In my free blind/deaf dog community group, we're working on a June fun activity of teaching our dogs to go around an object. I shared this video of blind/deaf Delight learning how to circle a cone.
This is a video showing two clips - the first clip shows the beginning stages of teaching. You will notice that I adapt my approach based on what Delight tells me with her behavior.
At first, I try to use shaping and I expect her to go around the cone in one direction. Then she shows me that she might like to try the other direction first, and finally I move toward using a hand target for her to follow by smell.
The second clip shows where we've ended up. She recognizes the go around touch cue and that she has to move around the cone in a circle.
Delight has learned so many skills during just this one exercise that she will be able to use throughout her life and all the things I want to teach her and do with her. She learned some shaping skills and she learned how to follow my hand to learn new behaviors.
She practiced a lot of proprioception and body awareness as she learned how to use her body in relation to an object, how to maneuver around it, and how to create a map to remember where the object was in space so she could move around it with minimal bumping into it.
All these are important skills for any puppy to learn, and especially helpful for blind puppies becoming skilled in navigating new environments with confidence.
If you'd like to join the free group, it's open to anyone living with or working with blind, deaf or blind/deaf dogs. Come join us:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/175308662060117/
If you live with blind and/or deaf dogs and would like to be part of our new exclusive membership community, check out the details here:
https://uniquely-paws-able.teachable.com/p/exclusive-up-membership-package
I'm here to answer any questions you might have - please message me :)
We recently had a situation that many of you may also have experienced. Smoke filled the air that was drifting from some devastating wildfires.
Delight noticed the smoke before the rest of us. She started sniffing the air while inside our home, and began searching while moving around the room. Her nose led her to the open window. She went quickly back and forth from the window to me, and back again. I thought she needed to go to the bathroom.
But when we stepped outside, I smelled the smoke, and Delight froze in her tracks. Her nose was frantically smelling the air, her tail was straight down, and she didn’t want to move. She stuck very close to my leg, even though I tried to let her know it was OK.
I ended up holding her for a while. Her nose continued to search for some type of explanation. It took a while, but she did eventually do her business and we went back into the house.
This video was taken in the middle of the next day. You can see that even though she has been outside a couple of times since that first night, she is still unsure. Her tail is down. She is staying very still. And her nose is going a mile a minute. She is processing. The video isn’t super exciting to watch, but it’s interesting to see what processing looks like.
She is so intent on processing what’s happening that she is startled when Vinny touches her, and she quickly comes to me for reassurance. After I reassure her, she is then able to go off sniffing the ground, still processing, but she feels a bit better. Her tail is starting to hang looser and come up higher.
It’s important to give our dogs as much time as they need to process a situation that may be different or concerning to them. While Delight never did become fully comfortable being outside with the smoke, she did get to the point where she was able to function easily. She moved around, did her business, and with her tail up and relaxed. I could tell she wasn’t totally at ease, however, because
My dogs love it when I scatter goodies around the yard like a giant snuffle mat. Even after they've eaten all the snacks, they continue with lots of sniffing.
Please play this game only in places that you know have not been sprayed with chemicals for your dogs' safety.
What do your dogs think of scatter snack games?
Hmm, I wrote a lovely post about the things I'm doing differently while raising Delight than I did with my previous puppies. But it seems to have been swallowed up into cyber space! Enjoy this sleeping angel and I'll write more in the coming days about great ways to raise and teach puppies! Stay tuned ... in the meantime, what have your past or current puppies taught you?
Delight is enjoying being a puppy and is learning how to learn.
When I first brought her home, she showed some protective and frantic behaviors around food. I've been working with her to help her be able to calm down and think in the presence of food, and she's made such huge progress. I spent a lot of time shaping and reinforcing calmer behaviors in the presence of food and helped her learn to accept it calmly from my fingers.
Today was our very first shaping session with an object. Shaping is a way of teaching where I will reinforce small behaviors that will lead to the goal of what I'm hoping for. I'm shaping her to paw target my notebook. I'm using a raised surface so she can easily find/feel it, and the surface is like a faux leather, so it's different than the carpet and non-slip. I would like her eventually to put two front feet on the notebook and pause there. For now, I am reinforcing for stepping on the book with even one front foot as a good starting point.
This is her second session after a short break. She definitely is getting the idea. The reason I wanted to share it with you is her adorable little leap in the air when she recognizes her marker touch signal. I couldn't help but laugh. I hope you find it just as adorable as I do.
I'm really looking forward to our upcoming puppy class for blind and blind/deaf puppies! It starts Jan. 25th and I have an amazing line up of puppies and their people to join me. We'll be teaching a variety of useful and fun behaviors.
There is one spot left in the puppy class if you'd like to join us! https://uniquely-paws-able.teachable.com/p/4-week-puppy-class-blind-and-blind-deaf-puppies
It is a beautiful day here for enrichment. That's a fancy way of saying that I've added something new and interesting into my dogs' day.
The smaller boys and I took a relaxing long line walk in some new spaces. They enjoyed the new sights, sounds and smells. Vinny enjoyed having a food dispensing toy outside on the lawn. He is blind and deaf, but his nose works just fine! He has learned to pick up the food toy and give it a toss so food falls out.
It's important to give dogs new and interesting things to keep their brains engaged. Bored dogs often find things to do that we don't appreciate - digging, barking, chewing our things, etc.
When they've done something interesting in their day, dogs often act calmer and are more content. They often take a nap or relax while chewing on their own toys.
Do you find that your dogs rest more or are more content after doing something new and interesting in their day? Would you like some ideas for enrichment for your dogs? Perhaps your dogs have a favorite activity they already like to do? Let me know in the comments!
