School time for our puppies! Here is your first to-do list. 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!
1. 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, 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 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.
Looking forward to see your videos!
Question. When the dog is standing on the plate, is it best to click/treat, then get the dog to move off the plate to do the behavior again or better to click/treat many times while they are standing on the plate. I try to click/treat once for the behavior, and toss the treat to the side so they can do the behavior again to earn another click/treat.
Do they understand many click/treats while standing on the object? (Different from a jackpot, with one click and many treats.)
Curious if there are places where one method is better than another or if they are the same.
Thanks Bekka--I’m curious of the answer to your question too.
If you click/treat for getting on the plate you are reinforcing that action. If you click/treat for standing on the plate you are reinforcing duration. I would think you would need to reinforce the action until it was solid before you would build duration.
I thought about building duration, but wondered how click/treat over and over for standing on the plate would work better than giving jackpots (more or better treats) for more and more duration.
i think too much. : ) i have a long commute to work every day.
The difference is that with some dogs, it’s very hard to get duration by delaying the click so much that you could then jackpot the duration. Many active dogs will throw at you 1001 new behaviours before trying to prolong the existing one. On the other hand, you might be able to treat the dog while still in the right position and if so, you can immediately click&treat again. That will tell the dog it’s about the duration, that they don’t need to do anything else but hold the position and treats will keep coming. Once the dog understands this concept, it’s very easy to prolong any behaviour -- with my dogs, as soon as I manage to click&treat without having any action in between, they will add lots of duration immediately. Then you don’t need to click&treats so frequently anymore, then you can click&jackpot the duration as such :). But yes, sure, you need action first, so the order would be: get the action, click&reward twice without action in between, add duration and jackpot it 🙂
Whoops -- looks like i added my video twice!
Grace really enjoyed doing her homework! I first tried tossing the treats but she found it almost impossible to find them in the shaggy rug and would lose her rhythm. It’s quite confronting to see yourself on video, I didn’t realise i spend so much time saying,”YES, good girl”.
I have a question about recalls that arose from our trip to the beach yesterday ( i love that some of the dogs in our course have been playing in the snow this week and other swimming at the beach). Grace’s recall is usually v good but yesterday a group of people were playing ball games and she raced off from me to be part of the fun (trying to steal their ball). I called her about 3 times and she completely ignored me so i started running away in the opposite direction. It took her a little time, but as soon as she realised i was going she ran to me. I am a bit unsure how to respond to her in these situations when she does eventually comes back. Should i reinforce her w happy voice/food/play or be more neutral bc she didn’t actually respond to my call -- she only came bc i was going..?
Thank you!
PS -- I’m curious, how many people are in our course?
I’m a little jealous when I see how great it works with Camilla and Grace. I`m training the frogposition like crazy, a lot of times the day, with very little progress. I do it with Feline too, I hope that is ok? She is a little better than Alice, but miles away from that what Grace shows. Is it possible, that adult dogs can’t master this trick, or does it only take longer? They have lots of fun in training, even Alice asks me for having a clicker session. I will continue, but I’m really not sure if we will have the frogposition at the end of the two weeks
(Camilla, you’re great, and Grace is very very cute 🙂 )
Don’t worry Susanne our Frog is also nonexistent, but we are very good at Orang-Utang!!!
Jen and Buddy
Also adult dogs can learn the frog trick, La and Bu learned it as adults. It took much longer as with Le who learned it as a puppy, but it’s possible. With La, it actually went pretty fast (even though she would never do that in normal life), but with Bu I actually first had to teach stretching out hind legs while lying on a side (in a dead dog position) and then slowly transfer to normal down position. It sure took awhile, so don’t worry, keep trying, it’s no big deal if you don’t master all the tricks from the list in those 2 weeks.
Hi i would also love to know, maybe we could do a short list of persons name and dogs name and the breed of dog and age. cool happy training all.
I think most people posted it in introduction. I can make a list, but a little later, was away for the weekend and have plenty of videos to watch now 🙂 It’s lots of fun though, you did GREAT, maybe you don’t need 14 days at all! Seems like you are getting more homework next time! 🙂
Wow, very good. Grace sure is character! It’s o.k. like you reward, from your hand for position, with a toy out of position. For a box, you will probably need to reward a little lower though, it helps with their balance once the box gets smaller. You can still make it smaller. All other tricks are already perfect, love the frog, does she sometimes do that on her own or you got it just by shaping?
And yes, good question on recalls. What I do in that situation is to call just once and if the dog doesn’t respond, immediately run away and try to hide so that the puppy learns that if you don’t listen, your handler might just disappear. I let them worry a little bit before I call again and then do say “good girl” or something, but not nearly as excited as when they come immediately. In short: it’s o.k. to reward, but you definitely want to reward more when they come immediately.
Thanks Silvia! That is very helpful
Grace occasionally does frog on her own when she is very tired (usually in sand at beach or sandpit) but not often enough to make it possible to capture it this week. I haven’t had much practice w capturing natural behaviours so I’m looking forward to trying it out. I’m not v confident that my ‘naming’ will eventually become a command so will be good to play w it
🙂
Normally, what works best is the combination of capturing and shaping. I got the nicest “hide”, “shake”, “show your teeth” etc. behaviours that way. It looks more real that way 🙂 When I try to just capture, they don’t get it that easily, I always get that “what on earth are you clicking?” look. When I do both, they make the connection somewhere on a way and it’s always an interesting moment to observe, light bulb just goes on 🙂
Working on the box(cooler) at an agility trial. He seems to do better getting on…then in .
