YUKON
Our new faily member is officially called Fuji-San Yummy Yukon. He is an eight weeks old Japanese spitz. He seems quite an indepewndent and lovable character. He is lively but somewhat too fat. I chose him because of his character. But he looks really cute too.
I might call him Vala (=oath) since I am interested in what one can do with one's whole heart and interested in keeping him as well as I can. Besides him being a lively white spitz with somewhat arctic looks that could be otherwise OK too. But I am not yet sure...
STARTING HIM ON THE LEASH
Vala got so quickly adabted to his new home that in order to have some thing to do I started training him to the leash: I went to the door and told him that here was something special. I put the leash on and praised him of being like an adult or teenaged dog. The second time that I tried this we walked together some two meters without any problems. Then I tool the leash off. The third time he walked just like an adult show dog while I praised him. I just wish that he would continue thuis well.
The fourth tine he went to the door himself asking for something to do i.e. for a little walk on lesh. I put the leash on and he looked pleasedf. I praised him and talked to him encouragingly while we walked some two to four meters really fine. Then he got interested ina pig's ear and I took the leash off.
THE FIRST TIMES
I got him only yesterday evening, 20th January 2008. The car journey of two hours went well and he adabted very quickly to his new environment. During the first night he whined twice very shortly but continued then sleeping right away. He is very human oriented and listens mainly to language instead of to gestures. He does not socialize almost at all with the rabbits and budgeriga birds and has managed to steal the central place in our home right away.
PIG'S EAR
He has a pig's ear and I praise him for carrying it around. It could be good for learning fetching since he ought to have no fetching instinct. Besides it is good to try to teach the basics of listening to me via nice things to do and positive feedback about them. He is a very stubborn character: in the car he climbed to my shoulder over twenty times while I said NO. So he is a real spitz but I guess that when we know each other better and have some contact obedience will be easier too. I just trust my own skills in teaching and in motivating. And I am extremely stubborn too, even though I dislike forcing animals at all. Still, I would like to reach for obedience too as he ages, but not against my or his likings. I hope that agility isn't too high a goal in what comes to his behaviour... Well, I have to just wait and see. He is really nice though.
OUTSIDE
Toay, tuesday 22. January, I went out with Vala for the first time. At first he just stood tail down and sniffed at the ground but then he lifted his tail up and started walking and running about.
The second time after midday meal we walked a longer distance and he run alongside with me back to our home door.
JUST AN ATTEMPT AT TEACHING HEELING
I couldn't resist the temptation to try to teach the puppy some kind of trick. Sitting didn't seemt o interest him at all, so I tried heeling. I took a piece of titbit and showed it to him. Then I just walked and praised him as he stepped after the titbit, watching attentively upwards and even jumping to get it, saying "heel" and praising a lot. Well, that was the first attempt and in my opinion it went well. I plan to continue on the same road since the puppy seemed enthusiastic, liked doing freely, getting the titbit and being praised. Afterwards we played with full speed.
CHILDREN
Vala likes children and walks "long" distances to meet them.
NO
This far almost a week, from Suncay evening to Saturday morning, has passed and we have managed to get to along without the puppy understanding the word NO and without punishments. But today morning he bite me in the hand too strongly and so I had to take him by the neck skin and tell him that such was not OK. He took the stubborn role but after a short while believed me. Immediately afterwards he obeyed a single NO instead of yelling something like this far.
ALONE
The puppy seems to have been used to being without human company all the time, so when he has gone to rest I have just left the apartment and been away for a while, at most two hours though. My rabbits and birds keep company to the puppy too, so that has made my teaching task easier. By now they are friends.
GENERAL GUIDELINES
Generally I have the goal of teaching my puppy to cooperate with all his ability and not just repeat some well known tricks. So I praise him and if I am forced to say NO or DROP IT, I praise him again the next second for obeying, so it all is quite a positive experience to the puppy. I want to build motivation to cooperate intead of teaching tricks at this age. But I do teach tricks too: heeling with the food bowl or with a titbit, without any NOs and without leash: just encouraging and rewarding.
There is no problem in teaching a small puppy without Nos and punishments. Since there is so little that such a small god can break and since there are almost no forbidden things at all there is no rebelliousness born. One can just praise for the right behaviour and gently guide the puppy toward right roads: when it for example bites too strongly I say OUCH! so that the puppy knows to avoid such. Everything goes through ordinary social life, through fair play and nice behaviour instead of commanding based on bigger size or whatever.
