Context makes all the difference

This weekend Duncan and I had a bit of a wake up call with Olive - not a behavioral problem, but an awareness of how great we have it.
Some neighbors of ours had to go out of town over the weekend and their two little chihuahuas needed a place to stay and since they had always been friends of Olive's I didn't hesitate to offer to care for them. We see these two dogs outside almost every day and they wrestle and play and are just as friendly as can be.  Their owners dropped them off at our place and went on their way and a few hours later I texted to ask how often they like to go out.  Their response was the worst thing I could have anticipated - they aren't really potty trained because they don't like to go in a crate so they just go everywhere inside.  I don't even want to go into the ethics of dropping off a dog without disclosing this to the sitter or the fact that these dogs were beyond old enough to be potty trained.
So I set up some baby gates at the kitchen door and hoped that Duncan would be ok alone for the weekend as I loaded up Olive and took her with me to teach at a music camp in PA.
Olive drove me nuts the whole trip - of course she was so popular with the kids and she loved playing outside with everyone, but she KNOWS she is hilarious and she uses this to get away with misbehaving.  All weekend she was pulling on her leash, digging in the mud and then running around like a lunatic when I told her to stop, trying to eat the cat toys, and begging for food.  Just terrible behavior all around for Olive.  She is generally such an angel, but at this new house with kids everywhere she was just a nutter, totally misbehaving with a giant smile across her face the whole time.  When I went to teach a class and put her in her crate she whined for a few minutes - this is so unlike Olive.  I just felt at my wit's end, unable to keep her under control without giving her a cookie for every good deed done.
But then I returned home to Duncan and the chihuahuas and BOY did I learn how good I had had it.  Sure, Olive was pulling on the leash more and it made it awful hard to walk her over to a cafe to eat outside - but these chihuahuas weren't leash trained at all and were apparently falling all over each other and tangling each other up constantly and then crying about it.  Olive had an accident over the weekend because she panicked when we all left the house all at once (she's a shepherd - her herd MUST stay together with her guidance!) but these chihuahuas were being taken out every hour and still soiling themselves constantly.  Olive didn't prefer staying close to us and I would have to constantly remind her to come back and sit with us on the porch, but the chihuahuas were jumping over TWO baby gates stacked on top of each other to escape the kitchen and soil the carpet.
Every once in a while I think I need to take a step back and realize that Olive is a very good dog - she's just still a puppy herself.

At the camp Olive was so great with the kids.  This is her at an outdoor cafe where we all had dinner together.  One of the kids thought Olive needed a bonnet and she sat so well for the whole thing.

Beating the DC Heat

It's been awful hot here in DC so we are always coming up with ways to help the animals stay cool.  Olive is always parched after her afternoon walk so yesterday I made her an ice treat to enjoy this afternoon.
I simply took some water and chicken stock and poured it into one of those flimsy travel bowls (I used the one that came in Olive's Bark Box yesterday) and put it in the freezer over night.  Popped it right out of the mold and onto a plate and she's been enjoying it ever since.

Too Much Tongue

I posted a picture yesterday of Olive with her tongue sticking out and wanted to show that this is not an isolated incident for her.  Ever since she was a baby her tongue has just been too long for her mouth.  She can never keep it tucked away.  Here's a collection of pictures with Olive's tongue hanging out.

Day 1 - NiLiF

It's been less than 24 hours since we began "Nothing in Life is Free" and it's already making a noticeable difference in Olive.  Really the biggest thing has been keeping a stash of treats on me at all times.  She has no idea if I do or don't have the treats so she's pretty eager to do whatever I say right away because of that chance that she'll get a surprise.
This morning we did our morning walk routine, with the stopping and the sitting, but adding in the treats as well.  She quickly stopped pulling, began sitting sooner and always looked at me the whole time she was sitting.  She also began making eye contact with me if I said her name, which means I was able to slow her down if she got the least bit ahead since looking back at me eough to make eye contact generally means not being way ahead.  We still had some pulling when she saw people walking, BUT I could get her to stop and look at me easily and I could even get her to sit without holding her still if I asked a couple of times.
The most striking part of that article I posted yesterday, to me, was the opening story about the dog who constantly nudges your hands and the newspaper until he gets your attention.  That is 100% Olive behavior.  She had me trained so well with the computer - if I sat on the floor or the couch with her and had my computer out she would immediately get a toy and start whacking my hands with it over and over until I threw it.  And if that didn't work she would walk all over the keyboard and touch the screen with her nose.  Needless to say I do not enjoy writing papers with Olive around.
So today I started using some of the method to work with this behavior.  My first move was to take the toy from her right away (as she wanted me to) and as soon as she got out of my space and sat down (at request) I would throw it.  I did this for a few minutes and then started lengthening the time I would make her sit still.  I would praise dropping the toy and sitting on her own especially highly, but that doesn't happen much (it's only the first day, after all!).
I will say, though, as I've typed this whole thing she has been lying down next to me and watching me calmly instead of trying to smack me with her new toy over and over.

