Leilei Cuteness Caught on Tape
We’ve been practicing religiously lately – at least once a day with each dog plus shaping in the evenings and posting NONE of it to the blog… Sorry folks.
Emily requested a Leilani fix today – so shall she receive.
Lei has been developing slowly as a disc dog. We figured when we got her as a puppy, it would be the same as getting Lilli as a puppy – she would grow up living frisbee and loving nothing else. About 6 months ago, she started stressing when playing disc outside. She loves to tug with the disc, but when it comes to rollers and throws, she’ll only stay focused for a minute – 2 minutes tops. We’ve noticed she doesn’t require play/work like the other girls and is happy to be a couch potato all day. The perfect family pet!
Considering all of this, I’ve decided to focus on her being our trick dog. She LOVES shaping and is very happy to train for quite a while – never losing focus or drive. We’ll give her a break from disc work and keep it to a couple simple catches and tugging and see if she grows into it.
Here’s a video of Leila’s shaping session earlier today. Watching it back, it seems like all the stuff she’s working on is her favorite trick – and that’s a very good thing!
If anyone has any cool shaping trick ideas – please post them here!! We love the feedback!
Jason
Friday, 8th January 2010 at 4:20 pm
Nice work on the video and post Andrea!
You have done such a great job of shaping recently. The sit prettys are awesome.
Leila’s soft bark and varied dead poses are fantastic.
Emily
Friday, 8th January 2010 at 5:12 pm
She’s growing into such a beauty!!! Thank you for the Leilani fix! She’s so SMART!
I cant decide which is my favorite, the bow or the bang.. Adorable! Love the rigor mortis.. Lol! That’s something that you dont always see from dogs that play dead.
I think the smack da baby video of Susan’s is just hilarious, and I started to do it more with Kirby when we tug. It’s really really helped his tug drive. He’s coming along slowly too in the disc department… But he’s also really content to just learn stuff. I might have to do more tricks with him, this video was FUN!
I think my Aussie fever has cooled a touch, now that I got some Leilei video. Lol! It made my day!
Love your blog, guys!!
Emily
Emily
Monday, 11th January 2010 at 1:23 pm
How did you begin the bow work?
Jason
Monday, 11th January 2010 at 7:37 pm
Luring
I had tasty kibble and held one where I wanted their head. I started them standing and as their head went down to get the treat i said yes and they got the treat.
My enthusiastic yes works as a clicker and then i reward for position.
I did it quick – so the yes and reward occurred before they could sit.
After a few reps I increased the difficulty. They had to hold the pose for a second or two and if they dropped their butt before that then i said oops or didn’t say anything or didn’t reward with a treat.
Once they figured that out I added the cue “bow”.
Sometimes i use a steady repeated yes to mark duration in the early lessons.
They learned very fast and Andrea has been reinforcing the behavior with sporadic bow sessions.
Hope that is helpful.