wuffles Posted September 4, 2010 Share Posted September 4, 2010 What special tricks are you teaching this weekend KTB, considering the disgusting weather? By the way, Ava didn't even arrive at our house until 12 weeks!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genabee Posted September 4, 2010 Share Posted September 4, 2010 I'm just glad my Cutie Cow pyjamas didn't show up anywhere. Then again, I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one whose had pyjamas have a cameo in a dog video - I have a recollection of seeing a few others recently The latest trick I've been trying to teach Elbie is to balance a dog biscuit on his nose. It's very funny but then I hope I'm not being cruel to the poor baby Don't worry KTB - the pic of me in my sig - that is my hubby's old school leavers jumper that I wear to bed! I have been known to put petrol in the car and go to woolies in my matching PJ sets. If I could wear them to work I would. No shame here! I was trying to teach G to balance a treat on her nose, but she kept going for my fingers!! So now I make her drop and stay (which she is finally doing now! yay!!) and I put one piece kibble on her paw and she has to wait for me to say OK before she can have it. It is so funny!!! I haven't filmed that one yet, but I should. Her patience and ability to wait has certainly increased. The way she stares down the kibble is hilarious! The place could go up in smoke around her and she would be oblivious - too busy staring down the kibble! I don't like my chances of teaching her 'shy' because I can't get anything near her face without her trying to chomp my fingers!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koalathebear Posted September 4, 2010 Author Share Posted September 4, 2010 (edited) What special tricks are you teaching this weekend KTB, considering the disgusting weather? The weather's vile isn't it? We've got waterproof coats for Dog School tomorrow but neither husband nor I have waterproof shoes as we wade through the mud, roo poo and duck poo. We don't even have a waterproof mat for Elbie so he's going to be wet and muddy creature tomorrow. I've been working on his 'putting toys in the box' trick and also more on his food patience: 1. waiting as kibble is scattered around him - particularly under his nose 2. 'interrupting' him with a sit command as he runs towards his kibble. The only problem is that because he knows we're going to tell him to sit, he sometimes doesn't run anymore, he kind of does a cautious sidle/scramble - glancing at us the whole way What have you been doing with Miss Ava? She must have been quite frustrated if she was cooped up in the house all day!!! By the way, Ava didn't even arrive at our house until 12 weeks!! Well you certainly made up for lost time! It's ok, for your third dog and second Aussie, you can make sure you get him/her at 8 weeks. I hear that there may be more puppies available at the end of the year ... I was trying to teach G to balance a treat on her nose, but she kept going for my fingers!! So now I make her drop and stay (which she is finally doing now! yay!!) and I put one piece kibble on her paw and she has to wait for me to say OK before she can have it. It is so funny!!! I haven't filmed that one yet, but I should. Her patience and ability to wait has certainly increased. The way she stares down the kibble is hilarious! The place could go up in smoke around her and she would be oblivious - too busy staring down the kibble! I'd love to see that. She already has an incredibly intense stare when she looks at the camera - it totally cracks me up. While staring at kibble she must be a hoot. You can also hold the kibble in place on her nose . I don't like my chances of teaching her 'shy' because I can't get anything near her face without her trying to chomp my fingers!! Elbie's like that, too - commando crawl is a nightmare because he just wants to chomp on my fingers or his butt goes straight into the air when he's supposed to be crawling. I usually distracted Elbie with kibble while I tried to put the sticky tape on his face or got my husband to distract him while I put the sticky tape on. You might be able to use a peg with Genevieve. Slightly OT but one of my American friends was horrified when I referred to unsuccessfully putting a peg on the side of Elbie's face - apparently a 'peg' for her is like a stake that you would hammer in! Apparently the Americans would call a clothes peg a "clothes pin". Peanut butter is an option but if Genevieve's anything like Elbie, she won't even notice the peanut butter on her face Edited September 5, 2010 by koalathebear Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koalathebear Posted September 4, 2010 Author Share Posted September 4, 2010 Further to the above, we've been working on teaching Elbie to put his toys into a box. We've also been teaching him more patience with his food - waiting for his kibble as it's scattered around his head and also telling him to get his food but then making him sit once or twice. The weather was totally foul today and we didn't feel like going out so I took some more photos of Elbie in his new XXXL soft crate and worked with him on his tricks. It all comes together in Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wuffles Posted September 4, 2010 Share Posted September 4, 2010 I did a few things with Ava today but no tricks! I really wish we could have gone to the oval to practice but it would just be mushy and wet and horrible. We did a fair bit of tidying up some of her obedience exercises like getting her to sit closer to me when recalling, finishing and finding heel position, going to her mat from a longer distance and stand