I’m exhausted. I’m glad I don’t have to drive home alone. Well, except for Mike, but he can’t talk to me or go into the Hot Spot for drinks. Lorna was almost as tired as I was, though!
Tonight we worked on FOCUS, SIT, sustained SIT, and Loose Leash Walking. We also started on DOWN.
Mike does great with the first three and we are working on the leash stuff. He does great at home but add in any distraction and out it goes! He is getting DOWN but not so good I am adding the word yet. I can do the hand signal (point down to the floor near his feet) and he will do it if he knows the treat is there. The teacher suggested to us that we switch the treat to the other hand once the dog is going down relatively well. Point with one hand, wait for the down, the click and give the treat with the other hand. She and I discussed Mike’s over-willingness (for lack of another word) to do a task. Like, he will do a SIT and then not get up, even when released. It was the SIT that got him the treat so by george, he is going to SIT. At class, he will get up and walk away when I toss a treat onto the floor and say his release word (free). But at home, nope, not gonna do it.
Tonight in class, we did a few DOWNs then he went into a down without me giving the signal. I didn’t treat for it because I didn’t ask for it. I knew this was Mike planning ahead. This is actually a good thing for a Service Dog as it shows he can think around a task and come up with a different way to do it. The best example of this is from an article I read a while back. This woman trained her dog to take the drink bottle from her, take it to the kitchen, put it into the recycling bin, and return to her. She then had the dog go to the kitchen and bring her a new drink. The dog one day dropped the empty bottle into the bin and stood there for a moment. He then got a new drink and brought it to her. This was him thinking around the task and realizing what was next. This actually cost him a reward since he only returned to her once but, of course, she praised him highly for his thinking. This was the same dog that, earlier in its training, brought her a cassette box one day. She figured he’d found it on the floor somewhere. She took it from him, gave him his reward, and she went back to work. Less than a minute later, he’s back with another one. Not wanting to discourage him, but wondering where the second one had come from, she rewarded him again. When he came to her with the third, she figured out what he was doing. The snot was going to the cabinet and taking out a cassette, shutting the door, and bringing it to her. He knew he got a treat for it the first time so, he went and got more. She doesn’t know if the first one was on the floor legitimately or not. Regardless, he figured out what worked for him!
Joella has a small mouth and only brought me one thing at a time, like, my shoes. She’d go get one then go get the other. Mike, who has a huge mouth, will likely try to bring both at once. That is unless he figures out that means only one reward.
Okay, back to tonight’s class. We started working on DOWN and Mike’s getting good at it. He and I need to work on it more, though, and we need to work on him not jumping up on people. I never had this problem with Joella since she dislikes standing up on her back legs. Mike, however, can dance that way. I need to get someone to help me with this, though. Maybe Lorna and I can work together one or two nights a week. It is a big issue with Sam, too.
