While in a motel room this weekend, having nothing to do, my friend thought
it would be useful to teach Tuck to turn on and off the lights. In about 15
minutes, Tuck was turning on and off the motel room lights on command by
originally using the command word touch at the light switch plate (He
learned target training as a little puppy) and then switching the command to
lights.

So we came home, and tried this last night and this morning, and Tuck still
understands lights to mean the light switch, but he can't reach all of them
in our house.
Tuck does understand room names, and can turn on and off lights in designated
rooms depending on if he can reach the light switch or not.

"diddy" none wrote in message
. ..
While in a motel room this weekend, having nothing to do, my friend
thought
it would be useful to teach Tuck to turn on and off the lights. In about
15
minutes, Tuck was turning on and off the motel room lights on command by
originally using the command word touch at the light switch plate (He
learned target training as a little puppy) and then switching the command
to
lights.

So we came home, and tried this last night and this morning, and Tuck
still
understands lights to mean the light switch, but he can't reach all of
them
in our house.
Tuck does understand room names, and can turn on and off lights in
designated
rooms depending on if he can reach the light switch or not.


Tuck is so much more accomplished, I hesitate even mentioning Gracie's
helpful task this morning. Merlin was driving me absolutely nuts. He will
paw at me when he wants to go outside. He lifts up one of his huge paws and
smacks me if I try to ignore him. Well, I'd gone downstairs three times to
let him out, but he wouldn't follow me down. So finally when he came back
yet again to get my attention I said to him "merlin, I've had it with you,
knock it off!" "I am not going downstairs again to let you out." Where
upon Gracie lifted her head from her morning nap on my bed, jumped off, did
a little play dance to get Merlins attention, and proceeded to run him
downstairs behind me and right out the patio door. Where upon she stopped,
back-tracked inside and back upstairs to her interrupted 'morning nap' on my
bed. She's done similar in the past, but this is the first time she's
actually interrupted her nap to get Merlin to do what I want him to do. She
listens to everything we say. Who knows, one day she may just become as
intuitive as my Murphy was. That would be so nice.

best,

td

"tiny dancer" spoke these words of wisdom in
:

So finally
when he came back yet again to get my attention I said to him "merlin,
I've had it with you, knock it off!" "I am not going downstairs again
to let you out." Where upon Gracie lifted her head from her morning nap
on my bed, jumped off, did a little play dance to get Merlins attention,
and proceeded to run him downstairs behind me and right out the patio
door. Where upon she stopped, back-tracked inside and back upstairs to
her interrupted 'morning nap' on my bed. She's done similar in the
past, but this is the first time she's actually interrupted her nap to
get Merlin to do what I want him to do. She listens to everything we
say. Who knows, one day she may just become as intuitive as my Murphy
was. That would be so nice.
That WOULD be so nice, and I certainly wish it for you. You haven't had
Gracie all that long, and she's just hitting her stride.

GOOD GIRL GRACIE!

I envy the usefulness of your dogs. I also know how much time you spend
training to make them useful. It's a commitment we can't make.

Actually that trick took all of about 15 minutes to teach, but he had the
basic building block springboard of touch training (taught in a few minutes
also) to springboard from.

As far as the commitment you can't make, it sounds as if you are apologizing
, and there is no need. If you are happy with your dogs behaviors then you
have no need to apologize to ANYBODY. If you are not happy with your dog's
behaviors, then you only need to apologize to yourselves and your dogs.


Tuck will not be at Cleveland this year. I didn't enter him, although his
breeder offered to pay his entries, I can't afford gas/motel

"diddy" none wrote in message
. ..
Tuck does understand room names, and can turn on and off lights in
designated
rooms depending on if he can reach the light switch or not.

Who needs the clapper when you have a Tuck!

montana wildhack spoke these words of wisdom
in news:2007111919530616807-montana@wildhackcominvalid:
Tuck will not be at Cleveland this year. I didn't enter him, although
his breeder offered to pay his entries, I can't afford gas/motel

That's too bad. We would have enjoyed seeing a mature Tuck!



Next year. Some bills will be paid off enabling me to go.

"BethInAK" spoke these words of wisdom in
:


"diddy" none wrote in message
. ..
Tuck does understand room names, and can turn on and off lights in
designated
rooms depending on if he can reach the light switch or not.

Who needs the clapper when you have a Tuck!



My friend that stayed in the motel with me suggested teaching that, because
she wanted to watch me train to see how i would train that Since I've
trained some service dogs. (we were discussing a girl on line who is dying
of advanced colon cancer who has a service dog in California that she knows
she is leaving behind, and trying to figure out how to get it shipped to a
girl in Kettering Ohio that desperately needs a service dog, and an older
one will do, while she's arduously trying to raise the money (which will
take years) for a service dog of her own.

I told her we should just train her one, and she wanted to know how to
train that stuff, and why it costs so much. I explained that the skills
themselves do not take so much training, the cost is (as all rescuers know)
finding the right dog, training it, and evaluating it for soundness, but
the biggy is in insurance and forever support for the dog team. Most people
with service dogs have issues maintaining the training.
I just didn't know if I was committed to providing lifelong team support in
Kettering.

Anyway, she was amazed at how fast the skill was taught. When she comes
up, she has an idea that she has decided that she wants to train Tuck. I
have no idea what it is, and why she wants to train Tuck.

While in a motel room this weekend, having nothing to do, my friend
thought it would be useful to teach Tuck to turn on and off the
lights. In about 15 minutes, Tuck was turning on and off the motel
room lights on command by originally using the command word touch at
the light switch plate (He learned target training as a little puppy)
and then switching the command to lights.

LOL Very cute!

What is it about motel rooms? I have a pulled quad and a badly
sprained wrist/hand right now. So Shy played service dog in the motel
room for me this weekend fetching the dog dishes that snuck back under
the sink, digging the remote out from under the nightstand, and
helping me undress. I've not invested much time into her training,
but she's a savvy clicker dog and has broad enough skills that she's
able to keep offering behaviors until she pieces together what I
want. (Nellie, my golden, just fetched me my shoes when I asked for
the remote - need to work on her a bit more! vbg)

Anyway, Shy followed up her real life utility work with a real utility
title this weekend, from the St Huberts CDSP obedience program. It
was interesting to see her do utility exercises in both competition
and real life applications in the same weekend.

Hope

CanineDivine spoke these words of wisdom in
:

Anyway, Shy followed up her real life utility work with a real utility
title this weekend,

WOOHOOOOOO!! That's HUGE!!!!!! Congrats!

"diddy" none wrote in message
. ..
"BethInAK" spoke these words of wisdom in

Anyway, she was amazed at how fast the skill was taught. When she comes
up, she has an idea that she has decided that she wants to train Tuck. I
have no idea what it is, and why she wants to train Tuck.


I'm curious now too. Let me know.

I think that targeting is a very good skill - can be used for all sorts of
stupid tricks. I've started target training Pirate with the idea that its
going to be a very, very long six to eight weeks before he can run and play
like a normal dog - he's already pretty wild and its been less than a week.
I'll be counting on you for ideas, since you are the goddess of tricks.