Ground Scenting in Slow Motion!

Here is a very short video clip of Lusi ground scenting in slow motion, (10% original speed): We had been playing on the playing fields at the school when Lusi suddenly broke off from her game of chasing a plastic bottle, and started to ground scent. The field was snow covered except for a few patches where the children had been rolling their snowballs in the process of building their snowman. 


The bare ground proved to be a scent sink of little childrens' footprints and got the following response from Lusi as shown in the video! You can see that Lusi follows the scent along the grass and determines that it is restricted to the patches of grass and does not extend over the snow. The motion of her nose on the ground is akin to a vacuum cleaner as it takes in, what is to her, all new scents. I have also noticed how she delimits the scent zone; no, she says, it does not go further along there, and so she turns, and then does the same ground scenting in the opposite direction. After she has determined that the tracks are limited to the one location and do not lead off anywhere, she breaks off ground scenting, and as suddenly as she started she finishes and goes back to her game with the plastic bottle!


LUSI GROUND SCENTING (SLOW MOTION VIDEO)

I discovered from a recent TVO program: The Science of Dogs, made by National Geographic 2007, that the average canine olfactory system is made up of more than 220 million olfactory centres, in contrast to 10-20 million that a person has! The dog uses its olfactory system to analyze the landscape.

What do you do when it's just too icy on the sidewalk?

A surprising outcome to today's walk when I discover that it is just too icy on the sidewalks and darn, I seem to have twisted my foot again! Then, just when I'm thinking that I need to turn back and go home, I decide to make a detour onto the school playing fields. 




Lusi and I discover that you can find lots of new interesting things to do for half an hour on the playing fields.....you can check out the snowmen the kids have built, (all those interesting scent trails around them too,) and have a game of soccer and then a game of chase with an empty plastic bottle. 


After all these games you're a pretty happy Dal! In fact, so happy, that you walk home with almost impeccable manners...and did you ever amaze those motorists stopped at the crossing as you floated across the intersection at the traffic lights, all poise and glamour on the leash!


Of course, after the soccer play games, we did some hand target games to build on our engagement and loose leash walking skills.

• Hand target game on a loose leash.

Stealing Rewards!

THE PROBLEM: There are already some rewards that 8 month old Lusi has learned she can steal from me!

• Counter Surfing (Almost anything is fair game for her, but especially food left on the counter, any plastic container and the counter cloth. She will shred plastic as though she is a plastic shredder!
• Chewing my spectacles. I swear that she can sniff them out!
• Barking outdoors (At squirrels?) Early in the morning when I let her out to do her morning business, Lusi has started barking. I would walk her, but it is just too icy early in the morning at the moment.
• Hugs and kisses. When I am on the computer she will ask for a hug and kiss by putting her front paws and body over my lap and give me a kiss. .....it feels nice and cute but I know she is stealing because I did not invite her for a cuddle.

The chihuahuas taking over
Lusi's crate!

THE SOLUTION: NILIFF! (Nothing In Life Is For Free). 
It's time to admit it...Lusi is starting to train me quite nicely! I have to get a handle on these bad habits! I think that especially in the morning, when the "counter surfing" offences are most likely to be committed, Lusi must stay in her crate unless I can watch her with full supervision or unless she is on a leash on her mat next to me at the computer. This, however, presupposes that her crate is actually "vacant" and that the chihuahuas are not relaxing in Lusi's crate instead of their own; "it's just so-oo-o comfortable," they tell me!


The barking first thing in the morning is an issue I cannot think of an adequate response to.

Leash training a Dalmatian

Our leash training has been a little up and down. I started Lusi walking in a harness and at 5 months old she was quite good. At our agility classes she learned the beginning basics of heel work and was responding very nicely to this training with one caveat...coming into the building and leaving it she was always very excited and pulled a lot. In contrast, when she arrived for her tracking class, she was very much calmer..but this was an outdoor venue in a natural setting and even when there more dogs actually present on the parking lot, the whole atmosphere was much calmer.


Up until I hurt my foot just prior to the holidays I was almost exclusively the handler at all times. This changed somewhat when both my husband and daughter helped to exercise Lusi when I was unable to do this. Now we are the other side of the holidays and have returned to our exercising routines, with the occasional exception when the weather is so cold we must change to an indoor routine.


What I am finding now though is that Lusi is not responding to me in the same way when I ask her to heel with me. We did get one very nice walk around the subdivision one day, when she clearly was responding to the treats offered and we ended up doing heel work in and out of the trees planted on the verge and through other street objects.


I decided that perhaps the thing to do was to increase the amount of leash walking now and reduce the freedom that Lusi has enjoyed! Yesterday I took her for two walks. The second was better than the first but still quite an effort to hold her as she pulled. The worst part is the swerving from one side to the other which means that it is easy to trip up over her especially on the ice.


