Turnkey Dog

Our dog, Matisse, has been at a board and train program (otherwise known as “bootcamp” to my children) for two weeks.  We’ve been getting daily written updates, pictures and videos from Sammy, her trainer.  It’s been impressive what she’s accomplished over the two weeks from what she’s been singing via those updates.   It’s what I’ve been calling a, “turnkey trained dog” because two weeks after dropping your dog off, they come home trained.

My daughter has been very interested in the updates Sammy sends, but she can’t see the pictures or videos.   When I dropped Matisse off, I asked Sammy if she could verbally describe what was happening in each of the videos. Sammy did a very thorough job of this, something she might have experience with given that her father is legally blind.

I was a bit anxious about continuing the training once Matisse came home but so far we haven’t had any troubles.   A good bit of the time at handoff today was teaching me how to use the e-collar Sammy and their company use when training dogs.  It’s not what I though and it’s likely not what most people think about when they hear the dog is using a, “shock collar”.

The collar works like a TENS unit, which conducts electric signals through the skin.   TENS units are used by humans to reduce pain, not cause it.   I have one and have had it on for hours on end and can attest to the helpful, not harmful or hurtfulness of it.

An e-collar is used to communicate, not to correct or punish a dog.  You don’t use it when the dog gets something incorrect, you use it every time you give a command.  But you always start it out on zero, which is effectively off,  If the dog comes or sits or heels, that’s all you do.  If the dog doesn’t, you gradually increase the level of the collar.   It goes up to one hundred but Matisse only needed six to ten to feel it and understand you were asking her to do something.

I tried it out on me and even without fur, I didn’t feel much at all until it was at twenty-five.  Every time you do something new, you reset the collar back to zero.  One of the things Sammy and I worked on was how minority the dial on the remote needed to be turned to get to three or six so Matisse could feel it.

Matisse wants to work.  Terriers apparently are most happy when they have a job to do.  She easily complied with anything.  The thing that was the most challenging to her was heel, which requires paying constant attention to the handler.  There is no stopping, no putting your head down and sniffing, just keeping her ear right at your left pants seam and falling you wherever you go.  We walked around the block this afternoon after bringing her home—with the leash unconnected around my neck in case we needed it, and she didn’t waver.

She needed some reminders to keep place, mostly when I did a u-turn to keep her on her toes.   She knows where my left is and always got back in place.  There were a few times when something would have startled her or caused her to be anxious prior to the training.  She has had a huge increase in confidence.  Workers, other people, dogs, nothing bothered her.  When I stopped walking she immediately sat and waited for the next command.

A heel walk is a great way to tire her out because it uses her mind just as much as her body.   When we got home she drank some water and then had a nap on her place cot.  “Place” is another command that means, “get on this clearly defined ‘place’ and stay there until released.:   So much of what Sammy worked on with Matisse was to build stability.   All of the commands she uses have an implied stay with them, meaning if you ask the dog to sit, go down, or get on a place, the dog stays there until released.

Stability is hard for a dog and has to be built over time.  I knew when I picked up Matisse today that when I arrived, she would be “on place” and wouldn’t be immediately released with the “break” command.   I marveled as she calmly lay on the place cot, wagging her tail, while Sammy went over the e-collar with me.   When she released Matisse ten minutes later, she came over to say hello to me but did so in a much calmer fashion than I’ve ever seen before after a long absence.

Edna, our housecleaner, was here this afternoon.   The change in Matisse was remarkable.   She has always been afraid of Edna, not because she’s not a nice person, but because she wields the vacuum cleaner.   She let Edna pet her and had no interest in leaving her side.   Then, when the vacuum cleaner came around, I had her on place on the cot in our bedroom.   I had to remind her several times to stay in a down while Edna vacuumed around her but she did so with dramatically less anxiety than she ever has before.

I took her outside shortly afterwards, without a leash on her to let her spend some time in the front yard.   Suddenly she started running to the neighbor’s yard.  I looked up and saw her heading towards their two dogs, out for a walk.   She wasn’t barking, just interested in them.   I called to her to come, using the e-collar.   She didn’t come the first two times so I turned it up where she could feel it—and she immediately came back to me and sat beside me.   That, was truly exciting.   Blake brought his dogs over and they said a friendly hello and then left for their walk, all with Matisse listening to me the entire time.   I’m impressed.

The Big Boy Update:  My son came home today with a “Life Guard Off Duty” shirt on he got from the mountains with Mimi and Granps this week.  He had a great time.  He talked about everything he did on the ride home with his dad.   He without a doubt wants to go back.   He told me his favorite part was Mystery Hill.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I didn’t realize how bonded the dog was with my daughter until this afternoon.   I was walking from the back yard to the front with my daughter and was asking for Matisse to heel.   She wasn’t coming over to my left side.   I asked about five times before I realized she was faithfully and precisely heeling on my daughter.  He’s sat under her chair and followed her around much of the day since she returned home from school.