Monday 9 June 2008

more about Hungarian dogs doing tricks

Penny is making good progress on the 'shy' trick. Which all goes to show she's smart, seeing I keep getting confused between 'shy' and 'say your prayers'. I had another look at the k9freestyler site after realising that I'd forgotten to put in the link when I posted about it the other day, and noticed that the gorgeous Hungarian dog is actually doing 'shy' by putting his paws over his face. So, it was back to square one for this confused trainer and now we're more on the track of that particular trick.

If all this sounds muddled, that's because I am all mixed up! But now I think I've got it straight. I put a peg on Penny's fur near her nose - gentle, small pegs - as Amber-Mae's mum showed me months ago. Then I clicked and rewarded when Penny put her paw on her face to brush the peg off. Penny soon began to paw at her face without needing the (not very) annoying peg. Anyway, you might like to go to k9freestyler and see her dog doing this trick beautifully.

8 comments:

Misadventures of Widowhood said...

Thanks for sharing that link to the video. Someday Levi might be a natural for learning the 'shy' trick. He's always rubbing his face like a kitten would wash himself.

Levi's mom

Slavenka said...

It was a really good trick.

Amber-Mae said...

Hi Parlance & Penny!

Sure you can add my link here & picture too. Please add any of my links, videos or pictures anytime you want! You've got my permission. Anybody or doggies who are mah friends are allowed to do so. Strangers, no! Hehehe! This trick took some time for me to learn. Some dogs can lay down on their stomach & then cover their eyes with their one paw or two paws. For me, I found difficulty doing that. I think it's the way my body was built & so it's uncomfortable for me to do that. Some other dogs can sit & cover their eyes. That is for the lighter, agile & flexible dogs like Border Collies. So I can only turn on y back & then cover mah eyes. My mommy thinks it's cuter that way. I'm exposing my exposay too! Haha!

Once you've learned, do take a video yah?

Butt shakes,
Solid Gold Dancer

parlance said...

Levi's mum, if you see Levi rubbing his nose just as you'd like for the trick, say 'Yesss!!" sharply and enthusiastically. You have to get the 'Yes!" EXACTLY on the moment he is rubbing. Then give him a treat immediately, within seconds. You'd have to have the treat in your pocket ready to go. After you've said 'Yess!" (the marker) lots of times you might want to include the word - 'shy'. Eventually you should be able to say 'shy' and he'll do it. If I haven't explained this clearly (all too likely), have a look at clicker.com and browse through the links there. The basic idea is that you 'mark' a behavior you want Levi to do, EXACTLY at the moment he does it. Penny loves clicker training and her eyes light up at the sight of the clicker, but mostly these days I use the word 'yess!!" to mark the wanted behaviour.

parlance said...

Thanks, Slavenka. As I said on your own blog, I really enjoy the things you find for us.

parlance said...

Amber-Mae, thanks for the permission. I've been linking to you lots because I find your blog interesting and informative, but I suddenly wondered if that was okay to do. So now I can relax and link when I want to!

Anonymous said...

I love this trick! Thanks for the explanation of how you and Penny are learning it. I'm going to try it with my own Penny girl.

parlance said...

Marie, we "Penny owners' have to stick together! I've noticed there are quite a few of us. (Not that I actually feel like I OWN Penny - it's just that I couldn't think of another word.