I have a "dead" dog <g>

bipa

New Member
For the past week, I've been working with Little Joe on "play dead". I guess I've over-trained him, because now as soon as I approach him, he immediately goes down into his "dead" position, hoping for treats. I ask for a sit, I get "dead". I ask for lie down, he's dead. Yup... I have a dead dog! :dogwacko:

When I give a sit command and he goes "dead" on me, then I just wait patiently and he eventually realizes that he should be sitting and gets into the proper position. I try not to repeat the command more than once. But now I'm going to have to go back and reinforce all the other basics before proceeding with the next trick. Oh, well....
 

Jean Cote

Administrator
Staff member
He's just playing a prank on you for halloween!!



lol .... Try to practice your play dead in one session, and practicing other stuff in another, leaving out the play dead.
 

l_l_a

New Member
well it's all part of the learning process, now that your dog has learned what the behavior is, "stimulus control" is where the dog learns that the rewards come when the correct behavior is given on cue and only on cue. This is where, for example, the dog learns that if you say sit, then only a sit will get rewards, not lying down, not anything else even if he does other neato tricks like playing dead or doing the laundry or making you dinner. (of course, if he could do the latter I would actually say to heck with stimulus control, go ahead and make me dinner or do my laundry, hehe!)
 

Jean Cote

Administrator
Staff member
That's the beauty of clicker training tho!!! Wait until you train your dog to do a cute trick or something, I trained my husky "Shy" which is putting one paw on her nose and she does it constantly. LOL, people like it so it's great! :dogsmile:
 

bipa

New Member
Yes, it's fun to see the dogs offering various behaviours. Joey knows he's gotten lots of treats and occasional "jackpots" lately for playing dead, so of course he wants more. Now if I could just get him to play dead when he's on leash and sees another dog in the distance.... or bicycle.... or jogger.... or... <insert moving object of choice>

Oooh...neat idea.... so Jean, when are you gonna post the training video to get a dog to do laundry and make dinner? <LOL>
 

angel_bo_bangel

New Member
Don't worry! Whenever my dog see's me with a treat she immediately sits. I tell her to lay down and she sits. I tell her to roll over and she sits. I tell her to stand up and dance and she SITS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is kind of frustrating sometimes, but if she absolutely won't listen then I just stop the training session. It takes some time but eventually she will get back into her groove:)
 

snooks

Experienced Member
all dogs have a default/favorite behavior when they want something. most often a sit so they can see you. ignore the dead or just turn and walk away and call/reward come. u may see a hyper use of it until he starts to realize it's not working. this is or can be a pre-extinction burst. he can always re-learn it easily maybe later with less enthusiasm
 
Top