bekahbear999 In reply to Rikkanna [2014-07-14 02:11:35 +0000 UTC]

You're very welcome! I love the new puppy, by the way!

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Rikkanna In reply to bekahbear999 [2014-07-14 18:20:08 +0000 UTC]

Awww, thanks!!! He's a good boy.

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bekahbear999 In reply to Rikkanna [2014-07-14 20:30:44 +0000 UTC]

What's his name?

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Rikkanna In reply to bekahbear999 [2014-07-14 20:40:55 +0000 UTC]

Ender. (:

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bekahbear999 In reply to Rikkanna [2014-07-14 22:53:47 +0000 UTC]

Cute!
Inspired by the book Ender's Game, by any chance?

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Rikkanna In reply to bekahbear999 [2014-07-14 23:04:52 +0000 UTC]

But of course. (:
It suits him a little too well. Haha.

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bekahbear999 In reply to Rikkanna [2014-07-15 00:24:05 +0000 UTC]

That's so darn cute!

I hope he's a lot of fun!

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Rikkanna In reply to bekahbear999 [2014-07-15 00:36:39 +0000 UTC]

Haha
He is a lot of fun. If I can get him through some of his anxiety he'll make an amazing performance dog. We've been working on a lot of foundation stuff for obedience, rally, and agility so hopefully when we go back to the states we'll be able to work toward competing. He's a smart, fast, little velcro dog, but he definitely has some issues with stress, insecurity, and anxiety that we are working through. When he's on he's on, man. He loves to work and play and teeth chatters the whole time (among other things). His favorite current trick is kick-turning off of my body. He likes it so much I can use it to put him in drive and to reward him for good behavior, it's pretty cool.

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bekahbear999 In reply to Rikkanna [2014-07-15 00:40:34 +0000 UTC]

He sounds awesome! Sounds like you two have a lot of fun!

Man, how'd you teach him that trick? Sounds so sweet!

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Rikkanna In reply to bekahbear999 [2014-07-15 01:02:11 +0000 UTC]

I kind of cheated because he used to do it off the walls in frustration... so basically I stood in front of him with food and let him try things. This of course made him a bit frustrated so he would slam his feet into my leg... I marked that and rewarded by throwing the food away so he had to turn. Eventually he started offering hitting me with his front feet and turning so I only rewarded those. Then once he kicked off with a back leg to get more speed/ get the reward faster. I jackpotted that mess and made that my new criteria. Then one day he got so excited he jumped up and did his little kick turn off my ribs. I had a party that included most of his dinner... and then pulled out the camera and filmed this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dbeejb…
He's even better at it now. I'm not going to lie I'm pretty proud (if not perpetually covered in bruises).
My inspiration was both this video (where the cat does this trick):www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbvqSC… [this may or may not have also inspired me to start clicker training my cat: www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0V6n_…
Denise Fenzi's blog -she lets her dogs jump off of her as a reward for high level obedience work: denisefenzi.com/
And the fact that again, he did this when he was stressed in the kennel (and my house) and I wanted to turn it into something fun/useful instead. (:

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bekahbear999 In reply to Rikkanna [2014-07-15 03:37:09 +0000 UTC]

Wow! Impressive. That's so darn cool! What a good dog, looks like he had lots if fun!

I trained my cat to do tricks like that! Without the clicker, considering I never had one during our training sessions. Just recently I taught her to spin! We were trying "roll over" but she's not crazy for that one just yet.

I can't wait to see what other kinds of things you end up teaching Ender!

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Rikkanna In reply to bekahbear999 [2014-07-15 12:29:52 +0000 UTC]

Haha thanks! He always has lots of fun. Haha.

Awww, that's awesome!!! It's so much fun. (:

Me either! He is really fun to work with. I'm working on scent discrimination right now, but he hasn't quite gotten the hang of it yet. Maybe some day soon.

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bekahbear999 In reply to Rikkanna [2014-07-15 19:27:22 +0000 UTC]

What exactly are you doing for scent discrimination?

