"Put Treats Here"

As I was chatting with the volunteers from Golden Beginnings Golden Retriever Rescue, they showed me something I never knew about Chief or any other dog, for that matter. Chief came with his own instructions.

"The black spot on his tongue...do you know what that means?" they asked me. "It's his instructions. It means 'Put treats here!'"

Now, as we have started his clicker training, I have realized...this is the TRUTH!!! Chief is all about training and learning! The faster you put the treats on that black spot, the more he wants to do. He is a very smart boy who likes his training. The meatier the treat, the better!

Clicker training is a form of training using a box clicker to mark the exact behavior that the trainer wants the dog to perform. It's based on reinforcing consequences of behavior, using positive reinforcement. I started the initial steps of clicker training with Chief and soon realized, he has either had previous exposure to this...or he's one BRIGHT DOG!! Within a few minutes, Chief had a clear understanding of what the sound of the clicker meant, as well as had the basic behavior of "touch" down to a tee. I moved from touching my hand to touching a small target, with the hopes of later translating this to touching an object away from him. Chief also learned a new behavior, called "spin" this morning during breakfast. I had to lure him into the behavior to get him to intially perform it, but within several trials, I was able to fade the lure quite a bit and start to add the cue to indicate the behavior. My initial wondering has now been answered...Chief is a VERY SMART BOY!!

My goal for Chief's training is for him to have a "toolbox" of different behaviors that we can utilize in therapy sessions with children. The behaviors will both functional as well as "tricks" that have hand signals that the patient can give to the dog to perform the behavior. Some of the more functional behaviors include scooting, backing up, climbing onto a table/mat, side stepping, laying down, sitting, crawling, raising a paw, touching an object, opening / closing a cabinet, retrieving objects, holding objects in his mouth, etc. Some of the tricks include play bow, waving, spinning, turning light on/off, jumping hurdles, crawling through tunnels, vocalizing on command, etc. These behavioral repetoire can be used to work on different therapy goals in a treatment session. Sessions will include children who are receiving physical, occupational, and/or speech therapy.

I am hoping that within 6 months, Chief will be ready for his job as a therapy dog. Given his previous training history and his temperament, he may be ready sooner! It will all depend on how well I follow my "instructions" I've been given!! :)

This is going to be a fun adventure!!

Tammy