Now, on to the reason I joined this list. I have a question for you
all.

I want to teach my dog, Jackson, how to balance a treat on his nose
until I give him a cue that he can eat it.


How it's going so far...

1. I tell him to sit.

2. I say "Head down" and put my thumb on his head, just behind the
moist part of the nose and press down just so that I can get his head
level (so the treat will stay on it). Once the head is level, I ease
up on the pressure, but still maintain contact with the fur.

3. I put the treat on his nose.

4. When I take my hand away, I also say "Okay" and he eats the treat.


The thing is that I don't want to have to always have my hand there.

I guess I could try to teach him to hold his head level first (without
my thumb there), and then put the treat on his nose. That way, since
my thumb wouldn't be there, I might be able to help him understand
that the cue for eating is my words and not the motion of my
"restraining thumb".

I'd love suggestions.



Pooch is a 2.25 year old lab.

on Fri, 23 Feb 2007 22:30:20 GMT, montana wildhack
wrote:

Human repeats torturing dog with stupid trick increasing the time dog
is steady, balancing treat.

We are all such dog abusing thugs! I do this trick with Roxy and find it
endlessly amusing.

--
Lynne

On 23 Feb 2007 14:03:56 -0800, "Jolly Green Giant"
wrote:

Now, on to the reason I joined this list. I have a question for you
all.

I want to teach my dog, Jackson, how to balance a treat on his nose
until I give him a cue that he can eat it.


How it's going so far...

1. I tell him to sit.

2. I say "Head down" and put my thumb on his head, just behind the
moist part of the nose and press down just so that I can get his head
level (so the treat will stay on it).

Also: Standing in front of him, try using the "Y" between your thumb
and forefinger and gently press down on the bridge of his nose with
it.

Once the head is level, I ease
up on the pressure, but still maintain contact with the fur.

3. I put the treat on his nose.

Here's where you can use a little help.

Put the treat on his nose with your off hand. Use your left hand to
hold his muzzle steady (from underneath), and place the treat on his
nose with your right hand.

Say something like "Hold it!", while pointing at him with the index
finger of your right hand. Keep repeating it (and holding him steady)
until he gives you a sense that he understands what "Hold it!" means.

When that happens, start removing your hand very slowly, still saying
(and repeating) "Hold it!". Settle for a few inches at first. Then
give him the release command, e.g. "Okay!".

Repeat, lather, rinse.

If he goes for it before you say "Okay!", just ignore it and start
over again.

And when he finally "gets it," gradually move your hand farther and
farther away each time, but still repeating "Hold it!"

Eventually you'll only have to place the treat on his nose (when he
sees it, he'll probably just come right on over and assume the
position") and say "Hold it!"

Actually, you won't have to say anything.

Just put the treat on his nose.

He'll just wait for the "Okay!"

You should eventually be able to go into the other room, pour a glass
of water, and return to see a dog with a treat on his nose (albeit
drooling like an African Cape buffalo).

[...]

--
Handsome Jack Morrison

Don't mess with old farts!
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2007/02/22/D8NF5DGG1.html
Obamination?
http://howardwasright.com/index.php/site/more/458/
The perfect island for Mel Shore!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070222/...en_island_dc_1
John Murtha: Capo di tutti capi!
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=19531

I taught my dogs "leave it" and placed the treat on their paws (when they
were in a down position). After I could do that longer and from farther
away consistantly, I moved onto the nose. I think they learned it easier
having mastered the treat on paw first because the concept was the same.
Maybe that would help if he doesn't already know the paw trick? good luck
either way and have fun.

Jolly Green Giant wrote:
Now, on to the reason I joined this list. I have a question for you
all.

I want to teach my dog, Jackson, how to balance a treat on his nose
until I give him a cue that he can eat it.

Nothing to add to the suggestions that you've received, except to
counsel patience. Or get another dog who knows the trick to
demonstrate it to your dog.

I don't remember how long it took for us to teach it to Dylan,
our GSD, but it probably spanned a couple of weeks of short daily
sessions.

Oppie, the Lab we got when Dylan was 3, learned it in a couple of
sessions, but he had watched Dylan doing it.

Both dogs learned to flip the treat in the air on command and
then catch it.

FurPaw

--
My family values don't involve depleted uranium.

To reply, unleash the dog.

On Fri, 23 Feb 2007 17:53:39 -0500, Handsome Jack Morrison
wrote:

[...]
Repeat, lather, rinse.

