Questions

[tigerlily46514]

to Dogster, (i'm way behind, haven't read the other replies yet, nor most replies on any thread at all for a while)
but
by looking at Shivon, i have a feeling YOUR dog getting chubby seems a remote possibility! Shivon is so trim and fit and athletic looking,
whereas Buddy can pack on a pound in no time if i am not super careful.
I guess, like everything else, all dogs are unique. Shivon could probably eat treats all day long, and never get chubby,
but, Buddy would be a tub if i don't watch his figure!

 

[Dogster]

Shivon doesn't get fat quickly, I think that it would be hard to get her fat (thank dog) But she has been getting a lot of table scraps lately....

 

[Pawtential Unleashed]

To really have mastered a cue is different for me then just understanding it. I tell my students the same as Anneke - 8 out of 10 times correct behavior offered [understands it] with the following conditions met for mastery...

*On first cue (you only have to say it once)
* All body positions from you ( you can get a Sit whether you are standing on a chair or lying on the ground - not as easy as you might think)
* Body position awareness from dog (Sit does not always mean lower your butt to the ground - if I ask for a Sit from a Down it means to raise your front end - the end position is the same but how they got there is not)
*Road tested (can be performed in public, outside, in a new place, on differnt surfaces - basically saying yes I can do this anywhere)

 

[jackienmutts]

Great post Lisa - I can remember a few years ago in a class we took, one night we all took turns standing (some of us stood on chairs) with our backs to our dogs, and asked for behaviors, and then we saw just how many actually were solid in voice commands (only). We were facing a huge mirror so we could see if/when our dogs actually did as we asked (or were busy doing something else, or just plain ol' had no clue). Amazing how many of them really had to see our faces (even if we didn't use hand signals) before they knew what we wanted. It was a cool test/experiment (esp for those people who swore their dog was rock solid - and found it not necess so). I think it might kind of fall under that "road test" - may not be a different place, but certainly different circumstances - 'our back to dog, yet we still wanted them to perform a behavior' was totally different than anything we had asked them to do before. (Can you imagine what the dogs were thinking? .... besides ... these humans are nuts!? ).

 

[Pawtential Unleashed]

In my Adult 201 class we start this with an Advanced Sit...

Dog is heeling with you - you ask for a Sit in motion and you keep going. So not only are you not facing them [as they are walking beside you] but then you keep going? What was that?

I will say we have started them on Automatic Sit in Heel first so when you first pause then continue they do have some idea...but it is certainly different.

I put this [back to the dog] in the body positioning category - but yes - we ask for that in an advanced class game...how many cues can your dog listen to at a distance and then separately with your back turned.

 

[tigerlily46514]

lol, the last two posts, both so great, remind me of another thread,
where we were discussing if our dogs could/would do tricks if we layed down on the floor , (and of course, the thread dissolved in hysterical posts, one after the other .)

^That thread i'm describing got started,
when i realized, (at that time),
Buddy would only do his "stand" cue, if i was also standing.
If i sat on the floor, Buddy acted like he had no idea what "stand" meant.

^that has since been resolved, but, at the time, i was surprised that Buddy did not do the cue if i was sitting on the floor------------ but i had trained the cue when i stood,
and never ever had asked for it if i am not standing....
Buddy drew a blank, just sat there looking at me, "Stand? but Mom, you are not standing, so i have no idea what you are asking." .

 

[648117]

In my Adult 201 class we start this with an Advanced Sit...

Dog is heeling with you - you ask for a Sit in motion and you keep going. So not only are you not facing them [as they are walking beside you] but then you keep going? What was that?


I will say we have started them on Automatic Sit in Heel first so when you first pause then continue they do have some idea...but it is certainly different.

Holly can do both of these things, it didn't actually take too long for her to figure it out. She learn't the sit in motion first. I would just slow down a bit and tell her to sit and then continue taking a step forwards before treating her (if she did sit) and then extend the amount of distance before throwing a treat back to her.
Although we haven't done this with "down" and Holly definitly prefers to be in front of me when I ask her to do stuff. I have tought her to "down" next ot me because we use it for setting up down stays

 

[Dogster]

I practice Shivon's tricks while standing, sitting, crouching, to avoid confusion.