Report card

Maya (and me) got a report card of sorts at K9-1 dog training. We flunked.

She (we) were judged in six categories: toys, food, furniture, pets, play and walks. There were three possible "grades": provided (which was passing), entitled (which was failing) and question mark (meaning isn't wasn't clear).

The idea is the dog shouldn't feel entitled. In the pack structure the leader provides for the rest of the pack and a family dog has to know the owners are the pack leaders and the dog is low on the pack hierarchy.

Does the dog get to have its toys when it wants?
Does she get her food whenever she wants it, rather than when the leader allows?
Does she get on the couches or beds (a big area of potential problems should she decide later to defend her space from someone trying to move her off the furniture, especially someone she doesn't know very well, or a child).
Does she get attention on demand?
Does she demand play and get it?
Does she scratch at the door or otherwise indicate when she wants to go out or come in?

Maya failed four and got questions in play and walks.

Look, in fairness to me, Molly had to admit she was the culprit when it came to giving Maya attention on demand, and, if truth be told, Meche is the one who leaves food out for Maya in the morning and doesn't pick it up when the dog doesn't eat it. Besides Maya really only eats dinner and that's partially because she prefers her dry food with a little bit of canned food and some water. But, hey, I had to buck up and take the rap.

We're working on the rest, especially the furniture and are doing really well with that, particularly with the living room couch. On the basement couch, she still likes to join us to watch TV but we tolerate it a lot less and she's being really good about getting off when told. Also, she's consequently taking to using her crate more regularly on her own just as a resting and sleeping place with the door open in the middle of the day. That's great progress!

Failing Maya

Some days I feel like I'm failing Maya. I take her regularly for training, but then during the week it's difficult to keep up the practice. I come home and there are so many other distractions, dinner, the kids, errands and just generally being tired. Fortunately, Fionna gave her a good walk yesterday, all the way to the high school and environs and back. That's at least three miles, since it's 1.5 miles to school. And I walked her another day, both those times on a leash—not her preference—and I tried to do heeling with her, but she was pretty rambunctious. Eventually she settled down.

She's pretty good when in class, once she calms down! Last week there was a new dog in training, a sweet Rottweiler—with an intact tail!—and it was killing Maya not to be able to visit her. She's called Bella, a very popular name for pups these days, which I'm sure is after the Twilight twit. Another guy has a nervous German shepherd that's also named Bella. She's also sweet but very leery of other people and dogs. She's okay with Maya to a point.

No choice but to redouble effort to work with Maya more. We need to get to the next level, with its heavier obedience, which she needs. In fairness, I see improvements in her behavior. She's much better about staying off the couch these days, at least in the main living room, and in the basement gets down readily when told. She's also getting better about how she greets people and is getting better at going to her space when told, and has lately taken to voluntarily going into her crate to rest. All in all, I guess it's more positive than I was thinking when I started this entry. As I headed it, Failing Maya, she's not failing, but I'm failing her. She's smart and learns readily. On the other hand, she's just a little more than 14 months old. That's like being 10 years old. She like a fifth grader! She's in her prime learning age—and is staying in school!

Sheep crossing?

Found the strangest thing one day in the wilderness. I wandered off the trail a bit, mostly out of boredom, and I found the stream that ran along side the trail just disappeared at one point into the ground. The closer I looked I realized it wasn't natural. Someone had laid huge flat stones over a section, maybe 20-30 feet or so.
 
Then at the other end, it came out of a little channel, since the grade sloped downward there. I was really amazed at who and why someone would do that. It seemed logical that is was a sort of crossing, probably for animals since given the stone walls that abound there, it was most likely fields probably a hundred years ago, maybe less.

Then across the stream, maybe another 30 feet was the ruins of some sort of foundation into the side of the hill, with the entrance clearly on the inside of the hill. That made me think it was probably a pen for the animals, but it was fairly small and not too well reinforced. Too small for cows, I think, but maybe not for sheep. But I'm not sure because I think sheep would be more sure-footed and less likely to need a smooth walkway across the rather rugged stream. Time to do some more research.

This enclosure seems too small for cattle but maybe might have adequately sheltered sheep from bad weather, when once it was covered and more built up.

Ribbony way

My rambling adventures with Maya continued over the weekend when I found an obscure mountain biking trail on the backside of the mountain. It was a wonderfully ribbony switchback and eventually connected with the main trail to the top. As we were ascending about 4:30 p.m. on Saturday it began to snow, a granular snow propelled by a hard wind coming across the reservoir. I was happy to have dressed warmly with gloves and was confident the trail was going to hit the main one—there wasn't really any other option—or I'd have been worried about getting caught in a storm in the woods. The reality is that I know what roads border the area and I could easily find my way out, though if it were dark the walk could be treacherous. We ended up hiking 4.5 miles and coming out just after sunset. We've had such little snow this year that it was great to be out in it and Maya seemed to thoroughly enjoy herself, following the trail like she'd been there plenty of times before.

The ribbony switchback trail on the north side of the mountain, taken just as the trail began to ascend. From high up the curve of the trails isn't so clearly discernible as it climbs somewhat sharply. Shortly after the photo was take it started to snow.

Maya with her 'trench coat' at the wilderness the morning after a light snowfall.
That's really the first time she's worn it outside and it is already a bit tight on her.