Valori
Getting on the cooler part 2 I love that when he got off, the cooler flipped and he really could care less.
Valori
Yeap, he sure is pretty cool puppy! Love that focus in the crowd too! 4on sure looks great, you don’t want to use too high objects with a puppy just yet, but later on, you can make it smaller and higher and eventually have him jump on your feet when you lie on your back -- that’s how I start this trick, but we of course don’t do that in puppy class yet 🙂
Thank you for the info This is as high as I would ever get with a puppy.
On to working the frog Valori
Our training video 1) food refusal, 2) 2 paws on small plate 3) 4 Paws in Big Box 4) a little smaller Box.
When I show him a Box at first, He only wanted to put 2 paws into the box (it was after plate trick) so I started with very big basket to let him understand the behavior is 4 paws at a time.
I did jackpot few times when he finally got the action right, now I have to build duration in the correct position. How many click&treats do you do when you start building duration?
Love your video, Emi! great dog!
Thank you Jennifer!! 🙂
I agree, what a smart pup! Love the small plate trick, he really tries so hard to stay on it with both feet, it’s too cure! That box was somewhat small to start with 4in, that basket was a good idea. You can click&treat 5 or so times for duration before you release him. Once he understands the position and duration, you can switch to smaller&smaller boxes, but I would first work some more with this one. Did you start with frog too?
Thank you Silvia!
We are still working of few more different boxes to let him use to this position. I will work on the position and duration this week!
Thank you for the great tip!
About Frog.. He doesn’t stratch his hind legs out anymore.
He use to do a lot when he was little but boy’s ‘bits’ might get in the way of his frog position now. so it has been very difficult to capture it naturally:) (My female dog does all the time!)
I am working on from dead dog position as Bu, this trick might take a while for this little boy !
Male dogs sure can do it too, it’s just harder for some as others, so you sure want to give him all the time he needs.
Names and introductions, if you go to the main puppy class page (not the lesson 1, but the puppy class page) and scroll through those posts, most are introductions from people and about their dog/s.
Not against doing it again 🙂 but there is a lot there already. I didn’t count tho’.
Oh, thanks so much suzanne!!! Grace is amazing -- she’s teaching me sooo much
That’s awesome that you’re also training a cat! The more practice the better, eh! I recently tried to clicker train my friend’s horse
Yeah, i was pretty impressed that Grace picked up the frog so quickly. This was her second short session. She is 20 months old so I’m sure your adult dog will be able to pick it up
I trained it late at night after a long day when she was v tired and stretchy. She was lazing around on her own on her side and every time she stretched out, i rewarded her. I also lay on the ground w her and scratched her belly while she was upside down. When she relaxed and stretched out, i rewarded her (somehow it seemed like the same position but upside down!?). She knows how to crawl so i though i might need to emphasise stretchiness bf luring her bc she would naturally want to crawl.
I’m not sure if this helped or it was just a coincidence. Either way, it was a nice snuggle 🙂
I also found it helped to move the lure v v slowly, otherwise she wld crawl
🙂
Yes, rewarding stretching in other positions definitely helps and transfers nicely, that was very good idea! And yes, a lure needs to be very slow and very minimal (so little that they don’t see a reason to crawl forward, but instead just stretch forward). For those having problems: tape wherever you’re getting stuck and we’ll try to help, that’s why we have this class 🙂 -- If you have problems with that or another trick, it’s even more important to tape it and post it as when everything goes smoothly!
Hello Silvia and classmates!
2 on plate and 4’s in box work well. Frog not really working, he crawls, pushes back only one leg or rolls on his back.
we could do an orang-utang?!
Jen and Buddy
Plate and a box tricks are definitely great! Pushing back one leg is a very good start for a frog too, you definitely want to click that! You can also click for stretching hind legs back when he is in lying on his back. Great job so far!
Thanks, Silvia.
Can you tell that we have been working with your videos?! Still on the first chapters. I see in the video that he is cheating a little, always stepping out with one leg. the balancing is hard for him, he’s a big guy.
OK, I will make a short clip of our Ape/RolliPolli that one day will become a Frog! But it’s not pretty, but pretty funny.
Jen and Buddy
Yeap, I see you’re already at the next step with the plate trick 🙂 It’s normal he needs some time to learn to balance in that box, it’s already very small for him, but I’m sure he can do even smaller once he is balanced in that one. No problem if you master additional Ape trick on a way to Frog trick, you get extra points for that in my class! 🙂
it seems to me like I want them to do the split ;). Feline (a sheltie with this name, not a cat 🙂 ) is better than Alice. There are moments when she stretches her hindlegs, or at least one, but most of the time both only crawl. Alice can push a big gymnastic ball with her hind feets, so she knows how to stretch them, but when she is lying, it seems to be impossible for her. Yesterday she turned to the side, and stretched both legs, what I rewarded several times. It will take time, but we will master this trick anytime, I’m sure…..
Alice is 23 monts old. I thought Grace used to be younger.
What is orang-utang?
Susanne with Alice and Feline
I don’t know the english spelling, but it’s a big red-orange ape (joke)!!
my dog is reddish and when I tried the frog stretch, he rolls over and uses his “arms” to get the treat! making me laugh so hard that training is over at that point and we just goof off!
Jen and Buddy
I know what a orang-utang is, I’m german too ;), but I didn’t know what you meant what your dog is doing when he does
Susanne with Alice and Feline