I was working on this command with Nick this weekend; he has no clue what he should be doing when I say "speak". Hope is good at the "speak" command and I even had her try to help, but that didn't work either.
One of the ways we teach our pups to speak is to totally frustrate the pup by teasing him so that he lets out a bark in frustration. Well, true to his nature, Nick just doesn't get frustrated, so the teasing leads to nowhere. I had dog toy that I had gotten while he was gone that he hasn't seen yet and he was all excited when he saw it so I tethered him to the table leg and tried to tease him so that it was just out of reach...that didn't work, even after I let Hope tease him with it. I threw a floating dog toy in the pool just out of reach and he just sat there staring at it, really wanting to get it, but not enough to bark. This morning, I had another bright idea, he loves peanut butter, so I put some on a spoon and held it right in front of his nose. I kept it right out of reach, but nothing even after I told Hope to "speak" and gave her some of the peanut butter when she barked, he just put his head down on the floor and gave up.
I think he's just gonna to be one of those "mute" dogs who never barks...which is not a bad thing as CCI won't release a dog if they don't speak, but they will release a dog if it barks inappropriately (like Zucchini did).
Not even a spoonful of peanut butter dangling in front of his nose is tempting enough for Nick to "speak"...
1 comment:
Poor little Nick. He has so much to say, but he just can't speak. His mother, Niobe, took awhile to learn this skill, but now she does it nicely. She says she'll try to talk with him and see if she can't get him to "open up".
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