# Oona's adventures in dog school



## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

Sounds like a fun experience, except for that corso/shepherd mix.

I would speak to the organizer/trainer. I wouldn’t want to walk my dog near this dog unless this dog is always on a leash so he doesn’t have a chance to cause harm. It only takes one time for your dog to be hurt either physically/emotionally or both. I think this training walk is fabulous and I hope the trainer can make this a safer situation for Oona.

Be careful about treats in zip lock bags. While many dogs pass the bags without issue, some need surgery.


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## Oonapup (Oct 16, 2020)

Skylar said:


> Sounds like a fun experience, except for that corso/shepherd mix.
> 
> I would speak to the organizer/trainer. I wouldn’t want to walk my dog near this dog unless this dog is always on a leash so he doesn’t have a chance to cause harm. It only takes one time for your dog to be hurt either physically/emotionally or both. I think this training walk is fabulous and I hope the trainer can make this a safer situation for Oona.
> 
> Be careful about treats in zip lock bags. While many dogs pass the bags without issue, some need surgery.


Thanks. I might also check in with the dog's owner on our fb group, I have a feeling she'd rather avoid this happening too and there are enough walks scheduled that it should be possible to avoid each other. I have all the big pieces of the bag. Any bits that she swallowed would be very small - I'm not too worried about it. But it comes a week after she swallowed a friend's reusable treat bag and had vomiting induced at the emergency vet, so stealing and swallowing is something we have to look out for and try to prevent.


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## Oonapup (Oct 16, 2020)

I haven't really been using this thread as I had intended, but I thought I would come back and update with a progress report. 

Oona has (FINALLY) passed level one at our school. It took a while because in order to pass you have to pass a list of behaviors, and a few of them were extra challenging for her (like stranger collar grab) or we had few opportunities to demonstrate since we were doing most of our classes outdoors (like the going through a door behavior). We finally passed! We have a few level 2 and 3 behaviors signed off as well, but a lot more to work on. We are enjoying the group classes, and even though Oona has started demand barking at me during the down stay at the start of class, I'm chalking that up to adolescent brain/boundary testing.










We did a recall intensive course with our dog school over the summer and one of the things we learned (in addition to lots of recall games and exercises) was to condition them to an emergency whistle. Yesterday I took her to the dog field where a frenemy of hers, a border collie called Maple (used to be pals but now things get too intense between them, mainly on Oona's part) was flirt-poling with her human. Not the best dog park activity but what can you do, it is an unofficial dog park and Oona seems to be the only dog for whom it is poses a "problem". As I've written before, Oona has a hard time not chasing and harassing dogs chasing balls, and this activity is equally if not more challenging for her. I kept her leashed for a while even though there were lots of other dogs to play with, in the hopes that this dog would finish up and leave and then Oona would be able to play. They didn't, but she seemed focused on the other dogs so I let her off to see what would happen. She stayed with the other dogs for a while, until she noticed her frenemy chasing her flirt pole and made a beeline for her. I emergency whistled - AND SHE CAME RIGHT BACK with enthusiasm before she could bark twice at the dog! Big reward, though I didn't have an extra high value treat like I had used to condition the whistle, so I will want to "recharge" the whistle soon with something extra special. I then let her go again and she left Maple alone until they were heading out, and when she went over to greet, they got a touch growly, and Oona recalled quickly to "come". What a good girl, and a major improvement. 

She does still have a tendency to demand bark at certain other dogs who are blowing her off, but knowing that I have been able to interrupt her before she gets into trouble gives me a lot more peace of mind about managing it. The tricky bit is that about 30% of the time her strategy still works to get the wrestle or game of chase she is hoping for, so it's getting partially reinforced. One of our trainers on our group dog walks is more willing to let the dogs do the correcting and the other is more into having me intervene, so we haven't been completely consistent. But overall she is building her self-control and connection to me, so that is very good.


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## Rose n Poos (Sep 22, 2017)

An update to be very proud of!


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

Huge congratulations for team Oona. Sounds like quite a demanding test and credit to you for making the commitment to train.


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## Liz (Oct 2, 2010)

Congratulations! Sounds lkke you've built a great foundation. Oona has a gorgeous poodle smile.


