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!
Mabel and my first post, we run through all the homework tricks in about a minute and a half so I won’t bore anyone to death! Feel free to post comments/suggestions!
Mabel sure is ready! She thinks refusing food in a bowl is too easy, she can also refuse food on the floor, that was too funny! 🙂 Very nice frog too, you two are FAST! That will be a boring week till next Tuesday 🙂 -- Well, you can always still make that box smaller!
Thanks so much! Admittedly we have worked on your heeling and tricks videos and on top of that she naturally lies spread-eagle so I kind of got lucky with that one!
We are working on making hte box smaller, but then sometimes she gets confused with the 2-feet vs 4-feet… I think I just need to consistently name the 4-feet so she knows which I’m asking for!
Thanks so much for the feedback!
Naming it and working on it in separate sessions should help. Will try to challenge you all some more with next homework! 🙂
Wow! You guys make it look way too easy 🙂
Jennifer, do you have any video of how you taught “the frog” we are still stumped with that one????
Dinah and Bronagh and Stella
You make it look Sooooooooooo easy!~
Here goes the video with the box(es) trick :).
The lastest news from this morning….!
He got in even an smaller one without any psychological help from the red one (Till now he was only able to put the 4 paws in an smaller box only if this box was inside the bigger red one…)
“Houston, we have a problem” 😉
We are working on the “frog” trick and it went really well until this point… and we got stuck.
She knows she must stretch her hind legs, but she does only one leg at the time and puts her other leg under her body.
She can do both sides though, but not at the same time.
What to do?::::
And we’ve worked on the “4 paws in a box” trick::::
PS: Can you please reserve a spot for the class “agility foundations”? Jin is now 8 months old, can we join this class, or will she be too young?
That’s a very interesting frog problem! 🙂 It’s actually pretty cool, you could teach to stretch one and another, and first and second again and maybe crawl forward that way, that would be a really cool trick! If you really want both at the same time, then jackpot when one is still somewhat out when the other one starts to stretch. OR, first build a duration on one leg and then start clicking for movements of the other leg. Good job with the box, time for a smaller one! And well, that’s good age for agility foundations, we’ll be starting with bars on the ground anyway.
Our main problem was Mason didn’t like the feel of the plate, but am proud to say today we got the two paws on the plate 🙂
We started on the frog next, he never lies like that so I really thought this would be another big challenge but already he understands to keep his body down and move his backlegs, we haven’t got the position just yet but are really on our way!
I’m delighted with our course 🙂 Its great to have goals and new challenges to work toward. Thank you!
Sounds good, looking forward to see the video!
Grace and I have been practicing with smaller and smaller boxes. This is the first session with the tiny box …
(realised i cheated w the second last click and didn’t reward her. Naughty!)
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_H6tfK5
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_H6tfK5
Does anyone know what i am doing wrong w loading the vids? Last time it loaded twice and now it won’t load at all?
I paste the URL twice, one below the other. Once with http and once httpv
It looks like it wasn’t fully uploaded to youtube.
Hi please can i also put my name down for the agility foundation and the running contact. thanks
I’m v interested in the agility foundation course too, but how much agility equipment do we need access to?
Most of the work will be done on 4 or 5 jumps and two tunnels (one would probably do to). We’ll also cover weaves (you would need channel or stick-in-the-ground weaves for that) and beginning of contacts (you would need a plank then if you choose running contacts or an object like a drawer if you choose 2on2off).
Oh yes! I’d love to do some agility foundation with Niea! Please add us to the list too!!
Sure, those of you from puppy class will all get a spot if you wanted, you are all such a great students!
I would love too! When is the course starting?
I have only a collapsible tunnel… would it be enough????
We’ll be starting when this class is ending as this class covers many things you need for agility foundations. Normal tunnel would be better, but I guess we can always work around, obstacles are the least important part of agility anyway 🙂
I would love a spot too! My little training field is almost dry from melted snow!
Silvia, Could you reserve a spot for us for agility foundation class, please?!
That would be great. When does it start? Right now I have 3 jumps and a tunnel. I can probably get a plank and poles.
We are already taking agility classes, but there’s of course always room for improvement and we have so much more to learn.
We are really enjoying puppy class and it has so far exceeded my expectations.
Jen Trautman and Buddy
I think we’ll be starting end of April or so. This class will be somewhat different from normal agility classes, so there is no fear you’ll be doing the same thing over and over again 🙂
I think your training methods are quite different from my current agility instructors, they are kind of “old school’, they keep telling me to use less treats, and I am the only one in class to use a clicker:)
I use treats and a tug rope for rewards, I told them a few times that I just have to do what works for us, since Buddy gets distracted easily and needs better focus and impulse control.
So I am looking forward to your agility class, it will be totally different!
Let me know when registration is open, we don’t want to miss it.
Jen and Buddy
I’m interested in agility foundation course too. Please take me to the list
I enjoy watching all of your videos, even though i cannot post one, but i keep recording it with Toby and Crash during our training session. 🙂
Hi! Here’s our almost final box trick
This video is from a couple of days ago. Now she can do it better.
And now we’re stuck with the frog trick. Can’t find a way to make her do it. Maybe the only thing would be to start from dead dog position. 😐
We’ll see what we can do. She gets stressed because she doesn’t know what I’m clicking for (she moves both front and hind feet, so she hasn’t realised yet that I’m clicking for hind feet), so we like to work on other tricks as well because I can see she’s happier when we work on different tricks. I’m sure it’s my fault, but I’m trying to “enjoy the journey” like you say, and not worry if we can’t get it before next lesson. 🙂
We love this class!
Have fun!
Laura & Shape
Sure, there is no hurry with a frog, we only need a plate trick for next session and I think you all mastered that! Very nice box trick!
Silvia I have a question re. the 4 paws in a box. I am working on the stand as a solid base position. While doing the 4 paws in a box exercise and moving to smaller boxes I noticed Funky’s compressed body what had an impact on her stand position. I stopped doing the box exercise in order not to shape her hind legs back to a solid stand. The stand is a bit of a bitch for me and she is doing it so nicely right now. We work on the stand on a platform (different target), but these two exercises don’t work together at this learning point. Funky learned to compress her body. If the box/compressed exercise is of great value for the next exercises then I might push back the solid stand tho.
There is no hurry with the 4in trick, you can work on it later once the stand is finished.