                                          [Olive's rude behavior at the computer]

          [Bonus video showing how Olive thinks it's hilarious to misbehave... and maybe I do too.  If I didn't laugh she wouldn't do it]

"Nothing in Life is Free"

We are about to embark on a new training method - the Nothing in Life is Free method.  I began learning about this method when I posed a question to a training forum about my willful puppy's unwillingness to do what I say right away.  Olive knows a ton of tricks 100% but she won't do them right away.  She thinks it's much more hilarious to shake her head and make little gremlin noises as she runs away from me before returning to do it all over again.  
Reading the article I noticed two things- 1) This misbehavior (the nudging for attention and play time) is Olive.  She is manipulative for attention every day.  Even if it's cute, it's manipulative behavior and she has me trained well.  2) we have actually been doing this training method for a couple of things since she was a baby and on those particular commands she is 100% responsive 100% of the time.  For example, if Olive wants to eat dinner she has to wait until I say "OK."  I may ask her to come to me, go away from me, lie down, sit down, roll over, it doesn't matter - if I didn't say "OK" she won't eat the food and she will do whatever I say right away because she knows if she does it quickly she eats sooner.
Today marks the start of our 'Nothing in Life is Free' days.  If Olive wants a toy she must do something for it. What it also means is I am going to carry around treats 24/7 and when I ask her to come to me or sit or do anything at all there is at least a 50% chance in her mind she will be magically given a treat for her good work.  
So I loaded up my baggie of cookies and manipulative little Olive got right to work on trying to train me.  She recently got a new treat seeking toy (the kind of toy that's a puzzle you can put treats into and they have to work to get them out) and when I made up my bag of cookies she brought her treat seeking toy to me, put it in my lap, and nosed at my baggie of treats.  Nice try, Olive.  Nice try.

                                                                  [Olive waits to eat]

                                                              [Olive with her puzzle toy]

walking at a turtle's pace

Sometimes I think it's hard to keep in mind that really well trained dogs were once puppies too.  Olive is incredibly wilful (more on that in another post) and sometimes training can be slow going with certain subjects.  She is incredibly smart and friendly - a little too outgoing.  Lately we have been working on loose leash walking (working towards a true heel) and while my method seems to be working, it sure does make every walk take ten times as long as it used to.
Olive likes to run up to everyone to say hello.  She especially loves children and she especially loves children playing games outside.  In my initial attempts to help Olive become well-socialized I ended up letting her develop an intense pulling problem on leash.  She knows she isn't supposed to, and when no one is around she will walk calmly on a loose leash at least somewhere close to my side, but as soon as she sees someone she wants to talk to she goes running to the end of her lead and jumps up at whoever she wants to say hello to.  In a largely hispanic neighborhood, this has created an issue where many of my neighborhood children thought she was jumping to bite them.  This has prompted me to start learning enough Spanish to talk to these children about Olive, which I hope will come in handy in the future when we work with children.
But back to her pulling and jumping - my current rule is if you pull we don't walk.  Dogs like to walk, Olive wants to GO - so if she learns that pulling means we don't go my hope is that she will discontinue the behavior and walk calmly so as to get to her destination sooner.  I am seeing improvement but it's slow going.  She just really loves running to children!
After about a week of walking like this (take a step, stop, take a step, stop with the occasional really great loose leash patch) I thought maybe instead of just stopping I would have her sit at my side and make eye contact before continuing.  This has made a huge difference for her.  She is quicker now to look at me when she wants to move on which means it's easier for me to communicate a command to her without her getting too wrapped up and focused on whatever she is trying to get to.
I've attached a couple videos - one of the pulling when she sees a dog or kid (in this case a dog who you can hear barking at her. They are great friends) and one of her walking on loose leash after getting past the dog.  I couldn't catch me actually getting her to sit and look at me because I am bad at phone videos.

Introduction

So I have decided to create this blog as a place to share Olive's training and adventures with my family, friends and other corgi/dog training enthusiasts (without over-clogging their fb feeds with a billion pictures of Olive's latest adventure).
Olive is a 10 month old Pembroke Welsh Corgi and she has just started on a path to become a therapy dog.  My goal is to have her take her Canine Good Citizen's test around her birthday this September and her Therapy Dogs International test a year after that.  I would love for her to be involved in visiting Childrens' Hospitals, General Hospitals, Schools, as well as being involved in the Tail Waggin' Tutors, which is a program to help children gain confidence in reading by reading to therapy dogs.
I have really high hopes for Olive and I feel like keeping a place like this where I can share our current training techniques and hurdles I'll be better equipped to keep up with my long-term goals for her.
Hopefully this can become a place where I can share photos and videos of our many adventures (which are not only fun jaunts into the world for her, but also great training tools) and get feedback on what we are working on.