Day 5 of the 7-day Mini Course

[Adina P]

Day 5's Lesson is: Behavior Fluency.

Share your experience and thoughts here!

[Denise, Winnie, and AngelAbby]

I am having a harder time with this one for some reason - she looks at the mouse pad and looks at me with a look that says "NOW what do you want me to do!!??" I have physically placed her paw on the pad and she just doesn't seem to get it. Anyone else having trouble with today's lesson??

[Adina P]

Don't place her paw. Just give it some time. Try repeating it briefly through the day...try taking her into the bathroom with you where there is less room and she will more likely step on it. Or move it around...wave it around...toss it on the floor away from her so she investigates. You can even click a few times (no more than 2-3) for her sniffing it or looking at it so she shows interest.

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

Adina,
We just did lesson # 3 this morning and it went so well I was amazed!!!!! I did #4 last night and will go onto #5 maybe later today or tomorrow. My question is do you have any tricks to get them to the paper? The Target stick made sense, but I dont know how to connect the mouse pad and treat. Don;t want to confuse him..The video's you sent of target stick were VERY helpful and I couldn;t have done it so well without them. Do you have one for this lesson?

[Adina P]

Hmmm...no tricks cuz my dogs tend to want to investigate things I put in front of them.
So I would say maybe hold the mousepad in front of them...if nothing...then move it around the floor. or put it right between you and the pup so she's almost forced to step on it if she moves.

You can click for her sniffing it at first so she shows interest in it...but don't click for more than 2-3 sniffs so she doesn't think THAT is what you want. Does your dog like to paw at things ... maybe hold it up higher in your palm and she might paw at it. If not just toss it on the floor, move it around and hang out and watch her for 5 minutes and hope she steps on it and be prepared to click.

[Adina P]

Also read Vicki's report below...seems her dog wasn't getting it but with a little more practice and some patience she DID!

[Linda and Murphy]

In agility, I have used a 2ft x 1 ft board as a "contact trainer" (as opposed to the mousepad) trying to teach 4 feet on or 2 feet on. (Murphy needs a 3ft board for the 4 on!) It may be more visible and have more "feel" than a mouse pad and the principle is the same.

Thanks for the comment Denise. (Clicker training.."Wow, did he really just do that?!") Murphy already new what I wanted for this one (he had more trouble with the target stick, but I think he was just being stubborn.) so he just needed to get rid of that lab puppy. LOL

[Kathy (Ellie & Oliver)]

I agree with Denise. This lesson seems to be more difficult to get across. I've tried it twice with each doodle. At first, they both just looked at me as to say, "Well, what should I do?" I rubbed some yummy salmon treats on the target. They went for the smell, touched it with their nose but it said that you should only count that action 2-3 times. I also took their paw and touched the target and also tried calling them to me. It is so funny each dog came to me but avoided touching the target. They walked around it again and again. I also moved around the room and moved the target around on the floor. I saw a little progress the second time. Will try this challenge again later today. Kathy (Ellie & Oliver)

[Adina P]

All I can say is keep trying. Hold the mouse pad up higher with your hand out flat... or you can hold off on this exercise for the future and pick something else to click for that they've never done.

[Adina P]

We did this early...same day as the target stick lesson:

Rosco--touched the mouse pad with his foot right away. We've done other foot touch exercises in the past using other items (box, "Easy Button" from staples--great trick!) so he has some experience. However, after moving it around for a while he sort of seemed to get confused..."um...I've touched it a million times..why can't I just get all the treats?" So then he sat and sat and then started barking at me. At which point I turned my back to him, waited a few seconds and turned around to try to end on a good note. I picked the mouse pad up and moved it again and got another touch and ended it there.

Thule--she was hilarious! She's very paw oriented and will punch things, but seemed spooked by the mouse pad as if it was the weirdest thing she'd ever seen and would back away and lie down and bark. She wouldn't touch it on the ground. So I held it on my palm at about the height a dog would shake your hand if your dog knew 'shake' and at that level she pawed it and she got lots of clicks and treats.. So I tried putting it on the ground but again she was unsure. We did improve over the course of the session, but we'll have to repeat today so it is well learned.

I did not do this with Cass.

[Linda and Murphy]

Murphy has done this one with the bush button lights. Unfortuantely, he has crushed quite a few lights! I did find some at the dollar store.

[Vicki Bosko]

My OH MILEY! She wore me out on this one. We worked on it off and on all day. I did not think she was getting it at all. It seemed like she was just stepping on the mouse pad by accident, but I clicked and treated any way. I just left it on the garage floor because we were outside most of the day. When we got back from our walk, Miley went right to it and stepped on the mouse pad. I clicked and treated, then she did it again, and then she went one further, she went to it and sat right on it! She looked at me as if to say, "How's that for you?" She is a riot. Thanks to all the advice from my frustration yesterday, we had a much better day!

[Holly Paterniti]

CONGRATULATIONS Vicki :) YEAH Miley :) Way to go :)