At our training class we have been working on jumping on cue - walking up to the jump, clicking for jumping over and last week we added the cue.
My young dog is quick.... sometimes too quick.
After a couple of jumps were we walked up and she was to jump at once, the trainer asked us to stop just in front of the jump, have the dog sit, then jump over at cue. My pup was ready to just jump, and I stopped her by giving her the cue to sit. When I then proceeded to give her the cue to jump, she gave me THAT look "what! then why the heck did you ask me to sit?" Then she jumped over.
Next time round I asked her to sit a bit sooner, and she sat a halfstep in front of the jump, giving her a bit more space to get her long legs over the board. When I cued "jump" she jumped - right on the spot....in front of the jump... landing close up against it... laughing I cued jump again, and this time she got over the jump....she did look a bit insulted "what are you laughing at, you asked me to jump, and I did?"
Christina and the quick pup
yes exactly
you are quite right Laura, she associated the cue with the muscle action, not with the obstacle.
I wonder if that isn't actually what our dogs often do - associate the click with a particular muscle action, rather than a "task" (or what ever)?
I do know that having my hubbie click my dog for gaiting (for conformation shows) made it a lot easier for me to run precisely as fast as is needed to show my dog to her advantage - even though only the dog got treats...but it was not something conscious for me, I only realised in retrospect what was happening.
Too funny!
And actually, quite revealing -- the behavior was (to her) the physical action, not the process of clearing the jump.... Clever girl, to be so specific! :)
Laura &
I have been wondering
Maybe I should try to repeat that "error" - it could be quite cool to capture that little jump-in-place...hhmmm