School time for our puppies! Here is your first to-do list.
Just a short note first: there are lots of tasks waiting for you in this class as I like to keep it interesting also for those dogs who already know some of the tricks. HOWEVER, make sure you're not focusing on teaching too much as fast as possible, to the degree of trying to help/lure - but instead take the time and focus on the fun part. In order not to make you feel under pressure, I will be underlining the tasks you should focus on in each lesson. The rest you can do if the underlined exercises are going well, but we don't need those for the next lesson, so it doesn't hurt if you address those later.
1. The first task might sound a little silly for those with adult dogs, but in fact, it's never silly to make a recall even better! Call your dog at least 10 times a day to do something fun together: to play, to go out, to get a treat, something to chew on or a new exciting toy
2. put a plate (or another object, but I like to start with a plate as puppies can't chew on those too easily) on a floor and shape a puppy to touch it with a front paw: you can first click for head movement in the right direction, then one/two/three steps towards the plate, then stepping over it or close to it and finally for stepping on it
3. sit on a floor and put a fist full of treats or dog's favourite toy right in front of their nose, wait till they stop sniffing and click for anything they try other than getting directly to the food/toy or staring at it. It's very important the dog understands staring at food/toy doesn't get him anywhere as it will later on allow you to work with food/toys in your hand without distracting the dog's focus from the job at hand.
4. find a box or a drawer that is as long as your dog and not too high and shape a dog to put 1-2-3-4 legs into it. Then try with smaller&smaller objects, final goal is the dog can stand with all 4 feet in a small bowl.
5. observe your puppy and see if he sometimes stretches his legs out when in down position, puppies often do that when relaxed or playing. Name it (I call it "frog":) and reward. It's a nice stretching exercise and very easy to get it on cue if the dog does it naturally (some dogs do it as adults too, but mine didn't and it was much harder to train it as with puppy Le who was doing that naturally). If not, put a dog in a down position and reward from the floor and so far ahead that the dog needs to stretch out to get it - but not so far that he would crawl ahead. Watch the hind legs and click for moving them back OR out, but NOT for crawling step forward. It usually helps if you try to get them stretch over a pillow, like in this video:
Looking forward to see your videos! You can send them in one or more pieces, but keep the total length of the videos sent per lesson under 10min. Don't wait until you master the tricks before sending your videos, just post whatever you're working on for some feedback.
So here is my first submission. It is the targeting a plate and 4 in a box. This is the third box we have done and it is just shorter than he is long. He is not a highly food motivated dog, but I am very happy at how well he is “thinking” through things. Any suggestions for more food motivation? He is VERY toy motivated. I am looking forward to your suggestions :-).
What a smart puppy! He looks pretty motivated to me 🙂 but definitely try throwing in some more toy rewards in between if that’s his thing. With Le who had the same problem, I started off rewarding every second click with a toy: and then every third, every fourth etc. -- and then keeping it for jackpots. Anticipation of the toy made treats more fun.
Great job with the box, keep this one until he is fluently going in and then try the next size.
I will definitely throw in more toy rewards when I can. He fractured a tiny part of his scapula a few weeks ago so we are still being careful what we do. His initial recheck xrays looked awesome and they said we could go back to most of his normal activities just no jumping or heavy running or playing with other dogs. Tugging scares me because he pulls really hard so I am being very easy with that still. He has his final checkup and xrays friday and if they say he is all healed I will add tugging back in. Thank you!!
Oh, so sorry to hear about the injury, I sure hope it’s all healed and he can play again!
Here is Comet’s first submission. We’ve worked on the box, paw target, and frog. I need to find better boxes for him to work with! We are keeping the sessions very short, 1-2 minutes, with breaks to play or go outside in between. so far, I think he’s having a good time.
Comet looks great! Great reinforcement rate too! All set for a smaller box! Nice paw touches and almost there with the frog, great job!
I decided tonight to do our first video so, of course, Lance was a bit rowdy (for him) and didn’t do as well as he had been. In any event, here is a small part of our practice session doing lesson 2 & 4. Lance does nose touches to a plasic lid so we are using a plastic container instead. Hopefully I will do this video correctly…
Looks pretty good to me! The paw touches look great and with that box, he looks a little unsure, as if it slipped under his feet and scared him some. Make sure you don’t push and lure him in situations he is not completely comfortable with, but instead build the confidence slowly. What I would do is to switch to another box, like a cardboard, on different, unslippery flooring and start again from zero, rewarding whatever he offers and not pushing for more than that. Shaping is a very good training in modesty and in being happy with little things as asking for more as the dog is ready for is usually contra-productive. So don’t worry about it, we’re here to train so he doesn’t need to do everything perfect for the camera 🙂 -- take it slowly and give him time to gain confidence when interacting with strange objects: that’s the major reason to do this trick anyway.
