Nali is currently in two classes. One for clicker training and one to help her become a therapy dog. It’s a lot of fun being able to take her to two different classes every week. She’s learning so much and becoming better every day. We’re learning quite a bit too. One of the coolest things about clicker training is something called “free-shaping”.
Basically, the sound of the clicker tells the dog that they’re doing something good. So, by introducing different objects or situations and clicking at specific points, you can let the dog think through the scenario and try to figure out what you want them to do. Miranda has been working with Denali quite a bit on the free-shaping. The other day she laid our laundry basket upside down and clicked Nali through the situation. This is what ended up happening…
Yep... that's Nali on top of our laundry basket.
The coolest part is that Nali came up with that on her own. She figured out what we wanted as Miranda clicked at key points – like when she looked at the basket, when she sniffed the basket, when she put a paw on the basket, when she put 2 paws on the basket, etc.
This Saturday our therapy dog prep class (through VK9TA) is meeting at the South Park Mall in Strongsville. Nali will be working on concentrating with distractions, dealing with lots of people and greeting friendly strangers. Should be pretty interesting… and a good indicator of how she’ll do in large hospitals.