Today I put her harness back on and I have to admit she seemed a lot happier not having the leash pulling on her neck. It was still not an easy walk though, despite her giving a loose leash at times there were other moments when she pulled unexpectedly which really jarred on my neck or back. Then just as we getting close to home we saw Jasper and his owner. Lusi and Jasper have played together a few times now and enjoy one another but on their leashes they are both a handful. Jasper was wearing a gentle leader but still he tore around Lusi in circles and she managed to get herself tangled up in her lead and then to back out of her harness completely. It could have been a disaster so close to the road but fortunately I managed to grasp her collar and clip her leash back onto her collar. So now I am a bit at a loss to know where to go from here as far as walking her goes.


I did buy a gentle leader but after trying it on her a few times trying to get her used to the feel before we use it on a walk I always get the same response; she scratches at it and rolls on the floor. I know these signs of old from years ago when I used one on our male GSP. He never did like it or ever really got used to it.


In looking at a Dal web forum recently I saw a short article on how Dals have a natural trotting gait and that this appears to be why so many Dals do not like to walk on a leash as it forces a less natural movement on them. They suggested using a gentle leader with a leash that was a little longer so that the Dal could move ahead of its person. I am beginning to feel as though I have come full circle on this issue. I tried this idea of allowing Lusi a little longer leash and found it of no help at all. Sure she liked it better, but she was more difficult to manage as she swept left and right in larger arcs than usual. The gentle leader I am still holding fire on.
..............................................................................................


After trying different ways of walking her this week I found that I have had the most success when doing the following:

• Using high value treats.
• Insisting right through the walk that she is mannerly.
• Keeping her attention on me.
• Using a collar at the highest point on her neck where it has more head control effect and requires less pulling.
• Not giving her a long leash, although not so short as to require a formal heel.
• Walking a bit more slowly and in a more relaxed manner than the normal fast paced walk I usually do.
• Walking her when she is hungry and will respond to the treats not when she has just been fed.

I found that Lusi learned remarkably quickly that as soon as she stopped pulling she got rewarded with a treat and she very quickly settled into a gentle walk by my side walking at a slowish pace. With the collar set high on her neck I did not have to engage in a tug of war with her; the action was much more of a correction followed immediately by a release of the pressure. I got the occasional pull from her as we passed by people shovelling snow off their driveways, and by a dog that persistently barks as it runs its own fence-line, but that was only about 15% of the total distractions, the other 85% she coped with. Doing this as the children came home from school added to these distractions so she did very well today. It seems like another break through!

Article for British Carriage Dog Society Newsletter 2012

Introducing Lusi, First Canadian BCDS Member!

My name is Lusi, short for Onsengeltje Lusaka: I am eight months old now. I was born in New Brunswick at Dutch Kennels, (my mother is Dutch as is my breeder), and I am now living in Ontario, Canada with my new family, Elizabeth, John, and the three chihuahuas; Remy, (my best friend) and Loki, (who is friendly to me sometimes) and Cola (who is old and grumpy!) There is also Victoria who is sometimes home and who loves to play silly games with me and then there is Dande, the Morgan horse, who I go to visit at the barn.

My mistress tells me that I am very beautiful, she loves my liver spottedness and my soft eyes, the silky feel of my coat, my friendliness and exuberance. She tells me that I remind her of Zuli, a very special German Shorthaired Pointer that she had many years ago in England when she was first married. This was before she moved first to Germany, where she learned to ride, and then to Canada, where after more than fifteen years of not having a horse she succumbed to the draw of driving and bought a two year old Morgan pony.

“Quite ridiculous!” was what everyone said! So why on earth had she bought a completely green pony? Anyone with any sense at all knows that a green horse and a green rider is a bad idea; even more so when it comes to driving. Well, this is her story and in a way it is also my story too.

My mistress had made a very short trip back to the UK to visit family. It was a shorter trip than usual, only seven days long in May 2008. The days flew passed so quickly but a remarkable thing happened during those few days. She was taken out by her sister in a Bennington cart put to Honey, a pony that had recently been acquired as a riding pony, but which she was assured also drove. Well, sitting up there on the bench seat with her sister driving, was the most thrilling thing that my mistress had felt for years. She loved the clip clopping sound as they made their way through the old village of Brixworth in Northamptonshire. It seemed as though every part of her heritage had suddenly culminated in those few moments to give this most profound experience, this perfect moment.

