Trick of the Week: Hug!

So I asked the girls at work to order me a "big bag of Benny Bullies" (dehydrated liver treats). We order in 500 g bags for clinic use because we have cookie jars all over the hospital filled with these treats (we also sell much smaller bags to clients). Anyway... imagine my surprise on Tuesday when the order came in.

Ha ha... okay, I guess if you want to get technical... this is the largest bag we can order so this is technically correct. I really just wanted a 500g bag not a 1.5 kg bag. Oh well. dogs are happy!

And here is more work on the sit pretty. I am experimenting with allowing her to put her feet on me or having me hold her feet to help stabilize her. Most of the time though she's actually using me A LOT. I'm not sure that's good. On the other hand maybe it will allow her to build her core muscles and improve her balance and if I slowly wean away how much I allow her to use me... it'll come. Don't know. I was also trying to sneak in behind her here but she really does not appreciate that for some reason.

On the bright side... there is no air between her butt and the ground in these videos! I think that's good. If she can get her butt right on the ground she will have more surface area to balance on.

[YOUTUBE]Rngh_1dyVNw[/YOUTUBE]

Krissy, I think it might be harder and take longer weaning her off of balancing against you that way. When you're behind them and letting them lean against you, you take some of the strain off of them but they still have to work at balancing. I think that, or the peanut butter trick, would build up her endurance faster and be easier to move away from later.

That being said, I think it's awesome you've even gotten as far with her as you have! And I haven't been able to watch the latest video since I'm on my phone. Just throwing my .02 in!

I agree but I cannot lure her up from behind. She actually has a minor freak out. I MAY be able to convince her to allow me to slip in behind her once she's up like I was attempting to do in the video, but I don't think she will pop up with me starting behind her. She will not go for the peanut butter on a spoon (well spatula... I don't have a wooden spoon) as I already tried that. Dunno. She's a freak.

ETA: not trying to shoot down everyone's ideas. Just haven't had much success with these two particular ideas so far. I appreciate the suggestions!

Krissy, one last idea! Do you think you could try going back and shaping it?

That's how I taught Didgie Sit Pretty and because of that I didn't need to lure her so she wasn't dependent on staying up while eating the treat. And that way her duration increased pretty naturally because she stayed up as long as she could. I still used reward placement just so she wasn't dropping down to get the treat at the end but I kept my hands down until that point.

Otherwise I say try with the spoon and maybe against a wall instead of having her hold onto you.

And, seriously, great job so far!!

ETA: I just wanted to add I personally almost think shorter reps by herself help more than holding her. I noticed with my dogs that when I helped them they got very sloppy and lazy fast. So even if it's while she's eating the treat she's doing it all by herself and having to keep really good form.

Agreed. When I first taught Tempie, she was pretty young and not well-conditioned, so we did a TON of short reps before she got strong enough to hold the position. I did maneuver her occasionally so that she was leaning back against the side of the couch to help get the idea of holding the position longer, but I made sure most of what we did kept her balancing on her own even if it was only for a second.

Ok, well then we'll just do it the way we were. I just wasn't sure if we were supposed to e making progress... 'Cause we're totally not. But if that's reasonably normal then that's cool!

Yeah, I thought you were doing great!

Also, I hope it doesn't sound like I'm telling you what to do... I've never trained a dog with that kind of build. Boone is long and deep chested but not to the same extent. I just wanted to make sure you realized that most of the dogs doing this already have a "sit pretty," so I didn't want you to think you had plateaued just because it was taking longer to build up duration.

Also, here is where I am with Boone now:
[YOUTUBE]7cDFawYC3b0[/YOUTUBE]

I decided to switch him to hugging it to him instead of holding it out since that will work better with a wider variety of objects. So this session was spent trying to ease it towards him without him backing away like he had been.

No, I appreciate the suggestions. I have never tried to teach tricks like this to a greyhound. They are totally unsuited to it. Lol. But I want to try. I just thought maybe she should be progressing more. I've never taught this to any dog actually. It's all new!

