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Ginger Takes a Bow

Jan 5th, 2010 | By Mary Hunter | Category: Best of Last Month (Jan 2010), Dog Training

Using clicker training, Ginger dog has recently learned how to bow! I’ve included a short video clip at the bottom so you can watch her practicing her bow.

With clicker training, many dog trainers advise to get the behavior occurring at a high rate BEFORE trying to add a cue to it. This actually makes a lot of sense–if you start adding cue before the animal is doing the behavior, the cue is not going to have a clear association with the behavior! Instead, get the behavior first. Then, start giving the cue while the animal performs the behavior. Gradually, move the cue back in time until you are giving the cue before the behavior. If done correctly, this is an easy way for the animal to learn that a particular cue is associated with a particular behavior.

Here’s a video of Ginger learning to bow. This is a couple of days into teaching her this trick. She is pretty eager to offer the behavior. After she eats the treat, it usually doesn’t take long until she bows again. However, I have not added a cue to signal the behavior yet. The next day, once the behavior got a bit more solid, I started adding in a hand signal as a cue.


Click here to watch the video on youtube.

Related posts:

  1. Ginger gets a gold star!
  2. Ginger Plays Doggie Hide and Seek (video)
  3. Clicker Training Doggie Zen (videos)

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  • As I can see Ginger can be teached to many tricks while there is food around:)
  • Food is a great motivator!

    But that's the basis for good training--finding what motivates the animal and then using it to your advantage.

    Thanks for leaving a comment!

    Mary
  • kyley
    I love it! I have to say ur mom made me laugh...reminded me of my mom - she always seems to try to talk to me while I'm trying to make a video or teaching the ponies something....I always have to remind her that video picks up what she SAYS. :-)

    Anyway..I love the trick...just might have to teach my dachshund this one...although he's so low to the ground anyway it might not be very noticeable. What are u using as the marker? Just curious why you don't use the traditional click?
  • My mom doesn't always notice that the camera's set up!

    The clicker I was using in the video is one of Karen Pryor's Clicker+
    It doesn't seem to make much of a difference for Ginger whether I use my tongue, a regular box clicker or the fancy clicker+. I usually just grab what's handy. However, the Clicker+ is pretty loud, so it picks nicely on video.

    Mary
  • debbiedavidson
    what an enthusiastic dog. Love the video. I especially love Ginger's focus. She wasn't in the least distracted by the other person in the kitchen.

    I appreciate the reminder about not adding cues until the behavior is offered at a high rate. I'm my teaching Tuvok the down using the lure. I faded the food ages ago, and only use the hand signal. I toyed with the idea of adding the verbal cue yesterday, but decided to hold off until I get a faster response with the hand signal (he circles first before lying down most of the time).
  • Glad you liked the video Debbie! She is very focused in the kitchen. Not so much if we're in a more distracting environment, such as outside!

    Mary
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