So has anybody seen this dog and his owner in action? You can watch clips of their performance online and there is a website and all that.
Anyway - the owner claims that he never trained the dog and that he just 'showed him what to do' and the dog did it...
Being that this is a dog training board, I didn't think it would be too off topic to ask what you all thought of this entertaining man and his dog, Skidboot.
I mean I know it's 'tricks' but from what I have read the dog also helps this man in his everyday work and is actually a God-send for him with the way he helps him on the ranch.
If you've never seen him - just do a search on Google and it'll take you to the website.
Do you think the dog just 'reads' his owner really well? Body-language or what???
Jen

I'm reminded of the old videos of a horse (or multiple horses?) who would do math problems given by the handler and stamp out the correct answers with its hoof. Everyone was amazed until it was found out that the horse was trained to recognize the POSTURE of the handler in order to figure out how many taps it should do! We're not talking about the handler going from a sitting to a standing position, just a simple shift from one foot to the next would be enough for the horse to pick up on as a command. The sea lion and otter show in Sea World of Florida is sort of a comedy mini-play, and the sea lions perform their behaviors based on postures by the trainers. It's possible that the dog is trained to cue off postures as well, either that or the dog is darn good at guessing what the owner wants. Unless I totally misunderstood what's going on. Equally likely. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

I don't want to take anything away from the man and his dog, both are remarkable. I'm sure he used marker or clicker training and targeting to teach all those cute tricks and packaged it with some folksy humour and Texas charm. I've seen him on Animal Planet and frankly there was nothing there you couldn't do yourself if you went to clicker training class in your area. Heck get some of Ed's vids and use your imagination. We should congradulate him for actualy making money on solid dog training <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

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Anyway - the owner claims that he never trained the dog and that he just 'showed him what to do' and the dog did it...

Big pile of BS, Chefs don't reveal their recipes and magicians don't explain thier illusions

Watched his routine on the Animal Planet's "Pet Star". The dog looked like a Blue Heeler. Ignoring the patter that accompanied the routine, I was flat-out amazed at the dog. Skidboot's ability to focus was phenomenal. I suspect his ball drive is way towards the top of the scale.

I did a quick browse of the internet to see if he is still working. Yes, at 13 he still does his routines. He's blind now but still does most everything he used to do.

I saw him in action in 2003 at the Australian Cattle Dog National Specialty when it was in Texas. He was already going blind with PRA and it was sad to see the willingness of this dog to do the tricks but could not see adequately to perform them. I do trick training with one of my ACDs and watching his routine, I am 99.9% sure he uses various types of marker training. Perhaps he did not do it conciously but he did it nevertheless. My only real beef with his owner is that he bred Skidboot when he knows dang well the dog is affected with PRA (Progressive Retinal Atrophy) and depending on the bitch will either produce carriers of the disease and/or pups that will be affected and eventually go blind like Skidboot.

Too bad about this dog going blind.

Glenn

My childhood dog could pick up on any kind of trick I could think of with me showing him just once or twice. He was amazing. He was extremely food driven and I think that's what did the trick. He'd do anything for a treat, so it's not unreasonable for me to believe he just "showed the dog what to do" and the dog did it, because that's what I did! Boy, do I miss that dog...

I had a Lab mix, Blackhawk when I was kid. He did anything I told him to. I was his only trainer. Beats me how he did it, but he did.

I've seen stories about Skidboot printed in the AQHA and APHA Journals and on Animal Planet as well. We used to have an ACD that was incredibly intuitive and could be 'tought' almost anything. Often times it would seem that she was almost training herself, she'd pick up on suttle movements and anticipate what we were about to ask. It was crazy how 'smart' she was!! We used to joke that if she had thumbs she'd take the car on us <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> We tought her all sorts of silly tricks, she'd learn a new trick literally in 20 minutes or less <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> ! We even tought her to be the ring bearer at our wedding <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> and she did the whole routine on her own (we had to teach her to do it on her own since she couldn't be expected to respond to cues from the best man). Anyway, even this was tought to perfection in two sessions!! She was amazing!

I could see how someone could have one of these dogs and inadvertainly train them without even realizing what they are doing.

But then what's the difference between 'training' and 'showing him what to do'? Isn't that what we do in training anyway... show the dogs what is expected of them <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />??? We all have different training methods, and individual dogs have have degrees of responsiveness to the various methods. ACDs are incredibly intuative and perhaps this guy just had good timing in marking all the right behaviors (marking doesn't have to be done with a clicker, it can be as simple as saying a word <I use "yes" or "good">... even if he didn't realize that it was training or doesn't call it training... its still training.

How is the old expression; a dog by any other name is still a dog... or is that training by any other name is still training?

Regardless, still very neat to see such a 'team'!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />