The Adventures of Tortik

My best buddy Tortik and I are going on an adventure once again! Out foray into agility was a blast, and we are continuing with weekly training, but now there is something new on the horizon. We have been accepted into a research program looking into training ordinary pet dogs to search and detect scents for concervation purposes. I am by no means an experienced trainer, and Tortik is by no means an obedient boarder collie. There's going to be laughter and tears, barking, zoomies, frustration, silly dog squiggles and the sheer joy of learning together. We're going to share it all! 

[tortiktrainer-blog]

Week 8

Tortik is back!!!

All it took was a break from training. Now, I’m not a person to whom breaks in training come easy. My hands itch, and I just can’t seem to help myself. But this past week, Tortik was away showing, and then our whole family got sick with a nasty cold, so aside from cuddles, Tortik was just left to his own devises.

Come Tuesday, he was begging me to train on out walk. On Wednesday, he rocked agility. On Saturday, which turned out to be assessment week for scent training, he walked into that lab like nothing ever went wrong.

Tortik succeeded in search on the board, rocked the search of pots off the board, and even had a good stab at finding naked scent tips and not eating them! This is was the best he has ever been at scent work.

All he needed was a holiday.

[tortiktrainer-blog]

Week 7

The tiny steps of progress!

So, Tortik refused to work within the lab today. Again. We tried removing all people, making the work easy, making the treats tasty, and he still just walked around and sniffed the ground.

I tried to take him out on a nice and long walk to see if at the end of it all he might just give me the tiniest bit of focus. He did! After close to an hour, he was willing to follow basic cues. On a whim, I took the scent board to the stairwell and asked him to work - and he did!!!

All hope is not lost, but damn Tortik is making me work hard and in roundabout ways to get there.

[tortiktrainer-blog]

Week 6

This was the week it all fell apart.

At home, Tortik was excelling in his scent work - great drive, great odor recognition, great indication. He had it all.

In class, he blew me off entirely and went sniff about instead. I gave him the chance to sniff out the whole room and asked for work, but after only a few minutes he decided to go and hump the instructor instead. When the instructor was removed, he paced the room whining and tried to climb up the couches to hump the camera man.

I guess this is to remind me that training is not a straight path, and it is by the difficulties you go through that you learn the most. I will just keep telling myself that as I try to figure out what works for Tortik. Hopefully we’ll get back into gear soon!

[tortiktrainer-blog]

Week 5

This week was crazy!

Two day scent workshop was mashed together with our lure coursing trial to create complete and utter chaos.

On the scent side of things, Tortik seems to firmly understand the idea of odor recognition... he is just not interested in doing it in class. After wondering off on me to go sniff the floor, he was put away to think about things in his crate, whilst I got further instructions for training at home. Sigh.

On the bright side though, Tortik received his second qualifier at lure coursing earning 168 points and his Junior Courser title. Yay!!

[tortiktrainer-blog]

So proud of my little buddy and how far we have come in our agility training! Here is Tortik anticipating his celebratory treats after bringing home 'Handler of the Month' from Action Dogs Victoria.

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Scent Training - Week 4

After missing week 3 of training due to a weekend away showing, Tortik is right back into it.

I think Tortik finally caught on to the main idea of odor recognition - find the smell that gives you chicken and stick to it. His alert is not very strong yet but I can see it and build it further!

This week we have progressed to taking our scent board home - a board with 10 identical pots that can be switched around, one of which contains the target myrrh scent. This means we can practice at home. Let’s see where that takes us!

[tortiktrainer-blog]

Scent Training - Week 2

With the second week of training, I have moved to doing most of the rewarding from my own hand, which brought some unexpected problems. 

Ouch!!

Tortik is usually a fairly soft mouthed dog, but where scent training is concerned, he turned into a real piranha!! Trouble is, although I very well know how to teach a soft mouth in training, the drive required for scent work means that I need to just put up with it for now. I have new gloves all ready for next training session.

So far, Tortik has realized that only some scent pots and not others give treats, which is a clear improvement. Trouble is, he still has not realized what makes the special scent pot special.

Next week we miss training whilst Tortik shows off his pretty face at a weekend long dog show. Hoping not to fall behind!

[tortiktrainer-blog]

Scent Training - Day 1

After a great introduction into the research process and all the people involved in making it possible, Tortik and I got down to business for our first training session.

This was entirely different to agility.

For starters, to fast track our training, for the first session Tortik was handled mostly by one of the trainers, and I got to watch in wonder. Damn, those people have mad skillz! Tortik must have received about 100 treats/min with precise positioning and timing over the course of 7-10 sets and a total of about 10mins with a half hour break in the middle. With a rate of reinforcement that high, a dog really does learn fast. 

So far, Tortik has learned to target the scent container like his life depends on it and indicate with insistent chin targets at drop position. Trouble is, Tortik is yet to figure out which scent container he is supposed to indicate. I’m pretty sure he still thinks this is all a strange version of agility with weird target plates involved. All in good time though, I’m sure.

The most fascinating thing though was watching the other dogs in our group take their turns at training. There was a border collie with a supercomputer brain, making decisions, learning and demanding lightening fast reflexes in reinforcement. There was an older golden retriever terrified of the scent container. Last but not least, the chocolate lab that was so excited to see food that his brain went into overdrive and out of the window.

Can’t wait to see how Tortik, and the other dogs, progress over the weeks to come!