MANY NOS
Vala is almost house clean so I put some carpets on the floor. That resulted in him trying to tear the carpets apart. I had to say no and drop it many times, wgile unfastening his teeth from the carpet.
I also wore a different type of trousers that he is not allowed to hang on to. So teaching that to him required even more nos and dropits. The good side of that is that he seems to be learning what no means.
Either he is slow witted or then, more likely, there is just so much to learn that he has his full capacity in use. Maybe when he has learned the basics of everything, he will be more quick witted too. Now he seems pr4eoccupied. There are all the social things with humans and with my rabbits and birds, the learning of moving without falling down and getting aquiantaged with the whole environment. There is also his social role to think about. By the dog breeder he had the role of a fat puppy not suited for dog shows. Now we have praised him a lot for everything and he has the role of a fine little dog suited for just about anything.
VIDEOS
There are already three videos of Vala at www.youtube.com/khtervola on my playlist Puppy: My puppy's first day, puppy and a toy and teaching heeling.
NINE WEEKS
Today, sunday 27th January, Vala has been with us for a week and is nine weeks and one day old. He has learned to socialize with the rabbits and somewhat even with my birds. He is almost house clean and walks in a leash in a puppy like way. He has some grasp of what the words drop it, heel, sit and no mean.
9 1/2 WEEKS
Vala is now 9 weeks and three days old. His jaws have grown stronger and he is eager to try their force. He likesd chewing and biting. And what surprises me, he enjoys doing tricks that I teach him but doesn't like so much playing with toys - it takes lots of encouraging and praising to get him play with his toys so that it is just like another trick. He is more socially oriented. Could this all be because he follows the example of my rabbits?
Vala knows the commands heel, come, sit and down, plus the words no and drop it, but it takes some guiding to get him perform the tricks all right.
Yes, the problem seems to be the rabbits: treating the puppy as if he were one of my rabbits seems to produce the desired effect while other things do not. The rabbits are prey animals instead of predators, so they have a very cynical view on life, watching Vala's teeth with horror mixed with admiration: think, how could their friend have such teeth, that could be useful, let's hope that he grows to become very big...
TEACHING THE PUPPY TO READ
My two rabbits and my two birds know how to read, so I would like to teach my dog to read too so that I could show that animals really can learn such a trick.
Vala seems to be busy learning walking, running, chewing, jumping, social life etc, so it isn't easy to get him interested in reading. He says that his mama didn't tell him that dogs would do such tricks. So after the first excercise of reading his n�wn name Vala, I wrote on a piece of paper Vala, sit! and Vala, down! and made him do he tricks as I showed him the papers. That made him almost accept reading as an ordinary dog like trick.
Last night as I was half-awake Vala pissed on the new piece of paper which said that Vala reads etc. I cleaned the mess and tried to tell him that newspapers are of a different kind of paper, more suited to pissing. Vala remarked that newspapers have text on them too. So it seems that he has really understood something. That I have also deduced from his looks: the text sit = istu makes him look sharp like i (pronounced like in the English sit), and down = maahan makes him look more steady and long lasting like the two or three a's (pronounced like in the English car).
Well, you do not have to believe this: time will show whether I will get him to do tricks on written commands.
Anyway, I think that it is easiest to teach such new tricks to a small puppy, so that they will have time to get adabted to doing such tricks. My personal opinion is that it isn't the intelligence of animals which stops them from reading, it is their social role as subordinates who cannot(?) read. So with a small puppy one can teach a new role, making it possible for the animal to read if it only can or wants to read.
TEACHING INTELLIGENCE VIA THE SENSE OF SIGHT
I am teaching my puppy Vala intelligence the same way that I have taught my almost white very intelligent rabbit Lissukka: this is like this and that is like that: making observations of the world around oneself and forming especially a seen but also otherwise sensed picture of what things are like and what the world around oneself is like. This takes some time because it needs to become a habit or a skill. It would also be good if attentiveness would become a habit, like it is for Lissu(kka) rabbit. Here it is most important to use a holistic view of the landscape that one is in and not a spot like view like is habitual for many humans and animals. The habits in the use of the sense of sight create directly habits in thinking. I have managed to teach my puppy these things (except attentiveness) but how to make them habits? Time will show.
