Breakthrough!

I got home last night and we had to leave pretty quickly for a hockey game, so I didn't get to work w/Dexter right after work. However, when we got home from the game, it was late (10pm) but the dogs still needed fed, so I took Dexter and his bowl of food into the office. Andy stayed out in the living room so that when Panic was done eating she would just hang out with him and not get upset (and barky!) since I was working w/Dexter. Also the TV was up pretty loud, so I'm not even sure she knew I was clicking.

I have been working with Dexter with the milk crate to teach him about clicker. However, he wasn't really getting it. I felt like he knew the clicker meant a treat was coming, and what he was doing is what caused it, but he wasn't really into it. I was working on it the other day and noticed it was throwing funny shadows, and thought it might be intimidating for him to walk in to. So, last night I had a change of plans, and got out a tupperware lid to work on "touch". I probably won't ever use a nose touch to a target (at least for agility) so I'm not too concerned about this behavior, but thought it would work well for getting him excited about shaping. It worked! First off - he was still very jazzed because we had just gotten home, and I had a whole BOWL of food which excited him. I think that may have helped. He got it SO quickly. He did the whole thing where you can see them pause and think about it. He stood there, with his head down and level with his spine, wrinkled his brow, and it was almost like I could see his thought process... "Hmmm I just got clicked... what was it for... oh this lid!!" and he'd stand up and go pounce on it with his nose. His tail just was wagging like crazy the entire session. After a minute I took him outside to potty again, then brought him back in. He started trying slight variations, which is GREAT! He was really seeing what exactly was getting the reward. He tried pawing it, mouthing it, pushing it with his nose, etc.

We also started to work on "down". He started out by doing the cutest thing. I was luring as well as clicking for the down, and with the treat in my hand, my hand on the ground by his feet, he would start to DIG like crazy at the carpet! I'd love to click for that, how cute would a Dig trick be?? However, I wanted the down, so we will work on "dig" later.

Things I am going to work on for now:
Nose touch
Down
Sit
Restrained Recalls
Tugging