[nagdu] I gotta go out - Claire Rose

[David]

One of the first things I wanted to do after we got home from GDF 
earlier this month was to train my new guide dog to let me know when she 
wanted to go out.  I hung a small cowbell on the door handle, placed my 
fist above the bell and said, "Ring the bell."  I repeated this three 
times, treating each time Clarie Rose rang the bell. Then I said, "Ring 
the bell." without marking the bell with my fist.   It took a couple of 
repeats as she figured out what to do.  When she rang the bell, I 
treated and praised her.  We repeated that about four times.  Each time 
when I  went out to relieve her after that, I said, "Ring the bell." and 
didn't open the door until she rang the bell.  She picked that up pretty 
quickly.  After two days of doing that, I took her to the door and said, 
"Ring the bell for busy-busy."  Now when she starts fidgeting I say, 
"Ring the bell if you need to busy-busy."   That was two days ago.  
We're now working on the next step.  I suspect that she will start 
ringing the bell on her own after a few more days as she closes in on 
the association. I will add treats back in at first when she does this.  
We had done this with another dog that was a pet, but I have to say, it 
took a lot longer to get that pup to ring the bell completely on her own.

Claire is one smart cookie, though.  I did the same thing with traffic 
crossing buttons, but it only took one lesson on one intersection and 
four tries.  She now drags me to the pole with the buttons at any 
intersection with the command, "Find the button." ... even when the 
intersection is configured differently. Fortunately, they put the two 
intersection buttons on the same pole down here.  We'll deal with left 
and right buttons when we encounter that, I guess.  We use the same 
command for elevator buttons and she is a whiz.

I'm pretty proud of her, can't you tell?

David and Claire Rose in Clearwater, FL

On 8/7/2015 1:06 PM, Kaye Kipp via nagdu wrote:
> I know a puppy raiser who puts the bell on the door and the dog goes to the
> door and rings it.  I'm not sure how she trains them to do it though, but if
> it's hanging down on the door, it's easily accessible.
>
> Kaye
>