By the end of the day the youngest of the bunch, Yoko, was still eager to learn. She is learning from Bob to press a lever. The other dogs are pretty much mentally wasted and probably a little of jealous of Yoko's continued enthusiasm. Kilt, Yoko's mother, finally decides that enough is enough and interrupts the training session. We all had a good laugh.
Bob pretty much considers teaching one behavior a "trick." We argue this point often. Well, let's say we have heated discussions. He feels that it is demeaning to our dogs. He likes to teach a string of behaviors. I call that bridging, but he calls that "the dog thinking on his own."....or something along those lines.
BARTThis particular "problem" we presented them was to hit the lever. A pot was upside down on the other end and when they hit the lever it would flip over right side up. Then there was another bowl close by that the dog would figure out to "nest" inside of the pot, and finish by picking up a ball and placing it in the bowl. Personally, I don't think that was challenging enough. All of our dogs know how to "nest".....pick up objects and place them inside of other objects. :0)
We used to have them pick up a spice jar (bottle) and place in on small saucer. Then we would have them pick up a quarter and put it in the spice jar. I thought that took some thinking and dexterity. I think Bob thought his dogs would swallow the quarter (I'll probably stand corrected). Both Kilt and Jet do it with 90% plus accuracy. I will try to film this for you since it is pretty cool.
No comments:
Post a Comment