Training day 9

6:27 AM

I read quite a bit before falling asleep last night, which would explain the difficulty in waking up this morning. The book was really good (It's called "Rules of Civility"), and I had the heating pad wrapped around my stupid knee. Speaking of which, it seems slightly better this morning, but we'll just have to see as the day goes. It still hurts when it's bent, just not nearly as badly. I'm going to reframe from kneeling today, not that that's something I do very often anyway.

Arden seems to be warming up to me, guys! Now, when I wake up and approach him, he's wagging his tail and going for his bone and making all sorts of very cute snuffling noises that are still very dignified and ardenesque.

Alright, off to get dressed, get breakfast, and then do work in buildings! Yes, this means my yellow prince will be riding an escalator with his boots on!

11:39 AM

Ok, so this morning we did buildings. We actually did a short route to the first building, which was basically walking in a straight line. The walk to the building was pretty good--we worked past a dog distraction, and I used a technique that I've honed over the years. as we approached the dog, I could tell he was a bit interested, but not overly distracted. I began to very purposefully clear my throat, and his head snapped forward again, and he expertly guided me right around the distraction. There were also a ton of GDB training vans parked along the street, which was cause for a bit of visual distraction on the part of Sir Arden. He didn't actually stop at them though, which was wonderful. As we approached the first building, a dog my instructor didn't trust was chilling on the sidewalk, lunging about all rabid and insane. Instead of having my dog work past him, she had me take her arm and heel him past the distraction. as we suspected, the weird dog sort of lunched toward my dog, and I firmly grabbed my dog's leash close to his collar and quickly walked on.

He's so funny when we approach stairs going up. They're supposed to just place their front paws on the bottom step, so that their body arches upwards slightly, alerting you to the bottom step. well, my dog's so tall and a bit eager to find stairs, and he always places his front paws on the second step! so we stop, and here he is, looming all giant-like and standing perfectly still. As cute as it was, I do prefer for his front paws to be on the first step, so we reworked it and he did well. In the building itself, he was targeting all sorts of things: elevators, stairs, doorways. Although he wouldn't always find exactly what it was I was asking for, he would always find something that was important. and it's not like the word "elevator" is firmly ensconced in their vocabulary or anything, so the fact that my dog was at least finding things that I would find important in a building was really useful. He is also very, very careful when going down stairs, stopping at all landings and being very cautious. I'll jump at the chance to do some more work in buildings, because I want him to be really comfortable working in them.

We then headed back to the lounge, and he again did very well at completely ignoring a stranger (ahem, another trainer) who was going all nuts over him and trying to attract him to her. We had to pattern him with kibble a bit to get him to turn into the lounge driveway, but he's also got that down pat. So, all in all, a good route. Not nearly as perfect as some of the others, but still a solid route.

2:43 Pm

So at lunch, something really funny happened. One of my classmates managed to get our attention.

"Guys," she said, "I can actually bark like a dog."

"Really?" We were skeptical; everyone can make dog-barking noises.

"Should I do it? Will I get in trouble?"

We all encouraged her to do it, thinking it would be largely inconsequential. When she did it, I could have sworn to anything in the world that there was a small Chihuahua in the room. And the dogs reacted, too! Most of them stood up (including sir Arden), and inched forward. It was the most accurate dog impression I've ever heard in my life. we're going to get her to hide behind a couch in the lounge one day, and have the class supervisor come in. It'll mess with his head a bit, I think.

After lunch, we had a brief lecture from someone in the development department. he talked to us about donations, and just how it is people can go about soliciting them, or even how people can include GDB in their will. There's also a GDB legacy society, comprised of people who've intended to GDB that they'll be somehow included in their estate upon their death (the donor's death, not GDB's! long live GDB!).

Anyway, I wrote that all in a hurry because I just finished the clicker workshop! we had to crate the dogs while we learned how to use the clicker, because a) we actually had to learn how to use them; and b) we needed to get all the clicking out of our system. Believe me, as soon as I had that little clicker in my hand, I was click click clicking to my heart's content. So we actually got to practise clicking on wheeler.

