trick of the week: stand on my feet

Photo from that dog dancing guy

I've had a couple of people ask me about this trick.

If you are playing along at home, please let me know how you're going with your tricks, if you're having any problems (maybe I can help!?) if you're succeeding, if I'm giving you too many assignments too quickly.

This trick was one of the early ones I taught to Lumen- I think she had a natural tendency to barge between my legs though anyway so it was a pretty natural progression from there.

For this trick, I think it would be helpful if your dog it used to playing with its feet- eg, experimenting while shaping by using its feet to touch things, climb on things, etc. It's only front feet this time and most dogs seem to have a better understanding of their front feet over their rear feet.

So, here's what you do.

edited: in case you feel lazy, you can just watch a video instead!!!

Stand on my feet (and walk)

You'll need:

Clicker or marker word (eg. yes!)

Hungry dog

Maybe some toys for jackpots.

First, start by luring your dog with a bit of food to go around your leg (this can be a trick in itself) toward your back. You might want a bit of food in both hands to stop your dog turning to look back at the first hand to get the food.

With open legs, reward your dog through the legs. You'll want to work on this lure and reward bit so the dog gets used to being between your legs. I can imagine some dogs wouldn't like it so you have to make it a fairly valuable place to be with plenty of treats. You can make the circling around and coming through a trick in itself, or if you wanted to skip it you could just step over your dog, I guess, but it's more fun if they get into position themselves. 

So, say you want them to come around on your right side because you're right handed like me so that makes sense (or switch this around), you'd have a bit of food in your right and left hands. You'd lure them from in front of you, around the right side of your body, as far as you can before they are bending weird from trying to get the food in your right hand... then you need to get their attention with the food in your left hand, and feed them for coming through your legs. I think it's less complicated than it sounds, give it a try. 

Ok, that's part 1 to set your dog up.

Now that it's happy to be between your legs, you'll want to curl your toes up to make your feet nice and flat. I suggest also wearing shoes as socks and bare feet are very slippy and even Lu has trouble staying on. You'll also want to start being a little pigeon toed.. means your feet are closer without you having to crush your dog with your legs. 

Now comes the shaping. You can lure a little here too but not in great amounts- I find Lumen does some of her best thinking while gnawing on my hand that has food in it, and will naturally shuffle around and try different things with her feet while she's doing this- your dog may or may not, but you need to find a way to get those feet moving without necessarily encouraging the dog to leave the leg zone. 

If they lift a foot, click and reward- I think Lu crept forward a bit while learning this, so I'd push her back with food to the nose. Essentially, you start clicking front feet movement, jackpotting and going crazy if their foot even accidentally touches yours.
It's a bit of trial and error to get to the standing on your feet bit, but once they get it you'll be right...
Eventually your dog should get one foot one, and then it's a matter of getting them to put the other on... as most dogs are left or right-paw dominant, one will be easier than the other. I wouldn't necessarily worry about having two paws on at once at first if you need to work on the non-dominant paw... I'd probably want them to understand that either/or paw can go on, particularly the non-dominant paw, and from there start waiting it out once one paw is on your foot to see if they move the other one.

For the walking, you just start small, even just shifting your weight and clicking them for staying on your feet. Then a little step, click for staying on your feet. Keep doing this, step by step, until you can take a few steps in a row before rewarding.
I didn't name this trick, apart from the circling around and through my legs bit- she knows if she goes through, she should probably stand on my feet next. I suppose you could name it if you want.

Troubleshooting

My dog isn't moving its feet or doing anything.

So I'd probably recommend other tricks to get your dog thinking about its feet, eg. paw touches/targets, standing on shoes (not on your feet), climbing on a saucepan, etc. I also helped get Lumen's attention sometimes by wiggling my toes if I had my shoes off. The movement helped her focus on my feet and she figured she probably needed to do something with them. Like I said, you can use food a bit to help shift your dog's weight to encourage them to move their feet, too.

My dog hops off whenever I move forward.

Work on just staying still but shifting your weight like you're about to take a step but don't really take a step. Get the dog to understand that their job is to keep its feet on yours.


Let me know if you have any other problems and I'll post the questions up here, and happy training!

friday thoughts

I was trying to think of a post to have for Friday... being the studious blogger I've become, I have posts scheduled to appear for the next couple of weeks, but nothing for today...

I was reading a friend's blog the other day, and he mentioned Oscar's Law, and how this is a campaign to say it's unacceptable to factory farm companion animals. I know his is a blog about dogs, as is mine, however it was the specification of companion animals that got me thinking. I also think that as people who love dogs, we must be aware of the fact that we are continuing to enforce the 'norm' that some species are more worthy of our protection than others. By giving blogs to dogs, or cats, we are saying again and again: 'these animals are a part of our family, we will not mention the others - they are the invisible ones'. 

