We've been working quite a bit on targeting this week - foot targeting an icecream lid to start with - we've got quite good distances, about 6metres after 2 sessions, and targeting it up on the couch, on a chair etc.
Then I decided to try and teach her to push the door shut with her nose - we've done lots to "touch" targeting with my hand but not nose-to-object targeting.
At first I was using the command "touch" but then she was getting really confused, looking for my hand so I stopped that and started using "hit it" but then sort of stopped that too. She figured out to touch the piece of paper quickly, but getting her to actually p-u-s-h the door took a bit longer. After the first nose targeting session we spent some time learning to push my hand with the touch command and clicking after she put pressure on my hand for prolonged periods of time. Today when we went back to the door she pretty much got it straight away! I love watching her think! She's so quick.
Still a work in progress, only had two sessions so far...
Edit to add - The videos pretty long and boring - quicker version is in the post above :)
Oh and we had our first rally-o class last week.
Pepper had absolutely zero focus to start with: plastic ears, head in the clouds type of thing. Normally she's pretty switched on to me whenever I ask but after some great tips from Sonia our instructor she was much better and heeling with lots of attention.
Pepper had absolutely zero focus to start with: plastic ears, head in the clouds type of thing. Normally she's pretty switched on to me whenever I ask but after some great tips from Sonia our instructor she was much better and heeling with lots of attention.I was really happy that for the entire hour we were there we only had about 3 episodes of barking (as apposed to barking the entire time we were at club only 6 weeks ago) so we're making progress there.
Rally-o seems to be a really great "sport" and I think Pepper & I will really enjoy it. I like that you can talk away to your dog as much as you like, it seems to be laid back and friendly. I hope it takes off in New Zealand as very few clubs offer it at this stage.
Awesome job on the close the door trick!! Nose touches and paw touches are very useful skills for so many different tricks! Good job!
ReplyDeleteGlad things ended up going well in your first rally class! I like that fact that moms can talk to their dogs all the time too!
super duper job!!!! nice tick hope that sanne teach us that! we can open the door but close a door , hmmmmmm we wanna do that to.
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El'bow & Hauwii
Thanks for stopping by my blog! It looks like you're doing a great job with training too! And I think you learned from the first session that usually you can't use a known cue right away with a "new" behavior, being quiet and letting the dog think is best! But it looks like she's doing great now!
ReplyDeleteYou're going to have fun in rally, I know Lance loves that I get to talk to him during it and the constant changes of direction helps to keep him more focused on me then in just typical obedience heeling.
Not boring at all! She is so smart!!
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