Lucky for Hops, my new tricks class only has two dogs in it. So to give them a break, I used Hops to demo how to shape a dog to lie his head on the ground (face), how to skate board and how to put his head in a basket (I had not introduced those yet). Hops is such a smart puppy. He offered me many behaviors to choose from to reward and learned quickly, changing his behavior to try to get me to click. With the skateboard, he immediately put his front feet on it and when I moved my foot, allowing the board to move, he stayed on it and pushed with his back feet, wow! He offered this several times more. When I demoed how to shape face, I started with him in a down and me sitting on the ground in front of him. I waited for any downward motion of his head (even if it was slight or accidental) and clicked and treated on the ground in front of him. In the short demo he did not get his head to the ground but he did figure out he was supposed to lower his head which was great in such a short amount of time! Shaping him to put his head in a basket was easy, he did so as soon as I put it on the ground. I clicked and rewarded him in the basket then tossed a cookie away from he basket to reset him. Each time he went right back to put his head in the basket again. Good puppy!
After work Hops had his 2nd round of vaccinations and did great with the exam. He weighed 12.4lbs and of course loved he vet and assistants. He came to his name for them and showed off some of the things he has learned. After the appointment I took him to Mud Bay with me to buy dog food (it sure goes faster with three dogs eating it!) and he did great in there too. He sat for people and said hello and walked around the store with me. He was very good.
 | At home Hops had a nice long tug session and we learned he has learned the word drop! I asked him to drop and he did! He did so every time during the session and did the same for Jeremiah, very cool! I rewarded him with a piece of kibble then asked for a sit. I wanted to work on him being able to stay despite my motion so during the session I moved one to four steps away with the toy and if he stayed I released him to play tug with me. If he got up I just stood up and lifted up the toy and waited for him to sit before starting to move away again. He rarely made a mistake. I was also able to say words other than release and he did not get up. He only moved on release, good boy! I also loved hat he would he the kibble for he drops then go right back to playing with the toy. Jeremiah then played live toy/dead toy with him and then we gave him his dinner in a food toy. |
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