Spanish for Wally: Adentro y Afuera 2

Wally is starting to get the idea of the words, and mostly I use them when I would use "inside" and "outside", respectively. 

One thing that is interesting is that when I said "Afuera", at first he hesitated. The reason was because I didn't say "outside". I was under the impression that he did not understand "inside" and "outside", and perhaps he doesn't, but he knew it was one of those two words. Pretty interesting. 

Still, he is getting "afuera" pretty quickly. He trots outside like no problem. "Adentro", though, still seems to be confusing him sometimes. He hesitated, and still does once in a while, but only on "adentro". 

I am not sure why that is. I have to use a hand signal to gesture him inside when I say the word. Perhaps he can't hear the word too well, or perhaps I'm not saying it consistently (entirely possible, not a native Spanish speaker and just learned the words myself). 

One day I will need to practice sending him in and out, and perhaps even use the clicker to mark the correct behavior to help him really understand. 

Then after that, it will be time to give a "test" to see where he is in understanding and where more practice is needed. 

So far, I think he's learning pretty well overall. Seems like using Spanish is still a good way to expand his "vocabulary", and introduce new concepts or reteach old ones.

"All-Positive Monday" 25 - Balancing On My Back

Trying to get him to look at the camera.

The latest thing we tried was born from a play session. Normally, we have a bit of a play session in the morning - sort of our morning ritual of saying "good morning" to each other. Sometimes, he'll "jump on my back" and I'll pretend like he's pinned me down. The picture above was from a few days back where we were practicing just him staying on my back and me standing still.

Well, one day, I tried to get him actually to get on my back. That sort of worked, but he was certainly unsure of the situation (and probably my back).

Then he got comfortable with it and that was a start I could work with. Long story short, he got on my back and I was able to get up and he would stay on while I sort of crawled around.

Today, we kept practicing that but with me actually walking and moving around while he stays on my back. I armed myself with some beef and got him up on my back with me lying down. For now, this part is still something of luring, though I detest using luring in training.

Once on my back, I slowly got up to a "standing" (my legs were standing, the rest of me bent at the waist), and I took a couple steps and then feed him a bit of beef. A couple more steps and more beef. Repeating this for a while to make the interest of being up there even stronger. I'm willing to bet he is still a bit nervous of the whole idea, especially once I start moving around.

Eventually, made my way to the stairs. Dare I try it? I did. This was something of an adventure for the both of us. I'm certainly not used to moving around like a hunchback and he was like "we're doing what now?", and I could feel those paws digging in a bit more as I started up the stairs (felt like little pin pricks - more an unusual sensation instead of a painful one).

Every couple stairs, I praised him and fed him another bit of beef.

Then we made it to the top, I slowly knelt back down and bent forward some, as if touching my head to the floor, and cue his "get off" behavior. He jumped off just fine (which also felt funny) and was happy and excited.

Below are a couple more pictures just to give an idea how it looks. I apologize in advance for any poor quality. Taking these by myself with a dog on my back is not something I've done before!

Admiring the view from his perch.

I think he's enjoying this. 

Spanish For Wally: Adentro y Afuera

It's been a while since I've tried a new Spanish word to teach Wally. I decided to look up "inside" in Spanish, and the word that popped up is "adentro". Outside popped up "afuera"

With how often I call him to come inside and go outside, these might be words he picks up quickly.

The way I'll likely teach is pretty much the same I taught "inside" and "outside". I say the word and then use a hand signal to direct him in or out.

This time, though, I will try to take it to the step I never bothered with for "inside", "outside" - teaching him that each means a certain thing. For example, coming from outside to in the house is only "adentro". If I say "afuera", and he comes in, that's not right. I don't let him in.

And of course, the reverse - "afuera" is going from in the house to outside. If I say "adentro" then he can't move. If he does - he doesn't go out.

This is will be an interesting twist. I'm not sure why I didn't try it for "inside" and "outside". I couldn't tell you. Maybe I didn't think of it at the time, and then just figured to let it go.

But this time (once I learn how to say the words consistently myself) we'll go all the way with it, or at least try it.

Wally Rendered In Pencil

I did not do these drawings. A talent named Canyx did it. She drew other dogs as well, all of them well done.

She captured Wally perfectly.

Here's the images.

"All-Positive Monday" 24: Beginnings of Roll Over

Sounds funny, but Wally doesn't know how to do "roll over", perhaps one of the quintessential tricks for every dog. It's not something Wally seemed to enjoy even trying, let alone starting to learn.

Then, not long ago, he started flipping partly over on his own during our daily morning play sessions. He would get all wound up and excited like he always does, and then suddenly, flip! He was on his side. So seeing this, I rewarded it with a treat immediately and started trying to coax it out of him again.

It took a while, but he started to get the idea of what I was trying to lure him to do, and when he did, I gave him a treat. Then I wanted him to get more upside down and on his back so he can get used to the feeling and how to control his body to better perform the flips.

He's getting the hang of it a lot better, and he readily will go on a flip, and even will do so on his own now if I hold out on him, like during shaping.

I do still do the luring-type actions, especially during play to continue encouraging him to work with his body overturned like that. He doesn't mind it at all and is very excited just like all the rest of the time during play! In fact, I can really mess with him and scratch him on the back of his head and he's trying to get me and just having tons of fun.

I have some pictures of the luring part of a play session.