The day before at the wilderness we ran into Kay and her Lab named Maggie, one of Maya's first friends from our outings. Kay first told me about the wilderness and I repaid her by tipping her off to the mountain. On Friday she told me she and her family had been away for three weeks and boarded Maggie at a place upstate with acres fenced in for the dogs to run, and for only $30 to $35 a day. We're planning to be in Peru this summer for maybe up to three weeks and this may be just what we were looking for, as I've been hesitant to commit because I just didn't know what to do with Maya. Meche and I are going to check it out and leave her overnight one weekend next month. We'll use that as an excuse for a little get away by ourselves. Plus, I really like heading north where it's more rural and even more wooded. Fionna is going to camp up in the Adirondacks over July 4th weekend and knowing we might have a nice place to board Maya will give us an excuse to stay over a few nights ourselves and explore. Maybe I'll go even farther north and visit my mother's family. Haven't seen them since her funeral. Maybe we'll do that when we pick up Fionna, as I want her to get to know a little more of Grammy's side as well.

Good girls

A half hour of tossing a ball with Maya in the yard tonight was quite effective. She's mellowed and sacked out. Molly walked her for about 10 minutes after school as well. Good girl! Both of them.

Dog tired

For two days Maya has been behaving extremely well in the evenings. Then again, we walked four miles yesterday, meeting up with another dog walker and her beautiful gray Weimaraner, who gets along great with Maya. So last night Maya was sacked out—unfortunately still on the downstairs couch as we haven't come up with something else for her to sleep on down there while we're watching TV.

Today, since I was off from work, I took her for a long walk on the mountain, going around the north side where we eventually came to an incredible meadow. On the way back we veered off onto a mountain bike path and came out at the top of an abandoned rock quarry. That was a bit nervy—finding Maya looking over the edge. The area is all wooded over now but it was clearly dug out and strewn with broken rock. Anyway we went four and half miles, and Maya slept the rest of the afternoon in her crate, and is still sacked out downstairs. Cliche but true: A tired dog is a good dog.

Pack structure revisted

Sometimes you have to go back to basics. I think we need to do this with Maya, with whom we are having some pack structure issues, most notably over her getting up on the furniture. Unfortunately, we've lapsed in keeping Maya off the couches and the other day we had a problem with that when some friends were over.

We tired to keep Maya off the couches, though allowed an exception in the basement family area, while trying to keep the main living room for us. The problem is that while the daycare is in session in the basement, Maya is alone upstairs in the living room and dining room area. For a while we laid baby gates across the sofa and love seat to keep her off, but somehow that practice lapsed, in part because it meant removing them to sit down ourselves and they were unsightly. Besides, Maya is such a good dog and generally got down without much resistance. We even put a blanket there to keep the couch clean while she was on it.

Well, when DV was over the other night with his wife and kids, he was sitting on the couch and Maya kept jumping up. He pushed her off and for a while she found something else to entertain herself, but later she returned and was much more insistent. DV was much rougher in pushing her than I am with her and in fairness to Maya, I think that was provoking her. She may have thought it was a game. I ended up putting her in her crate. DV—whose pup Sibirius is in the same dog training that Maya is—reminded me that the trainers aren't in favor of letting dogs on the furniture, except when invited and then only briefly, and that it was a key part of maintaining pack structure. Because Sibirius is in puppy class, when a lot of the basics are explained, he is hearing these things now, while we've passed that and are into more advanced training. Obviously, he was right. I can't have Maya insisting on her right to the couch!

Basically, dogs respond to pack structure by nature—they innately understand the rules—and this applies to dogs living with human families, which become their pack. They expect to follow the leader of the pack—the alpha—and will either try to take leadership if it's not clear or will become confused and insecure, leading to behavior problems, particularly if they're basically a submissive follower.

The incident with Maya and the couch has forced me to rethink how we're handling this. Meche and I agree we have to reassert this and I just reread the whole section on pack structure on our trainer's web site: www.k9-1.com

Access to the details of the web site is limited to those who are members, but the following is an excerpt from the portion on pack structure that deals with furniture.

 

Resting areas are considered prized possessions in dog society, so the subject of allowing your dog use of furniture and human beds is closely related to the rules used for other possessions. ...

 

Not letting the tail wagging members of the family on the furniture and beds will help clarify that it is not the dog’s possession. In a nutshell, we need to create boundaries for our dogs. If we treat our dogs like people they are prone to treat us like dogs. When Skippy growls and snips at another dog for going on his little dog bed it is considered normal, but when he does this to the face of a toddler on the family couch it is unacceptable. If dogs are not allowed to share our resting places there can’t be any ownership disputes with humans involving furniture. ... Thousands of dog bites can be avoided per year if dog owners just followed this rule. There are countless documented cases ranging from a tiny Pomeranian killing a baby to a Pit Bull killing an adult—all the result of dogs with no boundaries having disputes as to who owns the furniture. ...

 

Some of you reading this rule will find it conflicting with your desires to endlessly stroke your soft coated pooch as you sit back on your couch and watch “Gone with the Wind”. This is normal for us since we are primates and that’s what primates do, sit around and groom and stroke. If this is what you must do, just know it does nothing for the dog but create an unnatural addiction, and make it almost impossible to create the leadership and mental balance that the dogs needs to excel in a human world.

 

It is not an impossibility to have a well balanced dog that will go on furniture and beds—strictly when invited as a privilege—but you would never want to do this unless you have a dog that is not having any behavioral problems and is used to living as a follower of humans. To give that privilege prematurely, will make it almost impossible to troubleshoot any problems and train your dog easily. For dogs with a history of aggression toward humans or of a breed that is capable of causing serious harm to a human I would recommend a permanent ban from these places.

 

So, back to basics, Maya. Now, to figure out the logistics of that ...