As you did so good with your first homework, you're getting some more this time 🙂 No worries if you don't manage to do everything in 2 weeks, you can always come back to those tricks. Post wherever you end up, as I said, we learn the most through problems, so you want to post those too! 🙂
1. experiment with different toys and ways to play with your dog. Tape his favourite game.
2. instead of a plate, find something a little higher this time to give them a better feeling of where to keep their front legs, click first for front feet on an object (should be easy, you want the same thing as on a plate) and then observe hind legs and click for ANY movement (even just a weight shift) and then shape from there to more&more steps around the object. The final version of this trick is full circle around, with you static (don't help the dog to circle with your movement!) - I think those that have my heeling video can already do that exercise, though 🙂
3. take the plate and hold it in different positions to see if the dog understands it's the same thing even when you hold it higher, under angle etc. Try when he is standing, sitting and lying down. If you didn't name touching an object with a paw, it's time to do it now! Also, try to change objects for this exercise, sometimes also use a hand as a paw target. Once he can do all that, you're ready for next two tricks we will get out of the paw touch:
- crossing paws: tell the puppy to down (or shape it if he doesn't know it yet), then hold the plate (or, you can use another, smaller and more convenient object, like a plastic lid or a piece of paper) close to left paw and only reward touching it with left paw. Then hold it closer and closer to right paw, still only reward left paw touches, then hold it on right paw and eventually on the other side, jackpoting the touches of left paw on a right paw now in order to eventually get rid of a target.
- sit up: tell the puppy to sit (or shape it if he doesn't know it yet), then put the plate (or just use the hand if he will recognize that as a target) low enough first that he can reach it with a paw, but then every next time, hold it a little higher - not that high that he would stand up, but high enough that the other leg leaves the ground a little bit too. Jackpot.
4. observe your puppy and try to find situations when he would back up - it usually happens when they're moving out of your way - or sometimes when they really want something, but know they can't get it. You can try to sit down on the floor with treats in your hand and click first step back with hind foot. Don't wait for more than one as they usually sit down then. Click&reward the first one and reward by throwing a treat towards the dog. Rewarding at distance will help you add more&more steps and more&more distance from you. At one point, switch to rewarding with a toy, it's easier to throw.
5. 2on2off - find an object big enough for a dog to go on with all 4 feet easily - maybe just put your first 4in object upside down? - Click for 2-3 legs on and then don't click the fourth one, you don't want any duration standing there! Only click again when the dog is leaving the object, try to catch him with 2 front feet on the ground and deliver the treat while he is still in this position. Click&reward several times for a position, then say "go"/"o.k."/"free"/whatever your release word will be and throw a treat away so that he needs to leave the position to get it. Do this enough times that the dog starts to expect the thrown treat after "go", so that then you don't need to throw it in advance, but only after he leaves the position on "go". Do not help with body language that you want him to leave after "go" - if he doesn't know it yet, go back to throwing a treat and progress more slowly.
And I guess this really is enough fun for next 2 weeks! 🙂
That’s a lot of homework! 🙂
I have a couple of questions:
When I throw a toy to him, is he supposed to catch it with his mouth?
How do I get him to bring or give the toy back?
When I have food Buddy doesn’t want to play, he just wants to eat. 🙂
When do you start naming an action, at what point do you turn it into a “command”?
By the way, we are still working on the frog….it’s going to take a long time; we are at only one leg stretched out.
No, catching is not an obligatory part of the exercise 🙂 You can start it with food, meanwhile work on playing and bringing the toy back and then switch to toy rewards and for now, only use toy in that session then if he has problems switching from food to toys. Later on, you start with toy, then switch to food and when treats are over, switch to toy again -- just so that he learns to switch from one to another, it’s very practical to have a dog who you can reward with one or another. For fetching, if he likes to tug, start with a tug, let the toy go, run few steps backward, call and tug again. You want him to come back with the toy to play some more.
As for naming: you can name the behaviour as soon as you have a final version and try to say it every time just before he performs that action. It because a cue to the dog once they make a connection: it usually takes very long at the beginning, but once the dog gets the concept of naming, it gets much easier. I think Le noticed things have names only when she was 7 or 8 months 🙂
Thanks, Silvia!
We already do the tug game, and the rope is his favourite toy! He does bring it back for me to pull on it, but he can get pretty wild with that. I offer him a treat to let go of it. But he doesn’t catch things with his mouth very often, not even food. It’s pretty funny to see a piece of cheese bounce off his head!! My old dog was champion catcher, and Buddy is just the opposite. I was a little surprised when he ducked from a frisbee.
Ok, so I will try switching from food to toy to food etc…
It does take long for him to understand naming/commands, I think I did it too early sometimes, before he really knew what the “trick” or action was.
Thanks again, we’ll get to work on that!
Hi there i would like to check please, the second part of no. 3 the sit up the it the same as ‘beg’. If i am doing running contacts then do i leave out no. 5?
happy training to all.
