I'm back from the land of the Cyber-dead, since my ISP is now back up and working. I will catch up with the SocNet scene soon!
The last few weeks I've been working Loki and Juno on different behaviors. Here's Loki below (in the videos, not the photo!) doing some retrieve, directed jumping and heeling work. For the record, I work Loki and Juno at the same time and switch off. But the videos are edited for each dog. You can see the progression of work in both dogs as their behavior tightens and they become better. I'll start today with Loki's videos and bring you Juno's later this week.
Please excuse the poor editing and lack of music. I'm not as proficient as the easy-to-entertain-relentlessly huge when making my videos. Let me assure you, it took me hours to go through several days of video rolls and piece out the progressions.
"What? Movies on working? Oh the horror! Wake me up when it's over!"
First Loki learns to pick up different objects. Don't be fooled. I've been working the PVC pipe for a year. It's very hard to get a dog to pick that up. And because the objects are not toys, and don't feel good in their mouth, getting a dog to retrieve anything other than food or a toy is very hard! I don't have any video of him learning to put the object in his mouth, but I do have it of Juno and you'll see how it progresses when you see her video.
Then Loki actually uses his noodle and puts two totally different tasks together. I nearly dropped dead. At the end, there's some fun play and obedience work.
Finally, Loki tightens up all his behaviors and shows me sometimes he just has it!
(Yes, I know it's March. I know I know my header is not updated! I'm getting to it.)
Work is surely a four-letter word, Loki, but you make it look easy!
Keep up the good work. We took a retrieve class a few weeks ago. It is hard to get them to put non fun things in their mouths and keep them there.
so smart! excellent work! i luv how you are always praising Loki's behavior.
Sugar has been learning to pick-up items I drop. The command? "uh oh." Weird, but works. A total accident. I built on her response when I dropped (usually) my med bottles, cups, silverware, etc... and kept saying "uh oh." I noticed she always ran to me, whenever I said "uh oh." If it's a new object, I point and add the "touch" command after "uh oh"-- then "bring" so she knows to carry the object to me. Eventually-- usually after once or twice-- she doesn't need the touch/bring commands to get the object after "uh oh." Yep, no method to my madness. It works, and she's a friggin genius to understand the mind of an inept trainer...
😉
p.s. Stone's Gimme Shelter works as background for the first video.
I am most impressed with the level of ability and braveness. I guess I'm just a slug.
Loki, you really take that work thing seriously! Now that I've watched that, I'm heading to the couch for a nap!
Bunny
Eeesh! From your internet to mine! Mine is choking on those movies (bet my neighbor is hogging the bandwidth again). I will have to check back on your movies.
I think that if you have been spending all your time learning cool stuff with mom that is even better than blogging. Yup.
Slobbers,
Mango
I still ofFUR Juno a safe haven!
Pantyloons&Jodhpurs,
Khyra
PeeEssWoo: FT up on the purple imbed!
Wow, we are so impressed. Are you sure we can't talk you into to moving to OP, KS instead of over the big pond so you can work with the OP Pack? Awesome work on everyone's part.
Woos, Phantom, Thunder, and Ciara
Pee Ess, Mom just loves your house.
Mom says it's nice that you can say whatever you want to a dog as long as you say it in a happy voice. Like sometimes she says to Steve, "Stevie, your butt smells like poop!" But Steve isn't insulted because he thinks she is saying, "Stevie, you are the bestest boy in the world." I'm not so stupid and I would guess that Juno isn't either. Those tricks just work for boys. So even though you told Loki that you guessed he wasn't so stupid after all, he heard, "Loki you're wonderful!" Juno would know what you were really saying though and eat your shoes later.
Kat
PS. Your comment on the leash walking video made us giggle and giggle!! And you're right, I'm the boss of Steve and he knows it. I will drag him around by his tail if he tries to ignore me.
As I watched your video, I started thinking that it would be fun if all of us in the dog blog world who are into training new 'tricks' got together and chose a trick that we'd all teach simultaneously. Then, we could compare notes, share tricks, etc.
Loki is a champ. I spent a lot of time with K teaching her to pick up *anything* before I had my lumbar region fused. After that surgery, I couldn't reach the ground for more than 3 months. It all paid off... on the very first day that my husband dared leave me home alone, I dropped my reacher within the first five minutes (and cell phones don't work here so I couldn't just call him to come back). A reacher is a metal shafted thing with graspers on the end that lets you pick up stuff from the ground without bending.
At that moment, all my training with K seemed totally worth it. No problem, she said, and she picked up the icky metal tool in her mouth, delivering it to my hand. I used super high value treats (tiny pieces of steak) to train her to pick up icky stuff like my keys, spoons, pill bottles, etc.
My trainer is convinced that I should have K certified as a service dog. It would make sense. I can't even go to the library by myself right now because I can't lift more than 5 lbs. She could wear packs and carry stuff for me... But, the certification process feels like more than I can handle right now.
Anyway, I love the training videos and the happy body language of you and your dogs! It's awesome! Fun is what training is all about.
Ooops, I almost missed this post. Now that I've seen what you can do, Loki, I feel more silly for not having you accompany me to France.
Question, is there a tradition to update our headers in March?
Twink!
Great videos!! Sorry it has taken me so long to watch them. I got up an hour early today so it's the first thing I did. 🙂 I love how he's finally putting it all together. When he took his hurdle with the toy in his mouth I love how you just stood there and said nothing like you were speechless. 😀 Loki is such a good boy! Now I'll go watch Juno's video.
Oh MY GOD! I can't believe it! I just spent 20mins typing you this loooooong comment and when I clicked submit it just disappeared!! AAAAAaaaaaaaaarrrrggghhhhh!! I can't face typing it all again now! Sorry - will come back tomorrow and retype it then. AAAaaaaaarrrggghhh!! Want to kill someone! 👿
Hsin-Yi