Day 3 of the 7-Day Mini Course

[Adina P]

Day 3 is Teaching the Target Stick--click here to go to the lesson online
Most of you probably don't already have a target stick, but don't worry. You can use a pen, a wooden dowel, or the end of a long handled wooden spoon...any 'stick' like item that your dog isn't going to try to chew up immediately =)

After adding these videos below, I thought I'd add them here too
for those just arriving at Day 3:

First, here is a 9 week old pup learning target stick. One thing to note is that the trainer's hand is NOT holding treats...and the treat hand doesn't approach puppy until after the click.

And another one that seemed to teach it by putting a treat near the target first on the ground until the dog made a link... NOTE the tossing of the treats so the dog has to show understanding by coming back to target more.

Share your thoughts, experiences, questions here!

[Amy]

The videos are very helpful. I can see that MY technique needs to improve! I'm lucky that Maggie is a willing and patient guinea pig for me before her furbaby sister arrives! I tried again with better sucess by having the treats on the counter and holding the stick and clicker in different hands,

[fergie11]

YES - Jump up and Down - YES. That second video helped and your suggestion to throw the stick on the floor first and make her want to play with it. She's doing it - LUCY that is. I don't know if I'll do this with Fergie but we'll see. Also I notice that red thing on the end of that target stick so I turned the spoon around and used the big end for her to touch. These things helped and the little 9 wk old is doing it. Why I still do not know but I know this will go somewhere in the end. Sorry I was getting aggrevated. I'll try to keep this to myself before I spurt out in the future.

[Adina P]

Teehee...no it's good to hear problems as well as solutions. That's how we ALL learn. If you didn't share your frustration then I would not have had a chance to better explain. Don't be shy with questions =)

NOTE: I am NOT a trainer, but have read a lot on this and have played with it in the past so I get the principles.

[Adina P]

Just took my 3 doggies through day 3 and here are the results:

Rosco -- immediately targeted the wooden spoon, so I moved it around, behind him, farther ahead, on the ground, and way above him so he had to jump to touch it. Then I tested him by moving the spoon to where he'd have to climb onto a chair to touch it. He passed.

Thule -- Thule has had minimal experience getting clicks, but is curious and was hungry! Her response was essentially the same as Rosco's above including climbing the chair to target the wooden spoon.

Cass -- She's 13 y.o., has had VERY little experience with the clicker, certainly no targetting experience, but she got to watch Thule and well...she's a border collie and way too smart for her own good. She also immediately showed interest in the spoon and funny enough I clicked when she opened her mouth over it once and from then on she "learned" that open mouth over spoon is what I wanted. She didn't target as well...mostly hunted the ground for more treats, but did fairly well considering how new this was and did make a strong connection of open mouth over spoon = click/treat (which I didn't intend on teaching, but that's timing for ya!). Her back legs are too weak so I did not have her climb anything =)

Overall I had a great session that lasted no more than 10 minutes (including all three dogs' sessions). Because they were all starving (almost dinner time) and they are willing to work for most any food...I gave them the kibble we use for treats (Solid Gold) out of the treat jar...tossing them on the floor mostly (only a few times were treats IN my hand). I WISH someone was home to have taped it!

[Adrianne Matzkin]

I didn't get the 3rd lesson yet - I started late at night and I guess I have to wait for the 24 hours are up to get the next one. I am asking now since i am up much earlier with the time difference on the East Coast DK is pretty quiet. From what I gather from reading the responses and watching the 2 videos, no verbal commands yet. What I didn't understand on video 2, did she use the clicker? I didn't see it and I didn't have any sound on it I did on ideo 1) . Is it just me?

[Adina P]

If you write to the Canis team and tell them you are doing your 7 days as part of a group, they will send you all three days together--they did it for another member so I'm sure they'd be willing to do it for you.

I think on the second video she didn't use the clicker immediately. My impression is that she either tossed treats NEAR the end of the stick or had already placed them there and merely pointed them out for the dog so the dog could connect the stick with treats (?) and then later she started clicking for the dog targeting the stick. Cuz later I did hear a click.

And yes you are correct, no verbal commands yet.

[Tante & Jordan & now Annie!]

Awesome!! I am writing them.

[2fetg28jixqki]

OK so I keep one dog in the crate while I work with the other. Each was initially afraid of the stick in my hand. So with Marley I put the stick on the ground. Out of curiosity he goes to smell it, I click and treat. Soon he gets it. I repeat many times. He got it. But then I pick up the stick and he begins to bark. He wouldn't come to it while it was in my hand. He's never been hit or had a bad experience with a stick (or anything) so I'm not sure why he's so skiddish about this. I back up to putting the stick on the floor, and he's touching it again, I click and treat... Never got to the next step (tonight). Now Ziggy got it after a while, with the stick in my hand. But I never got to the point of being able to move the stick all around and have him go to it. Some progress with both but not as quick as I would have thought. We'll return to it later tonight or tomorrow am. Not sure if I want to move to lesson 4 yet until they really get 3.

[Adina P]

Try a wooden spoon and use the SPOON end as the target to vary it...they might like that better.
See if you can get them to follow the stick, turn around for it, jump for it...etc a few more times. Lesson 4 won't involve the dog =) So you can do it and still work on lesson 3 some more.

[20xlhzzaoccks]

So I did another session with Steve tonight and he seemed less afraid of both the clicker and the spoon. He would touch the end of the spoon several times in a row and then act afraid again, so I would rub some of his salmon treats on the end of the spoon and that seemed to get him to touch his nose to it. I was able to get him to touch the spoon on both the right and left sides but I think it might take another few sessions for him to be touching it wherever it is.

[Nancy Greenberg]

thanks for the video clips...as they say a picture is worth a thousand words...well, a video speaks volumes! Duffy took to my yellow handle from the toilet plunger like a champ! Who needs to buy fancy gagets??? It was interesting that one of the videos suggested a blue or yellow tip....do dogs see in color?? :/ We played lots after the training session and he just romped and ran around....it was like he knew he had accomplished something monumental and was truly celebrating! It was a hoot! Bring on the next lesson! Nancy

[Kathy (Ellie & Oliver)]

I found that our 20 month doodle caught on much faster than our 5 year old doodle. It was fascinating to watch the younger one try to figure out what he was suppose to do to get a treat. You could see he was trying to problem solve the situation. The older doodle needs much more practice. Elllie kind of got it. She eventually put her head down and had had enough. I remember reading or someone saying that older dogs might take awhile to get the idea. I'm going to try the technique in video 2 tomorrow. I think that clicker training is like taking a leap of faith when trying some thing new. Eventually we'll see how all of the pieces fit together. So far so good!!!