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!
Also, there are lots of tasks waiting for you in this class as I like to keep it interesting also for those dogs who already know some of the tricks. HOWEVER, make sure you're not focusing on teaching too much as fast as possible, to the degree of trying to help/lure - but instead take the time and focus on the fun part. In order not to make you feel under pressure, I will be underlining the tasks you should focus on in each lesson. The rest you can do if the underlined exercises are going well, but we don't need those for the next lesson, so it doesn't hurt if you address those later.
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. It usually helps if you try to get them stretch over a pillow as it reduces crawling.
Looking forward to see your videos! You can send them in one or more pieces, but keep the total length of the videos sent per lesson under 10min.
Hi Silvia, I have a quick general advice question. Gemini is by far the most active toy/play motivated puppy I’ve ever had. She is a very busy, brave, and independent girl. I am having trouble getting her to focus (she just turned 11 weeks) as it seems the entire world is her oyster! I am now doing her training in the most sterile environment I can create and I’m keep sessions short which seems to be helping. Do you have any suggestions?
Thanks,
Carrie
Sounds as the right thing to do! Le was a lot as you describe too and as she wasn’t very food motivated, so I included lost of playing in between, at the beginning I was basically rewarding every second click with a toy (and the rest with food) to keep her interested. I then slowly went to playing after each third, fourth etc. click and eventually used a toy only for jackpotts and food for the rest as we were not getting very far with that much playing and that short sessions 🙂 So for her at 11 weeks, it would be impossible to do this whole homework, that’s why I marked what to focus on first. As I said, it’s more important to make it fun for her as to master all those tricks in 2 weeks! You definitely want to keep her active and playful!
Thanks for your suggestions and for indicating what to focus on first. Our morning session went better by mixing in more play rewards. It was her first time working on touching the plate She ended up thinking it was a very fun game to smack the plate.
Carrie
I was just wondering if we put a name to the touching the plate or getting in the box. Maybe we name it later. Thank you, Stacey & Heidi
Yes, you can name it as soon as you can predict with certainty the dog will be touching the plate/go into the box with all 4!
Hello Silvia and everybody !
So here is our first video of our homework with Revi. She’s the first dog I click so I still have to learn about timing…as you will see on the video 🙂 I could wait untill the result is better, but it seems to me more interesting to tape the process to get feedback about the way how to arrive somewhere.
We have most problems with the lay down and then the hind legs…she is not moving them in the direction behind, I don’t know how to continue this.
With the looking away of the food…shall I continue clicking for just looking away, or do I have to wait until she really does something too ? Must there be action or is it just the looking away ?
Have fun and I am looking forward to feedback…
Thanks ! Rebekka
Is that a big sheltie or a small one? Amazing how they can work like that at 3 months! I have noticed that young handlers are always much better than us older folk. I wonder if its because we overthink everything?
Great job! She plays really great! The tricks are going really well. At this point, you can already introduce a release word when you call her out of the box (or off the target), to start working on her understanding of a word that means to leave the position. You can also name touching the target -- just say your cue when you see she will be getting on. For food refusal, looking away is o.k., but action is even better 🙂 so jackpot that, but for now, you can still reward looking away too. You can also make it harder by putting food on floor now (and then cover it with a hand if necessary).
If you taped frog attempts, that would help too. Is she moving them out? Out is good too. Also, try if you can get HER to move forward and leave the legs behind (vs. having her static and waiting for legs to move back ). Does she ever do it on her own, when playing or relaxing? Le did a lot of it when already tired/hot, but still wanting to play, so I just captured it and named it.
Thanks for all this feedback, we will do so…
Revi is a big sheltie, 33 cm now already…she will definitely not stay a small one…but she’s already 3,5 months 🙂
Yes, we taped the frog attempt, this evening we will tape again and post the two attempts. She never lays down while/after playing, she is just too busy. When she finally lays down, she curls up or lays on her side….this position is for her not so natural…I’m curious for this evening….