stays with distractions and pats. Here is a quick video which is nowhere near as entertaining as yours, but it's one of her favourite exercises :D At least your dog is black and won't turn into a brown mud monster at training tomorrow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koalathebear Posted September 4, 2010 Author Share Posted September 4, 2010 Here is a quick video which is nowhere near as entertaining as yours, but it's one of her favourite exercises :D That's awesome! How did you teach Ava to put her paws on the phonebook like that? With a clicker? At least your dog is black and won't turn into a brown mud monster at training tomorrow Yes but eau de wet dog is very evocative and pungent regardless of fur colour ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wuffles Posted September 4, 2010 Share Posted September 4, 2010 That's awesome! How did you teach Ava to put her paws on the phonebook like that? With a clicker? Yep, just using shaping. There are quite a few videos on Youtube teaching it! To be honest as soon as I put the phone book on the ground she wanted to go stand on it so it only took a few goes. Then rewarding for just moving her back legs slightly, then for moving in circles, and only recently I added the heel position in. She can still only take a teeny tiny step clockwise She loves the game and as soon as I put the phone book out she's there with her front two paws on it :D Elbie would probably have fun learning it. I'm having some issues with heeling at the moment so am going back to some basic games, trying to make it more fun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koalathebear Posted September 4, 2010 Author Share Posted September 4, 2010 Yep, just using shaping. There are quite a few videos on Youtube teaching it! To be honest as soon as I put the phone book on the ground she wanted to go stand on it so it only took a few goes. Then rewarding for just moving her back legs slightly, then for moving in circles, and only recently I added the heel position in. She can still only take a teeny tiny step clockwise She loves the game and as soon as I put the phone book out she's there with her front two paws on it :D Elbie would probably have fun learning it. I'm having some issues with heeling at the moment so am going back to some basic games, trying to make it more fun Ah, thanks for that! I will try that one once I get Elbie sorted with the 'in the box' thing. He's doing it beautifully if there's only one object but if there's a rope toy and a ball, he is a bit fixated by the ball and will literally dunk the tennis ball in and take it out again and dunk it back in again 10 times in a row and ignore the rope! I seem to remember you were working with Ava on object recognition - have you had much success with that? Perhaps I shouldn't mix object recognition with 'put object in box' at this stage yet ... What issues are you having with heeling? She doesn't like doing it or is just getting bored if you do heel-work for too long? Elbie will heel beautifully as long as he knows there's food on the way but I am really not quite sure what we're going to do for assessment where no food is permitted during the heeling ... Are you allowed to show the treat before the task and then treat immediately after? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wuffles Posted September 4, 2010 Share Posted September 4, 2010 What issues are you having with heeling? She doesn't like doing it or is just getting bored if you do heel-work for too long? Elbie will heel beautifully as long as he knows there's food on the way but I am really not quite sure what we're going to do for assessment where no food is permitted during the heeling ... Are you allowed to show the treat before the task and then treat immediately after? Yeah just general focus issues, she just doesn't seem to be enjoying it even in short bursts. I've had some success this week just doing basics and games instead of more formal heeling, and lots of rewarding with both food and toys. I think we need to work a bit more on this kind of stuff before we do the longer patterns they are expecting in class! You're allowed to give treats before and after the exercise but you're not allowed to have it in your hand... but for example I will reward Ava for sitting in heel at the start of the exercise, then at the end Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koalathebear Posted September 5, 2010 Author Share Posted September 5, 2010 Yeah just general focus issues, she just doesn't seem to be enjoying it even in short bursts. I've had some success this week just doing basics and games instead of more formal heeling, and lots of rewarding with both food and toys. I think we need to work a bit more on this kind of stuff before we do the longer patterns they are expecting in class! She looked good in today's class from what I could see - and the crazy wind was an extra challenge ... * For our class in Dog School today, although it wasn't in the rain like I feared - the wind was fierce. Even normally placid dogs were going a bit crazy - barking and pulling at their leads. Our little witch's hats for the weave course were blowing over and our instructor used heavier witch's hats. The instructions cards at our little obstacle course were blowing away and less than half of our bronze class showed up and in the other bronze class, we noticed only 3 people showed up! Nonetheless, despite the initial craziness, Elbie settled down quite well and did all of his exercises well. He even sat still for exam twice - a record for him. He gave a bit of an excited wiggle when the second instructor patted him but he settled down again. What