I've realized that I don't really give Allie enough credit for actually being a pretty smart dog. This is probably because at least once a day she spends several minutes barking/growling at her reflection in my bedroom window, runs into a wall, an end table, or some other piece of furniture on a daily basis, and is constantly knocking toys under my bed or couch and then headbutting the furniture thinking that's gonna magically free her toy from its grasps. Yes, on most days I'm pretty sure she has a few screws loose, but tonight I've come to the conclusion that my dog is more observant than I am.
Before you get too amazed at this possibility, I should probably tell you that I"m one of the least observant people on the planet. I once asked my mom when they put down new flooring in her bathroom and was informed that this had occurred six months earlier. Keep in mind that this was when I still lived at home and showered in this very bathroom every day. I can spend the entire day with a person and not be able to tell you what color shirt they were wearing. So please don't ever ask me if I notice anything different about you, because unless your hair went from black to blonde or something drastic like that, I'm probably just gonna have some weird "deer in the headlights" expression and try to change the subject. Unless you've painted the fence outside of your house, I do tend to notice things like that. Yes I know I'm weird.
Anyway, Allie has decided to show me on a couple different occasions tonight that she's much more observant than her owner. The first was when I finally broke down and decided it was time to empty the kitchen trash. Since the dumpster is at the other end of the apartment complex and down a huge hill, it's not a trip I try to take very often. However, since getting Allie, unless I've let the garbage get so out of control that I can't carry it with one hand, I take Allie along with me. This has actually only happened twice since I've gotten her (yes I empty my trash more than once a month, but I usually try to do it when someone can give me a ride to the dumpster because I'm lazy) and she has already learned what it means when I take the bag of trash out of the trash can. As soon as I pulled it out her tail started wagging and she ran around the apartment with glee.
The second time was just a few minutes ago. We're getting ready for bed so of course I get her leash on her to take her out before putting her in her crate. I decide as I open the door that we should go ahead and go to the mailbox while we're at it, so I bring her back inside to grab my keys. This had pretty much the same effect as the trash bag. She was suddenly wide awake and very excited to be going on another adventure. In just 2 months, she's already learned that when I bring my keys with me it means that we're not just going to the bathroom and right back inside, it means we're actually going somewhere that may be even more exciting than the grassy area under my balcony.
Now she's back to her usual self, spinning in circles trying to find her favorite ball which is actually under her. But I had to take a minute to brag on her for a little bit. It's the little things like this that keep her from driving me completely insane by eating my rug, pillows, and everything else I own.
Until next time, stay awesome.
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
The Education of Allie: The Miraculous World of Clicker Training
So I hadn't really planned on writing anything else today since I didn't really expect much out of our first little training session, but y'all this dog is full of surprises.
I realized now since I've talked about it several times, that some of you may not actually know what a "clicker" is because before getting Allie, the only clicker I'd ever heard of was a TV remote.
This is a clicker:
It's basically just a little plastic box with a piece of metal inside it that clicks when it's pressed. I've read a lot about clicker training and I like that it's a non-intimidating method of getting the results you want through reinforcing the behavior you want the dog (or pretty much any other pet, I've seen some people even use these with horses) to do. When starting clicker training, the first step is to "load the clicker" which definitely kind of threw me off with the name, when I hear that you have to "load" something, I'm thinking put something inside it, but that's not actually what this means. "Loading the clicker" basically means getting the dog used to the sound the clicker makes and getting them to understand that something positive follows hearing that sound. So to load the clicker you just click and treat without having the dog do anything. Just click and then give the dog a treat, most things I read said to do this about 10-20 times, then let the dog get interested in something else and then click again. If they look at you or come over to you, that means they've got it, then you can give them a treat and can actually start using the clicker to train them.
The idea behind clicker training is to help your pet to enjoy learning new things, whether it's obedience type skills or just tricks to show off for friends, because rather than punishing your dog for doing something you didn't want them to do, you're rewarding them for doing what you did want them to do. This is also supposed to make the dog want to listen to you because they do whatever it is you're wanting them to do, you're going to reward them. If they do the behavior you tell them to do, you click as soon as they do it and give them a treat, if they don't do what you told them to do, you simply put them back in the position you wanted them in and they don't get a treat that time. It doesn't take them too long to figure out that they only get a treat if they do whatever it is you're asking them to do.
The first thing (and supposedly the easiest) I wanted to train, was "stay". I read something that I'd never thought of, but makes a lot of sense. This article mentioned how most of us train our dog to sit or lay down, and teach a "stay" cue separately, but that it not only can be confusing to the dog, it's also kind of unnecessary. This article suggested teaching "stay" as a part of "sit" or "lay down", meaning to teach the dog to sit or lay down until you tell them to get up. Wow, why had I never thought of that before? Because when you think about it, that has to be pretty confusing for a dog, "if stay means to stay sitting until I'm told to move, then what do they mean when they tell me to sit?" I mean technically if you tell your dog to sit (meaning for them to stay seated) even if they only sit for 2 seconds, they did do what you told them to do.
