Ok, due to many things I've been slacking in the training department with the crew for a while. So last week I figured that I would start doing some lazy training... aka clicker training. One of the reasons that I love CT is because you barely even have to move. You just sit on the couch, have your treats in one hand, clicker in the other and just sit, wait and watch the dog! Its very relaxing. Smile I only do CTing in 5-10 min increments, because it takes SO much focus and concentration that it wears them out quickly and fries their brain. lol
I've been focusing on Zeo lately, since she is an insane neurotic Border Collie(sheltie too, but I'd swear that she's all BC!). I thought that I'd work on teaching her to fetch her tail. Its something that my old girl Tika used to do and was one of my favorite tricks to watch. We'd say "get your tail!" and she'd catch it, then when we said "Bring it here" Tika would do this funny crab walk over to us, carrying her tail in her mouth. It was hilarious!!! Obviously, I couldn't teach it to Mojo (um, aussie... no tail!), so Zeo is the next bet.
Last week I start with Zeo and it takes a couple minutes for her to start offering behaviors since we haven't done it in a while. Finally she starts moving around and I keep clicking her everytime she looks to the left. As soon as she realises it and keeps offering it, I then hold back on the click until she looks further back. Finally we stop on her looking directly at her tail and offering the behavior continuously.
Fast forward to today. I grab Tenchi some Innova after his acupuncture appointment, then when we get home I pour a little in the bowl to see if he's going to eat it. The phone rings, so I go sit on the couch with the bowl on my lap while I'm on the phone. I then notice Zeo standing in front of me doing this odd dance???
Then the light goes on in my head... she is looking at her tail!!! I'm sitting there on the couch with "treats" so she thought it was training time and picked up right where we left off! ROFLMAO So I think that we are going to do some CTing in a little while since Zeo is so eager to "play" again.
Gotta love that clicker training!
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ETA
Don't mind the angle, its hard to click, treat and record at the same time! lol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKu3v2efnMYI just put in a couple second clips of each session from today, that way it wouldn't be too boring.
(oh look, dog moves, she clicks and then treats... and repeats... fun... yawn)
As you can see by the end, she was really getting the hang of it. Think of it like a complicated game of Hot & Cold.
