A bit of the hodgepodge we are working on

Looking back it seems I haven't covered much of the 'how to' of the behaviors we are currently working on. So here is a brief break down of a couple behaviors we hope to work on  in the next while.

COME L1

The dog must play the Come Game between the handler and a friend or stranger standing 20’ apart. An actual cue to come is desirable but not necessary. 

Maizey has not been working on the Come Game due to her knee surgery.But we have done some very brief sessions before she got sick. At this level we will be working to strengthen both her informal recall cue's, we use "comecome" the most. Also I want to build reliability in her formal cue's, "here", "Maizey" and "Maizey here" I also need to start a hand cue for recall, but I'm not sure what or if it is appropriate at this level. This is slightly different than how L1 come game is played.

CRATE L2

Dog enters crate with no more than two cues (vocal, body language, or hand signals), remains in crate while handler closes/opens door, no vocalizing or pawing.

Maizey loves her crate and often goes in to sleep voluntarily. She could test out of this level now, but we are going to follow the direction to work through each level. I am going to focus more on the continued education part by using her crate in the bedroom, also we will use a spare crate in the living area of the house. I'm going to focus a lot of attention on using her car seats in the house to build her comfort level of using them in the car.


A quick note on car seats, or restraints for smaller dogs: having a car seat is undoubtedly the safest way for them to travel, but w/ the neat seats they have now they can also serve as a crate, or safe place, to keep the pups confined when not in the car. Maizey's red car seat is also a backpack, has wheels and a handle and lays down to be a bed. It works well in the car and out of the car.

One thing not in the levels that we are working on is building toy drive. Now that Maizey is feeling better we are anxious to get back into training, but she is still on a bland diet of rice and chicken the consistency of baby food. A bit messy for treats! lol But not being able to use food for reinforcement did show me how important toy drive is. She is not toy motivated, mostly because I haven't taught her to be. So we are starting some toy games today. 

The first is from a Susan Garrett article from Say Yes Dog Training. It has a very fun game that is sure to make me laugh and anyone who sees me laugh at me-if not w/ me! The link is http://www.clickerdogs.com/createamotivatingtoy.htm

The second game is a controlled tug game from Aiden Bindoff. It was printed on Karen Pryors Clickertraining.com. Interestingly we played this w/ both girls last night. Maizey loved it, but Meeka was not so sure. Meeka tugs good already, but the structured way of playing was unfamiliar to her. The link for the game is: http://www.clickertraining.com/node/727

These games should be fun for us all. Which is really all dog training is-a fun way of playing w/ your four legged friends!