I found very distracting was that the wind was so strong that Elbie's ears kept flying up and billowing in the wind - looking even more wonky than usual. His right ear went all Bat Man on us while the left ear flopped around a lot. One challenge was the recall exercise. Normally we have him in a stay and then we walk off and then call him to us. Today he had to be on a 5 metre leash and we were supposed to make him go running off and then call him back to us where he was supposed to do an auto-sit. The first time he ran off and then came back properly but didn't auto-sit. The second time, he refused to run away and stayed too close Then my husband tried throwing kibble to make him run away but of course that made Elbie distracted - snuffling for kibble in the grass. We'll practise more during the week. Next week we'll get our guide sheets for his bronze assessment - no idea if he'll pass bronze but he's made a lot of progress. Hope everyone else is going well at puppy class/obedience class! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genabee Posted September 5, 2010 Share Posted September 5, 2010 Hello! Ruffles - I love that little exercise with Ava and the phone book!!! I can get Genevieve to walk to heel on a lead quite nicely, and when I stop (ie. at an intersection) she will sit... but either about a metre behind me, or to the side facing me!!! Never, right next to me! So we are still working on that! I don't think I could use a peg on G's nose KTB - it is soooooo little and there isn't much fur on it, so not really anything for it to grab on to! I did try the peanut butter thing once, she just managed to rub her face into the carpet. I like the ham idea though! We didn't go to dog school today... we had a storm hit last night and when I looked outside this morning, apart from the rain, my back yard was having a mini flood! So I didn't fancy taking her to school where should would end up wet and black! :p So I have been throwing her ball around and trying to teach her the art of 'fetch'. She chases after it but doesn't like to bring it back to me! She's worn herself out now though, as she is curled up on the couch - lost in amongst my blankets and cushions! Did Elbie and Ava give their Daddy's a present and a big wet dog kiss this morning? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wuffles Posted September 5, 2010 Share Posted September 5, 2010 Ava was great at training this morning.... except loose leash walking or heeling :p She does all the stationary exercises brilliantly, her stays, recall, mat, stand for exam, waiting for food, all lovely. She does have flashes of brilliance so it's an issue of motivation -- if I have a treat in my left hand all the time she will heel beautifully. She will do the automatic sits, downs and stands while doing her version of "heeling", it's just the moving bit she doesn't seem to like. KTB, a few people in our class had problems getting their dogs to go 5m away from them in the informal recall exercise (including us). When we did the assessment we did a formal recall though, thankfully Elbie will pass bronze easily. Ava woke us up at 6:30am (which is actually a sleep-in in our house) with kisses. Not sure that's what her daddy really wanted for Father's Day :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koalathebear Posted September 5, 2010 Author Share Posted September 5, 2010 (edited) I don't think I could use a peg on G's nose KTB - it is soooooo little and there isn't much fur on it, so not really anything for it to grab on to! I did try the peanut butter thing once, she just managed to rub her face into the carpet. I like the ham idea though! Hmmm. I guess it will have to be sticky tape then. Be warned though, it took us three types of sticky tape before we could find some that would stick to Elbie's fur The challenge was then to make sure that after he swiped at it that we grabbed it before he could eat it Mama Koala was over when we were teaching him "are you shy" and she thought that it was the most hilarious thing ever. Can't wait until Genevieve learns 'drop dead' - she is going to be the cutest thing ever. Her rollovers are already sooooo cute. We didn't go to dog school today... we had a storm hit last night and when I looked outside this morning, apart from the rain, my back yard was having a mini flood! So I didn't fancy taking her to school where should would end up wet and black! :p So I have been throwing her ball around and trying to teach her the art of 'fetch'. She chases after it but doesn't like to bring it back to me! We felt very self-righteous and smug at Dog School today as the cold wind kept whacking us in the face. I had two hoods pulled over my head and looked like an evil elf Fetch has been tricky for us. Elbie prefers having us chase him around for the toy rather than giving it to us. He will fetch for food though so he will drop the toy at my feet when I have kibble in exchange for the kibble. Also, once he gets into the rhythm of it, you can get 3-4 fetches out of him for just one piece of kibble. Our puppy works for cheap. He also has a really funny way of flinging the toy back at us. Sometimes it's a short distance away and if we look at him reprovingly, he will toss it closer to us. Sometimes it takes him 2 or 3 goes to get it closer but the way he throws it down is almost impatient/contemptuous like: "Oh come on - surely that will do!" ETA: is the video of Elbie and fetch.She does have flashes of brilliance so it's an issue of motivation -- if I have a treat in my left hand all the time she will heel beautifully. She will do the automatic sits, downs and stands while doing her version of "heeling", it's just the moving