The main difficulty I've had with finding training videos online is the ones that make the most sense typically use dogs that are already very well trained so already know how to do everything their owner is trying to demonstrate. I mean come on, having your dog sit perfectly still while you toss an entire package of weenies around your backyard, yeah that's something my dog will be able to do after a single training session, give me a break. But I finally managed to find a really decent step-by-step article on how to teach a "stay". So using steps from that, plus adding in a "release cue" (letting your dog know they can get up) which I learned from another video, here's how the session went.
I started off like the article said, had Allie sit right in front of me, waited 2 seconds, clicked and gave her a treat since she didn't move. I then repeated this (adding one second each time) until I could count to 15 without her trying to get up. Then it was time to start adding distance. I told her to sit, took a step backwards, counted to 10, clicked and gave her a treat. I repeated this taking one more step backwards every time until I could stand 10 steps away from her (per the directions) for 10 seconds without her trying to get up. Then I decided to make it even more interesting and had her sit and walked out of the room, first where she could still see me, but then around corners where she couldn't see where I was, and would count to 15 and she still stayed put.
Now some people are really picky and don't want their dog to move at all, not even shift position, but I don't really care. There were a couple times if I was gone for a while, she'd lay down and watch for me, that doesn't bother me at all, as long as she's in the same spot I left her, I couldn't really care less whether she's sitting or laying down.
I then decided to make it even more interesting. I picked up one of her toys and stood a few steps in front of her. I started out just holding the toy, didn't faze her, she got a click and a treat. Then I started kind of tossing the toy in the air and catching it, didn't faze her, she got another click and treat. Then I laid the toy down at my feet (expecting she'd at least scoot forward to try to get to it), didn't faze her at all, yet another click and treat. Then for the ultimate test, I tossed the toy across the room like I do when we play fetch, didn't even flinch. I was ecstatic.
We've still got a lot to work on, but this first training session was definitely a great confidence builder for both of us. In fact, I filmed our second training session as a semi-abbreviated version of what we went over earlier. I posted it to my YouTube channel, and will include the link here if anyone would like to see her progress.
Allie's Second Training Session
To the two or three of you that keep up with this, let me know if y'all would be interested in more videos and I'll see what I can do. This one wasn't really planned, Mama wanted to see what all she was doing so I videoed our abbreviated run-through to show her. I posted it to my YouTube channel simply because it was too long to send her on Facebook so figured I could just put it on YouTube and send her the link. But if y'all are interested, maybe I can actually learn how to YouTube and make future videos a little fancier. Also, I noticed that for some reason the link's not actually visible on the black background, but if you move your cursor over it you can see it.
As always, until next time, stay awesome.
I realized now since I've talked about it several times, that some of you may not actually know what a "clicker" is because before getting Allie, the only clicker I'd ever heard of was a TV remote.
This is a clicker:
The idea behind clicker training is to help your pet to enjoy learning new things, whether it's obedience type skills or just tricks to show off for friends, because rather than punishing your dog for doing something you didn't want them to do, you're rewarding them for doing what you did want them to do. This is also supposed to make the dog want to listen to you because they do whatever it is you're wanting them to do, you're going to reward them. If they do the behavior you tell them to do, you click as soon as they do it and give them a treat, if they don't do what you told them to do, you simply put them back in the position you wanted them in and they don't get a treat that time. It doesn't take them too long to figure out that they only get a treat if they do whatever it is you're asking them to do.
The first thing (and supposedly the easiest) I wanted to train, was "stay". I read something that I'd never thought of, but makes a lot of sense. This article mentioned how most of us train our dog to sit or lay down, and teach a "stay" cue separately, but that it not only can be confusing to the dog, it's also kind of unnecessary. This article suggested teaching "stay" as a part of "sit" or "lay down", meaning to teach the dog to sit or lay down until you tell them to get up. Wow, why had I never thought of that before? Because when you think about it, that has to be pretty confusing for a dog, "if stay means to stay sitting until I'm told to move, then what do they mean when they tell me to sit?" I mean technically if you tell your dog to sit (meaning for them to stay seated) even if they only sit for 2 seconds, they did do what you told them to do.
The main difficulty I've had with finding training videos online is the ones that make the most sense typically use dogs that are already very well trained so already know how to do everything their owner is trying to demonstrate. I mean come on, having your dog sit perfectly still while you toss an entire package of weenies around your backyard, yeah that's something my dog will be able to do after a single training session, give me a break. But I finally managed to find a really decent step-by-step article on how to teach a "stay". So using steps from that, plus adding in a "release cue" (letting your dog know they can get up) which I learned from another video, here's how the session went.
I started off like the article said, had Allie sit right in front of me, waited 2 seconds, clicked and gave her a treat since she didn't move. I then repeated this (adding one second each time) until I could count to 15 without her trying to get up. Then it was time to start adding distance. I told her to sit, took a step backwards, counted to 10, clicked and gave her a treat. I repeated this taking one more step backwards every time until I could stand 10 steps away from her (per the directions) for 10 seconds without her trying to get up. Then I decided to make it even more interesting and had her sit and walked out of the room, first where she could still see me, but then around corners where she couldn't see where I was, and would count to 15 and she still stayed put.