In short, the clicker is used to reward the dog for a very precise action. So, as soon as your dog, say, targets something you want it to, you click, and then reward with food. Similar to how Pavlov's bells got the dogs to drool in anticipation of food, the clicker signals an oncoming treat. You start by getting the dog to target your closed fist, which  most dogs are actually very willing to do; it's sort of like a freebie reward to the dog, and sets the dog up. Then, you use that same fist and place it against the actual thing you want your dog to target. You keep repeating it, gradually increasing the distance until your dog is showing you the target, instead of you showing the dog the target. The clicker isn't only used for finding things, although that's one of its more popular uses. I know it's a bit confusing, so if you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer them. It seems to be effective, but I suppose we'll see when we take the dogs for a clicker test drive! I'm really excited!

4:04 Pm

We just got back from our clicker walk. We walked to an outdoor courtyard that's very open-concept, and has a lot of outdoor seating. Our target was a bench, and so we had the dog target it. He worked like a charm! It was not long before he was just finding the bench of his own accord, with a simple "find the bench" command from me. Now, we were of course teaching him to target that specific bench--not anything that looks like a seat or a bench in general. If I wanted, I would target more and more seats, each time telling him to "find the bench". The goal would eventually be for him to find anything that resembles a seating surface. On our way back to the lounge, his pace was a bit slow, but it was also because it's disgustingly hot out. At his slowest pace though, his pace is still acceptable to me. The great thing about him is that he doesn't dawdle, basically ever. Even when he's walking slow, his guiding remains purposeful and he remains alert. He even skillfully ignored a cat and several random strangers who were of a rather "colourful" character.

One thing I noticed about Arden that I love so much is that he seems to always walk on the socially appropriate sides of things--down the right sides of hallways, closer to the right of the sidewalk. When people pass us by, it's usually on my left, which is generally how I want it. Some dogs sort of drift around, or even walk against the flow of pedestrian traffic, and in my experience, there's not all that much you can do about that. But to noone's surprise, he's very socially appropriate! haha, we passed this one place called the "aroma" something or other, and he was pretty determined to take me into it. My instructor told me that when I talk to his trainer, I should ask her if she ever took him there!

She also said that my dog is hard on himself. When he makes a mistake, or if we have to re-work something, he begins licking his lips and sort of gazes up at me apologetically--her words, not mine. She thinks we're both hard on ourselves! how cute is that!

6:40 PM

Forty minutes ago, I sat with my dog on a rug here in my bedroom. He snuggled up to me, lay his head and upper body in my lap, and went to sleep. about fifteen minutes later, I was about to get up, but then he let out one of those long, drawn-out, "I'm so relaxed and content with my life" sighs, and I could not move a muscle. So I sat there, eventually slouching because I couldn't sit straight any longer, and felt the weight of his beautiful, warm body against my lap. And I stroked his ears and ran my fingers through his fur. I knew I wouldn't be getting myself up any time soon; the moment was one of those magical ones, and you know that you'll spoil it even if you lean over to scratch an itch, or even if you breathe too deeply. So I sat with him, and I sang to him. I sang "A Thousand years", and also Billy Joel's "And so it goes", which is here:

While I sat there, I thought about the millions of ways in which Arden has changed my life. And it's not as though he's even my first dog, so I can't really explain why I melt into a Shermeen puddle every time I think about him. He's just so earnest, so purposeful, and so, so incredibly kind and gentle. And I want to handle him with the hands of an angel, even though mine are unskilled and a bit tentative at best. I want to give him everything he's given me and more, and sometimes I just feel so ill-equipped. I'm no dog whisperer; hell, I didn't even like dogs until recently. I've said it before and I'll say it again: he owns me.

I'm going to go to the hot tub in a bit with some friends in a bit. Rumour has it that Shiraz and cab may also be in town, so whaddaya know? Nothing like a bit of imbibement!

8:12 pm

 Hanging out in the hot tub was relaxing, as I expected. I didn't end up getting a drink, but that was more than made up for by the great conversations I had with a few of my classmates. I'm going to relieve this big beast soon, and then head to bed as early as possible. even when I sleep at 10:00, I'm having difficulty waking up at 6:00, which is kind of ridiculous. Goodnight, everyone. And thanks again for following along and caring.