So, to be clear, I'm all for Oscar's Law. Puppy farms are horrific, pet shops shouldn't sell animals unless they're from rescues or rehoming organisations. 

I've only mentioned it once on my blog so far, but I am a vegan. I've been a vegan for less than a year, but it's something that makes sense. And look, I'm not the best vegan in the world- my pets aren't vegan, and I think I'm going to have one hell of a time finding boots for winter that aren't leather, since finding boots pre-vegan was impossible enough (ask Husband about the 4-hour walk around NYC trying to find a pair of boots and still coming away empty handed). 
But what I wonder is, why is it unacceptable to factory farm companion animals, but acceptable to farm pigs and chickens? Why is it unacceptable to kick a kitten, but ok to kick a lamb, or a calf?
If I say "I love animals!" why does that only mean dogs and cats (and maybe horses - consider the latest horsemeat scandal. Is there something more horrific about eating the meat of a horse than eating the meat of a cow??). If I am ashamed and horrified by suffering inflicted on a dog, how could I not be horrified and ashamed by suffering inflicted on a broiler chicken just so I could eat it?

With more and more evidence coming to light that it is healthier to eat a plant-based diet, that cutting out meat helps the environment, and not to mention the moral and ethical benefits you gain (clean conscience, anyone?)... surely it can only make sense, if we call ourselves 'people who love animals', that we cannot eat them or cause them suffering (because I don't eat eggs or dairy either, even though this isn't directly consuming an animal, it certainly causes a bucketload of suffering along the way). 

I'm not trying to be preachy, it's the truth. If you eat a part of an animal, you are eating part of an animal that has been bred and killed for you to eat. Depending on the type of animal you are eating, the suffering it would have lived through in its short life would have been immense. 

If you're frightened by the v-word, don't be (I'm not a scary radical, I promise). Husband and I cut out red meat first, then went vegetarian, and after lots of consideration, went vegan. There's heaps of resources out there, recipes and support. And look, it is hard sometimes- we loved nothing more than eating all the free samples at Costco on a weekend, and most of them are off-limits now... but honestly? That's a small price to pay, knowing that I don't contribute to the suffering of animals anymore. (And probably better for my waistline, too!!)

Check out this website, for a 30 day vegan challenge, with recipes, info and more. And feel free to contact me or comment here for a lively debate. 

a compilation of sits...

Click it to see full size..! (This is what happens when the Husband is not home and I have some spare time on my hands... Does this count as 'relaxing'?... Probably not.)

finding the joy

After stressing a lot about Lumen's lack of drive, which I figured stemmed from her lack of 'crazy' and 'enthusiasm' about playing with toys, I'm giving training a break.
In a way.

Which is to say that 'formal' training sessions that I've worked so hard at over the last 4 months, are being put on the back-burner for a little while as we find the joy.

See, I watch Lumen playing, and she plays half-heartedly. It's like, the bit that you have to do before you can get back to learning more, which is great that she loves learning, and loves doing a job... but a happy, driven dog it does not make. Because although she does the job, and she does it well, she doesn't do it with the intensity I want. 

I was saying to a friend of mine that she puts about 90% effort into shaping, and 70% into playing. 

So I'm letting it go. I'm taking her to the park, throwing two toys and not expecting her to 'fetch' them. I've found she loves fetching sticks then running around holding it while you hold the other end. I'll drag the long bits of gumtree bark all over the ground and get her to chase it. I'll break little bits of sticks, get her attention and throw them in the air one by one- at the moment she wants to find them so she can finish the game (bring them back or chew them up) but that's not what we're doing - I don't give her a chance! I throw another one! I find sticks with leaves attached and drag them all around. Nic and I run around the big trees and disappear out of sight. I'll tug if that's what she wants, then take off running. 

I feel so unfit at the moment- little sprints are puffing me out, and part of that is my iron issues, so the more I start jogging, the more running I do, the more iron pills I take (ha), the easier this will all be.

And hey, if I end up having to train her initially with a ball or a stick (two favourites, I think), or a sock, well, at least they're cheap toys. 

So right now, it's all about playing, not trying to get a result. Sometimes I'll do a collar restraint, but that's just part of the 'chase a stick' game. 

I need to stop worrying and find our joy. 

knowing when to stop, and when to stop worrying.

Wild dog.

I am my own worst enemy, particularly when it comes to 'the unknown future' and when those 'unknown future' events happen to involve anything slightly competitive.

So can you guess what really stresses me out (and not always in a bad way, but sometimes in a bad way)...? 

Training a young dog to eventually compete in agility.


