As you did so good with your first homework, you're getting some more this time 🙂 I again marked the ones to focus on first. 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 for 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.
Last call for 
Hi all
Having the most incredible trouble trying to upload video to youtube, taking like an hour to upload. Is it supposed to take that long for a video that is only about 4 -- 5 minutes at the most? This is the First lesson i’m still trying to put up.
My experience has been about 10 minutes to upload to YouTube for a ~5 minute video. I create my movies in iMovie and upload from that program via the Share > Facebook option. When I’ve gone to YouTube to browse, select, and upload a video, it’s taken much longer.
Hope this helps.
Rachel
I have inca touching the plate, but she is only doing one paw. If i try for both she loses interest and wanders off. She is also doing nose and paw together which i have to be careful about not clicking for, as i want paw only. She is now stepping into the box with all four paws, and next step is to get the box/bowl smaller. It took her awhile to get close to the box. She is doing ok with looking away from the food.
I’m not sure which box i am meant to put the url address in. either this comments box or the one that says browse next to the empty box. will put it in here first and see what happens.
httpv://www.yotube.com/watch?v=crihryL1xUM
Hi, when we train circling around the plate, Mia keeps eyecontact all the time, and I do not know how to make her go allround the plate and loose eyecontact. What do I do?
Reward with a head turned away from you to teach her that taking her eyes off of you is o.k. 🙂
Ooooh, more stuff to work on!!!
I have filmed things from lesson 1, but I have yet to make myself upload the videos. *Shame* 😛
This new list looks like great fun, too!
Looking forward to see where you are! 🙂
Here is our attempt at turning on a raised plate. I thought he did pretty well, I am not luring at all. The problem that I can see I might have though is that Mario is very set on only turning the one way. How can I get him to understand to turn to his right without luring or moving my body somehow? I think this will be difficult.
Here Mario is backing up. He likes this one a lot and offers it when I am trying to teach other things that he finds difficult 🙂
🙂 Very nice! Just make sure you click when he is still moving, NOT when he stops already!
Oh, wow, that’s GREAT! But yes, once you are so far with one direction, it’s very hard to get the other one without luring… That’s why I click both right from the start, when I’m not getting real circling yet, just some accidental hind feet movements… Once so far, one thing that can help is to set a target next to the wall, so that it stops them from circling in their preferred direction -- so they will then sometimes step away from it (even if only for being able to go into their preferred direction again). Click and jackpot. Don’t click the preferred direction at all when going for the other one.
Hello!
More questions, Silvia 🙂 For the circling trick (heeling), what commands do you use to circle either direction? And kind of an off topic question but do you have any ideas on how to make an insecure barker stop? Swift barks a lot at people she doesn’t know and especially at the doorbell -- any tips would be great!!
I don’t use any words for circling trick… The object is their cue and I let them choose the direction and then let them know when I want them to switch. I only introduce the words in the next step (in your next assignment) and those are already “heel” and “side”. You can also use a word for circling if you want, it’s perfectly o.k., I’m just too lazy for naming and am always happy to skip that part whenever I can 🙂
For a doorbell, use it as a cue to fetch you her ball 🙂 First ring it yourself and at the same time send her to go get her ball -- then you’ll need a helper and you’ll also need to play some before letting real visitors in 🙂 If she barks at visitors, ask them to ignore her completely. Reward when she calms down and lies down. If you think that won’t happen any time soon, remove her from the situation, let the doorbell be a cue for a short play and then going into another room to chew on something. Try to take her to crowded places to reward her being calm, they usually won’t bark when there are many people around. Keep her away enough that she can relax.
This is Mario touching the plate while I am holding it and then also while he is in a down. I am trying to have him touch it with his left foot only. Not sure if I am doing the correctly.
You can actually click both in all other positions but down, when you’re going for a paw cross. Offering both, one and another, is actually really good. And hey, I actually saw some nice crosses with right leg! And what a nice frog 🙂
Thank you Silvia! Especially for the suggestion of putting the plate by the wall. What a great idea! I will start that right now.
Well, we just got started on this lesson and thought we would post our first attempt as we have questions! If I have one command for touching with one paw and another command for touching with two paws, should we also attempt to name when they use their left or right paws? When circling on the bowl are they eventually going to spin both ways or just one and should they each have a different name. I was touching the floor to get her to put two paws down so maybe that is luring! Yikes! Thanks for any input as I feel confused! Stacey
Yes, you can name the two paws. I called them “paw” and “another”, but never remembered which is which, so now any paw is o.k. for a “paw” and “another” means the other one 🙂 Nice job with the plate! Getting there with circling, but try to stop moving and try to reward so that her head is turned away from you as she tends to try to keep front position and we need to get rid of that (that’s also why moving is contra-productive: it reinforces keeping front position even more). We want spinning in both directions, you can name it if you want, I usually only name it in a next step, when I use it for heel position, I don’t really have a name for full circles as the object as such is their cue. And yes, you’re luring for 2on2off… Try to just wait and see -- but it might be easier on somewhat lower object.