bit she doesn't seem to like. Mr Koala and I were wondering how many people 'cheat' during the exams and sneak a bit of chicken or devon into their hands or pockets during the assessment. How embarrassing to be caught cheating at Dog School? Is there naming and shaming? Is the poor dog tried as an accessory after the fact??? I have to admit that Evil Koala did wonder what the rules would be in wearing gloves on the day - both of us have gloves that after each class positively reek of kibble and devon. :D I'm sure Ava will become a superstar heeler soon - going back to basics always seems to work and the fact that you're making it more fun for Ava will be a huge incentive for her since she loves to play. I had my clicker with me today and we almost got Elbie home without any barking except for the final turn off Ginninderra Drive There are four turns quite close to one another so the indicator signal was going almost constantly and he went bonkers. :p Edited September 5, 2010 by koalathebear Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koalathebear Posted September 26, 2010 Author Share Posted September 26, 2010 (edited) Elbie squeaked through and passed his bronze obedience class today ;) More about it in the Elbie & Friends post here. The lovely Ava sailed through silver and is now going to be in gold class!! Huge congrats to wuffles :D Edited September 26, 2010 by koalathebear Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genabee Posted September 26, 2010 Share Posted September 26, 2010 Elbie squeaked through and passed his bronze obedience class today :D More about it in the Elbie & Friends post here.The lovely Ava sailed through silver and is now going to be in gold class!! Huge congrats to wuffles ;) That is awesome!!!!!!!! Congratulations to Elbie and Ava!!! :) Auntie Wizzle is soooooo proud!!!!! Our next trials aren't until November... so I have a couple of month to work on G!!! I want her to pass bronze too!!! If today was anything to go buy... it won't happen! Hubby came to school with us today, for the first time ever!!! Genevieve won't listen to him though!!! Which is becoming a slight problem. So I ended up taking over the class with her because she was being distracting to the other dogs. It didn't help that our normal teacher was away today, so we had another lady (who I wasn't so keen on). Made Hubby in charge of all dog feeding and walking duties for the next few weeks he is home... hopefully G will start to see him as top dog too!!! It is frustrating to watch, but I try so hard to not say anything to them! Anyway, she is exhausticated and has passed out on our bed! We went to the markets after dog school today, and she was soooo good there (made up for being a menace at school!). I bathed her earlier as we have guests due any minute for dinner... I am sure she will resurrect herself for the occasion! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koalathebear Posted September 26, 2010 Author Share Posted September 26, 2010 Hubby came to school with us today, for the first time ever!!! Genevieve won't listen to him though!!! Which is becoming a slight problem. So I ended up taking over the class with her because she was being distracting to the other dogs. It didn't help that our normal teacher was away today, so we had another lady (who I wasn't so keen on).Made Hubby in charge of all dog feeding and walking duties for the next few weeks he is home... hopefully G will start to see him as top dog too!!! It is frustrating to watch, but I try so hard to not say anything to them! Thanks for the congratulations. We're very relieved but will have to work harder with Elbie's heel-work greetings/sitting for pats for silver. G's defiance must be frustrating for your husband. We have an interesting dynamic in our house. To try to reduce confusion, my OH has always been Elbie's handler during obedience class even though outside of class we both train with him/practise what we've learned. When I had to do obedience with him for the two weeks he was overseas, I was a bit worried about how Elbie would be but fortunately he was very responsive and well-behaved - but he could very easily have gone the other way. OH spends a lot more time with Elbie but I'm usually the sterner one ... for instance, we've had disagreements about how to handle Elbie's car barking. While OH was away I took advantage of his absence to make Elbie be quiet OH was quite shocked at how well-behaved Elbie is in the car now. Good luck with establishing the domestic household dynamic! It's so complicated! What will happen when Wee Wizzle comes along? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genabee Posted September 26, 2010 Share Posted September 26, 2010 Hubby came to school with us today, for the first time ever!!! Genevieve won't listen to him though!!! Which is becoming a slight problem. So I ended up taking over the class with her because she was being distracting to the other dogs. It didn't help that our normal teacher was away today, so we had another lady (who I wasn't so keen on).Made Hubby in charge of all dog feeding and walking duties for the next few weeks he is home... hopefully G will start to see him as top dog too!!! It is frustrating to watch, but I try so hard to not say anything to them! Thanks for the congratulations. We're very relieved but will have to work harder with Elbie's heel-work greetings/sitting for pats for silver. G's defiance must be frustrating for your husband. We have an interesting dynamic in our house. To try to reduce confusion, my OH has always been Elbie's handler during obedience class even though outside of class we both train with him/practise what we've learned. When I