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.
Here are my puppies doing the first week of lesson one. Our biggest challenge this week will be the box, I think. We’re working on getting smaller. I wanted them to understand to move one hind leg at a time before I go on to the next size down.
Zen in my hand and on the floor, they know, so I added the challenge of using a bowl.
How do you fade the lure for the frog exercise for a dog like Finn who never does this move on his own?
Very cool speedy recall! Nice plate work, with even some circling already 🙂 Finn is too funny, loved his long nose in a bowl without taking a treat and wow, you sure had to find some extra large boxes! And yes, you don’t want hopping in but one by one legs. It’s usually easier with not too high boxes. Time to make them smaller now. I would keep working on a frog until you get legs stretched out all the way, then name it and fade the lure into a hand on the floor cue first and then getting rid of that too. Great job so far!
Great. Thank you so much for the advice. Your video of the cattle dog is very helpful.
So cool that you managed to find boxes in every size! It’s so much fun to watch so many different breeds work in this class. I learn a lot from watching all of you, something one can’t normally do in a real class (as you have to focus on your own dog). The long distance thing is really growing on me 😉
I totally agree — love the long distance format and I LOVE watching everyone’s work with their dogs. I learn a lot.
I had a couple of huge boxes that I cut up and taped so I have LOTS of nested boxes for borzoi and terv-sized dogs!
Here’s second part of our homework. Tried to keep the videos short, so that I can post the progress (hopefully there will be progress ;)) at the end of this week as well.
I can’t really decide whether the pillow is good or bad for our frog trick, might not be the best pillow for it? When outside on grass she offers it by herself so I’ll have to remember to train (and film it) when on grass 🙂
But you’re getting really nice froggy legs even with this pillow! I think it’s pretty amazing for 2nd session!!! But yes, it’s easier when they sometimes do it on their own. It’s common with puppies, that’s why it was in your first assignment already -- if you keep practising it, it’s a great stretching exercise. Great job also with recalls and offering behaviours for a toy instead of trying to steal it 🙂
What a cute pup! She’s adorable 🙂 You two work well together!
Thank you for your feedback Silvia 🙂
@ agilepaws Thank you so much!! 😀
It’s nice to see Mia think, when she is trying to figure out what she has to do to get the treat :o)
4in: when I chose a bigger box, she went in -- right away.
She is not aware, when she is stretching her leg backwards, I guess one day she will be, as we keep practicing.
(Sometimes it looks like she knows that I’m recording, because she stops and looks right in to the camera.)
Very cool! Much more action this time! Keep up the good work, slowly make the box smaller now. The plate touches are very good already. That’s a good start of the frog too! Maybe, to take the stretch further, in this situation do reward her in a position (not tossing the treat) in order to keep her in the same position and maybe get even more of a stretch in her next try. But yes, I think she will get it soon, you are clicking the right thing.
When she looks directly at the camera I’m pretty sure she’s saying, “I look SO good!”
:o) Or “what is that thing on the chair?” :o)
I think she is doing great and she’s adorable 🙂 With Swift, I did lots of experimenting with different pillows. I used one similar to the one you’re using and it just wasn’t working because she kept standing with her back legs and tried jumping onto the pillow or crawling forward. I ended up using three regular pillows that we use to sleep on because they are squishy and she was able to lie down on them but they were still tall enough so she could stretch her back legs out without crawling forward. Then I took away a pillow and went down to two once she started getting the concept, then down to one. We only did two sessions with the three pillows and she almost has it mastered! Something to consider if she still has trouble 🙂
Thank you :o)
I think we are doing better now. Her legs were too short for the pillows, so it was difficult for her to get the legs up, and I clicked before they came up.
Well since I didn’t have to work today as it was Independence Day here in USA, and my daughter was also over to help us, I decided to do a short video of Cosi doing a real life “free” recall out in the yard. My cheap 🙁 camcorder doesn’t do pause when you record, only when you play back, so I had to make 2 videos (still better than 6!) Cosi popped the ball on one of the videos, so that is why we are all laughing so hard :-))
As always, any comments are appreciated 🙂 Cindy & Cosi (and Gary and Emily this time)
Very cool! No problem sending it in two videos. I think most camcorders don’t have this function, you can make one video out of it later on with an editing program like Windows Movie Maker, but to me, it doesn’t matter if you post more short clips instead, whatever is easier for you.
Thanks Silvia! I’ll learn Movie Maker when I have a bit more time this weekend -- it sounds fun to learn to edit my videos 🙂
Echo came RUNNING and wagging her tail when she heard you all burst into laughter!
LOL…that was a funny moment -- Cosi breaks about 1-2 balls a week OR they go over the fence and the nice neighbors throw them back the next day or two . .. We try to mix flyers and frisbees with the balls so it’s not so much $$$ to buy balls all the time lol… I’m glad Echo liked the video! :-))
Well, here is our first attempt at posting a video for our first ever online class! Just got started as Heidi was spayed this week! Stacey & Heidi
Great job!!! With tricks AND posting a video 🙂 No problem with plate trick and a really GREAT frog!!! Did you get it just like that, with a pillow, or she sometimes does it naturally? Time for a smaller box and making ignoring food harder by dropping some treats on the ground!
