Now that Senator is progressing so nicely with his scent training, I'm trying to teach him some other commands that would be beneficial for a Diabetes Alert Dog. We decided that it would be useful for him to be able to retrieve my meter so I have started working on that skill. He might be genetically a Golden Retriever, but he is only golden. He has no desire for retrieving or even picking things up. We have our work cut out for us.I started this by attempting to find something that he might be interested in picking up. Toys, no, neither soft or hard plastic, or cloth covered. Shoes, no. Kitchen utensils, no. Then, when we were outside one time, I tried some sticks. He likes to chew sticks. Finally, something he could get his teeth into! It was a slow start. I clicked and treated him for just putting his teeth on it at first. Then we moved on to having him pick it off of the ground.
I discussed this with Margaret, and she suggested trying this with both Senator and Cruise. This seems to work. Cruise is more inclined to pick things up and his food drive makes him learn things quickly. The competition between them really speeded things up too. I moved from the sticks to the meter in a day. Cruise was much faster than Senator. I sat between them and had them take turns, but Cruise would jump over my legs and get the meter before Senator knew what happened. I decided to have Cruise practice some down stays and that helped. I was able to have Senator lift the meter and even start to bring it my way before I would treat him. Its a slow process, but I know he'll get it.
Yesterday, we tried this at Margaret's house and with her dog as the leader. He didn't do quite as well. She gave me some good ideas to try. I was repeating myself too much and probably clicking as he was dropping the meter. So, I'm working on both of those. Of course, when I got home and tried it again with Senator and Cruise, he did great. He was even bringing the meter all the way to me. I was able to throw the meter about 5 ft away and have him retrieve it all the way to my hand. Very encouraging. I know he'll eventually get this one.
