Lesson 3 Week 2

What I wrote,
 "I’ve been sad about our lack of progress this week. I did a few short sessions every day with Tibby this week, but she has been acting strange. Nervous? and zero attention span.
I am hoping it is just a stage that she is going through, or spring fever or the heat (it was 89F here today with 100% humidity). She gets frustrated very easily. I’m trying to not put any pressure on her – when she gets frustrated I let her do one of her easy favorite tricks and then end the session.
I think we may get the handstand in 2012 or 2013! Will you have a remedial tricks class for slow teams?
I can’t make Tibby do anything, so if she wants to do it she will, but if she doesn’t…..well, that is the end of it!
I included some of the times when Tibby blows me off (and runs away) or gets frustrated and whines. It doesn’t look like it in the video, but I can tell that she isn’t 100% happy.
After watching the video I can see that Tibby is doing better with her turns on the perch. I saw on the video one time when she offered movement in the other direction, but I missed it. I wait and wait for her to offer movement to the left, but so far I haven’t been able to catch any.
I think we need some help please!"

What a classmate wrote,
 " Hi Catalina, i just watched your video and noticed your frustration. I think your tricks looked nice. Perhaps she isn`t yet used to do tricks outside….and for the movement to the left – just treat for right without click and click and treat for left. To have more movement you could perhaps throw a treat near to the bowl and when she comes back with her feet on the perch just try to capture her first movements.
And the sit-up. My dog doesn`t sit up such as long as Tibby does. They are young and they need the muscles to sit up longer. Every short sit-up gives more strength to their back muscles. And her “Back” looked great for me too."

What Silvia wrote,
"I agree with Brigit, you actually did TONS of progress!!! Considering how hard it was for Tibby to just sit straight, she already has great duration in a sit up now! Don’t ask for more as she can do for now, just go slowly with it. Back up is great too, it’s very nice to see she still goes crazy for that ball!

If you never worked with her outside before, your choice of tricks was not the best one, you first have to try some playing, then do some of her favourite tricks in between the play and then slowly go from there.

Also, to make backing up on an object easier, find a wider object so that it’s easier to step on it accidentally. 2on2off in the other direction is sure great! For pivoting in the other direction, you can put your target next to the wall, so that she can’t go the whole circle – maybe she will then step back and you could jackpot that?

Another thing to be careful about is your attitude. It’s probably my fault as I was telling you not to help and not to cheer her into working with you to not push her – BUT when she IS working with you and offering things, do mark it with excitement! I remember that when Le was a puppy and just started to learn about clicker, I needed to accompany every click with a smile and happy voice. I normally talk to my dogs a lot, so I think she though I’m really weird when I took that clicker and stopped talking – she though something was wrong. So I first needed to accompany every click with the voice, but then of course slowly reduced it to only go crazy for jackpots. But letting them know you’re impressed by what they’re doing is very important. It’s not to get the action – it’s to reinforce the action."





I think.....there are a lot of things to remember and it is hard to see everyone else progressing faster than us.