I've been working on a couple new tricks with both Cricket and Bamm recently. Bamm is learning to pick up objects which I will eventually combine into an awesome stacking trick where he will be able to stack bowls or orange cones. He spent half of our first training session wanting to target (bump the object with nose) and touch (touch the object with paw) when the purpose of that session was to teach him to lightly mouth an object in my hand. He's now gotten to the point where he will pick the object up in his mouth from the ground, but I'd like to eventually get him to the point where he will hold the object instead of picking it up and then dropping it. The object we're currently using for this trick is a squeaky dumbbell though we will eventually incorporate different objects so that he learns to pick up different types of things. Eventually we will work on stacking objects, but for now we're just working on picking things up with his mouth first. I may post more about this trick in a later blog entry.
Cricket is currently working on two new tricks. One of those tricks is rollover. I actually was not trying to teach her roll over, but she happened to roll over during a training session and I captured it with my clicker. What does it mean to capture a trick? The best way I've found to capture something is to carry a clicker with you at all times and have a few treats handy in your pocket. Let's say you want to teach your dog to sit, but you've tried and your dog doesn't seem to be getting it. You're on the computer reading this blog when you look out of the corner of your eye and see your dog sit. You click your clicker instantly and reward your dog with one of the treats from your pocket. You do this whenever you see your dog sit naturally and eventually your dog will start to offer this behavior more and more. You can eventually add a verbal cue/hand signal to the trick and there you have it. If you want to capture a sneeze trick, click whenever your dog sneezes and reward. If your dog yawns and you think it's cute and want to turn it into a trick, click/treat whenever your dog yawns. It's pretty self explanatory really. If you don't happen to have a clicker handy you can try a verbal cue. In the case of capturing a yawn behavior; every time you see your dog yawn you say "yawn" or "sleepy". You can follow that verbal cue with a tasty tidbit or a YES!!!! or "GOOD GIRL/BOY!!!" if you'd like. Capture it every time you see it and eventually your dog will catch on to what it is you want him/her to do.
So, back to rollover. We've established that this trick came almost by accident. I wasn't intending to train her rollover, at least not right now. However, since she rolled over, I took that moment as a perfect time to click/treat in hopes that she might repeat that behavior since it's not one she does often. Wouldn't you know it, she rolled over again. Click/Treat. We did this for a few repetitions. The next step is to add my verbal cue "rollover" and a hand signal. Capturing is one of my favorite types of clicker training. I tend to get frustrated easily and if I'm teaching a new trick and my dog isn't picking up on what I want to teach then I've been known to stress out which results in an unhappy dog. That's not a good idea EVER in ANY training session. I repeat, NOT a good idea. I'm working on myself so that I can always stay patient and positive when I train.You always want to make training fun for both you and your dog. A dog that's having fun tends to be more willing to learn new things. An unhappy dog is going to shut down, ignore you and isn't going to want to play your training game. Capturing is a less stressful way for me to train. Once I've captured the basic idea of a trick I can then shape it to whatever I want my dogs to do. This is not to say that all my tricks are trained with a capture method, though the majority of our tricks are behaviors my dogs have offered on their own. I merely encouraged it and gave it a name.
The other trick I'm working on with Cricket is one I decided ahead of time I wanted to teach her. The final trick will hopefully play out as follows: I say, "Where's your nose?" and use my pointer finger to wipe the side of my nose. Cricket's response to that would be to wipe the side of her nose with a swipe of her paw.
We've been working on this trick for two training session now and she's catching on to it fast. Here's how I've taught the trick so far. I first started by lightly blowing on her. Her reaction was to pull her paw up towards her face. Right away I clicked my clicker and gave her a little tasty tidbit. I did not blow on her hard because you don't want to annoy the dog. You just want enough of a little breeze for her paw to react by moving her paw towards her face. You can also teach this trick with the capture method if your dog offers it on his/her own. Once Cricket was starting to offer this behavior of moving her paw towards her face on her own I stopped with the blowing method. She'd again offer the pawing at her face without any blowing. Click/Treat.
Once she got the hang of moving her paw towards her face I started to only click/treat for movements where her paw actually touched her nose. Now we're at the point where we have introduced the hand signal of me wiping my finger across the side of my nose. I'm hoping by next training session I can bring in the verbal cue and from there it will be just working to continue to shape and master the trick. This is just a fun trick to teach your dog.
One advice I would like to give to anyone who decides to train their dog whether it be just the basics or whether it be fun and more complicated tricks is this: I've noticed I prefer to train in the kitchen. One thing I have learned the hard way though is that you should train the same trick in multiple locations so that your dog doesn't learn to only do the trick in one spot like in front of the refrigerator for instance. You may laugh, but I've actually had a dog do a trick amazingly in the kitchen, but as soon as we tried to do the same trick somewhere else in the house, it was like we were back to square one. I may start the trick in the kitchen since I just happen to like training in the kitchen, but later on I'll work on that trick in the living room or even outside where there might be a completely different environment and possibly a few distractions. This doesn't mean that you're going to have to absolutely retrain the same trick everywhere you go. It does help though to try the trick out in a few different locations so your dog really gets the idea. Maybe other trainers have not had this issue with their dogs. I'm just going based off of my own experience with my dogs so you can take it or leave it if you'd like.
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