These guys had a great day. They have all seemed to get that sitting politely pays off. Even of none of these puppies go to clicker homes it will benefit them to learn early on that it pays to try to figure out what the owner wants. My battery charger died (actually melted) so I don't have video. I wish I did so you could see.
I had Arrow with me in the kitchen working on sitting by himself. It finally seemed to make sense to him today. Yesterday we started with clicking him any time he paid attention to me without putting his feet up. Then I watched for him to sit and we (Austin and I)rapidly clicked and treated (more than one treat per second) to start with. At first I wasn't too particular about sit, I just clicked for any attempts to show some self control and not climb on me. We aren't trying to teach a cue or name a behavior yet. At this point we are just trying to increase the occurance of behavior that we like. (We actually did this with all four puppies and they are all doing really well!) Austin did a lot of the clicking while I managed the treats.
Today Arrow came up to me in the kitchen and offered a really cute sit. I did a mouth click and grabbed the bag of treats that I keep on the counter. After a minute Freckle, Little Guy and Underdog joined us. The other three were mobbing like a bunch of sharks! I ignored the begging paws and continued to click and treat Arrow for sitting so politely. With in about 7-8 clicks, Gus Gus (Little Guy) caught on and began sit down and it wasn't but a couple of more clicks that the other two caught on. My husband was really surprised to see four puppies sitting and looking at me for treats. Of course their attention span is that of a mosquito so we only worked on it for a few minutes but it was definitely great progress. I'll try to get video tomorrow.
Gus Gus (Little Guy) We think this gets the award for the most appropriate name! He is doing great and can't wait for his new owner Lindy to get home from Boise!
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