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, 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 to give some new ideas to other participants (and me!!!)
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. I first click both directions and once I get a quarter of a circle, start clicking one direction only and reward with a head away from me in order to get a full circle. The final goal is full circle in both directions, 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, to his left/right 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 you're working on ignoring the food in the hand. 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 the 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. You want them go on an object and off immediately, stopping with front feet on the ground. 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.
Another note: I'll be able to answer your questions this coming week with no problem, but then the week after I have seminars here, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep up. If not, we'll just add another week to this class.
Oh god, I was just eating a pear on the sofa when Terra came with his twinkly eyes and asked for his share. Who could say no to those puppy eyes? Well I could. He jumped on my belly and smelled the pear, nope, you’re not getting any. But then he started begging (sit pretty) there on my belly. Too cute, he found my soft spot. He did get a piece of pear afterall :D.
What can I say? I have a soft spot in my heart for puppies begging on my belly 😀
Here is my first video for this lesson.
1. He was not one to really get fetch, but he learned quickly that if he brought his toys to us and let us grab it we all had a lot more fun. The fox toy is his favorite tug toy that is always available. He has special training time tug fun toys too. Otherwise I think his favorite game is training time.
2. We have done this one before this week so we may be a little ahead. He is dominant going counter clockwise. So working on getting the clockwise is harder. I have blocked the path with my feet to limit his movement and done some luring. He is slowly getting it so this week I suppose we need to work more on the clockwise direction. I also noticed when video taping that I rewarded when his back leg went up on the bowl. I have to watch for that more. It is neat what you learn from just watching yourself.
3. I started using the Post-it on the floor for him to target and quickly moved it to my hand. He does get over enthusiastic and ends up clawing my hand so you will hear an “Ouch” in the clip. He learns to be more careful when that happens, but early in a new behavior I let him be as crazy as he wants. I still need to put paw touch on a cue so I will have to work more on that.
4. Haven’t done this one yet so will be trying it soon.
5. We have done this one before too, but the video was already long enough for this lesson. Next video I will add it in. He is just barely understanding that his back legs have to be on the low upside down box to get a click.
Juli,
Man those Pyr Sheps are cute dogs. I will say that both my Pyr Sheps “gave paw” very forcefully often resulting in an ouch.
Parts of your video cut out, but I did notice when you were doing the clockwise version you weren’t always c/t for slight clockwise movements. Is this because you’ve gotten these movements already and are looking for bigger movements? I’m not the greatest clicker trainer so I’m just wonder how small/large the increments of movement should be to c/t.
Mary
I deleted this video because it froze and redid it and posted below… but it seems to freeze near the end anyways… oh well. At least you can see the clockwise part better on the one below.
But yeah, I missed some good clicking opportunity. It is neat to see what you did click or missed clicking. Right now I am trying to click any motion that ‘I see’ towards the clockwise direction. Apparently I didn’t ‘see’ it all…HAHA
Mary -- at the beginning, even tiniest movement is enough. But then, of course, you slowly ask for more&more, you eventually want full or even two circles before the reward. And hm, my PyrSheps paw touches are like a pat in comparison to Bi’s… That’s REALLY painful! With her, I used wooden spoon for cooking (not sure how that is called in English?) as a target to keep my hands as far from her paws as possible! 🙂
Thanks for the idea of using a wooden spoon for a paw target. Elsa is also an energetic paw “smacker” and my hands have been taking a beating. The long handle works great!
Sorry, there seemed to be a problem with my uploaded video. It froze at a certain section. So I had to redo it and upload. I hope this one is fine.
Looks great! Love his enthusiasm for playing and working! Those paw touches were just too cute! Pivoting looks great too, just get rid of that hind foot on and those front feet off when going clockwise! 🙂
too stinking cute!
I have been trying the sit up (which I call beg) with Tibby, but she keeps falling over. Does it take a while to build up their muscles? It seems like she isn’t sitting on her feet, but rather on her rear/tail. Any way to fix this?
Catalina,
Scout, my TT, does “sit pretty” very well, but it took a long time for him to build up the core muscles to be able to hold the position. I found that working against a wall or other stationary object with his back to it helped him a lot in the beginning stages. The wall added support so we could concentrate on getting those front feet off the ground without him falling over. There was a lot of falling over before we came up with this solution.
Mary
Your link doesn’t work, but huh, you definitely don’t want her to fall! First, make sure she sits correctly before asking her to sit up. For now, also help with something behind her back (a sofa?) that would allow her to lean against if necessary and put your paw target so that she can get some support from it when putting front feet on. Click and reward when you feel she is well balanced. It definitely takes practice to find balance and build muscle to be able to hold this position, that’s why you want to offer some support at first, as you definitely don’t want her to be falling over!
Ok thanks for the tips. We will keep working on it.
I’m not sure why the link doesn’t work?
I’ll try one more time
httpv://youtube/dZ-J45RcONA
nope didn’t work Hmmmm
To insert a video into a comment you should open your video in Youtube and then click on SHARE which is written bellow the video. Copy the link into the comment: it should be something like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxxxxxxxxxx Then just change the http:// in the link into httpv://
Catalina you are missing part of the link so you can see, I copied me
Sorry for all the posts I’m still trying to get it to work. Hopefully this time 🙂
I thought that last one wouldn’t work, because I forgot the ‘v’, but it is there I think?
If anyone else is having trouble posting videos. For some reason my ‘share’ button on youtube gives me a weird code that doesn’t work.
What finally worked was to take the site address from the top of the youtube page and just copy and paste.