BITING AND BITING AND BITING
Lately Vala has gotten the nasty habit of biting at our legs and hands, biting, biting, biting,... and not playing. AT first it was just tender haging on our trousers and blouses but then he figured out that his teeth have become stronger, so he started trying them out. I couldn't understand that: such a small puppy trying to dominate. I though that it was my older rabbit causing it, feeling both fear and admiration toward the dog'd teeth. But today, friday 1st of February, I noticed that it was a communication problem: if I treat the puppy like he treats me, he understands what is nasty in it, so I grasp his coat as he snaps on me, he feels it to be somewhat uncomfortable and begins to understand what his bites feel to me. After that he has behaved really nicely.
10 WEEKS OLD
Vala is now (yesterday, 2. Febrauary) ten weeks old. He sometimes agrees to walk around the blog while a week ago it was at most around the apartment building that we live in.
SIT
Yesterday evening, 6th February, I felt that my puppy was in a right kind of mood: calm yet attentive. So I called him to me, gave him a treat and then showed him a piece of paper which said "sit" and the dog sat down immediately. I was gladly surprised. So I asked my boyfriend to take his camera and to film the next attempt right away. It went well and we put the video to youtube.
I do know that it still takes some practise to make a trick like this an ordinary one but we have a good start! I am still only teachning him the "down" command and "stand" is a long way away still. When he learns them both, and sitting up from lying down, then I can show him different signs needing different action, so it will make the trick clear for all to see.
INTELLIGENCE
So what is intelligence? How can a dog puppy or any animal learn things typical to humans?
Thinking means forming a correct picture of what the world is like. That is done in connection with the senses: our senses tell us a lot about what the world around us is like. Most of the rest consists of correct organisation of the memory: if you use your sense of sight to make a map of your environment, with everything in its right place in the map, like I have taught my puppy to do, you have reached quite far in understanding what the world is like.
Even intelligence consists of making correct observations of how things are. Like for example in learning reading, you need to observe how the letters correspond to spoken sounds. That is very straightforward in the Finnish language which is written exactly the way that it is spoken. So as the puppy is in a visually observant mood, I show him the letters of some interesting word, one by one as I speak the sounds in the word slowly, and then repeat in the ordinary pace just to make it sure. V - A - L - A, VALA!
DID YOU NOTICE?
Did you notice that I have here theoretical grounds for how a dog can learn to read without it being any diffrent from what dogs are typically thought to be like: very good with their senses and with an ability to connect things that happen the same time ?!
NO NOS
Maybe I ought to explain what I mean by teaching a dog without any "no"s. That does not m,ean letting the dog run free doing whatever it likes. In a sense it does mean that too but not in a constant unaltered environment. Thge environment = me is a guiding factor. When I praise my dog, I guide him by that to do allowed things, and if I choose wisely things that are in the dog's eyes almost the same as the forbiddent hings but slightly better because of the prauise, I can guide the dog very well without punoishing it. A �punishment is an unpleasant ewxperience, so it isn't good to use them a lot.
DOG INTELLIGENCE TESTS
The only dog intelligence test that I have heard of is the following: put the dog on a long leash so that the leash goes around a pole, so shortening, and put s food bowl in front of the dog. The dog ought not to reach the bowl. The dog does not understand yjsay it should walk around the pole to get a longer leash, so reaching the food bowl.
I think that there are two serious faults with this test: 1) the stimulus of a food bowl is too strong, making thinking impossible. And 2) the dog has been conditioned to a leash: it finds the situationb a social one, one to be solved by persistence and social communication rather than with spatial (or whatever) problem solving skills.
A dog can learn to go around a pole by himself, my puppy has! On a walk he undertands the command "This side" meaning: go around the pole so as to unfasten the leash.
11 WEEKS, NOT SO FAT
Vala is now 11 weeks old and not so fat any more. The dog breeder adviced us that the puppy should lose weight via growing up, not because of being on a diet. Before he came to us, Vala had eaten more than his own share of the food for puppies. When he here got only his own portion, he begun to feel better and become more lively, appaering to not to be so fat after all. He appeared to like the lighter diet.
