Intense efforts of concentration
2 Comments Published by Gussie on Sunday, March 02, 2008 at 3/02/2008 10:57:00 AM.
This week there’s been a lot of coverage of a sweet cavalier king charles spaniel who can balance empty yoghurt pots on all four paws while lying on her back. Jake would never achieve such stillness. But he can do intense focus. For example...
Between runs at agility class, I was chatting to border collie Harvey’s handler while we distracted our dogs by practicing various little tricks. It started to get a bit competitive. Jake’s meercat (sit up on haunches) plays Harvey’s stand on two hind legs. Jake's weave between my legs as I walk along plays Harvey’s scoot backwards through his handler’s legs. Jake’s marching plays ...
... you get the idea. Harvey and Jake both have their turns.
One trick they both do is to balance a treat on their paws and wait until told to take it. What’s interesting is their different technique. With a treat on his paws, Harvey looks up, down, left right – anywhere but at it. If I can’t see it, it’s not there. Lalalalala. Jake does the exact opposite. He stares at it fixedly and his nose sinks closer and closer. I must not let this out of my sight. It will be MINE, MINE, ALL MINE. What made me laugh was when I gave Jake’s release command Harvey took that as a green light to snaffle his treat.
Here's Jake demonstrating his advanced hypnosis of biscuits.
As I took this pic, when the shutter clicked on my cameraphone, Jake promptly snaffled the biscuit. It took us a moment to twig that the shutter makes a click, and for a clicker-trained dog, that means yay, treat!
Suddenly I realise why Jake runs up to me and starts running through his repertoire whenever he sees me with my phone. He thinks the phone's a clicker.
Between runs at agility class, I was chatting to border collie Harvey’s handler while we distracted our dogs by practicing various little tricks. It started to get a bit competitive. Jake’s meercat (sit up on haunches) plays Harvey’s stand on two hind legs. Jake's weave between my legs as I walk along plays Harvey’s scoot backwards through his handler’s legs. Jake’s marching plays ...
... you get the idea. Harvey and Jake both have their turns.
One trick they both do is to balance a treat on their paws and wait until told to take it. What’s interesting is their different technique. With a treat on his paws, Harvey looks up, down, left right – anywhere but at it. If I can’t see it, it’s not there. Lalalalala. Jake does the exact opposite. He stares at it fixedly and his nose sinks closer and closer. I must not let this out of my sight. It will be MINE, MINE, ALL MINE. What made me laugh was when I gave Jake’s release command Harvey took that as a green light to snaffle his treat.
Here's Jake demonstrating his advanced hypnosis of biscuits.
As I took this pic, when the shutter clicked on my cameraphone, Jake promptly snaffled the biscuit. It took us a moment to twig that the shutter makes a click, and for a clicker-trained dog, that means yay, treat!
Suddenly I realise why Jake runs up to me and starts running through his repertoire whenever he sees me with my phone. He thinks the phone's a clicker.
the only stillness i can achieve is balancing a treat on my nose...
and it took my sub-par owner years to teach me...
Click and treat, that's funny! I love doing and learning new tricks - glad to see others like it as much as I do!
Woofs, Johann