Comments on: Who’s Shaping Me?

By: Diana

Diana — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 23:45:51 +0000

Ha Ha, I wake up from a nap with at least 6 toys lying all around and on me -delivered by 13 mo Aussie. Must admit I have a few other distractors that assist with dog diversion-husband and children-to save me from stinky dog breath!

By: AN

AN — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 02:36:42 +0000

My Jack Russell-Basenji mix has shaped me, I have to confess. She wasn’t very affection-seeking when I first got her from the shelter at 1 year old; I thought it was a Basenji thing. I have a rule when we’re in the car, she is supposed to sit, not wander around & stuff. When I first got her I would make her do this (I didn’t know anything about training back then). Later I decided car rides were a good time to pet her, maybe she’d start to like it, and sure enough she did. She’d sidle her butt closer and closer (one time she got too close and fell between the bucket seats!) But eventually I noticed her main trick. Whenever I stopped petting her (say, because I needed both hands on the wheel to turn a corner), up she’d pop and I’d tell her to SIT and resume petting her once she did! In her mind she was manipulating me into resuming.

By: Jenny Ruth Yasi

Jenny Ruth Yasi — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 13:45:38 +0000

An 14 year old yellow lab is a current house guest. I’m supposed to give him a pill wrapped in cream cheese. So I hold it out. He looks at me. “Oh, you want more cream cheese on that?” I double the cream cheese. He sort of nods his head, like, that was correct, and gulps it down.

I let him outside. He barks, Try to let him inside. He stands there staring at me till I take a step towards his collar. He turns and heads away. “I’ve gotta go,” I tell my husband. “The dog wants me to take him for a walk.” I walk along in the garden with him, and as long as I’m headed in the direction he wants to go, he keeps walking. If I turn the wrong direction, he stops and stands there, teetering on his old legs. I head off the way he wants me to go, and he ambles right along.

He brings me back in to feed him his breakfast. “Eat!” I implore. His owners told me they are desperate to get him eating more. He won’t touch it. “He won’t eat.” I tell my husband. “Maybe if I put some tuna in it….”

By: Lianne

Lianne — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 19:14:02 +0000

I have really been enjoying reading all the comments on these posts. My first dog, a Border Terrier (Peanut) who I got as an 8 year old, was fantastic at shaping me. As a little puppy, I would always scratch her ear for her when she was itchy and scratching at it. Her looks of appreciation and puppy kisses were such a great reward for me! She weaned her “lure” of the very active scratching, and would start to scratch but very slowly and looking at me the whole time. Of course, I would finish the job for her. She eventually got to the point that all she had to do was literally stick her foot in her ear and sit there, not scratching at all, to get me to rub her ears and scratch her head. Such a smart little lady.

She also loved her bones, and would chase them around on the floor. She very quickly learned that if she shoved it under the couch or whatever other furniture might be in the room, that I would get up and get it out for her (since she was scratching at the floor and whining and what not). She would from there on out put her bones there on purpose, or just act like that with no bones under the couch! That was her favorite, getting the human to lift up the couch or get out the yardstick to see if there are any toys to fish out, only to find out that Peanut had fooled us again. She was a very special girl!

By: Beth

Beth — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:29:10 +0000

Ok my little Papillon Mikey is a little handful to say the least. He has decided that he is a BIG boy and doesn’t want to eat from his tiny food bowl any more. He wants his big sisters bowls to eat from now. I guess we have to pick our battles….

By: Jo

Jo — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:23:07 +0000

My sheltie made it a habit to lie down so that my mother would step on him when she was cooking, of course, she felt sorry for him and gave him a treat, and it took us months to realize he did it on purpose….

By: Tracy

Tracy — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 02:12:40 +0000

I always try to practice frisbee near a body of water, so I can easily give my dogs cool breaks during the hot Missouri summers. Well……….when my BC mix, Blade, was young, he found it quite entertaining to chase the splashes of rocks as I threw them into the river while he swam and cooled off. Very quickly this changed from simply enjoying chasing the splashes to obsessing about them. Now, I can definitively say that Blade has shaped me into tossing rocks simply to get him INTO the freakin water to cool off! I am quite sure that he’s now shaped me so well, he could be ready to die of heatstroke and still WAIT to jump into the cooling water until I start tossing those dang rocks…………..

By: Kathy

Kathy — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 14:23:50 +0000

HERE’S MY EMPTY KONG…WHAT WILL YOU GIVE ME FOR IT??

My lab has shaped me into giving her a biscuit for “bringing finished Kongs” to me to put away. My 2 dogs get stuffed Kongs after meals, my lab brings each one to me….usually carries the first one, following me to the dog pantry, where she releases it to my hand…I put it away and give her a small treat…then she goes and finds the 2nd one, brings it to me still waiting in the pantry. She releases that one for another treat. Both Kongs are now put away ready to fill after the next meal or for a mid day snack. But she shaped me into doing this. I think the behavior came from her coming to me with the finished Kong and dropping it at my feet or into my lap if i was sitting & my saying Thank you & taking it to put it away. I think she was interested in seeing if I’d fill it again. Probably when she was younger I always had treats on me and I would give her a treat just because it was cute, felt it should be rewarded. The 2nd dog, an older sheltie has never put two and two together, she finishes the Kong and walks away leaving it there.

The new puppy sheltie, tho likes retreiving games, usually just for the game itself, but he is bringing me his Kong, just like the lab, I check it to see if there is any biscuit stuck in the bottom…if so he gets it. I suppose I should allow the shaping of me to happen again, this is a nice way for the Kongs to get picked up and put away.

By: Vanessa

Vanessa — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 02:07:54 +0000

My 5yr old BC “Tal” is very polite and gentlemanly – and gets away with blue murder… He is sooo sneaky and it only takes one reinforcement for him to “do it again”.
His current thing is to very politely sit or stand, staring intently at what even it is he wants (ball, cong ect…) and then slowly look in my direction, then back at the thing… He looks so cute and so very polite. Unfortunately I gave in after a busy night shift ONCE and now he does it just about every day just in case I give in again…
He also does Pets as Therapy at the local nursing home. He does his tricks and gets pats ect… One day I was late with a reward for hand touching (to get him closer to a patient) and he had a foot in the air. Well he now thinks the must shake hands with every patient…
And then theres our obedience and agility “training” where he’s shaped me to do sooo many behaviours….
Cheers for Australia
Vanessa

By: Shaya

Shaya — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:34:15 +0000

It’s interesting that some of the behaviors mentioned are behaviors you might actually want. Like Dawn’s dog who goes ot her side when a person, animal or car comes into view. That seems quite useful. With a dog who was at all reactive that would be exactly what you’d want from them, though maybe on an intermittent reinforcement schedule.

My family just got a young cat a couple months ago and he is an amazing trainer. If he doesn’t like how you’re petting him he’ll open his mouth and move it towards your hand like he might bite you. And people usually respond to that. If not he continues and will work up to putting teeth on skin. His timing is excellent and his punishments are fair. He also has much more persistence than the dogs as far as waking people up to go out.