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!
It is very helpful seeing everyone’s videos as well as my own. I am blessed to have such a forgiving puppy when my timings are off. =) He is such a fast and eager learner.
Exercise #2: We have worked on this before. The steps we took to get to where we are now are: 1). walk to object. 2). touch object (with nose is what I got) 3). lure for paw touching object since we had difficulty getting that behavior 4). fade out luring to lesser movement and then none. jackpotting when he gets it. 5). treating for paws on object himself 6). then we started getting turns. He defaults to a counter clockwise circle… so getting clockwise is a challenge right now. But that isn’t part of this homework.
Exercise #3: You will notice his bowl of kibble in the videos. He doesn’t bother trying to eat out of it and you can see how he tries to work to earn his rewards. He tries something, checks to see if it worked, then tries again until he gets a click and food.
Exercise #4: Just like #2 he was rewarded for getting close then putting a paw until he was getting all 4 in. All shaping no luring was done. I have not done anything smaller than the stainless steel bowl in the video.
Exercise #5: This was our hardest. He used to do this more as a pup. Now I only see it as a stretch early morning. So I opted to do luring. To start I gave him treats for staying in the down position. Then I watched for twitches of his hind legs. Then when he would kick it out. That was all in the first session. He is a fast learner apparently. He kicks his right leg easily, but getting his left is harder. So in part of the video you will notice I turn the treats a certain way to get him to lay on his side differently so I can get the left leg out. Unfortunately the video is in a bad angle to see what he is doing, but rest assured he is twitching his left leg when he gets treats. At the end he actually kicked both legs out for a split second.
I hope this works. And enjoy watching it.
So cute to see him climbing into the little bowl! 🙂
Yes I definitely get a kick out of watching him get in the bowl. The funniest one was when he got in a concave style bowl. He was trying so hard to stay in and had a blast doing it.
What a smart little puppy! Great job! The reason I start front feet on a flat object is exactly because it’s easier to get a paw on it as on a higher object as yours. Frog looks really great already!
Yeah, didn’t think flatter would be easier…lol His original bowl was shorter than his current one. I did practice with a plant saucer too and a few other lower objects for the front paw touches.
Hi Juli,
You helped me a lot with your video. Thanks to your method I think I can improve now my shaping for the frog position.
Could you tell me where you’ve bought your clicker? In Spain they only sell really slow one (it doesn’t help !).
Thank you and good luck !
Céline
Actually, it was someone elses video that helped me with how to get the frog. He is a challenge in that he offers the right easily now without baiting but still needs lots of work with his left leg. The clicker I have is the Karen Pryor clicker. I like them the best because they are so easy to press quickly vs some of the box styles I have.
Thank you July, I’ve found it on the net and bought it ! See you on your next video !
Céline
Here is our first video, of “frog”, 4 feet in a box (we’ve been working on this for a while already), and 2 feet onto a plate (he already does this with a little box). I’m having a bit of trouble with the frog. With a lure he will lean forward enough to extend his back legs a bit, but I haven’t been able to get him to kick/stretch them out or back at all. (He doesn’t ever do this on his own, either). Any tips?
Cool, looks like it’s time for a smaller box! No problems with the plate either. For the frog, you can try some more sessions that way and see if you’re getting somewhere or not. He does seem to prefer to pull the leg under him when he would need to stretch it out. So probably, starting from a play dead position or as stretching over pile of pillows or similar will get you there quicker.
Here’s the vid, it’s a bit too long but I’ll make the next one a bit shorter… On the vid theres #3, #4 and #5. I have also been working on #2 but just noticed that I haven’t taped any of that…
httpv://www.youtube.com/my_videos?feature=mhum
I really like how he is working in #3. He is offering a lot of different things and I was very pleased to notice he even offered things we haven’t worked on before and we don’t have on cue.. like the head down. I also got alot of pawlifting and was happy to see that I already got some paw to mouth action. But I’m not good at teaching hide/shame/whatever you call it when the dog covers his mouth with his paw. I could never teach that to Leevi and even though I bought the tricks dvd I was never able to get it. I’ll see if he starts offering this abit more and I’ll see if I can reeshape it :D.
We we’re first struggling with the “frog” but we have come a long way now and he is doing it pretty well I think. Just have to fade the hand lure since he wasn’t offering this naturally so I had to lure it. At first he was all for crawling but he is definitely starting to get it 🙂
What a cute cute puppy! And what a strict teacher! I would click&reward twice as much as you did and I would definitely jackpot the huge steps forward (really nice frog, 4in the box, also a paw to the muzzle if you want to teach that!). He is definitely doing great on your rate of reinforcement too, he has great focus and lots of ideas what to try out 🙂 But still, more clicking and using jackpots can get you there even faster. I simply love jackpots, I think that with every jackpot, we make 3 steps forward. Anyway, it looks great, a session or two more on a box and you’re ready for a smaller one! Have fun!
