Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Day 12

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Hand touch
Hops started his morning with pushups. I am now saying the word, pausing a moment, then using a hand signal to lure him into the position and clicking and treating. The pause gives him a chance to do the position before the lure. After about a dozen position changes I did not lure the down after I cued it, I just waited. And he offered the down! He did that about six more times. That is the only position change I “tested” by not giving the hand signal. We did some hand targeting then played tug with a little retrieving in a non restricted area. The first two times I tossed the toy I was able to get him back to me to play more tug but he did not bring the toy he had back with him. The second two times he retrieved, good boy! Then all three boys played together! Yea! There was even a moment when they were all tugging on the same toy, yea!

Hops did a wonderful job at work again today. I had everyone run around the yard before we left and I arrived early so we could do recalls before classes started. He did great, coming every time I called. He had no problem with with the crates being moved around and was excited to greet his adolescent friends in the first class. They were a little scary last week but were good buddies this week! Hops did a great job sleeping or chewing on toys in his crate during classes. Wen he was awake I would give him a treat for being quite when I walked by. He pottied right away every time I took him out (big improvement!) and walked well on leash. He did a short “transport” demo for my last class including heeling, luring and hand targeting. He has quite the focus! There was a plank on two stools out and he got right up on it with all four feet and walked the plank without a problem!

Before the big boys and I left for agility class (Hops stayed home with Jeremiah) I did a handling lesson with Hops. I had him in my lap and held a paw, gave treat, held an ear, gave treat, looked at teeth, gave treat, showed his "bite", you guessed it, gave a treat! I increased criteria this time by adding duration, holding, not just touching. He did great, just fussed once, the second time I held his muzzle. The third time he held still and looked up at me, seeming to say, fine, I am holding still, where is my cookie?

Hops had another training session to earn his dinner. I started with 15 reps of stand, down, stand, then worked on sit, down, sit. After using a hand signal the first time, he started offering the down from the sit regularly, no hand signal needed. Good puppy! We then worked on it’s your choice and hand targeting, going back and forth between the two so he knows the difference. He has no problem differentiating. When he sees a flat palm perpendicular to the ground he touches when I say touch and when the open palm is parallel to the ground it is the it’s your choice game. Today I raised criteria by moving my open hand away from him. He broke the sit a few times but as soon as I closed my hand around the treat he popped right back into the sit. Smart puppy!
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It's Your Choice

It seems Dillon is liking Hops more every day! He is really playing with him now! Good boy!

5 comments:

  1. So fun to watch! Dillon is funny.

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  2. To think that you two saved Dillion from being put down to such a beautiful story. Wow! Great job. I love this.Question. I have always been taught to only teach the down from a stand. Do you also teach it from a sit?

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    1. Yes, the pushups I learned are sit, down, sit, stand, down, stand. All 3 positions from each position. He will know how to down from a stand too but he should also know how to down from a sit, especially since I want to do rally with him before he is old enough for agility.

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  3. Too cute. So very much like our dogs Zoe and Gracie! (Big & little)

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