Computers! 😛
Catalina,
You definitely need a nice straight sit to start. If one leg is tucked slightly under (her left in this vid) then she won’t have a center to balance on. You can lure her into a straight sit with a cookie just out of reach overhead. Really reinforce the straight sit whenever you ask for a sit, not just when you are trying this trick. The ottoman is a good idea for support behind her.
Once you get the straight sit, you may notice that it is easier for her to go up on two legs than it is to get into the “beg” position. Just reinforce the ones you like.
Does she always sit like this? Most puppies will sometimes sit like this, but usually you can also get a nice, straight sit, and I only ask for a sit up then, they can’t balance if they don’t sit straight. Sit up exercise gives you more&more straight sits then, but you want to get at least one even before you start the sit up…
She usually sits with one leg tucked under her or both legs flopped out (like a sitting frog?). It always looks like she is sitting on her tail and not her hind feet.
I tried to get her to sit between my legs and let me support her, but she gets frustrated if I try to help her. She’s like -- I can do it myself!
It looks like I’m luring her in the video, but I’m not. We started with a paw/hand touch and I just kept raising my hand. This is the one trick we have been working on for a few weeks.
I think I’ll start over -- first straight sit and then the sit up steps for the trick.
Yes, I think that’s a good plan. Watch closely how she sits down, they often sit down nicely first, but then flop the legs. Try to do 10 really quick sits&releases, if possible with a toy, the quickest she will try to be, the more chances you have she will sit straight.
I just posted my video for lesson 1, under lesson 1. They didn’t post in order, it was mixed in with earlier posts. I just want you to see it.
Question for lesson 2:
#1. Name of paw touch. What will be using it for?
Is is a “step” or “paw” or I think you posted “tap”. Is this the same for them stepping onto something flat? Is “tap to close sounding to “touch” if that is a nose touch word.
What word do you use for nose touch?
Do you have a different work for hind feet? I know you just say other one for right & left paw.
Just trying to decide what to call it.
#2. She has a full circle clockwise with my hands at my sides and a reward after a full circle. Now, to go the other direction, I am ignoring her clockwise circle and clicking for any movement the other direction, right? Should I now only work her counterclockwise direction until she gets a full circle without a click in between? A click in between is totally cheating because she uses my hand as a lure to finish the circle. I had to leave town again, send video of this Friday.
Thanks Sarah
For a nose touch, I say “nose” in slovenian 🙂 I use the name of a paw touch anytime I want a paw trick, from floor cleaning, shoe walking, walking on my legs, drumming… Anything that requires paw somewhere 🙂 And yes, once you have one direction, you can stop rewarding that one, only reward the other one until you have it and then reshape the first one again. But at that point, we’ll already be using it for heel position and will name it then.
Re: #4, backing up:
This will be the difficult one for us this round! I almost never see Dragon back up on his own. A few times he’s done it to get out of my way, and I did try to reward it, but usually he turns around. I’ve experimented with getting into his space a little bit but he sits right away, or turns to the side. I think I will have to lure this one — darn!
re #4
I find that making a dead end alley -- narrow enough that the dog can’t turn round
Start by tossing a treat in the dead end
Then clicking the backing up as they try and get out,
Tossing the reward back in the dead end,
is an easy way to teach backing.
Ah, that’s a good idea, thanks!
You can also try to make a corridor for him so that he can’t move to the side. You could also try backing up to his mat, one step first and then go from there.
The narrow corridor works great. You can also toss the treat between the front paws when he backs up to prevent him from sitting/ lying down and I also found it encouraged even more backward motion. Hope this is ok, Silvia. Helped with Da Vinci.
Sure, that’s a good point!
Ok, this is not our homework. Someone sent me this and I enjoyed it very much!
I leave here the beginnings of two exercise, I have much to work ….
# 2 .- Silvia the use of hands is involuntary, I will try them in a position that does not affect the behavior of Obelix
# 3 .- Part two: You have trouble crossing, but I’ll get
Nice! The circling is going really well, it’s just that you click so many times when she already stops that it actually amazes me that you’re getting so much movement! 🙂 Definitely try to click when she is still moving, though, not when she stops. The beginning of crossing paws looks good too, just slowly put your hand closer&closer to the other paw.
Oks, referent to cross paws will use wooden spoon. He’s destroying me arm … jejejejeje
Our challenge on these exercises is the platform exercise with movement of the hind legs. I’ve worked on this with Finn and he reliably offers a step or two in the correct direction but then goes back the other way and starts again so that I’m constantly getting the back and forth. The most steps he’s offered in one direction are two or three.
I have the same problem with Tibby -- just a few step one way and then the other way.
And the same happens if you go for the other direction? He seems somewhat more fluent in the other direction. Anyway, I would jackpot any additional step in the right direction. Also, you could put your target next to the wall and position yourself so that in two or three steps, he is already passing you. Once they pass you, they will usually keep going towards front position again, they usually won’t go back towards you, but ahead and that would give you five or six steps in the same direction. Let me know if that works!
Here is Finn playing. He wouldn’t tug for the longest time. I finally tied a flossie to the sheepskin tug and, at first, even the slightest interaction resulted in my letting him chew the flossie for a while. This is about 4 or 5 sessions later. He’ll now tug in different locations and is starting to offer tugging with other toys (real fur is the best).
When we’re outside, we get more tugging (there’s more room) and more interaction between us. There’s a second video on YouTube of that type of tugging (called FINN Tugging_First New Location), but it’s a much longer video.
He sure seems to love that toy!!! I start similarly with dogs that won’t interact with toys: I make a hole in a smoked pig ear, put it on string, have them catch it and let them chew on it for a while. Then I make them chase it and tug on it longer and longer before they win it, they mostly all love that game by then.