In a flash, the visit was over and my mistress had returned to Nova Scotia where she was living at that time. Within two weeks she had discovered a driving clinic and was heading out with a small photograph printed out from her computer in her pocket. The photograph, showing a two year old bay Morgan, with a somewhat Arab look on the dish-faced youngster, stayed in her pocket until the last night of the clinic. Amidst the clinking of glasses and the story telling, she showed the photo to her new friends telling them that she had just bought a driving pony. Well, they just about fell off their chairs!

The Morgan breeder, as it turned out, had a contact in Ontario who had agreed to break Dande to harness; and oh my, what a contact it turned out to be, Kirsten Brunner. After the first ten weeks of training, Dande faced the long ordeal in mid September 2009 of being shipped from Ontario to Nova Scotia. For two years my mistress made the 3 hour trip to the Morgan barn where Dande continued his training and where she was learning to drive. They competed in their first year of Morgan breed driving shows in 2010!

In another curious change my mistress and family then moved back to Ontario, and Dande went back to Kirsten Brunner's barn at Beaverwood Farm where my mistress and Dande worked even harder and started competing in Pleasure shows and CDEs.

My mistress cannot tell me exactly when it was that she knew she must have a Dalmatian in her life. She thinks that the idea came to her at the driving shows. Then, apparently she decided that it must be a liver girl Dal! The search began and then the wait. They waited eight months for me to arrive and when I did they were so very delighted. I was bigger than they thought I would be when they arrived to collect me at eight weeks old and I grew like a weed.

The long trip back from Dutch Kennels in New Brunswick where I had been born to our new home in Ontario was about 22 hours long. It meant from henceforth that I would always be happy to be in the truck with my mistress close beside me and I regularly made the trip with her to the barn to see Dande. Wherever my mistress went, I went.

She told me right from the start that I was going to be a carriage dog and that I had to learn how to behave around the horses and how I must get used to all the different smells and sounds at the farm. Dande, she said, was used to dogs but not all the other horses were quite so accepting. There was a long list of barn rules; do not eat poop, do not chase the cats.....it was hard to remember all those rules.

My best memories of our first summer were of being taken to the big fields after the harvest. My mistress would walk Dande on a lead-line to graze and I would play under the apple tree with the apples, tossing them in the air and running after them. Sometimes I saw a low flying bird and I would scamper after it across the field and then if I had gone too far I would race back at a speed of lightning, my gaze fixed firmly on my mistress. I learned to stretch out, elongate my stride and float effortlessly across the terrain.

First ride on a marathon carriage
at Kentucky Horse Park.

I went with my mistress to some of the shows too. There were lots of people there. Best of all were the CDEs, because I got long walks along the cross country course and then there would be a shout and we would duck into the side tightly as the marathon vehicles rattled passed us at high speed. Of course I got lots of petting too which was nice. Then in October, when I was four months old, we went for a long trip to Kentucky to the National Drive. My mistress thought that she had died and gone to heaven. If ever there was paradise on earth then surely it was the Kentucky Horse Park. Sometimes I had to sit quietly outside the doors of Dande's stall, sometimes I got long walks and sometimes I got to ride on the back of the marathon vehicle with Kilby sitting close to me holding treats and talking to me as my mistress drove. 

Just short of a Dal!

I got a lovely rosette for doing this too, although my mistress had put some funny orange clothes on me which I wasn't so keen on! I also met three other Dals there and watched them as they went about their business of working at axle.

When we came back from Kentucky, I heard my mistress telling my master, that we had done the basics but that she didn't really understand how to train me to be a real carriage dog. She did not know of anyone else nearby who had a Dal and drove. She did meet some people at one of the local CDEs who said I looked just like their lovely Dal but that had been many years ago.

Everybody in the family starting searching for information about how to train me to axle! My mistress was worried about making a bad job of the training because she did not know enough. She said that she found bits about training me and we worked on my basic obedience and I got to run alongside a bicycle for a little bit towards the end of the summer, just to get me used to the idea of a wheel. One day, my mistress found some videos about Road Trials on the Dalmatian Club of America website and then my mistress' relatives sent a link from the UK from the Horse and Hound Forum talking about working Dals. That was how she learned about the British Carriage Dog Society and also of John Wilmot. She started emailing John and talked to him on the phone about me. Then a bit later she got a package in the post and showed me a little silver broach that she had got from the British Carriage Dog Society. She was very pleased with this and I watched her reading the first newsletter when it arrived just before Christmas. She said it was her best Christmas present.