Thanks! I have seen her do frog when she plays tug of war with my other dog! He drags her across the floor and her legs are straight back! I have only seen it a few times. Stacey
It sure looks easy for her! Le also likes to play like that, to be dragged around in frog position 🙂
What a pretty terv-girl! She looks so much like Da Vinci! Love her frog. Echo and I aspire to do that as well as Miss Heidi. I’m going to find a pillow like that; it really seems like it helps.
Thanks! Loved watching your pups! Fun that there is another Terv! Stacey
Okay, here is video number two! I only did frog legs and 4 in a box. Recalls are amazing with her. She comes bee lining to me no matter what -- from a stay or if she’s off doing her own thing. I still do multiple recalls with her daily just in the house or outside as I do with all my dogs to keep them solid. I wasn’t going to get videos since I am always actively training them, but I can if you would like!
Same goes for the work with not staring at her ball. I play ball with her 24/7 it seems. At this moment I have two balls in my lap (LOL!), so I continually work with her not staring as we play instead of setting it aside for a training session. Like with the recalls, however, I can still get a video if you would like to see 🙂
Okay, so in this video she is working with a smaller box but definitely isn’t a big fan of this trick. Originally she would just lie down and get sad puppy eyes with the smaller box, so I decided to try a differently shaped box and she disliked that one even more and since then she has been okay with getting in this red box. Any ideas on getting her to enjoy this trick more?
Frog legs is by far her FAVORITE trick, just look at her tail wag the whole time! She often gets herself into this pose when she plays or just because she enjoys it so much 🙂 I didn’t want to be patient and try to capture it because since we have gotten this to-do list I have yet to see her natural frog legs, of course! This pillow trick I came up with seems to be working really well. This is technically her third session on frog legs, but the first one was kind of a dud as we tried different pillows and nothing was successful until session two when I started with the three pillows like in the video.
Nice job -- I like her box work — that’s a small box and she’s really working at it. She’s wagging like crazy. When I was watching your video Echo came running over and was wagging her tail and poking me with her nose. I think our clickers sound exactly the same and she was wondering why I was clicking and not treating!
Very nice and funny froggy legs! For the box trick, I would probably work some more with somewhat bigger box. This one still seems pretty hard for her to get in with all 4 and I guess that’s why she is not liking this trick so much. I think she will like it better if you make it easier for her to succeed and only come back to this size when she is completely comfortable and balanced in somewhat bigger box. Happy to hear she is so good on recalls!
Thanks! I will continue working on a bigger box with her 🙂
Hi, we have been working on 4in and frog, and this is how far we have come.
That pillow seems to work better 🙂
GREAT froggy legs!!! I think she is making those sounds with the box trick because she is so used to your help and when she is not quite sure, instead of trying, she goes into asking for help. That’s exactly why I would stop luring completely, but make the task easy enough to keep rewarding at VERY high frequency, meaning that I would find somewhat bigger box for now and progress in smaller steps.
Of course, the fastest way to get 4in is to lure as it’s such an easy trick. BUT if you lure the easy tricks and then expect to shape the difficult ones that you can’t lure… -- you’ll get in trouble. Once the dog gets used to help, they will just ask for help. They need to learn to offer initiative with easy tricks to then be able to do it with advanced ones too and the box trick is ideal for that, that’s why I included it in your first assignment already.
I’m not completely against luring, I will sometimes lure too later in the process, once the dog has mastered shaping already. But till then, I do exclusively shape. That’s why my puppies know MUCH less tricks at 3 months as puppies of the same age who has been lured… -- BUT they know many more and more complex ones as lured puppies soon after that, as soon as we master shaping on easy tricks.
This is my 5 month old puppy Mario doing a recall to a tug toy. I have been trying to get the videos to upload, hopefully it will work!
Great job Mario! Don’t forget on recalls from real life too, not only stays! I like to wait until they start to sniff something so that I can take some advantage over them and call as I run away so that they have some fun chasing me on longer distance. Of course, I can only do it once and then they’re all eyes when I’m going to run again 🙂
Here is a video of him doing the frog stretch. I have an African Grey Parrot, so if you hear extra clicking in the background, squealing and other noises it’s him. Also, my voice is not usually so harsh, don’t know why it came across that way!
Wow, that’s amazing! You got THAT and even on verbal cue in 10 days??? Or you did some before? Did he do it naturally on his own before?
No, I taught it to him when you gave us the lesson plan. He is a pretty fast learner. No, he really did not do it on his own. I am glad you said you are not against luring because I did lure for the first two days and then he got what I wanted and just did it.
This is the one of the plate
Great touch, great speed! Mario sure looks like lots of fun!