This month for the positive pet training blog hop we were given the task of doing a post about 101 things to do with a box.
For those that aren't sure about this ... there is lots of examples on YouTube and a Google search. In short its a shaping exercise where you get behaviors/interactions with a box. It teaches the dog to think and the human to be patient.
I tried this with both of my guys. I did go longer than I should have for my videos and in normal training (when I'm not vidoeing) I do try and keep it at 2-5 minutes.
Tucker went first. And you can tell he hasn't had as much experience with shaping. I got a lot of staring so in his defense this was kinda unfair to him. I should have been a better trainer and worked him up to this. But he seemed to enjoy it anyways. You can check his video out below.
I didn't get as much interaction as I would have liked. But I tried to click when he would look at the box or touch it. I eventually got him dipping his head in it (by cheating with throwing treats in there).
Next I tried it with Teach. What a difference! Teach knew what I wanted. I loved seeing him work because he was constantly moving his feet trying to figure things out. Didn't take him long to start dipping his head in. I wanted any kind of interaction with the box, not just one particular behavior. Here's his video:
I need to remember this exercise for cold winter nights when they are bouncing off the walls. After 5 minutes of this they were sleepy!
Thanks to the hosts of this Blog Hop, Cascadian Nomads, Dachshund Nola, and Tenacious Little Terrier.
