Trick Challenge: Do As I Do

[teach333]

So far I think I have mimed (with varying degrees of success) sit, sit pretty, down, stand, paws on, bounce, turn, stand tall, lick lips, cross paws, take a bow (that is hard to mime). We haven't managed to "do as I do" with "shame" yet but I think it is possible. He sometimes seems uncannily exact with the mimicry. LOL at the end of training I knew he wanted to get on the couch and curl up, so I told him "do as I do" and got on the couch and curled up, he couldn't wait for the "do it"!

Wow! You two have really been busy! Love the curling up on the couch after training!

 

[running_dog]

This is video of our second session. I did "lift", which is "sit pretty" or "beg" to many people. I was surprised at how quickly he picked up that cue. Next, I did sit just by sitting down myself, first on a low table and then on a chair. At first, he wanted to do "bend" (bow), but he soon picked up the sit. Lastly, I did circle. He is used to circling me and circling other objects on a verbal cue, but following my example was tricky for him. Sometimes he circled lots of things, including me. Plus, we were outside on the porch, and there were a few distractions. I really like the science behind this challenge because while research has shown that dogs can learn by watching other dogs or people, I had never tested it myself with Seamus. I hope to try some other behaviors when I have time.

Seamus is really fast at picking up the ideas, Wow!

You have also given me another thing to love about this challenge... I have interpreted it quite differently to you and yet our dogs are both engaging with the challenge and understanding us... it is absolutely great! It is really good fun to explore this for ourselves.

By different interpretation I mean I decided to try to push the boundaries of the mime as far as I could, just to see how far Zac can go with it. The annoying spin off effect is that Zac increasingly expects me to crawl to demonstrate moving behaviours... otherwise he stands on his hind legs for a moment and tells me quite clearly he doesn't walk like that! He has added "rollover" to "crawl" and "stand tall" as a trained trick he has imitated from a mime without additional explanation. We are trying to work on expanding his understanding beyond mostly body position mimes to movement and location as well, Seamus is much much faster picking up the idea of circle than Zac has been.

 

[MaryK]

This is SO MUCH FUN!!!!!

I chose behaviours that Zac offers readily so sometimes he is guessing not mimicking. After we messed around a bit I found that spin and turn don't work for me because I can't work out which one I'm miming!

I really don't know how much he knows but he has always loved body cues and he's having fun. We ended up playing with more than 3 behaviours and sometimes he mixes up sit and sit pretty, also he often doesn't wait for "do it" but I think he is doing well all the same - not that I am biased of course! He certainly seems to do what I mime more often than you would expect if he was offering randomly.

It is worth looking out for Zac not understanding when I changed the outline of my "sit" mime, something for the rest of you to avoid perhaps.

This is so much FUN! Come on everyone, do join in and share some videos if you can!

Awesome work!!!!!!!! Found myself applauding Zac!
This sure does look like fun!!!!!!!!! Am not sure yet what I'll do with Leaf. Probably similar to Zac. Great to get the 'little grey cells' working on something new and different and LOL awesome work out for us as well!

 

[MaryK]

This is video of our second session. I did "lift", which is "sit pretty" or "beg" to many people. I was surprised at how quickly he picked up that cue. Next, I did sit just by sitting down myself, first on a low table and then on a chair. At first, he wanted to do "bend" (bow), but he soon picked up the sit. Lastly, I did circle. He is used to circling me and circling other objects on a verbal cue, but following my example was tricky for him. Sometimes he circled lots of things, including me. Plus, we were outside on the porch, and there were a few distractions. I really like the science behind this challenge because while research has shown that dogs can learn by watching other dogs or people, I had never tested it myself with Seamus. I hope to try some other behaviors when I have time.

Video won't play getting the error message Will try again later, this happens all too frequently!

 

[MaryK]

This looks like so much fun!!!!!!! Going to start with leaf today. Not quite sure what we'll do, probably sit pretty, bow, target paw for a start and see where that leads us.

 

[running_dog]

This looks like so much fun!!!!!!! Going to start with leaf today. Not quite sure what we'll do, probably sit pretty, bow, target paw for a start and see where that leads us.

Looking forward to hearing how you get on

 

[MaryK]

Looking forward to hearing how you get on

O.K. here we go with a written update, sorry no vid. partner was 'too busy'

All started well, in fact I should have guessed too well! We did sit pretty, she just did it as I showed her sit pretty, easy peasey I thought (silly me). We progressed onto paw target - yep one, twice, three times - after that it was 'Well seeing you do it so well, why should I bother - really you've got it haven't you?". Change of pace obviously needed, Diva Leaf was bored!

