Tricky T-day: Flipping out edition

So a few days ago I decided to try to get my Moose to balance treats on his nose and flip them in the air and catch them... much to his chagrin! When I last posted He was just looking down and letting the treat fall and I could not figure out how to get him to flip it. I guess he was reading while I typed because the next time I tried it he started flipping it up instead. He is still not very good at it but he is getting better at catching them. I need to work on the balance part and getting him to wait though!

Tricky T-day: Moose in the Box edition

This week we decided to get Moose to get in a box, also known as Dexter's Trick! Last Week Mango's momma decided to train both RH and Pee wee to do this so not sure why we are calling it Dexter's and not Mango's trick but I guess the black labs like to stick together!
Why you ask are we doing this? Because we can, I say! Plus I had a really big box that needed to be taken to the recycling place and this way we get to put it off a little longer!
I basically just did the same thing that they did which is to click any interest in the box and progress from there. I 'cheated' a little because Moose sort of knows what to do when I say 'go on in' whether it is a car or the front door or whatever (though I never formally taught him). I can also point and Moose will go to where I point so a few times when he was standing around I would either point at the box or say 'go on in' to guide him in that direction so I guess it is not, strictly speaking, free shaping but it helped get the ball rolling!
The video is really not very good (he is sometimes not even in frame!) but if you want to see go for it. Turn your volume down or you will hear lots of loud "whatagoodboy"s.


In the beginning you will see him get a toy and try to drop it in the box which cracked me up and scored him a treat. We are also working on 'clean up your toys' and I guess when he was not sure what to do with a box he figured 'why not put a toy in it!'. It really surprised me because as I understand it dogs do not generalize and this box looks nothing like his toy box and is in a room where we have never had the toy box and has never had toys in it. Guess it made sense to him and he got a treat because it made me giggle. ;-)
I thought the box was big but if I want him to get all the way in I am going to have to find a longer one...

Tricky T-day: Tables are turned edition

I am taking over this tricky T-day post from my momma to see if any of you have any people training advice. Some of you regular visitors will know that I trained my momma to open the door and let me out when I ring a bell. On most days momma is parked behind her computer totally neglecting me and she would probably never think to let me out if I had not trained her. So here is how it works: Momma click click clicking on a keyboard, I go to the side door where I keep the bell, and ring ring, then next thing you know momma comes trotting in and sees me standing there waiting for the door to be opened.

We have a similar arrangement at meal times. Momma click click clicking away at the keyboard and I will bring my jug into the office...

...and plop it on her lap which is the command for 'feed me NOW'. She learned all of this pretty quickly considering she is a kind of air headed blond with a short attention span!

So although this system works pretty well I have decided lately to change things a bit and I am trying to train her to come and feed me by ringing the bell. So it works like this: Momma click click clicking away on the key board, I go to the side door and ring ring then when she is on her way to the kitchen I will trot off and bring her my jug so she can fill it while she 'happens' to be up and in the kitchen!

The system is flawless except that she is apparently confused by the bell ringing having 2 meanings and is being very stubborn about it all. She will come open the door but when I don't go out and show up with my jug she stomps off muttering about 'not what the bell is for' and 'abusing the system'! Do any of you training experts have any tips on how to correct this behavior?



From Momma: This is the funniest thing to me that he has put together that ringing the bell is another way to get me out of the office and into the kitchen! Clearly I must have fallen for this a few times and reinforced it before I realized what he was doing. Such a sneaky Moose! Now that I am on to him it does not work anymore though so he will probably give up trying eventually. Not your Typical tricky T-day post but I could not help but feel he was the one shaping my behavior!

