Today's training included playing a game with Dexter to show me his teddy. It started by chance as he was about to get into mischief . I've tried it before but he got confused and frustrated but today he loved it. Now when I say 'where's Teddy? He touches it with his nose, I moved teddies position and he still managed it, I added a bone chew toy and he still touched teddy when asked. Then tonight I did the same with the bone toy 'where's your bone?' And he touched the bone. Then I added teddy back into it and he distinguished between the two. Made my hubby smile to see Dexter doing this. I used click and treat every time Dexter touched the teddy and started to then use the word teddy and then built it up to where's teddy etc. We love games and really starting to make progress, much more fun to stop what I'm doing for 5, 10, 15 minutes before Dexter gets the chance to get into mischief
Good work! We have a cue...where's Daisy?....and no matter where she is in the house she runs to the back door to get out to the rabbit hutch. Daisy is our rabbit!
Haha - object on cue is a really cool training instead of getting into trouble. It tires furry minds really well. I trained Charlie to touch a pot, a cloth, and an oven glove on cue when he was on rest. It's now our (one and only) party trick.
@drjs@5 , Dexter has only met the rabbits in Pets at Home and was fine, I can't seem to find any in the wild though to work with, perhaps I need to get out earlier I believe I got this from one of your videos @JulieT . He has known teddy for a while but not to the stage he made today. He's sound asleep in his crate now, door open, having a snore I've been doing a lot of rewarding for good behaviour this last few weeks, something that I'd forgotten to do lately but it has really helped him. Also walking passed at treat and then treats on the floor to his bed from his place and visa versa, it took a few goes before he got the hang of it, he has such an expressive face too when his brain is ticking over. I didn't say leave it, just covered it with my hand so he couldn't get the treats. Started with them in my hand first and once stopped trying to get them I gave him one. He soon cottoned on and it's a quick little game to play using some of his food.
Ha ha, spelling and grammar aren't my strong points. I must drive Fiona, @snowbunny to distraction . I'm going with it should have been 'past' but I'm not willing to put a bet on that
I've been teaching Ripple to tidy his toys into a toy box, we've now graduated to naming each toy and picking them up as they're named - I use click and treat with Ripples current favourite, Primula squeezy cheese. Not perfect yet as Ripple likes to do this game at lightening speed (as he does everything ) and it's a job to keep up with him .
Dexter's like that @SteffiS when I hold my hand out and say touch. He pushes his nose into my hand so fast he's going to look like a pug, lol.
Haha, it's like a have a reputation or something! I try not to make a fuss about it, I just have a little shudder sometimes and move on... But to clear it up, you're right, it should have been "past". One of my favourites is heel vs heal. It always amuses me when people talk about teaching their dog to "heal". I always have images of a dog in robes on some sort of evangelical TV channel, healing the sick... Willow learnt the names of some of her toys without me actually going out of my way to teach it. Shadow couldn't care less what they're called, as long as he can rip it apart. Toys don't last long enough to be named anymore
I play this game with Casper, he loves it! I use a big plastic serving spoon with 2 dogs, and have trained them to only touch when the spoon is pointing at them, otherwise I have 2 dogs lunging....which does happen..)
Great fun , I love brain games Especially when its wet, windy and cold, to say nothing of the mud, its a great way to keep them occupied and out of mischief . Sam and Millie have a box of toys and seem to know the names of most of them , they both love bringing me the names toy,but don't get it right every time, its just fun , fun is important
I trained Mabel to touch ball, glove and a small mat with her nose. Trouble is she gets so excited its hysterical to watch. Id also started training to take 3 toys out of her toy box climb in the box then out and put the toys back. (I'd seen it done before somewhere probably on the forum.) Trouble is she destroyed her old toy box OH bought a very nice green one but its too small to climb in. Looking at the state of it I'll be buying a new one before long anyway.
