Training Goal: Ringing a Doorbell to Signal Potty Needs

The border collie forum I frequent is now adding a clicker training club for those of us who want to so we can help encourage each other to get training and give advice and feedback on problems. HEre is my first goal with these two.

problem: at this point, Molly is pretty easy to understand because she barks when she needs out. Shawnee is more confusing because she tends to just stare at you.

Overall goal: to have the girls ring a doorbell placed at their height when they need to go out to potty.

rough training plan: both the girls already have a strong hand target with their noses. So now I want to add a Post-it note to the target then be able to move the target to other things. That way I can place the target on the door bell itself and get them ringing it with their nose. Then finally I can phase out the target. Once they are ringing the bell and training sessions, I can start trying to teach them to ring the bell when they need to go out. I am not sure whether I should use a cue as an intermediate between training sessions and potty ring.

Current status: I last trained a few weeks ago. I had both the girls relatively successfully nose targeting the Post-it target placed very close to me.I will probably need to back up to having the Post-it on my hand because of the time since I last worked on it.

Intermediate goal one, which is probably actually due on 6 March: getting the girls to target the post it with their nose when it is placed on the doorbell. Hopefully this will at least sometimes ring the bell.

I will try to post progress reports frequently. Maybe even after every training session if I can get the time and energy for it.

We MEANT to Train Today...

After posting training videos to the training levels list yesterday, I was feeling really inspired to train today. But things don't always go how we plan. DH was off work for the day. So we ran some errands (the girls came along in the car.. they love car rides). By the time we got home, I was beat and aching.

We had lunch late and relaxed for a while inside. Then the rain finally cleared so we took the girls with us out to the pony pasture (the ponies are on summer grass). They got to run around and sniff and play while we set up poles in prep for some horse training I need to do. Been using the pasture as an arena when DH and the girls aren't playing in it.

While out, we premacked some recalls (Called them to us one at a time, praised the come, and sent them back out to sniff). Both are coming better after last night's hot dog training. Then DH went in to get the frisbee and ball.

While he was gone, I got the bright idea to pull my hat off my head and throw it like a frisbee. Both girls caught on to the game fast. I did some stay training. While Molly held a stay, Shawnee fetched my hat and did her FIRST EVER deliver to hand. She usually drops things at our feet. It was a one time thing, but I am optimistic she will learn it eventually--maybe not until I train her formal retrieve, but some day.

Then they played for a while with DH. Both brought the toys to me intermittently to include me in their games. As usual, copious stays thrown into the mix. It was fun and it did use their brains as well as their bodies. Now I am aching horrendously and feeling just about ready to bed.

So even though we didn't do the training I wanted, it was a good day for the girls filled with lots of real-life practice.

BTW, Shawnee peed on command a strange place again. she's done it in the past, but I feel more confident that she "gets" it as she gets older--not just that she is so desperate she just goes.

A Very Unusual Incident

Shawnee apparently had an "accident" in her crate overnight. She was in bed with us much of the night, so it must have been sometime between when DH left for work a little after 5 and when I let her out at 8:45. What makes this especially odd is that I was awake from 7 until 7:45 and don't recall having heard any whining or anything. Usually she will start whining if she needs out while crated or Molly will know somehow and act like she needs out until I get up and let them both out.

So not only am I shocked by this, but I am worried about her. An accident like that can be a sign that she has a health problem. Especially when it happened in such a short time frame. I will be keeping a good eye on her.

Her crate is too big for her, but it has been that way for several months now without incident. I am now concerned that if she isn't sick, we may need to put a divider in the crate again.

I managed to get it outside without spilling it, but it was quite hard on my back. Because of the baby gate in the kitchen door, I had to carefully lift it there and slide it over the gate. But then I was able to put it back on the floor and drag it out into the lawn. I have now tipped it over and sprayed it well with clean water. I am wondering if it might need more effective cleaning to be sure nothing is left, but that will have to wait for DH. No way I can handle that. I am exhausted as it is.

Comfortable Clean-Up Tools

When we only had one dog, clean-up wasn't such a big deal. Initially I could walk so we just took Molly different places and rotated until things broke down. Then when I started being unable to walk Molly was well trained that I could send her up to potty without being on leash. She would go in the woods where no one walks and had plenty of room to vary where she went.

Now that both the girls are using the fence, we have a problem. Clean-up is something that we really have to do regularly. The problem was that DH doesn't have the time to do it and trying to manage with a regular shovel was just far too uncomfortable for me.

I kept seeing kids tools in the ads and that got me thinking. Finally saw some on a really good sale and decided to give it a shot. I selected wooden handled metal tools. A shovel and rake. We got home with him, DH used wood finish on the handles to help prolong their life.

Once that was dry, I started using them. This is probably one of the best investments in things for the dogs that we've made yet. The tools are so light that I can comfortably handle one in each hand. I can even use one hand to throw the contents of the shovel. The handles are just long enough that I don't have to bend over. If they were longer, weight might start be an issue.

So finally I am able to clean up after the girls myself. I just spend a few minutes every few days going through the fence. Because offenses right up against a section of woods and a large dirt pile that has blackberries growing on it, I can just throw what I pick up one of those places to allow to break down naturally.