Tricky T-day: Tardy trainings edition

We have not posted any Tricky T-days in awhile but Ludo posted an update on his trick so we thought we would do the same. Ludo was sabotaged by Pepe but Moose was sabotaged by none other than ME! We have not practiced this trick in ages (almost a month) AND I am not using the most constructive training techniques so we have a lot of work to do!
Just for giggles I started tonight by asking him to 'pick up his toys' while I was sitting across the room on the couch. This is the level we had worked up to a month ago and as any trainer knows it is a good idea to start a bit easier to set them up for success. I was curious to see what he would remember. I also did not give him any clues we were about to 'work' on this. He knew I had treats but that was it. I included his clueless wanderings at the start of the video so you can see what happened and why it is not productive! I dropped back to an easier step to jog his memory and it worked and he did pretty well, but as usual I skipped ahead faster than I should.


Poor Moose, sabotaged by his own trainer! In spite of that he is coming along and I intend to keep working on it more often over the next few weeks.

Tricky T-day: Pickup artist

Be sure to stop by Parker's blog for an update on his condition. He was scheduled to come home last night and is hopefully starting to recover. We hope it will be smooth sailing from here on!

Here is our update on less serious matters... its Tricky T-day and Ludo's theme this month is to learn a helpful trick! So Moose is learning to pick up his toys. Our first session was two weeks ago and I think, in all, we have had 6 training sessions in that time (things have been busy so we are a bit behind!). He has come a long way in that short time though! In our first post about it I explained a little about how we started and it involved me sliding the basket under him as he dropped it. He gradually figured out that he should drop it in there though it was (and still is) far from perfect. There were lots of 'missed drops' where he would drop it next to the basket over and over again before finally moving one extra step or turning his head a little so it would drop in the basket. I had trouble helping him refine this but with patience he has gotten there on his own! There has also been some 'cheating' where he tries to take a toy that is already in the basket and drop it in and I have discouraged him from doing it, but last night he was really trying even harder to cheat and I am hoping this is an 'extinction burst'. This is where thee 'trainee' tries an unrewarded behavior even more before giving up on it. I have also noticed that he is faster to pick up his favorite toys and this cheating gets worse when he has already dropped his favorites in the basket so maybe it is just that he wants to play with them too ;-)

I think it would have been best to start by training him to drop a toy IN my hand but since he will bring things to me I figured that was close enough. However, it would have helped me narrow things down for him and in the end it might have taken less time and he might have succeeded more often.




I have now moved the basket to 4 different spots and in the last session I sat a little further away from the basket and the next step will be to move the basket to where it normally sits and for me to move further away. Ultimately I am hoping to advance to the point where he will put several toys in the basket after a single 'pickup your toys' command. If we keep it up I think we could have this down by the end of the month!

Tricky T-day: Trick or treat edition

We have still been working on 'pick up your toys' and have had some progress. But we also wanted to report on Moose favorite part of Tricky T-day, and that is the TREATS!

Last week I followed Honey's recipe for liver and sausage treats just to compare them to the usual stuff we use in terms of convenience, appeal (to moose), handling (for me) and nutrition.
For the liver treats she suggested lamb or ox (but I got Beef- oops!) liver and you just microwave it for 2 minutes or so (cooked all the way through) then cut it up into tiny pieces.
For the baked sausage you cut it up into pieces before you bake them then put them in the oven on low heat for 10-20 min. They should be sort of dry when they are done. I think this would work with hot dogs but I got one of the thicker type sausages (I think they are already cooked when you buy them) and I got the low fat Turkey variety (mostly because it was on sale).
In the past I have used Charlee Bears, Old Mother Hubbard mini biscuits (these are on the larger size of a 'training' treat even for Moose but I will throw some in for variety or jackpots). These are very convenient (dry and don't need to be refrigerated) which means they are easy to have on hand or in pockets. Moose is so highly food motivated that these work fine for some situations. I was also using Natural Balance Treat Rolls and Bil Jac liver treats when I wanted to use something more enticing since they are moist and have a stronger smell. In terms of nutrition I am comfortable giving these to my Moose as occasional treats but some of the ingredients (Glycerin, propylene glycol, phosphoric acid etc.) are things that don't seem like they belong in a doggie's diet and now that we are training more I did not want to over do it, plus they are expensive! So I wanted to switch to something more wholesome and decided to try out making my own treats and so I followed Honey's recipe!
Both were easy to prepare and a cheaper than packaged dogtreats. Both end up pretty dry to handle and keep well in the refrigerator or freezer and even seem fine for a several hours at room temp. In terms of healthiness, liver is good in moderation and I think the sausage might be a little better than the packaged treats but there is still lots of corn syrup and preservatives in it. In terms of appeal to Moose... OMD he went absolutely wild for liver! The package accidentally came open in the fridge and I did not realize it but noticed Moose sniffing around the edge of the fridge like crazy and then while I was cooking it he had this excited and kinda glazed look on his face and would not leave the kitchen until I put it away.
The first few pieces I tried to give him elicited this crazy loop of every trick I had ever taught him in an effort to get some (bow, back up, paw, sit, speak, down, repeat)! He really gets so excited that he can't focus when things are that tasty. But I got the idea that this is exactly what I needed to start working on a reliable recall in more distracting places.