Recently, my mistress has been emailing Celia Gilbert and I think they are exchanging “naughty” stories. She says that I am naughty when I chew things that do not belong to me and that I cannot be trusted in the new truck on my own, right now. It seems that her GSP dug a hole in the car seat many years ago and she thinks I might just do the same. She says we must get a crate for the truck for me, at least until I have stopped teething and chewing. I am not so keen on the idea but I do miss going down to the barn, even in the snow and ice, and the minus eighteen degree temperatures! The mail arrives bringing the new show schedules for this year and I am hearing more about Dande looking well and his being ready to hitch again, very soon. I have to admit that I have been a bit bored since the New Year and the very cold weather has curtailed our long walks and the barn trips but all this looks as though it will change for the better very soon! My mistress has been blogging my puppy training since the New Year on http://educatinglusi.blogspot.com/ and hopes to have lots of our carriage driving training on it soon! She thinks it is wonderful for us both to have new friends across the pond!

Carriage Driving Update

We are once again in training with Dande! From the time he was laid off last November, Dande has been ridden under saddle for a month and now we are long lining and lungeing three times a week. The progress made has been really good and he is looking well and is already quite fit again. It is surprising just how much more built he looks around the quarters and the neck now that he has matured once again over the winter. He is now rising six.

Dande our Morgan Carriage Driving Pony
enjoying the sunshine after a work out on Sunday!

Next week we should be ready to hitch again and after a couple more weeks of driving I think we could try Lusi out with the carriage in the arena, but on a leash of course!
I have been in contact with members from the British Carriage Dog Society, of which I am now a member, and have been delighted to have feedback on how they get their Dals to train at the axle of the carriage.

Corncobs, Scent detection and "Find it" skills!

You might wonder what on earth corncobs have to do with Lusi and her tracking skills. Well, apparently Lusi has just demonstrated how she can use scent detection to find a corncob that has just been handled by my husband as he picks it up off the field and throws it for her to fetch!


On the first occasion John picked up a corncob, wearing microfibre gloves, and threw it for Lusi to find. She ran to the general area, sniffing through the random corncobs trying to locate the one just thrown but was not sure which of the cobs to bring back and returned without one.


The next throw, John took his gloves off and threw the cob. Lusi saw where it landed, ran out, and located the cob almost immediately and returned with it.

Scent detecting in the cornfield.

On the third throw, John threw it again without gloves on; Lusi did not see where it landed but heard it drop and immediately turned her head to the direction of the noise and ran out towards where it had dropped. She ran passed, did a half circle back and when in line with John did a second smaller locating half circle where upon she located it and returned with it.

The "with" and "without" glove test was repeated once again with almost identical results! Clearly Lusi was relying on scent detection to find which corncob to retrieve.

Lusi and Remy start crate games!

The weather is again forcing us to do more indoor training!
Today Lusi sits happily and watches from her open crate as Remy gets his 5 minute training session.

Lusi watches from her open crate as
Remy gets his 5 minute training session!

She waits until I say the "Break!"command before she comes out of her crate.


Remy did well too! He did a few puppy push-ups, (the sit-stand-down transitions). 


Crate Games:
Then we worked on the command for Remy to race into his crate, "Remy in the house!" This was the first time we have done this with Remy, and I was delighted when in he popped as quick as a flash! He cannot sustain the stay in the open crate for long when there are distractions; but we are coming along nicely with the crate games. He certainly liked to be released from the crate with the "Break!" command and he reached me faster than Lusi did..so that was our first crate game race!

Crate game prepping!

Lusi and Remy learning to stay in their
crates- doors open!

Learning to sit and wait with the crate door open!
Today I started our first indoor training session by rearranging the crates for Lusi and Remy placing them side by side. The aim is to get both of the dogs used to going into their own crate while I do a few minutes of training with each of them separately. This means that one of them must sit and wait in their crate with the crate door open and watch the other one do a bit of training. This is a great way to build up their ability to resist distractions. 


Lusi is beginning to get the idea and I found that I could work with Remy for a few minutes while Lusi stayed in her crate and watched. This sitting and waiting in the crate while the door is open is now building on what we have already done with Lusi previously when she goes into her crate and waits for the food preparation to be done.


Remy, however, is only just beginning to understand that I want him to stay in the crate even though the door is open; this was a new concept for him as we have not asked him to do this before. Remy is crate trained to the extent that we can put him in the crate and he will settle, but he does not see the crate as "home" nor as a great place to be! Now that I have seen how we have shaped Lusi's behaviour towards the crate I want to do the same with Remy!


The idea behind this training is that we gradually build up Lusi's and Remy's abilities to do crate games alongside of one another and similarly train alongside one another.

Crate training break through!

Until today our crate use for Lusi has been almost exclusively restricted to having Lusi in the crate with the crate door open. Only when we went to our agility classes was I actually closing the crate door out of necessity for the class. I have been introducing closing the crate door on Lusi for a few minutes at a time over the past two weeks or so. Just popping her in and letting her out a minute or so later.

Lusi settled in her crate.
Lusi now calls it home!

