[nagdu] I gotta go out - Claire Rose

[Elise Berkley]

David, your baby is really smart and that is a cute idea.  I try to have 
Becky on a schedule, but when she has to go outside of that schedule, she 
comes to me and nudges my arm with her nose.  If I just pet her and keep 
doing what I was doing, she will come and do it again, only a little harder. 
That is when I know she has to go.  I love the bell idea, though.  Keep up 
the good work.
Elise and Becky

-----Original Message----- 
From: David via nagdu
Sent: Friday, August 7, 2015 12:55 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Cc: David
Subject: Re: [nagdu] I gotta go out - Claire Rose

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
>


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