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Sooooo, if it's okay to take this thread off Johnny for a moment... I've actually found it hard to teach Thor to Speak consistently. I think it's probably confusing for dogs because they are reprimanded for barking all the time, and they can't quite believe that now that's what you are looking for. To teach Thor, I first had to find his big motivator, which turned out to be... wet paws. Like a lot of yorkies, he goes crazy after a bath, and barks quite a bit, so I would dunk his feet, and then reward him every time he barked. He still is not totally clear on the concept - if he's not super-excited, he'll only bark maybe every three times I cue him, and when he's super-excited, he doesn't always wait for my cue. Also, as someone else mentioned, it generally encouraged him to bark a lot more, just in case I wanted to stop working, or sleeping, or going to the bathroom, and pay attention to him instead. I've basically just accepted it will take a long time. I work on it on and off with him, and he makes incremental progress. He also Whispers, which is unbearably cute. |
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Whisper is adorable! When are we going to see some videos of Thor? :D |
Speak was one of the first tricks we taught Uni, and it was not hard at all. All you do is hold a treat and we use the hand signal of our hand out like you're going to high five someone, but with fingers spread and say speak. If we don't ask her to speak, she doesn't get to. She does anyway, but if she is barking at something random, we go and acknowledge it, and then she'll stop. We also taught growl with speak. When she wanted to continue to bark, we would point at her, and look at her all squinty eyed and "mad" and say no, she would get frustrated and growl, then we'd say "good growl" and treat. So many times now when she wants to bark, she'll growl instead. Growl was a bit harder to teach. |
I want to hear Thor whisper and I want to see him army crawl! Quote:
Maximo walks on his hind legs, arms waving in the air, and ears down when I come home from an outing. He doesn't even look like a Yorkie when he does it. I'm happy to report Maxman has finally mastered "shake hands." He also has made "down' a little fancier by kicking out his arms as he goes down. Who was it who wrote on this thread that one of her dogs starts going through all the moves as soon as the treats come out? That is what my guy is doing now. I say, "Wanna train?" and he starts doing everything. What a nut. |
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LOL, I think it was me. Jackson runs through all of his tricks sometimes when I'm trying to teach him a new one. He just wants that treat soooo bad. And believe it or not, yesterday after posting about Speak, I got Jackson to do it! I said "speak" about 5x and he barked after each one. I used the ball that he really likes and when he would bark at it, I'd say "speak" and treat him. Maybe he caught on finally .... |
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This has been the funniest angle to record her doing this, but I will try to do another angle soon where you see her arms flailing more. |
Love it, jack sparrow - can you get her to do that with the speak-with-ball-in-mouth at the same time? I thought of introducing the speak/shush thing to Frisco today since the house was quiet, to present the concept I'd turn it on and say woof, turn it off, say shhhhh. His head cocked encouragingly, but whenever I said woof, he'd go check the door and window to see who was coming! Confusion! plan b... |
Love it, jack sparrow - can you get her to do that with the speak-with-ball-in-mouth at the same time? I thought of introducing the speak/shush thing to Frisco today since the house was quiet, to present the concept I'd turn it on and say woof, turn it off, say shhhhh. His head cocked encouragingly, but whenever I said woof, he'd go check the door and window to see who was coming! Confusion! plan b... |
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:eyetearssFaints on bad rum breath! Uni is such a cool Yorkie! I love the look on her face! Great video!! Quote:
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I'm starting to think that a dog's aptitude to learn tricks increases with each trick learned. |
HA! That's hilarious. Uni's quite the looker, too! I didn't realize she had her full tail. |
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LOL @ faints on bad rum breath. Uni is sooooo cute and smart! Good job! Sandy just learned 2 new tricks last week - bang and crawl. I'm still thinking what trick should come next. Haha. |
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