So, I tried drop! And that's when the rot set in big time! I totally forgot that my partner plays with Ms. Leaf by 'dropping' then having a real 'rough and tumble' - do you really need to know more? Yes, I was well and truly 'mugged'! She made one dive at me, straight over my head! And whilst doing so managed to get all four paws (well it felt like all of them) seriously tangled in my hair, she almost scalped me (my hairdresser would not have been impressed). And, as if that were not enough, I received a lash from her whip (called by some people a 'tail') in my left eye! After managing to untangle her from my hair and checking that my very watery left eye was still in it's socket, I decided that perhaps Do as I do for drop wasn't a terribly good idea . By the end of my attempt at drop Ms. Leaf had decided that play was more fun and there after each time I attempted a Do As I Do trick, she did her level best to (a) flatten me (b) knee cap me and (c) made another concerted attempt to scalp me!

As you may well understand, that training session came to a rather abrupt end because I didn't think it would be any use trying to work with her in that mood. And besides, I don't like hospitals and a trip to the ER was not on my schedule!

Tomorrow is another day and we shall again attempt Do As I Do but unless Ms. Leaf does a complete volte face I will definitely NOT be attempting drop again.!

 

[running_dog]

As you may well understand, that training session came to a rather abrupt end because I didn't think it would be any use trying to work with her in that mood. And besides, I don't like hospitals and a trip to the ER was not on my schedule!

Tomorrow is another day and we shall again attempt Do As I Do but unless Ms. Leaf does a complete volte face I will definitely NOT be attempting drop again.!

Great to hear your update and...
...LOL Zac sometimes gets a bit paw-full when I do mimes that bring me down to his level. He isn't so much of a handful as Leaf though .

 

[MaryK]

Great to hear your update and...
...LOL Zac sometimes gets a bit paw-full when I do mimes that bring me down to his level. He isn't so much of a handful as Leaf though .

Told my partner about Ms. Leafy, he started to grin and nod as soon as I said I mimed 'drop' he knew what was coming! I love though that Leaf gives 200%+ to everything she does, even mugging me, I couldn't stop laughing at her she's just soooooooooo full of life!

Today went really well (no drop mines of course) when we did sit pretty, she starts to sit without even being told 'you do it', same with wave and also target with paw - though sometimes with that she targets my leg not the chest coffee table. We're now working on sit pretty to stand tall - she's almost got it but does tend to 'jump tall' rather than just rising to a stand tall.

Must say all this miming is a good work out, especially with an injured knee (mine not Leafs). Makes me 'use' my knee rather than babying it!

Will try to see if partner will video tomorrow, all fingers crossed on that one, if he's not 'too busy'

 

[kassidybc]

O.K. here we go with a written update, sorry no vid. partner was 'too busy'

All started well, in fact I should have guessed too well! We did sit pretty, she just did it as I showed her sit pretty, easy peasey I thought (silly me). We progressed onto paw target - yep one, twice, three times - after that it was 'Well seeing you do it so well, why should I bother - really you've got it haven't you?". Change of pace obviously needed, Diva Leaf was bored!

So, I tried drop! And that's when the rot set in big time! I totally forgot that my partner plays with Ms. Leaf by 'dropping' then having a real 'rough and tumble' - do you really need to know more? Yes, I was well and truly 'mugged'! She made one dive at me, straight over my head! And whilst doing so managed to get all four paws (well it felt like all of them) seriously tangled in my hair, she almost scalped me (my hairdresser would not have been impressed). And, as if that were not enough, I received a lash from her whip (called by some people a 'tail') in my left eye! After managing to untangle her from my hair and checking that my very watery left eye was still in it's socket, I decided that perhaps Do as I do for drop wasn't a terribly good idea . By the end of my attempt at drop Ms. Leaf had decided that play was more fun and there after each time I attempted a Do As I Do trick, she did her level best to (a) flatten me (b) knee cap me and (c) made another concerted attempt to scalp me!

As you may well understand, that training session came to a rather abrupt end because I didn't think it would be any use trying to work with her in that mood. And besides, I don't like hospitals and a trip to the ER was not on my schedule!

Tomorrow is another day and we shall again attempt Do As I Do but unless Ms. Leaf does a complete volte face I will definitely NOT be attempting drop again.!

LOL couldn't you have gotten this on video?! I would have loved to see this happen! Haha, I'm glad it's otherwise going well!

 

[kassidybc]

We had our first session training this today, I took a video, I just need to post it to youtube. It went okay... But there was a lot of sitting pretty! Chloe recently (for a reason unknown by me) decided to become obsessed with sit pretty!

 

[MaryK]

LOL couldn't you have gotten this on video?! I would have loved to see this happen! Haha, I'm glad it's otherwise going well!

LOL it was really funny, I couldn't stop laughing (amid gasps of pain). Would have made a good vid. She's still inclined to 'mug' me a little during Do As I Do training, though not quite so much, so you may see a little of Leaf mugging Mom when I can persuade partner to actually do a video. It's now a more full frontal attack

 

[MaryK]

We had our first session training this today, I took a video, I just need to post it to youtube. It went okay... But there was a lot of sitting pretty! Chloe recently (for a reason unknown by me) decided to become obsessed with sit pretty!

Looking forward to seeing your video. Chloe has obviously decided Sit Pretty is her default trick. Leaf's is bow. Dogs will often do this, decide they prefer a certain trick above all others and constantly offer it up. I bet Chloe does a really cute Sit Pretty and knows it too!

 

[kassidybc]

Looking forward to seeing your video. Chloe has obviously decided Sit Pretty is her default trick. Leaf's is bow. Dogs will often do this, decide they prefer a certain trick above all others and constantly offer it up. I bet Chloe does a really cute Sit Pretty and knows it too!

I definitely think that she picks the tricks where she knows that she looks super cute as her default trick! Her last default trick was cross your paws, which always got an "awwww" out of everyone.

 

[kassidybc]

Here is the video I promised! Chloe's obviously not quite "getting it" yet, but we will get there eventually! Sorry about the moving room, my video editor keeps doing that, I need to remember to turn off that setting next time. I love that my mom doesn't even question me crawling around on the floor like an idiot in front of Chloe. Enjoy all the sit pretty's!

 

[Ripleygirl]

Here is the video I promised! Chloe's obviously not quite "getting it" yet, but we will get there eventually! Sorry about the moving room, my video editor keeps doing that, I need to remember to turn off that setting next time. I love that my mom doesn't even question me crawling around on the floor like an idiot in front of Chloe. Enjoy all the sit pretty's!

Great work guys!

 

[running_dog]

Here is the video I promised! Chloe's obviously not quite "getting it" yet, but we will get there eventually! Sorry about the moving room, my video editor keeps doing that, I need to remember to turn off that setting next time. I love that my mom doesn't even question me crawling around on the floor like an idiot in front of Chloe. Enjoy all the sit pretty's!

Chloe is doing great. Love her sit pretty.

I also have family who are remarkably used to doing ridiculous things in the name of dog training.

Also the people who I meet when out walking Zac are getting used to finding me miming to my dog... oddly enough although I'm obsessed with proofing I haven't yet proofed roll over and crawl in public LOL.

 

[running_dog]

I think I've introduced too much too quickly and Zac has either got confused or bored (hard to tell which with him). So I've taken a bit of a step back and am concentrating on mimes we know but mixing them up a lot and trying to get quick responses with him really thinking about what I'm showing him. I will try to video him some time in the next couple of days.

The only new thing I'm working on is to get him to walk to things in order to mimic me - so I might walk to and sit on a rug. I guess that is actually quite a big step when I think about it.

 

[MaryK]

Here is the video I promised! Chloe's obviously not quite "getting it" yet, but we will get there eventually! Sorry about the moving room, my video editor keeps doing that, I need to remember to turn off that setting next time. I love that my mom doesn't even question me crawling around on the floor like an idiot in front of Chloe. Enjoy all the sit pretty's!

Absolutely LOVED the video!!!!!!!! Chloe is really doing seriously well!!!!!!!! She's one very smart cookie that's for sure. And she made me laugh, believe me I need a laugh at present! Love the sit pretty before each trick! Great work!

 

[MaryK]

I'm trying to get Leaf's video done and up but it's been a rather bad week. Technical difficulties and also, even worse, just found out a dear friend and neighbor passed away suddenly, still very shaken, he was such a good friend and we last discussed about him getting a dog. Must get my act together! Sorry everyone for being so slow.