My dog needs a job?

[savingdogs]

My dogs need jobs too,....anyone hiring??? They need to pay for their own food,...they are so lazy and I am tired of paying for everything! All they do is lay around ALL day and lick themselves,......they won't even bark at a stranger,.. Its worse than having teenagers in the house! I have threatened to send them overseas in a wooden crate marked FOOD,...the dogs,not the teenagers. They don't care,. (Just kidding,..but I couldn't resist "My dog needs a job? sorry )

 

[Shiloh Acres]

thought of you when I saw this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9Fyey4D5hg

Yup, I'm still thinking we may need to do this kind of thing too. That equals a LOT of time spent training, I'm thinking!

Wonder if I can teach him to build rabbit cages and dig in the garden ... In a USEFUL way I mean!

 

[tortoise]

The "tricks" in the youtube video are deceptively easy. Almost everything in the video is based off of the "tug." Once you train one, it's so easy to add others.

 

[Shiloh Acres]

Can you point me to a website or resource, or have any info you can copy/paste? We're working on the discrimination training, but honestly, he needs more since it's so basic and I planned to do it a step at a time. At this point it's similar (in terms of occupying him) to a couple games of fetch. He could use a little more mental engagement since the discrimination is going to go slowly over a period of months.

Thought the dog might help me, not have me digging around looking for more stuff to teach him just to keep him happy. It's my fault though, I forgot what it was like to have a young working dog.

Thanks for the info, I'll look online too.

 

[tortoise]

Can you point me to a website or resource, or have any info you can copy/paste? We're working on the discrimination training, but honestly, he needs more since it's so basic and I planned to do it a step at a time. At this point it's similar (in terms of occupying him) to a couple games of fetch. He could use a little more mental engagement since the discrimination is going to go slowly over a period of months.

Thought the dog might help me, not have me digging around looking for more stuff to teach him just to keep him happy. It's my fault though, I forgot what it was like to have a young working dog.

Thanks for the info, I'll look online too.

What info are you looking for? I'm confused.

 

[Shiloh Acres]

Sorry Tortoise, sometimes I'm as clear as mud. I don't put my thought together well on a screen that's about 3" x 1/2" either.

You mentioned everything in that video coming off of "tug"? I was interested in that and related commands. He needs MORE to learn since he'd rather just spend a day or two on each new thing then put it into use.

I rather like the idea of having him pick up trash, though doing it in practice he wouldn't get much of a workout.

Sigh, poor guy, I was busy without him most of yesterday, and he spent more time than usual in the crate today while I was gone. He was so excited to "work" that he was out of control and forgot his manners. I won't have a huge out of control dog. I had to go back to collar and leash and make him do the basic sit/stay/down/come over and over and OVER until he finally chilled out and behaved. Then the cat chose that time to full-out attack his tail while he was on a down-stay. She's never done that before and while I might appreciate as a bit of strengthening him against distraction when he's doing well, I would not have chosen TONIGHT for that nonsense. He stayed though, and only refused to lie down facing away from her after that, so I guess it wasn't all bad.

But no, I meant training for "tug" and other things you might train a mobility or service/type dog for, just to keep his mind busy and give him something to DO in the interim, since at the moment the scenting work isn't "work" for him as it's so easy?

Hope that makes sense.

Thanks!!!

 

[tortoise]

For a "task" tug, you need the dog to pull STRAIGHT back and build up confidence.

Playing tug is actually really complicated. In general, don't let go of the tug until your dog is pulling straight backwards in a series of tugs. When your dogs tugs correctly the dog wins the tug. The dog wins the tug every time.

I hate to tell you to buy a DVD, but tug is a powerful training tool. This is a good video: http://leerburg.com/221.htm I think there is one by Ivan Balabanov called "The Game" but I can't speak for that one.

 

[Shiloh Acres]

Thanks.

I'll watch the video. I can't buy a DVD at the moment, but I'll keep it on my list.

The good news is I haven't already mis-trained him on that. I always played tug with my other dogs, and encouraged them to pull to the side. This pup ... Does not want to tug. I'm sure I can do it though. It's funny ... He does no version of "speak" either. He DOES let me know if somethings going on, if he needs to go out and I'm in another part of the house, etc. But he does not get excited and let out that little yelp that I encourage when teaching a dog to bark on command.

Weird dog. First one I ever trained that doesn't want to bark or tug. I love him tho.

BTW, Tortoise, I looked at your blog. I'm REALLY curious what kind of HUGE rabbit that is in front of you? At least it looks monstrous in the pic. IS it a rabbit, and is it real???

Enquiring minds REALLY want to know.

And, cool blog!

 

[tortoise]

They are French Angoras. These are juniors that weigh about 6 pounds now. They will grow up to at least 9 pounds.

Yeah, they're real!

Read about clicker training. Master it. With clicker training you can train a dog to tug - even if it isn't an easy/natural behavior for the dog.

You can do so much with clicker train if you really understand it.

Here is my first trick dog. It's actually a blooper video, but it shows a lot of her training. I taught her 8 positions, a variety of location and movements. I could chain together 3 commands. Go to X, take Y position and make Z movement. She was a dog that knew so many words I could just talk to her. She was so responsive that I could retire the clicker as she responded to the expression on my face.

http://www.youtube.com/user/vanne529#p/a/u/0/ePs7KqZxhuQ

Here is my most recent trick dog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Knri09PBIkA

 

[Shiloh Acres]

Thanks, Tortoise!

I think it's a visual thing in the pic with the rabbits. I had to look at it on a computer screen instead of my phone. The brown rabbit looks like the head is HUGE but I think it's the rest of the rabbit gathered up behind the head. They look a lot bigger than 6 pounds though. My rabbits are probably in the 8-11 pound range. I guess that fluff makes them look a lot bigger. If it wasn't so hot here, I'd LOVE to try fiber rabbits but I just don't think it'd be fair to them as we get close to a month over 105F at high humidity.

Thanks for the info. I used to do clicker training with other animals (cats, parrots). I'm looonnngg out of practice and I have no idea where my clicker is anymore, but I'll think about that. I've never used it with dogs.

I liked your dog videos. The one that went backward through your legs was pretty impressive. I taught my dogs to "back up" but not to that degree with turns and all.

It's funny, I taught my other dogs (eventually) things like to lay back their ears, look this way or that, hold the tail still, etc. Lots of positional things. Just to keep them from getting bored, really. It becomes intuitive after a while, I don't know, the dogs seem to do most of the work and it's almost a matter of thinking what you want them to do and they do it. That's after YEARS of working together though. This young boy is nowhere near that, and I have to remind myself of what the others were like when they were young. They drove me crazy at times, LOL!!!

He enjoys working though. There is a "snap" to his responses that I like to see. He's enthusiastic. Just not precise yet, and he's smart so he quickly makes mistakes and puts them into his routine. When I first started working with him on finding something by scent, I would have him lie down on a particular blanket and stay there while I went to hide the toy. I guess he threw his leg out too far and touched my leg on the way down, and I didn't realize it. For SEVERAL days he had the idea that he MUST touch my leg with his paw as he laid down when we were doing that, and it was hard to break him of it, he was so "excited" by this "new discovery".

I'm just not used to a dog that wants SO badly to work. He keeps me on my toes. I'm just trying to find what will give him a good outlet, and keep him happy and not frustrated.

Thanks again.