E has been with us for almost 4 weeks. Usually his morning routine is he wants to be petted but won't come all the way up to me without me telling him to sit and then giving him a treat.
This morning, I could tell he wanted to come up to me, but when I'd turn to him he'd trot away, and trot around the dining room table, coming close to me each time but not explicitly coming up to be petted.
I was in my bathroom getting ready for work, and he came to the door-- again, the "I want to come up to you" vibe. I sat on the edge of the tub and one dog came up for pets. And so did E. No coaxing, no "sit" routine, he just came all the way up to me for a little scratching on his chest. It's a small thing, but a big thing at the same time.
Also, in the mornings he is very playful and wants to engage in play. He tries to get this started by acting all prancy and happy and then barking at me. I don't want the barking part, it's early in the morning and my neighbors will not be OK with that. I immediately turn away from him. If that doesn't stop it, which so far it kinda doesn't, I immediately go into the other room and shut the door, leaving him dumbfounded. After about 10 seconds, I open the door like nothing happened. This interruption of the barking is important. If I had more time to work with this in the morning, I'd wait for the moment when he stopped barking, and would C/T the quiet. The only time we have this barking is when we arrive home and he's greeting us, and when he's trying to play (or when my other dogs are wrestling and playing, and he's trying to join in, so he barks at them happily while they wrestle).
Also this morning, he proactively jumped onto the sofa to have a 20-min snuggle session with my husband. Dennis loved this, because E has been slower to warm up to him and now E is completely comfortable with him.
Showing posts with label K9 Cruiser dog bike target training clicker training. Show all posts
Showing posts with label K9 Cruiser dog bike target training clicker training. Show all posts
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Doing great....
E is continuing to do very well. He tries to initate play with me, but I don't quite understand the game. What seems to work best at this point is when he jumps up on the sofa and hops and dances and then stops and says "pet me and hold me". He is clueless about toys. I don't think he's ever had one and at this point he doesn't know what to do with them.
Paris (9 yrs old) came over yesterday to help train him and she's so great with him. He was MUCH better with her, and warmed up within 2 minutes, taking treats from her hand, off her knee (we were both sitting on the ground). We started target-training him to nudge the lid of a coffee can (on the ground). I would click and Paris would drop the treat. He is consistently nosing the lid. We're going to evolve this so he noses it no matter where it is, ie, taped onto the wall. Taped behind the ribbon of jingle bells (this is all leading up to teaching him to nudge the jingle bells to ask me to open the door so he can go outside, which is how our own dogs currently do it). Once he nudges through the bells, we'll literally make the target lid slowly disappear, by cutting off a bit each day. We'll also put the ringing on command, and voila, a new desirable behavior.
We went around for a LONG bike ride yesterday, with 2 of my other dogs too. We encountered a lot of scary distractions, and he only really reacted to 2 of them. And he recovered quickly. Took him around again this morning with the other 2, and again, he does just great. The K9 Cruiser is the best thing since sliced bread.
When I get home, he's very excited to see me, and he'd like to stand 12 feet away and bark and play keep away. I am changing this pattern. I ignore him, don't make eye contact (when he does this) and go get treats and start giving treats to my other dogs. He'll come forward, I'll click and give him a treat, we do this a few times and then I ask him to sit, again, I C/T. He cannot run and bark if he is sitting and earning a treat. So rather than fighting the undesired behavior, I set up a situation where he gets rewarded for giving me a desired behavior.
He doesn't bark all day, we've verified this with the neighbors. He will bark when someone comes to the house, when someone walks their dog by the gate (as do my other dogs, too). Neighbors have reassured me that he's not annoying them.
Paris (9 yrs old) came over yesterday to help train him and she's so great with him. He was MUCH better with her, and warmed up within 2 minutes, taking treats from her hand, off her knee (we were both sitting on the ground). We started target-training him to nudge the lid of a coffee can (on the ground). I would click and Paris would drop the treat. He is consistently nosing the lid. We're going to evolve this so he noses it no matter where it is, ie, taped onto the wall. Taped behind the ribbon of jingle bells (this is all leading up to teaching him to nudge the jingle bells to ask me to open the door so he can go outside, which is how our own dogs currently do it). Once he nudges through the bells, we'll literally make the target lid slowly disappear, by cutting off a bit each day. We'll also put the ringing on command, and voila, a new desirable behavior.
We went around for a LONG bike ride yesterday, with 2 of my other dogs too. We encountered a lot of scary distractions, and he only really reacted to 2 of them. And he recovered quickly. Took him around again this morning with the other 2, and again, he does just great. The K9 Cruiser is the best thing since sliced bread.
When I get home, he's very excited to see me, and he'd like to stand 12 feet away and bark and play keep away. I am changing this pattern. I ignore him, don't make eye contact (when he does this) and go get treats and start giving treats to my other dogs. He'll come forward, I'll click and give him a treat, we do this a few times and then I ask him to sit, again, I C/T. He cannot run and bark if he is sitting and earning a treat. So rather than fighting the undesired behavior, I set up a situation where he gets rewarded for giving me a desired behavior.
He doesn't bark all day, we've verified this with the neighbors. He will bark when someone comes to the house, when someone walks their dog by the gate (as do my other dogs, too). Neighbors have reassured me that he's not annoying them.
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