October 13, 2008

With my cat, Mercury, in a crate, I took the crate out to my driveway. Dino already knew “Find Felix” means to find the cat, any cat. I said “Find Felix” and he goes to the crate and puts one or both front paws on the crate. I would click and treat.

I then taught Dino that “show me” means for him to jump on me with his front feet. This is the only time he is allowed to jump up on anybody. He has a very terrible problem with jumping up on everybody, which I have had to stop. He now has to “sit” whenever anybody wants to pet him so he can’t jump up. So, I thought it would be confusing to him to teach him to jump up sometimes and other times it is not OK. But, so far, he gets it. I have also had to teach him when it is appropriate to bark and when he can’t. When he is out playing with another dog and having a great time, he can bark all he wants. When he is at home and should be quiet and calm, barking is not allowed. His bark is very loud and shrilling and piercing and very annoying.

I would say “show me”, he would jump up and I would click and treat. He got that pretty quickly. I then put together the “Find Felix” and “show me” to have him find the cat and then come back to jump up on me to tell me he found the cat.