Holding For Longer

bekah1001

Honored Member
I'm teaching Brody to touch the wall. I use the cue "point" and he points his nose to the wall. I just need help teaching how to hold it longer. Any advice would be awesome! Thanks!
 

fickla

Experienced Member
I am a big fan of "reverse luring" for duration behaviors. It's a variation of "doggy zen" or "it's your choice" if you're familiar with that game. RL uses treats in your hand to communicate to the dog when he's right and when he's wrong as well as teaching the dog to actively resist the distraction.

Example: teach dog to keep chin resting on the floor for longer. Once the dog has already been trained to offer the chin rest behavior, have your hand with treats held out. When your hand is outstretched and treats visible the dog is doing right, if the dog lifts up his chin to look at the cookies, close the fist but keep your hand there. Now the dog has to actively lower his head away from the fist of treats to get a reward. As the dog gets the concept this can easily be proofed by now moving your hand of treats directly above the dog's head, zoom back and forth, etc. Palm flat=correct, fist closed= dog needs to try again.

Once the concept is taught I've used it on a variety of behaviors from a solid hold of a dumbbell to proofing foot movement on stand stays. I'll see if I can find a video online, otherwise maybe I'll make one :)

An alternative suggestion for a nose touch duration is to require TWO noses before rewarding. Before I discovered RL I taught a "sticky target" using that method. The dogs started out doing
nudge.........nudge. click/treat
nudge....nudge. click/treat
nudge..nudge. click/treat
nudgenudge. click/treat
nuuuddgeee. click/jackpot

Basically the dogs got lazier because they knew I wanted 2 and they soon barely left the target at all before doing that second nudge and thus I had a tniy bit of duration I could reward.
 

fickla

Experienced Member
Thanks Mary. I hope that you try it and it helps more people. I can't take credit for the technique but I hope that I can make have more people add it to their toolbox.
 

k9 crazed

Experienced Member
Thank you I am looking forward to watching the video. You have mentioned this before and we started but duration is terribly lacking around here! More help is definitely appreciated!
 

MaryK

Honored Member
Thanks Mary. I hope that you try it and it helps more people. I can't take credit for the technique but I hope that I can make have more people add it to their toolbox.
I tried it with Ra Kismet, who does right paw cross really well, but getting left paw cross has been harder. Used this method and he did his FIRST left paw cross today with me having to 'prompt' (point/touch left paw)! It works, my boy's very food orientated too:D
 

MaryK

Honored Member
For those who might be interested, here is an excellent article on using bridges and targets, written by my friend Charlene Dunlap of Canine Horizons. I have learned so much from her web site!

http://www.caninehorizons.com/Bridge_and_Target.html
Thank you Linda A. Fabulous site, have been reading and watching the vids, bookmarked for future learning!

Like the idea, as Ra Kismet does tend to salivate and look for his reward and forgets to focus on what I want him to actually do!:oops: He's very food orientated!
 
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