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A fun new skill to try and teach my dog
Hey everyone! I hope you’re all doing well. I had thought of a fun new skill to teach my dog, and that is picking up his toys and putting them in a large bin (“cleaning up). I wanted to get your thoughts on where to start, as well as offering my own ideas.
First off, a little background on my boy. He’s a Labrador retriever who is lives up to his name. He’s an incessant retriever (and often brings things back on his own without me even asking). His retrieve is very energetic and he gets very adrenalized when he’s doing (definitely some over arousal here). It’s not the most “polished” or “finessed” retrieve you’ve ever seen but I don’t have a problem with that. He’s from hunting lines so I think that is partly the reason for the adrenaline.
However, in this case, I definitely want to see if I can get him to lower his arousal, and think through the process a bit. I think in regards to that, a possible starting point could be polishing his “fetch” cue with a “boring” object (not sure if there is such a thing for a lab). thoughts?
Thanks in advance!
Hope you’re all well!
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6 Replies
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Hi Zane,
What a fun topic. With some practice, you can get him to pick up all his toys and put them away! 🙂
I found this great little snippet you posted awhile back, when you were teaching Tuff to target a ball. I attached it here, because I think a similar approach will work for you in teaching him to retrieve calmly.
With the service dogs, we start with things that don’t ellicit play behavior – keys, for example. Then use shaping to teach the hold, first. After they understand holding, dropping is easy to put on cue, and picking up is easier too.
One idea to help your dog reset between repetitions is to toss his food reward away from you. He’ll leave to go eat the treat, and come back for more.
Keep us posted on your progress with Tuff!
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@ zane: Thanks for posting this really cool idea! Actually,: I have a few clients who say they want this exact behavior, but they laugh about it and think it’s like trying to teach kids to put toys in the toy box: possible, but futile. (Actually, kids can, too, but how often do we use positive reinforcement to train them???)
That’sa totally different discussion!
I am sure Tuff will be great at it! Yes, start with a boring object. I taught a task of picking up a cane to a 7 year old service dog who was initially afraid of the sound of the cane…her owner has MS. It took time, desensitization and pay, pay, pay to achieve it, but she can now perform this very cool task and not even need a verbal cue (the cane falling IS the cue!). I didn’t have any experience in training service dogs before. It sounds like Tuff loves retrieving, so YAY!!!
@catherine: I love what you said and could seriously use some guidance in the service dog realm, as I am learning as I go… and forgive me for asking, could we please have a channel about service dogs, or retrieving/mobility tasks?
Good luck, Zane and Tuff!!!
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@bernerlabreclectus – can you please bring your “service dog channel” idea to the advisory group? That’s a good one! And wonderful, teaching a dog to safely retrieve a cane is amazing. It.Is.Not.A.Stick! That’s actually a really delicate behavior to teach. Well done!
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That sounds like such a win-win @bernerlabreclectus – thank you for sharing it with us.
(the cane falling IS the cue!)
I’ve shifted previous Triggers into Cues, using a mix of Classical and Operant Training, with dogs who show fearful/reactive behaviors but hadn’t considered it in Service Dog Training!
@zaneb, does Tuff consider new items more or less interesting than items he has interacted with before?
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Hi @jenwalker so sorry I never saw this reply. Tuff is a creature of habit and he likes to stick to his usual favorite toys (tennis balls, sticks, dummies). I don’t think he’d have a problem with new toys though if it were presented to him in a fun manner though.
@programdev I haven’t really had time to work on this lately. It’s been a while. It’s been a really busy summer with clients and working on Tuff’s separation anxiety, so that has sort of taken precedence for now. But I do need to make time for fun stuff with him. Thank you so much for checking in regarding this!
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@zaneb Any update on Tuff’s clean up routine?
Bliss loves to bring me things so we started working on this too… I’d love to know where you are in the process.
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