So this morning we worked on a few new behaviors. I'm not sure about you guys but I never teach Sit and Down in the same session. I like to teach a positional cue and a completely non related cue together. In their sensory videos I did one after the other but once we start working on it for real, I separate them. Why? So many dog associate Down as following Sit when taught as one lured from the other that they blend into one for some dogs and they will then slide from a Sit into a Down on a regular basis. I like a very clear distinction between the two. Here you will see that I am teaching a foldback down to everyone - eliminating the correlation between Sit and Down. I started with Touch which has no positional element other than nose to hand - Sit, Stand, Down, Walk, Stand Still - doesn't matter - just touch my hand. Then we moved on to Down and the beginnings of a Down Stay and release. Sorry for the disgruntled pups in the background - I moved the other J's to the bathroom and then Knoxx started whining in his crate! And in Juni's vid, I had the camera angled too low so her head is cut off in some of it - but I wanted you to see the first time responses. These are unedited continuous vids of about 10 minutes each...I could just show the results if people wanted but some people like to see the process.
ADORABLE!! i predict some puppy prodigies in the making here!! SO FUN TO WATCH THESE PUPPIES!! btw, the pup crying in background when it's not his turn, is it just one pup who does that most, or all the pups do that? or, does one pup start it up, and other ones join in? too too cute, and my dog so enjoys listening to it. I am using your videos to further polish off Buddy's head-cocking trick!! ("head" tricks are always a bit hard for my dog..)
i sort of wonder, if after JUST being re-inforced for touching your hand, if that makes luring with your hand harder for dogs to figure out, or no? maybe it makes it easier, who knows.
My border pup was NEVER this calm ... at any time ... not even by half ! They are too adorable ... almost makes me want another puppy ... I SAID ALMOST !
Great work! I wish I had known/realized the sit/down correlation 6.5 years ago. (I wish I had known a lot of things 6.5 years ago, lol.)
You are doing an AWESOME job with those puppies, Pawtential!!!! I wish I had the opportunity to train Shivon at a young age... They are super smart!!!!!
Thank you everyone who has commented! I really look forward to my daily dose of DTA and reading your thoughts! They all do really - Juni and Jinx are by far the most food motivated and Juni knows the clicker sound very well and will absolutely cry if it is not her turn. Jinx cries if she smells food and can't get to it and Jett is more like - okay - I'll go find something else to do - but he is a big confinement crier so the ride to work he gets to practice his screaming meemee skills... LOL - Glad to be of service! Hmmm - good question. I never teach Touch and a hand Leave It in the same session to avoid hand confusion but I always just saw it as another hand signal. I haven't had any problems with it but it is something I will certainly be more aware of! Thanks for the insightful idea! It is something I changed in my training about 12 years ago - I kept getting sloppy position changes in stays and couldn't work out why - the more I thought about it, the more it made sense - so now if a dog simply can't grasp the concept of a foldback down - I will lure into a sit [with no verbal cue] and lure down for about 10 times and then fade the sit in replacement of a collapsible or foldback down once they seem to be getting it.
They're adorable. Thanks for posting these videos, I'll probably be referring to them constantly once our pup is ready to come home. Thank you for your tip about the sit to down, I'd never actually considered it before and it does make sense now thinking about my parents dogs. I look forward to more videos
