 Barked: Fri Nov 16, '12 1:38pm PST |
 | |  | | Nare – I originally began with luring to teach it to her, because she was still figuring it out. Now, however, she does know it and I’ve basically taken rewards out of it and made it into a praise reward instead. If she calmly goes into a down when asked, she gets praised and we move away. It’s only if she’s super excited when I ask that she still hits me with her paws, lol. The idea of a toy that she can use her paws with though, sounds like a great idea. I’m hesitant to get more puzzle toys with her though, because she doesn’t do anything with them. She’ll nudge a cover with her nose to get a treat, but won’t turn or push anything else and doesn’t really bother with it otherwise. She’ll sit, stare and wait to get a reward. I do frequently give her a stuffed frozen Kong though, so she has to use her paws and teeth on that, and I give her raw marrow bones too, frozen, so she has to hold those in place to work at them as well.
Asher – so glad you responded! I always love to hear your opinions on training things. Anyway, if she does something when asked(such as lay down, or sit), she gets rewarded with various different things. Sometimes it’s treats, sometimes it’s her ball, sometimes it’s simple praise. If she starts pawing at me, what I’ve started doing is turning my back and ignoring her until she offers something else, such as a sit and that’s when I reward. She’s VERY excitable though, and I’m still trying to teach her that calm behavior and impulse control is more likely to get her something. For a while though, I probably WAS reinforcing that behavior without realizing it, and I have caught my fiance reinforcing it A LOT – I’ve had to give him trouble before, because when she jumps on him when he walks in the door, he immediately starts petting which reinforces the jumping(something I do not want her to do), so I really do need to sit down and get on the same page with him. I also have a younger brother that instigates nipping and clawing when he plays with her and I’m always after him for it too, so I need to have a talk with him too. What I do to get her out of the behavior is moot if everyone else continues to reinforce it, and I do realize that.
Nikolai – he sounds EXACTLY like Ria. Especially if she’s excited. She throws her paws around constantly. And I’m not sure if it’s a breed trait, or if it’s just her personality.
Okay… Just talked to my fiance, and it was like a light bulb moment for him! He said it made sense, and he stopped immediately. She jumped on him, he moved away and ignored her, but if she stayed on all fours, and didn’t jump or paw, he would throw her ball for her(which was what she wanted). Also, as soon as she went to paw at him, he did the same thing and waited for her to go back to being calm and either sitting or keeping all fours on the floor. Now, I just need to talk to my brother. I just pointed out to my fiance that we want kids in our future, and we always have kids visiting, so I didn’t want her jumping on them or clawing them and hurting them and showed him my hands, bol. He understands.Edited by author Fri Nov 16, '12 1:39pm PST
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. When he does do a paw thing that requires contact with me (Give paw and such) he does it like I'm made of glass. :] Learned paw-inhibition, hahaha.
