Week 3 with Emmett: moving toward a new normal
I think the best summation of week 3 with Emmett would be that we are all feeling more comfortable. And also PROGRESS – progress on everything!
More comfortable with each other and with new routines.
Emmett’s training in a nutshell: Sit, the beginnings of a sit-stay, hand target, drop (drop whatever you have in your mouth), recall, down. Down was the trickiest. We started working on that on Thursday and it was just yesterday (Saturday) that we got completely there. Sit actually came from work with the breeder. And prior to this week Emmett had learned “go to your bed/mat”, “into your crate”. Outside there is a click treat for focus on me.
This form of training, called many things: operant conditioning, clicker (marker) training, positive reinforcement. I am so enthusiastic about how this works. I am not yelling “no”, all training happens as play, the communication is fast and incredible. In addition to the above tasks, I used click-treat to shape Emmett’s and Auggie’s behavior to more calm, have fun together, tone down the wrestling. If you’ve looked at my Instagram feed and especially my stories … it is pretty incredible how they are doing.
And of note: this method of training is used for athletics, autistic children and many other forms of teaching. There is a site: Tag Teaching
On my Wednesday story, I threw caution to the wind and posted that we’d had success with a schedule (all times approximate) that got us all fed, played with, walked … and me to my desk to work (showered and dressed!!) by 9:00.
This has stuck. I don’t watch the clock, but generally, an approximation worked all week and we continued through the weekend. Color me thrilled!
The little couch. Well, the first days – Yes! But then Emmett got bolder and wigglier and we had some days where it was Auggie and me and some days where it was Emmett and me.
This week, while he is still a bit wiggly, we had several “all together” mornings:
The Auggie and Emmett scene:
We also started working on being together on the front porch:
Ok.
The big deal: house training, i.e. potty training.
It is mostly happening outside.
But …
… when it doesn’t, it happens on the piddle pads.
I’d just bought a LOT of the pads for Bear before he died … I kept them. Thankfully!
Emmett got them immediately. He goes outside when we go out and when he goes inside it is generally because I am distracted and don’t get him out. But he goes right to the pads so I know he is aware that there are appropriate places to go. Making the jump to “asking” to go out … I am confident it will happen and meantime, I am not fussed about the use of the pads.
Not getting fussed, is a freeing part of the positive training approach. I don’t reward inside potty like I do outside, but there is no punishment for inside. Similarly, other behaviors that I don’t reward, I redirect and/or remove whatever from the environment. Because all of the learning is happening with play and fun, the subtle redirect and soft “no” is understood. All of this adds up to a happy and calm learning environment. HOO-RAH!
And in the woods:
It has been another happy, love-filled week with Auggie and Emmett.
I think that Auggie agrees that the “kid” is a wonderful heart healer and great addition to the family Summers
7 Responses to “Week 3 with Emmett: moving toward a new normal”
That is such a positive post and so much progress has been made! Love the photos, too. I would love to be there and see them together.
I wish you could be here to see also … and maybe video some of the action! I try to catch some but they are fast when on the move and I like to stay close enough to reward good behavior so it is tricky to get any usable clips.
By the way, how do you get up at 4.30am??? We don’t go to bed until about 11.30pm here and I get up at 6.45am but 4.30 seems the middle of the night to me!
And thanks for all the photos! At least I can enjoy Auggie and Emmett from a distance.
Ha … 11:30 seems like the middle of the night to me :) My internal clock is skewed to early to bed (very early like 8-9 latest) and thus wake very early. Always has been and my mother and brother similar. Sometimes I take an afternoon nap as does the rest of my family so guess it is some form of genetic/family pattern. I will say that typically I slide into a 9-5 sleeping pattern but after Bear died, it took me weeks to settle into sleeping well and at the moment it is 8:30-4:30 ish… I just go with it since I can. For a while and because it was still dark early evening/late morning it was even worse: 7-3:00 a.m. !!
You and Auggie are a training team!
So fun to see and read about the progress.
It IS a team effort – including Emmett :) !! I was worried that Auggie might “teach” things I didn’t particularly want Emmett to learn, but so far that has not been the case.
In the interest of accuracy … I’ll include in the next post. Things regressed a bit yesterday (Monday). The time schedule fell apart … a little frustration all around. But that is “normal” and maybe because I’m older and/or more experienced … I sat down with a cup of tea while Emmett was in his play pen and just took some quiet time to regroup and remind myself that we have a LONG way to go for Emmett’s growing up and setbacks are part of the “progress”.
This morning we are back on track … so far! It is only 8:30 a.m. as I write this but we have all had breakfast, outings, play time and I’m showered, dressed and at the computer with Emmett having a chew fest on his bed next to me.
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