There is actually a reason why I’m clicking pretty selectivly in #3. First he was only offering eye contact couse this is really the way we taught it. So after a while I stopped clicking eye contact and waited for something else. Then came sits and downs and sits again, clicked and treated but when he understood all he needed to do was to lie down and sit again he didn’t offer anything else. Well I got bored of wim showing off his sits and downs and stopped clicking that. Along came the paw lifts, and more, and more and more pawlifts, always the left paw. After a while I stopped clicking for that too and then it got interesting. When I was no longer clicking for those old behaviours he allways got a new idea to do. So in short; on the vid was sessions from pretty late in the progress of #3 and I was clicking for any new ideas. like the head down. I guess it wouldn’t work with any puppy but Terra has an amazimg attention spam for such a young puppy, really a fabulous pup.
Yes, it does seem to be working with Terra! Still, don’t forget about jackpots when you get a big step forward! Great job so far!
erh? oops
I have to laugh at the “frog” adventure Blast and I are having…Last year I tried to teach him play dead and roll over with no success. now that I have been trying to teach frog, I have a great play dead! He is even offering roll over. I will finish with play dead and roll over and then go for the frog. I think I might need to have him do frog over pillows. Now onto the box…
Sure, you don’t want to not click two new tricks just because you actually want to teach another one! 🙂 I often change the plan too. No hurry with the frog, enjoy the process!
Silvia, with the paw touch, are we looking for one paw to a target, or are we starting perch work? Monty already assumes he is supposed to climb onto or into anything I present to him. It will be much more of a challenge to differentiate a paw touch from a nose touch. So, I want to know exactly what my goal is before I work it. Big, long-legged gangly puppy is making progress on smaller boxes. He’s into tupperware and bowl will be next!
We need a paw touch for several tricks that are in your next homework: perch work, crossing paws, sit up. It’s also useful for shoe walking and walking on your legs if you ever wanted to teach those.
This is our 1st session on Lesson 1 for Item 4 & 5. Not sure if I’m doing them, right though as I seems to be luring to get the behaviours.
Below is the videoclip. Do advice. Thanks.
" rel="nofollow ugc">
Well, as you only included a video of the final behaviour and none of a training session, I can’t really see how you trained it… Of course, you can teach a box trick by luring -- but you can also teach it by shaping 🙂 To avoid luring with the frog, you can either just wait and click for hind feet movements or get the dog stretch forward using a nose touch. Same with a plate tricks: of course you can lure it, but you can also shape it from looking in the right direction, to doing more&more steps in that direction, sniff it, stepping over it etc. Why did you feel you need to lure it?
Thanks for your comments. I guess I’m getting the techniques wrong..after going through the others’ videos, it seems that I should be doing shaping instead of luring cos’ with luring, Nova seems to get the idea real quick but doesn’t really seems to be aware of her body movements. I will train her again from the start. This time, I shall remember to do “shaping “.
Exactly. And it’s not just that they think more when you’re shaping, they are also learning different attitude. When luring, you’re asking the dog to do something and when shaping, the dog is asking you to do something.
The video doesn’t appear in the previous comment.
Am trying this link instead. Hope it works.
http://www.myspace.com/video/565296505/march-31-2011/107669580
Sorry I just can’t seem to put my video up. Will try again with link from youtube.
First day with the box, big box now, but starting tomorrow we will begin to make it smaller. Begins to understand
Very nice and cute! 🙂 Try to find a lower box next, so that he can step in vs. jump in. Also, sometimes reward in the position, for staying in a little longer -- eventually you want him to hold the position in a small box to challenge his balance. Have fun!
Should we be clicking when we reward for staying in position, or simply give a treat?
Again, different theories, but for me, adding duration was always hard, probably because my first clicker dog, La, is such a hyper dog, offering million things, but having trouble doing just one, especially if she needs to hold the position. It was very hard to add duration only by delaying the click with her. So I started with several clicks&rewards whenever I wanted to add duration and things got MUCH easier then. My dogs know really well that if I click twice in a row without them offering any kind of action in between, it means I want duration on that same thing they’re doing and as soon as I can be fast enough to click&reward twice without having any action in between, it gets VERY easy to add as much duration as I want.