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## Oonapup (Oct 16, 2020)

We had our best day yet today in class. Oona was way more focused than she has been lately around the other dogs, and even tolerated the round robin down stay with only a couple of barks and stand-ups. I was also able to get her to play with a tug toy in class - a behavior we'd found oddly challenging. She loves to play tug, fetch and other games, but it's usually in specific locations, and I haven't been able to engage her with a proper game of tug at home when she's in "training" mode. I had brought a new toy, and she got really into it, we were able to play an arousal game. So there's some positive movement toward being able to use other reinforcers besides food. She was engaged enough with me that were able to work off tether for most of the class with her leash dragging - that was a first.


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## Oonapup (Oct 16, 2020)

We returned to class this week after about a month and a half off for post-spay recovery. Oona has a handful of behaviors left to pass level 2, after which we will be allowed to join some of the fun advanced classes, like novice rally, games, and tunnels and jumps! She was able to do the round-robin down stay off-tether again, which I was thrilled not to see a regression on after our time away. I'm learning that she is very nosy/busy and that the biggest challenges for her distraction are new people/dogs coming and going, and if anyone else barks. Watching other dogs play with their people is also hard for her but not as consistently distracting as other dogs barking. 

We have basically stopped going to the unofficial sports field dog park after getting shamed by one of the other dog owners after a particularly bad barky-pushy episode several weeks back (in December? I don't remember). I don't think a huge open space is a great environment for her and she still does not have self control when dogs are chasing balls. I had tried to avoid it when there is ball throwing happening but sometimes people show up part way through. Maybe we can work our way up/back to coming there again but at this point I think it's best to stay away. We haven't been in a while, but she does pretty great at dog parks where people circulate instead of congregate, and ones where she doesn't know most or any of the dogs, she also tends to behave better since she is more cautious and less brash. On our weekly off leash walks with her friend Jazz, she intermittently gets into her barky hassling but it isn't as obsessive or persistent and she can be interrupted. And when we see other dogs on these walks, she greets politely and disengages pretty quickly to keep walking and playing with her friend. 

We haven't been back on the dog school's group walks since her spay, but the last few ones we did in the winter were extremely high octane over threshold romps with way to much high speed chasing and not enough listening (from several dogs including Oona) and predictably lots of obnoxious barky behavior from our girl. She seems to target the same few dogs with her attentions - one really speedy English setter who likes to be chased (Oona obliges happily but it easily gets her out of control) and the head teacher's GSD. Luckily the head teacher usually brings us to the woods where the terrain forces Oona out of her obsessive pattern. But when we are in the open areas on the walk she is likeliest to try her goading moves. I can't figure out what she really wants, other than the other dog's attention, positive or negative. She seems to only do it with dogs she believes (accurately or not) won't get serious with her, and stops if they do. I think I will ask the teachers whether they think coming back on the group walks is a good idea or not. I'd like to believe she can improve, but having observed how she seems to repeat behaviors with the same dogs and in the same contexts makes me wonder whether this is something to be managed vs trained - and she doesn't 'need' to go on large off leash group walks.


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## Oonapup (Oct 16, 2020)

Oona passed level 2 today! Now we are able to participate in classes like rally, games, and tunnels and jumps. Picture to follow (I have nab it from the school's facebook after they post it).
The final behaviors we needed to pass, which I was not sure we would get, was a proofing activity which is to draw a random behavior from level one, which she did well, and to play a "yo yo game" where you play with a toy and get the dog riled up, stop and wait for their arousal to drop, and then click and start play again. We play this game at home all the time but it's harder to engage her with toys in class where she's in food/training mode, and where when I stop the game, it's easier for her to disengage and watch the other dogs and people working than to stay focused on play. What did the trick today was a novel tug toy from the class tickle trunk. She then practiced her down stay on tether while I helped do collar grabs with some of the new puppies in class. This was not perfect (she got up a few times), but watching me interact with other dogs is a new thing and a big challenge for her.


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## Rose n Poos (Sep 22, 2017)

Great work Team Oona!


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

Congratulations on your excellent team work.


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## Streetcar (Apr 13, 2014)

Good job, team Oona!


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## Oonapup (Oct 16, 2020)

Here is our level 2 ribbon photo!


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