Luring practice with Daisy
Daisy works on following a lure as we also begin with hand signals for sit and down. Luring is using food as a “magnet” for your dog to follow into various positions.
When using luring it’s important to fade the lure as soon as you can to prevent the dog from becoming reliant on you having food in your hand. Daisy is getting more confident with hand movements and what to expect so we’re seeing good progress in that area.
She tends to struggle with lunging up from a down into a sit and she can get grabby when she’s revved up. So I’m working on fine tuning her ability to follow a lure and hand signals without the sass.
Nose targeting/touch intro with Daisy
Introduced touch/hand targeting to Daisy. Touch means to boop her nose to my hand. There’s a lot of benefits to teaching this skill.
One is that is can be incredibly helpful with fearful dogs, it can serve as an alternate behavior for interaction rather than jumping, for example. It can be useful for recall and ringing potty bells.
More advanced applications are used for service dog tasks and sustained nose targets for heelwork. I love teaching puppies and mouthy dogs to touch with their noses rather than an open mouth and teeth.
Sending to place with Daisy
Part of training a dog a skill is generalizing and practicing in different areas and under various situations until a behavior is fluent. Too often a dog is kind of taught a concept and training ends there. Then the owner gets frustrated because their dog can’t perform the skill each time they’re asked.
It takes a lot of practice to become fluent at anything. This applies to humans, too. So be fair when you expect your dog to do certain things. It’s not their fault they can’t do something they haven’t been taught thoroughly.
Here Daisy is learning to go to place away from me which is a new challenge.
Stay in place practice at the front door with Daisy
Adding going out the door with Daisy. Notice I had to ask her a second time to place. No big deal! You actually CAN repeat a cue if you need to, however if you are saying a cue over and over again with no response from your dog that’s a sign your dog doesn’t really know what you’re asking of them.
Stay in place practice at the door with Daisy
Daisy practicing a new challenge of staying in place at the front door. If you would like your dog to be less excited at the door or to stop trying to bolt out, you’ve got to teach them what you do want first.
Using a station such as a cot makes it clear where they should be. With some practice and building in an understanding of cues such as wait we can remove the station and get the same response.
Training should happen BEFORE you need it.
Trying to get your dog to do something you’ve never taught them when someone knocks at the door is not going to give you the results you want.
Pro tip: training is easier on cold, rainy days when you wear your SO’s sweat pants.
Time lapse place practice with Daisy
Nothing to see here except a dog chilling on a mat for several minutes while I prep treats. The best dingo.
Place practice with Daisy and distractions
Finn was a good assistant today as he acted as a distraction for Daisy. Initially it was a little crazy as I expected but once Daisy’s initial excitement wore off she was able to focus with Finn present.
Recall rep with Daisy
Daisy really loves to be outside so I’m careful to not call her then bring her in. Here I call her but let her go back outside after rewarding her. This way being called doesn’t mean something she doesn’t like. If I needed her to come inside I could go get her instead of calling her.
Loose leash walking practice with Daisy
Daisy practices an exercise to encourage walking on a loose leash. She’s a really quick learner!
But this exercise is one of restraint so it’s important for me to be calm and clear in communicating not what I want but what she needs to do to get to the food.
If she pulls and puts tension on the leash I give her a verbal “whoops” and immediately go back to the starting point to try again. Over just a few reps she is learning to walk with me rather than surging ahead.
Leave it practice with Daisy
Leave it practice with Daisy. I’m using a chunk of chicken jerky here which she thinks smells incredible. She’s doing fantastic!
Stay in place practice with Daisy
Daisy practices staying in place.
Recall reps with Daisy
Want a reliable response when you call your dog? Practice. Then practice some more. Then practice more. Toss in random recall reps and reward them generously and with a variety of rewards. Teach them it’s 100% worth it to come to you when you call them. This skill can save your dog’s life!
