[nagdu] perhaps it's all in the word

[Tami Jarvis]

Interesting. I use "find the seat" with Mitzi, though I changed that 
because I caught myself using different words for different types of 
seats if I knew what they were, then realized that was stupid. /lol/ Now 
I can't remember if she had trouble originally... I'll have to see what 
happens when I reach that point with Loki... The question is, can I 
change my own habits on that one? I'll have to walk around the house for 
days, practicing.. Find the chair. Find the *chair*. /lol/

I do remember that at first, Mitzi wouldn't necessarily show me an 
unoccupied seat, which was embarrassing. She hasn't done that in 
forever, but I do check now, just in case. /lol/

I did have a blip in Loki's early training to find his toys by name when 
I got desperate and tied knots in strips of old sweats and happily named 
them "knot toys." So I would ask him to find his "knot toy," and he 
would happily run pick up a bathroom rug. "That's not a toy!" I would 
remind him sternly. "Find your knot toy!" He would run pick up a pillow 
and prance proudly at his achievement. "That's not a toy! Find your knot 
toy!"

We won't talk about how long it took me to figure out what what going on 
there. He did much better finding his rag toys by name. /lol/

Tami

On 02/27/2015 01:40 PM, Craig Heaps via nagdu wrote:
> When they trained us at GDB how to clicker train the dogs, the first
> thing we taught our dogs was "Find the chair." They said it worked
> better than find the seat because seat sounds too much like sit and it's
> confusing for the dogs.
>
> However, I never taught Chase to find the empty chair.  So when we would
> get on the BART trian to go to and from work, I would say find the
> chair. More than once, he put his nose on the leg of someone sitting in
> the side facing seats set aside for the disabled and for seniors.  I
> always meant to work on find the empty chair, but kind of liked that he
> busted the people who didn't get up to give seats to disabled people.
> So I never got abournd to it.
>
> Craig and Chase
> craig.heaps at comcast.net
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Daryl Marie via nagdu"
> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> To: "the National Association of Guide Dog Users" <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Friday, February 27, 2015 12:50 PM
> Subject: [nagdu] perhaps it's all in the word
>
>
>> Hi!
>> This discovery is by no means scientific, even proven, but I have a
>> sneaky suspicion that I might just be on to something!
>>
>> Jenny girl and I have had a bit of a hard time finding empty seats.
>> It is not so good that she finds one every time, nor so bad that I
>> have felt the overwhelming need to do multiple training sessions on it.
>>
>> Traditionally, I have used "Find a seat," and it's been hit or miss.
>> A coworker mentioned yesterday that I might want to try "Find a
>> chair."  At first I thought it was a silly distinction, but decided to
>> try it out today at lunch.  Lo and behold... she found me an empty
>> CHAIR at the table!
>>
>> I decided to keep going with this.  She needed to relieve after I ate
>> lunch, so we went back to my desk so I could get my key card.  I told
>> her to find the chair, and she put her nose right on my desk chair,
>> and then found the post where I hang my coat.  We went outside, she
>> did her business, and then came back in
>>
>> I tried again with "Find the chair" when we walked back into the
>> office; tried again when we walked into my boss' (empty) office, and
>> even went into another empty office to work on it.  Then we went back
>> to my desk, where I told her to find the chair.  Nose went on desk
>> chair, tail wagged happily...
>>
>> Methinks I will need to try this on the bus today!
>>
>> Daryl
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