Back from Dog Scout Camp 2017

[hunter]

What there is something called Dog Scout Camp? Like girl guides? Who knew? too bad I have never heard of any in my area or even before! So cute the story about the girl poodle! But I need to google this Dog Scout Camp thing lol.

[Snowshoe]

This is great. EVery time you come back from Dog Scout camp I learn a bunch of new things too. Sounds like a wonderful time, as usual.

[LucyTudeOn4Feet]

I love seeing your pics every year of Hemi and you at camp!

[SunDance]

Oh, how fun...glad you "boys" had a good time!!! You're both young at heart, my friend.

[Jollymolly]

This looks like so much fun.

[Tanya]

oh so much fun!

LOVE the Copy Cat! how cool is that

[SamsonsMom]

Your report made me smile. How fun for the two of you. Thanks so much for sharing. Loved the copy cat videos.

[Scoutpout]

Sounds like you guys had another great year!
Love love love the copy cat teaching. What is the starting point, ie how do you introduce the do as I do concept for the dog?

[Jeff]

Sounds like you guys had another great year!
Love love love the copy cat teaching. What is the starting point, ie how do you introduce the do as I do concept for the dog?

You need three behaviors the dog will do completely with you saying the word. Its often helpful to have someone watch you as you just try this, you would really be surprised how much we move and give body cues. These also must be things you can do easily and you can show them. You must have no movement, you must be completely still. No head twitch, no hand gesture etc. Hemi's were "table", get on the agility table. So if I sit there with hands on my sides and just say table, hemi jumps up. "Spin" was another thing, lastly was "touch".

The rest is pretty easy, patients and treats. You need a key to tell them to pay attention to you. I would Tell Hemi, "Watch" then "Wait". This lets him know he should be watching you. You then simply do the thing, like so I get up on the table and get down. I then say "Do it" Pause for a second then say "Table" holding completely still the whole time. Hemi gets on the table, say yes or click, treat and praise. Pretty soon the dog is anticipating when you say do it, he has to get on the table. Then you introduce another. Like Spin for example. I would spin, say "Do it" then pause for a second then say spin. Same thing for touch. Pretty soon your doing all 3 things and you start putting longer and longer pauses in between saying "Do it" and what you want them to do. Once you get to the point their brain gets it, you do something, say do it, and then they do it before you get a chance to say the word of what you wanted. Then start practicing all 3. Make sure they are pretty solid on this. This took only about an hour for Hemi in a room full of other dogs and distractions.

Then introduce something totally something they can do maybe have done before like for Hemi one word I give him when I want 2 paws up is two paws. What I did was first the watch, wait, then put both my hands on the seat of a chair, stood up said Do It and nothing else. you could see him think for a minute, he walked over put both paws up on the chair. This is when I knew he knew the game. Now it is up to you to start reinforcing doing all kinds of things and just having fun. After a while of doing stuff he knows, then do something totally new he never did before. This weekend I tied a rope to a door handle totally out of the blue I walked over told him watch and wait, then tugged the rope to open the door. I took a step back, told him do it, he walked over tugged it open. Lots of treats and praise.

I was really surprised at how fast Hemi picked this up. Probably with just an hour of training we were to the point I had dropped all the keywords except the Do It, the next day he was copying new behaviors.

There is a full book on this though if you want more detailed instructions.
Do As I Do: Using Social Learning to Train Dogs: Claudia Fugazza: 9781617811487: Amazon.com: Books