Yeap, it’s harder if she doesn’t naturally do it. The pillow usually helps.
Wow, she’s too cute, love sheltie babies they’re like little fur balls 🙂 And you really seem to hit it of together. Nice job!
It really helped me capture the frog (or at least the very start of it) by putting my puppy in a down on a pillow. Will try to film and post our attempts asap.
Hi
Here is Sen’s first video for this class. Calling we are doing well at (Schipperkes and recalls are generally mutually exclusive concepts so it needs lots of work). There is no video for exercise 3, but we do this too (video is a bit dull because she usually cycles through all the things she knows). No frog work yet.
For the touch a plate, she knows this but in the video I have a poor choice of object, too hot weather for is and too many bugs. I added some pre-heeling work video now because I will not post a video again for another month because I am travelling for my job, and by then you will all be there. These are not great examples. There are some old and some newer videos. At first I could only get anticlockwise spins -- it took a long time to get the other direction. Now these are about equal (although that does not show in these clips). In the beginning I was luring too much but now I just use a hand to start a new direction. We only just started to leg-touch part.
For the box exerxise, the first video is a few weeks old but I added it because I like her “is the water warm here” style (she can get all feet easily in that tray now). The smaller box is from today and she tries hard but as yet does not get more than 3 legs. She moves so fast its good clicking practice.
Sorry about the videos in the wrong orientation -- anyone know how to fix that in old versions of movie maker?
Very cool, you have it all covered already for the time you’re away 🙂 For the 4in, try to find an “in between size” of the box to make it easier. As said before, the easiest to start the new size then is to put a new object in an old one. Because yes, you can definitely still make it smaller for her! Very nice pivoting, very nice touch the leg!
Here is my video for week 1:
Chewy is VERY enthusiastic about food. When I’m clicking for an action that does not involve staring at the food, it sometimes takes him awhile to give me eye contact. However, he does tend to move away from the food right away. I should be clicking for eye contact, not the move away, correct?
Just started working on the “frog” trick, so it’s not on the video. He does do it occassionally on his own when he’s resting. But, when I am training, he tends to lift his back end up, or crawl forward when I move the food forward.
O, what a lovely sheltiepuppy, and indeed he’s very active too ! Looking forward to other videos…
Very cool, love his activity level! You don’t need an eye contact, any action but trying to get food is o.k. I like that front feet lifting thing he does, I would go for that, it’s too cute! Great plate work too, I see his hind feet moving really well already, did you shape for that already or is he a natural? 🙂 Getting there with 4in too, slowly make it smaller&smaller. No hurry with the frog trick, you can simply keep capturing it when it happens. Very cute puppy!
Thanks! We have been doing some perchwork on/off, so he is used to me clicking for hind feet movement.
so here are the attempts for the frog.. to lay down is not on cue yet, so there is still the hand signal needed. She first thought it was the game of “looking away from the food” and then she thought she had to do something with the pillow. Very funny, but we didn’t get that far…you will see. The only thing we remembered, is that she pushes her hind legs away againt our hand when we hold her. She likes to “stay” on our hand that way. So we taped it, I don’t know if this is useful, I don’t think so…
thanks !!
Rebekka
Well, the major problem I see is that you keep going for more treats 🙂 Keep more treats in your hand, so that you can reward several times without her getting up. She sometimes pushes legs out or a little bit back, would be good if you could go on from there instead of breaking the flow of thinking by going for more food…
If you want a pillow to work, she needs to lie over it and it’s better if it’s bigger and higher. Here is a video from one of Puppy II participants to show what I mean:
The exercise in a lap can help too, I would definitely click that too and then see if she makes a generalization between the two exercises at one point.
ok, thanks for all this feedback and the interesting video. Indeed now I see what you ment to say….that wasn’t clear to me. We will work further on…we will see in one week what happens…
bye,
Rebekka
Yeap, it’s usually easier to explain with a video! 🙂 Have fun!
