Sooo my ultra cool instructor and friend Alicia has inspired me to get my butt in gear and get more training in-she is very good considering she is on vacation and she is still getting me working. She has got me really excited about doing more clicker training. The reasons I like clicker training: #1 I believe it trains dog how to think and figure things out #2 I believe it puts dogs in control, and makes us more partners with them-always a good thing as far as I am concerned #3 especially when your dog gets used to clicker training you can get way more behaviors by using a clicker then you could ever get by pushing or pulling a dog. #4 I think clicker training and shaping is just plain fun once you learn how. SOOOO for the wild Lizard aka Lizzie, I am working on a lot of 101 things to do with, a remote, a exercise disc, a cone, hahahahaha, just about anything I can find. One really useful thing I am working on is teaching heeling with the clicker. I am using Morgan Spectors book Clicking for Obedience, and gosh I have had that for years and have read it before, but I pulled it out for this little project and I am loving it again. I think I must be picking up more then I did the first time I read it through, and for those of you who know me, you probably know how allergic I am to OBEDIENCE, so.....I think it says something if I am finding it fun and interesting. LOL. Anyway, Lizzie is really starting to act way more excited about working with me and I am actually getting some great heeling behavior. Granted this is all in a very low distraction type environment, but hey, I plan on getting this behavior very strong and very clear before I add in things to make it harder, huh....now am I not sounding like a real trainer???? Or at least a good imitation of one? ONe thing I am doing too is using her raw food for breakfast but I feed it with a spoon and for dinner I take her portion of kibble-yeah, I know we are back to that for training,....figure I have to make some concessions-I put the kibble in a container so I can use it through the day for training.
So next we have Breeze. She is still looking pretty good, and there is a picture of her with her shaped balance disc behavior. I couldnt believe she learned to do that in about five minuetes. I had been trying to lure it for a couple of days and she didnt get it, I got my hands out of there and just started clicking and she learned right away. I dont know if you can tell by the picture but the ball isnt that big and it takes a lot of effort for Breeze to keep her balance, thus the core is exercised. I even got her to put two back feet on the disc and then bow with her front so she gets a good stretch, and we did some back end awareness because she understands to lift her back feet and put them on the ball deliverately. With her back end any back end awareness will make her more safe I figure.
Chloe didnt want to be left out of the clicker fest....EVERYONE loves the clicker and gets really upset when they arent included. So Chloe worked on running to a mat and downing. Then we worked on contacts on the Aframe. She is having some problems controlling her speed on the way down the Aframe, so I am trying to figure out how to help her and keep her from hurting herself.
Skyler was a trip, he couldnt be left out of the training, so he was doing a mean touch to a target stick, what a good boy.