Ruby comes 98% of the time. Under exceptional circumstances she ignores me. How should I handle her then? Also, after watching some of your videos, I taught her to step into a very small box with all four feet. She learned your trick for heeling by stepping with both front feet on the top of a can, box, bowl, etc. She will push a ball with her nose and tap a small piece of plexiglass with her nose for agility contacts. Should I practice your exercise No. 2 or does she already know what you will expect from her? Thanks.
She sure knows a lot already! Still, try to get one paw touches too, we’ll need that too. Recalls, practice when you know she will come and when you see she won’t, just try to get her on a leash first by actually going to her yourself, take her a little further from the distraction and try to practice it there: and if she is o.k., you can release her back to the distraction -- if it’s something harmless 🙂 When you can’t get her by going there, try running away from her and hide, to make her come and search for you.
This is Bisous training to go into a box… sometimes she is getting really hectic, not caring that she steps on the sides and turning everything upside down. Little patience, she also starts making funny noises when it is not going fast enough for her…
Oh, she is just too cute! Love her activity level! And her focus is AMAZING, considering how much you ask for each click!!! I’m a MUCH more generous clicker, I think it’s really important to be very generous with puppies to keep it really fun and not frustrating for them. Also, that was a VERY long session, I think you need to break it with some playing inbetween. What an enthusiastic worker your puppy is!
Pippa is doing the exact same things with her box! I will also try more generous clicking!
How can I make her work with more concentration?
Here’s Smore’s 4 in a box video and front paws on the plate. I started doing 4 in a box when she was 3 months old, the video is at her 5 and a half months old, I tried 2 different size of boxes. She got 2 front paws on the plate pretty fast since we have been doing perch training 🙂 right now we work on “Frog” trick
Great job! She is too funny just standing in that box -- great balance! That’s a really small box already, but as she looks so balanced, I’m sure she can do even smaller! 🙂 Nice paw touches too, you can now try to get one paw touches too, on different cue.
So I added in a small toy for todays afternoon session. I used a very small one so he couldnt get too much leverage on it and pull too hard. I felt like he gave me lots more enthusiasm when I worked the toy in. I edited out most of our play so it didnt take a ton of time. Also here is our frog dog. I think he is doing really well with that.
What a cool frog dog! Keep working towards complete stretch back. Nice paw touches too and yes, he sure seems very happy to play again!
Hi Silvia & classmates,
Here’s a video of Zephyr’s progress with lesson 1 so far. The recalls are going well but difficult to put on video. 🙂 And Zephyr starting offering hind end movement once he had his front paws up on the bowl so I’ve been clicking for that which I know is in the next lesson but I hope this is ok to start now. I’ve just started with a small target for one paw touches & will video that soon along with the frog.
We’re still working on the transition from the small box to a bowl for 4in. He does it sometimes but other times looks at me as if to say, “Why would you want me to step into my food bowl?” He’s pretty funny & we’re having lots of fun!
Thanks!
Wow, nice job with ignoring food and a toy, pretty amazing for such a puppy! Very nice hind feet movement too! As the next step for 4in, you can as well use a box, just a smaller one -- or put a bowl into that box. He definitely looks ready for the next step! What a smart puppy!
Thanks, Silvia! I’ll try a smaller box to see if that helps. Is it common for young puppies to want to sit at first? I’m wondering if he has enough muscle development in his hind end for standing in a small box yet. I think Elsa sat a few times in the beginning of shaping 4in but I was able to catch a few clicks right before she sat so the sitting disappeared pretty quickly. With Zephyr it’s difficult to catch him standing as he brings his hind legs in as he sits 🙁 Any suggestions?
Thanks.
I usually just let them sit: once the box gets really small, they can’t do it anymore anyway. If he finds it too difficult to stand then, you can always go back to a bigger box again and try to get standing (by rewarding low and not rewarding sitting), but I think it will go away on its own.
Hi Kathy,
Zephyr is very cute!! How did you teach the release the toy? That is so brilliant.
Thanks, Dawn. I taught releasing the toy by letting my end of the tug go slack & waiting for him to release. When he did I clicked & rewarded with a treat. Then when he was doing this pretty consistently (it didn’t take long because he loves his treats), I added the “thank you” cue. And I think because he was used to getting a treat for releasing this helped with “ignore the toy” when I started rewarding the release with another tug session. I started “release the toy” when I first got him a month ago because my other dog who I adopted as an adult has always been really tough with “release”. It’s a constant maintenance thing as she never likes letting go of her toys, so I didn’t want to go through the same thing with Zephyr… 🙂
Love watching people’s videos, very helpful.Question for the group: What cues (verbal or physical) are you using for left and right paw touches? Sylvia mentioned “paw” and “other paw” but I would like to hear what other people are using too. I don’t want to use ‘left’ and ‘right’ or ‘touch’ since those are already commands for other things. Suggestions? English preferred but not absolutely necessary.
Lori