Friday, September 5, 2008

It is so cool to watch my dogs learn.....


So I just had to comment because I had the most interesting experience today. Guess I sometimes have too much time on my hands but.....
So I was working with Cherry doing some shaping yesterday and she is really finally getting that she controls the clicks by what she is doing, so she was getting the idea to nose touch a Staples easy button pretty quickly. In one session she was able to figure out to nose touch the button and then we had got it to where she was frequently hitting it enough to make it actually say "that was easy". So that is something I have played with with the other dogs in the past, and it is just a fun little trick. Not rocket science but just a fun trick.
Today Chloe was in hanging out with Cherry and I and I was trying to think of something I could do with her to make her feel like she is working today. I brought out the Easy button I had been using with Cherry because I am basically a lazy dog trainer and so I grab what ever is closest. I do think I have done this trick in the past with Chloe, so no big suprise when she got excited and was doing a nice paw touch with the button and we get it on cue very quickly. I know we worked on this before but I really dont remember how far we got or what the cue was (bad trainer), but anyway in my defense it was awhile ago and we were just playing, so of course Chloe figured it out very quickly, no big suprise because it isnt a new thing and she is pretty operant and there were treats involved, Chloe will do anything for a treat.
So Cherry was sitting with me while I was playing with Chloe, after Chloe finished her turn I thought hummm....Cherry has been sitting here watching Chloe working and Chloe gets REALLY EXCITED so I was experimenting to see how that would affect Cherry's level of interest in this task. Cherry was a little more excited in the treats and was wanting to play my little game, but not a huge difference. Then I deceided to give Chloe another turn - Chloe who had a very strong PAW touch was now trying to do a nose touch, which is what she had been sitting and watching Cherry do. She tried the nose touch a bunch getting very excited like she had figured something out and going between the nose touch and the paw touch and finally went back to her paw touch. I swear she was watching Cherry and figureing out what was getting Cherry clicks, namely the nose touch, and figured that must be the name of the game even though she had been highly rewarded for her paw touch. Dogs are just so cool to watch when they play and when they learn, I could just sit and watch all day!!!! Arent Cherry and Chloe cute together???

No comments: