Siblings
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Thursday, October 24, 2013
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Gracie
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service dog
Gracie got to play with her brother quite a bit this last week. Mr. Rooney was in for some boot camp, aka basic manners training. Boot camp #2 for him, as the first one was our puppy swap back in March.
Rooney reminds me a ton of Gracie. The same weird bark, the same head tilts, and overall super sweet and hard working personality. Just a 15lb difference in size! He was a fast learner and a very respectful dog once he knew the rules. Only a little bit of testing!
And on an unrelated note, Lance and I are headed down to Chicago this morning for a Corgi Specialty! Wish us luck in the obedience ring!
Good luck with Lance!
Monty and harlow
Laura, I have a question (unrelated to this post, but didn't know how else to contact you :) on how you teach the 'out' when tugging or retrieving. Do you use clicker or shaping? I've been doing the exchange for a treat, but it doesn't always work well so I was looking for something else.
Thanks! Kathie
During a play tug/fetch I don't use food. I first teach a retrieve to me, in order to tug. Let the dog win the tug, get them to shove it in my hand again. Once that is solid I then introduce the drop/out. I make the toy as dead as possible, gathering it up close to my body and making sure nothing is dangling. With a strong dog, I pin it to the floor instead of my body so that it can't move at all. The toy becomes dead, the dog gets bored after a bit and lets go, I mark it with a verbal yes and play tug as reward. Dropping lets the game start up again.
With the formal retrieve, I have the drop already built into the shaping process. I click the mouth/pickup in the very early stages, dog drops to get cookie after I click. It's a very controlled shaping progression to get to the full retrieve and hold, but at every step the dog is dropping on the click. It's very easy to switch to a word since the expectation is already there.
Thanks Laura, I've been doing a lot of shaping and clicker work with this puppy, so I think this approach will work better. He loves to tug, which is a real change from Jackson, so I'm trying to keep the enthusiasm, while still maintaining a degree of control:) A tug session that doesn't end in blood being spilled(mine)is rare. I'll let you know how it goes.
Looks like the siblings had a great time! :-)
And good luck with the Corgi Specialty!
15 pounds of flying labrador makes a big difference. But labs are clever pups, so I'm not surprised he learned the rules quickly.
Good luck with Lance!
Mango Momma