Hi, I’m not sure I’m doinge this right. I hope I’m posting our videoclip.
I have been working on converting the videofiles all day, and so far this is the best I can do. I hope you can bear with me. The beeping sound in the background is the baking maschine :o)
Try 4in again without luring, this exercise is too easy with luring 🙂 and is a great introduction exercise to shaping as dogs will usually show some interest in that box on the floor on their own and then you can just go from there. As I’m guessing she is not so used to shaping yet and it can be hard to get her offer action, try tossing treats for her to provoke more action. For example, sit close to the box, keep your hands behind your back to avoid luring, click the moment she looks towards the box and toss a treat away so that she needs to go get it and when she is coming back to you and the box, you can click again and toss a treat again and again… -- all just to keep her in movement and keep the reinforcement rate high enough. The same for ignoring treats: try tossing to be able to click for something else as just the down. Having a dog offer action and self-initiative is the first and most important step -- but often the hardest one, especially with dogs who are used to luring. Report how it goes!
I have one other question. Swift’s favorite toy is the ball, she is extremely ball motivated. She is one of those obsessive border collies! I have been working with her not focusing on the ball, but I have been clicking and tossing her a treat when she avoids the ball. Is this okay? Should I reward her with the ball since that is her favorite thing? Thanks!
Christin and Swift
Yes, I usually reward with whatever the dog needs to ignore: it’s o.k. to start off rewarding with something else, but eventually, you want the dog to be able to control herself even when she knows THAT thing is coming -- a ball in your case or, if I give an example from agility: If you keep rewarding a stay with a toy, the dog will stay in training, but not necessarily in competition when they know his reward is not going to fly into their muzzle, their reward is sitting right there in front of them in a form of a jump. That’s much harder then, so as soon as the stay is good if rewarding in a position, I stop rewarding in a position completely and a release to something becomes their only reward. The same in your case: it’s easier when the dog knows the ball is just there as a distraction -- the ultimate test is to ignore it and do something else first, knowing the ball IS coming. Makes sense?
Yes, that makes perfect sense. Thank you! That is what I’ve been doing when I play ball with her, I make her look away or at me or do something else before I throw it. She is still obsessed, but I’m sure it would be way worse if I never worked with her. 🙂
Here are some short video clips of Cosi doing Puppy Lesson 1 tasks. Stupid me, I am new to this and should have pushed “Pause” on the camcorder in between tasks instead of making separate videos -- please excuse me as I learn 🙂 Thanks 🙂
Cindy & Cosi
Wow, you mastered all the tricks already!!! To keep you busy for another week, you can try to go for even smaller box -- the good thing about this trick is that you can always make it even smaller 🙂
O.k., I’m putting this in bold to make sure everybody sees it as it’s a note for all: when practising recalls, make sure you practise them in real life too. Restrained recalls and recalls from stay are of course great to practise too, but they’re actually much easier as you have the dog’s focus already and that’s the hard part about the recalls. So as soon those go well, start practising also when the dog is sniffing, seeing another dog or another animal, eventually maybe even when he is playing with other dogs etc. Reward enthusiastically and then release them back to the fun stuff to make them see the fun doesn’t end with a recall.
Thanks Silvia! I will send another (one) short video of Cosi doing recalls outside in a “real” environment this week. I guess I am so used to Obedience Class, I just showed a formal recall from one of those assignments we have done in the past 🙂 -- Thanks for the heads up note to us all 🙂
Here’s Swift’s video. She is doing much better with the plate, she is much calmer now and doesn’t pounce on it and lie down 🙂
Great job with the paw touch and 4 in! Looks like it’s time for even smaller box! 🙂 Great job so far!
Thanks 🙂 We are working on a smaller box now and she doesn’t seem to be a big fan of it! 😛
Did you try putting a smaller one into the bigger one? It usually helps a lot as it makes them think they can do it -- and so they can 🙂