had to do obedience with him for the two weeks he was overseas, I was a bit worried about how Elbie would be but fortunately he was very responsive and well-behaved - but he could very easily have gone the other way. OH spends a lot more time with Elbie but I'm usually the sterner one ... for instance, we've had disagreements about how to handle Elbie's car barking. While OH was away I took advantage of his absence to make Elbie be quiet OH was quite shocked at how well-behaved Elbie is in the car now. :D Good luck with establishing the domestic household dynamic! It's so complicated! What will happen when Wee Wizzle comes along? That is interesting to know KTB! Thank you for that! Here I was thinking that maybe I was doing the right thing in trying to share the obedience work... but maybe you are right, one handler is less confusing. Hubby thinks you are right too! I'm not sure what happens when wee Wizzle comes along... I will probably still be top dog!!!! Tired and sore top dog, but never the less!!! While I am not really a dominant person so to speak, I am probably the most authorative person in the relationship - I think that is more out a necessity though (well, he is never home and things have to be decided up and done!!!)! So I guess it is no surprise that she looks to me as top dog. Hopefully she doesn't try to dominate Wee Wizzle when they come along. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koalathebear Posted September 27, 2010 Author Share Posted September 27, 2010 That is interesting to know KTB! Thank you for that! Here I was thinking that maybe I was doing the right thing in trying to share the obedience work... but maybe you are right, one handler is less confusing. Hubby thinks you are right too! Perhaps just at the early stage anyway. OH and I are intending to share handler duties at silver now that bronze is done. Also, I should add that even though we had OH as the bronze handler, we both showed up to all the classes so we knew how Elbie was to be trained and there was consistency. I think it might be difficult for both G and your OH to 'dive' into the obedience if he's been away for work etc. They both aren't quite sure what is being asked of the other. Also, there are some people who just don't enjoy obedience classes as much as others! Is OH going to have to go on the road again soon? If not, I think it's probably good for you to share the handler duties at some point. Alternatively, if he can't go to classes with you, you can tell him about them. Then again, if he's anything like my OH he'll roll his eyes and go: "Oh gawd - more dog stuff????" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genabee Posted September 28, 2010 Share Posted September 28, 2010 That is interesting to know KTB! Thank you for that! Here I was thinking that maybe I was doing the right thing in trying to share the obedience work... but maybe you are right, one handler is less confusing. Hubby thinks you are right too! Perhaps just at the early stage anyway. OH and I are intending to share handler duties at silver now that bronze is done. Also, I should add that even though we had OH as the bronze handler, we both showed up to all the classes so we knew how Elbie was to be trained and there was consistency. I think it might be difficult for both G and your OH to 'dive' into the obedience if he's been away for work etc. They both aren't quite sure what is being asked of the other. Also, there are some people who just don't enjoy obedience classes as much as others! Is OH going to have to go on the road again soon? If not, I think it's probably good for you to share the handler duties at some point. Alternatively, if he can't go to classes with you, you can tell him about them. Then again, if he's anything like my OH he'll roll his eyes and go: "Oh gawd - more dog stuff????" Yeah, he is off again next week.... I think you are right. I will stick with being top dog! What is frustrating though, is that she won't listen to him. But even in class the other day, I walked off and left them to it (so to speak) and she kept looking at me on the the other side of the park the whole time!! I ended up rotating back in, just so she would do as she is told. Is it normal for a puppy to only take direction from their master and no one else? This is what concerns me, as I would like for her to listen to others also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wuffles Posted September 28, 2010 Share Posted September 28, 2010 Is it normal for a puppy to only take direction from their master and no one else? This is what concerns me, as I would like for her to listen to others also. IMO a dog should take direction from all humans in the family. If they don't, it's the human's fault... I know whose fault it is in our house OH isn't particularly firm with ours, so they get away with more while he's around. His body language isn't as easy for them to read. Mine will pretty much take direction from any human they come across if that person is firm and consistent in their actions. At the dog park a few weeks ago my two were happily jumping over hurdles and running up the dog walk for my friend's children who are dog savvy. They also work well when instructors use them as demo dogs in obedience class. Yet if they come across someone hesitant or unpredictable they will take advantage of the situation. Some dogs are also more wilful than others of course... I often hear OH going to our older dog, "No, don't do that, stop it, OI!" with no reaction, whereas the little one will run out of the room at any hint of a raised voice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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