Sit and other mysteries

Couldn't resist doing a little clicker training to teach Annie to sit. In this kind of training, you click a little plastic thingy (see picture at right) at the exact moment the dog does this behavior you want to reward, then give a treat. In the first session I started by clicking and treating when she went to a bed to lie down (I don't have to wait long for her to do this!). I clicked just at the moment her elbows hit the bed. When she was repeating this consistently, I started to click just before she completed the down, when her behind was already on the bed, but her front legs were still partially extended. At first she would continue into a full down after the click before getting up to retrieve her goodie, but gradually she began to abort the down when I clicked--finishing the down motion was just wasted time between the click and getting her treat--dogs are very efficient! In about 15 minutes we got to the point where she started to hold in the sit position.

If you want to see what this process actually looks like, the little video here (apologies for the quality and framing!) is our second 10 minute sit training session, at the end of which I've invested a total of 20 minutes, and have a Greyhound who is is likely to try sitting as a way to earn a treat. From here I can progress to adding a cue, weaning her off the bed, and getting rid of the pre-sit circling.

This is a very un-techy version of clicker training and is lots of fun if you like doing stuff with suspense (will she or won't she?) and that let you sharpen your timing.

I love watching a dog solve a puzzle like this.