Yea, sit pretty is a trick unto itself. It took Squash quite some time to get the strength and learn the balance. We're definitely going into this trick already knowing it or it would be a LOT harder.

Oh, man. When I first started watching Boone I was like OMG THAT IS MAISY. Including the starting to paw from across the room, lol. He looks really good!

I'm also trying to sneak the bat closer, and I tied a hand towel on the bat because I thought he might be more grabby with it. He was not pleased that I was more selective with my marking. I edited them all out but a couple of times he'd stare at me, stare at the treats, stare at me, stare at the treats....

Anyway, here we are. No videos of Pip and Maisy tonight because they're still pretty much getting comfortable with double-pawing the bat.

[YOUTUBE]Dd6eZiKB0SY[/YOUTUBE]

Squash looks awesome! He's definitely getting the idea of putting his paws around the pole, which is where we are stuck. Good job Polar Bear.


Here's Lola's second.
[YOUTUBE]ZwjFFobz-vk[/YOUTUBE]

That's where Maisy and Pip are stuck, too. They do exactly what Lo's doing*, they'll get good duration with both paws on, but they aren't wrapping their paws around. Squash is just sort of... grabby, so it was an easy thing to capture with him.


*Except Lo is more adorable.

Well, at least we are stuck with great company!

Pretty much every time I see a video of Maisy, I'm like OMG THAT IS BOONE. So I understand. lol

For those having trouble with getting dogs to wrap their paws around (read: those without a polar bear), have you tried using a wider object? It's a little easier to mark the correct position of their paws.

I think I remember running into the same problem (paws not wrapping). It was a tough one to deal with. Try repositioning your body so you mix it up a bit. I think I even went so far as to physically move Cohen's paws so they wrapped. You could try a slicker pole too, or holding the pole at a different angle.

All of your cute huggy dogs are making me jealous!!! I think I'm going to give this a go while I'm sitting here bored at the clinic today. Zuma is here, so she'll be the lucky experiment.

Drat, I came here hoping someone had discovered the magic answer for getting the dogs to actually "hug" the object, but it looks like I'm stuck where most people are. Gusto will double-paw the pole, and will sit pretty with both feet resting on it, but won't wrap around it at all. I think he's maybe leaning on it some, which is odd because he's got great duration on in independent sit pretty. I'll have to video, if I can find my real video camera. I tried to use my phone to video, but it was too dark in the room.

Which is a real shame, because there were some stellar moments. I tried to capture a picture and lighten it up enough to see. In case it is hard to tell, this is Gusto, backed up the pole with his tail pointing straight up, and me trying to decide if I should laugh or cry.

I started only clicking when Sloan grips the bar, around with her wrist bent, it helps BUT she keeps pulling it to her chest and then it falls an she falls and I cry.

Le Sigh.

I started training Pirate tonight. I tried to tape it but realized my battery was dead. I thought I'd skip the stick and just go straight to the stuffed animal with him. That worked pretty good but I went back to the stick after a few minutes.

Bayleigh will now grab and hold the stuffed animal for a few seconds before she drops it. She's so cute and just started using her mouth like Cohen. lol

I just did session 1 on this. I know I'm behind. I was going to film but no battery in my camera. I wish I had because Summer's path to realizing I wanted her to go for the pole and not the base of the swiffer was freaking hilarious. Ah well.

Summer is standing on her back legs and gripping the pole with her feet, but she's not wrapping her arms around the pole at all. She'll put her feet on both sides then hold it that way. I think I'm going to try adding the object in and see if that makes it easier for her to grab.

Mia falls down a lot. She will jump up then start scratching frantically at the pole with both feet. I'm trying to click for slower scratches but she hasn't figured out to just put her feet on it and be still.

Funny, the perch one was so easy for Mia and hard for Summer but this one is going the other way.

Also, mine aren't sitting pretty, they're on their back legs. I'm not sure if that will work but Summer can balance ridiculously long on her back legs.