Your dog needs to learn a second language the same as we do
Pretty challenging session with this dog, not due to what we were teaching but as to how we were teaching it.
Consider the following – Katy doesn’t understand what I was asking her to do at the start nor how to do it as we were teaching her these skills. Moose the dog didn’t know what we were asking her to do, she just knows what she is being reinforced for. I have to break it down into bite sized chunks so Heather can translate while we are doing it as Katy speaks limited English and I speak almost no Spanish. Heather was also translating for the benefot of the people watching the demo.
We have to make sure Moose isn’t left hanging, not knowing what to do in the session, thus potentially getting frustrated, so I had to keep the session moving along.This is why clear communication is important with your dog.
Katy and Moose already had built a foundation of skills working together so it went very smoothly.
The session lasted about 5 minutes, with this being the last 3 minutes. In the first 2 minutes, we had reinforced Moose for being on the platform (click and treat). We then added the new cue “apples” so that Moose went to the plaform when cued. This was reinforced a few times. Then, when she went to the platform, Katy asked her to lie down (a previously taught behaviour). This was repeated a few times until Moose understood that “apples” means go to the platform and lie down.
This whole process took less time than it takes to boil a kettle and make a cup of team. Done in a second language through a translator.
Lovely work from Katy and Moose.
Glasgow Dog Training By Dog Behaviourist John McGuigan 