Here's how my head reads:

I need a good collar restraint.
If I don't have good collar restraint, I won't have good drive forward.
If I don't have good drive forward, I won't have good cik/cap or running contacts, or weaves, or whatever.
If I don't have good (insert thing), I won't do well in agility!!!

MUST TRAIN COLLAR RESTRAINT....!!!

**spend every waking moment thinking about collar restraint and how she's not doing as well as I want**
**train madly, several times a day (luckily for her this is all about playing and racing me to food)**
**obsess about how to get her faster, stronger, better-- NEW TOYS!! BETTER FOOD!!! HOSE!!! MEAT!!!**
**realise I've only been properly training collar restraint for 2 days, and she's gone from just staring at her toy like; uh... are you gonna let me get it? to pulling forward - big improvement!**
**take breath, try and relax**

I don't know if anybody else lurking around here is as obsessive as me, and it's a bit sad because I know I should just let it go and have more fun but I can't, it's not who I am. I problem-solve and analyse, and over-think, and worry and I plan. And if I can't plan and lock-in an outcome, I worry. 

I suppose this is a note to myself:
Dude. Relax. Your dog gets better, just not straight away- it doesn't take long, but it takes longer than you think it will. She's a prep kid- they don't learn to count to 20 in one lesson. It takes them a LOT of lessons (so she's smarter and quicker than them, anyway). In fact, in that case, if you feel bad, compare her to the preps. 
Just not maybe some of the really smart ones. They put us all to shame.

picture of the week: launch & chomp

trick of the week: circle

Hello again.

2nd installment of trick of the week. 

Once again, this is a great foundation trick for a lot of things. It teaches hind-end awareness especially well, a bit of independence (Lumen found it hard to do the bit where she had to turn her back on me), a bit of balance, and as a base for a lot of other tricks. It's the trick I used to begin teaching Lumen the 'heel' position, and to do a backward figure-8. 
Again, this is a trick you can teach to even a young puppy. If you have an older dog (like Mallei) who doesn't have rear-end awareness, they might find this much more difficult than your young dog. Mal is hopeless at this. 

Circle on an object.

You will need:

Something like a saucepan, pot or similar.

Clicker.

Treats.

How to do it:

Your dog needs a basic understanding of clicker training to begin with.

Assuming it has this, shape your dog to put its front feet only on the pot. Be careful of getting all 4 feet on because although that's a really cool trick, it'll 'muddy the waters' of this one for now. 

Ok. When it knows to get its front feet up there, start looking for rear-end movement. That can be a shift of weight from one foot to another, a lift of one foot, whatever. Click, treat. Keep doing this. When the dog is shifting around (Mallei does this and it's about as far as we get), stop clicking for a bit and hold out. If the dog takes a step in either direction, jackpot!!! Play, reward, have a party.

Keep going. Soon, one step isn't good enough. Look for two. Three... Four. 

I found with Lumen that she needed a little help to get around the part where she can no longer watch me (and the food) but had to have her back turned to me. In one direction I reached down and helped her turn her head to then swing her butt around... and in the other direction, I shaped a head drop. As soon as she was comfortable dropping her head (eg no longer looking up at me) she found it much easier to then swing around on her own. This is sort of a matter of practise and experimentation I think. 

Once they begin circling, make sure to reward in different places so they never expect to stop in one spot. 

Then... go the other way. Essentially, you'll start from scratch. You'll probably get a few frenzied circles as your dog tries to figure out why the circles aren't working, and then maybe you'll get a weight shift in the other direction. Hurrah!!! Usually it takes less time to shape the other way because they kind of already know the game.

Most dogs will have a preferred way, and that's where they'll default to. It's important to teach them both ways though. 

Once they're circling, you could add a cue - I have a hand flick for Lumen, which helps her know the direction I want, and when she's going to side, she has "flip" to get to my right side, and "side" to go to my left side. 

In the video, I begin to step into her way and I click when she bumps me. That 'bump' becomes the foundation of her heel and 'return to side' position. If she's bumping, she's close and in the right place. 

Troubleshooting

My dog won't go around, will only dance on the spot.

Ah yes, I know this problem well, thanks Mallei. I'd suggest doing other rear-end awareness tricks like 4-in, targetting back, etc. Luring could also be beneficial though I think this could make the training process take longer. Possibly you could try foot pods, or a book or something, so the dog has something solid and tangible to step onto, and can aim for that thing- you could keep moving the book further and further around until the dog is doing a full circle to get to the book with its hind legs, and then fade out the book. I might try that with Mallei and let you know how it goes.

Dog doesn't stay on the pot.

Might need to do some more shaping with that one to get them to understand that their job is to put their front feet on the pot and keep them there!

Good luck, and happy training!