In the short weeks that I have had Eddie, he has learned a
kit and caboodle of behaviors and cues which are very diverse, and not what one
would learn in a six week obedience class.
There was the 'shaping' of different ways to interact with a plastic tub, to his now known repertoire of cues going in the order below:
“Better Go Now” (to go potty on command)
“Release” (being released from a cue)
“Kennel” ( just as it describes)
“Uh Uh” (stop that behavior)
“Off” (from jumping
up on someone or something)
“Car” (getting in the
car)
“Wait” ( a brief pause)
“Name” ( Eddie)
“Come” ( as it implies)
“Easy” ( taking something from the hand in an easy manner.)
When training for general obedience, my normal course would
go like this. Teach the dog its name, eye contact (watch me), sit, down, heel,
wait, stay, leave it, and come. Generally
one to two commands would be taught a week. We would normally say the dog’s
name, lure the dog into a position if needed, give the command, and then click
and treat. We also would not start training a dog in public until all puppy shots were
done, thus making the dog near or over the 3 month mark. In many instances, people do not take their dogs for training until they are older and more problematic.
Having gotten Eddie at the age of 7 weeks old, and
starting training with him that very week, he has already learned more than
what many older dogs would learn in a six to eight week obedience course.
Through my training
with Eddie you will notice that his name was not actually put to a formal cue
until pretty far down the list. We have
not, up to this point, done any luring with special treats, rather we wait
patiently for the puppy to figure out a behavior we want to see, then click and
treat that behavior using his normal daily dose of dog food.
We don’t actually introduce the cue until about a week later, or longer, with the
exception of ‘Better go now’, which we use right away, both on leash and
off.
I hate to brag, but Eddie is one very smart little puppy,
more than likely due to excellent breeding stock. As I went through his list of
75 cues that he would eventually have to do, I noticed that he is already doing
things on that list that I have not asked of him. For instance, there will come a time when I
have to put to cue “go to your bed.”
Since day one, Eddie has been coming into the house and going directly
to one of the dog beds in the kitchen, regardless if there is already a dog
lying on that bed! He will go to the bed, sit down, sometimes sitting on
Brody’s head, and look at me and wait. I
have never asked him to do this, but though I cannot yet put a cue to it, I
want to build on that behavior and reward him for it each time. Sitting was another cue Eddie had been
performing from the day I brought him home. He will follow me from room to room
and sit in front of me, then look up at me as if to say, “Here I am!” This is a desired behavior; however that cue
has not yet been introduced either.
I am finding it fascinating that though this way of training, to me, seems backwards, it works just as
well, if not better. If the dog is doing the desired behavior on its own and
being rewarded for it, we know the dog will repeat that desired behavior for
the reward, and then, we add the cue to
it later. In the end, the dog has learned or taught itself a desired behavior
for life. On the other hand in normal
obedience training, we put the command to the dog, then lure him into place, and
then we are finding at times that we need to repeat our commands more or give
more prompts/treats to get the desired behavior.
At this point, I have to say that I am thrilled to be
learning a new way of doing things, and I can see why it takes so long to ready
a dog for life long skills to aid a human. I can also
see why normal obedience classes would not work this way for a trainer. The
cost would be phenomenal due to the time it takes and there would be no clientele who could afford
it!
Of course shaping and cues are not the only things going on
for Eddie during the week. There is socialization to a variety of people,
places, other dogs, sounds, textures, and more. We go through stores with Eddie
sitting on his bed in a shopping cart so he can see and hear all that go on. One of his favorite places is Home Depot, where he get lots of
loving, and his second would be Target, where on a nice day, he can sit outside the
store and greet people, as well as practice his skill of walking nicely beside a cart.
One day while sitting outside of Target, I asked an elderly lady if we could follow her to her car so Eddie could practice walking beside a cart. She was very happy to help us in our mission and we chatted as we walked. It turned out to be a bit longer than we expected as she forgot where she parked her car! Ah, the little smiles in life!
One day while sitting outside of Target, I asked an elderly lady if we could follow her to her car so Eddie could practice walking beside a cart. She was very happy to help us in our mission and we chatted as we walked. It turned out to be a bit longer than we expected as she forgot where she parked her car! Ah, the little smiles in life!
We also go to the lakes so he can experience the texture of the
sand, the docks, and the water, as well as see the geese and sea gulls up close and
personal.
At this point in his
life, Eddie seems to like all people he has come in contact with and has only
been frightened by a couple of items. One being a bunch of small flags on the
church lawn, that seemingly touched him like a bunch of fingers coming up from the
ground in a bad Halloween movie, and the other frightening thing was the hollow
sounding water drains that run through the sidewalks of town.
How you can help from afar!
This Thursday, November 17, in MN is Give to the Max Day. It
is a day for all to come out and support organizations that make the
communities stronger. Eddie and the E
litter will be on display to the community showing what they have learned so
far. I am sure there are many wonderful
organizations out there but I am partial to this one!
If you have an extra ten bucks to spare, it will go
a long way in helping another human to gain a piece of their life that was taken from
them through special circumstances or illness. Actually you will be helping more
than just one person; a dog such as Eddie can help the whole family in many
ways. A dog like Eddie can give a war veteran with PTSD the strength to take his kids to a park, or
to school. A dog like Eddie can help a
person dependent upon a wheelchair and family, to become independent in other
ways thereby freeing up some family duties.
10 bucks people! Compare it. If you drink two cups of
Starbucks coffee a day, you will spend 126.00
a month, or 1,533.00 in a year,
and 45, 99.00 over 30 years!
Now, doesn’t ten
dollars seem like a real bargain? Help me to help them!
Click this link to take you to the donation page. LINK Type in Helping Paws and the amount you wish to donate.
Click here to see Eddie learning the retrieval of every day household products
UPDATE: Eddie has come a long way since the above clip when he was just a pup, He can now retrieve items and place them in my hand, close doors and drawers, turn on lights and remove clothes from the dryer. click here is a short clip of this .
UPDATE: Eddie has come a long way since the above clip when he was just a pup, He can now retrieve items and place them in my hand, close doors and drawers, turn on lights and remove clothes from the dryer. click here is a short clip of this .
