The Votes Are In!

Hello everyone!

The last couple of days have been pretty quiet and I've been fairly tired so sorry for not posting.

So I have counted up the votes on what people want to see me teach Poppy next and the winner is:

Fetch a named object!

The Plan (initially with 'tug' her rope toy):

Step 1 - Know the Name

* Every time she touches the object I will say its name ('tug')

* Repeat at least 20x

* Ask for the object - when she touches it, reward (this will likely be with a game of tug)

Step 2 - Bring Object

* Work on lead

*Toss object and reward/praise when she is near me with it

* Repeat until she consistently brings it towards me

Step 3 - Drop Object ('Tug' first)

* Play tug until I ask for 'drop it' - continue to hold 'tug' but do not move, this makes the game boring and she will want to figure out what I'm asking her to do to start the game up again

* Once dropped immediately praise and continue the game

Step 4 - The Command

*Will only be effective after she is doing steps 1-3 consistently and really knows what I'm asking from her

* Throw object and say the command (e.g. "fetch tug") as she chases it

*Once she is fluid at fetching the object as you throw it, work towards placing the object in view and give the command so that she has to figure out that she is expected to bring the object to you even if you haven't thrown it

That's the plan in theory but will be recording our training sessions and updating you with anything I find that doesn't work or any changes I make to the plan based on how she goes in our sessions.

This trick is going to take a little while to teach Poppy as she is still very stubborn in letting go of toys so I will also be teaching 'cover face' which had tied with 'pray' for the second highest number of votes.

Until next time!