Day 54 (Sunday, November 21, 2021)
Costs for the Day are in the Table below:
I woke up today at 7 am and went for my morning run and calisthenics workout. Here is what I did:
Ran 1.27 Miles (0.6 Miles to the Park and back), 4 sets of 10 pullups to chest level or as high as possible, 4 sets of 10 dips from bar going as low as possible, 100 pushups (25/25/25/25), 4 sets of 8 straight leg raises from the bar, 4 sets of chin ups to chest level or as high as possible, 1 minute straight arm planks – Left/Right/Regular – with dips or arm/leg raises in last 15-30 seconds, 1 minute flutter kicks, 4 sets of 5-15 second side holds from the bars, 3 sets of 10 pushups using the rings, 50 inverted rows (20/15/15)
Today the bars were dripping wet from another stormy night so it was difficult to do full muscle up and side holds. However, I did notice that my run time is improving. When I first started this workout my pace was around 9 minutes 20 seconds and now it is under 8 minutes today. It is not always consistent improvement but trending in the right direction.
After working out, I made breakfast of eggs, sausage, onions, tomato, and rice with toast and coffee for Bi and I.
Then I did some research on dog training.
First, I listened to the Tim Ferriss podcast with Susan Garrett who has placed at world and national championship events for dog agility more than 50 times, winning those events a total of 38 times. Susan’s book Shaping Success (The Education of an Unlikely Champion) was selected as the 2005 dog training and behavior book of the year. She gave some useful tips for first interactions and useful games.
Its Your Choice Games – Present your hand closed with food in it. Open hand when the dog stops trying to take the food from your hand. If they lung for it when you open your hand then close it again. Eventually, the dog will sit and wait even when you open your hand with the treats, then say “Yes” or verbally praise the puppy. If he moves towards the treats then again close your hand. Only when you can open your hand, say “Yes” or praise the puppy, and then take a treat from your open hand and feed it to the puppy without them lunging or moving towards it have they succeeded.
Crate Games – Create comfort zone in the crate, eventually moving to dog bed. Open Crate: Put food in front of them, use hand to hold in place, get eye contact, then give release word to allow them to eat the food.
Restraint Recalls – Have someone hold puppy and you call their name and run away so they chase you. Eventually, you can just stand still and call their name and they will come.
Collar Grab Game – Every time you are going to give them a treat, you grab their collar first, then give them a teat (not before). Then they know that when you reach for their collar good things will happen. So, in a crises, you can grab the collar easily. Here is one Collar Grab Game: Sit in a circle with multiple people and the dog in the middle. Call the dog’s name and, when they look at you, grab their collar, and then give them a treat.
Second, I enrolled in Zack George’s free 30 day puppy class. It has useful videos on how to start training your puppy in the first 30 days. I just started watching these but they seem reasonable so far and useful because you can see exactly how he is interacting with the puppy. Bi and I decided we would watch these together
I also sat down with Bi to try and discuss a game plan for dog training and to start to agree on what we would and would not allow. Examples: Do we allow the puppy on the couch? I know Bi would want this so could we agree to only allow this when we want and only when the puppy follows a process and is given approval? Agree to train so the puppy sits and only jumps on the couch when we allow? Can we do the same for the bed? Will the puppy have to sit and only be allowed through the door after we say? How will we handle barking, jumping, leash pulling? These are things we still need to hammer out and research but we want to try to have agreement on what we want to try to train the puppy to do. Otherwise, the dog is bound to be confused.
Later in the afternoon, Bi and I biked over to Pingo Doce for groceries. (Cost: 71.99 EUR) We went to a new one we had not been to before and this one was smaller than the one we normally go to so the selection was much more constrained. However, we found most of what we wanted. We loaded up our backpacks and then biked back to the apartment.