Now some people are really picky and don't want their dog to move at all, not even shift position, but I don't really care. There were a couple times if I was gone for a while, she'd lay down and watch for me, that doesn't bother me at all, as long as she's in the same spot I left her, I couldn't really care less whether she's sitting or laying down.
I then decided to make it even more interesting. I picked up one of her toys and stood a few steps in front of her. I started out just holding the toy, didn't faze her, she got a click and a treat. Then I started kind of tossing the toy in the air and catching it, didn't faze her, she got another click and treat. Then I laid the toy down at my feet (expecting she'd at least scoot forward to try to get to it), didn't faze her at all, yet another click and treat. Then for the ultimate test, I tossed the toy across the room like I do when we play fetch, didn't even flinch. I was ecstatic.
We've still got a lot to work on, but this first training session was definitely a great confidence builder for both of us. In fact, I filmed our second training session as a semi-abbreviated version of what we went over earlier. I posted it to my YouTube channel, and will include the link here if anyone would like to see her progress.
Allie's Second Training Session
To the two or three of you that keep up with this, let me know if y'all would be interested in more videos and I'll see what I can do. This one wasn't really planned, Mama wanted to see what all she was doing so I videoed our abbreviated run-through to show her. I posted it to my YouTube channel simply because it was too long to send her on Facebook so figured I could just put it on YouTube and send her the link. But if y'all are interested, maybe I can actually learn how to YouTube and make future videos a little fancier. Also, I noticed that for some reason the link's not actually visible on the black background, but if you move your cursor over it you can see it.
As always, until next time, stay awesome.
The Education of Allie: An Introduction
Hey guys, sorry it's been so long since I've written anything, but nothing too earth-shatteringly exciting has happened lately. But never fear, I have an idea. Ok, so that's normally a perfectly logical reason to fear, but let's ignore that shall we? If you've been keeping up with my life either through this blog or via the wonderful world of Facebook, you are already very well aware that I now have a dog. She was the inspiration behind this new idea.
When I first brought Allie home she was pretty much the perfect dog, extremely quiet, calm, and just generally well-behaved. A lot of that changed after that first dreaded pest control visit. She now is constantly jumping on furniture, chewing on EVERYTHING (she even chewed a hole in the brand new couch cover my mom bought to keep her from ruining the couch not even close to 24 hours after I put it on), and barks, growls, and whines at everything. Now she's not terrible, but it's become apparent that for both mine and her own sanity, she is in desperate need of some obedience training.
Prior to Allie I've never had an indoor dog (the Pomeranian we had when I was little doesn't count since I don't really consider demons to be pets) and aside from teaching Goldie cute little tricks like "shake" and "wave" (these two were basically the same thing, we just didn't grab her paw when we told her to wave), we didn't do any kind of training with her since we had no need to worry about her jumping on the furniture or eating our belongings.
That is the reason behind this new blog series which I've entitled, "The Education of Allie". Because I have no clue what I'm doing, this should be thoroughly entertaining for all of you, and will hopefully not drive me completely over the brink of insanity. So armed with a clicker, plenty of dog treats, an infinity of YouTube videos, and most of my wits intact, I invite you to join me on this journey.
I haven't done much with her today as far as training goes, but I did manage to get her used to the clicker by clicking and giving her a treat while she waited patiently at my feet. I think she liked that little game so we'll see how the rest of the day goes.
Until next time, stay awesome.
When I first brought Allie home she was pretty much the perfect dog, extremely quiet, calm, and just generally well-behaved. A lot of that changed after that first dreaded pest control visit. She now is constantly jumping on furniture, chewing on EVERYTHING (she even chewed a hole in the brand new couch cover my mom bought to keep her from ruining the couch not even close to 24 hours after I put it on), and barks, growls, and whines at everything. Now she's not terrible, but it's become apparent that for both mine and her own sanity, she is in desperate need of some obedience training.
Prior to Allie I've never had an indoor dog (the Pomeranian we had when I was little doesn't count since I don't really consider demons to be pets) and aside from teaching Goldie cute little tricks like "shake" and "wave" (these two were basically the same thing, we just didn't grab her paw when we told her to wave), we didn't do any kind of training with her since we had no need to worry about her jumping on the furniture or eating our belongings.
That is the reason behind this new blog series which I've entitled, "The Education of Allie". Because I have no clue what I'm doing, this should be thoroughly entertaining for all of you, and will hopefully not drive me completely over the brink of insanity. So armed with a clicker, plenty of dog treats, an infinity of YouTube videos, and most of my wits intact, I invite you to join me on this journey.
I haven't done much with her today as far as training goes, but I did manage to get her used to the clicker by clicking and giving her a treat while she waited patiently at my feet. I think she liked that little game so we'll see how the rest of the day goes.
Until next time, stay awesome.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)