Oh, I do love targets!

Cain was being all annoying and whiney, he looked bored, so I thought I'd teach him a new trick.

I started by teaching him to take socks out of the washing machine and put them in a plastic bowl. That was easy, he's already used to putting his toys away into bowls so it wasn't hard to generalise the behaviour to socks, then put the socks closer to the washing machine until they were inside. Cain picked that trick up first time, easy peasy.

So I thought I'd teach him in reverse, but didn't know how to get him to put the socks in to the washing machine. I tried getting him to Hold It then lure him inside with a treat and tell him to Drop It but that didn't work well because as soon as the treat appeared, he just dropped the sock regardless.

So I changed tack. I got a plastic lid and got him to bring the sock and drop it on the lid, he picked this up easy as it was a variation on the bowl. Then I put the lid target half inside the washing machine, then finally right inside the drum. By the end of the session Cain had got several socks right inside the drum He started to lose concentration so we finished up without perfecting it, but the groundwork is definitely there and I'll think he'll pick it up straight away at the next session.

Quite pleased with the clever little so and so! I'm also quote pleased that the target idea worked otherwise I'd have no idea how to teach him that trick

Well done you and Cain

Well done you!

nice to see your devotion to this dog,you are inspiring.

Well done Cain!!! (and mum of course)

How is he at ironing?

well done both of you. That is another of the great things I love about clicker training - it makes you think as well as to how you can break down the behaviour for the dog - great thinking with a target

Admit it, he's smart. I trained my mini donkeys to target and it comes in quite handy being that they live outside.

What is he going to learn next?

Clever boy Cain and clever mum too!

Wys
x

Good one!

rune

"Every home deserves a Cain"!