With a piece of liver in my hand, getting his attention is a lot easier! So a few times when we have gone out on walks I take him to a dead end road and unclip the leash and we walk along with me calling him back after he has moved on. I know this does not seem like much but there is no way I would have tried this with the other treats because he will come for those when he is good and ready (i.e. done sniffing everything!) and I am always too nervous that I will have to track him through the neighborhood to get him back. Anyways, thanks Honey for the treat tips!
Hey... Don't forget to head over to Ludo's to vote on the best non-trick! Should you want to vote for Moose's Couch surfing, he is #32!

Tricky T-day Helpful hound edition

Ludo's theme for this month's Tricky T-days is to learn a helpful trick. At the moment Moose has 2 helpful tricks, 1. 'get your collar' and 2. 'get your Kong'. Of course both are good things for him but when it is time for walkies it helps me get him dressed and when it is time for me to leave and I want to stuff his Kong or Jug it is helpful that he will go and get it for me! Both of these were 'taught' just by saying it as I went to get the things myself and he eventually figured it out and the only reinforcement I needed was to take him on a walk or fill the toy which is what was going to happen anyway, so it was easy! I do think my boy is pretty smart though (not collie smart but still!).
So, what to do, what to do, what to do? As you saw in Monday's post I did not want to teach him anything to do with opening cabinets or fetching from the kitchen! I had considered that he could fetch my shoes when it was time for walkies but given his shoe fetish and tendency to leave teeth marks and slobber I did not want to encourage that either. I have a few ideas I came up with but settled on 'pick up your toys'! He has LOTS of toys and when his girl friends come over it can get a little crazy!
So I read how to do this and you are supposed to put your hand over the toy basket and ask him to drop it and eventually move your hand away then move the basket further away so he has to walk over to it and drop it. Well... lots of issues there! He knows 'drop it' and he knows 'bring it' and he knows 'toy' but he was tending to only choose his Kong to bring and once it was already in the basket he would take it out and drop it on the floor... sort of not what we are after! So really this trick involves getting him to 1. find a toy on the floor, 2. pick it up and 3. bring it over and 4. drop it in the basket.
So I started by clicking and treating interest in toys on the floor (esp toys other than his favorites), then getting him to pick it up, then walk with it. When he got to the point where he would do that I would quickly slide the basket under his beak so that when he dropped it, it would fall into the basket. At first I would click it even when he missed the basket. When he did manage to get one in the basket he got a 'jackpot' and lots of happy 'good boy' so he would get the idea that this is what we want.

I am pretty sure this is not the best way to do it and in retrospect I think I could have started using 1 toy in an empty basket. This would be less distracting to start with though you would still have to expand to the idea of going and finding toys that are not already in the basket and that is probably the hardest part! So far though, inspite of being kinda indecisive on the command and what I was clicking for, it seems to be working! As of this evening (training session #4!) as he has figured out he can take things to the basket and drop it directly in to score some cookies (as in the video)! Still a ways to go but my Moose seems to learn in fits and starts so I am hoping we will have some progress to report next week!

