Pocket full of Kibble...

There are days when I regret not feeding raw food... and then there are those perfect West Coast days where a walk in the woods and a pocket full of kibble can cure any melancholy mood.

Melancholy mood...
As a die-hard Canucks fan, last night's, game 6, 4-3 overtime loss, was unbearable. But life goes on, and, alas their is always game seven. It's hard to quantify how many 1000's of hours of time I have invested (emotionally) into this team... I am beginning to understand how Leaf fans feel.

West Coast day...
I love the rain. I am also so lucky to live a mere 5 mins. from the beautiful Delta Watershed Park. The Watershed Park has the perfect canopy for rainy day walk.

Among my many goals for Iorek (or as Tamara calls him - Yorgi) is to make sure he knows his name (duh), has a strong recall (double duh and safety), and he learns to harness his chase drive. So this morning I did a quick and brief clicker training session and then stuffed the rest of his kibble in my pocket. Instead of taking all the dogs I decided to only take Iorek and Lyra. I felt one high-drive dog, a toddler, and a huge forest full of joggers, dog walkers and wildlife was distraction enough! I made sure to start the walk off with a crazy high rate of reinforcement... Iorek got at least 50% of the kibble in my pocket in the first 5 mins. Then I tried to stick to a variable reinforcement plan --- you know between picking Rendall up from falling, throwing the stick for Lyra, and just enjoying the beautiful day. The first few times Iorek blasted after Lyra I would call him back right away --- each and every time with success. Then I started letting him chase Lyra around a bit and then call him back... continued success. I made sure that I had a fair amount of kibble left over before we got back to the car so that I could boost up the rate of reinforcement near the end --- Iorek should get the idea that even thought the walk is ending good things still happen... overall it was a very successful walk and training session.

Lyra had an even more successful walk... other than the giant stick she insisted on carrying around she also caught and killed a rabbit. I wont bore you with the details other than the fact that Iorek didn't really know what was going on and that Rendall saw his first kill... his reaction - started laughing and ran the other way as I quickly disposed of the widdle wabbit.

Here is a video of Lyra and her stupid stick... iphone video -- so the quality is a little so so -- Rendall thought the stick was funny as well.

Iorek's first flyball practice

So Iorek came to flyball practice this morning... he has come a few times before but basically he was just their to socialize with his new human team members and to show off how cute he is...

Today was a business day, and besides he was not the cutest puppy --- that honor goes to Dana's new Duck Toller puppy (ridiculously cute and fuzzy). Iorek did his first set of restraints. I was very pleased with his desire to chase the tug and once he got the hang of it I could barely run fast enough. Each time I made sure he played with the tug and eventually won (I let go and praised him for his amazing tugging abilities). Later when his big sister was running I brought him out in his crate and let him watch... he went a little crazy - one time when I looked over he was trying to eat his way through the crate door. That answered one question I had --- will he be crazy for flyball? But now I have to make sure I am careful to balance his chase drive and his drive to a reward.

Clicker Training... the first three behaviors!!!!

The good news is that Iorek eats food. The frustrating part is that he does not exactly go bananas for the food. I am used to terriers that lose their mind when food is around and will do almost anything for half a piece of kibble.

The first week home Iorek got most of his meals hand fed with an occasional meal in his crate. We spent the second week powering up the clicker. And now that Iorek understands that click = food we are beginning to start shaping behavior.

Its been awhile since I have had a puppy and I am having a hard time prioritizing which behaviors to begin shaping... so I have decided to pick three different challenges.
1) Shaping going into his crate (I like this because then I can work on stay in a month or so)
2) A mix of hand targets and a target stick
3) The wobble board

The shaping is a bit slow going... Iorek seems to be more willing to work in the mornings then he does in the afternoon. Iorek is very hesitant of the wobble board... if he continues to show minimal progress I will pick a different activity to shape til he feels more confident. The major positive that I have taken out of the shaping so far is that although things are going slowly he hasn't ever given up... perhaps I need to increase the value of the reward???

Iorek comes home...

Iorek (pronounced - your-ik) is a whippet... He was not named for the skull of a court jester that Hamlet knew as a child - that's Yorick. Our Iorek is named after the mighty armored bear from His Dark Materials fantasy series by Philip Pullman. The books are for children in much the same way that the Hobbit is. Well worth the read (Just don't watch the movie... 43% on Rotten Tomatoes).

Iorek arrived at his forever home in the second week of spring break. He was born in Washington State and we drove the five hour trip on beautiful spring day. It was my intention to put him in his crate and drive him home safely while I listen to A Game of Thrones on audio book. After 45 mins. of mind-numbing, ear splitting demon howling I pulled over at the first rest stop, had a pee break and then drove the finally 4 hrs through the border with a 10 week old puppy on my lap.

That was three weeks ago and now Iorek is a full fledged member of the pack. We have big plans for Iorek... we are planning to teach Iorek how to be a flyball dog... we are planning to try whippet racing... we are planning to try some agility... but most of all we planning to give Iorek a happy, safe, and exciting home.

Iorek's Adventures will be the story of Iorek and a training blog.