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.
How do I get on? Stand still and shape? or reward in another position?
It’s great that she’s starting to spin around! I believe that the final goal we’re working toward is with the human standing still and the dog pivoting in full circles left or right on cue. So what I would do now is stand still and go back to clicking any movement with the hind feet. If she doesn’t offer it if you stand totally still (which she probably won’t) then help her out by either using your hand as a target or lure turning her head to the side (so that her body bends and she’s likely to move her back feet), or take just teeny tiny steps with your feet to prompt her. But try to fade your own movement and reward any movement of hers with her back feet.
Thank you so much Joanna. I will try to work on standing still, be more patient and have Ego (11 weeks old) to work more for his rewards.
/Sofie
I think this puppy is active enough that we will get some movements without luring, so I would definitely try to shape. It’s only when you shape it that the dog is really thinking about his hind feet.
Definitely stop moving as you’re reinforcing front position too much and they like it anyway 🙂 You’re rewarding for circling away from your legs now instead of towards the legs, so I think being static and shaping would definitely be better. You can help by rewarding from the side, so that she learns it’s not necessarily from front she is getting treats, but do not move.
Hello!
Here’s my Lesson 2 video for Dynamite.
I think she finds the 2o2o a bit confusing- to date she has either done all four feet on or just the front feet on. Finally naming it something has helped some though. Other than that she really enjoys the other items on the agenda.
The only thing I didn’t show was her favorite game. That happens to be ‘steal a sock and get chased!’ Not sure I can use that for reward. 🙂 But if anyone has a suggestion for turning it into a game/reward I can use… I’m all ears!
Any other suggestions welcome too!
Shenna
Loved the back and stretch combination! What a nice warm up exercise! Pivoting is going great too, I think you could easily get full circle without any help of a hand if you just kept clicking for more&more steps, just as you do first -- she is almost at your side then and once they pass you, you have your full circle, no need to help with the hand. Same for sit up -- I think you can get it without a lure too. Still, pay attention that she sits straight when you try it, they can’t balance when they sit as she does at the very end. And yes, 2on2off can be somewhat confusing… Maybe a completely different, much bigger object would make it easier?
When I tried to get the head turn away from me, Monty started to get frantic. “What Do You WANT!” But after 4 sessions he is better and starting to offer a head turn. Frog Dog gave me hope. It was really hard at first and now he has it on cue with duration! I’m really learning the value of latent learning with this class. Work a bit, then put it away and bring him out fresh. He makes great leaps in understanding this way.
Here’s our update! Wrestling is our favorite game! We had a headstart on pivoting and meerkat (what I call beg or sit up). Backing up, crossing paws, and 2o2o were all new to us, and the video shows our very first attempts at those.
You guys are great!!! 🙂
Summer and I are a little stalled in progress… Will try some of your ideas!
Great job! Nice balance in sit up, to give you a new challenge: try to shape high front feet now! 🙂 Also, let’s try pivoting without the help of a hand now, to make him think about his hind feet even more. Backing up and 2on2off are progressing nicely too!
Yes, ma’am! 😀
Super cute moment yesterday when working on #3, the plate touch, with Yukon. I started raising the plate for him to paw it in the air. Yukon grabbed the plate from my hand (I let him have it to see what he was going to do), put it on the ground and then stepped on it! 🙂 I guess that’s one way to solve the problem! After that, I held onto the plate and he figured it out, but I think he still liked his way better. :-))
Well, he thought he needs to help you and tell how that trick works! Too funny!
Hi, do we perfect each exercise before moving onto the next one or can you work on them all within each training session?
I was working on number 2 but my pup offered 2 on 2 off as in exercise 5…should i have rewarded that?
How long should each training session be?
Huh, the length of a session depends on how good focus the dog has… With my puppies, I start off with 4 shaping sessions per day of like 5 minutes and then gradually lengthen the sessions and do less of them per day. With adult dogs, my sessions are 10 to 15 minutes I guess -- they would go for ever, but I usually run out of their dinner within that time. I always teach different tricks at the same time, but usually in different sessions. I do more per session if they look completely different (one is with an object and another one isn’t for example) and I will still do playing break in between. If the dog offers something else, I will click it only if it’s either really cool idea that I would like to go on with (and then I just switch the plan and work on this instead) or a really big step forward with another exercise I’ve been working on (a much better 2on2off as we’re currently at). Otherwise, I will mostly just wait for the dog to go back to what we are working on -- but sometimes, if it’s too cute, I will actually reward it, but without the click, I call it the “cuteness cookie”.
