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!
Here is our 1st puppy tricks video, we still have four and five to work on a little more 😉
httpv://www.youtube.com/user/laurajodiecharlie?feature=mhum
Loved the treats and food refusal, that was too cute! He seems to really play well, maybe you should use a toy more also in tricks training? Maybe not right from the start, but as soon as he knows the trick to some degree, try rewarding him with a toy instead, I think it will give you more speed. He doesn’t seem too impressed by those treats, is he more into toys than treats?
Yep he is toy mad, I use toys mostly in his foundation agility class 🙂 The food I had was sliced turkey, chicken and roast beef for his shaping onto the plate 🙂 Another problem I guess is he gets full quite fast 🙂
I will use toys for his frog and into the box, thanks you very much feedback.
Gosh, I think my dogs want to come to you for a training! 🙂 They only get plain kibble, I’m too lazy trainer to have other kind of treats… And yes, you need extra small treats for extra small dogs! 🙂 Also, to give more value to treats, try to exchange it with a toy: two clicks for a treat and then a play, two treats and a toy etc. Makes them happier about that food as they know a toy is coming soon after.
Great advice, that is a good idea, I thinkthat will work a ‘treat’! Thank you
Next Steps:
We have had better four in the box but today I had my video helper and not as good…will work more on this and smaller box 🙂 We still need better work on the frog too!
But we will work on our new tricks and come back to these…
What a funny frog! 🙂
Before lesson 2 starts: we worked on the 2 paws on plate and 4 paws in a box (instead of stand but she has a good understanding of stand and I try not to reinforce sit). No videos to share (will videotape eventually). As for the box exercise Funky learned to compress her body and not sit position in happening. We also worked on the food refusal and took the game a bit further -- the mouse game.
The frog position … working on it. Can’t lure her for the time being therefore try to capture the position and reinforce it (usually verbal mark). This is a position I really want to work on.
Hi Silvia
How do we access puppy class 2, please?
Lynne
Puppy class 2 is a repetition of this class for those who couldn’t get in this class as it filled so quickly. You are puppy class 1 and will get your lesson 2 assignment tomorrow 🙂 So those of you still waiting to post videos for this lesson -- hurry up! It’s no problem if you’re not yet finished with the training, it’s actually from the problems that we can all learn the most!
Video for recalls taped yesterday….:)
As you can see I am improving my technological skills, I even know how to add titles…:)
Loved the speed, especially when you’re throwing something for him! Nice place to walk to! 🙂
Yes, I think that from now on I am going to follow the piece of advice you gave to Laura and replace treats for toys as he is much more into playing and now he has got tired of the treats…
Hi all… we are falling behind on posting our progress with the homework : (
But we are having fun with it : )
We accomplished Lesson One assignments 1, 2, and 3… then it got harder.
Below you can see our four-in-box trick is still a work in progress -- We can’t get all four in the smallest box yet. She’s clearly thinking about all four in, but I don’t know if Stella feels she can’t do it or maybe she really can’t fit in this size box… I tried to click her every effort with back feet. I am slow sometimes and very slow on feeding… but then sometimes I tried delaying the click slightly until she got her back foot almost all the way in because she seemed to think I just wanted her to paw the box with a back foot… Also I see I am sometimes clicking when she finally gets her back feet in but front feet have popped out… I’m sure our failure with the little box is my bad clicking! (My daughter has been too busy so far to help.) We will keep trying.
and HELP HELP HELP!!!!! The video below is after several sessions… I tried this time on a more slippery floor, but we didn’t get anywhere with frog-legs yet (something she used to do a lot as a little puppy) I tried to click quickly to any little leg stretching out behind motion, but ended up clicking the crawl forward most of the time… Stella’s forgotten she can do this
(she was 2 months in this pumpkin photo)
I think she can do that box, you probably just progressed too quickly to give her confidence that she can do it and time to learn how to balance in that position. Can you find another, a little bigger box that would be easier for her and then go from there? The frog legs can be VERY difficult for some dogs, it took me forever with Bu. As I said, I shaped stretching hind legs from dead dog position first with her. Another good idea is what Gitte did: see her first video first when her Sheltie is stretching legs even less as Stella and then the progress on a mattress and then on a pillow, it’s working really well for her, you should try it!