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Rikkanna In reply to bekahbear999 [2014-07-16 02:07:57 +0000 UTC]

Well I'm basically training the beginnings for utility level obedience scent articles where they have to pick the article -leather and metal dumbbells with their owner's scent and retrieve it. So I have a bunch of canning lids. One I rub and hold often, the rest live in a mesh bag and are only handled with tongs (so not my hands directly).
I taught  Ender to indicate (ie a longer than normal nose target) the one I can touch. Now I've been putting him out of sight and placing the scented object (the one I touch) and one of the ones I never touch on the ground. I call him over and reward only when he indicates the canning lid with my scent on it. He's still at a point where he's mostly guessing and I'm just letting him do that for now while only rewarding when he picks the correct object. I'm working on retrieves separately and we have a LONG way to go with those but we'll get there. I've never taught scent discrimination before so it's totally new to me, but it's been super fun so far.

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bekahbear999 In reply to Rikkanna [2014-07-16 13:31:09 +0000 UTC]

Oh, how neat! Sounds pretty fun!

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Rikkanna In reply to bekahbear999 [2014-07-16 17:24:38 +0000 UTC]

It is pretty fun. I'll have to snag some video of it when he gets a bit better at it. (:

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bekahbear999 In reply to Rikkanna [2014-07-17 00:06:31 +0000 UTC]

Be sure you link me to it!

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Rikkanna In reply to bekahbear999 [2014-07-17 00:30:26 +0000 UTC]

Will do! (:

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bekahbear999 In reply to Rikkanna [2013-07-10 17:48:40 +0000 UTC]

You're welcome! Oh, and I've been meaning to ask, how's the vet program going?

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Rikkanna In reply to bekahbear999 [2013-07-10 18:33:19 +0000 UTC]

It's been going well! It's a TON of work, but really interesting and I've been loving it so far. (:

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bekahbear999 In reply to Rikkanna [2013-07-11 16:28:42 +0000 UTC]

That's fantastic! I'm glad! How long are you there for?

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Rikkanna In reply to bekahbear999 [2013-07-11 17:26:03 +0000 UTC]

It is! Me too!!

I'll be on the island for 2.5 years (7 semesters) total and then I spend 1 year more in the states to finish my degree.

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bekahbear999 In reply to Rikkanna [2013-07-22 00:10:22 +0000 UTC]

How fun! That sounds pretty amazing! Looking forward to living on the island for that long?

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Rikkanna In reply to bekahbear999 [2013-07-22 01:04:20 +0000 UTC]

Yeah it's been pretty crazy so far. It really is an experience getting to live on an island like this. It's like a long term study abroad. I miss a few of the luxuries from back home in the states, but overall it's an adventure which is totally great, and in my opinion definitely worth taking. I'm happy I'm here.

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bekahbear999 In reply to Rikkanna [2013-04-09 00:17:02 +0000 UTC]

Welcome!

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bekahbear999 In reply to Spirit-Wolf-Eyes [2013-04-01 23:05:24 +0000 UTC]

Thanks a ton!

Yay! Thanks!

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Spirit-Wolf-Eyes In reply to bekahbear999 [2013-04-02 10:31:21 +0000 UTC]

It's my pleasure:3

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bekahbear999 In reply to AaronThor [2013-03-26 21:51:53 +0000 UTC]

Welcome!

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bekahbear999 In reply to Spirit-Wolf-Eyes [2013-03-20 22:50:11 +0000 UTC]

Thanks!

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Spirit-Wolf-Eyes In reply to bekahbear999 [2013-03-21 21:45:44 +0000 UTC]

Tis ok!!!

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bekahbear999 In reply to Rikkanna [2013-03-08 00:04:36 +0000 UTC]

You're welcome!

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bekahbear999 In reply to AaronThor [2013-03-06 20:35:03 +0000 UTC]

You're welcome!

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AaronThor In reply to bekahbear999 [2013-03-07 14:40:25 +0000 UTC]

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bekahbear999 In reply to Rikkanna [2013-01-22 19:19:53 +0000 UTC]

You're welcome!

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bekahbear999 In reply to KitzMonster [2012-11-10 23:08:06 +0000 UTC]

Thank you very much!

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KitzMonster In reply to bekahbear999 [2012-11-11 00:33:15 +0000 UTC]

You're welcome

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bekahbear999 In reply to Rikkanna [2012-10-25 02:10:56 +0000 UTC]

Sure thing!

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