Here’s a video of Ginger and I playing from about a week ago.
It shows a handful of the things we’ve been working on recently.
We’ve been working quite a bit on targeting type behaviors, including touching my palm and touching the end of a targeting stick. (More information about target training.) She really understand the hand and mostly understands touching the stick. She’s starting to get the hang of following the hand even when moving, which will be important if we pass our beginning training classes and ever make it up to the agility classes. This is because an easy way to teach most agility obstacles is to have the dog follow your hand.
We also work some in the video on sit, down and stand. She’s pretty solid on all three of these behaviors at this point. The cue for stand is a flat hand right in front of her nose. Sometimes she gets confused and sits immediately after she stands, but we’ve been working on this and she’s getting better.
Also, just for fun, I’ve been working on teaching her to spin in a circle. For a long time, I’d have her do two spins in a row. Now, I’m trying to increase this to 3-4 spins. However, she often gets stuck after two spins. All this means is that we just need to keep practicing!
At one point, my mom wanders in front of the video camera. I tried to tell her we were filming, but she decided she needed something from the fridge. As my mom said the other day “Our kitchen is going to be famous!” So, step into my kitchen, and enjoy the video!
What a great video and what a beautiful dog! Good job teaching her all of those tricks!
Hi Liza!
Thanks for the comment. We probably waited way too long to start training her. But, now that we’ve started, she’s proving to be a quick learner and a star pupil!
I love teaching targeting. It’s also a great way to redirect anxious and reactive dogs.
P.S. Thanks for taking the time to check out my blog and comment:-)
http://head-to-tail.blogspot.com
@headtotail (Twitter)
My pet animal is dog, i took full enjoy when i watch video and after this i try this with my dog 🙂
Great article and video. I’m a guide dog puppy raiser and I’ve never worked on targeting with any of my dogs. This is something I may try to do in the near future. Thanks for the video it looks like Ginger is doing great in her training.
Thanks for commenting!
Target training has a ton of benefits. I recommend you give it a try with your guide pups!
I find it can be great for numerous things including:
1. scared/fearful animals. For example, teaching a horse to trailer load. loading in the trailer is a totally strange experience for a horse new to trailers and it’s hard for the horse to understand what you want. If they understand follow the target, it’s much easier for them to figure out the goal.
2. teaching new behaviors. For example, teaching a dog to shut a cabinet door. It’s pretty easy to teach the dog to touch a target placed on a cabinet door. Once the dog gets that down well, you can remove the target (or fade it out gradually by making it smaller/less apparent) and put the behavior on a cue.
3. teaching the animal to focus on you. The animal has to be paying attention to your cues and signals, as well as watching the target, which teaches attention and focus.
also, for horses, I think targeting, especially following a target, can really help with bonding.
cheers,
Mary
I loved the video. I’m going to have my son watch it with me later as I want to teach him more about behavior modification and training. It really helps to have some examples of target training for him to watch.
Great video and article too. Ginger is very sweet and smart too.
Hi Mary, just happened to see this post. How are you and Ginger doing? Loved seeing her work. Terri Schmidt
Hi Terri,
Thanks for commenting!!
Ginger is doing great. She has lots of fun in the spring and summer watching the birds and squirrels in the back yard.
We haven’t been doing too much dog training, as I’ve been busy with other projects.
I have quite a few rescue horses I’m working with right now, and they are all coming along great.
Mary