[tortiktrainer-blog]

Our Next Adventure

Tortik and I are going on our next adventure!

Out foray into agility was a blast, and we are continuing with weekly training sessions, but now there is something new on the horizon. We have been accepted into a research program looking into training ordinary pet dogs to search and detect scents for conservation purposes.

This first stage is going to be a 12 week course in scent detection where Tortik will be trained to detect and indicate the scent of Myrrh as a practice exercise. Follow us to see where this ends up!

[tortiktrainer-blog]

Week 8

We have made it!!

This week, Tortik progressed to 2 on 2 off on contact equipment with his little target plate on the ground, and he rocked!! He can now drive down, pause and nose target, and I can start to move around him a little whilst he does this. 

We have started on the seesaw, and again Tortik was great. As a lappy, he has one heck of a startle reflex, but it did not take long for him to bang that seesaw like a pro!

Focus forward is coming along great, this time with the jump setup. Our sit stay is holding well and the drive is definitely there!

To finish off the class, we combined the tunnel with a wrap around the cone. Like last time, we decided to go off lead to make sure the cone wouldn’t fall. I honestly though there was a fair chance that Tort would zoom out the tunnel like a cannonball and go zoomies into the distance. Instead, he wrapped that cone with more drive and precision than he has ever given me before!

We have now officially made it to the next level - beginner!! 

[tortiktrainer-blog]

Tortik and I became an attraction at our local park today after setting up for an agility training session. Tortik graduated from foundation to beginner level at Action Dogs Victoria last night and I couldn't be prouder! . . . #agilitydog #agilitytraining #tunnelfun #lappy #lappylove #finnishlapphund #lappiesofinstagram #dogsofinstagram

[tortiktrainer-blog]

Week 7

Very slowly, bit by bit, we are getting there. 

This week the 2 on 2 off became a problem, with Tortik coming sideways off the plank in every imaginable way, then trying to mark the plank instead. 

In better news, after much work at home, Tortik is offering focus forward in class. It’s not solid, but it appears that the long sessions of shaping then rocketing down the hallway are paying off. 

There was more cone work to be done today, which as always made me nervous. I know knocking cones over with his lead terrifies Tortik, but his recall and focus are just not 100%. Today, I gave it a go. I was amazed to have Tortik comfortably racing around 2 cones in a figure 8!! All I was hoping for was that I wouldn’t have to chase him through the barn!! 

This appears to be the start of Tortik being able to work agility off lead. Cause to celebrate!

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Week 6

Tortik’s focus continues to improve, but there are some setbacks.

Turns out, Tortik has no idea what everyone means by ‘focus forward’. This week I was the proud handler of the dog that stood at the start of the jump grid and stared straight at me for almost a minute straight. Whilst I’m amazed that he was able to focus for this long, it’s back to basics with forward focus for us.

In other news, Tortik is getting the idea of 2 on 2 off and is willing, at times, to play a good game of tug even whilst at training. At home, he has started to bring his tug toy back to me, at least after the mandatory victory lap of prancing around the yard. 

The key thing is, Tortik is having a great time of it all, even if I might be gaining some grey hairs. 

[tortiktrainer-blog]

Week 5

Little by little, we’re starting to see some progress.

This time, I have limited sniff time to the allotted 5mins at the start of the class and tried my best to calm Tortik with pats and cuddles in between exercises. It’s not foolproof, but I think it helped.

Cones are the bane of Tortik’s agility career and life in general, but today he managed to make it work. He was able to go around the cone and come back to me instead of rushing right past to sniff another dog. I can work with this!

We practiced circle work weaving around and between cones. It took me feeding salami pieces at 0.5 second intervals to keep Tortik with me, and even then his focus kept slipping. 

We have a long way to go, true, but so long as we’re improving I don’t mind how long it takes.

[tortiktrainer-blog]

When you're supposed to be in the middle of agility training but you end up with lick-cuddles instead. #bestfriend #agilitydog #fluffydog #cuddletimes #ilovemydog #lappy #lappylove #lappiesofinstagram #finnishlapphund #dogsofinstgram

[tortiktrainer-blog]

Tug time! Working on our you drive has never been so fun. Hoping this time our new toy will last longer than 5 minutes! #newfavourite #killthattoy #squeakytoy #lappy #lappylove #lappiesofinstagram #lappiesofmelbourne #agilitydog #finnishlapphund #floof #dogsofinstgram

[tortiktrainer-blog]

Week 4

He is definitely overstimulated.

I honestly did my best to make the stars align this time around, and I was rewarded with Superdog. For a whole 5 minutes. In those minutes Tortik’s whole existence was focused on me, and he dove and struck the target plate like a fluffy bolt of lightening.  

Then, the stars shifted. The smell of the tan bark ground soaked with horse urine and who knows what else is an aphrodisiac. Not smelling the ground is unthinkable and cause for rebellion. I tried my best to balance on the knife edge where the barest minimum of attention is rewarded with a sniff, but it was shaky ground.

This week it is acceleration and deceleration cues and the front cross. 

At home, Tortik is beginning to show some enthusiasm for orbiting his cones, and can now walk comfortably in the reinforcement zone on both sides. 

I’ll take what I can get and remind myself of how far we have come. If Tort will give me 5 minutes each class, then it will be the most awesome 5 minutes of training he has ever seen!