A Dangerous Game! (Not Really)

[Guest Wasserbuffel]

Shake is the most recent skill Jayne has mastered, but at the expense of the skin on my poor arm. Lots of enthusiasm and little coordination means a sore arm for mamma.

 

Jayne caught on pretty quickly. It took me lifting her paw and saying shake while treating about four times to get her to give me the paw on her own. Once it clicked she was rather violent and slappy. Her nails are still a bit long, I have been slowly shortening them with the dremmel but it's a slow process. She'll shake from a sit or a stand, but it's safer for the human to ask for a shake from a stand.

 

We also learned "off" this weekend. She's decided to resource guard the couch from my DH. She growled at him while he was sitting on the floor and began to pet her while she was on the couch. She tried guarding the couch from me at first, but I got her to knock it off by removing her from the couch, led by her collar, and now I can sit almost on top of her without any growling. DH hasn't worked with her as much as I, and she makes him a bit nervous still. So, to get her off the couch if she gets growly with him I taught her the command of off. I have had him practice and she removes just as well for him as for me.

[Guest Sunset123]

Arrisa was the same way. She became VERY enthusiastic about "shake" once she learned it. I've gotten a "shake" right to the face quite a few times.

 

The trainer that we used for socialization issues actually mentioned that she doesn't recommend teaching shake because dogs will start batting at their owners to get what they want. I did it anyway, though!

Edited May 19, 2010 by Sunset123

[Guest Wasserbuffel]

she doesn't recommend teaching shake because dogs will start batting at their owners to get what they want.

 

I could see a dog trying that, but if the owner is consistent in never rewarding the dog should give up. Well, that's what I think at least, but again Jayne is my first dog ever so I don't actually know much.

 

I think I have been doing pretty well with training, even without formal classes. It's all a matter of patience, which I have in spades, and consistencey, which I am fair at being. I trained a blind duck how to live in the world (she had a ten word vocabulary - it would have been larger, but she died young), and a sighted duck to jump off a dock and several other tricks. I even taught a cat a version of shake for a treat (place paw on my knee), and both my cats come when called with a 98% success rate.

[Guest twhitehouse]

Yes...Lexi has become quite the slapper too. It's become a very dangerous time after dinner, or in the morning before walk time. I often head to work with scratches on my arm.