Wednesday, May 11, 2011

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.

5 comments:

Adien Crafts said...

Wow, you're doing so well, please don't beat yourself up! It's really hard to get any dogs attention when it's hot as well, I know I wouldn't be too bothered about tricks and would want to just go and lie down in the shade somewhere, sounds like you have great advice coming in for you, these dogs all learn at different speeds - Dex & Lou will do something maybe 3 times in one session then they're bored and switch off. I watch the collies next to us at training repeating and repeating and think 'why are you two so bloomin' stubborn?' - but hey that's part of the shnauzer personality so I love 'em! Keep up the good work, you're going great, xxx

Bella Roxy & Macdui said...

She may just be a teenager!

XXXOOO Daisy, Kendra & Bella

Laura and The Corgi, Toller, & Duck said...

Rotten teenagers :) For the left pivoting, maybe if you clicked her head turning to the right. She'll have to move her head that way to move her body left. Or just cheat and use a little body pressure :)

Really don't worry about it. She's a teenager. She's a non border collie. She's your first dog. You will get there together. Tibby is just a thinker instead of a spazzy doer. Takes longer to get the tricks but once she figures it out she goes quickly!

Kristin G. said...

She's doing some pretty amazing stuff if you ask me. She's doing some things in the video that are pretty out of the ordinary for untrained dogs. One thing I've noticed about taking dogs to classes, is that every dog is working to improve on something, and nobody's perfect. I'm impressed by your work. Keep it up and have fun!

Kiyi Kiyi said...

Thanks guys for the encouragement it means SO MUCH :)
I think this week is going better. We are having more fun!