprised that he had a wife! haha! And Tina here was mellooow, like your dog." whaaat? He got more exciting, made it a game. Not the most descriptive man, but I think that I get it.
Now, when I first come home, or we go out after a LONG time (and, I realized today, after he's got all the pee and poo out of his system-that guy will take off after a good dump!) I need to have a puppy party (to borrow a non-Glen phrase) and have him do some obedience. "He thinks that when you do obedience that you want him to be calm and boring. You need to teach him that that's wrong. You want him to be crazy! So now when you train, I want you to make it a game." And use high-value treats. Super-guy has steaks. "I'm not saying that you need to go out and buy him steaks!!! But get something that he really likes." And, thank heavens, if I can only keep the energy up for 3 minutes, and need to recover for 15, that's cool. Better 3 golden minutes than 15 bad ones.
So that's the answer! Go fast, hard, and fun. Sloppy is gonna happen. Gosh, I'm slow at catching the moment to cry "YES." Frankly, I felt more over-whelmed than relieved. I comforted myself through the Numerical lingo-I might suck at the "yes" timing half the time, but will get better, and as long as its around the right behavior, Jorah will figure it out. In short--convergence. Which sounds like an awesome philosophical action-adventure movie title.
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Well, we went ourselves on a walk. Big one, got his demons out. On the final stretch of green he runs into some neighbor dog's toy (they always leave something out-like its their private yard. No problem, I just let him enjoy it for a few minutes.)
So we play! and I have him do a little fus, a few sits, a plotz, and a couple Aus-es so that I could get it to throw! Went great, I think. Besides me pulling on it too hard and breaking the thing. (Whoops... I left the pieces by their house when we were done. It was obviously worn, but I feel like I should probably compensate them, or something.)
"Let's go get some water!" then we were on the playground outside our door, and he took off with the zooms! So I encouraged that instead of "lets go, lets go..." Had him sit to take off his leash so he could tear around safer. Cuz oh my. The sand was flying and he even slid when his front feet were too slow. So a little keep away, a little digging. And finally, the door---!
I dropped my keys on our walk! AUGH!
He was thoroughly exhausted, and walked very nicely with me as we back-tracked. Luckily, I found them at the corner of our little condo community, and we got inside and clean water to drink.
I also think that when I'm playing with him, my voice goes down into "HA-HAA"s (like in Leo's Fortune. Do I like the character so much cuz I laugh that way, or do I laugh that way because it amused me so hard? We may never know.)
This thing~ 1)very loud, 2) skip to 2:12 for a sample laugh.
So instead of forcing some falsetto "yeaaaah"s, I'll be trying the deeper puppy talk. Which is a huge relief in itself!
We certainly had much more fun today. I think that I used to be at least half fun, and didn't notice when it went away.
..................
Now sleepy dog is chilling on some tiles. He feel sad for him, having the grumbly tumbly. He's getting pumpkin and plain yogurt today. Maybe a fast is in order? I'm really confident its just another bacterial imbalance like last time, since it almost got better, and the rest of him seems a'ight. I'm being very strict with myself about sharing table treats.
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