I LOVE Gitte’s pillow idea for froglegs! thanks!
A pile of pillows has worked great for me. Today I remembered that my old BC and Pyr Shep on snow hills. I have them drag their bellies to get the mud off. My 14 year old bc can do it now problem still, but Nero isn’t quite ready to drag his belly through the snow. (Could it be a male thing?) Any way between the yoga ball and my large pillow pile we are making great progress at home. The floor is still a long time coming, but I’m having lot’s of fun working it out. The reason I got a new pup was to have some new training problems and so far so good.
Hi. I don’t know if it’s me, but I can’t find a way to access puppy class 1 classroom other than by clicking on some recent comments on puppy lesson 1. If I click on puppy class, as always, I am redirected to the new subscription page for puppy class 2 and handling class.
I can access handling class lesson 1 as always though.
What am I doing wrong?
Never mind, it’s working now. Maybe it was just from the iPad… don’t know why… but from my pc everything works fine.
Lesson 1 after two weeks 😉
First of all: We had fun training! I really learned a lot from clicking faster. Csilla immediately had less frustration and barking. Now in the videos I took today, she showed that she also has less tendancy to bark. Wow! Great..!
About 4 paws in the box. We will keep training that. I think she is still struggling to find “her best way”, am I right?
Eventually she should be able to have a smaller box/bowl to go in.
With ‘the frog’ I really didn’t expect to be able to have ANY progress. Csilla never lays like this, never did, not even when she was a puppy.
But I was surprised how well this went. We started on the couch, small and easy steps. And she can do it just as easily on the floor now. I am clicking when she is moving forward but keeps her legs behind and belly to the ground. In the video it went so well that it looks like I am enthousiastically clicking a jackpot or something, lol. She gets a treat with every click though ;). But after seeing the video, I think it is a bit to much, but wel….. it has got “the frog” where it is now. We will keep training this one to, ofcourse :).
When we make progress with things from lesson 1, I assume it is the easiest to still upload it under “lesson 1” right?
Wow, great job, she is too funny!!
I agree!! she is very cute! and willing to work 🙂
I agree too 😉 hihi
Me too! 🙂
Very good and very cute! 🙂 For the box, I think it would help if you sat on the floor so that her head is lower, I think it’s her up in the air head that makes it more difficult for her and also makes her sit. She is doing great with this box, but we want to make it even smaller, that’s why. You’re definitely very good with clicking now, I think clicking the frog went perfectly well, I would click it like you did too, my dogs can eat that fast too 🙂 -- and it sure gave you a great frog!
And yes, I think we should keep lesson 1 tricks on this page, it’s not going anywhere and things will be easier to find that way.
Eventually Darwin got into the bowl !(we didnt talk about the size of the bowl, did we?? 🙂 )
httpV://
That’s a great bowl to start with! Time for a smaller one now! 🙂
🙂 Here you are!!!
Good -- just stop luring!!! Take that hind with a treat behind your back, you’re again asking him to do it.
Thanks for the reminder Silvia, I suppose I have just a soft heart!!! 🙂
Frog video coming soon! working on not luring anymore….
I am trying again with the V in low capital !
lesson 2 has started, but we are still also working on #1
we are on our way to smaller and smaller boxes -- but we are stuck now. Lycan gets in with 3 legs. I am trying to click any muscle movement from his left hind leg (always the last) but all I get is front leg movement… what to do?
thanks for all ideas !!
Oh, that’s just too funny! You obviously must work on left rear foot awareness more! 🙂 For now, maybe just make it a little easier, find a little bit bigger box and go from there.