Today Chopper woke up with an upset tummy. It seems the new treats I got him yesterday didn't agree with him. I could hear his belly gurgling from a few feet away, and he had no interest in food. When I got home he seemed more alert and when we went outside he explored the yard, with a little skip in his step. Yep, a little skip in his step! Not full on dog joy, but he was definitely experiencing something positive. Here's the neat part, he gets nervous going up the stairs and inside, but today he followed Kolohe up our 6 deck stairs without any work on my part. Then he realized what he'd done and went back down LOL. I tried to coax him back in, but he was sitting in his back corner shaking so I went inside to look for something completely delicious to clicker train with, well, as soon as I went inside he ran up the deck steps and inside to follow me in. Wahoo! And I've sent Greg to the store for some cheese we can cut into small pieces, and nitrate free hot dogs (thanks Joanna for reminding me those exist).
I started reading Karen Pryor's book: Reaching the Animal Mind: Clicker Training and What It Teaches Us About All Animals . I'm hoping to build up my clicker training skills. Right now I'm reading about how she started off by clicker training dolphins at Sea Life Park in Hawaii (in the 70's I think!). I've seen the dolphin show there as the park is close to where my grandparents lived, it's completely impressive. She also trained her hermit crab to pull a cord. And a wild wolf to run away from her around a tree and back. Amazing, right? The whole premise is that instead of "correcting" an animal when they don't get the message, you "mark" a behavior with a click and then reward it. It can completely bypass that fear part of the brain and since that is what's on overdrive with Chopper I'm hopeful it can make a difference. That being said I'm figuring it out as I go along trial and error style. I hope I can do it!
On another note, I have a habit of giving my dog nick names, pet pet-names if you will--ha! We sometimes call Chopper "Chop-dog", like top dog, or hot dog. He doesn't seem to mind, and it makes us happy to say it LOL. Today I stared calling him "Sweet Prince" cause he always looks so demure when he's looking at us. Kolohe also earned a nickname today: "Crumbzilla" for her obsessive hunting of the smallest morsel of food. We gate the dogs in separate rooms when they eat because when Otto got older and sick Kolohe would scarf her food down in lightspeed and the rush to Otto's bowl to push him out of the way to eat his food. No way she could've done that when he was in his prime, but dogs are opportunists, and she recognized his decline. So Chopper being as timid as he is wouldn't stand a chance, thus the baby gates. Well he takes his time eating, actually chewing his food and Kolohe slurps hers down, I'm convinced, without the food even touching her teeth. When Chopper is done he turns around and looks at me like "now what". Which is when I remove the baby gate and unleash Crumbzilla on the other room. Not sure how much she thinks she'll get, Chopper is a hound dog with an amazing nose, but she goes for it like Godzilla against Tokyo.
I think you picked a great style of training for Chopper as there is many styles and great things to take from them all but I've always have thought there is more than one way and it need to suit the owner and the pet.
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