I've been practicing a chin rest (in my cupped hand) this evening. The dogs love learning new things. Shadow was playing the fool, as he does sometimes when he gets a bit too keen. Willow was so intent on playing the game that she completely ignored the gunshots that were really quite close. When the first one went off unexpectedly, I expected her to slink off and hide inside, but she wasn't fazed in the slightest and asked to keep playing, by giving me her paw, which is her "permission" signal. The problem with a chin rest in your hand is that it does tend to collect the drool. I can now see why a towel would be a good idea
Quinn usually loves the clicker, but you can tell she is not herself right now and not as keen on learning the game right now. How do you teach chin in hand...start with putting your hand under their chin and progressing length of time?
I started with a lure with my other hand, and streaming the treats while the head stays in my hand. I didn't use the clicker because it can be too loud when used right next to their head (not to mention a bit of a muddle to coordinate when you're streaming the treats from that hand) so I just used a marker word.
Here is a video, she's got the idea, is my next step opening her eye or getting her used to the bottle?
My success is limited so far, so interested to hear what the others have to say! (I did getting used to bottle first since she was fine with her eyes being touched before and freaks where she sees the bottle) but I think i might need to work on eyes being touched now...
Tatze has the most beautiful face! Sigh.... Anyway, what Tatze has learned so far is to put her head on the towel. So once I had that with Charlie I found a 'half way house' which was a bottle, but not the ear cleaning bottle. Just having his ears inspected was a bit scary for him. So I started handling his ears, then introduced the fake bottle. It was really important that I put the bottle down when he removed his head - this is the deal. You want that head on the towel behaviour to be hugely associated with good things. The history of reinforcement is really important.
It's eye drops with Tatze? Rather than ear drops? If so, I'd have her at the side of me, laid on a bed or something, so you can reach behind her head to do the eye drops. I do eye drops on the sofa.
If you have the dog beside you (laying down), do you have their head on the towel and the "no" signal is them lifting their head?
Ok, I've watched the 3 videos, but I'm uncertain about how to apply this to getting the head on the towel. Would I put the towel on my lap and then lure her head into my lap, or should I be shaping from a look to eventually getting the head on there? My gut says lure initially, but I want to be clear before I start.
You don't have to do the head on the towel thing - that's just how I did it. I'd lure the head on the towel. It didn't take long for Charlie, because I'd already trained chin rest and that helped. I wouldn't bother shaping something like this - luring will be much quicker.
Ok. Sympathies, Charlie was so scared of ear cleaning. It was no fun. The only other thing that helped with ears for us was making sure the air from squeezing and bottle didn't release inside the ear - that seemed to be one of the things that Charlie hated. Simple with ear cleaner because you can fill a syringe canister to put it in, trickier with drops.
I tried this with Stanley earlier. He's slowly getting there with putting his head on the pillow. I think this is such a useful thing to teach. He's pretty good with having his ears/paws/tail/eyes handled as I've done thus with him since we got him. I'm sure drops coming at him would be a different story though
I think the regular chin rest is a good starting point - or something to train as well - because, other than planned visits, you may not have your towel or pillow with you when you need it. I'm not saying don't use those, because it's actually a lot better having both your hands free, but I think a chin rest in your hand could be useful if you need to do something and you can't sit or don't have your towel - something in an eye on a walk for example.
I think training a chin rest (on various surfaces) and proofing it against handling is an excellent idea. It's just a really useful thing to have. For Charlie though, it was never just about a chin rest. It was about the 'permission' to do something - touch his ears, put in the ear cleaner and in order to train that, you have to be doing the thing that involves the deal. For this in the end, we moved to the sofa as the permission because he couldn't keep his head on the towel when we got to putting in the liquid. This didn't seem to matter. He had got the idea by then, and it transferred easily. I sit down on the sofa, and pat the sofa. I have the cheese and the ear drops in full view. Charlie considers both. Most times he'll get on the sofa and give me a 'go on then, make it quick' look. And I do the ear cleaner and he gets the cheese. Sometimes, he'll say no - not very often at all, and I'll just try again later.