This morning we seem to have had our first big break through on this! I had a flat tire on the truck and we needed to be outside when the CAA mobile towtruck arrived. I smeared Lusi's bone with some peanut butter and popped it in her crate and then closed the crate door on Lusi! Same with our little Remy, the chihuahua. This still left Cola out and Loki, the two older chihuahuas, but it made the arrival of mechanics, chiming doorbells and so on manageable. 
I was not needed outside and my husband stayed out on the driveway supervising the installation of the new truck tire, while I remained working on the computer. No sound of whining!..well maybe a little but that was from Remy not Lusi and gradually that died out too and the entire house was peaceful! I quietly tiptoed round the corner to see Lusi all snuggled up sleeping in her crate. I got a picture, slightly rousing her as the flash went off; but off she went back to sleep again. At last I think Lusi has made her crate her home!

Indoor training for when temperature plummets to minus 18 degrees!!

Despite the clear blue skies and sunshine, the temperature showing on the thermometer this morning was minus eighteen degrees. I opened the side door for Lusi to go out and she took one brief look and decided that she could wait until it was warmer, thank you very much!


Shaping The Retrieve:
We have spent the morning doing several five minute short training routines and now Lusi is peacefully asleep. I was pleased with the progress that we are beginning to make with the retrieve. She now understands that she should try to make contact with the kong and is either catching it or following it and picking it up. She will also make a reasonable attempt at bringing it back.


Our Indoor Training: Shaping The Retrieve

Marker training:
Sometimes we are just getting a nose touch on the kong and she wants her treat for just making contact. If this is at the start of the session I give her a treat but then I ask her for a "fetch" if she hasn't tried to actually hold it in her mouth and bring it back any distance. I have used my finger,in a waving gesture pointing to the kong and saying, "fetch" to which I almost always get some positive response. Our last throw sent the kong further than our meter or two limit and she scampered after it, returning it right to me. That was great!


Indoor Tracking: Practicing the down on an article.
I have got the old leather gloves out and set them aside so that we can start doing some tracking indication practice. I have been teaching Lusi to "down" when she gets to the article during our tracking sessions, so this is something we can practice indoors, to "down" on the glove.


Crate training:

Sitting quietly in the crate...
with door closed,
earning a food reward!

The crate training is definitely improving and I have started asking Lusi to go in her house more often during the day for short periods of time. I am now closing the crate door for short stints as well. 

Exercising, Warmer weather, and training routines.

The Christmas holiday break had interrupted our exercise and training routine and I could feel myself becoming a little exasperated at times with Lusi, hence the posts on "mannerliness" in the home and so forth.

We have had something of a winter
thaw for a few days; blue skies and
above freezing temperatures.

We have enjoyed a warm weather winter interlude for the past week with lots of good walking opportunities which included a trip to the forest which made a nice change and gave us a chance to do some recalls in a different location.

We have also got back into our short indoor training routines with the result that Lusi has been much better mannered and will actually nap for intervals too! I noticed that she is beginning to get back her previous conditioning which she started to lose in October at the start of the colder weather. We seemed to have difficulty keeping weight on her and she started to get quite picky with her food. It was not just that you could see her rib outline, as opposed to just not quite seeing it which is how it should appear for optimum weight, but her coat had become somewhat coarse too. I started adding some salmon to her diet once or twice a week.

Lusi happy in her crate

Lusi fast asleep in her crate

I have noticed that Lusi is choosing to go into her crate for naps, especially in the evening. I am delighted with this because we are beginning to see her adopt her crate as "home" and clearly views it in a much more positive light than 


before. The feeding crate game has certainly helped in this regard. I also want to get a crate for the truck. Lusi is a great traveller and has a car restraining harness which I thought was the ideal way of travelling with her. Then one day I went to a tracking meet and saw just how comfortable all the dogs were in their crates. I had to admit that they were all much more relaxed and calmer in their crates than Lusi was, who was not crated. The worry that she might engage in a bout of "truck chewing" has also prompted a more serious consideration of crate use. In fact, Lusi has missed out in coming to the barn twice this week because she has been going through a chewing phase and I cannot risk the new truck being destroyed! 


We missed our tracking lesson this Friday, despite the warmer weather interlude because Annika who has been riding Dande was abouts to leave Canada to return to Germany, and we wanted to get a video of her riding. 

I love this Martha Stewart Dog Curry Comb!
It's great for shorthaired dogs because
the rubber points are so soft and it gives a
nice massage as well as loosening hairs!

The "zoo routine" during which I handle Lusi's extremities, is becoming incorporated into our daily lives quite nicely. I think that Lusi is beginning to enjoy her foot massage each evening and I now have the chihuahuas queuing for their turn. I found that a little vaseline on her pads gave enough lubricant so that I could massage her paws and I am starting to take a hold of them quite firmly too, as though I were trimming her nails. In reading another blog, I was introduced to the idea of using a dremel to keep her nails in shape, so I have also started to desensitize her to the sounds and appearance of a dremel, so that we can work towards filing her nails rather than cutting them.

