- dec 3
- i am watching the big green glob of radar's heavy rain as it approaches ipswich---- i do love the rain....
Carlene's lazy training exercises.....
Young great Danes have a history a running upstairs to the second floor in a house and then not being able to come down... they're afraid---- they have four legs rather gawky and they don't know where to put them.. I have had this problem with one of the first dogs I put out as a service dog--- he went to a woman up near LL bean in Maine dog did beautifully had a wonderful time she was wheelchair bound he pulled the wheelchair etcetera etcetera everything was fine until he got upstairs and it was a narrow wooden -- not carpeted--- stairway but they could not get him down which involved me driving up to LL bean for a day of shopping and getting the dog down out of the second floor. which I did. however I came home and realized to try and teach a dog where to put his feet was going to take a long time.... and there was an easier way
Since I had built the raised sleeping lofts I had to provide some way for pups getting up there and I started out with just ramps then I realized well that could be more productive if I make half of them ramps and half of them stairs then the dogs will get educated about stairs and ramps without my having to do anything about it ----- this called training the easy way... so by putting cookies up in their lofts and leaving them alone they figured it out... that concept is one of the very basics of my training techniques... thinking.
One of the other very basics is “ lie down and stay there because regardless of what's going on in the rest of the world we're not going anywhere for about the next 45 minutes or an hour”. this takes a while making them lie down again and again and again but eventually they give up and they just relax and stay put. That concept is essential with the dog that's going to go to school with a child or a person to an office----- lie down and stay there.. call it self control?
Now this bit about going away from me and coming back.... is so easily done with our frying pan routine in these assisted living places--- which can be adapted to doing this at home with a partner....... if I start with a dog at my feet probably on leash. and click the cookie in the frying pan about 30 feet away ----- I can then send the dog to go eat the cookie--that doesn't take too much training either... coming back for the second cookie might take a little more but it's still it's a pretty simple way to teach a dog to go away and come back..
Couple that with teaching the dog to back... by moving the sofa away from the wall and feeding the dog their dinner behind the sofa and having them back out will eventually teach the dog to back without any problem..
please note.... these exercises will produce a dog well started in training... and I have not yet walked a step—
Walking a dog in circles will produce a very bored dog ..... in my opinion....
