Hind leg

Biscuit has recovered fully from being under anaesthesia yesterday and has been his old happy, bouncy self today... I so wish we didn't have to do it all again tomorrow!

I met with Helle after work for some dog training. Biscuit wasn’t meant to work today as he must be in pain from his damaged tooth, but he kept offering all kinds of behaviors that is usually rewarded, so eventually Helle gave up and trained his ‘cross paws’ with him – a move he can do lying down. He was still silly (in the cutest way possible) after his little training session, but at least he felt that he had had his share of the fun.

This is Hero working on a new move. He is learning to lift his hind leg on verbal cue. He is still rather dependant of his target, which is the metal plate next to the raised paw on the picture.

When we started working on this move, Hero learned to touch the target with his hind leg paw. He learned to put his paw on the plate and keep it there. When he could do that, I started clicking for lifting his foot rather than for putting it down on or touching the plate.

At this stage, he still needs the plate on the floor, but he does not put his foot on it any longer, as he is learning that lifting the foot makes me click and reward – not putting it down.

This is a move that will take a long time to perfect – both because the behavior takes time to get right, but also because Hero needs to build muscles slowely, otherwise it might make him sore and lame.

Keep your fingers crossed for Biscuit tomorrow.
Emmy and the Hazyland Boys