Rear End Awareness...

[Lonewolfblue]

We worked some more on footwork today. So far, including today, Chloe and Nell has had 3 sessions and Lucky only 2. I didn't do the first session with him when I did Nell and Chloe. We used a paint can and was teaching them to get up on the paint can with their front feet and then move their rear ends. Here's the results, maybe some of you can give some more ideas to help poor Chloe, LOL....

Chloe: After the 3rd session, she still will not put her front feet up on the can. With helping her up, she'll stay on the can, but once she's off, she won't go back up on the can.
Nell: After her 3rd session, she's now going up on the can with her front feet, and we have 1 or 2 steps either direction. But she's not going much more than that at the moment.
Lucky: After his first session the other day, he was on the can. After his 2nd session today, not only is he going on the can, but we are doing full 360's both directions, lol. He was doing full 360's after only 5 minutes, lol. Didn't take him long at all. He's a super-fast learner. Much faster than Nell at learning.

[Lonewolfblue]

Any takers on Chloe? lol. I'm thinking of going smaller. For our next session, I'm thinking of using a book or something and see if she'll put her front feet up on the book.

[***Melissa***]

Hi,
I'm not an expert, so don't really have an answer for you

But, when I do clicker training with my two, Striker learn very fast - I usually have a step-by-step idea of how I'm going to do it, and he'll sometimes even skip steps.

Bibi is different, I have to go really slow with her, and sometimes I need to add little steps between the steps I thought I'd use. Also, she looses interest real quick, so a 2 min session max is what I can do with her. I try to always end the session on a high note (before she looses interest), and rather to 5 or more 2 min sessions a day.

But anyway, if you use the clicker, maybe you could first click when Chloe only looks at the paint can, when she knows look at can = click (and treat), withold the click until she looks at it & go closer, then buils it up (eg, when she touch it with her nose, etc). Try to break it down in tiny tiny steps.

I know the feeling - it's so nice to teach Striker, b/c he learn so fast. I learned that never ever expect the same from Bibi as I get from Striker, and since I learned that I find it easier to think of tiny tiny steps

I hope it helps...

[Lonewolfblue]

That's about as far as she gets, she gets up next to it and touches it with her nose. Other than that, she stares at me like, now what? lol. And she won't do anymore. I thought that maybe if I put her feet up on it a few times a light bulb would click, but nope, lol. Now I think she expects me to put her on the can, lol.

[Noobs]

I don't train my dog in agility or anything like that, but I do fun training stuff at home.

With Chloe, I think you're right in your second post about going smaller. But I would suggest going smaller a different way. If you use a book or a lower can that's fine, but click/treat for smaller movements, like if she lifts her paw. If she still won't do that, click for just looking at it. Then click for moving toward it. Then click for lifting a paw, then click for bringing the paw closer. Eventually I'm sure she'll put her paw on the can.

When I worked on "101 things to do with a box" my goal was to have Murphy put both front paws into the box. I clicked for looking at it for a session. By the end of the session I clicked for moving his head closer. Then 2nd session I clicked for lowering his head into the box. By 3-4 sessions he was lifting a paw, scratching at the inside of the box, then finally lowering one paw completely into the box. By the end of the 5th session he was putting both paws inside and standing that way, and I clicked for duration.

So it sounds like Lucky took to it fast but Chloe's just going to need more time. Good luck!

[emmabeth]

Its interesting to see how each dog thinks and figures things out differently!

I think I would work on encouraging this dog to use her paws more - away from the can situation, get her to target things with her front paws and generally thinking 'paws' rather than nose.. then try having her target items she can stand on, flat things like a towel or a rug, then a book or piece of wood and gradually build up the height.

[Horace's Mum]

Just seen this thread, and I was about to write the same as Em!! Some dogs are really good with paw work, others like nose work, and trying to get one to do the other can be difficult. I have a dog who does everything with his feet, it is quite hard to get him to keep his feet on the ground and calm enough to use his nose to move things - he'll touch but then jumps to pawing rather than developing the nose push for example.

So I would make a target out of coloured paper, use a big sheet to start with, and just let her stand on it and click the stand. Once you have a good solid front feet on the paper, then gradually cut the paper down to a size that would fit on the can. Then use that paper target and put it onto a small height such as a magazine - I mean so small she hardly notices it. Very very gradually build up the heights that the target is on, maybe do different situations and textures too (I mean cushions and different rooms) to really proof the target, and THEN try again with the can. If she doesn't get it within a few secs, even just an attempt, then backtrack again and do more work with the target on other things/lower heights. Once she is comfortable and really solid with the target paper on the can, including your command, gradually cut it down until it doesn't exist any more, and hey presto you should have a good target onto the can. Then move on to moving around on the can!!

[Lonewolfblue]

Well, did a little training tonight with the doggies. It's been a little while since I brought out the paint can, so we did the paint can tonight. Chloe is still unsure of it, but she's targeting the top of the can with both paws. Her next step is both paws on the can. If I lift her on the can, she'll stay on the can til I drop a treat on accident, lol. But won't get up on her own, so still working on it. Nell is now to the point where she's getting on the can with no problem and going a little to the left and right, staying directly in front of me. Working towards being able to do a full 360. As for Lucky, the smart little guy, was doing full 360's on his first session a few weeks back. So I wanted to see what he would do, and he could easily do 360's both directions. So I progressed tonight to get him to heel position on the can and he was doing full 360's at heel on the can. That was amazing, going to have to get a video of where all 3 dogs are, maybe tomorrow if I remember, lol. Will do 1 or 2 more sessions with Lucky, then will go to a coffee can lid, which is ground level and see if he'll still remain in heel both left and right. He's going to be a fast learner. And he was having a blast doing it too, didn't want to stop, lol. I ran out of my cheese stick, so the session was over, lol. Got more in the fridge, but don't want to feed them too much cheese, wouldn't be good. Tomorrow will bring out the hot dogs again. When I do it with Lucky, he's a little slow moving his butt sideways, will keep working to build up his speed and rear end awareness. But anyways, I'm amazed at his speed in learning. Just like Betty, lol. The other 2 is no where as fast as he is at learning new things, lol. But they are learning. Chloe is the slowest of the 3, but tends to be more precise, where the BC's just want to go, go, go, lol.

[Lonewolfblue]

Well, here's another update. Chloe is up on the can, lol. It took 3 solid sessions, but now she get's on the can and is taking baby steps to the side with her rear end. As for Nell, she's still the same tonight, gets on the can fine, and does a full 360 to the right, but is having a hard time with the left. But she'll get it, she's doing well. As for Lucky, he's doing it perfectly on the can. Going to do a few more sessions, especially to the left. And he has a fun time with it as well.

[Lonewolfblue]

New update.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKVGvqA_q2I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTt2-JPlzyg

[emmabeth]

Good stuff, they all look to be having SO much fun!