It's interesing working with three dogs (separately). We're still vacationing at the lake and last night I managed to wake the dogs up long enough to work on "Get in the Box and Lie Down." Working with each dog separately, I had the chance to really pay attention to each dog's approach to getting me to click. It provides a lot of insight into each dog's strengths and comfort level with different props.
I started with Tango, working a short 5 minute session. He quickly figured out that it was the box that paid, and began to hang around it and experiment with it. Within about 1.5 minutes he was using his paw on the box. I was impressed. Our training took a big step forward when he volunteered an entire foot inside the box!
The progress we made quickly evaporated, however, when he removed that foot from the box and the box slipped, skittering away and putting him off balance. Never a "body-confident" dog, we were stuck for a couple of minutes. I lowered my criteria (and tried to make the box more stable and steady by positioning it against the wall). He came back quickly, but never lost his wariness of the box.
We found a suitable success and ended the training on a high-note.
Next came Lily, an extremely quick and clicker savvy dog. If any dog could be too clicker savvy, it would be this one! She's fast, which can be a challenge for me sometimes. She was in and out of the box like a jackrabbit in three minutes flat. Within in four minutes, she was sitting. Turns out the box isn't quite long enough for Lily to comfortably lay down, but she's so flexible and doggone smart, she'll figure a way to curl herself up in there next session, I'm sure.
Finally, I worked with Nemo. Somewhere between Lily and Tango, Nemo isn't as fast, but neither is he put off by the shifting box. He, too, learned to get in the box and sit. He's way too big to even think about laying down in the box, though.
It was fun to watch the different approaches and different paths that each of these dogs took to get to the final destination. Each tried something different, each noticed something different I did (if I changed sides, if I moved the box back around, etc.).
The cool thing? Each dog learned quickly because of the clicker -- and had fun doing it! (So did I!)
