Get It

Posted on August 3, 2008
Filed Under Things That Make Me Smile, Tips and Tricks, Toys | Leave a Comment

weve been working on the command “get it” during my lunch breaks. the get it command is a step in a series of commands i plan to eventually use to teach him to get my medication out of my bag for me. its been relatively easy to teach this command because he wants to put EVERYTHING in his mouth.
the training for this started with games of fetch and learning the touch command. fetch provided him with the base knowledge to retrieve an item and the touch command provided him with a target for his mouth. i chose a new toy to teach the get it command because i didnt want him to have to unlearn a previous behavior associated with his other toys. i chose the toy i did because it was part ball and part tug (a game he enjoys immensely).

we started “get it” off by placing him in a sit, telling him to leave it, throwing the ball and then me saying “OK, get it” while pointing at the ball. he ran over to the ball, immediately placed it into his mouth and ran around the room with it, not even thinking that i might want the item back. i let him get the novelty of the new toy out of his system said “liame come” and then “touch”. he came over to me, touched my hand, i clicked the clicker and he released the toy in anticipation of getting his reward. we repeated this game over and over and over, eventually removing the “liame come” and “touch” commands so that “get it” meant go over to the item and bring it directly back to my hand. i then transferred the game to another object so as to allow him to associate the get it command with multiple objects. first we used an empty pop bottle and then we used a large chunky highlighter (because it was the only disposable item lying around in the room i was in).
i dont know exactly how i am going to train the novelty behavior out of him but i know that it will diminish as he gets older.

Biking Into Work

Posted on June 21, 2008
Filed Under Firsts, Mitigating Symptoms, Toys | Leave a Comment

yesterday liame and i biked into work in preparation for jaspers eventual retirement in a couple of weeks. i know in order to get through this depressive cycle i am in, i need to get more exercise. biking to work is part of the solution to my exercise needs.

last week i purchased a “croozer dog” bike trailer to pull liame in (see link above). i chose this trailer due to its ability to handle a 100lb dog, something none of the other trailers currently on the market can do. currently liame fits in it rather nicely (since he is only 50lbs and still only 6 months old).

he didnt seem to have any problem riding in it, infact when i checked in on him during our 30 minutes trip, he was lying down yawning. getting him into the trailer was a bit of a challenge though. inorder for him to hop into the thing i had to get out the great motivator - string cheese. i threw it into the trailer and zipped it up while he was munching on it. the only thing that i need to warn people about is the fact that with a dog moving around in the trailer, a kickstand isnt enough to keep the bike standing, you need to have some other method of supporting your bike while your dog is in the trailer. although when the bike did eventually fall over it didnt flip the trailer with liame in it - thank god.

with the high gas prices, the ability to reduce your carbon emissions and the need for regular exercise i would like to encourage all of you to bike to work during the summer months.