Dutch Shepherd Forum

Sugars Mom wrote:
I've taught her the trick where she will be sitting in front of me, then turn and walk backwards in between my legs, and then from behind me, turn and come back through my legs backwards so she ends up sitting in front of me. Now I want to teach her to walk around me backwards.

Lots of fun, eh?

Fantastic trick!

One of the things you could add to Sugar's growing repertoire (well, there's a million things!) which would be very cute (because of her size and overall cuteness factor) is a chorus kick while between your legs (or while walking beside you).

Thor's and my variation of the kick is while we are walking with him underneath me ("Let's Ride" command), I kick out my right foot and he kicks out his right foot to tap the top of mine and then back and forth between left and right as we walk along. (It'd be cuter with a dog like Sugar, I'm sure.) He'll also do it while sitting or standing beneath me, but the walking kick is more fun...and challenging due to my short stature and less-than-graceful balance.

Ha, that sounds fun too!

Awesome trick she is beautiful. Thanks for sharing!

Thats fantastic!!! Can you get a video??

Here is my 8 year old step son with Sugar...I asked him if he wanted to try the back up trick and I videoed it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=belXM4tl ... P6CTXcFK1w

Sugars Mom wrote:Here is my 8 year old step son with Sugar...I asked him if he wanted to try the back up trick and I videoed it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=belXM4tl ... P6CTXcFK1w

Supter! Both of them

Awesome!!

Sugar is so darn cute. Nice work!

I love that!! Great job!!

Two cuties! Nice trick!

nice trick!

I got inspired, and have started to teach Ivil to put her toys in a basket. Only started today, and if I learned one thing over the years it is that I always want to go too fast So forcing myslef to stick with the "stickin' the nose into the basket" for another day, but she learns pretty fast! I use a clicker çause I'm bad at using my voice correctly.
I started by putting a tiny treat in the basket. Every time she sticks her head in to get it, >click<
Moved on to waiting for her to stick her head in without a treat in the basket >click< and throw the cookie.
Moved on to moving the basket all around the room and kitchen, >click< for sticking her snouth in and throwing the treat away from the basket, so she had to move in order to get it, this creates the possibility for her to go back to basket again, stick in her head and get her >click< and treat

so far, we are having fun

Nice!!

Good job, Marjolein!<click/treat> <uploading >

Can't wait to hear of your progress as you go...

Great! Now that her pups are gone, she'll need a new job. (Teach her to bring the beer, then dispose of the can.)

How many behaviors do you guys work on at the same time?
I also want to go too fast lots of times, and have more than one thing I'd like to be doing. I keep thinking, if I teach this behavior now, will I regret it later. (Such as automatic sits, then not wanting them to sit in the conformation ring, just as a simplified example.)

alspyce wrote:I keep thinking, if I teach this behavior now, will I regret it later.

haha, that is why I chose to teach her to put toys in a basket, and not put stuff in the bin...she will no doubt get more OUT of the bin and eat it when I leave the room... Some things are better kept secret to a smart dog
Ow, and I do one thing at a time, when that is in, I may fine tune it, but I can start a new one when the earlier one is solid. When the behaviour is asked in a different setting (home/outdoor/training field) I can do multiple. For Ivil anyway...

So, we moved on a bit today... had started adding the command "bak" (Dutch for container) as she moved her head into the basket.
Today we started by moving the basket around the rooming, stickin's the snouth in on "Bak" >click< treat
This evening after work, we moved to "Bak", Ivil moves to basket sticks her nose in >click< treat.
Then I picked up a toy, sat next to the basket, threw the toy away a foot or so, "apport" she brought the toy towards me, I said "bak" she stuck her nose in, "LOS" and droppes it IN the basket *proud*
She dropped it next to the basket once, no treat, just said "apport" again and "bak" and she dropped it in the basket Good dog!
We will keep this up for another day, using different toys. Also do it when the toys are already lying around, not throwing them like I did tonight. Then I will move away from the basket slowly, using "bak"for making her go to the basket... Can't wait!

On , we did teach her to pick up dropped bottle caps (we have this opener on the wall, so they fall down) We could also place a bucket under it, but I prefer Ivil bringing it to me She would still get them out of the bucket and bring them anyway, so...what's the point of putting a bucket there??

Great going, Marjolein! Fortunado for you and Ivil, you already had most of the pieces, so once she had bak, you're there.

I train multiple things at the same time.

Sometimes I do what are now being called micro training sessions. You train one thing for a minute, quit and play interactively for a minute, train something (either the same thing or something else) for a minute, play for a minute, then repeat one more time. Done. Two of these 6 min sessions a day is fine for most people and their dogs.

Other times, I'll just train several things in a session, but it stays pretty short, no more than 15 minutes total, and always followed by interactive play. I just tell her, "OK, we're gonna do something else," and we generally play a bit between things.

Of course, different skills are at different degrees of completion or finish.

With nosework, we'll often train for long periods; up to an hour. If we do, there are several rest periods, perhaps 10 minutes each. If it's a shorter session, maybe 10-15 minutes. Then again, sometimes I have her just do one find, then done. She hates that ; she doesn't want to quit.

I love having a dog that loves to train.