Fat ween update

[areese]

The dad of Heidi and Fritz emailed me...he said he was trying to walk the two and Heidi decided to go home. Of course he uses flexies. So he has one dog 15 feet in front of him, one 15 feet behind. stands there stuck as he can't reel them in for whatever reason (I don't use flexies with multiple dogs!) Then holds out his hand and says HEIDI, TOUCH (like I taught them) and the dog actually runs to him and does it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I reminded him to have treats at all times for such occasions or the behavior will be lost...hope he remembers. but that was cool!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Lisa]

That is very cool.

[RustysMom]

How neat! Great Job!

Ive tried touch with my dogs and they just dont get it.

[areese]

How neat! Great Job!

Ive tried touch with my dogs and they just dont get it.

I could teach them in 5 minutes I bet.
do you use a clicker??
Hold your hand up at your chest with the hand closed (fist). Hold treats in the other hand at your side. Quickly put the closed hand down toward the dog, opening your fist so the hand is flat. They will go to touch it cuz they think there's a treat in it. Click, treat from the other hand. Or say YES! immediately as they touch your opened hand and give them a treat from the other hand.
repeat repeat repeat. short sessions (2 minutes) numerous times a day (or evening).
I taught Segue in about 30 seconds. and if Heidi can do it, any dog can. I will say I could not teach it to Fritz but that was because he was too anxious still for any training.
Wish you could go to our class... I'm thinking of maybe renting the building for a doxie only class...on a sunday or something. But not sure people would come out to Lapeer.

[RustysMom]

I could teach them in 5 minutes I bet.
do you use a clicker??
Hold your hand up at your chest with the hand closed (fist). Hold treats in the other hand at your side. Quickly put the closed hand down toward the dog, opening your fist so the hand is flat. They will go to touch it cuz they think there's a treat in it. Click, treat from the other hand. Or say YES! immediately as they touch your opened hand and give them a treat from the other hand.
repeat repeat repeat. short sessions (2 minutes) numerous times a day (or evening).
I taught Segue in about 30 seconds. and if Heidi can do it, any dog can. I will say I could not teach it to Fritz but that was because he was too anxious still for any training.
Wish you could go to our class... I'm thinking of maybe renting the building for a doxie only class...on a sunday or something. But not sure people would come out to Lapeer.

Ive never tried a clicker. Of course how you descibe how to do it makes sense as I was just sticking my hand out hoping they would touch it and they wouldnt. Duh! nothing good in my hand, why touch. I will give your way a try tonight. I wish we lived closer, it would be so much fun!!!

[areese]

But you dont' want treats in the hand they touch. they will THINK there is a treat in it cuz you are holding it up by your chest with your hand closed but treats should be in the opposite hand. if they don't do it right away, bring your hand back up to your chest and repeat it, don't just leave your hand out there.

[RustysMom]

But you dont' want treats in the hand they touch. they will THINK there is a treat in it cuz you are holding it up by your chest with your hand closed but treats should be in the opposite hand. if they don't do it right away, bring your hand back up to your chest and repeat it, don't just leave your hand out there.

right! Id have the treats in my other hand behind my back but only just hold out my other hand. They look at it, look at me, then try to go behind my back LOL! Thier not dumb, sometimes. I will do that though, close my hand and bring it up so they think Im offering them something when I bring it down.

[areese]

You an always treat them WITH that hand, from that position, a few times first. work with one at a time in a private place like the bathroom, away from the other dogs so they can focus. Quit after three successes and alway always quit on a success. if they aren't doing it, ask them to do something they know and reward that. dogs get frustrated too I would reward then if their nose gets super close to your hand, even if it's not a real touch. you can always shape that into a touch later.
Make sure you "mark" the touch!!! That's why I like clickers. your marker is like taking a snapshot of the desired behavior so you want it RIGHT WHEN it happens. Don't just give them a treat. Mark the behavior. if you don't do clickers, you can say CLICK. I say YES but that really isn't a good word to use cuz it's used too much.

[alfina]

Amy, do you use different clickers with multiple dogs? For example, if I am working with Sebastian and mark the behavior I want him to do, but Sofie hears the click while doing something I do not want? That's always the question I have but all the books on clicker training seem to be written with only 1 dog in mind.

[areese]

Amy, do you use different clickers with multiple dogs? For example, if I am working with Sebastian and mark the behavior I want him to do, but Sofie hears the click while doing something I do not want? That's always the question I have but all the books on clicker training seem to be written with only 1 dog in mind.

When starting out, I use the clicker with one dog away from the others.
But the reward is not the clicker, it's the treat. the clicker marks the behavior for a reward. If Sophie hears the clicker and if by some chance she thought it marked a behavior, she isn't rewarded for it so it makes no difference. Plus the chances of her doing a random behavior MORE THAN ONCE (dog doesn't learn without repetition) and being clicked for it is really almost nil. what you have to watch with with multiple dogs is in fact the opposite of what you are concerned with. I'd be more concerned that a dog is doing a desired behavior cuz they hear the click and not being rewarded. But if they are in seperate rooms, that's not a problem. if they were both right in front of you, you'd want to make sure to reward a desired behavior. say if you are asking Sebastion to sit, and he does and you click/treat AND Sophie is right there and she sits and she doesn't get a treat, that wouldn't be good. I work with mine altogether now but when teaching something new with segue I seperate him. Plus I'm good at it and my dogs are already trained so there isn't a huge effect if I miss something or reward the wrong thing. and if I have multiple dogs competing for attention/treats, I sometimes get a new behavior I can reward and then work on that. Like sneezing. I can get Segue to sneeze now!
Hope this makes sense.
work with them seperately for now just because that's more effective. If you accidently teach an undesired behavior (and I've done that..not with the clicker but in other ways) all you do is stop rewarding it and it will extinguish with time.