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!
I have a technical question 🙂 Should we send a video after every session or only one, single final video?
Oh, no, please not after every session 🙂 With the first group, we kind of have an agreement to send two 5 minutes videos per session. Please include problematic parts, if you are getting stuck somewhere, so that we can help, but of course, also include the with things that go well to help others understand the final behaviour! Looking forward to your videos!
I have almost the same question as Agata -- Is there a deadline to post our video? Like the end of the week or ?
No deadline, whenever you need help with something or whenever things go so well that we need to see it! 🙂
Quick question on #3 -- When the dog takes their attention away from the food/toy and you click, do you then treat from the food/toy in front of them or do you treat from somewhere else? This always confuses me.
I treat from that same food/toy in front of them. They need to know that even if they know that’s the toy/food they’re getting, they’re only getting it if they can first do something else! It’s easier the other way: you never get that food/toy/jump in front of you, so don’t even try -- BUT dogs are too smart to trick them!
My pup is very food motivated. He will happily play with toys and is quite the tugger, but if presented with a choice, he will pick food. Should I try this with a tug toy that has a food pocket? When he takes his attention away, click and he gets a treat from the food pocket and then we play with the toy…maybe then another treat from the pocket before starting over?
Sure, you can do it that way! Or, you can also simply do it directly with food in your hand.
A question on #5. For the last 2-3 weeks, I’ve been trying to teach Maia how to crawl backwards (from a down) and I would reward for the movement of the paws. I think I may be stuck on teaching this trick now. Any advice on how not to confuse her between the two tricks?
Another way to teach this is to click for stretching out hind legs in “dead dog” position. OR, you can teach it as stretching over a pile of pillows or something similar. As you’re not starting from down then, it won’t look too similar to backward crawling.
Okay, I will try to teach it with a pillow too, because I have a similar problem. Finja always crawl, no streching.
On skill #3-can you click for foot movement-like pawing at treats? Thanks, Mona
No, I wouldn’t reward pawing the treats either. Wait for something that doesn’t have to do with treats.
Woohoo! #1-4 aren’t new to us (though we will work on fine-tuning his auto leave it with tempting treats/toys), but #5 will be a challenge! Dragon doesn’t naturally spread his legs that way.
You can also make the leaving exercise harder by throwing treats/toys on the ground. For frog, see if you can get it from down position, other versions are in dead dog position and stretching over pillows.
For #2, do we want her to put her paw on it and stand there? Or is just a paw-touch ok? Is either front paw accepted?
Yes, one, another or both, all is o.k. -- I actually like them to offer it all 🙂 We will need a little bit of duration, so not just a paw touch, but keeping it on a little bit.
A question for #4--4 feet in a box. Do you put a cue to this at some point? My dog understands the behavior with the 1st larger box & is doing it repeatedly. Should I add a cue before going to the smaller box or keep shaping without a cue?
It’s up to you, I don’t really have a verbal cue for this exercise at all, the box as such is their cue…
A question about # 2, Obelix learn very quickly and realized that I had to do until now passed over plate, and sometimes touch with one leg, the next thing is to reward you when you play with only one leg?, we can give an order ? or everything has to go with molded??
I’m not sure if I understand your question… He steps over the plate, sometimes on a plate? If so, don’t reward stepping over anymore, only stepping on -- with one or both front legs, doesn’t matter. Once he knows it’s about paw touching it, you can add a verbal cue. Does that help any? If not, send a video, I will understand the question better that way 🙂
for #3 I hold a toy in my hand. Finja watch for it, then look to side and I click for it and play with her. Now she already knows that when she looks away it is the right way to bring me to click.
But I´m really confused from this task. Is that the right way or did I miss the point?
No, that’s o.k. The point is that the dog can do something else in the presence of a toy/food other than starring at it and trying to get it out of your hand.