Mike's Doghouse

The “put the bone on the nose” trick didn’t work. It may someday but neither of us (me and Mike) are interested in pursuing it. So what we will work on is “Where’s your tail?” Basically, it is getting him to go in a circle. He’ll do this already. I need to fine tune it some and tack on the cue. I think this will be funny as heck since he has a nub.

Teaching Joella her main trick was easy since all I had to do was add a cue to something she already did. She does a “Dead bug” where she lays on her back. She sleeps in that position a lot, too. So all I had to do was say “Do the Dead Bug” and she’d roll over. Mike doesn’t have anything he does like that. I’ve been watching him, trying to come up with something but, nope. The only thing he does really well is when he is focused and sitting, he sits so far upright, it looks as if you could knock him backwards by touching his nose. Of course, you can’t, but that’s how upright he sits. I looked at that from all angles and couldn’t come up with something to make it into. Basically, its a SIT and nothing more.

Meanwhile, Mike knows DOWN finally. We are working on OFF. He’ll do a WAIT for a long time. He put himself in his SPOT the other day. I praised like mad but his attention was on his food bowl up on the counter. House training is still going. He came to me tonight (Lorna must’ve forgotten to latch his crate). I petted him and finished what I was doing but by then it was too late. He’d made a mess in the kitchen. I let him out the back door while I cleaned it up. He did tell me, though. I thought maybe he was just saying “My door was unlatched!” but now I know better. He’ll go into his crate when Lorna opens the gate to the bedroom and says “Time for bed”. If he is full of himself, he’ll still be running around but if he is ready, he goes right into his box. We still have the small crate in the bedroom for him and the Big Boy Box in the living room. That’s where he stays when we go out.

I also just updated the command/cue list. It is in a spreadsheet in two different formats:

Commands.ods (OpenOffice spreadsheet)
Commands-xls.xls (Microsoft Excel)

I dislike the term “commands” but that’s what they are. With Joella, it is always a “request” that Her Highness then determines is worthy of fulfillment. She will do what I ask/tell her in terms of SD work. Basic obedience, though, is iffy at best. It is a mistake I will not be making with Mike.

Somewhere, I have a longer list of the commands Jo knows. Borrowing heavily on Marley’s list, here’s Joella’s SD commands:

1. Let me have it
2. What have you got
3. Get it
4. Bring it here
5. Get the other one
6. Get my shoes
7. Where’s Lorna
8. Back up
9. Get behind
10. Get your leash
11. Get in truck/car
12. Get in the house
13. Go around
14. Turn around
15. Look at me
16. Touch it
17. Open it/Pull it
18. Get Under
19. Take it

And her obedience requests:

1. Up*
2. Off
3. Down
4. Lay down
5. Out
6. Outside
7. Hurry up
8. Are you done*
9. Wait
10. Sit
11. Stay
12. Easy*
13. Leave it
14. Drop it
15. Gimme a kiss

(* are those that are also SD related)

I know there are others but that’s all I can think of right now. Mike will be taught all of those plus some others. Joella stinks on her recall (coming when called) and her Stay is almost as bad. Mike and I will be going to a series of dog classes starting this January. First there will be 5 of the Puppy Obedience classes followed by Basic Manners 1 and Basic Manners 2 (both are 6 weeks each, I think). Along the way, we’ll work on SD stuff but I want to make sure Mike has a solid obedience/manners footing. Mike knows “sit” and we are working on “down” and “out of the room” (used after meals). He knows “outside” means to go outside but he’s not made the connection that it means to do his business. He still is not house trained, dangit!

I have made a spreadsheet of the above commands with the word/phrase, what it means, and the reasoning behind it.

Commands list in OpenOffice.org format (.ods) and Commands list in MS Excel format (.xls). Let me know if you need it in another format; OpenOffice.org saves in several others. I will update the spreadsheets as Mike learns more or I remember more of Jo’s list.

If all goes well, Mike will grow up to be my Service Dog (SD). I live in a state with a great Service Dog In-Training law which will allow me to take Mike anywhere with me as long as he is fully house trained and obedient. Just like a “real” SD, Mike is not allowed to disrupt. I don’t expect to take Mike out until he is at least 6 mos old.

In the meantime, he and I will do regular dog training. We’ll be starting sometime in January by taking a Puppy Obedience Class with A Good Dog’s Life dog training school. After that, we’ll start the Basic Manners Class. All dogs should have some degree of training. It’s for their own good and safety. The owner learns how to communicate with their dog and the dog learns what his/her boundaries are.

Along the way, Mike will also be learning the basics of some of the future tasks he’ll be doing. Already he is learning “let me have it” (give me whatever it is in your mouth). All our dogs learn this anyway but for Joella and soon Mike, it is also used for when I want them to release the object they’ve just picked up for me.

I am an avid fan of clicker training. To work properly, teaching a task begins with breaking it down into the smallest steps, teaching those steps, then combine them. “Get it”, “bring it here” and “let me have it” will become the retrieve task. Even the step of “get it” could be broken down further by identifying specific objects. “Get my shoes” is Joella’s command for retrieving my shoes from another room. “Get it” is usually used for something the dog already knows I want.

It really is much simpler than it sounds. Stick with me and Mike throughout this process and we’ll learn/relearn it together.