Tricky T-Day: Back to business edition

Here is our just under the wire Tricky T-day post! We have been really busy lately (here is why) so must admit to not making much time for training but started working on teaching 'back' last week and decided to get back to it tonight and this is our current progress. I have done maybe 5 short sessions of this but the video is our first try in at least a week! Not bad, but you can see we have a ways to go. Moose really catches on quickly considering how little I work with him!
We followed one of Honey's methods for training this and started by leaning forward (not stepping or walking towards him, just leaning) and clicking for any hint of a step back. From the start he would take a full step at least so we had an easy start. Since he was doing that pretty reliably I added the back command right as he was stepping back and that is about where in this process this video starts. Before tonight I had never given the back command alone without leaning and it is possible that this was a bigger step than he was ready for so we went back to leaning a few times.

It is important to remember that if you try to advance too fast and you are both getting frustrated and need a break, go back to really easy tries before ending the training session so it ends happy. You will also see I give the command 'stand' and click and treat for that during various training sessions. This is a command I just recently taught so am still reinforcing it when I use it, plus when he sits out of frustration it sort of snaps him out of it when he wins a treat by standing. Not sure if this would be confusing to some pups but it seems to work for us!

Tricky T-Day: Bow Wow edition

I was only planning to do one Tricky T-day each week but Moose wanted to show everyone how fast he has learned! We used the tips we saw on Honey's blog about teaching how to take a Bow. I realized that Moose would naturally do that behavior when he would stretch and he stretches ALOT so why not try to train it simply by capturing it. That is, Wait for him to do it then click and treat, then add the word "Bow" right as he is doing it. I clicked for stretching for about 4 days then added the word cue and did that for another few days then on Tuesday I asked him to Bow, not really expecting that he would do it, and he did it! I was really shocked! Then I tried to show some friends last night and of course he acted like he had never heard the word before in his life. He seems to have gotten more reliable with just a few tries today though. We have a ways to go but he has really picked it up fast! I think I could have added the word cue sooner and he would have gotten here even faster.
Here is a video showing where he was on Tuesday when I first tried to give him the command and the second part was today. At first he was having trouble doing it more than once in a row but that seems to be improving.

This skill is not terribly practical for us since unlike Honey, we are not performers but I decided to do it because I had a feeling it would be kind of easy to capture it and it is kinda cute. I have only trained one other behavior by capturing and that was 'go to your bed'.
We are now working on backing up using Honey's tips and it is moving along quite well. That is a more practical skill for us since it is a lot easier to get a giant Moose out of your way if he will go in reverse! We have plenty of practical things that need work so we are going to tackle some of those next but it was good to have something kind of easy (since Moose does it a lot anyway) to get us motivated again!
If you want to participate in Tricky T-day, stop by Ludo's and leave them a note!

Tricky T-Day: Ding-a-ling edition

It's Tricky T-day! I mentioned in last week's post that I trained Moose to ring a bell when he wanted to go outside. Before I even had my own dog, I loved the idea of this since it helps you understand what the dog wants. It is one of the few tricks where they give the cue and the human does the trick if you think about it! Once I got Moose home I found that he would scratch at the door to be let out which I really did not want to reinforce any longer and so this 'trick' was a real priority!
The 2 fundamental parts of this trick are to train the dog to ring a bell and to associate the bell with the door opening and the dog being let outside. 
I started by hanging the bell on the door knob and putting a tiny dab of peanut butter on it and when he would lick it it would ring and I would open it... No good! Messy, it was impossible to accurately mark the right behavior and when I opened the door it was a reward but it also moved the bell away which is a negative thing since he was still licking it! I also found that starting with the bell on the door resulted in him getting frustrated and resorting to scratching at the door. Too much collateral damage!
So I took a different approach and taught him to ring the bell on command as a first step. That way when it was time to go out we would go to the door I could cue 'bell' and he would ring it and I immediately opened the door.
Part 1 shows him learning to ring the bell by 'shaping'. I reinforced any interest in the bell. Since he already knows about the bell (though it has been 2 years since he has encountered it not on the door!) most of his actions result in the ringing sound but when I first did it sometimes he would just sniff and I rewarded that too. You can get pickier as the training progresses so that he only gets the reward for making it ring and only when he uses his nose to do it, etc. Once he is reliably nudging the bell I would say the word 'Bell' right as he touched it.