Thanks for your input Silvia! Think we are doing better as the trainer isn’t as confused! Think I get performance anxiety when I get a new lesson so I need to take your advice and have fun! Will post another video tonight! Stacey
I am very impressed that you got that big dog to stand his front feet on the little bowl! I am going to try for a smaller one now!
The size of a bowl for that trick is actually not very important… It’s better to focus on hind feet as to bring too much attention to front feet!!!
Hi Silvia, Ayoka is doing touches very well. We tried to do the ‘hands high’. She stretches one leg very high to reach the touch-pad while sitting. If I put it al little bit higher she immediately stands up with her hind legs and is jumping to the pad. What can I do that she ist sitting and lifting both pows? Or is she to young ? I think her ridge is very long and she is very thin at the moment…
Sandra,
While we’re waiting for Silvia, I can tell you that what I did with Echo was reward her for touching the target with one paw and then moving even a tiny bit of weight off of the front paw on the floor -- like a bit of a tip-of-toes touching (instead of her whole paw touching) the floor. Then she got the idea that I was looking for her weight rocking back to her hind end. ONE time I clicked both paws on the target with her standing so she knew that was what I wanted (the both paws part) but then I went back to her sitting so she’d get that I wanted both paws from the sit.
It takes a lot of core strength to do the “sit-pretty”. One of my borzoi still can only do it for a second or two. We do a separate core strengthening exercise with him luring him from STAND to a fold back down (where his front legs fold before or at the same time as his hind legs) and then back to stand. Once Quill could do that several times in a row, we found he could do the sit-pretty better. I hope this helps.
Rachel
I think she could do it as the target allows her to lean on it anyway, so she actually doesn’t need that much strength or balance to start with that trick. It’s just sometimes hard to find exactly the right height… Maybe teach her to touch with both legs even when the target is so low that she could do it with one? -- But don’t reward one, wait for two. It’s o.k. if she leans on your hand.
Thanks both of you. I made a short clip of the paw touch. I think she is doing it very good with one pow, but is standing up for touching it with two paws. I don’t want to confuse her to much at the moment. So I will start to click for two paws touching the field on the ground later.
Oh, she is bigger for every next video 🙂 Love this after-fluffy, all-legs phase! 🙂 Well, you did get a little bit of a sit up on two occasions in this video, so just jackpot those tries (even if she stands up then). Also, try to hold a target closer to her as that will promote shifting the weight back and will help her with her sit ups. As Rachel mentioned, you can then click as soon as she takes some weight off the other leg, that’s already a good start of a sit up.
Yes, everything is long at the moment: feets, nose, tail….I was very impressed when I compared this video with the video from two weeks ago!
I try to go closer next time. And try to get the right timing for ‘weight off’. It is easier to see the right time for a click while seeing it on the clip!
Yeap, she is doing great! I love that long-phase! 🙂
Here is our first video for lesson 2. We worked some on perch and 2o2o a couple of months ago. I had to take a break, because I started to get Echo really confused and she’d get on/leap off for 2o2o (loved her Go!). I took a 1 month break and came back again. Much happier now.
A couple of issues -- Echo’s starting to do a quick 1-2 punch with right then left paw when lying down -- she’s so darned quick with those paws. I’m not sure what to do as I’m having trouble isolating only one paw with my clicks. (Finn’s “crossed paws” is coming along really well.)
Back -- Echo rocks this one. Finn’s getting there. With each of them I’m not sure how to add more steps -- I get 3-4 steps but that’s about it. Video coming.
Perch -- happy with it so far, but should I be going to the other direction before one direction is really solid? (Finn’s still hesitating some.)
Thank you for your help, as always!
What a nice rabbit!!! Great job with pivoting! I usually first try to get some of both directions, then click only one to get full circle, but try to get both again as soon as I get fluent circles in one direction: so definitely work on both with Echo and do start with the other direction with Finn soon too. To get more steps on back, it’s very important you throw a reward towards them and that you click when they are really still moving. Many people click when the dog stops and then they learn to do a couple of steps and stop. If they stop before you click, wait for additional step or two before clicking.
Great. Thank you for the advice. I’ll work on the back — I think that’s exactly what I’ve been doing (click as stopping). Will continue to work on pivoting. Do I name it once they are moving in a full circle in each direction, or should I name the counterclockwise pivot now (for Echo)?
Thanks! -Rachel
You can name it as soon as you have fluent circles in one direction -- if you have enough ideas for how to call it 🙂 I usually don’t name this step at all, let them choose the direction and show when I want another one and only name it in the next step, when it becomes “heel” and “side”. It’s perfectly o.k. to name it already now, but I’m always lazy when it comes to naming…