How I messed up our crate game with a short retrieve.

We have just had two short training sessions with Lusi. One has been a game of retrieve the Kong from the sofa and the other a crate game.


The retrieve is not something that has been easily adopted by Lusi. I think I expected her to "get it" sooner; she is such a smart dog and learns so quickly. I clearly have not been setting up the training in a way that is both fail proof and fun. I made the distances too great so that Lusi would run to the toy but then ran away with the toy and played with it on her own and I somehow expected her to comprehend the chaining of parts in the retrieve; going out to get the toy, picking it up and then bringing it back. I would not say that her drive to retrieve was especially great at this point. So going to our sofa retrieve game where the distance is barely a metre away and having Lusi engaged in a game seems to be working and she is getting the idea that the kong comes to me and we have a tug game or food reward.


The crate game today was also simple: Stay in the crate with distraction.
I ask Lusi to go "in the house" or I vary this with a hand signal to the same effect. With a distance of a few feet I then toss the Kong towards the open door as a distraction: Lusi must stay in the crate. After two or three throws I get Lusi to come to me. We repeat the game as I gradually increase the distance that I move away from the crate door.


All this went successfully! I was pleased to have reclaimed our earlier training that I had messed up by asking too much too quickly. How many times have I done this in the past when training my horse I cannot remember...countless, but I am a great deal more patient these days than I used to be when I was younger! Still, I have to constantly remind myself especially when everything is going incredibly well not to push things too quickly because the inevitable always happens...the setback! So what exactly had I done? Well, remarkably little really and that is precisely the point. One little change and everything is different!


The game that set us back was the one I had written about earlier. It was setting up a short retrieve from the crate. It seemed to work magically the first time! Then I changed the game by changing the toy from a Kong to an open grab ball..and everything fell apart. I also started the game without the gradual build up from just catch the kong so there was no progression.


Note to self: Do not link commands until each individual one is consolidated!

Marker training with a chihuahua: size doesn't matter!

Remy wearing his "Size Doesn't Matter" T-shirt!

I have gradually been introducing the marker training system that we have been using with Lusi to Remy our Chihuahua. Remy likes to follow Lusi and me around the house while trying his hardest to join in our short indoor winter training routines. Last year I had taken Remy to puppy classes and though he was surprisingly a rather anxious pup he proved to be a very quick learner who loved to train.


Remy and I have just finished a short training session together without the distracting Lusi who has been outside with my husband having a good romp before we take her to the vet for a nail trimming and to get a few other minor issues dealt with! I was so pleased with him. He went through all the stand-sit-down transitions and in all the combinations that I could think of; this is what Remy's trainer had called doing "puppy push-ups"! Good boy Remy!!


It just goes to show that when using marker training, size doesn't matter!

Lusi's trip to the vet. Nail clipping and getting more information about de-worming.

Lusi's nails need clipping. She needs what I call a "zoo routine"! Years ago, on a trip to the zoo with the children the animal keeper had explained how they maintain a regular daily training exercise of handling all the large animals. Touching all the body parts; inspect ears, open mouth, lift paws and so on! Well, we are a little remiss in our zoo routine at the moment. It wasn't that Lusi was afraid of the vet office; on the contrary, she bounded in like a jack-in -the -box, the ever wagging tail swishing across the small space between the chairs. What she didn't like was her paws being held very firmly and the fact that the vet tech would not let go of them until the job was done. I do hold her feet at the door for wiping when she comes in from outside but that is scarcely up to what we needed here for nail clipping. So one more routine to add to the daily list, the "zoo routine"!


Her weight is now 48 lbs, and Lusi is 71/2 months old.


We had a faecal test done at the end of November which was negative. I wanted to check how frequently we should be doing this since Lusi was going to be back down at the barn again, now that Dande had recovered from his injury and I was recovered from my foot injury and the several other ailments were now all behind us finally. Our vet recommended that we repeat the faecal tests every two months until the age of I year old, at which time a regular program of worming every 4 months could be established.

I had trained Lusi when she was first going down to the barn to "leave it" when she picked up horse poop up in her mouth and ran around with it, or worse still ate it. But a recent visit to the barn, as we maintain Lusi's equine socialization with our Morgan horse, showed that she had forgotten some of her earlier lessons! There she was ferreting through the shavings and hay in the stable to find pieces of poop. I have to admit I didn't realize what she was doing at first! I also caught her stealing a frozen dog "poopsicle" on our walk last week.

Puppy agility class: recall games and attention training games.