Yes, sit up is a beg. And no, I teach 2on2off to all dogs, not for contacts, but as a hind end awareness trick, it’s fun! You of course don’t want to do it on anything that looks like a plank, but you can teach it as a trick on a drawer or something.
thanks so much
Hi Sylvia, I know I already will need help with the perch on an object and Stella moving her hind end around to me staying stationary… we’ve been trying to get that one already for a while!!
What Stella does is take a few steps to the left and then a few steps back to the right over and over back and forth… any suggestions to help her keep moving the rest of the way around? (I have been stepping in to her which does move her farther, but counter-productive because I know I want her to move toward me, not away)
thanks, Dinah
Maybe only click her for one direction for a while, to see if she will take it further? And of course: placement of the reward! Reward with her head turned to the left if she is circling to the right or the other way around. If the treat always comes from your front, they like to see that front too much 🙂
ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh treat placement! of course!!!! thanks
I just love this class 🙂
while we are still working on the frog and the 4-in-a-box (video to be posted there in a few moments) we started with the circling.
To get the full circle -- we are like at a quarter now -- do I just c/t movement in one direction?
Exactly. And reward more from the side, with head turned left for circling right or the other way around.
Some play and showing the step on an object and circling. Here we call it the elephant trick 🙂
We har also tried the paw on hand target, but she has a very goog nose touch, so its to get her to not offering a nose touch. I tried to take my hand away each time she tried to touch it with her nose. And i got some good paw touches.
She definitely loves to play! I see she prefers one direction to circle -- work more on the other one now, you want her to circle equally well in both directions eventually! For a paw touch, maybe you can hold your hand differently as for a nose touch? As additional cue what you want. I use a fist for a nose touch and a palm for a paw touch.
Great job with the circling trick Gitte!
circling works very good, with both dogs, in both directions. Two paws up I train since they are puppies, that works fine too. I thought I did a lot for rear end awareness, but with Alice, I notice, that I haven’t done enough. I was waiting for her to move backwards. She did a lot, and always used one of her front paws. I clicked for every movement of backpaws, but I think, she didnt get, that this is what I want her to do. But, she was the the hole time in a very good mood, and tried and tried and tried, without dropping, like she does when she was a young puppy.
She can go backwards and climb sth with her hindlimbs, she can climb a wall, and she can do a free handstand, but when I want her to move backwards, she has no idea what to do.
Feline was better. She tried a little, then she walked backwards.
With the frog position we are not finished until now. Feline does it with both legs, but her hips are not lying on the ground. She stretches her legs, but her hips are a little up. Alice does it only with the right paw. The left one is under her body, but the right one she stretches very good now. I wonder if she will do it anytime with both legs, and if Feline will get it with hips lying on the ground…….
Sounds good enough for first two weeks! 🙂
When I signed up for this course, I did not know I was gonna get a puppy 🙂 I am taking the course with Lycan but also working with my other dogs. Today I worked on the plate to paw touch with them… and here is Chevy, this time the main attraction of the video clip!
Very cute! And very smart, seeing it’s the same thing also when you hold a plate higher! And, you don’t even need a tippy board or something, he is using a plate to get used to the movement under his feet 🙂
Evelyn, where did you get Chevy? I am researching breeders for a new dog. He’s a smart little pup! Great job!
Hi there. With the circle work in no. 2 i have gone onto the heel work from your dvd which she is doing great, but can i go back now and use these circles to help with our left and right turns not tip and tuk. can i use the commands i give for left and right with this exercise but not put my body into or next to the dog so it does not confuse with heel work? Not sure i have explained myself correctly! Thanks
No, I teach left&right directly -- you want their head and front move left/right for left&right exercise. What we’re doing with front feet target now is the beginning of the heelwork. If she knows it already, just focus on other tricks more.
ok got it will do. thanks
Here’s one of Nero’s favorite games. I like it because it shows his natural balance and collection for when we start to work sheep. I don’t play it too much anymore because I’m worried that it will effect his natural balance. When the tug is in my hand the game is full on and when I filmed this this am I realized that he has become much stronger. With my older agility dogs I used this as a training exercise. They never collected and stopped like Nero does--particularly my Pyr Shep.
Quick Brag--Nero trailed my horse for the first time yesterday. We went out on a short (5 km) ride in the snow and Nero trailed the horses like he’d been doing it all of his life. I was so happy that we had no issues with being fearful of the horses nor too aggressive.
Nancy Creel
in snowy Montana
Lycan loves his Chase-it and could play for hours (if I let him). A warm-up for this game is important !!
Lycan is just like my other dogs. I used this to teach switch (change leads) for agility. I’m letting Nero do his little stop and saying “there” when he’s in the right spot. I started this as an agility game and he figured out how to turn it into more of a herding game. Is Lycan also a BC?
yes, Lycan is a BC. He also likes our lunging game, which is great for agility.
My dogs love that game too! I don’t have such a fancy version, though, I just hang a toy on a long dog leash, works great too -- for anybody who wants to try.