My puppy refuses to learn one trick in particular...
My 16-week-old Luna can... sit, down, stay (also stay with a treat a few inches in front of her face), shake, roll over, crawl, "bang bang", stay standing on all four, jump up on hind legs, and for the most part, come when called (okay, maybe not for the most part, it's more like 50/50 lol). For some reason, I'm having a major problem teaching her to wait with a treat on the end of her nose. I've seen it done before and I got her to do it a few times in the beginning, though she could never catch it once I said "okay." It'd just fall off her nose and she'd go pick it up. That was all fine, but NOW she's refusing to even attempt the trick. The moment I tell her to sit and stay (which she does) and she sees the treat coming toward her, she either turns her head away, walks away, lies down, or worst of all (and most recently), raises her lip at me (all bark and no bite). Once I've reached that point, she won't even sit for me anymore.
I'm wondering (and this is just me possibly humanizing her) if the act of putting a treat so close to her and making her wait for it makes her feel any way humiliated or degraded? Because I must admit, it's a bit pathetic watching a dog wait with a treat on its nose. They always look so sad. The breeder told me corgis are different from other breeds because they can easily get their feelings hurt. Not sure if that's true or not since we discipline her fairly well and she always quickly forgives us with kisses. Anyone else have any trouble teaching their dogs a certain trick? Any advice you can give me on why she's reacting this way and what I can do to resolve it? Thanks!
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Jonathan P, Kim N. and Bowser on
-
It sounds like your dog is getting frustrated. She is not receiving the reward and is frustrating you in the process. Try easing her into learning.
Have you gotten Luna in the right mood for tricks or are you practicing this trick directly? Usually before i teach a new trick i always start up with 2 or 3 trick warm-ups To get Bowser into the mindset its time for School i have him do tricks he already knows and are easy because that means he gets rewards. Then i throw in slowly the new behavior/trick.
This trick is advanced level because the behavior is one your dog will definitely be clueless about at the start and requires timing. You will also require Pre-learned behavior prior to teaching this treat. Its a bit of a Pre-requisite to know that your Dog will have Treat / Reward impulses as you hold them in your hand and must first get her out of the impulse of rushing for the treat in your hand specially within range of her mouth. She will want to get the treat the fastest way possible and to do so would require doing the proper behavior you want.
I would recommend shortening the time on the actual balance first, just get your dog used to the idea of a treat on her nose even for 1 or 2 seconds. I believe the trick is all about speed in terms of rewarding and either clicking / reward word once the treat is on the nose for any amount of time.
Here is a great Step By Step Video on how to teach the behavior, before learning the Balance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUYAEhm8YiI
GOOD LUCK Tien! and Hang in there Luna you will learn it!
-
Permalink Reply by Tien N. on
-
Very possible that she's getting frustrated. All the tricks she's learned thus far only took about 20 minutes for her to figure out (with the exception of bang bang, which took an hour). I think the lengthy training time of this one got me frustrated that she couldn't learn it as quickly as her other ones. I didn't realize she could be sensing my frustration and reacting negatively toward it. Hasn't Cesar Millan taught me anything?? lol
That video was actually pretty amazing to watch, and so helpful! The steps are so simple, I dunno why I didn't just youtube it from the get go. Thanks! =)
-
Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on
-
16 weeks is very young...I would quite this trick and reintroduce it at a later time! Corgis are very smart and pick up vibes from us, learning has to be fun and maybe she is reading the frustration in you????
-
Permalink Reply by Edison on
-
Congratulations on all the stuff you've taught her- that's impressive! :) This is the one trick which we've never had even a tiny bit of success with. It looks cute, but is actually hard as all heck, particularly for a corgi, especially one as young as yours. I suspect that she's not feeling humiliated so much as frustrated, and that this trick is more torture than its worth. Why don't you try some other tricks until she gets older and more patient? Some of our favorites:
1) Figure Eight - weaves a figure eight around a pair of human legs.
2) Clap your paws - when corgi is in your lap, being held upright, they can clap
3) Go to [name of human]
4) Go get your [name of toy]
5) Kiss - a corgi kiss on command
6) Over - jump over small obstacles
7) Ambidextrous tricks - shake with left and right paws by different commands, roll over both ways by different words, etc.
And if you're very patient about it, I've heard that corgis can be taught to sneeze on command. :)
-
Permalink Reply by Sunni A. on
-
Eddy does this trick. But one thing that gets Eddy down is being frustrated, not knowing quite what to do, being confused about the command and trick, etc. He also will avoid eye contact, walk away, lie down, like you described. It just takes a few things. Consistency: Same command, same motions, same hand signals, etc. every single time you're doing the training session. Don't say the command in different tones every time too. Speed: Don't slowwwwlllyyyy place the treat on the nose. It must be done in one quick motion so that the next thing she knows, the treat's on her nose (pun) and she's stuck with it there. Positive reinforcement: Always say good girl as soon as the treat touches the nose, even if she turns her head away, causing the treat to fall, never say badddd for turning away. Only pay attention to the good parts. Eddy used to have the treat on his nose, but slowly lower his head til it fell. He was "good" up to that point then I'd snatch the treat away before it fell and start all over til he doesn't let it fall. Another thing, is she good at "wait" already? Like waiting as still as a statue, very tense, no movement, waiting for your command to release her from the statue pose? Eddy already learned this before we taught nose-treat trick, making it very easy to get him to stay still for treat placement. Lastly, take a break BEFORE either of you get frustrated and give up or you start sighing really loudly and making angry eye contact. Don't wait til that's already happened, ruining the mood and making your corgi feel like a failure.
-
-
Thanks for all the great advice. I'll definitely keep this in mind for the future. Luna sometimes did the same thing, slowly lowering her head or her whole body until the treat just fell off her nose. As long as a treat's involved, she can hold the "stay" position for quite a long time. The longest I've made her wait for a treat a few inches in front of her nose would probably be 30 seconds, and she doesn't seem frustrated then. Just excited to finally get the treat. We practice "stay" in many areas of the day, like lying by her bowl before she eats and lying just inside the front door while I stand outside before we go for a walk. Just surprised me that she could get so frustrated with a trick like nose-treat.
-
Permalink Reply by Monica, Orion, and Laika on
-
For the treat on the nose trick I taught Orion and Laika to catch first. So I toss a treat and say "get it!!" and after they learned to catch (took a long time for them to develop the coordination for it) I put the treat on their nose, use the "wait" command, then I'd say "get it!" and they'd know to catch it. It took them a very short amount of time to learn to catch it off their nose but a LONG time to catch, I think they just didn't have the coordination. They couldn't catch until about a month ago when Orion was 5 months and Laika was about 4 months. It may be a frustrating experience for her so she is unhappy doing it because she doesn't understand what she's doing. I'd say give it time, try just catching treats for a while, then try the nose trick. Make sure not to make your training sessions too long either, the pups will get annoyed and bored
Rescue Store
Stay Connected
FDA Recall
Canadian Food Inspection Agency Recall
Groups
We support...
Badge
© 2024 Created by Sam Tsang.
Powered by
