Click! Suki learns to Find an Empty Seat

The three dogs (from top counterclockwise: Sunny, Suki, and Petel

ٍSince Thursday the weather has changed, and heavy rains have fallen all over the country. We were issued raincoats and the dog feeding and brushing room at the end of the hallway is now equipped with plenty of towels for drying off wet doggie paws. It is well known that when it is pouring rain outside dogs take a particularly long time when going out to do their business, as you stand holding the leash and getting soaked!

Since the pecan grove is now a flooded soggy mess, we have had to postpone the free run until things dry out and Ami demonstrated the fascinating technique of clicker training. Instead of issuing a command and then forcing the dog to perform, this technique is based upon enforcing desired behavior with a click from a clicker held in your hand and then immediately rewarding the dog with food. The dog soon learns to associate behavior-click-reward and will want to repeat the desired behavior. When the behavior has been learned, you then add the command. There is, of ocurse, a lot more to it, but that's it in a nutshell.

We started off teaching the dogs to find an empty seat. After several bungled attempts at the sequence of presenting my fist to Suki, clicking when she nuzzled it, and then rewarding her with a tidbit from a pouch hidden behind my back, I was then told to place my fist on the couch, and to click the clicker and give her a reward when she placed her nose on my fist on the couch. The next stages were to teach Suki to approach the couch, and, finally, with the harness on, to lead me to the couch. After that Someone sat in the empty place. At first Suki insisted upon still leading me to the same place, but she soon learned to find an empty spot and led me to it! I added the command "chair" and we were set. Suki had learned something new. You can use this technique to teach a guide dog to lead you to a vacant chair, a garbage can, an ATM machine, a mailbox - just about anything – on command! All three dogs were excited and eager, thumping their tails as the others went through the learning process.

More introductions to friends: Jane, Bill, Shelly, Hali, and Debbie came to visit with presents of a cake for me and a package of chewies for Suki. Within a short time Debbie and Jane were on the floor stroking Suki, who slept blissfully through most of the visit. It seems she is a bit more hesitant with meeting new men: she gazed at Bill hesitantly at first, then when I led her to him began to wag her tail and be more friendly.