Thanks, thats really helpful 🙂
Silvia,
How do you get your other dogs to watch calmly and wait their turn to work with you. I’ve seen this in some of your videos as well as classmates’. I have to go into a separate room with the one I want to work because the others can’t seem to handle watching and either barge into the middle of things or generally make noise. Putting a gate up inside helps, but I see that others don’t have to do this. If we are outside and the non-working dog is behind an ex-pen, they go nuts. Especially the BC and Terv.
Help. I’d love to work one in the presence of the others but don’t know how to get that.
Kristin
With some dogs it’s easy, they’re just polite by nature -- like Bu for example. With Bi, it was not that easy: she was screaming if in another room, and pushing in if she was free. Then I started doing tricks together with them, first easy, static ones: hide, sit up, cross paws, weave, frog etc. in order to keep her calm when others are working -- she was fine with that she has got to work too. So her next assignment was to hold a stay when others are working. That went well too, I threw a treat for her here and there too. She then got so used to this concept, that I didn’t even ask for a stay anymore. If she got too excited, I still told her to lie down, but it was mostly not necessary anymore.
Thank you. I’ll try that.
Hoping the video works the first time! fingers crossed…..
We didn’t have space on the video for back up or our game. I will put it on the next one. I hope we did 2on2off right, because I am SUPER proud of how Tibby did with it. On the video it shows her very, very first time ever doing 2on2off. I think she did really well. I would like to eventually be at her side and have her offer 2on2off -- not right in front of her.
Beg is still being a stinker for us. I guess you will see in the video…..
Paw cross is moving along. I started doing left across right, because I got my left and right mixed up! oops!
Perch is fun! During our last session I started to only click for movement to the right, because Tibby was just going back and forth and never around.
*Love watching everyone’s videos!!! I learn so much from watching other people play with their dogs* This is a fun class! 🙂
LOL! I mean right paw across left! I got it mixed up again!
Tibby is SO cute and I think her sits are getting straighter… good job! Sara and Wylie.
Oh, it doesn’t matter, I just wrote whatever came to my mind first 🙂
Oh my goodness! That is awesome and Tibby is darling!
Wow, that’s really A LOT of a progress! She is really offering now! That straight into 2on2off was amazing (just make sure you use your release word every time you want her to leave -- and you can click the leaving on “go” too!), you’re also almost there with paw crossing and the last sit ups were GREAT! Perch is going well too, she even offered a really nice pivot on your 2on2off plank (at 1:21)! 🙂 She is definitely thinking now!
Woo hoo! I was just working with Tibby and she gave me a full circle around the perch. Yay! It’s so neat to see what a dog can figure out by themselves. I didn’t help her at all and she gets it! 🙂
Wow, that’s great! I could see already in your last video that things are going in the right direction and you’ll have it in no time. You sure did LOTS of progress!!!
Here comes our first video!
Summer’s favourite game is boring -- tugging for all she’s worth. Her next favourite game is being chased by someone.. Hard to use in training though -- hard to catch her without her hurting herself!
Pivoting without handler movement is new to Summer, but in the first session we are getting some understanding.. We have quite a long way to go to the full circle! I don’t know if I am doing the feeding right, it is still a little awkward..
Crossing paws was tonnes of fun. We are fading the target and then going to work on the other side..
Backing up was captured when she offered it during another session. We need to build distance 🙂
Not shown: Sit up and 2on2off
We have started on sit up but have not gotten the target high enough that she lifts both paws. 2on2off will be a completely new thing -- right now she thinks all objects are for balancing on!
Silvia I’m sorry!!! The video did not work so I reposted twice, and now all 3 work!! Is there any way you can remove the extras? =(
Done 🙂
Loved the paw crossing! It looks really good with big dogs and their long legs! Backing up looks great too and pivoting is going in the right direction too. To make rewarding easier, you can for now stand somewhat closer as she isn’t passing you yet anyway, so it will be easier for you. When you start with 2on2off, find a really big object that won’t remind her of objects you used for balancing on with 4 feet. Sit up could be hard for her, let her lean on the target or on something behind her back first.
Great paw crossing. We will be stealing the idea of beeing close to the wall, i think that can help us. Thank you.
We are doing well with playing -- Tili will play with anything -- tugs, balls, squeakies, little bits of stick, long bits of grass, tin cans, plastic bottles -- combination of chase, pounce, tug & flick. I have just been working on adding more things to play with that one just picks up on walks.
I needed to teach her to sit -- that is now in place and have just started on front feet coming off the ground.
Backing up is progressing well -- still in the deadend but ready to move on.
Just starting to get pivotting -- going slowly. Need ideas on how to use active play more here as her food drive is still low (first cattle dog I have had with this problem).
Thought I had a video of a really good session and discovered I must of pushed the wrong button and nothing was recorded -- problem of videoing oneself -- next time.
Sounds great! Hope you push the right button next time! 🙂 What if you simply play every two or three clicks of pivoting?