free shaping for independent thinking in dogs

I'm posting a clip here that's rather long. And the film technique is terrible, for which I apologise in advance - Penny's not even in the picture some of the time.

It's six minutes of Penny offering different behaviors in an attempt to earn treats. I put a chair in the middle of the room (and set up the camera pointing at it) and waited to see what she would do. She knows that if I'm holding a clicker, treats will appear if she eithe does what I direct her to do or if she can do something original.

It's probably not the way free-shaping is supposed to be done, because I didn't offer her any encouragement along the way, but it was interesting for me to see her working on it, and I think she enjoyed it.

teaching a dog to play tug

Penny loves playing with tug toys, but not as much as she loves chasing balls. When we run in a flyball event, she comes back to me, but she's not motivated by the game of tug. Other dogs race fast to their owners with the ball so they can have a rewarding game of tug. Let's just say Penny doesn't over-exert herself once she's got the ball from the box...

So when I noticed an advertisement for tug toys pop up when I clicked on my free map (the one that tells me which countries the readers of this blog come from), I decided to buy some, and to try to get her more 'psyched up' about playing tug-of-war with me. The company is called Dman Tugs and they're based in Australia.

The new toys came in the post today. Penny loved the one with rabbit fur woven into it. In fact, she loved it so much she started chewing on it, which she's never done with her toys before. The tug came with instructions to make sure the dog only plays with you, never unsupervised, and to keep sessions short, so I put the toy away after a couple of minutes. The other point that was new to me, but which makes a lot of sense, is to only play tug so the dog shakes her head from side to side. Never up and down, as that motion can hurt the dog's neck. (I was impressed that the tugs came with the same warning attached.)

There was also a link from Dman Tugs to a Karen Prior lesson on how to calm your dog by playing tug. How much is there to know about playing tug, I wondered. Well, there's plenty to know.

First of all, the principle behind the tug lesson is back-chaining, in which you teach the last movement first. In this case, the lesson is to give the tug toy back and calm down.

So we tried it today. As instructed, I played whilst sitting on a chair, to keep the excitement level low.

With the clicker and a treat in one hand, and the tug in the other, I rewarded Penny for giving up the tug when I said, "Mine!"

It's going well so far.

alternating food and tug game as reward in dog training

Fanny Gott is a professional dog trainer in Norway. On her blog, Fanny's Clicker Blog, she lists five ways to improve training sessions. The first one, playing crate games, was completely new to me, but looked interesting.

However, I was particularly struck by the idea that I should be alternating fun tug games with food as rewards for good behaviours. Lately I've only been using food. There's a lovely video clip of a training session in which the dog is obviously having lots of fun.

The session was a little hard to concentrate on, though, because the location was so stunningly beautiful!

clicker training for dogs - video

Here's a lovely clicker training video that was a finalist at the Canis film Festival, It's by Peta Clarke, an Aussie. It's called "the Rules of Love".

Jenny Pearce from A Perfect Spot training sent me the link. I've had lots of fun doing classes with Jenny, including agility, tricks and tracking. I'm hoping she'll be doing trackingagain this winter!

The Canis film festival

is designed to showcase innovative, highly–communicative, short videos on animal training. These videos help educate pet owners and professionals who work with animals—dogs, cats, horses, rats, birds, llamas, and more.

Here's a link to the winners.

By the way, did you notice the free e-book, Basic Manners for the Family Dog, on the site of the Peta Clarke video? I downloaded it and it looks good.

dog learns the hold it trick

Penny tried a new trick today at K9 Kompany - pulling along a cute little toy cart of toys. But we didn't have any luck.

The idea was that she would use her mouth to grab a ball on a string attached to the handle and as she pulled it the cart would move behind her. However, I realised she had forgotten the trick we practised last year called 'Hold'. If she doesn't get the idea that she has to 'hold' the ball as she comes towards me, then she'll let it go as soon as she feels the weight of the cart.

So, tonight it was back to basics in our 'kitchen training' schedule. I used a clicker as my marker instead of the more usual 'Yess!" because I found it difficult to mark the exact moment when she was still holding the object.

(By the way, the thing she was holding was a strong, flexible toy made by Aussie Dog - I think it's probably manufactured from fire hose, but I'm not sure. We've had ours for years and it's as good as the day I bought it.)