Checking in about check in

Most dog trainers will agree on the top five important commands/behaviors for your dog to know.  They may not agree in which order, but they will probably agree on Recall, drop it, leave it, stay and maybe the fifth is in dispute.  I'm not going to try to diminish the importance of these in any way but, when you're dealing with a deaf dog, no matter how well they might know any or all of these commands, it makes no difference if they aren't looking at you.

If you ever want your deaf dog to be able to be off leash and in an emergency situation when they get loose, the most important thing you want is for them to look to you to tell them what to do or just check in with you to see what you're doing.  Check in isn't put on a command, it's a behavior you want to teach them to do automatically.  You want them to periodically, no matter what they're doing, check in with you.

I tried unsuccessfully to video Rogue checking in on our last walk, but apparently failed miserably so we'll go back to words.  When Rogue is off leash, or on leash for that matter, she will periodically look back to me.  Off leash, it's less obvious (Dogs have much more peripheral vision than we do so she doesn't even have to turn her head all the way to see me) and it doesn't interrupt what she's doing.  She just gives me a glance back to make sure I'm there.  Occasionally, she'll even run off the trail with Steel but she is only gone for a few seconds before she comes right back with or without her blue buddy.  It's been a real help with teaching her disc because the moment that disc is in her mouth, she's looking at me and I can tell her to drop it right there or encourage her to run back to me as fast as she can.

Let me be totally  honest, some dogs can't ever be trusted off leash.  That's going to be a case by case basis and based entirely on the specific dog though some breeds are less likely than others to go off leash in a non fenced area.  When in doubt, keep your dog on a leash.  If you have good check in, only let your dog off leash in areas where it's permitted.    Herding dogs, because of their nature of needing to know where everything is, tend to be naturals at this skill.

How do you teach it?  You reward your dog for looking at you.  Keep treats in your pockets, around the house, at all times.  Any time your dog looks at you from something else they're doing, you mark the behavior (thumbs up, flicker, etc) and treat them.  Now sometimes, if you do this, they won't want to look away from you.  The behavior you're trying to capture is them looking away from whatever it is they're doing to look at you so you give the mark and throw the treat away from them so they have to look away from you.

I had the opportunity to practice this with Luna, another deaf dog I met a couple of weeks ago.  It was a very very distracting environment for her.  She had only been with her current family for a month, it was a dog sporting event so there was high excitement everywhere and a lot of people and dogs she'd never seen.

With her owner's permission, I took her out on a long line.  There were so many things for her to see it was easy to get her to look away from me.  Every time she looked at me, I marked the behavior and gave her a treat.  I worked a couple of five to ten minute sessions with her and then it was time for one of her sibling dogs to compete.  She darted off a few feet and before she hit the end of the long line, stopped and looked at me.  SCORE!!!

The lovely Luna

Obviously, Luna's Mom is going to have a lot of work to do before Luna can be trusted off leash but since one of her hopes is that Luna will be a disc dog like Rogue, check in is going to be vital.  I look forward to seeing Luna at disc dog events in our future.  

Speaking of disc, Rogue and I had a phenomenal day at toss and catch league on Saturday.  She has gone from the dog who had no interest in a disc to our personal best score.  She ran clear across the field to catch a bad throw on my part and wowed everyone there.  I'm very proud of my little black and white dog.

I took her to a local haunted house before it started with the hope of exposing her to people in scary costumes and masks in my efforts to make her a bullet proof therapy dog.  They hadn't dressed up yet but were more than willing to give her some love.  One man did go get a creepy looking clown mask and got down to her level.  She sniffed the mask once and then nudged him for pettings.  She also really wanted to go get the football they were playing with in spite of the fact that it was bigger than her head.  

These weren't exactly the type of friends I wanted her to make at the haunted house.

While Rogue is not really a human sports fan, she was grateful that she was not dressed up after the Cubs won the World series like her siblings.

And since Veterans Day was last week, I took this photo of Rogue at the Oswego Veterans monument.  I have many family  members, friends and family members of friends who have served so, from me and Rogue, thank you for your service.

Next week, she'll have her third birthday.  It's so amazing to believe that it's been that long.  In spite of the fact that she's yelling at me at the top of her deaf dogs have no volume control voice to get off the computer and play with her, I love her more every day.

Has it been a year already?

To say that 2016 hasn't been one of my favorite years would be an understatement.  It might be better to state that this New Year's Eve I will be making sure that the door hits it on the rear end as it makes way for 2017.  Without boring you with too much detail since you aren't here to read about me, we had to move, I broke my right and sprained my left ankle (at the same time and while we were moving), went down to one car and had two very close family deaths.

For those reading this, thanks for sticking with me.  It was fans of the blog that made me sit down today and add another chapter in the adventure that is living with Rogue.

It hasn't been all bad since the last entry.  Rogue participated in her first Updog Challenge with a lot of the same people who saw her in July last year.  She also competed in two other disc competitions in May and September.  I've got a real disc dog now.

Look who is on the cover of this article.

But disc isn't the only sport we've tried.  She's been lure coursing, got her novice trick dog  title and was in her first Barn Hunt competition.  She's not a fan of Barn Hunt.  She loves to roll in the hay, but isn't a fan of the rats.  I think it's more that it's not as interactive with me as the other activities.  

There is no pond in back of the new house and she, Ruby and Steel are really missing swimming time


She loves her new life jacket because it gives her enough buoyancy that she can spend more energy on speed and less on keeping herself afloat.  She doesn't wear the life jacket for swimming most of the time, but we got it in case we take her in a boat.  And how could we resist the one with the fin?

We continue to struggle with her reactivity to dogs that make eye contact with her while she's on leash.  It's our biggest challenge in getting her to be a therapy dog.  She's been getting lots of practice.  She has visited a rehab facility and it was amazing how just her presence brightened the residents' faces.

Here she is at a disc dog demo.  I love the fact that I can hand children a disc and she will chase that disc with as much enthusiasm as she does with me and drop it at their feet.  She still loves kids and they certainly seem to love her.  

Our plan for the reactivity is we're going back into training.  I'm hoping that a class with other dogs will give me an opportunity to reward her for ignoring them.  Sometimes, it takes someone else's perspective to get you past a problem you're having issues correcting.  This applies to hearing dogs as well as deaf ones.  

Another plus is the progress of her relationship with my husband.  They've always had a bit of a distant relationship with her really having little to do with him unless I'm not around.   My dear hubby has gone out of his way to work on that and the results are a testament to his hard work.  I've found that she really likes physical affection on her terms.  She's very snuggly in the morning and at bed time but she also likes chin scratches and butt rubs during the day.  She's not a daytime snuggler, 

It's time for my butt rubbins!!!                                                             

So we progress.  She'll be three next month and it doesn't seem like it could possibly have been that long.  She is an adult, but she's an adult like a 20-year-old is an adult.  From my experience with Steel and Ruby, she doesn't become a true adult for another year or two.   She frustrates, infuriates and amazes me still.  

And even though she's standing next to me right now yelling at me because I am not throwing any of the five toys she's brought me as I'm working on this, I know it's not just because she is looking for something to do, it's because she's looking for something to do with me.  

I think that's pretty cool and I'd better get to it.