I would like to teach my dog to open a gate, and shut a gate, by pulling a string attached to the gate.
He will "hit" the string, and "tug of war" on it a little, but I can't seem to get him to grasp the concept of pulling it toward me or away from me, to open or close. It's a big steel cattle gate and opens and closes easily.
What steps would you guys use, because we are clearly missing some!
Thanks!
Do you use marker training with your dog? If so, this is a situation where you might be able to train "touch" then "bite" then "pull" (or what ever words you would use) and then link the behaviors together. This could be a lot of fun to train!
Anne Jones Webboard User Reg: 04-29-2004
Posts: 3825
Loc: Northeast
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I would use marker training to shape the behaviors, luring if necessary. Do you use marker training? I would shape the pushing(forward) & pulling(backing up) & the grasping (touching) & holding the rope as all seperate behaviors & then put it together.( chain the differtent behaviors together, after they are all solid,to form the final task.) Not sure if I explained that correctly.
Some of the steps to do this will depend on what your dog already knows & understands as to whether you need to reteach it. My dogs know: hold, backup, forward, bite... so I would basically just have to chain it together in the way that would work for the particular exercise giving it a command name. I don't know if that helps or not.
Dennis Jones Webboard User Reg: 06-13-2004
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Loc: Richmond Va
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what you might try is put something he goes nuts for on the other side of the gate, every now and then they figure it out on their own, you here stories of dogs pulling the dishtowel on the refrigerator and getting at your dinner. My two figured out if they bounce the gate on thier kennel at the right frequency the latch will bounce out of the way.
You could also start by putting the tug toy on the line and rewarding when the gate opens with the item he's nuts about on the other side
Several years ago at the WesternStates Vet Conference in Las Vegas they had video of naughty dogs -the point for vets was to learn to help as bad behavior = "terminal disease"--leads to PTS-sep. anxiety/property destruction was #1 after bathroom issues and biting - anyway, another was opening the refrigerator. I guess it's a big deal.
There was video of a rottweiler whose owner had resorted to a log chain around the refrigerator, and it was their second refrigerator!
Back to the gate-- we do marker training, he knows "bite the rope" and "tug the rope". I'll teach him "back" now, and "back while holding something" and see if I can get this all on the gate -thanks a lot, it's all lots of fun!
I taught Poe to get me drinks from the refrigerator doing essentially what Dennis suggested. I had a rope on the fridge handle and he learned to pull and back up to open the door. Initially there was a treat inside the fridge and then I added the steps of getting the soda/beer out of the fridge and shutting the door before getting the treat.
The only issue I had was he was so excited to get back to me with the drink that he would slam the door shut so hard it would rattle/knock the stuff that was on the fridge door :-)
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Teaching dog to operate a gate by pulling a string
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