We have been practicing our "attention games" as part of our short indoor training routines that we initially learned at our puppy agility classes.

Puppy agility class: recall games and attention training

We do not have enough indoor space at home to practice the recalls like this though! We did, however, have a very dedicated recall on our walk on Saturday that required Lusi to either follow a U turn on the pathway or cut across the scrub and grass. I was really surprised when she chose the U-pathway. Her speed and focus were incredible. Her silhouette elongated and she took really long, even, effortless strides; just perfect balance and motion! Her focus on me meant that her head never moved  except in a direct horizontal plane.

I have only seen Lusi do this once before when she was about four months old and we had taken her out into the field with the horse so that she could get used to playing around him. As I held the horse on a lead line and let him graze, Lusi's playing had gradually taken her across the field from where we were standing, when she suddenly realized the distance between us and returned in a flat out run. Again her eyes never lost focus of her target! Her ears flapped as she moved but everything else about her body was precision movement.

This elongation of the body frame that a Dalmatian makes when running is one reason that it is not recommended for Dals to work on indoor treadmills for exercise. The treadmill is simply not designed to be long enough for the Dal's elongated stride.

A shopping trip to Petsmart but only after a weekend of good walking.

Lusi taking a nap on her mat after 
two good walking days.

It's amazing how two days of good walking weather can restore harmony and rebalance the energy levels of our dogs so that they are not all climbing up the walls. Lusi is currently on her mat having a quiet nap with a new marrow bone that we got when we took a trip into Petsmart this afternoon. She was, I am pleased to say, quite mannerly with all the dogs she met there. If she has a failing it is certainly not one of unfriendliness or aggression; the occasional exuberant burst of welcome can still be difficult to manage in confined areas though. We were tested by two black and tan GSDs as we entered the store and on leaving by a small long-haired Dachs which stood just in front of the open doors. I can report that Lusi behaved well in both instances; she gave the little Dachs a very gentle greeting, and then returned her attention to me as we left the store. She definitely won some approval for that.


Her excitement at "shopping" was indicated by way of constant tail wagging as we made our way along the shelves. She definitely wanted to greet everyone at first but settled sufficiently after about five minutes to give a good impression of herself generally. 


I couldn't help noticing though that almost all the dogs we saw had some form of correcting collar on; prong collars, martingale collars, and choke chain collars seemed to be the norm. I found this to be an over use of correcting collars and a little bit disconcerting, even assuming that all the dogs had just been in a training class, which I am sure they had not. 


Lusi's biggest "social failing" is still wanting to jump and greet. Now being as she is a Dalmatian, I notice that children are especially attracted to her as a "Fire House Dog," and I am aware, once again, that we really must get Lusi more settled and socialized with strangers so that she does not jump.

Lusi in the cornfield: more on Dal body movements when tracking a scent.

Nose down working the cornfield.

The weather similar to yesterday, sunny and a light NE wind  but a bit colder at minus 6 degrees. My husband takes Lusi out for a run in the corn fields and then moves to the open pasture land. He catches a great series of photos showing more about the natural body movements of a Dal when tracking animal scents, ( see previous posting). These are a few of them showing the natural but already now familiarly typical postures that Lusi adopts when picking up and following a ground scent.

Nose down: getting started

Nose down: we're moving now

Nose down and running

Air scenting at the top of the hill

The instinctive movements of a young Dalmatian tracking an animal scent.

Prompted by a recent reading of a tracking article, Read any Trailing or Tracking Dog: Negative Indications I have been watching Lusi closely on our walks and have been trying to read Lusi's instinctive body language. With perfect weather conditions, a light wind/sunny/7 degrees C, and melting snow cover on the ground, I watched Lusi closely as she displayed her natural prey instincts in following several animal scent trails.


I was unable to record the first images of Lusi jumping up about three feet into the air from all fours, as distinct to when she does this on her hind legs, because it occurred so suddenly and unexpectedly. I also could not gauge what it was that she was responding to. It did, however, occur more or less at the start of our walk when she was let off the leash. There were also two distinct and separate times when she was "pointing."


Learning how to read a dog's natural movements is an important part of what a handler must do if they are going to work a tracking dog successfully. I have tried to piece together what it was Lusi was responding to and indicating by the changes in her behaviour and body movements in the series of photos here. 


This was in effect my first real opportunity to observe and record what Lusi does naturally when she is following an animal scent. ( I have a video of Lusi at 5 months old showing her early "nose to the ground" work in the forest when we are on a walk together and also videos of our early tracking lessons when Lusi is 6 months old and is learning to follow a human scent.)

