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Originally Posted by QuickSilver  We do Watch Me every now and then. Thor is such a submissive dog, he has trouble making prolonged eye contact.
I have not taught Thor a new trick in a long time. I recently decided to try Take It, which he's making some progress on. He knows the command has something to do with biting the object, he's just not that interested in actually holding on to it.
Then tonight, we had an extended fetching session, and I thought, why not try Hold It? And it worked beautifully!  Thor already has some practice in that area, because I will only give him a treat if he drops the ball/toy into my hand. So I just wouldn't put my hand down for a few seconds. What was interesting too was that he was totally happy to stare into my eyes while waiting for a break from Hold It.
I'm really excited about this one, because (1) I want it for photo sessions  and (2) it's the first step in teaching him to play frisbee. He loves chasing the frisbee, but he doesn't really like to play with anything that's not at least a little fuzzy. So I'm hoping I can teach him to Take the frisbee and one day faaaaaaar into the future, that will translate into him catching the frisbee. A girl can dream.
I'm thinking about teaching him Catch, or maybe Stand Pretty. They look like little prairie dogs on their hind legs, don't they? |
I haven't taught Jackson "Watch me" yet although I think it really could come in handy! I might try that one next.
I also have been trying to get Jackson to "hold it" and it's been really difficult for him. He understands the concept... but like Thor, he doesn't wanna hold it for more than 2 seconds without dropping it. I also want him to know it for pictures and videos, etc. It'd be sooo cute if he would hold a sign in his mouth! hehe.
Jackson suddendly has become sooo interested in the frisbee! He never was before. Now, I throw it and he goes chasing after it which is a great first step, I think. He's not catching them yet and I'm sure he'll never be like no Border Collie, lol, but we're making progress. I got him the large plastic ones from Petsmart that are like .99 cents but they're still just too big even for him, so I ordered the mini-discs online specifically for dogs and I'm hoping he may actually catch those. I think it was
Disc Golf, Ultimate Frisbee & Dog Discs - at Discovering The World, flying discs have been our specialty for over 30 years.
Catch was also something Jackson had to learn. I was so used to big dogs just naturally catching whatever you throw at them but with Jackson it was a learning process. He's awesome now! He will catch anything (small little treats, bigger treats, toys, etc). He used to let food just smack him on the head.
Sit pretty also took a bit for Jackson to get. He has terrible balance (well, when it came to sitting pretty, he did). But he finally can hold that position for maybe 8 seconds.