Well I was going to post my training plan for teaching "down" but of course I got ahead of myself and started already. :) I started inside, with her wubba since I know she's got drive built up for it now. I took the toy out and got her going by asking "you want it?" which quickly gets her attention now. Then I ducked the toy behind my back and said her name "Keiko" to get her attention, at which point she made eye contact. I praised her (we're still reinforcing her name) then I produced the toy from behind my back. She was already sitting so I placed the toy down between her front paws and drew it towards myself. I said "down" in conjunction with drawing the toy towards myself. At first she just tried to pick up the toy with her mouth so I applied gentle pressure to her shoulders to get her to drop them. She did so quickly and as soon as her chest was on the ground, I praised her excitedly and played a little tug with her and the wubba. The second time I went through the same procedure, but had to reset a couple of times. Since I'd already reset a couple of times, I took her front legs (she was in a sitting position) and guided her into the down position. She plopped quickly on her own then so I praised her lavishly and again played tug. I stopped after a third try.
We worked on this during two more sessions today, keeping them at just three to four repetitions each. During her session tonight, before bedtime, she already got the jist of what she was supposed to do. I now hide the toy behind my back and put her in a sitting position. I make eye contact with her, then use a closed fist to guide her into the down position and saying "down". She quickly dropped down to the lying position the last three times I tried, at which point I produced the toy from behind my back and immediately tossed it onto her front legs for her to play a little tug with. On the last rep, I let her carry the toy back to my room before putting it away for the night. I don't remember how it was raising Rhasta, but I'm really excited to be teaching her down. It's nice to have another option of commands to give her, haha. We'll see how tomorrow's sessions go.
Keiko is really getting the point as far as this toy drive business is going. I think I will introduce another toy tomorrow, but I haven't decided which one yet. I've also resolved to think of an effective way to tie strings to the squeaky tennis balls I have. If that doesn't work, I'll go ahead and get small cuz balls this weekend and tie them to strings.
One of the SAR guys is making me a crate pad for Keiko's home crate...I'm super excited! :D Yay! No more lying on the plastic floor or the thin padding of a towel in the crate! I don't think Keiko actually cares (if anything, she prefers to ly on the plastic as she always bunches the towel up and just puts her head on it) but I will sleep better at night if I think she's sleeping on something comfortable. ;) I've decided that I will keep a simple bath rug in the crate she rides in, in the car so I also need to go buy one of those.
Alright, it's way past my bedtime and I have class in the morning. Goodnight!
Sounds like she is really smart. Maybe you could duct tape a string to the ball; you know what they say about duct tape. Does she get along well with your roommates dog?
ReplyDeleteLOL. You know I would try that but the fabric of the ball would probably not be the best for keeping the tape on, especially once I started tugging on it with her. I may still try it, we'll see. I actually found a puppy tug from a training site that I like so I think I will just order a couple of those.
ReplyDeleteWell we keep the dogs separated for the most part. She gets along with one of my roommates' dogs very well but the younger one is still very intrigued with her (almost like prey, lol). So she has supervised, short play sessions with the older one. She won't have much time with the other until she's a bit bigger.