Training Gigi

If you haven't know, Gigi has spent most of her life training... be it agility, rally or just some tricks.  She loves it.  She loves the activity and especially loves the treats that goes with it.  And she is good at it too.  Since her retirement 2 or 3 years ago we haven't done much training at all.  However, about a month or 2 ago, I have been itching to train her again.  Mostly for fun.  But also for practicality.  Whenever we went to my parent's house she knows to go potty in the back yard.  I have somehow trained her to do that (yay.  and yes... you CAN train an old dog).  HOWEVER, whenever she needs to go out, she stands SILENTLY by the door and stare at the door.  Which is nice, but if you didn't pay attention and didn't know she wants out she goes wherever she wants.  LOL. It is not her faulty, she did ask to go out, just that we didn't see it.  So I decided to train her to use a table bell for asking out.



We have done 10 sessions so far and she is fabulous.  I didn't start taping until the second session.  She was actually kinda scared of the bell in the beginning... but she is awesome now.  I have included the training sessions below.


Session 2

20180117. Second day of training her to use a bell to request to go outside for potty. Don’t forget she is 14 and we haven’t train in a few years since her retirement. But she is doing good so far. We are using clicker training (without the clicker) and free forming. As long as she gets close to the bell she gets a treat. Then when she touched the bell, she gets a treat. And we go from there. I almost for got how fun training is. This is part 1. ▪️#ylbbjoy #gigithedachshund #陳笑姿#GigiSushiChan #dachshund #doxie #wiener #sausagedog #hotdog #longdog #臘腸狗 #weena #seniordachshundrocks #seniorwienersrock #clickertraining #dogtraining

A post shared by Gigi Sushi (Strudel) Chan 陳笑姿 (@gigisushichan) on Jan 17, 2018 at 7:38pm PST

20180117. This is part 2 speed up. The most challenging for us is what treats to use. Gigi now only has 12 teeth and she is on a prescription diet. So the bottom line is she can have soft vegetarian treats. LOL. Not easy. So we use tiny pieces of Froot Loops. And it works. ▪️#ylbbjoy #gigithedachshund #陳笑姿#GigiSushiChan #dachshund #doxie #wiener #sausagedog #hotdog #longdog #臘腸狗 #weena #seniordachshundrocks #seniorwienersrock #dogtraining #clickertraining

A post shared by Gigi Sushi (Strudel) Chan 陳笑姿 (@gigisushichan) on Jan 17, 2018 at 7:46pm PST

Session 4

This is the 4th session of free form training. She is really getting it. And I also added the que “bell”. Will eventually add “open the door to go outside potty” bit to this training. ▪️#ylbbjoy #gigithedachshund #陳笑姿#GigiSushiChan #dachshund #doxie #wiener #sausagedog #hotdog #longdog #臘腸狗 #weena #seniordachshundrocks #seniorwienersrock #dogtraining #clickertraining

A post shared by Gigi Sushi (Strudel) Chan 陳笑姿 (@gigisushichan) on Jan 20, 2018 at 1:59pm PST

Session 5

20180121. Training session number 5. She is a tad too excited 😆. I think we are ready to add the next step soon. ▪️#gigithedachshund #陳笑姿 #GigiSushiChan #dachshund #臘腸狗 #seniordachshundrocks #seniorwienersrock #dogtraining

A post shared by Gigi Sushi (Strudel) Chan 陳笑姿 (@gigisushichan) on Jan 21, 2018 at 8:25pm PST

Session 6

20180123. Training day 6. Each training is under 3 min. Usually under 2. This one is a bit over 1 min and 30 second. She is LOVING it. A bit TOO excited, actually 😆. Training is totally in her element. And you can tell she totally gets it now. In our next session I will attach a que to it. ▪️#gigithedachshund #陳笑姿 #GigiSushiChan #dachshund #臘腸狗 #seniordachshundrocks #seniorwienersrock #dogtraining

A post shared by Gigi Sushi (Strudel) Chan 陳笑姿 (@gigisushichan) on Jan 23, 2018 at 8:20pm PST

Session 7

20180124. Training session number 7. She was very excited when she saw the bell. And when she is super excited and if I didn’t reward quick enough I may get other responses rather than the intended one. But no matter what it was a fun time for us. She was great. ▪️#gigithedachshund #陳笑姿 #GigiSushiChan #dachshund #臘腸狗 #seniordachshundrocks #seniorwienersrock #dogtraining

A post shared by Gigi Sushi (Strudel) Chan 陳笑姿 (@gigisushichan) on Jan 25, 2018 at 8:22am PST

Session 8

20180127. Training session number 8. We didn’t practice the past 2 days and resume today. It’s still fun and she is still doing very good. ▪️ #gigithedachshund #陳笑姿#GigiSushiChan #dachshund #doxie #wiener #sausagedog #hotdog #longdog #臘腸狗 #weena #seniordachshundrocks #seniorwienersrock #dogtraining

A post shared by Gigi Sushi (Strudel) Chan 陳笑姿 (@gigisushichan) on Jan 27, 2018 at 8:55pm PST

Session 9

20180129. Session number 9. I think she now understands what does “bell” means and we can transit from with just the bell to include going outside. Q: Why do you throw the treats away. A: I used it as a mini reset each time she did it correctly. Q: How long is each training session? A: Each session is less usually less than 2 minutes. Q: When do you reward? A: At the very beginning, I keep the criteria very low. She gets a treat for being close to the bell. Then we increase the difficulty. For example any part of her has to touch the bell (even if accidentally). Then her paw has to touch it. Then her paw has to make a sound from contacting the bell. For now I am ok as long as she made a ringing sound with the bell. This is clicker training even though I didn’t use a clicker. I didn’t lure her to the behavior. It’s like a warm/cold game. The dog will guess what you want from them as they get warmer you start rewarding them. ▪️ #gigithedachshund #陳笑姿#GigiSushiChan #dachshund #doxie #wiener #sausagedog #hotdog #longdog #臘腸狗 #weena #seniordachshundrocks #seniorwienersrock #dogtraining #clickertraining

A post shared by Gigi Sushi (Strudel) Chan 陳笑姿 (@gigisushichan) on Jan 29, 2018 at 9:31pm PST

Session 10

20180204. Session 10. She gets way too excited when she saw he bell and me getting her treats. She even knocked over my phone 🙄. But you want them to be excited about training. ▪️ #gigithedachshund #陳笑姿#GigiSushiChan #dachshund #doxie #wiener #sausagedog #hotdog #longdog #臘腸狗 #weena #seniordachshundrocks #seniorwienersrock #dogtraining #clickertraining

A post shared by Gigi Sushi (Strudel) Chan 陳笑姿 (@gigisushichan) on Feb 4, 2018 at 4:42pm PST