Part 2 shows the progression to hanging the bell and gradually the 'bell' cue is given earlier so that it is said before he is ringing it.


When he got really good at the bell command I could also give it from another room. He would scratch on the door and from my office I would say 'no' wait a few seconds and say 'bell' and he would ring and I would dash in and open the door! It was slow at first but then it seemed like he all of the sudden he got it and it was done! When I look back at old posts it looks like it took us a month or so to learn this one. This was a slower process than other things I have taught because I was essentially trying to un-train one behavior (scratching the door) that had been immediately and consistently reinforced for more than 5 years! Plus we were both new to each other and he had not done much training in his past life. I know he would learn it faster now. That is the awesome part about this kind of training, every trick is easier than the last because you both get better at it!
The other important part that helps with the association is that even when you are not working on it, if the bell is attached to the door it will automatically ring when it is opened and closed which helps them make the link between bell ringing and door opening. I have read that hanging a bell on the door is enough to teach this behavior in some dogs with no effort on your part so this is why it is pretty important that the bell is hanging on the door rather than on the wall next to it where it won't ring unless you remember and no one remembers 100% of the time!
Some of you may recall that TeddyNo learned to ring the bell with no effort on my part. He either put two and two together on his own or was copying Moose, either way, if you have multiple dogs you could probably start with the leader and the rest may get it on their own.
If anyone out there decides to give it a try I would love to hear about it! Honey has also trained her human to open the door when she rings, so she may have a different way if this does not work!
If you wanna share your tricks, stop by Ludo's blog and let them know!

Tricky T-Day Intro

Honey and some other DWB have gotten us excited about training again so this is our first Tricky T-Day post! I ordered a new treat bag and it happened to arrive today. I have others that clip on and close with a drawstring but this one is more convenient because it has a strap and can be opened with one hand and stays open when you want it to and snaps shut and stays closed with one hand. So far we like it! Although he was generally well behaved when I adopted him at age 5 (and he has a Petsmart training class diploma from his puppyhood) he only knew 'sit' as far as I could tell. So the first thing (after teaching him his new name) was 'watch me' and then 'down'. He now also knows 'speak', 'quiet', 'go to your bed', 'go get your collar' and a few silly things like 'put your beak down' and 'who do you love' (he comes up and gives kisses when you say that). I have taught all of this in a somewhat sloppy clicker training method so some of them are sort of sloppy but we are bringing the clicker out of storage to try to work on that.

The video shows a lot of what he knows so far so I thought I would post that for our intro!


Note that I can not take credit for training 'shake paws' I tried to start to teach him that by tickling his paw to make him lift it but he kept lying down so I gave up. Then the other day a friend asked Moose to shake paws and he just did it... on command! I guess I had never tried just asking him BOL! I wonder what else he secretly knows from his past life?!
He is also trained to ring a bell when he wants to go outside which I believe I have posted about before but maybe for next week's post I will show how we did it. It is one of my favorites!
This week Honey showed how her mom uses free shaping and posted some entertaining and informative videos on the topic. I have used some shaping type methods (i.e. for 'put your beak down') and they are slow at first but Moose will make dramatic leaps with some patience so it is very rewarding. I wanted him to carry a trick or treat basket one year and started that behavior with shaping though the videos in the post show the later part of the process where I had already added the command, but I started by clicking him for showing any interest in the basket and ended up with him picking it up and carrying it (sort of!). Pretty amazing that it works!
P.S. I just learned today that Tricky T-Day is a meme that Ludo van Doggie is hosting. If you want to play, stop over there and leave a note for Ludo's mom!