| Author | Messages | |
debspoilspets
Champion
Posts:1
 | | 04/30/2008 10:33 AM |
| Hi everyone, I'm a newbie to this site, so bare with me! This is a great place for pet lovers!I need HELP training my 8 month old toy poodle Button to do some tricks. She will sit (for a second) and WALK on her back legs across the room, and she potty's outside but I'd like to train her to get her leash when she has to potty-she only stands at the door and looks at me like 'YOU DUMMY, LET"S GO POTTY"! If she could bring me her leash it would be more helpful AND cute. Also I'd like to teach her to 'wave' since she rides with us everywhere we go. Wouldn't it be cute having her wave at everyone? Any ideas? She has the attention span of 3 seconds! and bounces around and jumps constantly. I'm trying to train her to STOP that. She is a very loveable girl, and very bright, if she would just calm down a minute. Oh, she will also go fetch her favorite ball to play with, it doesn't matter where in the house it is, she will find it! Looking forward to hearing from other poodle owners out there. Deb | | | |
| DPFrank
Best of Breed
Posts:369
| | 04/30/2008 3:09 PM |
| D
that's called a forced retrieve. unless you can tell me that your dog will take the leash on her own just for fun, you'll first need to teach her to hold it in her mouth with maybe a "stay" command. get that done first.
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| agilitynut
Champion
Posts:58
| | 04/30/2008 9:01 PM |
| Tricks are fun to train! Clicker training is great for tricks, as you can shape (get the behavior by successive approximations) lots of things, and many cute things that dogs do on their own can be captured and then put on cue. If you're not familiar with clicker training, you can watch videos of some short training sessions on youtube- just put clicker training in the search. Actually, include "dogs" in the search too, unless you want to watch other species get trained (quite entertaining!)
Have you ever watched a marine mammal (dolphins, killer whales, etc) show? They teach the animals what to do using shaping and a whistle instead of a clicker (because of water acoustics). So the dolphin might start out going through a hoop at the bottom of the pool, then it is gradually raised until out of the water, higher, etc (simplified explanation!) So for a wave, you might start by clicking any front paw movement, then start clicking only those that actually leave the floor, then a few inches off, etc. I did this with my pup in about three 5-8 minute sessions, though it took longer to get it properly on cue. I love getting behaviors, am sloppy sometimes about getting it under good stimulus control 
For the leash behavior, you might want to think about whether this is the behavior you want for signaling her needs, or whether it might be better as a cute trick that you can then cue in a variety of situations. How about ringing some bells to go outside? Not usually hard to teach once a dog knows how to offer behaviors- as he sniffs a new thing, click and treat, then c/t for actually touching them, then for harder touches that actually ring, etc. Make sure you introduce the bells and sound first so the dog knows what's coming and doesn't get spooked!
What cute behaviors does your dog do? Kyp! does several that I've managed to capture and put on cue: she covers her face with her paw to a cue of "Aww, and throws her front feet up in the air very enthusiastically to a cue of "who's cute?" When she was younger, I caught her standing very square and solid, and put it on a cue of "show puppy" (although she was an adult mix breed who could never compete in a conformation show!) just to see how well it worked (did great!) to help some folks who were showing in the breed ring. I know dogs who will wag their tail or cock thier ears on cue- all fairly easily captured, once the dog understands what a clicker means. I've got one friend who is a fabulous trainer, she lines up her dogs on the sofa, calls one down, that dog will start offering different body parts until clicked, then start doing different things with that body part. Just amazing to watch!
Agilitynut, Brodie, Kyp!, and Arie | | | |
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