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Trick dog training: fetch anything to hand (part 2)

Caden Cristopher

January 6, 2024: highlighter, keys and bill

I’m layering easy objects in between new or difficult ones to keep Chai’s confidence high. Today’s easy object: a highlighter.

Chai found the 20-peso-bill VERY easy and did okay with the apartment keys + car keys. I’ll keep them in the rotation and play with them between rotations; they are more difficult than either key by itself.

Here’s our longer list of fetchable object goals:

Wallet (M), credit card (D), keys, phone (D), beer can (M), bank bill, full plastic bottles (D), coin, 2 types of mugs, leash handle (D), retractable leash (D), keys with new (yet to be acquired) key chain (D), silverware.

Next session(s):

Repeat keys (still difficult) and change the highlighter for another easy object!

January 9, 2024: exploding beer cans and a bit of fetch

I got two bottles of juice and decided to first play with them and then, if that went well, use them as the new object in today’s session. Since I was already at the store, I also picked up two cans of beer. I couldn’t find anything non-sparkly in a can, so beer it was from the beginning – even though I know about the dangers of exploding cans when playing with dogs. Well – we had fun with the juice. Chai also started out really well with the beer cans … until …

For the actual fetch session, I decided to leave the beer can be, but integrate a juice bottle. I didn’t realize how hard the juice bottle would be – the exploding can definitely had some bleed-over into Chai’s juice bottle feelings! She was being brave though after I made the juice bottle fun again. I ended on a successful rep and will add the bottle again next time to build more confidence. Lots of improvement on the keys though! I’ll add them in one more time before checking them off – basically, the next session will be a repeat of this one.

Next session(s):

+ Play with EMPTY cans.
+ Repeat today’s fetch session with keys and the juice bottle. Switch the easy object for a different easy object.

January 10, 2024: spoon, car keys, juice bottle

Chai did REALLY well today! I’ll keep the juice bottle for one more session – I want to catch it 3 times in a row before calling it done. That said, me dropping it in the first rep of today’s video is all me. The keys are turning into an EASY object! Wow!

I’ll keep my lists here, copy/pasting and adding new stuff when I think of it:

Fetchable object goals:

Wallet (M), credit card (D), keys, phone (D), beer can (M), bank bill, full plastic bottles, coin, 2 types of mugs, leash handle (D), retractable leash (D), keys with new (yet to be acquired) key chain, silverware.

Easy objects to rotate through and use “Gimme” cue on. The one(s) I want to do next are bolded:

I’ve also found a rule structure for this trick that I plan on sticking to:

  1. Start with 3 cued reps of an easy object. (More and more objects will move into this category and I will rotate through them to keep picking them up well oiled).
  2. Do a familiar, but not-yet-perfect object, aiming for 3 great times in a row.
  3. Do one easy-object rep if (2) was easy or 3 easy-object reps if (2) was difficult.
  4. Use a new or difficult object.
  5. If (4) went well, end after (4). If (4) was hard, do between 1 and 3 reps of the easy object and then end.

Next sessions:

January 11, 2024: keys, juice bottle, wallet

I used the keys as today’s easy object … but they weren’t all that easy today! I’ll make sure to keep them in the easy-object rotation. The juice bottle was difficult as well; I will add it again in our next session. Where Chai knocked it out of the park was with the entirely new object: my wallet! She retrieved it to my hand 3 times as if it was the easiest thing in the universe! The wallet gets added to my easy-object list! I may take off the highlighter instead since Chai has been REALLY good with that one and done lots of reps with it already.

And, yep – I forgot to say the “Gimme” cue with the keys. That’s okay – next time!

Fetchable object goals:

Wallet, credit card (D), keys, phone (D), beer can (M), bank bill, full plastic bottles, coin, 2 types of mugs, leash handle (D), retractable leash (D), keys with new (yet to be acquired) key chain, silverware.

Easy-objects list:

Next session(s):

June 12, 2024: coin, juice bottle … and definitely no mug (“How about some rawhide instead?”)

Today’s easy object was the coin. The juice bottle went well … I’m declaring it done for now! Go Chai! The mug, on the other hand, was a no go. I’ll have to think some more about how to introduce picking it up. Porcellain doesn’t seem to feel good on dog teeth! I found it very funny, smart and cute that Chai went and looked for something else to fetch, and ended up bringing me a piece of rawhide (something I’ve never asked her to fetch)! Also a win: I remembered to say, “Gimme!” when I meant to!

Fetchable object goals:

Wallet, credit card (D), keys, phone, beer can (M), bank bill, full plastic bottles, coin, 2 types of mugs (D), leash handle (D), retractable leash (D), keys with new (yet to be acquired) key chain, silverware.

Easy-objects list:

January 13, 2024: can and cup games for confidence

Today, we didn’t train-train (I was tired after our hike). So first, I left two empty cans out on the floor for the dogs to convert into toys – they did so quickly!

Following Game’s lead, Chai quickly picked up the empty cans carried them to the couch to chew on them. The Tecate is an empty can I found in the street. I don’t drink enough beer for this trick!

At night we played two cup games for the dogs’ dinner. You can see that Game is more confident toppling the cups in the first food game, but Chai is starting to pick them up in the second one! What a superstar! (Game had her kibble-in-a-cup while stationing on the couch while Chai was working on hers on the puzzle mats.)

Next session(s):

Sunday, January 14, 2024: cellphone success!

Wheeee! Today, Chai REALLY impressed me! I hesitated about simply adding the phone, but she was able to pick it up!!!! Go (not-so) puppy (anymore)!!! So proud!

Next session(s):

January 16, 2024: I’m impressed by Chai’s phone skills!

I am tired today, so I just did a quick session, sliding the phone (which, in my mind but not in Chai’s, is still a difficult object) between two rounds of the plastic juice bottle. I wanted to use that bottle one more time before drinking it. Once again, Chai did amazing with the phone!

Next session(s):

Note: instead of continuing to copy/paste my lists, I’ll be editing the previous one as we go.

January 17, 2024: wallet, phone and beer can play

We played with the two rice-filled beer cans. At first, Chai hesitated about picking them up even though she had chewed on the empty ones the other day. After making them seem special by juggling them and trying to “hide” them from her, she was ready to pick them up when rolling on the puzzle mat or being thrown on the bed. She’d carry them back to chew on the sofa, so I had to be quick to get them back to avoid rice-sized holes in the cans. No good video. I feel like we’re not quite ready to fetch them yet – I’ll do another round of this game tomorrow.

Our “Gimme” session went really well – I played with the phone and my wallet. For the first time, I put the phone on the floor (not the puzzle mats) as well. It was clearly harder to pick up there, but Chai rocked it! Go (not-so) puppy (anymore)!

I want to do another session with the phone on the floor before checking it off my list – I’d like to build a little more pick-up skills. And then … I get to sell that phone! I also wouldn’t mind a few more wallet fetches. While this is easy for Chai, we haven’t done a lot of repetitions yet. Our next session might look just like this one.

Next session(s):

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