Vala weights now about 4kg and is some 30cm high, i.e. much bigger than three weeks ago when he came to us. He has also learned to run and jumb with style. He enjoys the social position of a normal healthy puppy instead of the old social position of a fat puppy not suited for dog shows. By now he is house clean: uses newspapers, knows the commands come, sit and heel and has started to learn a number of other easy commands like no, down and give me your paw. He is not obedient but likes to cooperate, to do things together, and often that means trying to teach him some tricks.
SLIGHT OBSERVATIONS
My puppy has the bad habit of biting me and others too strongly.
Today, monday 11. Febr., I figured out two possible reasons: maybe its orange coloured collar makes me treat it so that it gets to a too lively and even aggressive mood. So I bought a new green one and noticed that it affects at least me.
I also today for the first time brushed my puppy to the counter direction that Japanese spitzes are customarily brushed. My puppy seemed to think: Oh, this is the feeling that I have been searching for in order to behave like adult Japanese spitzes do. My puppy is still so young and unexperienced that everything it does is just guesswork and not any wise choises.
I consider that brusking custom stupid since it does affect the dog's mood unnaturally, but it does make the puppy look more furry and cute.
TO TRAIN A PUPPY?
This far I have been only teaching my puppy Vala, with food rewards and praise. But in order to stop him from biting mer all the time, I tried the down and stay commands, which he can with hand signs but not otherwise. It calmed him down. It is as if he expects to be under command all the time - very unlike my rabbits! and my old poodle and short haired collie dogs which passed away years ago. But maybe he is that Japanese?!
I do not want to command him all the time. Maybe the real problem is that he does not play enough! I do not know why.
But the puyppy does like doing things together - I run out of things to teach.
FETCH
Today Vala learned to fetch a ball!
BITING OR TRAINING?
I figured one possible explanation for the nasty biting habit: Vala thought that training was about punishing and obeyance and wanted so much to be trained. I am sorry to have given him the wrong idea. I am fond of the bery soft communicative training approach, so today I have been telling Vala (just talking to him) about the soft way to train. It seems to restore our loving relationship.
MY METHOD OF TEACHING
In the usual method of teaching you use rewards and punishments without much communication with your dog. The punishments have the role of saying that you damned dog obey or otherwise... After that there isn't much room for communication left since the dog is in a conflict with you.
My method of teaching is just teaching without commanding: I guide the dog to the right performance and reward him for it. There is no forcing needed.
My method of guiding is just communication and ordinary social life together. So as I had a nice friendly young puppy, all I needed to stop it from biting was to inform it that it was biting too hard and that I didn't like such: ouch! But you cannot use this method if your dog isn't listening to you and if it does not want to please you. You have to start communicating first and only then guiding.
But of course guiding alone leads to some results too if you use things that the dog does listen to, like the food bowl.
COMMUNICATION
In communicating with my dog puppy I am allowing it independence like I have communicated with my not so tame intelligent rabbit Lissukka. The dog can be itelligent in its own way: observant but not so good in organising his memory. That is a skill that one ought to be able to teach a dog. But the amount of ignorance and beginner's stupidity in an eleven weeks old puppy is enermous!
Try this: My puppy likes cheese, so I gave him one bit as a reward andm put the rest of that small pi4ece of cheese to the refrigerator. My puppy looked sad as I walked away. I remarked that the rest of the cheese was for him too, so he became immediately glad. This was such a clear reaction to spoken words, that you might try it with your own dog too, to see that he/she really can understand a lot - of the words or of the way they are said, it does not matter: the dog does understand in any case!
MY CHARACTER
Of course it may be that what I am like affects a lot the possibilities to train just the way that I do. Like, because of my conviction of my views, I am extremely strong willed, so I can let things go as they wish and still have the strenght and endurancy to correct them. A weak willed person has to always plan things beforehand so that they do not run out of her/his abilities to control or even bear them.
I am also writing about Gaia: that impressed my birds and rabbits, so they may be unusually cooperative because of that!
Also otherwise my writing task may affect: like you see from my main page www.paradisewins.net/index.html, I am writing about questions of possibly enermously huge importance: much more important than whether a dog or any other pet can read. So the animals like to do something themselves too: to read and to be filmed when doing so, if it is in their capabilities to do so... Still they can keep their role as pets...
Links
Teaching animals amazing things
Videos of Vala: see the playlist Puppy