Make that rinse, lather, repeat.

No, make that lather, rinse, repeat.

No, make that repeat, lather, rinse.

Aw, screw it.

--
Handsome Jack Morrison

Don't mess with old farts!
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2007/02/22/D8NF5DGG1.html
Obamination?
http://howardwasright.com/index.php/site/more/458/
The perfect island for Mel Shore!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070222/...en_island_dc_1
John Murtha: Capo di tutti capi!
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=19531

"FurPaw" wrote in message:

Both dogs learned to flip the treat in the air on command and
then catch it.

It was easy to teach Khan to balance the treat on his nose. The
flipping/catching is completely beyond him; he'd really rather just drop his
head, have it fall on the ground and pick it up. That's where I gave up.
That trick is no good without a jazzy finish.

One of the ways I taught him to keep his head level where the treat could be
balanced was to have him 'watch' me. No need to hold the face that way.

Suja

on Sat, 24 Feb 2007 15:48:07 GMT, montana wildhack
wrote:

I disagree. It is the tortured look of the dog that makes the trick
worthwhile, not a fancy finish. Oh, not to mention the communication
factor in teaching and perfoming the trick.

I discovered last night that popcorn produces the most tortured look yet.

Also, I've never been able to teach Roxy to catch anything. With my other
dogs, if I just threw things that they loved near their faces they would
try and eventually learn to catch. Poor Roxy... with my good aim I've
landed a few balls right smack on her mouth and still she won't grab for
them until they hit the ground.

Last night I got to see this process in slow motion. After getting bored
of torturing her with popcorn on her snout, I decided to try to get her to
catch some. It floats so slowly that I got to observe how she squints her
eyes in anticipation of getting smacked with it. She was shocked when the
first piece hit her, obviously expecting something worse. I thought we
might finally get her to catch something, but every single time I dropped a
piece of popcorn (unbuttered for better floating), she would just squint
and wait until it hit the floor. Hilarious!

--
Lynne

on Sun, 25 Feb 2007 00:33:44 GMT, montana wildhack
wrote:

We have to teach Nemo how to catch. She is totally clueless and she
lives with Bella, the canine catching champion of all time. We had to
teach Doodle how to catch, too.

Popcorn was good for diagnosis and it was good for step two, but step
one for us has been to get the dog interested in the treat and drop it
from about 1" away from her mouth. Lots of repetition. When you get to
2-3" away, try the popcorn. Popcorn allowed Doodle to understand that
she might have to move to catch something.

I need to try again--or assign that task to my daughter since she did get
her to roll over after I gave up on that trick. Today after less than 10
minutes of work she taught Roxy to settle (lay on her side), and she's
done it consistently throughout the day. My daughter's got a knack, and
seemed to really enjoy the training class today.

Starting off with tennis balls and smacking her (the dog, not the
daughter) in the face with them just didn't work for me, hehe. It worked
for my Shelties, but they automatically at least TRIED. My first Sheltie
could catch ANYTHING, he was amazing.

Do me a favor and post about this as you work with Nemo because I can use
all the help I can get on this one. It's not crucial, of course, but it
would be great to at least be able to toss her treats.

One thing I have been doing that I'm hoping will help, at least with
Frisbee, is to run with the disc in my hand, just out of her reach so she
has to run and jump to go for it. She does this all the time and will
really go for it (high jumps), but will not if I just toss it... not
until it hits the ground. Hrmph.

It'll be interesting to see how my pup will be. I've read that some
retrievers just aren't naturally into retrieving, and I know my breeder
is going to pick the male with the best show potential not retrieving,
because he is hoping to show him. My Shelties were not natural
retrievers, either, but it didn't take me long with either one of them to
get them fetching and catching. Roxy's been a tough case on catching
(but she'll retrieve for HOURS).

--
Lynne

on Sun, 25 Feb 2007 00:57:38 GMT, montana wildhack
wrote:

She's doing ok with 1" from her mouth and caught the treat about five
times today. As with Doodle, she's not yet grasping the concept.

Same with Roxy, but she won't even try at 1" yet, the little ****.

And we think it IS important because working with two dogs means
playing Simon Sez and other games that really require catching treats
to work.

That's why I'm revisiting this issue, thinking about (finally!) having 2
dogs. (YIPEE!!)

--
Lynne