#1. Facing into the wind: Air scenting 

In the stance shown, (photo #1), Lusi is indicating air scenting. She was facing directly into the wind, standing quite still, attentive and apparently gazing into the distance, but definitely focused. Her head movement was quite subtle, a gentle, rhythmic lifting of her nose, as though she was literally catching the scents in the breeze. 

#2 Following a ground scent-nose to the ground.

In photo #2 Lusi is actively engaged in following what is presumably an animal ground scent, probably squirrel. Her nose is to the ground and she is carrying her tail upwards.

#3 Tail has gone straight up in the air like a flagpole.
She is very animated, and digs and scratches at
the ground but after two or three minutes moves
away from this "hot spot" when she finds no prey.

Her behaviour changes dramatically as she reaches an area in the brush. Photo #3 shows how her tail changes position to an almost vertical stance like a flagpole indicating a scent "hot spot." I suspected that this might have been a squirrel's food store but I can only guess. After some very animated and determined scratching at the ground and uncovering of the area Lusi appeared almost surprised and perhaps a little confused that she had not found her prey. 


She appears to pick up a scent track again and moves a few feet over from the "hot spot" but by now her tail is no longer standing vertical, (photo #4). Again no prey, and at this point she loses interest and we continue on our walk.

#4 Finding no prey. Lusi  moves a few feet away from where she gave the "hot spot" tail up indication. Shortly after this she loses interest and we continue on our walk.

Walking with Lusi- trains, helicopters and aircraft.

We were greeted by Chickadees and the call of a Blue Jay, and a small flock of American Robins took flight and huddled in bunches on the nearby trees as we arrived. I had not seen so many birds for weeks and all this at noon. The temperature had swung back to a few degrees above freezing and small patches of grass were once again showing through.

Disappointed to find that the "low battery" signal came up on the camera when I tried to take a picture, (I think this camera will only take about six pictures before the battery runs out!): Mind you, I would probably only have caught a view of Lusi's spotted rear end, tail up, nose down, or maybe the blur of her careening at high speed through the thickets.

She is not a fearful dog. Now accustomed to the sounds of low flying small aircraft and helicopters from the nearby airfield she occasionally watches the sky for them. She is also used to the Toronto bound double decker "Go Train" and quite enjoys jumping on her hind legs for a better view when that passes us by. A few days ago she was puzzled though by the two strange vehicles on the tracks, one a truck and the other more like a large van, both of which were proceeding down the tracks on trolleys; these definitely attracted her attention and got quite a few scrutinizing jumps on her hind legs!


We came upon a gentleman walking; he was without a dog, so having no other point of distraction, Lusi greeted him by jumping up. We have to address her jumping up, I thought, make note to self!

Her new collar is, however, making it much easier to reach for her and to then manoeuvre her into a required position or even just to lead her along. I was surprised at how little resistance she offered to being handled by her collar relative to how she was acting recently with her last one. Quite clearly her previous resistance was because the "old" collar was now too tight.


I had an amusing time watching Lusi play her "apple game" with some frozen apples she had found. Tossing them into the air, she runs and chases after them as they roll away. She managed to keep this game going for several hundred metres before the apples finally disintegrated.

"Last chance"- it's not what you think!

"Last chance," before taking a working
 position at axle.

"Last chance," it's not what you think!


"Last chance" is our command for Lusi to do a long pee. I got this command from John Wilmot of Dalmatian Carriages who told me it was an excellent way to train a Dal which is destined to be a working carriage dog; so that they do not suddenly depart from their position when working at axle, in order to relieve themselves. Since then, I have used the command words each time Lusi does a long pee when we are out on our walks. 
"How great is that," she must be thinking, "a treat just for peeing!"

Lusi's manners!

Lusi is attached to me with her leash while I am on the
 computer- she settles down with her "Orka".

There's only so much unmannerly conduct I can take in the house, even allowing for the fact that it is too cold to stay out in the yard for long and our walking isn't at the level it had been during the summer.


At 7 months old and with just a few days off from classes for the holidays, Lusi is beginning to rule the roost and seems to have her own little "Occupy Toronto" thing going. She is such a quick learner and in just a few days off is learning she can do her own thing! It is time to adopt a multi faceted approach until we are back again in classes and able to maintain our regular exercise routine.


I have just done a short indoor leash training session with her during which she was remarkably good. Much quicker in responding to the commands than previously, even in our classes, and she surprised me with her comfort in the stand-down transitions. But as soon as I said "Break" to end the session, she engaged in a tiff with Remy the chihuahua who had followed in our tracks during the training and so was also hoping for a treat. Wanting both of the carrot pieces, Lusi was not even willing to negotiate an exchange. So I put her leash on her and made her sit on her mat by the computer desk where I could watch her as I worked. Her reprimand was followed shortly by my husband's return from the pet store with a new "Orka" toy for power chewing! Ahh finally peace reigns.