One door opens, another closes
2 Comments Published by Gussie on Friday, March 07, 2008 at 3/07/2008 11:07:00 PM.
I started this before reading various other recent clicker posts in the blogosphere, honest! A few days back I decided to finally teach Jake to open and close doors. Because we humans are so lazy we can’t be bothered to do it ourselves. I’m starting by teaching him to push the door closed because that’s the slightly easier move.
First I rewarded Jake to touch his nose to a fluorescent sticky note. We practiced that a few times. I think he couldn’t believe he was getting a click-treat for such an easy thing. So I stuck the note to the door at Jake’s nose-level.
There was an expectant pause. Jake looked at me. He tried a few other things we’re practicing at the moment – marching, sit up and beg… then he looked at the sticky note and touched his nose against it. I was over the moon! It’s amazing when he works something out!
Now we’re practising that till it’s firmly learned. And then I’ll start teaching him to apply pressure to the note so the door pushes shut.
I’ll keep you posted…
First I rewarded Jake to touch his nose to a fluorescent sticky note. We practiced that a few times. I think he couldn’t believe he was getting a click-treat for such an easy thing. So I stuck the note to the door at Jake’s nose-level.
There was an expectant pause. Jake looked at me. He tried a few other things we’re practicing at the moment – marching, sit up and beg… then he looked at the sticky note and touched his nose against it. I was over the moon! It’s amazing when he works something out!
Now we’re practising that till it’s firmly learned. And then I’ll start teaching him to apply pressure to the note so the door pushes shut.
I’ll keep you posted…
Labels: Training
take was a neat trick, jake..
yeah, human are a lazy species...
making us to do chores for them...
i even need to fetch my own bowl for dinner...
Gracie would love that trick! Mum's been teaching me to leave a treat on the floor until she says the right number....she says 1, 10, 52, 38, and on and on...but when she says 7 I take it - real fun!
I just love learning new tricks!
Woofs, Johann