"All-Positive Monday 20" - First Word: Sit

The beginning of 'reading' for Wally began with using the "Sit" card. I picked this one as it is a behavior that is simple and beyond learned.

This is also makes it a very good exercise for an all-positive session since he is unlikely to get a sit wrong as this stage of things.

We began with showing him the card and when he was looking at it, I cued "sit". There's some refinement to make later because he came up to the card, sniffed/touched it, then sat. I click and treated and will worry about the refinements later on.

This went easily. Click and treat when he sits and use his touching the card to get him to stand up again, so I can cue another sit. Click and treat again and then repeat. I think part of him is trying to figure out what's going on because he's moving somewhat slowly, but not because he's scared. I think the whole situation is confusing him and he might be wondering why he's having to sit.

I think he will get the idea, especially with more repetitions. I hope to get some time to really drill this in his head and fill up his brain with this.

The early returns indicate that he will be able to pick this skill up, and that's all I'm looking for on the first day. It's a very promising sign!

"All-Positive Monday 19" - Reading For Wally?

I got an idea from this post on a dog forum I visit often, and it made me want to see if Wally could get started with this.

I figure that it could be another way to teach object discrimination to him as well, and who knows what other cool things.

First, though, we have to start at the beginning. The first thing to do was make him look at the paper. So, every time he looked at the paper, he got a click and a reward. I kept working on this where he got a click and treat every time he looked at the paper and did nothing else.

Hopefully, this will be both a reward history around being shown a sheet of paper (gets him anticipating doing something for the reward) as well as draw his eyes to the paper instantly and with focus. This is going to take some time in all likelihood since a piece of paper is not going to be the most exciting thing ever.

This is a good thing to work on for an "All-Positive" day, since there's nothing to really correct. If the dog isn't looking at the paper, then just move the paper around to get his attention with the motion. He'll get the point over time. I don't want to rush this step because this is the foundation of the whole skill. It would be like trying to read a book without having enough focus to read the pages or motivated enough to read the book and your mind and eyes start wandering.

With some patience and time, maybe Wally can start 'reading' :)